Tentative positive signs

So I haven't posted in ages because the running was non-existent, I've been trying to sort out the problem and rehab.  In short:

(a) the surgeon said he'd have to detach my achilles so the recovery period would be 13 months;

(b) I'd be seeing slight improvements with a load of calf strenghthening exercises; and

(c) surgery would have had to wait until after my Europe trip in any case,

so I decided against it. I've continued to do a load on the bike and am now up to 8 consecutive weeks of long (2 hour) rides.  I started running again 2 weeks ago - just 8 to 10km every other day at the moment.  I've added heel wedges to the orthotics and have avoided the old heel pain but can still feel something lower down on my heel when I run. But not painful enough to stop me for now.

Yesterday was another 70km down in Kurnell on the bike averaging 34kmh followed by 8km (4:19 pace) around Nolan's in the late afternoon. I find I run ok immediately following a ride but struggle the next day so today will be slower.

It's all currently prep for Nepean Triathlon (1km, 30km, 10km) on 29 Oct which is turning out to be bigger than Ben Hur. Timmy's odds list looks like this:

 At some stage I'll have to don my swimmers.

Finally, Mags is going great at Athletics, finishing 2nd in Zone 1500m in 5:32 and now through to Regionals at Homebush (Mon 11th):

Getting there

Whole family has been sick and I've finally succumbed (a bit). One of the benefits of not training so hard is that you're not constantly on the verge of falling ill.  Feeling a bit run down and have very swollen glands.

Didn't stop a good crack at Parriwi Rd yesterday on the commute in. Hammered it all the way and was rewarded with another 20s off my time and climbing above the mighty Gus Boyd on the ladder:

Achilles continues to improve and will try and jog with the new heel raises when I'm over the lurgy.

So what's up?

Stopped running mid June with the achilles showing no sign of improvement and, in fact, deteriorating the longer is run. Started doing a lot of calf strengthening exercises and riding the bike. Within a week the achilles started feeling better and could walk without pain.

Saw the surgeon (Dr Wines) and he indicated that to fix it properly he would need to detach the achilles from the bone, smooth the heel bone, remove the bursar and clean up the tendon itself. It would be a 12 month recovery.  Given the improvements I'm seeing at the moment, I decided against it. Was great to have Gary there too who confirmed my opinion.

Since then I've been hammering the bike - commuting in and out to work, heading up to Centennial for some fast laps if I don't commute and doing one 2 hour ride on the weekend.  Starting to feel a bit stronger.  But holy crap Strava on a bike is very different to Strava running.  The 1km hill up Parriwi Rd near the Spit Brodge is a very popular segment.  On my first week of riding I decided to give it a crack to see how high I placed on the Strava leaderboard. Normally while running if I give a Segment a crack I'll be first or at least top 3.  So I pegged it up Parriwi. Legs were going lactic by half way, got to the top with a taste of blood in my mouth and sweat dripping down my skin tight Lycra.  Got to work and eagerly downloaded the ride to check out my placing.  2,044th. You have got to be kidding me!

Have since lowered Parriwi to 3:34 but that was off a standing start so there's a few more seconds there.  Can definitely feel a bit of strength coming through now.  Had a great session in Centennial with Timmy last week where we did 2 laps hard (5:37 and 5:50), 1 lap easy then 1 lap hard (5:49).  The speed endurance is what I need to work on though.  Did a good 65km around Kurnell (from Kogarah) yesterday solo in under 2 hours where it is flat as a tack - perfect prep for a potential go at Nepean Triathlon at the end of October.

The achilles continues to improve. I've bought 6mm heel wedges (which I used to wear from 2009 - 2013) so will try a jog in them in a week or so. Needs to be pain free though. Had enough of hobbling.

Top night in Manly last night with the crew for a curry. Even managed to persuade Macca to relive his former triathlon glory days and enter Nepean as well. And he generously offered me a 9min headstart.

Honkers

6km on the treadmill in the Four Seasons Hotel. 23:42.

Something new

Slow and long isn't working so am trying short and fast.  Two local loops in the early evening.  6.2km in 24:20 (3:54's).

