Time to put up

Clearlier

A nice unexpected breakthrough yesterday!

An unplanned 3.7 to the gym and 3.5 back from the gym yesterday. I had planned to cycle but had a flat tyre so I thought I'd try and jog and see what happened. Fortunately there was no reaction. I struggled a bit with my form on the way back and I think my next run will probably just be 4 - 5 miles in a few days but I haven't been able to run beyond 3 miles since October IIRC so this was great.

To be honest it has been a testing few months for me. I took stock a few weeks ago of where I was and realised that I was focusing too much on flexibility and changed the emphasis of what I was doing to focus a bit more on strength. I still have a very long way to go but this gives me some evidence that I may finally be heading in the right direction!

Clearlier

5 miles in 44 minutes yesterday. It struck me on Monday as I was walking that I had stopped using my toes to balance myself as it helped get rid of shin splints however I was pretty unbalanced so I consciously started to use them again. Am immediate benefit in terms of balance. It's not a long term solution because even after the five miles my shins are grumbling a bit. Hopefully if I can keep working on strengthening my back I'll be able to do a bit more. I'm a bit tempted to go back to the orthotist again especially as there's a decent chance that the one I saw first will now be back from maternity leave.

Clearlier

So I'm thinking about reviving this log again. Do I write it for me or for people who might read it? I'm not entirely sure what I get out of a log and am afraid that it might actually be counter-productive for me but I'll give it a go and see what happens.

I'm running reasonably regularly again. 3.75 miles to the gym at a snails pace (c. 35mins) and the same back although usually a little quicker. I spend about 40 minutes in the gym mostly stretching and a bit of core work. I need to do more core work but I also need to do the stretching and I'm already waking up at 5:35am which is early enough for me.

The aim is to be going to the gym 6 days a week with a longer run on the Sunday. I did 9.5 miles last Sunday but immediately came down with a bad chest cold - fever, dizzy etc. so I haven't run since. If I get to that stage I'll be running about 55mpw which is about as high as I have ever got before (albeit with a bit more quality). At that point I can pick out a couple of races to target to set some new benchmarks or I can go down the road of trying to do serious mileage.

I'm going to take my time about getting there. The causes of my injury are by no means fully resolved and if I run while tired I tend to fall back into old bad habits that cause the injury.

It'll be a few days before I'm over this cold so I shouldn't expect any training news soon.

Clearlier

Nearly a week on and I'm still coughing my lungs up. I can feel the cold going through the various stages though and hopefully I'll be able to train again next week.

Ray's 'chopping block' thread has got me thinking. My primary aim has to be identical to Rainbow Kirby's which is to get my back/hip sorted and be able to train consistently again without discomfort and the need to constantly think about my form. From a training point of view that does mean limiting the amount that I do to what I can maintain concentration for though and rather than focusing on getting the miles in I'm considering spending a little time doing some faster stuff.

There's an argument that faster running helps running form although I sometimes think that it's more that faster running hides flaws than fixes them. Either way it has been quite a long time since I did any fast training. I have a PB of 2:04.6 for 800m which was set 20 years and 20kgs ago. I'd like to see how close I can get to that again. I know squat about 800m training so I've been taking a look at Jack Daniel's book and am contemplating following his plan. It'll obviously be hard work but it will provide a significantly different training stimulus to what I have been doing for a while. It should give me back the basic speed to knock significant chunks off my more recent PB's when I'm able to switch to more of an endurance focus.

I'm not going to do anything before I can get myself running to and from the gym every day plus a longer run on Sunday. Once I'm there for a few weeks I'll see if I can add in Daniel's plan from phase 2. Logistics will be a challenge as a track makes it easier to do the reps but I'm not sure if I'll be able to fit in track times to the rest of my life. I've got a few weeks to try and find a way to make it work....

Clearlier

2.57 miles in 24 mins on Tuesday 1st
2.57 miles in 24 mins on Wednesday 2nd

Plans for 2013 are to:
- run at least one mile every day (ala Ron Hill)
- run at least 2,000 miles in the year
- fix the weakness that lead to my injury for most of 2012
- as a result of the above run p.b.'s at every distance I race with the possible exception of 800m.

Clearlier

3.82 miles to the gym in 33:58
35 mins mostly stretching with about 5 mins of it core strength work
3.75 miles back from the gym in 35:43

Only Garmin can explain the discrepancy in the distance of the runs given that it was out and back.... My ankle was giving me grief on the way back but a couple of adjustments to my posture/gait and it eased off.

