Ressurection ?

I have been considering whether there is any value in resurrecting this blog after a substantial time off. The core purpose again will be to record my training progress in more detail than the spreadsheet, but I will also upload photos if I like them enough.

The last 10 months have been really busy, though I recall there were times I had these monumental periods of boredom when they was just nothing to do or I was too tired to it, from memory these often occurred while I was at work.

So, lets do a quick bullet point wrap up since Feb 27 2007.

• As planned I ran the Rotorua Marathon, I finished on my target time of 4:30 and I was less broken than I expected.

• I took up some off road running with a group of like minded folk and I managed a couple of great runs in the Waitakere Ranges before slipping on a wet rock and spraining my ankle quite badly. This happened in June and 12 weeks of physiotherapy later it was still stiff and often sore.

• I stopped going to physio when the physiotherapist went on leave for a 2 weeks and then I was on leave and then away from work for a week. The plan was to get back to gentle running and riding and coupled with some stretches see if the ankle recovered.

• I had been feeling really flat and lifeless so I took a couple of weeks off of work in September to kick things back off again. The plan was to do some gentle running, so riding, some photography and some mountain bike trail digging up at Woodhill Forest. The holiday started Ok but I ended up getting quite tired and the weather was not that friendly either. I did get half a track built but just ran out of puff.

• My first week back at work in October was to attend a conference in Hong Kong. I was really looking forward to this as I had never travelled to Asia before. I was still feeling flat when I went but ended up feeling really unwell when I got there and 3 doctors later was admitted to hospital with what turned out to be a liver abscess. I spent 7 days in hospital in Hong Kong before being well enough for the 10 hour flight back to NZ.

• After a week back in Auckland I had the abscess removed and was in hospital for a few days. The abscess was 5.5 cm in diameter. I spent about 2 weeks recovering before going back to work for part days and have an 8 inch scar to show for it.

• Going back to work was not too bad, I had a big pile of work to catch up on so kept myself quite busy and attentive. Work were great while I was off, very supportive, let me take the whole month as paid sick leave and flew my wife up to Hong Kong for 2 days which was great (insurance paid for the flights, but that was not the point !)

• I was about to start back working full time when my father got quite sick. What started out as a tooth ache ended up within 10 days as a fatal infection. My father had always been a fit man and had not had blood tests for decades. It turned out he had a blood disease (not leukaemia) and his body was not making while blood cells, or very good red cells either. The infection that had spread from his tooth to his throat was too much for his body to cope with and he passed away at 3:35 AM on Tuesday 13 November. I do, and will, miss him greatly.

• To add to the family dramas my mother in law is also ill with cancer. My wife and youngest son have gone over to Australia’s Gold Coast where she lives to be with her, probably until the end.

• I have started back into some gentle exercise. I lost 8kgs when I was sick, but it was mainly muscle, though some fat fell off. I have mostly recovered the weight but it is all around my waist… My fitness is well down on this period last year and with Christmas coming up I really do not expect to see major improvements until the new year, though I will try and be sensible.

• I started back at physio again last week, my ankle seized up again while I was sick and I have far less movement in it than 2 months ago. The physiotherapist is going to give it until the end of January before deciding on any long term options.

I have taken quite a few photos in tha past 12 months, well over 3,000, some of them I have even liked and kept. I was going to be part of a small local exhibition which was to have taken place last weekend but fortunately it was postponed while my father was sick, which was a great relief as I was starting to stress about it a bit.

I am now looking at my event options for 2008 and have to toss up between mountain biking and running again. I was going to dedicate 1 year to running, but have a bit of a bug and only managed to 6 months before injury and sickness prevented me from carrying on. I will decide in January when I have had a good idea of what my ankle is likely to do, but I have had this idea seeded in my mind.

http://www.keplerchallenge.co.nz/

Personally I think it is a stupid idea, but possibly a goal to strive for. I thought 42k on the road was long enough !

So this could be a new training log for 2008, or this could be the last post…