Just a quickie....

...the update that is, not the run. This morning was a belter - almost 15 miles on the way to work, gloriously sunny, varied terrain and, although pretty hard work, was stunning.

The picture is about 6 miles into the run, about 7.30am on Stanage Edge in the Peak District and it's all on my doorstep.

Marvellous!

The date is set

Confirmation came through today of the race dates - fly out on 5 April 2012 and return on 16 April 2012 with the actual race taking place from 8-14 April. That's 324 days away. That's not very long.

Luckily I have at least a vague plan of action as outlined in my races for 2011 shown on the right. Next up is the Lakeland Trails Marathon around Coniston less than 7 weeks away. I have some shoulder surgery to contend with in the meantime (it was postponed from this week to 1 June) so I'll have to see how that works out and fits in with my training.

Tomorrow morning brings with it a delightful 14 mile trip out into the Peak District on my way to work, and it's forecast to be sunny. Should be good. Having said that, based on how I looked at the end of the Sheffield Half Marathon, I may be struggling at work later on.......

Sheffield Half Marathon ticked off.

Sunday saw the first of the final year's preparation races ticked off - the Sheffield Half Marathon. 13.1miles through the scenic, and not so scenic streets of the Steel City. It wasn't the ideal preparation, going out until 2am on Saturday morning, followed by an alcohol induced chunder in the wee small hours, but by Sunday morning I was at the start line almost raring to go.

The race was quite warm and humid, but reasonably comfortable for most of it. I struggled a little from 11 miles and had to concede defeat to Rich (fellow MdS 2012 competitor and main training partner) in the last mile as my dehydrated state slowed my pace. Clocked a 1 hour 51 mins and 37 secs and was aiming at 1hour 50 so not too shabby all things considered.

Training since the last blog post has been steady - not all going to plan, but got some decent longish runs in - a brutal 66 minute return trip from Horton-in-Ribblesdale up to the top of Pen-y-Ghent and back in the Yorkshire Dales; a 2hours sweat-a-thon through the Peaks and a 10 miler round Fairholmes/Derwent Reservoir which I enjoyed a lot less than the night time run of the previous month.

Next step is to focus on the Lakeland Marathon round Coniston in July in 8 weeks' time. Only problem is I have to have an operation on my shoulder next week and I'm not sure how long it will prevent me from running. The bike is set up on the turbo trainer in the garage in case I can't run for a few weeks but it's not ideal. On the plus side, it should mean I can carry my pack in Morocco a little more comfortably than I can now. The downside to that is that distances don't really get any easier now until April 2012.

I've now booked in all the prep races I think I can handle between now and getting to the MdS so I have a good looking set of target training events to work towards.

This time next year.......

.....I'll either have massive blisters and a big grin or will still be on a drip in a Moroccan hospital somewhere feeling a bit down. Either way, the race will have been run! That's quite scary.

The 2011 MdS has just finished meaning next time round it's my turn. But first there's a whole shed load of training and planning to do. Plenty of shiny new kit to buy too, all of it of course will make me much much faster. Due to work going a bit nuts recently I've not been able to follow any of the race but I'm hoping to review the web for info on it.

The last few weeks' training have been fair to middling I'd say. Did a couple of longish runs, including back to back 10 milers on successive days. The second of those was round the Derwent Reservoir at night - an awesome run and one I'd be keen to repeat.

I've had a minor bout of plantar fasciitis in my left heel so have refrained from too much running, but it was tested last weekend with a cheeky 8.5 miler in the sunshine and seems to have held up since. Still no news on the shoulder, but it's troubling me a lot less currently so am not too worried - I have another appointment with the consultant at the end of April.

All in all, a fairly low key beginning to the final countdown.

14-20 February 2011 (58 weeks to go) – Here we go again…….

Hello again. Remember me? A somewhat extended break from blogging, not least because there’s not been a lot to blog about.

Notable highlights since August 2010 include the High Peak 40 mile Challenge in September – not a fast event but we completed it in 10 hours 47 mins and in pretty good shape, all things considered. Also my knee and hip problems seem to have been resolved without the need for invasive surgery, plenty of rest has allowed them to settle and as yet they haven’t flared up again, which is good.

Low points included getting yet another injury, this time in my left shoulder after a day of voluntary work organised by the University. Helping to clear out some streams of oversized oil drums in mid-August 2010 proved too much for my ageing body and I’m still suffering the effects of it now despite numerous scans, 3 months’ of very strong anti-inflammatory drugs, a cortisone injection, and 3 months’ of physio. I’m back to the shoulder specialist this week for a further assessment. Also, not running for many weeks in the latter part of 2010 hasn’t helped my fitness or mood much, but as highlighted above it has allowed my previous injuries to settle.

