Down and out

Well, my very last Frisbee sessions proved to be a mistake. In the second game of the day, someone smashed into me - the first I knew was when I hit the ground. Result - both shins hurt, right knee and ankle are hurting, my elbows are skinned and I have a massive bruise on my left hip. I still can't work out how I managed to connect all those parts of my body with the floor....

Bottom line is that there's no way I can run the 15 miles I need to before next week, and that means I can't run the marathon. It's going to really hurt on the day - watching all those people doing what I want to do - but better to hurt emotionally than to break myself (and still hurt emotionally!).

So, that's it for the blog. Well, until next year's training. On the plus side, I'm guaranteed a place, so can start my training nice and early. Won't be near any hills either ;)

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, good day.

Park and glide

We were looking at houses today, so I went out for a run in the morning beforehand. I decided to try out the carbogel again, so took along some lucozade sport, even though it was only going to be an hour or so.

I learned one thing - make sure you slow down when you're trying to consume the gel - otherwise you don't breathe properly and starve your body of oxygen. Thirty seconds later you really hurt!

The run went OK - not brilliantly, but not terribly. I did just eight laps, and then decided that given how hectic the day was due to be, that I'd stop and go home before knackering my legs.

Felt fine during the rest of the day in spite of a lot of walking.

Long and flat

So. My new regime. Run longer, less frequently and on flat terrain.

So how did it go? Well, good in parts and bad in parts.

Good points? knees are feeling not too bad, I ran further than I have this year.

Bad points? knees are feeling a little sore, I didn't run as far as I wanted.

Verdict? Not sure. I felt after 8 laps that I should give up on the marathon for this year, but then I seemed to recover, and ended up doing another 4. That brought my total to 10 miles. Not what I was looking for, but close enough to leave me in doubt. If I'd run 15 miles then I'd say I was OK to run.

I actually only stopped running because my back was starting to stiffen and I didn't want to injure my knees compensating. That only happened because I was starting to dehydrate because I didn't want to take any drinks with me. Maybe I'll get Hazel to help out being a water carrier....

So I'm not quite happy with the run, but not unhappy. It was promising - but more than that, well I'll reserve judgement till next week.

Oh, and the blisters on my toes from the new shoes got worse. Hopefully I'll get used to them over the next couple of weeks...

PS 15.7km <71 minutes, 13.3kph. 7th longest, 23 fastest. Just in case you want the stats...

Five runs, six days

So it's Thursday, and this was the fifth run I've done in six days - and the days "off" was playing Ultimate. I wasn't feeling too great - legs stiff, knees a little tender. In fact, I've decided that the only way I'm going to be able to run this marathon is to cut down the amount of running I do and give my knees some chance to recover - which means two days off and then I'm going to try to go into an alternating routine - day of exercise followed by a day of rest. That's the theory anyway.

On top of that I'll be trying to increase the length of my runs over the next couple of weeks. Nothing outrageous - I'll only do a fifteen mile run at most, and maybe not even that.

The other change to my plan is that I'm going to cut out Oakwood and try to do the Town Park instead. That's to avoid doing hills, which while great for imcreasing muscle mass (you should the thickness of my calves!) is terrible for my knees - you end up pulling yourself up the hills - straining your knees all the way. Then you get to the top and start smashing your feet into the ground all the way down. There's only so much shock absorbing my trainers can do....

Anyway - the run. Fast, at a shade over 27 minutes and short. Had to go out to the pub afterwards, and to be honest didn't think I'd be able to cope with a long run given how my calves felt. Hopefully the rest will do them some good!

Tired

Some days I come home from work and a run doesn't seem too horrible an idea. Other times I'd rather walk on hot coals. Today was one of the latter days.