I still need to be very careful to avoid injury. I also need to switch around the amount of time I spend stretching with the time I spend on core strength. My current program is good for lengthening muscles but most of them have reached the length that I'm looking for. Scott Jurek mentioned something called Active Isolated Stretching (AIS) in his book so I might look into that as well as discussing it with my physio.

Clearlier

3.74 miles to the gym in 36:39
35 mins mostly stretching with about 5 mins of it core strength work
3.78 miles back from the gym in 36:00

Focused on keeping a wide stance in my stride today - need to keep working on my core!

Clearlier

4 miles progressive in 33:56 with splits of: 8:49, 8:27, 8:24 and 8:12 at an old hunting ground. A reminder of just how unfit I am as the last mile was at least half marathon effort and possibly a little harder.

On the plus side I was focusing on pushing off on my right leg today (part of my injury is related to my failure to do this) and I felt as balanced as I have done since I started running again. Not actually balanced mind you and totally inefficient but a step in the right direction.

There's a 10 mile race on the 17th of February. I did it two years ago in 69:40 (still my official PB I think) supposedly at marathon pace but actually a bit faster. If I think I can break 80 mins I might do it. Entries are available on the day so I'll wait and see.

Clearlier

4.19 miles in 35 mins exactly. The 'faster' running that I did yesterday clearly woke up my legs as I did the first 2 miles in 8:08 and 7:55 at a steadyish effort but my recent lack of sleep caught up as I knew it would. Still good to get out, yesterday and today are the kind of runs that I would have missed in the past

Clearlier

I continue not to get enough sleep but so far have run every day even if it has only just been the single mile I committed to.

Monday 07/01
1.58 miles in 15:42

Tuesday 08/01
1.2 miles in 10:25

Wednesday 09/01
3.84 miles in 35:54
30 mins gym including 15 manipulating my spine on the foam roller
3.78 miles in 34:45

Thursday 10/01
1.23 miles in 12:14
20 mins manipulating my spine with the foam roller.

I'm waking up extremely stiff in the mornings hence the foam roller. I've also got sore feet which I think is because I need a new pair of runners although I've dug out my least used pair to see if they give me any more joy tomorrow. It doesn't help that I've taken the insoles out of all of them to accomodate my orthotics and now that I'm not using the orthotics and I'm as heavy as an elephant I could do with the little bit of cushioning they provide. Hope to try and find the time on Saturday to get a new pair. No idea what I'll be looking for though. I have the mizuno wave rider 13's which are well worn out now, the 14's are what I'm wearing tomorrow but I never liked them plus I got those when I was still wearing orthotics. Wishing I had gone to Amphibian King when I was home at Christmas now.

Clearlier

Friday 11th January
1.21 miles in 10:07. Not enough sleep again

Saturday 12th January
6.64 in 1:00:10 including 6 * 1k reps. Reps were (with wind) 4:00, 4:02, 4:05 (against wind) 4:18, 4:24, 4:22. Fairly consistent drift in times except for the last where I put in a bit more effort to get below 7mm. Slower average than my HM pb which is no surprise but a reminder of just how far I have to go. I might take a leaf out of my own advice book and start including a little marathon pace and tempo pace work over the next few weeks. Need to get more consistent in the mornings though!

Clearlier

9 miles in 83 mins this morning. Forgot to bring the Garmin so not certain on distance but the loop is 9.5 and I stopped a little short as my right hip was getting a little sore and I didn't want to push it.

Clearlier

Monday 14th January
1.54m in 16:23 (actually a little further because the Garmin took a while to get going). A planned easy day after what were hard days for me on Saturday and Sunday

Tuesday 15th January
AM
3.84 in 34:03
30 mins stretching and a tiny bit of core incl. 10 mins on foam roller working on my spine which is moving better than last week albeit a long way off where it should be still.3.76 in 34:13.

PM
Went down to the club for the first time in about 15 months. I didn't do the reps with them but did do a tempo run. Pace is about 70 - 75 secs per mile away from where I was before I got injured so another nice benchmark.
7 miles incl. 4.81 tempo @ a very consistent 7:35 pace.

Think tomorrow might be another easy day.

