TTFN

Ta Ta For Now.

I'm off to sunny Queensland for a week on a liveaboard dive boat. Really looking forward to a break... although I hope I can remember how my gills work. It's been over 18 months since I last went diving.

Street-O tonight, although may not get a chance to post here afterwards, as I haven't started packing yet. Flight is 10am tomorrow morning.





EDIT 7/9: Street-O @ Blind Creek (Studfield); 7.34 kms. I wrote "good run" in my log book, so I guess it was a good run :-) but I can't remember that much about it now.

A Very Hungry Caterpiller

I'm really hungry! Starving, in fact. I had yesterday's rice thing for lunch, and I've also munched my way through a small lamington thing, an Uncle Toby's fruit strip thing, and 1/3 packet of jelly beans. Go sugar! I've also had a cup of green tea - isn't that supposed to be an appetite supressant? Because it's not working. I'm fantasising about fish and chips for dinner.

I've grabbed the last banana and a yoghurt. Picked my halo up off the floor and dusted it off.

7pm Post Script: fish and chips for dinner plus a handfull of mandarines.

Bargain upheld

Well, I held up my end of the bargain. But it was a near thing. It's soooo easy to just say "bugger it" and drive home; I really had to just turn the brain off until I was past the point of no return. Even then, on the freeway into town, I kept thinking, "I don't want to do this." But I did. And it was a very humid, sweaty class. There were 8 new people, and I think 7 of them walked out during the class. One guy next to me had serious leg cramps - both his entire legs were locked up. Nothing so drastic on my mat, but I did skip a few poses in the second set.

No Macca cravings on the way home either, thankfully! Just a protein shake around 11pm and crawled into bed sometime before midnight.

Bargaining with the Diet Gods

I'm back to my pre-binge weight of 74.6 kgs (but ideally, I should be < 70 kgs) and I really didn't feel like rice leftovers for lunch, so if I go to yoga tonight (no dinner, home ~10:30pm) then I can have Nandos for lunch today, yeah? And I'll have the rice thing tomorrow because I'll be home early enough to eat something.

Bush-O @ Crystal Mine

Bush orienteering out at Kooyoora. Granite rock country - considered technically difficult. Oh yeah...!

Course W35A - 16 controls (yikes!), came home in 2:37. Yes, two and a half bloody hours. 9.3 kms. Completely un-runnable - lots of green stuff on the map ("walk/fight, poor visibility"), and lots of big big rocks.

Last State Series event before the State Champs in 2 weeks time.

I just wish these things weren't so far away. This event was a 6-hour round trip. 520 kms. I spend more time and money (petrol) getting there than I do on the course itself. Even today!

Cake-O @ Surrey Dive

Warm (~20 degrees?) and sunny. Summer is on its way!! Nice enough run, but my right archilles tendon was sore for the first 15 minutes or so. Stretching didn't seem to help, but the pain went away after my legs had warmed up. Strange, as I never have archilles problems. I'm wondering if I'm STILL stiff from Monday's yoga...?

8.2 kms.

Oh, and I really MUST do something about my diet. My weight jumped up to 76 kgs (urgh!) after a big restaurant dinner on Tuesday night, followed by a big work pub-lunch on Wednesday. My preferred diet is vegan - apart from my love of takeaways (including all things chicken) - I just need to get ORGANISED enough to shop and cook so I can take lunch in to work instead of hitting the food court.

Street-O @ Glen Iris Central

Sooo tired. Two very late nights (midnight+) for the last few nights - I'm not used to this. Legs were a bit stiff behind the knees (energetic yoga class), and very sluggish run to start with. Didn't really feel like my legs ever warmed up. Came in early, deciding not to chase a nearby 2-pointer even though I probably would have made it back in time.

6.7 kms



look Ma - no green bits. Well, only a few. At the beginning when I was un-warmed-up - I was actually very stiff and cold.

Yoga survival

Spent yesterday feeling a bit arthritic and achy across both hips - and I'm pretty sure it was the dancing, not the running. :-)

Did a yoga class last night and, thankfully, it went a LOT better than last time. The ankle was a bit stiff in Tree pose (doesn't like being turned upside down), but everything else - including my head - behaved. Hips, knee, ankle, head, all okay today.

Although somewhere on my run on Sunday I acquired a wound just above my knee - attacked by an armed tree during my bush bash, I presume. This is now a lovely purple colour with black dots (where the pores are?), surrounding several bright red scrape marks. Bootiful.

