On the road again
By · CommentsWell, the road to another half marathon. Today’s run was not easy, plodded my way around the park a couple of minutes slower than I would have liked but I made it. But as I was making my way around I decided that I am going to do the Christchurch half marathon again.
Now why would I opt to do something that is that difficult? Partly because it is so difficult and partly because I find having a clear target makes me much more likely to put in the hard yards.
I did my first half marathon in 2005 and got a training plan from my brother. I followed the program almost perfectly, I missed only one run and felt so guilty for skipping it that I went out the very next day.
Last year’s training was almost ruined by a cold which turned into a chest infection, meaning I couldn’t train for almost three weeks. Had to put in some really hard work during the final few weeks but managed to achieve all three of my goals that year.
This year I’ve got just seven weeks of hard work ahead of me, but I’m already running 10.5km (a quarter marathon if you will) comfortably, and experience tells me that I just need to keep that up as a base and do some slightly longer runs at the weekend to stretch it out.
Ironically I don’t have a great deal to say about today’s run, it was good in the fact that I had virtually no aches, not so good in that I was going a bit slower than I would have liked. Still, speed’s not a concern, I know I can’t beat last year’s time but what I want to achieve is finishing, and that’s the goal.
I’m in the business of misery
By · CommentsToday’s run got off to an interesting start. Part of my pre-run ritual is to put my post run Nuun into the freezer to make sure it’s extra cold when I finish, as I did this I bumped an open box of hash browns and one fell out. Using my ninja like reflexes I caught the falling chunk of starchy carbs before it hit the floor, but the downside of this little incident was my hand smelled like hash browns for my entire run.
The run did not start well, with my right achilles complaining with every stride. It came right after some stretching but proved to be an omen as it seemed that as soon as one niggle came right, the pain just moved to another part of my body.
Once my achilles came right, my lungs started to really burn, then my ankle acted up, followed by an old knee injury reminding me that it was still there, and finally my achilles put up a final protest.
A great quote that I often think of on runs like this comes from Lance Armstrong who said: “Pain is just weakness leaving the body.” While pain is certainly an indicator of something not quite right, there is a difference between an injury and the body complaining about the increase in activity. My little niggles certainly fall into the latter category.
I went just over a minute slower than Monday but I’m really not worried about that at the moment. In fact, every time my iPod lady told me what my time and pace were I thought to myself, I don’t really care, although I did want to make it home in less than an hour.
And don’t fret over my title, was the best song lyrics I could come up with about busting through the pain. It’s from my current powersong Misery Business by Paramore, one of my favourite bands right now.
Today I decided to tackle the big one, the figure 8 run which is a total of 10.5km. I’ve been feeling pretty good with my running but have been aware that I need to up the distance if I want to really achieve some results, so today was the day.
For some reason the front half of this run is really easy, I get to my standard drink stops in North Hagley Park quickly and feeling nice and fresh. Today was no exception but I did notice that my lower calf muscles felt tight and sore whenever I stopped, fortunately the pain went away as soon as I started to run again.
Aside from some initial stiffness in one achilles tendon, the highlight of this run from a suffering point of view would have to be my foot going numb. (Bonus points if you get the reference in the title) I’ve had my right foot go numb on me a couple of times before, most notably between 13 and 18km in the half marathon but never my left foot before.
I’m not too worried about it happening as once I stop it immediately starts to come right, however it’s something I will be keeping an eye on as I don’t want to make this a regular feature of my running. Oddly it doesn’t seem to be related to distance, my foot started to go numb before I hit the 3km mark and was fully numb by 4km.
The run itself was enjoyable, I got around without ever feeling I was really struggling and turned in a respectable time. Not plodding, not setting any records, just getting from A to B (well back to A, it’s a round trip).
My iPod tells me that this run burns around 900 calories so no wonder I lost a whole pile of weight doing this every second day.
Tomorrow I’ll be taking it easy with some yoga and balance games on Wii fit. I have my eyes on Jess’s ski jump record, then Wednesday I’ll be off to referee training at Rugby Park. It’s free and tailored to referees so why not take advantage of it?
