Massage

Before christmas I did a course to qualify me to be a gym instructor - another string to the MV bow - and most of the people on the course went on to do the personal training qualification and then sports massage.

Anyway, on Thursdays they practice their massage techniques and need people to practice on - so someone gave me a call and asked if I was interested. Brilliant. Free massage!


So, I went up to Guildford Spectrum Centre - apparently " The most exciting leisure complex in the UK" (certainly looks exciting in the picture to the left there!)- and Claire gave me a leg massage.

Quite marvellous.




It was confirmed that my IT band (diagram below to show you what I am on about) is v. tight on my left hand side - which is likely to be the cause of my knee pain - but apart from that, my legs were pretty knot free, which is brilliant.

Felt great after that - and nice to see how everyone is getting on (very well) - so worth the trip.

Cross training today - intended to go swimming but forgot to take my membership card with me, so came home instead and did weights. Lovely.

More intervals - but getting harder!

...........or so it seems.

For the last couple of weeks it seems that I am finding the intervals more difficult - even when the session is one I have done before.

Saying that though, I thought the one I did today I had done before (6 x 800m) but having checked the plan, the one I was thinking of was actually 4 x800m - so that makes me feel a bit better.

Still, I have found that I just can't cope with the treadmill being on an incline any more!

Let me explain. Running on a treadmill with zero incline is - apparently - slower than if you run at that effort on the road - because there is no wind-resistance to overcome on a treadmill. So, to compensate for that, the accepted thing to do is put the treadmill at a 1% incline.

(here is a link to a chart which tells you what incline you need.......... http://www.trinewbies.com/run_treadmill_chart.asp )
The first couple of weeks I was doing these sessions I managed that just fine, but the last couple of weeks I just haven't been able to - or I have managed for a couple of repetitions, but then had to put the incline down to zero again.

This means that I am - I guess - doing my intervals slower than I should be. But then, I wonder how much it matters - it really kills me to do, and it's faster than I normally run, so surely it is still doing it's job?

Also, I discovered the other week that if I put one of my hands on the bar at the front of the treadmill, that makes running easier (?) - so trying not to do that when I get tired is a bit of a challenge. A bad habit.

Anyway, I did the 6 intervals, had a good stretch afterwards - glad to find that my knee is feeling alright - and then I was off home: another session completed!

Creaky

So today my plan was to go over to the Farnborough Aerospace Centre and take part in the monthly 'Hare and Hounds' handicap race as an alternative to the intervals that were on my plan. I thought it might be quite interesting to see how much faster I am than the last time I did it - must be nearly 4 years ago!

The best laid plans though!

This morning I got up and my left knee was still grumbling, after being a bit uncomfortable all night (it hurts most when I am lying down!), so I decided (for once) to do the sensible thing and not run.

Look at me go eh?

Can you imagine how bad it would be if I had to bail out at this point?
Very bad.

So - better an extra day off running than risk an injury. And, infact, it isn't really a day off running because I will go tomorrow instead - it is just a rearrangement of the programme (see how flexible I am?) and a shame that I didn't get to do the race.

Still. There is always next month :)

Couldn't just sit around though - that isn't allowed for on the programme - so I went out on my bike instead (doesn't bother the knee which is lucky!). Went out for an hour - did about 16 miles I suppose, and didn't even get killed, although the way people drive around here it was a close call a couple of times - there just isn't quite enough room on some of the roads for me AND 2 cars - but it doesn't stop people trying to squeeze by!

Was nice fun though, and a change from running. Not easy mind you.

So, please admire my bicycle (above - not Topbike - not sure knee could cope with that kind of punishment!) and also our new-look back garden - now complete with gravel.

Amazing.

Isn't Sunday supposed to be a day of rest?

I wasn't sure what I was doing today - 18 or 20 miles was my rough plan - but I wasn't definate when I set off.

It was one of those days when I just didn't feel good from the start: Some days you feel like you are flying along and it is so easy, other days (like today) it feels like a slog.

Made harder by not having my gadget so I didn't know how fast I was going (sometimes it helps because it shows you that the reason it is feeling so tough is because you are going too fast!), I just didn't get into the groove at all.

I did one lap of 10km and stopped at the house to get a drink (hidden round the back to stop the squirrels), I then persuaded myself around the longer 13km circuit, but when I got back to the house I felt like sitting down and giving up.

I'm sure a lot of it is about mental attitude, and today mine was very bad - "how can I possibly run 26 miles", " I can't do this", "my legs hurt", "I could just stop now", etc.

Anyway, I stopped at the house and had a drink, a bit of a stretch, a short catch up with Jon and then........... I went on my way. I was so tempted to stop - it would have been 15 miles after all - but then, I knew I would be disappointed, so I thought I would just run to the end of Frimley road (another mile) and then I could always run back.

When I got there I managed to talk myself round to the next turning point, and then I thought if I could run until I had been going 2hrs 30 minutes then it would be OK, and then to the bottom of the hill, and then to the top of the hill, and then............ well, I managed to keep it going until I had been going 2 hrs 50 minutes - which turned out to be 31.6km (19.5miles) - which on the one hand I was very pleased with, and on the other - slightly disappointed because if I had just managed to carry on for another 5 minutes I would have broken the 20 mile mark!

