The Bath Half was the most painful thing I’ve ever done and that includes 9 hours down Kilimanjaro with what turned out to be a ruptured cruciate. It seems that most of that pain was down to having short calve muscles as diagnosed by a local Podiatrist.
Fortunately the cure is simple, I need to stretch more, a lot more. I’ve got a bunch of stretches to do 3 times a day for the next 4 weeks to see if it
makes any improvements as I’m suffering severe foot pain during every run.
The upside I’m hoping will be in the shape of sympathy donations, after all, that’s the point to all this. Trust me, I’d much rather be in bed at 6am when it’s pissing it down than slogging up a muddy track.
Work has been pretty full on for both of us, I’ve no idea how we’re going to manage when the mileage needs to increase. For example this week I dropped Liz off at the station at 6.50am and headed up to Arundel Park just in time for to watch the 1st string of race horses from Josh Gifford’s stable blast up the gallops in the misty morning. I have added a sprint session to my weekly training which consists of a 15 min warm up then 1 x 30 sec sprint, jog back to the start, 1 x 45 sec and 1 x 60 secs then start again and finish with a third set. Usually by the end I’m ready to pass out but it’s straight home f
or a shower and a quick change so I can make the hour drive to the office in time for 9am. I’m lucky enough to work from home usually a couple of times a week so can get my 6 mile runs in on those days and then Liz and I will do a joint run at the weekend.
Frustratingly, although I can feel my fitness increasing hugely, my weight is pretty static at just under 13st. I’m hoping that if I can keep going then it will eventually start to come down.
Both Liz and I were due to race in the Bognor 10K recently. Liz has
recovered from her twisted ankle but has just gone down with a cold and I made the schoolboy error of going to Twickenham for the Guinness Premiership final the day before and the resulting hangover meant I never even made it out of bed until midday.
As penance I decided to run my own 10K the next day and was close to vomiting at the end having put everything into it and managing a half decent 43 mins.
This was the same time Liz managed just before she developed the recent cold and is the sort of pace that both Liz and I are hoping we can sustain over the full Marathon distance in just over 4 months time – so quite a bit more work to do then!
The car racing saw the Custard Tart Racing team arrive at Mallo
ry more in hope than expectation and qualifying had me start one from last due to having to take it easy bedding new brake pads in.
I did manage another sneaky start though and overtook five people on an exciting first lap before dicing for 4th place with another competitor. We had a terrific, nose to tail battle for several laps before I got slightly squeezed onto the grass and ended up hitting the wall which resulted in a fractured radiator. Pulling into the pits my crew, (josh the neighbour’s lad and Pete Rowney the co member of CTR) set about begging and borrowing the parts needed to get me out for race two.
We made it with minutes to spare and I was rewarded with my best e
ver finish of 5th after starting 11th. Now it’s onto Brands Hatch; this is the race I targeted at the start of the season as my best chance of a win so I’m keeping everything crossed and may even buy a new set of tyres.
Fortunately the cure is simple, I need to stretch more, a lot more. I’ve got a bunch of stretches to do 3 times a day for the next 4 weeks to see if it
makes any improvements as I’m suffering severe foot pain during every run.The upside I’m hoping will be in the shape of sympathy donations, after all, that’s the point to all this. Trust me, I’d much rather be in bed at 6am when it’s pissing it down than slogging up a muddy track.
Work has been pretty full on for both of us, I’ve no idea how we’re going to manage when the mileage needs to increase. For example this week I dropped Liz off at the station at 6.50am and headed up to Arundel Park just in time for to watch the 1st string of race horses from Josh Gifford’s stable blast up the gallops in the misty morning. I have added a sprint session to my weekly training which consists of a 15 min warm up then 1 x 30 sec sprint, jog back to the start, 1 x 45 sec and 1 x 60 secs then start again and finish with a third set. Usually by the end I’m ready to pass out but it’s straight home f
or a shower and a quick change so I can make the hour drive to the office in time for 9am. I’m lucky enough to work from home usually a couple of times a week so can get my 6 mile runs in on those days and then Liz and I will do a joint run at the weekend.Frustratingly, although I can feel my fitness increasing hugely, my weight is pretty static at just under 13st. I’m hoping that if I can keep going then it will eventually start to come down.
Both Liz and I were due to race in the Bognor 10K recently. Liz has
recovered from her twisted ankle but has just gone down with a cold and I made the schoolboy error of going to Twickenham for the Guinness Premiership final the day before and the resulting hangover meant I never even made it out of bed until midday.As penance I decided to run my own 10K the next day and was close to vomiting at the end having put everything into it and managing a half decent 43 mins.
This was the same time Liz managed just before she developed the recent cold and is the sort of pace that both Liz and I are hoping we can sustain over the full Marathon distance in just over 4 months time – so quite a bit more work to do then!
The car racing saw the Custard Tart Racing team arrive at Mallo
ry more in hope than expectation and qualifying had me start one from last due to having to take it easy bedding new brake pads in.I did manage another sneaky start though and overtook five people on an exciting first lap before dicing for 4th place with another competitor. We had a terrific, nose to tail battle for several laps before I got slightly squeezed onto the grass and ended up hitting the wall which resulted in a fractured radiator. Pulling into the pits my crew, (josh the neighbour’s lad and Pete Rowney the co member of CTR) set about begging and borrowing the parts needed to get me out for race two.
We made it with minutes to spare and I was rewarded with my best e
ver finish of 5th after starting 11th. Now it’s onto Brands Hatch; this is the race I targeted at the start of the season as my best chance of a win so I’m keeping everything crossed and may even buy a new set of tyres.
