Hitting 850 miles the day after the Brighton Marathon

I’ve now added pictures to the post on the Brighton Marathon, click here to see them

So after a fairly good night’s sleep I woke up this morning a little stiff but in better shape than I expected. Interestingly, the stiffness is more muscle soreness than shin splints so I’m hoping I have broken the shin splints back!

Laura tried to convince me to run later in the day to give my legs more chance to rest but I knew that unless I forced myself to get out of bed and go, it would get harder as the day went on.

I squeezed myself into some compression tights to help ease the soreness, through on a tee shirt and was off for about 7am and the three miles pretty much replicated yesterday’s race.

At first I was a little stiff but a third of the way hit my stride and started going faster. After two miles though I hit a mini wall where I started to question myself and what the hell I was doing. It brought back more memories of yesterday where from about mile 19 everything just blurred in a kaleidoscope of colours and a cacophony of sound. I remembered back to the race where some of the spectators started to annoy me.

There was one guy who, somewhere around the power station mark was stood between the runners going and coming back and was shouting at people to high five him, if they didn’t, he gave them abuse. I wanted to high five him, with the knuckles on my fist…

I also recalled people stopping to stretch out or starting to walk and I was determined to not stop and continue on for fear that if I stopped, I would never start again.

And with that thought in mind, I pushed on for another half a mile until I got to 2.5miles, where things got easier again… this running lark is really played out all in the head.

Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 3
Target: 636
Miles to date: 850.37

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One forward and two back

I was feeling pretty good after yesterday’s run… hardly any pain at all, which saw me forgo my evening session of icing the bits that hurt: big mistake as when I went out this morning, I felt stiffer than I have all week to the point where I had to leave the on-road route I was going to do and head over to the softer ground on Norbury Park for some relief.

My running shades have come though and I tried them out on the run and they seem to be pretty good. You shouldn’t really run in regular sunglasses, they’ll just steam up, but running or sports glasses have small openings at the top of the lens to stop this from happening. The last thing you need is to not see where you’re going.

I’d looked around and searched the internet for advice and most people tended to think, the higher priced you go, the better the quality. I got a pair of these cheap DHB ones from Wiggle – just £15,99 each and I cant think why people would want to spend any more: they keep the sun out, are lightweight, UV treated and, crucially, non slip. What else do you need?

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

Miles today: 3
Target: 540
Miles to date: 706.56

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

Trying to plan ahead to the upcoming races

After yesterday’s mammoth, I left it till the early evening to go out and run today, which is a shame as after a lovely sunny day, it was getting chilly again.

I decided to run Streatham Common to get some hills back into the training and actually felt surprisingly good though, naturally, a little stiff. At about 1.7 miles I had a bit of a scare when my right knee just locked up but I stopped for a minute, stretched it out and it was fine. Cramp around the knee? That’s a new one.

I’ve also not mentioned much about nutrition on here (other than the occasional hangover run!) but I am trying my best in the run up to the upcoming Water Of Life Half Marathon at Bisham Abbey this weekend and the Brighton Marathon in five weeks. One of the things I have introduced after most runs is a smoothie: half pint of milk, a banana, punnet of blueberries and a scoop of Maximuscle Promax protein shape all go into the blender… I figure it’s got carbs, protein and antioxidants in spades and doesn’t taste half bad either.

I’ve also been indulging in my running consumerism ahead of the race. With the sun out yesterday, i had a few of those bits where when you walk or run past a fence, it has a strobe affect and no I’ve ordered some cheapish running sunglasses from Wiggle to try out… I also ordered a hydration pack that stores about 2 litres of fluid in a bum bag with a hose to drink from during long runs.

I’m not sure how much use it will get but running with a bottle, either in hand or in a belt is a pain. The hydration pack should, theoretically, sit in the lumbar of the back making it easier to carry. I’ll let you know how it fares when it turns up.

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

Miles today: 3
Target: 531
Miles to date: 697.56

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