I could do without days like today

Well it’s too bloody hot for a start but aside from all that, things have been progressively nigglingly horrid for most of the day.

As part of my PT course, I’ve been learning about dose-response curves. Basically, this means there is a response every time you give a dose of something. So when you exercise (dose), the response is positive. Or at least it is for a while. The more you exercise and put demands on your body, the more likely you are to reach a peak of optimum fitness and then the curve starts to come down again. It’s basically overtraining.

Over the last week or so, I feel I’m coming down on the other side of that curve. It’s not that I have reached optimum fitness but without rest for my muscles to recover, I am starting to show some classic signs of overtraining. Lots of little niggles, tired and lethargic, performance dropping… I also feel mentally shot as well.

I’ve been so busy the last couple of weeks and combined with the course, it’s starting to prove tough.

This morning, I totally misread my clock when I got up, went for a six mile run into Croydon and back and then got home with ten minutes to get ready before I then had to go to a session for my PT course – and as I was so late, the only way to get there in time was to take the bike and cycle.

All was well and good until a half mile from the Bankside gym where we study when I got a flat. No worries, I can fix it at lunchtime I thought. And I did. When I went back to class, I’d plugged the puncture, blown the tire back up and still managed to grab a quick sarnie before our 45 minutes were up.

At the end of the day, I was going to pop in an see my step mum. She’s been pretty lonely since dad died four years ago and it is her birthday today. She loves to read so I got here the three Stig Larsson Millennium Books and a card , crammed them into my back pack, unlocked the bike and found the flat was back.

For the next 45 minutes I tried to puncture repair it but being impatient to get off, I don’t think I was giving the patch enough time to weld before trying to pump it back up. Four times I took the inner tube out, stuck the patch back on and four times it went flat. Every time, the hole got a little bigger.

In the end I gave up, pushed the bike a mile and a half to London Bridge and went to see Evans there. Evans are a large cycle shop chain in the south East and where most people buy bikes through their work’s Ride To Work scheme, where the government subsidise payment by not taxing the purchase. Normally, your work will pay for the bike and you pay them back over time.

It’s a nice scheme and where I got my bike from but I have to say, that in my experience they are an absolute rubbish company. I have never been into one of their shops and not felt as though I was treated somewhere one level up from Pond Life… and today was no different. The guy behind the counter took one look at the fact the puncture was on the rear tyre, saw that I had hub gears, which makes the wheel harder to remove, sucked his teeth in and said: ‘Sorry mate, too busy.’

Luckily, down the road at London Bridge called On Your Bike who are excellent and I can not recommend highly enough. The chap and a young Aussie lass who looked after me were excellent. The guy showed me how to take the back wheel off, she helped me change the inner tube and blow it up and off  I went…. as far as Oval.

Yes, I got three miles before another bloody puncture hit. And I gave up, calling Laura and moaning at her to come and pick me up, which she did, bless her.

I turned up at my step mums, nose burnt, covered in sweat and grease, aching all over and with my price also punctured.

Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a route map and details of the run

Miles today: 6
Target: 882
Miles to date: 1,165.61

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

1150th mile

Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a route map and details of the run

Miles today: 4.2
Target: 873
Miles to date: 1,150.81

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

A thousand and ninety five apologies

I went out for drinks and dinner with my best bud Dave tonight and he told me a few home truths about this blog: ‘Dude, it’s getting boring,’ he said. And he’s right. I know it is… and I am sorry. All I can say is try finding 249 ways of making running three miles sounds interesting.

I’m sure it could be done, but it’s likely you would have to be much more of a creative writer than I am. In fact, if you were, you might not have the bloody mindedness I do to carry on running, so I guess it’s horses for courses…

I try and find something interesting every day that might pique everyone’s tastes, but the truth is, sometimes  I even bore myself with the running, never mind the writing, so if it occasionally feels like a slog to the reader, imagine how it feels to me, the writer and the runner.

Anyway, another bought of self pitty over… Today’s run was quite tough …

Yesterday afternoon, I had a mole removed from my head, they are pretty sure it’s not cancerous but will be doing a biopsy, just to make sure. 18 months ago, there was nothing there, then a small patch, then a bigger bulge, then what looked like a flesh coloured kidney bean hanging off my head.

