Life without a post leaves a hole.

Hi, I'm Toasty and it has been 14 days since my last post.

I did make it to the Physio, at last. It didn't take long before I heard the same words that I've heard before ..... "Oh! Hmmm. That's not good!". Then she started to explain to me with words like TassleMeterPuss, Upper Taliban and Menopausal Posterior, but I could be wrong about those. I didn't have a pencil and I had no idea what she was saying after the "that's not good" part. Returning to my level, she showed me that the ankle joint is meant to go sideways as well as backward and forward. I nodded blankly. She grabbed my ankle and tried moving it like she said and my ankle held firm. She grabbed her ankle and showed me what should happen (damn freak was made of rubber, I tell you). Then came the plastic model and more big words. "So that's why I have to get on my toes to get around corners" I said, wanting to be part of the conversation. Then she explained how my left ankle was locked at a tilt and we needed to free it up. I am compressing and jamming it everytime I run and that is why it hurts. No running, bone scans, possible stress fracture inside joint, no blood flow, arthritis ... Whoa! Back up a second lady!!

Where's my last Physio? He only hurt me and didn't scare me so.

We agreed that I was a fool and to take a course of weekly massage and weekly physio. I limped out with my ankle taped and a quick rendition of me wailing while she strummed on the bands in my legs and inflicted some of that good ole pain, like my last Physio used to do.

I could tell you how the tax department picked me out to be audited. But that isn't going to make this post any happier.

Or that I was selected for jury duty and my employer said they needed me (which is sorta happier);

I certainly wasn't happy with my last speed work out. So far, everything had been ticking along and looking to be on target. The session on Friday was 1500m at 5:25 then another at 5:25, and a 3:35K to finish. First one was ok at about 5:29 ... then the wheels fell off. Six minutes and 4:18 for the final K. Coach Pat warned me about getting fatigued, and the truth is my working hours are getting in the way of my rest.

The happiest part of this post was last weekend's flight to Croutopia to see the school production. I was proudly watching my little girl, Clare, act and enjoy being part of the chorus. I loved seeing her enjoying herself, showing passion, and dedication to the production. I was disappointed to miss Andrew's dress rehearsal, but we did spend some good time together, especially breakfast Saturday morning by the beach.

Been busy

CJ, the rain bringer, came up to Noosa bearing gifts for absent friends.



This weekend was the Noosa Half Mary, my duties included pacing the 1:40 crew. Katy remained back in Brizzy to work on her Uni assignments, guide our puppies astray and whatever she does when I'm not around.

But let me take a step back here ...

Wednesday we made our annual trip to the Ekka, think Royal Show, think State Fair ... the big discovery was finding out how they make those bulls so big ... IT'S ALL AIR ... we caught one getting pumped up and here is the photo to prove it.



and while we were there, we concentrated on working out what camper van we would get when we win the lottery.



Also during the week, with the inspiration of Matt and his setting up of our google group we have been able to keep our little group of more than 60 runners together. This was something Tesso was doing before she defected to Sydney (Come back Tesso, we need you).

so getting back to the half mary today .....

The first KM marker was a little further back, making our time about 30 seconds slow. This meant we were off pace early on, so I pushed through and passed a number of runners ahead running something in the 4:30s. Staying at this pace, we got ahead and landed the first half about 1 minute ahead of time. I really enjoyed yelling out and encouraging Mat, Salli, Celeste, Angie, Doug, Robbie, Eddie err Rob, Glenno, Liz, Dan, Chris, Jamesy, Keith, Craig, Carrie, Reg, John, ... and as many as I could remember as we passed on the turns. I was also doing my best to calculate my splits... 4:44 by 5 km is 5 times 4 seconds for 20 seconds add the 3 forties to get two minutes plus the 2 carry over for one twenty with the other twenty for forty and then the 4 minutes by five is twenty for twenty-two and one and forty equal to twenty three plus twenty seconds or is that forty, no it is twenty plus the one twenty so it must be forty and adds up to twenty three forty which we did around 30 seconds under, so phew that's ok, oops, we are now up to six K which is about another 4:44 so ... ummm ... "hey, Brad how are we doing?" ...

... I spend a lot of my runs doing maths.

and at the half way turn, I enjoyed being joined by a guy running right on my shoulder (not sure where he came from)... he wanted to do exactly what I was doing. I talked to him about breathing, releasing tension and monitoring his every move ..... we synched stride for stride to about the 18k mark and the I let him go ... I slowed the last 2 km, looking for whomever else I could get under the 1:40 ... my nameless buddy landed with a 1:39:30 and I congratulated him on his run. That, for me, is what pacing is all about. he was rapt and we shook hands. His appreciation made me proud for helping him.

Shortly after the run, I headed out for another solo hour to achieve my long run 2 hours 40 minutes, holding 5 min/km as the temperature dropped. I encouraged the end of the field dude from South Africa as he went about his business. It struck me how happy he was to be out there; his smile was as big as anyone on the day. While a few may have missed the expectations of improved times and felt discouraged by this, it's that big smile I like to remember

Left in charge

You couldn't see me in my last photo from Bridge to Brisbane? Did I mention the balloon?

Next week I'm pacing 1:40 at the Noosa half and down the track I'm thinking of pacing the Tour De France just to give the cyclists a hand.

I didn't know they had pacers until I noticed this guy. You might have to watch it twice, as it pretty subtle.

10 seconds

Doesn't sound much but it does make all the difference. Today I finished the week with the Bridge to Brisbane, 55 minute pacer for the 12K's. See me ....



.... that's me with the first lemon balloon in the centre about 10 rows back, level with the truck. Running around with balloons allows you pick yourself out in a crowd of 30,000.

I finished in 54 minutes and found the whole thing quite enjoyable and very comfortable, never feeling I was working hard and able to talk all the way. Had I ran 10 seconds faster per K, it might not have been the same.

I was a little disappointed with the 3K time trial earlier in the week with 11 min 13 seconds ... again 10 seconds would have made all the difference.

April 11:04, May 11:10, June 10:58, July 11:19

About the same distance this week, around 65K, and I am looking forward to the extra 20 minutes on both Wednesday and Sunday which will move me up to 1 hour 10 minutes and 2 hours 40 minutes for these runs.

I spoke to Pat after the Friday session looking for what else I should be doing. I'll keep my longer runs slow and put the effort into Tuesday and Friday speed work.

The best thing this week was how easy running 4:30 pace was today and the long 2 hour 20 minute run on Saturday. I had 15 minutes before joining Matt, Sally, Celeste and Angela for the next 2 hours. Celeste revealed how Sting would make her celerity 5 ("Friends" Season 5 Episode 6) ... when I had to name my 5, I could only think of Tea Leoni from last night's movie and Kylie, obviously for their acting and singing abilities: