Making your mind up

This week should mark my highest mileage week ever – 40 will be clocked if all goes to plan. With Tuesday’s club session coming in at less than the 5 stated on the plan, Wednesday and Thursday both had a little extra added, to make 20 miles in 3 days.

Wednesday was the midweek longer run, which should be 10 miles, half easy, half at MP. Went OK. I started too fast and had to consciously slow myself down, and then found i’d slowed to the bottom end of “easy” pace. But better that then too fast, I suspect. Increased to MP Ok, with my (usual) slight tendency to end up a fraction too fast. It was quite light as I set out, but by the time I was finishing it was still quite dark and the decision to leave the head torch behind no longer looked quite so sensible! Saw a huge number of other runners out, including what appears to be a ladies beginners group based from the leisure centre.

Thursday was out with Janet again, a loop together then 2 extra miles for me. I’m supposed to be running this session as a tempo, so doing some miles at ~ 10k pace. We usually end up running at ~ MP for the loop with Janet, so I decided to at least run the next mile at 10k pace, just to make sure I run some mileage faster than MP. Went OK, the speed was certainly there.

Facts & Figures (Wed/Thurs)
Distance – 10.4 / 5.6
Time – 2:01:14 / 1:04:15
Average pace – 11:39 / 11:28

The weather has been the odd thing this week. It could do with deciding if it is Spring or not. Wednesday night I went out in long sleeves and overheated to start with – although I had the sleeves rolled down again by the time I finished. Thursday I went out in short sleeves and was, if anything, a fraction chilly in the arm department the whole time. Not painfully cold, but it’s certainly not yet a clear-cut clothing decision! I have migrated to a baseball cap rather than the beanie hat, as it hasn’t been so cold that the ears have suffered. However, I still expect to travel to Brighton with pretty much my entire running wardrobe – just so I’m covered for every eventuality!

Being pragmatic

Tuesday is usually club run. And so it was tonight, but I think I may give it a miss for the next few weeks. I find it difficult to do justice to speed work on a Tuesday when I’ve done a very long run on a Sunday, and there are 2 x 20 miles and a half marathon in the next 3 weekends. It’s not that the sessions aren’t doing me good, I know they are, and have a lovely set of progressive half marathon times to prove it. 

However, it doesn’t seem to be the right session for me right now. I can’t keep control of the pace on tired legs such that the rest of the week is manageable too. I try and keep it to a less than sprint effort, but that competitive itch gets the better of me and I start going faster and faster. And then it all hurts all the more. Maybe if they were later in the week, further away from the long run, I’d manage them OK. But rather than keep misjudging this, I will give the club a miss and do the planned easy run instead.

So, to tonight, well it was a pyramid session of 100, 200 & 300 m out and backs, then recover while the partner did the same run. That would be me & Andy again, partners at the back of the pack. But we held our own, especially with some changeovers before the other person had quite finished.

Facts & Figures
Distance – 4.07 miles
Time – 55:55
Pace peaked at 5:44 min/miles. Probably for about 2 seconds, but never mind! Pace over a speed session is always misleading.

Back on my feet again

I didn’t want to tempt fate and declare that all was well in the world until I’d run a few times. Seeing I’ve now been out twice since my enforced break, I think it’s not too early to say it all seemed to go well.

Thursday marked a whole week with no running, and I was climbing the walls just wanting to get out there. Which is a good indication that I was ready to run, but nothing worse than pushing too hard, too soon and falling back again. So Thursday was a run with Janet from work. It was surprisingly light when we set out – amazing how much more positive some lingering daylight makes the start of the run feel. Usual loop of 3.5 miles together, then I went for an extra 1.5 to bring it to the 5 on the plan. Janet was saying that the runs had been getting harder, but I suspect that’s as she’s getting faster. If that’s the right thing to do, I don’t know – I’m certainly no expert at this running lark. The work group are due to be getting a coach at the start of next month for the 2 months leading up to the town’s annual 10k. I may suggest that we turn this run into a Tempo, as I ought to be doing one and it hasn’t always happened.

Then on to today. The plan (after some judicious rejigging) was for 15 miles today. After a fairly disjointed few weeks, I decided I’d be happy with 10, but would see how it went. Hubby dropped me off after ringing at the local nature reserve, and I did a lap or two of there (including a handy pitstop at the visitor centre) before heading up the railway path towards home. It was a nice day to be out – the sun was shining and it was much warmer than it has been recently. really felt as if Spring is just around the corner, with the ducks on the pond dashing about madly and the pussy willow starting to show on the trees.

