running home by Alaistair

My poor old back has been in total bits since the GNR, my own stubborn fault really. Decided to clean my son’s room, my freakin 17-year-old totally useless son. His idea of helping is getting out of b****y bed before lunchtime. Don’t get me wrong its not as if we are easy going on him its just whatever we ask, say, try to persuade, scream, bellow, throw at him in an attempt to get him to do anything, has to date completely failed. We are at our wits end with him…hence me rolling up my sleeves whilst he was out and cleaning his bloody room. The price I paid was aggravating my lower back. Everyone keeps saying give him time, give him space and he’ll come round.; that’s great but in the meantime were pulling our hair out…rant over...urgh...!

Ran last Tues 3.88 miles, Thur 4.2 miles & Fri 8.21 miles. Took till Friday to get the legs moving freely again and the muscle soreness to fade; my back however has been giving me real pain all week. The fact I've started doing the 100 Push-up & 200 Sit-up Challenge at the moment has not helped...but more on that when I feel more confident that am making decent progress...early days yet!

Today has been the best day so far on the pain front, which is likely to be mostly down to painkillers; travelled the short distance north west of York to Sutton-on-the-Forest for the Sutton Park 10K. Race was at midday but struggled to get there on time which to be honest was no bad thing. Kept my mind busy and away from dwelling on aches & pains.

Conditions were good, dry, a cool 17 degrees, cloudy with a blustery breeze. Warmed up well and joined the runners gathered on the village green for the start. The race was billed as multi terrain and didn’t disappoint, was a mix of grass fields, country roads, fast forest tracks, open meadow and the odd ploughed field thrown in for good measure.  Started the race very close to the front as during my warm up noticed that some of the early forest sections were quite narrow so a good early position towards the front of the field would be a bonus.

After an early steady start worked hard to keep the pace going over some very tricky ground in the first 5K. Second 5K was a real grind, felt very tired…last mile was a struggle into a stiff breeze but finished strongly with no major aches.

Sun 25 Sep,  Sutton Park 10K,  43:12

Posn: 39/241, M50 4th

Pace Splits:  6:42, 7:12, 7:01, 6:58, 6:50, 7:11, 6:38

Pleased with the result especially over such rough ground. Will ponder over whether to run tomorrow, was thinking of a steady 7 or 8 miles. Then rest Tuesday ready for an early drive down to Honington for a mid week 10K. Didn’t have a good run there last year so next week it will be a case of unfinished business…