From the moment I told my daughter Ruby about her guest blog tonight, she has been so excited to answer everyone’s questions. But then I made the mistake of using my phone on video to record the interview. If I could post the video, all you would see is 3 minutes of her making faces into it and giving me 1-2 word answers instead of her usual can't-shut-her-up responses d’oh! However, I will spare you all the footage, as it’s from an angle that goes right up her nose lol So without her introduction, here is Ruby Pink Cat’s first blog post on her thoughts on running and Ruby. _______________ Me: So thank you for joining me tonight Ruby Pink Cat, how are you tonight? Ruby: Good *sticks tongue out* Me: You ready for your questions? Ruby: Uh-huh *opens her mouth up wide and giggles* Me: OK, so tell me a bit about yourself? Ruby: I like Barbie dolls, I play with teddy bears, I like pink and I like cats. Me: Great – anything else? Ruby: *shakes head then laughs at herself shaking her head* Me: Why do you like running? Ruby: Because my mum goes and runs Me: And what is your favourite part of running? Ruby: When we go to the finish line Me: Who is the fastest runner in the family? Ruby: ME! *bounces up and down* Me: What is your favourite thing to do to get ready for a run? Ruby: Get dressed into matching clothes that my mum is going to wear Me: Where do you get the matching clothes from? Ruby: Pink Punk (insert shameless plug here - ps this is not a paid advertisement lol) Me: What colours make you run faster? Ruby: Blue? (huh? what happened to pink?) Me: What food do you think helps you to run faster? Ruby: I think water (good choice!) Me: What is your favourite post run snack? Ruby: Um, caramel lollies! Me: Who is the better runner, mummy or daddy? Ruby: Mummy (yeah!) Me: How many Barbies do you have? Ruby: 67 and 6 little ones Me: What else do you do for fun? Ruby: I play with my best friend Layla Me: Anything else? Ruby: *shakes head* (who is this kid? she's never been this quiet in her life!) Me: What do you think your mum should do so that she can run faster? Ruby: Put on running boosters (interesting... note to self – google running boosters!) Me: Tina asks – can you suggest anything that she can do to make her kids like running? Ruby: She could tell them to run, and they could get matching clothes and give them running shoes. Me: Reece asks – what are you going to write on your sign for him when he runs the marathon to motivate him? Ruby: Um, Go (very motivating) Me: Anything else? Ruby: Reece? (so other people don't get any ideas about using our signs for motivation) And finally, can you please show us your running face...
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So for those that have been following my page will know, I have been battling a knee injury sustained in Up the Buff and made worse on a trail run on Good Friday. After going overseas and battling through without any improvement, I finally booked in to see my beloved physio Dave Coombs and was diagnosed with an ITB strain.
I’ll be honest, the diagnosis absolutely devastated me. This was not supposed to be how this year went down. I’ve never had ITB issues before but from all the horror stories out there, I was freaking out. I think it kind of went something like this… Dave: So what did you do this time? Me: Um, well it started hurting during Up the Buff, and then I may have gone for a 20km trail run on Good Friday. It started hurting at 6km but I thought it would be ok so I kept running. Then I fell over and smashed it on a rock. It then hurt whether I walked or ran, so I sprinted the 8km back to my car. Dave: *shakes head* Me: sorry :( Dave: *pokes and prods around making me scream and swear and want to punch him* does that hurt? Me: YES, OMFG yes, stop it! Aaargh fuck why are you so mean?!? Dave: You have an ITB strain in your knee. And some slight swelling from where you smashed it on the rock. Me: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Dave: It’s fairly minor at this stage. But yes, that reaction is why we need to take it seriously and address it now so it doesn’t carry on for the next 18 months. Me: Right. So, racing the next 2 weekends is out then? Dave: *shakes head again* Lucky for me, Dave and I have been working together for a few years now so he knows me very well lol But, I have promised him that I will listen to absolutely everything he says this year AND follow all instructions. I am super great with listening, however not so great with the following instructions part *cough* running Coastal High 50 last year injured *cough cough* Now prior to this happening, I had grand plans for this year for my training and races. My big races this year are GCAM full marathon, Coastal High 50 and Blackall 100. As I don’t get to do a lot of long runs because of, well life in general, I had planned to register for a number of long trail races, building up the distance as I went, and using them simply as training runs. I completed the Gold Coast Trail Series and Up the Buff, the next one was to be 35km at Numinbah to Pollys on 24 April. Clearly this isn’t going to happen now. Dave wrote me an email that said “have no fear, ITB will settle – you just need to be patient and keep your eyes on the prize for CH50”. After crying from frustration over yesterday’s dismal attempt at going for a comeback run, I used my lunch time boxing bootcamp session to box away some of what I was feeling and came out of it with bleeding knuckles, shaking arms and a new sense of feeling alive. So this morning, I came to the decision of re-evaluating my original goals and training plans. I have made the decision to withdraw from my next 2 races and to not run the full marathon in July, instead focusing on fully recovering from my injuries and building on my training for CH50 and Blackall instead. Although it wasn’t an easy decision to make and I didn’t come to it lightly, the moment I made the decision I felt instant relief. Without realising it, I must have been subconsciously stressing about the marathon for some time now. With each run that doesn’t end how I expected it, there’s a piece