February 2006 Archives

I got a new toy today ... currently busy charging, I can't wait to take it out and play. :)

On Wednesday morning I felt a numb thumping in my head. I didn't know what it was, but by evening, it had developed into a full-blown migraine. A really bad one. On Thursday morning I woke up and still had a dull headache, so I took one of my prescribed tablets and went to work.

Working with the leftovers of a migraine is obviously not something I like to do since I permanently work with computers (then again, there are very few that work in offices that don't nowadays). By noon the migraine from the previous day was back in full force. And worse.

I phoned Andy and he met me at work so we could go grab a bite to eat. Afterwards he drove behind me all the way home and once home I just lay on the couch with a cold facecloth on my head. By 7 o' clock I was going through patches where I lost my sight, felt increasingly ill and at some stage I think I wished to die (although that's a bit fuzzy at the moment). I couldn't fall asleep, but once I did, I slept like a log.

This morning I have that dull headache again. I'm thinking of just calling in sick, although there is really urgent work that needs to be done by the end of today.

Migraines are no fun. :(

... came to England.

This morning when I woke up I did a few things. I firstly got up and made myself some coffee. Then I found the papers that I was supposed to revise and sat down on the daybed in the spare room. I peeked at the laptop and figured it wouldn't hurt to open up bloglines and first read a few blogs (notice that I'm trying to avoid the revision...). I then had to write a blog entry myself (not wanting to only read and not write). By then my coffee was cold, so I had to make a new cup and only then did I start any revision.

Before I knew it, I had to get ready to leave and by 9:20 when I walked into the testing centre to take the last of my MCSD.NET exams, I wished that I hadn't read the blogs and instead revised.

It turns out I didn't really need the revision and I passed :)

The rest of the day consisted of working hard, watching the rain, listening to the rain and wishing that it would stop raining in time for me to go for a run.

When I got home, it was freezing and wet outside, but the rain had stopped and I had no excuse. Andy felt like going for a run as well, so both of us started out on a really easy run. For some reason every single car tonight felt that they needed to scare us with their headlights even though we weren't in their way and perfectly visible (according to us). I was blinded a couple of times, but was enjoying the fresh air that the rain had brought with it and not about to let the cars spoil my night.

After the run I sat on the bike, peddling while listening to some podcasts and feeling utterly lazy. I'm in need of some sleep, this I know - I only got about 4 hours of it last night. So off I go... to drift to the land of weightless sleep... while outside... it is raining yet again.

Yesterday morning the rain came pouring down and the 4C weather made me want to stay in bed the whole day. There was an 8K to run though, and it wasn't going to happen while I was in bed. So I got up (rather lazily around 2PM) and with Andy on the bike next to me, started jogging out towards Bull Hill Lane.

About 500m from home I heard a sliding/skidding sound and looked around. Andy somehow managed to slip... on the bike. He waved me on and I kept going until about a km into the run when he finally caught up with me.

Now, the day was cold and there was a lot of cold moisture in the air. My hands felt frosty as I clinged to my MP3 player (the iPod needed some charging) and huffed and puffed around the road. I was doing the same course that I did 4 weeks before (while Andy went to play golf with Adas), but backwards this time. Andy must've felt a little lost until we got to the farmyard where we normally turn around from the other side.

At this stage I was running comfortably at 5'40" per km and enjoying listening to the music and in a way "being alone with my thoughts". The course is only about 7km - when I got to the point that I could just go straight home or turn onto the cloud trail I naturally followed the route of the cloud trail and managed to find just about every person with a dog on it. I barked hello to every single one of them as I passed them and just hoped that none of them had misbehaving dogs that would be chasing me down the trail.

With 50m to go, there was a hill. I shook my head and turned around. There was NO way that I was finishing my run on a hill. Absolutely no way.

Afterwards I had about a 2km walk home, but Andy felt like jogging and instead gave me the bike which I happily peddled home.

I enjoyed the run and there was no pain / discomfort in either of my legs. :)

Another 11 weeks to go!

Last night I was going to go for a 5km run with Andy accompanying me on the bike. I arrived home and he wasn't there. He sent me a text to let me know that he was going to help one of the neighbours with an IT related problem. I set about making some supper while I was waiting for him, but when he still hadn't come back 40 minutes later, I decided that more action was in order.

I was heading out the door just as he came through it. I quickly directed him in the general direction of the food and ran out the door, got in my car, and 10 minutes later I was at the leisure centre. At first I thought that I had missed the club. Then one by one, the other members arrived. I saw Victoria and Cheryl and as they mentioned they were only doing 3 miles, figured that they were the ones to stick to.

The run itself was a very social affair. We chatted and gossiped and laughed and nearly got run over by a car that would have claimed he couldn't see us despite our reflector vests. The fact that we were on the sidewalk wouldn't have made a single bit of difference to him.

The 3 mile run turned into a 5 mile run.

Over the last 3 km we seemed to push the pace more - by the time we finished we were happily out of breath. A good stretch later I finally could go home.

Once home, I had a bit of supper, before I suddenly just felt by whole body falling asleep. I was sitting in my chair, about to blog. The next moment I felt my eyes closing, I felt my body going into hibernate mode. I stumbled to bed and crawled under the duvet. The next thing I know, I was fast asleep and I only woke up when Andy had to leave for work this morning.

I guess the lack of sleep (nothing severe, just me getting to bed an hour later than I would like to) finally caught up with me.

Today is a rest day. I have no exercise planned and I very much suspect that I am going to have another early night tonight.

