Rob's Running Blog

A hard hilly 13.1km – 1:24:11

A rather grey May Bank Holiday Monday and I was ready for some running, having taken the previous week quite easy and had 3 days off.

Planned to do 8 miles and see if I had anything left in the tank for more, as this would be the last substantial run before The Great Manchester Run in 2 weeks’ time!

Set off at a light pace and found it quite chilly. My bladder spasmed a little and I wondered if I would be able to run for an hour and a half if it was filling, but figured it would settle down once I got into the run, which it did.

First km was quite quick in 6:09 so felt I would need to watch my pace, but this wasn’t a problem as I reached the snaking barriered path into the Bredbury industrial estate. This was the first time I had attempted this route since an abortive attempt last summer when it was too hot, but even now the incline seemed to get me puffed out.

At this point my legs started to feel very heavy, I slowed the pace, but either it was the cold or something else but they felt numb and sluggish. I knew some big hills and a lot more running were to come, so produced my secret weapon, a cereal bar, which I paused to munch down. I set off slowly, and felt a little better, and then came the next set of big hills. I took them slow and steady, felt it hurt, but carried, on, and took it easy on the downward bits.

At one point I crested a hill and could see Beetham towering over central Manchester spread out before me, which was quite a view, and showed how high up I had got! And then there was another incline before a series of gentle slopes taking me back down, however I resisted the urge to go hell for leather.

I got my breath back and got into a nice steady pace, then decided instead of taking the normal straight route back home, I could go via Mill Lane, which is easily the steepest hill for miles, leading right down into the Tame Valley. This was probably an insane thing to do, but I felt mad enough to do it, so I eased off on the descent before I started climbing, and climbing, and climbing. That hill is hard enough to walk up, but I made it to the top, and my legs, having come alive during the second half of the run, went numb again and almost on autopilot as I got my breath back. At 11.3km I wondered about going for an extra mile, but that last hill had really done me in and 8 miles was fine I reckoned given the hills, I didn’t need to push another mile for the sake of it, as I was close to home and starting to feel my energy levels drop, by this time I was jogging very slowly, and as I stopped the Garmin at 13.1km I was glad to stop and go to the corner shop for some well earned snacks and a sports drink before heading in for a relaxing afternoon!

A Half Kilomathon including an interlude through Hell… 1:26:29

Having not run much this week I was puzzled by some calf tenderness on walking, which was more irksome than painful, but on palpating the calf there was quite a bit of pain, which made me hesitate about setting off. I massage it well to warm it up and figured I would just set off slow and see how I fared, and stop right away if it gave me any trouble.

Oddly, the first couple of steps I felt it, but then it totally disappeared, and I ended up running my longest run in some time with no problems. Well, no problems with running that is! I was getting warmed up by about 4k, and felt into my running by then and so gained the confidence to go on a wide looping route, that might involve a bus ride home if I got stuck (as always had be trusty bus pass!). Went up Windmill Lane and into Reddish, then turned down what I thought was the road towards Levenshulme but didn’ get it quite right, and ended up getting totally lost in a warren of council estates, roads just kept leading to more same-ish looking houses with not a sign of a main road in sight. I followed a set of bus stops which led me to a cul-de-sac, and by now I was cursng when I saw that a potential exit was somebody’s dead end drive way. I asked a woman with a child and she directed me to a little slope which led to the arse end of the world, a nasty little park with some ten year old kids “playing.” Their game was jumping out of the little hut at passers-by, troll-like, and yelling at them. I couldn’t resist a parting shot of “knob!” over my shoulder, which result in a tirade of expletives and that most cardinal of insults, “Are you walking or jogging you F&*cking wanker?!” to which I made some nice hand gestures over my shoulder before jogging along my way.

Eventually I found a road I recognised after wondering if I was going to wander through Limbo for all eternity, and the Garmin said I should get close to home by the time I reached my target of around 8 miles. At 13.1KM I decided I had just about done enough and was feeling really tired (my previous longest run was 10k this year, so didn’t want to pile on too much mileage!). I had my emergency cash with me so stopped near a shop, stopped the Garmin, and got myself some refreshments to stuff my face with on the walk home.

All in all a very good run, which actually seemed to alleviate the tenderness in my leg, so not really sure what that’s about. 13.1KM was a good marker, and if I can get a few more long runs in, together with some tempo runs, it bodes well for Manchester, and at least I know I can cover the distance, so whatever time I do is a bonus and I hope to just enjoy it without niggles or troll-like feral kids leaping out from bus shelters along the route, ha ha!!!!

