One month off (or five)

Since the Milton Keynes Marathon earlier in the year, running and blogging have been pretty low down on my list of priorities.  I started this blog as a way of motivating me to pull on the trainers and get out the door.  I also had an underlying desire to find out whether I could become a better than average runner.  I think the last few months have helped answer that question, even though I probably knew the answer when I asked it.

I probably could be a better than average runner*, but I'd have to put in more than the average amount of effort and training.  

At the moment and for reasons that will become clear, more than average hasn't been something that's a realistic option for me or my family.

Don't get me wrong there's not much better in the world than finishing a long run and feeling like it's gone really well.  A new PB is great for the soul and can leave you feeling like you can conquer the world for a few weeks and I really really like that feeling! I want to feel it again sometime soon but a new baby has been giving me a much longer lasting and slightly different feeling of euphoria recently.
When I think about it, perhaps the feeling isn't that different to running a Marathon; you feel like shite and your knackered but its bloody great all at the same time.  Whatever the feeling, Reuben (see pic) is the main reason for a distinct slow down on the running front.

Future runner?

For the last few months any running I have managed to do has been focused on going back to basics.  Getting out purely for fun at lunchtime and with a bit of company from whoever wants to tag along.  Since May my weekly mileage totals have almost always been in single figures and I don't mind a bit.  'Fatherly duties' are now firmly Item 1 on the agenda.  Worries about fitness won't be rekindled until such times as running becomes a bigger part of my life again.

Baby Reuben is now 7 weeks old and I sense some normality around the corner.  You never know, routine might be returning to the Hos household in the next few weeks.  So with that prospect my thoughts are starting to return to putting one foot in front of the other and what might be realistic challenges for the next few months.

In the spirit of going back to basics, my Winter aim is to be a happier than average runner.  To get to that point I guess I am going to have to do some kind of running, so these are my running objectives until Christmas (or may be March) : -  

1. A bit of night running (with my trusty head torch)
2. A few Sunday morning long(er) runs in the sun
3. A 10 miler just for fun
4. A short dog run / jog (with my virtual training partner)
5. A bit of muddy running around Danbury

So that's what I'm planning to do and then I'll try and write a little bit about it.  If that happens then I'll be a happy runner.  If it doesn't I'll still be happy but I probably shouldn't call myself a runner at that point.



* Average does depend on how you measure it!

Sunshine on a rainy day

As laid in my hotel bed at 3:45 am, unable to sleep because of the combination of excitement and nerves, I thought to myself, 'we must be close to a railway line or something'.  A short time later I realised it was actually the wind in the trees outside my window.  I eventually got up at 7am and looked out, it didn't look quite as bad as the forecast suggested. Yes it was raining, yes it was windy but I imagined a biblical downpour rather than just - rain.  I managed to eat my breakfast and messed about packing and unpacking my bag and trying to decide between shorts and tights.  My pre-race routine went completely out of the window as my Sister and Brother In-law (Pete) called to say they were waiting downstairs.  It was time to go (outside) and at this point it was clear that actually it was pretty flippin cold.

We got dropped off and spend the next few minutes avoiding the puddles in a vain attempt to keep our feet dry on our way into the stadium/start. And that was the last time I saw Pete until about 6 miles in (when he overtook me like I was standing still).  A few more distractions inside the 'Dons' meant I was even less organised than normal.  What a time to get a call about a stray dog a 100 odd miles away!

The plan for the race was to stick as close to 3:45 (8:15) pace as long I could, accepting that at some point I would blow up and that by then I'd hopefully have banked enough to scrape under 4 hours.  Not a 'normal' pacing strategy but I was worried that if I started running just under 9 minute miles when it came to the latter stages I'd not have anything left to pick up a bit.

Anyway the race got underway and I slipped into a nice 8:15 pace for the first six or so miles, give or take 30secs for a wee break.  Despite limited training in April I felt okay in the legs but crikey my stomach felt as ropey as a bag of full of ropes. I had only one swig of water until I got the first Lucozade station at 8 miles and after a swig of that, I spent the next mile trying not to lose my breakfast.  Puddles of rain is bad but puddles and other runners breakfast is quite another.
I reached halfway more or less bang on 3:45 pace and started to think that maybe it would be possible to keep up the pace, but by 16 I was starting to slow up a bit and beginning to felt the miles. By 20 I'd worked out that I was still about a minute ahead on my 3:50 pace band but I was loosing about 30 seconds a mile on that.

