Banbury Parkrun

As Hannah has a half marathon in the next week or two, and a friend called Rachael who doesn't run regularly to stay, we decided to have a go at the Banbury Parkrun course instead of doing a long run. As with the all other Parkruns, it's a 5km run with a 9.00am start time. This run is three laps of the Spiceball Park, which both Hannah and I find a little boring as it feels like you're just going round in circles, which you kind of are! Felix decided that discretion was the better part of valour for today, and sloped off instead of joining us.

Whilst stood around awaiting the whistle, the effects of my warm up jog across the park from the car were quickly wearing off. So my first go at doing something of a warm up proved to be somewhat wasted. The girls also looked less than pleased to be stood about in the drizzle and had considered not turning up at all. But they did take turns in using me as a windbreak, which I can't really blame them for as the wind was cold and wet, and I can do a fair job of blocking it as I'm quite a bit bigger than they are!

As Rachael wasn't sure about how she'd do, Hannah and I ran at the pace she could manage. As such, this was a bit slower than the pace we'd normally go at, as she'd not run in a while. We'd expected the run to be paved and fairly flat. Whilst it was pretty flat, the paths were at times mud and grass. We would have been better off in trail shoes as the road shoes we all wore gave next to no grip on the soft stuff, and would have been just as good on the paths. A tip to remember for next time!

As we got going, the drizzle had turned into rain. But Rachael was doing well and keeping a fairly consistent pace up, although she didn't look too keen on it! The rest of the field seemed to be doing the same, and I didn't see many people being overtaken other than by those on the next lap. The rain was coming and going, and mainly staying as drizzle but at least the wind had the decency to stay mainly in one part of the park. As we neared the end of the second lap, I wanted to push on a bit so I left Hannah and Rachael to run together as I went on. This is the point on the pace chart were I speed up a fair bit.

For the final lap I did manage to overtake a few people! Although it maybe sounds a bit bad, having someone just a little bit in front of you gives you a target to aim for. You push to get past that person and then look up for the next person to get past. I ended up running with another bloke as it seemed we had a similar approach for the last lap. I had hoped to beat him to the line with a sprint finish, but the last leg is on grass and I could only go so fast as I was slipping about as it was. I was also quite shocked to hear Hannah and Rachael cheering me on to the finish line! I was certain they hadn't passed me, yet there they were! It turns out that Hannah had slipped on the path edging in one of the muddy sections and hurt her ankle, so her and Rachael walked directly to the finish to see me home. Despite the surprise it was good to have them there shouting me on, even if I couldn't catch the other guy!

Given today's conditions, and that we were getting Rachael out for run, I was happy with the result. I had hoped to come in under 30 mins, and my official Parkrun time is 30:15 as there is a delay between crossing the line and being able to hit stop on my phone. As I had run yesterday, I'd guess that's had an effect as I've not run on consecutive days before and I did feel a little stiff this morning when I got out of bed. I certainly know that my right hip aches quite a bit now, so I'm having a beer to celebrate.

A jog in the dark with Felix

Felix is a very good friend of mine, and also Hannah's other half. He's also been cajoled into running a bit with us! So for his birthday she was kind enough to buy him some running shoes. However, due to a snowboarding injury he's not been able to run until today. But at 6.30 we were heading off on the 5km run out of the back of the village to see how he got on with it. He didn't think he'd manage the whole 5km on the first go.

Felix has had a slightly better start to running than I did. He turned up dress in all the right gear, and thanks to Hannah, the right sort of shoes. It doesn't help that my partner also thinks he looks better in lycra than I do!! But even I will admit that he has a lot less wobbly bits than me, the git.

I tried to run at a medium pace as I was leading and didn't want to go out too fast. The first bit of the run I find tricky as it's hard to get a rhythm going on the twisty footpath. Warming up might help with this, and it's probably something I should start doing! But things carried on well, with the pace being fair for Felix's first run, especially as it was getting dark. The traffic was higher than I had expected, which has a impact on pace. Despite being 6'3" and wearing day-glo yellow, as well as a head torch, I still nearly got a BMW to the face! Felix did seem a bit concerned about having to turn round and run all the way back, so I managed to get him to the 2km mark and suggested he take a quick break there whilst I carried on to the half way mark.

Once I was back with Felix, I wanted to try and get him back in one go. He wasn't so keen on this as an idea! Despite his protestations, we managed to keep up a reasonable pace of a bit over 6mins/km. Not bad going for his first run, although this bit is down hill! Once we got back into the village, I wanted to see if Felix could really push on for the last few hundred meters. His only comment was he thought we already were! But as the pace chart shows, I had been pushing him on for the last 1km already, but I wanted to go up a gear again. As such Felix finished a short while behind me, so the charts show my overall pace rather than his. It was therefore my turn to take a photo of him looking despondent.

