Monday 30 April 2012

Balancing the Training Week

Its getting closer to Roth, adn the pressure is on to make sure I get the sessions in, theres also a group riding session that has started on a Monday that I'd like to do, but my priority has to be to keep Monday as my active rest day and go do yoga. I actually grabbed my left foot with both hands today, bent forward in a seated posture. Progress!

I also need to a lot more proprioception exercises after turning my ankle last weekend hill running - the stability in my right leg is woefully inadequate, and really, need to get strength in there if I don't want to mess up myself on the marathon leg, eh? So double points for yoga there with teh balance postures!

Sunday 29 April 2012

Aberfeldy / Pitlochry Weekend

So with me needing kilometers in on the bike and Alex wanting to reccie the Etape and Aberfeldy Middle Distance routes that she'll be tackling this year, a wee away trip was in order; I took the two routes, mashed them together and from the debris pulled together a 100km route starting from Aberfeldy and taking in the Etape route back over Schehallion, with an 80km route the next day following the Etape route, except for cutting out Loch Rannoch and popping over the Aberfeldy Middle return route over Shehallion.

Friday was a bit overcast with a nip to the air, but thanks to a reasonable number of layers, it felt good. My experiment with knee warmers worked a treat, as I didn't get the feeling that my knees were turning white at any point! The day progressed well and we were up the first climb of the day and down to Tummel Bridge in about an hour. We had started later than planned, so even though it was about lunchtime, the sandwich in Posts Taste was going to have to wait untill we got round Loch Rannoch. Taking turn about at the front, we pulled each other round to the west end of the loch in about 37 minutes, stopping to take on some food before heading along the south side. With energy levels flagging, we got the deserved sandwich (& green tea) to put a little bit of warmth back into things.

On the road again and round Schehallion, I was surprised how (relatively to me who has been scared of climbes) easy I was finding the climb. Don't get me wrong, tehre were a few steeper sections where my legs got a bit confused at why I was being so mean to them, but there was never any time when I felt I couldn't top the climb, unlike several rides before. I just knew that all I had keep cycling and that my legs had it in them, which was nice!

Up at the top meant that we had the decent to come, and how much fun is that descent???? The one into Tummel Bridge is lovely, but knowing the home stretch awaited put an extra sheen on this for me.

Into Aberfeldy and back at the car, for many cyclists, that would be that, but no, not for us; it was brick run time. Liz had joined us now, so after what would be a slow Ironman transition, we were off and running.

It felt surprisingly good to be running; the few knots in my calves melted away within 50 metres and my quads that had been screaming at me with the cold for the last 20kms stretched out and warmed up quickly too, so after the first km I opened up and found that my legs were working very well thankyouverymuch. At 1.5km, I decided that I'd make it out to 2.5 & turn, and given a target, I started to wind the speed up, surprising myself at how well I was holding it after almost 100km on the bike. The run up the hill to the sports centre was an unusual kind of torture, but there I was, done, after about 27 minutes of running. THen it was off to Pitlochry to the youth hostel then shower and out for a rather large burger and chips.

Day 2 was the (most of the) Etape route. A quick stop in Escape Route to sort out a my rear gears shifting turned into a much longer stop with new cleats for Alex, a shorter stem for Liz, a whole host of useful pointers given to us with enthusiasm and a blether with a bunch of cyclists doing Lands End to John O Groats. Brilliant wee place!

Sorted out, we headed off, and let me tell you, it took me a good 10km to get properly warmed up for a second day in the saddle. I struggled for bits and gratefully clung onto wheels as much as possible until the legs were functioning correctly, then happily took my turn up at the front (though I may have let enthusiasm take me a bit too much off the front at times on downhills; sorry). We made quite good ground, and again I was very surprised how well my fatigued legs took the big climb, with the descent being just as much fun the second time around. Cutting across in front of Fortingall, the fact that Liz has done the etape before and that I hadn't looked a the route properly saved us from going through Glen Lyon like I would've tried to take us, and we headed on round to stop for a bite to eat in Kenmore.

We passed a group of 3 girls following the Etape route coming out of Strathtay, which I don't think the lead cyclist took too kindly to, as a couple of miles later they came past us, so I latched onto their wheels for a while. Liz moved up to the front for a bit, so I moved up to take a turn at the front, but Alex had another idea, coming past and cranking the pace a wee bit harder, quickly dropping the 3. I'm startign to understand why cyclists do things like that!

One more missed turn because we were tramping hard along the road, a few short, sharp climbs and we were back in Pitlochry, with only the climb to the youth hostel to go to finish the day. And what a good day it was.

In summary, in 2 days I cycled the distance I'll be cycling in Roth, climbing 75% more height; my legs don't feel too bad and my ability to climb is steadily improving. I need more weekends like that, but that was exactly what I needed.

No time to find choons for you guys right now as I'm off swimming!

Saturday 21 April 2012

Recovery Ride

A vblog, where I talk new wheels, my unfisnished marathon, depression and bacon butties. I got my bacon butties you'll be glad to know.

