Some good, some bad…

The good news this week was the physio has effectively signed me off. I can go forth and run lots more miles (within reason) as long as I stick to the extra stretching and no long runs on consecutive days.

The bad news is I felt rough on Sunday and gradually felt worse as the week progressed and now have a chest infection, so as quickly as I was given the green light to start training properly again, I’ve had the rug pulled from under my feet. I’m now dosed up on antibiotics and have no desire to get out of bed let alone go out for a run.

This whole marathon training season is getting an increasing feeling of deja vu about it – remember the plantar fasciitis and constant cold? Well we’re here again at about the same time as last year but with the slightly more serious achilles tendonitis.

I had worked out a plan to get me up to 20 miles by the time of the Oakley 20 at the end of March but will now need to rejig that as am running out of weekends! Anyone up for a few mid week 16 milers?

It’s been a while – so here’s an update!

I haven’t blogged since July, mainly because I haven’t had much time and also because I didn’t have that much to blog about. As we’re now at the end of 2012 I thought I’d break myself back into the blogosphere with a little recap of 2012 and and a look towards 2013.

2012 started injured with plantar faciitis, a pain in the (heel) butt, that didn’t stop me running as such, but prevented me running too far, not normally an issue unless you’re in training for the London Marathon.

During the training I decided that long runs alone were mind numbingly boring so in March I joined David Lloyd Redway Runners (DLRR) and competed in my first race for them at Oakley. My first ever 20 miles and just dipped under 3 hours.

In April I ran the London Marathon. It was one of the hardest but most satisfying things I have ever accomplished. It was made harder by the stinking cold/flu thing I had during the preceding two weeks that even had me in bed two days previous but I did it, it hurt, I didn’t get anywhere near the time I had in mind but I raised just under £1,500 for SANDS UK and my local Milton Keynes branch.

Following the marathon I carried on running with DLRR and tried the Silverstone 10k, a race around the Grand Prix circuit. Legs were still a bit heavy from the marathon but I was only about 30 seconds off my PB so not all bad.

Training continued well and felt I was running well. I managed to come second in the MK Race for Life and was slowly getting back into triathlon training with some early morning lake swims and some short rides. A tight calf slowed progress down and although I managed a third place in the Northampton Triathlon at the end of June I was struggling to run properly.

The NSPCC Half at the start of July was a bit of a non-event. With my tight calf I was able to run it, but had to stick to 8:20 min miles or slower otherwise I was in pain. Came home in 1:49 which is near my PB but frustrating to know there was plenty more in the tank so to speak.

I decided to take a break from running in July to get my leg sorted and stuck to swimming and cycling. I came back in early September and ran the Bedford 10km, again around the 47 min mark and also competed in a few triathlons.
I also competed in an Open Water swim race for the first time at Brogborough near Bedford. A lovely clear lake where I came third in my age group over 1500m.

Training continued well and in October I ran the inaugural Daventry 10. My first ever 10 mile race too. It was one of those races that I wasn’t too sure what shape I was in, but was pleasantly surprised to come home in 1:18 and also secured a bronze medal as the race also doubled up as the Northants 10 mile county champs. My time meant I had run sub 8 mins miles on avergae and boded well for the Bedford Half in December.

I finished off October with the Candelford Canter 10km, a women only race around Flora Thompson country, again running around 47 mins, but as part was off-road not a bad effort.

November meant the ‘Squeaky Bone Relay‘ a cross-country relay near Olney held on one of the wettest days of the year. It was mud, mud, mud along with water and lots of it, but a fantastic team event. DLRR fielded around 12 teams of 4 and a fantastic day was had by all.

During October and November I helped out with the DLRR Beginners group. It was great to finally meet fellow blogger JogOnJules who also joined the group. To graduate they all completed a Parkrun. DLRR members then run with a beginner to help them round. I ran with a close friend who had joined the beginners group and it was great to see her complete it, and for me it was my first ever Parkrun. I came back the following week to have  a go at a quick one and didn’t quite dip under 23 mins but that will keep for next year.

December was the Bedford Half. I’d been running well for a few months now, and despite a really windy course I managed a PB of 1:45. I was so pleased with it, apart from London that was my only PB of the year so it was nice to finish off on a high.

So what about 2013, well, somehow, I managed to get through the London ballot again so that is the focus for the next four months although as of Wednesday I have a touch of achilles tendonitis so am currently not running to ensure I have sorted it before the tough training starts. I have my plan, it starts tomorrow, except it wont for me as I’m erring on the side of caution and holding off until my achilles is better, better to miss a few runs now than suffer when it really matters – aren’t I getting wise in my old age?! 😉

Training Review – Week End 1st July 2012

I started this week on a bit of a high after competing in the Northampton Triathlon last Sunday – despite my various niggles (don’t think they’re severe enough to call them injuries) I still performed quite well so went into Monday feeling pretty good.