Clearlier

Wednesday 16th January
1 mile in 8:54 - just keeping the streak going

Thursday 17th January
1.44 miles in 13:07 - foot complaining a bit still. I reckon Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday may have been a little excessive at this stage.

So I have changed my plan around a little. The basis of my week is a tempo on Tuesday, a marathon pace run on Friday and a long run on Sunday. Everything else is easy with as much as I can fit in without pushing myself too hard. I need to let my body adjust to running regularly again and try to keep on top of the core work and stretching.

Clearlier

Friday 18th January
4.72 miles in 42:35

Health and safety got in the way of my attempt to do a marathon pace run today. We woke up to snow on the ground here. Cue delirious excitement from the eldest (5) as well as the youngest (although at 2 years old he didn't know why). My wife was pretty happy too as she knew that the university would close and she could work from home.

The plan had been to do my run while the other three were swimming and with rain forecast for lunchtime onwards this seemed feasible. Unfortunately the rain only sort of came and left a big slushy mess. I decided that instead of running from the pool I'd use the treadmill in the gym and as a council run facility I knew they did pay as you go.

What I had forgotten was that they would also have a fetish for 'Health and Safety'. In this case it meant that you can't use the gym unless you have had an induction. When I said that I only wanted to use the treadmill it moved on to a blood pressure test (this appeared to be the key thing). When I kept pushing I was told it was a legal requirement. My wife, who could see where I was headed, interjected to ask if they could do it straight away. She (the receptionist) looked at her screen, where it said I could and phoned down where they said I couldn't. She suggested that I go down and try anyway.

I got the rest of the family sorted out and headed off to the gym. I had a sniff of what the likely response was when I could see somebody having their blood pressure taken and the person in front of me was told to come back at 5pm. Sure enough I went through the whole process again albeit this time without my wife to stop me from saying something stupid so I told the receptionist that I'd been to 25 gyms all around the world and never been required ......., basically made a fool of myself. Blood boiling (wonder what a blood pressure test would have returned if I had been tested then) I walked away to consider my options.

This is where the resolution to run every day kicked in. In times past I probably would have changed back into my clothes and went to watch the rest of the family swim but I didn't see myself trudging around late at night in the sludge so I did the HTFU thing and went outside. My feet got soaked and other than a short patch of road I couldn't go much faster than an easy jog for fear of snotting myself but I got the run done and felt better for it. Also had time to wonder why I had to get so combative with the receptionists. It's a character trait I'm not proud of but I'm not sure that I'll ever change. Quoting (what I perceive to be) stupid rules at me is like a red rag to a bull.

Clearlier

Saturday 19th January
7.5 miles in 60 mins

Did the marathon pace session on a treadmill today. Debated whether to do it or not given that I felt I did a bit too much last week but thought better to just take the opportunity as the slush on the paths has turned to ice and can't be sure how much outdoor running I'll be able to do at anything other than a jog. The youngest thought the slippy paths were hilarious but it hurts a bit more when you fall from my height!

Clearlier

Sunday 20th January
4.53 miles in 39:30. Feeling a few aches after yesterday so took it easy. Think the treadmill was probably good for me in that I focused even more on my form than when I normally run.

Clearlier

Monday 21st January
1.12 miles in 10 mins - decided the night before that it would be too cold:o. It wasn't but I was too late to run to the gym so I drove and did 40 mins of stretching and core. Bit lazy.

Tuesday 22nd January
9.11 miles in 1:14:26
Tough run tonight. I was stupidly ambitious in trying to do a 42 mins tempo (to coincide with how long the rest of the club were doing an interval session before) and didn't manage to lock myself into an effort level with the wind where I didn't push hard enough.

Against the wind was just brutal with horizontal sleet. Having made the basic error of not bringing my rain jacket I got colder and colder and struggled to get my shoulders moving. I started seeing 8:30 pace instead of the 7:30 I had been expecting.

I wasn't hurting but every time I put some effort in it dropped off again very quickly. Afterwards I jumped into the warm down of the faster guys which is close enough to my current marathon pace partly to get a bit more work done but also just to try and warm up.

On reflection my long run is in or about this length so hoping to run that far and include a longish tempo was probably too optimistic at this point in time.

Got home and stood under the shower before I realised that what I actually needed was a bath. Haven't had one in at least 10 years but it hit the spot tonight.