I don't know exactly what it is that makes the difference. The cold definitely makes it worse - I can't imagine genuinely wanting to go out running at the moment - but it's not the real reason. I guess there's a certain amount of fatigue, both from running itself, and from not sleeping well due to my recent illness. Oh, and maybe a little bit of knee trouble from yesterday's Ultimate. When will I learn? (well maybe soon - I've given up everything but work Ultimate and the Indoor League tournament that I'm organising till after the marathon)

So, I got myself changed and went out to the big open air freezer that they call Enfield, and headed out for my half hour. Yes - half hour. Too bloody right - I don't want to freeze to death ;)

I was aiming for a nice leisurely run - something to keep my knees ticking over, and get the token miles in, without risking injury. Gently up the hill until I came to the top - just as I was reaching the island in between the carriageways a stream of vehicles arrived. Turning car - wait. Another - wait. Another - wait. I keep running on the spot, waiting my turn. Wait. Wait. Wait. How many cars can there be? I eventually find a space and continue on, but suddenly I'm feeling as if I need to push to have a chance at a decent time. Damn.

I keep it strong but steady for the rest of the run. Never really trying to push myself, but not trying to pay too much attention to whether I'm going up or down hills.

Back here in 27 and a half minutes. Dinner goes on (thanks again to Hazel - she's a star) and ten minutes later I'm warmed down and eating.

Oops - I need to remember to drink. Bye!

Till death us do part

I think I've pretty much recovered from my illness. I still have lots of the symptoms - sore throat, tiredness, bunged up nose - but I'm running OK. I sniff a bit more than usual, and as soon as I get hope I rush to get a hankie to blow my nose, but other than that, it's pretty normal running.

The new shoes seem to be going OK. It's hard to know for sure whether they're as good as my Nikes once were, but they're definitely reasonable. The only annoyance I have with them is that they feel ultra wide. That's only really a problem on corners, and hopefully that's the least of my worries during a marathon.

Last night's run was just to Oakwood and back. Same old, same old. A slightly disappointing 14 minutes out - I've been hitting slightly lower recently - but I managed to up the tempo on the return journey, and I got hom in a shade over 27 minutes. Would have been less but for me having to stop for a few seconds both the times I crossed the roundabout at the top of Windmill Hill. Bloody car drivers - think they own the road ;)

When I got back I drank, warmed down, had dinner and then iced my knees. I don't know if it really helps, but at the very least it feels like I'm being proactive. I'm icing them using a couple of bags of value frozen peas - they're way better than the freezer packs we had because they change position to surround the knees. It's weird afterwards, because my knees are so cold and I've always been taught that having a cold body is a good way of getting injured, so I walk around very gingerly. Or, like last night, get Hazel to take them away and don't even move...

...and in health

One day later and I'm feeling much better. Still got a sore throat and a running nose, but I'm definitely on the mend. I was half thinking about a Cockfosters run, just because I need to start upping the mileage, but I didn't know whether to risk it since my knees had hurt a little yesterday, and I was still a little ill.

I headed out at a gentle pace - 6m05 to the roundabout. Reached Oakwood just after 13m30 and made a split second decision to go to Cockfosters. It's only another twelve minutes on the run (an extra 2.8 flat kms), so it's not too much of an onus.

Turned at pretty much dead on 20 minutes, back through Oakwood at a shade over 26 and made it home in 39m36s - a new Cockfosters record.

Pleasingly, after yesterday's performance this was my 11th fastest run of all time. Not bad for someone recovering from illness.

With Ultimate now down to just once a week, expect to see plenty of running in the next six weeks. Fingers crossed.

In sickness...

I fell ill on Wednesday and was off work on Thursday and barely well enough to go in on Friday morning. With the marathon only six weeks away, I really didn't want to miss out on more running than necessary, so although I was still recovering I decided to head out on a Saturday Oakwood run.

I felt pretty good actually, so I headed out quite hard. Hit the roundabout at 5m40s - a good twenty seconds faster than I'd expect to go on a fast run. It turns out that my anaerobic energy isn't dented much by illness, but my aerobic fitness is wiped out. The anaerobic reserves took me up the first hill, and then there was the long downhill to recover on, followed by a short uphill to the roundabout. In essence my illness didn't really affect the time at all except for the fact that I pushed harder because I was conscious that I was a little wheezy from the illness so would expect to be puffing a bit more than usual...

