Same Again ~~~

Pretty much like the previous two days :

3.5km walk from school through Renwick and back to the school to look in on the new calf who was draining the last few drops of milk from her mother's 'tank'!  Then across to the goats' paddock where, for my trouble, all I got was a butt in the legs from 'Bucky"!

Checking on the calf, centre trees!

A hasty retreat, some name calling and over to the soccer field where I walked today's 21 minutes...this was to give my knee a break...as in a rest!




Today....5km

"Now That's Better!" ~~~~~

...and that's what I said out loud this morning as I finished a short session without knee pain!

Walking

First, a 3km brisk walk down Bong Bong Hill and along Old South Road.  I'll increase this by 0.5km each day. Then eighteen minutes easy jogging in the soccer field.  I'll increase this by 3 minutes tomorrow.....today, all done without any pain in my silly old knee!  A good spray with "Off" kept the flies away, adding to my good humour and lower heart rate!

Jogging

About 4.6km today + 30 minutes stationary bike

That Was Awful! ~~~

...and that's what I said out loud as I finished this morning! 

I drove to the school, warm-up....walked 1km down Bong Bong hill and back up (1+1=2km!); then jogged for 15 minutes in the soccer field and finished with a few stretches.  Some pain in my knee and I won't even mention the annoying flies! Nevertheless, I'll go back tomorrow and try again, adding 3 minutes to the jog.

I Suppose!

About 3km today.

I Start Again...Next Week ~~~

It's taken the cooler change to get the swelling down and my leg back to normal.  For the coming week, start Monday, I should be OK to trot, but if not might make it every alternate day and bike instead. I'd like to have a good month in November and start a program early December.  That's the plan. We'll soon see!

Easy Again ~~~

While my knee is still a bit 'iffy', I'm walking not jogging.  This morning, from home, through Renwick and back home.  Very humid,  few drops of light rain and millions of sticky flies!  Later today, I'll do some stationary bike.

Today 45 minutes brisk walking.

Almost forgot, in my spare time today, I finished the User Manual, Samsung Galaxy S4, all 147 pages!  I understood it all too and was able to find everything that the manual mentioned, on the mobile as I went along.  A lot of its features won't be used a great deal but I found it extremely interesting working it all out and amazed at what it's capable of doing!

Staying Inside! ~~~~

...until the heat, ash and smoke lessen.  I'm not wasting time, though; I'm up to page 125 of 147 of my Samsung Galaxy S4 User Manual!!

Nothing Doing! ~~~~~

Nothing today!  Thick smoke all over the place from burning off in surrounding ranges. Staying indoors.  My eyes were sore enough yesterday.  Also, my knee is a little 'iffy'!

Since mid-day, my leg has been quite swollen, so I won't be doing anything tomorrow except, perhaps, the stationary bike.

A 'Steady' Run ~~~~

A thick bluish smoke haze right in on top of us with the surrounding ranges invisible.  Another wind change from the bush fire areas.  My eyes have been sore as a result of the smoke and ash.

This was to be an easy session this morning but I struggled!  Might be the smoke or that it's ages since I've run every day of the week  The aim was to do a 'steady' run keeping AHR between 110 and 115 bpm.
Finished with very sore eyes from the smoke.

School and surrounds
Two drills
60 minutes 'steady' run
AHR 114 bpm ....right on target!

For Today  ~~~ 60 minutes 'steady' running

All over the place!

I Have a Plan ~~~

Thanks to Ewen for answering my plea and showing me where I'm going!

For the next 3-4 weeks don't try MAF HR.  Instead:

Run easy until AHR gets to 130bpm, then walk until HR comes down to reasonable level.
Then run again until HR goes up to 130bpm
Repeat.

Alternate with steady runs at AHR 110-115
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, this morning I set off to the school anxious to try out something new and planned by someone who knows what he's talking about....except when it comes to maths!  Sorry, Ewen, couldn't resist a dig especially when it's not true!

