100 things

Since my last post I have had two quick runs.

A 10.9km in 0:55:10 around the local suburbs, and a 10.7km in 0:51:57 around the Yarra River, MCG and The Tan in Melbourne yesterday.

More information on these runs can be found on Motionbased here and here.

Other than running I have been at work and devoting time to my '100 Things' list.

With great trepidation here it is...

1. I am a married father with two kids
2. I have been a train driver since 1991
3. Since driving trains I have hit 100's of birds, 3 sheep, 2 dogs, 1 cat and driven over one dead body
4. I have lost count of the near misses
5. I have been a train driving instructor for the past 3 years
6. I have been a volunteer firefighter since 1999
7. I have attended 800 call outs as a firefighter
8. I follow Essendon in the AFL but aren't really interested in the footy
9. I have never stolen/borrowed a pig
10. As a child I was terrified of spiders due to my mothers hysterical fear of them
11. Now I am the Dad and the Husband I have had to get over that fear and just deal with the 8 legged little buggers
12. When younger I was a shy, introverted kid
13. At 16 I left school after completing year 10
14. I worked at a cabinet makers for two weeks
15. I worked as a Driveway Attendant in a Service Station
16. I worked on a production line in a factory building Kenworth trucks
17. For 18 months I cleaned restaurant kitchens including exhaust fans and exhaust canopys (yuck!!)
18. I have never been on unemployment benefits
19. The first car I drove was a 1970 VG Valiant when I was 13
20. When I first got my license I drove like a 'P' plated maniac
21. I have lost my license 3 times. Twice for speeding and once for drink driving
22. I now drive religously sticking to the speed limit
23. Except when I am driving a fire truck
24. I have never had a serious accident
25. I failed my motorbike learners the first time but continued to ride a bike on the road without a permit for the next 12 months
26. I now have a license for motorbikes, car and medium rigid trucks
27. I had a rifle and a shooters license for six months but lost both when I was arrested for drink driving (the gun was in the boot/trunk of the car)
28. When I was little I had a huge collection of Star Wars toys that I played with and wrecked.
29. Some of those pieces are now worth hundreds of dollars
30. I now have all 6 episodes of the Star Wars movies on DVD
31. I enjoy watching Third Watch, Survivor and the Amazing Race
32. I have all The Soprano's episodes on DVD
33. I have been to two AC/DC concerts, one KISS concert and one Bee Gees concert
34. I like 80's music, Emeniem, Rn'B and starting to get into Dance and Techno
35. In the last two Census I have put my religion as Jedi
36. I think I would like to buy another motorbike
37. In year 7 my teacher was a distance runner and encouraged the class into running
38. During year 8 at school I competed in the Sun Super Run. I can't find much about this event on the Web but I do remember walking a lot
39. At school I was a 'fat kid' who hated Physical Education
40. But surprisingly I found myself to be a good short-distance sprinter
41. I now enjoy distance running and wish I had started 10 years ago
42. 01/01/2005 was the date of my last cigarette
43. 17/09/2005 was the date of my last alcoholic drink
44. I have found that you don't need alcohol to have a good time
45. But sometimes I miss the social side of drinking
46. I ran away from home when I was 14
47. When I was 15 I was made a ward of the state
48. I also made national headlines at the time as "The boy who divorced his parents"
49. I have appeared on A Current Affair 3 times and Midday with Derryn Hinch once.
50. In 2003 I won a "Firefighter of the Year" award. An award voted for by peers at my brigade 51. I like cats, we currently have two
52. I was at, and witnessed both births of my two children
53. I let Sal name our first born Lucy because after that effort I thought that she deserved it
54. I once rescued a unknown couple who where being swept away in a Rip at Venus Bay Victoria
55. During the mad swim sprint to catch them I thought to myself "What the hell are you doing?!?" But I still managed to bring them back to dry land
56. I have been to the Saints and Sinners Ball twice
57. I have been married for 11 years
58. I have had two piercings, ear and nipple. I still have the nipple
59. I have two tattoos
60. Train Drivers get free entry into the Royal Melbourne Show
61. I have never been out of the country
62. I will never go to Bali, Indonesia or Thailand
63. In my last year of school I went on a school trip biking from Davenport in Tasmania to Hobart
64. That trip was organized by my PE teacher Mr Wenker (pronounced Wanker)
65. Kids at school used to call him "Leo" after Leo Wanker on the Paul Hogan Show
66. I have all the Paul Hogan Show on DVD
67. I have made a recipe book of things I like to cook
68. So far it only has two things, Lasagana and Choc Caramel Slice
69. This is my favourite number ;-)
70. I prefer to have my watch set on 24 hour time (its a work thing)
71. Is the year I was born
72. Since running I have become a bit of a sporting brand snob
73. I like Asics, Brooks and Nike
74. I currently have three pairs of Asics runners
75. I would like to travel to Russia on holiday
76. I suspect that I have a evil pair of Asics. My Asics Gel Eagles I have only wore three times and am frightened to put them back on
77. When younger my mother was religious and dragged us all to church regularly
78. I don't go to church now and still call myself a Jedi
79. As a child I used to suffer from chronic blood noses
80. Now my 7 year old son seems to suffer from the same thing
81. I am the eldest of three brothers and one half sister
82. I don't talk to my brothers and rarely speak to my parents
83. I have had two operations, ingrown toes and a vasectomy. All under local anesthesia
84. As a 6 year old I was hit by a car while running across a road
85. I spent 3 days in hospital with a broken collar bone
86. I was hit by another car when I was 17 while riding my bike home from work
87. Nothing more than cuts and grazes and a destroyed bike
88. I am not that lucky with push bikes, I have had a lot of accidents while riding
89. When I left school I wanted to be a Motor Mechanic
90. After working at Kenworth I decided Motor Mechanic just wasn't for me
91. I worked at a family owned nursery and witnessed a woman get killed by a truck in a nasty work place accident
92. I had to attend the Coroners Court as a witness regarding that accident
93. My wife thinks I'm having a midlife crisis
94. I work all afternoon shifts
95. Sometimes I say things and regret saying them straight away
96. I am a pretty laid back person
97. But when pushed I do have a flash point
98. I like to play Texas Hold'Em
99. In eight days I will be running in my first Marathon
100. I am happy with how my life turned out

Getting my Mojo back.

