Paddle run core

I spent Friday being battered to bits by Simon on the bike. We arranged to do a spin out into the hills along with another training partner of his, John, a very strong cyclist. I spent the best part of two and a half hours stationed firmly 200 metres behind them, trying to keep up. I simply couldn't. Even going downhill I couldn't stay with them and just spun the wheels over as best I could. The icing on the cake was when Simon signalled left for us to go up White Down Lane. Most of it's not too bad but it has a real sting at the top. That was my que to weave all over the road attempting to keep the bike moving forward.  I then bettered  that 30 minutes later. Right at the bottom of Juniper Hill I turned left to head back towards the foot of Boxhill. Well,  my front wheel turned left but the rest of me didn't and I ended up in a heap on the floor. Thankfully, I managed to break my fall with my left knee and hip, so all was well.  :-/  By this time, Simon and John were taking pity on me and we took the more direct way home. Wounded pride and body.

After a day's rest to recover I got up early to go for a paddle with the intention of going a bit further than Thursday's effort. I bashed my way slowly up to Raven's Ait and then freewheeled home with the flow.About 50 minutes in total with some bad patches and some good bits. There's a rec next door to the Royal so I thought I would see if the work I have been doing on my core has started to have any benefit. It was a very slow 30 minutes plodding around the rec but it didn't hurt and that's a first since February. I was a happy bunny. When I got home it was another 30 minutes of core work in front of the telly being mocked by my children.

Needless to say the run immedately got me thinking about whether I could actually go and do the London Marathon, albeit slowly. A case of me trying to run before I can walk again.

Jamie and I are meeting up for a paddle in a condor tonight, I think it's my first K2 paddle since finishing the DW last year. I am not sure what to expect. I just hope that Jamie is gentle with me.

Oh. My. Days.

Dark? Cold? Windy? must be DW training in April.

It's just as well we have a whole year before the next DW. Tonight was my first paddle in a while. A long while. It was a filthy night and I probably should have waited until the wind had dropped and for daylight, but hey, I'm a seasoned campaigner. It's nothing I can't cope with.

I was on the water for 25 minutes which was plenty enough. It was just about getting some feeling for the water and getting into a boat again. The llance felt unusually twitchy with the wind controlling my blades more than I was. I kept my stroke rate slow and focussed on spearing my feet. Just like old times.  :-/

That DW feeling

bike, cadbury's mini rolls, tea.

Yesterday and today has seen the running of the Senior Doubles DW race and I have not been able to get it out of my mind. I knew a couple of the MPCC crews who were taking part as well as following Blair's and Antony's progress on their blogs since I got into this event a couple of years' ago. The Kingston Straight is a very familiar part of the course and just a stone's throw from the Royal CC and the final portage at Teddington. It's also traditionally the point where I have been reduced to tears having got there, so I decided that I would get up early this morning and go along and support. I really wanted to be in the race in some form or other, even as a spectator; I just couldn't let it drift past my house and not get out there and see it running.

The pound from Molesey to Teddington is one of the longest on the Thames section of the race and if I had a pound for every time I was asked "How far to Teddington?" while I was on the bridge I would be a rich man. I managed to get into the tired spirit of the event by having far too many beers the night before, coupled with the clocks going forward so therefore I was one knackered and cold spectator after taking the langster for a spin over to Kingston Bridge.

And what does every DW crew want, 20 odd hours into their paddle at 6am? Yep, a cow bell gee up!

Annoying the neighbours

It had been a bitterly cold night, apparently dropping to as low as -5. Massive respect to all the finishers. It's a hard enough event at the best of times but those kinds of temperatures are energy sapping and really makes it difficult for the paddlers and their crews. I think the drop out rate was accordingly pretty high this year.

I got there at around 6am and stayed until 8 and saw most of the crews past the bridge. It was hard watching some of the guys and girls going through, obviously pretty spent and still with some way to go. That said, there was still a really good flow to help the paddlers on their way down to Westminster.

Boat 448 approaching Kingston Bridge 6am

I spent most of my time saying the following phrases:

"Amazing effort." Absolutely.

