Tired of resting: time to restart?

 The frustrating thing about a niggling over-use injury is gauging when it's recovered enough to restart.

I had a false-start a month ago in early Feb when I attempted two C25k week 1 runs, but my tendon resumed its tired feeling, so I put my foot back up on the injury bench again. I can now feel my general fitness slipping and I miss the calorie burn from running!

So new term, new month(ish) and new "year" for me (just had a birthday) and I'm willing to test the ground again. I'm staring small. Really small. Smaller than C25k. Literally less than 0.5k around the block. 3 minutes. If I can do that little and often, keep the running muscles functioning and keep my body happy, that's then a base to be able to build up and segue into C25k down the line. Doing it directly after the school run when I'm warmed up from walking is easy to fit in.

I'm also trying to keep up a routine of doing the prescribed heel lifts on the doorstep when I return home at any time. Again it's a regular timing to fit in. It's not been easy trying to build and manage routines in the past couple of years and it's not surprising that it's now that an overuse injury has caught up with me when I've relied too precariously on my own dubious internal motivation and then had a congested race season. In a way the injury dragging out in the rest phase and clearly being nowhere at the fitness level I was at when it started is better as it helps with that back-to-basics attitude and cuts temptation to jump ahead of myself.

Achilles and the non-Marathon

 That was a long, long break from blogging, but not running. I've kept the HM habit and reached the point of losing count. I've also reached 40. I decided quite some time ago to go for the near obligatory marathon. On some consideration, I decided to go for doing it at 40 rather than 39 for the age grading. Just as well as I was 39 in Feb 2020... I also quickly realised that 40 in 2021 wasn't looking great either...

I had managed an impressive 3 races in 2020; the Carsington Half in Feb (inadvertantly run with a torn muscle), Carsington 7+ in September, and the Thoresby Leaf Kick HM in October. I also ran the Longhorn 10k in April 2021. Racing under social distancing guidelines did dampen the social fun and atmosphere of racing. Things got back to normal in the autumn and I had a congested season of autumn races and delayed spring races. Carsington 7+ (Sept), Derby 10k (Oct), Derby 10miles (Nov) and Derby Half (Nov). Training went well and despite a -1⁰C start on race day I blasted out a new pb of 2:09:55. Next Saturday I went to parkrun. My ankle was slightly stiff on getting up, warmed up and I got a second pb in a week of 5k in 28:19!

December was a fairly quiet month for running. Slight, intermittent niggle in the ankle. A mild bout of Covid caused a gentle start to the new year. I had signed up for Manchester Marathon on 3rd April 2022. With a HM pb behind me, I'd got some slack on these hiccups. I did a gentle 10k and the niggle crept in at 4.5mi. The next day I had my regular Osteopath maintainence. He said the dreaded words "Achilles tendonitis" accimpanied by a firm "No running for a month". I stammered a response of "but, Manchester Marathon!" After a pause and intake of breath there was a very firm "NO RUNNING FOR TWO WEEKS"

This was serious. I've behaved well. I ended up deferring after a week as it clearly was not clearing up within another week to be obliging about 14, 16, 18 miles. I've cycled, swum (indoors and out! Yup, I took up open water swimming in June 2021), gently paced my way through my usual classes and walked. I have tried C25k w1 r1 &r2 but stopped as the tired ache returned.

I thought the races would make for a good preparation for a marathon hence feeling positive about signing up... instead they triggered a classic over-use injury.

Another Osteopath appointment later this week. I'm guessing more cross training before a gentle return to running is sensible to attempt.

New Twists

It's been a while since my last update, and I've been keeping up with myself. Shortly after my last post I did the fun run in my home town for the third time. It's not often you get "fun runs" of 8.5 miles, but I keep entering this one because of the lovely atmosphere. This year I dressed up as Super Girl which got lots of encouraging cheering from young children. I was struggling for training time for long runs, so was hoping to come in close to my previous time at best. I was thrilled to be within a minute of it between the lack of training and the sun coming out just as the race started. I wasn't the only one finding the heat of the sun tough; it turned out that I had a higher placing despite the slight dip in time.

Reports season came along, but at that time I ended up doing a new event- new to me and the city. The idea of the Run 5:30 series is to encourage early starts to make time for running, and I was very happy to make time to earn a medal before work! The city at sunrise was a lovely experience. The roads were quiet enough not to need closing, and I made it back home in good time to prepare for work. Naturally, I wore my medal all day, dropping unsubtle hints about how fantastic I am incase my year 7s and 9s were in any doubt!