Churchill Trails

Went to courtlylove's birthday party on Saturday - with absolutely no idea what to expect. Was pleasantly surprised to find a very engaging and diverse group of people. And a dance floor. :-)

Was introduced to a lovely young lady(?!) in a waitress's uniform called Fifi (aka Running High) who is into ultra running. He invited me to join their group runs (yeah, as long as you have an "ultra slow" group), and suggested that I check out Churchill National Park.

Which I did.

I chose a random route to the west, past the lookout, and headed up towards the top of the park. I'd been keeping to the gravel/paved paths, but was curious as to where the numerous unmarked trails went. So I followed one. It started off fine, quite clearly visible through the undergrowth... except that the undergrowth kept getting lower and lower until I landed in a small open grassy area with crushed grass trails heading off in several directions. But none made by a human. At one stage I saw a dog - it looked like a small black samoyed and I thought great, its owner is going to come through any minute and I can see where the trail goes. Well, the dog disappeared (and yes, I'm *sure* I wasn't hallucinating, even without my spectacles), and no sign of any owner.

Never being one to turn around and head back (yeah, and look what trouble that got me into last time!), I checked the map. I knew where I was - I could hear the traffic on the road, and I could see the transmission line. So I ploughed on through, and came out on the road pretty much where I expected to.

I headed east, past a Dog Boarding Kennels - see, I *wasn't* imagining anything - my black ghost was just an escapee - and did a loop across the top and back down.



8.2 kms

Pleasant area to run in, although I think it will get too hot and crowded in summer. The paths are quite open and exposed. Left knee (no, not that one, the other one) was a bit achy over the last km. Hopefully nothing serious - just the result of 2 trail runs in as many days. Or perhaps the dancing on Saturday night ("Let's do the Twist"... and not that crappy re-mix version either!).

Sucky Silvan

Bleh sort of a run through DRNP from Silvan Reservoir. First, I couldn't find my way out of the picnic area, and kept coming across high wire fences that obviously weren't meant to be climbed. Then I ended up on a dirt road that went on and on and had way too much traffic. Once I got off the road, I was on a farking steep forest track that just kept going up and up. Oh, and I found an orienteering control! If anyone is looking for 37B, it's at the intersection of Board Trk and Track 15. Onto another bit of dirt road, and a hidden entrance to Centre Trk. It's clearly marked in the Melways, but in real life the entrance has been bulldozed off with a huge pile of logs, bracken and other assorted crap. Once I'd climbed over all that though, it turned into the best track of the whole run - narrow, windy, and undulating, with nothing else around except the birds. Perfect.

6.6 kms

Street-O @ Forest Chase

Nice enough sort of a run, and nice to see a bit of colour still in the sky at 6pm. Spring is on its way! Yippee.

Did a long meandering route that wasn't particularly efficient (but I'm only doing it for the milage, right?!), including going for a 7-point "carrot" at the edge of the map, which then allowed me to pick up a 5-pointer on the way home. Just as well, as I was 2 minutes (6 points) late.

7.6 kms



I've just discovered another feature of MotionBased - the speed zones.



The red bits are where I should be (11.0 - 14.7 km/hr), the green bits are either a slow trot or a fast walk (I can't remember now), the grey bits are obviously walking (many immediately after a control), and the small yellow bit is a final spurt home.

I can see now that I'll have to work on the green bits. :-)

Bush-O @ Mount Tarrengower

It's been ages since I've been bush orienteering (2 months!). And I was in 2 minds about going today - 400km round trip, 4+ hours in the car, possibly crap weather. But I went anyway, and had an enjoyable run. I won't say "good" because I faffed a couple of controls, and I did a fair bit of walking uphill. But the ankle held out (in its ankle brace), and nothing broke, so it's all good! Very rocky terrain; sunny, but cold.

8.8 kms

Edit: this pic shows the Mount part of Tarrengower. I'm glad they didn't send us up the hill looking for controls - it was hilly enough as it was! You can see my route in red on the north-west side of the hill. The township to the east is Maldon.

Street-O @ Harvey Heights

Wombat, are you calling my Running Blog "boring" ?!!

Okay, okay, how about I report another run then: Street-O tonight at Boronia. 6.8 kms. Wore an ankle brace on just the right foot, and the ankle behaved itself. My lack of mileage was entirely due to my lack of fitness - but once I'd warmed up, I had a good run. No snow out this way! Just a very clear cold crisp night.

