RETURN TO RACING

Last sunday i made my long awaited return to racing competing in the sri chinoy 14km road race which was two 7km loops around iron cove bay near balmain in sydney.
I was keen to test my fitness but was wary to not expect too much after such a long lay off. Training was building up steadily for rotorua marathon in early may and i was up to 80km a week , tendon trouble was nearly a memory ,well i still have to be carefull !
Barmaid coach had barred me from my beloved coopers beer and had been sending me home early on the days she let me go to the golf club ! I could'nt cheat she got eyes and ears everywhere !
Race morning was another humid affair ,i was determined not to go out to fast and try and run even pace and thats exactly how it panned out ,first km 4-35 last km 4-33 garmin average pace 4-33 for a finish time of 1 hr 4min 48 sec which got me 2nd in the over 50s and 4th women! Pulled up well and after a easy run on monday was straight back into my program which included my first 30km run for nearly a year on weds which i handled ok .While my time was'nt super quick there was plenty of strength there and it felt good to be in a racing environment . This should come in handy for my next hitout the sri chinmoy 1/2 marathon in centenial park easter monday a bit over a month out from marathon . In the meantime will keep building the milage careful and try and stay heathy .If your reading this i thank you for your interest.
P.S interesting fact the guy that came 3rd in the over 50s beat me out of 3rd by 1 sec in the schoolboys under 15 divison in the 1973 city to surf !

FUELLING THE RUNNER.

While i was off running injured for 5 months i made a concious decision to watch what i was eating as i did not want a huge weight gain and i simply hate feeling and looking like a slob .A friend lent me a book called eat and run by scott jurek one of the best ultra runners of all time. This guy won the western states 100 mile trail race, one of the hardest and most prestigious races in the world ,not once but seven times in a row and has a host of other huge accomplishments to his name .What grabbed me the most was early in his career he used to pig out at mcdonalds and not pay much attention to his diet ,as he improved he did, he gradually became a vegetarian and then a vegan. General opion was he would not get enough calories to sustain his huge training and racing regime but guess what he found he had more energy than ever and recovered from fatigue and injuries so much quicker than normal .This intrigued me so i started making some changes to my own diet .This wasn't that hard as i have never used sugar, butter ,salt or processed crap and have mainly been a white meat eater ,what i did do was to start eating a lot more raw foods mainly in salad type meals ,stir fries meant only warming the veggies as not to kill all the enzymes and i also started using a lot  of grated raw ginger and garlic to most meals as these have excellant anti  inflammatory  qualities .Even though i have always used good wholemeal or grain bread i cut back on this also instead eating more fruit early in the mornings instead of toast ,I even cut back on my coffee intake which is very hard when you live and work in bondi, the coffee capital of australia ! I also made a effort to drink more fluids during the day as i work outside in the sun all day .
THE RESULT
After 5 months off injured barely able to walk i only gained 3 kilos ,now im back in serious training im finding I'm recovering much quicker and generally have much more energy during the day.After consulting with guru coach john hill I'm drinking and fuelling up more during and after long runs and am really noticing a difference.
It hasn't really been that hard just a bit of adjustment here and there and putting a bit of thought into shopping and cooking .I get strange looks off my co -workers at morning tea time when im having a tuna salad with fruit and there hoeing into hungry jacks !
The hardest part was giving up my beloved coopers pale ale beer which isn't nicknamed  lunatic soap for nothing!
My tendon is holding up nicely and my marathon plan for may in nz is coming along nicely with 3 races planned in the lead up .Is nice to be back in action again .
 If you are reading this i thank you for your time and interest .

PS if you can get hold of scott jureks book eat and run do so as its a great read !

PROGRESS

Im now into my 4th week of straight running after 6 weeks of walk run rehab running and 5 months of f completly , one of the longest injury breaks i've ever had . Started off with slow 3km runs every 2nd day and after 2weeks  doing these easy at 5min km pace am now into my 2nd week of steady 7km runs every 2nd day  . In 2 weeks i'm running these 3min quicker at the same heart rate and will continue this till the end of january when i feel i be ready to get back into a regular daily training pattern .
Its not all plain sailing though ,i still have to do my rehab stretching routine before each run and specific stretches afterwards as well as using the ice pack , massage is also important as i need to keep my calf muscles loose .
Being optomestic i have booked and paid for my trip to the rotorua marathon in early may,this gives me thirteen weeks to get marathon fit from the end of january which i feel handled correctly is possible ,i'm not looking for a pb over there just a decent run to finish what i started all those years ago .
Speaking of pbs i am now concentrating on the runner i am now not the runner i was or the runner i want to be , if i do that these less chance of hurting myself , i have to remember i'm 54 years old and cannot race and train at the speeds i used to , i also need to place a lot of emphasis on rest and recovery ,going distance is not  a problem but the speed i run is .This is why i think in the future the ultras are the way to go for me i can run all day at a slow pace and my mentality seems to suit these sort of events ,in short they attract running eccentrics like me looking for new challenges .
If your reading this blog i thank you for your interest !

