Soccer (sorry, football) widow

Mr Jen_runs is on his way to Germany now for the World Cup. Wonder what mischief I can get up to while he is away.... ;-)

I actually have v. little to post about so I thought I'd fill this out with some more photos taken in Arica, Chile last year:


Tsunami warning sign - head for higher ground..


Start running!

Thursday 8 June – we have a winner…
Rest day

Spent a delightful hour with Easy Tiger today as he tried to iron out the blocks of concrete that are my calves & shins.

The good news for the day was that I had to go to a work function tonight (well, that wasn’t the good news). The good news was the fact that I won the business card draw – 2 tickets in very nice seats to the Aus-Seth Afrikan rugby test in August. Cool.

Friday 9 June – mission aborted….
Run (kinda)

I was feeling rather crap when I got to bed on Thursday night – and no, it wasn’t alcohol related. I felt like I was coming down with a cold so I decided to run at lunch on Friday so I could get some extra sleep.

Distance: 2.07kms
Duration: 14:11min
Aver pace: 6:50min/km
MTD: 27.14kms

No, your eyes are not mistaken. It is not a typo. To say that I “ran” 2kms is even somewhat of an overstatement. It was actually a walk-run-stop-stretch-massage-run-stop-stretch-massage-walk-run (you get the idea).

I was actually really looking forward to this run around the Botanical Gardens & Opera House during my lunchbreak – even Sydney’s currently crappy weather decided to co-operate. Unfortunately my shins & calves wouldn’t join in the party & clearly have not forgiven me for running the Great Nosh off absolutely no hill work over the last, oh, 9 months (and no Cirque, one lil hill outside Warwick does not hill work make). Both of my tibialis-anterior (thanks ET) burned the whole bloody way. They were a bit tight & tender during the first 10min of my run on Wednesday but eventually settled down. Not today. So I bailed at the 2km and turned around & walked back to the office. What a fun way to spend your lunch break. Not.

So it’s about bloody time I took to the hills again. I’ve got plenty near home. When I can run again that is.

Saturday 10 June – nada
Rest day

Have been stretching the crap out of my calves today. My tibialis-anterior have got to know rather intimately both my tennis ball & golf ball. Fingers crossed they are a lot happier for tomorrow’s long run which I will take very easily. Only 2 weeks to W2G!

Sunday 11 June – should have stayed in bed on a v. cold winters day...
Run (if you can call it that)

I had arranged to meet Ellie in Centennial Park at the civilised time of 8am for a long run. The plan was to listen to my body. At a minimum I wanted to do 5km. At a maximum & assuming the planets aligned, 14kms. Wishful thinking.

Distance: 1.88kms
Duration: 13:07min
Aver pace: 6:58min/km
MTD: 29.02kms

I lasted 1.88kms before pulling the pin. My tibialis-anterior & all ligaments/tendons at the top of my feet are not happy. Cool. 2 weeks from a 25km race & I can’t even run 2km. Unfortunately I’m not due to see Saint Andrew until Thursday night & Saint Tiger until Friday. Bugger. Might have to take a lead from MPH & trash my legs on the bike tomorrow.

Edit: thinking about it further, not only have I not done any hill work, I haven't done my calf exercises for a while. 2 of those exercises focused on the tib-anterior. Another thing to add to the list once they settle down...

Total for the week – 9.01kms. Great. If nothing else, I’ll be well rested for W2G…