I’ve been told on a couple of occasions that I should stop running, firstly when I broke my leg rock climbing, then when I found out I had arthritis then after a knee injury. On each occasion my response was “you’re not telling me to stop running” however this time I was fully prepared to hang up my racing shoes if I was told to.
I started running again last week, very easy I must add! I was hyper sensitive at first, constantly looking for signs that I should stop. I’ve been really nervous about stepping it up, I eventually did my first session on Tuesday. I did a 400 session, things went well considering the break that I’d had, my times were down and my lungs were on fire and by the last effort I felt like I was running in slow motion, but my average time was only down by about a second. I’ve done some easy run’s off road too, they’ve also gone well but because of the loss of peripheral vision I feel a bit unsure of my footing while running.
On Thursday I ran home from work and did half an hour of Fartlek, I just took whatever came at me, uphill, downhill or flat. I felt good but it was hard to judge how fast I was going, it was cold and wet but it was great to be back out running.
Three years ago now Max asked me to find a loop of about three mile to use as a bench mark session. The loop I chose is a toughy! It is really hilly, just like a rollercoaster, it’s never flat! It’s taken me a long time for me to learn how to best run it. I now know where to push hard, when to back off and when to turn myself inside out. The loop is 3.6 mile and we use it as a bench mark session to see where I’m at. The first time it took over 19 minutes and rapidly came down to mid 18’s, I eventually dipped under 18 minutes.
Last year on a perfect day, perfect conditions, full race kit and a day off work I ran 17.22! On that day I was flying, it felt effortless. I plan to run Manchester 10k next week so to see where I’m at Max asked me to do my loop this Saturday. I’d had a full day at work, running up and down stairs all day, it was breezy and I haven’t done the loop for months, so I wasn’t expecting much.
The loop starts and finishes at Quarrington Hill, downhill to start with, gradually getting steeper as it goes, to the point where you have to put the break’s on to stop overstriding
Kellhoe is a funny place, a real time stood still place. It’s no longer a miners village but it still has that sort of feel. On occasions I get great support going through Kellhoe, I’ll go past the working men’s club where all the smokers are outside killing themselves. As I go past I get a shout “gan on youg’un” I then go past the village store where the youngsters are hanging out, I get the usual one two, one two, by now the smokers at the Davy lamp pub are looking up the street to see what all the noise is about, I get more cheers.
Now then! I have a favor to ask, My Girlfriend Clare is doing her Masters at the minute and is looking for people to help with her study. The study is looking to see if beetroot juice improves 5km time trial performance. It has shown to improve time to fatigue but performance has not been looked at in such detail. It’s a great opportunity to have your vo2 max, blood lactates, hydration status and gas analysis carried out in addition to finding out if beetroot juice helps! The inclusion criteria is that you are fit and healthy and can run between 15-21.30 minutes for 5km, If anyone is interested please get in touch with me through facebook or leave a message on here, thanks.