As said above, the charts show my times and don't reflect Felix pausing at the 2km mark or his finish time. I think they do a fair job of showing how being unused to running will make your pace drop off, but how you can dig a little deeper and press on once you know you're near the end. Knowing there isn't much farther to go can do wonders for finding a little extra to push on with! It is however quite annoying to run with someone who barely sweats at the end of run, whilst my chunkier self is pouring with it. I'll just have to push him harder next time!!

 

A very gentle cross country jog

A good friend ours mine is staying with Ant this weekend, and being a fool, he decided to come running with us! He's been doing a fair bit of exercise on a cross trainer and wanted a challenge. So the 4 mile cross country run after a few days of rain should do the job!!

As expected, we all set out at the usual 5mins/km pace but as we soon hit the muddy fields, the pace dropped off a cliff. Tom only had trainers with him, which are nothing like the trail shoes Ant and I have, so he was struggling a lot for grip. So much so that Ant and I spent a fair bit of time watching him tip toe his way across the fields. And when not tip toeing, he does a good line in mincing too! It didn't help that the local hunt had been out and the ground was soaking wet just about everywhere. Even the stony sections of track were heavily puddled.

Not that I am without mockery from today's run. As Ant and I were taking Tom out, we were going at his pace for today. So Ant and I stopped for a quick selfie at the top of the first big hill.

Not only do I look a little daft with the double chin and awesome running hair on full display, I also appear to have evil black eyes which the boys suggested makes me look like Jigsaw:

So back to the running. Tom was struggling a lot today, both with his footwear and after a while his knee was giving him trouble too. As he has only been using a cross trainer up to now, he was rather shocked at the difference running across the fields gives. He found the mud to be especially hard work. As such, it would be fair to say that today wasn't a record breaking run. But it did sort of break Tom! I won't put the pace chart up, as it doesn't really show much for today as Ant and I were stopping to encourage Tom on regularly. But the finish time for Tom was 56:11, not a bad go for his first run, and in trainers too!

I was also quite pleased to make the hill back into the village in one go for the first time. I'm not sure how it would've gone if we'd been running at our more normal pace though. I must say it was also rather nice to be encouraging someone else along, rather than having Ant shout at me for once!!

Aching ankles

Following Saturday's mixed result, my ankle still ached as well as my shin. This obviously isn't ideal, and could knock my training back a bit if I don't do something about getting my feet adjusted to running in my road shoes. And the only real way of doing that is going out running! For this week though I will be aiming to do more runs but of a shorter distance, probably not much more than 5kms each time. The aim is to get my ankles working gradually but regularly.

And to that end I was out when I got back from work doing the 5km run out of my village. The aim was to go at a reasonable pace, if I could manage it, and to concentrate on my lower legs and feet. There was no intention of breaking any records today.

Everything started off ok, although I really should have put another layer on today. As it had been nice and sunny all day, I was wearing just a T-shirt most of the time. So I thought a base layer and my hi-vis top would be fine. Turns out the wind was rather cold again! But being daft, I had gone round the corner by this point, so I just kept going instead. Thankfully, my breathing was ok and it only meant I wasn't as warm as I would have liked to be.

It wasn't until near the half way mark that my ankle started to ache again. You can see this as the spikes in the centre of the pace chart below, as I was stopping to stretch a little bit. This soon calmed down, and as I turned for home it was my shin that took up the lead and ached instead. Rather than stopping, I found altering my stride length a little helped with this. I didn't want to keep stopping, as that puts me off my rhythm and I was getting a bit colder each time too.

All in all, I did what I wanted to do today, but it won't set the world alight. It was meant to be a gentle run and it was, even if I was going a little quicker than I intended as I'm still rubbish at pacing myself.

Whilst I wasn't consciously speeding up on the way back, it is slightly downhill. And my shin had stopped aching, so I wanted to push on a little bit where I could but I did forego my usual sprint finish. I also made sure to do a good 10 minutes of stretching today, something I am usually terrible at doing properly. All feels good now, but we'll see what it's like in the morning!!

Hannah's 13km Challenge

Another week has passed, but I've once again been on call, so I didn't get a midweek run in. To make up for this, Hannah and I planned to do the long 13km route we did before. She also has a half Marathon in three weeks time, and needs to get some longer runs in beforehand. I need to get a long run in with the new shoes too.

We headed out early afternoon under a sky that threatened rain. In the ongoing experiment, I didn't use my inhaler before we went out this time. I then also forgot to pick it up on the way out! We were meant to run from Hannah's to the place we started before, but she forgot and started running at the pub instead. I did try to point this out to her, but she insisted that the extra distance would be good for me!

