Slightly harder run today, 5 x 1min fast with 1min walk, and 8 x 30sec fast with 1min walk

Decided to up the intensity a little with 5x1min fast, 1 min rest, and then 8x 30 with 1 min rest.

For the first lot 1min fast with 1min rest, all of them were about 3:30 pace with one at 3:44,  I was blocked by walkers on the pathway. The second lot 8x30's I went a little faster - slowest 3:28 pace, and fastest 3:06 pace.

I find this sort of running exhilarating and energising. Of course it zaps muscles in a totally different way to easy pace longer distance. But that is why I do it. I want to be able run 3:30 pace over long distance. I need strength to do it, as well as gobs of aerobic conditioning. The only way to build the strength is to run fast frequently. Used carefully I can build up to be capable of sustained 3:30 pace over say, 5km and more. I am WAY off that but I want to try.

I also need to balance the need to remain doing relatively low km's to avoid regressing injury wise. Hence speed focus really has to be a priority until I am in the clear and able to run the long distances safely.

Anyway it was a good run, very enjoyable.

Saturday Park Run 4th May 2013 and Sunday Brisbane Road Runners 7km

I did a pretty easy 5km race at ParkRun Wynnum Staurday. Ended up with time of 24:34 or so. I was feeling a little tired from the last week of running, so decided to run with a mate of mine. I took off fast at about 1km to go, probably a sub 4min/km for that one. Passed maybe 15 people in that last 1km and finished fairly fresh. It was good for me to have done that, I felt energised all day as a result.

Went to my sister's birthday lunch at 11:30AM, then band practice at 2PM.. Then vegetated watching TV for the rest of the day.

Sunday I did the Brisbane Road Runners 7km 'club championship'  race with our dog MAX. Christine was a track marshall for the event so we had to be there at about 5:30AM - up around 4:30AM. It made for a long day.

MAX is a bugger to run with. I hung back to keep out of everyone's way, but he gets excited and wants to run away ahead everyone. So at the start and for the first 2km or so we are almost sprinting. Then he gets into a slump.. the course is out for 1km, back, then out and back for 2.5  for a total of 7km's.  As we hit the 2km mark, we approach the start gate where Christine is, and the turn point is about 100 mteres past there. So MAX decides where we should be heading is where Christine is.. Its a struggle to keep him on course.. Then once we get around the turn point and head toward the start gate - to go past it for the next 2.5km out and back stage, he starts sprinting again.  And once we are past where Christine is, he wants to stop and go back to where she is.

The next 2.5km out are a big struggle, I am fresh but MAX wants to stop and sniff rather than run now. Except for the occasional encounter with dogs being walked or out jogging, where he sprints to get to them and then wants to stop and play..  Anyway, I stop a few times to let him niff absolutely nothing, get him water etc.. We finish at about 36mins which is pretty darned slow. Its clear why I don't particularly like running with him these days. I am out for a RUN  not to buggerise about !!

Anyway, I had resigned myself to the fact that the run was going to be as it turned out to be, so I could enjoy it a bit. Next run Tuesday. Easy 5km, but I want to see if anyone wants to do some hills.

Tuesday 30 April and Thursday 2 May runs

I stacked a bit of fatigue up for Tuesday's run. I did an unplanned 9km at a fastish pace Sunday 28th. It was the fastest longer run as well as the longest run I have done this year.  I also did a gym session, very very easy on Tuesday morning that included a little bit of leg work.

So I set myself up to be tired and sluggish. Turned out 'ok'  though, did a reasonably easy 4.5km with the last 800 metres or so at sub 4min/km pace .

I also ran today, another 5km's at easy pace plus 5 x 30seconds fast with 30 seconds rest between. The 5km run before hand sets up a level of fatigue that makes these sorts of runs a little harder than when you are fresh. That plus the fact I was still feeling the effects of the extra Sunday run even on the fourth day following it!!  Its amazing how well the body adapts to consistent training, when I was at a peak of endurance fitness, I would recover well from 30km+ Sunday runs and do 50min runs mid week at paces much faster than I am capable of doing now.

Am still tempted to start doing real distances again, but will instead throw in a few extra high intensity running. ie :

run for 20 seconds FAST, jog for 20 seconds. Do that for as long as I can, likely _maybe_ 20 mins max. Do that once a week in addition to my 5km Tuesday, and Thursday and the races Sunday.

In all I am in pretty good shape, heels are really good, no sign of the chronic problems I have suffered for the last two years. It is in fact a real pleasure now to just run easy with NO pain at all - even at warm up there are no problems -  with a huge bonus of no issues in normal walking around either. Gee its hard not to dive in and get into it hard again. Discipline!! I must have discipline!! 

Threw in a Sunday longer run last night

We were working through our budget on Sunday afternoon, it was stressful, and we both argued about it for several hours. I felt the need to get out and run so I did.

My plan has been to do 3 runs a week:

- Tuesday 5km easy, plus 5x300 reps increasing to say 10 over a few weekas
- Thursday 5km easy with one or 2 km's sub 4mins at the end.
- Saturday 5km race

I did the Saturday race, my best for the year of 21:50. I did the first 1km too fast for the condition I am in, pulled back for the 2nd one but it was all stacked up. So I struggled for the rest of it, as slow as 4:40min/km . I tried hard to finish fast but I did not have the wind for it.

Its clear to me that my legs are good and strong. My training until now is cultivating comfortable speed and good strength. But I don't have aerobic capacity to carry the speed over decent distances. This is pretty much the same issue I have had for years. Plenty of speed but not enough lungs. So I certainly need more mileage to improve that aspect.