Thanks R2B for the timely reminder. Some more great encouragement would be nice.

Since my last post it has been a struggle to get any running in. Between school holidays, looking after the kids and going to work every afternoon, I just haven't found the time for a run.

I was feeling pretty low about how my marathon training plans had fallen to bits and was considering seeing if I could change my entry category from the Full marathon to the Half.

That was until last Saturday when Sal got home from work early and encourage me to get out for a run.

Oscar and I ran over one of my regular 10km routes and we got back home after 0:49:24. I pushed myself hard and the run did a great job of lifting my spirits.

It has been a long time since Oscar has had a fast run like this and he was pretty stuffed. At my current pace I may have to keep the dog curtailed to 5km distances only.

I know I should be in the 3 week taper period before the big race, but today I wanted to stretch the legs a bit to make up for the last two weeks of slacking off.

I set out alone with out Oscar and ran a 17 kilometres route in 1:27:54. It was an enjoyable run as I was left to my thoughts and lapping up the beautiful spring morning. It averaged out to a 5:10 pace and one I reckon I could maintain over a flat, 42.2km course.

I'm feeling a lot better about Melbourne Marathon now. I figure I will try and stick with a 3:45 pacing group on the day. But if that plan goes pair shaped who cares?? It will only serve to set a good time to beat for 2007!!

10 days since my last Blog

As the title suggest it has been a few days between posts. Only 10 days I hear some of you say, but it has felt a lot longer to me.

The Melbourne Marathon is three weeks away and I have had a little trouble staying motivated.
My race number arrived the other day (go #250!) but I'm finding the training is getting tedious. I'm starting to feel that 42.2km's is a ridicules distance to run and at this stage I think this will be my one and only marathon. The Six Foot Track dream will stay just that, a dream.

20km's is now a comfortable distance and I will be limiting myself to Halfs for quite awhile to come.

Since my last blog I have managed to run 73.9 kilometers including a 32.7km long run today.

This morning was planned to be 36km but after being reduced to a walk at 30km's I decided to call it quits and head home. Todays elevation chart.

The course I chose was fairly hilly and my legs felt so very heavy on the last hill. I knew I shouldn't give in and walk only 2 kilometres from home but it was a struggle to keep going.

In comparison the Melbourne Marathon course follows a coastal road from Frankston to Melbourne and looks a lot flatter. .

Thanks to Raybau from Motionbased for the elevation chart.

I think that with the flat course and race atmosphere on the day I should be fine to run the Marathon distance.

42.2 kilometres I must be nuts!!!

Good morning world.

I set the alarm nice and early (5:45am) today and headed out for a 'good morning world' type of run.

I had another 5km spin on the treadmill at work the previous Tuesday and was feeling pretty anxious to get out doors, and build up some kilometers again.

This morning run went really well. I covered 15.2km's in 1:15:10 and arrived back home with no leg pain at all.

Splits from this mornings run.

The elevation and pace chart for my run. Maybe I should try it in reverse one day.

More details for this run can be found at Motionbased.

My leg is feeling great. The weeks forced rest seems to have worked wonders on my shin. I'm thinking that maybe I was just suffering from a tendon strain and not the dreaded shin splints I so amateurishly diagnosed.

I am very confident now of completing the Melbourne Marathon in four and a half (gulp) weeks.

A friend sent me a email today that was titled 'Dickhead Bus Drivers' (apologies to any bus driving readers). In the email was a picture of a level crossing on Springvale Rd in Springvale Victoria.

The picture was taken from the drivers cabin of a moving train. It is a heart stopping moment that train drivers experience regularly. I drive trains on this line at least twice a day and in 15 years I have had numerous near misses on this very crossing. You wouldn't believe some of the stupid shit I have seen people do here and at other locations.

Be careful out there.

Tentative steps after a week off.

After taking a week off from running my right shin is feeling a lot better.

To reduce the chances of further injury I will try to slowly build up the training kilometers this week. Hopefully reaching a long, 20km run by Sunday.

I went for a 5km run this morning and completed 5.1km in 0:23:55. Later in the day I ran a fartlek session on the treadmill at work running 5.3 kilometers in 30 minutes.

Sitting here now my leg feels pretty good and I will go out tomorrow for a 8 to 10km run around the suburb.

Last Thursday our dog Oscar suffered a medical emergency.

During the course of the afternoon we watched as he obviously struggled with severe constipation. A phone call to the Vet suggested a couple of tablets of Coloxyl to soften his stools, but by Friday morning there was still no movement. Oscar was not eating and looking very, very miserable.

Fortunately the Vet could see him early Friday morning. He was examined, x-rayed and admitted for surgery.

We picked him up later that afternoon and after an enema, castration and five hundred and fifty dollars Oscar was feeling a lot better.

He has been resting since with a short walk yesterday and today. I will wait till his stitches are removed next week before he goes out for a run.


He does seem to be enjoying the special pampering he is receiving at the moment.