Happy Valentines Day!

Tonight I did my first interval workout in literally ages. The plan called for 5 X 400m and that was what I was going to do - despite the fact that I had to be at a friend's house at 7. It was going to be close.

Now, there is a track at the local leisure centre - which is the closest track to me. But there are no sources of light, and since it doubles up as a rugby field, there are two major considerations before I go there. (1) I might run into the rugby goal posts and (2) I might step into a hole caused by said poles or some rugby players. During the weekend I was trying to figure out how I could do my intervals without having to put my ankles at risk.

I found a nice flattish piece of road and with some rough calculations figured that with my warmups, I'd be able to do the intervals and finish just before a murderous little hill that would take me back towards home.

I warmed up for 15 minutes and felt my hands froze. I forgot my gloves at home, but since it was mild and it was only the start of my run, I figured it would warm up soon enough. I got to the flat part of the road just as my warmup was finishing and felt quite happy with my calculations.

And so the intervals started.

I ran the first four 400s in 1'45", 1'40", 1'47" and 1'46" respective and as I was taking my "rest jog" after the fourth one, realisation struck me. My calculations were off and I was going to be halfway up the hill when I had to start my last 400.

So the last 400 was run in 2'11".

Afterwards my leg felt like jelly as I jogged back home.

I made it to my friend on time and even got home relatively early. Now to feel that lactic acid sink in....

I woke up this morning when the alarm went off. I specifically put it in another room last night because I wanted to ensure that I was going to get out of bed and get some exercise. I didn't count however, on Andy getting up and fetching the alarm the moment it went off.

My mind nudged my body.

"Wake up. You need to get some exercise."

My body ignored my mind. My mind nudged again. My body rolled over and went back to sleep. My mind yelled and my body silenced it by closing my eyes and drifting back into dreams.

When eventually my mind convinced my body to get up, it was time to go to work. The exercise that was supposed to be done this morning was not going to happen unless it was happening tonight. Once I woke up though, I wanted to kick myself for not getting up.

At 17h15 one of the sales consultants gave me a call - he had trouble configuring one of the pieces of software that he has to demo tomorrow. Oh joy, I was going to have to work past 17h30, which meant that after hitting peak hour traffic, I'd arrive at home after 18h30 and probably not get out for the run. That'd teach me!

Luckily Andy agreed to come with me. Him on the bike, me on my own two feet.

The first km felt like heaven. After getting a scare last week (my right leg was in pain after 300m of slow jogging), I felt thankful that there were no feelings of unease, no feelings of pain... just a lovely rhythm with each step that fell onto the tar. In the dark I couldn't see where I was going, but the light on Andy's bike gave me a bit of safety from possible pot holes taking my ankles as victims. After 4km there was 1km of flat road left to go. I picked up the pace because I could and once I was finished, the feeling of satisfied tiredness took its rightful place in my body.

We walked home and while Andy cooked food, I cycled for 20 minutes and stretched.

Its good to feel this way again :)

There was no running this week. After feeling hurt on Monday, I took it easy and just rested, but right now, I'm starting to feel like I REALLY need to run. I'm starting to suffer from running withdrawal and at night I lie awake with too much energy to sleep. My leg feels good today though, and I might attempt a short run tonight once Andy has come home.

This week was the first week that I could notice that summer is coming closer. When I left for work there was light, and leaving work wasn't as dark as it was last week. It was by no means light, but it was lighter than it was the previous few weeks. Pretty soon it'll be light when I get home and the runs won't all be on road, but on the trail again.

There's less than three months now until the Shakespeare Half Marathon :)

I'm looking forward to the training that will lead up to the race. Someone at the club told me that it is a really nice race to run. Of course, it won't be as much fun if I'm too unfit to enjoy it. :)

On Monday night I wanted to go out for a run and I thought that since it wasn't that cold and my legs felt okay, things would be lovely. After 160m my legs however had another story to tell.

A stinging pain shot up from my ankle through my calf, around my knee and up again, ending in my hip. An excruciating pain that wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to carry on running.

I walked a few paces and then tried again. It wasn't going to go away. I thought that I should follow my own advice and turned around, wobbled back home and spent the rest of the night on the sofa.

Yesterday I didn't even attempt to run and a stiffness has taken hold of my knee. I did some stretches yesterday and this morning and I'm wondering whether I should try running tonight and if it hurts again, go see someone to find out what happened to my "healthy legs".

There's something about running that makes me happy. For the past few weeks I've been going through a rough patch called homesickness, but after every run I take, I feel that life is good.

A lot of fellow South Africans that live in the UK (and US) mention that after they've been back for a holiday in South Africa, home sickness come to camp out on their doorsteps once they're back here. Whether it is the lack of sunshine, warmth or just good old biltong and beskuit, no-one knows. There is only the guarantee that this illness will keep you company should you leave for a foreign country again.

For some a cure never arrives. For the other lucky ones, another holiday is sure to bring a relapse.

I'm not sure whether I'll find a cure, but for now, running is my sanity.

Yesterday was the last day of January and after taking a short run to loosen up I looked back upon the month with some satisfaction as I had reached the goal that I set for myself.

January :
Goal : 67km
Distance : 67.36km
Time Spent : 06 h 43 m 12 s (5:59/km or 9:38/mile)

It could've been more, but my legs still felt a little sore after the run on Sunday and I just wanted to loosen them. Then I added up the kilometers in the training plan for February and came to my next goal : 105km for February. This starts with a club run tonight.