"You're doing great." They were.

"Looking good." Hmmm. Not so much.  For quite a few crews that was a lie but they were still in the race and paddling in some fashion or other and that's all that counts.






The sun coming up

I managed to catch Dan and Mark who by this stage were the only MPCC crew still going. They finished in a tad over 25 hours and I think Dan must be closing in on the 1000 mile club by now. Unfortunately the other MPCC crew made up of Matt and his 19 year old son, Josh had to retire at Old Windsor after 17 hours or so. A great effort and I think they'll be back next year with a vengeance. I almost missed him but saw Blair and Ryan through and they were looking good and  finished in a tad over 23 hours. Great effort boys. Sad to see that Antony didn't make it down this year. Hopefully he'll have better luck next time round.  He definitely deserves it.

I

A DW flotilla

I cycled home knowing that I want to do it again next year. The night before I had been sharing a few sherbets with Adam, Phil, Alex and Dave. The DW came up and they all instantly volunteered to be support crew next year. Top bananas the lot of them. Adam's also lending me his paddles. :-)  But most importantly, Jamie wants to give it a good go again and Sue, on discovering my various tweeted  musings about it has given me her blessing. Project #sub23 is under way.

In other news....

I still cannot run.  Tried and failed again, therefore it's off to the physio this week. Enough's enough. A few turbo sessions with a couple of  time trials booked in soon, a Kingston Phoenix 10 and the SCCU 25. All good.



You know that feeling...

when everyone seems to have been invited to a party and you're not invited? That others are having a great time while you're not? That's me that is. Two-fold. Firstly, there are soooo many runners out and about, presumably in the final throws of Spring marathon training. And I'm not, when I should be. I ended up walking for a few hours today and by the end of it my back was beginning to protest. As much as I didn't want to I am thinking that another physio visit will be necessary.

The second thing? Well, it's something that's taken me a bit by surprise. Not that long ago I wrote this. Three consecutive years doing Devizes to Westminster had taken its toll and I wanted off the treadmill, but over the last couple of months I had started to think about paddling again. The terrible winter that we have endured so far made me feel really glad about not being on the water and having to paddle but again, there's people out there looking forward to starting the race while I am not going to be in Devizes. The thing is that training for the DW as part of a crew always got me out there training in some form or other because someone else was relying on me being fit enough to do it. The guy who helped me out of the mystere and up the steps at Westminster last year said I would be back and I think that he may be right, sooner than I thought.

So the other day I ended up texting Jamie. How's things? How's work? Theoretically speaking, would you fancy the DW again? That kind of thing. If we were to do it again, there would need to be a proviso or two, namely going for a time. Jamie rather optimistically started talking about 20 hours. I thought that 22.30 might be slightly more appropriate. And that would mean getting paddle fit and that would mean being body fit. There are a few obstacles in the way. My back's buggered, Jamie's is even more buggered than mine. He's carrying a little bit of extra weight (his viewpoint, not mine btw) while I have the upperbody strength of a sparrow. And I don't have a boat anymore, not that I could paddle the one I had. A few things to sort out then and in a moment of clarity we thought that maybe DW 2015 would be sensible. Give us 2 years and work up to it properly and nail it rather than enduring it.

I reserve the right to change my mind again.  :-!

Replies

Hodge. Cheers mate. So glad that your training's going well. :-)

That's the end of that

I ran yesterday for another 20 minutes and while it wasn't painful, it wasn't comfortable either and confirmed what I have known for the last week, that the London Marathon's not going to happen for me this year. Again, it's a sense of frustration more than anything else, having been in such a good place before I got injured. I will be running again pretty soon but not well enough to run London and be confident that my back will hold out for 26 miles, so it's back to the drawing board with more strengthening exercises, more stretching and then hopefully getting back on my feet.

