Hamstrung :¬p

I was on quite a high at the end of last week, and perhaps that made me a bit greedy.  In any event, I decided to do a light session on Tuesday as well as my planned session on Friday just to get the legs turning over for the Bristol Half.  Halfway through my left hamstring let me know that it didn’t think this was a terribly good idea and it’s been a bit grumbly since.

I rested it on Wednesday and tried an easy run on Thursday which wasn’t terrible but wasn’t great.  I didn’t want to take a second rest day so I did 2 hours in the gym on Friday: 1 hour on the bike and 1 hour on the cross-trainer (presumably so-called because it makes me cross; I’d rather be running…).  By Saturday it was feeling quite a lot better and so I ran to and from Ashton Court where I was marshalling for parkrun.  Another hour on the cross-trainer followed in the afternoon.

I managed a steady and pretty comfy 12 miles this morning and will do a final hour on the cross-trainer shortly, so I will still end up with 40M run, 3 hours (apparently about 22M) on the cross-trainer and an hour on the bike.  I’m prepared to assume that equates to about 60M in running, so fingers crossed no fitness lost and all on track.  As long as the hamstring continues to improve I can still get a couple of sessions in before Bristol.  However, I think need to treat myself to a new packet of ‘injury peas’, though: although the best before date has rubbed off there is a competition on there which has a closing date of 29.02.08…

It’s great to see that fundraising is already going well and I’m really optimistic that I’ll meet my target.

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Here Comes The Sun :)

Although today’s run started in drizzle and with the views across the Gorge shrouded in low clouds, by mile 10 the sun was shining. I did 12.5M on Friday, 12M on Saturday (including half marathon pace efforts) and 17M today to bring my weekly total to 60M. The higher mileage is still taking some time to adjust to but this week is the strongest I’ve felt so far. Particularly pleasing because I took a rest day on Wednesday so the 60M was over 6 days. It was also a busy week at work plus 2 rehearsals and a concert, so I’m frankly amazed I got the miles in at all!

Exactly 4 months to go. Wow.

Up, up, up and away!

It’s Balloon Fiesta week here in Bristol; on the plus side, it means lots of pretty hot air balloons taking off and gliding over the already dramatic Avon Gorge (and several of the mass ascents have gone over my flat, which is a real treat – great photos without stepping outside!); the downside is that Ashton Court (where I do a lot of training) is too crowded for training there to be realistic, and the Suspension Bridge is also subject to temporary closures. As a result, I’ve done most of my running around the Downs this week. Still, it’s very good mental discipline to do multiple loops. One of my running friends does a 26.2 mile training run on a 1 mile loop as part of his marathon training – puts my 3 mile loop into perspective!

Anyway, it’s been a good week for mileage: 60M this week over 7 sessions, including 2 quality sessions (Wednesday and Saturday) and then 16M today. As yesterday’s session was 12M that means another endurance boosting weekend.

It’s slightly daunting to think that this week’s entire mileage would get me from Bristol to Great Bedwyn, but I’d have half as much again to go in order to get to Reading. Still, there’s over 4 months to go, so it’s one step (or loop of the Downs) at a time

Luton :)

I’ve decided to do the Luton marathon on 20 November to get a long-distance training run in. I’ll probably do a medium-long run the day before and the day after to give the legs a taste of what is to come a month later!

Why Does It Always Rain On Me?

This is the first weekend where I’ve begun to make small adjustments to my training so that in 4.5 months’ time 3 x 30 miles will seem, if not easy, at least possible. 12M yesterday (including some faster sections, to ensure that the Bristol Half Marathon isn’t too slow) and 16M today. It was certainly hard work as today was on tired legs. Just to add to the fun, the heavens opened at 5M. And not just a bit: absolutely torrential rain. It rained hard for about the next 2 miles and then pretty steady drizzle until I got home. So, let’s be clear: I don’t want it to snow from 22-24 December, nor do I want extremely heavy rain!

At least I know I can run 26.2 miles at once...

First Steps

I grew up in Reading.  I live in Bristol.  I like running.  My friend, Chris, has been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease.  In one of those weird quirks of fate, Chris (who is about as unsporty as I used to be) was somehow pretty instrumental in getting me into running (that’s for another post, I think).  Chris has walked the Kennet & Avon canal, which links Bristol and Reading.  Chris’s birthday is Christmas Eve.

MND (to put it lightly) is not good news and (seeing as there’s not much practically that I can do), fundraising and raising awareness is about all I can do.  And there was an obvious choice, seeing as I wanted to do something a bit different: Run Home For Christmas.  90 miles (or thereabouts) over 3 days, arriving on Christmas Eve.  At the moment, I’m still in the planning stage, both in terms of logistics and how I need to alter my training to do my first ever multi-stage ultra.  But now that I’ve gone public, I have to finish the challenge.