Malcolm's running diary by malcolms

I can’t believe that it’s nearly 3 weeks since the last blog. Shame on me. So here’s an update.

After doing my intervals on 16^th Jan quite fast, I did a 10 miler with Kate on the Wednesday in a good pace round a familiar route and then a 4 mile tempo run on the Thursday. Pace was good again and felt full of running. The following weekend I eased back with a two lap run totalling 11 miles, I kept the first lap easy as Kate joined me on the 2^nd lap and as it was her only run for the day I knew she would want to make it count, so I found myself doing it with a negative split even finishing with a 9:30 mile which I was pleased with. Legs felt good though slightly stiff and that rounded off another 30 mile week.

The following week it was intervals on Monday shorter run on the Wednesday and then a faster 5k on the Thursday before setting off on a 16 miler on the Saturday.

I was running the route that I had done two weeks previously which involved a long slow 4 mile climb, which to be honest you wouldn’t notice as it was so gradual. The pace early on was good and once again was full of running – going through the first 6 miles about a minute faster than previous but as the climb wore on I felt a slowly worsening pain in the front of my right shin. Reaching a crescendo where I had to stop. In the middle of nowhere.  8.5 miles.A few minutes rest and it eased but trying to jog again just brought it straight back. tter agony and despair. I rang my wife who came to collect me. Ice, nurofen, tubigrip, stetches….nothing seemed to work. Sunday was the same, so on Monday rang the physio.

I didn’t run on Monday or Wednesday but saw the physio later on Wednesday afternoon.

The great thing about physios is the morale boosting lift they give you.

My knees were pointing the wrong way, my feet were flat, posture useless, ankles weak, dorsiflexors were hopeless….you get the picture. Anyway she quickly found a trigger spot on my tibialis anterior and worked it like mad. It hurt, but as I could see her doing it I knew she was only using her hands. Some acupuncture & ultrasound followed. I then turned over and she found a similar spot in my calf muscle. Somewhere in the midst of all this she clearly popped out to Screwfix and got the latest power tool to work on my calf. It was a struggle to talk while she drilled into my muscles. She decided that as my feet are so useless I have overcompensated with calf muscles and have neglected my anterior muscles. Made sense at the time, honest. Needless to say I was still in pain the next morning from the “treatment” in the calf rather than the front of the shin.

Just goes to show, there is nowhere to hide once these physios get going.

I was allowed to run this weekend, but frankly was going stir crazy with not running so treated myself to a gentle 5 miler tonight. No repercussions so far. I am allowed to do 10 tomorrow, and see how that goes.

Fingers crossed. The marathon dream lives on, but it has taken a battering to be sure.

Last post on the blog might well have been the last one, after what happened last Saturday, but here I am again to tell tales of going further into the unknown.

After last weekends rather surprising run, I was quite buoyant all week and keen to move onto the next longer run, but if there are two things I have learnt from years of reading other people’s blogs, is that in order to get to the finish line you have at least to get to the start line and learn from your mistakes – fast.

So last Monday it was back to the intervals, just 4 miles this time as the legs felt a bit heavy, then 6 miles on Wednesday with Kate, that included four hills. It was a route that we have done before and we were a few minutes quicker this time that last November. Kate was helped by her dog who pulls her up the hills, I just had to set the pace. Thursday was another tempo run (4 miles) and the stage was set for Saturday’s voyage into the unknown. 16 miles.

Learning from the last long run (a mere 15 miles) I set the alarm really early and snuck downstairs to get some Weetabix down (not porridge as you need to be awake for that), then it was back to bed for an hour and then up and out at about 7:45. I varied the first part of the previous 15 mile loop to extend it by a mile by the 5 mile mark when I should have been in Monxton, then 8 miles at Middle Wallop, 10 miles to Danebury then a long loop hope to make 16 miles.

For once the pace felt good. Apart from a stupid 9:25 first mile, miles 2 -11 varied by only 20 seconds or so. Very steady  and I was pleased with that, what’s more it was probably slightly faster than I think I ought to be running the marathon in.

The extra fuelling made a difference, compared to the run on New Years Eve I was 10 minutes faster by the 11 mile mark. However, the energy levels sapped a bit at that stage and more worryingly I started to develop a pain down the front of my right shin. As a general rule I never diagnose myself of anything as clearly every headache is a brain tumour, every stomach upset is an ulcer, every cold is pneumonia etc etc, but I could get away from the fact that I seemed to be developing a pain over my anterior tibia and it had come on when I stretched my mileage and by the end of the run my marathon dreams were in tatters. Shin splints here I come I thought.

For the record I did 16 miles faster than I had done 15 miles 2 weeks previously, but then spent an hour or so icing the front of my shin and stretching everything that would stretch.

Never run further in my life, but know that in weeks to come I have to face the demons of 17, 18  and 20 mile jogs with perhaps a 22 in there as well before the final assault on a 26.2.

Sunday morning still felt a bit of a pain, more than a niggle so spent the day with my leg in tubigrip and industrial quantities of ibugel on the leg, even took an ibuprofen tablet. Must have been seriouis!!

Monday was fine.

Marathon dream intact, but lesson learnt.

5 miles intervals tonight which was probably stupid but legs felt good and it was the fastest 5 miles block of intervals I’d done on this regime. Will gel up tonight and rest up tomorrow.

