Almost There

I now feel no pain when I wake up or run short distances. There is just one dull pain I feel when I stretch my legs when bending over. Maybe another 7 days and I will be okay. I am excited already!

The Morning Pain has stopped

From Saturday, I can get out of bed and walk to the bathroom w/o limping so I am almost there. I have not been feeling pain during the day but each morning when I wake up, I find my leg aching when I step down. Now it is gone. I will give it some four days then I try stretching it.
I havent been very disciplined about my eating so I have piled on some four Kgs.
But thats okay pretty soon I will be back to work.
Meanwhile, IAAF says that " Monte Carlo - David Rudisha (KEN) and Blanka Vlasic (CRO) were named the Male and Female World Athletes of the Year for 2010, IAAF President Lamine Diack announced today.

Rudisha, 21, broke the World record in the 800 metres twice this season, was unbeaten in 12 contests over the distance, claimed the African title and won at the inaugural IAAF / VTB Bank Continental Cup in Split, Croatia.

Vlasic, the two-time World champion in the High Jump, added a second World indoor title to her collection this year, was unbeaten in seven Samsung Diamond League competitions, and also took the IAAF / VTB Bank Continental Cup in her hometown of Split.

"I must say that being Athlete of the Year is a tremendous performance and honour, something we all as athletes want to achieve,” said Rudisha, a former World junior champion who was nominated for the World Athlete of the Year for the first time. At 21 years, 338 days old, Rudisha is the youngest to ever be named Male Athlete of the Year.

In Berlin on 22 August, the young Kenyan clocked 1:41.09 to break the record set by Wilson Kipketer 13 years earlier. Just one week later, Rudisha broke it again, running 1:41.01 in Rieti. "After breaking two World records in one week, I was hoping to win this," Rudisha said."

Me, chillin out with my swthrt.
A

Of Machete and Amaica

I did two things last weekend which I regretted.
First off, my office buddies told me that the movie Machete was so outrageous that it was funny. That it was so ridiculous and over the top in terms of violence that you had to laugh. I quietly asked for a copy.
I was impressed that it had Robert De Niro, Steven Spielberg, Jessica Alba  and was directed by Quentin Tarantino and I was told Spielberg had a hand in it. Surely, if it has such a serious cast, it must be something, I thought.

I expected big action and over-the-top violence that is characteristic of grindhouse movies. It started as dumb and gory, which was okay but then they stopped being gory and it became idiotic and inane and built up to nothing. It just lost direction and fizzled out into poor sequences of violence. I lost one hour watching a movie that was going nowhere.
After waking up my wife, who fell asleep as soon as she saw someone using another living human being's intestine to monkey-leap from one building to another, and decided to wash away the bad taste with a fine African luhya meal.
I had seen some advertisement on TV about a restaurant called Amaica which claimed they had African traditional dishes. It is somewhere in Valley Road.
They are expensive and they serve tasteless food and the place is dead. Bereft of life or activity. Lousy music, lousy decor, lousiest food. The waiter that served us was fine though.
"No wonder the place is empty" I remarked, sensing that they are not getting repeat customers.
Dont waste your time or money going there. I wish I knew the proprietor of that place. I got robbed!
OTOH, there is a place in Koinange street called Petma. If you want healthy, delicious African food at good prices, that is the place. They can drive Kosewe out of business if they came closer to Dedan Kimathi street.
End of Rant.
A

Getting Better

I started stretching my ankle on Sunday and its better. I want to be doing that everyday until it is good before I try exercising. Meanwhile, yesterday in the NY Marathon, Haile Gebrselassie, widely regarded as the greatest distance runner of all time, pulled out of the race after 16 miles on the Queensboro Bridge suffering from a swollen right knee and then told a shocked news conference he was quitting the sport after 18 years at the top.
“I have never thought about retiring before. But for the first time, now, I think this is the day. Let me stop and do other work; let me do another job. Let me give the youngsters a chance.”

Gebrselassie arrived in New York feeling some tendonitis in his right knee and had an MRI scan on Saturday which revealed a build-up of fluid. The double Olympic 10,000m champion, and favourite to win the 41st New York Marathon, ran with the leaders for 16 miles before pulling up short as the race prepared to passed into Manhattan for the first time.

