Checking back in

So it's been a while! Have been keeping up to date with everyone else's news but been slack on my front, so thought it was time I checked back in.

Well the main reason I haven't been posting is, yes you guessed it, I've been fighting injury again.!

Following my last post I ran the 5k and actually won it, although the race turned out to be a bit of a fiasco. First of all the organisers in their wisdom decided to make it an out and back course on narrow trails, so you spent the whole second half of the race worrying you were going to crash into racers coming the other way and secondly they decided that 5k is about 3.4 miles. my time was 17.45 which I think I worked out as being low 16s for a 5k but I didn't care by that point!

So all was good at that point. Then went for a run with Tim the next day and 9 miles in my LEFT calf went on me, just like that. So cut a long story short that put me out for another two weeks. I've had some treatment and gradually built the mileage back up and am hopefully past this issue now. But how many times have you heard that before??

I've forgotten about my racing plans for the Spring now. I'm just going to see how things go. I am going to do less workouts and slow down my day to day runs and stretch like there is no tomorrow.

Other than that, all has been fine. Family are doing great and work has got a little bit less stressful the last couple of weeks. So hopefully I can get this blog up and running again starting with an update on today's run that I'm just about to head out the door and do!

Run was okay tonight. Ran 20 miles over the weekend at the beach so took it easy today, 6.8 at 7.08 pace. Felt very sluggish running in the evening for the first time in ages. Plus my guts were playing up. Still that is 9 days consecutive running now without a squeal from my calf so I'm going to try a light workout tomorrow night. More to get the legs moving again than anything. I've pencilled in an 8k race at the weekend and although I am not expecting much, would still like to put a decnt effort in

At last, some structure

So my week went down like this

S- 8.8 including 7@5.43
Su- 12.05
M- 8.5
T- 6.85 including 6*1000 with 90 seconds recovery (av 3.12)
W- 8.05
Th- 7.85
Fr- nada

So a 50 mile week, 2 workouts and a long run. And 'coach' Tim has mapped out my workouts over the next few weeks aiming towards some fast races in April/May. So I'm pretty excited. Despite all my nicks and injuries this winter I have still managed to average about 30 miles a week on the days I could run, so I didn't lose too much of my base. Next weekend's planned 5k will be the reality check though.

Until the next time...

So here it comes again, probably yet another false dawn, but I'm back at it again. Took a few days off, gradually added a mile a day to my runs and felt confident enough to test the waters with a tempo workout today. Went well, covered 7 miles in 39.53 (average 5.42) but more importantly calf was fine. Surely I'll stop getting little nicks every so often and can put some consistent training together! Despite all my injury woes this winter I actually feel I'm pretty fit at the moment and would love to get some solid weeks in and see where it gets me. Cross your fingers!

Good and bad news

The good.....Judging by the workout I did Monday I'm in better than expected shape. 4*1600 with 90 seconds recovery in 5.01,5.05,5.02,5.04. This is a sort of benchmark session for me I do every so often and the results compare well to previous efforts. I felt pretty strong too

the bad..... during the workout I could feel a little tweak in my right calf and sure enough it was a little bit painful yesterday when i woke up. So I've got a little tear down there which will take a few days to wotk itself out probably. We'll see, it certainly doesn't feel like a bad one.

I had a 5k earmarked for saturday but will probably have to forego that now. But I'm feeling positive because I know I'm in good shape despite all the issues I've had lately and I'm optimistic for some good times this spring

DVR sucks!

Okay so it's 8.30pm and really time that I put the girls to bed but the game is very tense and hard to drag myself away from. Not a problem, I'll DVR it and watch the rest of the game when I come back down! What would I have done without it?!

So an hour later I'm back down and press play to watch the game from where I left off. It's 10-7 but Brady is patiently marching his team up the field. Then all of a sudden the action stops and the game returns to 'real time'. It's 17-14, Pats 4th and 20 with 10 seconds to go. What the ??

It appears DVR can't handle programs that overrun. So at 9.30 when the postgame show was scheduled, the game had stopped recording so I missed Moss and Burress's TDs!

Still, it was a great game, had a few beers and Lisa made some great Nachos so not all was lost.

Using the word 'sucks' in this post is funny. Before I came over I would never have used that expression! It made me think of all the other phrases I use regularly now that the Queen would have difficulty in understanding.

"Hey!", "Hey Man!", "What's up?", "What's going on?", "Not much", etc. I've even heard myself use the word "awesome" from time to time (Emily's favourite word)!

Oh, yesterday's run was 12 miles with Tim at 6.40 pace. A really nice Sunday run. Then Lisa, Emily and I went to watch the Circus at the Bobcats Arena and I was actually really impressed!

Heading to the track tonight to do some mile repeats and may even do a quick 'shake out' run at lunch time as I'm off work today. I've pencilled in some goal races and am going to put a training plan together in the next few days so watch this space...

Meat and potatoes

Lots of meat and potato runs for me at the moment, just churning out some miles every day, no paticular focus on anything, not even sure when or what my next workout is going to be. Just happy that the knee is cooperating at the moment. The training will take care of itself and I'll focus on something and train towards it when I'm ready.

Yesterday was 6.8 miles to bring the 50 up for the week. Today was 8.5 in three loops that got progressively faster. To update those with snow and whatever to contend with, today was 40 and sunny here, shorts and long sleeve top but i never seemed to get warm. Tomorrow will be more meat and potatoes, albeit a bigger portion, and then I have Monday off from work so have pencilled in a workout. Will be my first 'proper' day off from work since September. Ridiculous.

Means I can hopefully have a lie in after the Superbowl. Enjoy everyone. Taking the Pats to win but not as comfortably as most expect, let's say 27-13.

Well Sophie is asleep and my other girls are out and about so hopefully a couple of hours of peace and snoozing, a rare commodity as most of you know!

Back in the swing

Not much to report. Ran 5 miles recovery on Monday, 7 on Tuesday. Without actually hurting I could tell that my knee was recovering from the toll of Sunday's workout so yesterday I ran an easy 4 miles at lunch time and cut back on the planned workout I had with Tim. Tim was doing 3*3200 so i joined him for the first one (10.34) and hopped in for a mile of the second one (5.07) then did some strides and warmed down. I was wearing my 'every day' shoes so I felt a bit sluggish compared to usual track workouts, but I'll take it.

Took today off (instead of tomorrow's planned day off) and will still hit 50 miles for the week so I'm happy with that. Have pencilled in a 5k on the 9th Feb which should give me some sort of a benchmark of where I am at the moment. I'm guessing mid 16s shape. Long way to go...