First Casualty?

Today's run: 2.16 miles / 3.48 km in 23:52.
Injury check: Well...
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I'm going to make a rule in the future, after all this marathon nonsense: if I can see my breath on the air, it's too cold to go out running. It's just too cold. 

Anyway.

The offending toe,
second from right.

I ran outside at lunchtime today, in the chill and the mist. Got two miles down in a nice time, given that it was very cold and there were also hills in my route. (They're unavoidable, really, since my office is essentially on top of a hill.) Oddly enough today the uphills were actually better than the downhills: my knees did not particularly like the steep slopes down.

But I am beginning to fall apart. Aside from the bad left knee and the bad right ankle, I now have a problem toe to fuss over as well. I've got a bruise or a blister or something under the nail... I didn't notice it at all during the run today, but when I put my smart work shoes back on afterwards they definitely pressed on it the wrong way and sent me limping around the office. Sigh.

You do hear stories about people losing toenails during marathon training and so on... I don't want to lose my toenail. I didn't sign up for that... >:-(

Running, eh? Bad for you. Definitely. 

12 Miles!

Today's run: 12 miles / 19.31 km in 2:18:22.
Injury check: Bit of pain in both knees.
Support crew: Rob (cycling) and Robert (running).
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Today was much better than last week, for two main reasons:

• No uphills
• Awesome support crew

I carefully planned this route to avoid awful hills. There were a few bits of uphill but they weren't as bad as last week and they were much earlier in the run, meaning that when I was struggling at the end I didn't also have to cope with a literal uphill battle... 

Consequently the route was a little boring - out and back along the footpath to Harpenden - but my support crew kept me in a much better mood than I managed last week! The difference it makes having people with me is immense. The conversation and the company from my guys kept the smile on my face most of the way around. 

The weather was cold but not as cold as I'd been fearing, although the wind was pretty bitter along the more exposed sections of the path. I had a good moment when we overtook a pair of runners - who were also training for the marathon, as it turned out. It's quite nice to have people in your sights and chase them down...!

Even though the footpath is tarmac, and therefore slightly lower impact than concrete pavement, my knees were complaining towards the end and over the last couple of miles I was definitely slowing down. My thighs were aching too, so after stretching out and eating some hot, tasty food, I actually tried the cold water bath again. I cheated a little bit again, running hot water around my feet to stave off aching toe bones, but I stayed in the cold for a full 3 minutes. If that makes a shred of difference to my recovery speed, I shall report it here. 

When I signed up to the Reading Half Marathon (17th March) as part of my training I put down an estimated time of 2hours45. Judging by today, I'm now hoping to be able to beat that, and maybe even scrape in under 2hours30. 

Watch this space.

Ups and Downs

This is a long road to the marathon. 

On the one hand, I am probably the fittest I've ever been in my adult life. Today I ran 2.43 km in 15 minutes. I ran something close to that around this time last year - and then I had to lie down for five minutes to recover. Today I simply carried on with my gym session. 

This is good for me...

Another benefit: I decided a little while ago that as I was training for a marathon I was going to eat whatever I damn well wanted to. No, I'm not eating junk food - my recipes at the moment include lots of pasta for the carbohydrates and lots of chicken for the lean protein. But I'm also not feeling even a shred of guilt about succumbing to a mid-afternoon chocolate bar. And I'm definitely eating more than I would normally. 

I like being this fit. I like having lost 5kg since I started training. I like fitting back into those trousers. I like eating what I want. 

On the other hand, I'm blooming tired of exercising. 

Every other day I'm going out for a run, or climbing onto the treadmill for a run, or going to the gym to do my cross-training and strength work to support my running. Sometimes - especially after a long day at work and when it's a cold evening - I really just want to go home and curl up on the sofa. But I go to the gym and run. 

... this is not.

I'm also sick of the winter. Last weekend's weather was lovely for running as far as I was concerned: sunshine and cool air. This weekend is looking much more wintery. I will be running in layers, hat and gloves again. Bah, humbug. 

Still, I have recently begun to rethink my stance on never running again after April. I have no doubt that immediately following the marathon I will be extremely anti-running. But after that... Well, being able to run five miles in an hour without curling up and gasping for breath is a nice level of fitness to be at. Running is probably the best way to keep it up. 

No promises, though.

Long Run is Long

Today's run: 10.5 miles / 16.9 km in 2:02:33.
Injury check: All clear.
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I didn't have a training buddy today, which was a little bit daunting. This was going to be a long run and I knew it was going to be harder doing it on my own. Still, it was a nice day to try: there was blue sky above me and the sun even had some heat in it. 

I made a good start, through town and out down the picturesque trail towards Harpenden. I was running a 10mins20/mile pace and actually quite enjoying it all. And while there was no-one around I was singing silently along to my music without a care in the world. At the 4 mile mark I turned around and headed back the way I'd came, and then on around a loop past the airport and towards home.

I was doing pretty well all the way up to 7 miles. At which point I faced a good deal of Bad Gradient. Whereas last week I carefully planned the route to avoid uphills, this week I didn't. There was only really one proper uphill. But it was a nasty one:

Yep, that one right there. I did not enjoy that. 

After that hill this run became quite a slog. I was beginning to tire a bit and the hill, combined with turning into the wind and the sun going in, took a toll on my energy and my cheerfulness. I was much more grumpy for the rest of the run.  

Tunes!

The good lessons from today: I can make it around 10.5 miles, even on my own. And although I slowed down from the fast early pace - especially on the hills - I still made a pretty good time. I was hoping to scrape in under 2 hours, but the slow slog after the hill (and having to repeatedly stop to stretch out a stitch) stole those minutes from me and I just didn't have enough left in the tank to claw them back.

