time off

This week was time for a holiday - me and the Kid in Albany (emu Beach) with friends. Plenty of time for long runs on the beach, following the paths through the national parks......

Then the fishing got in the way. So I didn't run at all, except after a football or chasing the kids. A wonderful time was had by all, with plenty of adventure (starting immediately with a non-waterproof tent), some great fish, beautiful and powerful beaches and landscapes and a great time relaxing in the campsite.

Natural Bridge - Fools included

Salmon Holes - the image doesn't do justice to the color of the water...

Flounder - my first for the trip.

In my preferred habitat

Is the Kayak still there?

The gap panorama

flat century

What better to do on a holiday Monday than to spin down the freeway. The plan was to make it all the way down to Mandurah, following the Kwinana freeway, but I left too late, so had to settle with Rockingham.
The path along the freeway is truly glorious - dead flat, super smooth, quiet (only passed a half-dozen other people in 3 hours) and, if there's no wind (like today) Fast!.
All the way to the Rockingham beach strip is about 112km, with the full run to Mandurah more like 170km.

The singlespeed sits very comfortably at 29km/h at a cadence I can keep up happily, so it was a great run. The only downside of this ride is that there is no climbing, so no descents = no rest. I got just under 4 hours of fairly intense spinning.

Meandering through the Kwinana Industrial area on the way out led me to this sight: I waited for some time for it to move like the giant robot in "The Incredibles", but no such luck.

Stolen from The Incredibles

Quick, call Frozone!

Though a ride like this could be seen as fairly dull, the monotony of the cadence and terrain gave me a good opportunity to fine-tune my gear - a few millimeters adjustment on my cleats relieved the pins and needles I've been troubled by in my feet, and incremental adjustment of my saddle is helping the sore spot I build up on my backside (seems my pelvis might be placed not-quite-straight). At the end, there's always a reward at the end :

City from Mt Henry Bridge - 20km to go.

I took this photo as I put on my jacket - the temperature plunged to a blistering 19 degrees C! - and the guys just below me on the sand pulled in a brace of very nice looking Bream as I paused.

Rides like this require a certain luxury of lifestyle that allow blocks of time to be devoted to "going for a ride". I compounded this luxury today by paddling on the Canning River with Chris. Right in the middle of the city, this is an amazingly quiet and beautiful piece of the world. Again, dolphins were splashing about as we went past - surely this is a healthy system!

Chris on the Canning River

Noticed I'm still in love with the panorama feature on the phone?

running with dolphins

A cool rainy afternoon made for perfect conditions for a long slow run.
I set out barefoot, but when a sudden downpour hit just as I reached the city, the slipperiness on the path made my feet extremely tender - on with the Fingens. Seems from this point, the tenderness didn't dissipate much and my form deteriorated with distance. Again the 10-15km limit on the VFF's seemed to kick in and the homeward journey from UWA was distinctly tedious. Total 27km - no time (but sloooow).

Happily, I had a friend - a dolphin moved along the river wall alongside for some time. Now this can't be something that happens everyday!

the borg and the burned toastie...

There hasn't been a great deal of running in this here running blog in recent times - the fear and loathing inspired by Sunday's run must be lingering.
A little barefooter (4km) with the Kid yesterday morning (I wasn't about to let her watch cartoons after she woke me up early!) helped get the legs back in running gear, but my feet were surprisingly tender, making a short run a somewhat painful affair. No rubbing, just tenderness, so not a result of poor form.

Motivation for running drops off when work picks up, then other bad habits creep in - this week, the salami sandwich at Milkd was The Borg (explanation here if you don't get the reference) - there was no way round it. Note the sneaky way the coffee always seems to accompany this fine specimen...

While getting comfortable spending money I don't have on food I can make at home (see below for clarification), I also ordered Barefoot Ken Bob's new book from Amazon "Barefoot Running Step by Step" - the forums are awash with praise and questions, so I had to see what the fuss is about. Most likely he says "just get out and have a go" - it's a cheap book, so maybe.......

This weekend is Easter, so there's a family picnic in place. As per (new) tradition, I dobbed myself in for a jelly - here is this occasion's offering - banana layers in mango jelly. If I can keep the Kid's fingers out of it till the picnic, it might be another success.

Oh, and the home made salami sandwich?  I burnt it.

