Mood is not easy to describe

Briefly, last week got 3 great workouts in the gym, felt supermotivated and seriously had to fight the urge to go for a run as all was good. Was nice to feel this good all last week as I had been off the booze since New Years. Then Sunday happened. Decided to go to Fitz on Sunday to watch the Spurs game, which proceeded to absolutely wreck my mood, result in my near removal from the bar because my swearing at the TV was putting people off their Sunday dinner (the nerve of some people), and having about 12 pints.

Fast forward to Monday, way too hungover to travel back to Dublin that morning, instead found the ultimate cure for a hangover: Laughter. Watched Step Brothers and that shit is absolutely hilarious. Cue lots of G-chat quotathons with Coste, a.k.a. Dragon. As a result of losing a day due to beer, only got to the gym twice this week, but am thinking of doing a hike on Saturday. Motivation levels are nowhere near as good as last week, which is firmly attributed to Spurs sucking the life force out of me as I have never had such a miserable time as a fan. Its friggin awful!!

oidaweemansstillalive

It's been just over a week without running and I'm waaay past the godIhateinjuriessomuchIjustwanttokillmyself phase. Phew, glad thats over with. Actually not at all bummed about the injury given the quality efforts I've been getting out of myself cross-training. Granted, I'm only planning on hitting the gym about thrice weekly (that's 3 right?) but when I'm there I've been doing about an hour of cardio on either the bike or elliptical plus weights and core. I'm a goddam beast. But seriously, been able to push the HR up into the 190s, which lets face it, when you're running 7+++ minute miles doesn't really happen; plus I am sweating like an addict trying to quit crack, so will probably drop a few lbs along the way. Happy days. The one downside is when I get off the bike it looks like I've pissed myself, which only happened that one time. Not really. 

Not much else is happening in the world of the weeman at this point in time...I'm back rocking the beard temporarily, maybe till I start running again. Not looking quite like the terrorist I am in my passport as I'm not a skinhead anymore. Also missing 2 quite large patches of hair from my right leg which had to be shaved in the name of science, so needless to say, I got quite a few odd looks at the gym. Good God, I'm talking about my beard and leg hair, time to wrap this up.

Bye now.

Last run of '09??

3.9 miles, 27:09

Avg HR = 161, peak = 169

Rec after 1 min = 42

Summarising the run as follows: 10 minutes of pain-free enjoyable running, 10 minutes of running in increasing discomfort, 7 minutes of running in pain. 

It's hard to put into words how disheartening runs like this are, and avoided posting this yesterday as I didn't feel that posting suicidal thoughts would contribute anything productive. The problems are not only stemming from my left quad but also my upper left shin. It's particularly frustrating because the last 3 times I have attempted to make a running comeback I have gotten about 10-12 weeks in, up to about 40 miles a week, and the same problem in the left quad keeps arising to shut me down. What the cause is I have no idea, although the last official diagnosed stress fracture I had back in '04 was there. The left shin which is presently troublesome is also the site of a prior stress fracture. Musing over any and all possible reasons for this I remembered this blog post that Tarpy sent me a few months back describing how Fosomax works (as well as this and similar articles), and have sort of concluded that my bones just haven't healed properly from any of the stress fractures I suffered while taking Fosomax. I'm not really sure how to deal with this if it proved to be correct as Fosomax has a ten-year half life, meaning that I am still about 5-10 years short of clearing it from my system. Given that I can't afford to go and get any tests/scans done to confirm/deny this theory, I'm back at the usual spot of rest/recovery before getting back in the saddle.

So I have resolved myself to cross-training at least 3 times a week for the next month-6 weeks in order to continue in the bid to shift this tire from around my gut and maintain/improve fitness levels to allow to start running again in a few weeks time. Will probably not blog much during this time as I can't be bothered writing about an hour on the bike unless I happen to spot some honeys in the gym that are post-worthy. Peace.

1st Run of '09

4.25 miles, 29:15

no HR

Finally got out for a run after 6 days off. The problems down the left side that caused me to take the time off were improved, especially in the calf, but the quad is still not 100%. Overall though it felt great to get back out there and made me realise how lazy and useless I am when I don't/can't run. Spent most of the run thinking about what I had done differently in training the week before last, and the two main differences were that I had my first 6 day week and also didn't do any weights the prior 2 weeks. So given how things played out I definitely need to maintain the weights and take a day off with a day of cross training in there also. The run itself was a little faster than normal for the field but the ground was in much better shape than usual as it was a pretty dry week, and felt pretty good. Back to Dublin tomorrow, and hoping to get back to the usual routine.

Aside from that the only other news for concern is that Spurs were drawn away to Man Utd in the FA cup, which barring a miracle means that it will be at least 2010 before Spurs win the cup again. Fuck it.

Year In Review

Well come on really, is this necessary? No, I'll not subject anyone to that. Haven't run since an 8 minute jog last Sunday due to some throbbing aches and pains in my left quad and soleus. Took the last few days off to let things settle down, and while I am definitely not enjoying not running, I know there is zero point in trying to run through pain and risk something more serious, especially when I am not planning on running a marathon till next autumn. Will get out for a 3-4 mile jog on the grass tomorrow and see how things feel.

The New Years celebrations were pretty tame/boring, with a night in the local to ring in 12 bells. At this stage, I'm looking forward to getting back to Dublin on Sunday and getting back into a routine.