I guess this will give me the opportunity to get back on my bike and do that other thing. What is it again? Escapes me for now. I have done a bit of commuting on the langster although they have only been short 8 mile efforts, battering myself on small sections as a sort of interval session and a few turbo sessions. I met up with Simon this morning for a 2.5 hour ride. I was meant to be on the Van Nic but while sorting it last night I noticed that there was no grease in the bearings of my rear wheel and they were rattling around in the cups, so I ended up going out on the langster instead. We ended up cycling out to the 10m tt course which isn't too lumpy. The outward leg felt pretty good while the return was comical with a stiff 20mph headwind the whole way. So that'll be why the out leg felt good despite being on the langster. I ended up coasting the last couple of miles while Simon disappeared off into the distance and rolled home with blocks of ice on the bottom of my legs. Doesn't the open water swimming season start in a couple of weeks? Swimming!! That's it. The other thing I should be doing.

20 minutes

Well it's an improvement, but not much of one. I ran for 20 minutes non-stop on Thursday but by the end I was getting very sore. So it's 5 weeks out from the London Marathon now and I can kiss goodbye to a sub 3.10 time which was looking quite comfortable 3 weeks ago. I am still intending to make the start as I do not feel that I have lost enough fitness to not finish, but of course it is whether I can get even a moderately long run in before then. If I can run 13 to 15 miles beforehand without my hip and back getting stupidly sore then that should be fine, but I will now be treating the race as an easy training run and hopefully search around for a marathon in the summer. There's not many of them about at that time but I am sure that I can find something and go for the good for age time that I want.

Despite having barely turned a wheel this year it's the first tt of the season next week, a 25. I'm really looking forward to it. I am expecting very little and again, it's going to be a training session and a catchup with friends more than anything. Whatever happens, it will be a season's best.  :-)  The Kingston Phoenix have a great list of tt events and I intend to use them as my training in preparation for the Dambuster tri in the summer.

You can probably tell, the mojo isn't flowing too well at the moment. There's so much else going on at home and at work that my hobby is taking a backseat. Normally, I'd be a bit stressed about it but I have to remind myself that it is just a hobby. Should I make the start line of London then I am going to go and run a marathon and enjoy the atmosphere of one of the greatest events that occurs in the capital. What's not to like about that?

I have been eating a lot of hot cross buns, which of course means Devizes to Westminster time.It will be the first Easter in three years where I have not been involved. I have had the odd pang, wishing I was doing it again although the weather this year would have made it very difficult to train. I do also wonder if I would have this back injury if I had carried on paddling, which is the best core workout ever.

4 minutes

I tried to go out for another run this afternoon and I managed a paltry 4 minutes before having to turn and walk back. My back's been a bit better over the last couple of days so I thought I might be able to do a short one, but almost as soon as I started I knew that there was no real change. I found some great exercises on the Kinetic-Revolution site which I have been using to strengthen my glutes and hamstrings but they are not going to make a difference overnight.

It looks like I am going to have to re-evaluate my goals for the marathon. At the moment it's just about getting to the startline. and anything else is a bonus.

Tick tock

So I'm stretching, icing, strengthening and anything else I can think of to sort out this hip injury, and guess what? It's making absolutely no difference whatsoever. Clock's ticking.......

Doing the dirty dog

No running all last week. Bah. The pain in my lower back just wouldn't go away and in fact got worse despite a complete rest.  It has been so frustrating. My running had gone so, so well and the last run I did, the 21 miler had been done at sub 3.30 pace with a last couple of miles at sub 3 pace while feeling very easy and with no inkling during the run of what was to come. My cold cleared up within a few days and on Thursday, despite my back and bum cheek feeling very achy I tried a gentle run. I ran a total of 10 metres before knowing it was a lost cause and got straight back in the front door. :-(

It seems to be my glutes which have been asked to work too hard and do too much. I guess with hindsight doing an 18, 20 and 21 mile run on three consecutive weekends was simply more than I could cope with although at the time everything was tickety-boo. I don't think it's actually that serious but it is taking a while to heal up. I've been having ice-baths, stretching and I have been doing some gentle glute strengthening and stability exercises. It's no surprise that they are very weak. One of the exercises I have been doing is 'the dirty dog'. Basically, on all fours and then you cock your leg up like a dog having a pee. My kids were in stitches watching me do it and they have considerably stronger glutes than me.

