Last post of the year

Its been a little while since I last posted and the good news is that I am back running again (albeit slowly, for a short period of time and not completely pain free). I went to see the physio the Thursday before Christmas (after a session with Easy Tiger!!). He gave me accupuncture and some other thing where they attach round caps to my calf and blasted it with volts. The next day I felt very sore from all the attention my leg received. The physio informed me it would still be another week before I could start running and then it was 10 min, 20 the next day and 40 the next day etc until the 3rd Jan when I should be completely fine. I asked him about the Coastal Classic. "Whats that" he says "5km race" no try 12 hours. He said I should be completely cured by then and back to normal, the only thing would be lost fitness so if I wanted to push through it I could. I have an appointment with Tiger on the Monday and also the physio. I think everyone is expecting me to be in a bad way.

I was extremely happy to head off work early on the Friday before Christmas. I havent had much holidays this year and its been a crappy year so I was glad to be getting some time off to chill out. Dean and I headed off to my Mum and Dad's place in the Park in my nice new car. On Saturday night we headed to Dean's parents at Bomaderry and on Christmas eve were back up to my parents place. We had an absolute ball playing all sorts of games in their bar room. Cards, poker, darts, fuze ball, carpet bowls...the list goes on. In the mean time it was 2.30 before i got to sleep on Christmas morning. I was a little depressed when I woke up on Xmas morning as this was the first xmas in 6 years that I wouldnt be able to run. I always look forward to my xmas run watching all the kids out playing with their toys (numbers are dwindling as they move their toys to playstations).

I got some awesome pressies. Dean gave me something he made himself with 5 photo frames all linked together by chains with pictures of me doing the Canberra marathon and the frame in the middle had my medal which he also had engraved. It was really nice. Mum and Dad are keeping it at their place until Dean and I get a house of our own. He also got me some "BEC" number plates for my new car. I got my nice new digital camera from Mum and Dad, but I've already had that for a couple of months now! It was a very quiet Christmas Day and Dean headed off to work at 3pm. Boxing day was a lot of fun. We packed the car up with all the leftovers and headed back up to my place to watch the Sydney to Hobart yacht race from my balcony.

Mum and Dad stayed until Friday and I had lots of fun showing them all around Sydney. They always seem to go to the same places, Darling Harbour and Circular Quay so it was fun taking them for a swim at Bondi Icebergs, Coogee and lots of other places in the Eastern Suburbs. Even got to go out to Homebush at DFO and bought some great bargains from French Connection.

On Thursday I went for my 10 min run. It felt like I had forgotten how to run. I could barely open my stride, my hips felt tight and it was actually my knee that was hurting on my left leg. I was thinking before I left that I might cheat and do 15 min........I didnt. 10 min was enough.

Friday I was allowed a 20 min run. I decided to leave it until the afternoon so that I could do a lot of stretching during the day. It was a lot more comfortable that Thursday's run. Every now and then I got a tight pain in my calf but it would go away. My leg hurt quite a bit when I stopped, mostly my knee but since I had run down to Watson Bay where Dean was meeting me we quicky went for a dip and I done some more water running and the cool water made it feel much better.

I'll be heading off to do a 40 min run today and this will be the real test to see how much fitness I have lost. Hopefully not too much. Some good new is that I have been wearing the Aasics 2100's with the orthodics and they feel OK. Finally...phew

Really wish that I was doing the party pooper black stump, but I dont want to push it. Dont think I'm in good enough condition to be doing that sort of run with hills.

Will probably be updating my New Years post with all my 2007 goals. I think there are going to be a few biggies that even scare me !!!