I decided to use Parkrun each week as a means of assessing the progress of the injury and, as I started to notice improvements and was able to up the pace a little, of testing my fitness. Probably the biggest thing I have learnt from this injury and enforced lay-off period is not to panic about losing fitness. I used to think that if I went one week without running to a level that aerobically taxed myself, I would then notice a massive drop in fitness the following week. This thinking led me to attempt a track session the Wednesday after injuring my achillies in the Exeter Half on the Sunday, fearing that if I didn't, my fitness would plunge to such a level that I wouldn't be as competitive and would embarrass myself when running for Devon at the Plymouth Hoe 10 mile the following Sunday. Looking back on this week now I can say with certainty that I was a bloody idiot. My fitness would not have been affected one iota from missing that one track session (a session I ran at only half pace and had to abandon after 3 measly reps due to the pain in my achillies anyway). What my body needed was a week of rest to allow the injury to heal, then maybe - and it's a very big maybe - I would not have injured myself to the extent I did in the Plymouth race. But hindsight is a wonderful thing, huh? So if I can take anything positive from these past 10 difficult and mentally taxing weeks, it's that I don't need to panic as fitness does not disappear over night and it's far more beneficial to respond to my aches and pains and sack off a session if I feel any niggles. It's been a steep learning curve, but I think I have just about learned that lesson now.... the hard way!
Killerton Parkrun moved to a new temporary course in the nearby Ashclyst Forest in mid-February, due to deteriorating ground conditions at Killerton due to the incessant rainfall. The new course at Ashclyst was much tougher, it being a 3 lap course with over 300ft of climb over the 5k distance. However, the surface underfoot, on gravelly forest tracks, was very forgiving and my achillies seemed to like it. Testing myself over it each week never aggravated it and it allowed me to have at least one run to look forward to each weekend. Over the 6 weeks that I ran the route there, I gradually improved my times from 23:23 on my first conservative, jogged attempt, to 21:28 five weeks later. After Lucy's time of 21:18, this was the next fastest female time on this much slower, hillier course.
The temporary course at Ashclyst was kind on my injury-riddled legs!
The 101st Parkrun had a 101 Dalmatian's theme. I won the best costume award. The guy on the right (in the left hand photo) didn't put any effort in at all.... ;-)
On 10th April I felt ready to tackle my first proper race. Keeping things short and sweet for a first outing, myself, and 3 other Harriers, drove up to Yeovilton for the first round of the Summer 5k series. Held over a totally pancake flat course, this route offers the potential for fast times. My aim for this first round, though, was not to set any PBs but to just see how my leg would fair on a race on tarmac and to see where I am at in terms of speed and fitness. The result was a massive confidence boost. I thought somewhere in the region of 19:30 - 20 mins would have been a reasonable ask and so I headed out conservatively, not allowing myself to dip below 6m/m. To be honest, I didn't really have the leg speed to go much faster than this anyway, not having done any speed-work since early February. Yeovilton always attracts a good quality field and so, on this occasion, I was happy to let a few female runners head off in front of me and to run my own race. Surprisingly, the sensible approach paid off as it was an absolutely awful night, with a fiercely strong headwind on the home stretch, and by containing myself over the first mile, I found that I was able to keep consistent pacing throughout, whereas those who went out hard started to fade into the headwind at the end. I managed to overhaul 3 other ladies over the course of the race and finished in 2nd place, just 6 seconds behind the first lady in a time of 18:52. Sub-19 was not on the radar at all pre-race, so I was thrilled. Most importantly, I ran the whole thing without pain and didn't suffer any major discomfort afterwards or the next day.
Yeovilton had shown me how much I had missed racing and all the emotions and physical effects that go with it: the pre-race jitters, the start-line excitement, pushing my lungs and legs beyond their comfort zone, the final adrenaline-fueled surge for the finish line (a surge that I was unable to manage at Plymouth due to the sheer agony I was in) and the euphoria you feel upon crossing the line, knowing that you've given your best and it's now over and you can go back to the race HQ and swill tea and scoff cake! All of this is a part of the racing experience and it's the reason I am motivated to force myself out of the door to train when I've just got in from work, I'm tired, it's pouring with rain, it's freezing, and it would be so easy to just plonk my arse down on the couch with a cuppa and my latest Barbara Nadel novel. I know that people take up running and join clubs for a whole variety of personal reasons - to lose weight, to get fit, for the social aspect - but I have to confess that personally, I don't really get how people are able to push themselves in training and do painful speed work sessions and tempo runs with no end-goal on the horizon. I just don't see the point! For me, training is all about the end product: the race. And racing isn't just about the winning and your position in relation to others; it's about testing your own boundaries and beating your own times. I cannot motivate myself to push myself beyond the pain barrier in training without the competitive element there as motivation.
With my taste-buds tantalized at Yeovilton, I was hungry for more, and so on 14th April I took part in the Honiton Hippo race. This is a multi-terrain race in every sense of the word, over a distance of 7.5 miles. It includes 3 river crossings - which, this year, due to the heavy rainfall - were the highest they have ever been in the history of the race. The last river crossing was even up to chest height on the tallest male competitors, so they had to remove it from the junior race and reroute them around it. Luckily we still got to tackle it, but the rope that they had strung across the river was a crucial piece of equipment: some competitors opted just to swim across! Part of the race goes around the 'Landrover Experience' complex and there were two very deep, muddy sumps to wade through. One had the added fun of having a cargo net over it, forcing you to crawl through on your hands and knees: a nice twist by the organisers! I opted to start extremely cautiously as I did not know how my achillies and calf would hold up over this distance as it was farther than I had run since before my injury. I let a fellow female competitor go off in front of me down the steep downhill start but found that as soon as we hit the uphill, even at a conservative pace, I was able to claw her in. At about halfway, I was experiencing no discomfort in my leg so I was able to push the pace a bit more and enjoy that exhilarating feeling of running swiftly through the beautiful countryside of East Devon. By the end of the race I had extended my lead to 5 minutes and still felt strong. I was enjoying the terrain and scenery and, unlike in many races where you push yourself hard from the gun, I was not just hanging on in sheer desperation for the finish line to appear, which was the biggest boost ever and meant more to me than actually winning the race.