RSVP

Yeah... the internet dating service. Don't laugh. All my male friends are either married/partnered or completely unsuitable, so I thought I'd give this a whirl. And yes, I'm blogging it here.

Trail shoes & Ankle braces

Run through DRNP (avoiding the tracks that bit me last time). Wore Trail shoes and my ankle braces to avoid a repeat of my last outing here. The braces don't actually support/compress the ankle at all - they just stop me rolling over on it. Swelling around the ankle is almost gone, although the anklebone itself is still bruised to touch. Probably at 80% recovered.

Bit of a struggle during the run. Feeling fat, unfit and lethargic. I guess the hilly stuff doesn't help...

6.8 kms

Crap week

Well, it's been a week I'd rather not repeat. I'm struggling to find something good to say about it. And no, none of it has anything to do with running.

SUNDAY: ran out of heating. My house has bottled LPG, and when one bottle runs out, you flick the lever across to the second bottle. Which, on Sunday, was also empty. WTF? Checked my records, and yep - it was definitely replaced a month ago. So did they deliver an empty one? Replace the full one? I spent a cold night in front of the fan heater wondering how to explain this to the gas supplier.

MONDAY: the cheery telephonist at Kleenheat Gas assured me that they wouldn't charge me for the replacement cylinder. Great. Then a few hours later I got a call from the local supervisor who gave me the third degree. Arrgh. And rather than spend another night in front of the fan heater, I did a yoga class. Which I've already described. Eugh.

TUESDAY: an okay day. Went for a long walk at lunchtime (4.8 kms - took the Gizmo). Nice sunny day. And got home to two filled gas cylinders. Yay. And a warm cosy "fire".

WEDNESDAY: took the morning off to supervise the builder installing my new walk-in-wardrobe (shelves, drawers, mirror). I'd only agreed to do it on Wednesday on condition that he'd be finished by 2pm, as we have our weekly staff meetings then. Yep - no wurries, he says. Hah. Finally finished at 3:30 - but damn, it looks good.

Headed out to the car to go into work for a few hours, and wrrr... wrrr... wrrrr. Car no go. *sigh*. Introduced myself to a neighbour I hadn't met yet who has a very impressive workshop in his garage (retired/parttime mechanic). We checked fuses, battery, spark, fuel - all good. But still no go. Called the Toyota service centre and abandoned ideas of going anywhere (including my weekly Street-O).

THURSDAY: very dejected car got hauled away in the pouring rain on the back of a tow truck. *sob*. Absolute hell day at work struggling to juggle 1/2 dozen things that all demanded my full attention. Got the car back at lunchtime (burnt-out plugs - possibly caused by Safeway fuel), but didn't escape the office until after 7pm. Was planning on a yoga class, but forgot to put my gear in the car before it got towed.

FRIDAY: busy but manageable. Just. CR drinks tonight? (link) I'd actually forgotten, but it sounds a lot more fun than going for a swim.

Bikram FUBAR

God, what a horrible night. We were up to the standing-leg poses, when I felt really dizzy and had to lie down. For the next few moves, I could only do half the postures. Then onto the wide-leg ones, where my ankle wasn't cooperating so I made a pretty half-arsed attempt at those. Tree was a write-off (couldn't twist my ankle up). Corpse was good - sweat pouring off me. I can do corpse. But I just couldn't muster the energy to do the rest of the class, so alternated between just lying there, and making feeble attempts at some of the moves. Urgh. I've never had such a bad class.

At the end once we were all in "passed out" pose and the lights were out, I thought to myself "what a horrible, horrible class" and promptly started crying! Thank god for dim lighting, and a face already red and sweaty. Once I left the sauna and was sitting outside, the instructor came over and asked if I was okay. "No", I said, and promptly burst into tears again. WTF is wrong with me?!! Gawd...

It's not a hernia

Finally got Hernia to Radiology this morning, and nah - it's not an inguinal hernia. There is a "small amount of movement through the canal", but nothing to cause any concern.

I spent about 20 minutes doing breathe-push-relax as the radiologist explored my nether regions with the ultrasound. Quite interesting watching my innards on the screen. "Have you had children?" she'd asked. No. "Well, just pretend you're giving birth." hah! What does she tell the blokes, I wonder. Then she called in a colleague for a second opinion, and I got to do the breathe-push-relax thing all over again. Most fun. Most inconclusive. But another possibility ruled out.