Something's got to change

12.5km with Enda, Gidon and Jac.  Achilles sore the whole way and it's getting worse.  Got to change things up as it's not improving and I'm sick of it.

HuRTs Pyramid

Well, despite a hangover and only 5 hours sleep I managed to get out to the HuRTs session today. Something Darren said about "blocking the pain" last night was ringing in my head.

Solid crew to do the pyramid set on the fields next to Rushcutters. I plotted out a makeshift loop of about 450m and we were off.  Lewis, Andy, Branigan Jr and Jerome were up front with me and Tongey next.  Reps were consistent. Sweated out the booze. Felt harder than it should. But a first speed set done.

Longer cool down with LJ, Jerome and co for 14km all up.

Wed MLR

The C2S recon MLR with Timmy but with added females!  We had Jac, Elle, Renee and Jay Z Pringle along for the ride too.

Felt quite bouncy as a result of the rest day on Tuesday so took out the polka dot jersey on the Heartbreak Hill Fast section and the killer hill up to Ocean St on the return.

All up 18km in 4:46's.

Long run Monday

Hungover in the am, got out at 1pm with the Cap'n for an hour before he upped sticks so continued on for 30km up the path to Seaforth Oval and back via White St and the Fairlight path. Picked the pace up a bit conscious the achilles goes better and for the first time in a long time felt like I was moving properly today. 

4:39's.  

Then went to watch Wonder Woman with the family. 2 popcorns out of 5 for the film, 5 out of 5 for Wonder Woman herself.

Sunday abort

Plan was for 30km consisting of 5km easy then 5km tempo x 3.  Managed 12km before deciding achilles was getting worse. But finding that running quickly causes less damage than slowly.

Then onto Paddington for the end of season footy tipping drinks. Top night but drank too much.

Parkrun

4km warm up. Wasn't sure whether to run as achilles still felt a bit sore. Arrived and thought what the hell. Especially seeing Kirst and Mags were waiting. So set off with the plan to try to stick to Lewis, Benny and 'Darren', knowing they were all in sub17 shape.

1km in 3:16 and I'm holding on. 2km in 6:39 and I'm just holding on. I do a wide turn through a big puddle on the grass by the netball courts shortly after and start to lose touch. Lewis is pushing ahead, followed by Ben and then 'Darren' with me further back. Same up the Harbord Rd hill then over the top and I'm starting to close in on 'Darren'.  High five Mags who is just behind Elle, then go past Darren at 4km and turn to have a word only to discover it's not Darren - it's a chap called Jody Wall. I wouldn't have tried so hard if I'd known that. 

Hit the bridge at 15:04 and realise a sub17 is possible. Start pushing and suddenly I'm closing on Benny. This is an added bonus. Get past Benny just before the dog leg and home in 17:04.

Great to be back in it again but the achilles is very sore after.  Running hard early doors is not good.

10km all up.

Friday HuRTs

Pretty big Friday turnout by HuRTs standards, with Andy, Brendan W, Renaud and a host of others joining in. Despite that, still saw Barts, Scotty and Jerome off doom their own thing.  Too slow for those boys these days.

Kept on running today and ended up doing 17.25km with Andy doing the whole thing with me.  Achilles ok. Felt fine over the distance. Need to start stretching the legs a bit more.  Will start tomorrow with a Parkrun effort.

1 step forward, 2 steps back

Planned longer, only managed 8km around the City. Too sore after an early morning massage.  That said, was feeling better at the end after picking the pace up, so much so that I nearly headed out again.  But curbed my enthusiasm thinking of the long game. Nice to run with Barts and Scotty on their cool down for the middle part.

Maybe I'm just a bit grumpy but finding a number of identities very annoying at the moment. In no particular order:

1. Piers Morgan (self important short arsed twat)

2. Bloke from Mt Hotham on the Qantas safety briefing (annoyingly upbeat)

3. Trump (obvious)

4. Tom Piotrowski (what's with the beard, you're an analyst, not a model)

5. Hamish and Andy (you're not students anymore, grow up)

Better to get that off my chest.