As I got to the mill crossing, the watch was at 9 miles, with the shortest route home being only 1 mile – so I decided to go a bit further. And so it ended up at over 14 miles, which I felt was a pretty good return. The pace was a bit up and down. Not sure if it was the recent enforced rest, but I kept having to slow down to a suitable pace. Of 14 miles, only 3 were over 12 minutes, when I usually aim at 12 to 12:30 for a LSR. And one of those was my nemesis hill, which I approached at 12 miles and did resort to walking up part way.

Facts & Figures (Thurs/Sun)
Distance –  5/14.25 miles
Time – 55:57/ 2:49:12
Average pace – 11:11/ 11:52

So a good way to get back on track. As I was heading across the road towards the end of today’s run, I got hooted by a car, followed by a thumbs up. I waved – no idea who it was, but any positive encouragement is welcomed in my book. M-day is 8 weeks today, so fingers crossed it all goes smoothly from here.

Here we go again

and it’s not in a good way – I’ve got a cold again. Or, possibly more accurately, I’ve got the same one back for a second dose.

2 weeks ago, I ran 20 miles and on the Monday started to feel under the weather, before coming out in a sore throat and stuffy sinus cold. urgh. Well this week I ran 20 miles and by Tuesday had pretty much the same symptom set, with a side order of a tickly cough.

So going out and running 5 miles Tuesday and 8 miles Wednesday may not have been the wisest move. I was feeling under the weather, but not actually ill, hence going out and running. Coz I is hard, innit? Wednesday was actually a pretty good run. Set out with Janet and ran a 3.5 mile loop with her at a good pace, ~ 11:20 pace but we conversed the way round, so it wasn’t as if either of us was flat out. I then dropped her back at work and set out for a second loop of 4.5 miles, making 8 for the day. This run should have been about hitting marathon pace, and I missed. Too fast. I’ve got to get that under control.

Facts & Figures.
Distance – 8.1 miles
Time – 1:29:03
Average pace – 10:59

It started to spit with rain as we finished the first loop, but it never really rained properly, I certainly didn’t end up wet.  It felt OK.

It was possibly slightly stupid though. I’m still not feeling really ill, but the stuffy head aches and I am lacking in energy. Tired limbs don’t really want to carry me about so there’s been a fair amount of reclining on sofas, drinking hot drinks, snuffing a Vick-laden hanky and sucking decquadins. I’ve also started taking a daily multi-vitamin and vitamin C to give myself the best possible chance of recovering and making it to the start line at Brighton. An early night and 9 hours sleep certainly helped, but rest is the order of the day. I’ve swapped the plan about a bit, such that my next 20 mile run is in 2 weekends time, giving me an extra week to get myself back to 100%.

Move over darling

A vaguely romantic title for Valentine’s day, but there (you’ll be pleased to see) the romance ends. Bah! Humbug!!. But, in good news, I can report that everything is, indeed, still moving. After Sunday’s rather long run, I was half expecting to feel the aftereffects on Monday. But I took the precaution of wearing trousers and my flat boots, and all seemed reasonable. I was walking OK and while I could feel the exertion in my thighs, it wasn’t too bad.

Today was a little easy pootle out, just to get everything loosened up. Tuesday night is speed work at the club and I really didn’t feel that would be a good idea. So instead, I got home and headed out in the dusk to run my 5 miles round town. It’s not a very big town, so two laps were required, although the second was in reverse. It’s also a surprisingly hilly little town; it wasn’t a flat easy run.

Facts & Figures
Distance – 5.1 miles
Time – 1:01:36
Average pace – 12:04 minute miles

It was distinctly warmer than it has been recently, although I thought there was a cold breeze when I set off. But maybe that was just contrast with the temperature indoors, because I soon stopped noticing the wind and was plenty warm enough. Everything felt OK as well, no residual aches and pains. Two sore spots on my feet where I’ve rubbed blisters on Sunday, a matching pair on the side of the ball of each foot, but nothing to impede progress. Let’s hope this is a good start and I manage more runs than last week…

The best laid plans of mice and men…

… are subject to the whims of the weather, to paraphrase Rabbie Burns. And so it was proven this weekend. I was supposed to be racing at the Stamford 30k on Sunday. Unfortunately, on Saturday night they made the difficult decision to cancel. Despite being out trying to shift compacted snow and ice by hand, there were some patches that were just to dangerous to try and race on.

