So given the all clear for the injury, I had the welcome prospect of being able to run this week but something in the back of my mind that my ankle wasn’t quite ready to hit the training plan right away.
Stuck with the Yoga which has now become the first thing I do every day – 40mins of stretching, breathing and saluting the sun as soon as I get up (you may scorn the lack of sweat and the cult-ness, but look how nice the weather has been – say “thank you!”). Still can’t touch my toes and my hamstring kindly reminds me that I tore it last November every day – which is nice, but I’m seeing an improvement and it has to be good for my general overall-ness.
Stuck with the Yoga which has now become the first thing I do every day – 40mins of stretching, breathing and saluting the sun as soon as I get up (you may scorn the lack of sweat and the cult-ness, but look how nice the weather has been – say “thank you!”). Still can’t touch my toes and my hamstring kindly reminds me that I tore it last November every day – which is nice, but I’m seeing an improvement and it has to be good for my general overall-ness.
For the whole time I’ve been running, my Monday morning run has been the bain of my life, I absolutely hate it and would honestly say I find it the toughest of the week – simply because I’m so tired of getting up and I’ve still usually got
a bit of my long Sunday session in my legs. So instead of hating my way through it I decided to cycle to work and take my gear for the rest of the week to give me the option of running in and out if I wanted to (I can’t run with a bag –
it’s usually bigger than me and I look and feel like a chaffed
tortoise).
a bit of my long Sunday session in my legs. So instead of hating my way through it I decided to cycle to work and take my gear for the rest of the week to give me the option of running in and out if I wanted to (I can’t run with a bag –
it’s usually bigger than me and I look and feel like a chaffed
tortoise).
So Monday sorted itself out – cycling am/pm and gym at lunch. All well and good except some idiot knocked me off my bike in the morning and just drive off leaving me shell shocked and in the middle of the road in Central Newcastle – I hope you’re proud whoever you are! I dusted myself down with little damage other than pride and got on with the rest of the day.
Monday night was a nervous sleep as I’d decided to run to work the next morning – I knew it was barely 5mi but I was still unfathomably nervous for some reason as I’ve never
actually ran ‘to’ work before. So did I make it? Of course I did but my foot was admittedly aching and I had to get home!
Took myself to Tesco in search of frozen veg and spent much of the afternoon with my foot in and out of a bag of frozen sweetcorn (smaller size than peas – better for moulding to
injury, see) and was good to go for the run home. My legs were aching after my first double day in as long as I can remember so a pool running session finished the day off.
Monday night was a nervous sleep as I’d decided to run to work the next morning – I knew it was barely 5mi but I was still unfathomably nervous for some reason as I’ve never
actually ran ‘to’ work before. So did I make it? Of course I did but my foot was admittedly aching and I had to get home!
Took myself to Tesco in search of frozen veg and spent much of the afternoon with my foot in and out of a bag of frozen sweetcorn (smaller size than peas – better for moulding to
injury, see) and was good to go for the run home. My legs were aching after my first double day in as long as I can remember so a pool running session finished the day off.
Biked into work Wednesday and got back to it to go home to find a parking ticket stuck to it declaring “A couple of youths attempted to steal this bike at 1550 – see security office”. It was parked underneath a CCTV camera?! Honestly – how do
some people sleep at night?! To make it even more ridiculous they hadn’t tried to just cut the lock – they’d actually tried to pull the barrier out of the concrete which is was fastened to? Unreal!
some people sleep at night?! To make it even more ridiculous they hadn’t tried to just cut the lock – they’d actually tried to pull the barrier out of the concrete which is was fastened to? Unreal!
Anyway – Thursday run in and out and pool running session late on and I was pretty much done in for the week. Why, after two little double days and a lunch time run? Because what I’ve found is that when I run or cycle ‘to’ somewhere as
opposed to going out for a set of miles, I can’t wait to get to where I'm headed and get onto the next thing, so I’ve been hammering it! No easy or free wheeling or jogging (by my terms anyway), every bike ride has been draining and every run has been steady and I’m shattered for it. Which has left me with no idea basically how fit or not I am. I’ve managed a 40+mi week, my average pace has been about 7min/mile over the lot, none of them have been quick but most of them
have been nowhere near the pace I was doing my ‘easy’ runs in pre-injury.
I hate being injured – it plays so many games with you. You
try to stay fit because coming back from injury both out of practice and unfit is a mountain of a climb back, but coming
back relatively slow and relatively un‘running fit’ (so you think you should be after all this time off) plays so many tricks on your mind and body.
I thought the best way to tackle this would be to do my tester half marathon route on Sunday and just see how I got on. It’s a pretty tough course and the plan was to just ran it 'steady’ (i.e. at a pace I believe I would be able to have a conversation with someone at – but have no idea if I could cos I was on my own), avoid any watch looking (which is unavoidable due to road crossage) and try not to do a sprint finish (which having already said when I run somewhere I speed up, is not quite gonna happen).
