Audacious April.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Oh yes viewers, this is no joke. I kicked the month off in unusual style for MLC Man by getting up early and having a long, easy pre-breakfast run. This is rare for me, but my whining, complaining body coped really well, and together we completed 13 comfortable kilometres, which rounded out a 28km week very nicely.

Next week the target is 30km, and the following week is a step-back week, after which I'll reassess knees and shins and things, and take a serious look at my running goals for the year. It'll still be a long slow haul, but I'm seven weeks into my new schedule now and I'm making good progress and doing so virtually pain-free, so the old injuries are being nicely held in check.

Yes, April is definitely going to be a good month.

Track du jour for this morning's run was actually a tie between:

Supermode's Tell Me Why, for asking the perennial question at a pertinent time (this is a great running song at any time, but particularly good when you're in a bad patch), and;

Van Halen's Panama, for bringing me home fast and in fine style.

A beaut start to the month.

[Sweder]

Bring it on!
This is by far the most heartening diary on cyberspace for my money.
Having sipped from the bitter cauldron that is injury this month my eyes were opened to a world of pain that you known only too well.

David Lee Roth has an uncanny knack of putting a smile on my face when I least expect it. The bloke's at once pompous and rocktastic; just listen to Hot For Teacher - you can't help but start toe-tappin'.

Have a Matty Hayden* of a month.





[SIZE="1"]*Belter[/SIZE]

[Seafront Plodder]

Have a Matty Hayden of a month.

Err yes. I think Sweder means make sure you participate in the dullest pastime ( I daren't even say 'sport') ever devised. The hours for which have had to be reduced by 4/5ths to ensure it's appeal to a wider audience that one whippet-leading tab-smerking pigeon-shagging mild and bitter drinking hovis munching flat cap wearing old sod with nothing better to do.

Nice work on the training front though. Keep it up.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Matty Hayden's a golfer then?

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Matty Hayden's a golfer then?

Well said BB.

A brilliant run tonight - just a 5km, but a little bit faster, with a much lower heart rate and barely a sweat raised. My best 5km for a very long time, and another step up in fitness I think. This training really is beginning to pay off.

I paid a visit to the aptly named Dr. Pain, my podiatrist, who spent a lot of time prodding and poking and making me run forever on a treadmill while he stood behind me pretending to watch my gait, but I think in reality doing a rather tricky crossword. He then said lots of apparently intelligent things about bones and muscles with long unpronounceable names, tut-tutted my choice of shoe (he promised to write me a list of cheaper shoes that will do exactly the same job), warned me to not run downhill or too fast (no problem there ) and then asked me when I was going to run a marathon! This guy is a 2:45 marathoner, and I wasn't entirely certain that he appreciated the vast gulf between his level of ability and mine, but he just waved that away and told me to stop mucking around. And as for step-back weeks, well this was quite a foreign concept to him, which he roundly condemned with a stony silence and a contemptuous look when I dared to suggest these were a good idea.

I should also point out this guy is considerably younger than myself, and so I will temper his optimism about my abilities with some middle-aged wisdom about my body wrought through long months of injury and suffering.

Still, it was heartening to have a vote of confidence - and his orthotics are certainly doing a great job. Now if he can just find me some cheaper shoes I may be able to pay for the next pair of mega-expensive compound insoles. It astonishes me how expensive two hunks of plastic can be.

Anyway, after tonight's brill run I'm feeling more than a little vaguely optimistic myself. In fact I might just have a quiet little drink to celebrate...

[Sweder]

This is all heartening stuff mate.
Sounds like Doc Pain is a good find . . . too many physicians have a dislike of marathons. Nice to find a kindred spirit. Can't say I condone his views on step-back weeks though. Even psychos like Sam Lambourne see the virtue in resting the body every now and then. Running causes all manner of injuries, most of them miscroscopic tears in the muscle fibres that simply cannot heal without rest. The older you get the more these compound, hence an increase in more serious, detectable injuries.

It's alright for these young bucks. They still see themselves as immortal.
We old scroats know better

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

My third run in four days was always going to be a bit ragged, but it's another 8km in the running log, and really it was pretty well done in the end. So Audacious April has got off to a flyer with 26km already bagged. Woo hoo!

