And so it continues

A more relaxed day at work yesterday after the stresses of "do-we-or-don't-we" Tuesday and zooming up and down to Newcastle. Decided not to run home on account of a lack of Dazzler to drive me in, so decided to go out after work with Hinsley.

I had something with double figures in mind, but as rich was with me we decided to go from work rather than silsden.

Up to tesco, turn left then all the way along the canal past Ridds and the golf course. We'd decided to carry on past the farm and stay on the towpath for a while further which was dry but less smooth underfoot.

We turned left just before silsden ad cut down to the lane and then back to the farm and the towpath.

As I'd forgotten my watch (again) we were on iPhone timing using rubitrack, so we weren't sure on pace. It felt like 8minute-ish but my legs did express some surprise at still being running after 40 minutes had passed!

We got back to work with just 10m on the clock in a tad over 80 minutes, with no calf pain and just a slight sense of satisfaction to offset the slightly fatigued legs!


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Getting better (slightly)

This running on alternate days seems to be doing the trick with my poorly calves, although thanks to a bit of self-massage (ooh! cheeky!) I had a very tender bit right at the top of my right calf this morning.

After the stresses of a day-long "go/no-go" meeting yesterday today was a relatively normal day, punctuated mainly by pigging out on delish home-made Sheesh kebabs brought in as a variation on the normal "bake sale" to raise money for the Pakistan flood victims - ate far too many but put lots of money in the pot and went out for a run after work to make up for my gluttony.

With Hinsley and The Newmanator tonight, I'd decided to wear my compression socks, so was forced to run on my own by the lads as they were embarrassed to be seen with me.  I responded to their cold-shouldering by running the second mile along the canal a bit quicker than we'd originally said, so was pleased to see a pair of slightly sweaty bods when we turned round at the 2 1/2 mile mark, then Hinsley (trying to play it cool) said he thought we were going to do an effort for the fourth mile - so we speeded up a bit.  Quite gratified that it felt a long way from eyeballs out, and the watch beeped at 6:35.  Mind you, how I used to run 6 or 8 miles at that pace in training is slightly beyond me at the moment...

5 miles at 7:34 pace - and no reaction from the legs.

Off up to Newcastle for more merger fun tomorrow, then I think I might make another attempt at running home on Friday - or possible running in if I can be arsed to get up that early!

A monstrous bike ride Sunday. Plan was to meet Rick and Angry in Otley then ride to York and back via the Flatlands in preparation for the Manchester 100 in a couple of weeks. Herb picked me up in Ken the Kamp and we set off, only to grind to a halt just this side of Ilkley as the road was closed due to a fatal accident. We toyed with going round via Blubbs but in the end dumped the car at Addingham and walked across to the Nesfield road and cycled at high speed to Otley (including a ludicrous race with a pensioner on an addax bike).

Off towards York we went, with Rick on yet another new bike and Angry on a posh Spesh thing with a full size chainset he has on test. It's surprisingly lumpy in the first third, but once you're past Wetherby it all gets nice and flat.

We were wazzing along and looking forward to more wazzing on the way home as we were convinced the wind was going to be behind us.




We stopped at Naburn for a brew then set off back to realise the wind was a westerly and we had 35 miles to go straight into it. By the time we were back at Arthington we'd all had a bad spell (except The Herb who was nails) and Angry was off the back and struggling.




Rick managed to get our bikes in his van thing so we avoided another 8 miles of into the wind struggle back to Ken. 74 miles at an average of just under 17mph, but a lesson in how much fitness I've lost as I was shot at the end.

I managed another steady 4 miler after work on Monday without the aid of compression socks, then biked in today the lumpy way on my own. As I was by myself I had time to study the two climbs and realise that whilst they're steep and gnarly they're not that long. The climb through Draughton and past the stables is only about a milke and a half and took 13 minutes, and the dreaded Holden Lane is only 0.6m and took just over 7 minutes. I got absolutely drenched going in so can't wait for the new drying rooms they're building at work.

The ride home was 3 minutes quicker than last week, mainly due to not rabbitting to The Herb (or maybe I'm getting some cycling legs back after 100m last week?).




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Up and sort of running

We've got young Milly, K's niece, staying with us this weekend, so as I'm not a blood relative I was allowed out of the trip to the swimming baths this morning.  I was thinking about getting out on my bike, but as we're out for a biggish ride tomorrow I couldn't really be bothered getting kitted up and out.

