Everything Counts (In Large Amounts)

tomred1N

FrClintPower wrote: »

Thanks Tom. When I started this log I set targets of 72 mins for the 10 mile, and and 1.35 for the HM and they're almost exactly what my 10k time from last week equates to when you stick it in the McMillan calculator. I toyed with the idea of setting slightly lower targets seeing as I'll have a few weeks to build up to them, but I think I'll stick to them for the moment. I'm thinking my running over the next few weeks will be about getting some endurance together so I can keep a race pace over the longer distances, so long runs of 14-16 miles with some HMP miles in there will be the plan for every weekend, with threshold runs and hill workouts during the week.

Once I've raced the 10 miler I'll have a better idea of what to go for in the HM. I've really noticed an improvement in my fitness since Terenure and I think most of that is down to more, and more consistent, mileage rather than any particular sessions, so I've no doubt my fitness and paces will improve between now and the end of September as well.

(Sorry for the long answer, I was going to post about my HM target etc, so your question spurred me on!)

You're doing Charleville in September still? What sort of time are you looking at?

Yep Charleville is going to be my litmus test for DCM hopefully. Will need to be hitting 1.35 I'd say to have any chance of a go at sub 3.30 for DCM. TBH I am not really plugged in towards DCM yet like I was for CCM 14 weeks out. However I'm hoping the base will stand to me and I will get cracking soon. I've got interested in results like you and other guys have got from focusing on shorter distances and building upwards. I started by running a marathon as my first ever race and am kinda thinking would I make better improvements by focussing on a specific 10K or HM plan for 6 months. That said it was only a few weeks ago I wanted to do a bloody ultramarathon but the wife said she would throw me out:) She even saw me looking in the window of a bike shop last week and said forget it:rolleyes: thats not on anyway I'd end up 200 miles from home and have to ring for her to collect me

FrClintPower

Sunday 28 July - 14.00 miles in 2.00.36, 8.37 per mile Ave HR 139

LSR this morning in Kilkenny. Preparation wasn't great, had a few pints and spent about 5 hours on my feet at Bruce Springsteen last night (verdict - I still don't get it) but I got into my stride straight away. It started off foggy, and then cycled through sunny, cloudy and drizzly, but it was great weather to run in. Spent the first half of the run going around the Ring Road and back in along the Castlecomer Road, but then ran along the river, back for a lap of the Castle Park, along High St, around Canice's Cathedral, up to Mary's Cathedral and home. I love living beside the Phoenix Park, but Kilkenny is a beautiful place to run around as well, especially early in the morning.

I found it hard to keep the pace down initially, but then I decided to target a 2 hour run, rather than just 14 miles, so that helped. It was also the first time I've stopped off to buy some water on a long run, and from mile 7 onwards I was really looking forward to it, but sparkling water was probably a bad idea - some chunky burps around the Park! Overall though, a really enjoyable run and I felt like I could have kept going for a good bit longer.

Got in another 30 mins of core/stretching/foam rolling this evening. The legs are feeling great, no niggles or aches at all.

Weekly Total - 38.46 miles

An enjoyable week's running, I felt well recovered from last Sunday's race by Wednesday and I feel really well set for the next couple of months of running before the Dublin Half. Very satisfied with two and half hours of core etc this week as well.

blockic

Nice run. I was out on ring road this morning too. Although I got drenched by a downpour after 12. Had to go home and change!

FrClintPower

blockic wrote: »

Nice run. I was out on ring road this morning too. Although I got drenched by a downpour after 12. Had to go home and change!

That was some rain alright! I was in Bennettsbidge at the playground (on the seesaw to be precise) and had to leg it back to the car.

FrClintPower

Monday 29 July - 4.43 miles in 39.37, 8.57 per mile Ave HR 123

Got in a recovery run in the early evening which was nice, usually during the week it's either lunchtime or after 8.30 at night. It was nice to keep the pace down on this one, the knees felt a bit stiff after the long run on Sunday, and the HR stayed nice and low.

Tuesday 30 July - 4.87 miles in 39.18, 8.04 per mile Ave HR 133

Usual lunchtime route down around Lansdowne and back, at the faster end of easy. I'm going to have to try to get a more accurate measure of my resting HR because, based on how my HR while running has changed, I'd imagine it's dropped over the last while. I've been assuming it's 45, but I've measured it at that while I'm sitting watching telly, so maybe it's further down towards 40. I might have to just bite the bullet and wear the HR strap while sleeping.

