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My Last Run
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As for me, I've a hip injury (physio thinks a combo of bursitis and gluteal tendinopathy) so I had to cancel my marathon. I'm doing run/walks a couple of times a week and I managed to jeff the Winter 10K last weekend but otherwise very underwhelming and I find playing computer games better for my spirits than documenting my body's frailties on here.
RIP swittle.
It's been a couple of years since I posted here and it's been a period of ups and downs. The last time I did post I was going into the Brighton Half Marathon having completed a decent bit of training, but had then had a calf issue which I took into the run hoping it would hold. Unfortunately it didn't and it blew out at the 10 mile mark and took me the rest of 2021 to resolve.
So, for the first part of 2022 I really struggled as every time I tried to step things up I got another niggle. This did have a positive impact for our club handicap race. As this was based on an individual's results in the WSFRL races I was given a fairly decent time allocation and by the 2nd mile of the 5 mile race I had hauled in all the runners ahead of me. That sense of euphoria was replaced by the nagging fear that I fully expected hordes of quicker runners to come past me, and the longer the race went on the more that built up, especially as I didn't dare look behind me. However, whether it was due to sheer fear fueled adrenaline or that I was managing to run pain free, I had the run of my life and managed to finish over 2 minutes ahead of the next runner to win my first ever race and trophy.
The good times didn't really last as I only managed to limp round the Great South that year - feeling I had nothing in the tank from the 7th mile onwards. And then I started to suffer back issues which, again. curtailed any training I could do. The postscript to this was November and the Gunpowder Trot (the last race of the WSFRL season) in Horsham. Very muddy and hilly but notable for two things. Firstly my back went onto a spasm after the 3rd mile and so I jogged/walked back to the finish. Secondly I then very painfully, and in a very wet and muddy field, got down on one knee to propose to my partner. Fortunately she said yes. Unfortunately people wanted me to repeat it so they could take photos!!
2023 again started tentatively, but we had made plans for 4 half marathons that year; Hastings, Three Forts, Edinburgh and Copenhagen. Hastings and Three Forts were really just sighters for the main events of Edinburgh and Copenhagen. Hastings, as people may be aware, has the first half going uphill followed by a fairly steep descent and then a final 3 miles on the seafront. Three Forts I love as it's an extended trail run over the South Downs, so very hilly. You don't do it for a time, but on a sunny day the views are breathtaking. Having got those in the bag I looked forward to Edinburgh as this was a fast course, with the first part all downhill and then flat after that.
However (there is always a however), 3 weeks before the event, and partaking in a bit of club parkrun tourism, I ran at Sandhurst which included a sizeable water feature that you go through 3 times. On the third time whether it was the cold shock on the muscle followed quickly by an attempt to sprint in to the line my calf went again. Physio followed and any training was curtailed. I turned up at Edinburgh taped and compressed to the nth degree and started the Half feeling the calf but figuring if it was just painful then I could cope. And for the first 6 miles I ran well, until it blew. So I basically hobbled for the last 7 miles.
There then followed a "told you so" look from the physio and another few weeks of not running. I then came back doing the Phoenix 10K (I'd entered it earlier in the year) and decided to run it gently and at an even pace. Having finished in 57 minutes I felt my back was just griping a bit. Getting up the next day I sneezed and it went into a major spasm. I have never felt it like that before. I had 3 days where I literally couldn't move.
I suspected a lot of my physical issues could be attributed to work stress and so arranged a 4 month sabbatical with the company I work for. So on my first day of sabbatical we got married. The following Saturday we ran Hove Park parkrun dressed as a bride and groom with me carrying my wife over the finishing line (ironically my back was OK but it put hers out!!). The following week we were in The Hague with 14 other club members doing Zuiderpark parkrun so that we could get a Z on our way to the parkrun Alphabeteer challenge (ultimately completed at York in October).
And the week after that we were in Copenhagen for the Half. This time no niggles, but the weather was rather warm and the start was quite chaotic with us being held there for over an hour whilst the elites got away. Never felt I ever got into a rhythm on the run and the wasted energy standing around at the start was matched by trying to find some form of shade. As such I really dropped off the pace after 10 miles and struggled with the last 3 miles. The number of people on that final stretch who were either suffering with cramp or from heat exhaustion was quite something. The additional stress of needing to get back to the hotel to shower and checkout before rushing to the airport made us realise that next time we do an event abroad we are not going to fly back the same day.