Following on from the Saturday run I did 9km last night Sunday, and ended up doing it at average 4:55min/km pace. This is the longest run I have done for this year and the pace is also the fastest for all my longer runs this year. It was great to get out and go reasonably briskly and long. The weather was absolutely perfect, not at all cold but not muggy. A slight headwind on the way out that was nice and cool, and it assisted me on the way back. It did the trick I felt much better - but am a little sore today after it.

For this year, last nights 9km run counts for 8% or so of my total mileage. I have to use self discipline to NOT run too much as I feel the three days a week has been allowing everything to remain good and injury free. I am definitely needing more mileage to improve, but I HAVE to go easy and rehabilitate completely. 

Been even slacker, no update since December 21 2012. - What have I been up to?

Took another couple of months off at the beginning of this year to allow my heels to get completely better. I think its worked, although I have not been doing anything near the mileage I had been doing.

I pulled some reports out of my Garmin connect account of all my runs recorded on my watch.

2010 - the year I did my first marathon, I swung over to full mara training after a reasonably successful year building to a couple of half marathons in 2009. From 1 Jan 2010 to 26 April:

82 activities
Distance 594.58km
Average speed 12.1km/hr


2011 - The first year in which I was suffering from heel problems, but I did not have the sense to bloody well stop running:

46 activities
Distance 259.5km
Average speed 10.1km/hr

2012 - After getting treatment 2011, in October, I took several months off, I came back to some running again, ended up having a reasonable year where I achieved PB's in 3,5,and matched my best 10km race:

55 Activities
Distance 168.53km
Average speed 7.5km/hr

2013 - THIS YEAR. My heels are the best since 2009, ie hardly any issues at all.:
19 activities
76.6km
11.5km/hr


Wow what a difference!!  I am absolutely determined to keep the mileage down until I am sure I can handle it WITHOUT my heels injury regressing to where I was at the end of 2011.

It is just horrifying to look at how much timemy heel injuries  have taken from me. If I ever get to do another Marathon, I will be at least 2 years older than when I did my last one, 2011, and 3 years older than my first ( 2010 the best so far but by no means a good one).

Anyway, I have returned to fairly consistent training, typically I have been running up to 5kms on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and every so often I have done some speed sessions afterwards. 5x300's generally. I have also been doing the Saturday morning Park RUn in Wynnum at the foreshore.

I feel like I am making gains - even though its only 3 runs a week and I have been running only for a couple of months. I am in approximately 22min for 5km shape right now I think, maybe faster. I am going to see how fast I can get doing this simple training program:

Tuesday - 5km easy, at about 5:30 pace    plus 5x300, building to 10x300, pace about 3:40min/km
Thursday - 5km easy, with the last 1km sub 4min/km, building to 2 or 3km
Saturday - 5km race Park run - Hope to match or beat my PB of 19:59 I did last year.

Its still incredibly frustrating not being able to do the distance I want - I REALLY want to do half and full marathons, but I have to be patient. Wow what an ordeal this has been, but yet again I have some hope again that I am on my way back to fitness again, and may do the distances again.

A blog post only every month? How slack !!

I resolve to updating this blog more frequently. First news is, I bought a pair of Hoko One One Stinson Evo 'Low'  shoes.

These things are monsters, massive bounce, very plush ride. I can see myself covering a far few miles in them quite easily. I bought them second hand from someone who so far does not seem to have any contagious foot fungus so that is good news too. He'd done three runs in them. I have done a few recently.

Unfortunately I got one size too small, for my personal preference. US M 11. US M 12 is the next size up on these shoes according to the manufacturer. I can get away with using the smaller inner sole - a little tight but not too bad.

Another problem, these things are designed for off road, trails, grass gravel, mud and NOT road or concrete or tarmac. So theey tend to wear rather quickly. Been trying to avoid the roads but its difficult where I am running. I will seek out some off road areas on weekends.

Meanwhile the ride, really cushy, and soft and the seeimgly load and impact reducing effects may be good for my heels. Certainly I am getting longer runs done with less consequence later.

On the basis of these Stinson EVO Low shoes, I have decided to grab a pair of the Stinson Tarmac, US M 11.5. Hopefully these will be the right size for me.

Finally, I have sought some info on anti-inflamatories natural based. Found a few promising things:

- Cut down on Sugars of all descriptions. Hopefully lowering blood glucose levels as this has major bearing on inflammatory responses
- Apparently B12 injections have been shown to be effective - so I am planning on taking B12 supplements. Not as effective but may help
- Glucosamine with Chondroitin plus MSM
- Some Enzymes that help in Protein digestion - Like that found in PineApple - have been seen to have an anti inflammatory effect. Specifically Bromelain.
- Tumeric has been shown to have anti-inflamatory properties when ingested


So I plan on dosing a bit on these above in the hope that it can give me a better chance of surviving a full Marathon training program for the greater part of next year. The idea of using NASAIDS is horrifying, they have some bad side effects if taken long enough and too much of them.

Finally back to the road

It really does seem that I break down toward the end of the year. Pattern has repeated three years in a row, to varying degrees of 'breakdown'.

2010, heels
2011, heels
2012, hip and health in general

I have noticed that I have gotten weaker,especially in the legs in recent months. I have a back problem long term, more than 35 years, and I have had aches and pains for the last few months too.

Things are gradually getting better again, and I hve decided to try and improve strength in general using a few machines at the gym.

My hip is ALMOST completely better now too, to the extant that I can actually run without it twinging. I may be on the way to complete health, and injury free, heels also much better. I have been doing minimal running, but slowly getting back to it again.

I am ever hopeful that I can do some decent training again beginning now, and build up to doing another Marathon on 2013. I am today feeling optimistic and determined, and physically up to the task. Those have not been present at the one time since January 2010!!!