So - following a few boings around the kitchen to see whether there was any niggle left in either of my naughty calves I popped my vest, and my comedy compression socks, on and set off gingerly towards Halton East.

At the 1.5 m point I considered turning round but decided to keep going to 2, and I reached Halton East with no pain from either leg.  So far so good...

On the way back I started to get a bit of tightness in my achilles on the left, but the calf stayed pain free, and I came home a happy bunny with 4 miles at 7:55 pace under my belt.  Bike tomorrow, and I think the rule's going to be no speedwork for a fortnight and no running on consecutive days until next weekend earliest.

Good stuff - we're on the way...

Well now...

Ended up having a pretty good weekend all in all - The Herbs turned up and we all went to the pub.  Then on Saturday I decided to give my sore calf a weekend off so we did family stuff including getting lost in a maize maze (with Maisie, oddly...) and on Sunday we went to Forbidden Corner which is near Leyburn and is just weird.  Reminded myself just how beautiful the Lune Valley is up that top end, and vowed to go back and run over Barbon Fell and perhaps a Howgill or two very soon.

Having been so responsible and not running I was happy to go out with The Herb Monday after work, and all was going swimmingly for a couple of miles then in my left calf (you know, the one that hurt last week before the right one decided to hurt - yeah - that one) a familiar feeling.  Even more annoyingly it happened the moment The Herb said "all's ok with your calf then?" - and of course it was.  Just not the other one.

So - back on the running bench for a few days.  It's not (I don't think) serious as it didn't feel like a proper tear, but it has been a bit sore since.  Been up in the North East doing merger stuff for a couple of days so haven't really missed running, but I am going to have to find somewhere to run up there as it looks like a day or two most weeks will be how it'll be for a few months at least.

So today, feeling my belly growing by the moment, I decided to risk it and cycle in to work with The Herb, who's been doing lots on his bike and has been cycling in the lumpy way over the moor.  This involves a couple of seriously steep climbs - one up through Draughton and then Holden Lane between Silsden and East Morton.  Now the sign at the top of this says 20%, but that's only 1 in 5, isn't it?  Nah - there's bits on this that are nearer 1 in 4 - and at half seven in the morning it's hard going. 

Still - it's 26 miles and a couple of hours of CV exercise done.  A long bike on Sunday then I'll give my (by then hopefully) pain free legs a run out - part of the build up to running a bit quicker, hopefully!

Grim up north

Currently sat in our new tent (which is lovely and very quick to erect) watching steady drizzle turn into pissing rain then back to drizzle. We're here because m'lovely daughter Maisie wanted to go camping with her mate and this is pretty much the only weekend we could fit it in.

The weather is supposed to be better tomorrow, so calf permitting The Herb and I are going for a run over Middleton Fell, which will be nice as I've never been up there before - however that depends whether this bloody deluge stops.


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A better week, but a sore calf (again)

Seedhill on Wednesday as promised and it proved good to be back on track.  It was busier than last time I was there (which I think was February!) but with The Newmanator and Hinsley along for the ride we decided on a relatively gentle reintroduction with 6x800m off 200m recoveries.  Plan was originally to run at c40min 10k pace with Rich, and see if he could hang on.  That's roughly 1:35 per lap, but as we went through the fist one in 1:28 and feeling not overly stretched I adapted the target to 1:30's.

This proved slightly more stretching, but even off relatively short (65-70s) recoveries I managed to hang on to almost the target pace, with the traditionally tough rep just after half way being the slowest

I had a slightly tight spot at the top of my left calf towards the end, but nothing that felt too serious, however I popped some ice on it afterwards.

The plan was then to run home on Thursday as that's the last day of the working week with today being a day off.  I set off feeling fine, and with no trouble from my left calf, but after about 5 miles my right calf tightened up - nothing approaching the pulls I've had in the past, but having learned from that I decided to bail out - fortunately The Dazzler, a workmate, was driving my car home, so I called him and got picked up on the Aire Valley by-pass - so my first run home ended at 7 miles, but at a comfortable 7:50 pace I don't think I've done any damage.  I've dug my ridiculous compression socks out for this weekend's gentle fell bimble up at Barbon though, so hopefully no lasting damage.