The plan for the rest of the week is to do hill reps tomorrow (the same session I did 7/8 weeks ago so I can compare), easy run Thursday, maybe a progression or threshold run on Friday and then over the long weekend have a rest day, an easy day and an LSR, in whatever order suits.

EDIT - Half an hour of core/foam rolling/stretching this evening as well.

blockic

FrClintPower wrote: »

I'm going to have to try to get a more accurate measure of my resting HR because, based on how my HR while running has changed, I'd imagine it's dropped over the last while. I've been assuming it's 45, but I've measured it at that while I'm sitting watching telly, so maybe it's further down towards 40. I might have to just bite the bullet and wear the HR strap while sleeping.

You have time to watch telly?! :eek: You're not running enough! :pac:;)

FrClintPower

Wednesday 31 July - 8.15 miles in 1.11.26, 8.46 per mile Ave HR 139 Max HR 177

Headed out yesterday evening to repeat the hill reps session I did at the beginning of June to see how it compared. After a 2.4 mile run to the bottom of the hill I stopped for a stretch and to psyche myself up a bit before setting off on the first rep. As with last time, I did 8 reps, I wasn’t feeling the urge at the end to go on and do another couple. The distance on the Garmin varies between 0.18 and 0.19 miles, so about 300m. Reps were as follows –

Rep 1 - 1.05 @5.39 Max HR 163
Rep 2 - 1.04 @5.51 Max HR 172
Rep 3 - 1.08* @5.56 Max HR 175
Rep 4 - 1.05 @5.52 Max HR 177
Rep 5 - 1.07 @5.50 Max HR 176
Rep 6 - 1.05 @5.49 Max HR 175
Rep 7 - 1.06 @5.55 Max HR 175
Rep 8 - 1.10 @6.08 Max HR 173

*fumbled the lap button on this rep, was probably more like 1.04

Overall, pretty consistent apart from the last rep where I lost concentration and they definitely felt better to do than last time – I wasn’t wondering should I throw in the towel after 3/4 reps. The stats for last time are below, and the reps this time were a little bit faster too, with the exception of the last one.

Rep 1 - 1.08 @6.01 Max HR 166
Rep 2 - 1.05 @5.39 Max HR 171
Rep 3 - 1.04 @5.36 Max HR 174
Rep 4 - 1.08 @5.59 Max HR 173
Rep 5 - 1.09 @6.07 Max HR 174
Rep 6 - 1.07 @5.51 Max HR 174
Rep 7 - 1.09 @6.07 Max HR 171
Rep 8 - 1.07 @5.56 Max HR 175

Having said that, while they were faster, my HR was also consistently higher this time around, but I don’t think that’s directly comparable, because I didn’t have young lads throwing stuff at me last time!

Jogging down the hill after my first rep 6 lads crossed the road in front of me, coming up from the pedestrian gate into Chapelizod, and kept looking around at me. I jogged on and as I passed them a couple of rocks or something came whizzing past. I just kept an easy pace down the hill and went past my turnaround point, thinking I’d just head home. I warned a couple of different people coming towards me that they were throwing stuff and they thanked me, but kept going, so I thought “what the hell, there’s safety in numbers” and turned around to do my second rep. As I came back down after that, they were beside the road and threw something at a taxi, which came screeching to a halt, and they legged it, so when I got to the bottom I turned around for my third rep as they were a fair distance from the road. Jogging back down the third time, they’d reappeared beside the road, and as I went past I said “bored lads?”. Whatever about running up and down in front of them, I probably shouldn’t have engaged them in conversation. Anyway, as soon as I was past, an egg came past my ear and smashed in front of me, but they’d obviously run out of ammo at that point because they disappeared back out into Chapelizod. So at least the last five reps were unhindered.

Looking at the HR afterwards, even though my recovery was consistent between reps (apart from the first one which was longer as I’d decided to just go home), my HR was about 10 bpm higher at the start of reps 2, 3 and 4 than for the others, so that must have been the adrenaline flowing.

tl;dr – reps went grand, Chapelizod skangers have poor aim.