The run started well, and the new shoes were doing a good job. I couldn't feel any seams or anything untoward and they were comfortable. Unfortunately, it started to rain not long after we left the village. I don't have a waterproof running top as yet and wearing glasses in the rain is a pain, as they tend to collect the water. I know from experience that there's just about no way of wiping it off without smearing the lenses, so it's best to just put up with it.

From here, everything was going quite well. The pace was good, my lungs were doing a decent job for once and we were even able to discuss a few details for the auction preparation. But then the long distance runs are meant to be done at a pace at which you can maintain something like a conversation. Up to know, that's not really been possible but I'm starting to get to that point. If this is how I manage without my inhaler, I think I will continue not using it!

All was well, right up to being about half way up with long hill from Wappenham and into Weedon Lois. At the 4 -ish mile mark my left ankle started to ache. And by the 4.75 mile point, at the top of the hill, I had to stop. I had hoped that stopping to stretch would help work my ankle loose, along with loosening my laces a little as I was starting to get tingley toes just as I did the first time I wore my new shoes. After a minute or two of work, we set off again and everything felt a lot better. Not perfect, but certainly good enough to keep going. And no matter how good my ankle felt, I still look terrible running!!

Weedon Lois happens to have a steep deep in the middle of the village. And I didn't make it all the way up the far side. The ache in my ankle had become more of a pain, and I had to slow to a walk. At this point Hannah thinks my ankle had now had enough of being corrected. I've done all my running so far in my trail shoes, but now I'm in properly fitted road shoes my ankles are being made to run more evenly than before. And this means they may take some time to adjust to this new pattern of running. As it wasn't far to the 10km mark, I wanted to at least try and make it to there. Once we were back on the flat, I was able to get up to a reasonable pace again and make it to the pub in one go. It seemed that as long as I was running on the flat, or downhill, I was ok but uphill was stopping me quickly.

This was the screen grab I manage to take as we passed the pub. It's roughly 5 minutes slower than when we did this before, but given the problems I was having I'm still happy with that result. It also shows the average pace to be the same to this point as our previous effort was for the whole run.

Being stubborn, I knew that once we made it to the Weston pub, there is only really one big hill to tackle so we carried on at a slower pace. Partly because my ankle was still aching and partly because Hannah was wanting the local Hunt to clear off so she could use a convenient section of hedge!! This part of the run was done at what ever pace I could maintain, so it varies quite a bit over the last 3km or so. Once we were up the big hill it was all back down hill to the pub! The last 600m I was determined to do at pace, as that's the bit in the village and the run to the pub itself. I could hear Hannah behind me thinking out loud that I must have smelt the pub as I set off at just over 5mins/km, the fastest we'd gone so far!!

Comparing the charts with those from the previous run, the pace up to the 9km point is broadly the same shape but clearly slower once we hit the second section of the long hill in the middle. The first 6ish Km was actually faster! The last section from 9ish km is also much slower, and this is where I think my ankle was causing the most drop off in pace as I just couldn't keep running and had to walk a fair bit. This is reflected in the average pace and it's pretty much the slowest I've run on the road. Overall, we were just about 10 minutes behind last time's pace. I think if I hadn't had to stop so much we would have made it round quicker but that wasn't to be today.

In an effort to ease my ankles into the new stance I'm going to try and do a few more runs of shorter distance. I'm thinking of doing a 5km run on Tuesday and then something similar on Thursday. Hannah and I had planned to join a hill run around Banbury on Thursday, but I don't think that's wise after today's run!

Two steps forward, one step back

Another Saturday, another cross country run with Ant! We've not done this run for a few weeks, and since Ant has some new very orange trail shoes it was about time we went back out. During the week we had discussed extending the route by another mile or so, but as I'm on call again I didn't want to go out for too long/too far this weekend. We'll go for the longer route next time.

As both Ant and I were working today, we didn't get out until almost 4.00pm. That's a little later than we'd like to head out, but now the evenings are drawing out it's not been an issue today. It was a touch chilly though, but the new layers I bought last week did a good job of keeping me warm. I was also rather glad that I remembered my gloves, as Ant was a bit annoyed that he couldn't find his pair.

One thing I had forgotten, both to use and to bring along, was my inhaler. I've been thinking about how to best experiment with my asthma, and how to get it to play ball with the running. During the warmer weather, I don't know if it'll be much of an issue as the cold is my main trigger. But warm weather is a little way off yet!! I have seen suggestions of a hard, short run to trigger things and then going for the actual run once it's calmed down. Others suggest very gentle warm ups, but that would mean actually doing a warm up as it's not something I bother with. Still others suggest further options, like careful pacing, or a set way to vary your pace.

