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Day 41–A Tale Of Two Runs: One In A Town, The Other In The Big City

Saturday night in the West End of London saw a great time had – The long awaited trip to see The Book of Mormon was well worth the wait, I don’t think I’ve laughed so much in a theatre.

Unfortunately the night’s sleep was not so pleasant. Not seeing the pillow until around 2am, I then had the most frustrating time. I’m sure I never actually had any proper deep sleep. Instead I seemed to doze gently before waking constantly every ten minutes or so until I put myself out of my misery at around 7am and began the long process of waking myself enough to be able to step out of the hotel and begin running.

I wanted to run 20 miles. It soon became clear that if I wanted to return in time to have breakfast and catch the train back home I wouldn’t be able to run the full distance in one sitting. So a plan was hatched to run half in the morning and the remainder once I’d returned to Grantham in the afternoon.

The hotel being less than a mile away from Greenwich Park, I thought that a suitable place to knock out some easy miles without fear of getting lost or constantly stopping at junctions. What I’d not envisaged was the immaculately maintained park sat on a fairly steep hill, which, in places, was fairly savage to try and run up and down – especially first thing in the morning. This made the going tough at times although after four miles or so the legs properly woke up and this made things considerably easier. Moreover, despite the early hour, there were a good number of runners in the park and they provided a welcome target to chase down and pass.

At ten miles I called it a day and ran back to the hotel, packed and headed to a local cafe for a rather tasty Full English (Veggie) Breakfast. The promised rain began to fall and I thanked my lucky stars I’d been able to run when it was cloudy, but dry – the cold wind would have been totally miserable in the rain.

We made it to King’s Cross in plenty of time to catch the train back to Grantham. I managed to get a few minutes fitful sleep on the train – although at just over an hour, the journey didn’t allow as much sleep as I would have liked. Once home I downed a large mug of tea, ate a rather large Snickers and rather than curl up on the sofa for a highly tempting nap, I put on the running clothes, trainers, and headed out for the second run of the day.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, having never run twice in the day when the first run was more than six miles. Happily it felt fairly good – the legs more alert than they were in the morning and the niggling groin and hip somewhat less niggly thanks to a quick massage with the therapy ball. I was soon able to knock out miles at sub 7 minute pace and was closer to 6:30 by the time I had a steady tail wind to push me on. It was only in the last mile or so when I began to flag a touch, in part because I was running around in circles to bring the day’s mileage up to 20 miles.

The best part of the run though was that after around six hours of heavy wind and rain, the sun came out for when I came out to run. The stories I’d heard of biblical thunderstorms during cross country races and Long Sunday Runs made miserable by the weather meant I felt very fortunate that I’d escaped the weekend without seeing a drop of rain whilst running. The flip side was that it rained every time my wife and I headed over our anniversary weekend. Sometimes that’s just the way it is.

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Day 40 – The Gruesome Early Morning Run After A Curry And Quite A Few Drinks The Night Before Run

The title says it all really. Free of all parental responsibilities for the first time in well over a year, my wife and I wasted no time in beginning our weekend celebrating twenty years since we first met. A day in London beckoned, first we had an evening out in gloomy Grantham to endure enjoy. I’m not saying the company was bad, far from it, neither was the meal nor the drinks. It was the weather that was about as depressing as EastEnders – wet, cold, windy – pretty miserable.

To ease the pain of the weather a fair few drinks were drunk. The meal was simply delicious, the Gurkha Square Restaurant delivering on taste and service.

Not long after the meal the night was done, soon fast asleep in a slightly drunken stupor. I woke early, cold from the perennial winter risk of wife stealing the duvet and holding it with a vice like grip. I hung around for as long as it took to for sun to rise, then got ready to go running, aware that our train to London left in around two hours.

Not long after heading out for the run, it was apparent that my shorts were suffering from Partridgesque perished lining syndrome, meaning that for much of the run it felt like I was running free, so to speak. I hope no-one saw more than they were supposed to….

The run, the usual Dysart Park and return was made more interesting by Dysart Park being closed -the park keeper clearly enjoying a lie in. This meant I made a slight diversion to make a loop out of a fearsome climb that did not sit well with my slightly hungover head or delicate curry filled tummy. It did though allow possibilities for different variations in the future for my now very familiar recovery run.