It has upset me that this has happened. It was all going so well and this has disrupted my training at precisely the point I should be putting in my last big block. I also had to dns the VO2 duathlon yesterday. However I was further ahead than  I thought I would be and I had already put in 3 good quality long runs. If I can get this shaken off by the end of this week then I think a sub 3.10 should still be on the cards. If not.......

I went out this evening and ran 8 minutes before I had to turn and limp / walk home. It's touch and go again.

A tale of two runs

Friday's run was meant to be a 9 mile marathon paced effort and it was but it was really hard work. Another early start and a very cold morning were not conducive to a hard, sustained effort. I was also stupid in not wrapping up properly so I got cold very quickly and my mojo was at a very low ebb. I got the session done but it was thoroughly unenjoyable. Saturday morning was my long run with the aim of getting 20 miles done and Simon was going to accompany me. He's still not feeling 100% but he has the remarkable ability to be able to go out and do a long endurance session on very little miles, but that said he has been very consistent with his biking over the winter which shows. I took was thoroughly wrapped up with time; full Lycra, snood, hat, gloves. The absolute works.  I looked like an extra from Ice Station Zebra.

We did a hilly loop that took us up to the back of Bocketts Farm and Denbeighs before running for a couple of miles out to Dorking and then back to Leatherhead, with a couple of  5km loops near Simon's house. The only fly in the ointment was the fact I had to stop at 15 miles for what could only be described as 'gastric issues'. :-(.

The good news was that my last 3 miles were comfortably my fastest and I felt really strong despite taking no energy on board for the rest of the run. Well, I felt strong until the afternoon when my nose started to run and a sore throat flared up, I presume brought about after my cold run on Friday. Thankfully, this week is a rest week, so I am hopeful that I can take it easy and recover.

A man on a bike

Today was my second ride out on a bicycle this year. After all the work I put into #Turbovember I have hardly turned a wheel and today it showed. I could reel off a myriad of excuses regarding rubbish weather, ill children needing dropping off at grandparents and lack of mojo, but ultimately I have enjoyed getting some running fitness back and with the London Marathon looming large, with the enticing goal of a 'good for age' time within my grasp, biking and swimming have taken a hit. But I need to start doing something now if I am to achieve a pb at the Dambuster tri and I would also like to get my tt times down as I have blogged before, so I need to get a a couple of sessions in to make that a reality.

When I arranged to meet Simon earlier this week the sun was shining and it looked like Spring was here. Que this morning; barely above freezing, a stiff wind and no sun whatsoever. Jeez... Simon promised me a steady pace. He lied. After 30 minutes I was humping all over my bike trying to keep some semblance of forward motion as we took in some of the less demanding Surrey Hills. Despite Simon still not feeling 100% from when we did the Watford Half, he still left me for dead. It was not made easier by the fact I couldn't get into the granny ring and no amount of twiddling the barrel adjuster could get it to shift.

We got lost on the way to Peaslake where we were going to defrost and have a cup of tea at the post office and ended up God knows where, before finding a road back to Holmbury St Mary. It was an embarrassingly slow 45 miles. Proof positive that run fitness does not equate to cycle fitness. This weekend I intend to get the commuter bike back up and running otherwise the tri season will be over before its really begun.

Still here

For the past six weeks I have consistently run five times per week as part of my #Jantastic running and my build to the London marathon. Last year it all ended at approximately five weeks when my foot flared up with  a vengeance and at times it has seemed that my old legs might let me down again, but this time it's been my hamstrings and lower back which have been wound tight. However, last week, a funny thing happened . The aches went away. I was disconcerted, sure in the knowledge that my muscles were due to tear themselves to bits, but they didn't. I had my best week's running in a very, very long time. I can only put it down to my body adapting somewhat to the training stress at last.

