THE GOOD BUCK

Further to my latest boring running blog.

I was saying how hard it is, but at least my foot is holding up and I’ve not had any plague weakness, so I am good to train and make up the lost fitness.

Then yesterday at work I came over all weak and useless. I really thought it was the plague weakness/ Post Viral Fatigue. I was gutted. They say you have to train within the envelope of what you can do, and slowly push the boundaries. Doubling my miles in a week, whilst going faster, sounded like a perfect example of going outside of the envelope.

I’ve been looking at training plans for my marathon attempt. The one in the Advanced Marathoning book, which I’ve been recommended on several occasions, is not 80/20. (80% very easy, 20% flat out.) That guy on Twitter who’s represents Great Britain as an age grouper, and wins the odd race outright, swears by 80/20. It’s the big thing with all the cool kids. But Advanced Marathoning is of the philosophy “Long slow runs produce long slow runners.” Their plan is push, push some more, rest, push again. To be honest, that works for me. I like challenging myself on my runs. Anyway, in the spirit of keeping with the science I spent an evening googling 80/20 training plans. There was a lot of chatter on the forums, but nothing concrete. I read “P&D” recommended a few times. The comment that summed it up seemed to be “P&D is the best plan off the peg.” Further Googling: What does P&D mean? Pfitzinger and Douglas. The authors of Advanced Marathoning. *sigh* That’s a few hours of my life I’m not getting back.

So I started the plan. The first day was a rest day/ cross training day. I decided to break out my £20 rowing machine for half an hour then do another half hour on other strength training. Today was a 7 mile “general aerobic” run with 10 x 100 meter strides in it. I think that means a run where you are not killing yourself but are pushing on a bit, with 10 sprints included. I used to aim for a steady 8 m/m when I was fit, so I thought 8.30 would still be enough to slightly tax me. Oh very dear. It was killer! I did it, and, with the sprints, managed to average 8.14 m/m, but it had no right to be that hard.

I’ve been getting a lot of wake-up calls about this sub 3 attempt. “Bare minimum is an 18 minute 5K (I’m currently 22 minutes) a 38minute 10K (no idea, never tried the distance) and a 1.25 half marathon (my PB is 1.33:37, I’m way off that now.)

I don’t want to speak too soon, one hour and fifty four minutes to go, but I think we’ve survived 2021. I’m taking that as a win.

I tried and tried with my pushbike thing, but in the end, inevitably, I’ve ended up getting a new bike. Three sets of mudguards, new tyres, on two different bikes, and still can’t get a winter bike out of them. In the end I researched Decathlon (store) for a new bike. Decathlon is always a good benchmark as they make their own kit and manage to fit a really good standard of parts for the money. They regularly win “Best Bike Under X amount”, reviews in bike magazines. They have exactly what I want. Takes up to 33mm (quite wide) tyres, with enough frame clearance and mounting points for the (fitted) mudguards. Perfect. But it’s £849. For a pushbike that is just for riding my 5 miles a day round trip to work and keeping me from being sprayed and soaked in winter. Once I knew what I was after I went looking for second hand. Sadly the bike has only been in production for a few years so there aren’t many and they’ve kept their price.

Then, through a random google search, I found someone trying to sell one “ridden 5 miles”, for £510. He’d been trying to sell it since May. On a site for people selling record players and amps. Target audience, mate. I joined the stupid site to make an offer but he didn’t get back to me. Then I saw he’d just posted it on Preloved (another not obvious site) for £495 or offers. I offered £450 ( I would have paid the £495, or a haggle in the middle) and he said yes! Bargain! It’s the same frame and such as the kitted out winter bike, but without the mudguards and fat tyres. I’ve already bought them, trying to fit to my other bikes, so job’s a good ‘un! I’m picking it up on Sunday.

I’ve thought about it (for several whole minutes) and decided that, seeing as there is nothing actually wrong with my foot I can get back to running. Shocker, I know. I was surprised too, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I don’t make the rules. I’m doing the stretches from the physio and my foot is mechanically sound, so why the devil not?

I decided to do a tester run yesterday, my first in over two months. I did my stretches, warmed up, and put on my game face.

I did 5 miles and didn’t die. I’ll take that.

I went to see the physio tonight. That in itself was a tale of derring-do. The weather forecast a few days ago was of 20% chance of rain for my appointment at 17.00. By today they’d changed to to 95%. It was awful. Rain, standing water, spray, and horrendous traffic. I ended up running late so I was forced to fly through the traffic even in less than ideal braking conditions. Also much reduced visibility as my glasses were misting up. It was a bracing ride.

Anyway, made it, if five minutes late. I sent Wendy a text (“Alive”), as she was sure I was going to die on the way.

The Physio, Adrian, then asked me a bunch of questions, then mauled me for an hour and 20 minutes. It turns out my left calf is 1½cm smaller than my right, I have some numbness on my left foot, and he isolated the pain by twisting my foot then raising my leg. Twisted, fine. Twisted and raised, sore.