Here comes the summer fun!

It's been a long time since my last post and that is mainly because I have just been rehabbing my torn calf, taking things incredibly slowly with the recovery process (well, slowly by my own standards, which is probably still faster than my coach would like!) and generally having a fun time with 'non-running' things. I have recently started a new job, working in the sixth form at Teignmouth Community School, which is going well; Matt and I are house-hunting (which is considerably more time consuming than I would ever have realised!) and I also managed to fit in a rather indulgent 2 week holiday to the Maldives in Easter. All of this has meant that I've been less irritable than usual regarding being unable to run as I've been occupied with other things; much to the relief of those who have to live with me and put up with my customary "it's not fair, how can I be injured yet again" rants.

                                                                   

Running whilst on holiday on Vilamendhoo Island, in the Maldives: a great heat and humidity training venue!

I have been following my program: you know, the tedious core strength training, squatting, lunging, rolling around inelegantly on a gym ball etc. one? However, I have to confess that as I have started to reintroduce running, the strength training days have dropped off somewhat. I realise this isn't ideal and that if I want to prevent a recurrence of the injury I should be more diligent with my program, but I am not 100% convinced that it's doing me any good anyway. My leg is undoubtedly better, but that's because I have rested it for longer this time, and so would be the case irrespective of whether or not I hurl myself across the living room atop a giant inflatable round object on a daily basis. Or maybe I'm just being cynical because I find all of this "core" stuff tedious and boring.

I did a HIIT class at my gym last week: blood and sand was it hard work! HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training and the basic idea behind it is to get your head down and bury yourself for a short but intense period; mind you, when you are flogging yourself within inches of death, 30 minutes doesn't feel that goddam short! You target all the key muscle groups and get a cardio workout that boosts your metabolism and ensures that you are still burning fat over 24 hours later. You work in divisions of 3: there are 3 blocks, 3 rounds within each block and 3 different exercises within each round. You have 30 seconds of recovery between blocks and only 10 seconds between each round: barely enough time to pick up your water bottle off the floor, take a sip and resume your position. As with my first experience of yoga, I instantly took a massive ego knock as I once again found that I was one of the weaker ones in the class... no, the weakest. I couldn't keep up the required pace on most of the activities (I'd take double the time to complete a burpee and soon fall behind the rhythm), meaning that I didn't manage my requisite 10 reps of each exercise. My fellow class-mates might not have looked as toned and athletic (and I'm damn sure that none of them have ever or could ever run a sub-3 hour marathon), but they were sure as hell stronger than me and weren't collapsing in a pathetic heap on the floor halfway through the press-ups round. Yup, there's no escaping the fact that I am just plain weedy. I left the class with a resolve to start attending on a weekly basis... but that was before I woke up the next morning, aching all over and having to reassure myself that I hadn't been violently beaten up during the night. So I used this, the 'this-clearly-requires-too-long-a-recovery-period-which-might-be-fine-for-these-other-ladies-who-do-nothing-but-this-all-week-but-I-of-course-have-a-tough-training-schedule-to-keep-up-with' excuse, to absolve me of any guilt I might have felt at my failure to pick up the phone and book in for the following week...

On the running front, I am slowly getting back into things. My weekly mileage has not yet surpassed 27 miles and most weeks are only coming in at around 20-25, over 4 running days, but it's a start and I very much need to get this right this time. It's taken me double the time to recover from this injury than it did after I tore it the first time, in February last year, and this despite me stopping dead and walking home as soon as I felt it go this time round, as opposed to continuing on a further 5 or so miles at a speed-hobble towards the finish line of the Plymouth Hoe 10 race. This has inevitably meant that I've dropped a huge amount of fitness (the 2 week long all-inclusive beach holiday at Easter didn't help matters there!) but the fitness will come back once I can start to put together some decent sessions again and I think I am approaching that point again now.

Since I got back from my holiday I have just been having some fun doing some trail races and trying out some new events. I did the Haldon Heartbeat 8.5 mile wooded trail race at the end of April (probably 2 miles too far for a first race back, but luckily my leg held up fine) and then the Hope 24 Relays the week after. This was a new event, held at Newham Park near Plymouth, and the Harriers entered 4 teams as a club, so we went there en masse. The concept was to run as many 5 mile trail circuits of the woods and parkland as you could, as a team, within a 24 hour period. Due to my leg niggle, I just did the 3 legs (which still brought me in at around my current average weekly mileage in one day!) and enjoyed 3 pleasant, scenic 5 mile runs and some good laughs with other team members.

Set to pass on the 'baton' (wristband) to my team mate at after my first leg in the Hope 24 relays.