FrClintPower

Monthly Total - 149.17 miles

A good month's running in July. Just about the same total as June despite having an easier week while on holidays, beating my target in the 10k, and getting a couple of good longer runs in there too. Ran 25 out of 31 days too - since coming back from holidays it's been only one rest day per week.

The aim for August is at least 160 miles, sub-72 in the Frank Duffy 10 mile, and some decent sessions throughout.

wowzer

There are some nasty people out there, things like that really bug me.
Lads like that are like dogs, they can sense fear so when I run through or past a group like that I usually give a big "what's the story lads" and eyeball one of them and they generally don't know how to react to it.

FrClintPower

wowzer wrote: »

There are some nasty people out there, things like that really bug me.
Lads like that are like dogs, they can sense fear so when I run through or past a group like that I usually give a big "what's the story lads" and eyeball one of them and they generally don't know how to react to it.

Yeah, I was glad I didn't jump out of my skin when they first threw stuff at me, I was kind of half expecting it, and I just continued on down at the same speed so they didn't get any satisfaction from me. In fairness, it's the first time I've had any trouble like that in the Park in over a year of running in there, it could be worse.

FrClintPower

Thursday 1 August – 4.95 miles in 49.18, 9.58 per mile Ave HR 112

A new month began yesterday with a very easy run at lunchtime, although after the hill reps the evening before I was more than happy to keep the pace down.

Core exercises in the evening too, and I'll be doing stretching and foam rolling this evening.

Friday 2 August – 6.77 miles in 53.59, 7.59 per mile Ave HR 144

Usually lunchtime runs are done at an easy pace, but today I wanted to try and get a progression run in.

The plan was 10 mins Easy, 10 mins at MP (8.00 although McMillan reckons more like 7.40), 10 mins at HMP (7.20, although I’ll be aiming for slightly faster in 7 weeks’ time), 10 mins at 10k pace (I went for 7.00 rather than the 6.50 I achieved in Fingal as it’s probably more “thresholdy”) and then Easy running until the end. Ideally, you wouldn’t want to be crossing roads so you can maintain an even pace, so I chose a route where most of the road crossing was done during the easy parts, and I only had to cross roads three times during the 30 minutes done at MP, HMP and 10k pace. This involved starting the MP stretch at Grand Canal Dock, then going via Beckett Bridge to the Point, then East Wall Road, Alfie Byrne Road and back via Fairview Park. The run broke down like this –

Easy – 1.19 miles @8.24, Ave HR 122
MP – 1.31 miles @7.38, Ave HR 144
HMP – 1.38 miles @7.15, Ave HR 154
10k – 1.44 miles @6.59, Ave HR 165
Easy – 1.44 miles @9.38, Ave HR 139

I tried to increase the speed relatively gently at the end of each interval, rather than have a sudden jump in pace, but I found it surprisingly difficult to keep to the targeted pace, particularly the MP period. Overall, I felt like it was a good workout, and I’ll be doing this again in the next couple of weeks. That’s about as long as I can squeeze in at lunchtime, I might try it in the evening where I could maybe go for 15mins at each pace rather than 10.

FrClintPower

Saturday 3 August - 2.32 miles in 19.54, 8.36 per mile

I've got to the point where going a day without a run feels weird, and I could feel Friday's run in the legs still, so I went for a quick easy run to loosen them up late enough yesterday. Followed it up with about 15 minutes of stretching and foam-rolling.

Sunday 4 August - 11.28 miles in 1.31.19, 8.06 per mile Ave HR 144

I'm planning on going 14+ miles in my LSRs up to the HM, but I just couldn't find the time today, so I got up and out the door by 7.30 to try and get as much of a run in as I could. The upshot of that was I went a bit faster than I would on a normal LSR, so this was more of an MLR. Took in plenty of the hills around the Park as well. Should have time for a thorough dose of core etc this evening.

Weekly Total - 42.75 miles

My first time exceediing 40 miles in a week, although there were a couple of very easy/short runs in there. I ran every day, and don't feel the worse for it.

In the week ahead, I'll be throwing in a 20 minute threshold run, and also trying to run on the hills in the Park as much as possible. A total of 40+ miles again as well.

statss

I've got to the point where going a day without a run feels weird,

I've been getting this feeling myself recently as I enter regular 40+ mile weeks, good sign of progress I reckon.

