Tai Chi

My place of employment has generously arranged for Tai Chi classes every Thursday at lunchtime and personal training after work on Tuesday for those that wish to attend.

Today I did my second Tai Chi class and I really enjoyed it. This week I could feel myself pushing my 'qi' down :) Because I knew what to expect, I could focus more on my breathing and relaxing rather than stressing about what we had to do next and how long we had to hold poses. I came out of the class feeling fresh and relaxed but not in a 'I'm-sleepy-and-ready-for-a-rest' kinda way.

My achilles feels antagonised, though. I've been a bit lax with my stretching and strengthening over the long weekend because I spent all day and night working on the house renovations. Back to it tomorrow, though. Only four or five weeks to go until I an contemplate running again.

Contemplating

I've been contemplating... running goals for 2010. Could it be the year of the Marathon?

I'm tentatively thinking about doing Run for the Kids in March, the Great Ocean Road half marathon again in May and following it up with the Gold Coast Marathon in July.

But I'm scared of writing it down. Because I've been disappointed so many times before when my body's let me down and I haven't been able to meet my goals.

Still, it's better to have a 'tentative' goal than none at all, right?

12 Weeks. Argh!!!

I saw my lovely Osteopath, Sue, yesterday. I called her during the week and asked her to step me through an achilles strengthening and stretching program and she said she'd look into it for me and squeezed me in Saturday morning. I've been taking too much time off work lately for various injury related appointments so a Saturday morning appointment was a luxury.

She showed me two simple exercises I have to do, up to 3 times per day, daily, for 12 weeks. All the research she came across pointed to patients having the greatest success (ie return to their sport of choice with no further consequence) if they keep up the exercises and don't run for 12 weeks. Did I mention it will be 12 more weeks before I can start running again? 12 weeks, argh!!! That will be a good Christmas present.

The only consolation was that she didn't charge me, insisting that she had learnt something and that was far more valuable to her than a few dollars from me. What a gem.

So, 12 weeks eh? That will bring me up to Christmas. Why oh why didn't I do all this weeks, no, months ago???

Time to think about some tentative goals... 23km Great Ocean Road Half Marathon in May, 30km You Yangs Ultra Marathon (not that I'm trying to claim 30km is an ultra, the event has a 50 mile and a 50km category and I'll be doing the shorter option) and the Melbourne Marathon in October. Will 2010 be the year of the marathon?

This morning I walked 7km with Bec and Claire and Claire's dog Roger and my sweet mutt PB along The Strand from Newport to Williamstown and back. My right ankle really began to hurt at about the 5km mark and was about 4/10 by the time we got to the car but it has dropped back to a 1/10 over the course of the day. I just took both dogs out for a walk, and it's feeling OK. Good to know where my limits are at the moment.

I forgot to switch my Garmin off after the walk so apparently I did 40km+ today in 9 hours. Ooops!

Still on that long s l o w road to recovery

The cortisone injection has done its job well on my right achilles and I am no longer walking sideways like a deranged crab in the morning. Progress. Yay!

I did a 6.5km walk at the You Yangs on Sunday and didn't get so much as a peep out of either achilles. Progress. Yay!

But on Monday I was walking around the office and feeling an unfamiliar sensation - muscle pain. What's this? Sore muscles from a wee little walk in the bush? Oh dear, serious loss of fitness and conditioning. Makes it so much harder to get started when you know how far back you've slid! But I must focus on the forward bits 'cos I will be fit and fab by the end of the year. Yay!

I went and saw the sports doc last week and he's happy with the results. Now I have to get an eccentric stretching program, and not the unusual kind. So I called my Osteopath and she is going to show me what to do on Saturday. If I'm still in some pain when I get back from Korea, he'll consider a plasma injection in the left one. But it really is feeling so much these days. Maybe it's the rest, maybe it's the terror of witnessing the right one get it good from a needle that's had a placebo effect!

I'm still very tight and sore in my soleus and calf and if I dare probe a little further, all the way up my ITB and into my lower back. Hopefully the Osteo will sort me out. As a result, I haven't started running yet but am sensibly consoling myself with chocolate.

I am going to Korea in 9 days time, so I figure I won't start running until I get back. I promise I will do my eccentric exercises twice a day as recommended every day while I'm away.

I've been in hospital twice already this week!

I realised today when I was at the hospital getting an ultrasound on my achillies that I've been living with this injury for almost 14 months! If only I'd gone to see a sports doctor about it sooner. I've spent a small fortune ($2500+) on acupuncture and osteo visits since I first injured them last July. What a loser.

Today's trip to the hosptial resulted in a cortisone injection into my right achillies, the one that is most painful. It didn't hurt much. The local anaesthetic stung a bit but cortisone injection felt really weird, really intense pressure was building in the achillies and ankle area like it was trapped in a vice. Not pleasant but I'm not dreading getting the left achillies done. The anaesthetic has worn off now but it's not hurting at all. I hope that's a good sign!

And after my medicare rebate, I'll only be out of pocket $27. I am kicking myself for being so stubborn and stupid about managing my achillies injuries. Sigh.

If this treatment works, they will do the other achillies in about two weeks time.

This is the second time this week I've been to hospital.

