Juneathon – Day 10 – Point of no return

I’ve been talking about it for a long time, and it’s the main focus of my blog, but I finally put my entry in for the Charmouth Challenge this morning. So that’s it, no backing out now that I’ve paid my money! I’m probably not the only Charmouth resident in the race, but I bet I live the closest. The race will start outside the school and come past our place 75 yards later.  Read about the race by following the link over there ====>

So, back to today.  64 sit-ups,  32 push-ups (2 x my normal set).

One banana, no biscuits or crisps. Juneathon is going well, so I might celebrate tomorrow with a jam sandwich and a packet of crisps for lunch. And no fruit.

World Cup starts tomorrow (like you hadn’t noticed), so we’ll be trying to eat according to who’s playing. Tomorrow it’s Mexico, so it’s burritos for tea.

Buenos noches and déjelo para usted.

Juneathon – Day 2

Legs still recovering from yesterday’s long run, so fairly easy day today. More or less kept on track with the New June Resolutions.

Exercise: 64 sit-ups (12, 15, 11, 11, 15),  12 push-ups (2, 3, 2, 2, 3)

Biscuits: Zero

Crisps: Zero (Apart from a few tortilla chips with my ham roll and they’re completely different).

Fruit: One apple plus a extra fruit by having BBQ’d pork and mango skewers. So hopefully that lets me off the horrid stuff tomorrow. Oh, and a bottle of oak aged Green Goblin cider so that counts too.

Probably exercise tomorrow and run Friday, but if I feel recovered might run tomorrow evening.

31 days to Charmouth Challenge.

Exhausted

Circumstances conspired for me to head out for a longer run a day before I planned, but that’s fine. Decided I’d do my regular long training run and compare it to last autumn’s times. It was a nice sunny day and I fancied being up in the sun rather than trudging up Stonebarrow Lane in the shade as originally planned for today.

Did the run as planned, all 9.13km of it including two of the three big climbs. Total of 426m of ascent if the gadget can be believed, beginning to think it’s not that accurate on elevation, but it’s close enough. Started out ok, got to the top of Golden Cap in 31m 16s which is slightly faster than previous. Managed to get up there without walking, although I was jogging extremely slowly near the top. After that it just got harder and harder, didn’t help that I’m not used to running in warm weather. Must remember to take drink with me when I do that one again. Found the second climb back up Stonebarrow a real effort, and was feeling a bit wobbly by the time I finished. Took a long time for the old ticker to get back down to a reasonable level.

Finished in 1hr 6m 18s, not my best, but acceptable. Determined to start getting out more often before tapering off leading up to the Charmouth Challenge which is now 46 days away.

Good Friday Run

Needed to get out for a think, so decided that today was a good day for a run. I’m still being cautious because of this dodgy thigh muscle, but I figured it’s six days since the last run and therefore time to get out again. Next run will hopefully be in five days, then back to twice a week.

Following on from my last blog, I decided that I would try and do a comparison run. So I drove up to Stonebarrow car park and did my old medium length training run. 7.22km but with just the one hill. ie. Starting from Stonebarrow car park, along to Chardown Hill, down to St Gabriels, then back along the coast and up Stonebarrow Hill. There’s a picture of the route somewhere on one of these pages.

It’s a fabulous run this time of year, loads of trees and bushes bursting into life, bluebells and wild garlic all out in flower. Sunny and dry, but not too hot yet.

Felt ok, but very consciously was not forcing the pace. Kept up a steady rhythm and never had to walk on the uphill bits. Did it in what felt like a reasonably comfortable 45m 52s, which when I looked it up was an amazing 1m 10s inside my previous best on this loop set last Autumn.

So what conclusions can I draw from this. Well I guess my overall fitness is improving which bodes well for completing the Charmouth Challenge. It also means that even though this inner thigh muscle is sore most of the time, and very sore for 24 hours after a run, it’s not actually hampering me that much. Interesting.

So that’s it, back out next Wednesday. Probably the same loop but will tag on the run up Stonebarrow Lane from home.

Juneathon sounds interesting. Might have to join in on that one.

Captain Sensible

I suppose if I was really sensible I’d just stop for a while, or go and see someone about the leg. However, my version of sensible was to go out for a fairly easy run yesterday morning up Stonebarrow Lane, down to the end of the car park and back again. Leg got a bit sore, but I’m getting used to that.

Despite the lack of miles recently, still managed to get up the hill without having to walk it. Now that we’re living down in the middle of Charmouth there’s not much point in driving up the lane to the car park, might as well just run from home. Might drive up there one day though so that I can do some comparison runs against the time from last year.

Yesterday was just under 6km at an average of 6m 11s per km, including 8m 46s for the km that was all up hill.

Still pleased with last weeks Portland 10k. I worked out that it was 230m short as they missed out a bit of the course near the end. No idea why, but I could see it on the map that was filed with the official course measurement website. Maybe there was a problem with the road or something. I enjoyed it, and will definitely be back next year.

I can’t count the sub 50 minute time as a PB as the course was too short, but have decided to count the time I recalculated for the full distance. So from now on I will count my official PB as 51m exactly.

As for this year, well it looks like the plan is to run as often as my leg will allow up to the Charmouth Challenge in July, then after that maybe take a month off to see if it heals. If I’m lucky and don’t push too hard it may heal before then. Definitely going to do the race, but 1h 30m target is looking doubtful.

If anyone’s interested, the Gadget data from Portland 10k is recorded here.

On the nature of mud

There’s a rumour that the eskimos have a whole collection of words to describe the different types of snow, here in West Dorset I think we should be developing an equivalent lexicon for mud.

I went out for my scheduled short run around Langdon Hill yesterday morning earlier than normal. With a weather front closing in, and light rain already starting I decided to get my gear on, drop the kids at school and head straight off. With a temperature around four degrees and rain increasing decided to wear my Brookes waterproof jacket for the first time and cap too. It was an unpleasant, but necessary run. By the end it was a mixture of rain, sleet and snow.

At the southern end of the loop there’s a wet patch, and the rain of the last few days has just made it worse. The track must have a fairly hard base somewhere, so the mud is not too deep but it holds the water and is very sloppy. It starts off brown and gritty, dark water standing in the footholes. The sort of mud that splashes half-way up your legs as you jog through it. Then it starts to get stickier, the clay base starting to turn the water yellow. The sort of mud that would be at home on The Somme. This is a bit thicker, it grabs at your trainers threatening to yank them off at any moment. The only recourse is to walk through it, step by sucking step, or try to edge along the side of the path scraping past the brambles. You have no idea how much I’m looking forward to the summer.

I’ll be out again on Friday. I’m hoping that the weather dries out a bit but not holding out much hope. The muddy chute awaits . . .

12 days to Southbourne 10

13 days until we move (consider this official notice Sis)

19 days to the first grand prix

Four and a half months to Charmouth Challenge 2010