I did the usual drills and strides first. 

Jogged around the soccer field, watching the Garmin face for AHR.  Out of the soccer field and up and down the road alongside; back into soccer field and repeat for 45 minutes and my AHR stayed on 120 bpm.  No matter what I did, it just sat there on 120 and I was dying to take a break! 

Earlier in the week, my AHR shot to 120 after a few metres of jogging easily. Well, the only thing left was to throw in a hill!  Jog down Bong Bong Road and struggle back up the steep hill.  At the top, the Garmin still had AHR 120bpm!  I was all puffed out but still hadn't had a walk break.  I had jogged for 1 hour without a stop!!  And that's where I ended for today......after the usual stretching.

15 min warm up, drills and strides
 60 min 'easy' jog
AHR 120 (76%);  MHR 145 (92%)

This morning's 1 hour jog.

I enjoyed this session mainly because I was following a plan, trying to achieve something and not just jogging aimlessly.

For today 75 minutes.

Thick blue smoke everywhere this morning with the change of wind;  must be awful where the surrounding fires are.  Thinking of all those brave people fighting them.

Patience! ~~~

I'm to need a lot of that in the days and weeks ahead!  Bored with the soccer field, I took the road to Renwick, my old training ground, and was faced with wind, dust and  bits of branches all aimed in my  direction. Along the streets in Renwick, there were all the old up hills and downhills and everything in between; all this proved one thing ...just how unfit I am!  Three months off is going to take a long time to to make up for and I need something I don't have a lot of....patience!

My heart rate soared after a very short time so I stopped and walked till it dropped again, and did this repeatedly.  I kept thinking of the Phil Maffetone heart rate method and reminded myself to have a look at it when I got home.  I did and very surprised at what I found.  Here it is :  180 minus my age; minus another 5 beats after coming back from an injury :  180 - 84 = 96 - 5 = 91.  Maffetone advises aerobic training anything 10 beats below this, but better at the top of the range.

During this morning's 45 minutes, my AHR was 116 bpm and my MHR 135 bpm. and that was with walk breaks when heart rate reached anything over 120 bpm.  91 bpm seems like I'll have to walk and crawl to keep HR down!  Can anyone help, comment?  Blowed if I know what to do! Maybe just keep on doing what I'm doing and things will improve.

From school to Renwick and back.

 Few Magill drills and strides
45 minutes easy jogging
Stretches.

Today  ~~~   60 minutes

On the Road Again ~~~

Well, some on the road!  Just a little bit, to see how my knee would handle a hard surface...and also I'm bored running around the soccer field every day.  Looking at the map, I not only ran around the school, soccer field and  road, but it seems I hurdled over all the buildings as well!  Rad had better watch out!!

Jumping over roof tops is such fun!

I did the usual Magill drills and then 45 minutes easy jogging.  Perfect weather: warm, cool breeze.  I feel that I'm improving a wee bit each day now.  And my knee is just fine!


60 minutes.

Same as Yesterday ~~

At the school soccer field  :  Walk around to warm up; some Magill drills and strides (very slow ones!); 40 minutes easy jogging; walk around to cool down; stretches to finish with.

 A brilliant morning to be out, even if it's only called jogging at this.  So,....thanks to the friends who encouraged me since June to get back into again!

At Last, a Start!

After 6 weeks recovering from an arthroscopy, I made yet another start back this morning with instructions from the orthopedic surgeon to stay on soft grass surfaces for a few weeks, and so I made my way to the Highland School's soccer field to see if I'd remember how to jog. 

First, a few Magill drills with strides between, followed by 40 minutes of slow, easy jogging !  A cool to cold morning and I hadn't forgotten.....plan is to do the same easy jogging each day for a few weeks on grass and see where I go from there.

Was it good to be moving again?  Yes, it was!!
About 60 minutes all together.

Where I jogged this morning.

Ta & gnome

Well, there you go, Gnomie, I've worked it out! Posted from my smart phone. Hope you're impressed!

