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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!

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Day 85–Making The Most Of The Blue Sky

With full blown coverage of the Australian GP starting early tomorrow morning, I’d little intention of running in the evening. Some impromptu middle of the night work from Melbourne meant a little longer than planned spent in bed, once I’d finally got back to sleep. All in all I must have had around six and a half hours of sleep, split into chunks. How would that treat the legs, which had run 24 miles on the Monday?

With the sun shining, I decided to go for an easy paced extended recovery run, making up for the lack of blue sky running on the Sunday. The first mile was the slowest, but straight away the legs felt better than at any point on yesterday’s run. The cough and cold is still in the system, but a lot less so than yesterday. After three miles or so I was easily bouncing along, feeling I could’ve gone plenty quicker should I wanted or needed to.

Through Harlaxton and up the appropriately named Swine Hill, it was probably the easiest I’d ever felt tackling this pretty steep climb, a feeling justified with a check on the Strava segments, which showed it to be my fastest ascent, and just a little way behind the newly crowned king of this mountain.

Once past the hill, the run pleasingly winds, mostly gently downhill, all the way back to Grantham, through Sproxton and towards Little Ponton. In spite of running into a headwind, the mile splits were comfortably under seven minutes. Into Grantham and along the river path back to home, the pace remained much the same and continued to feel very comfortable. The body was certainly enjoying the sunshine, although the left hip did start to grumble in the final couple of miles.

With night shifts awaiting, who knows how I’ll wing the rest of the week in terms of running. It will likely be a heavy dose of hazy minded easy paced running, with hopefully one quick session thrown in if I am lucky.

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Day 82–Cold, Cold, Cold

The intention yesterday was to head to Newark to take part in parkrun. However through Friday evening it was clear I had caught one of the daughter’s colds – my throat was on fire and my nose rapidly becoming more and more blocked.

A fraught night’s sleep which saw me wake pretty much every hour to relieve the throat, saw me clearly in no fit state to take part in a swift run. I’d debated long and hard whether to run at all, in the end I did because I felt the cold had not got any worse since I’d risen and indeed was starting to get a little better.

So it was six easy paced miles on the usual riverside park out and back run. The legs were a little stiff and I couldn’t have gone much faster than I did, but I don’t think I did too much damage running – the heart rate remained as I’d expect it too and the pace actually quickened over the miles to be not far off what I’d expect for an easy paced run.

I just hope now I can continue to recover to be fit for tomorrow’s long 24 mile run. I don’t really have an alternative date in the calendar if it cannot be tomorrow, so have to keep my fingers crossed.

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Day 79–A New Beast

I’m pretty keen to make this a big mileage week, so this morning’s run would not be my usual six to eight miles, but something closer to ten miles. By the time I got out of the house it was a pleasant late winter’s day, comfortable to run in shorts and long sleeved top; the gloves came off after three miles or so when I realised it was a bit warmer than I’d anticipated.

The run I had in mind would take me on a new route in part – tackling a hill I’d not heard of until a club mate created a segment on Strava. Minnett’s Hill is its name. Sounds unassuming, but I’d been warned it looked like a wall was about to hit you when you came up to it. Such things surely cannot exist in flat Lincolnshire I presumed, so dismissed this advice as scaremongering.

The legs felt pretty good for ones that had done ten hard ones the previous evening plus six in the morning. The power of a good night’s sleep, protein shake, and maybe the couple of pancakes consumed just before bedtime had all helped. It wasn’t long before I was running around seven minute miles and watching the miles click by.

Minnett’s Hill would see me leave the main road through a small hamlet and initially up a steep, but not unbearable climb – surrounded by fields covered in crops. Before I knew it I’d climbed the hill and was on a gentle descent. Not much of a hill I thought to myself. Then a few hundred meters on the narrow lane would disappear into a copse and seemingly disappear into the sky on an ever increasing angle of ascent. It was, as warned, like looking at a wall.

The legs, especially the quads, which were the bits of me that felt tired, began to protest before I even started climbing. As the path ramped up I went quickly into survival mode, found a pace I could cope with and stuck with it. A few moments later I realised that pace was far too fast and I slowed to a shuffle and wondered whether walking would be quicker. Determined to keep on running I shuffled on, by now the heart rate racing up to racing levels and beyond.

Just as I thought I couldn’t go on the hill lessened in its severity and it wasn’t long before I was back on the level. Whilst we lost the ascent we also lost the tarmac lane, the road now a farmer’s track, and with the recent volume of rain, a very muddy and wet farmer’s track. My new trainers looked decidedly second hand by the time I reached a proper road again; the rest of me looking fairly mud splattered as I was passed by a number of scramblers on their motorbikes who wished me a good journey in the form of coating me in mud.

Back on road and it wasn’t long before the hill climbed would be a similar hill descended – this proving nearly as painful on the quads as the ascent. With seven miles covered I had the option here of heading straight home or taking a detour on Five Gates to add a couple of extra miles. As the weather was good and the legs felt okay, I opted for the latter. enjoying the scenery by a road I’ve only previously ever run in darkness. I was particularly taken by a large herd of deer who, to a buck and doe, were statuesque as they grazed silently on grass.

The rest of the run was a formality – only in the very last mile did the legs throw any signs of distress signals as the calves felt a tough tight. Other than that it was twelve easy miles and a beast of a climb – one that I would like to tackle again in anger when the tracks have dried up – if that could ever happen.

Split Summary
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1) 1m – 7:43(7:43/m) 135/144bpm 106cal
2) 1m – 7:10(7:10/m) 141/149bpm 101cal
3) 1m – 7:10(7:10/m) 144/150bpm 100cal
4) 1m – 7:11(7:11/m) 151/167bpm 106cal
5) 1m – 7:31(7:31/m) 158/173bpm 117cal
6) 1m – 7:07(7:07/m) 151/155bpm 101cal
7) 1m – 6:53(6:53/m) 141/150bpm 76cal
8) 1m – 7:04(7:04/m) 147/154bpm 92cal
9) 1m – 7:03(7:03/m) 146/152bpm 85cal
10) 1m – 7:06(7:06/m) 139/150bpm 59cal
11) 1m – 7:01(7:01/m) 143/148bpm 75cal
12) 1m – 6:57(6:57/m) 144/148bpm 75cal
13) 0.35m – 2:32(7:11/m) 144/148bpm 26cal

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Day 67–Easy Running

Day three of the Bahrain F1 test I am covering – I cannot decide whether the most exciting action of the day was breaking the news to the world (via a third party) that Jenson Button had proposed to his now fiancée Jessica Michibata, or revealing to the world that Lotus tested an exhaust that is off centre at the rear. It was that exciting.

Hardly surprising then that I was keen to get out for a few miles running, more so after watching the apparent injustice in the short track ice skating with our disqualified British skater (cannot understand how a sport can have a judge seemingly penalising athletes at will without the need to explain themselves nor have any grounds for appeal. It seems ripe for corruption – not that anything like that would ever happen in the Olympics…)

The burning embers of injustice barely stoked the boiler in the opening mile or two, the legs feeling decidedly stiff. Somewhere along the run though I forgot about the achiness and helped somewhat by the wind blowing behind me for the closing stages, was able feel much better in the final miles – a successful recovery run.

I’ve got my eyes now on a record mileage week. I shouldn’t let myself chase these meaningless targets, but it is tempting…