December 2011...

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

If you're here looking for my P2P race report, you'll find it here.

But, onwards. Already, it's December. Funny, but I still pinch myself in disbelief that it's actually 2011 ... it still seems to me like the new century has only just begun, yet it's nearly 2012 already.

Anyhow. Down here it's getting a bit too hot now for lunch-time runs so on work days I've taken to running in the pre-dawn. To be honest I'm completely surprised that I'm up for it. After the P2P I was inclined to take a couple of weeks off, but I became so inspired by Sweder and Seafront Plodder travelling literally half-way around the planet to take part, and two of my sons also racing that I couldn't let it go. Also, having trained so well it seemed a shame to let that go to waste, especially after my back injury didn't allow me to run the kind of race or the time I had intended and trained for.

Heck, all I really know is that I want to keep running and build on the good work I've done so far this year, and continue that through 2012. And so for two mornings in a row I've been up at 04:30 and pounding the streets, picking the hilliest, most undulating streets I can find around the manor.

And ... it's been good! I'm loving it, I feel strong and fit, and raring to build it into something ... significant.

So, let's see where this all leads. But first, back to the physio to get the last niggles ironed out of my back.

[marathondan]

Top man!

[glaconman]

Thanks for the report MLCM. Enjoyed it. You seem to be in a very good place at the moment. Despite the your setback before the P2P.

My latest running metaphor is surfng. (It could even be an analogy. No doubt somebody will correct me.)

After abit of a mullering you seem to have risen to your feet and you're now looking to make a clean break onto the face. It's really going off. Things are firing. Soon you'll be taking the drop and into the Green Room.

I'm in abit of a lull at the moment after getting worked. But I'm hoping things will be cranking by the New Year. As long as there are no men in grey suits to knock me off my board.

OK, that's enough. If anybody would like to extend this:
http://www.surfing-waves.com/surf_talk.htm

A good time to make goals and plan the odd race I would have thought whilst your mojo is high.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Great effort on the Point to Pinnacle MLCM. A truly epic RC gathering, masterminded by you. Must say I didn’t realize your lads were athletes too, what a day you all had!

Looking forward to the third part of the trilogy and what happened after the spiders...

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Thanks Dan, and G'man, yes it was a bit gnarly out there but overall it was fully sick and at the end of the day we were stoked.

And BB, yah it's been a bit of a surprise to see my lads get into it quite as much as they have this year, but it was fantastic fun to have all of us out there - I highly recommend running with your family if you can.

This morning I did a fabbo run - a 20km easy FLAT run and it was heaven! 2h15m and it was easily the most comfortable 20km run I've ever done. Feeling good!

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

A good start to the month over here with seven runs in the first seven days of the month. Some hilly 5km circuits, a couple of fast flat 6km runs and a 20km long slowie. Today's 6km run with the work running group at lunch time was a surprise - feeling a little jaded I took to the 6km course without a watch and just took it easy... or so I thought. It was a tough run, which I attributed to me being very tired, but actually I ran the thing in 30:13, which is just a little over 5min/km pace... rather fast for me, so well pleased I am.

A total of 52km in 7 days, and more importantly I actually completed a decent run each day. How long will this go on? We shall see...

[Sweder]

By contrast I've done nothing since I arrived in Dubai - nothing constructive on the running front any road. I have a 5k race at 7 tomorrow morning - this will be nothing short of an ugly waddle. I'm looking for a wheelbarrow to carry my beer baby. Gah.

[Bierzo Baggie]

You’re on a roll MLCM ...carefully does it... control the force!

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

You’re on a roll MLCM ...carefully does it... control the force!

Yes don't worry BB, I'm well aware of my mortality etc. Along those lines my visit to my ultra-marathon-running physiotherapist this morning was very interesting. It's the first time I've had a professional prescribe more running for me! It's true - apart from a whole gaggle of core-strengthening exercises I have to do (for an hour each day!) he told me that 50 kilometres a week was "not bad" but that I really should be ramping it up to nearer 70, although doing it over 3 or 4 runs instead of 6 - 7 shorter runs each week..!

No. I am not kidding you. My physiotherapist told me to ramp up my running to 70 kilometres per week!

I'm still digesting this bomb shell some hours later.

Essentially I think this came about because I told him that I felt my running was at a stage where I need to kick it up to the next level, and that I wanted to ensure I minimise the risk of having another unfortunate injury close to a major race date as happened last month.

