Exploring the gap between boredom and fear

[Jack Hughes]

Things from this weekend:

1) my mountain bike is great - better than I deserve
2) my MTB skills are poor
3) I can only improve
4) my knee hurts a bit.

Bit annoyed about #4. Stopped me going for a run.

[Jack Hughes]

On reflection, I've decided to make this a recovery week

The pool was shut Monday
Travelling yesterday and today and Friday
Lots of extra work to do for next week which will take up thursday evening

I've not even packed any kit.

More importantly, I was a bit tired. Both knees were sore, and my left Achilles. Lots of other aches and pains - but they were more the "worked hard" kind of aches and pains.

Decided to concentrate on eating well instead. So far so good. Too stressed to sleep well though.

If all goes well that I might have a go at a park run 5k on Saturday.

Just stretching and barefoot walking for now.

[Jack Hughes]

Recovery week wasn'tbreally a recovery week - but a getting knackered through working too much and not sleeping and winding myself up into a ball of stress.

But I did wear my barefoot shoes for the duration. The strategy here is to gently stretch the Achilles and calves through day to day activities, then run with a much less aggressive shoe - ie with a bit of a heel. Rather than the other way round - ie heeled shoe for most of the time, then switching to an extreme one. Dunno if it will work, but worth trying.

Barefoot shoes aren't really just flat, no heel, shoes. They have paper thin soles so you feel everything as you walk. Supposed to be good for proprioception. Certainty good for finding things you have dropped on the floor. The downside is that they are really cold when it rains and the ground is wet and cold. My feet were freezing. But you do feel like your feet are bare!

Anyway, my Achilles was a bit sore all week - no idea when/how this started. But I was a bit worried that my barefoot strategy wasn't helping it to recover. But, buoyed up by the latest theories in Achilles rehabilitation, I persisted.

[Jack Hughes]

My week of eating didn't last the full five days.

Beer and a three course meal on Thursday wasn't on the plan.

Come Saturday's weigh in, and I was at 80.2kg. This time last year I was around 76-77.

Using all available methods (impence scales, waist/weight relationship, and "what it looks like" photos, and experience, this puts the body fat percentage at around the 19% mark. Again, up on previous years 16%.

I will carry on with my quest for better eating.

The route of this weeks problems was timing issues - missing meals, then over compensating at a later time. And probably a bit of comfort eating.

[Jack Hughes]

I have been thinking about doing a park run for the last few weeks. Just a few confidence issues - hurting so much during and after a hard run is starting to put me off doing it. So a lot of visualisation and mental preparation was required.

I decided to give it a go

Arguably, it isn't a proper race - but it is competitive at the top of the field. And their aren't prizes.

I last did one in early March 2011. A quick look at Endo showed that I had done 281km of running since then. Most of it low intensity.

That, and the extra 3 or 4 kg, was going to slow me down.

So I set myself no particular target. Although I had an idea of what I might do.

I was going to run on feel - no pace or hr goals. I was interested in cadence, as I have been working a lot on running form.

Up at about 6 as I was very dehydrated from the week before - so wanted time for lots of sipping and slow ingesting of water.
Arrived at 8:30 for a thorough warm up. The left ankle had been pretty sore when I got out of bed - from the Achilles stretching up to the lower calf muscle. But the right calf, which has been plaguing me since November, seemed not too bad. Just a bit tight.

Hr strap was working. But the cadence pod which is strapped to the Newton race shoes wasn't. Well, the last time I wore them was back in August...

I usually enter the starting grid from the front, to make sure I am on the first or second row as I start fairly quickly. This is an old habit from XC days, when you had to sprint to the first gate, because if you weren't at the gate first, you could easily lose 30 secs + as everyone files through, and the race would be over. It doesn't make for good pacing strategy though.

Annoyingly, a cocky lad and his fat mate positioned themselves in front off me. I couldn't see either of them lasting. Anyone running in their football strip doesn't usually last much beyond 90yds.

