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!