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!!!!

A Sunny Evening 10k in 1:03:09

Handed an assignment in today, so needed to celebrate, and what better way than an evening run in the sun! Was aware that I have a busy couple of days Fri and Sat so won’t be able to run, so wanted to make this one count.

My target was 10k, at a leisurely pace, so set off not quite sure of a route, and ran down a street I’d not been to the end of before, only to find it coming out at the big hill I ran down the other day, so some impromptu hills followed, along with a little trail stretch past Broomstairs nursery and then another uphill. Began to feel quite in the zone at 6k and despite slowing down posted a sub 6 minute km, and had to keep slowing myself more, because the idea was not to go at breakneck speed and possibly injure myself, but just to get around 6.2 miles!

Legs and bum felt a bit numb at one point, but kept going, my strides deliberately short and heel striking, rather than trying to stretch the legs and run on my toes, at this stage was generating quite enough pace. Had to stop a few times for traffic, but didn’t really mind, and at one point a fierce looking dog came up to me in my path, so I stopped and stroked it and it licked my leg, and it’s owner said “you keep on running” so I did. Felt just fine, running very comfortably, and could have upped the pace but felt no need to at this stage.

Last bit was uphill, and coasted to a stop on just over 1 hour 3 minutes, which is a season’s best by 3 minutes and an achievement in itself as I haven’t got to 10k many times since last summer, in fact the only time I’ve run 10k that fast in months and months was the Salford 10k 2011 and I really struggled with that one!

It seems to be clicking and ironically the rest I had with the calf injury probably did me a world of good! I am learning to run within myself, as I could easily have pushed to try to run under an hour, but at the moment the minutes are falling off my times without hardly trying, I am feeling good when running, and hopefully I can save the big performances for races!

A Freezing 10k – 1:06:40

Decided it would be a good idea to try getting up to 10k, and it seemed a fitting way to mark my early bird entry to the City of Manchester/We Love Manchester 10k later in the summmer.

Left the house and it was pretty cold and a bit misty with a threat of rain in the air. Set off down the road walking to warm up while I got a Garmin signal – and walked, and walked, and walked, by the time I had walked about 600m I was getting a bit frustrated as time was starting to slip by. Eventually it got a signal and I set off, aware I was going a bit too quick and also aware of a bit of pain in my feet and lower legs, which seemed to be down to the freezing concrete.

Planned a long looping route that takes in a lot of roads, and not a lot else, but there are a few big inclines over motorway bridges and the like. At 2.5k felt ok, but a bit puffy, and had to keep slowing myself down, reminding myself that the only aim was to reach 10k, not run it in any particular time. Was going OK but when I got to one of the big inclines I wilted a bit and stopped to get my breath, before ploughing on, and would have to stop a couple of times more just to collect my breath. I saw the canal was totally frozen over at one point so it was maybe colder than I thought.

I did start to struggle in the latter stages – after all, I had only just done a fastest of season 5 miler a few days ago and have not run more than 5 miles for a few months. But I kept going, and by the time the Garmin got to 9.7k I was ready for falling over, but somehow staggered the last few hundred metres to post a respectable (at this stage) 1 hour 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

I have the distance, the idea now is to steadily bring the 10k time down with a view to running a good time in the Great Manchester Run, and of course I now have another bite of the cherry later in the year in the We Love Manchester 10k. I may even enter some more races at this rate!

An ill fated enforced 9.15KM long run… Longest run of 2012 so far

Had been visiting my sister earlier in the day, being entertained by my great nephew, and have had a bit of a lazy chilled weekend all told, but with 2 frantic days coming up wanted to get a run in. Was running a little late but made sure I had a pre-run snack of weetabix with golden syrup to make sure I would have some fuel, and set off planning to cover 5 miles. Thought I would try a new route which would take me in a big loop and cover about 5 miles, and I factored in a bus route in case it proved longer than I thought or if I came unstuck in any other way.

