Tentative Attempts at Racing

Following on from the success of managing a proper Sunday run - 8 miles!!! I was keen to push on this week and do some more serious training - however the longer run had definitely had an impact on my IT band / knee so I stuck to a very easy 4 miles on Monday.
On the Saturday I had the Midland Road Relays - one of my favourite events as it's a great social occasion and an excellent opportunity to catch up with the rest of the team as well as various running friends from Uni who I only see at the big races.

Monday: 4 mile easy run + physio exercises

Tuesday: 4 x 1km - this time I was running through the trees and kept losing the signal on my watch! Felt a bit better than last week but no way fast enough to suggest I should be asking our team captain for a place on the A team for the Relays. + Physio exercises

Wednesday: 20 min bike + 35km/h, 95rpm. Now I've got my cadence monitor on my bike I'm focusing on getting my rpm consistently over 90. Physio exercises. Evening - 5.5 mile run. IT Band sore. Unsurprisingly I may have overdone it over the last few days!

Thursday: Very short swim! Physio exercises + some quality time with the foam roller to try and ease off the IT Band. This coincided with a very busy work day so not being able to train may have been a blessing in disguise for being able to get everything done!

Friday: Double foam roller day! Knee & IT Band sore. Not the best preparation for race day.

Saturday: Midlands Road Relay Champs. Both my knee and IT Band were sore warming up - not the best start! I was running on the B team and going off 2nd so I spent a good 20 mins jogging and then about 15 mins stretching to try and ease off my IT band and prevent any further damage. By the time I put my racers on ready for my leg the knee seemed ok and I was excited to be standing in the handover pen, part of a big race again! I absolutely love this event and with the sun shining and lots of support out on the course, I eased into my running and kept focused on my form to try and protect my niggling injury. I was so happy to be running and racing again I overtook quite a few people - at least 20 including a few men, which was fantastic motivation to keep me moving through the field. I clocked 16.58 for the 4.3km leg, and finished 11th fastest of all the leg 2 runners. I guess it was just one of those days when I was so relaxed and enjoying it so much that I managed to tap into all my training reserves from last Winter. Or something like that!! It wasn't an outstanding time, but it was a lot better than I expected - I was thinking around the 18 minute mark would be a good result, especially given my minimal training since April. Maybe all those 6am swim sessions, 2 hour brick sessions and long rides in the Winter were worth it after all, despite never having the triathlon season they were done for!
Here's a lovely photo of me running down the hill towards the lake...yes I can tell I've not been exercising much over the last 5 months, oops!

Sunday: Easy potter round the Wrekin with Juliet - having not been round the Wrekin for months and months I just couldn't resist the opportunity to go for a little run. Needless to say my legs were pretty tired by the end  and Sunday evening involved another session with the foam roller.

Looking back I had a pretty good week of training there, but I could really do with less comments saying "IT band/knee sore"! I guess I'll just keep doing what I can and try not to overdo it so it becomes much worse.

Charging Ahead

It's easy to tell I'm getting back towards full training without even looking at my training diary - in our house you can tell just by looking at the washing basket. Weekly washes are a thing of the past once more as the never ending pile of muddy running kit demands regular attention! Back in July I was looking at all my running kit thinking I had too much, that it was taking up too much space, that there was no way I could ever need all this...and then this week reminded me just how many sports bras, shorts, t-shirts, long sleeve tops, rain jackets, 3/4 length tights, long tights, thermal layers, compression layers, winter jackets it is possible to need as a runner in one week!

Oh how happy I am to get back training just as the weather turns.

Seriously though, I am very happy to be back training on a more normal schedule! I would say I'm being sensible, but I'm really charging ahead and trying to do everything I can without overdoing it. And I did have to have a serious word with myself when I was planning to go to the gym on Saturday as a "rest day" and then remembered that this doesn't really count as a rest day when I'm intending to use the cross-trainer, rowing machine and swim!

Monday - Gym: cross-trainer, rowing machine and a lovely long swim. First swim since injury that's been pain-free so I made the most of it!

Tuesday - 5.5 mile run including 4 x 30sec strides. My first attempt at getting the legs going faster...they managed it, but it was a slow run home after.

Wednesday am - 21 min bike. I'm currently watching my DVD of 2012 Tour de France so the length of my bike rides are affected by waiting to the end of a stage!

Wednesday pm - 4.5 mile run. A little tired towards the end.

