Last run before Coniston

First things first, I am overdue on my situps so had to get that out of the way first. Actually it seems to work pretty well doing the situps just before a run. I'm at the end of week 5 of the 200 sit-ups programme, and I am definitely getting better - slowly but surely!

And then out for a run. It's only another 3 miler and will be the last one before the 15km at Coniston and assuming that I survive that in one piece next week will be much the same leading up the Carlisle Half. Torrential rain today and I think the freezing water filling my trainers helped with the pain levels in the ol' toe! Anything that makes it hurt less is fine my me!

Again??

A change of shifts meant that I was off up the road again before I had barely got back last night. Ah well, these things happen, and as it was only a three miler, no big deal.

I know I keep twining about it, but my toe is really sore, and I simply don't know what to do to alleviate it. Stumped, I am.

Anyway, here's the run.

Another easy 3 miler

Just a routine 3 miler up the road and back for tonights run. The plan this week is to bang out three of these just to keep myself ticking over til Saturday for the Coniston 15km.

Feeling a bit of pain on my right inner calf, I think this twinged the other day, but there's definitely a bit of inflammation there. I reckon plenty of TLC and some magic pineapple juice will keep that at bay. Let's hope so anyway!



Straight back out with Jasper afterwards, and I have decided to leave the sit-ups til tomorrow morning as I am quite tired now. Mondays are long working days for me, and this one was spent mostly on my feet which doesn't help. Gotta take it easy sometimes!!

Ooh, almost forgot to mention this, but I probably should. My toe flared up again after the long run on Saturday. I didn't know about it until I went to bed, and the weight of the duvet on it was enough to lead to a bad night's sleep. Yes, it really is that painful! It's starting to settle down again now, but I feel certain that the weekend will set it off again. Hmmph.

Week 1 - Long Run

I had hoped to find a route from the door for today's run, but strangely I couldn't find my local map anywhere, so before despondency set in and I ended up doing a poxy 4 miler, I jumped in the car and headed for the cycle path. It's good for running, and fairly even ground so makes a good spot for a little bit longer distance.



Felt a little weary at 4 miles, but I think it's slightly uphill all the way - must be right as the 4 miles back again were definitely easier! A few aches and pains, nothing to write home about, but strangely I noticed that I seemed to be leaning to the right somewhat as I was running. Not sure why that is, but I tried to make sure I corrected that as it is bound to lead to trouble.

Slight achiness in the right heel may be is to blame, again, this is something I need to keep an eye on. I suspect that may have been down to wringing a few miles too many out of that last pair of trainers. Serves me right, I know better than that.

Anyway, not a bad run. Still rubbish at keeping the HR down, but I will get better once I have got the Cumbrian Run behind me (10th Oct). Next week's long run on Saturday will be the 15km Coniston Challenge. Now that really does involve hills!

So the week went all as planned, and I even managed to lose a little weight in the process. I have drawn up a base-training plan which will take me to mid December, but this will start after the 10th October, as I have the two races to deal with first. By then I shall have decided what my main goals for next year will be. Is it going to be too soon to have a first stab at a marathon? We shall see....

Up the Road and Back

Nearing the end of the first week so tomorrow is the 'long run' day. Then I will assess how my first week of the year has gone, maybe keep a running total thingy on the page somewhere if I can remember how to write HTML!

This morning, however, just another 3 miler up the road and back to see how far it is. I'm pleased that the torrential rain has gone and the sunshine returned, but it's pretty windy this morning and up here on the hill overlooking the Irish Sea... well, you can imagine there's not much to break the wind before it hits us. Perhaps I could have worded that better...



And it was the kind of wind that comes filled with razorblades. I was glad I opted to wear a good jacket!

Definitely have recovered fully from the GNR. Legs felt fine and everything working okay. As you would expect, everything feels easier after a day of rest, and this was certainly the case. Even the toe was absolutely fine. It's just a little sore when I poke at it, so I'm trying not to poke at it! I do seem to have a slight pull on my inner calf on my right leg, but I imagine that with only easy running it should go off. It didn't get any worse while I was running so I'm taking that to be a good sign.

Once again, didn't manage very well at keeping the HR down as low as it should be, but it was my best attempt yet. As I have already mentioned, it is quite an undulating little route so that doesn't help, and of course, the wind today made it even harder. Never mind, I'm happy that it was a very easy run, I'm sure that's the main thing.

