Sore Shins

Went running after work in my vibram 5 fingers tonight. Having a low mileage week and looking to increase speed prior to my marathon. However I shot off too fast (4 min km) and my shins tightened up immediately. No warming up or stretching before hand so i had it coming. Struggled with pain the whole way home, had to walk at some point to loosen it up. To make matters worse my feet are a little blistered from the pavement. Should be ok by tomorrow.

10.35km - road - 47min 48sec - 1718ft total elevation - vibram 5 fingers
Warm Night
Fuel = nothing
Fluid = nothing

A Light Week - Summary 20/09/10 - 26/09/10

This week I have taken 3 rest days.

Thursday off as I went out for a colleagues birthday drinks after work (too lazy to get up in the morning)

Friday off as I was moving house all day long (The girlfriend would not have been impressed if I had taken off  for a run!)

Sunday off as I just dont feel like running today. Shin bones feel a little sore and I just fancy enjoying some quality time in my new place.

I've had a pretty decent month so  a light recovery week will do me good. I will be having another day off tomorrow as I am travelling interstate and just wont have the time. I guess this is a fairly good taper for the marathon coming up in October.

Monday - 20.35km - road - 1hr 40 mins (Vibram 5 Fingers)
Tuesday - 20.32km - road - 1hr 37mins
Wednesday - 20.08 - road - 1hr 44mins
Thursday - rest
Friday - rest
Saturday - 28km - road - 2hrs 17 mins (28 degrees)
Sunday - rest

Total - 88.75 km - 7hr 20mins

A satisfactory week. I had a great run on Tuesday and with the marathon coming up on the 9th i guess now is a good time to start increasing speed and cutting down mileage whilst being careful to not overcook myself.

I had no trail runs this week which is the only disappointment but im not going to beat myself up over it.

Where can i buy these shoes?

I'm really keen for a pair of new lightweight trail running shoes. I have seen the New Balance MT100 and MT101's and I was wondering if anyone has any idea where to purchase them in Australia?

I dont believe the MT101's have been released yet and im pretty sure the MT100's cannot be bought over here but im just putting the feelers out.

Tuesday Run - 20.3km - road - 1hr 37 mins 47 sec (PB for this course home! Second night in a row!!)
Fuel = 1 banana
Fluid = 500ml water

Wednesday Run - 20.08km - road - 1hr 44mins 58 secs (went slow today, tendons sore, didnt want to push it - rest tomorrow)
Fuel = 1 banana after 9km
Fluid = 500ml water

Run home in Vibram 5 Fingers

Ran the 20.3km home in my 5 fingers tonight. Concrete concrete and more concrete. Sore on the balls of my feet but overall fine. Managed to keep my feet in tact and didnt kick any upturned paving slabs which is positive!


The inclines today felt easy as they always do when i wear the 5 fingers. Legs felt great and i managed to record my fastest time home ever  1hr 40mins 10sec.

Fuel = 1 banana after 9km
Fluid = 500ml of water

This last month has been my highest month of mileage ever and i feel better than ever. No signs of fatigue, body seems to be holding up pretty well.

Weekly Summary 13/09/10 - 19/09/10

Another pretty good week of running. Decent mileage for marathon training and my legs feel nice and fresh.
Had a fun run this saturday morning before breakfast. Took my garmin visat hcx gps out with me as i was exploring a new area. Was looking to run some trails near Turramurra. I ended up not really knowing where i was and found myself on top of a large rock overlooking miles and miles of bushland. Really wished i had my camera with me. My garmin suggested there were some tracks in the bush, so I made my way down and bush bashed till I came across the tracks. Really slow going because of this but great fun. I didnt see a single sole. Turned out to be a decent long run before the marathon in October.

Today I nipped out before breakfast for some speed work. Legs felt great after Saturday's run so I thought i would pick up the pace and do a loop of my local area. Great loop as it starts out with a gentle incline for 1km, then flattens out for a couple of kms before picking up a gradual incline again. Once i hit the bush its downhill for a couple more kms before beginning the ascents. The ascents are such a great workout, just straight up. Really takes it out of me but its a great sense of achievement coasting up them. Always a good gauge of fitness and gives a reliable indication of how my legs are feeling. Todays case, they were feeling great. I did however trip as i normally do running this trail and grazed the left side of my body. Just the adrenaline rush I need towards the end of a run.

Stats for the week below:

Monday - 20.52km, road, 1hr 44min
Tuesday - 20.29km, road, 1hr 44min
Wednesday - 9.12km, trail, 44min 41sec
Thursday - 20.26km, road, 1hr 41min
Friday - rest
Saturday - 36.56km, trail/road, 3hrs 41min
Sunday - 12km, trail/road, 54mins, 28secs

Total - 118.76km - 10:31:14 h:m:s

Saturdays run:

The Week So Far..

Since my fast (for me) run on Saturday my calfs have felt unusually sore along with my achilles on my left leg. I dont really notice it until I am actually out the door and running. I seem to loosen up after 7-8km then the running becomes easier.

Monday - 20.5km road - 1hr 44mins
Tuesday - 20.3km road - 1hr 44mins
Wednesday - rest EDIT 9.12km trail run in vibram 5 fingers - 44.44sec
Ah the lure of the trails!

Forcing myself to take a rest day today. My legs actually feel the best they have all week but after 4 days and over 90km of running im sure i could benefit from a day off.

Will look to run again tomorrow as i will only be at my girlfriends parents place for another week so i need to take advantage of the good running distance between work and home.

Question: Who else takes advantage of stretching out their calf muscles whilst standing on escalators?