No rest for the wicked
By · CommentsSo it’s Easter and instead of gorging myself on chocolate and hot cross buns, I got my ninth season as a rugby referee underway. I’ve spent the last two seasons refereeing soccer, so I offered to be an assistant referee for the Boys’ High Easter Tournament.
After some initial confusion over when the tournament started (I thought it started on Saturday, turns out it was Friday, oops) I got to the ground and got in a warm up which consisted of me running from my car to the referees’ changing rooms to the ground.
As with these preseason tournaments, there tends to be a little disorganization and as a result the referees were constantly trying to figure out who was meant to be where. I just went with the flow, helping out wherever I could.
In terms of my running touch I noticed I’ve held over few interesting habits from soccer, notably running sideways to keep an eye on play and constantly having my flag in my inside hand. In football this is very important as the referee needs to be able to see the flag at all times, in rugby not so much but as I did it without thinking it’s not something I’ll be trying to change.
The only silly thing that carried over from football was a signal which we don’t have in rugby. A coach indicated to me he wanted to make some subs, I told him yes then immediately held my flag above my head, parallel to the ground in both hands, the football signal for a sub. Fortunately nobody really noticed but perhaps it’s a signal we can use in rugby, particularly when there’s no communication equipment available.
As the day wore on, I ended up picking up more games than the three I was down to do and finished the day with five. The final game was probably the hardest of the lot with a local high school demolishing a touring Australian side, meaning I needed to turn in a number of 50m sprints. While I had good speed earlier in the day, it was well and truly gone by this stage of the day.
I also managed to endear myself to supporter during this game, ruling out a try by flagging some earlier foul play. Certainly didn’t affect the outcome of the game, but I felt, given how the offending team were dominating, it was important to ensure that did not go unpunished. It’s that sort of thing that can cause a game to get out of hand, especially in games where one team is dominating the other.
Saturday was not quite such a hectic start to the day and I made sure I only did the two games I was down for, as my legs were suffering a little from Friday’s effort.
So a total of seven 40 minute games in two days means today is a well earned day off. Tomorrow, will be going for a run and taking it easy, the legs need some work but don’t want to over do it.
Back in the game
By · CommentsSo since plan B of my weight loss plan, slicing off body parts, proved to be unsustainable, I’ve switched back to plan A: Eat right and exercise.
Today I headed out for a run around the park, immediately I knew this was going to be a tough one. When I got to the corner where I cross into the park, my iPod told me I was “running” at six minutes per kilometer, sounds more like plodding to me.
But still, I pressed on and the run got easier and my speed increased to my usual 5:30/km, nowhere near my last run’s blazing speeds. Unfortunately I didn’t quite make the full 7.5km, had to take a shortcut to make an emergency toilet stop.
One thing I did note during this run, listening to extremely funny podcasts such as The Bugle is not a good idea, when the run gets hard and your lungs start to burn, fits of laughter are not your friend, despite laughter being the best medicine.
One more day on the shelf
By · CommentsSo with a particular brand of genius, I managed to slice off part of my thumb while cooking a nutritious and delicious meal. Perhaps there are less drastic means of losing weight than slicing off body parts, but at least I’m committed.
Unfortunately the pressure bandage I have to wear on my thumb makes exercising difficult, even a slight increase in heart rate caused my thumb the throb. That means it’s been a week since I’ve done any physical activity aside from a little Wii Fit.
After a bit of testing today, I think my thumb is coming right and I’m going to get out for a run tomorrow and see how I go. Will probably make it a shorter run, 5.5km, and after that I’ll be due for a dressing change, so at least the dressing won’t get stinky.
I’m refereeing this coming weekend which is something I’m really looking forward to. I hope to be down to a plaster on the thumb by then, but going to have to take a wait and see approach to that.
All I want is a coupla days off!
