Forgot to add that I'm in one piece despite falling on black ice 'arse over tit' today in the car park at work...Hopefully the skiing will be an injury free experience too!!!

It's getting better

I must have passed some unknown stage in the training schedule which allows you to run pain free for a while ---my legs seem to have adapted and I've had not nearly as much calf soreness despite running faster and longer and more frequently. It's great. Not particularly enjoying running in sub zero temperatures or watching carefully so that I don't slip on ice and break my leg - but I'm loving the increasing level of fitness and the feeling of achievement after each long run - the last one was 9 miles, 9 MILES!

It's a funny old business this running malarky. The pains come and go. Just when you think you've got a serious tear, the pain evaporates into thin air. Then you can have a great run when you feel like you've mastered something, you're on top of the world. Then suddenly you're running for 10 minutes and you feel like stopping cos you've got a stitch and it's painful and you're just not feeling it. So it's hard to get any consistency.

I've also starting to realise how much comittment it involves. There's no messing with the schedule. Woe betide you if you miss a long run....all the pressure of the race, the charity you're running for, the expectations of friends and family, the pride...makes you just get out there and do it. I've run in snow, heavy icy winds, rain...all for the cause ;-)

I'm off to Lille this weekend for a 40th birthday party (not mine yet!) and I'm thinking of when will be the best time to fit in my long run - it affects everything you do. Prospect of running in Lille is a good one though - change of scenery will stop the boredom that creeps in occassionally when running my 10 k Grove Park/Bromley/Catford circuit.

Two things I must be careful of: too much rich French food, and too much wine...
I'm constantly hungry and feeling justified in eating huge amounts of pasta and anything else which takes my fancy. I'm beginning to think that I'll end up putting weight on rather than trimming down on the tummy flab. We'll see.

Tights! Not American Tan though ;-)

Well it has been a while due mainly to:

• lack of motivation
• injury
• demoralisation
• festivities
• indulgences
• complacency

but I'm BACK!....Was having niggles late November. First it was my knees - changed my shoes, problem got sorted. No more knee niggles at all. However right calf niggles have replaced the knee niggles. I think that late November I think I did myself an injury by upping my training too much. So I rested for two weeks and then just took it really really slowly. For the three weeks over the xmas period I just contented myself with doing my long Sunday run. So far, this has equated to 10km in about 1 hour, which I'm happy with.

This evening went for a 4 mile run in sub zero temperatures. I was tempted to go to the gym however the arrival on my new New Balance running tights and jacket spurred me on to give them the cold test. Result? I was fecking freezing, the running tights seemed to have no effet whatsoever on the cold...hardly worked up a sweat which was weird. But I enjoyed the run and found it very easy. I guess the challenge for me now is to build up slowly.

Went to see a physio this evening to get my calf muscle checked out. Thankfully there doesn't seem to be any worrying underlying problem. He explained that the injury I did late November may have healed and left scar tissue that is now becoming painful. So I had it massaged and fingers crossed all is OK!

The challenge really is on now...there's no going back and my charity party in Wales in booked for the 7th of March. Cousins in Scotland have even booked flights! Scary!

Rest

I've been resting my poor legs for the last week....and as a consequence reverted to bad eating and drinking habits :-( Reason? Had quite sore shins after my last long run and a stabbing sharp pain in my right calf muscle. I think I upped the mileage and the intensity of my running too quickly AND I ran a lot on pavement. So that was a good lesson to me.

My right calf muscle is still twitching slightly but I've discovered the stairs calf stretch which is working wonders for me...

Today went for 5.5km run at a slow speed (8.5km/hr) and felt fine. I'm relieved that I didn't get any stabbing pains and my shins are no longer sore.

All I have to do now is manage to up the intensity very slowly so that I don't do this all over again.

And I must start drinking more water and less tea AND cut out the sweet stuff and the alcohol. I was doing sooo well too.

Ah well, all part of life's rich tapestry I guess ;-)

50 minutes - Ouch!

Decided to do a longer run today at a slower pace as advised by all the marathon training programmes. I find it really hard to run slowly. (well slowly at my level - obviously it's all relative!) Went to the local park again and did about 6 circuits then back to the house. Didn't feel too bad. I've been stretching like mad all the time as my hamstring and calf muscles are tight. Towards the end of this run my left knee was feeling niggly and my calf muscles felt as though they were on the verge of cramping but everything else was fine - I felt strong from a cardio vascular perspective - which is heartening ;-)

Got home, stretched for 15 minutes and will stretch again later. Have uploaded my trusty Garmin stats to Training Centre : 50 min - 8.04KM - average speed 9.6KM and average HR 144 bpm (166 is my max). Would have liked my heart rate to be less, but pleased on the whole with the run. It's going to be interesting to see how my legs fair over the next few days.

All this and had 5 guests for dinner last night which I cooked I might add ( main course AND dessert)...I was very good though and didn't drink very much at all. Did treat myself to my own Tiramisu which is excellent (I can't lie).

Loving the Garmin

Got a Garmin for my birthday so don't yet know how to use it properly but am majorly impressed with it so far. I've done two runs recently with it and when you've finished you can upload your run information into Training Centre (software on your PC) and it shows you all sorts of stats, heart rate, pace, calories - very useful.

I'm finding that the runs I do outside ie not on treadmill, are generally faster. Usually at the gym I only do 9.5km/per hour max. But I'm averaging, 10km when out running in the park with what feels like, no extra effort - strange.

Really enjoying the running, and my knees always feel slighly niggly but not really any pain at all.

Ran for 40 minutes today at what I thought was an easy pace - and I could have continued running quite easily for another 20 minutes I think. Don't want to push it though.

Wasn't going to go out tonight as stuffed from eating like a piggy this weekend with our French guests, but after the run this morning, feeling very energetic and looking forward to a nice meal somewhere....maybe Blackheath.

a longer run

Well after not getting around to running in Paris over the weekend (mixture of knees hurting and hangover) I went to the gym yesterday in the new shoes and ran for 45 minutes on the treadmill - that's the longest I've run for a while - around 7km. I felt fine, was just wondering the whole way through the run when my knees were going to give way - but they didn't! And today my knees and legs feel tired but absolutely fine. Maybe it's stopping running that hurts your knees rather than the other way around ;-)
Got my new Garmin now, got my new shoes, no more excuses. Although I still have managed to avoid the early morning runs.