Get out of the way, fast runner coming through!

After the success of my run at the St Patrick's Day Brueton parkrun, it was important to not get carried away and increase the mileage too soon. So instead I introduced some rowing and cycling into the week. I got the opportunity to run at Brueton again the following week, this time's incident involved an important pre-run matter meaning I didn't change into my trainers until 100 metres into the run! I stopped my watch whilst changing them and the final result was a very pleasing 27:21.

With the clocks going forward later in March, it meant that the mid-week post work 'Freedom parkrun' could be restarted and I've done three of those now already. At the end of the month I had another chance to run at parkrun whilst away in London to watch my fellow Chester Marathon runner Larry Chambers run at the Olympic Park Run (Note two words for Park Run with capital P and R). London is full of parkruns, with more opening all the time due to funding from Boris Johnson's office. I chose Mile End parkrun which was only in its 9th week and being on the tube line en route to the Olympic Stadium. Larry volunteered as photographer and Trish ended up self appointing herself as Event Director when the volunteers encountered problems with the stopwatch. The Mile End parkrun is in a small long and narrow park and has a unique feature in that the middle of the park is lifted up on a bridge over a road - you have to see it to believe it! It makes for a very undulating course, so this was a parkrun for hill training. 25th position out of 47 finishers and a time of 28:54 was a great result.

OK, so all this proved that I can do 5k distances pain free, albeit at times a few minutes off my best. Now to increase the mileage - my first training 10k followed at Easter, followed by a 10k race soon after - the fabulously named 'Wright Hassall Regency 10k' in Leamington Spa. This is a very popular and highly acclaimed race that actually incorporates the Leamington parkrun route (run in reverse direction). 2000 runners took part and with narrow paths for a large part of the first 5k, I got caught up with slower runners and held up by walkers in groups 2 or 3 abreast. I became concerned that I would be expending a lot of energy trying to get past people and indeed it felt at times that a lot of effort was required. I reached 5k at around 31:20, so not within my target of an hour for the whole run, but with the route moving from park path to road, the opportunity to up the pace was there to be taken. In order to still finish within the hour I would have to run the last 5k at a near to parkrun pace and with nothing to lose I decided to give it a go. All went fairly well, but at 5 miles it was looking a bit too tight, and a further increase in pace for a sixth mile at 9 minutes followed by a 7:20 minute pace sprint for the final 0.2 mile meant that I made it to the finish in 59:45 for a really, really good result. Super, smashing, great.

The Comeback Continues: A Pain Free parkrun

The third trip to the physio mid-week confirmed that I am now able to start running again, albeit a gentle reintroduction. College was unexpectedly cancelled on Thursday evening, so what better than a cheeky 2 mile assessment instead to see how things where. The two miles turned out to be quite tough going. I tried to keep a steady sub 10 minute mile pace and found it difficult on the return leg of my route back up the incline. But I did it and that was the main thing.

So Friday night came along and with a healthy looking volunteer roster, Saturday would be a parkrun day for me! Number 3 of 2012 - target for this year is 18 parkruns (compared to just 7 in 2011). Martin Hancock was the day's Run Director, so my job beforehand was to make sure that the finish team were up to speed. Target today was to complete the 5km route in one piece (and not lose my St Patrick's Day hat or choke on my newly acquired ginger beard). A steady pace would be required and a sub 30 minute time would be a bit too much for me at this time.

Photo by Kev Baldry

The run began with me at the back with a slow start. Once the 1km marker appeared I then thought about upping the pace a little bit, looked at my Garmin and no display - it had died on me. Oh well, not to worry, I'm not after a time anyway. So off I plod at a comfortable pace. All was going well until I got to dodgy corner on lap 2 - a car was working its way through the runners en route to the Parkridge Centre. The driver looked rather worried, so I stopped running and marshalled him through, costing me 60 seconds on my time. Anyway, off I went again, thanking the marshals as I went through as a good parkrunner does. With 400 metres to go there were about half a dozen people only 25 metres in front of me, so I started to pick up the pace a lot more and then at 200 to go turned it into a full sprint and took the lot of them - very satisfying (sorry!).