And no, I'm not a Trekker.
Or a Trekkie.

back on the bike

The soreness from Sunday has started to abate, and my pee has returned from the color of weak coffee to normal. Neighbour wanted to ride, so off we went.
The first minute is always a chore, but then the early starts are just great. Instead of the long haul back from Freo, we decided to take a shorter, flat ride into the city, to UWA, out through Dalkeith until we got bored / tired. In the end, 15km came up right at the top of a hill in Dalketh, ad I don't think either of us were all that interested in climbing.

The roll home got me a bit excited, so I bumped up the cadence on the singlespeed to spin at 32km/hr (42/17 ratio) - this got a nice bit of burn happening, which eased all the lead out of Sunday's legs very nicely.

Concerned? Me? no.....

The Japanese furniture shop on Whatley Ave has just opened their cafe, so the seal was broken on their coffee - very nice (though no mugs!).

All is well, back to normal. Hopefully Dailymile will have some interesting challenges coming up in may for a big running month......

Lessons forgotten - a comedy of errors

Bibbulmun Day.

I planned it - I've been thinking about it all weekend. This was the big Sunday run - finally make it to the Weir.
So, I carried a map and a compass (been practicing navigating, too), penknife (to cut my arm off when it got wedged under a giant sleeping wallaby), I took water, I took a headlamp, I took cash. All set.
Did I remember to put bandaids on my nipples for a 30km run? Did I put a dab of vaseline in my shorts? Did I put sunscreen on my legs? Did I check that the headlamp had fresh batteries? Did I check if the camelback was moments away from bursting? Did I take food with some salts content? Did I toss out the shoes that hurt two weeks ago?

Unfortunately not.

It all started so well - overcast day, temperature in the high 20's, feeling good. The first hour passed pretty easily, with a few nice long downhill sections on smooth open trails that allowed a bit of yippee speed. The rollers kept on, with some pretty tough broken sections up to the 1:20 mark.
Then my bum felt wet. Really wet.
The extent of wetness went well beyond an unfortunate accident, so I took off the camelback and had a few moments of savoring the last of the water as it trickled happily out the bottom. Seems it had taken it's last run with a capability for holding water. Let the nightmare begin....

The campsite water tank was empty. The only house en route was fortified and had a dog. The Camel ride place was locked up and had no external taps. The thought of turning back crossed my mind, but unfortunately only momentarily. I turned the camelback upside down to keep the last little bit of water safe, and kept on - I had to see the weir....
And there it was - peeking through the trees - just how far away could that be? I had one rule for this run - TURN AROUND AT 1:30:00. I made it to the weir at 1:42:00. It was nice, but it had no water (except for that massive dammed river supplying Perth's water). There was an ice cream truck, though. Alas, ice cream trucks sell ice cream. That's about it. Turn around, head back.

Mundaring Weir

On the way back, the folly of my decisions started to show. My, those hills seemed large (note that Kalamunda is on the top of the escarpment and the Weir,  by definition, is at the lowest point of the river valley, meaning that the return journey could be said to be "predominantly up"). At about this time, my shoe choice began crushing my little toe underfoot and a charming blister was clearly well underway. With the stops I'd had to check messages from IW (riding a 400km event this weekend) and figure out where I was, my shirt was drying out and was rubbing. Without extra water to keep it wet, it kept rubbing....

Strangely it hadn't rained during this run, so the campsite tank was still empty. The little sign was somehow alluring, though...

"sleep here" or "die here"

Onward onward, with most of the rough sections or sharp uphills now at a walk. The last drip of water and the last of the running balls (yummy, but sweet - carbohydrates, but no electrolytes) went down the hole at 2:45, with plenty of trail left to go. About now it was starting to get a little dark - right on time if I turned around at 1:30.......

The last bits were, as one might expect, pretty hellish. The stumbles kicked in and every rock and branch on the track became magnetically attracted to my big toes (remember that one I busted up only a few days ago?...). Just about everything hurt, and my brain was not into making the best decisions. Missing some markers led to a few long wrong turns, one of them on perhaps the most charming hill of the day and adding miles I didn't need. I discovered that cursing at rocks doesn't stop them jumping out. I scared some wallabies, though - little bastards didn't get help like they said they would....

Finally, the pub rolled into view, and I hobbled into the drive thru. No juice, no sports drinks, only water. In my thirst, I downed a litre of lovely cold water and then the cramps began. Every little bit of remnant electrolyte in my system was instantly diluted, and everything locked up. Ow ow ow.

dirt socks

 I knew I had to get home and stretch out, but I had the shivers and pins and needles in my arms. The drive was a bit hairy, but I made it back to my big bottle of V8, some McDonalds fries, a shower and lots of ranting about how dumb that was.
Total for the 35-odd km (including false trails) was 3:43:37. Ouch.