A successful race, followed by that pleasant after-feeling of stiff, weary, tired limbs that tell you that they have worked hard and need a rest but are not screaming at you in injury-induced agony: a feeling I have missed so much these past few weeks. However, I was careful not to get too addicted to the feeling and get sucked back into a must-race-every-week cycle again. So no racing now until 12th May, giving me a whole month to try and get back into some proper training.
With my taste-buds tantalized at Yeovilton, I was hungry for more, and so on 14th April I took part in the Honiton Hippo race. This is a multi-terrain race in every sense of the word, over a distance of 7.5 miles. It includes 3 river crossings - which, this year, due to the heavy rainfall - were the highest they have ever been in the history of the race. The last river crossing was even up to chest height on the tallest male competitors, so they had to remove it from the junior race and reroute them around it. Luckily we still got to tackle it, but the rope that they had strung across the river was a crucial piece of equipment: some competitors opted just to swim across! Part of the race goes around the 'Landrover Experience' complex and there were two very deep, muddy sumps to wade through. One had the added fun of having a cargo net over it, forcing you to crawl through on your hands and knees: a nice twist by the organisers! I opted to start extremely cautiously as I did not know how my achillies and calf would hold up over this distance as it was farther than I had run since before my injury. I let a fellow female competitor go off in front of me down the steep downhill start but found that as soon as we hit the uphill, even at a conservative pace, I was able to claw her in. At about halfway, I was experiencing no discomfort in my leg so I was able to push the pace a bit more and enjoy that exhilarating feeling of running swiftly through the beautiful countryside of East Devon. By the end of the race I had extended my lead to 5 minutes and still felt strong. I was enjoying the terrain and scenery and, unlike in many races where you push yourself hard from the gun, I was not just hanging on in sheer desperation for the finish line to appear, which was the biggest boost ever and meant more to me than actually winning the race.
In one of the wooded sections of the Honiton Hippo 7.5m multi-terrain race
The delightful crawl through a muddy sump under a cargo net in 'Landrover Experience'!
Last weekend I went up to London for the marathon. Of course, when I booked the trip it was with the intention of running in the marathon, having earned a championship start from my Taunton time from last year. When I sustained my injury, I still thought I would be running London - hell, I thought I'd be back running again after a couple of days rest. Denial is a wonderful thing, but it only gets you so far. There comes a point when you realise that these future dates you have penciled in your diary are rapidly making the leap of time to become the present... and you are still pissing-well injured. The Duchy 20, the Inter-counties XC in Birmingham, Yeovil Half-Marathon, Yeovil Easter Bunny 10k... all of them, woooooosh, sticking a big two fingers up at you as they swoop on by. Then you reach the acceptance phase and you realise that there's nothing you can do; you aren't physically capable of even jogging 13 miles on tarmac at the moment, let alone racing it, so you might as well channel your energies into getting the injury better rather than in wallowing in self-pity and being bitter about why you got injured in the first place. In the end, I had a truly fabulous weekend in London supporting all my fellow Harriers and other running buddies. It was a glorious day for spectating and, without the stress of competing, I was able to enjoy the weekend, the Expo, the event, and enjoy it over a few guilt-free glasses of wine! I even managed to sample a London Parkrun - Mile End - and have a solid run to finish first lady in 18:55 and set the second fastest female time on the course. The bonus was that Vicky, one of my best mates from my undergrad days, with whom I shared a flat in Bangor and who now lives in Ealing, was able to join myself, Adam and Carly there, so we had a lovely morning relaxing in the sun after our run. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole weekend and I experienced a very similar high sharing in the successes of all my club mates and supporting them on their runs to what I would have experienced were I able to have run it. Plus I've now sussed out the course and the routine for when I am able to take part, so it was a positive experience all round.
Adam, Carly, Vicky and me, enjoying the sun in Mile End Park after the Parkrun.
Watching the elite men, including Mo Farah, go through 7 miles in sunny London
This week I managed a successful track session on our beloved pot-hole riddled, cinder track in Exmouth. Nothing to set the world on fire, just a sensibly paced session of 5 x 800m reps. I finished the session pain free and could have managed a 6th, but my plan was for 5 this week and so I stuck to it. Get me and my new-found sensible streak! My caution was rewarded with fresh legs for this morning's Killerton Parkrun - now back on its original course. With a dry, firm surface and my friend Lucy to chase around the course, I even managed to set an unexpected new Killerton PB, carving 16 seconds off my previous best to clock 19:20.
So right now, things are looking much brighter. Nevertheless, I am now only too aware of how this injury can flare up at any time and so I know that I need still to exercise caution and not get too carried away. Also, my left ankle is still swollen around the achillies come the end of each day, whether I've run on it or not, so it's by no means right. My plan this week is for a good solid week of training as I am away all next week in France on a school trip and won't be able to run at all. A kick back week will be no bad thing and now I can rest easy in the confidence of knowing that I will not suddenly revert back to the level of fitness I had in 2010, prior to taking up the sport, just from having one week off. No need to panic! My summer season will not be over just from missing one week, much the same as the sky will not fall in if I am not personally there to hold it up. Don't worry, be happy :-)