Overall a successful run, but no idea of my time. I thought it was about 32-33 minutes, but the official result was a surprising 29mins 28s. So I am very surprised how well I did - I felt really good on the run and felt no discomfort. Hours later there was no after affect or sore hip to notice. A great day indeed - the comeback continues.

With the success of my parkrun on Saturday, Sunday had the temptation of another run. But that would be too much too soon, so to satisfy my need to do something a trip to the bottom of the garden and a 500 stroke row on the rowing machine was the non-impact exercise to keep me going.

Turning a Corner

The trips to the physio seem to be paying off, the exercises are certainly making a difference. At the second visit to the physio, the magic word 'run' was used when giving permission to proceed. Yes, the full rest is officially over and now a gentle running phase can now begin - can't go mad or for too long a distance, but a gentle run/jog is now on the schedule.

So what better opportunity than the Fradley 10k. Another event that I had booked pre-injury; I was praised for my approach to the last 10k (jog/walk), so a gentle jog was the way to go in Fradley. Shame really as this is where I set my 10k PB back in 2010 (57:23) and today was supposed to be the day when that record was broken. But that will have to wait until another day. Plan was to start at the back, jog slowly at the beginning and take it from there, I'm in no hurry (though sub 75 minutes would be nice - sometimes you just can't help yourself!). But times soon went out the window, I just wanted to run comfortably and that's what I did - I found a nice pace, just taking me along, no pressure.

I didn't look at my watch, no point really, too focussed on wanting to run comfortably. But I soon warmed up and found I was having to hold myself back - no need to push it, just enjoy it. The last thing I want to do now is have a set back. At 4 miles I did have a sense that the hip injury was there, so switched to a walk every half mile or so. By 6 miles that sensation had eased, so for the last 0.2 miles I ran, just to get the satisfaction of overtaking as many as possible on the way to the finish. I stopped my watch on the line and hey - sub 63 mins for a non-running 10k! 

After the run I did a few stretches and then stretched more before driving home. No real effects from the run for the rest of the day (just tired legs) and then no worse the next morning. Fantastic, it couldn't have gone much better! Who fancies a cheeky short run in the week?

Let's Get Physio!

After the half marathon in Wrexham, I felt sore for the rest of the week, so no running took place. Then Friday came and my appointment with Kerry at the Studley Physiotherapy Centre (but located in Redditch rather than Studley!).

The main thing was that wearing shorts was the correct attire, so I was off to a good start! I described my running - how long I had been running, number of miles per week etc etc. She asked whether I had bought new trainers recently, changed running surface and so on. There's been no change really, so not much information. Then came the physical assessment - first the gait, then a few stretches and then to the hip problem itself. Onto the couch and my leg was moved into different positions with does this hurt? 'no' and then one was 'Does this hurt? 'OMG YES! That is excruciating!' The conclusion quickly arrived at is my hip-flexor is the problem.

The good news is that it is not damaged, the issue is more that all of my leg muscles are too tight and this is leading to this kind of problem. So the remainder of the 40 minute session was to establish the initial stretching regime I am to follow - three main stretches to start with, including one for my forever sore shin which is that way because the muscle in front of the leg is overdeveloped for the muscle behind it.

I left fully reassured that recovery is on the way - it would take a few weeks and proper running is out of the question (a few gentle cheeky 2 miles here and there are allowed).

Armed with this information I decided to go ahead with the Hotelympia 10k in London Docklands featuring Steve Cram. This is a flat as a pancake course and the second fastest 10k I have ever run (57:51 in 2010), but my 2012 time would be 1hr 31 - a PW because I did a jog/walk, but I felt OK after 2 miles and brilliant afterwards. A worthwhile day and the next morning I saw Jedward at breakfast in the hotel.

The following weekend was the Centurion Grand Prix. I'm not ready for that yet and the uneven surface may not be a good idea at this time, so I gave it a miss - favouring a cheeky 2 mile run near home. I started off at a steady pace, but after one mile the hip was giving me a few reminders why I had not been running properly for the last 8 weeks, so from 1.5 miles I did a walk/run. I'm pleased with that, progress is being made and more importantly, a few hours after the run, I am not in pain. Next physio appointment is on Wednesday.

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!