The road back

well after 5months out with a lower achillies tendon injury i am finally able to say im on the road back .I've been given the all clear to start reducing the walk sections in my rehab running program and start running more ,this i have to be very carefull with because if i stuff up i'll set myself back months more and the tendon may never be the same again.The time out was not good and not being able to get a proper diagnosis early was very frustrating ,those that know me well know that i like a drink or two, well during this time i think the profits of the golf club went up considerably and i probably visited some dark places i would'nt wish on anybody, suffering more than a few heavy bouts of depression and aniexty where i was starting to question the state of my mental health but i have come out the other end of the tunnel with the support of a few good people with my best interests at heart and am now doing 36min sessions of running / walking .Its good to get the endorphens flowing again and the sweat on the singlet ,I am aiming to be marathon fit by early may when i want to be in new zealand doing the rotorua marathon ,why you might ask ? well 35years ago i competed in the same race injuring my foot and having to drop out at 20 miles ,i thought it would be really cool to go back and run those last 6miles and say i've finished the race .Thats the plan and the sports physio said it was a realistic one ,just have to be patient and positive ! The journey continues . Happy and safe training to anyone reading this .

WINTER OF DISCONTENT

Last Sunday i contested the sri chinmoy 1/2 marathon cross country race in centennial park . I had a solid race finishing in 1hr 38m 23s, was i happy no i was run down for 3rd in the over 50s in the last 800 metres by a guy I've beaten before ,i was left feeling very frustrated because this winter has been one setback after another .After thinking I'd gotten over the recent flu it came back to sucker punch me 6 days before the race .What has been more frustrating is illness and injuries caused me to have to back off training, my biggest week in the last 5 weeks has only been 49 km not exactly long race mileage .
Where am i going with this you might ask ? well as i prepare to enter my 42nd year of running I've realised i have to take a step back and be thankful that i can still run and compete at all, i have to realise that at age 54 my best competitive days are behind me and whether i like it or not these not a lot of difference between my training pace and my racing pace these days ,a running friend offered me the following ,when your in your fifties your not running for time your running against father time .
And isn't that what its all about as you get older keeping the body healthy and moving, to remember why you started running in the first place, because it made you feel good , it made you feel like someone special' it gave you a feeling no one could take off you a feeling non runners could never understand .
I will still race but i won't get myself so worked up and frustrated by results i will be thankful that after all these years i am  still able to keep going. Its hard to find the motivation and the drive sometimes but when you find yourself laughing in the middle of a great training run saying to yourself how good is this its all worth it .

RETURN TO RACING

Last Sunday i made a long awaited return to racing at the sri chinmoy half marathon at dolls point .It was a pretty low key affair with only 138 starters with more in the 10 and 5km events .
I have had a lot of setbacks the last 6 months and the lead up to this wasn't without its problems ,a troublesome itb problem had forced me to back off intensity and mileage and i then managed to pick up a cold 6 days before the race but i felt well enough to compete .I got thru it OK but only after  dying a slow death the last 3km ,i probably ran the first 5km too fast for my conditioning after my brain forgot my age ! The cold affected me as i had several coughing fits in the 2nd half of the race ,my time was disappointing 1hr 39m 24s on a slightly long course 'garmin 300metres ' which is marathon pace,an average of 4m 40 per km. I wasn't feeling real flash afterwards and even less at the presentation where i discovered I'd missed 3rd in the over 50s by 1 place and 45 seconds ! the winner had come 2nd outright in a amazing 1hr 20min ,i was however 3rd womann !
The good news is i didn't bash my legs up being able to resume running the next day and now 2 days latter the cold is nearly gone . They have another half on in 3 weeks all cross country in centennial park
which i will have another go .I was planning to do the m7 black town marathon at the end of July but due to the itb problem i will defer probably to the Sydney marathon .
Looking back in my diary i was amazed that the only two races I'd done in the last 12 months were last July's m7 black town marathon and the 50miler ultra in Canada ,most of the small local races i used to run  have dried up .
Theres a lot of work to be done i just don't need anymore disruptions !

MINOR SETBACK AND A CHANCE MEETING

Training has been going well ,long runs up to 30 kms which i was suprised by the ease i was doing them ,however pushing the downhills on my tempo run have caused my right itb to flare up next to my knee i think i have caught it in the early stages and with a few days off plus ice and streching im hoping i,ll be right .
I have to be careful as i forget how old i am and how long i,ve been running and tend to push myself too hard and the body won't handle it ,its like the mind is willing and the body is weak! i also think i need to stay off the downhills which don't seem to agree with my body although I'll miss charging down military road at 3-40 km pace at the end of my tempo runs .
On another note i bumped into my old mate chip van halan aka wayne salter aka chip monk salter aka chipmonk Frazier lets just say the monk,
 before he headed back to his base in france .Still a fantastic athlete in his early 40s who has in his resume  plenty of sub 9hr iron mans and a aust singlet in the 1990 commonwealth games among numerous other achevements.
The monk is a bit of a nomad moves around a lot has a lot to say and is not afraid to speak his mind on athletic subjects ,this has not endeared him to officialdom and fellow athletes over the years and a lot of people shun him or just think he's a bit weird but the more i talked to him this Saturday morning down at the beach about numerous subjects the more i admired him because i saw some of myself in him ,i too know what its like to be shunned by fellow athletes, to be described as an eccentric because i do things my way and stick to my beliefs ,integrity is a dying art .
So monk keep living how you do,, keep being true to what you believe in, keep experimenting with your training and diet,  your

  a wealth of knowledge who never stops learning never stops looking .people who shun you are missing out .
I don't know when i'll see the monk again but as we parted ways his final words were ,what people don't understand they fear ,i could'nt have said it better its a statement i have used many times myself.