York - Week 6

After yesterday's long run I was expecting the legs to grumble a bit today but no major issues.

A manic day at work with back to back appointments, yoghurt for breakfast, mushrooms for lunch, mushrooms for tea and then off to the gym with the kids at 7pm.

This week I was sensible and just did some spinning on the bike for 20 mins and then a cross trainer workout for 15 mins.  I'm desperate have a go on the standy up rowing machine pulley handles type machine, it's probably got a different name but that's what I'd call it.  Have no idea how to use it and will probably make a tit of myself so will leave it for now.

Highlight of the gym tonight was a young lad cranking up the speed on the treadmill and then trying to stand on whilst it threw him back halfway across the gym, he did this twice.

It was hilarious.

Easy miles today and the sun is shining.

Out early for 10k up to Tynemouth and back and then back home for work. 

Bit of a boring day really but then Gail suggested the pub after work which was a superb idea and this is why I love my wife.

My hip hurts.

My groin hurts.

They both hurt towards the end of yesterday's threshold run and they hurt even more running up to Foxhunters, it's actually pretty painful and I was doing 10 mins miles to avoid over striding and I was a bit worried.

Sensible thing today is to take a rest day but....

I wanted to loosen it off, spent half an hour doing some trigger point on myself which really hurts, no idea why people pay me to do this on them.  Then headed out for 4 miles easy, it felt okay, did some hills steady to stretch it out and then easy mile back home and no issues.

Spent Friday night doing more trigger point which still really hurt and then the usual voltarol, deep heat bedtime routine that becomes a standard part of my marathon training.

Planning on parkrun tomorrow but it'll be an easy one, 8 min miles with a couple of efforts up the hills to test the hip before Sunday's 16 miler

Today's it's 2 mile easy warm up and then 14 miles aerobic pace. 

Planned out a very rough route that I guessed would be about right and off I went.

Had Garmin pace screen on for the easy 2 miles and kept the pace steady, then flicked the screen off and started the 14 miles.

I have, what I've now discovered is a weird way of doing my long runs but it works for me.

Firstly, I don't have a planned route as such, I work out a very rough one that I think will be about the mileage I want and then I run.  I add little loops  here and there and skip bits here and there and occasionally completely change it midway through.  I have been known to get very lost but that adds to the fun.

The other apparently 'weird' thing I do is I change the screen on my Garmin to something pointless.  I am a bit obsessed about staring at my watch and my current choices is a compass, it satisfies my need to look at the screen but gives zero useful information.

I don't want to know how far I've ran.

I don't want to know how far I've got left to run.

I don't want to know how long I've been running.

I don't want to know how fast I'm going. 

All those things annoy and stress me, so I ignore them and just run. 

Today I wanted to run 14 miles around 8:30-8:45 pace and my splits were between 7:53 and 8:43 so I'm happy with that.  The 7:53 was the last mile because I wanted some coke, I decided not to have lager for breakfast today.

And now I'm going to have a rant because it's my blog and I can.

Pedestrians are twats.

All of them.

If you're walking along the pavement and there are 4 of you and you see a lone runner heading your way and he's at the edge of the pavement, what do you do?

That's right you stand your fucking ground, you force me into the road and into traffic because God forbid you'd have to stop your conversation for 15 seconds and leave a gap for me to pass safely.

And yes you were right, I did call you a fucking dick because you are one and so was your elderly mother.

Oh and couples out on a romantic walk, yep you just keep holding hands and walk right in the centre of the pavement because as we know if you let go of each other your partner will naturally fall in love with the sweaty fucking mess that is me running along and instantly run off with me, arseholes.

And whilst your all at it, why not all use extendable dog leads. 

Make sure it's ones of the massive ones, maybe 10m or so and ideally pay zero fucking attention to where your dog is and who else is around whilst your dog is 10m away, and don't bother getting a high Viz one that I might have a slight chance of seeing, just go for black that blends on perfectly with the tarmac path and then have your dog on the grass and you walk next to the road and go on your phone whilst you're at it, perfect, thanks.

It's time for us runners to reclaim the streets, big crowds of us on a Sunday morning steaming through the pedestrians, dogs flying all over the place, pushing people over, Ben would be in his element.

Twats. 

Anyway the run was good, hit the distance and pace I wanted and swore at some people and going to the pub and for a curry tonight so all is good.

Apart from pedestrians, they're twats.

And to clarify, I love dogs, I just hate the owners.

All previous blogs are available to read HERE