Runners Toe

When I arrived home on Sunday from the Great North Run, I remember examining my toe very closely as it was throbbing like mad. It felt sore through the Monday and then yesterday when I was out walking with Jasper it gave me so much jip that I was almost limping.

Closer examination and much poking, prodding and manoeuvering of joints has led me to the conclusion that I have a case of Runners Toe. The nail is not black, but is definitely discoloured. Maybe not bad enough for the nail to part company, but I dunno. My main worry is that it is really painful, even just lying in bed seemed to make it hurt.

So this morning I have switched running shoes, the ones I used on Sunday were on their last legs anyway - so much so that I dithered over wearing em - and although these feel okay when I am not moving around, any pressure on the toe from above or below is very painful. Anyway I am gonna try to do another 3 miler, much like yesterday, and I will see how it feels. I don't think running on it is going to make it worse, just that it may be too painful. We shall see.


In fact, the toe was okay. I was aware of it, but it wasn't really a problem. Felt it more on the uphill bits, but that's not surprising I guess. Once again found it hard to keep the HR down, running in to the wind and uphill it's bound to be tricky. Also my legs are still feeling Newcastle a bit, so I imagine that has an effect too.

Quick three mile walk with Jasper to follow and the toe really protested at that. Obviously walking is more of a problem than running, ah well tomorrow is a non-running day, although I have the sit-ups to do, so maybe the rest will do it some good.

Well, I can still feel the exertions of the weekend, but today it's back to it starting off with the Two Hundred Sit-ups Programme. I am just starting week 5 of this. The idea is that you build up the reps and at the end of week 6 you should be able to manage 200 consecutive sit-ups. Yeah right, seems a bit of a tall order, but the programme has steadily advanced from screaming agony to reach even ten sit-ups to where I am now, so it obviously is doing some good! Anyway, this morning I completed a total of 260 over 5 reps. Phew.

Next up it's time for a run. Planned just for 3 miles as I need to let my legs recover from the half marathon. My next run is a 15km trail run on 2nd October, so I am looking to just keep everything moving until then.

Also I have my eye on the long term training plan, and so the remainder of 2010 is going to be all about building distance - base training, you might call it. This is to be done with a low heart rate. The theory is that this teaches your body to become better at burning fat - important over the longer distances. So it's aiming to not go above 70% on these runs. Even for me it can be hard remembering to go that slow - so the beeping from the 405 is very helpful!


Well, it turned out to be quite difficult to keep my heart rate down, as it was much hotter out than it looked! Really sweating a lot and, in fairness, it is a pretty undulating route. The Garmin info on Heart Rate percentages is not right - they must use a different calculation, although the BPM is right. Anyway, my HR was higher than planned but still fairly low so I'm not unhappy. My legs felt okay, although as heavy as lead when I stopped!

What amazed me was that about one mile in to this run I spotted a cat on a wall eying up a little bird in the hedgerow, and it was my Carrera! They say Tom cats can have a fairly large territory - they ain't wrong. He legged it at first and then recognised me so came for a quick cuddle before I carried on!

30th Bupa Great North Run

Got up at 4.15 to make sure I arrive in plenty of time to make it to the start of the race which is scheduled for 10.40. That may sound like overkill, but it worked out okay. Having taken part in this event before I was painfully aware of how much waiting around is involved. You have to queue for EVERYTHING and far, far longer than you would imagine.

So I arrived at the Foreshore at South Shields, after a two and half hour drive, at 0744. Queued for half an hour to buy a car parking ticket (£2.40) and then queued for the shuttle bus to take me to the start area (£3.00). Chatted to a guy on the bus (as you do) who told me that he had done no training whatsoever but had signed up for the run in aid of a Zoe's Place a baby hospice in Middlesborough. Apparently his employer said they would match-fund all sponsorship they raised, so there was a few of them had signed up for it. Fair enough then!

Got to the start area about an hour later, and felt that I had arrived at a reasonable time. There were a few people in each of the starting zones, but literally a few. Of course there were hundreds of people milling around, getting changed, peeing in hedges etc etc, and one or two celebs. I did my best to walk behind all  the people Jonathan Edwards was interviewing, but I didn't see any of the shots on the Beeb. Ah well, I tried.

Having made myself dizzy walking round and round the BBC interviews, I grabbed a gratis Powerade and made my way down the length of the start area. to my appointed zone. I was allocated a spot in the White Zone but knowing that my training had gone all up the swannee I downgraded to the rear of the Green Zone which is further back in the field. Reached the entry point for the zone at 0930 and they close the entry points at 1010 so pretty good timing. Long enough to find a loo. Queued again for that and returned to the start zone at 1005. Phew, that was a bit tight.

