Well, here's an advantage of smartphones and tablets; blogging on the way to work! Much like last Wednesday I decided the minimum run possible to maintain the Juneathon runstreak would be wise and hopped on the trusty (and only slightly rusty!) treadmill for a quick 1 miler before floating round the pool for a bit. I'll be at work until 8 tonight for the college Art Department End of Year Show of student work so an easy one seems certainly justified! I felt really good though so I did 2.5 (ish) miles instead and then jumped on the cross trainer instead! I am now about to devour a banana and pineapple sandwich on the train (Odd? Maybe but yummy anyway!) whilst dreaming of lunch! Check out today's offering from Glittermouse Queen of Salad! Avocado and Butternut! Oh Yeeeah! |
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Seven days already since my first encounter with the Salford Harriers at the track but I didn't make the mistake of turning it into a second helping of speed work like last week! After a gentle jog as a warm up down the canal to the stadium I felt a bit more confident this week, though we had a different session (still speed intervals) so it took a friend to explain it a bit more before I cold dive in. We did five reps of a fast half lap (200 meters) followed by a 200m jog and then a fast 400m, while the more advanced group did the same but faster and with a lap and a half (600m) instead of our shorter version. If felt comfortably challenging if that makes sense; I had to push myself but I felt strong enough and though running in to the wind round half the track was tiring, as was trying to go as fast as I could whilst maintaining the pace wasn't exactly easy, it wasn't exactly supposed to be and I didn't feel like I was dying either! I was pleased that whilst I was still aware of Sunday's bruises it didn't appear to have a huge impact on my performance and my legs certainly felt a whole lot fresher than last week! I was able to jog home without too much trouble, though I felt a little stiffer for having stopped at the end for a chat. So far so good though and I seem to have got away with out aggravating the old IT band. I even risked a bit of a foam roll when I got in; I'd been a bit reluctant to use it on a bruised area but it seemed OK. Of course I put this speedy recovery down in part to fuelling right and I've turned into a bit of a salad addict since the weather has been warmer. Ah no, I'm not talking 'salad' involving half a dozen limp, yellow leaves being chased round the plate by a wrinkly cherry tomato, I'm talking 'SALAD!', the kind that puts hairs on your chest and is basically just a cooked meal gone cold. I'm pretty sure this evening's energy burst was thanks to a healthy serving of this little carbo-protein power packet for lunch! Enough of that though... Dinners gone down in to my apparently hollow legs now and I think I may just have time for pudding number two before bed! Having spent much of the day waddling about like a timid penguin, not so much for actual pain as for fear of discovering some (I respect my iliotibial band and have no desire to aggravate it!) I eventually headed out, coaxed by the sun and the desire to put the bruising to the test. I actually went in to the gym first and did a cautious twenty minutes on the cross trainer before establishing that I actually felt OK and so it was with great relief that I enjoyed a short (4 and a bit mile), conservatively paced run along part of my favourite canal route, from city centre, down to the Manchester United football stadium. I t was a glorious evening, with so many wild flowers in bloom that I (almost) totally forgot a slight dull pain in my left leg and was just filled with a sense of gratitude for living in a place with such ease of access to this beautiful route. Of course the sun always helps you feel better but I also put my speedy recovery down at least partially to my own Special Brew of home made essential oil blend and a keen awareness to the benefits of self massage (I always knew that qualifying as an aromatherapist would come in handy eventually!). If you're interested, try 2 drops of oregano oil in 50ml of carrier (such as sweet almond or grape seed oil). It's a wonderfully warming oil and contains a high percentage of phenols, which are believed to have antiinflammatory properties. It also makes you smell like pizza, which can never be bad. If, on the other hand, you prefer something less, erm, savoury, bung 3 drops of lavender in with it; that's a generic 'feel good' oil that you can't really go wrong with. Please be careful with oregano essential oil by the way and check the contraindications; it's a bit potent and I don't take responsibility for any adverse reactions! Aside from that little detour into a fragrant world, the only other real running related news for today is that I spotted myself on the Salford Harriers weekly results for the ParkRun! I have a feeling that what was once just something to do on a Saturday morning is about to get a whole lot more competitive. Uh-oh! Today was a lesson in many things, not least of which is probably 'check details of events that aren't entirely clear to you before turning