From start, continue ahead up steep hill to gate...

So, the last you heard from me was that I had a fat ankle. Well, probably against all sensible people's best advice I decided to still do the Dunstable Downs 20. In my defence, despite having to work from home as I couldn't walk on Wednesday, my fat ankle recovered quickly. I was back at work on Thursday (albeit with an impressive limp much to the amusement of my colleagues) and moving a lot more smoothly on Friday. By Sunday, although the ankle was still quite puffy the pain and the limp had more or less gone. However, this race was still going to be a challenge. Tash and Gary gave me a good talking to at the start, telling me to turn back at the point where the 10 mile turned back, my marathon was more important than a silly old trail race, blah, blah, blah. I did listen to them and I was very aware that doing something daft now would really screw things up impressively. I am also a very determined person and I don't like to give up so I was hoping my head would persuade me to be sensible. The trail race was not marshalled or marked but had fairly detailed instructions and, as instructed, from the start we followed the grassy path straight up the steep hill on to the downs, through the gate and into the mist. It took a good half hour for the mist to clear and we then went through fields, up and down hills, past farms and generally meandered along a very pleasant route through the countryside. I would highly recommend this run, it was extremely enjoyable. At the turn off point for 10 miles, the ankle was holding up well and I decided to continue. As the next few miles went on, some through a pretty rutted ploughed field, treacherous for ankles at the best of times, I lost sight of the few people I had been running with and I was on my own (I blame my slow time on the fact I was having to do all the navigating myself) and the instructions were good but with no real sense of perspective, at one point I spent quite some time looking for a turn on the right which turned out to be quite some distance from where it sounded like it would be! It was a hot day, so the water and jelly bean stops were very welcome indeed, they also had little pieces of Mars bars too...mom... Anyway, there are a lot of excuses here and I was slow and, especially near the end, I found it very hard indeed. As I finished, not last may I add, Gary was sat a few metres from the finish funnel, on a deckchair, wearing his sunglasses and reading a newspaper. It was nice and quiet and he looked very relaxed indeed! So, how is the ankle then? Fine actually and, despite my very slow time (4:14:39), I am happy with this in a "time on your feet" kind of way!

Fat Ankle

I posted a few weeks ago about my fat foot (due to a hungry northern mozzie). Well this time I have a fat ankle. Here's the sorry tale. Actually, not much to tell, I was running with Christine on Tuesday night and we had promised ourselves a nice easy run as she had done the Quicksand 15 on Sunday. It's that time of the year right now where it is dark in the evenings, the street lights are on but the leaves are still on the trees so it is pretty treacherous. We've already had one nasty injury to the head caused by tripping on the uneven Letchworth pavements. Just as we got to Baldock all of a sudden a bike was coming towards us to I moved to one side...and slipped down the little kerby bit at the edge of the path. I went right over on my right ankle and immediately knew I had done some damage. Nowhere near as bad as 5 or 6 years ago where I did something similar and had to get a life back to the club in a police car but certainly not great. Christine and I ended up walking/jogging slowly back to the club (I think Chris was secretly relieved to have an easy run!) and I iced my ankle thanks to help from 'el presidente'. Also in the wars was Oliver who had grazed his knee by tumbling over. By the time I got home my ankle was quite swollen and painful, I ended up not sleeping well at all and spending the next day "working from home" with my feet up on the sofa and my laptop on my knee.

I struggled into work this morning (no bike today as although I think I could have ridden it, scaling the stairs at Hitchin station with a dodgy ankle and a bike in one hand would not have been good) but the ankle isn't much better. I have to admit that although I am normally a positive person, this is definitely worrying.

On a slightly related note, getting the tube for the first time in ages today reminded me how rude Londoners can be on the tube. I was slightly hampered by the dodgy ankle and I got pushed all over the place, thank god I wasn't more injured (for so many reasons). Fingers crossed I can get back on the bike asap!

Training progress

The blue line is Gary and the red line is me. From this scientific image you can see that we don't both have good weeks training at the same time.

More training...

So, after last week's excellent training week how was this week's training. First, my intention at the start of the week was to make this week a bit easier, especially as it started with a Half Marathon near Ely. Given I had accidentally run 9.5 miles the day before and also attended a bootcamp class so I wasn't as fresh as I could be. As it happened, all went really well and I finished in just under 2:05 which is probably faster than I have run for ages!

There isn't too much to say about this week's training really, a late night at work on Thursday meant no training and then I went to Edinburgh for the weekend so I managed a lovely run in Edinburgh on Saturday morning. I used to live in Edinburgh so it was nice to be back, it's a very attractive city with loads of nice places to run, I wonder if there are any jobs for me in Edinburgh? :-)

Week Seven
Sunday: 13.1 Grunty Fen Half Marathon
Monday: 0
Tuesday: Circuits (am), 5 miles (pm)
Wednesday: 5 miles
Thursday: Circuits (am
Friday: 0
Saturday: 6 miles in Edburgh

Total: 29.1 miles, 2 circuit classes
Verdict: Hmmm

You can't have it all...

While you have been reading of my improving fortunes as far as training is concerned, my running hubby has been having a rough time. His training had been going supremely well, he was looking fit, running well and generally all was good. However, 10 days ago he got some weirdness in his calf and has been quite down in the dumps with it all.
We've come to the conclusion that the running gods can't let us both be running well at the same time (how cruel of them) so they pick on one or the other of us. I am feeling a little responsible (well, a lot actually) as I put Gary's schedule together so maybe I over-trained him a bit? Fingers crossed he perks up in the next day or two, I don't think he will have lost too much (mainly confidence I think)...

