Sue runs…

We went to Paris last weekend to celebrate Colin’s significant birthday. We walked over 20miles and saw nearly all the unmissable sights.
We went to see the Eiffel tower at night as it lights up on the hour for 10mins…… quite stunning.
I dont do well with heights and it made me feel quite ill just looking up at it so we opted for something easier…
We cimbed the Arc de Triomphe.
It has an enclosed spiral staircase and great views from the top during the moments I actually had my eyes open.
I had to hold on to anything/anyone handy at the top to stop me feeling giddy.
I have to confess that I bottled out of the descent and joined the disabled group in the lift on the way down!

Still, one man’s disappointment is another’s triumph and I am all for the latter these days, no matter how small they may seem.
( the triumphs, not the men…..)

I think I will have to miss out on the cliff top runs in the Algarve….
Only nine weeks to go!!!

I awoke suddenly to the crashing sound of breaking glass.
In my confused state, I tried to fathom the possibilities….broken windows, burglars, loss of precious Christmas presents, including my new luminous green running gloves.
(Santa has such a sense of humour!)

I stumbled to the window to see what was going on. There was a man standing on the driveway.
The recycling bin was being returned, having been emptied.
Everyone now knew that the wine had been flowing freely in the Watson household over Christmas.

My new year resolution is for a quieter recycling day next time.

The dust covers were only off for a short while. My latest comeback was going well. Then, one night the psoas spasm struck. This was a horrible pain, rendering me unable to move, let alone get out of bed.
So I have been in rehab once again.

Today saw me throwing the dust covers off again with my first 15min threshold run.

I nailed it with pride!

All I want for Christmas is a chance for injury free training for the next 12 weeks up to the Bath half marathon.

Oh, and if Father Christmas is reading this, a pair of lightweight running gloves please. ( Ronhill small ones would be ideal )
Somehow my gloves have all disappeared into the ether with all those odd socks.
I am left with one blue one and two black ones, but they are all for my left hand!

Merry Christmas everyone and heart felt wishes for a happy and healthy new year.

So the dust covers came off this week and after two weeks of no running, I stood outside, blinking in the sunlight.

I always hope that a rest will leave me refreshed and bouncing back. Well, it does, mentally, but the rest of me is more reluctant.

I begin, a bit like a steam engine trying to get going after being neglected for a while.
A slow recovery run started well, but it wasn’t long before I hit the deck, yet again!
I managed to swear quite fluently as I rolled on the ground briefly to minimise the impact.
The slower I run, the less knee lift I have and the less likely it is that I will stay upright.

I am booked in for gait analysis next week……..
.

It was great to catch up with some of you last week and I had a fantastic time in Bristol.

In the week before the race, I considered several strategies for the half marathon.
I could pick any finishing time from many, depending on how optimistic I was.
Or try calculating likely times from my recent 10k.
I could run how I felt, but this could be a bit risky if I felt a bit lazy on the day.

It would be a complete unknown as I hadn’t run a half since Bristol last year and I remember how hard that was and how long it took to recover…
.
There was also the revelation from the physiology testing, that I had not been training at my accurate threshold levels. Some were too hard and most were not hard enough.
The only certainty was that finishing outside 2hrs was not an option.

Having done the “Jedi” run in the treadmill testing, followed by a monitored run, Harvey had warned me that 2hrs was likely. He also suggested running at my high threshold of 153HR to get the best time possible.

So that was the plan. That is what I stuck to for the first 7/8 miles and then I wound it up to a sprint finish.

I came in at 1:58:58. It is my slowest half ever but I produced the best time possible on the day.

Best of all is that I have at last found the runners Holy Grail!!!!!……an accurate threshold level!!

I started my warm up away from the others, watched intently by a very young alsation puppy. He was so fascinated by my dynamic hamstring stretches, he decided to join in! I will be more careful about doing that one in public in future.

I run my races with fairly even effort/paces so I get mown down at the start and then I overtake those beginning to tire later on.
This race was different…..I got to know her breathing and the heavy landing noise of her feet each time she got close. She was always there, just behind me. Once, she briefly overtook me but I kept in front for 9.5k. Finally, I threw everything I had left into the finish to catch her but couldn’t. Her chip time was 1 sec faster than mine!