Mile splits for the tempo (tell their own story) were: 7:21, 7:25, 7:43 (turned back into the wind during this one), 8:08, 8:28, 8:18 (0.71 miles).

Clearlier

Wednesday 23rd January

4.26 miles in 40:31. Just a little dawdle round. May have overdressed slightly to make sure I didn't get cold again.

Clearlier

Man flu.

Clearlier

I'm finally seeing a bit of light at the end of the man flu tunnel. Temp. is more or less under control and I've identified what to take to feel 'normal' again. It has been a tough ride and I've probably got a week to go but the worst is over and I can start to rejoin the living world again soon.

My 'run every day in the year' resolution crumbled at the first hint of a challenge. I did kid myself for the first couple of days by walking a mile instead but even that fell victim to my self indulgent response to a little virus. Man up I hear you say - but I had man flu, what can be more manly than that?

Clearlier

First time I felt like going for a run in a week today. Followed the thought with a coughing bout but other than the cough all my symptoms have more or less disappeared. Unfortunately my wife is going through what I guess is the same thing only it seems to take longer and have an even greater effect on her. This has been properly nasty - I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

Clearlier

Wednesday 6th February
2.27 miles in 19:26 - was aiming for an easy 5 miles but my chest got very tight pretty quickly so cut it short

Monday 11th February
1.2 miles in 9:11 - just wanted to get a short run in - chest still a bit tight but better than last week. My wife (who probably has the same virus) had some blood work done at the weekend which showed up signs of a virus in her system. They talked about trying to identify what it actually is but I don't know if they'll actually follow through. It matters not in the slightest but it would be mildly interesting to give a name to it.

My eldest son's school has a 5k/10k race on the 3rd of March which I'm planning to do. Assuming that I have fully recovered by then (be astonishing if I haven't but this has been going on for a ridiculous amount of time already) I'll have a proper go at it. Currently wondering if I'll be able to break 45 mins....:o

Clearlier

Sat 16th February

4.02 miles in 32:16. For some reason I thought to myself that it would be a good day to do a hard 5 mile run - see if I could get a bearing for the 10k race in a couple of weeks. After a warm up mile I set out and turned in miles of 7:09, 7:26 and 7:50 before stopping with a twinging right hip. My form was awful and I felt rubbish. Exactly how you'd expect to feel if you had done b****r all training and set off too fast. Saw a bit of sense and will just do easy running until I feel like taking it up a notch. No sense whatsoever in pushing it.

Sun 17th February
4 miles in 35:54

Mon 18th February
4.68 miles in 41:31I need to remember that slow running is often the most enjoyable kind. I also need to forget about where I used to be and focus on where I am.

Clearlier

Tuesday 19th February
5.17 miles in 46 mins

Thursday 21st February
6.12 miles in 54:45

Just trying to lengthen the amount of time that I'm running for. It's not quite a jogging effort but it's pretty close with as much emphasis as I can on my form. I should be able to start going back to the gym in the morning soon which can only help.

Clearlier

25/02/2103
3.92 miles in 33:33

26/02/2013
2.92 miles in 29:53 including some drills at the end. Form was terrible!

28/02/2013
2.02 miles in 19:29. Cut short again as my right foot is just slapping against the ground. Did a couple more drills but I need to get back in to the gym in the mornings. My wife has been unwell since the end of January and this has curtailed my activities but if I were better organised I think that I could find the time

03/03/2013
11.3kms @ c. 8mm.

My sons schools annual 10k/5k fundraiser. Considered doing the 5k but decided to plump for the 10k instead. Jogged my son around his 1.3k fun run first (he ran it all the way this year) and went to the start with that as my warm up. The race organiser was yelling something about the race at the front but I was far enough back to only hear the odd phrase including something about a slight headwind. The start was the usual semi-brawl and I worked way up around the outside. A glance at my watch showed 7:01 pace so I backed off a little as I promised myself I would if I saw anything faster than 7:15. I settled down into a steady effort - not even as hard an effort as half marathon pace effort when I'm fit but as much as I can sustain with my current level of fitness. It's an out and back course and there was a nice cool breeze at my back as I surprised myself at how manageable 7:15 pace felt. I counted 114 runners ahead of me at the turn and set myself the target of coming in the top 100. Duly took off at this point only to realise that if you can feel a nice breeze at your back when doing 7:15 pace it's going to be a pretty unpleasent breeze when your turnaround. Tucked in behind somebody a couple of times but the pace was very uneven so decided to just take it on myself to maintain the effort. Start losing touch with a group with about 1k to go and then again up the only hill of the race. Debated whether to sprint in or not but as I sped up a little and passed somebody she picked up the pace to try and pass me back. Embarrassingly I laughed - don't know where it came from and I hope she wasn't offended - and passed her and 3 or 4 others down the last 100m. Doubt I finished in the top 100 but results aren't out yet. I forgot to stop my watch as I started dry wretching just over the line (disappointing as I didn't eat anything at all before the race) but garmin suggests 46:0x. Splits were: 7:04, 7:14, 7:21, 7:43, 7:44, 7:39, 1:20 for the last section @ c 6mm pace.