Track du jour was again Van Halen's Panama which coincidentally once more came on right at the end of my run (the track finished while I was just 20 metres short of the finish line) and inspired me onto a healthy sprint finish. Good stuff.

My stretching regime felt a little easier tonight, so I'm hoping it's doing me some good as well.

No hot cross buns or easter eggs for this runner this year. My diet is going too well. Will consume a considerable amount of marine life though, and with it undoubtedly will be an undisclosed quantity of stunning sauvignon blanc and chardonnay and probably the odd bottle of red as well.

Happy, I am.

[Ana]

Happy, I am.

That is clear that you have a lot of optimismus all the last time, and that is great.
I am also happy that you eat more fish and no more, meat specially kangaroos. I was looking them at the tv, and the were embracing together, they are so nice...
Good job, and left the chocolate eggs for the kids

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

It's hard to explain adequately how fantastic it feels to be racking up loads of mid-week runs now. Three mid-week runs of 5 - 8 kms and a weekend long run now feels quite comfortable and "normal" and today's run was another good 'un. In fact it was my fastest 5km in over a year, and done quite easily too. So things are definitely on the improve. Having a very distant race goal (November) is good, because it means I'm not pressuring myself to improve too fast too soon. The result has been a constant, steady improvement with no injury concerns. Excellent!

Ana will also be pleased to know that I'm only very rarely eating red meat now and instead eating seafood practically every day. Antonio will likewise be impressed to hear I've probably tripled my fruit intake in recent months. And enjoying it too. My fridge hasn't seen a block of cheese at all this year (instead it has blocks of tofu - serious!) and even with Eater - oops, Freudian slip there - even with Easter upon us, this bod hasn't even considered the usual diet-wreckers such as hot cross buns or Easter eggs. However, I'm not being saintly, these things are quite happily given up because the benefits far outweigh the sacrifice. I haven't, for example, given up the beer - far from it, although I do have more alcohol-free days per week than previously.

Anyhow, family Easter activities are about to commence big time, so I may not get back here for a few days, as the weekend is choc-a-bloc and Mrs MLCM and I will be away for a couple of days straight after. But I will still be running - I've actually scheduled family events around my runs (ssssh, don't tell them that) ... I shall report back later. I've rigged my mobile phone so I can read all the forum postings on it, rather than have to find a computer, as I don't want to miss Sweder's race report, but I won't be able to post for a few days.

Have a great Easter everyone - see you on the other side.

[Antonio247]

I´m glad you´re following a healthy diet, MLCM, and improving your running.

I´m also eating a lot of fruit, especially oranges and strawberries. I like orange juice with strawberries, some sugar and cinnamon. It is better when it has been in the fridge for a few hours.

If you go on like this you will be the first RC member to finish Almería half next year if you can come.

Have a happy Easter, enjoy your trip and go on like this!

Regards

Antonio

[El Gordo]

Great work MLCM. It's really great for all of us to have some genuine enthusiasm to read. It's good when anyone feels that way, but particularly so in your case, given your setbacks and gloomy prognoses. I can just see it now: MLCM defies medical advice to take marathon gold medal in Beijing.

I never thought I'd be saying this to you, but it sounds like the main thing you need to be wary of now is overtraining. But I'm pretty sure you have all that under control.

It's a great story, and I'm sure it will have a great ending. Well done.

[William_Shakespeare]

You sacrifice your beers, your sighs, your heart:
Run till your soul be dry, and with your tears
Moist it again, and frame such feeling line
That may discover such integrity.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Three runs to report from the last few days:

Sunday: 12 kms, comfortably done. Track du jour was an old favourite: Emerson Lake and Palmer's rendition of Fanfare for the Common Man (album version). I've always loved this work, but ever since the local TV network used it as their theme music for the 2000 Olympic Games coverage, it has been firmly fixed in my mind as a fantastic bit of motivation for any sport, but especially running. Oddly though, this was the first time it has popped up on my random play mp3 thingy. "Brilliant" is all I can say about it - and definitely a desert island disc (so long as the desert island is big enough to run around).