I had a nice 4 mile warm up with the DLRR ‘early lap’ group and ran with a lovely chap who ran with the Olympic Torch in Legbourne, Lincolnshire onWednesday. He was so excited it was infectious and a totally deserving chap. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer bloke!

My legs felt quite tight by the end of the first four miles as this group do run quite fast (for me!) but decided to stay for the main session. We split into two groups and the quicker runners (including me) had to run up the canal for 25 mins – easyyou say….but with a twist, every time you hit a bridge, you run over it and run along the other side of the canal. Some of the bridges are typical humpback canal bridges but some are large road bridges and involve a substantial amount of climbing but to the road, running along it and then back down again – then after 25 mins, you retrace your steps back to base. Hard work – especially after a tri the day before, a quick four miles already in your legs plus an over tight calf and PF in your good heel!

Tuesday was early morning swim in the lake – 5am start for 6am dip, then in the evening a visit to the physio to sort out my heel and calves. Came out of the physio with a load of exercises and another session just before the half.

Wednesday was a quick bike round one of my TT routes that I use to see what state my fitness is in, not too bad judging by my average speed – nearly a mile an hour up on this time last year so pretty pleased with that.

Thursday was DLRR club night. An early lap of 4 miles then a further 5 miles round very pretty canal/river route. I was in trouble towards the end of the second run with my calf – as soon as I try to up the pace it pulls, that couples with the increasing pain in my heel meant for a painful last me following morning I was almost in tears with my heel – despite icing the night before, stretches and a foot brace I couldn’t walk when I got out of bed. I even cracked open the ibuprofen and wore trainers to work – that’s bad!

Saturday was early swim in the lake followed by a bike around the MK tri course. The swim was great – two laps of the lake and I really felt comfortable – it’s true what they say about open water swimming, the more you do, the more you enjoy it. The bike didn’t last two long as we were hit with a torrential downpour only a few miles in and based on that and my cycling partners ki

t malfunction (he forgot his shorts and top so was in casual shorts and short) decided that it was probably best to give it up as a bad job! Shame as I was feeling quite good, but plenty more swim/bike Saturdays to come over the coming weeks.

Sunday was our usual DLRR long club run. Usually 10+ miles and I normally love it but with my niggles was a bit apprehensive about the half next week and whether my calf/heel will stand up. I needn’t have worried – it got a bit tight to wards the end but I managed the ‘Brickhill Hill’ twice with no major concerns. I didn’t run as far as I initially wanted – would rather have done 12 (more for psychological reasons that physical need!) but was happy with the 10 and in no real pain, in comparison with Thursday.

So, looks like the MK Half next Sunday is back on – perhaps not the PB territory I was hoping for but still a good base for the rest of the season and some much needed stamina for the MK Olympic tri in mid August.

Time is ticking…and we lose an hour!

The countdown widget says it all, 29 days to go….less than a month, just over four weeks left. The panic hasn’t quite set in yet – despite the extended downtime with various coughs and colds I think I’ve just about got enough miles in the tank to get round in one piece!

If you had asked me at the end of December if I would be happy to be at this point in this state, I’d have bitten your hand off as I never thought I’d still be walking let alone running and running quite well (for me anyway!). I was still receiving treatment for plantar fasciitis and had really accepted that a get you round result was the best outcome I could hope for. But I think the mixture of injury and illness early on has actually helped me out as it’s forced me to keep the mileage low in the first few weeks and enforced rest. I’m a bit old school when it comes to training. If you’re not on your knees at the end of a session you’ve not got anything out of it but I’m now firmly in the ‘less is more’ camp.

To be honest apart from the PF the only issue I’ve had so far is a sore quad muscle and that only started once the miles started to rack up. Bit of ice and ibuprofen gel and think that’s just about licked!

Official logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With just 8 days of hard training left, long run tomorrow (must remember to get up an hour earlier else I’m miss it!) and the Oakley 20 next Sunday it’s then time to taper.

But to more pressing things – tomorrow many will be running the Sport Relief mile throughout the UK and a fellow blogger Jules who will be competing in her first ever event. So good luck Jules – you’ll breeze through it! May it be the first of many!

Oh, to be Kreativ…

I’m quite new to all this blogging malarkey so was shocked over the weekend when I received notification that I had been nominated for a Kreativ Blogger award – which I am very honoured to accept. So, first of all special thanks go to JogOnJules for the nomination – please do check out her blog and what inspired her journey to complete in her first 5k later this year.

