Oh Manchester So Much To Answer For ...

Blog

Oh Manchester, So Much To Answer For
Week 7

Well, it's that time once again and it only feels like Amsterdam was 5 minutes ago, but here we go again ...

The week in numbers ...
Miles ran: 23.03
Gym visits: 0
Chocolate eaten: none
Alcohol drunk: 1 bottle of wine and 4 pints

Weight: 11st9lb

Monday 9th February

I had a thought this week about moving my rest days around.

I tend to skip a run on Friday because I'm always a bit knackered after a double Thursday session and always have one eye on the long run on a Saturday.

So it seemed to me that moving my rest day to Friday and doing easy miles on a Monday makes perfect sense as a recovery run before the heavy stuff starts and then Friday is rest day before the big weekend miles.

So I take today as a rest day. My phone keeps auto correcting 'rest' to 'twat' and I'm not sure if that's because I type twat a lot or it's trying to tell me something.

Anyway, I take a twat/rest day because, we'll probably because I'm a bit of a twat and refuse to take sensible advice even if it's me giving myself sensible advice.

I also don't want any chocolate or crisps all day.

Tuesday 10th February

The weather is bloody awful, it's raining, it's windy, it's cold.

It's track tonight after a busy work day and by 6pm I'm already pretty tired and not feeling up to any speedy running tonight. I layer up in 2 t shirts and 2 jackets, gloves and shorts and stick on the only dry pair of trainers I have which are my very old pro 4's, the metallic silver ones.

I head out for 5 miles warm up and within the first half mile my right heel is hurting, every time my foot hits the floor I feel it and the shoes are squeaky, very squeaky and I consider going home and changing them but can't be bothered.

Five miles done and I'm at the club and ready for the session, I contemplate dropping off B team and just running by myself but then I suck it up and stick in with B team. It's 6 x 800 with reducing recoveries and we're aiming for 2:56 to 3:12 for each 800m.

Here we go.

Rep 1 and I'm at the back and cross the line in 3:14 and it felt tough. I tell myself this is because I'm tired and decide on the next one to hang onto the group a bit closer. Rep 2 and it's quicker in 3:10 and I feel slightly better. Rep 3 and I work harder and it's a 3:02 and now the recovery drops by 30 seconds and I know the next one will hurt.

Rep 4 and it's a 3:07 and I finish closer with the group this time. Rep 5 and another 3:07 and now it's another 30 off the recovery and onto the last rep. As is the unwritten rule in the S&G group, last rep is eyeballs out and every(wo)man for themselves. At the front of the group we have Rich, Wendy and Vicky and these 3 ain't gonna slow up.

I give it all I've got, first lap I'm clinging on, I start to fade a little and then set my sights on Bex and just try and keep a consistent gap to her. Last 800 in 3:01 and were done.

Throughout the session I've gone from two shirts and two jackets to two shirts and one jacket to two shirts and finish with shorts a t shirt and I'm soaked through. I pick up my discarded clothes which are all drenched and put them all back on.

Rob asks me how many clothes I started the session with and I tell him he's lucky it's not the summer or I'd be finishing the session in my pants.

And let's face it, nobody wants to see that.

Not even me.

Wednesday 11th February

Busy day yet again and I feel knackered today.

Terrible night's sleep mainly because my legs is really sore, my heel hurts and my adductor on the same leg is really tender. I put this down to the trainer's and decide it's time to retire them. I shed a tear as I love these shoes, they're all silver and shiny and got me my marathon PB in York.

Now of course the beauty of retiring a pair of shoes is that I get to buy some new shoes or of course I could just use some of the other shoes I have. Decisions, decisions....

Have you seen the new EVO SL Bob Marley yellow trainers ? Yeah, me too. Shoes, shoes, lovely, lovely shoes.

What about the super bright pink Evo's? Oh god I love those.

Then I remember I already have a pair of Pro 4's that only have 26 miles on them.

