I’ve been having pain in my shoulder and arm during the past last week. It’s been causing me some discomfort, and after spending this weekend carefully studying all the sport on TV, it has forced me to go and see a physio. Once I get the cast off, (see countdown timer) I have to go to a physio, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to get the shoulder checked out, and see what the physio’s like etc.
Turns out that pain has got nothing to do with my arm or shoulder, the pain was coming form my neck and back, referring the pain. It was most likely caused by use of the crutches, as I have to climb 3 stories to get into my flat. So a bit of massage, some exercises, and the pain in my shoulder went away almost immediately. The pain in my upper right arm however has hung around. I’ve found that it’s almost directly linked to my posture, if I slouch in a chair, the pain sets in straight away. Lying on my back - no pain. Standing with curved back - pain. Sitting straight - no pain. Slightly worrying, thought I guess it’s my body’s way of sounding like my mother,”Sit up straight!”
A while back, I set up a Google Custom Search Engine of running blogs, giving me the ability to search only running blogs. It was just something I find useful, but now it’s about time that I posted about it. So when searching for running related topics, it only shows you results from running blogs. For example, compare the results for the query “Polar S625X” on Google and on my Blog Search Engine. Google shows results around purchasing a Polar S625X, where as the Blog Search Engine shows runner’s opinion of it. There are many othr ways where it proves useful.
You can search it by either entering your query into the sidebar on the right, or by going to http://www.comradesblog.com/blogse. At the moment, there are over 1800 blogs being searched by the blog search engine, but there are many more running blog out there. So if you’re willing help out finding more running blogs, click here, then click volunteer. I will approve your application straight away. If you want code to put it on your site, let me know we can sort something out there as well. The idea is to provide something useful to the running blog family, so if you have any suggestions, please add a comment or email me. My email is andsmit at gmail.com.
Over half way now, I have just over 19 days left in the cast. The foot is feeling great, pain has almost gone completely so it’s simply an inconvenience. It’s weird, I can remember walking, just can’t remember what it feels like to be able to walk. It’s like when you’re sick, you know you’ve been healthy before, you just can’t remember what it feels like to be healthy. Well that’s how I feel about it anyway.
While I’m a cripple, I’m recapping some of the races I took part in last year.
After getting my first race under my belt, my confidence was creeping up, and the next race on the list was the VWS 10km Trail Run on the 7th of May 2006. VWS stands for the Volunteer Wildfire Services, who assist with the combating of fires in the Cape Peninsula. The race was organised to raise awareness and some much needed funds. There was a choice to run either a 25km or a 10km, but the 25km wasn’t an option for me at the time, and being trail race it promised to be quite tough.
Below is a map of the route, although it only adds up to 8km, so I must have left out a bit. It still gives an idea though:
The race started at the parking lot at the bottom of Tafelerg rd on Table Mountain. The field was small, approximately 200 runners for the 10km. I managed to get myself to the front of the pack, so when we started I was right up at the front. We ran up Tafelberg rd then turned off the road, onto the jeep track. At this point I was third of fourth. The race from then was extremely tough, but the views were fantastic. The sight of the sun rising over Cape Town, while you’re racing along, is why I love running on Table Mountain. The hills were certainly tough, but you also had to keep your concentration going down the hills, as the gravel was quite loose and you could easily fall.
Eventually we toiled up the last hill and back onto Tafelberg rd. At this point I was about 4th, but absolutely exhausted, and was passed by 3 runners on the way to the finish. I finished the race in 47:45, a time I was quite happy with, considering the hills. My average heart rate of 177 showed how hard I worked. I remember battling to walk for several days after the race, another indication of how tough it was.
For a bit of fun, I’ve always had a countdown clock in the sidebar, showing how many days, minutes, hours and seconds I have left until Comrades 2007. Then when it was clear I wasn’t going to make Comrades 2007, I changed it, so that it showed the time until Comrades 2008. Comrades is a goal, but a long term one. I have a number of short term goals, and I’ll be adjusting the clock to show these. My first goal? To walk again. 28 days and counting…
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