About 3k in I was reaching the point of no return (long stretch without a way back or bus route etc) when my left hamstring twinged a bit, but nothing major. As I went up the hill over the canal bridge, I started feeling a bit puffy and considered turning back. The fact this would mean an uphill slog put me off somewhat and I thought it would be best to carry on and reach the main road section where I could jump on a bus, I checked the time and seemed to be OK.

However the slope over the bridge seemed to take it out of me a bit and I stopped for few paces to recover, realising I wasn’t feeling in the best of shape for a 5 mile plus run. So I decided to make it to the bus stop on the main road going back, and catch a bus there. I actually made it that far, to find I had missed a bus by 5 minutes, and the next one was in another hour (unbenknownst to me, the half hourly timetable in my head had been changed to hourly on Sunday Evenings!). So the only thing for it was to carry on running for the next 4 or 5k… So I trotted on, past caring about my pace and just thinking about food and drink and the stuff I need to sort for tomorrow. Managed to keep going and took one or two breaks, my feet were getting a little sore but I persevered. Eventually came to a stop just before my house and had covered 9.15k in 1hr 05 minutes. Was good to run long, but might have been better with more of a plan, then again it was enjoyable in retrospect!

Is an odd route that I first ran as a 10 year old primary school boy, and took in the funeral parlour where most of my relatives have gone through, the old people’s home where my mum died, and the house where I grew up. Was interesting to run a different route, and some of the dark stretches were quite spooky. The amount of roadworks and temporary pedestrian areas is quite amazing really. Hey ho!

Until the next run, cool runnings! (I went past a place called that the other day and thought it might be a running shop, but was a Jamaican fast food place, lol!!!!!!)

A Blustery 5 miles in 53:25

Been a long weekend of study, so felt like a run to blow the cobwebs away. This time I managed to eat properly earlier in the day, so set off with a target of 7k, but rather miscalculated the route so ended up doing 5 miles, felt I had a little more in the tank but it was a bit tough in the latter stages – kept to a steady and quite sedate pace, the time of the run compared well with the 53:17 I did for my last 5 miler in early December, so have probably got about the same fitness base as I did then, and need to build on that now.

A Comfortable 5 miles in the December Darkness – 53:17

Hadn’t been running in the week due to general Christmas busyness and also a cold trying to start off and on ever since last week. Felt quite rough yesterday so just rested up, then on the back of some personal stressful stuff, decided a run might help with my mood, so set off in the cold December Saturday evening with a vague plan of seeing if I could do 5 miles.

Started off on local streets as usual and decided to head up Windmill Lane, through the edge of Dane Bank and around to Hyde Road for the long stretch back. Felt strangely comfortable, albeit running at a pretty slow steady pace, and only felt moderately strained going up the hill on Windmill Lane at about 3k. Felt pretty good thereafter, though I did notice a few hunger pangs along the way.

Still felt good on the long straight along Hyde Road back into Denton, saw a lady runner and gave her the thumbs up and she greeted me verbally which was nice. Slowed over the steep motorway bridge, then with a KM to go started to speed up. Flew past a gang of laughing youths and a glance at the Garmin showed my pace to be 3:41per KM at that point but it didn’t last, although I still felt good I slowed down a little and although the last k was the fastest it was still over 6 minutes. Still, even that last burst of speed didn’t leave me too much out of breath and I only stopped because I had reached my target and didn’t want to overdo the increase in distance and risk injury.

In all the steady increases and rest periods I have been building in seem to be working and my running is going strong at the moment – this was certainly the easiest 5 miler I can remember running this year, so will be interesting to see how I get on when I start trying to run a little faster, but for now just putting in the miles is feeling good.

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!

A speedy 4 miles in the dark – making 11 miles for the week!

Technically my long run, of 6.4k, which is about my limit at the moment. Thought about doing 7k but decided I had already done enough in reaching 11 miles for the week and need to be careful about injuries.

Did this 4 miler a couple of minutes quicker than the last without consciously feeling I was going any faster, did need to slow down a bit at the end but could probably have kept going and felt mainly comfortable.