Thanks to my folks for the scran and the random cyclist for the chat up the crow coming away from Fintry, which made me faster.

Today's blog is brough to you by:
The Carpenters: Top of the World
Iron Maiden: Hallowed Be Thy Name

Monday 16 April 2012

Dignity Not Failure

They came. The dreaded letters. DNF. Lochaber was a bust and I'm still to complete a marathon.

So what went wrong?

Well, lots to be honest, and over a long period of time.

1) I hadn't done enough training. I should've been putting in big miles since Christmas, but between my exam and the run of colds in February, my training didn't really start till March, and 6 weeks clearly wasn't enough time to prep for a marathon for me.

2) I didn't treat the race with enough respect. I basically saw it as a glorified training run & not a race, so didn't put in race effort into training. It ties up with point 1) as I didn't get my finger out till too close to the event.

3) race week was disturbed. Between stupidly sitting up till the early hours of the morning Monday and Tuesday, as well as trying to find a leaking pipe Wednesday and dealing with the stress of a close door that's in danger of being ripped off the wall by local idiots & the mess they make in the close, I didn't sleep enough or rest completely.

4) my nutrition was poor on the lead up. Following on, being so tired I got lazy & had too many takeaways.

5) I did something that led to giving me blisters. It may be the socks were messed up & too old. It may be something else. All I know is I've ran 10 in those shoes without a blister forming.

6) I didn't do enough in taper week. I swam on the Tuesday & had planned to do a couple of short runs to loosen everything off, but everything in pt 3. put me off. This led to everything tightening up, so when I went to do a sun salutation in the morning before the race, I could only bend 90deg.

I may also have started out too slow on the day, such that I wasn't stretching my ITB on the run.

So that's a brutally honest look at what went wrong. Now, what went right?

The big thing for me is that when my ITB started flaring up, I tried to run through it, and by altering my stride made an extra 5 miles before walking became the only option. Through that 5 miles I argued over what would be worse for me, the physical damage for making it to the end or the psychological damage for failing. I went for the former. After the turn, I tried running on the verge to take away the impact on the knees, but that aggravated the blister - it felt like it had grown from the arch down to the middle of the sole of my foot, but in fact it had just burst I found out after checking, so cracked on, determined to walk until I found my mate's car, making it a further 6 miles. By the time they made it to me cos they were starting to get worried, I knew that to finish would result in me being off training for weeks, which big picture wise was not an option. Driving in the last 7 miles & seeing the broken bodies just reinforced that I was right.

So what do I do now?

Rest, get a massage & get back out training. Get big miles in on the run. Work hard.
But what about my feet and my ITB. New socks may be a game changer, but I'm starting to wonder if I should've been training long distance in my Inov-8s. Yeah, my calves get a beating, but had I started 3 months back, I could've got myself up to the distance, or at least close by, because in them, I've had less ITB problems. So I find myself in a quandary.

Its something to think about over the next week. If I'm running this weekend coming, I'll be doing it for fun, to remind me what running can be, and it'll be in my Mudclaws off road in the mud!


Tonights blog is brought to you by

Carcass Corporeal Jigsore Quandary
Iron Maiden The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner 
Sepultura Clenched Fist 
Lonely Island ft T-pain I'm On A Boat
 


 

Sunday 8 April 2012

7 Sleeps Till Lochaber

Back home from tonights swim session, taught by the Awesome Alex (and I can feel the technique improvements bedding in - need to sort out a few things with relaxing, breathing & swim stamina, and I could get alright at this swimming malarky!), so I'm now 7 sleeps away from my first ever marathon, at Lochaber, and I'm left with one question:

When did the thought of running a marathon stop being a scary thing?

Don't get me wrong, next Saturday, I'll be high as a kite a probably quite nervous, but a week out and I've been more intimidated by the the thougt of a 10km at this stage in the past. Part of the thing is that I am thinking ahead to Challenge Roth, and the fact that the marathon comes after the swim and the cycle, so in my mind at least it reduces the sicnificance of a marathon but c'mon, I'm still about to go and run 26 miles.

Maybe there's a bit of naivity and cockiness, because I've done halfs and a 70.3 as well as in prep for Roth, I think it'll be doable but I have no real concept of the world of pain I could be about to enter into, but the flip of that is Lisboa 70.3 and the South Side 6 have shown me that I can dig down into sheer guts and determination and drive myself on to the finish line, so barring something out of my control, there is no reason why I can't cross the line.

An added pressure reliever is I have an ideal time that should be possible, but that's not my target, its purely to finish. Anything else is a bonus.

So just now, I'm not scared, or overawed, or bricking it, I just have a growing excitment for race day, tinged with just the right amount of nervous energy to keep me grounded. My legs feel in good condition, so I'll have a few short gentle runs during the week to keep me sharp and then its roll on Sunday!!

Tonight's blog is brought to you by:
No Sleep Till Brooklyn - Beastie Boys
Dragonaut - Sleep
Sleep Whale - mom