To receive the award you must…

• Thank the person who has given you the award. (tick)
• Copy the logo and place it on your blog. (tick)
• Link the person who has nominated you for the award. (tick)
• Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting. (tick)
• Nominate 7 other Kreativ Bloggers. (tick)
• Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate. (tick)
• Leave a comment on each of the blogs to let them know they have been nominated. (doing it now!)

While pondering about who to nominate and why it got me thinking a bit more about how we find blogs and decide whether they’re something we want to follow – it’s all about the followers in this game you know!

So I went through the list of blogs I follow to see what was it in them that made me go the step beyond just reading them, to clicking that ‘follow’ button. And bar one or two exceptions it was really quite obvious – they all have a link to running in some shape or form which made me think (I did a lot of thinking today!) that running is pretty central to my life and I can’t really remember a time without it. Even in the wilderness years (between Uni and first few years in my job) I was still a ‘resting’ runner. I ran through most of my pregnancy and restarted as soon as I could, even managed a triathlon within 6 months.

Anyway, here’s seven things about me you might find interesting.

1. My favourite book is Pride and Prejudice – this stems from school – but I like it – and this was pre-Colin Firth.
2. One day I will do an Ironman – I started small after inspiration from my sister who completed the London Triathlon about six years ago and have completed sprint and Olympic triathlons. Depending upon the state of my legs (and mind) after London I might give the Cowman a cheeky go in July and well, there’s only one option after that….
3. I can play the clarinet and actually reached Grade 4 level before I decided I’d got better things to do – shame as it would have been a good skill to keep up.
4. I actually started my sporting life as a swimmer – 6am starts in the pool before school and then played anything going from netball, to hockey, to tennis, to badminton, to volleyball, to 5-a-side, to – even kabaddi (although a dislocated shoulder ensured I have never returned to that particular sport!)
5. I was County 800m champion when I was 13 – it’s been a steady slide to obscurity ever since! These days anything shorter than 5km is a sprint to me so don’t think I’ll be defending that title anytime soon!
6. I love House music – spent many an evening in dingy nightclubs dancing the night away, but at the other extreme I’m also a fan of Ludovico Einaudi.
7. I love lists! I write lists for everything and love scrubbing out an item when it’s done – the requirements for this award are great – it’s a list!

So who to nominate…so many to choose from but in no particular order

Warriorwoman Running  – this was the blog that got me started when I stumbled across it while surfing for plantar fasciitis info.

bearunner – the journey to Ironman – one day this will be me so I’m picking up tips!

jacksmumontherun – witty and real breath of fresh air  – busy mum and still manages to fit a run a day in! One day…

Cotton T Runners – a great running blog

Plus my fellow marathon bloggers – we’re all on the same journey and it’s quite comforting to know there’s a few of us out there all working hard!

Reliable Plodder – off to London

RunHelenRun – off to Manchester

Helen runs– off to Brighton

For those who I have nominted, here’s a reminder of the rules:

• Thank the person who has given you the award.
• Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
• Link the person who has nominated you for the award.
• Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
• Nominate 7 other Kreativ Bloggers.
• Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
• Leave a comment on each of the blogs to let them know they have been nominated.

So that’s me done, please do check out the blogs above – I love ’em!

Final word goes to JogOnJules who nominated me – without realising it she’s inspired me to join a running club again – my form’s in the post Jules – see you at a club social soon. 🙂

Review of Week 11

Mixed week this week. Started OK with some stretching on Monday but by Tuesday was starting to get a bit worried about a sore thigh I’ve had since the MK Half. It was started during the MK half, but then disappeared and I didn’t notice it again until the 16 miler last weekend, but only after 10 miles or so, so had just put it down to the longer mileage. But during the run on Tuesday it was troubling me from the start and during the fast sections was even worse. I ran again on Wednesday, just very slowly but after 5 and 1/2 miles called it a day.

After some googling, established that I’d probably not done anything too serious, slight tear at worse but most likely a result of overtraining. Although I’ve not trained huge volumes of miles, this last week or so is probably the most volume I’d done after my everlasting cold so I probably had upped the mileage a bit quicker than I should have. Decided to not run Thursday and rest until the long run on Sunday. I was going out on the bike with my father in law and brother in law on Saturday but the weather was awful when I woke up and as someone who tends to take the odd tumble on the bike decided that it was safer to stay at home. With London only five weeks away (is that all?) really can’t afford any broken bones! I went for a short jog instead to see how my leg felt and was pleased to see the rest had worked (that and the ice and ibuprofen gel).