An interval session, a 9 mile tempo run and a few easy 5 milers were capped off with a 19 mile run on Saturday morning. Up at 6am and on the pavement by 6.15 I  was expecting my legs to be tight and sore again, not liking the early start, but instead of the awkward hobble-shuffle I was pretty fluid from the off. Running to an easy rpe I took it steady for 15 miles and then picked it up over the last 4, mainly because that was what I had planned to do but also because if I didn't get to the loo pdq then I was going to have a lot of explaining to do. :-/   I covered those last 4 miles at around 7.05 pace which was good, but the real positive from it and the 18 miles I had run the previous weekend was not a hint of me running out of fuel. Yes, I was tired but not the king of tiredness you get from glycogen depletion. It looks like the speedwork and threshold work is really paying dividends on my long run. :-)

It was the Kingston Phoenix Awards Dinner on Saturday night. I was given a couple of gongs for some handicap wins last year while Simon didn't have enough arms for the amount of trophies that he won. It dawned on me I have not turned a pedal in anger in 6 weeks *embarrassed face*. I've got a duathlon to do next week. Maybe I should think about dusting off the Van Nic.

Watford Half Marathon 2013

After having a rest week I was looking forward to this, my first race of the year and my first running race since Luton in November 2011. I was hoping that the really achy legs I had been suffering with would sort themselves out during my mini-taper and that I would enjoy the run and as it turned out, they did.  Having thought about it most of the week I was hoping to run a comfortable 1.35hrs, maybe with a negative split and finish strongly. That was the plan anyway. Simon was running too, although when he came to pick me up he looked like death warmed up; he'd had a cold all week and didn't look in any fit state to run but he was going to take it steady and see how it went.

My first, and as it turned out, only problem of the day was the fact that I had lost my race number and chip, which meant I had to go and get a replacement. This in turn meant that in the results I am listed as Deborah. :-/ The only blip (by my doing) on an otherwise excellent event. And the course was really pretty. Watford hardly conjours up images of rolling fields and rose covered cottages, but it really was. The course would be described as 'sporting' or 'honest'. Uphill to halfway and downhill from then on. A few short-sharp rises and some gentle rollers. It was a really good course.

It's funny how as soon as you pin a number to your chest you're able to work harder than you previously thought possible. I deliberately didn't look at my garmin for quite a while, wanting to get myself tuned into how I felt again, rather than relying on it wholeheartedly. I wanted to get myself into an easy cruise where I was working comfortably and within myself. After a couple of miles I looked up properly for the first time as the field thinned out a bit to see one of the flag pacers just ahead and I realised he was the 1.30hrs pacer. Doh, too fast and a check of my watch showed I was running 6.50 miles. What to do? I felt really comfortable so I thought I might as well go with it and see what happens. I was overtaking quite a few fast starters and some of the people around me were working much harder than I so I presumed their wheels were going to fall off long before mine.

At halfway I was feeling it a bit and I had a mile of 7.07 as I climbed the largest hill and over the next couple of miles I began to reel in the 1.30 pacer and caught him at 9 miles. We had a quick chat, (apparently the side winds were proving tricky) before pressing on. My 'comfortably easy' pace was now becoming a 'comfortable hard' one as I got into a small group that began to push on. My 11th mile was the fastest of the race (6.11) as I broke away with another fella as we entered the park for the final coupe of miles. This fast mile took its toll and I could feel myself beginning to tie-up, although still overtaking a couple of people towards the end.

So how did I do? Well much better than I could have hoped for.

The stats are 164th/1703. 1:28:14 (1:27:56 chip time) That worked out as a 2 minute negative split. I am, as the saying goes, like a dog with two tails. I thought I might be looking at 1:31 ish on a good day but to go well under 1hr30 is well beyond what I was expecting and to do it relatively comfortably  is a massive bonus. Two things to work on, however. Hills. I need to build some proper leg strength. As soon as the road kicked up I slowed more than I really should be doing. And two, pure endurance. While I was still running 6.50 miles at the end it was very hard work and I just didn't have the stamina in my legs, so it's really important I get my long runs in and address this. I am delighted, but I still have a very long way to go.