THE GOOD BUCK

This is another boring running blog, but really that’s about all I’m doing. I’m still looking for the Goldilocks super trainer. I got told, and the reviews agreed, that the Adidas one was the way to go. Cheapest of the super trainers, wide fit, and a genuine rival for the all conquering Nike. I got a pair. Weird things. But the reviewers, and people on twitter, said they felt odd until you gave it beans then suddenly they all came together. Only one way to find out. I don’t know if it’s because I set off too fast, was too ambitious with my pace, or if I didn’t have the fitness to maintain the pace for the distance, but the trainers just didn’t feel ‘super’. They just felt like normal trainers. I’m hoping it was just me, and that I can adjust. By the end of the 20 miles I was done in. My pace had dropped until it was all I could do to keep it near 8m/m, and if I’d have had another 6 miles (which is what the training is all about) I reckon I’d have been walking. I finished 20 miles at 7.30 m/m, so a new 20 mile PB, but very discouraging. Then the weirdest thing. I had one day, which went to two, then three, where I lost my dieting mojo and kept shoving sweet stuff down my neck. Work called me just as I was getting up to go running on Wednesday with a shift starting an hour or so later. They shut the motorway so it turned into an 11 hour 45 minute shift, back in work 9 hours later, so no run that day. Fail. Then on Thursday I was tired and a bit weak, and on my gluttony binge, so I just got in from work and inhaled all the calories. Another run fail day. This morning I was off, supposed to be a run rest day, but I thought I’d better claw one run back from my fail list. I got up and was cleaning my teeth, when I suddenly thought “Should I just sack this sub 3 off?” It was totally unexpected, the first time I’ve even thought it since taking on the challenge. For a second it was really tempting. Take it easy, don’t kill myself training, trough all the calories. Then I started to panic. That is a really dangerous state for me. I get wild enthusiasms, pursue them single-mindedly until I lose interest, then I don’t want anything to do with them. I threw on my running kit and went for a run. The plan said to do 8 miles with 5x 600m at 5K pace. I took that to mean ‘do 8 miles and include a 5K race’ (because I’ve been wondering how my fitness is for a while, and I wanted to test it on a 5K/ 3.1 mile race). The benchmark time is sub 20 minutes. When I was fit and practicing […]

I’ve had an eventful week. I realised my ASICS trainers weren’t going to break in, and that ASICS have totally changed the sizing of the shoes I’ve been getting every time for the last 11 years. Marvelous. After I’ve splashed out on two pairs. I’ll still get my miles out of them, but I need to rest my feet in between using them. I started looking at “super trainers”,( with a plate in the sole and springy foam, like that guy used to break the 2 hour marathon). They aren’t made specifically for wide feet but some will do. I got these beasts. Saucony Endorphin Speed 2. Which is a mouthful. To quote from my running blog entry: “Today was the first huge test of the plan. It said to run 15 miles, with 12 of them at race pace. That would be 6.45 – 6.50m/m, I am nowhere near that. My best to date was 6 miles at 7.20, which near killed me. I tried out my Sauconys for the first time. They were a bit tight and uncomfortable but I looked at my watch on the first, coasting, warm up mile, and I was doing 8.02, not even trying. The second mile I started running. I was going for a fast, but sustainable pace, nothing drastic. Looked at my watch again, 6.36! OK, looks like I’m putting up with uncomfortable trainers! To make my training tougher I’ve stopped going down the canal (dead flat, obvs) and am heading out to St Helens. After 4½ miles it gets some proper hills. So one mile warm up, 12 miles flat out, with 5 of them being hills, then 2 miles jogging it off. I got back and looked at my stats. Fastest ever 10K Fastest ever 10 miles Fastest ever half marathon Fastest ever 15 miles. Bearing in mind the first 3 PBs had a mile of warm up in them and the last one had all 3 miles of easy trotting. Wow. Just wow. My time for the 12 miles was 1.24:10, so a smidge under 7.01 m/m. With 5 miles of hills! OK, still got a long way to go, but let me bask in the moment for a minute. I’ve gone from the plan’s first week long run (dead flat down the canal) of 12 miles, couldn’t hold the pace, averaged at 8.14 m/m, to 12miles, (5 hills) within a 15 mile run, at 7.01 m/m, in 8 weeks.” That fantastic high was followed by a huge low. It was my first go of those trainers, and when you are going flat out they really favour forefoot striking. So I was racing flat out up, and more worryingly, down hills just on my toes, with no support for the rest of my foot, ankle, leg, knee… It’s not my running style and I’ve not built up the right support muscles. I had a bad pain in the side of my knee. Just like after Chester marathon, where […]

