Tuesday 30 October 2007

Time on feet vs Training sessions

Route: 8m, road, undulating
Weather: 12C, light breeze

Ran with the club tonight but decided against the coached session as I'm not sure what I would have gotten out of it. As I am training for a long run, I feel I am better served by running distance rather than speed work or intervals etc. I will take part in hill reps when we do these as they are (I think) beneficial.

Instead went on an 8 mile run. Great run, but stomach cramps from 6m - definitely not right at the moment. In terms of legs and lungs, felt good however.

2 rubbish runs!

Ran on Sunday and Monday but neither run was worth writing about - felt tired and not inot it at all :(

Monday 29 October 2007

Coastal run

Route: 8m, hilly, trail
weather: 15C, windy, light rain

I stayed in beautiful Staithes this weekend at a freind's holiday cottage. It was very relaxing and not bad for a run either. I ran from Staithes to Hummer Sea bay along 4miles of coastal trail and back. It was nice to be able to see the sea the whole time.

Below is a picture of the view:

Thursday 25 October 2007

Moonlighters

Route: 7.4m, undulating/hilly, road/track
weather: 9C, slight fog, dark!

Every Thursday at the club a group of us go moonlighting - that's off-road running with headtorches. Great for me as a fair chunk of my run will be in the dark under similar conditions.

We followed the same route that I ran yesterday. Felt strong and could have run a lot further. No problems from the leg again. Heading up to the coast tomorrow, so will rest on Fri and try and find some interesting routes on Sat and Sun.

Wednesday 24 October 2007

Building it up again

Route: 7.4m, Road and trail
weather: 12C, clear, nice

Ran with Helen round the back of Farnley and Weston. Nice run and no real leg pain, so happy.

Tuesday 23 October 2007

Gentle club run

Route: 5m, road, undulating/hilly
Weather: cold and clear - nice!

Everyone else went out for hill reps but I decided it would not be such a good idea afterb the slight pull last week, so went with one other guy for a gentle 5 mile trot. Good fun. No muscle pain so pleased I opted for the run rather than the reps tonight.

Fingers crossed

Have been patient with the slight hamstring injury over the weekend. I cycled Sat and Sun and rested Mon. Will go down to the club tonight and see if anyone wants a longer run rather than the coached session as I think that's where I went wrong last time. If not then I'll go for a trot on my own.

Haven't felt a niggle since Saturday so fingers crossed...

Saturday 20 October 2007

Another setback :(

Set off to run to my cousin's house today in Harrogate (13ish hilly miles). One mile in and had to return home with a slight pull in my right hamstring. I don't think it's too serious, but I certainly couldn't have run on it.

Returned home to get my bike and cycled instead as this didn't seem to bother it at all, so at least got in some kind of workout, although it wasn't the nice run I'd had in mind.

I will do some more cycling tomorrow instead of the long run and rest the leg until midweek and see how it is then. I am trying to be philosophical about all these setbacks, but they are a bit depressing.

With hindsight, Tuesday's sprint session was the cause. I came back after a few days out and went straight into a hard sprint/pyramid session. My hamstrings felt very tight afterwards, but as I had such a good run on Thursday night, I thought I was out of the woods. They must have been tighter than i thought. I think with the intensity of the running I am working up to, I will give the tempo runs a miss and concentrate on hill reps instead.

Thursday 18 October 2007

Stars and an owl

Route: 8m, hilly/undulating, road
Weather: Freezing!

GREAT to be feeling better again after the cold. Ran a steady 8 miles and felt great. Would have kept on running if I didn't have school tomorrow. Might do a night run over the half term next week, especially if the weather stays so good - I'll see how things go.

Beautiful starry night again and also saw an owl fly past me.

Wednesday 17 October 2007

Starry night

Route: 5m-ish, road and trail, hilly
weather: 2C, clear and still

Dragged myself out for a run this evening as feeling tired. Ran 5ish miles up the chevin with the headtorch. Legs felt a bit heavy and lungs probably only at 85% so not a great run, but glad to have got out just the same.

Tuesday 16 October 2007

Pyramid

Ran for the first time since the w/e tonight and felt ok. Did a pyramid session with the club. We did some warm-ups, some sprint sessions and then a pyramid session. The pyramid was (with 100m recoveries) 200m, 400m, 600m, 800m, 600m, 400m,200m efforts (X2 with 3 minutes rest).