Just a small puddle!

I should have mentioned that I was I-podded up for this run and until 22 miles I had only one dodgy shuffle.

But just before 22 miles there was quite a steep hill that really started to hurt, then of all the songs on my i-pod, Adele came whining into my ears about some bloke who's she's heard about and who's married now or something. It's not the easiest thing to 'release' the i-pod from my back pocket, switch of the 'keylock' thing with frozen hands and then try and change tracks... But I just about managed it but did a sly walk whilst changing - sadly my wife and sister were just up the road a bit and spotted that!

The next event was my second gel attempt. The stomach was feeling better by now or at least my legs were hurting so much my stomach felt better by comparison so the 23 mile gel station was visited. Another narrowly avoided vomiting incident later 24 miles were ticked off and I knew that I could run 12 min miles and still make sub 4 hours - phew. But if I ran a little bit faster I might, just might scrape sub 3:55 so off I went.  It felt like I'd suddenly started running 7s but the Garmin told me different! The final mile or so was emotional to say the least.  As Doug says on his blog Stadium MK appeared out the trees and suddenly we were a wide open road, running down hill.  The I-pod chose this moment to shuffle onto 'So here we are' by Bloc party which is one of my favourite songs and one of those tunes that makes my hairs stand on end even though I've heard it loads of times.  I've never actually looked up the lyrics until now but after 25.5 miles it seemed much more meaningful... So I've pasted them here with my MK Marathon additions

I caught a glimpse, but its been forgotten (of the stadium and no it's not been forgotten) 
So here we are again (yep)
I made a vow, to carry you home... (yep and I blogged a bit about it) 
I really tried to do what you wanted (run sub 4 hours) 
It all went wrong again (Not this time) 
I figured it out,  (apparently I did) 


Brilliant - those 3m53s of Bloc Party brilliance will stay with me forever.  The song ended just as I turned into the stadium and I pulled out my ear phones and just ran as hard as I could running past the goal and up the side line... and across the finish line.

3 meters  from the finish line if you squint

13 seconds over 3:55 I blame that ALL on Adele and her rubbish relationships!  Anyway I set out in the morning to run sub 4 and was nearly 5 minutes under my target so at that point i was an emotional wreck.  Crying when your out of breath is so hard I gave up until I saw my wife and niece in the stands waving...

Where's Wally (in a yellow top)

Plodding out from the stadium was nice and gave everyone a chance to encourage the people coming into the stadium to finish.

MK Marathon - Done. And I loved it despite the rain, the cold, the mud, the puddles, the floods, the pain and the hills.  All of those things made it a really memorable day but most of all it was the marshals and people that lined the course with so much enthusiasm, energy and at times humour.

The Journey to MK
This whole MK adventure started with a conversation with my sister and Pete. Sis didn't manage to do any training for the race so didn't run (something about a new job).  With 600 odd training miles between us and a 26.2 mile Pete was the clear winner completing his debut in 3:37.  I am seriously impressed with that time and it does give me a target for NEXT time.

Thanks to my wife (Lisa) for taking the pictures and supporting me throughout the journey...

3:55:13

New PB by 29mins 01 secs. A slightly more detailed account of my experience to follow...

Not long now...

It's less than 22 hours until the start of the MK marathon and the weather forecast is looking interesting to say the least. I can't really complain as I was hoping for a cool race but I don't remember ordering 40 mile an hour gusts of wind.  

• The bag is packed. 
• Pace bands are printed.
• Carbs have been loaded. 
• (Some) Training has been completed. 
• Hotel's booked and dog sitters organised. 
• Meal with big sis booked for this evening.

I am ready... (I think).

Heaven knows I'm (not so) miserable now

I decided that my last post was just a little bit too negative - sorry about that.  I've also had one complaint about the photographic content being 'horrible' - sorry about that as well.

Looking around at some of the MK marathon training blogs it does appear that I'm not alone in struggling a wee bit with positivity.  Reassuring I think!  Perhaps its the weather and that time of year?  However I am happy to report today that the pain in the shins does not appear any worse, despite reading all about injuries last night in Mens Running mag.  With the Great Bentley Half coming up at the weekend I've decided to hold back on harder running for this week and save it all for then.  My bike might make a rare appearance one or two lunchtimes for a bit of open air cross training to get the heart rate up a little.  The primary reason for any heart rate will probably be caused by me forgetting to un-cleat in front of work colleagues rather than any physical effort.  

