100km service & February totals.

Thanks for everyones great ideas with my ankle rubbing Kayanos but I think I have solved the problem.

Before heading out for my 10km run Monday morning I sat down and re-tightened all the laces. Seems they had come loose quite a bit since I first bought them.

Three subsequent runs since have been ankle rubbing free.

I'm hoping that this first 100km service after running the shoes in will be enough to keep them going for the next 850 km's.

Otherwise I will have trouble justifying the purchase of a second pair of expensive running shoes to "The Treasurer" (I love you dear Wife).

So far my Monday to Friday running regime has gone well. I even incorporated a 17km long run on Tuesday that will in future earn a rest day afterwards. As with all running programs flexibility is a must.

My running total for the month of February is a very satisfying 169.5km's. Considering that February is a short month I am thrilled with this result.

This has also been my best monthly total since I started to taper for the October '06 Melbourne Marathon.

My total kilometres so far this year brings me to the town of Barnawartha on my road from Melbourne to Rockhampton.

Barnawartha is a small country town beside the Hume Hwy/Fwy. It has only a population of 550 and contains a few historical buildings, such as the Post Office, 'Cheesely's Bootmakers shop'(now used to store hay) and the recently burnt down Star Hotel.

Over the past weekend my family and I attended the local Berwick Show. It was a fantastic day at an old rural type show and we all had a great time.

My son Ben looking comfortable with a new friend.

Daughter Lucy looking very uncomfortable with the same friend.

What every Show needs. Show Bags and a Monster Truck!

Lucy and Ben, second car back moving VERY fast!

Rubbing a hole through my ankle.

Since my last post I have had a good four days of running and have travelled 47 kilometres.

I am currently just past Wangaratta on my road from Melbourne to Rockhampton.

Wangaratta is a large country city with a population of approximately 27,000. It is officially titled "Australia's Capital of Jazz" due to the incredibly successful Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues held annually in November.

My new running plan that I am trying to follow is a little different to most. I'm trying to get 5 days of running from Monday to Friday and leave my weekends for rest. Over the weekend I have found myself to be too busy to get a run in and I am often feeling disappointed Sunday evening.

So far the plan has worked a treat with a combination of "after school drop off" runs and early, 6am running.

I am still having a few hassles with my new Kayanos determined to rub a hole through my left ankle.

Band-aids just seem to rub off and liberal amounts of Sports Shield only seem to last temporarily.

The problem seems to be with the new Kayanos. Around the top of the shoe that makes contact with my left ankle they have a mesh sort of lining that just seems to rub the wrong way. The Kayanos 12 didn't have this mesh, just black fabric lining that didn't give any trouble at all.

Any advice or ideas with this problem would be appreciated.

Dirty shoes

Most will be happy to know that the new Kayanos that I posted about earlier are now dirty.

I have clocked up 41 km's since buying them last week and they even have an impressive looking blood stain!

Yesterday the left shoe rubbed my ankle the wrong way allowing a little claret to spill onto the sock and shoe. Nothing that a well placed band-aid won't fix.

This extra 41 kilometers brings my quest of running from Melbourne to Rockhampton to the town of Benalla.

Seeing as I am in the middle of "Kelly" country I will share some more Bushranger history.

In 1869, a 14-year-old Ned Kelly was charged in the Benalla courthouse for assaulting and robbing a Chinaman named Ah Fook (I bet that is what he said when young Ned tried to rob him). Ned was later found not guilty due to the lack of evidence.

Ned Kelly reappeared at Benalla courthouse in 1877, charged with being drunk and disorderly and riding a horse on the footpath. After a fracas on the way to the courthouse additional charges emerged - assaulting a policeman in the course of his duty, resisting the police and damaging a constable's uniform. He emphatically claimed the police had doped his liquor (I'm sure that has happened to me before?!?). He didn't get away with this one though. He was fined 2 pounds and ordered to pay costs.

P.S. I recently entered in and paid for my first Great Train Race. I hope to meet some of my regular readers there.

Changing of the Guard

Yesterday I bought my third pair of Asics Kayanos.

The new, blue ones were bought from Action World in Fountain Gate Narre Warren after a quick, three shop price compassion. Another shop could match Action World but didn't offer a free pair of socks.