Edit to add :  Have found the Google Blogger App and it seems to be the best one to use, but I'd still rather post from my PC when it's available.

The Only News for My Blog .......

I have a smart phone!!!  My first smart phone!  The new Samsung Galaxy S4!  And I'm thoroughly gob-smacked!!

I can't believe what it can do.....it can do everything and then some!

I've downloaded the PDF file of the User Manual...all 147 pages of it! In the past 4 days I've followed every page, every step...and I'm still only up to page 88!!  I went into the Telstra shop this morning to tell the especially nice and helpful assistant how pleased I was and what fun I was having.  He couldn't believe I was working my way through the full version of the user manual; apparently most don't bother, but I think it's the only way to find out all the amazing things this piece of wonder can do!  I know I won't use many of the apps etc but what fun finding out how they all work!  Millions if features just for the camera alone!!

I should be through all 147 pages by the time the next model is released, although...these days new models seem to arrive almost the next day!

In the meantime.....back to the manual!

Oh, nearly forgot : I can start light jogging next week on grass surfaces...6 weeks after arthroscopy on my left knee.

Now....back to the Samsung Galaxy S4, User Manual, page 89! 

Mine is black!

Another Three Weeks ~~~

I saw the Orthopedic surgeon today, three weeks after an arthroscopy, and now I must wait another three weeks before returning to running!  A little disappointed, but as he explained, though surgery takes only about 30 minutes and my recovery is excellent, the surgery itself is still quite big.  It was a large tear in the medial meniscus and needed to be cut out, not repaired.  So....patience is the way to go for now, later jogging on grass and after six weeks, all being well, I should be able to return to hard surfaces.

Hey, Old Friends!

Ruth and Ewen drove from Canberra yesterday for a belated 84th birthday lunch for me! Who's like them?  Darned few!!

We lunched at Gilberts in Mittagong - baked vegetable loaf and feta with salad.....really good!  Though it was getting late by the time we finished all the 'catching up 'chat, we found time for me to show them the Highlands School, the goats and new calf (born just 24 hours previously), all of which I write about so often here.

From there, we drove down the road to the new Renwick development (also much written about here), and looked through all the display homes.  We were suitably impressed with the latest in modern housing, except that all shower recesses were deemed too small by Ewen! Oh, and there had to be 2 basins in the en suite, not just one!  We each agreed on the same home as our favourite...very modern but homey.

It was a most pleasant day and I thank them both for driving all the way from Canberra....not to omit the flowers and Ruth's yummy chocolate brownies!!  Two down, six to go!!

At Lunch - Ruth, Me, Ewen

Born Today ~~~

"Look!  I'm walking!"

Exhausted, after just one day!

"Daisy-May" gave birth today to a baby girl calf!  I was at the school just an hour or so after her birth and watched her struggle to her feet and then attempt to run around with 'Mother' in hot pursuit! So funny and amazing to observe the start of a new life!

New baby calf!  for 'Daisy-May'!

 Mother's Love!

I'm Walking! ~~~~~

My first 'proper' walk today, 8 days after arthroscopy; some puffing on the hilly sections; from home to school and back.  I could feel that my knee hasn't properly healed yet and no way would I have been able to include any jogging.  I called in at the school and had a chat to 'Bucky' and 'girl friend', brushed their coats, sat in the sun for a short time and walked back home.  Windy, cooler; good to be at last able to walk!

"Excuse me, don't you think we'd look good on top of a wedding cake?"
"You make me laugh!  You silly old  Billy!"

4km today....and each day for the rest of this week.

Time with the Goat Family ~~~~~

This is "Bucky"

This is "Bucky's" future bride & 2nd wife!

"Bucky", a fine example of a goat!

This is "Bucky's" first wife and kid!

Dating & "Getting to know you!"
Bucky & future wife.

"The First Family"

l to r.  Buckey, Uncle Goat, Bucky's kid and first wife!

The whole family of goats!