On one level it's frustrating because I can feel that there's a whole lot more in me that I need to train to get out. As I said before though I need to work from where I am and this is another pretty good benchmark of where I am.

Clearlier

Every time that I get injured or feel close to it and both of those have been happening a lot for the past 18 months I stop writing here.

I'm going to try and take a broader perspective for this log and talk a bit about training in general, post any interesting/funny links/thoughts/ideas I come across and see how that goes for a while. I'll probably try and keep a link to running but it may be somewhat tenuous at times.

No sniggering at this one - it could be you!

By the way, interactive is good. I'm aware that my writing style can be a bit direct at times but I always prefer a dialogue and I think that it's the best way (at least for me) to develop ideas.

Clearlier

Came across this interview with Haile.

There's nothing new or particularly special about the interview but he touches on the things required to get the most out of yourself -

Commitment

Discipline

Hard work

This is valid for life beyond running of course and they're all intertwined. They don't stand alone. That said I struggle with discipline the most. In Eammon Coghlan's book he talks about how Jumbo Elliot (his college coach) used to tell all his athletes to focus on routine right down to sh***ing at the same time of the day every day. A little obsessive perhaps but there's a kernel of knowledge there that I would do well to heed a bit more.

Clearlier

Oh and running. I'm not doing any at the moment. Not, for once because of the long standing ankle/posterior tibialis syndrome but because the 2 year old generously spread his germs around the house. Frustrating because it felt like I was turning a corner - but I guess I'll find out in a few days whether or not I have. I'm entered into another 10k next Friday. If I do run it I don't expect to break 45 mins.

Clearlier

Now doing a bit of running :eek:.

I was back in Bray last week with the kids and took the opportunity to reacquaint myself with the cliff walk. Did about an hour 3 times and the ankle was reasonable if not perfect.

I'm thinking up a plan that allows me to progress but also to carefully manage the ankle and am looking at a 2 week cycle something like:

Wed, Fri, Sun, Tue, Thu, Sat, Sun.

• So 7 days running in 14.
• All the weekeday runs start at 66 mins this week and increase by 6 mins each week.
• Weekend runs start at about 95 mins and will increase by about 5 - 10 mins each week although I may do slightly shorter runs for the weekends that I run both days.
• Tuesday should include a club session - usually shortish intervals at the moment.
• Wednesday will have 1/3rd of the run at or close to LT effort (c. 155-160 HR at the moment but I hope/expect that to rise as I get fitter).
• The weekends that I just run on the Sunday I'll try and find a race and do lengthy sections at marathon pace effort (c. 150 HR at the moment)
• Where I haven't got a race on the Sunday Friday's will have 1/2 of the run at or about marathon pace.
• Thursdays run I haven't decided on yet. I was going to alternate between doing sections at LT and M-pace but I'm having some doubts.
• Strides after all the weekday runs except the club session.

I'm hoping that the double long days at the weekend will help with endurance.

I'm also wondering if the long gap between Sunday morning's run and Wednesday evening's run will leave me without the need to do recovery weeks but if I should include them am not sure what they should look like.

The individual LT and m-pace runs are a little easier than most sessions you'd find in Daniels/P&D but given the overall amount that I'll be running I think it should be plenty and at the moment particularly I really want to bring some consistent consistency to my running whilst also having some variety.
I also intend to visit the gym most weekday mornings - sometimes getting there on the bike - to keep the focus on my core.



Feel free to chip in with any thoughts/questions on the above including if it's a bit too convoluted to follow. I'm still trying to fine tune it and may possibly have lost sight of the bigger picture.