It turns out that I had been an unwitting pacemaker for a veteran with British, European and World titles. She is 75yrs old. Her age graded performance is 95.64%……………..something to think about!

Last week, I had an exciting session running on a treadmill wearing a face mask and having blood samples taken from my ear lobe.
It was all in a good cause…
I have been struggling to find my threshold levels by the usual measures of HR/effort/pace.
So Nick suggested physiology testing to find out my “running DNA”
I have done this before, but things change.
My blood test results are good.
I have got a new max HR. Having someone watch you run to complete failure makes you hang in there for an extra second or two.
I have a lovely graph showing precise lactate levels/speeds and heart rates for each training zone.
They are, in fact closely packed together, so that explains why I was having so much trouble getting them right.
I have new baseline body composition measurements to work on before a repeat test session in the new year.
So at last , there will be no more guesswork. I will be able to train exactly as Nick wants me to and all I have to do is wait to see the results……….simple!
It would be good to hear how this has helped anyone else…

I set out on my recovery run with a lighter step today.

I am beginning to leave injury behind and look forward to some good running later in the Summer. So I collected my Garmin as I set out, to see if I could get these heart rates nailed. I dont usually bother for a recovery run, but I thought I would just check to make sure I was not working too hard.

So I trotted on, making mental notes about any twinges, paying attention to technique, posture etc. Making plans for a good stretch later.

I was so relaxed that I even managed to congratulate myself on having randomly picked matching kit in the lucky dip from my running kit drawer.

I had time to enjoy the sunshine and see how the greenery had changed since my last run along the canal. I checked the Garmin to see how well I was doing….

I went splat!

I didnt see the large chunk of metal half embedded in the ground.

With the slow motion fall, I remember thinking that at such a slow pace, I should have been able to manage at least four obscenities, but I only managed two………

I skidded to a halt and began a damage assessment….. grazes on both hands, right elbow, knee and hip. At least I saved the face this time!

I avoided the temptation to scream in frustration, anger, humiliation and pain like a small child in the playground.

The penalty for not paying attention to where I was going……………..

I will be spending the weekend trying to remove all the debris and grit…

I am old enough to know better……..

The good news?????  The heart rate was spot on!

Recovery runs this week have given me the chance to slow down and contemplate life as I ran along the canal.

The dogs were out in huge numbers at the weekend.

Big ones, tiny ones, friendly ones and those that looked downright scary.

Do their characters really match their owners? I think some do.

Some dogs jumped into the canal, but the ones to avoid were those getting out, as they sprayed gunky goo and water everywhere.

There were puppies bouncing along, getting into trouble.

The elderly dogs had grey whiskers on their eyebrows, chins and ears and were much slower, walking with a stiff gait and looked well past their prime. ( they looked beyond doing any plyometrics)

It makes me think……….

Probably best not to really……..

I had an early warning sign as my body thermostat packed up on the starting line and I was already in a sweat

I can remember this race from previous years where I have worn a bin bag to protect me from cold rain. I have also run this in tights, gloves and a woolly hat!

By mile 3, runners were walking and dropping out. I dont do well in the heat at the best of times and knew that this was going to be a hard day at the office.

By mile 4, runners were starting to walk at the rate of one every 400m. By then, I had decided that it was possible that I might not finish unless I had a cunning plan.

At one stage I had to remind myself that this was a 10m in British Springtime, not the MDS!

So I decided to treat this as a Sunday run but at threshold, taking time to concentrate on distractions such as technique, breathing, leaning forward a little and bank this run somehow. I tried to ignore the “race” around me.

I actually stopped twice to take on water, even though I was carrying SIS Go as well.

I knew there was a “hill” at 8m so I waited to see how I felt before trying to go flat out. I decided that at that stage, if I had to stop, I could still walk the rest and get home in time for lunch!

So I went for it with the new aim of racing those around me. I overtook 47 runners in the last 2m and was overtaken by none.

I finished at maxHR in fair shape, with a smile on my face and  that was before I got to the Mars bar ( about 10 secs later)

I was so grateful to the little old lady marshall who bent down to remove my chip for me.

If……..I hadnt stopped for water,…If I had gone at 7m I could have won my age group……

or not finished at all. The car thermometer touched 30 deg on the way home.

So on to Bristol in 3 weeks……. by then the weather will be like winter??????