THE GOOD BUCK

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.

I booked a day off work for today to run the South Cheshire 20 (a local 20 mile race near Crewe.) I swapped the weeks on my training plan so my long run would be a 20 miler instead of 16. I started to look into it late yesterday afternoon. I am not big on planning and preparation. Just before bed I looked up where it was on Google maps, wrote out the landmarks I’d need (Jct 16 M6, A500, first exit Shavington, left opposite some pub, right at crossroads, left.) I set off this morning a bit late. I still reckoned I had about 20 or so minutes to park my bike, change, pick up my race number and amble to the start line. I got to the pub turning but they’d renamed it from the one on Google maps, so I rode past, just to make sure it wasn’t around the corner.  It wasn’t. As I was running late I thought I’d just follow the road around and cut across to pick up my lost route. I ended up riding around Crewe. At 09.25 (race started at 09.30) I was lost in Chorlton. Then I had to ride home. I wasn’t really layered up for a nearly 2 hour ride. I was expecting 40 minutes there, run and shower, 40 minutes back, all toasty. By the time I got home I was freezing, miffed, and really angry with myself. This isn’t the first time. The whole of the journey to the Outlaw triathlon was a stressed out nightmare, trying to put my wetsuit on 3 minutes before the start of the race, missing the start, etc. Well, no more. I’ve had enough. I know I’m a last minute, wing it, sort, so in future I’m going to sort everything first and give myself plenty of spare time. If I’d have had another 10 or 15 minutes this morning I could have turned around and gone back to the pub, or pulled over, checked maps and rerouted. If I have to stand around for 30 minutes before races, at least I’ll be relaxed getting there, and I’ll be there in time to actually do the race.   I regrouped and went for a run on my own. I’ve got a bunch of run routes locally. Some really nice ones down the canal (flat as a pancake, obviously) and a 10 mile road route which is also basically flat. I decided to punish/ redeem myself with a hilly 20 mile run towards Frodsham. There are the rolling hills along Walton drag, and some proper steep hills further on. I set off to try and do a good pace. Not even. It was blowing a gale and those hills! I managed the 20 miles but it was pitifully slow and painful. (8.28 m/m average.) Something else that’s going to change, I’m incorporating hill runs into my training.   That’s the fail out of the way. Oh, apart from one other thing. […]

I’ve quit triathlon. For the third, and possibly last, time. I’m going to sell my fancy pushbike. I was deliberating and torturing myself over it. I really wanted to get the benchmark sub 10 hours, but I can’t get past my loathing of the swim. And my biking isn’t much better. I could do the biking in the shed on Sufferfest, … stop it!  Decision made. I’ve done 3 and 2/3rds triathlons just going for a finish, if I can’t go for benchmark there is no point in forcing myself to do stuff I hate. I’m over it. Moved on. … Mostly.   So now it’s the running. Which I enjoy. It is a constant, direct challenge. And it’s relatively short. A 3 hour run is a long training run (20+ miles) whereas on the bike it’s only a short ride (about 45 miles) and in the pool it means I’ve drowned.   I’ve been suffering from pulled tendons on the top of my left foot (extensor tendonitis, Doctor Google informs me) since January, but it hasn’t got any worse so I’ve ignored it and carried on. I had a week’s rest before my tri then ran the marathon on race day (Sunday). The next week I had the Monday off to rest, and the Wednesday (as I did a 14 hour shift, with an hour’s commute). I still put in a 54 miles running week. I threw everything at it. Previously when I was trying for speed work I’d built up to 5 miles, holding as near as I could get to my target pace of 6.48 m/m. I’ve been reading a book that says most of the tiredness and resistance to speed is your mind trying to pace your energy, not your body tiring. So, 4 days after my tri/bi marathon, I went flat out for 5 miles. I got a PB (Personal Best) for 5K and 5 miles. Not too shabby. I did some 8 mile runs then a double pack run day to work, 17+ miles round trip, and an 18 mile long run.   It was a good week. But, as usual, it was too much, too soon. My foot got a lot worse. I had to give in and rest it for 6 days. In that time I read up on extensor tendonitis. The big contributory factor everyone agreed on was too tight footwear, causing the tendons to rub as your foot flexes. I’ve been in the habit of lacing my boots tight since the army. The leather shapes around your foot and becomes like a foot glove. In theory. Also, I have to buy motion control trainers as I overpronate (my foot rolls inwards when I run) which I assumed would mean they had to be tight to do the controlling of motion thing. It’s worth a shot. So for the last 6 days my motorbike boots and work boots have been as slack as I could make them (and I’ve been using […]