Archives for Long Runs category
Posted on Oct 05, 2008 under Injuries, Long Runs, Misc, Trail Running, above 15k |
My enthusiasm got the better of me today, as I wasn’t feeling in the mood for a 10 miler but watched the Great North Run on tv and was suddenly raring to go! I got my trail shoes on after banging the mud off them from my last canal side run, and set off walking to warm up. It was cold, but the sun was out, so I had shades on! I set off at a nice slow pace and by the time I had got to the hill down into Haughton Dale I was feeling quite comfortable and good. The hill up to the canal was a bit slippery and tough, but settled back to a sedate rhythm, planning to get past the long tunnel at Woodley, and turn back at 9 or 10 k so the ten miles would tick over near home. The real fun began on the canal path, which was deep puddles every few footfalls after the heavy rain yesterday. Some of them were pretty deep, and where I could I ran to the side of them, which sometimes involved running at an angle or runnning through slushy mud and trying to keep my balance near the edge of the canal.
After the long tunnel, my feet and legs were soaked and numb with the freezing water! I was still feeling good though, and turned back as planned. On the way back I started to feel quite heavy legged and felt I was tiring - but with only 4k to go to reach the 10 mile mark, I knew I could do it. Shortly after that my right hip started to twinge a bit, so I slowed, and just decided to make it back to Hulme’s Wood so I could then walk home. I passed what I thought was the right marker before my entry back into Haughton Dale via the waterfall, but soon I was approaching the cobbled footbridge on the way to Hyde, so had to turn back. This was when the real problems began - I headed into what I thought was the right path, and this ended up being a dead end into bushes. Out again, and I tried the next one - this looked more promising, but was very unfamiliar, I thought if I followed the path it must lead back through to Haughton Dale - I had no idea where the correct path had gone! There was a treacherous path, wet and unstable, over a deep drop, and then the path went down a very steep hill covered with tree roots, and I ended up at the side of some kind of river or stream, with no further way forward - now I was at the bottom of a huge hill, and looking up it I couldn’t make out where the “path” was I had just come down, so I had to make my way up and it was almost vertical; I had to grab tree roots with my hands to drag myself up at some points! Finally I got back to the canal and the next path I tried, although unfamiliar, did lead through to the waterfall. I had expended a lot of energy for a 10 minute kilometer and was feeling really dead now, but managed to tick over the last k and by 16.1 at the foot of the hill back up into Haughton Green I could hardly pick one leg up after another.
It was a struggle to walk home, and the hip started flaring up more and more. After sitting down to check a few emails, etc, I stood up and almost fell over, wincing with the pain of putting the slightest weight on my right hip. I had to take mega painkillers to be able to do a couple of things I needed to do. In all, I think the atrocious underfoot conditions are what caused both my hip problem and unusual tiredness - there was a lot of slipping and sliding, running at odd angles with weird impacts and over such a long distance/time this took its toll. The Indiana Jones excursion into the wilderness didn’t help either, as I was already struggling by then!
Ah well, it is a lesson learned, that 10 milers over rough underfoot conditions are probably not a good idea, at least for me. Maybe 5 miles next time, and when the hip is better I will try a long run on the road. 
Posted on Sep 14, 2008 under Long Runs, Milestones, above 15k |
First really long run in a couple of weeks, and at 17k or about 10.5 miles, the longest I have done to date!
There was a carnival parade on outside my house, so I took a detour round some back streets instead of heading straight down the road to the woods. This got me nicely warmed up though. I was planning to do 8 miles, but to carry on beyond that if I felt like doing more, so I got to the canal trail heading towards Marple, and whereas last time I had turned back at the long tunnel (Woodley Tunnel), this time I braved this dark and dank 160 metre long affair, with a nice splash into God knows what in the pitch darkness near the middle of the tunnel! Running through a dark tunnel with uncertain footing was certainly a test, but I kept going and made it through to daylight!
I decided to keep going along the interminable canal path until I got to 10k, and then turn back - anything else was madness, as the path goes on for many miles and branches off onto other canal networks further on, so I didn’t want to get carried away and strand myself!
I was feeling good all this time, and even managed little bursts of extra pace now and then, but was generally going very slowly (about 6 mins per k). On the way back I did start to look forward to stopping, and by the time I got to the 17k mark, I considered carrying on up Stockport Road to make it a round 11 miles, but decided my legs had had enough without adding a steep hill into the equation, and I think I was right as my legs felt very wobbly on the 10 minute walk home.
All in all a good run and didn’t feel too bad afterwards, apart from feeling pretty sleepy a few hours later!
Posted on Aug 24, 2008 under Long Runs, above 15k |
Nice 10 mile long run in the sun. Ran down Windmill Lane and around random streets in Reddish. Found alternative route to Reddish Country Park and had little run through there, even ran up the big hill back into Reddish! Felt really good up to about 12k, started to flag a bit, but had been going quite quickly at times - set Garmin to alert me if I went quicker then 5:30 per k, and ended up with an average pace of about 5:40 per k, could have gone quicker at times but was ready for stopping after the last mile and little respite from the sun.
Just the second time I’ve ran this far, and a few minutes faster than the last time 
Posted on Aug 10, 2008 under 10-15k, Long Runs, Regular Runs |
Ran around the backstreets before heading into the woods, and round usual 10k time trial route.
This was supposed to be my long Sunday run, but I set off too quickly, and got a bit mixed up as it was on my 10k time trial route again (note to self - must do long runs elsewhere!). I felt a bit heavy legged and hot as the run progressed.
It was cold when I started and felt ideal, but sun came out and soon got hot, so I cut the run to 11k with a steep uphill climb up Stockport Road at the end. Ran a decent pace across the 11k but nothing special, and was pretty knackered by the end - will try to run a bit more often this week, and need to get some more longer runs in, as I think this is what’s affecting my pace over slightly longer distances.
