Training Log Archive: ndobbs

balls

desert running again. tired going out, only had 20 mins to run which was all I was planning anyway before the chilenos were arriving for dinner. Made it up to the horizontal trail (5mins uphill) ran along it a couple of minutes then Twang. Bloody right foot again, first one in well over a week. Decided to jog back down straight. Going travelling this weekend, probably with a fair bit of hiking, so didn't fancy a trip to hospital.

fed up with this. Especially as there's nothing I'd like more than a three hour run into the hills... it's wild once you leave the coast.

C • fun 3

C • WOC 3

Desert running
Up the hill from the apartment, around to the other side, admired the red hills at sunset, then back down another route to explore and to buy some water...

Possibly more uphill (partly in sand) than sensible, but my legs seem to have held up and it was glorious :)

Tried out running for the first time in a long while. Hopefully if I build it up gradually the problems will not come back. Rt calf feels dodgy, foot tendon hasn't acted up in the past week.
Here's hoping!

went up into the desert, a quarter the way up the hill I walked up earlier in the week, then across on something resembling a trail.
About where I planned to trun back there was a compound with some water tank and buildings... as I got close, dogs started barking. Happily there wqas a closde gate to protect me, as I had heard many stories by now of hungry man-eating dogs in the desert. Went another few metres and the dogs raced off to the other side of the compound, where there was an open gate. I skedaddled!

Going mad here.

Walked out of the apartment, started going down the stairs but on the second step my right calf went sore, like back when I had the (I think) Achilles problem... feels like it might be a slight tear or something, was ok after walking a little, hopefully if I stretch it tonight and sleep on it it'll be alright tomorrow. There goes the plan of jogging this evening.

Over 35 earthquakes since I arrived, none in the weeks before. Am I too fat?

More pics uploaded to
http://picasaweb.google.com/neil.dobbs

Hill-walk up the desert from my new accommodation. Coming down was fast!! Photos later.

Foot is starting to feel better I think. Hopefully I'll be back jogging regularly again soon. Getting lots of maths done in the meantime.

Gentle strength and massaging of the foot every other night for the past while. The 14hr flight last Sunday/Monday didn't do it any favours. Done a reasonable amount of walking since leaving Poland.

After 5 aftershocks yesterday afternoon and a couple during the night I didn't notice, had another few earthquakes today, one of them a 6.8.

I'd start getting blasé only they're so bloody freaky :)

Got some of my own photos of the Radisson today and the cars it mashed. Will down- and up-load them this evening if poss.

I've finally started posting photos on the web:
http://picasaweb.google.fr/neil.dobbs

The Radisson is in Antofagasta. Kind of funny that Scandinavians are worse than locals at building... ;p

What a welcome! Arrived in Antofagasta the night before, first day in the university. I was trying unsuccessfully to get into the bathroom in the maths department when the walls started shaking. I figured initially someone was erasing a blackboard on the other side and the walls were flimsy but as the intensity increased, that didn't make sense. The realisation slowly dawned on me the whole building was shaking and the only thing it could be was an earthquake. I looked into the classroom where the worried professor was making hopefully calming gestures at her students. I decided to get out, possible not the best of ideas but there was a nice external stairs without buildings above it, so it wasn't the worst of places.

Despite lasting for almost a minute and being one of the biggest (7.7 at the epicentre, maybe 6+ here) locals had felt in a long time, it did surprisingly little damage. Brick buildings built on bedrock are apparently pretty stable. The front awning of a hotel, made of concrete, did collapse crushing three expensive cars parked in front, which looked pretty cool :)

In Bartek's office, all the notes and books had fallen from the shelves and were in a huge pile on the floor.

We also had maybe 5 aftershocks, one of which was also pretty impressive, 5.5 at the centre.

There was no electricity all afternoon, got some back for a couple of hours in the late evening, then it went again. It came back at six in the morning, as I realised when the main bedroom light came back on. Doh.

PS the locals are much more afraid of a drop of rain than of earthquakes!!!
PPS Apparently I was white as a sheet afterwards (although most people here would say I'm white as a sheet all the time!).

C • Chile 5

is this my shortest ever training jog?

anyway, I've decided to start low and increase gradually, which possibly means skipping the race in Fontainebleau on sunday, which would be a shame as I have been looking forward to it for a while...

C • Scremhifs? 1

Wisla

last serious twang was two days ago, some tingles since, decided to try out the feet and the Mizuno X10s.
Shoes seemed ok
Feet still start feeling strange/weak after about 15 mins... not better yet