Week 1: I finally had enough of the two new pairs of ASICS I bought 6 weeks ago. I stick with ASICS because I know what I’m getting. For years I’ve got a 40.5/ UK 6.5, 2e (wide fit) and they fit me perfectly. This is the first time I’ve ever bought two pairs of trainers and they’ve changed them. The wide fit is giving me blisters on my little toe and the 40.5 have suddenly shrunk so I’ve got blood blisters on the ends of half my toes. I was putting up with it, expecting to break them in or something. It’s always 40.5, 2e, and my feet haven’t grown, so they must fit. Nope. They don’t. I’ve had to order some more trainers. I’ll rotate them so I still get my wear out of the ASICS, but rest my feet in between times. I read through all the reviews of the “super trainer” (the ones with the plate in the sole and springy foam to give you maximum energy return per stride) and they are still all for narrow footed freaks. I saw one article, asking exactly the right question; which super trainer can I wear with wide feet? The bottom line was none of them are made for wide feet, but some were worth a go. I ordered some Saucany Endorphin Speed 2. These are the training version of the actual race day super trainer. I did my midweek 14 run in my nearly a thousand mile old ASICS, to rest my toes. Good plod, but now I’ve adjusted to (ill fitting) new, cushioned trainers, it felt a bit damaging. I did a 6 mile run with 6×100 metre sprints yesterday in my tight ASICS. Today was the first huge test of the plan. It said to run 15 miles, with 12 of them at race pace. That would be 6.45 – 6.50, I am nowhere near that. My best to date was 6 miles at 7.20, which near killed me. I tried out my Saucanys for the first time. They were a bit tight and uncomfortable but I looked at my watch on the first, coasting, warm up mile, and I was doing 8.02, not even trying. The second mile I started running. I was going for a fast, but sustainable pace, nothing drastic. Looked at my watch again, 6.36! OK, looks like I’m putting up with uncomfortable trainers! To make my training tougher I’ve stopped going down the canal (dead flat, obvs) and am heading out to St Helens. After 4½ miles it gets some proper hills. So one mile warm up, 12 miles flat out, with 5 of them being hills, then 2 miles jogging it off. I got back and looked at my stats. Fastest ever 10K Fastest ever 10 miles Fastest ever half marathon Fastest ever 15 miles. Bearing in mind the first 3 PBs had a mile of warm up in them and the last one had all 3 miles of […]