Thursday - My first session! 4 x 1km off 2min recovery. I honestly don't know what I was thinking...ok, I was thinking I really want to be able to do this and a few months ago this would have been really easy. I clocked vaguely respectable 3.40's for my reps but pretty much crawled home afterwards and spent a romantic evening in with the foam roller

Friday am - 30 min bike. This was going to be a 25 min bike, but I was enjoying Wiggo's final time trial too much!

Friday pm - Easy 30 min run

Saturday - REST.

Sunday - 8.5 mile long run. After last week's 6+ mile run had been quite a struggle I was really surprised to find myself a mile from home and already over 7 miles, without too much difficulty. Progress!

Total - 27.5 miles

This week looks a lot like a respectable week of training. Certainly not as many miles or hard sessions as I hope to be doing in a month or so, but I managed some strides, an actual km interval session and a decent length long run. And to treat myself for the good week's training I ordered some new XC spikes from Sportsshoes.com - the Nike Zoom Waffle XC 10. Last season's spikes were completely destroyed during the National XC up in Sunderland. I actually took the time to wash the snow and mud off, instead of chucking them in the bin, only to discover they were seriously ripped and falling apart. I blame the race, not the spikes though so I've ordered another pair for this season. These promise "optimal water shedding benefits" - which will definitely be needed if the weather of the last week is any indication of the sort of Winter we're in for!

So new spikes on their way and just under 2 weeks now till my first XC race of the season - North Staffs XC at Winsford. I'm hoping this won't be too much for my recovering injury as it's only 5km and I have it on good authority that it's a flat firm course round some playing fields. It's going to be tough, but I've got to start somewhere and after so long off it feels really good to be planning races again!

Clocking up the miles...

That heading sounds a bit more impressive than the reality actually is, but at least I am now clocking up some running miles and I couldn't be happier about it!

Over the last few weeks of my running come back I have very sensibly built up the mileage slowly. I would say it's been hard to be sensible...but it hasn't been hard at all! It's been very very hard to actually run as far as I have, running less would have been much easier.

Week 1 - 3 miles
Week 2 - 6 miles
Week 3 - 7 miles
Week 4 - 11 miles
Week 5 - 25 miles

Ok so it does sound like I haven't been quite so sensible this week, but the knee has been feeling a lot better and I did take a couple of days off mid-week as my IT band was very tight and needed some serious attention from the foam roller. I've also given the cycling a break this week so I don't over do anything by mistake. I also very sensibly resisted the temptation to do a race on Wednesday night - just because I can run 5km certainly doesn't mean my knee will hold up to racing 5km!

The main reason for ramping up the training all of a sudden is that I've been back in Shropshire for a couple of days and running is a great way to catch up with my old friends and revisit the routes I love through the countryside. Over 3 runs I've managed to run with Juliet, Claire, Nellie, Julie & Wayne - and with the exception of Claire I haven't seen any of them in 7 months! Of course having a bit of company and friends chatting away while you run makes running seem a LOT easier so I've ended up running 6 miles a couple of times without really realising how much time had elapsed.
This morning I had a lovely run with Nellie and Julie through the fields and round the country lanes near Nellies, followed by a cup of tea and a good gossip! I do feel really lucky to know so many beautiful running routes and have a huge choice of people to run with.

Flash back! Telford Ladies at Midlands Road Relay Champs April 2011 - a fab team to be part of. L-R: Juliet, me, Michelle, Lisa, Claire, Nellie, Cheryl & Kim

Monday - 3.8 miles
Tuesday - 4.5 miles
Wednesday - Rest, sore IT band
Thursday - Rest, sore IT band
Friday - 4.3 miles
Saturday - 5.7 miles
Sunday - 6.3 miles

Thank you to everybody who's run with me this week, dragged me round and kept my legs moving when I was struggling. I really feel like I've turned a corner with my training this week and hopefully I'll be able to push on from here and get some consistent miles in. I've been given the go ahead from my coach to try a few strides and maybe even a fartlek session this week so fingers crossed that goes well.

I'm currently hopeful I'll be racing the Midlands Road Relay Champs in 2 weeks time (hence the flash back photo!) and I cannot wait. Even if I'm running in the C team, it's giving me motivation to keep up the training even though running 6 miles feels way way harder than it did a few months ago!

Good luck to everyone racing the World Triathlon Champs this coming weekend. At the beginning of 2013 I would never have envisaged not being there, but illness and injury has conspired against me and whilst I was very grumpy about this for a bit, I'm now just very happy to even be contemplating a park run next Saturday.