advertisement


The runners' thread... (part II)

Coming out of PFM (semi?) retirement to say training is going well, Path of Condie HM done on Saturday past, Kirkcaldy HM this Sunday, no major niggles and focused on my big prize, two months from tomorrow
 
Forgive me for I have sinned blah blah....until yesterday I hadn't run at all during August. But have been doing other things (walking, downhill mountain biking pretty much every day) so keeping fit. Have a half marathon in September, and am currently in the Alps for a few weeks so thought I'd better go out and try a bit yesterday. Am staying at about 6000ft and it's hilly.
Thought I may have acclimatized a little but no... - I struggle with running uphill at the best of times, but up here the air is a bit thinner and it was really hard work! Legs were saying yes but lungs were saying NO!
Put in 10 miles (2000ft climbing according to my mate Garmin) but was quite glad to finish it.
I actually finished with a bit of a sprint. Mainly because I could see a bus coming which avoided me having to crawl up the last 400ft climb to the apartment.. :)
 
Managed a bit better yesterday. The virus that laid me low pretty much as soon as I got back from Scotland is finally vanishing. Managed to get back on sub 1 hour 10k pace. Happy with that. Don’t think the two hour half is quite there, but circumstances allowing, 2:15 should be in reach. Depends on traffic and the people around though I guess.
 
sean99 said:
I'm visiting the UK in just over a week, and now this thread has me wondering if I need shots or to bring a mask :)

Sunday's triathlon combined a rather mediocre 1/2 mile swim (19 minutes in rather murky water - relieved I don't have the trots after the few mouthfuls I swallowed) with a pretty respectable bike leg 12.5 miles @ 21mph, and a great run leg (4.4 miles in 31:22). If only my swim had been better it would have been a good overall result - I think I know why my swim was slow, but since conditions were the same for everyone I don't really have any excuses. I guess I need to spend some more time in the pool.
Click to expand...

Was it a river swim? Because you spend longer crawling against the current than benefiting from it.
 
Ran (well...mainly ran, a bit of brisk uphill walking in places...) a half marathon this morning by mistake...but at least I know I can do the distance.
Thought I'd go for a fairly flat run (as far as it can be here), around 10 miles.. but didn't take a phone or map...took a wrong turn and ended up climbing another bloody mountain. Getting quite into this trail running thing.
It was a beautiful trail, fantastic views and didn't meet a soul on the way up.
Very knackered by the time I got back down again though...and the knees are now telling me I should have known better.
 
Nightmare run yesterday. At least I know now that the GNR cannot be as awful as that one.

Couldn’t go in the morning, so stupidly waited until 4:30, thinking it would cool down, it was 30 C in the shade. Had carefully drank plenty during the day, but had rather foolishly had a few pints the night before, and a pizza, and some red wine and maybe a whisky...

Anyway, got myself up and running, had to stop for a wee after about 6k, all is going well, stopped at 9k to buy some water, as per the plan. Then discovered it was so hot my Jelly Babies has melted into an inedible mush. I managed to extract a few, and continued. Still very hot. As I got back on the canal it became apparent that things weren’t great. I stopped for a bit more water, and was starting to feel very hot indeed. In a moment of rashness I took the decision to remove my shirt to try and continue. This was about the 14k mark. I slowly trotted in. Then I started to get the code brown feeling, shortly after I took my first runners dump behind a wall. Then as I started again, I started feeling very shivery, and just had nothing in the tank. I finished off mostly walking the last 4km. Another long session on the great white throne, followed by a pint of water and straight to bed. Woke at 2, had some more water. Woke up again at 5 when I was due to go off car-booting. Made it, but still feeling decidedly icky. Am glad there’s a decent long run in my training plan for next week. Hoping the GNR is not so hot in a fortnight.

On the positive side, I was 4lbs lighter this morning than yesterday morning!
 
Had a slightly better week, helped by getting a longer run in on Bank Holiday Monday, while in a normal week I have a rest day on Monday. A great lunchtime run on Thursday, one of the young guys went away at a fast pace, and we told him to do an extra loop and try to catch us on the way back to work. We all got back just ahead of him, in some the fastest times for that route. Had a nice run over the hills Sunday morning before it got too hot, going in to town and ending with breakfast at my favourite cafe, with wife and dog. Wife had driven in! Today, did just over 10 miles fairly slowly, so, total for the week to today is about 35 miles over 6 runs.

The coming week will be very disrupted, and I will struggle to get more than a couple of runs in. Win some, lose some.

I am opening negotiations about possibly doing a spring or winter ultra.
 
On hols ( hot ) with the kids. Planning to get one in most days before its too warm. Worked this morning. Planning on going a bit further tomorrow
 
Ran the local half on Sunday with my wife. Baking hot day, she did very well and I’m very proud of her achievement!! Felt a bit strange to be running at her pace but I (largely) resisted the temptation to show off
 
Tell me about gels and electrolyte drinks. After my recent crash and failure with Jelly Babies is it too late to think about them for the GNR? I tend to get very tired after about 90 mins of I don’t take something on board, but doing it too late seems to cause stomach issues.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top