... or a year of frustrations?

Stop. Pause. Rewind. Forget everything I said in my last post as since then everything has changed... and NOT for the better!! To fill you in, we need to rewind to Sunday 10th February 2013, where the frusurations begin.

The Half-marathon PB that wasn't....

I had had a superb 3 weeks of training between the First Chance 10k, on 20th January, and the Exeter Half, on 10th February. I had been running totally injury free and pain free in my achillies for the first time in months and months. I had been nailing some good times at track training sessions, including a 1 mile time trial which was done in 5:21 and some 800 reps done in 2:45s. The Thursday before the Exeter Half I went out on a 10 miler and just felt great - like I was floating along, so I headed to Exeter on the Sunday confident that I could not only set a new PB but that I could knock a good minute or more off it. So what happened? Cue the exasperating British weather....

An overnight downpour the night before flooded part of the course and so on the morning of the race the organisers, Iron Bridge Runner, had to make a last-minute adjustment to the route to allow the race to go ahead, and to go ahead safely. Instead of completing 3 loops of the riverside course they planned to now send us out and back down the same path. Pre-race estimations were that this would bring the distance in short, at about 12 miles. These (gu)estimations proved to be just a tiny bit out, however! To every runner's surprise, the revised course actually came in longer than expected, and in fact longer than the half-marathon distance, with all our Garmins showing around 13:25 miles.

Completing lap 1 (about 4 miles) of the 3 lap Exeter (just a bit more than) Half Marathon

I had a great race and just felt amazing. I ran the whole thing stride for stride with Luke Reed from Axe Valley Runners. At last year's race we had also found that we were about the same pace and he eventually got the better of me in the sprint finish, him finishing in 1:24:26 and me in 1:24:29. This year we decided that as we were going for a similar time, we would work together. And it worked really well, We took it in turns to set the pace and we gave each other encouragement all along the way. As you keep turning around and heading back down the same path, it was easy to gauge where you were in terms of overall positions in the race and the gaps between the runners in front of and behind you. After an initial jostling of positions over the first 3 miles, from then on the positions were set and Luke and I were occupying a comfortable 8th and 9th place overall. In the ladies race I had nothing to fear as the gap between myself and the next female was about 1/2 a mile on lap 1, a mile on lap 2 and had extended to a 2 mile lead by lap 3. I was basically just running for a time.... but a time that wouldn't count as the course was no longer of a true distance.

Working with Luke Reed of Axe Valley and taking turns at leading (and drafting!)

As I went through 13.1 miles, my Garmin read 1:22:58. Had this been a true distance, I would have pushed on at the appropriate time for the finish and would probably have posted a time of around 1:22:45, which was the time I was hoping for and felt capable of. Luke and I were together to the bitter end, when, once again, history repeated itself and he ditched me in a stronger sprint finish, but I reduced the gap from 3 seconds last year to 1 second this! I crossed the actual finish line, at 13:25 miles, in a time of 1:23:43: still a PB, by almost a minute, and over 13 minutes clear of the second lady (think all the fast women were at the Bovey Tracey cross-country!) but it's a PB that isn't official and isn't accurate. If only the finish line could have been moved 150m nearer, it would have been ok! Frustration number 1!

My haul from the Exeter Half. All lovely, but an official shiny new PB would have been the icing on the cake!

Frustration number 2 came the next day when I woke up and had a lot of pain and stiffness in my achillies. I wasn't bothered by this in the race and yes, my left calf did start to get tighter in the last 3 or so miles, but that was to be expected, and I have had worse - much worse - in other races and not had any problems the following morning. I was forced to rest the leg on Monday and Tuesday, aware that I had even bigger fish to fry the coming weekend when I would be making my debut in the Devon County vest at the Plymouth Hoe 10 mile race. On Wednesday I still had some pain and stiffness in the leg and I made what would proove to be a stupid decision to go to track anyway. 1/2 a rep into my 4 x 1km reps and my achillies was screaming. I took them very steady but was forced to stop at 3. The next morning I paid for it and was limping into work.
I then didn't run again until Saturday when I decided to have a steady jog around the new Killerton Parkrun course in Ashclyst Forest: if my achillies held up ok, I would run on Sunday; if it didn't, I would contact the team manager and tell him to give my place to the reserve.

