Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Tightarse

or should that be tight arse?
ok so its not just the hammy.
found out quite clearly after a few runs since last week that the left butt cheek is none too happy.
have similar feelings to the upset piri of 2 years ago: burning ache, tight feeling like sitting on a golf ball and some mild sciatic nerve type stuff.
according to the massage dude today its more glute med than piri but similar area.
had the most painful fucking massage in a while today.
he did offer me dry needling instead...

was a good boy and took it easy at warwick on the weekend.
nice to catch up with old friends.
did the killarney hill climb in 58.30 or so in a more comfy fashion than i remember before.
most of the punters getting off the bus looked much more sore/less fresh than me which made me feel a bit soft.
would love to put on the racing flats and give sub 48 a go on fresh legs one year.
would be a hard race to 'time' properly when giving it a real crack.

nothing planned until a possible 'training weekend' on the june long weekend.
will sit on the muscle mate and ramp things up again when settled.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Longevity

talking about running here not the fact that i look so young ;)

Glasshouse 80km 16.5.10 10.28 14th/24
it's taken me 8 years to run 1000kms at glasshouse (50km may 2002).
the 9th person to do it.
currently kerrie morris (hall) is top of the table with 2378km.
her and 'hermie' are the only two >2000kms.
amazing.

i would like to think it underlines the fact that although i have missed a lot of races through injury i have actually been around a while.
...and hope to be around a while longer.

not a lot to talk about regarding the race itself.
3am starts are just terrible: not much sleep before.
get home late in the arvo so hard to have a quick nap before bedtime.
didn't run my best race at all.

it's been a while since i have been passed in the 2nd half of an ultra and (although admittedly just after the halfway mark) on this occasion it was by 3 people.
had some left hammy pain/stiffness from about 4hrs and struggled a bit to be honest.
couldn't seem to place my left foot down properly then couldn't 'power-down' especially on ups.
initially i thought it was a piri problem (hence my comment to cp6 that i needed to sit down and stretch my 'arse muscle') but its quite clear now the medial hammy +- adductor is just as tight as hell.
probably the MGTT pb a week before had an effect as well as some pilates the friday before.
and yeah ok maybe i needed to actually do a run over 2hrs in training in the preceeding 2 months ;)

limped around work monday/tuesday the hammy just pulls up/stops the left foot from landing in its usual forward position but its settling down now and went for a 7km trot today.
so the plan of trotting merrily to a sub-10hr 80km then backing up for a fast (sub 50min) killarney 10km hill climb was never going to happen!
still plan on going to warwick but will just need to take it easy.
think i have jogged a 55min there before post ultra.
60 sounds good.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Anti-Italian


positano: amalfi coast

lunch on the trail - isle of capri

valley of watermills

view of 'marina grande' (capri) from up on the escarpment

one of these in every hotel room!

i am the anti-italian.
i don't drink coffee.
i don't drink alcohol.
i don't shout and carry on.
i see my family maybe twice a year.
although admittedly sometimes i don't mind a nap during the day :)
at morning breakfast they ask you if you want a coffee and when you say no thanks they look at you like you're a freeking alien.

italy is a funny place.
our guide tried to 'sell' naples to us.
couldn't get out of the place quickly enough.
sure we didn't see the crime that it's famous for (apparently unwarranted).
was even somewhat disappointed that my 'dummy' wallet didn't get nicked the day we walked through the 'bad streets'.
but there is rubbish and graffitti everywhere.
and random screaming all hours of the night.
i don't think anyone is being murdered i think they are just saying hello and having a conversation.
hard to tell with the italians if they are cross with one another or happy.
just a chaotic place.

went at a more quiet time of year than last time and made it much more relaxing.
last time we were in rome it was hot, overcrowded and it was the end of the trip: had just had enough.
enjoyed ourselves much more this time.

the traffic isn't quite beijing but it's close.
took me a while to figure out the italians have absolutely no consideration for one another but they are extremely tolerant.
sort of the opposite to here.
saw quite a few pedestrians crossing at the lights in front of several lanes of traffic whilst the cars were on green.
not a single toot or swearword.
not that that would ever happen here but if it did someone would get out of their car and beat you up with a wheellock.
tiny tiny streets out at amalfi coast: hardly enough room for 2 cars likely 2 buses trying to pass one another with people walking 3 abreast on the side of the road.
the islands were even worse: gazetted roads that were more footpath.
everyone owns these little 3 wheeled trolley carts there.

italian men wear funny clothes.
lots of brightly coloured synthetic puffy vests being worn.
lots of hair products used.
even sore a labourer wearing pink jeans and a white tshirt.
would get beaten up here.
or find themselves a manfriend.

all very entertaining.

back to earth now and have glasshouse 80km on this weekend.
then plan is to run killarney 10km hill run the sunday following.

broke the MGTT pb by quite a significant margin (8mins) on saturday.
for the record did a 1.58.55 with splits of 22!! (road) 41 (end highwood rd) 1.16 (gcr) 1.36 (top kokoda).
1st time i have really attacked the course.
not suprisingly was completely shagged at the end.
well was completely shagged at the bottom of kokoda to be honest.
MGTT (18.7km 630A&D) can hurt you.