And then I remember that I really like shoes.

Especially bright shoes.

I go for a run today, just 5 miles easy and it's raining and windy and cold and I hate every second of it. What I'd really like to do now is fly to the Canary Islands for a week of warm weather training. I have a look on Jet2 and it just depresses me. I hate the shitty grey weather, maybe that's why I love bright shoes so much? I have an aversion to dull grey things and love bright sunny things.

It's Wednesday and I still haven't eaten any chocolate or crisps and I haven't drank any wine.

Thursday 12th February

Big threshold session to get done today, I have time this morning so planning to take Murphy out early and then see what the weather's like and either do them on the seafront or head inland to the John Spence loop.

Take Murphy out. It's raining. It's grey. It's windy. It's miserable. It's cold. It's just shit, again.

I can't face it. I'm so sick of being cold and soaking wet and then having to come home and attempt to warm up and then work for the rest of the day. I have a real issue with being cold, I put it down to once being fat. I have no scientific basis for this but my theory is when I was fat I was well insulated and didn't really feel the cold, a bit like a whale and all that blubber. When I lost loads of weight which in total was over a third of my body weight I lost all that blubber and my body now goes into a bit of a shock reaction when I'm really cold. I get home and stand in the shower freezing and then put loads of layers on and sit shivering for the rest of the day.

There's something to be said about being fat and lazy.

So, in short I decide I just can't face it today. The club session tonight has thresholds in it so my plan instead is to go out at 6pm and do 6 miles before the club at a decent pace and then join D team for the intervals which will be threshold pace and then smash the run back to Whitley by myself and that should give me around 10 miles in total.

I head out for 5 miles easy before the session, it's windy yet again. As I'm running towards Cullercoats my eye starts to bother me, I have shitty eyes and my left one in particular always causes issues. Basically my cornea is badly scarred from a virus. Every so often it stings like mad and the only way to stop it is to squeeze my eyes shut and open them again. I do this often when running, it takes 1 second and usually fixes the issue. Today it wasn't going away, the 1 second shut eyes became 2 seconds and then 3 seconds and then I got thinking.

I wonder how long I can run with my eyes shut ?

I'm doing 8 min miles, a fair old pace up through Cullercoats, there's nobody on the path ahead so I shut my eyes and run. First try and I bottle it after a few seconds. Next time I get to about 5 and very nearly wiped myself out with a bin. Now I'm getting into it. Next time I get to 8 seconds but feel myself veering left and open them just in time before I ran into the fence. I want 10 seconds and I'm not stopping til I do it . A few more aborted attempts and then a wide path, it's clear ahead, no bins, no benches, no people.

Twelve bloody seconds. Pretty sure it's a world record. Finish my run and head to the club for the session feeling good about my shut eye running record.

Friday I will do some easy miles and then I should be a bit fresher for a 20 miler at the weekend.

Friday 13th February

I have a terrible night's sleep, spent the entire night tossing and turning and worrying.

Went to the club last night and was super sensible running in D team, stuck with them all the way out as planned, then we stopped and took our recovery and then it was threshold back.

My plan here was my usual threshold pace of around 7 minute mile pace all the way back.

I did the first mile in 6:20, it's way too quick and I need to slow down. The second mile I'm on 6:30 I felt good and this is what happens I guess on fresh legs that haven't done 20 miles already that day.

I've got about 20m left before the Sandcastles and then....

My left hamstring seizes up, super tight and I take a few more steps and realise it's not easing so I stop and walk the last little bit and wait for everyone else to finish.

I try to run a few steps home and it's really painful, I stop and start to walk. It starts raining and I'm freezing and having a little internal panic.

It's been sore all night and every time I move it seizes up. Get out of bed to have a look at it and panicked that it's going to be torn and have a huge bruise. There's no bruise, this is a good sign.

Up and walking on it is sore but not that bad so I'm confident it's not torn. I'm on my feet all day working but will also foam roll it and do some light stretching today. Today's run is not happening and I doubt this weekends long run will also happen.