He also told me (as every other professional medico who has seen me has also said) that my hamstrings are naff and need a lot of work. I didn't dare tell him that they were in fact far and away better than this time a year ago... especially as he was inflicting rather severe pain on said hammies at the time. But obviously yet more work is needed there.

The pain thing is a bit weird with these guys - their exercise instruction sheets they gave me carry the warning "...you must discontinue when pain is experienced" and yet when in their hands and I complain about the pain all they say is "excellent, that's the kind of pain we're looking for" before then pushing it to new and previously unknown levels of torture.

So it was all a little mysterious. I am not unhappy however, although I'm still at something of a loss to know how I'm to cram all this running and exercise into my schedule. As Mrs MLCM said, I might just have to get up at 3 a.m. instead of these long, lazy lie-ins til 4:30 ...

Sigh.

OK well the first of the new era of MLCM longer runs starts tomorrow. Looking for at least 25km, but we'll see. Just the thought of it is making me tired. And now my back hurts. And uh oh, there goes the knee... and I'm feeling really quite giddy.

Think I'll go and have a little lie down.








Is that a bottle of Scotch?

[Sweder]

That's great news though. He clearly feels you're able to take an increase in mileage. I need to reassess too. I've been getting away with it all year and I feel the cold hand of injury reaching out for me. Off the booze, out the door more and no more ducking those long slow weekend runs.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Rounded out ten runs in ten days with a nice 27km plod over three hours. It went well and the only problem was chafing - in fact the worst chafing I've ever experienced. It didn't seem too bad at the time but at the end of the run my legs were covered in blood and now, a few hours later it stings like mad. Other than that though, all is good.

Now, what to do with this base mileage?

[Sweder]

Loving the pain embrace. Sounds like you're headed for an Ultra ...

[marathondan]

Yes MLCM, prescribing more mileage is certainly a turnup, and a great vote of confidence for the shape your in. That marathon beckons methinks... is there a good one on the calendar? I seem to recall you canned the last attempt due to run / life balance - but if you're knocking out "nice 27km plods" then it sounds like you could fit it into your schedule. Your 50k per week is about all I manage in my peak week of marathon training. It needn't (quite) take over your life.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

... Your 50k per week is about all I manage in my peak week of marathon training. It needn't (quite) take over your life.

Quite agree, and it's been playing on my mind, almost as if I've stumbled into a professional's coaching group and been somehow mistaken for a serious athlete.

I'm going to take it steady and think about this for a while!

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

A quick update - a combination of mild illness (man flu) and minor injury (severe chafing!) has caused a cessation of running for a few days, but to be honest I'm enjoying not having to force running into the schedule in the midst of extremely silly season.

Like some others around these here parts, after the Christmas festivities are safely tucked away I intend to curtail my alcohol intake and get on with some seriously enjoyable running. Meantime, a calendar totally bereft of race goals means I am free to build up my base mileage again to a good level without having to get anal about schedules etc.

Somewhat more urgently, perhaps, is the need to get serious about my core strengthening, the importance of which was rammed home quite forcefully last month. This already has my attention and training programme is in place... just not yet as properly attended to as it should be.

All these things will happen. But in the meantime, I wish you all the very best for the festive season and I look foward to reading of everyone's exploits here soon.

Merry Christmas, all!

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again.

I’m not old. I’m only 50. According to the kind of pundits whose advice I like to follow, I can still retain the fitness of youth and continue to improve physically for another 15 years or so. Which is great news.

Despite that, I do feel a little old today. Yesterday’s 8km lunch time bolt through a crowded, festive Darling Harbour was fast and fabulous, but now I’m sitting here nursing sore quads, tight hamstrings and a dull ache in the knees. Over the last two weeks I’ve barely run at all and it seems in that short time I lost all that fabulous toning that allowed me to run most of the second half of the year with pretty much no soreness whatsoever (if you discount the back sprain episode, which wasn’t a running injury, as such).

I dislike these niggling reminders of my mortality, but there’s little to be done about them other than to keep on running and not take two weeks off without good reason (well, I had a good reason but I’m sure I could have managed something had I put my mind to it).

The pain and soreness will pass quickly enough though, and yesterday’s run was a ripper. And something of a first for me happened too in the “assault” department – as a runner you get the occasional verbal from passing louts, maybe even have something thrown at you on occasion, but what happened yesterday was unique in my experience. In my run through the tourist Mecca that is Darling Harbour I had to run past one of those unicycling, juggling, clown acts that was doing his summer busking thing for the tourists, and as I did so he pulled out a bull whip and went out of his way to crack it at me, hoping (I suspect) for a laugh at my expense. Being wise to the ways of cheap-arse buskers however I was alert to such shenanigans and not only failed to flinch in even the slightest manner but disdainfully ignored the guy and I’m certain the smattering of laughter from the small crowd of onlookers was directed at the perpetrator and not at my good self. One point to me in the cool stakes.

