I'm a bread winner!

This weekend was supposed to be the assessment of how my marathon training was going, more from a fitness point of view and consistency in pacing. The Village Bakery Half Marathon in Wrexham is a new race for me, but a one I thought was well placed to see how I was getting on. But, the last 5 weeks have been a disaster - running just five miles in that time does not a training schedule make.

So why did I still go? A number of reasons, hotel and race was booked and paid for, it was a rare opportunity for a weekend away, I was also meeting up with friends; and perhaps a kick start to better things? Well, maybe - didn't seem much point not going - and as it is a 2 lap course I could always do a DNF if I really had to.

The run starts and finishes on an industrial estate and out into the countryside. We were dropped off at the start by Laura Westwood and waited around - I really couldn't be bothered whether I ran or not; if someone has said 'let's not bother' I would have quite happily gone along. But no-one said it, so I ran. We made it to the start and from the off I fell to the back as I could feel my hip from the first step. After half mile, I started to settle into a pace at around a steady 10:30, but it was not to last. Each mile after mile 2 was a gradual decline. At 5 miles came the end of the first lap and I was tempted to DNF, but decided against it moving on to the water station. But my legs soon went wobbly, so from 5 - 10 miles I ran/walk and from 10 miles to the end it was very much walking rather than running. I managed to put something together for the finish, just so that Richard and Laura had something to cheer - I did pip 3 runners to the finish line. The legend that Laura is brought a flask of tea - that was fantastic, especially as there were no drinks at the finish.

My final time was a PW 2:42, nearly half an hour off a PB, but considering what has happened so far in 2012, I'm pretty chuffed I managed to complete the course. Richard ran brilliantly in a new PB of 1:55 and Larry, with multiple niggles and issues (and struggling to run for a mile before Sunday's race) somehow managed to get through in 3:11. We all got a Welsh fruit loaf for our efforts.

Afterwards I ached (though the hot bath relaxed my muscles) and today, Monday I ache still. Once the aching has stopped, I'll see how I am - Physio is booked for Friday, so hopefully I can turn a corner.

Cheeky Cheeky!

Sunday is the day that I do my long runs - get up early, sort out the dogs, then head out for a 10 mile or whatever run. The nearest I can do at the moment is a log run - restocking the log supply next to the wood burner. With Endomondo packed with runners that I know out and about doing their stuff - 10 miles here, 12 miles there, I felt rather left out of it all. So as part of my ongoing assessment of my current position, I applied some ibuprophen gel in the afternoon and then sneaked out for a cheeky 2 mile gentle run. My word, my leg was sore from the start - it eased very slightly, but 2 miles was going to be the maximum I could do. There was no way I could run any faster or further than that. I'm glad I did it though - let's see how things go from here. 7 days to the half marathon.

Remember Me?

And I'd bet you'd forgotten all about this blog. Sadly, there's been a reason for the time between the previous post and this one today. That hip issue referred to before is still troubling me, so much so that all running had to stop, because it was too painful, even walking was a problem. (Next I'll be saying that smiling makes my face ache!).

So in that time I tried to switch to a cross-training approach. In the garage sits a rowing machine (note to Jeanette Robathan - whenever I say I'm going for a row in the garage, it does not normally mean that I am on my way to have an argument at the petrol station!!). And very good the rowing machine is too, but trying to use it in the last month has not been good for the injury, so that approach was abandoned too. However, circumstances at Brueton parkrun on 4th Feb meant that I needed to step in to do the safety bike role that week. And although I had to cycle at quite a pace, there was no reaction from the injury - bingo! But then the weather turned for the worse and snow came too - no cycling yet for me.

For the next Brueton parkrun on Saturday 11th Feb, our volunteer roster was looking very healthy indeed, so my chance to perhaps try a gentle run, just to see how things were became the plan for the week. Come Thursday, the snow came and the overnight temperatures dipped further below zero too. Friday's partial thaw was enough to generate quite a bit of surface water on the paths in the park. The winter finish was a write off and the registration zone we are permitted to use was a thick block of ice. The snow on the grass had turned to big lumps of ice too - no cross country then. So after 82 events our first cancellation was announced and communicated on the parkrun website, by email to that event's volunteers and by a series of postings on facebook and twitter. What next? My original plan was to run a parkrun and that's what I was still going to do. My local parkrun is technically at Worcester, I've never had a chance to do it and as it is a trail run through the woods (rather than a Brueton like tarmac affair), it had a good chance of going ahead. They announced on facebook they were still on and off I went to join them as a parkrun tourist (if it is possible to be a parkrun tourist at your local parkrun!).

A gentle run at Worcester parkrun then took place - the steady pace I naturally settled on turned to be my proposed target pace for the Chester Marathon around 11:15 per mile - very interesting. Final time was over 33 minutes (nearly 8 mins off a PB, but who cares?), today was all about assessment of the injury. I did sense that the injury was there after 400 metres, but it was not uncomfortable at all. Felt OK immediately after the run, but started to feel a bit sore after 2 hours. Ibuprophen gel was recommended to me by an experienced runner, so that was applied for good luck. So all in all a good day and that is my second parkrun completed against my target 18 runs for 2012.

In 8 days time, I should have finished Wrexham's Village Bakery Half Marathon - gulp!