FrClintPower

I've completely gone off listening to music while running as well. I couldn't run without it when I started, but I just kind of stopped a couple of months back. I stuck the earphones in yesterday as I was doing a longer run, but I couldn't stick it, I had to take them out after 4 miles. I found it kind of smothering and very hard to keep an even pace, not to mention having to carry my phone and messing with earphones every now and then. Much more relaxing and enjoyable without.

FrClintPower

Monday 5 August – 6.22 miles in 50.07, 8.04 per mile Ave HR 130 Max HR 170

After the longish run on Sunday morning, I made for them there hills on Monday evening for an easy run, taking in the S-bends and the Khyber Road. Finished off the run with 8*20s strides, with 20s recovery between each and split into two sets, with the Garmin clocking them at around 5.00 pace. When you’re plodding along the thought of upping the pace like that isn’t very attractive, but once you get into your stride they feel pretty good (for 20s at a time anyway!).

Tuesday 6 August – 5.00 miles in 42.43, 8.33 per mile Ave HR 123

An easy lunchtime run on Tuesday, around the 5-mile “Northside” loop, down to the Point, East Wall Road, around Fairview Park and back. As one of us had run the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half the day before, this probably should have been a bit slower but that didn’t happen.

Wednesday 7 August – 5.49 miles in 42.05, 7.40 per mile Ave HR 143 Max HR 158

I’d decided that my session for this week would be a 20 min Threshold Run, at between 7.00 and 7.10 pace. I only went out at around 9 yesterday evening, so after a short enough 1.25 mile warm-up I got down to business. The run went from the Áras roundabout up to Ordnance Survey Road, back up Furze Road and back down towards the Zoo, which means the last mile or so has a favourable drop.

I made the rookie mistake of not taking note of the time on the watch when I started the threshold pace, and I missed the first half-mile lap which would have let me work backwards, so I decided to just keep going for 3 miles instead. The pace dropped a bit at the start of Mile 2, so I had to put the hammer down to try and make it up, while the last mile was at 6.54 for the same effort due to the slope. Overall though, it felt comfortable enough, with the HR staying pretty even and not going above 158 (83%), and I felt grand as I ran the 1.25 miles home at 8.30 pace or so. In future I’ll be trying to ensure that I keep the pace/effort a bit more consistent when doing these types of run.

Thursday 8 August – 4.56 miles in 40.22, 8.52 per mile Ave HR 120

I’ve had pains in my feet, especially around my heels, some mornings recently, although they’ve gone away quite quickly. This morning though I woke up with an ache towards the outside of my left heel, which hasn’t gone away, so I hope that’s not the start of PF or something, I’ll have to keep an eye on it. As a result, I was determined to keep today’s lunchtime run at a nice recovery pace, and 8.52 pace will do nicely.

The pain might be related to the fact that today was also my 12th day in a row running, which wasn’t really intentional, but I’ll be taking tomorrow off. The plan for the weekend is a 14 mile LSR, with a couple of miles at HMP, and a 5 mile-ish easy run, which will take my total for the week just over 40 miles.

FrClintPower

Weekly Total - 21.26 miles

Well, it turns out the pain didn't get any better so I haven't been out since, leading to a lowly total of just over 21 miles for last week.

It hurts where my achilles joins on to the heel bone, both when I walk and when I touch it, so I'm trying to keep pressure off it. In fairness, the pain was only a 4/5 out of 10 at worst, and it's better now than it was over the weekend, but I was a bit limpy on Friday and Saturday so staying off it was definitely the only option.

I'm not planning on running until at least Thursday, even if the pain miraculously disappears, and it'll probably be no harm for the legs to get a good rest anyway. Had a good dose of foam rolling/core etc on Saturday and again this evening to keep that up, and I also went out for a cycle around the Park this evening as well. Before I started running my main form of exercise was doing the 10.25 kms from home, around the Park, and back home again, and trying to beat my record every time. I basically gave up doing it this time last year so it was good to see I broke my record this evening - this running lark must be making me fitter!