Weekly Summary

This week has been fairly reasonable. I had 2 days off running due to work committments and laziness, but this is fine as im only training for a marathon, not an ultramarathon!

Monday 12.72km - 61.34 - trails
Tuesday 20.44km - 104.12 -road
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday 19.78km - 108.11 - trails
Friday - rest
Saturday - 31km - 147.32 - road
Sunday - 22.87km - 119.13 - road/trail

Total - 106.82km - 09:00:44 h:m:s

Most pleasing run was my saturday run. Just hit the road and picked up the pace. Downhill for the first half and on the return uphil leg i made it home with a negative split of 30 seconds. A real marathon training run to see where I am at. Details below

My Next Race

Today I signed up for my first ever official marathon - The Fitzroy Falls Fire Trail Marathon

Its meant to be a beautiful trail marathon and a good qualifier for the 6 Ft Track Marathon in march which i plan to run.

My training this last few weeks has been very much focussed on hills and im slowly upping the speed work. My mileage isnt super high as its not necessary. I should be able to complete this race off an average of 90km per week.

Im coming back from my ITB injury so i see this as the perfect step up to running ultras again next year.

Apparently one should expect to tack on at least 30 mins to their flat road marathon time when trying to predict their time at The Fitzroy Falls marathon. I have no idea what my flat road marathon time is but my aim is to complete the marathon within 4 hrs and come out of it unscathed.

This weeks training:

Monday - 12.72km - 61min 34sec

Tuesday - 20.44km - 104min 12 sec

Wednesday - Rest. Was just too hungry to run by the time work was finished so i decided to give myself a rest. Plan on making up for it tomorrow with a double run. We shall see....

Wow, what a run!!

This evening I ran a hilly 12.7km trail run that I like to time myself on just for fun.

I've only run it 3 times before today and the results are:

22nd August - 66min 57 secs (ran in 5 fingers)

25th August - 66min 44 secs (ran in 5 fingers)

31st August - 67min 51 secs (ran in running shoes)

Today 61min 34 secs (ran in 5 fingers)

A huge improvement! Surprising after running almost 120km last week. I didnt set out to run as fast as I did, however when the garmin beeped 4.30 for the 1st km and 4.46km for the 2nd, I thought I'd give it ago.

I knew I was on for a fast time when I reached the turnaround point in 31mins 24 secs.



Such a stony course that you really have to concentrate where you are placing your feet. My feet feel like they have had a good massage. The plus side of wearing the 5 fingers is that you can really get some decent footing on the hills and power up them. Downhills isnt so fun..

I left my HRM at work today which is a shame as it would have been interesting to see the results. However, I think if i was wearing it then i may not have run so fast as i would have been horrified at how hard i was working!!!

Great to have achieved this today. I did set my alarm to wake up early to do this but lacked the motivation to crawl out of bed. Seemed to have paid off!

Weekly Summary

Great week of running. Consistent and injury free which i'm really happy with.

A gradual increase in distance and I can feel my body getting stronger.

Had planned to only do around 80km this week but ended up doing more.

Monday PM - 8.33km trails - 41.29
Tuesday AM - 12.63km trails - 1.07.51
Tuesday PM - 7.81 road - 37.55
Wednesday PM - 20.12 road - 1.48.08
Thursday Pm - 20.36 road - 1.46.27
Friday - REST
Saturday - 24km - trails - 2.13.55
Sunday - 24km - trails - 2.20.38

Total - 117.27km - 10.36.25 h.m.s

Some pics below of my saturday run. Extremely wet and windy. The small streams which i can easily cross without getting wet had risen right up. This meant I had to run for over 2 hrs with wet feet. All part of the fun though!

Non-Stop Eating Machine

Since i've started running i've lost alot of weight. Down from around 90kg to 79kg. I certainly wasnt fat before hand but there is a lot less of me than there was before.

Having said that, my appetite is insatiable. All i think about is my stomach and how to fill out. Im conscious to not lose any more weight as I really do not like the typical runners physic so im constantly trying to take in enough calories to stop the weight lose.

For example, last night I ran the 20.5km home from work. I had a huge chicken and mushroom pie at 7.15pm. By 9pm I had to have an enormous bowl of museli and by 10pm I had eaten a toasted cheese sandwich! So in 3 hours I had pretty much eaten breakfast, lunch and dinner. Good going!

Whats important is to listen to your body if you are training hard. If it is hungry then feed it. You cant work out properly unless you are eating well and running has to be the number 1 activity in which you can over indulge.

Today is my off day from running, having been at it for 7 days straight. Its important on your off day to still eat as much as your normally would as you are in recovery mode. This is why at 11.45am I am about to tuck into more chicken pie!

Happy eating!

1 Year On

As the title suggests its been just over 1 year since I started running properly. I thought I would post some stats covering this off:


2009 = 683km - 46,000 calories
2010 = 1704km - 110,685 calories

Looking at the calories burnt i've figured out I've used up 62 days worth if we accept the average person burns 2,500 calories per day.

No wonder I literally cannot stop eating!


Seems to be a gradual improvement and if I can stay injury free and run consistently from month to month, something that I have been unable to do, then I should see my times improve.

Week thus far:

Monday: 8.3km run home on the pavement. 41.29
Tuesday: Morning - 12.63km trail run. 1:07:51
Evening - 7.81km run home on pavement. Smacked my big toe and made it bleed. Ran with a trail of blood for 4km. 37.55

Wednesday - Decided not to get up early to run. Plan to run the 20odd km's home though. Toe still sore.