The research and purchase only took me 15 minutes, the fastest time buying runners so far.

Kayanos II will be retired to domestic duties. They were my first strictly running only shoes and served me well for 940kms.

During that time they ran in a 30km Sri Chinmoy event, ran 34km from Geelong to Queenscliff, completed the Melbourne Marathon and survived growing a Mo in Movember.

I know that we are supposed to break in new runners but this morning I couldn't help myself. I took the sparkly new Kayano's for a 10km spin around the suburb. I completed the distance in 0:51:53.

After two weeks off I had my first shift back at work last night. Everything went well and I would once again like to thank everyone for their great support.

Gatorade has how many calories?!?

Today I went for my "better late than never" long run.

Should have really done this 17km run over the weekend but with Melbourne's hot weather I decided to hold it off till it was cooler.

In the end I ran 16.95kms distance in a route PB of 1:28:43.

Garminator and the Motionbased agent won't synchronize at the moment so no further details are available currently.

This long run has me alongside Euroa on my road to Rockhampton.

In December of 1878 the outlaw Ned Kelly and his gang robbed the Euroa branch of the National Bank. They made of with 2000 pounds in cash and gold with the bank manager, his mother, wife, seven children, two servants and two tellers as hostages. All hostages were released later saying that their captors had behaved very "gentlemanly".

The Government of Victoria then increased the rewards on the heads of the Kelly Gang to £1000 each, and military guards were posted on all banks in the north-eastern district.

My wife Sal, and I watched the second episode of Australia's The Biggest Loser last night and the show has sent me on a calorie hunting mission.

I found a website called the Calorie King that will give the calorie count of just about everything imaginable. I had a browse through and looked up some things and it was with great surprise and shock to learn that a 600ml bottle of Gatorade has 150 calories!That is 15 more calories than a McDonalds Hash Brown (135calories)!!

Downing a bottle of Gatorade after a run has been one of my favourite past times. Might as well have been shoveling in a Hash Brown instead!

It is all good.

After dropping the kids off at school (woohoo no more school holidays) yesterday, I drove out to an old favourite stomping ground Lysterfield Lake.

I set off planning to do 2 laps of the lake circuit but with the way the morning was rapidly warming up, I decided to call it quits after one exhausting lap.

I completed the 6.5km lap in 0:33:12. More Motionbased details can be found here.

As Fridays effort was so short I set off early this morning for one of my regular 10km circuits.This run covers a lot of my local suburbia with one very steep, kick-ass hill.

Today I ran this 10km route in 0:51:19.

Motionbased details here.

That 'other' thing.

Thanks everyone for your messages and emails of concern. It was very touching.

This incident is something that lots of train drivers go through but was the first time experienced by me.

It is the type of situation that is not published by the media for very good reasons.

I have had very good counselling/debriefing since, and am itching to get back to work this week and moving on.

Thanks again for everyones kind thoughts and good wishes.

January totals

As some of you would know that aside from my work as a volunteer firefighter my main occupation, the one that pays the bills, is a Train Driver.

Unfortunately last Tuesday the 23rd I was involved in an incident while driving my train. I won't go into details of the incident on this open forum but if you would like to know more feel free to email me here.

This incident has me on sick leave for a few weeks but yesterday I had to head into my managers office at Flinders St Station to catch up on some paperwork.

I took my running gear with me so when the work commitments where completed I went for a sunny Melbourne day run.

I started at Flinders St Station and crossed over to Southbank, then I ran an anti-clockwise lap of the Yarra to the Grange Rd bridge and return.

It was just after midday when I started the run and I was surprised as always by the amount of 'lunch time' runners out enjoying the day.

I completed the 11.9km run in 1:01:27. More Motionbased details can be found here.

This run, plus a 10km run on Monday brings my January total to 133.27kms. I'm a lot happier about this total compared to the previous few months and feel I am getting back on track.

For the first time I even feel like I have done enough work to justify the week off running while working with the C.F.A at Swifts Creek.

At the end of January my Run to Rockhampton totals has me staying Avenel Vic.

This small rural town lies in the heart of wine country in the Goulburn River Valley. It is also the childhood home of one of Australias most famous outlaws, Edward (Ned) Kelly. Ned Kelly's father, Red Kelly, is buried in town.