Which left quite a lot of people at a bit of a loss as to what to do. Well an inspired person at the club came up with a plan to run to and around Pitsford Reservoir. It’s about 6&2/3 miles round. Seeing that the plan for this week said 20 miles, 3 laps would appear to do the trick for me. I’d arranged to go to Stamford with Kerry, so we changed direction and headed to Brixworth Country Park instead.

Somehow we arrived a good 30 minutes earlier than planned, so decided to head off anyway, rather than wait. So lap one, clockwise. I had been a little concerned at how running with Kerry might go, as she’s in a faster group than me, and the first 3 miles were really rather too quick for my ploddy pace, under 11 min/miles was simply not sustainable. the differential between us was a bit to high to find a happy medium – she’d be running too slow to be comfortable, I’d not make 20 miles at that pace. After 3 we hit on a compromise – she’d run at her pace and periodically loop back to me. That way we were both running at a comfortable pace, while not ending up miles apart.

Towards the end of lap 1 we saw the group of ladies heading out on their lap, they were motoring along faster than us, but (as I later discovered) were only doing one lap, so you’d go faster for 1 than 3! Got back to the start and took a quick break to head to the car and drop off Kerry’s jacket. It looked cold out, but wasn’t really. I’d gone with 2 long sleeved layers, but had already rolled the sleeves of the second layer up. I did consider taking it off, but decided that would be far too daring – it wasn’t that warm. Underfoot it had been OK too. It’s a popular place with walkers, so for the most part the paths were compacted snow. There were some icy patches and some where the snow had gone completely, but it was mostly compacted snow. Not too bad to run on, a little uneven in places, and you did need to watch your step, but not ankle twistingly bad.

Lap 2 we headed in the opposite direction, then it wouldn’t feel quite so much like repeated laps of the same route. Not long after we started, we crossed paths with the faster group heading in having run 12 miles from Wellingborough, they were clearly going in the wrong direction! Lap 2 was not too bad, although Kerry’s pace had dropped from it’s initial high, from about half way we were keeping fairly level. She’d got a blister and was having some issues with her back. By the time we finished the second lap, she was in some discomfort. It’s a tough call to make, to stop. There is a fine line between pushing on and continuing when it hurts, because it is going to hurt, and pushing on when it hurts and doing some damage to yourself. I’m no expert in this running lark, but I think that it is supposed to ache; it is not supposed to be painful – there’s a difference. As we finished lap 2, Kerry’s phone started up and we discovered that her husband had arrived, with the boys, and were in the playground. We took a break and headed up to the car, to put Kerry’s stuff in their car. Then we planned to head around the reservoir one more time, with Kerry’s husband meeting us at the causeway. That would get us to over 17 miles – a not inconsiderable distance.

And we set off. Kerry was clearly struggling here, but we got to 15 miles with her taking occasional walk breaks. Here the lap one plan was reversed, I went ahead at my pace and periodically came back to her. it’s difficult to know what to say to someone who is clearly in pain, do you try and chivvy them along, boss them about, be tender and caring? I’m never sure what’s best and am wary of getting it awfully wrong. From 15 to 17 it was getting worse, and the walk had become a pronounced limp. I ran on, met Simon at the causeway and he parked up, and walked back to get Kerry. We popped her in the car and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such a vision of misery. But he seemed a sensible chap and after a brief conversation he whisked her off home to a bath and a stretch out.

I was offered a lift back to my car, but was feeling pretty good still. OK, I ached, but it’s supposed to ache. And so I finished the lap. 20 miles came up in a minute under 4 hours, and the rest of the path back to the car added on another 1/3 of a mile – making this my longest run EVER.

Facts & Figures:
Distance – 20.35 miles
Time – 4:03:44
Average Pace – 11:58 minutes miles.

Wow! I’m mighty pleased with that! Not too bad on the pace front either. The splits for each 5 miles were 56:14, 59:14, 61:45 and 61:29. Which just shows what I knew – the first 3 miles (all sub 11) were far too fast. But I’m pleased the way that the rest of the run was at a fairly even pace.

Back at the car, and the chocolate milkshake I bought for after the race was, I felt, well deserved. The banana also vanished quite quickly. It was cold once I’d stopped moving so I stretched briefly before heading off home, where a longer stretch, a bath and a casserole awaited me.