The following week I took part in the tough, hilly Killerton 10k, organised by Relish Running. Both this and Haldon Heartbeat were races that I have done before and so, despite enjoying them as they are both over stunning routes, I subjected myself to a bit of self-scrutiny afterwards as my times for both were minutes down on what I'd done before. So for the past few weeks I have decided to try a couple of new events that I haven't done before so I cannot compare times and give myself any ammo to beat myself up!

A superb aerial shot of the start of the 10k race at Killerton House.

(I'm down there, in 12th place - also the position I finished in overall!)

Some stunning wooded, bluebell lined trails were the reward for tackling the killer climbs at the tough but scenic Killerton 10k.

Last week I did a brand new race, organised by Chard Running Club, quaintly called the 'Wambrook Waddle'. The slightly twee title though beguiles a truly tough-as-nails route - without a doubt the toughest 10k I've ever done, with a personal worst time to boot! The route basically involved descending and ascending a steep-sided valley, 3 times, with stream crossings in the bottom for added funsies. I did manage 1st lady and 6th overall, but with it being a new event there were only 44 people in the race.

The first stream crossing, 1/2 a mile in to the super-hilly 'Wambrook Waddle' 10k, near Chard.

The Waddle was no doddle! Heat + hills made it the toughest 10k I've ever done!

Yesterday I did a race down in Plymouth called 'Muskies Madne5.5'. Nope, that's not a typo, that is their clever way of incorporating the race's distance into its title. I went there expecting a trail run through Ham Woods, on the outskirts of Plymouth, and so was a bit disappointed when informed at the start that only a third of it is on wooded trails and the rest is on road. I am trying to avoid road at the moment, due to the impact on my calf, and I'm certainly trying to avoid races that start with a fast, steep downhill opening mile on tarmac, but hey-ho, I was here and so had to justify the long, bank-holiday-traffic-blighted journey down there by giving it a decent crack. I was hoping for a nice relaxed, low-key race: what I got was potentially the most competitive female race outside of a cross country event that I have ever done. I guess that, at full fitness, I might have been able to take a clear lead from the start but, at my present level, I was fairly evenly matched with four other females in the race. One lady went out fast from the gun, but four of us were running closely together in the opening mile. It didn't take me long to realise that my competitive spirit is as strong as ever (I'm not too sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing at the moment!), as I was adamant that, of the four of us, I would not be one of the two people that would be returning home without a prize! As soon as the downhill came to an end and the climbing started, I managed to pick off one of the ladies, but 3 of us entered the woodland section stuck together like glue. They would both pull away from me on any downhill sections and I'd have to work hard to stay with them, but as soon as we hit an uphill stretch, I'd naturally pull myself back. With it being a one-mile long, uphill drag to the finish, I was hopeful that I could draw on my hill strength and forge a gap. As soon as the really hilly bits kicked in, I did indeed start to sneak a small advantage and as we emerged from the winding sections of what is one of many of Plymouth's sprawling housing estates, I could even see the first lady just up ahead of me. As the hill continued, I knew I was gaining on her and, as we entered the finish field, she looked behind for the first time, saw I was there, and started to surge for the finish line. Had this race been 10k and not 5.5 miles, I would probably have been able to take her, but, as it was, I just ran out of room and finished 10 seconds adrift. So, had I known that the run was going to be so fast, furious and competitive, and had I known that it was only going to be one part wood to two parts housing estate, no, I probably wouldn't have made the trip down, but in the end I was glad I did as the run gave me a huge confidence boost on two counts: a) my calf held up ok, even on the downhill, tarmac sections, and b) my fitness situation isn't nearly as dire as feared and I do still have what it takes to dig deep and 'pull it out of the bag' when needed!

And so, where to go from here? Well, my next challenge is something totally new: I am going to be competing in my first ever triathlon this coming weekend (1st June), in Taunton. It's a sprint distance, with a 400 meter (16 length) pool swim, followed by a 20km bike ride and a 5k run. I will probably suck on the bike as I'll be doing it on my rickety little hybrid, not even a road bike, and my swim won't be the strongest, but hopefully I can have a decent run and do enough not to embarrass myself totally. I have no intentions of moving over to triathlons yet and have only entered this as a sort of 'fact finding' mission, to see whether or not I like it, whether I have the potential to be any good at it and whether it is something I might like to consider at some point in the future. I've also entered it just to try something totally difference and to continue my objective for the summer of having some fun with my training and competing, and mixing things up a bit. Not too sure how I'll get on; mostly I am just terrified of violating one of the many many rules and being disqualified and sent home in disgrace. A 5 page long A4 document is emailed to you when you sign up: "don't dismount here, don't put that there; put this on first; don't remove this here; no nakedness in transition", etc, etc. Not too sure if I can remember all of this but I will at least aim to observe this latter rule and keep myself covered up. Either ways, I will give the whole event a damn good tri! (Boom, boom smash!)