On Saturday it started off stiff - nothing unusual here, this is how it was for the entire summer last year and yet it held up ok week after week and got me through a hectic season - but it did work in as I went round the course at a steady 7:30m/m, just enjoying the new route and chatting with Lucy and pulling daft poses at the cameras! No ill-effects afterwards meant that I was confident that it would do the same the next day in Plymouth and work in as I went round. Also, another odd quirk regarding my achillies - and this is largely why I am at a loss as to what actually triggers the pain in it - is that sometimes it responds well to a good blast in a race and hammering it for a few miles can totally sort it out! This happened at First Chance 10K in 2011 when I had just come back from 3 weeks in the Maldives where I had been unable to do much running at all as the sand totally messed it up. I started that race practically hobbling, but it worked itself in, and once the DOMS had cleared a few days later, I had no pain at all and was able to throw myself into my marathon training programme! I was kinda hoping that the same thing would happen in Plymouth.... it didn't.

Injury woe and Plymouth Hoe...

On the warm-up track at Brickfields, I could feel stiffness in it, but again, past experience has showed that this often works itself out in the race. I did double the warm up I usually do, including plenty of drills and strides, to make sure it wouldn't get too much of a shock when I put the hammer down at the start of the race. Wearing the blue and white of Devon also added to the pressure: I had to justify my selection and do the vest justice after all! So naturally, I went off hard, too hard (first mile in 5:41). This race is so competitive as the Devon v Cornwall Peninsula Challenge ensures that all the top runners from both those counties are there, and then you get those who - like myself last year - were not selected for the county teams and so turn up with extra fire in their bellies as they have something to prove to the selectors.

The Peninsula Challenge Devon ladies team 2013. 

L-R: Lucy Commander (SWRR), Alison McEwing (Erme Valley), Ami Yetton (Plymouth Harriers), and me!

My achillies hurt all the way round, it just went from being an annoying ache in miles 1-2, to a very uncomfortable hindrance in miles 3-5, to a very painful drawback in miles 5-7, to, finally, an agonizing disability that I could barely run on from mile 7 until I finally speed-hobbled across the finish line. I have never wanted to pull out of a race so badly either. Guernsey Marathon the second time, in 2012, was painful, and there was an agonizing moment during that race, at about mile 15, where every fiber of my body screamed at me to slow to a walk. But here, I didn't know how much damage I was causing by forcing my body to run on an ever-deteriorating left leg. The internal debate as to whether or not to carry on started at about mile 6. At mile 7 it intensified as a) the pain got drastically worse and b) I passed a very accomplished runner from Torbay AC who had withdrawn and was walking back to the finish. Good God did I want to step off onto the pavement and join him! But I kept telling myself - you have never DNFed. If you go down that route it's a slippery slope. How long before you start DNFing regularly because things aren't quite going your way? Also, I tend to like to think of myself as being a little bit uber-hardcore and therefore above succumbing to the weaknesses that other runners give in to. (I should perhaps mention here as an aside that this line of thinking has got me into a lot of trouble in other areas of my life in the the past too...) And, moreover, I just don't agree with quitting and my respect for my fellow competitors seriously diminishes if they DNF for anything short of an actual, physical loss of consciousness! So I dug the hell in and carried the hell on!

When I finally did reach that Mecca that was the finish line, I burst into tears, both at the level of pain I was in and also at the relief that it was finally over and I could stop forcing my screaming left leg to carry me on any further. My time? 64:05. Amazingly, a PB, by just 13 seconds, but not so amazing really, just frustrating, as I had run this shorter distance at a slower average pace than my half-marathon the week before, and I was in much better fitness than this time indicated. I was hoping for something in the region of 62 minutes, so another 64 clocking represented frustration number 3! What was amazing though is that I had finished as the third counter in the Devon ladies team (4 run, with the first 3 to count), as one of my team mates had also had a bad day at the office. I had also managed to beat 3 out of the 4 Cornish ladies, and so, with my friend and training partner Lucy clocking a superb PB of 1:00:43 in 2nd place to lead our team home, Devon ladies won the Peninsula Challenge for only the 2nd time in the history of it running (the first time being back in 2006 in the first year of the trophy). So that at least made the pain a little bit worthwhile.

