Back in action

Long time no see.

Today marked the first day I was allowed to do a complete run without having to take 'walking breaks'. I have been working off the Sardella progressive walk/run plan for the past 2 months or so and have made sufficient progress that I'm now upto a half hour complete run every other day. Not exactly anything to write home about but progress none the less.
Have already signed up for the adidas race series this summer and also the Dublin marathon. The marathon is more out of hope than expectation, but its nice to have the goal to aim for.
There are a couple of road races in the immediate few weeks that are tempting to take part in. Mightn't sound like the smartest plan in the world, and being honest, its not. But I'm also keen to find a balance between doing what's right and what's fun. The first is a 10k & half-marathon in the hometown of Dundalk on May 5th. Definitely considering the 10k as a fun run to show support, and then on the 18th there is an 8k here in Dublin to raise money for Unicef.
As for the CML, things are progressing well. The blood counts have improved nicely since beginning the treatment 2 months ago, and side effects have been negligible/non-existant. Having another bone-marrow biopsy on the 11th, which will give a better indication of how things are going.
Of more immediate importance is the fact that flights for the brother's stag weekend have been cancelled, leaving plans in tatters, and also getting my new tattoo on Thursday. Fun times.

Post Race Reflections

Result: DNF

Dropped out somewhere between 11.5 and 12. At that point I had been running quite well and was feeling extremely good. Until then my splits had been (approximately, mile markers were quite a bit off - only 5k markers seemed completely accurate):

5:40, 6:00, 6:02, 6:01, 5:59, 6:06, 6:02, 5:47, 6:03, 5:55, 6:01 + 4:05 before stopping. The leg starting out felt much better than I expected, as it did to run these splits. I had planned on going around 6:10-6:15s due to the training I missed but got locked into a very comfortable rhythm and just went with it. The problems began on the faster 8th mile. It was nearly all downhill, and straight away I knew the hip/quad wasn't happy with it. From 8-11 it was considerably tighter but felt that as long as it didnt get any worse I would be fine. Just beyond 11 miles we crossed the canal via probably the smallest bridge in the world. But the small decline off the bridge was enough to trigger the leg, and the hip just seized up on me completely. After stopping I had to drop my chip with the St. Johns ambulance crew who stuck me in the ambulance. Getting tired of waiting around, I decided I'd walk/jog home. As soon as I stood up the leg refused to take my weight. I wasn't going anywhere. Since then it's loosened up a little, but its pretty damn painful doing anything besides sitting.

To be honest, I'm obviously disappointed but not gutted. I knew there was a good chance that this would be the outcome, and I'm glad that I sacked up and decided to give it a go instead of waking up tomorrow wondering what if?

I'm also glad that in treating this injury I've gotten to the root cause of this and the majority of my recent injuries. Apparently I "significantly lack gluteal mass", meaning I gotta get some junk in my trunk. I know what needs to be done, and hopefully after it I'll come out of it a better runner. Gonna take a day or two off before beginning the rehab and some pool work. Given the lack of training the last few weeks I don't really feel the need to rest up, but I do need to get this injury fixed before getting back to workouts etc. The plan is to take on some sort of XC season, although the novice champs on Dec 5th are likely to come around a little too early. However there is plenty of 2010 action to look forward to.

Finally, a big thanks to those who donated to the charity I was running for, and for the wishes of support leading up to the race. Those that know me best know what a fat little wanker I was around 7-8 months ago, and of all the positives that I can take out of this campaign (and there are a few) the biggest is that I'm fit again and excited about running. For that I am very grateful.