Friday, May 07, 2010

De-cheese

i need to de-cheese.
just spent 3 weeks away in italy (with a KL stopover).
about night 8 TOH looked at me and said: so do you want to eat italian or italian?
i need to de-cheese.


view of positano: walk of the gods

stairs in atrani!!

looking down valley of watermills to amalfi

escaprment isle of capri - how the hell did i get up/down there? ;)

prickle-bush!

the centre-piece of the holiday was an 8 day walking tour of amalfi coast.
its sort of on the 'dorsum' of the foot for people with any anatomical knowledge of italy ('the boot').
exercise wise there were really only 3 true 'walking' days.
never really considered the exercise aspect pre-tour to be honest.
just made sure we had a waterproof top and some food/water each day.
the standard equipment for most in our group was water bottle, handbag and a $2 plastic poncho.
none of this was 'serious' walking.
having said this day 2 did involve going down 2000 steps and stuffed a lot of legs in the group - TOH had much more muscle soreness than the overland track mainly due i think to the hard terrain: steps/rocky paths and little true 'trail'.

day 1: met in naples
day 2: walk around naples/pompeii a longish day but not too much distance covered
day 3: 1st proper walk day from san lazzaro (agerola) down 1000 steps to furore.
1st half was basically past peoples back yards: past vines and lemontrees.
some liked the cultural aspect i felt like we were intruding :)
somewhat labyrynthine, in the last half some nicer dirt trail. notes said people could head back up and was somewhat suprised when the guide said no-one had ever done this in his 10 years there!
unfortunately it means missing lunch (they took a bus there then back to the hotel) which is probably why! ran back up in 50 mins (3.5 to walk down with the group) with some minor detours :) the guide asked TOH at one stage when i would get back. he texted me an hour ago was the reply.
he had no idea.

day 4: 'walk of the gods' from bomerano to positano via nocelle.
just a lovely walking day.
subalpine terrain somewhat unfortunately a foggy day but i think it added more atmosphere.
at a guess 6-7km of mostly easy trail.
we took 'the high road' which was more rocky and had less people on it. would've just loved to have come back and done an out and back at the crack of dawn all alone.
lunch was in nocelle and after the group got stuck into the wine and some 30%+ alcohol stuff and the singing started it was the bus down to positano (rather than the 600 steps).
though i guess both were potentially problematic!
i think from early on the guide picked the group as an eating/drinking/strolling/busing group rather than committed walkers ;)

day 5: isle of capri tour. nice easy day. lovely place we were to return there after the tour so got some maps :) lunch on 'the trail' looking out over amalfi, the ?bay of naples and the meditteranean.

day 6: rest day in amalfi - went exploring the route to ravelo in the morning so i could potentially run there the following day.
the 'trailhead' (more concrete path really) starts from the town adjacent to amalfi called atriani - was warned to just run along the road to get here then try and find the way up as the town was 'labyrynthine'.
my nav-prep consisted of me pointing to ravello from the ferry and the guide saying yep thats where it is. i had no idea which side of the valley to head up and didnt have a map. long story short i spent 30mins getting completely lost in a place i can only describe as the 'stairmaster of pergatory'.
you know that famous picture of the place with the steep steps going up and down an eventually meeting back at the same place? this was it.
found out later even the atrani locals get completely lost there.
long story short made it up to ravello in 55mins and headed back down.
got some maps later and strolled back to atrani for lunch with TOH and explored some more of the labyrynth!!

day 7: probably the nicest day of all. even nicer than pathway of the gods. the group had a quick look around atrani then bused it up to ravello. i ran it in 29mins. beat them up. once again the guide thought he might see me on the bus on the way up: nope had been there an hour.
had to laugh that i got to the 'right-side' of atrani in about 4mins, instead of 34 the previous day.
walk this day was pretty full-on until 5pm or so.
went via scala, minuta then to some pristine trail to the northwest of amalfi (valley fo the watermills) eventually descending past the old paper mill sites. just a lovely day. had i known of this area i would have loved to explore it earlier.

day 8: left amalfi

went to the isle of capri (anacapri) after the tour ended and was keen to do some exploring.
walked up mt solaro the 1st afternoon and went for a 2hr run up/down the escarpment the next morning.
to be honest got a little excited and was keen to do both the escarpment plus another 6-7kms at least.
got down the escarpment ok ('the passitiello'): was 50m visibility on a foggy day, decided to go exploring a more northerly route of coming back up which was supposed to be easier but was a rock/chain scramble :)
got up it fine (some scattered red dot markings) even though slow and faced a myriad of trails up the top. long story short they got smaller and smaller and i went briefly off trail thinking i could see a major trail nearby only to get a tad stuck in pricklebush (photo attached).
i was pretty stuck!
hmmmmmmm calm blue ocean calm blue ocean.
thought briefly about retracing my steps all the way back down/up the escarpment again!! although difficult and didn't fancy the chain back down but sure enough used the compass to find a major trail in another 5-10mins or so.
the next time i decided to head up the escarpment (from capri to anacapri) we took the 600 stairs and down we took a car :)

otherwise...some tready sessions in rome and KL.
did get out for 10km in the KL humidity (holy crap and i think brissie is bad!)
so even though i havent run for more than 2 hours since alpine i still feel pretty fit.
lots of time on feet even if standing/walking.

the group dynamics were funny (12 of us).
tour guide was a 60-something quite fit american-italian 'francesco' who was divorced and liked the ladies and the whole tour guide thing.
funnily enough we had a copious divorced ladies in the group. for the first 2 days there were only 2 blokes in the group! (1 couple arrived late).
one team member was a tad 'odd' at the initial meeting (well she was from adelaide).
the next day we noticed she could hardly get up an down the stairs in the hotel - to be honest she was morbidly obese and really struggled on day 1 - was suprised she even managed that.
needless to say she didn't do any of the proper walking days.
didn't make sense until frank mentioned that some people come on the tour with no intention of walking - its a cheapish tour and there are very few non-walking tours in the area.

more on the culture/food next post.
and more photos.