The benefit of the sabbatical was that I could properly do some decent training runs. I'd also signed up with a personal trainer who has completely revamped my gym routine. Regular 10+ mile runs up to and over the South Downs meant that come October and another crack at the Great South I was in much better shape. And my (now) wife was also in blistering form that day until mile 6 when I was vaguely aware of a horizontal form nudging ahead of me. She had tripped and effectively face planted the road!! I stopped to help her up and check she was OK to be told not to ruin my race and to run on. Duly did to complete a 10 mile PB and only cursed the fact it wasn't a Half as I felt I could have done an HM PB as well.
So I was looking forward to a decent start to 2024. But a chest infection over Xmas lingered until early January. Having then got over that I was hoping for a decent 10K outing at Newhaven. Unfortunately I felt what I thought at the time was my Achilles tightening on a club run 5 days before. In retrospect I should have binned the 10K, but stupidly thought, again, "What's the worst that can happen?" So going into the last mile with a member of my club some 50m ahead of me and well within my range to reel in I started to stretch out, only for my calf to go. An aborted jog/walk attempt was curtailed about 4 weeks ago and I am now just starting to jog again. This is in the hope I can get round parkrun at Delaware & Ruritan Canal in the US this week for my 200th.
Good to be back posting, though
I've had an up and down time myself. 2021 was the year it went to hell in a handbasket. Even in 2020 I was running well - I ran my fastest ever 5K on my 53rd birthday though of course it was self-timed and therefore unofficial. Groin flared up the next day so I had to take some time out but bounced back quickly enough. I entered Dorney Lake marathon that Autumn during the brief few months when racing resumed (with limitations) before we went into the second lockdown. But I hate laps, the weather was awful and I could feel my hamstring grumbling so I DNF'd for the first time ever. I thought I'd been clever and avoided a lot of time off by exercising caution and was able to complete 2020 miles for that year (not like there was anything else to do!) Turns out my body had other plans.
My running club organised a hills challenge for January - log as much ascent as you can in a month. I'm not fast, but I figured I could do well at this and I threw myself into it, doing ridiculous hilly runs and logging the most ascent of the women (there were a couple of guys who did more - both ultra runners).
Then hamstring kicked off in earnest (proximal tendon) and I had to stop running for a couple of months. It was pretty bad. When I came back, I just wasn't the same. I was suffering fatigue and thought it might be down to some antibiotics I'd taken for a gum infection, so went to the GP who had me do a lot of tests. She didn't like my ECG, cue 18 months worth of cardiac testing which revealed precisely nothing but caused a lot of stress and anxiety.
When I could run my times had dropped off a cliff. I'd run a sub-4 marathon in 2019 and was just under 1:53 for a half, but when I came back I could no longer get under 2 hours for the half. Instead of improving from there, I just got worse. My parkrun times are dreadful too.
I've run three marathons since I came back, at 4:21, 4:19 and, a year ago, 4:32 which I can't explain as training had gone well enough I thought I'd be under 4:15 again. It's the slowest marathon I've done where I've not stopped to walk at any point.
I did manage to do my first ultra last June (UltraLondon 55) but there was a fair amount of walking involved.
I had hoped to do a better marathon last Autumn but the hamstring problem reoccurred (I probably pushed myself into training too soon after the ultra) so I had to take more time off last summer.
I got myself back in time to do a couple of pretty poor halves and was going to start building from there but came down with a pretty bad chest cold just before Christmas and had to delay the start until January. I guess I rushed it again. Did a 12, then a 14 the following week. Hip was a little tight towards the end but I didn't think much of it. Then when I did a recovery run two days later, the hip really kicked off (this is the left hip, whereas it's always the right hamstring).
This is where I am currently.
I hope today I've turned a corner. I did 6 miles continuously today and there was some grumbling but it wasn't as bad as I thought. I am unfit though - cardiac drift was pretty steep.
