Sparkie's rundiary

The optomistic comment about only missing one day with my quad was a bit short of the mark, but managed an easy 3km jog today, so things are headed back on track. The quad was actually sorer at the start than at the end, and post-jog felt better than it has been all week. However, the 5 min/km pace was a bit disconcerting, mainly because the quad is sorest at full extension, so shuffling is the prefered method of locomotion. Will try a proper run tomorrow (9km at about 4:30/km) to test things out.

Made it to the gym as promised on Monday, but only did upper body as the quad was still sore. Back tomorrow for a full-program. Much happier with my new weights routine, which for those curious is:
Alternate dumbbell curl
Dumbbell isolation curl
Dumbbell press
Dumbbell fly
Behind the neck press
Upright Rows
Lat pulldowns
Seated cable row
Deep squat
Forward lunge
Hamstring curl
Triceps pullover

All 3 sets of 10-12, except hamstring curls, which are 4 sets of 12-15.

Also received some good feedback on my blog about discus. Apparantly, spinning adds only 15% to a throw, so perfecting the release is far more important than perfecting the spin. As I dropped 3.5 metres when I focused in spinning, this makes sense, so I will be working on the basics for the three throws over the next month.

Which is now much easier as Santa dropped off a javelin, discus and shot put on Monday (along with 3 training hurdles). Speaking of hurdles - after my shocking reacquaintence with the event on Saturday, I have decided to make January "hurdle month", as this is the event(s) where I am not weakest (the throws have that honour) but am falling shortest of my potential. Plan to do two sessions a week, along with hurdling-specific stretching so my next attempt is less embarassing.

Christmas this year is at my sister's house at Dubbo. Although it gets hot, it is a dry heat, so if your stay out of the hot parts of the day, running is still great. Her property backs on to a State Forest, with lots of lovely running trails, so I am hoping to get 2-3 longer runs in while I am up there (not ideal sprint training, but a chance to relax and enjoy my running a bit - not that I don't enjoy the fast stuff).

Louis moment: Those of you between 35-45 will remember hand-held games in the early 80s called "Game and Watch". Simple but addictive, they revolved around what are (in hindsight) fairly gruesome themes - people jumping out of buildings or planes, or walking over man holes. Anyway, you had to react quickly to deal with an endless stream of objects coming your way. Now, Louis has decided that it would be helpful if he unpacked the dishwasher. You guessed it, every 2 seconds you are passed a plate and have to find somewhere to put it before the next one comes along! Finally put up the wading pool today, and spent an hour with Louis and 2 dogs in and out of it this afternoon. It's a hard life!