back from Phyzz

Phyzz is pleased with progress- less swelling, more flexibility, no long term damage

hopefully running in January

so that's my mileage done for the year

She says I can leave my name in the hat for a club FLM place and when I get back from Switzerland she'll put together a gym programme to strengthen the leg and improve CV ahead of beginning training in January

If I get a place, I'll need a marathon in 15 weeks on three runs a week from scratch schedule - ideally with no longer than an hour for the shorter runs.

Any offers?

humph

I am feeling proper fed up.

I have never had a 'proper injury before and in the old days of the old job I'd have just have got on with it at a slower pace but now I feel guilty.
I don't feel ill just not very mobile. I am feeling guilty about my exam classes and need to be back in school.
And part of me thinks I could probably go back, but the rest of me is listening to all the people saying don't go back too soon.

I expect to go back on Monday, really can't take any more time off.

Phyzz agrees with the doctor that it is meniscus damage. She thinks not too bad - 2-4 weeks to heal. I guess that means I will not be running for that length of time. She says I should start back with the bike (yuck) and swimming - not breast stroke.

I have not been out of the house since the phyzz on Tuesday, it didn't matter until today which is glorious.

Ho Hum

whinge over

proper injury :<(

After a bit of muscle strain last week, I've really done it now.

Supporting teenbeanz at his 10k race yesterday, I turned my knee in a pothole (I think) anyway it is now very swollen and sore. Sleeping was difficult.

The doc thinks it might be cartilage - and has said I'll be off work all week - its the stairs and the standing that are the problem.

And I have a physio appointment for tomorrow.

And rice rice rice ....

humph

stopped

No running this week - a very stiff upper leg - probably from all the stairs last weekend :<( For the last couple of weeks I have been meaning to take my camera to school - the low morning sun has been giving the autumn leaves such colour. But now its too late - the recent rain and wind have brought most of the leaves down. But I did take my camera today and took a few pics on the way there










































and on the way home:


















This last one is going in my physics collection as a nice illustration of the fact that the Moon is illuminated by the Sun - and as we are doing the Solar system at the moment it will probably come out for use soon!

keeping at it

Tuesday
Took the sixth form to a lecture at Brum University. It was excellent - the only problem was went to MacD's for something to eat - convenient but not appetising - I hadn't been for years. It doesn't seem any better!
This meant I didn't get home until 10.30. Which was why I didn't do my early mornign on Tuesday.

Wednesday
'Speedwork' with TP - it was good to go to the club and do something constructive without messing up someone else's run. Runnerbeanz has stopped going because they don't really train 'properly' - no warm up - just set off and blast it at whatever pace they can do. So a steady 4 miles run doesn't fit into it - those doing the pace he wants, want to go further. Those only doing 4 miles would not like his pace.

Thursday
Another late night at school - parent's evening. So too late to get an early night and run in the morning.

Friday
A 2 mile brisk walk with a colleague - including a few hills. It was good, the Sun shone, the views were great and it didn't rain until we were coming in the school gate :>)

Saturday
Out with TP for 7 miles - building back up. We have agreed that if one of us get sin to London in the club draw, we will do the long runs together - and if I get in and she doesn't she will do an autumn marathon and I'll do the long runs with her then.
Today we seemed to be getting a bit quicker - she isn't talking as much (less breath) and I am keeping going without having to think about it after the first couple of miles :>)

And then out to help at the XC where RB ran well.

Tomorrow I am off to help studentteacherbeanz move into a new place as she has split with the long term BF. That shoudl be good cross training carrying boxes.

Teaching and running

I am trying to discipline the time I spend surfing - forumming, reading blogs ...... because work is pretty hectic at the moment.

I teach until 5.30 two afternoons (the other days go on until 4.15) one parents evening this last week, two in the coming week, and then there is the admin, preparation and marking to do .......

And I need to keep on top of the (not small) garden.

And I do I need my sleep - even more so if I am going to get out and run early.

OK I know we get the holidays, but that means an uneven spread of 'free time'. Just training in the holidays is not a feasible way to do it, I at least need to tick over three times a week in term time. At the moment I am only managing two runs, so something has to give if I am ever going to get out from being at the back in everything but London.

Having written that down I think that is why I want to do London again and again - because I know I will not be last.

I managed to get out and run on Tuesday morning but only a couple of miles - although I was up early enough to run further I also had some books to mark.

Saturday was the first 'long run' with TP since Amsterdam. She is still recovering from that, so we just went out for 6 miles. It was good, slow but good. We have not really chatted since the Amsterdam debacle, so she talked a lot about that - and seems more indignant than me! She did really well - she reckons she was so cross about me being pulled that it made her work hard to complete her race in good time and show the muppets what we are capable of!

