Author: Buck

I’ve completed day 26 of my run streak today. A minimum of 2 miles every day. I will accept 1 mile at a desperate push, but so far I’ve stuck to a minimum of 2. The idea is that running every day is the quickest way to regain my fitness, stamina and, hopefully, strengthen my weak running muscles that caused the IBTS. Before I got the IBTS I was trying to go for a sub 3 hour marathon, and I was fairly fit, so I was knocking out lots of PBs. More or less at will. I went for a 10 mile one and near killed myself. I got it, but when I checked back it was only a few seconds faster than when I was run streaking. So, I know it’s the way to go. I’ve gone from 3 months of injury and a really gentle and tentative start on January the first, to making my ‘long’ run a half marathon (13.1 miles) last week. About 4 miles in to that run I was having self doubt. “Can’t do it! It’s too far!” Today I set out to do a 15 mile run and I felt so good I was going to do 18 miles. My knee started hurting though, so I settled for turning round at 8 miles. My knee held up on the way back, but it was lucky I turned when I did, as the wind was in my face on the way back and I flagged badly. The last 3 miles were tough. Another 2 miles would have been too much. But the good news is I set out to do 15, did 16, and my knee held. A nice easy 2 miles tomorrow. Another positive is some people make it their running goal to do a thousand miles in a year, I’ve started off from tiny runs, there’s another 5 days of this month, and I’m currently on 133 miles. As always, everything is subject to injury, but so far, so good. In other running news, I’ve been doing one run of hills. This involves running through the pitch black park, over several bridges with steps, one of which is unlit, and doing hill repetitions on a steep bridge that crossed the Mersey, but goes nowhere, so there’s no traffic on it. Also dark. It turns out the Mersey bridge, running up one side, down the other, then back again, is .4 of a mile. 2½ miles (with 4 bridges) to get there, then hill reps. My second go at that route, this week, I got there then did 3 miles of hill reps. I’m going to need one for the 24 hour run anyway, but I’ve got a head torch for the dark training. Some loud! I got a cheap, generic one from Decathlon, but it was rubbish. Hard plastic with no padding so it digs into your head. I asked my running chums on Twitter and everyone recommended this brand (LED Lenser). […]

It’s only as I sat down to start this that I realised I’ve not done a blog for 3 months. I’d just done the Chester marathon, set a new PB, but failed at my target. And it was hilly, which I didn’t remember from last time and for which I hadn’t trained. Turns out missing my target was the least of my worries. Trying to slog up the hills then sprint down the other side to make up time absolutely battered my knees and gave me Iliotibial Band Syndrome (IBTS –now I’m wondering where the T comes from-), which is a tendon (T?) that runs down the leg past the knee. It gets inflamed by “too much, too soon”, or unaccustomed hills etc. I thought I’d shrug it off, but it laid me up for best part of 3 months. I kept going back to it, doing a run or two, then it would flare up again. As of the first of January, my new year’s resolutions, I’ve been on a run streak (run every day) and 2 sets of exercises specifically designed to strengthen the weak muscles that cause the knee into excessive lateral motion. They are horrible. I’ve avoided strength training these last 9 years because it’s awful and tedious. Needs must. I’ve even had to be sensible about the running. I usually return to running with a 10 mile run. I tried a few 5s, before breaking again, in the 3 months I was out of the game. This time I started with a 3.3 mile circuit, covering my watch so I wasn’t going for a time, and just plodded it out. Then I slowly built it up. Like some kind of sane person. After a fortnight, with my ‘long’ run at 6 miles, I cracked and did a 10 mile run. My knee didn’t break so I thought I was alright. Then I started to let it slip. They say hard run one day, easy the next, never back to back. I did the 10 mile (long, by current standards) then a hill run, then another fast one. And my knee flared up. Panic! Back to 2 miles easy, 5 miles easy, 5 miles easy. My knee forgave me, so today I did a test run of a half marathon (13.1 miles). And it held! YAY! As I was going ‘long’ I didn’t batter the pace or put hills in to it, but as a steady run, it showed my knee will work. So now it’s back to easy day tomorrow, maybe a hill day, easy day, fast day, easy, etc, and keep up with the IBTS exercises. Fingers crossed I am back in the game. Realistically my sub 3 hour marathon isn’t happening for at least the first half of this year. *sigh*   The other reason I’ve been absent was the politics thing. I put all my time into flagging up St Jezza and the Glorious Socialist Worker’s Utopia on the thrice damned Facebook, […]

I actually learned my lesson this time! I got all my kit ready last night. I did a trial pack of my helmet and whatever kit I could fit into my backpack. I ended up sawing down an old, cheapo, pair of boots so they would fit in my bag, to save me from riding to the race in trainers. They must be 10 years old, fake leather bike boots. Basically steel toecap wellies. I’d forgotten I still had them. Anyway; improvise, adapt, overcome. So last night I went to bed knowing all was set for this morning.  The race didn’t start until 09.00, I set out out 07.00. Which meant a fairly stress-free ride to the race, even though it was raining and the satnav took me a way I wasn’t expecting. The first car park was so full it wasn’t even letting people in, but due to my new strategy of leaving myself sufficient time, I just turned around and found another one. Took off my bike kit, sauntered to the bag drop, and had 40 minutes or so to wait for the race. The difference to the stressfest of the journey to the Outlaw triathlon was incredible. So that was a success. The rest, not so much. As I never stop saying, I want to go sub 3 hours for the marathon. My best to date was 3.41:40. Today, seeing as I’ve been doing a bit of speed training and such, I really wanted to get down to 3.15. I set off just behind the 3.15 pacer. (They have pacers who run around holding a sign with the speed they are going to finish.) It was all going swimmingly. The pacers seemed to be too fast, they would charge along at 7.09m/m pace, then slow down just before the end of the mile to come in at the right time of 7.30. So it seemed to me, anyway. The good thing was it wasn’t bothering me. I was thinking of staying with them, fast and slow, until the half way mark and then carrying on at the fast pace. Then we started hitting hills. Stupidly, I’ve been doing my training down the canal and on a local 10 mile road lap that has one slight hill. The hills just smashed my legs. I tried easing up on the pace going up, then sprinting to catch up with pace markers downhill. I was holding the pace for the first 10 miles but the hills just kept coming and my legs were wasted. At 13 miles I got the psychological boost of the halfway point which in my mind is turning towards home, so picked up the pace again. But the next mile there were more hills and my legs had set. I was still fighting up until about mile 20 when I just couldn’t get back up to speed. If it had been a training run I would have quit by then. As it was I just had […]