Two runs over the weekend. First was the Delaware & Raritan Canal parkrun which is an hour's train journey and then a 20 minute taxi ride from New York. So apart from the cost of getting to NY and staying there (and it's far more expensive than I remember it) getting to the actual parkrun showed a dedication above and beyond. It meant setting multiple alarms to ensure we were awake at 6am to then walk to Penn Station to get the 7:15 train. Coffee at the station went some way to waking us up on a bitterly cold and grey morning. We did look around before we boarded the train to see if there was anyone else mad enough to do the trip, but didn't notice anyone. Arriving at New Brunswick we were spotted by a taxi driver who was obviously well used to taking people to the parkrun (apparently he's famous on the parkrun tourist Facebook page) and so the next part was quite easy. We arrived in the park itself in plenty of time to meet three other Brits who we'd completely failed to see back at Penn Station.
The parkrun itself is a simple out and back along the side of the canal itself, which comes replete with geese and anglers standing on the sides. It's a hard packed gravel surface so I would imagine a fast course for those not just doing their first run for about 8 weeks. A small field of 67 (with the obligatory visitor from Australia) I managed 26:48 - very aware of how my calf felt throughout the run. But even with that I was 16th and possibly could have pushed on and passed the two guys just ahead of me if I'd put a sprint in.
Everyone was very welcoming and friendly, although parkrun hasn't really taken off that much in the US it's growing and we met the guy who set this one up who is now back in the UK and runs at Hastings. We've said we'll go over there to do the parkrun on their seafront as it's one of the few we've not done in Sussex. We were invited back with the group to a cafe for breakfast, which was delicious, and were given a lift back to the station (this was a particular worry as neither of us had network connectivity on our phones, despite me going into my mobile provider before we left to organise that).
The next day, having got completely soaked as we walked around NY on the Saturday, we jogged/walked up to Central Park and did a 5.5km run. Changeable weather, with cloud cover and the breeze it was a 3 top run, but then when the sun came out I was stripping down to one top. The calf was feeling a bit niggly at one point, but I think that's possibly just scar tissue that I need to break down. We followed the run with a walk to 3rd Ave/51 Str to enjoy a bagel at Ess-a-bagel, apparently something of an institution. The queue down the street seemed to support this and although it took us well over 45 mins to finally sit down with our brunch it was well worth it.
To date that is the only overseas one I've done. I'm down for Amsterdam Marathon in October (if I can get my body to behave) so I will try to get another Dutch one in if I can.
The canal run sounds nice. A couple from my running club moved to the US and set up a parkrun where they are - I guess a few of the American runs have been set up under similar circumstances.
The US was our fifth overseas parkrun adventure having taken in Italy (Luca - lovely walled town where PR is on the wall itself) and Finland (Helsinki in snow. So far my only top 10 finish, although there were only 30 runners) in 2022 and Zuiderpark followed very quickly by Amager Strandpark in Denmark in 2023.
The US seems quite a tricky country to set things up in due to the litigious nature of the country and the sheer number of different organisations that need to agree to holding it. The one we did has a route that cuts across different park authorities - I think State and local. Additionally, it seems 5K races are a big thing over there and people like to get a medal and an official time, so what amounts to a non-competitive, turn up and run kind of event hasn't cut through yet. I have to admit that I was surprised that NYC doesn't have a parkrun, but given having to deal with the authorities and the stranglehold the NYRR seems to have on running events in the city I can now understand it.
Going to try a treadmill session this evening to ease my calf back into things.
I've missed the two previous events - New Year's Day when I was ill and February's parkrun at East Brighton when I was injured, so acted as a tail walker. Which means being given a tough target time it's going to be a challenge considering I'm only just getting back.
I'm happy to say I managed to complete the 8 mile Kingston run today. I did take three strategic 15 second walks during the second half when I felt stuff getting a bit gripey. It hasn't complained too much since. Only issue was that I am so unfit, aerobically, now, due to not running much, that I was slow. I thought I might be able to 10 minute mile, but I didn't manage that. My one lap this year was slower than either of the two laps i did last year when I ran the 16.
I have a lot of work to do but at the same time, I can't start ramping up the mileage and/or speed when my hip is still griping at me.
Just the one run over the weekend - Hove Prom parkrun. This was part of a) the club's parkrun grand prix series and b) went towards the club's Gold Cup series. For the grand prix it was age graded and for the Gold Cup I had a target time of 23:33 - which I thought was a tad ambitious especially as one of the guys in the club who is generally quicker than me had a target time of 24+ mins.