of my mind going “don’t think that’s going to get you over the line at the marathon” and “if you can’t run XYZ now, how will you run the marathon and the trails?” Sometimes I really hate my mind lol Now I still have something to prove to myself with the GCAM and a time to beat, however 2016 will not be that year. I have to accept that as much as I think I am Superwoman and can do everything (nah, I KNOW I am Superwoman… after all, have you seen Superwoman and I in the same room together? No, well then… boom boom!) I don’t have to do everything at once and it will be better for everyone involved (read: my poor family and friends!) if I focus on fewer things instead. Rather than continue to battle on injured or start stressing about my declining training (major de ja vu to last year!!!) and end up doing everything only half arsed, I will give all my focus to a) repairing b) increasing strength training and body conditioning c) increasing my distances slowly but efficiently and d) completing both races to the best of my ability. To assist with this, I have just signed up with a new personal trainer which I am super excited about, to help me get back on track to being injury free and running again. In conjunction with regular visits to Dave to develop my new long term training plan, as well as regular massages. Hmmmm this running hiatus is actually sounding really nice right about now lol After all, I’m not getting any younger and if I hope to have a snowball’s chance in hell at completing larger races like Ultra Trail Mont Blanc in a few years, I can’t get keep sweating the small stuff :) Now, I am not always this calm, sensible or logically minded so please remind me of these feelings of relief and positive attitude when I start to cry about missing out on GCAM ok!! And to Dave, thank you. You hurt me greatly and there are days when it takes every bit of my energy not to cry or punch you or both, but thank you. I will try not to swear too much in future. Note, I said try, not promise lol #myphysioisbetterthanyours So it's been 12 days since good Friday when I hurt my knee. I've attempted to run twice and both times my efforts were thwarted and cut short. I'm miserable, frustrated as all hell and frankly, bloody pissed off!
I hate that my self worth is connected to my ability (or inability) to run. When things are going well, I feel on top of the world. But as soon as something happens, I get so upset and angry with myself, and start to berate myself every single time. I try to stay positive and think of the good things, blah blah blah, but mostly it's just not fucking fair! I injured myself greatly last year and still pushed through to finish my race. Not my smartest decision of course and not recommended at all. I promised my physio and myself that I would not do that this year, that if I got injured I would stop and take the time to recover. Which is great in theory but I'll be honest, part of me agreed to that only because I naively thought that I wouldn't get injured again this year. I mean I'm doing everything right this time AND following advice - strength training, different tempo runs, building up slowly and not going out too hard. So now, why the fuck has this happened again??? I don't know what I did to my knee on good Friday, as we've been away overseas ever since so I couldn't get it checked out. It had started to hurt towards the end of Up the Buff, and they always ache after races. About 6km in on good Friday it started niggling, I should have turned around but stupidly/stubbornly thought it would settle down. It didn't. Heading back with 8km to go, I slipped crossing a water patch and smashed the same knee down hard on the rock. By that point it was hurting the same whether I ran or walked, so I basically sprinted back to my car so it was less time out there. It hurt like a mofo for at least a few days, walking downstairs made it worse. I thought originally that it was my patella tendon again like I did last year in the opposite knee, but as the time has gone on and I've attempted to run on it again, the pain is in a different spot. So now I feel like it's de ja vu all over again, and I'm so angry. Angry at the world, angry at myself, angry at my husband (Mr-I-never-get-injured grrrrr). I have been berating myself constantly for the last 12 days, going over what I did or should've done, questioning what's going to happen. I'm 19 days from my next trail race, 35km along the Numinbah to Pollys track. I'm meeting with my physio when I get home from Thailand, but I'll be honest it's not looking good for me to be on that starting line. Which is devastating me. I know it shouldn't be all about the running, I've had the talks with my psychologist, I "know" all the things that I should be thinking and feeling. But right now, I don't. It's fucked up that it feels like history repeating itself. I'm pretty sure if I went back over messages with my mate when we were training for our first full marathon together, I'd be reading almost word for word the same kind of messages about how pissed off I am over my latest injury. It's times like this I question whether I am actually cut out to be a runner, or whether this is the universes way of trying to stop me. Now this would usually be the time I put on my stubborn pants and say well fuck you universe, just watch me. But my physio made me pack those pants away dammit! Fingers crossed we come out of our next session with a game plan! I'm telling myself to focus on the big long term goals here - Coastal High 50 and Blackall 100. The little stuff in between shouldn't matter right? I think I'll go have another cocktail by the pool bar in Phuket instead to make me forget about my pain and frustration lol Sorry for the long rambling poor-me vent, I tried to vent to my husband but he just doesn't get it so you're all stuck with me instead. Ha ha. |
AuthorHi, I'm Rhiannon and welcome to my blog. I'm not an elite athlete and I may never win any races, but I'm a "real" runner, juggling work, family and life to achieve my running goals. Archives
October 2020
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