So Monday 12 August - 10.25 kms in 26.56, 22.7 km/h Ave HR 143

FrClintPower

Thursday 15 August - 10.25 kms in 25.09, 24.5 km/h Ave HR 153 Max HR 170

Today's a week since my last run and I'd hoped the heel would have cleared up by now but I knew yesterday it wouldn't be up to it. The weather was foul here this evening so I didn't really want to go out on the bike, whereas I would have gone out running no problem, but I headed out at 9 before it got too dark. I was soaked after two minutes but I really pushed it the whole way around, which can be seen by the HR this time around, and beat my old record (from 3 days ago) by nearly two minutes! No doubt it was helped by making sure the tyres were fully inflated beforehand, but I'm really happy with the effort I put in on a mucky evening (on a super-heavy mountain bike).

I'm writing off the Frank Duffy 10 mile as much of an event at this stage. I'd say I'll be alright to run, but all-out would probably be a bad idea. Not too disappointed with that because I'm really focussing on the Half, but at the same time these weeks are probably the key weeks for training for the HM so that's a pain. Anyway, I might make it out for an exploratory couple of miles at the weekend, it could be fine but I'm just very wary of doing the kind of damage that would keep me out for a couple of months (my boss ran on an achilles "niggle" in Waterford and he's been out for 6 weeks, with a few more to go).

So, more cycling for the next few days.

Edit - Also did 30 minutes of core and stretching (same on Monday too).

FrClintPower

Friday 16 August - 13.79 kms in 41.41, 19.8 km/h Ave HR 133 Max HR 158

After last night's time-trial around my usual lap, I decided to take my bike to the trails around the Park for the first time, something more like its natural habitat. It's a pity it's taken me a few years to bother doing this. Where I can find cycling on the roads a bit of a chore, you really have to keep your wits about you to avoid low branches, tree roots etc when you're off-road which makes it much more enjoyable. I also took in a good few hills and scouted around the "Munich Lap" area for when I'm back running again, but even then I think I'm going to try to keep cycling like this at least once a week.

I'm still not confident about running again, so I'll probably do nowt tomorrow (except take the lead in the A/R/T fantasy football league of course ) and the go for an hour+ cycle on Sunday.

FrClintPower

Sunday 18 August - 18.8 kms in 1.00.08, 18.8 km/h Ave HR 134 Max HR 170

The heel seemed to take a turn for the worse on Saturday, after feeling like there had been a steady improvement it was suddenly much more painful than it had been during the previous week. I hadn't put any pressure on it or anything, but I'd driven down to Kilkenny and then stood at a barbecue for a while so maybe that was it.

I spent a good 30 mins stretching and doing core exercises yesterday evening, and then got out for a good cycle. Lots of hills again, and about 50/50 between trails and tarmac, but I was super-envious of all the people out running. Got the HR up to 170 coming up a trail out of the Furry Glen, so after 20 minutes I went back and did it again - should be a good one for hill reps when I'm back running.

Speaking of which, and I've no idea why, but thankfully I woke up this morning and couldn't feel any pain at all when I walked on it, although still a little sore to the touch, a seemingly miraculous recovery. I went for a good stroll around at lunchtime and can feel some slight soreness now, but after seeming to go backwards over the weekend I'm suddenly feeling a lot better. I might go for a couple of very slow miles this evening to see what the reaction is, but I've pretty much decided not to run the Frank Duffy 10 Mile in any case.

Weekly Total - 0 miles

Nothing on the running front, but I've had 4 enjoyable cycles totalling about 55 kms to keep the fitness topped up (Ave HR 138).

HelenAnne

Hello!

(BTW we know each other in The Real World - I'm a friend of your work running friend and we met at the Pride Run and at Fingal).

Get well soon, but also, have you had your heel looked at? It's so hard to know what the pain is caused by, so it might be worth getting it checked out. I had a really sore heel a while ago - it was OK to run on, but very sore if I pressed it and sore going up and down stairs. I was conviced it was PF as that's what my husband had a few years ago, but it turned out to be some kind of nerve thing, connected with my lower back. The stretching I'd been doing was doing nothing for it, but it's gone now thanks to some nerve mobilisation exercises. But I wouldn't have known that, and I'd be still stretching away and waiting for it to go if I hadn't shown it to the physio ...