Into 2011, and yet another concerted effort to get into shape. Trying to learn from last year’s aborted attempt to get going, my view is that despite believing that I was taking it easy and breaking myself in gently, I actually started out with too much distance too soon and as a result simply ended up breaking myself. I am very, very keen to avoid that time round with only just over a year to go.

So the master plan is to build up to the Sheffield Half Marathon from Jan to April 2011, then increase the distance to marathon level, aiming at a yet to be decided marathon in August 2011. After that I’m hoping to focus on maintaining that workload and starting to swap over some of the shorter faster (it’s all relative) running to more longer distance ones and so build up endurance/stamina. Will need to be training with a pack at least by the time the summer marathon is done and dusted (hopefully the shoulder will be better by then). Events to focus on towards the end of 2011 will be a return to the High Peak 40 in September – hoping to wipe off a chunk of time on the 2010 event (I previously did it in 1999 in 8 hours 20!), and possibly the Brecon Beacons Ultra (45 miles) in November. This is an MdS preparation “classic” organised by people who are big into ultra distance racing and who conveniently own a shop full of shiny kit for such adventures.

2012 will be about consolidating the ability to run considerable distances back to back, with a pack, and fine tuning gear and strategy. That’s assuming I don’t fall apart like in 2010, and am able to keep going that long.

So far in 2011, I’ve been working to a 3-day-a-week programme of running based around completing the half marathon – won’t be expecting a PB, but something more respectable than last year’s 1 hour 56 should be on the cards. I’ve yet to exceed 20 miles per week so far this year. Compare that with 2010 when I started off the programme on 20+ miles and built up from there. I’m hoping therefore that my weary old body will be able to cope a bit better with the new, less brutal regime. Only time will tell……

Enforced rest

It seems things aren’t going so well currently. After struggling through the last 3 weeks (which in itself included a week of non-running to rest my hip) I’ve now been advised to rest some more. I’ve been to see the physio about my knee and been working on some exercises to remedy a biomechanical imbalance which seems to be working. However, she’s now more concerned about my right hip (as am I) which is now painful to run on and uncomfortable to walk on resulting in a slight limp. So I have more exercises to do to try to stretch out the hip joint and see if it frees up.

I’ve got another appointment next Wednesday, but I’m thinking that if it’s no better (which after a week of more or less no running (I did a few miles to work on Tuesday and it was really quite painful) it doesn’t seem to be) I may go to the GP to see about some other form of remedy.

Either way, my running is not going quite to plan at present which is annoying as I feel like I approached the build up nice and steadily and have been rewarded with a succession of niggles and injuries. I’m rather looking forward to being able to go on a long run and not be worried about which bit is going to be sore for the whole run. Maybe at my age I’m asking too much, but I hope not.

The long and the short of it

This week saw a return to running although without having completely sorted the hip/groin issue. It's stopped being a pain around the joint and has moved more into the groin which therefore, whilst still a niggly pain, becomes more manageable through stretching and gritting teeth.

Tuesday's 8 miles was uncomfortable which left me somewhat dreading Thursday's 18 miles - the longest run on the programme to date. In actual fact I only needed to dread the first 10 miles of it. After that it all seemed to get a lot better. It may be because there was a lot more downhill from there on, or just that the remaining distance seemed 'doable' in my head at that point but whatever the reason I was pleased that it ended better than it began. Actually I was just pleased that it ended. By the afternoon at work I was in need of strong coffee to support my body's energy levels but no real ill effects.

At the weekend, in keeping with the plans to reduce the number of longer runs to prevent overtraining and to inject some speed into the proceedings I decided not to run the Long Tour of Bradwell (31 miles) and instead did the Endcliffe Park 5km TimeTrial. It's a low key, free to enter event with 67 runners this week over a measured, and flat 5km course. Only 48 hours after doing the 18 miler I was quite pleased with a performance of 22 mins 50 secs - 7 mins 22 seconds/mile and exactly mid way through the field. I also managed a 1,500m swim on Friday evening in 27 mins 54 secs, a 45 second improvement on the previous week.

I'm still most pleased with my Injinji socks and Mizuno Wave Ascend trainers which have brought me no foot issues whatsoever so far. Currently less impressed with the quality of my Raidlight pack which after only 4 months' use has had to be returned due to a broken shoulder strap. See what the repair/replacement comes back like but I'm starting to lean towards the OMM pack which has a top reputation for withstanding all manner of abuse.

Rest week next week so hopefully more time for the groin to repair and the rest of my body to recover.