New link

Posted the link [on the right hand side of the page] to the fund raising website Jonnsie used for last year's aborted North Pole marathon attempt (the race was cancelled at the last minute!)
I think this year we will collaborate our fundraising efforts, but probably use similar websites to hopefully collect money......

Sisyphus rolling...

The ankle is not going to be better by the north pole marathon, so training is not going to be perfect... Time to focus on next best thing!
The two bikes are being repaired, as soon as they're ready will start cycling to and from work. Also need to get swimming, so need to find out where local pool is - and opening hours etc....

Plan B ?

Saw the reflexologist / masseur again y'day. Again ran last night after the treatment but had to walk the last kilometre home as ankle was playing up. Starting to think what I need is many months of rest to let the ankle heal, but unfortunately that isn't an option. The next best thing maybe to start cycling to and from work - not a pleasurable experience in the current -6 degrees weather, but need to keep fitness levels up...

the dentist

While running another short run over ice covered paths this evening I was thinking about a recent trip to the dentist. Having read a few books on explorers and in particular antartic explorers I remembered something, slightly strange and extreme, that Ranulph Fiennes had done before one of his expeditions south. He stopped off in Cape Town - or somewhere in South Africa - and made everyone accompanying him go to the dentist and have any remotely suspect teeth pulled... ouch! On top of that he had asked a local doctor to perform operations to remove their appendixs!! Luckily for the appendixes sake, the doctor deemed there was a greater risk of dying from the operation than dying from appendicitus whilst in the antartic!

I will run the appendictus risk at the North Pole too...

Got me thinking about Astronauts, hmmm....

Winter wonderland...

Snowing again / just as the last lot had almost disappeared... Yesterday only managed 3k before walking home. Tonight was not perfect - ankle felt 90% but not very bad so managed the whole route... At least got some practice at sub zero with snow blowing in the face...

Foot tickler...

...Went slightly off piste today and saw a reflexologist! After the session I'd put Soren more in the deep tissue massage camp... I have to saw it was bloody painful and he must have twanged every flipping muscle in my body... He concluded that the muscle that goes from my calf down by the ankle bone then splits into two and attaches to the big toe and the other toes is tight and causing pain when it gets tighter (after running) at the point its touching the ankle bone... Made sense to me - so he tried to loosen that muscle up... Not nice!

end result he said run tonight and stop if any pain.. Ran for 4km easy, then last 500m cried off as there was definitely some pain there... Will try again tomorrow and booked another session for next Monday!!! Less scared of the dentist and that's saying something!!!

Brondby

ran with Henrik sunday afternoon form F'berg to Brondby... 12k in 66mins. easy pace and heart rate never went above 170, but ankle started to hurt by the end... not a good sign as its still painful now long after the run.

Going to see another person about ankle this week - A guy Henril used in the past... here's hoping!

So managed 4 runs this week, but only 25k and ankle no better... north pole seems like uphill battle now

snow melting, ankle healing

felt much better. just another 4.5k "motorway lap" - but starting to get back in the groove...

Doctor says...

... not alot

It seems to be a universal truth with Doctors everywhere that they tell you what you knew anyway ("you need to rest your ankle") and try and reassure you ("it will get better") as well as pass judgement on your character and sanity ("you crazy fckin Irish people going to run a marathon at the north pole, are you fckin crazy??")

OK so he was friendly and gave me a leaflet with some exercises to do, and he did say to come for acupuncture if I fancied it...

but still...

anyway, for anyone out there with a sports injury and good Danish, check out www.sportnetdoc.dk ! (then can you please translate and tell me to do!!!)

slowly...

2 more short runs, no ankle problems... Doctor tonight!

2nd run

Managed another short 4.5k run last night... again very wary of ankle but no problems... plan is to slowly build up the distance over next few weeks until back in proper training hopefully by month end!

Jonnsie has said he'd send over a pair of running shoes!!! CHAP - will then test out running in snow! Less than 90 days now so need to be careful of injury but try to get the weekly miles back up at the same time... fine line

Polar watch (running computer!) output...

explanation of chart above:

The chart above is the graph produced by the Polar watch... the horizontal axis is time (ran for just over 20minutes)... the verical axis are; bottom line altitude; blue line is pace in km/h; and red line is heart rate in beats per minute!
There is a summary of the data in the box below the chart, eg. distance ran 4.5k, average speed and so forth....
What is very cool about this is that after doing a few of the same runs you can overlap the data so you can see if you are making any progress etc....!

First run of the year...

yes I booked a Doctor's appointment only yesterday, but I wanted to test the ankle in any case. Net result was it didn't hurt... but ! (there's always a but) it wasn't perfect and I reckon if I had run longer than the 4.5k it would have played up...

But not all bad news, the new watch (running computer, no less!) is the nuts!!! After last nights run you infrared transfer the data into the pc, and bingo you get a chart with charts of altitude, pace and heart rate all overlapping... the beneifts will come when I back into full swing and can start tracking progress (remember that?)

Also, I ran past a field covered in snow last night which got me thinking I should buy the snow shoes for the Pole so I can start practising running on snow!

Finally... I now only have 92 days to the NP Marathon... need to get this ankle sorted quick, and need to start building up some miles!

finally...

booked Doctor's appointment for wednesday 11th

2006

New year - getting ever closer to the North Pole marathon... bring it on!

The last 2 weeks of '05 were touring tru the south of France (very nice). Alas ankle is still niggling me so only managed two short runs in France - first one was through the mist covered vineyards of St. Emillion, an absolute great experience... not a soul in sight, save for some local farmers out shooting pheasant... running through the old vineyards was great and the old hilly streets of the Town itself was also fab! The second run was from the house we were staying at for xmas in the Dordogne region to the local village (Salviac) a 10k round trip... again the weather was cold, and been Xmas morning at 8am not a soul in sight - this is why I love running!!! on roads that have never been run on before, with no time goals or targets, just ambling along enjoying the views!! The downside is this bloody injury!! although I ran an easy paced 10k (prob 60mins) - I would have struggled to run on the ankle much further...

so new year's resolutions!?!

1. get ankle seen to!
2. get some sub zero running experience (talk of a trip to Finland in Feb')
3. drop the drink (have decided to stop drinking for a year!, although I've given up for months at a go in the past , I've never made a serious attempt at a longer spell on 'the wagon'! Although early days (9pm on Jan 1st) - I am investing the same emotional effort to this attempt as my previous efforts (succesful efforts!) to quit smoking....

4. enjoy it! (one thing I realised in France was that what I want out of running more than anything else is to be able to run anywhere, anytime I want... getting injured is not worth it!)