Month: April 2016

Over the bridge

About 10 or 11 weeks to go! Things are looking pretty okay at the moment, I have started increasing the mileage per week now, and so far, so good – no re-occurrence of the knee issues and it feels pretty cool.

Went out for an eight miler on Weds and then went out again on the Thurs, just 5.5 this time, went Thurs as the weatherman said it would rain on Friday morning – it didn’t. Had a beer too many on Friday, so as a penance I went out for the long one on Sat.

Decided it should be over the 20, but also decided to keep close to the house just incase something blew up. So Round the brewery and a circuit of Redwick got me to about 10 miles or so and back to the house for a stretch and a bite to eat and some coke. Then back out to Redwick and loops for another 12 miles, I was slightly tempted to go for a whole marathon distance, considering it was the London Marathon on the Sunday, but my sensible head told me not to push it too far, so settled on the 22. Went pretty good, although I ran out of water at the end of the second section, and my times dropped off a cliff from 8:40’s to over 12. But I worked out that a constant 14 with breaks would take 15 hrs or so, so plenty of flex in the schedule!

Did feel a bit ropy towards the end, a little light-headed, I assume this was due to not really fueling properly, so I need to ensure I get more grub in me for the next one, but physically it was all good. I have adopted the approach on sitting in a cold bath after the long runs, and I am not sure if it is coincident, but it does seem to of helped quite as lot (it does make me hoot and gasp a little, much to the amusement of the family).

I am also suffering with a blister, which came from the little walk to Cwnbran last week, which is very annoying and doesn’t seem to be clearing. Although it has not really blistered, its still uncomfortable.

I have now run 280 miles in my second pair of GT1000-4’s so Strava reminded me to get another pair – so I have, although I won’t use them for another couple of weeks I don’t think.

On Sunday we went for a walk, across the Severn Bridge and a little down the Severn Way, then back to Aust. About 12 miles, and 3 beers later we were done, I was surprised that my legs were okay for this, considering the distance run on the Sat…

Miles: 48 (including walk)

Beers: 14

 

Walk to Cwmbran

Training still going pretty good. Took a couple of days off after the 19 on Sunday, and set out against on Weds for a 7 miler, then an 8 on Friday. Things *seem* to be pretty good at  the moment, some slight pains, but 8 miles is just a long time to take in the mornings before work, but only another few months and then that’ll be that!

We decided to walk fro Newport to Cwmbran on the Saturday, it was difficult to work out the distance, and we were under some time pressures, so we parked up at Malpas, by the ponds and set off up the canal. It was chilly Willy, I only had a base layer and my jumper, and the wind made it not too nice. The walk is okay, some bits are nicer than others as you might imagine, and it was slightly surprising that the canal is not complete along this stretch. They are rebuilding some of the locks though, don’t know the reason for that as they wont hav boats on it I would not have thought – well, not barges anyway.

Before we knew it we were in old Cwmbran, it ended up only being around 4 miles to the center, so we nipped into Sainburies for a wee-wee and some tea and a great bacon and sausage sandwich, which was so doorstopped that half was sufficient. I also got a bloody blister, and I was wearing my running shoes, so I can run 20 miles in them, but not walk 4. Luckily given where we stopped there was no problem in getting some plasters for the return journey.

Long run on Sunday was just  non-stop 14 miles, which went well, no real pain or issues – just not really far enough. Went for a stroll in the afternoon up the wetlands and I probably should have just lay on the sofa. It is a bit odd that a half marathon is now just a “thing” I do every week, then continue as normal, I guess for some a half really takes it out of you for a few days.

Miles: 29

Beers: 12

 

Pushing it

Back in work this week, and back to the “normal” regime. I have been trying not to push things too far, but I may have this week. Couple of 6ish miles during the week, then we went for a little hike with Kate on Saturday, just about 5 miles or so, so I wanted to push a little on the Sunday and trying the 3 x 6 approach again. So I run a 6 mile circuit, come home for 5 mins, have some liquid, and some food, stretch and repeat. So ended up doing just over 19 miles, but the last few miles were rather painful.

I just cannot help myself, I thought things were all magnificent, but went from 13 to 19 in a week, which is just a little too much. The good news is that it appears that most of the pain is actually in the leg muscles, rather than specifically the intense knee pain I got last time, so we’ll see how it continues.

Have an appointment with the Physio on Friday, hopefully the last one, and have just booked a hotel, so that we can walk the Worcester to Birmingham canal on the 14th May- all 30 miles of it. Should be fun!

Miles: 37

Easter 2016

Well, its Easter, an early one this year, which means in one financial year we had two lots of Easter Bank Holidays, and none in next years Financial year.. Wow ;o)

Went back to Pembs for a couple of days over the Bank Holiday, so we dossed around a bit and went for a kebab. Sunday morning (with a slight hangover, and minus one hour sleep thanks to the clocks going back I set off for a half around Haverfordwest. Took the by-pass and headed over to the Rhos, quite a good circuit, a little hilly in places, but just about exactly 13 miles. Was a decent day, but it did pour down a couple of times, luckily just for a short time.

Off to the Wolfe for food, which was pretty decent, then off visiting for the night.

Next day, we set off up to Chester, with the idea of having a night in rural mid-wales on the way up. We stopped at LLandridnod Wells for a bite to eat for lunch, then found ourselves n the Lion Hotel in the middle of no where early afternon. We stayed in Llanbister, which just had a couple of houses and the hotel, and spend pretty much all afternoon and evening boozing and chatting to the locals – only half what we normally do. Our friendly local seemed very keen in being involved on our table, and we found out that he liked to have a beer or 10, and that he could “balance” things. Which he showed us by balancing to budwiser bottles neck on neck on top of a pint glass. Then we had a curry in the hotel which wasn’t ace.

Breakfast in the morning was okay, but we had the landlord almost sit with us, and chat whilst we were trying to eat – not my cup of tea. Soon left and headed up to Chester and the zoo…

Decent run up, and we were soon directed into the bog of a car park, everyone was getting stuck and slipping and sliding. Zoo was okay as far as zoo’s go, but often all you see is the display card stating what fantastic animal is supposedly in the enclosure, but prefers to just hid all day.

Back to the hotel, in Chester, and off for a walk of half the walls and some perusing of the local public houses. We were very lucky to find a very good italian on our walks, who just managed to squeeze us in, it was chocka.

Next morning I took a little run around the city, just about 3 miles all told, then the two of us left our daughter in the room, and had some breakfast and a stroll around the town again.

A little later it was time to head down to Shrewsbury, on the way we stopped at Oswestry, as we had not been there before, and it was on the way – it was rubbish.

Once we managed to find the hidden car park for the Premier Inn, we had a bit of a mooch around Shrewsbury, a fairly decent town, and later went for a pretty good turkish.

I had to drop the car off in the garage on Friday so took my running kit and ran the 10 miles home, all looking good on the knee front, we went for a hike around Tintern the next day, and I completed a half on the Sunday.

Miles: 34

Beers: no idea, but more than 2