Not sure what my real goal is at the moment apart from the build base fitness back up. I guess I could try a one mile time trial sometimes, and there is the looming 10k with Liz to think about, I need to earn the feast she will feed me afterwards!!!!!

My First Unofficial East Manchester Half Marathon! 13.1 miles in 2 hrs 14 mins 13 seconds

Well, I’ve been doing a lot to try to improve my speed lately, and have been struggling to maintain any pace, and have been struggling on quite a few runs of late, so I set off on this planned long run with the idea of just taking it easy and seeing how I got on. Fortunately it was quite overcast with a little rain in the air, so ideal for tackling a long run.

I set off at a gentle pace with a bottle of water at the ready, and felt good at first, then hit the usual 2-3k point where my lungs begin to work really hard. I didn’t have a route in mind until that point, but I started to think about doing ten miles, and thought going out along Ashton Old Road, through Beswick, then turning left along Pottery Lane, and getting home via Hyde Road through Gorton, should give me a good long run, as I sometimes find it helpful to have a circuit in mind, and I had my bus pass with me in case of blow ups or other disasters!

I stopped a couple of times just to take on water, and felt pretty good, even tackling the big hill near the Blue Pig (actually I don’t know if the Blue Pig is still there I think it closed down!) with confidence. It did amuse me to see the queues at the bus stops growing the further along Ashton Old Road I got, I felt like saying to them all that the bus would be a while. I had an idea of racing the bus right into town, but eventually it passed me!

The roads were relatively quiet, as I got near pottery Lane the Garmin ticked over the 5 miles mark and I still felt fresh and good, so I thought I might even try doing a little over 10 miles to make my longest ever run. I ran some way along pottery lane, and checked the Garmin as I felt I was nearing 9km – and to my shock the display had somehow jumped back to 7.56km. Which was totally wrong. I stopped and had a quick look, it seemed I had done 11.53 meters in 7 and a half minutes, which was total rubbish, I’d done the first 8k at around 6 mins per km, then it had gone haywire, so I quickly worked out that 7 and a half minutes was easily 1.2km, so I reset the Garmin and figured I needed to run another 7k ish to make my ten miles. As I got along Hyde Road I figured I might get near home too soon, so took a bit of a detour and got lost in the back streets of Gorton before coming out at Pottery Lane again, and by then I was off along Hyde Road feeling like I wanted to get home. I had run out of water long since and needed a boost, so stopped the Garmin on 5k and dashed in a shop for some Lucozade, then dashed out again and restarted the Garmin.

I had already figured that I would end up doing maybe 12 miles now if I ran all the way home (the bus was always an option, I told myself I could stop when I wanted), so I carried on and figured 12 miles would be enough. When I got to within spitting distance of my house I was on 10.5km of this part of the run, and I quickly worked out that if I ran 11.9km on the clock, and added it to the 9.2 from the first segment of the run, I would have 21.1km, or 13.1 miles! I had been slowing in the last few kms and was feeling a bit depleted, but wasn’t shattered by any means, in fact I felt confident I could run another 1.4km, so I just carried on, and on… and finally felt the relief of easing to a stop and hitting the stop button on the Garmin having completed 13.1 miles altogether!

My longest run before this was a bit over 10 miles, so I have surpassed my previous record by some distance, and have run for over 2 hours for the first time ever. The combined time on the Garmin was 2 hrs 14 minutes and 13 seconds – it would be interesting to see what I could do if I pushed the pace! Average pace was around 10 minute miles, or 6 mins per k, which is fine, the main thing is I got the distance in my legs – and it seems like even though I have struggled on some runs lately, they have been doing me some good on some level, as I felt pretty good and fresh through most of this run!

Hopefully this will help with my endurance and confidence on shorter runs, and maybe I will even find some speed again (I had to slow down on portions of the run as I was running sub 55 10k pace in places and not really noticing!)

In all a very good run – and what a difference a bit of cloud cover makes! The sprinkle of rain right at the end was a blessing!