Try it again in a couple of weeks....

baby brick

In triathlon world, a "brick" is a combined ride and run - to practice the transition and shift in muscle groups. As I prepared for a run this afternoon, my neighbour called to go for a ride - what was I to do?

We rolled through 30km on the river paths (perfect conditions - cool and still), then I whipped off the shoes and wandered around the 12km Causeway loop. During the run, I talked to IW on skype (gotta love technology) as she drove to the start of a 400km ride (yes, 400!), so I wasn't concentrating so much on form. I ended up rubbing my feet a bit, with a minor blister on the outer edge of the ball of each foot and finished the run in Fingens.

Spending the weekend in the office - got lots of catching up to do, and sitting in front of the 'puter gets me fired up for some major runs - hopefully the feet are feeling up to a Bibbulmun jaunt tomorrow.....

Doesn't everyone's office look like this?

faster......

Barefoot + Speed.

Tonight I gave it a push. 11km, cool night, very gentle start, winding up to a strong finish. Yahoo! 55 minutes exactly, which is by no means blistering (mind the pun), but the fastest I've gone barefoot by a long way.
I stretched out the usual barefoot shuffle and reached out with my toes a little more, finding that keeping the cadence way up to avoid bouncing allowed the stride to lengthen without scuffing, rotation or toe-off. When I got lazy and felt my heels make too-firm contact, I could concentrate on "pinging" my knees up on each stroke to quickly lift my feet clear and swing through to the next silent landing.

Apart from a stubbed toe, which didn't hurt at all at the time (but afterward - yikes!!) and looked a bunch nastier than it really was, I had no pain, no rubs and my legs felt a darn lot looser than last night. I still have some residual tightness in my calves, but that feels more like last night's leftovers than today.

I had to put it in - it's my first damage! Note the little bitty hanging off the end....

So it seems I am destined to alternate crap runs with exciting ones - lets hope this pattern synchronises when it's really needed. Today  like barefooting - all the evangelistic hype aside, it somehow feels bloody satisfying.

Onward!

Lazy Sundays?

Sundays tend to become a little melancholic when the Kid leaves and the house is plunged into silence after a morning of manic 8-year-old fun (this morning it was an epic sword fight with foam sabres - "it ranged all over.... both were masters..." type of thing).
I find myself with time to think about today's training, domestics not done and the week ahead.


My neighbour (a viola player with WASO), has been providing a muted accompaniment to the washing up and tidying for an hour or so, prior to joining me for a ride this afternoon. He has just lashed out on a road bike for the first time and has done it right and gotten all the gear he needs for a pleasant experience. I doubt he'll need to look closely at me this afternoon to note the lurid shade of envious green in my eyes....
We'll take an easy Narrows loop - there'll be a pig of a headwind, but for his second ride ever, it'll be a nice roll.


Later I'm planning on a long run - probably the same loop with some extras tacked on down to the Maylands Golf club to try making it up to 25km in the Fingens. As both my remaining pairs of running shoes now are painful, I will focus all attention on sorting out all my workouts bare or minimal. The price of shoes may yet be a great driver in this minimalist quest....


So, as a token nod to suitable long-run fuelling, I've stuffed in a big kangaroo sandwich, and I'm about to embark on a little chocolatey goodness from last night - one of those self-saucing puddings, split up into individual mug sized treats. Lots of water in the hole today, too - last week's lesson looms large in my memory.

I will also attempt to get some balls. For the run. Running Balls. This time I think I'll go back to the original chia pinole balls if I have time (maybe should stop writing and get making!) or a quick-fix peanut butter and oats creation from frayed laces. I'll take one of my prototype pods with me on my waistband, to see if it bounces too much, or is hard to open on the run. If it seems OK, I have the injection molds ready for machining in the office. [Later note: Worked fine - I'll post results here when it's time to recruit product testers...)

The gap between ride and run today will likely be taken up finding suitably long podcasts to last a long run. I've enjoyed some long discussions on anatomy and physiology as they relate to athletes and running, and I have a few podcasts from runblogger yet to finish. Unfortunately, it seems that "Why we Run" is not available as an audiobook, so I might have to go to paper on that one.


Today (US time), IW races an olympic distance triathlon - a relative sprint for her, given the recent monster efforts. Once again, her effort just to get to the startline and easygoing passage through these events is rather inspirational.