Hoe-rendous, hoe-riffic, hoe-pless... and other such puns!

2 laps of the Brickfields track to go and I'm in absolute agony, desperate to finish!

And so we come forward to now, 10 days after the race. I spent the first few days limping, unable to even walk properly. I have only run once since, 3 miles, and that didn't go too well so have not attempted it again. I am boring myself stupid trying to keep some level of fitness up by swimming and cycling myself into sweaty oblivion in spinning classes. I am seeing a specialist sports injury doctor on Friday in the hope of some answers, and in the hope that I can persuade him to refer me for an MRI scan so I at least have an idea of what I am up against here! I have had to pull out of the Duchy 20 mile this coming Sunday and also out of what was to be my debut appearance for Devon at cross-country at the inter-counties XC championships in Birmingham on March 9th. I can also say with some confidence that London is a no-go for this year too. With only one run of 16 miles and one of 17.5 in the bag since last August, I do not have enough base miles to fall back on. Sure, I would get round, but I have a championship start and so I don't want to embarrass myself by starting at the front and then ending up crossing the line alongside the fancy dress and charity contingent! Frustration number 4 is that after holding off on booking a hotel and trains for as long as I could, I had only just booked them a week or so before the Plymouth race. So I guess we will go to London anyway and just watch the race and see what it's all about for next year when, with any luck, I will be on top of this injury and able to finally have a stab at London and nail a PB!

What makes this all the more frustrating - cue frustration number 5 - is that this is the worst injury, by far, I have had, and yet it has come at a time when I have been taking the most sensible approach to training and running ever! When I think back to the relentless racing regime I put my legs through last summer and my achillies was still better than it is currently. Yes, it ached and I had constant pain if I squeezed it in it in the right (or wrong!) spot, but it was the same ache and pain that I have been blighted with since about my 4th month after taking up running in 2010. It got me around Guernsey Marathon though and was no worse for it after. So why then, now that I have tried to cut back on racing (before the Exeter Half I hadn't raced for 3 weeks, a reasonable gap, I feel), does just the one race take me from being injury and pain free in my achillies to the worst state ever with it? It's unfathomable!

In conclusion: running is a decidedly frustrating sport: one minute things are going superbly, you are totally on track with your training and you are feeling great; the next, you pick up an injury by busting a gut for a PB that doesn't even count anyway, then you under-perform on your first appearance running for your county, and it all starts unraveling spectacularly before your very eyes. Why do I do it? Simple really: because when I am not running I am the crabbiest person ever - as this injury has shown! - and so I know I need to focus on getting this sorted and getting back to doing what I love pronto!

2013: A year of opportunities?!

And so 2013 is now well underway. Yesterday we saw the welcome back of my least favourite month of the year and from now on the evenings continue to get lighter and, hopefully, the weather will continue to improve... or at least get warmer.

I started 2013 off on the other side of the world, in the Maldives. We had a 3 week, highly indulgent all-inclusive holiday, that ended up being a 3 week 3 day all-inclusive holiday as we had a 3 day flight delay! The island we stayed on was only 500m long by 150m wide and had no gym. There is no tarmac or any firm surface and so all I had to run on was the sandy covered jetty or the sandy track down the middle of the island. For some reason, my achillies tendonitus never reacts well to the Maldives. Last year I really did it in, trying in vain to keep running on it when it was getting more and more tender. As a result, I returned from the 3 weeks in January to run the First Chance 10k in absolute agony. I turned out a time of 40:10, over 2 minutes below my best which was set on the same course in summer. Wanting to avoid a repetition of this this year, I limited myself to just one run of 30 minutes every 3 - 4 days this time. The result was that my achillies did not flare up quite as badly but I returned to the U.K. with a massive drop in fitness.