(People on boards must think I get commission from the Physiotherapy Association or something, I recommend them so often, but I really think early diagnosis is v important)

Anyway, hope it's on the mend & see you at the Frank Duffy race on Saturday.

FrClintPower

HelenAnne wrote: »

Hello!

(BTW we know each other in The Real World - I'm a friend of your work running friend and we met at the Pride Run and at Fingal).

Get well soon, but also, have you had your heel looked at? It's so hard to know what the pain is caused by, so it might be worth getting it checked out. I had a really sore heel a while ago - it was OK to run on, but very sore if I pressed it and sore going up and down stairs. I was conviced it was PF as that's what my husband had a few years ago, but it turned out to be some kind of nerve thing, connected with my lower back. The stretching I'd been doing was doing nothing for it, but it's gone now thanks to some nerve mobilisation exercises. But I wouldn't have known that, and I'd be still stretching away and waiting for it to go if I hadn't shown it to the physio ...

(People on boards must think I get commission from the Physiotherapy Association or something, I recommend them so often, but I really think early diagnosis is v important)

Anyway, hope it's on the mend & see you at the Frank Duffy race on Saturday.

Hi Helen, thanks for the advice. When I say "heel" I actually mean "where the achilles joins on to the heel", so I've ruled out PF anyway. I think a few too many consecutive days running just put some strain on it, but if I'm not back to running by the weekend I'll definitely be looking to get some expert advice.

Best of luck with the 10 mile, I've pretty much ruled it out for myself at this point unless I suddenly fell absolutely 100% in the next couple of days, but I'm all about the HM anyway.

FrClintPower

I spoke too soon on Monday, I went for a stroll at lunchtime and lo and behold the pain was back in the afternoon. So I still haven't run since, and thankfully I overcame the stupid urge to just try to run on it to see what happened.

Anyway, yesterday and today it's definitely felt like it's been on the mend, and the area which is sore to the touch is much smaller now, so if it continues on that path I'll try 2 slow miles tomorrow evening and see what the reaction is (stupid urge?).

I had a very thorough 45 minute session of foam-rolling, stretching and core on Tuesday evening, focusing on the calves in particular, which probably helped. Then a couple of cycles-

Wednesday 21 August - 16.7kms in 47.54, 20.9 km/h Ave HR 130 Max HR 166

Nice cycle on the trails around the Magazine Fort and the Furry Glen. For some reason I'm more exploratory when I'm on the bike, so I've been checking out trails I've never been on before. Followed up with 15 mins of stretching and foam rolling, again focusing on the calves.

Thursday 22 August - 10.25kms in 24.21, 25.2 km/h Ave HR 148 Max HR 166

Tried out my usual "time-trial" lap after having a few less purposeful cycles over the last week. Blew my record out of the water again, by about 45 seconds, but I was very determined the whole way around. I'm a bit unsure of the benefits of cycling compared with running, but I definitely feel that going all-out on that lap keeps things ticking over nicely.

FrClintPower

Previously on this log.....

FrClintPower wrote: »

I'll try 2 slow miles tomorrow evening and see what the reaction is.....

....and the result?

Friday 23 August – 0.23 miles in 2.01, 8.39 per mile

I cycled down to the Polo fields for this one, it'd been raining so I figured it would be a nice, soft surface to run on. Stretched the calves a bit and headed off slowly, but unfortunately each step was more painful than the last so I knocked it on the head before I did any real damage. Kind of demoralising when the run takes less time than locking up the bike beforehand.

On the positive side, I'd been uncertain about whether it was a niggle which I could run on, so at least the couple of minutes of jogging let me know that it wasn't recovered. It wasn't any sorer that evening either so no further damage done.

I strolled down to check out the 10 mile on Saturday morning and to pick up my t-shirt and goodie bag. Nice to see the big crowds running and it was a lovely day for it, so I was pretty envious, I would have loved to have been running it. The 4 mile round trip left the heel pretty sore again on Saturday evening, so as well as not running I'll have to try to not walk too much on it either.