With the Birchwood 10k coming up, I want to get some tempo runs in this week, along with some easy runs, but nothing too hard as want to make sure I have plenty of energy saved for the race!
Posted on Jul 13, 2008 under Distance, Long Runs, above 15k |
My longest run to date - both in terms of distance and duration. It was a hot and sunny day, and starting out at 12pm, I knew I would need some liquid so took a bottle of gatorade which served me well.
Set off at a benign pace and my lungs and legs appreciated this, didn’t find myself struggling too much but settled into an enjoyable pace and kept going until reached canal, last time I had run along there was when I was at school doing the summer “mini marathon” many years ago!
Had to negotiate some very muddy bits, fortunately I had my trail shoes on and not my brand new white Asics! Had mud all over my legs but felt like a proper runner that way! Kept going at a manageable pace, felt really good - when I reached the long canal tunnel at Romiley, I turned back, as the last time I had been through there I was walking, and needed a flashlight and delicate footing - running through was no go unless I was going to happy spraining an ankle!! Will have to see if there’s another way round for next time, as it kind of curtailed the run. I had done about 6 or 7 k by that point, so had doubled that by the time I’d run all the way back with a few detours and an interesting hill which I found quite easy to my surprise. Had to run around the streets a bit to make it up to my intended 16k, which is more or less 10 miles - first time I have ever covered such a distance (will have to run the extra 100 metres to make it an official 10 miles, but the uphills and mud probably added that anyway!!)
A really enjoyable run, nice to run in hot sunny weather, had to really slow down at the end, but felt throughout I could have gone faster if I had wanted or needed to - but that would have defeated the object of having a long, slow run!
My legs were a bit wobbly when I stopped running - but I had run for over an hour and a half continuously and at a reasonable pace (6mins per kilometre) - feel it will stand me in good stead for the future, and I find the long runs are really good for mental endurance as well as building physical stamina 
Posted on Jun 26, 2008 under 10-15k, Long Runs |
A successful and enjoyable run - despite fact it started completely pouring down after 5 minutes, so my sunglasses went into my shorts pocket to help visibility
This was my first proper long run - I was aiming to do 12k and see how I felt, and I felt OK so I did just over 14, or just under 9 miles, in just under 1hr 23, funnily enough I managed to run 14k at what was my flat out 10k race pace just over a month ago, which is great - also this was the first run where I seemed to really get my pace right - I started off slowww, and kept resisting the temptation to think, “Hey, I feel good I’m going to speed up!” - the result was a really enjoyable run where I felt very comfortable and as if I could go on for much longer - so I had to reign myself in and stop at 14k, as it was already a lot more than I’ve run before, so didn’t want to overdo it - when I stopped my legs felt numb, I could feel the endorphins rushing round too, and although I was soaking wet and starting to get cold in the rain when I finished, I felt a great buzz at exceeding my furthest distance so far. The last time I tried a long run I had done 11k and struggled a lot - partly because it was hot, but also because I set off too fast - but I seem to be learning the value of setting off slowly (even though it wasn’t madly slow compared to my shorted run paces, it makes a big difference it seems!)
Was nice to see a couple of other runners out and exchange a friendly greeting - a woman walking her dog could have curdled milk with the look she gave me when I said hello as I passed her
Posted on May 31, 2008 under 10-15k, Long Runs |
Having done 10k plenty of times now, I figured it’s time to start building up some distance stamina, so following the 10% rule, decided to do an 11k run today - and slowly build that up, mainly to build strength and stamina for my next 10k race, but also to push a few more personal boundaries and have some variety from working on running races faster (although am sure the distance runs will help with that too).
It was pretty hot and sunny and I had to drag myself out, but felt motivated once I’d done my walking warm up. I decided to set off at the start of the route where I first started running, and felt great as I picked off each spot where, back when I started, I used to stop out of breath and walk - and I picked the lot of them off before extending the run into unknown territory (at least as far as the geography is concerned - although nonetheless known to me from walks I take in the area). It was pretty hot and as usual for me, it took about 2k to settle into a rhythm and for my lungs to stop fighting for air, and I tried to maintain a slightly slower pace but realised I was running at 26min 5k pace, which was a bit too fast at my current stage. In any case, I got to a rather steep hill and carried on running up it, and I was going to carry on the trail, but the trees were thick overhead and I realised my Garmin would not be able to see thru all that foliage so I decided to come down a hill further on. Going up the hill was pretty painful and I felt like I was at the end of a 10k - my lungs were really fighting for air… But I carried on, and did a circuit of the lake, and was feeling pretty knackered by this point - but looking at my Garmin I hadn’t even reached 5k yet! I headed off back towards civilisation, which was slighly uphill, and tried to go slowly to recover a little - I kept cursing my Garmin as I would seem to cover ground, then check it, and it had hardly ticked over any distance at all (this is something psychological perhaps!). Anyway, I ticked off the first 5k in under 27 mins, but had to keep telling myself this run was for distance and speed/time was not so important, as it would be a distaster to me if I didn’t make my distance goal!
By the time I was getting back to near my house, I was starting to struggle and my pace had slowed - it was very hot. I was so tempted to stop at various points, and even considered stopping at 10k - but I tripped over 10k in about 58 mins, and just pushed on a 100 metres at a time until I finally stopped having done the 11k in about 1hr 05 mins, a pace of just under 6 minutes per k (not sure what that is in miles) - I was pleased with this, as previously I had struggled to maintain that kind of pace for 5k, so the training seems to be helping to get me running quicker for longer, which is what is needed - although just running quicker OR longer is enough some days.
