Long time, no see!

A long time indeed.
Well, I think I have realised it is time for a bit of an adjustment to my training.
I had a fairly ordinary season with XC this year (though to be expected, I guess, considering that for the previous four or five years of my life I have had no involvement with any sport, and a very half-hearted attempt at soccer in the Junior School - and only then because it was compulsory!!!). I have been plagued by these bloody shin splints, and probably the best option seems to be seriously cutting down on the training, and gradually building up over the next few months.
To that end, I’ve decided to start by following the ‘White Beginners’ Plan’ from Jack Daniels’ book. It will be a long and slow path, but will hopefully have me pretty much running straight and painless through a good 30 mins at an easy pace. After this, I plan to move up slowly through his plans, meaning that by this time next year I should be a somewhat competitive form, and maybe dabble in a few races now and then, even!
So, for the moment, it is more about building up a injury protection than going for huge mileage or speed. They can come later when the body is more used to it all!
Hopefully next year at uni will see me with more time to spend on cross-training and stuff to at least get the heart ticking over, even if the legs are a bit slower to catch on! Maybe some kind of light weights program to develop some more leg strength would not be out of place.
With a little bit of luck, I will have more time this term to write and update this blog more often. But then again, knowing my dedication to things like this…it will be long after schoolies before I look at this again? Hopefully not.

Tempo

Got a nice little tempo run in today, which was a bit unexpected. Didn't go to Runners Club today, so I went to the gym for a sess on the mill instead, cranked out 6.75km in 30mins. Would have been so much cooler if that had been on the road/other 'real' course, but I guess you get that.
Splits:
1. 4:47 148/154
2. 4:50 159/161
3. 4:29 166/169
4. 4:30 170/173
5. 4:19 147/179
6. 4:07 179/183
7. 2:51 183/185 (0.75km)

The plan had been:
Mins Pace
0-10 4:48
10-20 4:30
20-29 4:00
29.00-29.30 3:50 (extend these last two out for a few more mins next time)
29.30-30.00 3:40

Not too bad a session, overall, I thought. Left calf feeling a bit tight, however. Prob has something to do with the whole overpronation thing (only a week till orthotics!!!)
French writing exam was 'interesting', but I think I kicked some froggy ass in the oral :D but I guess the marks will tell me this later. Eng oral not looking too bad for tomorrow, either, fingers crossed, touch wood etc!!!
Ok, must sleep now - gotta get up early to run thru English before heading off in the morning.

Humph

Not happy...would rather be at the gym doing my planned spin sess about now. Must bow to the pressures of three maths exams, four french exams, english orals and economics assignment all of which are in this coming week. Crap.

Today's earlier post was just a quick test of the email posting thing, which seems to be up and running again now.

Test?

Is it up again yet?

Long Run, Yay

Got to do my first long run for a looong time today. Guess I'm somewhat re-motivated by the possibility that it's more my legs that have problems than my training, so I am continuing with the plan I made a week or so ago.
Today's run was only on the 'mill, as I am still looking after this shin splint thing a bit...don't want it to get any worse now, do we!
For a long run, the HR was meant to be kept down a bit, but it was so damn boring at that pace! I guess the mill is good for teaching that kind of pacing thing, but I eventually sped it up at about the 6 or 7 km mark - don't quite remember, but this is the point at which the HR certainly rose a bit:
0-1km @ 6:10, 130avg/147max
1-2 @ 5:41, 149/153
2-3 @ 5:57 150/154
3-4 @ 5:49 150/159
4-5 @ 5:58, 152/158
5-6 @ 6:28 153/158 (OUCH!)
6-7 @ 5:33 160/172
7-8 @ 5:55 161/170 (ouchish...)
8-9 @ 4:30 172/177 (picked it up JUST a bit here!)
9-10 @ 5:16 168/181 (bit of a recovery km)
10-10.63 @ 2:32 182/184

Overall, didn't go quite to plan, but had fun in the fartleks at the end :D Tell you what, tho - feet quite sore!! Legs feeling not too bad, touch wood...

Podiatrist!

Well, rocked up for my appointment at 16:30 today. Was a funny little place, and I was surprised to find that the podiatrist was the only person there (aside from his patient), and this concerned me a little a first, but I got over it.
I was also worried when I was talking about shin splints, and he asked where the pain was! Then realised that he just wanted to check it really was shin splints, so it was all good...
Bottom line: My left foot overpronates much more than my right, and it's no wonder really that the chemist orthotics were doing no real good. So he plastered up my feet to mould for the orthotics. Said the going rate was about $700, but he could do for $450, which kept mum happy! :D Must explain the small little place he operates from. With MBF and stuff, we only have to pay about $150, he reckons. Excellent! Can spend the money on new runners, instead :P
I don't think I have ever been happier to find out that something is wrong with me. Means that my training has been okay, and as Mark said, just at a level where it was enough to expose the problems which existed in my feet. So really, quite a good outcome at this stage.
Dad reckons he had problems with his orthotics when he tried to run with them, that they slipped about the place, but hopefully that was just him and his wierdness. And maybe the fact he didn't have proper running shoes that were fitted by some random in a bloody Mathers shop or something. Not that there's much wrong with that. Humph! Damn amatuers.
Well, must go to dinner now. Needless to say, I am very happy with today. Oh, plus I got the whole draft done, but didn't have time to go to the gym, unfortunately. Oh well...

Argh!!

Damn all this school work. Gonna have to put running etc on the back-burner for a while. Had to take today off to catch up on this crappy English oral. If I get into it today, I might have time to head to the gym for a quick spin after the podiatrist tonight. Hopefully he can tell me if my recurring shin splint problems are from feet that are crappy, or if they are a result of going too hard/far too fast. Hopefully the former, then I can just get some orthotics and be all sweet. THat'd be a good outcome.
Have been developing more of a schedule the past two weeks, even though they have been interfered with by things out of my control, like house chapel service, swimming on wednesday, podiatrist appointment when I would normally go for a spin/do some weights. Makes it a bit hard. And then there's this whole too-much-work thing, which absolutely sucks. Will have to skip Runners' Club on monday to avoid wwIII with mum, who already thinks I'm spending too much time not studying, "it being Year 12 and all." God damn it.
Anyhu, back to writing this oral...

Welcome?

First post here...hopefully this will last longer than my last blogging attempt!
I think I am just wanting to write things down (about running, about things in general), more for myself than for anyone else.
If I can find a few minutes every few days, shedule it in in my mind, it shouldn't be too bad...at the minute though, I hope to have an English oral draft finished in 11 minutes.