She aid that she is having trouble finding someone to run with a the friendly club - the next slowest group want to run about a minute a mile quicker than she can sustain for 5 miles. On Wednesday she ran on her own, just doing speed reps along the stretch of road near the car park where we meet. So I have committed myself to going on Wednesday - and we will each do our own speed rep session then - it means we are together but not having to run together.

I have plotted out a schedule to take me to Brass Monkey, which happens to be a 12 mile weekend in Shades' 'Marathon on 3-4 runs a week schedule' so should I be running a marathon on 13th April, it will fit!

The long day on Friday finished with a parent's evenign followed by an East Midlands Curry Night - a dozen there, the usual suspects plus Plum, Rich and Trin and Tigerrunner and Mrs TR. So a good old natter. RunningTeenBeanz's coach lives in the village where we met, and was eating there too - so forumites dine alongside an international athlete!

wet and windy

I have a lovely park over the road, which I don't run in enough, on account of its vertical nature.

I decided I should run there this morning in the wind and the rain.

Foolishly I went off too 'fast' up hill and ended up with a sore back and not much running.

Ah well I went out.

Getting faster

Teenbeanz reckons I need to do 'speedwork'. Today he had a session at the track, so I decided I'd go and do some reps on the field.

I tried to remember what we had been told about threshold sessions at TrailPlus all that time ago (can't find my notes, surprise, surprise).

Decided it was all about pushing harder then recovering - so I set up my Garmin to do some reps of hard running with recoveries in between.

Just 1 minute reps to start with and I did 5.

Overall 3.5 miles done and I certainly felt I had worked. Will need to do it again for the next few weeks and see whether I get some improvement.

DNF and other things

It all began with a club outing last year – I didn’t go, but many of the club went to Mablethorpe, where there was a marathon, a half and a 10km. Amsterdam had the same set of races, so it seemed a good idea for the next outing. I though a 10k was doable, so I was up for it. I asked Womble to come too – with the enticement of a marathon to draw her in. In fact this year the short race was a 5km - so I decided on the half.

Friday
Womble had arrived on Thursday evening and at the crack of dawn (well, before actually) we were off to the airport to fly to Amsterdam. Once there I had a couple of appointments with virtual friends.

First coffee with a fellow blogger who I had not met. We had a good natter about life, the Universe and running (and we also mentioned the Tri word from time to time – not for me you understand). It was so good to meet and chat.

And then to lunch with fellow WAISTer, Chuggie. She is an outstanding member of the WAISTer family – just the sort of person you need, she keeps track of what everyone is doing, knows who needs the hugs, who needs the cheers and pompoms. We really miss her when she goes on holiday. Anyway I went to her work place (and was very impressed, she had the biggest office in the corridor!). We had a lovely lunch, a walk through the Hague, coffee and cake and some shopping. As you may imagine we didn’t stop talking – families, the trials of being a working mother, fellow waisters and even running. Too soon it was time to catch the train into Amsterdam.
Womble is a seasoned traveller and many-time visitor to Amsterdam – what a great choice for a holiday companion! We ventured into town for food – finding an Italian restaurant that did suitable pizzas for hungry runners.

Saturday
The hotel was pretty good – breakfast went on until 10.30 so no urgent need to get up early – which was good after our early rising the day before. And a good spread for breakfast – only downside no proper muesli – but otherwise lots of choice.
And then to registration. Jules and Mik from the club had booked the hotel and it was ideal, close to the tram route into town and only 25 minutes walk to the Olympic Stadium, which is close to all the starts, finish and registration.

Registration was not quite a slick as FLM, and the expo considerable smaller. But after collecting my bits we met up with Highway Kind – another blogger. HK is in a different class of blogging though, as he commented, we all do our blogs in different ways; his being more philosophy than everyday life, always a read to look forward to.
After a tram ride into town we wandered around before settling on a great café, overlooking the Amstel river although the only non veggie at the table I opted for the vegetable lasagne, which was really tasty. More chat which included getting to know each other better and finding out a bit more about families etc. Eventually it was time to move on.

We went on a wander to look for the botanical gardens – which were worth the walk, particularly the glass houses – the butterflies and moths (?) were fantastic.

And the company even better.

It also had a great cafe – so we had coffee and cake of course.
And then back to the hotel. Where we found more of the club crowd. Some of whom had been drinking since the airport first thing in the morning! We decided not to join the club on a jolly back into town for food – after all Womble had a marathon to run!

So we tried the snack bar in the hotel – panino and pizza were the two choices. We made do.