Attempting to run on holiday, but my achillies tendonitus did not like the sand!

Makes for a different outlook than the Exmouth promenade anyway!

At first I panicked. One of the biggest gigs of the year - the First Chance 10k - was 10 days after I landed back in the U.K. 10 days to get fit again... hmm, not likely. So when I lined up on the start line on January 20th, against some of the top female competition in Devon, I knew I had my work cut out! Before I went away I had really hit a vein of form. This had largely been due to a revision of my training regime which saw me cut back the mileage in the Autumn months to just 20 - 30 a week over 3 running days, and saw me concentrating on quality miles rather than quantity, with cross-training and yoga to supplement. Training with my second claim running club, South West Road Runners, at their coached Wednesday track session also sharpened up my speed over the shorter distances, and doing my reps with my friends and track partners, Lucy Commander and Alex Cutts, helped no end. It really helps to train with females who you regularly compete against and who are of a similar level. I knew that Lucy was in superb shape going into First Chance and that she was hoping to set a new PB and go sub 37 minutes for the first time. I also knew that I wasn't!! Not in my best shape, not in PB shape, and certainly not in sub-37 minute shape. However, I also knew that they pick the Devon team for the Plymouth Hoe 10 mile Devon versus Cornwall Pneinsula Challenge after this race and so the eyes of the selectors are very much upon you: just to add to the pressure! After not being selected last year (precisely because I lost fitness whilst on holiday and churned out a below-par performance at First Chance), I really wanted to make the team this year, but with only 4 places up for grabs and about 8 females in serious contention for these places, my chances of being selected, given my decreased fitness, were not favourable. But I decided to give it my best shot!

Before this race, however, there was the small matter of the 'Oh My Obelisk' race. Don't be fooled by the twee name as behind this rather quaint nomenclature lurked a brutally tough, muddy, hilly off-roader around Dawlish and Haldon Forest. Billed as a 10 miler it in fact came in at 1.5 miles longer than that and, as the longest run I had done of any description since Guernsey in August, it was a tough re-introduction to racing after 3 weeks of putting my feet up and swilling endless G and Ts! I navigated all the tricky, technical off-road sections without a hitch, but then, just 2 miles from home, on one of the few tarmac stretches, I put my foot on the edge of a puddle that concealed a pothole, turned my ankle and went careening into the hedge, vociferating a few expletives as I did so! A quick self-assessment - am I ok? can I put weight on it? can i walk on it? can I run on it? can I run fast and hold onto my lead on it? - returned the verdict that yes, I could. So I power-limped the remaining 2 miles and crossed the finish line in pain but still in the lead (which is what counts!). That night, however, I was in utter agony and couldn't even tolerate the weight of my quilt on it, let alone stand and weight-bare on it. A few more expletives were uttered and a few objects might have been hurled (including the ice-pack, which I deemed to be totally useless...) as I contemplated the prognosis. 'Will have to pull out of First Chance'. 'Have already lost loads of fitness, now I just want to be able to get stuck in again and I bloody-well can't'. 'Well, that's the chance of a PB at London down the drain'.... and a whole manner of other similar doom-and-gloom conclusions. Fortunately, it turned out to be a minor sprain and when I woke up the next morning, it was still sore, but I could hobble on it. A trip to the physio and some ultrasound treatment saw me back running on it by the Thursday and then towing the line of the First Chance 10k by the Sunday. Phew. Panic over. Sometimes I wonder if I over-react to things....