I'm staying calm but internally I'm shitting myself.

In happier news I get an email from great run and they've picked me to be a GNR pacer this year, I'm doing the 1:45 shift which is 8 min miles which is my long run pace. I've ordered a Bluetooth speaker off Amazon and by lunchtime I've already created a playlist that I will be blasting out as I run. I may have to rejig this list a little as it's a bit on the sweary side and I'm thinking both 'smack my b**ch up' and 'killing in the name of' might have to be removed, I am however keeping 'shithouse' on and I will encourage my pacees to sing the chorus with me

I thought I was getting better

I must think I’m fucking Mickey mouse

This year’s been a belter

…SHITHOUSE

I thought I was getting better

I must think I’m fucking Cinderella

In the mind there lives a louse

…SHITHOUSE

It's a classic.

Saturday 14th February

Another bad night's sleep.

Wake up and walk downstairs and briefly consider doing parkrun but I can't walk properly and can't bend without a sharp pain in my hamstring.

Parkrun gets cancelled which saves me the problem of having to miss it or being an idiot and doing it.

Have an easy day walking round the shops and a couple of Valentine's pints of Guinness. By the evening my legs has eased a bit but if I bend over I still feel it pull sharply, still no bruising at the moment.

Not running tomorrow so I open a bottle of wine and we watch a film about a family's pet chimpanzee that goes mad and rips people's faces off, the perfect valentine's movie.

Sunday 15th February

No running today.

I've been thinking about best case and worse case scenarios.

Best case is I'm back running by Tuesday, that gives my legs 5 days rest and then I'm sorted and back. Then I start over thinking and this is never a good sign. What if it needs 2 weeks total rest? That means I'll have missed two long runs, two thresholds, a big mara pace run and Boro half where I was definitely going to PB. And then I'll have 8 weeks to try and get back up to 20 mile runs and 50/60 miles a week. I stop thinking as it sends me into a bit of a panic.

Outwardly I'm very good at keeping things together but internally I'm usually an absolute state and stuff like this just eats me up with over thinking and catastrophising every little detail. I think it's the duck analogy where everything above the surface is calm but underneath is a whole frantic shitshow.

Anyway, I've got an easy day today and going to do some more foam rolling and light stretching to help loosen it off. I've got a massage booked for a week Wednesday and I'm working on the basis of one week's full rest, one week to lift the mileage sensibly and one week to be back on it. I'll miss Boro half if I'm not upto distance by then and find a half later in the year to do. I did Amsterdam on 6 weeks training and I've done loads of miles already so this is not the crisis I'm convincing myself it is.

Breath, relax and stop thinking.

But I'm still panicking.

Yet again I didn't sleep last night, my neck seized up last night which caused me a horrendous headache. This is almost certainly because I'm so tense and stressed about this injury. Had planned a day out with Gail and I was feeling horrific, headache and feeling like I was going to vomit all day. We went out but came back early, she was worried about me and I'm not good at putting on a brave face. My body goes into a weird shock reaction when I'm not feeling good, I shiver uncontrollably and then start getting cold sweats, I've always done this. We came home and I fell asleep. Gail as always looks after me and wraps me up in blankets and I sleep for 2 hours.

I wake up and feel loads better, mainly thanks to Gail who looks after me. I'm shit at looking after myself, I forget to eat, I forget to drink and I just plod on and think it'll all pass over. I cook myself some tea as I haven't eaten all day and have a cup of coffee.

I have a couple of hours of sitting round eating and drinking and I'm feeling much better. I'm off out tonight to a gig and I really didn't want to miss this. Mainly because I'm going with Bain and that means we'll end up in the pit dancing around like a pair of twats who still think they're in their 20's.

My body will be paying the price for this tomorrow.

Everything said it's been a crappy week, after 5 weeks of 50-60 miles a week I'm back down to 20.

Let's see what next week brings.