 It was interesting seeing how many people we passed multiple times – some of them I’m sure we saw 5 or 6 times. There was certainly another couple running multiple laps, and I can see why. It was very pretty, all snowy fields and icy lake, and it is fairly flat. Not billiard smooth, but certainly not hilly. There are some inclines and some of them were a bit hairy on the way down. It’s also quite varied, not just around the lake, there are some patches through trees and running across the dam is really very cool! Underfoot it was noticeably worse on the last lap. I suspect that the warm – OK above zero temperatures had started to soften the compacted snow, such that it shifted underfoot and was turning slushy by dint of the traffic over it. The icy patches also had a watery layer on them, making them more slippery than was the case. So it was a case of watch your step, but could easily have been very much worse. I may well come here for a change of scenery again.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Well maybe it was a bit slow, but to call it a walk is possibly a little harsh. What with the weather warning, I’d made arrangements to work from home. And that being the case, I took advantage of being at home to have a long lunch and have a bit of a run in daylight.

Into the evening there’d been a steady snow fall, such that we woke up to ~ 3 inches of the white stuff hanging about. However, it was sunny out and not actually very cold, such that by lunchtime the roads were pretty much clear. The same couldn’t be said of the pavements, or off road. I dressed up in the standard 2 layers on top & bottom, then collected a letter to post & cheque to pay in and went into town. Ran the errands first, the headed off towards the sailing club for a run round the paths there. I was banking on these paths being still covered in snow that hadn’t been compacted to ice, but with enough people having walked over them that it wasn’t virgin snow I was trying to run through – and so it turned out.

Apart from being a bit careful and walking over the bridges and the boardwalk, I ran it. It was a bit hard in places, having to lift feet out of snow or drag them through it. And the cut outs that reduce weight and increase bounce in the soles were a perfect snow collecting zone – which then compacted, went icy and felt like running with a stone stuck in the sole – until it cleared and the process began again.

Facts & Figures:
Distance – 5.75 miles
Time – 1:15:49
Average Pace – 13:11 min/miles

It looked lovely out there – had I an artistic eye and a camera I suspect I could have been out for hours – but I don’t. And I didn’t want to get too distracted from where the feet were going such that I fell flat on my face. At one point the snow was barely disturbed and it really did have the glittery effect, with rainbow sparkles all over the surface. Just gorgeous. Some parts were deeper than others, but it felt so good to be out and running. Still behind on the week, but there’s not very much I can do about that while it stays like this. I know it’s churlish to say it, but roll on spring.

Dull, dull, dullity, dull

And that would be my opinion of running on a treadmill – I entirely see why the vernacular has them as dreadmills.

What with weather and being a bit of a wuss, I decided not to try and run outside. Club run Tuesday was cancelled due to ice, and I wimped out on Wednesday’s run for similar reasons. The roads are clear enough, but the pavements are still treacherous – and knowing my luck I’d go arse over tit & break something vital.

So Thursday morning, before work, I headed to the gym and put in an hour on the treadie. Physically it was Ok, if a bit warmer than running outside! But it isn’t the same – the side bars are quite restrictive and the sensation under your feet is different too. Not sure how, but it is. Visually it’s not much fun either. There were TV screens, but I found it quite hard to look in one direction the whole time – leading me to believe that I run gazing about the countryside!

Facts & Figures:
Distance – 5.12
Time – 1:00:04
Average pace – 11:43 min/miles

Result, 5 miles more done than would otherwise be the case and one brain that turned slowly to cream cheese! I hope I don’t have to do that again, but fear I may well be back if the weather continues thus.

The weather outside is frightful

and the duvet was so delightful that I nearly didn’t get up and go for a run this morning. Actually, once outside, it was gorgeous – blue skies, crisp frosty morning – simply lovely to look at. It was the temperature that was less than pleasant at minus 6 as I set off.

So what to wear? Well I opted for my long running tights, but put on a pair of thick winter tights underneath and wore 2 long-sleeved tops sandwiching a short-sleeved one. Plus hat & gloves. Lots of layers being the order of the day – thin layers trap air making them warmer than one thick layer. And, once I’d got going, that was about right.

What with the cold I’ve had, this was my first run in a week. I’ve had one of those colds where I’ve not had any symptoms below the nose, but from there up it has been stuffed solid with treacle – offer me a drill and I think I’d have done the deed myself. But it started to shift on Thursday and might not be pretty, but clearing it has felt loads better. There’s also nothing quite like a run to clear gunge from your head – as evidenced by the tissues I set off with not having the consistency of paper tissue by the time I returned.

Not a tough run, but I didn’t want to overdo it first run out. Just one of the occasional ladies runs with the club, which finish with coffee & cake – all very sociable.