As his compatriot Gebre Gebremariam went on to win on his Marathon debut in 2:08:14, Gebrselassie headed for the medical tent and a personal decision that will rock the athletics world. 
“Of course, I’m a little bit disappointed, disappointed with myself,” he said. “I knew about this problem when I arrived in New York. I thought that it was not serious, but things happen which I can’t change.

“I don’t want to complain anymore after this, which means it’s better to stop here.

“I did really very hard training to win this race. It didn’t work. Each time I have a problem like this it’s hard, and to complain again and again is bad.

“You know how many times I complain? Before I came here I trained so hard. It’s better to stop here.

“I have no complaints. It’s better not to complain anymore.”

Goals...Focus

So the year is coming to a close and I have decided to make some goals. As a person I have learnt a lot and gown in many ways. They say you get experience when you receive what you don't expect or want so its all good. 
Anyways, I have exceeded my expectations as far as this year is concerned.
In terms of training I did better. I have just been sidelined by a non-running injury. Better financially, physically, emotionally and mentally. Plus, I am married now.

To do B4 end of 2010

1.       Visit S & L and gather more data and contacts for TFP

2.       Apply for PhD – UoN

3.       Apply for funding/scholarship/sponsorhip

4.       Apply for Helb

6.       Start Training with one aerobic session per fortnight.

2011

Start PhD

Implement TFP (this is my "Think biggest" project)

Start running six times per week.

Ressurect /Form training group and go for group runs.

April/May Sotokoto 21K under 100mins 80Kg

June Lewa 80Kgs

September Ndakaini Under 95Mins

September  Mwea 42K Under 3Hrs

October Stanchart 21K under 80Mins 76Kgs

September Open fees policy for B

Jan Start Saving for B

Save for Building

Read 20 Good Books

Connect with people. Be a better communicator. Laugh more. Be very strong and very brave.  Listen more. Care some more. Share some more. Give some more. Think. Reflect. Appreciate life. Be Gentle.

A



 

If you thought Lordosis or Sciatica are Bad...

Consider wearing a cloaking device and having someone cut you up just so that you can run again.
My running friend and blogger zerotoboston says in his latest blog post:

"You may not know this, but I’ve been injured for a while. It’s been a trying twenty-two months (so far). As one Twitteronian put it, “Man, that’s the longest groin pull in history.” I took this as a compliment. To those who have endured my interminably personal posts, comments, tweets and updates, I thank you from the bottom of my, well, you know.
Alas, my nether-regional monomania has alienated at least one woman. A long-lost friend resurfaced on Facebook to write, “Why are all your status updates about your groin? I know we haven’t talked since 1988, but I have to tell you point blank, I’ve had enough!”
Such are the vagaries of human perspective. I feel as if I’ve shown remarkable restraint on the subject. I’ll spare you the specific details of my reply. Suffice it to say, groin jokes tend to write themselves.
Obviously, I haven’t yet recovered. I run a bit, but nothing like I used to. Recently, I was sent into a near apoplectic tizzy at the prospect of an honest-to-goodness diagnosis (a sign of how far I’ve lowered my expectations). Apparently, I suffer from something called Athletic Pubalgia. Think of this as a sports hernia equipped with a Romulan Cloaking Device. For some time, I have described pain, and sophisticated medical instruments have revealed no cause.
Only through careful process of elimination and diligent reflection have my medical team (yes, team) come to the conclusion that I have the dreaded, nebulous AP. It seems surgery is the only solution. This doesn’t bother me, but can a man truly embrace a procedure called Pelvic Floor Repair?
This sounds suspiciously like home improvement. “The lateral support in these joists are shot. You need a full pelvic floor repair. Yup.”
Next thing you know, you’re constantly at Lowe’s, spending more money than Lady Gaga spends on translucent acrylic undergarments. Nothing goes as expected. Midway through the repair job, an improbable, ancient sarcophagus is found in the subfloor, necessitating a visit by the Smithsonian Institution’s artifact recovery team. The extraction causes so much damage that the contractor tells you, with no hint of empathy, that the wiring and plumbing for the entire house must now be replaced. You’ve become the manic-depressive speculator in an exceedingly disturbing, highly personal episode of Flip This House.
Yes, it’s fair to say I’m nervous about groin surgery.
But I’ll do nearly anything to solve this problem. Fellow runners understand this implicitly. Assuming my insurance company agrees that the solution to two years of chronic pain is something they might consider covering, I’ll give it a go; even if it means being strapped upside down to a medieval operating rack.
I just want to run again."