This was a tough session, but I was just glad to be back into it after being sick. I hate being sick!

Sunday 14 October 2007

Blip

Have had a bit of a training blip for a few days now. Started with the niggle after a long run and then this went straight into a bad cold. I am trying to be flexible about my training as I think the only way to recover from these things is rest, but I hate not running and I get uneasy deviating too much from weekly mileages. I am hoping that by midweek I will be back on track and ready to bump up the miles again. I will post a revised October/November schedule once I see how my recovery goes.

Saturday 13 October 2007

Northumberland

Route: 13m, road, hilly/undulating
weather: sunny, 17C

Cold still pretty bad but did manage to run today. Got dropped off on the way to friends' and ran the last 13m on a nice quiet road route.

Will probably not run tomorrow as feeling pretty wretched tonight.

Thursday 11 October 2007

Snuffly Triangle

Route: 6m, road, undulating
weather: 15C

Have had a bad cold all week so this is my firstrun since Sunday's long run. I hate not running but there was no way I could have run on Tuesday or Wednesday. I went to the club tonight, but forgot there was an AGM so set off after the other runners and ran a very ploddy 6m triangle. Still not feeling myself really. Will rest again tomorrow and then hopefully be fully fit for the weekend when I'll run up in Northumberland while visiting friends.

Sunday 7 October 2007

Crumble

Although not really anything to do with running, I thought I would just record how much I love crumble in case I need to think about what food to eat after the event!!

Got the last of the blackberries today with one of my daughters and made a blackberry and apple crumble. Is there anything better than crumble and custard after a long run? If so, I don't want to know about it because I nearly exploded with the amount of crumble I ate today. Fantastic.


Reduced long run

Route: 16.5 miles, road, fell and trail, flat, undulating and hilly (everything really!)
Weather: 18C, sunny

As I'd already had a week of reduced mileage due to last Monday's niggle, I decided to give myself a generally lower mileage week. That said, I did have a testing 16.5 mile multi-terrain run. I ran an average pace of 8.53 min/mile which is still a lot quicker than I'd like, but I'm finding it hard to slow it down.

On the early road section today I fell. Not just a stumble, but a full-on, arms flailing, cartoon style splat. About 6 cars (none of which stopped to check I wasn't dead!) must have had a right good laugh. No real damage done except a bit of bark taken off the hands and my right hip. And a very bruised ego. I think if you'd measured initial fall to point of landing, it would have been a Jonathan Edwards style gold medal winning effort!

Got a very sore throat tonight and my Mum is arriving from Scotland tomorrow evening, so swimming tomorrow night might have to be postponed. Will gargle some TCP (yum) and see what happens.

Saturday 6 October 2007

Triangle

Route: 6.5m, road, undulating
Weather: 15C, sunny

Swam for an hour early on then ran the triangle route from Otley to Burley and back. Lovely sunny morning to be out running. Easy 8 min pace.

I need to find out how much training people do with backpacks and without. Also what weight people carry.

I suppose the sensible thing to do would be to make up a 'mock pack' with the mandatory items and the other things I think I will need. I will do some net research...

Early night

Friday is rest day which usually means I can't sleep as I haven't exercised. No problem tonight though - asleep at 10 :)

Thursday 4 October 2007

Good Club Run

Route: 7m undulating, road, average 7ish pace
Weather: Beautiful sky, clear, 4C (brrr)

Ran with the fast group at the club tonight. Pleased with the run as it's faster than I usually run, but I felt strong and easily able to keep up with the sub 7 minute miles. A couple of days off has obviusly done me good.

A big thank you to today's sponsors - Lisa and Varn, I'm amazed at your generosity - thank you; and to The Face Man - you know who you are - cheers mate.

I feel so good after a fast run, especially after a couple of days enforced rest. Mmmm endorphins!

Back into it

Weight; 73Kg
Backpack weight: n/a
Weather: dunno, dark and cold!
Route: 4m, undulating

Legs feeling better today. Glad to have had a day off actually as lots on at work at the moment. Ran 4m tonight in a quickish pace. Will run with the club tomorrow.

Monday 1 October 2007

Niggle

Supposed to swim or bike tonight but rested as I have a small niggle behind my left knee. Not overly concerned about it. May rest Tues and Wed if persistent, but will play it by ear each night.

Took ages to get to sleep without any exercise!