Diary Of A Road Runner

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

10 Mile Long Run – 01:31:49 – PB!

Nice long 10 mile run on a hot and sunny day. Wanted to run it at a decent pace instead of just jogging along easily as I have been lately, and managed a 10 mile PB by 2 minutes – and did it 10 minutes faster than my last effort and faster than recent long runs in general, and only stopped once to eat a gel. Felt like a drink in the later stages but resisted the temptation to have a shop stop but kept going, and tried to gradually speed up the harder things got, rather than petering out like I normally do. Still felt fresh at 12k though the last couple of k’s were hard and was overheating in the sun at times. Not a bad run at all though, ended up in central Manchester, went past the gay carnival thing, and got the bus home.

Splits for my k’s were:

5:39
5:48
6:05
5:56
5:52
5:54
5:40
5:41
5:39
6:09 (gel stop/slow)
5:38
5:24
5:24
5:25
5:43 (struggling with pedestrians!)
5:11 (clear road and a sprint!)

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

Easy 8 Miler – 1:19:22

Nice gentle paced 8 miler – got a bit puffy in the first place but first 2k were a bit quick. Kept the pace down to 6 mins+ per k, and mixed in a few faster bursts up hills then just coasted the last few miles with a few race pace strides in the last K. Bit slower than my last 8 miler but slightly different route anyway, but felt like a good aerobic workout and recovered nice and quickly.

10 Mile Long Run – 1:42:22

First 10 miler for a while, in the afternoon heat. Felt ok in bursts but also struggled after 10k, legs felt a bit heavy and heart was going bit fast so had a few walk breaks but carried on and managed to keep to 6+ per k to keep it at a nice steady slow pace. Ran a new route through Reddish and past Cedar Mount School then back through Gorton/windmill Lane.

10 Mile Long Run – Offerton Hills – 1:34:09

Lungs felt a bit tight and I was feeling a bit tired when I got up this morning, Guinea Pigs Rachel claims she has swine flu and I only saw her the other day, so I did wonder if I was starting with something horrible!

Also felt a bit sick and light headed drinking my morning coffee, so wondered about even running today never mind doing a 10 mile long run. So I thought I would set off and take my bus pass and some cash so I could always make an emergency stop and get back if I needed to!

It turned out to be a great run and any feelings of tiredness, nausea or tight-lungedness soon dissipated. I was targeting a sub 1 hr 30 time and felt good after a few k’s, and felt I could keep going around 5:30/k pace but I was running a new, more or less random route, and it turned out to have some monster hills! Very long and quite steep, as well as a shorter one in Vernon Park (which has some killer hills as part of my next 10k!) which I sprinted up and astonished this lad on his bike as I blasted bast! Good thing about the run was that the hills slowed me down, but I was able to resume pace once things flattened out again.

I was feeling good at 12k and thought I might be able to push a bit as I was behind schedule for the target time due to the hills, but I was on course for a certain 10 mile PB, until the long snaking hill back up into Bredbury, which I dealt with OK, but after nearly a mile of it getting steeper I had to walk for a couple of minutes and after that I was flagging for the rest of the run, and had to just keep the legs turning over, with the thought of stopping and raiding the Spa shop in the garage keeping me going. Ticked over only 20 seconds off my 10 mile PB in the end, but I regard this as my best 10 miler, as it was pretty hilly and the PB one was totally flat albeit along the canal – a route I am still avoiding after picking up my injury on it last year.

Appropriately raided the Spa for Gatorade, Monster Munch and chocolate then walked the last few miles home. I must take more cash next time as I could have done with an extra chocolate bar to sustain me

10 Mile Run in the Blazing Sun – 1:44:29

10 mile run in the blazing sun. Had to walk at some points, especially a few hills, also sojourned in an air conditioned Co-op as I had foolishly gone out without water but wisely taken some emergency money – which came in handy, although I was a penny short for the gatorade so had to make do with Oasis and the tight shopkeeper git wouldn’t let me off for the penny

Really needed the drink, but 10 mile mission accomplished, though it hurt a lot by the end and was going very very slowly but enjoyed it.

8 Miles in the Sun – 1h 08m 19s

Very nice longish run in the sun, and hilly too – uphill most of the way in fact, and maintained same pace as on my last 8 mile run, so not bad at all – but felt a deserved the last 2 miles cruising downhill on the route I planned (followed at the end by a very steep incline which killed my legs in the end!)

14k Long Run In The Sun – 1:20:43

My weekly mileage has been atrocious for a while, not the kind of mileage needed to start attacking my sub 50 10k target at all – but I have been progressing well, so am confident putting in some more miles will work wonders. So decided to go for a long Saturday run and just take it easy, if I got to 12k and felt ok, would make it up to 14, or an 8.5 miler approx.

Set off at a nice gentle pace and felt good, ran sub 6 minute k’s all the way with some fluctuations in speed, there were times when I felt really good and picked up the pace a little, and at 8k I felt I could go on and on. At 11k I was starting to tire though, as I have not been doing many long runs, but I slowed the pace and got to 14, and it felt really good to stop, but at no point had I really struggled which is reassuring seeing as it’s my longest run since I came back from injury. It’s this type of run that will give me the endurance to put in those faster second halfs in 10k races, and who knows maybe I will find a half marathon and do that one day