Rob's Running Blog

1 Mile and Bye Bye Hamstring – again!

It seemed a cold day for a run – too cold. Wind blowing, not nice at all. Something told me it wasn’t a good day for running, but the fatal Facebook effect took hold – lots of people posting results and pictures from the Wilmslow Half. Surely if people could go out and race 13 miles on such a freezng awful day, I could go out and run 3 or 4 miles slow just to keep the miles in my legs, right? Wrong!

Set off and was aware of feeling incredibly cold, my hands going red and numb almost immediately. Just settled into a very slow pace, and clicked through 1k with no trouble. Coming up to the mile mark and planning a route in my head, was envisioning a nice gentle loop and doing about 5 miles, when twang, my hamstring blows. Walked for a little then tried to jog at a barely above walking pace, but twang, sayonara, sucker… You aren’t running for a while again.

So 9 miles on Monday, a faster 5k on Thursday (though still over 31 minutes), and a gentle trot today (was just turning 11 minutes at the one mile point) and twang, off it goes – looks like there is no rhyme or reason and I am not going to be able to trust my legs for an awfully long time as one day I can run, and get a nice pace or distance done, a few days later, it’s like I have a different pair of legs.

I think my days of running sub 50 10ks and sub 24 5ks, and in fact going for any kind of running intensity at all, are effectively over, incredibly frustrating when I read of people my age or a lot older running hard and doing well, as my body just keeps letting me down and stopping me doing one of the things that I really enjoy 🙁

Maybe I shall take up knitting until his effing cold weather effs off back to effing Siberia!

11k – or 6.83 miles – in 1 hour 17 mins – nice undulating trail.

Something of a Sunday long run, and just under 7 miles is certainly quite long considering my breaks due to injury lately. Was nice to get a substantial distance under my belt, and felt good, though the first few K and the last few were quite tough, in different ways.

Set off down Town Lane, plan was to run out to Reddish Vale and see how I got on. Felt pretty cold to start with, and took it easy, enjoying the the uneven ground and the greenery around me. Bumped into a bunch of vans who looked like they were getting ready for pony trekking, then began the descent to the park, where I started to feel a bit odd, and had to stop for a moment as my heart felt slightly odd and I felt a tingling in my fingers. I put my hand on it and it seemed to have a weird fluttery extra beat, which occasionally happens at rest. I walked for a little while and it went back to normal, and I carried on slowly, and felt no ill effects after this, despite going uphill after this.

I took a few detours and ended up going uphill into Reddish, did a loop of some houses and got a bit lost so went back the way I came, through the park, and then the climb back to Denton, passing ponies along the way. The long steady incline had me working hard and by the time I got to Town Lane I was starting to drag a bit, a chap sweeping his path pulled aside and said “won’t get in the way of your training, stay cool mate,” so I gave him a thumbs up and dug in for the last couple of km. Was just about out of steam by 11k, and petered out, but was nice to have been out running for well over an hour with no niggles, and at times was running as fast as 10 minute miles! Will work on that, one run at a time, for the moment I am just enjoying getting out and enjoying the trails, will be even nicer when the sun pops out!

Oh Damn Flying along then my Right Calf explodes on me :(

Just when it all starts coming together, my calf goes TWANG!

After the other day’s successful intervals session, and realising I wouldn’t be able to run much in the coming week due to some commitments, I decided a nice afternoon 5 miler would round off a good week of running. I didn’t set out to run it fast, or as a tempo run, but just wanted to get some miles under my belt which would take me just over 10 miles for the week – nothing over ambitious in that, really.

Set off at a slow pace and felt pretty good, first KM clicked over in 6:03 and thereafter I just seemed to start getting quicker without really trying. KM’s were ticking over nicely and though I was breathing hard I felt I could sustain it. At one point I was overtaken by a ten year old girl with her dad encouraging her on a bike, this may have been a bad omen and maybe I should have turned back then!

Kept going and with just 2.5k to go I was feeling great, running at some pace and feeling I would shatter the season’s best 5 mile time. There were some hills coming up, and I had thoughts of powering over them rather than dreading them, when suddenly my right foot landed and there was an explosion of heat and a tearing sensation in my calf. A few steps later I stopped, and had the presence of mind to stop the Garmin and realise that was it – RUN OVER. I massaged the calf but it hurt a bit to walk, and I needed to walk some distance to get to a bus stop, as I was quite a distance from my house and it was either walk about 2 miles or get the bus.