However, one of the worst things about running on your own is that it's so much easier to stop! Not even the Super Running Tunes I'd specifically picked for the end of my playlist could inspire me enough past mile 9, as my legs began to ache and tiredness crept up on me, and I did walk for a few metres here and there.

I mapped the run surprisingly well, finishing only twenty metres from my doorstep. By then I was definitely worn out but I wasn't suffering as much as I did last week. I think the energy gels and the isotonic drink I'd taken instead of water probably helped, as did the fact that the wind chill wasn't so bad today. I also made sure I ate some good recovery snacks while I was cooling down and stretching: a microwaved sausage roll followed by a banana and honey sandwich. Yum.

So, it was hard work. But I ran 10.5 miles in two hours. Ergo: I'm writing this one up as a win. 

Filling in the Gaps

Injury check: All clear.
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This week I ran twice at the gym: 

• 30 mins that included hills
• 2 km, which took just under 13 mins

These sort of times / distances don't really feel like they warrant a post of their own any more - I'm just dropping them in here so you don't think I'm sitting with my feet up during the week and only running at the weekends. 

Onwards!

9 miles

Today's run: 9 miles / 14.48 km in 1:40:00.
Injury check: All clear.
Training buddy: Rob.
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I've decided to track my distances in miles from now on, so this was a bit of a jump from the 12 k / 7.5 miles of last week. 

I had company again, to help me through. Rob isn't really a runner, so he accompanied me on his bike. Sort of like a coach, cycling alongside an athlete in training. It wasn't much of a workout for him, but it worked really well for me.

Only the good type of gradient in this route.

I felt pretty good throughout, especially given that I donated blood yesterday. I made up some sugary snacks (mashed banana + honey) to keep me going, and Rob counted off the miles and kept me updated on my speed. 

The weather was almost perfect for me, too. Cool enough that I didn't overheat but not so cold that I complained about it.

The Knee behaved itself, The Ankle was good. I had to pause at one point to stretch out a hamstring but otherwise the legs were fine, beyond the expected exercise-induced ache as I worked through the miles.

However, after the run, I crashed pretty hard. Shivery, faint, pale. The distance had obviously taken more out of me than I thought. Luckily Rob was still there to give me a hot drink and feed me crisps until I was back to normal. 
The moral of this story: do not go for a 9 mile run the day after giving a pint of blood. 

However, I did manage 9 miles in good time and at a good pace. So, overall, I'm calling this a win.

Totalled

As requested by one of my favourite people, I've created a cumulative distance graph that totals up all of my training runs so far: 

Can you spot when the post-summer "serious" training began?

To date I have covered 112 miles. Apparently that's most of the way from Luton to Portsmouth.

It'll be interesting to see how many miles I can accumulate by M-Day (as I will now be referring to the 21st of April...).

Long, Hard Slog

Today's run: 12 km / 7.46 miles in 1:25:41.
Injury check: Pain. All of me. 
Running buddy: Robert.
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This was a hard run. 

The world was not kind today. Yes, there were hills in the route - and they were nasty in places. There was one around 8km that I would have stopped and walked up if I'd been on my own (thank you, Robert). 

But it was the wind that sapped my strength today. Bitterly cold on exposed fingers for the first couple of kilometres, and occasionally gusting with the kind of power that you have to lean into when you're walking against it. Running against it was not fun at all. 

And then there was the pain. Not actually from the bad knee - although it did twinge a couple of times towards the end. Mostly it was the other leg: twinges in my ankle, pain in my 'good' knee, aches in my thigh and hip. Since it was essentially all of my good leg that was complaining by the end, I think I can put most of this down to the fact that unless I'm really concentrating I still seem to favour my bad (left) leg in an uneven stride. And I also have poor enough posture that my lower back aches after long runs. 

Basically the last 4km were simply an exercise in not stopping - it was a very slow "run" by that point. 

Afterwards I briefly considered sitting in a cold bath to numb my various aches and pains. And then I decided not to and had a hot bath instead. Much nicer. 

Prediction: I will ache tomorrow.

Hills Are Good

Today's run: 4.23 km / 2.63 miles in 30:00.
Injury check: All clear.
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Hills!

Today I tried this instruction from my running plan: "Hills: 30mins inc 4x3min hills, 1min recovery". So, three minutes of running up a hill, then a minute running back down, then three minutes running up again. And repeat. 

I actually enjoyed this more than I thought I was going to. 
Let me present my five steps to hill running success:

1. Find a hill. Not a problem, as I live on a hill.

2. Start with 5 mins warm up around the park at the bottom of the hill. Then begin uphill run. The warm up was definitely required today, as the wind was rather bitter. 

3. Pass my flat on the second uphill section. And the second downhill section. And the third uphill section. Repeatedly covering the same ground did get a bit old. 

4. Run out of hill before finishing run. Oddly enough, I didn't expect this - my hill seems really long when I'm walking up it. I lengthened the downhill section and turned up the parallel road, which was a bit twistier and longer and - it turns out - steeper.

5. Listen to good music. I loaded up a playlist full of pumping tunes, the last of which was Starships by Nicki Minaj. Such a good running tune. It spurred me into a sprint over the last flat section of the end loop of my run - so much so that when I turned the corner and spied my flat I still had a couple of minutes of the tune left. So what did I do? I carried on running, turning up the hill a final time. Yes, I sprinted up the hill. Not for long, obviously. Still felt good though.


I can see why hill running is good for building up endurance - by the last uphill stretch I had that burning feeling in my lungs that lets you know you're really working hard. 

I will be doing this again. I just need to find a longer hill...