On the up

Things are definitely on the up :-) In my previous post I told you about my Sunday run 20 mile antics which was followed by a Dunhams Lane hill session on Tuesday. For the first time in absolutely ages I did the whole session (3 reps of a lot of running up and down, comes to 7.5 miles in total). I gave myself Wednesday off and then did another fartlek on Thursday. On Saturday I set off with the aim of 8 miles but due to a catastrophic wrong turn on Deadwoman's Lane, I actually ran 9.5 miles and almost missed the bootcamp class at the gym!

Week Six
Sunday: 20 (10 plus 10 miles race@Swineshead)
Monday: 0
Tuesday: 7.5 miles hills
Wednesday: 0
Thursday: Circuits in the morning, 6.5 miles fartlek
Friday: 0
Saturday: Accidental 9.5 miles bootcamp

Total: 43.5 miles, 1 crcuit class, 1 bootcamp
Verdict: Yahoooo!

Mad Sunday

Thought I'd tell you about my Sunday this week...it started with the idea of running Swineshead 10, the NHRR Run of the Month for September. Being a good club member, I entered, looking forwards to doing a new race.
Given I am marathon training I had to work out a way of getting my mileage in. My first idea was a long run on Saturday but then Gary had a sore calf and fancied going to the bootcamp class (and we were 2/3 of the way through a bottle of wine on a Friday night) so I decided some sort of add on post Swineshead 10 was the way forwards. Then I realised the race started at 11:30 am so came up with the plan of running 10 miles before the 10 mile race. Almost sounds sensible when you write it downs like that.
I set off at 7am on Sunday morning towards Preston. As usual, I toiled up the hill and ended up walking just past Offleyholes Farm. not long after that, a lady came running past me like a train!
At the top of the hill there is a regular flood which, given the amount of rain we've had recently, was rather deep and I caught the lady up as she was trying to navigate the puddle (we concluded straight through the middle was the best option!). I turned out she was a member of Garden City Runners (I am embarassed to admit I didn't find out her name) and we had a lovely run back into Hitchin. It was only when I got back I realised we had gone pretty quick (just under 10 miles in 1:40), certainly quick than I probably should have done so I had an extra bowl of porridge to make up for it!
So, on to the race. Given my exertions that day, it went pretty well with me managing to keep going and finish in 1:43 (wow!). I devoured a burger and ice cream at the end, mmm.

I wonder if this kind of training is any good for you, I certainly ran the second 10 miles more strongly and faster than I would have done if I had done them without the 2 hour break? Anyway, it made me feel confident again which is a good thing!
The only problem was that this killed me for the rest of the day. When we got home we had to finish some bathroom painting so I couldn't have a shower for a while and by the time I did I was starting to feel rough. I get this sometimes after a hard run or gym session, I think it is a combination of dehydration and an exertion induced headache caused by the increased speed at which the blood is circulating after running. Whatever it is and whatever it is caused by it's not nice, it's the kind of headache where you can't move and ultimately you are sick (sorry Gary, I do appreciate you made me dinner).

Mmmm, maybe I'll be nicer to myself next weekend!

Slight Improvement

This week has been more encouraging training wise (about time too!)

Over the past couple of weeks, I've really got back into fartleks. At the club at the moment we are doing 6 weeks of hills and fartleks, the latter being very helpful for marathon training too. There are many good things about fartlek training:

it makes you fitter :-)

depending on the lengths of the reps and the recoveries, you can run in groups with people you don't normally run with

you can run as hard as you want (or don't want as the case may be) although obviously you get less effect if you don't do it quite right

it's a good way to do 6-8 miles without really realising it!

Anyway, it's all good. On Wednesday I actually managed a midweek run and on Thursday I did a nasty hill session at Hollow Lane/Windmill Hill in Hitchin.

Week Five
Sunday: 0 (fat foot)
Monday: 0 (trip to Alton Towers and slightly less fat foot)
Tuesday: 6.5 miles fartlek
Wednesday: 8 miles
Thursday: Circuits in the morning, 3.5 miles hills
Friday: 0
Saturday: 8 miles to Preston and bootcamp

Total: 2.5, one circuits class, once bootcamp class
Verdict: Starting to feel fitter...

P.S. While trying to find a link to Windmill i found that in 1697, Hitchin (and the nearby village of Offley) were subject to what is thought to have been the most severe hailstorm in recorded UK history. Hailstones over 4 inches in diameter were reported.

Fat Foot

This week's training didn't start as well as it could have done (given the non-long running last week) so I had high hopes I could bring it round and start to feel a little more confident about my mileage.
I had already promised to go to the cinema with Gary on Wednesday to see The Dark Knight and he had rearranged his training to fit round that so I thought I had better not risk a divorce so I didn't have too many options for fitting in my training. We were also invited to another wedding in the North of England which as already noted makes life tricky when it comes to marathon training.
However, as it happened, it was a Northern mozzie that ruined my training this week! It turned out I was very tasty for Bury-based mosquitos. While getting fresh air at the wedding I got bitten like crazy by these pesky insects including a couple of badly placed bites on my right foot. Of course it swelled up like mad and I was unable to fit my trainer on on Sunday, let alone run!. Luckily for me and my marriage it was a lot better on Monday and I was able to spend the day at Alton Towers to celebrate Gary's birthday!

Week Four
Sunday: 0
Monday: 0
Tuesday: 4.5 miles including 4*5 min hill efforts
Wednesday: 0
Thursday: Circuits in the morning, 6 miles fartlek
Friday: 0
Saturday: 8 miles to Preston

Total: 18.5 plus one circuits class
Verdict: Even worse than last week

BTW I am blogging in bed right now and Gary is snoring, this is such a rare occurrence I felt I needed to share this with you....