By · CommentsSo after struggling through my gym session yesterday, I woke up this morning with legs that felt like lead. I think nine days of training in a row has finally caught up with me. In fact walking around work today drove that point home, my quads feel tight, my hamstrings stiff and my biceps aching.
All of this adds up to the need for a break, so today after work, instead of getting ready to go to kickfit, I will by laying on the couch catching up with my old friend Jack Bauer and not snacking on anything. It all sounds pretty good to me.
And I’ll try not to keep using 80s song lyrics in my titles.
To gym or not to gym
By · CommentsI debated whether to go to the gym most of the afternoon today, but in the end I decided to go. I know I’ve been putting in a lot of work lately and could probably do with a day off soon, but I’ve been feeling so good I figured why not?
Started off my workout on the bike and after about five minutes my quads voiced their stern disapproval. After that I took it easy on the bike and decided to skip the leg press because of the aches.
I finished the workout no problem, but given the level of muscle fatigue I’m feeling now, I’m wondering if kickfit tomorrow is such a good idea.
Will mull it over while taking a long soak in the bath tonight.
Will it ever stop? Yo! I don’t know!
By · CommentsOn a real roll now after finishing a speed based refereeing session. Early in the season we have a few of these sessions which are traditionally very poorly attended, but this year’s ones are a bit different from ones I’ve done before.
Usually they are very practically based with very specific refereeing exercises but this year we’ve been doing more general activities such as sprints, direction changes and agility. Apparently these are much like much like the regular training sessions which run throughout the season, I’ve never been to these but might have to start attending.
We started out playing touch, a game at which I am absolutely useless. Fortunately that only lasted ten minutes or so.
We then moved on to some training stations such as low hurdles, ladder runs and running in a harness. There was also an exercise where the goal was to lose contact with your partner, even in the slippery ground with running shoes on I was able to lose my partner every time.
After that we moved on to sprints where we would have to suddenly change direction. Again, tough in the conditions without boots but a worthwhile exercise.
Finally we moved on to some games, firstly invisible touch. This is like touch but without a ball, one player is nominated as the ball carrier and when he/she is touched, the player who touches them becomes the ball carrier, essentially you switch between attack and defense very quickly.
I’m not too good at this game but I try hard. At one stage I tried to run down a younger guy on a breakaway, maybe another ten meters or so I would have had him but he scored. Suddenly I realized the advertising signs at the side of the ground were rapidly approaching, I threw on the brakes but skidding along the turf, hit the boards and flipped over the top of them. Fortunately I tucked my head and shoulder and landed quite softly on the far side, but I’m told it looked good.
Finally we played a game called one touch. Sort of like touch but only two touches before the ball is turned over and only the first pass after a touch must go backwards. I spent some time in my twenties mucking around with American football and can throw a tight and accurate spiral pass so once I picked up the ball and threw a long forward pass to a teammate, the tactic suddenly became, get the ball to me then run for the goal line. My team won the game 5-0.
A fun session and I’d certainly like to make the regular Wednesday night but it clashes with my kickfit class which, to be brutally honest, is more fun.
Tomorrow is a scheduled gym day, I’m going to wait and see how I feel but right now I’m leaning towards going right now. Eight days in a row, why stop now?
Seven days in a row
By · CommentsSo this week just seems to keep getting better and better. After managing to get out every day during the week, I figured I’d likely be taking it easy this weekend. Turns out I was wrong.
On Saturday, Jess convinced me (and it wasn’t hard) to bike with her over to her grandparents’ place. It’s a 20km round trip with over an hour’s rest in between legs but it’s still an hour’s worth of exercise so I’m still burning calories.
Today I decided to go to the gym again, haven’t been since Thursday. Had a pretty good workout there, and going on a Sunday afternoon means there’s hardly anyone there. Also used a cross country skier for a change which is a rather odd feeling to work out on.
It doesn’t stop there either, tomorrow night I have a practical refereeing session which usually means about 90 minutes of fairly hard work running, sprinting and thinking on my feet.
I wonder when I’ll take a day off next…