I've signed up for a repeat of the local autumn half marathon that was launched last year. Now the holidays are upon us, training is in progress. I'm feeling a bit maverick about training this time and have got a lovely cross country long run route which I walked and ran on my first go of the holidays and have reapeated and extended since, naturally decreasing the walking and increasing the running.

This evening I've signed up for something different at short notice. It's a smaller event run by a local club with a 5 mile loop, and the option to "double or quit". I'm hoping to double. I've run/ walked 8.5 miles nearby on my recent long runs which is decent preparation. The race itself is good training for the HM.

At present, I'm happy that I've kept the core of events that's worked for me previously, and found some new ones that fit in around them and compliment them.

There's only one piece of bad news. Worse than the mild sprained ankle which has been peacefully tolerant of my running... I have been utterly trounced at Junior Parkrun. By a 5 year old. Now in my defence, I did have a 3 year old harnessed to my back, and I did have pulled calves following a barefoot run on holiday a few days before, but the fact remains that my 5 year old shot off so quickly and got so far from me that I had to cut off quarter of the course to be able to give him his bar code and watch him finish. He knocked 5 minutes off last summer's time completing 2k in 15 minutes, a very respectable pace by most standards! He was thrilled not to have the tail runner for company for the first time. Something on my agenda is finding an event for him so that he can win his own medal. I'm glad he likes running, both for his fitness, but also as a starting point for many other sports.

So I shall sign off here so I can get a run in the morning. I need to keep up my training to avoid future humiliation from my own 5 year old!

Exploring

I last posted just prior to the 10k, which went well, but turned out not to be a PB. 58 mins, so still respectable after last years 55 mins. I wanted under an hour which I achieved, but had got my hopes up slightly in the second half. My pace improved consistently through the race, with later kms around 5:30, 5:20. My start was too slow though, sabotaged by the queue for the ladies, which put me at the back of my wave. I suspect I was aiming for the faster end of my wave and found it hard to push through the field past big clumps of runners in formation with their friends. From km 3, my pace picked up as the crowds thinned.

I was then afflicted by a flare up of my shoulder which hadn't been great. A sharp rib pain joined the party, which fortunately passed quickly as it was making it rather painful to rant at disobedient teenagers! I ended up showing my face back at the osteopath... in fact my face was about the only bit that wasn't ripe for a mauling!

I've not been to circuits for about a month now, first the race, then the shoulder. The day of the osteopath appointment, I substituted circuits for parkrun. My home run has swapped location to a flatter park. I made up for my slight 10k disappointment with a PB there, 5k in 28 mins.

The osteopath appointment was an hour, but it wasn't enough! He started on my legs, identified that my glutes are pretty much comatose, then moved on to my back. Mobilising that sounded like gunfire! Oddly satisfying though. He ran out of time to attack the shoulder thoroughly. A return appointment looms.

The shoulder has improved, but is still being tempermental, so between that and other plans I've run more on a Saturday in recent weeks.

I've discovered an informal path that provides a useful shortcut to the greenway, extending the range I can get from home. That proved handy for a pre-work run, a rare treat! Further explorations were carried out this weekend under the glorious sunshine. I've been investigating the local public footpath network through the fields, and made a few new links to routes I've previously used.

So far, the hayfever season is going well. Last year, we bought some air filters which seem to help by giving our immune systems a rest each evening. I ended up running through a rapeseed field , and although a noticed a small effect at the time, I didn't end up with hours od thumping headaches.

So here's to warmer days, vest tops and skorts.
Happy running!

Springing into action

Sunday looms, the local 10k.

I've plodded my way haphazardly through the winter, and suddenly my race is upon me. It's timed nicely against the Easter holiday which gave me opportunity to do a couple of longer runs.

In the first week I took advantage of already being in the car and drove to a park in a different part of town which offers flat along the river and some hills. I managed 11k aiming for stamina rather than speed.

The next week I drove to the river on the other side of town for a flat 10k+. The first half was a bit of a slog. I realised that my turning point was going to bring me close to the Co-op, so I paused my watch and headed in for a bag of crisps and Capri Sun. After consuming them on a bench, I resumed. The salt, sugar and water really pepped me up, and the second half was easier and I kept up a good pace despite a head wind.