PS. The ride with my neighbour was good fun - Perth has again turned on a wind that smears your face - so I know which direction to run the loop....

PPS. The run. Again, what a difference a day makes! I made it through 20km in 1:36:50 and couldn't go the extra 5km because of painfully rubbing (though not blistered) feet. I slipped off the VFF's at about 17km, but could only manage about 500m before it just got too uncomfortable. I have terrible trouble cracking 15km in the VFFs, due to rubbing becoming excessive under the balls of the feet. The messier technique and this pre-existing rub make switching out to barefoot after this rather uncomfortable. I have heard on various forums that people have a "sweat problem" with VFF's - maybe this sort of distance limit I am reaching has something to do with that? Dr Google, I presume?.....

PPPS. So, my feet and calves are sore, but all up, a jolly good day in the sunshine. Good luck IW!

new sensations

After several discussions with IW regarding the explosion of minimalist and racing flat -style shoes in the US, I've been looking for a way to get more speed out of my barefoot work. I convinced the Kid to go for a run ride this evening, and it quickly became a bit of a blast. Keeping the midfoot contact going, I was able to bring the speed right up. The 8km came in at 4:20km, but there were plenty of stops and slow-downs in there which would have dropped the average quite a bit. Whether the fitness would've been in place to blast right through the session, I don't know - it'll be fun to try this again as a time trial in a week or so.

 A little sore in the lower legs afterward, but nothing that feels likely to last beyond a good night's sleep.
I would like to think that baseline fitness is now reaching a point where I can get some benefit from sharpening. I intend to begin adding more specialised speedwork sessions in the coming weeks - likely 1km reps to get the legspeed up and to also rebuild my sense of pace (I used to be able to pick, almost to the second, the pace of any run in progress).

Helmet, anyone?

We wandered through the city for a while today, after checking in at the Buddha's birthday festival. We discovered a dodgy little gamers' shop in a basement, with a stormtrooper's helmet I could barely resist. At $250, I wasn't even game to move it around to get a better photo......

Some small wins at work right now are providing a sense that the general pressure of life may soon start to ease with a little income. Not there yet, but boy, wouldn't it be nice to think that 6 years' work could begin to pay off.

jumble

Today was like a bucket of lego - plenty of good bits, in a bloody great mess.

Thus, today involved a process of sorting the yellow bricks from the blue and finding wheels and that pesky corner of roof that must be in there somewhere.
Finally, jobs start being done and items get ticked off the list.

There'll be no run today. I am tired. Simply tired. There's a little lingering dullness in my legs and a bit of tingle underfoot, but nothing that won't be immediately whisked away after a good night's sleep and a prance around tomorrow.

The day ended with what may turn out to be (testing to continue) a great win on the design / prototyping front (of course I can't tell you what is was!). In this game, long periods of grind are punctuated by intense moments of excitement and inspiration. Let's hope this one is sustained....

gentle reminders

breakfast of champions

Had a few days with either not much to say, or not much worth listening to, though in this time I've been reminded of a few things I knew, and shouldn't forget:

1. Sleeping in with the knowledge that the afternoon is full of meetings and the kid is not the best way to make sure a session gets done.
2. Long runs should not be done on a whim and without any real preparation or thought.
   Sunday started well with a nice long paddle from Garret Road out past Ascot, followed by a couple of hours fishing under the Garret Road bridge (well, I was already in the kayak!). A quick (note quick = small) lunch followed by a couple of hours in the office led me to a loose end...... a run!
   So on with an old pair of shoes, a glance at Google Earth for a course, and off into the dusk I go.
   It ended up a horrific 25km - the shoes were painful from the start and Google Earth, while showing great representations of landmarks, doesn't so well indicate the big expanses of darkness in patches of bushland, several of which I found and clambered around in for some time, before discovering the farthest identifiable road. No water, no food. Dumb run.
3. Little niggles turn into big niggles when barefoot. If it hurts, go gentle or go short.
   A cleansing barefoot jaunt was on the card tonight. Ignoring the fact that my right leg was virtually locked up after last night, I set off in a buoyant mood with the thought of the passing of another milestone - heading out for a barefoot run without backup shoes tucked into my shorts. The stiffness in my legs dissipated, but some rubbing crept in after 6km on my right foot. 5km from home, the rubbing ain't going away, regardless of form corrections and concentration - once a blister spot has formed, it is impossible not to favour it.
   1:02:12 got me home, with only a very minor blister on the outside of my right foot and stupidity intact.

on the river near Ascot