My GP decided it was best to go. So she sent me to a specialist who then referred me to have it taken off at St Thomas’s in Waterloo. The three nurses who removed it – they don’t use docs anymore – took four injections to numb the area, then the lead nurse, drew a circle round it with a scalpel and then lopped it off with a razor blade. She then used what felt like a hot poker to cauterise the wound, before scraping it all out and cauterising again…

I was doing some media training this morning so had an early start but I had been told to take at least 24 hours before getting it wet so I decided to leave the run til the afternoon.

Of course, by then, the sun had come back out (it was a pretty poor morning) and so it was much hotter and I was much sweatier and that sweat started getting into the wound making it more annoying.

To compound this and the sweat running in my eyes, about a mile in I came across a new running ailment… two flies went down my throat as I ran. After doing a small sick, which revealed one of them to still be crawling, I managed to carry on with an icky feeling in my tummy and a head feeling like someone had stubbed a fag out on it.

Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a route map and details of the run

Miles today: 3
Target: 747
Miles to date: 983.77

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

Now with added shin splints

So I feared the worst when I went to see Lillian, the sports masseuse at Virgin Active in Streatham yesterday and she confirmed it within seconds of touching my legs. ‘You’re starting to get shin splints.’

It’s the two words most runners dread and, having suffered before, I knew the telltale signs were there all week: a slight burning soreness  on the inside of my calves and aching shins, to the point where I’ve done most of the week’s runs at snail pace and, at times, even hobbled.

She went to work on them for 45 minutes, pummeling and rubbing away, stretching my legs one way and then the other… but I still went home slightly dejected. It’s a feeling that was compounded this morning when I woke up and could still feel the pain… Anyone who has read about Lillian before will know that she’s performed magic when I thought my streak might come to an end, but even her expert help had not done its job.

As I hobbled down London Road and back this morning, I made a decision on the Brighton Marathon. I have three weeks and four long runs to go according to my programme, but I am going to forsake tomorrow’s long run that was to be a 22 miler. I will then just do gentle three milers all week and monitor the progress. I’m hoping the ‘rest’ from the long run may help things calm down a little.

Miles today: 3
Target: 567
Miles to date: 744.07

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

Overwhelmed by peoples’ genorosity

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

I won’t harp on about this every post otherwise the blog will become more about fundraising than about the challenge… but I’m overwhelmed that, with Gift Aid, I’ve already raised more than £700. Thanks so much to all that have donated and to all those that haven’t… get your fingers out

Last night, I finally gave in and after three days of not taking any Ibuprofen, I slipped a couple before bedtime. This morning, the legs felt looser than in days, still a little bit of grief but not even a quarter as bad as yesterday. Was it the Ibuprofen that did it or time? I’m not sure but it made today’s run on the treadmill at Virgin Active much easier.

I’ve also taken my running quests a little further and signed up for this year’s Athens marathon on October 31 (six weeks after this challenge ends). This year is the 2,500th anniversary of Greek messenger Pheidippides running from the Battle of Marathon to Athens to declare victory over the Persians. He promptly said ‘Nikee’ (which means victory and is where the Nike brand comes from), keeled over and died… Lets hope I don’t have a similar fate.

Click here for details of the day’s run

Miles today: 3.13
Target: 561
Miles to date: 738.07

DOMs could leave me feeling jolly?

Okay – so, I know it’s a dreadful pun… but ome interesting comments from Ben and Steve on yesterday’s post about delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) (see them here).

Basically when you run, your muscles are being forced to lengthen when they want to contract, which is why you get pain and stiffness afterwards as the muscles suffer small tears when doing this. Once healed though, theoretically, the muscle fibres should grow back stronger, which could mean my body will eventually right itself.

Whatever is going on with the legs, they certainly feel better than they did this time last week – and that was before I ran 18.5 miles at the weekend – so hopefully Im catching up with myself.

