I was able to go for a bike ride during the week and coped with it surprisingly well. The knee was no problem at all, and I was actually able to push it over the 30kms, which was a pleasant surprise.

Bob and I had intended to go away for a break (to coincide with the Orange running festival), however I had a small procedure yesterday which reinforced the diagnosis that I have a sick stomach (this time), riddled with ulcers, and the side effect of the sedation and, more importantly the fasting from water for an extended period, left me feeling rather sub-par today.

I did make it into Customs as an observer though, which gave me a chance to say a sad farewell to Rick, and an all too rare G'Day to Huxley the Wonder Dog, Suze and Jodie. I hope to get out for another decent cycle on the weekend and/or a good solid walk. I don't want to test the hammie too much yet and am doing my exercises to strengthen them.

After being all happy with my Gillyness earlier in the evening, another wicket (Hussey) has fallen and so has my mood. Oh well.

After chatting with Gordon at Customs (who had the same surgeon to 'do' his ACL reconstruction a couple of months after mine), it was apparent that the hamstring harvesting to reconstruct the cruciate would weaken what remained. Everything was going fine when I was returning to running in the States, but once I was stricken by the dreaded lurgy, things went south, weakening not merely my constitution, but also the recovery of my depleted hammies; resulting in the !PING-ing each of the last few weeks.

At least on Friday, pulling up lame after 20 metres brought me to an immediate stop, instead of 'walking through it' for too long. While hobbling on Saturday, an immensely pleasurable long lunch with fellow runners on Sunday ended rather late in the evening, after a neighbour rattling sing-song ("The Runners Lament") rounding out the evening by citronella candlelight and meticulously home printed copies of "Richard's Songbook". Good Fun.

I spent the 9-odd hours sitting down, only getting up occasionally and being a little stiff. After sleeping in for my sins (even when I'm going pretty well at the moment, I still need a good 13 hours + sleep a night according to Bob), coffee with Bob at the Botanic Gardens, and a visit to the library, I used the opportunity of a stunning early autumn/late summer afternoon, and walked a slow paced lap of Lake Ginninderra, then home. I was able to keep the hamstring and knee under control, and felt as though I was developing some. Early days yet, but I can can (and will) dream!

Tomorrow it will be three months before Bob and I depart for Vietnam for our winter 2008 journey. The plans are deliberately vague and flexible.

We arrive in Ho Chi Minh City, with our bikes and laptops and as few clothes as necessary. We'll stay for a couple of days before flying north to Ha Noi, where we shall look immediately for an apartment to rent for around three months. I'm a little nervous about this, however the one's we saw when we were there were terrific and a good price, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will not be too stressful.

Apart from our Great! Nephew Sam coming over in the July school holidays for 11 days, we have no firm plans, although we hope to travel in the area, both in the north of Vietnam, into Cambodia and, ideally into southern China through to Tibet (by train). Health and all things willing it will be wonderful, and whatever comes along, we'll just play it by ear.

My thought that I had 'turned the corner' was a little premature.

Since my last post, I have had to reduce my running to walking, which then was restricted to walking on the flat and easy surfaces, as my knee was very unhappy. Two weeks ago I had to abort my Saturday 'long' coffee walk and call Bob to pick me up. My left shoulder and arm was also affected at the time, an uneasy reminder of my left sided weakness which so ailed me in years past. It was difficult to grip objects and there was a strong 'dead arm' feeling.

I was struggling walking up stairs and with any flexing of my knee for the next few days, making even basic walking around rather unpleasant. It had improved enough by the following Saturday that I attempted another walk. Unfortunately, attempt was as far as I got, with another abortion not too far into the walk, requiring a very slow and painful hobble home. I would have rung Bob again if I could, but I knew that he was sleeping off a very long and tiring running of the Cotter 20 (miler) that morning.

Another few days off then.

A visit to the doctor 10 days later, resulted in the ordering of a number of tests. By the end of the week, I thought that I could make an appearance at Customs, important as it was the farewell for Rick Hatcher, a Customs Jogger veteran who has been running the event most weeks since 1977, completing a mind boggling total of 1,177 events.

I was surprised that I felt pretty good, and started off my correct handicap of 7 minutes 15 seconds. I felt pretty bloody good when I started each footfall was slow, but very steady and I thought that this wasn't too bad afterall.

Then 20 metres down the path - PING - the hamstringy bit behind my knee went carthump. I pulled up in the dramatic fashion that sprinters do when they are tearing down the front straight at 9.8 sec/100m pace. The fact that I was doing around 8 min/km (or 48 sec/100m) pace left nothing to reduce the dramatic nature of pulling up.

Que Sera.

On the up side, I'm feeling much, much better than I was only a week ago. I wish that I was able to walk, although three or four days should be about to fix that, I hope. Otherwise I'm just keeping my head above water. I hope that I this recent improvement continues.

I've been so much slower than I had been even on my early recovery runs/races in the States last year, than it has seemed that I have just been going backwards.

Hopefully, I have "turned the corner", having gone for a decent walk on Tuesday with Bob to the Botanic Gardens for Coffee, after he had gone to the Sports Med guy for acupuncture for his shoulder, and coming back with a cortisone injection and the advice not to do any 'vigorous' exercise for a couple of days, cycling and running included. This did not impress him!

Wednesday was the PM's XI Cricket Match at Manuka Oval ~ I only had time for a 'quick' one hour walk around the bush in the evening when I got home. Thursday was taken up largely with medical stuff and I didn't get out. On Friday, we were looking after our nephew Sam today; we started off with a cycle around Lake Ginninderra, which I was delighted didn't crank up my knee at all. It has been way too stiff the last few days and my last ride with the PRB made it very unhappy indeed. However, today it wasn't bad at all, a few niggles, but that was all.

We three stopped by our favourite coffee shop at Belconnen on the way home (Camille and Richard at Hansel and Gretel's), and at the markets for bananas. Then a quick trip home to get changed and into the Customs run at lunchtime. Sam was kind enough to ride along with me the whole way, and it seemed to pick my running up a bit over what has been a really hard slog over the last few weeks. I'm not exactly burning up the track at the moment, covering the 5kms in 31 minutes 30 seconds. This would have been an all time PW only a month or two ago (with the only exceptions being when I was required to walk after operations), but although winded, I felt good and inspired.

So to summarise Plu's blog, I can only go up in my totals for the month.

Combined Walking/Jogging/Running for January 158 km
Time 25 hours 25 minutes
Average Pace 9:42 m/km

February = more running and more endurance! Fingers (still crossed)