Yarra Trail

Started using Jack's massage stick on the calves last night and it seemed to do a load of good. Woke up with the achilles not as bad as I expected. So went to Rebel and bought one for myself, as well as some small gel-like heel raises.

The result was 14.5km along the Yarra Trail with the achilles not too bad. Groin/glute another matter.  Finished with some hills, just because I feel my form is crap at the moment and hills normally sort me out.

Still not 100%.

Oh bejaysus

Tuesday (having missed Sunday and Monday). Can't catch a trick at the moment. Laid out again by this low level bug. Start to get a headache, aching and shivery as soon as I get tired.  So didn't until Tuesday.  Down in Melbourne and after a day of meetings I ran to Alec & Gill's from the Grand Hyatt.  Went a route that meant I wouldn't get lost - St Kilda Rd, Nepean Highway and North Rd which wasn't the most picturesque. But 14.5km done in 4:46's when I thought it would be another day off.

That said, achilles, knee and groin/gluten were sore.

Hill tempo

Too tired from the Perth trip to do Striders so headed out for my favourite loop of Manly Dam in the afternoon and decided to push the pace a bit.  That's all fine but unfortunately I'd had a cronut not more than an hour beforehand and it sat on my stomach uncomfortably for the first 5km up Allambie Hill.  

After that was fine.  Averaged just under 4min kms and a good tester, although achilles was sore after.  Too much red wine at Craig's house later with Macca and his family had me feeling very average all day Sunday so will run long tomorrow.

Check out “Hilly tempo” on Relive!

https://www.relive.cc/view/1018435886

Perth tempo

Swapped my planned Mona Fartlek to a long tempo, partly listening to the Tiger and partly listening to my body.  

Did a short warm up due to time constraints then straight out along the river to the end of the path at Dalkeith then returned. Came out at exactly 8km out and return.  Did tempo pace which I thought would be 3:50's but became 3:55's - just off the plane so perhaps that was the reason. But a beautiful day (much warmer than Sydney) and I love the path with no roads to cross and the river by your side the whole way.  Bit of wind on the way out but made the return easier.

Very even pacing around 3:55's.  Breathing fine at end but achilles and knee sore in the evening.  Many beers (they drink pints over here) with the sociable Perth lawyers made the body feel a lot better.

And awesome news!  Turns out we've hired a Grad lawyer over here called Kate Fitzsimons who represented Aus at the World Uni Games and runs 16:15 for 5000m.  Guess who's gonna be doing work experience in Sydney in November for JPMorgan!

106km for the week.

Timmy MLR

Met Timmy and Renaud for a different MLR. The former is keen on starting his C2S training so we headed out to Heartbreak Hill. Renaud turned after 5km, then Timmy started his traditional effort up the hill.  I held back but picked the pace up a bit, but coming past Kambala could see him up ahead to put an effort in to catch him before the top.  

Was sore (mainly knee, but achilles a bit too) before the run having neglected evening roll-outs of late, but actually felt better after the hill effort.  It's like teaching your legs how to move properly again.

Turned at 9km and retraced our steps for a healthy 18km.  Timmy talked shite the whole way.

HuRTs Continuous

Tried to do a 15min jog warm up but only managed about 8.  Joined a good crowd at the Stone Gates and barked out a few instructions.  Then off into the 20mins Fartlek, 5min jog and 20min tempo. I like this session.

Barts, Crossy, Lewis and Andy disappeared off ahead with me running with Jeet, Jerome, Mikey Lichtwark, Enda, Brendan and with Gus and Timmy just behind.  Reached just past the entrance to Barangaroo at 22.5mins, so just behind where I reached 2 weeks ago when doing 45min Fartlek. The difference was the return.  Chasing the J&J show, with Jeet in particular throwing in some 3:30's around Farm Cove, managed to get back in 44:29 - whereas 2 weeks ago it took me a minute longer.

Total was 11.8km in 3:46's.

3km warmdown with Barts and Andy for 16.5km all up.

Monday

Ran home from work. Had to go along Cahill EWay to avoid Vivid crowds. Slow and tired from Sunday.  5:00min kms.  14.5km.