Wobbly man's 28/4 check in

Its been nearly two weeks since I ran last and almost a week since the eye surgery. I am beginning to notice that my energy level are falling away in the late afternoon and evening - I must get out on my old clunker bike this weekend and actually ride for an hour or so. My shin splints and leg aches/pains are almost completely gone which is great. I will probably go for a 14 -18k slow run next weekend - this one is going to be a bit busy.

My eyes are really good and although they seem to dry up a bit in the office maybe because I have these great drops that make them feel so good afterward using them that I am noticing it more. The clarity/sharpness - particularly when I leave work late and its dark is just awesome - I feel like I have missed out on seing such beautiful things (clearly) for the last 44 years but just walking out of the city tonight was so cool!

ANZAC day '05

I usually go to the dawn service but I am so over the crowds which just get bigger and bigger - I thought I would give it a miss for a change. Maybe next year I will go to a local service instead.

I took the kids and Holly (the dog) for a bike to the shops. Keeley is going really well and Anna is such a responsible older sister that I wonder how old she is sometimes!

My eyes are terrific - I couldn't be happier and I am still having no significant side effects (just a minor star effect on street lights at night). Will sleep without the fly cups tonight which should help my sleep.

I am not planning to run until maybe late this week - will see how things go. I think this is a good opportunity to get rid of all my little aches and pains before starting my "serious" (well serious for me anyway!)training.

Post laser surgery

I can see! Better than 20/20 in one eye and 20/20 in the other!! It is hard to describe how my new eyes are. Peripheral vision is A1 and the stars at night are simply awesome. I cant wait to head up to the country at night to look at the stars in all their splendour (without city light).

The first optometrist I saw this morning is a runner and she said it would be okay to run with sunnies (to stop bugs and bright light) and a hat (to prevent sweat getting into my eye). All the same I will wait a few days before going out for a slow/easy 6km lap around home.

I have felt no adverse effects *taps head* (touching wood)at this point and so far the only difficult thing is putting 3 drops in my eye 3 times a day for a week. .

Went for a 7km bike ride today.

No running for 2 weeks!

I went for my final check up yesterday prior to surgery to get my eyes lasered on Friday and the specialist told me absolutely no vigorous exercise for two weeks - no sweat is to get in the eye while its repairing. There goes Puffing Billy for another year! Oh well, looking on the bright side I guess my legs will be nice and fresh and my shins should be in great shape to start the hard push of training through to October.

I haven't run since Sunday due to work commitments but I will try to get a run in early on Friday morning.

Holly (the Lab) will be coming for lots of walks for a couple of weeks I guess - she will be very happy wagger.

Sunday run with an Owl

I got up early as I didn't think Owl would be running with her sore foot. I ran a couple of laps of the Tan at 7am - it was picture postcard beautiful - the mist was rising off the Yarra, the rowers were emerging through the mist, the sun was just coming up and I had the place virtually to myself. Two laps later I jumped into the car and went and picked up the Owl. Back to the Tan for a lap and then along the Yarra south bank to Chapel street and back along the north bank back to Swan St. I never new what great company Owls can be to run with! We ran about 10k total or roughly an hour and the time just seemed to fly. Having worked up quite an appetite we went to Joe' garage for coffee and his famous pancakes and some more great conversation.

All in all a lovely morning with a friendly and wise bird.

My shins are feeling fine and I have a new table lamp for the girl's dolls house (thanks Owl)! Although I confess when I first saw it I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head...

Note to self: When running early in the morning take a camera sometimes

The Easy Friday Run

I took it easy today with an easy run from the office along the Yarra to Punt Rd bridge and return (7.5km). The weather was perfect and I ran easily with little shin pain. Running along the Yarra on a beautiful Autumnal day (like today) is one of the joys of living in Melbourne. One for the memory banks

Second speed session

Well, its conclusive - I was born without any pacing genes! Not that I was seriously expecting to be much better the second time.... I really have to make a consious effort to slow down my first 800. Somebody (maybe it was Greybeard) said 4 x 800's should be enough for now and having no idea about it myself I have taken their word as gospel. My 800's were: 3:21, 3:36, 3:33,3:39, each with about a 300m walk break (or 3:00 mins)in between.

I can see the value in them already - just getting comfy running at speed seems to take time - it was only the last one where I realised I had run half of it without thinking about my form.

Shin pain (mild)- rest day tomorrow anyway

Note to self: Don't ever believe again that people in cars who are approaching a stop sign are actually going to stop.

Frist run in 8 days..

Well, the shin splints are gone (for now) and I ran today in my new Brooks Dyads. Man new shoes are like running on little pillows - clearly my old ones were past there best. I have resolved to always have a pair of runners with less than 450kms on them.

The run today was great - it was an easy 4kms to the Punt Rd bridge (along the Yarra) under Melbourne's magnificent autumnal elms and then 4kms back to the office. I didn't check the time until the end and only started to increase my pace a little in the last third.

My shins feel good and I will ease my way back into running over the next week while I am doing these strengthening exercises. Fingers crossed this is the end of shin splints for me - although I doubt it somehow... Anyway its great to be out there running again!

Does this count as a run?

I think it does. Faced with not running due to the pretty severe shin splints I didn't go for a long run last Sunday and instead decided to take Keeley for a training session (without training wheeels) on her bike . I need to run alongside just at the moment so I ended up running about 3kms or so. Trouble is that this has made them flare up and now its painful to walk around (2 days later) - pain level= 3-4/10 when walking.

Feeling slightly depressed, I went and bought something running related! I went and bought some new runners (Brooks Diad = $140)from the Brooks clearance shop. Even though I have only walked in them they are like walking on little cushions! Man I love new runners!! Hopefully I can get another 100kms out of the Glycerine 2's ($110) to get them up to about 750kms before being used for walks etc. Even though they have been good I am not sure they had the best roll protection and they haven't been as good as comfy/padded as the Adrenalines. I would have got a pair of those but the Brooks outlet doesn't stock them in popular sizes.

I am not planning on running at all this week. I am icing every day and limiting my walking where possible. Once the pain levels subside I will commence the stretching exercises that O runner guided me to at: http://www.sportsinjurybulletin.com/archive/1079-shin-splints.htm I will blog on any progress I make for those interested in rehab.

While the shin splints are something I have been managing for the past 6 months my last few months have been littered with occassional running back-to-back and I am sure this has not helped at all. My shoes were approaching the end and this combined with my nearly flat foot strike has been the major cause I suspect. Maybe I will try and keep a set of runners under 450kms for long runs and speed work so I am getting more protection on high stress runs.

Shin splints playing up

I have decided to take a week or two off until my shin splints get under control. Therefore no long run today and only a bit of running alongside Keeley as she grows in confidence riding her bike without her training wheels. Although I have been keeping my monthly kms fairly even at about 100-110 but I have been a bit erratic with weekly kms. Perhaps this has contributed to them flaring up this time. I hate riding my old clunky Malvern Star so maybe I will just allow my fitness to slide for a week or two and try to eat/drink a bit less to make sure that I don't get any more wobbly bits than I already have!

Prevention strategy going forward - a new set of runners from the Brooks outlet at Airport West. My Glycerine 2's have done 630kms and the Adrenalines have 723kms. I also intend to adopt a more disciplined (ooh, I love that word) stretch and exercise program to help prevent any recurrance. I have been dealing with shin splints for about a year now and I want to run more frequently that I currently am (mostly every second day). Besides its boring and painful!