Finishing the 11.5 mile 'Oh My Obelisk' race: clearly in pain from my ankle

And so to First Chance. Well, I went off hard, hoping to hang onto Lucy for as long as possible. This did not turn out to be very long at all as she was absolutely on fire and by the 1km point she was already away and gone. I found myself in 2nd place here but could hear the distinct sound of female breathing right behind me, so I knew I wasn't safe! And sure enough, as my kilometer splits started to drop off due to the lack of speed-endurance in my legs, I got overhauled by the Erme Valley Harrier athlete, Alison McEwing. Alison and I have had some great battles as, generally, we are pretty evenly matched and who comes out on top at a given race usually depends upon who is at a fitness peak at that time and who is not. It keeps us both on our toes and I'm sure we have pushed each other to better times and performances in many races. On this occasion, I was in a fitness trough and so at about 4k Alison came up along side me and then gradually began to pull away and I couldn't stay with the pace. By the end of the race Lucy was a clear winner in a massive new PB of 36:52, with Alison in 2nd in 37:49 and me holding on for 3rd in 38:06. I was frankly amazed to get within 2 seconds of my August 2011 PB given the shape I was in... or rather, wasn't in. Although I was fighting hard for the line to try and get under 37, I have to be pleased with just how close I did get given my preparation for this race. It was certainly a massive confidence boost to know that I don't have as much work to do as I feared and that a few weeks of solid training should see me sharpen up in time for my next big races.

Start of the First Chance 10k on the Exeter canal / river bank

5k point on the unforgiving 2-lap First Chance course

8k point of First Chance, having been ditched by the sub-38 minutes group I was trying to hang onto to! Next time, next time...

And to the next big surprise. I went up to bed one night to find a voice-mail message from Dave Phillips - the Devon team selector - to say that he would like to speak to me via-à-vis me representing Devon at the Plymouth Hoe race! What an utter shocker! I couldn't dial his number fast enough and also couldn't believe it. Only finishing 3rd at First Chance, I assumed the team places would go to Lucy, Alison and two other fast Devon girls who don't run First Chance but have been on the team for several years and perform consistently well at all races. Fortunately, Dave knew that I had just returned from a long break and that I wasn't at full fitness and so with some assurances from me that I will be come race day (17th Feb.), I'm on the squad!!

And so, having never run for Devon before I am shortly to make my debut for the county team on both the road (the Plymouth Hoe 10) and the cross-country (the Birmingham inter-counties championships). Is 2013 to be a year of opportunities? I bloody well hope so!! My new job has certainly opened the door for more opportunities to compete. At Sherborne I had to work both days, every weekend during term time, and so competing was restricted to holidays. As a result, I tended to cram in races whenever I could during school breaks, resulting in me doing too much within a short space of time and invariably ending up injured. Now I have every evening and weekend free, I can be selective about which races I do and plan my season in advance and my training around it in a far more measured approach. (Hmm... 'me' and 'measured': two words I previously never envisaged co-existing within the same sentence!)

I have many plans for 2013. Obviously my big goal for the Spring is the London Marathon. Training towards this has now started in earnest and my weekly mileage is now back up to 40+ and climbing steadily. Now, on reflection, the enforced rest in the Maldives has been no bad thing as my legs are feeling fresh and raring to tackle all that I have to throw at them. I have been reaping massive benefits from the S.W.R.R.'s marathon training programme, led by David Moulder. Dave is very knowledgeable, enthusiastic and encouraging, and all his sessions are extremely well organised. On Monday there is a marathon-focussed track session and on Saturday morning, a long run. Dave plans the routes beforehand, provides us with instructions and maps (not that he has any control over whether us runners can follow / read these instructions and maps however!) and he even goes around the route beforehand painting directional arrows on the road and depositing drinks stations! It makes it much easier to just rock up and run!

After London, we'll see. I'd quite like to try some new events this spring / summer, in addition to doing a couple of my favourites (the Snowdon Fell Race being top of that list!). But one thing I have decided is that I am not doing any ultras this year. I feel like a fraud for typing this, given the title and ethos of my blog, but I think a one year break from the uber-long stuff will do my legs good and will allow me to work on improving my PBs at the shorter distances. Having only been running seriously for 2 1/2 years, I am also still very inexperienced and lacking in base miles in my legs to do really well on the ultra scene without risking injury at the moment. There is plenty of time for all that fun and games when I am no longer producing PBs!

... And right now I am scaring myself with my new-found sensibleness and prudence. Who is this person?! What have you done with the Ellie who thinks she is invincible and that the advice and rules that others should heed do not apply to her?! It's a mystery!