THE GOOD BUCK

We’ve had a few things going on. I was worried about Wendy, she’s been having small coughing bouts every day for over a year. Then I read on Twitter that one of the after effects of Long Covid is pulmonary fibrosis, a stiffening of the lungs that reduces function until death. That is less than ideal. I nagged Wendy into going to see the doctor, who referred her for a lung x-ray. The good news is they’ve said there is no apparent issue, case closed, so she’s not going to die. The bad news is the implied “suck it up” medical advice for her ongoing cough. Meh. We took a mini break to north Wales. It was only 4 days, and it was only 50 minutes away, but it was a complete change of scene and felt like a proper break. I got to do some “Chariots Of Fire” running. And we went to Bodnant Gardens again. Always lovely. When we came back I was surprised to be back on 2 shifts a week. I thought work had picked up. I asked and they have a definite start date now. The automated sorting machinery is running in the morning and evening as they ease the new tech in, but the whole thing goes properly live on the 25th of July. Then it will be all hands to the pumps. I can enjoy the last few quiet weeks now I have a set date. I’ll be a sad panda when I’m trying to fit my training in around full time work again. Money or leisure. It’s an either/or thing. Training is going well. Sort of. I was very bored with Camille’s plan, it was too easy and too repetitive. Get up, run 8 miles, easy, then go to work. 6 days a week. OK, it’s not quite that dull. Long run one day, specialist training (hills, sprints, etc) one day, but mainly it’s 8 miles, easy. It was boring. Then I was talking to someone on Twitter and he said about running from one end of one of my run loops (Carr Mill Dam, St Helens) to the end of another of my run loops (Wigan, where the old canal meets the Mersey). He’d run it one end to the other. Being me, I decided to run it as a loop. 31 miles. Basically it was all the dumb I swore I’d never do again after reading that article. I hadn’t trained for it, was winging it, all attitude and no preparation. I set off in my ASICS (the trainers that were rubbing so badly I ended up buying a bunch of new pairs. They have been alright on shorter runs, but you can see where this is going) wearing a running vest stuffed with 2½ litres of water and energy powder. There’s an extra 6 pounds of weight. On a hot day. I was cruising for 20 miles, (which, by no coincidence, is about the distance of my long runs […]

I’ve been following Camille’s plan and it’s starting to make sense. 6 days a week running, loads of tedious “8 miles, easy” nothing much challenging. But as I’m getting into the plan (6 weeks) I’m noticing the “8 miles easy at 8.30” are changing to “easy at 8.15” and shortly “easy at 8.00”. If I do every 8 mile at the suggested pace for that week, I can see how that would work. It’s still not very challenging, but this week my long run, instead of being a tedious “18 miles, super easy” is 18 miles; 11 at 7.45, then 7.00, 6.55, 6.50, 6.45, 6.45, finishing with an 8.00 for a cool down. 18 miles with 3 of the last 4 at sub 3 pace. That’s more like it! Next week will be the test. It’s my 7th week of this plan, and ends with me having to commit to one plan or the other for the final cycle of training. Instead of my long run next week I’m going to do a flat-out half marathon. See if this plan has made me faster. I was getting very bored with this plan. Get up, run 8 miles easy, go to work, repeat. I broke the plan and fell back into all the bad habits from before reading that article “why women are kicking arse at ultra events/ what men do wrong.” I did a 19 mile run up to Carr Mill dam. Someone on twitter was up there later that day so I said about it, he replied that he’d run from Carr Mill dam (the end of one of my run loops) to Wigan down the canal (the end of another of my loops). I fancied it. Instead of doing end to end I tried to do it as a loop. 31 miles. I’m only up to 19 miles in my training, and the plan said to do 18 that day. I was wearing my vest with bottles and bladder to support myself for the distance, it was well hot so my feet swelled with the heat and weight, and I was wearing my (tight) ASICS. It was basically as dumb as it’s possible to be. My nail got so bashed it blistered underneath and swelled up. I ran out of mojo at about 20 miles, was limping by 24, and quit at 29.6, had to shuffle home. Toe was very poorly. I tried another run but it was awful. Someone on twitter told me it was a blister under my nail, and best to pop it. That was a load better. I ended up clipping the nail back as far as I could and filing it smooth so it wouldn’t snag. I’ve just been for a fast 7 mile with 5x 100m sprints and it’s not swelled up and was fine on the run, so I’m hoping that’s that. The ultra runner on twitter said I was going to lose the nail, but that’s no big. The main […]