Well. As the fictional Chinese curse has it, “may you live in interesting times”. The times are certainly getting interesting. Mother Russia has had enough. The media are all “Boo hiss, evil Putin” , but there’s a bit more to it than that. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/28/nato-expansion-war-russia-ukraine Mr Putin has had enough of the American puppet regimes being used as weapons platforms on his borders. And he’s sick of nazis. So far, so good. But as with all wars, it the civvies who suffer. As usual I have been taking a contrary view to that which the media want me to believe. As you can see. I was shouting into the void on Twitter, trying to work out what was annoying me so much about the Ukraine hysteria. “Invasion is bad. War is bad. Agreed. I think it’s the fact we can invade a sovereign nation and slaughter a million of it’s citizens (Iraq). And Palestine lives this. So is it Russia doing it that’s bad, or doing it to white people?” “And the media hypocrisy. We saw Wikileaks. We know the casual atrocities we were routinely committing. Whilst our media was saying “…Our brave boys”. Now it’s “Mother takes a stranger’s child to the border. I cried” The gall.” But don’t worry. Bozo was on the case. Our foreign secretary started gobbing off prompting Putin to raise the nuclear defence level. The papers, in no way feeding hysteria, helpfully published a housing price guide. Warrington gets cleanly vaporised, which is a relief. I can’t make out how many hit the M6 through Birmingham, but frankly it’s not enough. (Garmin being my satnav watch, how I record all my run data.) The Tories were all supportive of the Ukranian people, right up until they wanted to flee the warzone to come here. Then they went full loony. Bozo stamped on that one, thankfully. No point in winning votes if you’re vaporised, I suppose. The fascist thing was them pushing through the policing bill while everyone was distracted with the war. Now police have the power to purge the gypsies, harass black people (stop and search, which massively targets black people) and jail for peaceful protest. As someone just tweeted: “Did you know the punishment for peaceful protest in Russia is 7 years in prison? I’m sure glad I live in a Western democracy like Britain where the punishment for peaceful protest is only 10 years in prison.” Closer to home, the Brits were taking it calmly. And I nearly got called up. Some weren’t convinced the architects of the million civvie slaughter in Iraq were the most moral authority against Putin. Before all that we had some weather. And Royalty I got some sage motivational message from an app that records my run data I was window shopping bikes again. I was very tempted by this, as it was (relatively, for a Harley) cheap. I was very, very tempted. My obsessing was reaching critical levels but then I stumbled upon some statistics. It […]

I’ve been suffering a bit with plague weakness-like feelings. Insatiable hunger, a craving for fats and sugar, weakness, with added chesty and sore throat for good measure. Yesterday was grim. I took a lateral flow test in the afternoon to rule out the actual plague, I felt so battered by it. I’d got to the stage where I’d resigned myself to it being post viral fatigue, which would be triggered by every hard run. I was still going to try to carry on with the plan and just endure the weakness, and ignore the hunger. I was entertaining doubts that my body would work. I can endure a lot, but if my legs won’t run when I’m weak, then it’s over. Abandon my sub 3, and possibly all exercise. I was gutted. I had my tea and some aspirin to try to take the edge off, then it just ebbed away. I went from worrying it was over to … nothing. I was just normal. A bit hungry because I am on a diet, but it was normal hunger. I really don’t understand. Last week I’d got down to 10st 10¼lbs on my diet. Due to the gnawing hunger of the condition (and/or my innate gluttony) I’d gone back up to 10.12 during the week. I got a grip and tried to endure the hunger. This morning (my official weigh day) I was amazed to have actually dropped a pound overall for the week! 10st 9¼lbs! Brilliant. Single figures left to lose. I was feeling a little off colour when I got up, but that is possibly me finding something because I was looking so hard. It was raining, blowing a gale, and freezing, but the weather forecast said it was like that all day so I just cracked on with my 12 mile run. Last week I failed to take 10 seconds per mile off my long/ fast run. I wanted 7.40 m/m but had to settle for 7.54. This week I wanted to take another 10 seconds off, so 7.30. I did it! Even in to the teeth of the wind I held the pace. This is doubly brilliant for me as yesterday I thought I was going to have to quit. I’m well happy with that. And I’m still feeling normal. On the 30th of January I booked us a little flat in Newport for 3 days in October so I could do my marathon, then we could have a few days ambling around. Possibly with Wendy pushing me in a bathchair. I went online and booked it through a booking site. The landlord wanted the money up front. Not a problem, I paid the £232.50 and thought no more of it. Then I got an email off the site saying the flat was now going to be closed for renovation or something. OK. Cancel my booking, book another place. Where’s my refund? I looked on the site, it said payment/ refund is between you and the […]