Just a catch up. I had a low patch a few weeks ago. I was worried I was coming down with loony again, happily it was just a blip, but it’s always a wake up call. However well you’re doing in life, job, training, personal goals, if you go loony it all counts for nothing.  They say that running is actually good for your mental health. It de-stresses you, focuses your mind on the task in hand (suffering and trying not to die, I assume) and releases endorphins, which are painkillers and a natural “high”. I should be immune from loon. Yay! My run of race misfortune has hit the superstitious third event. The Outlaw triathlon cancelled the bike session so a year’s training was wasted as it wasn’t a tri. I set off late and got lost so managed to miss the South Cheshire 20 (mile race). Then, 6 days before the Warrington half marathon, I got an email saying they’d cancelled it, due to ‘safety concerns’. They said they were trying to rearrange it and we’d hear the details the next week. That was a fortnight ago, still no offer of a refund, free entry into next year’s race, or a new race date for this year. My next race is Chester marathon in a week. Let’s see how that goes. I’m predicting asteroid strike.   While I was low I was window shopping for another bike. Apparently that’s part of my (BPD) condition, that I enjoy the thrill of shopping. The fact that I couldn’t get excited about it and even after I’d tracked down the bike I should get and was thinking “what’s the point?” is telling in itself. I was thinking of an ‘adventure bike’. They’re big, supposedly robust, go-anywhere motorbikes. Usually bedecked with big stainless steel looking box panniers. The thing about them is, when you put a different screen on them, they create a bubble of quiet to ride in, and due to the sit up and beg riding position, they are supposed to be all day comfortable. I forgot to say, what prompted me to look, beyond trying to find my happy place, was I’ve started getting tinnitus. Not the usual background whistle when it’s quiet, but a quite loud sound that alters pitch, making it harder to ignore. I really don’t want that to get any worse. I bought a new, so-tight-it-makes-your-eyes-bulge helmet but I was still getting motorway wind noise so I was panicking a bit. At least I shouldn’t get run over while I’m going deaf! Someone on twitter said he’d fitted his adventure bike with this fancy screen to get the bubble of quiet I’ve just described. Then it struck me, my gorgeous VFR750 is a sports/ tourer. Why buy another bike when mine is designed to be a comfy tourer? That also goes like stink, if you want. I got the fancy screen my twitter mate was on about. The idea of it is that it has […]

A bit of good news. It’s just a run but it has me buzzing. I have two days off so I thought I’d test myself. A good, middle distance that I often run is 10 miles. I decided to do a Personal Best (PB). I said (on my running account on Twitter) “Think I’ll do a 10 mile PB today. If the wind isn’t too bad. Neighbour’s gate has been banging. Hmmmm. It’ll be good training just making the attempt. Hahaha, way to backpedal in the space of 280 characters!” I wanted to do 6.48 m/m pace, but was willing to settle for 7.00. My PB being 1.11:12, average of 7.07 m/m. I set off at a reasonable pace, 6.47, then slowed slightly as I got into the wind, 7.01, then 7.05.  Then I got into a nearly 2 mile stretch that always funnels the wind and it was killer. I was beasting myself to try and get my pace down from 7.40. I clawed it back to 7.30 then 7.26. In those two miles I knew I’d lost it. I couldn’t make up a minute of lost time. I was nearly killing myself just to keep a bad time, I had nothing left to pick up the pace for the way back. The nagging voice in your head that is always telling you to stop was shouting “YOU CAN’T DO IT!  MIGHT AS WELL JOG THE REST!” I ignored it and pushed on, just to try and get a good time, if not PB. At 5 miles I turned around, legs burnt out and lungs on fire, and suddenly the wind wasn’t stopping me! 6.58, for no more effort! I can do this! 6.52, 6.52, 7.00, 6.58! I did it in 1.10:42, average pace 7.03! A new 10 mile PB and a 10K PB along the way! I get people telling me (rightly) I’m too negative about my achievements, but I am honestly chuffed to bits with this one. Not so much the time as the not quitting, and giving it everything, even when I knew it was a lost cause. I usually just accept a PB and think I should have done better. This one means something. Again, not the time, I fully intended to smash that next time out, but in those conditions… I don’t know. I don’t think I’m expressing it very well. Let me just say that was my best ever run and I’m pleased, possibly even proud. Also, it’s given me a real boost in my confidence. If I can do 10 miles in those conditions, at 7.03, it’s not too much of a stretch to run 13.1 at 6.48, surely?  (My intermediate goal of a sub 1.30 half marathon.) Anywho, later, Buck.