Sunday was due to be an 18 miler – the longest run yet (in my life, not just this training plan) and after some gentle persuasion from a work colleague decided to run with the DLRR group. Their plan was 14 miles which sounded good to me as I could always go for a few more afterwards. I was a bit nervous (for various reasons – see yesterdays post) but needn’t have been. They were all lovely and made me feel very welcome and part of the group. This was a big group of a wide range of abilities, but with loop backs, the group is kept together (the faster runners loop back towards the back of the group). I really enjoyed the run and it was great to be among like-minded souls after weeks of running the streets in isolation. Although it was  14 mile route today, with loop backs I’d actually completed 16.5 miles by the time we finished so afterwards I ran another mile and a half to get to the magic 18. I did run out of path on the way back so ended up running a couple of loops of the (rather small) car park – much to the amusement of several dog walkers returning to their vehicles!

So, bit of a dodgy start to the week but it finished well and I think DLRR will probably be getting a new member very soon…watch this space!

 

Training for Week 11

Going to try to get some good mileage in this week. Feeling ok after the long 16 miler today so will try some faster stuff earlier in the week building up to 18 miles on Sunday.

Monday – stretching

Tuesday -7 mile (1m jog, 3 x 1.5m fast with 400m rec, 1m jog)

Wednesday – 8 mile slow

Thursday  – 5 mile (1m jog, 3m brisk, 1m jog)

Friday – stretching

Saturday – cross training (bike)

Sunday – 18 miles slow (with 3-4 miles at race pace towards the end)

Training for Week 10

Here’s the plan for the week. My legs still feel like lead from the MK Half so am going to ease into the week easily and see how I feel, but build up to the 16 miler that has been on the table for nearly a month – its psychological now – I just need to do it!

Monday – gentle stretching – legs – ouch!

Tuesday -10 x 90 sec uphill, jog back recovery

Wednesday – 6 mile slow

Thursday  – 7 mile tempo

Friday – stretching

Saturday – cross training (bike)

Sunday – 16 miles one way or another!

MK Half – what a wet one!

Today was the MK Half Marathon as part of the MK Festival of Running and boy was it a wet one. It didn’t just drizzle, it didn’t just rain, but it poured and poured and didn’t stop and just to add insult to injury it then snowed! Having said that I quite like running in the rain and I wasn’t too bothered and it was definitely one way to keep cool, although the hot shower when I got home was heaven!

I was a bit nervous about today. My eternal cold that I thought had disappeared mid-week reared itself again on Saturday but following a decent sleep on Saturday night and my traditional pre-race carbonara pasta I woke up on Sunday feeling ok – not brilliant but ready to run.

The race started well, ran a bit quick for the first three miles but it was all downhill and wanted to see what 8 min race pace felt like. I then had to stop to retie my shoe as it was too loose but got going again and settled on 8:15 pace and ran the rest of the race at this quite comfortably until the final mile or so where three sharp inclines meant I had to walk as my calf muscle felt like it was going to pop. With London only seven weeks to go it wasn’t worth the risk so with a final mile of 9:30 I just got under the 1:50 mark, but on closer inspection it was a PB so all was well.

Several positives came out of today. I ran at a possible marathon pace which was comfortable and when I finished I still felt there was stuff left in the tank which bodes well for the next few weeks as I need to get a crack on with higher mileage. I also used the race as an opportunity to try out some new kit and nutrition.

I bought a fuel belt to hold some gels and this worked well although my Extreme Sport Beans (jelly beans with a kick – not for the kiddies!) tasted nice but you need the hands of a small child to get them out of the packet. But, this did pass a mile or two very quickly while I fought to get them out of the packet and eat them. Might need to rethink how I take these round London…

I also wore my SANDS running vest for the first time and had some really nice comments from fellow runners about what a great charity it was to support.

I have to say that considering the weather, turnout on the route was brilliant. There were very few spots where there wasn’t a supporter cheering away. The David Lloyd Redway Runners were very well represented and the support they gave their club mates was amazing. It has got me thinking about joining a club again as it can get quite lonely training on your own at times and a club is a great motivator for getting out there even when you don’t feel like it.

So, all in all a good, if rather wet and cold day 🙂

Training for Week 9

On the road to London well and truly now – although with my longest run only 14 miles I think it’s fair to say I’m a bit behind where I’d really like to be at this point but still plenty of time yet.

Monday – rest

Tuesday – 5 miles steady

Wednesday – OU relay at lunchtime, Run for Nothing 5km in the evening

Thursday  – 6 mile tempo

Friday – stretching

Saturday – cross training (bike)

Sunday – MK Half marathon with possibly a few miles after to make it into a proper long run (trying to make up some miles!)