Sunday
For reasons of logistics, the Amsterdam marathon and half marathon are not run concurrently – the marathon starts at 10.30, the half not until 2.00. So Womble went off early to her race and I tried to chill the morning away, watching the fast runners on TV.
There were dark warnings in all the bumf about the cut off times – 3 hours for the half, 6 hours for the full. I knew that that meant I had to run at an average of 13:44 pace to beat the cut-off. I also knew that in training I had been running well within that pace on my 6 mile runs, although our long runs had been slower.

So we set off to cross the line at the back of about 8500 runners. I was soon last with my TP not far ahead. The first mile passed - 12:52 – a bit fast but inevitable really, the following mile was 13:28 and the third 13:11. At 5 km my first encounter with the race referee, who told me I had to run quicker – my Garmin said average pace was 13:16 so I found it hard to believe that he was saying this. I also pointed out to him that it took me about 10 minutes to cross the start line (I now know that it took us 9 minutes). He just said, you have to run faster. After that I had a motorbike on my tail for the next 3 km. The referee was back – he told me if I didn’t run faster I would not beat the cutoff and he’d have to pull me out of the race. I said I couldn’t run faster– but that I was running fast enough (average pace still 13:16) and could complete. He refused to let me continue and took my number from me. The policeman who was also there said he understood how I felt but the referee’s word was final. I could continue to run and follow the route on the path, but the road would be opening gradually. The referee also said that if I finished in the time I would get my medal – but he didn’t believe I would do it.
I was distraught by now and turned down the offer of the bus and tried to continue. But I had lost time arguing and struggled to get going again. Although I continue for another mile or so I realised I was not going to get inside the time as I had lost so much. So I asked a marshal if there was a shorter way back to the stadium – but at this point I was almost exactly half way round and as far away as I could get. She gave me a map and I began to walk back – not using the route which would have been too depressing. Eventually I found a taxi who said he would take me as close as he could. So ended my Amsterdam Half marathon – in tears and my first ever DNF.

Monday
Another fairly leisurely breakfast and into town to the flower market – so colourful and lots of interesting plants. Actually the cacti specimens were better than at the botanic gardens! I managed to buy a few bulbs to bring home.

And other stuff which I didn't buy!

We found an opportunity for another take on coffee and cake before going back to the hotel to collect our luggage and make our way to the airport. Where we discovered the plane was delayed, first by an hour and then finally by two hours. Eventually we arrived at East Midlands where MrBeanz was waiting to take us home at last.

Everyone (and especially Womble) have been so kind and supportive. In fact I think I am fairly philosophical about it – nobody died.

And reading Steve Cram today, writing about all the English sporting ‘disasters’ this weekend:
Worst feeling in the world . . . until the next chance
......................But, for goodness sake, let us remember it is only sport. Life does go on, even though for the athlete those moments of defeat seem to encompass the world's end, at least for a while. Sportsmen and women grow up with defeat and learn how to use it to move on to the next success.

I look forward to my next chance at Brass Monkey and working out how to improve between now and then.

Gardening

I've been trying to get on top of the garden this autumn - I used to think it was FLM that got in the way but it is obviously just idleness.

So Tuesday morning I went out and dug the ex herb bed to rid it of marjoram which had taken over. I did not do more than about 90 minutes of work -not all digging - but since then I have had a slightly sore back.

So fingers crossed for Sunday please.

at last!

I managed to get out and run this morning - 6 miles only, but the middle four flattish miles averaged 13:26 mm which is fast enough for next Sunday - question is how long can I keep it up for?

Will all be over this time next week.

And we'll have the rest of the 'holiday' to recover.

Mmm what is there to do in Amsterdam I wonder?

no run for over a week :<(

I did not get out during the week at all - a sore throat has been threatening to turn into something worse and I have been up to my eyes in work.

However I did post my Brass Monkey entry and FLM - but they are probably lost in the post office strike chaos and will both miss the deadlines.

I should have run this weekend but Grandmabeanz seemed to need a visit - several plaintive phone calls in the week. So after a long open morning at school I tripped over to see GB, and forgot my running shoes, I had planned to go out this morning. Ah well a lie in instead.

Now back home and I need to get on with work so I can fit in a run in the week.

Two weeks from now it will all be happening and I'll be worrying about the cut off.

another long run

After a couple of weeks trying to do long runs without the TP we got together again today for 12 miles.

We do most of the run off-road, round a country park, with a variety of routes to give different length loops. We reckon that if we get into FLM we'll be able to do quite a lot of long runs here before we get bored - just going the 'long way round' to get there from TP's house, and back!

After a warm up three quarters of a mile we ran the rest - rather slowly but without walking :>)

The trouble is it was nearly a minute a mile slower than we'll need to do in three weeks time. And the cut-off looks pretty serious from the website.

The good thing is that TP seems to enjoy the runs as much as I do - and she is talking about continuing after Amsterdam, ticking over until FLM training starts.

quicker :>)

Only managed a little plod inthe week.