Hove Prom is, as it says, run on the promenade at Hove. It's two loops, heading out west to begin with, then a sharp turn and back east before turning around again. It's flat and apart from the turns is considered quick. A gorgeous sunny morning with the temp about 11C saw nearly 800 runners drawn out - a definite change to our experience the week before.
I tried to stay with the 24 min pacer to begin with and for the first lap felt fine. So much so that I overtook one of my club mates who is also just back from a calf injury. However I was also being overtaken by others in the club and as much as I tried to stay with the 24 pacer I found on the third turn I was falling further behind. So much so that on the straight heading east for the second time I felt like I was treading water. At the final turn I noticed another two from the club right behind me and still thinking I had the 400m splits I'd done on Thursday in the memory bank I set off believing I could up the pace. Big mistake. I had misjudged the distance to the finish as they'd moved the start line and as I tried to spot it in the distance my legs were starting to go. One of the club's runners went past me but I managed to put a spurt in at the end to hold off another, finishing in 24:48.
In retrospect I'm pleased with the time. It's two mins quicker than last week, although I was taking it easy last week to test out the calf. I think what annoys me is that I messed up my pacing so badly, something I'm normally quite good at. Still, onwards and upwards. A couple of gym sessions done and the Tuesday night club run this week. We've got a league race at Easter and have just entered the Worthing 10K, so time to concentrate on getting that endurance and pace back.
I like Seaford and feel it has the potential to be as quick as Worthing. It's similar in it's 'out and back' nature, it's not as crowded and as such the start is not a jostle for position. The time there, like most seafront runs, does depend on the conditions and which way the wind blows. Although the café for coffee afterwards is as bad as Brighton & Hove in terms of organisation
Club run last night. The runs are split into four pace groups - Fast/Fast Middle/Slow Middle/Gentle Joggers - and all are generally paced based on your normal pr times. As I'm still easing my way in I chose the Slow Middle group. We started at Hove Park, but spent the first km going uphill before hitting Dyke Road, which is one of the main roads leading in to Brighton from the A27. We then headed down there towards the seafront, turning right and running along the seafront before heading back up to Hove Park. All in all 6.5 miles, but done at a pace I wasn't really prepared for. I'm glad I did it and it's good to get that much in the legs, but boy are they feeling it today, along with my back and hip. I've just been to the gym and spent the entire time stretching and rolling.
I've had the week off but the hip actually got worse with that - I don't think it really likes rehab and walking. It's very puzzling. I did do a parkrun today, though (not a new one but one I repeated as a friend didn't do it before, and it's dry, unlike my home run). Managed it in under 30 mins but paid for that later.
Might do Peacehaven next Saturday with same friend. He has a car and that's one I've not done down there that is not on the train.
Well done on Saturday's parkrun - hopefully things aren't too painful. And good luck with Peacehaven. It's a nice course, if a little narrow with tight turns. If they have their new path open it should be even better. And a decent café as well. Parking can sometimes be an issue, though.
Two runs over the weekend. We did Horsham parkrun on Saturday - which was our second attempt to tick it off. The first time, in January, saw us pitch up and pay for parking only to then realise it had been cancelled due to ice on the course. So this time we were very pleased to see it on, even if the course had been slightly amended due to flooding from the pond. A lot more people there than I'd thought there would be and I think we started too far back, so progress was especially slow for the first km. And as I was still suffering the affects of Tuesday, with my hip feeling very grumpy, it took me a while to get things warmed up and confident enough that my hip wasn't going to cramp. Given that, not knowing the course and for parts of it it was single file I was quite pleased doing 28+ mins.
Sunday we had a session in the gym before going for a 10K along the seafront, heading from Hove towards Southwick - going into the wind on the way out, but also having to put up with the smell from the waste treatment plant on our route. Not an easy run as I'm still trying to step up the distance and very aware I've got a relay race this Saturday and a 10K league race on Easter Monday. So desperate to get some miles in the legs.
My hip was OK Sunday - I didn't do much as I was volunteering at my club's annual 20 mile race (I had the rather nice job of giving out medals at the finish, which was better than the marshalling I've done on previous occasions as I had access to the cake stall).
Yesterday I decided to go out for a gentle 4 miles and it wasn't good - hip started to get a little tight after 15 minutes so I then put a walk break in every 5 minutes but instead of helping, I just felt like I was tired and wanted to stop. Weird eh?