up'. Well, I say that, but actually, the unexpected can be quite enjoyable and the events of today were no exception! I'd seen a leaflet for a series of races titled 'Twin Peak' taking place in Manchester this weekend, and while I could not attend the 'two-part sprint' on Saturday as I was working, I decided the 'City of Manchester Race' on Sunday, described as "A full length Urban event in central Manchester" sounded quite interesting. As the Women's open course was advertised as only 7.5km, I thought given that Sunday is my 'long run' day, I'd be then carrying on, perhaps down to Salford Quays, to turn it in to an acceptable length. However, I realised all was not as I had imagined fairly quickly when I turned up to register. The races I have participated in before have all had one, specific and clearly marked route that everyone follows. I had gathered that there were multiple courses, and hazarded a guess that there would be some map reading involved but I was quite surprised to discover that this 'Urban Orienteering' race was actually more what I would describe as a treasure hunt... a virtual one at least as there was of course no treasure! One of the organisers, a kind lady who I was sorry not to have had the chance to catch up with at the end, insisted in a very friendly way that I should sign up for the shortest course first as I had no experience of orienteering. As this course was only 2km, I felt a little reluctant, however she promised that if I got on well with it, I could come back and do the full 7.5km course for free. That seemed pretty fair to me, so I was equipped with a 'dibber', a small plastic tag, strapped to your finger and used to register your arrival at a series of markers, each identified with an orange 'kite' and a little digital box that flashes and bleeps as it 'checks' your dibber. You are also given a list of the order of the check points as appropriate to your course and a map. The map is only supplied to you after you have started the race and contains an ordnance survey style graphic, indicating the start and finish and the order (not geographically sequential!) in which you should visit each point. There are no road names or building numbers, indeed any other written information and so I was extremely glad indeed that I was relatively familiar with the area! In all honesty I felt very out of my depth, but always up for a challenge, off I went. I got the hang of the idea pretty quickly and once I'd set aside the expectation of what my 'long run' would involve, I started to quite enjoy the challenge of working out where the next point was. Unfortunately, disaster almost struck at only the third check point when I managed to slip on some strange algae type growth on the canal-side paving stones and landed heavily on my side, cracking my head with a quite sickening whack directly on the concrete! I must really be a runner though, I was far more concerned to carry out a damage report on my legs than on my head. Not too scraped but pretty bruised. Once I'd established that I was not apparently concussed, I carried on quite well but the constant stopping and starting to read the map and check in at the points meant I couldn't get into a steady rhythm of running at all and my bruised thigh and hip reminded me that it wasn't happy every time I set off again. Not deterred and feeling like the 2km was a little less than challenging, despite my minor injury, I returned to 'base' to claim my promised 'free' run on the full length course. It's worth noting at this point that the distance refers to a straight line between the points and not only is it impossible to follow this route, you are entirely at liberty to follow any route you like, the only restriction being to visit the points in the order as specified on your map. As there are multiple courses, some of the check points are shared, so working out if you are at the right one or not is really quite important. The second run was going well up until check point (you guessed it!) number thirteen, which I just could not find. After running round in circles (literally) for at least half an hour, I finally decided, though this would mean I hadn't officially finished, that I was going to have to move on or risk never finishing, even unofficially! There was a check point where I felt I should find it but it was labelled '158' instead of the '153' I was looking for. Eventually hoping I was misreading the 3 for an 8 or vice versa, I dibbed it anyway and ran on to find my fourteenth point. Despite this frustration, I managed to get round all the others, darting about left, right and city centre, realising just how biased my perception of the place I live in is towards my personal routine routes. It was fascinating to get home and upload the route as tracked by the Garmin (See above). The poor thing must've wondered what on earth I was doing and I'm surprised the auto pause didn't give up on me completely!
I have to admit though, it was genuinely physically challenging in different ways and I was way too knackered to try and run again in the afternoon (as well as deciding to try and rest my poor bruised leggie), so the event turned into my 'long' run after all.