Sunday 25 August - 22.25 kms in 1.03.01, 21.2 km/h Ave HR 140 Max HR 166

Got out early for a nice long cycle on Sunday morning, out through Castleknock and down to Chapelizod before heading back into the Park. I hadn't realized the Dublin City Triathlon was on that morning until I was cycling along a closed Chapelizod Road and saw all the bikes lined up in the transition area. They must have been swimming at that point because I saw the leading cyclists in all their high-tech and expensive looking gear a little while later on Furze Road. I was the opposite, on a big heavy bike in my baggy clothes and with a back brake which had started squealing as I hurtled down a hill. Ended up cutting the cycle short because of the brake rubbing, and got it fixed on Monday. When I brought it into the shop the angry Polish dude told me it was broken because it's "Chinese sh!te" and he sorted it out in two seconds. I asked how much and he shrugged and said "go away!", so I obliged.

Tuesday 27 August - 12.07 kms in 33.18, 21.7 km/h Ave HR 130 Max HR 162

Headed out for a quick spin yesterday evening and even though it was only 8.30, it was pretty dark in places. Not dangerous if you're running, but on a bike it could get nasty if you end up hitting a pothole at speed.

Also did 30 minutes of stretching and core exercises on Friday, Sunday and Tuesday. For the past 5 or 6 weeks I've been doing the core exercises that Krusty linked to on his log, and upping the number of reps by one each week (so I've gone from 10 to 15 so far). I hadn't done a push-up in years, and it showed the first time, I could barely lift my arms the next day! Good to be doing something constructive while I'm not running though.

FrClintPower

Wednesday 28 August - 13.27 kms in 33.56, 23.5 km/h Ave HR 137 Max HR 163

Just stuck to the tarmac for this one, mainly up and down Chesterfield Ave. Cycling back home at 9 it was very dark on the road behind the zoo, so I'll have to get the reflective gear out again.

Thursday 29 August - 12.90 kms in 36.53, 21.0 km/h Ave HR 135 Max HR 168

Got out a bit earlier for this one, and a lovely evening for it too. Up the Khyber, across the grass by the Papal Cross, and a couple of laps of the Furry Glen. Followed up by 30 mins of core exercises.

I've booked the physio for Monday, hopefully the diagnosis will be good and it'll accelerate the recovery, although I've a feeling it'll just be more rest etc. First time I've ever gone to a physio though, I'm a real runner now....

RunningKing

Even though I 'thank' your posts, I have no idea what you are doing while you continue to use that foreign language of KM's.....

FrClintPower

I find it's helpful to draw a distinction between the real exercise of running, and messing about on a toy .

FrClintPower

It's been a few days since I've updated the log so here goes (although there's not much to report) -

Saturday 31 August - 30.22 kms in 1.25.12, 21.3 km/h Ave HR 139 Max HR 215! (The first time the HR monitor has really gone screwy on me)

Got out for a nice long cycle on Saturday afternoon, I stuck to tarmac for it and it was hard going at times when facing into the strong wind. Mainly around the Park, and had an exhilarating high-speed spin down Knockmaroon Hill.

Weekly Total - 68.47 kms in 3.09.19, 21.7 km/h

So four cycles in total and I also did my usual total of three core workout sessions over the course of the week.

Finally went to see the physio about my heel/achilles on Tuesday and, as I had suspected, I have achilles tendonitis at the point where the tendon attaches to the heel bone itself. According to the physio it's a "nasty" place to get it because the blood flow is so restricted to that area, meaning recovery can be slow. I can't really do anything much to speed recovery up either, just continue to ice it every day and lob some anti-inflammatories at it, which thankfully I'd been doing anyway. But he thought it could be 6 weeks or so before I can get back running. Boo.

In talking to him about how it came about (too much too soon etc), it was noticeable that niggles I'd had previously have always tended to be on that same side, and he noticed that the calf muscle seemed thinner than the other side. So he's got me doing plenty of stretching and then we'll move on to some strengthening, to at least lay the groundwork for hopefully injury-free running into the future.

Seemingly I can continue with the cycling as well, I was wondering could that be hindering recovery by putting pressure on the achilles. I haven't gone out this week yet though, while he says it's okay I'll knock it on the head for the week just in case.

Oh well, onwards and upwards.

dazza21ie

That's a shame for your Clint, you were going well. Good luck with the recovery.

blockic

Tough news Clint, you were going well. You won't be long getting back on the horse once you get the all clear and you'll be back where you were in no time!

RunningKing

Bad news clint. Keep it positive.