Returning to work means a nicely timed rest week. Hopefully this will help ease out the tight calves that were being uncooperative. They put up a stubborn defence against the foam roller.

I've splurged on some new kit. Some birthday money was spent on trail shoes. They're already proving their worth in the mud. I also made the classic mistake of heading to Decathlon. The bar for the weights, and an aerobic step were planned. The skort and thermal leggings weren't, but I'll now have happy legs regardless of whatever extremes of weather spring throws at us.

In good news the bluebells are emerging in the wood. In bad news, rapeseed season seems to be starting...

More work and a little play

I'm still plodding on intermittently. Lots of guilt about having the time and energy to get out and run. A typical week has involved cramming in a run before dashing off to take my younger child to his mid-morning swimming lesson on a Sunday. Circuits on a Saturday. Very little mid-week when cramming in work and a young family is more than enough to send me to an early night. Unfortunately work is one of those jobs that follows me home and has to be picked up after the children are in bed or early the next day.

I have fitted some runs in, mainly around the 5k mark. Mostly involving the muddy countryside on the edge of my neighbourhood. Not fast, but fun. The weather has improved since my last update with more sunshine. It's still been a muddy, slippery winter on the local clay soil. I'm still in the anything counts mentality.

At half term I managed to make the most of some glorious sunshine on a rather bracing day and head out for a lovely long cross country run/walk. I'm finding getting out great for headspace at present.

I have plans. A repeat of the local 10k for April and a 3rd go at the 8.5 mile fun run in June. I've conned my husband in... Further ahead, a group of us are hoping to do an obstacle race in September but booking isn't open yet on that.

I remember last year feeling a bit stressy that I hadn't really trained for the 10k. I'd like to be just under 55 mins. Squeezing in some speed work between now and then would be beneficial, but I feel happy that I can maintain an hour at a sensible pace. The critical thing is that the race now has a medal at the end of it. It was slightly dispiriting at the end of last year's with only the t-shirt collected in advance to show for it. I find t-shirts OK as a warm up layer, but they tend to be too baggy to be comfortable to wear directly.

Last night I had a companion... my 5 year old. He'd got some new trainers and decided to hijack my run. He managed nearly 45 mins of running and walking intervals. I used wk1 of the C25k podcasts to pace him which suited his natural rhythm. When that ended as we got near home, he said that was his warm up and insisted of a lap of the local woods. Over 3.3k was covered in total. Once I got him back home, I went back out for something longer and more sustained in pace. It was now dark so I stayed local and did about 4km concentrating on 6 min kms. Well apart from up the long hill, but I kept that at about 6:30 min kms which is pleasing after my erratic run.

I'm now looking forwards to Easter when I can do some longer runs. The evenings/ mornings will be lighter which will tempt me out more. It's getting there now. It's just that dratted work stuff interrupting!

All work and nearly no play

I admit it. I've been quiet for a while. I've got one of those full-time job things that's really messing with my time to play. With the long nights and murky weather, I've been struggling to do much. Looking back at my observations from this time last year, there is deja vu which consoles me. What I really miss is Buggy Babes which reliably got me out for an hour each week into daylight, so actually, although I have managed more runs than in the same period of last year, overall there's been less exercise done.

I'm aiming to do the 10k again in April so my immediate goal is to keep going at anything while the days are so gloomy and short. Then my motivation should pick up to concentrate on speed again.

A few positives are arising... My watch can now sync to Strava so I can share my runs again after my GPS on my old phone became distressingly inaccurate. Also in preparation for some DIY work, the exercise bike has moved to the conservatory which is proving to be more appealing, so I'm putting it to use on short tabata sessions. The days have now reached their shortest, so soon I won't feel like I'm completely nocturnal.

I have found the recent weather completely off-putting. I can do rain, but it's been that really dispiriting type, and the heavy overhanging gloom, winds and claggy clay mud of my favourite routes has done little to chivvy me out. I did have a cheery 5k escape last weekend when there was a brief interlude of sunshine and blue sky which spurred me on to face the mud. It was well worth putting my old trainers on for an invigorating mud bath!

I know this lull will pass. It's comforting that I can now see these cycles coming and going and knowing that they will pass. So hopefully there'll be a bit more time for running over the holidays, to set me off to a positive start for 2015.

Merry Christmas!
Happy New Year!