Still, finishing week two, and the mid point of Juneathon on a totally new experience of what a run could be can't be a bad thing! I just hope I can walk tomorrow; I'm anticipating an excitingly purple glute in the morning! It was an auspicious day to attend my third South Manchester Parkrun at Platt Fields this morning, after the news yesterday that the Queen's Birthday Honours list included a CBE for Paul Sinton-Hewitt, Founder of the Parkrun scheme. It was also much better weather than last week so far more enjoyable from what I've heard! After a fairly gentle warm up by jogging in from Manchester city centre (about 2.5 miles I think) in around 20 minutes, I felt ready to take it a little stronger and felt good for the whole course. A similar cool down jog back to the Midland (my gym is in the basement) for a leisurely swim and before I knew it the morning was done and it was time to head off to work! My primary motivation to attend Parkrun comes from the community spirit; the genuinely inclusive and infectious buzz that you get when you arrive on site. I know though that many, especially club runners, do set out to race and achieve personal best times. Though today wasn't technically a PB for me as it wasn't my fastest 5k, the Parkrun data base doesn't know that, so it was quite nice to recieve my results by email later in the day telling me that I had achieved one. You could look at it as a personal best for that course I suppose, so still something! according to the results email I "finished in 51st place and were the 4th female out of a field of 335 parkrunners and you came 1st in your age category." OK... for day 14 of Juneathon, I'll settle for that! Today's training was all about the Friday hill reps! I did these on the treadmill as I find it more convenient for controlling the speed and gradient. My training plan was for 6 reps and I decided to do these at an extra 1% of what I had worked on last week, so upping it to 6%, but after the first 3 at 8 mph, it just felt too easy so I did another 4 at 7% and 8.5 mph. I felt pretty strong too so my 15 minute cool-down turned into a slightly more extended thing but hey, after spending all day shut up in a stuffy drawing studio, I was enjoying the sensation of movement and I didn't feel like stopping! I then managed to tack on some core/conditioning work as I'd missed that out yesterday because of going to the club house. It's much easier to do that stuff at the gym as I have more space and access to the equipment! Nothing to report aside from that... Oh and that the applications to the 2015 London Marathon for those with a Good for Age time (sub 3.45 for me...) opened today! I completed the Greater Manchester Marathon this April in a time of 3:31:14 (race results here) which was well within my qualifying target and I've been waiting to apply since the public ballot closed back in April so it was pretty exciting to get mine in. I should hear back within 15 working days. Fingers crossed! Let's hope Friday the 13th will be kind! This evening I joined my new friends at Salford Harriers for a very sunny run from their club house behind the Blue Bell hotel in Moston. Upon arriving, I was surprised by just how busy it was, it certainly seems to be a popular club. I suspect the good weather aided the good turnout too! It was also nice, if a little worrying, to be recognised by one chap who was at the Littleborough 5k last week, though I suppose it's not that odd really, it was a fairly small, local race! As it was my first visit, I took a conservative approach and didn't leap to join the group doing ten miles in an hour (!) and instead set off with a more gentle gaggle, though even this split into different paced chunks. Thankfully, I was able to keep pace with one of the people who actually knew where they were going, which is just as well as I had no idea whatsoever where I was and had left, amongst other things, my mobile and house keys in my friend's car! Getting split from the group would have been... eventful. It was interesting to get back and check out where I'd actually been, though I have to say with no real knowledge of the area I'm not much the wiser! All in all, a good if gentle run and great to meet a few new faces and start to get to know people. Looking forward to the track again next Tuesday! Hill reps tomorrow! Ah, and in case you were at all curious as to what I did eventually end up doing with my unusually free evening last night, it will probably not come as too much of a shock to hear it involved FOOOOD!! I invented a new recipe! Shepless Pie; kind of like a Shepherds Pie, but a vegan version and with a Mediterranean flavour! Check it out here for the details! Whilst I’m certainly not one to shy away from pushing my luck (in my experience progress rarely hounds non-risk takers), this doesn’t mean I’m willing to give it a drop kick off a cliff either and so when I woke up this morning feeling surprisingly supple, bright and breezy I did not take it as a green light to try and pull another 7 mile speed session before work.