The MR article about injuries (but mostly cross training) also made me think about how little I stretch at any point during the day let alone after running so I've set myself a New February resolution. To stretch properly after running and do a few other stretchy things in the evenings instead of sprawling out on the sofa.  I hope with those precautions I can avoid to much in the way of serious niggles or full blown injuries.  

In other news - I got my number for the Essex 20 (Mile) road race today and another run to look forward to. Entering an event with a cheque and SAE also gave me a lovely warm fussy retro feeling a bit like drinking Ginger Wine at Christmas.  Attempting a 20 mile road race is not something I've done before and will be a real benchmark for MK. It's a month and a bit away at the mo so I have plenty of time to decide on my approach.  We'll see how this weekend goes before I foolishly commit myself to attempting to run a particular time or pace.  If nothing else I cant fail to PB on the 20! 

Dark, dark, places

It's been nearly two weeks since my last post on here which probably is a result of 1. finding it hard to find time to run let alone writing about it and 2. having lots of other things to do at home, such as making some new wardrobes.  I say making, I mean assembling them really!

The last week's been pretty tough in terms of running motivation.  I've been struggling with a few niggles by far the biggest is calf pain / shin pain.  According to a running friend 'shin splints are worse than child birth' so, unless womankind has been exaggerating for years, I don't think it's shin splints.  Perhaps just a bit of a strain and just my body telling me the training is having an impact.

Thierry (Yucky) 

Niggle number 2 is my sixth toe which seems to be developing nicely. It's by no means the biggest blister I've had in my running career but its a right pain in the... big toe.  It's been causing all sorts of drama in the dressing room and it suddenly came back after a few years away so I've called it Theirry.   Niggle number 3 is more minor but effects my walking gait.  I have what you might call 'intimate' chaffing, thats a pain in the arse.  Must remember to pack the Vass.

On Friday, I'd planned on running 10 miles after work.  It was one of those occasions when I was very, very tempted to just get in the car and head home.  But I decided a trot down to Hoe Mill Lock, Ulting was what I really needed to do, although it only works out about a 8.5 miles round trip.  With the niggles at the fore I concluded that it was probably best to run very gently.  Once out of Maldon it's dark dark countryside all the way, so head torched up I set off plodding away.  At about 3 miles the calf/shins seemed to have loosened up enough to begin to enjoy things.  There's a few fishing lakes near the lock and in the darkness, all I could hear was ducks and geese going about whatever they do in the dark.  Whatever they do do it sounds spooky on your own.  The lock is about half way and running wise I felt quite relaxed and so I sped up a little bit.  The next next two miles passed quickly and then I felt a very unnerving feeling. Was it wind caused by the tin of chickpeas I'd munched at lunchtime as a garnish to left over chilli? Or was it something much more sinister?  I was not prepared to find out.  I blame the next few miles of paranoia on Tonky Talk in last months Runners World which was about runners bowel movements.  I know some people really suffer with faecal issues but fortunately, and touching wood not cloth, I had never experienced any problems in that department.  Never before had I spent 3 miles looking for discreet places to crouch.  With immense concentration, I focused on the thought of Tesco's loos which by then were only a mile or so away...  But strangely by the time I got to Tesco the feeling had disappeared as quickly as it arrived and I was back focussing on how much the niggles were niggling.  An unusual sense of relief!   I managed to get another half mile on to the end of the run by doing a couple of circles around the streets near work, but decided to call it a night at that.

Everyday is like Sunday
Sunday's planned run was a 11 miler, as I've got a Half coming up next weekend. So I met up with my Maldon based running chums and set off again to Hoe Mill lock with the plan of adding on a bit at the end.  What a difference a days rest makes.  The shins where not sore, the bowels were fine, but the chaffing and blister remained. Still thats another 11 ticked off the plan at a nice gentle pace.  It brings the months running total to 106 miles which isn't too shabby considering I missed a couple of longer runs for various reasons.  Most importantly though my running chum who's training for next weekends Half did really well and ran strongly.