I’ve been in two minds about a bunch of things to do with my running lately. My main concern was with my knees. You always hear people saying running inevitably smashes your knees, and I was wondering if I was going that way. I overheard talk about two other drivers who had to have replacement knees and were in a right state. My mam has had it done and, after the pain of the operation and recovery, seems to be fine with it. But either way, you don’t want to be thinking you are hastening your knee destruction. Then there’s the stretching and cross training I’ve been doing on the rowing machine. Is that good or further stressing my knee? Should I rest until it’s completely better? I can see arguments for and against everything. Today I went to see my physio. He had a look at my knees and stretched and pulled me in every direction to pinpoint the problem. He said it was just inflamed tendons. Huge relief. While I was there I asked all the questions. Running smashes your knees? Exactly the opposite. The cartilage has no blood supply. The only way you can build and strengthen it is through movement and exercise. I said I was worried I was going to end up needing new knees. “If you stop running, and put on a lot of weight, you might need new knees in about 20 years. Maybe.” I asked about the stretching and he said it was fine. And he advised cross training (such as rowing, cycling or swimming) as it is low impact. Maybe not to close the angle of my knees as much on the rowing machine (stop before my heels meet my bum, sort of thing) but basically it’s all good. What about total rest? Absolutely not. It’s tendon damage and inflammation. Tendons have poor blood supply, so massage them and exercise them to stimulate blood flow to aid recovery. Also tendons fray when they are damaged. If you just rest they eventually repair, but messily. If you exercise they knit together tidily. So many good answers. He also had me doing eyes-shut one leg balancing. Then he was stretching my about. He said I had the responses of a 20 year old man. Apparently we old dodders are only able to hold 5 or 6 seconds, knee up, balancing on one foot with our eyes closed. A good 20 year can last 20 seconds. I do it every day (with my eyes open) as part of my post run stretching, so I aced that. More wobble getting settled on my right though, which is the worst knee, so it exposed the problem. Also the leg raises are supposed to be a problem past 70 degrees. I swing to head height daily as part of my warm down. He was well made up with me. He’s given me a bunch of stretches and exercises to add to my regime and told me to […]

It’s been an odd month. After the marathon I had 3 weeks of recovery training, then I started the Camille Herron training plan. I’ve been on that for 2 weeks. It’s the last day of May tomorrow, so it’s been a quiet month. I’m not sure about the new plan. It’s 6 days a week training, about 8 mile every day, with a specialist day (intervals or hills or whatever) midweek, the rest all easy runs (some with strides) and a long run at the end of the week. My problem with the plan (apart from having to get up to do an 8 mile run before and 11+ hour shift) is it just doesn’t feel like I’m pushing myself. With the Advanced Marathoning one you bloody well know you done a bit. It’s a 16 week plan so I don’t officially start it for another 5 weeks. I’m cycling through the first 7 weeks then I’ll do a test half marathon. If I’m making significant gains I’ll start from week 1 again. If not, switch back to AM, it’s brutal, but I know it works for me. Also I’ve got runner’s knee (I think). Just a general soreness under my kneecaps, mainly the right one. I’m going to see the physio next Monday. He said it sounds like an inflamed tendon. That sounds treatable. As someone on Twitter pointed out, whatever he advises, I’m best doing it immediately if I’m to have the best shot of recovery and still smashing my goal. I don’t like this limbo. I know all the pros do 80/20, and amazing times, but I just want to know I’m not losing all my fitness and speed. I’ve got an 8 mile progressive speed run (warm up for 20 minutes, 2 min at 8.45, 2 at 7.45, 2 at 6.45, 20 minutes cool down) on Thursday. I’m off work (so far). I might do 20 minutes, flat out 5K, 20 minutes. A 5K is not overly taxing on my body. I don’t know if it’s a fair test after 3 weeks light duties and 2 weeks easy training, but if I was faster I’d take it as a good sign, so early in the plan. I’ll see what Twitter thinks. Then do it anyway.

I’ve been getting a bit frantic lately. As usual. I’m in a bit of holding pattern at the moment. I’m still on the recovery phase of my training, work are still only giving me 2 shifts a week, and I don’t need to buy anything so I’ve nothing to obsess over/ fixate upon. I’ve got all this free time while I’m not doing much training, next week I start a 60 mile, 6 days a week training plan and work will be kicking in very shortly. They put up a sign in the office about new procedures that are going to be implemented as the new machinery comes online, and the agency have sent a text asking for anyone with holiday plans from July to let them know now. So they are clearly expecting to be snowed under with work. I was looking at it, it’s only been 5 weeks of 2 shifts a week. It seems like forever. I was talking to one lad about it and he said he’s had a couple of weeks with no work at all. When it all kicks in and I’m trying to fit runs in around shifts this will seem like a great time. I was bored and looking at other work today. To my surprise there are other jobs out there now. There wasn’t anything comparable to my current job a few weeks ago. There was one by which I was really tempted. Monday to Friday, 09.00- 11.00 starts, trunking to Bridgewater (Somerset) and back. But it runs from Skelmersdale. So, buy a motorbike (yay!) commute 40 minutes in, 12 hour shift, 40 minutes home… Oh. Damn. No training, no life, just a good start time and a nice trunking run. I did that for Booker when I was on the Didcot run. Tons of money but I was getting literally depressed, it’s just not worth it. I’ve bookmarked the site that’s advertising the good jobs, just in case, but I’ll wait it out at my job. As the manager said, they didn’t spend all those millions of pounds for the machinery not to have it running flat out. When it goes online, and they start importing more and more work, I reckon I’ll be fighting with the agency to get my days off again. As I say, last week of (shortened) recovery, next week I get to test out Camille’s plan. … It’s been a week since the above and I’m training again and I’m out of the manic phase. I was driving Wendy crazy with it. And myself, obviously. Strange how these things are all-consuming, but the second it’s over you forget all about it. I’d forgotten until I came to update my blog and read it. Like the plague weakness bouts. While I’m OK I make training plans and don’t give it a thought. Within 24 hours of it smacking me again I’m thinking “this is my life now, it’s never going away. Just one bout after another. […]