A little ten minute tread-mile seemed to be the minimum I could get away with in order not to break my Juneathon Runstreak but I then hopped on the stationery bike and gently trundled away for a bit whilst listening to the final chapter of an audio book I received as a free download as part of the Run2Work promotion. I selected Rich Roll’s book Finding Ultra: Rejecting Middle Age, Becoming One of the World's Fittest Men, and Discovering Myself. Thankfully the book’s not as long as the title. OK that’s not quite true. I picked it because whilst it wasn’t something I’d have bought as it focuses on triathlons more than just running, of course I knew I’d find the running element interesting and as he is proud and loud in following a vegan diet I thought I might pick up a few tips (though I am primarily an unashamed fan-girl of Scott Jurek in this area!) Whilst I wouldn’t necessarily recommend everyone rush out and buy it immediately, it has been an interesting listen. He spends a lot of the book discussing how he sank into and then overcame various personal difficulties before his athletic, plant-based renaissance so if you like biographies in general then you may well enjoy it. There are moments when it pushes his own range of products a little too much for my liking and I’m not sure the appendices of nutritional values really make for the most enjoyable audio book experience but I did pick up some interesting tips and pointers for ensuring my own plant based diet is adequately fuelling the demands of my training. So, with an easy day well earned and even my blog post out of the way in a quick lunchtime update, do you know what I am going to do this evening of Juneathon the 11th? No, me neither, and for a bit of a change, that’s A-OK with me for once!
Upon emerging victoriously from the basement (my gym is in a basement, it's great as you don't feel like you're in a fish bowl like I imagine I would in some of them I have walked past), I received a text from a new(ish) running friend confirming that she was indeed going to attend a track session tonight with the club of which she is a member; Salford Harriers and that she'd see me at 6.30. Ah. Had I known that I was going to a track session as a keen new potential club member I might not have hammered it quite so hard on my speed sessions. Oh well. After a gentle jog (very gentle; I had heavy legs by the time I got out of work!) down to the Etihad Stadium and the Athletics Centre on site where the club meet, I was welcomed warmly to the group, which split into a few groups of different level runners. I joined the slowest track group and participated in a session in which we did 10 laps of the track, with a short recovery walk in between. Though I didn't feel I was performing at my strongest I really enjoyed it and was very pleased that I was able to join in at all, having started the day with such a hard session. I was pretty excited to hand in my application form and membership subscription there and then too and hope to receive my UKA number soon! I even got a new higher VO2 max reading from the session, it must be improving my performance already! Funnily enough, I didn't feel too lazy for accepting a lift back into town tonight, and by the time I got to it, dinner didn't touch the sides! Blimey, such an eventful day, I hope I'm not totally dead tomorrow. Guess who's wearing knee-high compression socks to bed tonight despite the humidity! You're only as good as the workout you recover from after all!
Just an easy 40 minutes today, indoors as I didn't trust the weather. I also completed some strength/conditioning exercises (I'll refrain from boring you with the details as much as I bored myself doing them) and even subjected myself to 20 minutes on the rowing machine because I know it's good for core work. Not so good for the head though. YAAAWN! It's been great that I can use the new Garmin on the treadmill as it saves me having to try and remember distances and speeds and means I can compare indoor and outdoor workouts. It's no surprise I guess that there's a discrepancy between the data recorded by the watch and the treadmill readout though... The treadmill thought I ran further, faster, which would be great but I'm trusting the Garmin; it's measuring so much more and using a lot more data to make those judgements. I've also been told that some of the kit in the gym is over twenty years old so I'm not sure it's terribly reliable! Today's dessert has been mostly brought to you (Oh, no, sorry, mostly brought to ME given that you were not here and I ATE IT ALL MYSELF!) by a variation on a theme of Notcheese Cake. In this instance, the specimen concerned was of the genus Blueberry and Rhubarb, otherwise known as Bluebarb. Nom. The final challenge of the day; Operation Early Night. I need to start trying to get more than 5 hours sleep, though the earlier I go to bed, the earlier I wake up so that doesn't always work. Still, shutting down the digital devices and getting in bed with a book can't hurt, even if I don't go to sleep straight away! Night night! |
Glittermouse is a visual artist, educator and practising Buddhist who also likes a bit of a run from time to time. In 2014, she realised others could benefit quite a lot from her reflections on running trials, tribulations, triumphs and trip-ups… so she added another volume to her package of blogging adventures.
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