Today was the gym and did some squats which hip did not like at all. It seems to really hate any attempt at serious lower body exercise. Mucking about with bands is all well and good but at coming up to 57, I need to do the heavy stuff if I want to preserve muscle mass. Ugh.
Most concerning thing was my HR got quite high (170s). This was watch - I've not used the strap for a bit. The watch doesn't deal with intervals particularly well as it's a bit slow to react but I don't think it can have been too far out because I did feel a bit puffed at times. I think it's mostly down to a catastrophic loss of aerobic fitness due to the injury combined with being over caffeinated and under hydrated (didn't take water but perhaps I should as it's getting a bit warmer now). I remember my HR being high on a run when I was coming back from the hamstring injury in 2021 so I think it's just that. I need to find a way to get fitter when I can't run as often, but the machines in the gym bore me to tears if I'm on them for more than 20 minutes.
Can you easily ride a bike where you are? That was the thing last year when I had to stop running due to the calf injury - I got out on the bike as much as I could. At least that way the recovery back, aerobically, isn't as bad.
Good work on the 10 miler, and encouraging that the hip wasn't too bad, if a little achy. The hydration part is quite key as the weather gets better. I definitely forget this and tend not to bother, especially if it's not a long run. But then I get out of the habit of doing it for the longer runs then.
No runs so far this week since Sunday, but I've done 4 days on the trot in the gym, including a good legs session on Monday and a PT session this morning. Decided against the club run last night as it was raining. I know it shows very little application on my part, but I had planned to use up some free time today to fit a speed session in. But then work took over and that's gone by the wayside. I've promised myself a rest day tomorrow (no gym or running) and plan a 10K on Friday (along with the gym). Going to be slow as there's the relay on Saturday.
And this evening I've got a planning session for the league race that the club is hosting. Still trying to sort out the race permit and waiting for the Council to tell me how much they want to charge us, just for agreeing that we can hold it.
Three runs over the Easter weekend. Saturday did parkrun at Hove Park as a very gentle jog round in a touch over 29 mins. This was in an effort to save legs for the Sussex Road Relay championship in the afternoon at Preston Park. I moved up an age category for this year's event (still disputing that as I'm sure I'm not as old as they say).
The format is 3 person teams running 2 miles before handing over. As there's a mix of age groups (M40, M50 and M60) there is the consequent mix of abilities as well, with the quicker teams running a touch under the 6 min/mile mark. And you're never quite sure who you're competing against, especially if you're the last leg. You could try chasing down a runner to only realise they're in a different age category and therefore a different race. Or on a different lap!! We had 2 teams in our age category, but only 2 runners, which meant someone had to run twice, once for each team. I volunteered, but was very relieved someone else also volunteered who wasn't racing the on the Monday. Glorious late March weather with sunshine and little wind meant standing around for 2 hours wasn't as bad as it could have been. However I was still feeling the 'jog' of the morning for some reason. When I'd competed the previous year I'd managed the 2 miles in 14:20. This year I aimed to get under 16, an indication of where I am both in terms of fitness and speed. I ran the last leg and immediately had someone shoot past me and they opened up a 75m gap in no real time. Which meant I was basically running on my own for the entirety of my race as I had no one threatening behind me. At the end of the first lap I realised that I was closing the distance down to the guy who'd overtaken me, so my tactic of just running steadily seemed to be working against his going out hard at the start. And as we entered the last 800m the gap had closed to about 30m and I had hopes of putting in a bit of a sprint at the end. However at the turn point going into the last 400m I think he realised I'd closed and he was able to use the hill to open the gap a bit more. In the end I was able to close it to 10m but ran out of course. Still I was quite pleased that me splits were exactly the same and I'd gone sub 16.
The Easter Monday saw the Lewes 10K, which is part of the WSFRL. Rather changeable weather meant it was difficult to know what to wear. At points, when the sun was out and the wind had dropped it was really quite warm. At other times when the cloud came over it proved to be chilly. Footwear was a challenge, too. For the most part the race was on tarmac. However, there was a lengthy section that went through slippery mud and so the question of 'slicks or wets' came into it. In the end I went trails and whilst that helped in the muddy sections I paid for it on the harder surface.