Tuesday: 5kms & Wednesday: 5kms. These two were run on the hotel gym's treadmills (Mrs MLCM and I having a couple of days R&R), but sans music. Never-the-less, two very good runs, both 12-month PBs on account of the highly motivating news of Sweder's success in South Africa. Great stuff! It was also nice to use pro-quality treadmills that automatically latched onto my HRM and displayed heart rate, calories etc on the big screen rather than having to peer at my watch. A few de rigeur stretches and a sauna immediately after each run made these two mid-week shorties memorable.

Tomorrow I'm off to Melbourne for the day - this was to be the trip that coincided with Luc's (ljs) visit recently, but unfortunately my trip was delayed, so the Grolsch-fest never happened. Tomorrow will therefore be a quick beer-less and run-less day trip.

My claim of an easter-egg and hot cross bun-free Easter didn't quite stand up to three days of family-oriented activities, but the runs have helped maintain a semblence of conditioning, and after a couple of beers tonight in honour of our TOM champ, tomorrow is back to a properly healthy eating protocol.

Stay tuned for more news as it comes to foot...

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

A strange run this evening. Felt like crap, ran like crap but felt bloody fantastic afterwards. But am now typing this with my leg raised, knee strapped in ice and a small bucket of ibuprofen being helped down by several glasses of a fine pinot.

Yes an odd one - my slowest ever 10km, and one only completed because not to finish it would seem so utterly pathetic after the efforts of Sweder et al in South Africa. And indeed, the effort was rewarded with a nice endorphin hit, which has been rare of late, but very welcome. Had I pulled out of the run, as I dearly wanted to, it would have made the upcoming week's schedule very difficult to find motivation for, but as it is, I can hardly wait to get stuck into it. This despite a crook left knee and a blistered right heel, both of which will be pushed under the nose of my podiatrist tomorrow morning with a "please explain". I've decided to join the ranks of denial and refuse to accept responsibility for my running injuries at this point, given the $$$ and due diligence and Bambi-eyed faith I have put into the medical profession thus far.

Well I don't want to overstate the case. My knee is a tad sore, but nothing significant really.

So anyway, today's 10km ended 8 weeks and 200 km of phase one training. And pretty pleased with it I am additonally too as well also.

For now I'm off to re-read Sweder's mighty exploits in Seth Effrika and find some more of the rather splendid pinot.

Salud!


While in denial mode, I'll also blame Mrs MLCM for wrecking my diet over Easter by giving me a big bag of utterly delicious, delectable, wonderful, superb, exquisite Turkish delight easter eggs. It's not my fault! Honestly!

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

[Antonio247]

I hope you get better soon so that you can go on with your training, MLCM.

Best of luck!


Antonio

[Ana]

While in denial mode, I'll also blame Mrs MLCM for wrecking my diet over Easter by giving me a big bag of utterly delicious, delectable, wonderful, superb, exquisite Turkish delight easter eggs. It's not my fault! Honestly!

In that case, do not forget to bring her* (*and some post-race cakes) to Almeria on next year.

Do not worry too much about your knee. I believe that you must go to the swimming-pool and try to walk in water... (but try to go very early in the morning, so that there are not too much people and you will not feel ridiculous )

[El Gordo]

Do not worry too much about your knee. I believe that you must go to the swimming-pool and try to walk in water...

Actually, that's pretty good advice from Doctor Ana. I've never had to do it, but you often hear it recommended as a non-impact means of retaining fitness.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Thanks guys. If the knee gets worse, I may yet resort to embarrassing myself in a crowded swimming pool. Actually, I don't think it's that embarrassing, you see all kinds of people in pools doing aquarobics these days, from elite footballers to the oldies, so no drama there.

I queried my podiatrist yesterday about it, and he suggested taping the knee again, which I didn't think I needed to do anymore, but I guess it makes sense. I will try it tonight for my first midweek 5km.

The main thing is just to deal with it objectively and not dwell on it. The more I rabbit on about it, the bigger the question mark grows in my mind, and ... oh.

I'll shut up now.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

In that case, do not forget to bring her* (*and some post-race cakes) to Almeria on next year.

Funnily enough, yesterday I saw one of those "English couple buy Spanish villa in Almeria and get hopelessly out of their depth trying to build a guest house" TV programmes, and the region looks fantastic! So I doubt I'd have too much trouble persuading Mrs MLCM to come with me.

The trouble is raising the money. I might have to sell one of my kids into slavery.