Last night was a romp around Fetterso Forest neat Stonehaven. Brilliant, brilliant place. 8 and a bit miles through the forest tracks, some biggish climbs, the odd deer around and I even saw a pine martin in the wild, just 20 feet from me. As usual started slow and grunty on the climb from the car park into the wind, but come 4miles I started to fly [all relative of course!] and was in full fast cruise mode my 5 miles. Last 2 miles were almost reaching respectable [sub 8min] speeds. What's more knee was strong, form felt better and the hills seemed comfortable.
Today though - I had spent a bit of time working up a training plan for the River Ayr Way in September to guide me for the next 20 weeks or so. This week, even though it was the 'first' of the plan, has been a bit messed up by the emergency trip offshore at the weekend and I [foolishly] put down a 15mile run from Altens to Milltimber and back for tonight. First of many 'schoolboy errors' tonight.
They were:-
1. Stupidly I put two 'hard; sessions next to each other. Last night was fast through the forest tracks. I should have had an easy today, but no...like the prat I am I decided to run longish. To cut a long story short my ITB, which has been improving rapidly, decided to remind me it's still there and flared up about 9 miles in. Plodded on, but by 12.5 miles it was too much and it was time to call a taxi to take me the last couple of mile back to the office.
2. Having Hienz chilli baked beans last night, with salad, bran flakes for breakfast and more fruit and salad for lunch. I'll let you work out the rest, but I must have ran out the busy Deeside Way tonight with the tightest clenched buttocks in the history of Aberdeen. No where to go, not recommended and pretty stressful at times.
3. It's pretty clammy up here, and in the rush to go offshore on sunday I only packed one light running tee. That got well soaked with rain and sweat last night, and while it was dry today, by 7 miles into tonight's run I was soaked with sweat, and it was not evaporating away. Result - the tee shirt turned to sandpaper and gave me runners nipple - both sides. Lovely.
So if you can imaging me with cheeks tightly clenched, slightly worried expression on my face, checking out every clump of bushes that might offer cover while running with one knee throbbing and nipples being rubbed raw you can see why tonight was not the best. Basic, stupid mistakes, but it's what makes this lark such a challenge really and probably more of a mental exercise than it is often given credit for.
Thankfully I'm, at heart, a positive person, I can usually see the plus side of most things. OK the ITB complained, but that was on a longish run after a hard run the night before and a hard run on saturday. It's still improving though and I have no doubt I could run an easy or shortish session tomorrow if I wanted to. Likewise, I really need to layout a training plan for daily stretches and strengthening exercise, as I'm far too guilty of only doing them when I'm injured.
Ever onwards I suppose!
Ha Ha! Oh dear - you don't need to explain tummy troubles to me! Nasty! Poor you! Good for you being so positive though - definitely the best way to look at things.
ReplyDeleteThe start of a 'plan' is always the niggliest until you settle down into it.
Hope the ITB sorts itself soon.
Oh I haven't got a cheese wedge but I do have every single pillow in the house apart form 1 left for Al in various positions - behind, in front, between legs etc. I'm telling you - anyone coming to stay will need to bring their own pillows and are in danger of leaving without them!
Kaz