Surviving My First Week Back at MC

Thank heaven's for Toi's challenge at Whakatane last weekend. An off road 18.5 km run which has been known to bring experts to their knees (see picture for just one of the sets of steps/stairs that form part of the course). No of course I didn't do it! But luckily for me JB2 did which meant she was still stuffed on Tuesday evening and I was therefore able to keep up with her for our 60 min run with the marathon clinic :-) Other than that it was pretty much as I expected, damn hard - but as usual getting it done meant that in theory the next run will be easier and I can start thinking about what my next goal is and what sort of running I need to do to meet it. There's a half marathon in January which I am pretty definitely Not going to do - so maybe I'll just hold off until Rotorua in May and in the mean time concentrate on the Summer series which incorporates a 16km, 17km and 18km in various places. Perhaps I should just concentrate on getting back to a reasonable speed for 10km first .... Oh, and I need some new running shoes, I'd just about killed mine by the end of the great flood (aka Hamilton half) and have worn them to death on my travels over the past month, so I guess a Saturday visit to Smith's sport shoes is in order.

Training - Done!

Well there we have it, end of training. Didn't finish with a flourish as I had to cancel today's 30 min run due to tendonitis in my ankle and foot which kept me awake half the night! Thought about it this morning and decided that while missing my last 30 mins of training wasn't going to make much difference one way or another on Sunday aggravating an already inflamed tendon may well prove to be a bad move. So that's it until Sunday, iced my ankle and foot this morning then covered it in anti-flamme and have thrown a few anti-inflam pills down my neck for good measure, but I'm guessing that keeping off it pretty much from now until Sunday will also do the job and I'm sure it will be fine come 9am on Sunday -- although not sure what state it will be in after I finish! Ho hum, will report back on Saturday on half-marathon eve. Until then if you feel like having a run on my behalf, please go ahead :-)

So Close

55 minute run at lunch time today and I don't mind admitting that it was a total slog. For the second half my left knee and right foot were complaining constantly and my legs were tired and felt like lumps of lead. This is all a good thing, it's a reminder of how hard the last part of the run on Sunday is going to be and practice for just pushing on through it and carrying on regardless. The weather gods were kind to me again and it failed to pour down on my head which made a nice change from last week's lunch time runs. So, just one more training run tomorrow and then I'm nearly done.

The Long and the Short

Last night was marathon clinic and I was hoping for an easy run of around an hour. Four of us went out together (the slow group) and although the first 20-30 were quite hard as my legs were still feeling the effects of Sunday we kept a nice easy pace and the second part of the run felt good. We ended up being out for an hour 20 with probably and hour 10 of running so longer than planned and a good effort. As this week is the last of my easier weeks I was only left with two short runs to do so hopped out at lunch time today for 30 mins which was actually really hard work - a combination of the heat and being tired. Nominally I only have to do 15 mins tomorrow so will do some speed work and stretch it out to 30 mins to make it worthwhile. Then another day off before I hit the weekend with an aim of doing one long run again (probably Sunday) and also a short hill session.

Running vs. Swine Flu

My feeling of blearghness on Saturday didn't amount to much more than an attempt at a cold which I decided to pander to for 1 day so instead of trying to work out how to fit a run in on Sunday I went shopping instead. Good thing as it happens as 4 people didn't turn up for BIP's hockey game so I ended up playing a full game against fast young fit Varsity players! That will count as my speedwork training for the week. Today was another beautiful sunny day so went for a lunchtime run. Legs a bit tired from last night, but fine once I'd got into it. My stomach was still a bit dodgy though, so about half way round I dropped into a local medical centre for a 'comfort stop'. While I was availing myself of their facilities I was perusing some of the reading matter on the wall and was alarmed to discover I had 5 of the symptoms listed on their "Do you have Swine Flu?" poster (high temperature, aching limbs, tiredness, rapid heart-rate, clamminess or excessive sweating). At the bottom of the poster it said "If you were experiencing several of these symptoms please advise the receptionist that you may have swine flu" I was tempted to add "or you have just been running in the sun for 40 minutes".

Speed Work

I really really really really hate doing speedwork, it sucks! If I try and do it out on the road I inevitably get slower and slower while convincing myself that I'm working hard, so for the first half of my current training schedule I have one day a week on the treadmill. No chance of skiving off, 40 minute run with 20 mins fast - yuck! In order to avoid completely killing myself I break the 20 mins up into 5 minute chunks, so warm up, 5 mins fast, 2 min recovery, repeat another 3 times, cool down and that's it. Still it always feels good when I've finished even though I will have a face like a tomato for most of the afternoon. Hopefully it will all pay off though, I'm following the same training schedule I had for Huntly but including the hills and speed work (which I didn't last time round) in the hope that it will help knock some time off. We will see......