Apart from testing my street-smarts, the run was also a test of my shiny new Garmin Forerunner 405, a Christmas present from Mrs MLCM. I have to say it’s a breath of fresh air after my creaking, ancient (in technological terms) and now barely-able-to-be-recharged 201. This new one finds the satellites in a flash (even sometimes indoors), came with its own heart rate monitor and automatically downloads my run data. Very cool - I think I might be turning into a number slut again.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the year ahead and my running therein. I’ve acceded to my wife’s requests to not lock in a heap of races, but I’m also trying to balance that with the need to build on a good year of running this year, and to my physio’s demands to build my mileage still higher and work hard on my core strength and hamstrings. I have to say his suggestion of building up to 70km per week is extremely daunting, especially as it comes with the caveat of not running on consecutive days, which therefore requires my short runs be not less than 10 – 15km with a long run of 20 – 30km each week. This seems to me unrealistic, but I certainly would like to build my weekly distance to an extent that an assault on a marathon would be feasible when the opportunity arises (which may be without much notice).

For the next few weeks at least, my priorities are to work on core strength, hamstrings and maintaining my base mileage at a level sufficient to run a half marathon without having to do any additional training. Which brings me back to this morning’s soreness. Clearly I can’t afford to take too many days off from training – anything more than a handful of days and it seems to undo perhaps weeks of training. Which then of course becomes a mental struggle as I have to weigh up the regaining of all that lost effort through weeks of yet more intensive effort with taking the easier and more comfortable route of curling up on the lounge and wolfing down a fatburger.

Well I don’t think there’s any doubt which way I’ll go. 2011 has been too good a year to let go to waste, and my shiny new Garmin 405 is just screaming at me, demanding more and more data be accumulated and then shared through its sordid couplings with my laptop (and directly uploaded to the internet, gasp, horror). If I am to become a number slut for the 405 to pimp* then I need it to work for me too. I’m still working out what some decent goals for 2012 might be, but I think it would have to include slipping in at least one marathon, somewhere, somehow. I need to get my team (wife, son, physiotherapist and doctor) together to brainstorm the matter.

Or I might just go for it.

See you all in the new year!

*If my metaphor (simile?) is more along the lines of Harold Robbins than William Shakespeare, it may serve to announce (again) that William_Shakespeare of the RC parish and I are not the same person. He is indeed an Aussie, and I do “bump” into him from time to time on another running forum down here in the southern wastes, but he is not MLCM. Last time I saw him online I got the distinct impression that he has had enough of running and the online running world. We may not see him again. Just thought I’d let you all know, seeing how a couple of people have asked. Ciao.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

[Number Slut Alert]

A gentle 10km today proved just the ticket to shake some residual soreness from the legs. An out-and-back course (again through Darling Harbour), I was very pleased with my pacing. After a warm-up first km my splits were pleasingly even:

6:11 5:44 5:41 5:39 5:37 = out in 28:52
5:42 5:41 5:41 5:38 5:31 = back in 28:13

Total: 57:07, average pace 5:42

Happy with that!

[/Number Slut Alert]

[Sweder]

I like that steady progression pacing mate. Nice going.

[El Gordo]

Good optimistic message. A few of us seem to have jumped on the same core strength improvement resolution, so let's compare notes as we go.

Good news about the new Garmin. I'm still on the 305 and am not sure I'll ever upgrade, given that smart phones have already encroached on that territory. If you want to drown in stats and analysis (and let's face it, who doesn't?) take a look at Sportstracks -- http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/SportTracks/

There's a free and paid version. It has everything you could ever need. Maps, trends, split analysis, heart rate, altitude, reports, weight, equipment, and tons of 3rd party plugins for extra features. I've used it for about 4 years. Every time I use it I find some other feature that I hadn't known about. You can import direct from the Garmin or from a spreadsheet if you want to enter historical data.

[Sweder]

I second the Sportstracks report. It offers weekly/ monthly mileage summaries, average pacing and heaps more I haven't touched on as yet. I use the free version with my 205 (no chuckling at the back please). It's all I need to remind me how paltry my mileage totals have been of late.