Lots of Cycling & Even More Ham

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day (sandwiched by rainy mornings on Saturday and today), perfect for BIP's Xmas golf tournament at Te Awamutu. I was planning on going in for the prize-giving and bbq so rather than take two cars, BIP drove in and I set off a few hours later on my bike. It's a fairly challenging 42(ish) km trip, first half is fairly flat and on reasonably quite country roads but the second half out through Ohaupo is quite undulating and on a busier road. I decided to just take it slowly, and gave myself 2 and a half hours to pootle out there; There was a fair breeze around, but despite a couple of hard bits when it was a head wind I was greatful for it as it stopped it being too hot. I stopped after an hour for an apple break (and to reapply sunscreen) but still made it to the centre of TA in two hours. Earlier than planned, so I stopped in town for a coffee before heading to the golf club for a shower and change of clothes. It was a thoroughly pleasant cycle, no mad drivers threatening my life and apart from the final set of hills before TA not too tiring. I'm suprisingly unstiff today, which may mean that it will take until tomorrow for me to feel the effects, or maybe taking it reasonably slowly means I won't get sore at all.
BIP had good golf and came 2nd, winning a whole ham!! This is on top of the half ham she won last weekend at the Pirongia golf tourny. Hmmm, perhaps they need to consider a vegetarian alternative, there is only so much ham BIP can eat and I suspect we were already well over that quota last weekend! I think the half ham may end up as someone's Xmas present and the whole ham will be portioned out between MAL, the aunt and H. The dogs will, of course, be hoping for a share too!

Artificial Hills

Have been feeling fine since Weds (no more anti-inlams for me!) but didn't want to risk a road run today just in case so it was back to the treadmill for an interval hill run. I wonder how similar treadmill hills are to real hills? I guess it's similar to the general road/treadmill running relationship, i.e. they both work in different ways so whenever you switch from one to the other it always seems hard!! Acting on some insane impulse that I cannot begin to explain when I was doing some abs and weights after my run I put in a couple of sets of lunges. I can't remember the last time I did lunges, needless to say by the time I got back up the hill to my office I could barely make it up the stairs!! What was I thinking?

KO'd by Anti-Inflammatories

Along with the lecture on not leaving things so long before getting treatment, the physio I saw last week also recommended taking anti-inflammatories for a few days to see if that would also help settle my shoulder down a bit. Now we have a houseful of anti-inflams, voltarin (aka diclofenac) has seen both BIP and I through a variety of broken bones, torn muscles, strains, sprains and migraines over the years and was once described by a friend of mine as the morning after pill for hockey players of a certain age. Anyway, suffice to say I have never had any problems taking it and it's always contributed admirably to the healing/pain relief process. Until now. On Friday I took a tablet with lunch (because of course I also have some in my work drawer) and then another later at home with dinner. Saturday morning I was sick as a dog. Without going into the sorts of details unwelcome in a cheery little sports blog let's just say that the 'possible side effects may include an upset stomach' was putting it a little mildly. It took most of the day to recover but by Sunday I was fine again, apart from some odd bruises that had appeared on the top of my feet apropos of nothing I could recall. By Monday I was beginning to wonder if it was indeed the voltarin (which seemed so unlikely) and maybe I'd just picked up a 24 hour bug from somewhere. Only one way to find out right? Pop another pill. Tuesday morning I woke up feeling a little odd, and within half an hour the verdict was conclusive - I have developed an inability to stomach (literally!) voltarin. Blast, damn and bugger!! Apart from feeling wretched all of Tuesday right through until I went to bed, it's just so annoying - sometimes anti-inflammatories are the only things that keep me functioning. I need advice, what do other people with sensitive stomachs take instead of voltarin? Needless to say I did not get out on Tuesday night for a run with mc, which I might add I'd been looking forward to this week. By yesterday (Weds) I was fine again, so hit the treadmill for some speed work and hope to get out for a proper road run after work today. Hmph.

Two Runs and a Physio Appointment

So I finally got around to seeing the physio about my shoulder. It seems I have an inflamed rotator cuff, the good news is there don't appear to be any tears, just inflammation, the bad news is that rotator cuffs are notoriously slow to heal. Oh, I also learned that even if something doesn't hurt very much it's not a good idea to wait 3 months before seeing a physio, apparently. Meanwhile back in the world of running I did a 30 min speed interval run on the road yesterday which wasn't as hideous as you might imagine, and then it was back to death by treadmill at the gym lunchtime today. DBT definitely felt easier today than last week which is a good sign and means that perhaps the interval training is paying off as planned, will see how tomorrow evening's mc run is I guess. I still hate my shoes, but they don't rub and there's nothing actually wrong with them so I guess I just have to put up with them and hope they wear out really quickly!

Lovely Lovely Running, Tra la la la

Another treadmill run today. Thirty minutes with the aim of keeping the speed above my comfort zone for most of the run, so the aim was to get used to running while being more out of breath than usual to help fitness, stamina and getting out of that mental panic mode of 'oh my god I can't breath I'm going to die' - there may be some cases where this is true but generally it's not the case. A few weights again afterwards, interestingly although I can't do shoulder press exercises with my dodgy shoulder I can do lat pull downs, which in terms of the movement is just the opposite - mind you I have no idea if that has any significance! I do now have the number of the physio who (mostly) fixed BIP's rotator cuff problem with her shoulder so will give her a call later and see if she can mend me too.

Return of Death By Treadmill

Hot on the heels of my last post (which was of course the last moan before Xmas) here is the new ultra-positive happy me full of joy and bounce! So my experience last night made it clear I have two options, give up running and embrace life as a couch potato (tempting......) or up my fitness levels, and quickly, so I don't have to undergo such horrid running conditions again next week. Of course the best way to up fitness levels quickly is doing interval training, so lunchtime today meant a trip to the gym and a return to my fave. interval treadmill routine (aka death by treadmill) which consists of:
5 min warm up
5 x intervals of 1 min fast, 1 min recovery, 1 min med. pace hill, 1 min recovery
5 min cool down
So a 30 minute power interval run guaranteed to leave me in a heap of red-faced sweatiness (there's an image you'll want to carry round with you for the rest of the day) and instantly boost my fitness by, oooh I don't know, lots of whatever you measure fitness in - ooomphitudes?
I finished up with a few weights and confirmed that my dodgy shoulder is well and truly poked and I should probably take it to a physio at some point soon. But I'm not complaining about, on no sireee.

Last Moan and Whinge Before Xmas

Since I got back from overseas I have spent most of my blogging moaning about how hard it is to get back into running. I realise this probably doesn't make for particularly interesting reading and so hereby decree to cut out the whinging and find something positive to write, at least until Christmas! I had to give myself one last moany blog so I could report on last night's total fail. Went out with the marathon clinic and our group consisted of me, JB2, Lynny and Maury. Unfortunately JB2 was no longer recovering from a run of epic proportions (see last week's mc blog) and so I was well and truly running (or should that be crawling) anchor. I can honestly admit that had I been on my own I'd have given up after about 15 minutes, as I wasn't I had to drag myself round the lake (one lap was torture, this is the lake I was doing four laps of for training only a few months ago!!) I tried to persuade the others to head off once we were halfway round as they were planning a longer run than I could manage, but bless them they stayed with me all the way back to the top of the hill (2 minutes from HQ) and then went their own way. I was less than grateful for this at the time but now send a bit THANK YOU to them as it meant I ran for 50 minutes, considerably longer than I would have had they left me to it. Ugh, it was horrible, miserable and all things bleargh. And I hate my new running shoes. So there.