Eventually the bus came and I got home, but still quite a bit of pain in the calf, so took painkillers and put some ice on it. Checking the stats I had gone through 5k in 29:08 and had plenty left in the tank, so I seem to have finally got over the breathing and heart rate problems I had the other week, reached a point of feeling very fit and ready to go to the next level, when bang, or twang, something in my calf tears and now I have no idea how long I will be sidelined before I start the whole process of trying to get back to fitness YET AGAIN.

It feels like my body doesn’t want me to run sometimes. I guess I will have to hope this calf tear running injury is not too bad and that I can keep up the fitness I have worked hard to gain by doing some swimming.

Five miles in 58:10 real struggle of a run.

Just planned to run very easy and maybe do 11k, headed down to the woods at a very sedate pace and it was nice to have some scenery around, and see people out walking dogs and even people out on their horses. Was all nice and muddy!

Deliberately kept the pace slow, and felt fine, thinking the 3 rest days since my last struggle would see me nice and refreshed. Alas, when I hit 4k I started to feel wobbly, even though I was running 6:37 per km, not fast at all, and the lead up had been downhill.

Just tried to keep going then in the middle of the woods knew I would need to get back and tried to figure out a way of avoiding the big uphill on the way back. Found a path out of the woods but was feeling a bit rubbish by this point so walked up the big long hill, then started to trot again but found myself having to stop every 500 metres or so, felt thorougly puffed out and not great. And that was slowing down to 7 minutes per k.

Got out of the woods, so to speak, and just settle don completing 5 miles, which really seemed a long way off at times. Was really glad to finish and think a full rest week might be in order, as my body is not responding at the moment and might need some time to recover, which might be to do with the two longer/higher intensity runs last week.

Coming Back From A Cold – 5k in 33:03

First a cold stopped me dead, only lasted a mere 3-4 days, but running with a cold that was a bit chesty was out of the question, and then all my Christmas gatherings took over. Liz had an injured hip so our run around Tatton Park had been called off anyway (may have been just as well, our get together was delayed as it was when her car battery conked out at Sainsbury’s just before she was due to pick me up!).

In any case, Christmas came and went, and on the day after Boxing Day, decided a few days of bad sleep and fatigue might be helped by getting back to the running, so I went out into the relatively mild evening air and set off at a very sedate pace. Felt good at 1k, but just kept it nice and slow, and by 3k was starting to feel it. Had to hang on a bit for the final half a k and was ready to stop by then, but the enforced break doesn’t seem to have done too much harm and in a few runs time I should be flying again and attacking that 29 minute mark and raising my distance to 10k soon!

7k in the cold and rain – let’s see if exercise can stop a cold!

I’ve got some really bad colds the last few winters, and notice this seemed to correlate with a period of injury where I had not been able to exercise. This winter I have been faring better and my running has been going well, but alas, recently I had a meeting with a colleague for an hour and a half of him sneezing and coughing in close proximity to me, and 2 days later I woke up with a mildly sore throat, the odd sniffle, and a few sneezes here and there, but thankfully so far no drained, tired, horrible feeling (despite some insomnia).

So, today looked to be pretty cold, about 3-4C, I had to put the heating on a little higher. When I went out for my run I could feel why – the outside doorhandle felt icy, and my breath was pluming around me. Even but the hood on my top up while the Garmin found its signal, then off I went on a planned 7k in the cold dark evening along puddled pavements.

I felt a little puffed out at first, despite the slow pace (6:30 per km) but got into my stride and took a long loping loop that had some inclines and declines included. At about 5k it started to rain pretty heavily, which was quite nice as I was pretty warmed up by then, and although the last km was a bit slower than the others, mainly due to having to navigate a lot of crossings and corners, I felt good and relaxed to a stop in 45:21, averaging 6:30 per km and while my body had worked hard, I felt pretty happy to have done a “long” run and even felt a mild endorphin buzz in the latter stages.

Now it remains to be seen whether running will help with this cold, it doesn’t feel too bad – I am hoping like a few other colds that have tried to get going, and failed after a run, that the effect will be the same this time, and I can prove the immune boosting power of running, if only to myself!

First Run of Winter, As the Summer ends…

Well, British Summer Time officially ended at 2am, so thought it was high time I kick started my running and blog again!