Long Slooooow Run with a near death experience thrown in – 9 miles in 1hr 34

I should get money to make the sun come out, I really should! It had been chucking it down all day and the skies were pure November – ideal conditions for a a long run! This time I was not to be fooled though, so took baseball cap, shades, and dabbed a bit of sun cream on my arms – and sure enough, no sooner had I started the Garmin, there was this big ball of heat in the sky, burning the clouds away! So the shades went on for a while.

This was a planned 8 miler, on a route with some serious hills, plenty of declines but some nasty inclines too. Last time I attempted this route was a sunny evening and I came a cropper at 4k ish feeling quite ill, and did start to feel a bit puffy early on, which is possibly due to the long spiral incline early on. This time I nearly came a cropper at a junction, I could see a car some way down the road on my left, but felt I had plenty of time to cut in front of it. Don’t know what the driver was playing at, as instead of slowing as he came to the junction, he sped up, which resulted in a near collision and me practically rolling over the bonnet of the vehicle while having the horn blasted at me. This reminds me to be more careful, as the driver was obviously lost in conversation with the passenger and only saw me at the very last moment. For the rest of the run I stopped and tip toed across every junction…

Anyway, it may have been a burst of adrenaline from this that led to a 5:33 km and then a sudden drop in my motivation. Felt like I was blowing up, and stopped the clock at 5k and went in a shop for some gatorade. Drank some and set off, having to walk in phases, and then tackled the big hills on this route, and was glad it started to rain again. I recovered on the long downward stretches and started to wonder if I could maybe do 9 miles. I was feeling better than earlier in the run, so decided to just keep going.

As I went over 13km, I felt I could get to the 14.5km mark, but I hit some kind of wall at that point and started to feel really depleted, presumably my glycogen stores were starting to run out, I felt a little sick, and my legs were feeling heavy. I forced myself to keep going and it hurt so much I almost had tears in my eyes, but I gritted my teeth and finally ran down the last km, and was really, really, really glad when I staggered to a stop and hit the stop button on the Garmin, 9 miles in 1 hr 34 minutes, longest on my feet this season, and longest distance.

I think I will have a few rest days now!!

7.2 miles in the pouring rain – Zen and the Art of Running!

I’ve been interested in Buddhism for a while, and increasingly in Zen lately, and I must say that running in the rain has a certain Zen quality about it – just being, living in the moment, one moment after another, feeling the beauty of the wetness instead of trying to keep it away with layers of clothing. Also there’s something very childlike about splashing and sploshing through puddles without a care in the world.

There’s also something manic about me, which relishes the funny looks I get from folk wrapped in their raincoats, which says “You crazy mother******”. I do feel crazy at the time, like I’m invincible, like nothing else matters, totally in the moment. Or perhaps they are the crazy ones, huddled against the wet, or standing in doorways smoking their death sticks while they watch the crazy runner get a bit wet, unable to partake of the pure joy of being. I wish they’d give it a try!

For the record I did 7.2 miles, I did one of the kms in 5:12 which left me a bit out of it for a while, and was going to stop at 10k, but then decided to make it 10 miles for the week and pulled in an 11th km of 5:44 before slowing to a crawl and stopping on 11.6k. Not had much chance to run this week, so was good to get out.

Why would a little torrential rain stop me? Every rain drop, like every moment, is just part of the picture of how things are. Maybe it’s just the endorphins, but I do feel a certain Zen quality right now.

11.5K Long Run – 1hr 15

Decided to run a bit later in the day again to avoid the hot sun, though the weather looked a bit unpredictable anyway. Slathered the sun cream on as a precaution and set off slowly, hoping to do 5 miles at least and hopefully 7.

Ran out towards Dane Bank as the skies darkened and spots of rain began to fall. Took on water at a few points. Was at about 5k when I got to Debdale park so thought I’d run up to the reservoirs then turn back, which should leave 3-4k to complete my target distance, but I ended up carrying on and found a nice bit of trail running, so took a risk and followed this, I knew vaguely where I’d end up but not how far it would be. Was lost for a small amount of time, then found familiar territory and ran along a bus route in case I totally ran out of energy.

As it happened I crossed the 7 mile mark as I was nearing home, and jogged a little extra to make it 11.5k to get nearer my house. Was tired, but could have gone on a little further. No sign of last week’s knee pain, though I did have a little hamstring niggle which I rubbed in the park for a bit, but it didn’t feel too much of a problem.

