A gentle 45 minutes, and a pause for breath

I wasn't feeling fantastic later in the afternoon yesterday (Thurs) and we had a bit happening at home, so elected to head home and managed to squeeze in a fairly pleasant 45 minutes wobbling around the local area between activities, mind pleasantly blank bar occasional recollections of the Itchy & Scratchy theme (my mobile ring tone - I'd had a rare call on it during the afternoon). I should point out that it is actually the proper theme that I converted from an MP3 of the original, not some half-arsed non-original version that vaguely resembles it.

At this point, for the number of you that actually take the time to peruse my ramblings, I must announce that I will be taking a break from the Vat Blog for the foreseeable future. There is a pressing matter on the family front that will be dominating much of my mental resource in the coming months, and at the risk of offending you the proffering of a collection of meandering thoughts on running seem somewhat trivial at the moment - you'll no doubt indulge me in not revealing the nature of the matter in this format.

I will most likely resume this diary once things have settled down. It is far too useful a resource of retrospective insight for me to simply abandon. Most likely once the campaign for Gold Coast begins in earnest.

Until then, or whenever I elect to resume, I wish you a Merry Christmas (or relevant religious variation thereof) and a Happy New Year.

Looking to '06

Well, if I was to summarise 2005 in a phrase, it would be ‘unfulfilled potential’. After burning myself out with dietary issues which undermined my training for Six Foot Track, I pretty well spent March and April marking time until after the Canberra Marathon. Good results came from my work with Sean Williams’ squad, and after lowering my 10k time to 36:28 and a brilliant Sutherland to Surf, I was hit by a savage dose of the flu in the first week of August that continues to affect my training and race performances in December. I’m sitting here now awaiting a chat with my GP about the results of medical tests I had last week that will hopefully provide a light at the end of the tunnel.

Rather than review the year at a time when I’m a bit down on things, I’ll rather highlight the areas I need to think about and focus on for 2006:
- Get my health sorted out
Pretty obvious when you think about it, but so important. I really haven’t been able to string together more than about 5-6 weeks in a row, which is obviously of no help when you’re trying to make big improvements
- Be better on the diet front
I must confess I haven’t been fantastic on the food front since August, probably as much down to the breaks in training and general mental malaise. I need to focus on sticking to my dietician’s advice as closely as possible
- Consistency
Everything should flow once I get my health sorted, and I can string together a solid 12 to 14 weeks of good, intense training. I need only look back to the Striders 10k events in May (38:40 at North Head) and July (36:28 at Homebush) to see what happens when I get a good unbroken run going.

In the short term, I have the squad camp on the weekend of December 17-18. With a bit of luck I’ll be on the road to recovery health-wise, and can use this as a springboard into the new year. I also need to get back into the swing of long runs again, as they seem to have fallen out of the program over the last month or so.

Key events for next year:
- February Striders 10k at Lane Cove
I was hoping to run a 35:XX 10k here in February, but think I might be struggling to regain form quickly enough to do that. Something in the 36s would be good, and encouraging.
- SMH Half Marathon
A crucial litmus test for how things are tracking into the lead-up to the Gold Coast Marathon. I would dearly love to run a sub 80 minute time here, for two reasons. Firstly, it would mean my pace is close to where I need it, and secondly, it would give a preferred start for 2007.
- Gold Coast Marathon
The key event for 2006, sub 2:48 (4 min per km pace) is the target
- City 2 Surf
Redemption for the 2005 flu ridden debacle. I should have a sub 36 minute 10k by then, so should qualify for a preferred start. It’d be nice to take advantage of it.

No real plans after that, but I imagine it would be an easy couple of months before marshalling forces for Six Foot Track in ’07.

Central Coast Half Marathon

Ran the Central Coast Half in 88:39, and it kicked the hell out of me. Today’s lesson – don’t push hard when you’re on the back end of an illness.

Hadn’t run sine Saturday week ago. Probably should have gotten out on Friday but couldn’t get out of bed, and just ended up running out of time on Saturday. Plus I probably should have had less to drink on Friday night and Saturday afternoon.

Drove up with Mohammed who I thought was definitely on for a fast one. Got there nice and early, got through a bit of a warm up, and lined up with a markedly larger field than last year. Conditions were pretty good, although there was a bit of a headwind in the final stages. A few people commented that they thought it was pretty warm towards the finish - I didn't think it was too bad, but I'll admit I probably wasn't overly focussed on the temperature.

We got on our way, and Mohammed and I were flying. I had the Garmin and was fairly alarm at the Ave Pace sitting below 3:40 for as long as it did. We were through 5k in less than 19:30, and not long after that I let Mohammed go, feeling that the pace felt more like 10km pace than half marathon pace. I was gradually drifting back to over 4 minute per km pace, and was mentally struggling from about 8km. Through 10 in about 39:50, and I really felt like I wanted to go to the toilet, despite going several times in the half hour before the start. I was hoping for a bit of a mental lift at the turnaround point (which seemed a little different to last year’s) which I guess I did a little bit, but the physical issues returned soon enough. Hooked up with another runner who was also battling and he dragged me along for quite a while, but during this period Colin and Blue Dog went past.

The last two small climbs finished me off and I blew up properly with about 2km to go, reduced to a high turnover shuffle. Over the line, check in, collect medal, and straight to the toilet. I thought for a moment I was going to throw up as well.

Caught up with a few people before heading off fairly promptly to the Striders presentation at Homebush.

Pretty down end to what was a pretty disappointing year. I’ll do a year in review posting shortly, but to be brutally frank all I have to show for 2005 is a big 10k PB.

I get results back from my GP today so hopefully that’ll provide some light at the end of what so far has been a four month long tunnel.

An update

Suddenly, it's summer.

Apologies for not updating. My last run was on Saturday afternoon, where I did a warm up around in the inside of the fence line at Centennial Park, a hard 6k in 23:41, and another lap to cool down. I wasn't feeling great - I had felt on Friday that I was coming down with another dose of the sinus pain/cold thing I've been getting. It deteriorated over the weekend, culminating in a day off work on Monday.

Went and saw Dr Irwin Light today for a combined check-up and consult on why I keep getting this. Irwin ran through some checks and drew some blood. He suspects I have an ongoing sinus infection, and ordered a CT scan which I will have tomorrow at 12. Once he has that and the results from my blood tests (which includes some immunity system checks) we will decide on a course of treatment.

I could probably run tonight, but will pop out tomorrow for 50 minutes with some relaxed sprints, to get a feel for my legs again, and an easy half hour on Saturday. Irwin is happy enough for me to run the Central Coast Half on Sunday, don't know how quick it'll be though.