And then it hit me - almost as soon as I passed the roundabout I was in trouble, starting to feel stitches coming on and really struggling to keep the pace up. Tried to overcome it on the uphill, but didn't really succeed. By the time I turned at Oakwood I was still well under 14 minutes but the pain was quite bad.

Contrary to what you might expect, running downhill isn't a good way to recover - the constant jarring just makes it difficult to get your breath running properly, and it's hard to convince myself to slow down. Eventually I did, and slowly started to recover.

I paid the price though, and couldn't run quickly for the rest of the route - eventually coming home in just over 28 minutes. That's my 31st fastest time :( - My last 11 outings had all been top 30s, and I'd been hoping to continue that record. A couple of seconds quicker (not having to stop for a car to turn...) would have made all the difference.

Still, considering I was ill, you can't really complain at a run that would have been my fastest Oakwood run ever if I'd done it a month and a bit ago.

New shoes

So, as I said, I went out for new shoes on Saturday. After trying out a few pairs I opted for a pair of Brooks. Hazel agreed they were the best option too - mainly because the others were yellow and blue, whereas these were a relatively tasteful red.

The verdict? Well, they're not quite as good as my Nike Max Airs were, as far as I can remember, but they're an improvement now.

Plusses: Wider base, so more support, bouncy, neutral running
Minuses: Wider base seems a little strange, I'm not quite neutral - I notice now that I run a bit on the edge of the shoe, turning corners is a little tricky - they don't grip as well, although I'll get used to it.

More than anything else though, they're new, which means that they're bouncy, which will hopefully help my knees. Clutching at straws?

The run itself was good. I decided to head out to Cockfosters, and made it there and back in a shade under 40 minutes - the best of the three occasions I've done that run. Knees hurt a little, but not too badly, and the worst part was drinking Lucozade while running - I started to drink too much because I wanted to finish the bottle, so I ended up with too much liquid in my stomach and started getting stitches. The result was me slowing down a bit, before recovering at the end.

So now, I just need to decide whether or not to give up the Indoor Frisbee... which is more important to me - Frisbee over the next three weeks or the Marathon?

Wedding warmup

It was Steff's wedding today, so a nice early run before heading out for the ceremony. It was also the day I had pencilled in for buying new shoes, so, in theory at least, a final farewell to my old Nikes which had served me well over the last two and a half years and 800 kilometres, but were starting to feel a little less bouncy.

My knees still felt a bit tender after Thursday night Frisbee (which I'm seriously considering giving up for the year) so I only did a half hour. Fast enough - fifteenth fastest I've run, and my tenth consecutive run inside the top 30. With only a month and a half before the big day, I really need to get rid of these knee problems.

And then I stood around at the wedding, which probably didn't help, but what can you do!?

Brrrrrr!!!!!

On the way home from work it was ridiculously cold - so cold that I didn't want to go back out. I almost opted for the bike, but it's a slippery slope - and running just doesn't mix with slippery slopes....

So out I went, and it wasn't too cold at all. Not warm by any stretch of the imagination, but not too bad. I decided I should make it a quick run, to minimise the time in the cold, so set off at a reasonable pace - not lightning fast, but with an upbeat tempo. Tried to push myself every time I didn't feel like I was at my comfortable limit.

Time was good, especially for an evening run. Eighth fastest run ever, and a couple of the faster ones have come in the last fortnight. It's pleasing to think that in the last three weeks I've been out nine times and scored my 1st, 3rd, 8th, 12th, 15th, 18th, 24th and 26th fastest runs. Nine top 30s in a row. And both of the ones outside the top 20 were in the top 20 when I got them!

I honestly believe the biggest problem now is the cold - it's just not appealing going out for an hour long run in these temperatures. Hopefully life will get warmer soon!