Posted on

Day 91 – New Trainers, Same Old Problems

Nike Fly Knit Lunar 1+

After the 100+ mile exploits of last week, the plan for the coming week is to lower the mileage considerably ahead of giving the Coventry Half Marathon on Sunday a fair crack. This mileage will be very low if the left thigh and hip continues to give me this much trouble.

I thought with a short run on the plan, today would be a good day to try out the trainers I plan to trial on Sunday with the intention to wear them at Rotterdam should they prove successful. They are certainly very light and judging by the first mile, which was pretty quick for a first recovery run mile, especially with very stiff legs. However I’m not convinced yet whether they are quite as quick as my ageing Lunar Racers, we shall see when they are hopefully used in anger.

The run was a routine affair but the left thigh was still aching like I had a dead leg. My massage on Thursday cannot come quick enough for although it’s not slowing me hugely yet, I think it will only be a matter of time before it does. There are tender spots all over the hip, leg and back, all of which will need attention and soon.

Posted on

Day 90 – The Newton’s Fraction Half Marathon (Five Hours Too Late)

It was quite a race day.  With something of a lie-in, not needing to be up until 4am to cover the Australian GP, it meant that I was thrown right in – working flat out non-stop until just a few minutes before 3pm. If you want to know how the race went, I’m probably not the best person to ask. Head down, working away, only really know the skeleton details of what went on.

No sooner had the work ended then I was donning the running kit ready for the last run of a long old week. To my chagrin working on the Australian GP meant I was unable to take part in the Newton’s Fraction Half Marathon, which is Grantham’s main (maybe its only) road race of the year. In 2013 I took part on a bitterly cold, windy, snowy day. I had a bad race, hampered with injury, but ended up finishing sixth. Had I taken part this year, looking at the results I would have surely finished second and, who knows, depending on how this year’s training has gone, maybe come within a sniff of victory.

In stark contrast to the conditions in 2013, the weather today was simply gorgeous, sunny, pleasantly warm with only a relatively stiff breeze spoiling the idyll. From the off the legs felt better than yesterday. Stiff, but the calves much less tight. Whether that was helped by the decision to wear compression socks we’ll never know as I refused to take part in a one leg long sock, one leg short placebo experiment.

What was continuing to ache though was the left hip / left upper thigh. I’m sure this is stemming from the back but the net result is discomfort in the upper thigh that feels a little like a dead leg. It’s not really slowing – indeed after the opening uphill miles, I was comfortably into sub seven minute miles, but it is annoying and not the kind of problem I want to be racing with.

The scenery over the half marathon course is in places simply gorgeous, especially the run on the canal path towards Woolsthorpe.  A quick pit stop at the pub and I was back into my running. The first of two steep hills I made relatively swift work of and I was running faster as the headwind became a tailwind for much of the remainder of the run.  The miles went by quickly enough as the sun began to slowly set. The second hill into Barrowby was a killer, but I knew that once tackled it was all gently downhill back to home.

I  went though 13.1 miles in 1:31, not a bad effort considering by then I’d already covered 100 miles for the week. The am I losing my pace doubts are in full swing at the moment; I should look at the facts that I am running just outside 3 hour marathon pace after a 100 mile week covered when I have been getting up to work, on average, at 2:30am. With proper tapering and the smoothing away of any niggles, hopefully I will fly.

The run was over after 16.4 miles. Shattered and stiff, at least I could relax for the rest of the evening safe in the knowledge there should be no early wake up call for Monday morning.

Posted on

Day 89 – Somebody Hit Me With The Stiff Stick

Now into day five of getting up in the middle of the night to cover the Australian GP and the body is finding familiarity in the routine. I managed four hours sleep during the night and then nearly three over lunchtime. I’m not what you would call wide awake and alert, but at least the soporific effects of enforced early middle-of-the-night shifts are a little less than in previous days.

I would have liked, then, for my run to feel a little easier than it did. From the off the legs felt really stiff and sore. The calves in particular, which have felt remarkably resilient in recent times, felt suddenly as though they had done eighty odd miles in the past six days. The first mile was a wince and shuffle affair, at least the sun was shining, albeit with a stiff breeze blowing.

I aimed to run ten miles; the main challenge of the run the climb at around three miles up Somerby Hill, which was greatly aided by having the wind firmly at my back. From then on, down to Little Ponton and then back into Grantham, it was a case of knocking out the miles, the relatively swift mile splits belying the lethargy dominating the legs.

I ended the run feeling as stiff as when I started, but comforted in the knowledge that, with one day of the week still remaining, I’e already, at 87.8 miles, knocked out a record mileage week. With a belated running of the Newton’s Fraction Half Marathon course planned for tomorrow, a century of miles for the first time ever looks a distinct possibility!

Posted on

Day 88–A Morning Run Just Before It Got Dark

I think I got about 30 minutes sleep proper before waking at 1am to work on the opening day of practice for the Australian GP. Until around 4am it seemed waking early was a complete waste of time as technical issues meant I was able to do precious little work. Things slowly improved during the course of the morning, but it was a busy old day, not finishing until gone midday.

I slept for around three hours then dozed for another, finally getting out of bed at around 4:15pm. I wasted no time putting on the running kit. The weather outside was a change to recent days, grey and a little dreary, but at least it was dry, if not a little breezy. I left the house just before 5pm and from the first steps it felt every bit like an early morning run. The body and legs tired, not yet woken up, shuffling along with little in the way of pace or intensity.

The first couple of miles were the hardest, mostly uphill to Barrowby and into a headwind. The left hip and inner thigh are quite sore – I’m sure its coming from the back but there are so many tender spots around the back and legs it’s hard to be definite. Once in Barrowby the wind was mostly at my back and I headed down The Drift towards the canal path I last tackled just a couple of days ago. Slowly getting dark, once back in town I was able to make it onto the river path with just enough light to see – the breeze now unkindly back in my face having enjoyed a pick up in pace when it was behind me.

In the last mile the legs were really stiff, suffering the twin pains of lots of miles and nowhere near enough sleep. The customary coughing fit on completion of the run marked the end of a run I could have rather done without, but pleased enough to have force my body out to run it.

Posted on

Day 87–So So Tired

This is, by necessity, going to be brief. Two and a half hours sleep before being up at 1am and then working straight through to midday. Four hours at best sleep before some more work and then time to head out for the club run. I was on zombie autopilot.

For all that the legs didn’t feel too bad. The left hip was sore for the solo miles I ran, so before heading a but out I did a little stretching which seemed to help. It was a small group running at the club. The first few miles were actually run at a pace I could have kept with until, with one or two with a half marathon on Sunday, dialled the pace down to a rate that would have me snoozing by the layside if I wasn’t careful.

Along five gates and a strange weather pattern in the still air as we ran through cold and warm packets of air – I don’t think I’ve ever run through air with such a clear temperature difference before. Little things like that were just about keeping me alert, but I was struggling.

At Londonthorpe with the main climb of the run tackled, I said my goodbyes to the group and pushed on alone, the thinking being the sooner I got home the sooner I could get to bed ready for the next night shift. The final miles were fairly hard going with the legs stiffening, but the pace had picked up too to be comfortably under seven minute miles, so hardly suffering too much yet from the lack of sleep.