The course is a tricky one to judge pace on. It's a big isosceles triangle laid on the side of a hill - a long downhill, almost double back, a long gentle downhill, a sharp bend, then a very steep short uphill bit. There are three laps. This makes each k very different. The first k doesn't have the hill on it, so is faster. There is little on the course that is flat. It is nearly a minute slower than the Leeds Hyde Park run, which is the only other park run I've done.

Started a bit quicker than I should have done. About 3:35 for the first K. hr was rising nicely - soon reached 160+ which I haven't seen for a year - not on a sustained basis.

Of the people in front of me, only one guy was fatter. I don't like being beaten by people who are fatter than me. But he was going well, and I knew that my pacing was all wrong.

The fastest woman usually beats me - and had seen her on the start line, so I was just waiting for her. She finally came past just before the 3k mark. And just before the start of the steep hill. As she weighs about 3st, I wasn't going to keep up.

I had managed to keep reasonable form for the first five mins, but fatigue was setting in. Best time to find out how you really run. If you can concentrate enough. Still a lot of work to be done.

By the second lap, you are starting to lap the social runners. You are aware of the differences - I was well above tempo pace so breathing hard. The slower runners are, even for them, running at a recovery/endurance pace - as you can tell from their breathing. The difference in times between front and back isn't just about fitness - but about how hard you run.

I was finding that has the HR went above 162 I was starting to through up - a sign of lack of fitness. I didn't want to scare the other runners, so eased back a bit to let the ht drop a few beats. This was quite a slowing by this stage - about 4k

Surprised that only two people had gone past, and pleased to see that fatter guy pulled out after the second climb, I was determined not to let anyone else past.

Up the last climb, and a lighter guy was catching me. I could hear his breath. Out of the steepest bit and just working one keeping the cadence going. Wind it up for a sprint to the line. I was nervous enough to glance over the shoulder. But I had done enough. Cross line, grab ticket, start retching. Isn't it fun.

Managed to hit the stop button. 2 secs over the time that I was expecting but withbetter pacing I could have gone a bit faster.

Legs seemed to have survived, which is the main thing.

Loaded the run up on Strava. An interested feature is that it does gradient adjusted pacing. Ie what you would have done if it had been flat. Very useful for working out pacing strategies on hilly courses.

Actual splits:

3:34, 4:17, 3:59, 4:32, 4:26 (the Garmin had it at a bit over 5k)

So the times are all over the place. On feel, I started off quickly, then gradually slowed, with a drop off in the 4th k, then a bit of a pick up in the last k.

Gradient adjusted times:

3:36, 3:45, 4:04, 4:08, 4:00

this is much more what it felt like - so quite an impressive feature. Would have been nice to have a go at a flat course


Easy day today (Sunday). Thought about a swim, but to tired to get there. And it's raining. And I have some work to do.




Lots of dynamic stretches, strides, and quick steps, mainly on grass, with the HR up to 155, and I was ready.

[Big_Show]

That's some good running there Jack - take a trip up to Newcastle some time and I'll show you a nice flat (albeit very windy) Parkrun course!

[chappers]

great running

I trust everything is holding together?

[Worrying Will]

Intresting reading. Good effort to. been lookign at strava as my compare tool for the park run.

[Jack Hughes]

I really like the gradient adjust times - as one of the challenges in developing training paces is compensating for different courses/routes. So it is a useful tool. Obviously it will only be accurate to a certain extent - but still, it's useful.

There is a big difference between setting some training paces base on a 21 minute 5k to those based on a 19:40 5k.

I think the legs are OK.

Calves are still really really sore - so walking is hard today. Tried foam rollering (a bit - too sore!!!) and lots of stretching, but not made that much difference. Ankle seems OK, and calves are not obviously torn.

There is a boris bike rack out side the hotel, so I might go for a ride if it is light and not raining, but I left my hivis jacket behind. Grrr...

[Big_Show]

I actually saw those Boris bikes for the first time on Sunday. They look damn heavy to ride! Do you feel like you're in a much heavier gear than you actually are?

Also, do you take a cycle helmet down with you just in case you need one or are you just really careful on the roads?