runography

At lots gone on since my last post, in fact most of August has gone by. What have I been up to? Well I haven’t given up running, but it does seem I’ve given up the regular updates on this site. Just so much else going on that I don’t ever seem to have the time to write a post. Let me give a summary of August then.

28th July – 3rd August

I did my run on the Monday as mentioned in the last post, then I did an easy run on the Tuesday. I managed to then not run Wed/Thurs/Friday and felt I had to make up for it on the Saturday, so I did my longest run to date.

Blantyre/StrathclydeParkViaFurlongs/Blantyre – 11.65 miles

This was quite an enjoyable run until I got to mile 10, when I was nearing the end of mile 10 and happy that I was about to go past my furthest distance I managed to get some pain across the top of my foot. Thankfully there was only a couple of miles to go.

Total time: 1:43:25 – average pace 8:53 min/mi

4th August – 10th August

Off on holiday from work for 2 weeks, normally get some sort of bug around this time as my body starts to ask why I’m not doing so much.

I went out on the Monday with Ann, I decided to do an easy run to see if my foot would recover. Ann was doing a tempo so it worked well. We covered 6.12 miles in 1:02:26 which was quite good. I still felt the pain in my foot though, so that wasn’t so good. I gave my foot a rest on the Tuesday and didn’t run again until the Thursday, again I did the following run.

Blantyre/StrathclydeParkViaFurlongs/Blantyre – 11.71 miles

This time going a bit faster since I had had an easy run on the monday and no run on the Tuesday. My foot started hurting about 6 miles, I was still wearing my original trainers and decided that after this run they would be put into retirement. After this run I was thinking I might not be able to run the 1/2 marathon if my foot keeps getting worse.

Total time: 1:39:00 – average pace 8:27 min/mi

On the Friday I didn’t do any training. I went to see the Dr on another issue and asked him about my foot. He said that I had probably strained the tendon along the top of my foot ( name escapes me ) but as I can wiggle my toes it’s ok. Take some ibuprofen for the imflammation and get on with it.

The Dr weighed me for the records and on the scales there I was 12st 2lb… Result

I then had many beers and cigs on the Friday night and awoke with the Cold, I was bagged up and spent all my time blowing my nose

11th August – 17th August

This week was spent with the cold, no running at all. When the cold finally subsided on the Thursday we were due to go down to Blackpool for the w/e. I never managed to shift the congested feeling and didn’t run in Blackpool either. After 2 weeks off work on holiday, one wasted with the cold, I had managed to mess up my training program.

18th August – 21st August

I got back to work and back to training on Monday, Ann and I decided to attempt a detox from Monday 18th until Sunday 7th Sept, the day of the GSR. By detox we mean no alcohol and no smoking. We did enough of that over the 2 week holiday and really need to give it a miss for a while. Besides it’ll do us good. Chances of success are slim, but it’s the taking part that counts.

First run after 11 days off and I decide not to attempt the tempo run, which was 5 miles @ 7:44, instead I decide to do an 8 mile run at a reasonable pace. I manage to complete the 8 miles but not without stopping at the end of mile 6, at the start of the run I decided to at least try and stay below 8:30 min/mi pace for a good section of the run. My heart rate was very high and my pace wasn’t great.

Total distance: 7.83 miles, pace of 8:46 min/mi.

Not great, but I was really struggling and it was to be expected after having the cold etc..

Tuesday I played 5′a’sides instead of going for the 4 mile run on the program. Gotta get back into it slowly. I made the mistake of not stretching properly after the football, which was to mean payback on Thursday during my long run.

Thursdays long run ( aka yesterday ) I decided to tackle Strathclyde park again, my aim was to try and complete the run in the same time as I had managed before going off on holiday. 8:27 min/mi over 11.71 miles. I felt that it was ambitious considering my last couple of weeks.

Blantyre/StrathclydeParkViaFurlongs/Blantyre – 11.71 miles

I set off well and was doing almost 8 min/miles for the first couple of miles, then I dropped back, my splits were:

• 8:07 – Mile 1
• 8:02 – Mile 2
• 8:26 – Mile 3
• 8:05 – Mile 4
• 8:31 – Mile 5 (I passed Iain from my work at this point, he was running round Strathclyde Park in the other direction)
• 8:31 – Mile 6
• 8:36 – Mile 7
• 8:31 – Mile 8
• 9:32 – Mile 9
• 8:59 – Mile 10
• 9:41 – Mile 11
• 9:44 – Final 0.71 miles

I was doing well but really started to feel heavy legged at the end of Mile 6, I was surprised I managed to keep the pace down to 8:31 for Mile 8. Mile 9 was a killer as it has the run back up the hill ( the furlongs), it’s a steep hill and not that great to tackle with heavy legs. I forced myself to complete mile 10 in under 9 mins, that also ended with a fairly long hill. When I got to the end of that I had to stop and stretch for about 20 secs, my legs were feeling the pain and I was realising I should have stretched on Tuesday. I did the last section of the run at a warmdown pace and even that was hard to stay going. I’m glad I completed it though, but it was tough.

Total time: 1:41:07 – average pace 8:43 min/mi

I’m running tomorrow (Saturday), Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, another 2 easy runs followed by a hard tempo run then an easy run. Hopefully I’ll do them without any problems and finish off this training program without any more incidents. Not long to go now!!!

Weighed myself in the gym on Monday post run and was 12st 4.5lb (lowest to date), so probably around 12st 6lb before that. On home scales I am sitting at between 11st 12lb and 12st. Not wanting to lose any more weight now, having to eat more to keep weight on. It’s not helping that I’ve not been doing any gym work to build up the muscles.

5 days into the detox, so far so good, no cigs or alcohol, but tonight it’s the start of the weekend.