The rain at this point was easing and you could convince yourself that the sun was trying to get out, but I hung on to my disposable cagoule a little longer. Excellent build up at the start area via the big screens, and as you would expect, everyone is really friendly and you just know it's gonna be a great day.

The screens showed the start of the womens race, and a big cheer went up for Mara Yamauchi, our lass. Watching the television coverage later, I learned she didn't do as well as we had hoped, but these things happen.

When the male elite runners were introduced though, you can't imagine the cheer that went up for Haile Gebreselassie - the ground shook - but no, wait that was the Red Arrows. As the lass next to me said - NOW it's started! It was 10.40, and they're off!

The 405 says I pressed the start button at 11.13. I could have got to the start line sooner but I couldn't forego the opportunity to slap Dec's hand - we were all pleased he was on our side of the carriageway, sorry Ant, but he is just that little bit cuter!

And now to the running...

I had told myself to take it easy and felt that as long as I took it at a steady plod I would be able to finish despite under-training. To this end I aimed to keep my heart rate below 85%.

Quite soon into the run the rain stopped and the sun came out big time. Suddenly we were getting bombarded with messages to 'take it easy' - I am doing, I thought to myself as my ipod treated me to a blast of Mr Blue Sky by ELO. Yay.

I felt as if I was going okay, no super time in the sights, but I reckoned on a 2::30 ish, which I would have been happy with. After all, I have been full of cold all week and really was happy to just finish in one piece. There are two more runs in the next three weeks so I didn't want to damage myself. when I did this run two years ago I ended up with a knee problem that put me on the sidelines for three months.

I remember seeing the halfway point and thinking that I felt okay and a glance at the 405 told me I was on for the expected finish time. And according to the Garmin data, this is where it all started to get harder.

1 00:11:41
2 00:10:13
3 00:11:17
4 00:11:33
5 00:11:56
6 00:11:25
7 00:11:37
8 00:12:26
9 00:12:52
10 00:13:48
11 00:12:58
12 00:13:54
13 00:11:38


The mile times for the first part of the run were okay, but then I seemed to get slower and slower and slower. Some of the time was lost to having to stop to apply vaseline - the rains returned and I was getting worn raw by my shorts in places I am not gonna tell you about. But there was worse - far worse, I was preoccupied with thoughts of needing the loo, and not the sort of thing you would nip behind a hedge for. Even Paula Radcliffe wouldn't do THIS in the street.

And at mile 10 I came to a stop. Keep going, I told myself. Shouted at myself, swore at myself, but could barely put one foot in front of the other. And then this little girl, can't have been more than 10, shouted out to me from the roadside - "Come on Sareybabes", and I said "Thank you" and set off again.

Slowly, slowly, but I managed to keep going. Bloody hard work and I still needed the loo really badly.

So, in conclusion, I was gutted at the finish time. I had settled for a two and a half hour which was very generous of me, but this was too much. Grrrr. And so I determined to make sure that next year I get a proper time. (Assuming I can get a place!) I do already have the first part of my training plan drawn up, so I am hoping that this blog will become a helpful part of that too.

The journey home was fine, although I had worried that my legs might stiffen up. It was fine and I was home in just three hours. Definiitely pays you to hang around after the run to let the traffic clear. That was just half an hour longer than it took for me to get there in the morning, and it is a little longer on the way out, so no traffic trauma, and on the way home I did manage to feel pleased with myself for making it to finish, albeit it very slowly.

Lots of ambulances coming up through the field today, and I was sorry to see so many runners needing the services of the NHS and St. Johns Ambulances. Hope they are all okay, and will make full recoveries.

And little girl... thank you so much. I have a medal that is yours by rights.

This blog starts with the Great North Run 2010. My chip returned a time of 2:42:28 which was staggeringly crap, so I decided that if I keep a blog of my training over the coming year it maybe will help. I

There are a number of reasons why my training was disrupted over the past year, and the year before that too, but now I need to regain my focus if I am to realise my ambition of running a marathon before I reach the age of 50.

I will be relying heavily on my Forerunner 405 for statistics and the cold hard facts of my running, and also Daily Mile website for more touchy feely stuff like how did I feel... There are links to this info over on the right of the blog page, so you can check up on me.

It's great to have the integration between these various devices and websites, so I am hoping to use all this super duper technology to help me improve that most basic thing of putting one foot in front of the other.