Back in the running groove

This week I certainly felt more like my usual self.  Well physically anyway.

My appetite is back and I'm back to relatively normal running mileage.  I'm not building my mileage up again yet, but maybe next week I'll bring it over thirty all going well.

This weeks workouts

• 4 miles Monday up at the curragh camp.
• A long walk on Tuesday with some core work, squats and yoga.
• 5 miles including 4x800m at the track on Wednesday.  
• Skipped Thursday as I slept badly the night before so was wrecked and went to bed early.
• 7 miles around town and briefly onto the curragh itself after work on Friday.  Gorgeous evening with the sun just beginning to set as I was turning back.  
• Sunday 8 miles pacing a friend at a 10k

Saturday I tried something new and volunteered at Naas Parkrun which was altogether very enjoyable.  I was as per usual extremely anxious beforehand but everyone was very friendly and I had nothing to worry about.  Except fucking up I suppose?  I did have to worry about that but I think it went ok. I suppose I will find out if they refuse to accept any more of my volunteering efforts.

In other news I badgered encouraged my eldest to participate and he finished in a very commendable 27 minutes and more importantly was absolutely delighted with himself.  He is a wonderful character but slow to make friends that he sees outside of school since we moved.  Naturally anything I can do to boost his confidence makes my day.

Today we got up bright and early and picked up a friend and colleague to enter her very first 10k!  Luckily she has a similar aged son to mine so they stayed behind to attempt to communicate via computer games as teenagers do.  Meanwhile myself and T registered, peed, warmed up, ran and cooled down to a total of 8 miles for the day.

So all in all a successful weekend of forcing both myself and eldest slightly out of our comfort zone and into the company of other people.  Not an altogether bad idea for either of us. Personally I do badly need to broaden my horizons here and have a good pool of contacts to ensure I continue to leave the house.  Why do I say that?  Well if I said the black dog of depression hadn't reared it's ugly head recently that would be a lie.  Staying very active and busy certainly helps although sometimes it's as if that's merely masking what is underneath.  Fake it 'til you make it?

Lovely lovely normal

Did all my stretching and core work today and then headed up to run with the club.  Went a bit early so I could get a warm-up lap done so as not to make the same mistake as last week.  Ended up doing 7 miles by myself as only the men and some of the faster ladies were there and as I just mention repeatedly I need to concentrate on doing my own pace right now while I'm building my mileage...at least outside of sessions at the track.

Its not that I want to plod along indefinitely at my own slow-ass pace.  I just want to throw in faster stuff when my legs feel like it rather than trying to keep up with faster runners during my easy runs.  I'm new to this running with people thing and when I started going to the athletics club first I wasn't getting any recovery or easy runs in.  For the ego this was probably good but it was no good for my poor old legs and I found I didn't have anything left for racing and I love to race!  With myself mostly :)

So did the first couple of miles at about 9min/mile and dropped that to 8:15-8-30 for the next 5.  Felt very comfortable so would be a good half marathon pace so a safe plan for the half in may could be to keep to that pace for 10 miles and go for some negative splits after that.  That should bring me in under 1:50 but maybe it's a bit conservative?  Early days yet....will see how the build up goes.

Injury scare and new shoes!!

Ooops!  Fell of the wagon again.  It does take me a while to build a habit but then once I do I'm on rails and dislike not doing what I'm supposed to so need to treat this blogging like salads and lunges!

Speaking of habits I need to pick up I had been dallying with some strength work and a bit of stretching to compliment my running but not with any regularity.  Well trust the universe to give me a good kick in the arse quite literally.

To give you some background I have been building up my mileage from a base of about 20miles a week after the marathon and in January back to 25-30miles in the last few weeks.  I was hoping to then gradually build this up to 40-50 by mid summer with the aim of being able to build up to a marathon from that base quite easily should I feel like it.  Anyway there I was going my merry little way with nary a thought of my poor stressed muscles, ligaments and tendons.  Surely disaster was about to strike!?

Last week I had put a target of 32 miles in place.  Started well with 10 on Monday feeling fine.  Rested Tuesday and went to the track for 8x400 on Wednesday which with a warm-up and cool down came to about 5 miles total.  Thursday was where I made a major mistake.  I usually meet similar paced friends from the club for a couple of easy 2.5mile laps following the speed work the previous night but wanted to get some extra distance in so arrived early.  Only to be met by the friendly, lovely, but much too speedy L & P.  Now these guys insisted that I should tag along with them as they were doing an easy recovery run anyway.  I argued briefly but allowed my arm to be twisted......silly girl!!!  I could tell they were slowing down for me but we still did the first lap at an average 8:10min/mile.......this is not recovery pace for me and I was not warmed up after a long day at a desk and an hours drive home.  Sure enough I started to feel discomfort along my left side about half way through the first lap.  Oh no!  Typically I was too busy trying to pretend I was ok at that pace to say anything so I waited until the end of the lap to stop......and then continued to do two more laps at a slower pace for a total of 7 miles.  By the time I got home I couldn't even decide where it hurt except that I ached all down my left side from under my ribcage to the ankle.  Fully. My. Fault.

This is where I do something smart for a change!!!  I rested.   I was very scared that this was something that would put me out of running for a few weeks or even months so while the discomfort wasn't that bad I decided to be conservative.  I read around and figured out it could be my IT band (have had issues there before) bursitis of the hip or something involving one of the glutes.  Or! Or!  It could just be my back which might sound more serious but if its only my back I know exactly where I stand from long experience and I know I can run on it.  Yay!
So I foam rolled and had a hot bath.  I self massaged and yoga'd.  I youtubed and as a result, myrtled (look it up!)  Everything that was in my arsenal I used except painkillers as a) I wasn't in enough pain and b) I wanted to locate the source of the discomfort.  By yesterday I still had pain to my ankle and this was very good news!  I've had sciatica enough to know that thats probably what it was.

I was going to go for a short trot yesterday to test it but sanity ruled and I left it until this morning.  There was a group from the club doing a ten miler at ten but again, good sense reigned and I decided to go by myself so I had control of the variables.  I wanted a few things.  Firstly I wanted time to do a proper warm up and to start slowly and work up to my own easy pace so I could watch my form.  Secondly I wanted to run on grass and I'm fairly sure the 10 miler would be mostly on road and thirdly (and relatedly) I didn't want a road camber to irritate my hips.  Anyway I set out in the pouring rain but I didn't care cos it was pain free for all 6 miles.  Yippee!!  Got back and did the stretches and strength work again and I'm still feeling good....pretty sure it's lower back pain.  Fingers crossed I can get back to building up my miles....phew!

Also I bought new shoes but I haven't gotten to wear them yet and this post is too long so I'll put up a pic in my next post.