Distance – 4.75 miles
Time – 55:05
Average pace – 11:40

Then we plonked ourselves on the squishy sofas and my hazelnut latte arrived with no difficulty. The trick for making sure you get your drink when in a group is to order something unique, then there’s only one of them and yours always arrives – try it, guarantee it works! Oh, and I quite like the combination of coffee & nut, even if it does sound like a bit of a fussy thing to order. After a good chat, we headed off and I returned to a bath and a nice soak to warm up the cold bits. A good outing for the first run in a week.

I can run for miles and miles

I know that’s not how the song goes, but it was how I felt yesterday. First 20 mile run completed. (Please imagine a little happy dance here – not sure I can do a happy dance, but I feel like it merits one!)

Had that breakfast of champions – porridge & coffee, then went into town for the weekly shop to give that all time to settle before changing and heading out. By default (ie they were the only ones clean) I ended up wearing my full length tights. I have begun to wonder if these were designed for someone with legs a good 6 inches longer than mine, as I rapidly develop some Nora Batty-esque wrinkles at the lower leg regions when running in these. But they’re by Ronhill and so have a wonderfully capacious rear pocket – perfect for stashing gel sachets. After ~ 3 miles the zips at the back of the calves were digging & rubbing, so I paused to turn them up. How very fetching!

Set out with waist belt packed with water bottles, phone, cash card, £10, £1 coin, front door key and 4 gels in my shorts. Hopefully all eventualities covered. Decided that the best bet would simply be to run down the railway path for 10 miles, then turn round & come home again.  Set off at a reasonable pace, just to get warmed up. Slowed up a bit thereafter, into a comfortable run pace, not worrying too much about time – this is all about getting the distance covered. At a smidge before 5 miles I had a gel, thinking that one an hour ought to be at about 5 mile intervals. At 7  miles I nipped into the nature reserve visitor centre for a loo stop. At 8 miles I was on virgin territory. I’d decided to follow the river path, rather than the railway track, as beyond this point the railways starts the peter out, whereas navigation alongside a river is always easy – don’t fall in! I’d heard from runners at the club that the river path from the end of the nature reserve was a bit muddy, but nothing quite prepared me for the reality. Literally ankle deep in places, this was alternately squishy and slippy and I think I did really well to maintain pace to no more than 2 minutes a mile slower. Found a junction on some raised ground just after 10 miles, but wasn’t sure that this was the railway, so decided it was better to simply retrace my footsteps rather than risk getting lost.

And so I turned & headed back again. The return leg was less tidy (now being plastered in mud to the knee and splattered thereafter) but comfortable. As runs go, this one was pretty uneventful. Had one dog try and eat my shoelaces, while another pair were playing doggy tag and zipped across about 6 inches in front of my feet. Having been frightened out of my skin, I leapt to a stop and let loose an expletive – which frightened the pair of ladies walking said dogs – who hadn’t heard my approach! A few fluttered heart rates later and we all carried on.

I took a bit of a detour round the nature reserve on the return leg, thinking that some extra miles on the flat would mean I could take a circuit round the base of of one of the two hills on my usual route home. Just making life a little easier. I did climb the last hill towards home at a reasonable pace – in fact the last mile was the fastest in the entire run. 

Facts & Figures:
Distance – 20.03 miles
Time – 4:10:27
Average pace – 12:30 

Very pleased with that. At the bottom end of my ideal pace for a long run, but the terrain over the new part of the route would easily account for that average.

I got home and downed a whole pint of fudge brownie milkshake – a well deserved reward for some serious exercise. Stretched a bit (blimy – that hurt!) then hopped in the bath (ahhhh). After some food, yet more stretches and some warm clothes, we headed of for a bellringing (my other hobby) society AGM. This had a traditional ringer’s tea (sandwiches, sausage rolls etc and lots of lovely cake) at which I did my best to demolish the cake mountain. Didn’t quite eat my body weight, but not far short. Mind yo, as my Garmin data tells me I used 2169 calories, I think a bit of cake wouldn’t go amiss. However, it did all catch up with me during the AGM. The under pew heating was warm, the pews had cushion pads so rested my head on a hassock, reclined under my coat & dozed. Didn’t actually fall asleep, but it was a close run thing.

Managed 39 miles this week, just shy of the 40 mark (for which I blame Tuesday’s lacklustre effort). I did consider heading out to run 1 solitary mile, just to make that 40, but I’ve decided I’m not that bothered! I’ll no doubt break that barrier in a few weeks time – so no hurry there.