The day after the City of Salford 10k, I woke up hardly able to walk. There was no sign the previous day, apart from a twinge half way through the race – nothing afterwards, no sign. And then I was suddenly hobbling around wincing as pain shot up from my left lower leg/shin.

This lasted a good while, in the meantime I took up swimming, which was a nice change and a way of keeping up some fitness. After a few weeks the pain subsided, but I was very wary of running again, and wanted to make sure the running injury was fully healed, being unable to afford physiotherapy for running injuries at the moment! Before I knew it, 2 months had passed and the clocks were going back, so seeing as it was a nice day, quite bright, and not too cold, and I got up too late to go to the pool anyway, I thought I would try a run!

Didn’t feel like almost November, so put shorts on and my long sleeve thin top, and went out to let the Garmin wake up from its 2 month doze, which took a while. Set off and within 200 metres a little dog tried to savage my legs and trip me up with its lead, which was quite funny, and then I settled into a slow pace and just felt curious about how I would feel.

At 2k I felt confident of being able to run 5k, and perhaps even in under 30 minutes. By 2.5k I had to stop and walk, and then kind of stop started for the next 1.5k until I ran the last 500 metres until staggering to a stop, gasping for air and with my legs feeling like jelly!

Gosh it took a while to recover from this comeback! 4k in 27:19, with walks. At least I felt the swimming had maintained some fitness, but even thought I’ve been swimming up to 70 lengths and doing multiple front crawl lengths, nothing seems as pulse-raising and generally knackering as running! Hopefully I will get back into the swing of it, but will continue to mix in the swimming for now.

Meanwhile I had a blood test a few weeks ago, and the results were that my cholesterol is fine, my liver is fine, my kidneys are fine, my blood pressure is fine, and I have a less than 2% chance of dying from heart disease in the next 10 years… At the same time, I have put weight on since I stopped drinking and started running 4 years ago, but think this may be down to consuming entire packets of custard creams after runs – I thought the running would allow me to get way with this, alas not, so I will be paying a little more attention to my diet in future, and the running and swimming will be part of a whole holistic health package.

Meanwhile, my counselling course is going fantastically well and I can’t wait to qualify and maybe even earn some cash, which is in short supply!

Happy Running!

A 3k Comeback!

Yet another comeback run, this one consisting of 3k in the pouring rain. Had been 2 weeks since my last run and my cold seems to have largely gone away – with busy times coming up, and the running habit not entrenched into my schedule, I thought I’d better bite the bullet and at least get out there for 20 minutes.

Was puffing hard after half a k and getting very wet, but that helped me keep cool. I did feel very rusty especially in the lungs, but they’ve been battered by the viruses lately so was to be expected. I managed to hold on and complete a short run that was satisfying just because I’d got out there, not let the rain put me off, and achieved my modest target.

Hopefully that will be the end of my colds for the time being, and I can think about the Salford 10k perhaps – though with only a couple of months to go, I might be better off looking at the ones closer to home later in the summer, especially as finances are an issue 🙁

Damn – Not Again!

Just when things are starting to go well, I wake up with a sore throat and the sniffles. I’ve been back running for about 2 weeks since the last bout with a cold stopped me running for over a month.

I really hope this one isn’t going to be a bad one, I really need my running at the moment, would like to be fit for some races in the spring, and aside from the running it’s a very busy time generally.

Go away cold!!!!!!!!! 🙁

2 miles and a Happy New Year!

So 2010 will go down as the year I got my sub 50 10k, and didn’t really do a hell of a lot else runningwise! First it was the shinsplints, and a slow comeback, followed by the PB – then the massive injury at Bolton 10k, a long layoff, physiotherapy, frustration, and then a nice gentle comeback, just getting really back into it, upping the distance – then snow and flu hits and suddenly 2010 is done and gone!

Decided to do my comeback run on the first day of 2011 and hope it sets a trend! Was worried I would have lost all fitness again after a layoff of over a month, and of course losing some fitness is inevitable – but I kept to a gentle pace and completed two miles without feeling under significant duress, which bodes well. Two 10.5 minute miles is not bad to start with considering the time off my feet, and since I usually find the first few runs back really hard, I am quite pleased that I wasn’t feeling half dead! Looking forward to getting back out regularly, and building back up to some nice long runs. As spring approaches, am thinking of entering some more races – will just have to be careful with my frayed finances!

Happy New Year to all readers of this running blog! 🙂