I have been considering a different approach, which will surprise no-one that knows me! I've noticed that my chest seems to feel coldest on the runs where I have used my inhaler, but on the few times I've forgotten it I've had less of a problem. So my initial experiment is to not use it at all. If using it causes my chest to get cold and grumpy, but not using it gives me no obvious ill effects then it seems a logical first choice. I had intended to do this another time, but as I'd left it at home, today turned out to be the first go!

As usual, we set off at a fair pace, heading downhill. The ground has thoroughly thawed from the recent frosts, and there had been a group of horses out earlier too. So the going underfoot was very sticky or very slippery. Ant likened it to running on deep, wet sand. As I've never done that, my best version was running on pritt stick. There's little quite so annoying as having to pull your feet out of the mud with every step. It's also bloody hard work, and was making my ankles ache. This was especially true on the big hill. For every step forwards, it felt like I'd slip half a step back before my shoes bit into the ground enough to support me. I still managed to make it to the top in hit though, which I was pleased with!

The low point of the run was being beaten across the last field by a herd of sheep. Having just come off the last ploughed field, I was struggling a bit and dropped to a walk whilst the sheep chased Ant to the gate! From here it was the final hill, and the bit I look forward to the least. The first hill is hard, but there's no-one to see you. This hill is both steeper and longer overall as well as having the added bonus of being in the village. Equally, the training must be paying off as I only had to drop to a walk once this time round. Normally, it would be at least twice, so another thing to be pleased about!

I had hoped for a sub-40 minute time, but the conditions meant that was never going to happen. The last time we did this route, my time was 42 mins 30 secs but the ground was frozen solid. For some reason, when I hit the stop button, the timer kept paused then kept going but I do know that the time was 42 mins 21 secs. So not quite what I was hoping for, but still a touch quicker than when the ground was hard! That puts our pace at 6:42mins/km. To get under 40 mins I need to get this down to 6:20mins/km, so not a lot faster than today's pace really!

Just to finish things off, Ant has once again managed to thoroughly capture my inner beauty! At least I'm smiling this time at the end of the run.

First outing for the Ruby Slippers

Thursday is here again, and that means mid-week run with Hannah time. Except she's slacking off and has gone snowboarding somewhere in the Alps. As such I would need to go out on on my own.

So far I've not run mid-week solo for fear of getting run over in the dark. Today though, I managed to get back from work a bit early (or bang on 4.24pm if you're reading this, Boss) so I had the chance to get out before the sun went down. It will be some time before Hannah and I manage this, as she doesn't seem to get back from work until after 6.30pm.

As this was my first outing in my ruby slippers, I tried to follow the advice of the girl that set me up with them in the shop and to not do the laces up too tight. From what she was saying, I do my trail shoes up too tight, but if it feels comfortable and doesn't cause me issues, she said to carry on that way. With this in mind, I did the shoes up a bit looser than normal and set off for a little trial 5km run.

Hang on, I hear you say! A little 5km run?! What happened to the lazy bugger that started all this a touch over 4months ago? To be honest, I'm not 100% sure where that bloke has gone either! OK, I do still eat more chocolate and biscuits than is probably wise, but that aside I do feel like a much fitter, healthier version of me. It's also nice to see the gut shrinking away! I doubt a flat stomach is going to happen, but as long as I all wobble in the same direction, then that'll do!!

Once my feet had warmed up a bit, it became apparent that I had done the shoes up too tight after all. I held off undoing them until the end of the 2nd Km to save me having to do it again. At first it felt a little bit weird, but as I got to the turn around point, everything seem to settle down and feel much better. It may have helped that I was now running with the wind at my back too!

This all made the return leg feel a lot easier than the outward one. It turns out this was reflected in the run times too.

Whilst I had hoped the turning point I had picked would make the run 5km, it seems I was a little bit shy of 2.5km. I'll fix this next time out by running to the next field gate. Overall, I'm really pleased with the time today. 5:35mins/km is my quickest solo pace! I've gone this quick before, but only when being made to follow Hannah. If I hadn't stopped to let a tractor past and hack something delightful up at the 0.75km point, I think I may have made it under 5:30mins/km. So that'll be next time's target!

The new shoes have been a very worth while investment. Road shoes aren't the cheapest of things, these were £90, but the difference in how my feet feel is night and day. It barely feels like I've been out as I'm used to having slightly sore feet and blisters forming. Today I've got none of that, so thank you to the girl in the shop!!

And I don't care what anyone says, they're just really bright red!!