Somehow I have managed to run 12.74 miles for 2 weeks in a row! Plan to take this week as easy as possible before the Great Manchester Run next Sunday.

10.5k Long Run, aborted 7 miles due to niggle – 1 hr 10 mins

Lovely late afternoon sunshine was the setting for a planned 7 mile long run to get some distance in my legs, though I was a bit concerned as I had been experiencing shooting pains at rest in my left knee, which was odd as there was no pain running. As my mum always used to say, probably a bit of arthritis or something…

In any case I set off at a sedate pace and straight away started to wonder if I would be able to last for 7 miles, but kept the pace slow and steady. At about 2k I got the pain in my knee again and slowed, almost calling the run off, but just decided to keep going slowly. Ran all the way out to Debdale Park, then through the park and up past the reservoirs, before turning back and going back through the park again. I was feeling strong in a cardiovascualar sense, but as I left the park and started to think I might reach 7 miles after all, the knee started to complain and I still had a way to get home. It was either carry on or abort and get the bus. I slowed considerably, and started to flag in every way, but set myself a target of 5 miles, and when I crossed that set 10k, and finally, as I was really flagging and my knee was really protesting, I just did another half a k for good measure, and ended up at home feeling very tired and depleted, and needed to eat half a packet of biscuits to replenish energy…

Update: thankfully over the weekend there was no comeback knee-wise from the run, so it may just be the joint working to strengthen itself as i increase the mileage, but am not going to go too hard on it with the first race in a year only 2 weeks away…

Long Run – 8 miles in 1:15

This was my longest run in 6 months. Set off slowly, for a planned 8 miles, and was struggling a bit at first as I went down Stockport Road and into Bredbury, having to tie my shoelace en route. Then I hit the uphill part of the course and just pushed myself to keep going. Then coasted off the hills on the flat and downhill bits and built up a real head of steam until the next hill, near the end. Slowed down a bit then and just jogged to the 8 mile point. Think I need a couple of rest days now to let my legs recover from the hard sessions lately.

A Rainy 12.1K along the comeback trail – 1hr 13 mins

It’s been a busy week since the race on Sunday, my uni course has now started, and I have been socialising a bit as well, together with work and what have you! Managed to swim 40 lengths on Tuesday, and aim to build in some swimming as cross training while my leg gets fully back to normal.

Wanted to do a bit of a long slow recovery run today, so warmed up indoors, then set off at a very gentle pace on the Bredbury and Hyde circuit route. Rain helped keep me cool, and at the gentle pace I was running at, I didn’t start to hurt until near the end of the run, and even managed the hilly parts quite well.

There is still something up with the leg, but it seems to be reacting well – will just have to avoid anything too intense in the way of speed work or harder paced long runs for the time being, until I am sure the leg is up to it.

But felt great to be back out running in the rain

EDIT November 22nd – This run turned out to be too much for the leg, which reacted quite badly over the next few days. That’ll teach me to go out doing 8 mile runs with shin splints

Easy Paced 8 Miler – 1 hour 17 minutes

Pretty slow run with plenty of undulations, but felt fine throughout.  Ran the reverse route up through Hyde over the hills then back up Stockport Road. Nice easy pace but didn’t feel the hills were too hard and recovered very quickly for an enjoyable run.  Lower left leg seems to have a bit of pain on impact, but been there for a bit so just need to be careful with up and coming 3 races in a row.

Tempo Run – Through Windmill Lane & Reddish – 01:03:33

For a while, building in more easy runs seemed to help my improvements, and slowing down the pace of long runs. But then the improvements stopped, and a good friend with a lot of running experience suggested running some longer runs at a harder pace. So I did a 12.1k effort today, with no reference to time, just ran how I felt – felt I was going at race pace at points, but refused to check out the time. Turns out I wasn’t going hugely fast, but I did go through the 10k split in 52:21 – so faster than Sunday’s race, and by that point I was at death’s door, but forced myself to go through another 2k at the best pace I could manage, and managed the 12.1k in 1:03:33, which is almost exactly the same time I did the same distance last time round – several months ago, and I found it easier back then… So something has gone wrong!

In actuality I think doing the easy runs has harmed my mental toughness. I can see that occasionally running a week where most of the running is easy will help – but I read an article that said 90% of your running should be at easy pace. Well I’ve tried that, and it seems to be load of tosh  Harder runs ahead then, the stopping feels nicer though