I ran – resplendent in my new 1095miles.com top  - today around Norbury Grove, a stretch of green between here are Norbury where the ground is pretty soft giving my legs some respite from pounding the pavements. I’d also gone out later in the afternoon, just to try and give the legs an extra few hours kip, but had not figured school out time into the equation – cut loads of laughter from a few feriles at my running tights.

A couple of girls really took the biscuit though…

One of them shouted ‘Excuse me’ as I ran past and asked me if I would pretend to be her teacher, call her dad and pretend that she had been in school yesterday. I was tempted to just nab the Blackberry she thrust in my general direction and run off (it was a nice one, she was about 14, she doesn’t really need a Blackberry) but of course, I just fumbled some excuse about not being able to lie on her behalf and carried on running with her shouts of ‘Please, please’ echoing somewhere behind me.

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 3
Target: 516
Miles to date: 666.1

Want to dedicate a run to someone or have one dedicated to you? Click here

The first run after the first half marathon

In the excitement of finishing the Porstmouth Coastal Half Marathon yesterday, I totally failed to notice I have now run more than 600 miles in the last five months!

Today was pretty tough – Im shifting at a private jet company, working on their customer and staff mags and so had to be up early… My legs, particularly the left, were stiff, my blisters hurt and it was chucking it down with really nasty rain.

I dragged myself out of bed though, had a banana, some water and a couple of Ibuprofen and went out in in. The first steps were agony but, by the end of the road, I started to feel a little looser.

As the rain drove down, I trundled no… ages slower than yesterday. By the middle mile though, I was feeling pretty good. The cold was numbing my legs against the pain and I was back in my old worn in trainers to combat the blisters. Even the rain didn’t seem to matter… in fact, I actually like running in rain, there’s something about it that makes you feel like you are really pushing yourself.

Hopefully the rest of the week, if I take it slow, will be easier

Click here for a Google map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 3.01
Target: 468
Miles to date: 606.19

Want to dedicate a run to someone or have one dedicated to you? Click here

Sometimes you just don’t feel like running…

… and today was one of them.

On top of a slight cold I’m sure I got by taking an ice bath after Sunday’s 15 miler, my legs are still slightly sore from that run and my chest muscles ache from a weights session at the gym yesterday.

To top it all, I hardly slept last night and gave in at around 4am to take a melatonin tablet which is meant to release sleep inducing hormones – cue me almost not being able to get up this morning and feeling like I have no energy all day.

I was supposed to do a speed session this afternoon as part of my training regime for Brighton but I just didn’t feel like it (plus I was worried about the legs) and so I did an easy 3miler around Streatham Common.

Unlike my mood, at least the sun was out as I set off on the route which takes me straight into a massive climb. I wasnt too fussed about the steepness as at least it slowed me down but on the way back, when running on the Common itself, it was ludicrous. The heavy rain from last night was still running down the grass (water on Streatham Common gathers from the Downs I believe) which was waterlogged and had me slipping and sliding all the way back.

I’ve never been more glad to see the front door but I guess day’s like today come to test the resolve. I managed to grit the teeth and carry on and, as a reward, ordered some new trainers ready for the big Brighton push.

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 3
Target: 453
Miles to date: 579.05

Want to dedicate a run to someone or have one dedicated to you? Click here

Ouch, ouch, ouch

Really stiff from yesterday’s 15miler and my left calf has quite an ache, so I spent today’s run going very, very slowly on the treadmill at the gym. Ice and paracetamol on their way to help out…

Click here for full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 3.01
Target: 447
Miles to date: 572.94

Want to dedicate a run to someone or have one dedicated to you? Click here

Back on the Brighton road in Blighty

After a week running in Walt Disney World, it was back to the UK today … sapped of energy after an eight hour flight that was one of the bumpiest I’ve ever flown.

A day off Valentine’s and with no decent cards in America, I ended up coinciding the run with a bit of VD shopping in Norbury as I ran through so a couple of stops were in order: one to withdraw cash and one to buy the card.

Now I just want to get to sleep… I’ve a 15mile run tomorrow to get back on the training for the Brighton Marathon and I feel shattered.

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 3
Target: 441
Miles to date: 554.93

Want to dedicate a run to someone or have one dedicated to you? Click here