The three miles back were a delicate balancing act of trying to run as quickly as possible without tipping the belly into critical overload. It got a bit touch and go near the end, slowing to a painful trot to avoid the trots, but I made it, six and a third miles survived.

A swift breakfast and shower and I was off to the station, London bound. I have written this on the train on my phone. Technology blows me away sometimes….

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Day 39–Just Another Recovery Run

A fairly unremarkable run today. I went out in the afternoon as I was busy doing other things in the morning. The planned run was the usual 6 and a bit miles to Dysart Park and back. The legs felt unspectacular, a little stiff in the upper quads thanks, I’m sure, to yesterday’s massage and a purely temporary problem. The right groin was a touch sore but not has bad as it has been.

The only deviation from the norm was taking a slight diversion near the cinema on the return leg to work out a diversion for when they temporarily close a pedestrian foot bridge in a few weeks time. It added little to the distance – a little twisty, but no big deal.

Pace would end up being an average of 7:21, not bad considering the lethargy that is afflicting me at the present. A few days more rest from Folksworth and I’m sure I will be fine.

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Day 38–Running Was The Easy Bit

The late morning massage was, as expected, very satisfying, but intensely painful. The sore spots included, but was not limited to: the right groin, hip, thigh and upper hamstring (Was expected); left lower hamstring – well spotted by Mr McKee as that only began to hurt yesterday; the left soleus and plantar on the foot – an excellent call there as I’ve had the odd twinge but forgot about it; and the left shoulder which was “really very tight”. The walking of kids to school using a buggy board and a ruddy big hill is to blame for that.

An hour and ten minutes of body pummelling agony later and I was free to go, feeling conversely somewhat freer and less stiff than I was before I left. Good massage that.

The evening run was to be a similar affair to previous Thursday evenings. Before joining the club run it is around 4.5 miles alone. The legs felt less tired than yesterday but the right groin was still a little troubling – this though was to be expected after some heavy massage on this and the hip.

The club run began as a very sedate affair as we headed on the A607 towards Denton. Out in the country the viciously cold headwind began to bite and for a mile or two it wasn’t much fun. I began to feel hungry, something that has been a bit of an issue in recent days. I think I may be needing to get a couple more hundred calories in me, especially in the form of some late afternoon snack.

Once off the main road there was the only real climb of the night, which felt easier in the dark than it would have been were it light (Still cannot work that one out). Once we made it onto the road to Sproxton I decided to stretch the legs a little and ease away from the group. At around 06:50 miling it was hardly sprinting but it was enough to get the legs working.

This continued on the main road into town, with Gerry easing up onto my shoulder and so ramping up the pace to an extent that before we knew it we were hurtling down the hill at something like five minute miling. We soon put that nonsense to bed as we jogged towards base – I said my farewells and ran onto home – tired but nowhere near as bad as yesterday. With around 16:25 miles covered in just over two hours it was another useful run.

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Day 37–A Tough One Done

I’d liked to have been out for my run early today but life got in the way and the earliest I could get out was around 5:30pm. By then I’d done the double school run, 50% of which walked at a breakneck speed due to running late for things. I was pretty tired and not really in the mood for a run.

I stretched the tired legs as best I could and headed out. Thankfully the January weather was somewhat benign after some cold days – mild enough to be comfortable in shorts and compression socks. I didn’t feel disastrously stiff, just somewhat lifeless and lacking zest.

I’d put six miles down on my hastily prepared training plan, I’d hoped to run ten miles like last week. In the end I had to settle for something exactly in the middle – 8 miles completed by the end of the run. There was a constant ache in the pelvis thanks to the groin issues, I also got random pains in the left hamstring and on the arch of the right foot, both of which I put down to tiredness rather than anything more sinister. I found myself ending the run hungry and generally a bit run down.

Looking ahead, I am thankful to be on the receiving end of a massage tomorrow – the inevitable pain will hopefully be worth it for the anticipated relief of a few persistent aches and niggles. Hopefully a good night’s sleep and a protein shake will see the legs more reactive than they were today.