RunningCommentary

Now come on you guys

Own up, who was it?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7119073.stm

And wher's my share????

Getting out there

Perfect Running weather for the last week or so, bright sunshine, cool sharp air, plus a little let up in a horrible fortnight or so of pressure at work so that I can at last take some flexi time and extend the lunch hour run a little.

I have been busy, so running has been restricted to mostly snatched outings of 3 miles or so, I haven’t exactly been over training whilst trying to regain some vestige of stamina.  A 6 miler+ on Sunday, accompanied by mp3 player loaded with old rock tunes instead of an audio book for a change. Chuck Berry provided the best running rhythm with “No particular place to go” – quite apt as I just bumbled around my usual 3.4  mile circuit twice.  It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t quick, but I was out there doing it.

Tuesday saw me adding some hill work, not difficult to manage from the centre of Stockport where I work - avoiding them is the problem.  However, I ran a hilly 3 miler, puffed a bit on the really steep sections but just kept my eyes focused on the couple of yards of pavement in front of my feet to stop me despairing about how far up I still had to travel – mind you it’s fairly essential to keep you eyes on the floor with the appalling condition of the pavements, more like off-roading in sections...ZZ Tops were my aural companions.

Wednesday lunchtime saw me repeating the same hilly 3 miler but adding another killer hill in the middle. This is the .6 of a mile hill at the end of the Stockport 10 miler, probably a good idea to re-acquaint myself with it before the December race. Altogether a route of just under 5 miles, it required me to shell out a bit of saved flexi time to complete it.  Was surprised to find I felt OK, I wasn’t exactly leaping up the hills, but tried to maintain an even tempo whilst remembering to suck in a bit more air, oxygen is such lovely stuff. Cream “Crossroads” was the day’s fav.

Rest day yesterday, and no soreness or niggles to report from the old bones - maybe the glucosamine is working? Will go to the gym tonight for a short plod on the treddie and a nice long relax in the wet area and then it’s Le Weekend – yeah :-)

Feel free to ignore this entry

Don't know why I'm blogging really, please feel free to ignore this post.

Running is all about putting one foot in front of the other, the trouble is at the moment it seems very much a question of one step forward and three back. 

Have recovered from the throat infection, taken the anti-biotics and rested for a while. Waddling has now resumed.  Trouble is all the work I did on upping my speed before I got ill was a waste of time, running seems hard work again and my speed has dropped to around the ten minute mile level again, in fact on a couple of outings I've had trouble maintaining that.  Last Thursday evening was a case in point, hadn't had a chance to run at lunchtime as too busy at  work to take a lunch break at all.  Thought I should make up for it that evening.  Didn't leave the house until 7pm for my usual 3.5 round the block, got passed by a guy half way round and thought I should try and up the pace a bit to keep him in sight. Ha -some chance, he was off like a whippet and I had to stop to walk after 500 yards or so as I couldn't catch my breath.  Was passed again on the home stretch by an elderly guy with a long faded red beard who just seem to glide over the pavement - a mirage perhaps?  Had a treadmill session on Friday evening at the gym  which was nothing more than OK.  Did the same 3.5 yesterday morning, I wanted to go for a decently long run, but was committed to playing a concert yesterday so could only sneak in a short one. Again, it was just OK, but at least I fought off the urge to walk.

Ihave booked  a place in the Stockport 10 miler for December which is notoriously hilly, if I don't improve soon I'll be looking at a 2 hours plus time:-(

Not sure why that bit is in larger font - have tried to edit it without success.

During the rehearsal for yesterday's concert I was chatting to the guest timp player, turns out she's a keen fell runner, I have been reading Feet in the Clouds on Sweder's recommendation, and it turns out she knows the fifty year old woman (who's name escapes me for the minute) mentioned in the book who keeps improving her times - not that I'm jealous or anything.  I had a great walk up on Kinder Scout the weekend before last, it was so windy on the top that I could hardly keep my balance and kept getting lifted by the wind.  The downfall was actually more like a fountain as the wind was blowing it upwards.  As we were coming down again, (using my walking poles to anchor myself) I was pondering how an earth anyone can run down such terrain, the grit stone would just flail the skin from you if you were to fall and as some sections are so slippery with loose grit and small stones falling seems almost inevitable.  The fell running timpanist said she did end up in casualty after one race last year, as she fell flat on her face, turned out that she hadn't actually broken anything 'though.  She said she had trouble running down hill when she first started but it's easier when you are in a race because the adrenaline helps. 

Excerpt from Feet in the clouds if anyone is interested...

Feet in the Clouds

Have tried  a different method of posting this time.  Have composed this in GoogleDocs and copied and pasted it to TypePad. in draft format.

damn

just tried to preview a post and it came up with couldn't display page emthod and hasn't saved any vestige of what I blogged - hey, no great loss,  can't be bothered to re-write..

Am sick, had a cold a couple of weeks a go, didn't take much notice, carried on running.  Wednesday night had very high fever, in bed yesterday, up at lunch time todya but have wicked sore throat.  no waddling for me for a bit :-(

Opening lines

Thank you Andy, perfect instructions to begin a new category.

As this is the first blog entry on the new system I feel I should be saying something profound, but, hey, why spoil the habits of a lifetime.

This summer it has begun to dawn on me that my metabalism - in line with my running speed  - is not as rapid as it once was, I can no longer eat and drink whatever I like and not put on a few extra pounds. This is still something of a shock.  Drinking lots of lovely beer now shows its effect in photographs;-) A decision has been made, I will confine my beer drinking to a couple at the weekend and I will decline the extra slices of pizza and the extra helpings of pud that I have up until now been in the habit of accepting. I will lose the extra inches - well, hopefully!!

Since returning from holiday I have been trying to concentrate on running just that little bit quicker. During the marathon training last year in order to tame the miles I had drifted into a 10 plus minute mile rhythm, sometimes slower than that on the really long training runs.  This had become my natural pace and I have found it really difficult to alter it.  So I have spent quite a bit of time on the tready setting it  deliberately at a slightly faster pace to start with and then increasing it as the session progresses. The little feet have been positivley flying round.  Went to the gym last Friday evening with Mr SW and set up alongside each other on the treadmills for a gently 5k.  We started at the same pace and then I noticed Sneaky Mr SW had upped his a little, so I upped mine a little more, next time I glanced at his he had upped his a little more, and so it went on.  Ended up with me charging along at 12.7 on the richter scale  - I won!!! (well i reached 5k a least a couple of mille seconds before he did.) How completely pathetic to be competitive with your husband of 30 years on a tready:-) Good fun though!

I have noticed this week that my feet and hips have been quite stiff when I stumble out of bed in the morning, I think this is probably becuase I have forgotten to take my glucosaminefor the last couple of weeks, it's one of those suplements that you don't seem to be aware of the effects when you are taking it but miss it when you don't.  Have made mental note to remember in future.

Found a lovely 10k to enter locally, trail run, along a bridle path and back along the canal to finish at a pub where they give you a free pint and a pie - only problem is I have missed the last entry date - typical.