Out today on my own - TP was racing again.

Didn't really plan route properly so did not go as far as I should have done.

It felt hard - but it turns out I was running a bit quicker than I have done recently. I did 7 miles and five miles in the middle were all at a pace quicker than I need to do in Amsterdam :>)
I found it hard to keep going on my own without TP, maybe because I was going a bit quick. I really am not good at judging pace, I am just so used to it always being a real effort, I can't do 'running easy'.
Runnerbeanz and his squad were doing a whistle run on Thursday - a kind of fartlek where the coach controls the intervals, shorter hards with longer recoveries to start with and as the runners drop out and it whittles down to the hard core the hards get longer and the recoveries shorter. I watched for a while and there did not seem to be a perceptible easing off when the whistle went for recovery, but you could see more effort when he blew again for the next effort. Oh to be young and fit and run like that! I am pleased to say that RB stuck in there and held on for the full session of 36 minutes. And then he did a hills session yesterday. XC here he comes!

Later ...
Runnerbeanz went out before lunch and did his long run - I thought he was wimping out when I went out for mine but he did it - nearly 8 miles, further than me and he has nothing longer than 10k in his sights (sigh).

ouch!

A short plod early on Friday - I was worried about getting back for work, and various other things so did not go so far as Tuesday.

Step down week this week so I planned to do 7 miles - TP is off doing Mablethorpe 10k so was on my own today. Not going too badly, though first running mile was a bit quick. On the way home I met some lady runners coming the other way, looking at them, wondering if they were going to acknowledge me when I tripped over a speed bump - on the footpath!!
Landing flat on my front rather took the wind out of my sails and in spite of my frontal cushioning I managed to graze a knee and take a lump of skin off my elbow - so was a bit bloody by the time I'd done the last mile home - I ended up doing 6 not 7 as I decided I didn't need the extra mile today.
[Oh and the lady runners did stop to help, although they had run past without a smile previously]

ditch the bleep

I think Saturday's run has given me confidence at last.

Managed ot get to bed in time to get up and run this morning - there were stars in the sky at 5.15!!

Walked for about 3/4 mile then began to jog - felt ok but HRM was beeping - so instead of walking I turned it off!
And ran, pausing for stretch at a suitable bus shelter and then ran most of the way round the (undulating) route - 4.5 miles done, 30s / mile quicker than last time for the same route and AHR 8 higher. The three running miles were at the pace I need to run Amsterdam to avoid the cut-off :>)

keeping going

I have not run all week - long days at school followed by preparation for the next day left me with not enough sleep to get up early and run.

But today is long run and fortunately I have a plodpal to make me get out and do it.

She texted me to say could we do our 10 miles this week and step down next week as she has a 10k next week.

So 10 miles to do and it went like this.

Walk for just under a mile to warm up
Plod for a mile then stretch.
Run for 8 miles with NO WALKING.

how good is that?

OK it was slow but hey it was not walking.

I have NEVER run more than 3 miles without convincing myself that I can't possibly keep going. How did this happen?
Well plodpal is running easy, so she chats the whole time - and I answer in short breathy sentences.
It was mostly through a pleasant country park on decent paths and only very slight undulations.

And once I realised I had done more than 3 miles, I just thought I can do this - and kept going :>)

injured:<(

New shoes for new term.
Identical to the pair I had last year.
Except a slightly higher heel cup has dug into the back of my heel and I now have a leaky hole just where my running shoes stop. I forgot the pain until I put my shoe on this morning.
So having made it out of bed at 5.00 to run, I discover it is too painful.

Will have to go back to the old work shoes for school - hopefully it will heal easily and I can run tomorrow instead.

And use this time now to do some prep.

reality sets in ....

Back to work 'proper' today and reality has already set in.
I did not do enough work in the hols to get me far enough ahead, so I am back to the last minute stuff, burning the midnight oil - which means not up early enough to run.

LSR

With the emphasis on the slow.
Out with training pal again and 9 miles done and dusted. Slower than last week - but after the first two miles I hardly walked at all - just for a drink and when we met TP's OH running the other way with the dog and the dog was confused about who to run with!
I even managed the inclines. TP is great at encouraging me - she can chat throughout up until the 'new territory' bit then she goes quiet.
It was so good running with someone and not feeling I was really holding them back - and most of it was off road, so it was good place to run too, but I am not sure I would do it on my own. At about 5 miles when she observed how well I was doing, and I realised I was actually enjoying it and not thinking about how horrid it was, I found myself persuading her that we could do long runs for FLM together!!
Er I think that means I need to make an entry. [Of course at 2 miles I had wondered why I had even entered a half!]