Finish in 89mins and feel ok. But am I? Was that a steady run or as fast as I could’ve done it? Is the course as tough as I believe? What if I was only running half of it, what pace would I have ran then? What if I was running double it? How long could I have kept going at that rate even? How many seconds a mile would the race day adrenaline give me?
I spent the rest of the day hearing about how people had got on in the weekends races and feeling really out of the scene which was torturous and then thinking ahead to the coming weeks which was even worse - I should be tidying the London training up and racing around the North East, or sacking off London and finding a new challenge suited to my current level of fitness, but will I make it to a start line, who knows?
I’ve honestly no idea – what I do know is that yesterday I ran the 7th quickest half marathon I’ve ever ran, race or otherwise and Ive ran 100s, but today, I barely feel like I ran yesterday and my ankle feels officially just about back to normal but whether I’m fit or not (marathon or otherwise) I don’t know.
The ‘test run’ did nothing other than maybe give me false hope – time probably to get back into ‘easy’ running, dust the racing shoes off and deal with the consequences …
Weekly round up:
Mon: (am) Yoga, Bike; (lunch) Gym Supersets-legs; (pm) Bike, stretching
Tues: (am) Yoga, Run 35 mins; (lunch) Gym Supersets-core; (pm) Run 35 mins, Pool Running reps 2 x 5 x 1 length hard, 30 secs rec + 20 swim
Weds: (am) Yoga, Bike; (lunch) Run 65 mins; (pm) Bike
Thurs: (am) Yoga, Run 35 mins; (lunch) Gym Crossfit session inc hack squats (that'll be a first in over a year); (pm) Run 35 mins, Pool Running pyramid 1 to 4 to 1, 1 rec, short pool + 20 swim
Fri: (am) Yoga, Bike; (lunch) Jog about town shopping
Sat: REST and whinge about doms from squats
Sun: Run 90mins
Miles running = 47
opposed to going out for a set of miles, I can’t wait to get to where I'm headed and get onto the next thing, so I’ve been hammering it! No easy or free wheeling or jogging (by my terms anyway), every bike ride has been draining and every run has been steady and I’m shattered for it. Which has left me with no idea basically how fit or not I am. I’ve managed a 40+mi week, my average pace has been about 7min/mile over the lot, none of them have been quick but most of them
have been nowhere near the pace I was doing my ‘easy’ runs in pre-injury.
I hate being injured – it plays so many games with you. You
try to stay fit because coming back from injury both out of practice and unfit is a mountain of a climb back, but coming
back relatively slow and relatively un‘running fit’ (so you think you should be after all this time off) plays so many tricks on your mind and body.
I thought the best way to tackle this would be to do my tester half marathon route on Sunday and just see how I got on. It’s a pretty tough course and the plan was to just ran it 'steady’ (i.e. at a pace I believe I would be able to have a conversation with someone at – but have no idea if I could cos I was on my own), avoid any watch looking (which is unavoidable due to road crossage) and try not to do a sprint finish (which having already said when I run somewhere I speed up, is not quite gonna happen).
Finish in 89mins and feel ok. But am I? Was that a steady run or as fast as I could’ve done it? Is the course as tough as I believe? What if I was only running half of it, what pace would I have ran then? What if I was running double it? How long could I have kept going at that rate even? How many seconds a mile would the race day adrenaline give me?
I spent the rest of the day hearing about how people had got on in the weekends races and feeling really out of the scene which was torturous and then thinking ahead to the coming weeks which was even worse - I should be tidying the London training up and racing around the North East, or sacking off London and finding a new challenge suited to my current level of fitness, but will I make it to a start line, who knows?
I’ve honestly no idea – what I do know is that yesterday I ran the 7th quickest half marathon I’ve ever ran, race or otherwise and Ive ran 100s, but today, I barely feel like I ran yesterday and my ankle feels officially just about back to normal but whether I’m fit or not (marathon or otherwise) I don’t know.
The ‘test run’ did nothing other than maybe give me false hope – time probably to get back into ‘easy’ running, dust the racing shoes off and deal with the consequences …
Weekly round up:
Mon: (am) Yoga, Bike; (lunch) Gym Supersets-legs; (pm) Bike, stretching
Tues: (am) Yoga, Run 35 mins; (lunch) Gym Supersets-core; (pm) Run 35 mins, Pool Running reps 2 x 5 x 1 length hard, 30 secs rec + 20 swim
Weds: (am) Yoga, Bike; (lunch) Run 65 mins; (pm) Bike
Thurs: (am) Yoga, Run 35 mins; (lunch) Gym Crossfit session inc hack squats (that'll be a first in over a year); (pm) Run 35 mins, Pool Running pyramid 1 to 4 to 1, 1 rec, short pool + 20 swim
Fri: (am) Yoga, Bike; (lunch) Jog about town shopping
Sat: REST and whinge about doms from squats
Sun: Run 90mins
Miles running = 47