So there we are, 65 miles this year, will have a lighter week this week and keep the legs fresh.

Four weeks into VLM training mode, I thought I’d end the week by easing back and just running a 13.1 mile route.

…

I can’t believe that I’ve just written that in my blog.

Easing back with a 13.1 miler!!!

True though, four weeks and four runs a week, each with a purpose and a target, I set out at lunchtime today with a 13 mile run on the agenda. It wasn’t the usual stupid o clock on Saturday as I was working Saturday, and we were late to bed Saturday night so when the alarm went off at 6 this morning, I wasn’t best pleased. And ignored it!! So it wasn’t till much later that the wife said, "Aren’t you running today?” I thought I’d better get my skates on.

The first mile out of the village was uphill and stupidly the garmin beeped at 9:10. In fact mile 2 and 3 were more up hill than down, and  but the pace was still sub 9:30. Normally at this stage I would panic, thinking that not only is the pace unsustainable over the distance, but I had no phone and if I collapsed in a ditch somewhere it might be days before my wasted body was found. So mile 4 – downhill mostly – 9:12. I wasn’t bothered by this as clearly the only reason to go down hill is to go up the next one. So mile 5 I knew would slow me down and bring me to my senses – 9:38. Mile 6 was mostly through a village and you don't slow down when you might pass people, so the mother with the double buggy and the couple walking their dog were treated to a runner keeping the pace up  - 9:15. Heading out of the village, mile 7 is one long slow hill. I’ve run it with Kate before and usually by the top we are on our hands and knees – but no – mile passed in 10:00. It was at this point that I thought I might sneak a PB out of this run, I had use one gel as I entered the village, (early in mile 6) and had one left on me and 250 mls left in my water bottle. Mile 8 is fairly flat and marks the turn for home, starting by Danebury Hill Fort. It was at this point that I passed some horse riders.  Again let that just sink in, a sad fat old bloke ran past some people on horseback. Mile 8 – 9:30. Mile 9 I felt was time to take the last gel. Normally the top rips of these in one easy pull, but I think the blood wasn’t going to my fingers this afternoon – and I couldn’t get the top off. Eventually had to stop to walk to focus enough  to pull the top off, and then kept walking while I slurped it back with some water. Mile 9 slightly slower at 10:28. The last serious uphill stretch was in mile 10, and by now it was starting to hurt, so I broke it up into 2 min run, walk for 10 breaths, 2 minute run etc . Mile 10 climbs over 200 ft so I wasn’t surprised when Mr Garmin peeps out 10:46. Mile 11 on the other hand is more down than up – though does have a fair share of either and whether it was the thought of a possible PB or the energy gel kicking in but mile 11 beeped at 9:41. I think, (no,I know) that was too fast and mile twelve felt as though the tanks were gone, run/ walk combinations, counting breaths, targeting trees or gates to get to, nothing worked and dying on my feet, mile 12 beeped in at 11:18. Now I was about 100 yds short of the crossroads where I turn left and head back to the village and home. Where the surge in energy came from I have no  idea but suddenly the legs started moving and moving well, mile 13: 9:43. Not far from home now ( the actual distance to home for the whole route is 13.2 miles) I somehow knew that I had to have a Pb in the bag so I stopped the timer at 13.11 miles. (1:09 for the last bit).

My best recorded half marathon was at Reading last year – 2:15:56 or something like that – and I sensed I was under that pace. So 4 weeks of proper training, the last two both being 30 mile weeks, I ran a half marathon (unofficial) in 2:08:46.

7 minute PB

Not only that but the Toon beat Man U and we’re in the next round of the cup. A good week all round.

Hope your running is going well.

Sorry Realbuzzers that the blog has dropped by the wayside recently. I had planned to update it on Boxing Day when it would have been 4 years old, but the festivities over took me.

It is hard to imagine though, where I was 4 years ago. I had just been given a Nike+ gadget for Christmas and was keen to try it out. Those first few runs were embarrassingly slow and painful – not that I’m much faster now, but SuperCaz, Martin Sal, Skye Trekker  were commenting almost from the start and somehow that kept me going.

4 years on, 14 half marathons later, I am now in “training” for the VLM.

Since I last posted I have settled into  a routine of intervals runs on Mondays – usually 5 miles split into 10 blocks of 0.5 miles – 0.4 miles run at pace and 0.1 recovery. My rule is that I will never do the pace bit slower than the last one – so the run gets faster as it goes on.

Wednesday I run with Kate who is also doing the VLM for Parkinsons again. We  are running faster than  we did last year and this morning we did a 9 miler together. She was pulled up the hills by her dog, I just seemed to find it easier as the run went on.

Thursday is my “tempo” day – this time 4 miles – each mile done at a set pace as far as I can so that the last one is somewhere near 7.2 – 7.5 mph.

That leaves the weekends for a long run.  Christmas Eve I did 13.2 miles – actually very close to my half marathon PB pace!! And then new years eve did 15.25 miles- the furthest I have ever run. I can’t say that I enjoyed the last few miles. I foolishly started early, with no breakfast and in the dark so had no idea how fast the early miles were, but by mile 10 was running out of gas and the last few miles were quite slow with some walks. But it was a 30 mile week, and I hope to do the same this week.

I’m running for Oxfam – www.virginmoneygiving.com/malcolmstone

Enjoy the running everyone.