I still felt the affects of Saturday in my legs, and I wasn't helped by my back going into a mini spasm on the morning as I was putting things in the car. So much so I almost pulled out of the race. In the end I decided to do it just for 'time on feet' purposes and started off at what I thought was an even pace in the hope I could push on at the end. I hadn't appreciated the first half would be my zenith and that I'd really struggle with the last 5K. It is very annoying to have overtaken people and then have them come back past you. Even the thought of the finish on a track couldn't summon up the will to do a sprint as my back twinged and, worryingly, my hip started to cramp up whenever I tried to stretch out. Which meant people were treated to the sight of me punching it to get it to behave. Not a run for a time, which was just as well, as I was pleased to just finish. I think there's a bit more work I need to do to get back to where I was at the end of last year.
Sadly I'm a DNS for BM10K today - as well as my hip issue, I am now sick, so decided that the 4am start, 2 mile walk to Clapham Junction for the early train, waiting around in the wind and then the 10K would be a bit much for my body in its current state.
I did get down to Peacehaven for the parkrun last Saturday, though, so I'm gradually adding to my Sussex parkruns. I quite liked it even though it's not a prom run - the nice weather helped.
Only Hove Park parkrun on Saturday to report as a run I actually did. Jogged around for the first lap and a half until my wife let me off the leash and managed to push it more on the last lap which included a sprint at the end to see how things went. I can still feel a sort of cramp feeling from the right hip and I'm almost afraid to check it out to see what it is.
Followed that by going to the gym, where I now seem to have hurt my shoulder. Or, at least, my shoulder blade is really tender. I'd gone on Thursday for a PT session and had stupidly dropped a dumbell on my chest during a bench press exercise. So I was trying to exorcise any demons I might have from that, but in the process seem to have pulled something!!
Sunday was marshalling at the Brighton marathon. We were part of a team who were controlling a 'box crossing' so we block off one side of the road whilst we herded pedestrians into the box in the centre, then close the other side off whilst we got them to cross. We would then get people from the other side of the road over and repeat the process. It kept us busy pretty much all day. Daunting the first couple of times, but then the lead runners were relatively well spaced out. When the main packs came through for the 3hr-5hr marks it was very hectic. Certainly had to be quite assertive with both the runners and pedestrians alike and from the runners perspect there were a couple of unhappy mutterings. The pedestrians, but and large, were fine, but again we had a few who didn't see why they had to wait. I had to calm one guy down who said he was going to cross regardless as he was meeting someone and I had to persuade him that it was for his own safety that he didn't want half a dozen runners ploughing into him. All in all, though, it was good fun, if a tough day physicially.
Saturday did Mole Valley parkrun which is held at the Denbies Vineyard near Dorking. This is a lovely course, if somewhat undulatory. It's a lap round the field before setting off on the main one lap course, which means you do get the uphill out of the way on the first half of the run. This parkrun was part of the clubs grand prix series and as such had been designated a 'naked' run - so times were submitted and watches were left off. I decided to go with a slowish time as I wasn't sure how things were going to hold together and felt that a comfortable pace was better than trying to push it. Ultimately I came in 7 seconds under my target time, which meant I was 6th overall.
The next day we decided to do an easy 11K along the side of the Adur, going on the Downslink to Botolphs and back. The shoulder was fine whilst I was out, however my hip again started to complain a bit at the 7K mark, which is a worry. A steady 9:15 pace was OK and I feel as if I could have gone quicker if needed, but the way my legs felt afterwards shows how much aerobic fitness I've lost since the beginning of the year. The worry is I have the Worthing 10K next week (no chance of doing a decent time) and the Three Forts half marathon the following week (no time expectation there at all, but I'm worried about the affect it'll have on my hip).
I would call Mole Valley hilly rather than undulating.
I've done a couple more parkruns (Ashford and Great Salterns) but both with walking breaks. I'm doing a 5 mile trail race in two weeks...and I feel so unprepared! I'll get through it but damn, it's come up a bit too quickly for my liking.
Good luck with the trail race. I would say 5 miles should be OK, but not the way my legs feel after Sunday. I'm sure you'll get through it OK, though.
5 miles today, no walking. Hip ached but didn't affect my form so I think I'll handle the race so long as it isn't too muddy (last year it was like the Somme. I did not have a good time).