On Monday morning, an annual leave day, my back completely seized up on me and I had to call my parents to come and take me to hospital. My mum wanted to ring an ambulance and had dialled 000 but the thought of being carried out of the house in an ambulance was a bit too embarrassing so I struggled out of bed and soon found that standing felt better than sitting or lying anyway.

The doctors were worried that it may not have been muscular/skeletal so sent me off for an x-ray, just to be sure it wasn't a clot or something sinister like that. Fortunately it wasn't and the hospital physio was able to localise the pain and his treatment really eased the pain.

I was so impressed by the treatment I received from the time I arrived until the time I left. They were fantastic. And it cost me the grand sum of zero dollars. And I was very lucky that it wasn't a busy morning. There was no one in the waiting room other than me.

My back is feeling much better today although it started to get sore late morning at work. Just as well I only worked half a day and went to the hospital this afternoon. It feels like I've got a sore muscle and a limited range of movement when twisting. and it's not debilitating

I am really hoping the rest of the week is much less dramatic.

I almost can't remember what it's like to run pain free. Here's hoping I find out again in the near future.

Olinda Valley Hike

I organised a group hike for Saturday August 8 to walk through the beautiful Olinda Valley and at one stage there was going to be about baker's dozen heading for the hills. But this was not to be and there was just five of us on the day: Rosh, Bec, Vee, TJ and I.

The walk is called 'Olinda Valley', walk 24, from the book 'Day Walks Around Melbourne' by Chapman & Siseman.

In January of this year, Bec, Vee and I had arranged to do this as our first group training hike for Trailwalker but it was a very foggy and cold morning and poor Bec couldn't find the start point at Woolrich Lookout because there a car accident forced her to detour into unchartered territory and she couldn't find her way back. So we met in Olinda and ate scones and drank hot chocolate instead. Yum yum.

This time, I arranged for TJ and I to pick up Bec on the way, even if it added about 20 minutes to our trip. The drive out to Olinda was bloody awful. There was so much road work going on, we crawled out there and it took us close to 2 hours! Needless to say, we were very late and Rosh, who despises tardiness, was worried she'd be late for a lunchtime-ish appointment so we opted to shorten the walk from 12km to 8km. The hike I chose had options for a 5km, 8km, 12km or 16km hike.

The sky was blue but the air was crispy cold but we soon warmed up. The course was undulating and I recongised some it from the 2006 Trailwalker course, although at that time we were walking in the opposite direction. Beautiful scenery and views through the RJ Hamer Arboretum where over 150 species of native and non-native trees have been planted in rows. Must head out there in Autumn as I think it must look quite spectacular when the leaves turn.

We came across a toilet block at a picnic ground that I remember from a time I hiked that area with Deb during a TW2006 training hike. In the toilet was some 'interesting' graffiti written on the wall: "Meet me back here at 5pm and I will be completely naked." It was 5pm! We heard a car approach, a door slam. Could it be? Deb and I cracked up laughing when we saw the Parks Victoria Ranger approaching us. He was fully clothed and just wanted to make sure we were OK because it was getting late and we still had about 10km to go to finish our hike!

The section of unmarked track leading back to the carpark at Woolrich Lookout wasn't all that steep, but it felt like it went on and on and on. I think we were all feeling a bit unfit. My achillies held up OK although my calves and soleus were cramping up a bit. A quick stop and stretch was enough to keep me going.

TJ enjoyed himself so much he wanted to visit the You Yangs and take PB with us for a walk (she was such a good girl, too). I left my Garmin at home so I don't have the stats on distance, time and elevation.

You Yangs Ultra 50|50

A huge congratulations to Race Director Brett Saxon who organised such a fantastic event, the first of many, I hope. The inaugural You Yangs Ultra offered 50 mile (80km), 50km, 30km and 15km options over undulating terrain at the fantastic rocky outcrop known as the You Yangs Regional Park, near Little River.

Too injured and unfit myself to participate, I decided to volunteer instead. This event was held on July 26 2009 so this is a bit of a delayed race report!

My checkpoint was at 'The Saddle' and I set myself up with a drinks and snacks station. I can't believe I was left in charge of the chocolate... haha.

I had a wonderful day watching all the runners in varying states come and go. How often do you get to sit in the bush for 10 hours with just yourself for company most of the time?

I had a lovely moment when some roos stopped by and sussed me out before bounding off and the kookaburras were giggling loudly early in the morning. OK, so I relented at about 3pm an brought out my Nintendo and played sodoku for a while.

A lot of walkers stopped by my checkpoint for a chat and couldn't fathom how someone could run 80km in a day. They took some convincing!

All the race participants were friendly and it was good to see some familiar faces out there. I heard a LOT about the brutal hills on the course. I've attempted a few on foot and on my mountain bike so I could certainly relate, albeit from the back of my station wagon.

My job, apart from NOT eating all the chocolate, was to take photos of the runners as they came through, note split times and hand out water and snacks.

I'm afraid I didn't do a great job recording splits. I am terrible when it comes to numbers and sometimes there was a great flurry of activity and getting drinks, taking photos, giving directions (apologies to John, the 80km winner for not knowing where he had to go at one stage...), taking bib numbers and recording times was all a bit much my little brain As soon as I'd note a bib number, then the time, I'd forget what the bib number was!

The day was exhausting and it felt as though I had run at least 30km. But I really enjoyed volunteering. Of course I'd prefer to be running - hopefully next year.