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Day 63–A Bit Tender!

Today I hurt. Nothing too dramatic or necessarily something I should worry about, merely a reminder that running 30km at marathon pace or slightly quicker is not an undertaking you should make every day.

It would have been easy to justify not running. It was left to around 4pm but eventually I made it out. The right groin and hamstring being particularly sore walking around the house, thankfully they were merely distractions during an easy paced six mile run – which again was probably run slightly quicker than it should have been, but I really was putting in very little effort.

Instead I was thinking about just how good The Lego Movie was. I expected some Pixar style candy for the brain animated fare to enjoy with my daughter. Instead we were offered something quite special – a film which works on every level and is, quite possibly, the best allegory I’ve enjoyed since I read Orwell’s Animal Farm for the first time.

Trying to fully decipher the film meant the 40 odd minutes flew by. I hadn’t even noticed it had been raining for much of the run. High praise indeed!

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Day 51–A Little DIY

I spent much of yesterday evening working on the right upper leg: massage; stretching; prodding; massaging; stretching…. Come the end of the evening the hamstring felt a little looser but the inner thigh near the knee was really sore to touch.  In desperation I applied a liberal dose of Arnica Cream to try and reduce any inflammation.

The morning brought no unwelcome surprises – little discomfort during the kids’ walking to school. I did a little more massage and stretching and decided I would risk a run – albeit a little less mileage than I’d originally planned. I decided too to keep it as flat as possible, so it was the Wyndham Park out and back route – with a twist.

I was very nervous about the first few steps, unsure of how the right leg would react. Thankfully there was no discomfort in the right hamstring and whilst the inner thigh near the knee was sore, it was well within the margins of pain threshold.

I kept the pace slow and steady – helped by the outbound leg featuring a strong wind. Having tackled Dysart Park I took a brief excursion to B&Q to buy a small item for our new washing machine – a large 12kg affair bought to accommodate my never ending accumulation of running clothing. It felt a little odd shopping in full winter spec running gear (It was nearly 9C but the wind chill made it feel closer to freezing) but needs must and thankfully the item needed fitted snugly in my tights’ pocket.

The return leg was a little quicker because I had a tail wind, but the right thigh being sore slowed me a touch – the knee starting to ache a little too. I made it home in one piece but not sure how the leg is going to fare in the coming days and weeks. I’m hopeful that if I ease back on the quick stuff for a bit things will heal itself without the need for a lengthy spell off, but I guess we’ll just have to see.

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Day 46 – 314 For 1

I was planning on making today a rest day – Friday has been my most frequent day off from running for some years now and with the final day of F1 testing in Jerez, the only chance I would have got to head out and run would be in the evening: a Friday night run is something I can count on the fingers on one hand I have done.

But the planned rest was planned before I realised yesterday I could break my mileage record for a calendar month. After yesterday’s effort I calculated I needed to run seven miles. As the day wore on I found myself less inclined to head out; the weather looked and sounded truly horrible – wet, windy, and, by all accounts, cold. I tried to talk myself out of it but in the end the lure of a PB of sorts proved too great and so it was, at 7:30pm, I left the comfort of my home to run seven long miles.

Once again this week I got lucky in that the icy cold rain had relented and all I was faced with was a stiff wind, which, although cold, was thankfully not the arctic blast I’d been hearing so much about on the TV weather forecast. the first couple of miles were a real trial – the legs were stiff, bits ached, and the mind was constantly asking why? why? as I struggled into the wind and up the first of two climbs.

Salvation came, not for the first time this week, from the Sansa Clip, who almost seemed to sense my mental frailty and chose  to play, once again, Kingdom of Rust by Doves. Despite my legs determination to not run easily, the song seemed to override the pins and before I knew it I was running 7:20 miles and getting quicker. It helped too that I’d literally turned a corner and the wind was a cross come tail wind that began to blow me ever quicker back towards home.

Heading up to Barrowby Gate, it was Strava’s turn to will me on as I knew there was a trophy to be had if I just upped the pace a touch along this hilly road. That tackled, the run was psychologically as good as done with just a mile and a half of downhill or flat running to tackle. Before I knew it I was home – seven and a half miles run, Best of all, I managed to make it indoors just as the heavens opened again.

I barely had time to shower before I was uploading my run to Fetcheveryone and Strava. Fetch was the most important, official confirmation of my mileage was up and there for all to see.

Official Confirmation314 miles – two more than March 2012 when I was training for the London Marathon that I was unable to run and then took part in the Shakespeare Marathon that wasn’t (That story is for another day, it took many months to come to terms with that one and it still winds me up just thinking about it…).

Hopefully this year my marathons go to plan. If they don’t well at least I have my Strava Gold Trophy for Barrowby Gate to treasure (although someone could easily beat that). January is done. All in all a very good month, as good as I could have hoped for, and well on track to, hopefully, Sub 2:45.

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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 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.