So I started tracking the food intake, bumped up the exercise and went to it. It worked. At the moment I'm about 10kgs less than I was when I started this process back in September.
I'm travelling a lot again with my new job, but have made the commitment to myself not to fall into the traps that I did last time. So when I am away, I make sure I run. I've built up to 10k and am happy at that point. I've also been good with the food. At least when I'm away, my commute is generally about 10% of what it is at home and if I go running for close to an hour, I'm not depriving the family of my company as that's happening anyway.
This week I've been away all week. I decided on Monday that it should be 'marathon week'. No, I'm not about to run one, but I thought if I ran 10kms for four of the days that I was away I'd be close enough. Monday I managed to run in Fremantle in the evening, but wasn't prepared to back it up by running again the next morning given I was flying to Melbourne that night and not arriving until 11pm. That meant that to hit my goal I had to get up and run Wednesday morning. It hurt, but I did it. That left me two mornings to run the last 20kms before I fly home on Friday.
So this morning I set the alarm and dragged my sorry tired arse out of bed and went for a run. I can't say I really felt up to it at first, but as I got into it I nearly woke up. I say nearly, because at about 4.8kms things went horribly wrong.
After having had problems with her knees last year, Caroline keeps telling me not to overdo it so that I don't ruin mine. Add to that a history of hamstring, calf and other muscular injuries, I've been very happy with the way the body has responded to all the extra work. I mean I actually started the soccer season fitter than I've been in years, weighing less, enthusiastic and pretty much pain free. So the last thing I expected was what was about to happen. I was running along, slightly downhill, clearly not quite paying enough attention on a wet, though not overly cold Melbourne morning. I didn't quite lift my foot enough. There was a subtle variation in the bitumen foot path. The two things combined to trip me. I pitched forward headed straight for the edge of the curb.
At this point all coordination seemed to fail me as I attempted to arrest my fall without sliding along the bitumen and stripping skin from my body. I wasn't overly successful. I ended up lying in the gutter between two parked cars as water trickled past me (and under me). Now quite some years ago I managed to damage my shoulder whilst playing touch football. It felt like I'd done it again in attempting to save myself.
After a couple of moments of shock I managed to get back on my feet and stop various recording devices (hey gotta keep that run history right?) and decided that I should probably stop running and walk back to the hotel. Amazingly, my entire tumble and recovery went completely unobserved!
As I walked along I couldn't help but note that my body seemed a bit stuck in something of an Igor-esque pose with my right shoulder not only providing pain signals to let me know how it felt, but also not seeming to work quite right. After about 15 metres it slipped. I don't quite know how else to describe it. The good thing is that it felt like it slipped into its socket. So partial dislocation perhaps?
Maybe it was adrenaline, maybe just sheer bloody mindedness, but I thought about my marathon week and turned around and started running slowly again. The shoulder throbbed a bit, but at a lower speed it wasn't the end of the world. So I finished off the last 5kms of my run and then walked back to the hotel.
I can't help but think as I sit here writing this that perhaps that wasn't the smartest thing to have done. Especially as after driving one-handed from Geelong to Melbourne this afternoon I could barely lift my arm. I'm really looking forward to attempting to sleep with it.
Oh and I'm just ever so pissed about the fact that I'm staring down the barrel of missing God knows how much of the soccer season because I injured my shoulder running!