Stupid but true.

Also, I was quite a bit slower this week than last - no real explanation for it, just feeling more knackered on the way round.

Will it ever feel easy?

That's the bad thing (mentally) - you think that if you can run 20 miles, surely running 13 miles will be easy - so how come I was still so tired all the way through my run?? Doesn't seem fair somehow.

Still, on the upside - I did do my 20 miles, which means that I can enjoy next week's 'step-back' of only 13 miles (how nice will that be?) before my next 20 miler which will actually be a race at Bramley the weekend of 25th Feb. That will hopefully be better (surely it has to be more interesting?) than running laps!

Golf as cross training?

I'm not convinced - but that was today's activity.

Last night we went to High Wycombe to suprise my future brother-in-law for his 29th birthday. There was curry and beer involved and it was very nice.

Today though, Andrew finished work at lunch-time and I was hanging around (finished my work last night) so we went to the driving range so I could try out my new golf clubs (lovely christmas present).

It was good - Andrew gave me a few tips - and I was hitting the balls quite consistently, if not amazingly. Tiring stuff though - so I reckon it does count as cross-training, it does now anyway :)

A run and a rant

You know things have gone a bit far when the first thing you think of when you wake up and see snow isn't "woo-hoo no school" or "let's get outside and make snowmen/go sledging/ have a snowball fight" but "oh - no, how am I going to do my run"!!

That's what I was thinking this morning, but luckily by the time I got around to running the snow had turned to freezing rain and the pavements were pretty clear.

Of course freezing rain isn't much fun, but once you get running you don't really notice these things and to be honest I had much bigger problems.

Here's a tip for you - don't go out for a run at 3:30pm on a school day unless you want to spend the whole journey dodging randomly moving kids, or worse, idiot parents driving oversized cars, parking all over the pavements, speeding out of junctions or blocking the roads.

I'm sure that all these people have good reason for collecting their children in cars, but it's so dangerous. I was running past a school up one road - which only has a footpath on one side of it - and you could barely get one person past the cars they were parked so far onto the pavement, never mind one runner and gaggles of children. And what happens when people are parking up or leaving a space? They just blast in or out without much looking at what is going on, they are so fixated on what's going on in their cars - rather than outside them.

I'm alright, I can look after myself - but what about all those kids milling around? I'm amazed there aren't more accidents.

Rant over.

Makes me so cross though.

Did 5 miles at my mid-tempo pace which is 4:40min/km (7:31 min/mile) and despite going off too fast, having a couple of evil hills to cope with, and not having my gadget to tell me how I was doing (it's been sent off to have a new battery fitted), I somehow managed to hit exactly the right speed overall!

Marvellous.

Tuesday intervals

I had a rest day yesterday to get over my Sunday epic.

Didn't feel too bad, still getting a bit of trouble with my left knee - just along the outside - which I suspect is something to do with my IT band (can't beat a bit of self-diagnosis) so I am stretching it and being a bit careful. Doesn't bother me when I am running, or even walking, mainly it hurts when I stand up from a crouching position or - oddly - when I am lying in bed!

Still, apart from that and a bit of tightness in my calf muscles and my shoulders (?), pretty much unscathed!

Today was about the same - but today I had to do intervals.

I probably mentioned, I joined a gym pretty much just so I can use a treadmill for my intervals. The gym's not too bad - there is a picture so you can see for yourself - (I was on the treadmill just this side of that pillar to the left of the shot) - and it is only £22/month which includes full use of the 50m pool as well! It is the Aldershot Garrison Gym - not flash, but it does the job!

Anyway, intervals work along the lines that you push yourself hard for a short period of time, take a short recovery interval, then push hard again, recover, etc...... and it is supposed to be super excellent for improving your fitness pretty quickly.

The type of intervals on my programme tend to be something along the lines of run intervals of distances from 400m - 1600m with rest intervals (RI - jog or - more usually - walking) of 200 - 400m.

The pace I have to run the intervals at varies - getting faster the shorter the interval. For 1600m intervals I have to run at a speed of 14.5 km/h for the 400m intervals I have to run at 15.5km/hr!

Todays was an unusual one:

10 minutes warm up
2 x 1200m with 2 minute RI
4 x 800m with 2 minute RI
10 minute cool down.

The main reason I do intervals on a treadmill is because they are hard, and I am soft. That just about sums it up, but what I mean is that you are going fast and it makes you tired - and it is really difficult (I find) to keep pushing yourself when it starts to hurt.
On a treadmill you don' t have any choice, you either keep running - or you fall off!!

It's a killer, but it seems to work. Despite thinking I wasn't going to get to the end of my 10minute warm-up without wanting to go home, I managed that and all of the intervals.

One small confession though - I did have to take the incline off for the last 2 x 800m - I had it set on 1% to compensate for the lack of wind resistance (makes it more like being outside) but I was feeling like I was going to fall off backwards, so I put it flat. A slight cheat - but better than packing it in altogether!

To be honest, if anyone had told me 2 months ago that I would be able to run 20 miles on a Sunday and then go and do an interval session 2 days later, I would have said they were delusional - but that's what's happening!

Brilliant.