Another long day of running including a Parkrun PB

I've had quite a week of running this week, I did my first night run and I've maintained my runstreak. I decided, as last week to run at Studley Royal and Fountains Abbey. I sat last night and worked out a route similar to the route at Equinox24 then asked if anyone wanted to join me. I had only one taker. I think two things were possibly putting people off, lots of runners don't like laps and the other thing was the planned pace of 10-11 minute mile pace. But anyway Hayley was up for it.
This morning I got up and walked the dog to warm my constant aching muscles and bones then drove to Ripon and parked at the car park at Studley Royal before jogging and doing dynamic stretches to the start of the 76th Parkrun at Fountains Abbey http://www.parkrun.org.uk/fountainsabbey/

That was a mile worth of warm up. There was not much time for socialising as we were called to the start, as usual I went towards the back, Hayley joined me and after a few messages we were off. I didn't have any plans only to run hard, as the laps later would be steady. Its important to mix up the training, and if I want to run fast I run best in company. I got a PB last week of 26:21 but after a hard week of training I was thinking that I would not be quick this week. I set off weaving though the crowds and saying hi to friends as I passed. I am not a parkrun regular because Saturday has been long bike day for so long, but I got a feel that I was doing OK, I pushed myself hard and entered the second lap slowly gaining and overtaking people, as I approached the end I didn't have a sprint finish, I was done in. I stopped my watch, 26:01. Wow! PB, hopefully with 25 on the front as I had not stopped my watch immediately.
Hayley was talking to Dawn and we persuaded her to join us for a lap. she agreed to see how it went. We walked up to the visitor center and then jogged to Studley to my car to get water and fuel, another .87 of a mile.

We set off, up the grass hill to the St Mary's Church, out of the gate, past the visitor center and onto Howe Hill where we turned off across the fields with a great view of the Abbey,



Through the cows, the farm and up through the wood to the stone arch, through to to the deer field, down into Studley and over 5 of the bridges, up to Sam,s Seat, down to the entrance, up the main drive down the car exit road to the car park and to the car. Lap 1 complete, 5.6 miles done. Dawn decided to leave it at that but Hayley was happy to carry on. Hayley and I got more water and I refilled my Tailwind http://www.tailwindnutrition.co.uk/ then we walked/jogged Dawn back to the visitor center and ran our second lap, at the car we refueled and dehydrated and set off on the third lap, Hayley started to be bothered by an old injury and decided to make this her last lap. Good decision listening to her body rather than her head as she really wanted to do the four laps but its not worth risking injury and she had run 20 miles today. At the car she decided to go to the cafe to wait whilst I slogged out the final lap, it was tough but I managed and finally made it back to the car for a well deserved ice cream.
Really glad that Hayley and Dawn chose to accompany me today, they helped me get it done.
The 4 laps totaled 22.36 miles which including fuel stops took 4 hours 42 minutes and 52 seconds. I Checked my phone and had a message from Parkrun, Yey! a PB 25:49, position 97 and 2nd in my age cat.
Total running today
1.01 mile W/U 12:21
3.07 mile Parkrun 25:49
0.87 mile C/D
22.36 mile 4 lap run 4:42:52

Total run miles 27.31 time 5:31:10
Didn't take any pics today so they are all old ones.

Week 7 update, Carrying on regardless

Well what a week, Monday I did my runstreak mile before taking Jed for a Dogjog. I was really buoyed up by the quality of my run the day before at the Muddy Boots 10 km and stopped paying attention to what my sciatic half numb left foot was doing and so the dogjog was going well, until just before we reached home I misjudged a kerb with my dodgy left foot and went sprawling across the pavement, loosing my grip on the lead, fortunately Jed slowed and stopped. I got up quick grabbed the lead and glanced down at my sore knees

That'll be new tights needed then. The trip wax at a busy junction so I waited till I got home before investigating further

Oh great, a flap of skin removed and knees like a 10 year old. I cleaned it up and applied a massive plaster and hid it all with thick tights for work.

After work and a dog walk I changed the plaster for a waterproof one and headed to the pool. I managed 2650 yds in 57.44 minutes. I then went home, grabbed a couple of rice cakes then headed back out, this time to Ripon Cycle Studio for a watt bike session. The session was a warm up, then 4 minutes at 90 cadence then a minute 3-4 gears higher trying to maintain cadence and repeat 10 times. I really struggled with this session. But I tried really hard.

Tuesday means a lie in before walking the dog. I awoke with a dreadful pain in my shoulder which made breathing difficult. After work I jogged to the Rugby club to run with the junior runners. I was ok jogging, but I could not run, I couldn't breathe deep enough, the kids were having to wait for me. One of the youngsters was feeling unwell, I accompanied them back to club at a walk. 

I ran slowly at the back of the adult group, I was fine as long as I didn't try to run hard.

Wednesday, and it was back to an early start with a runstreak mile and a dogjog. I could breathe a bit better but my knee was still bleeding a bit. The runs were uneventful, phew. After work I walked the dog before my swim and watt bike sessions. Whilst on the walk, a dog went for Jed nightmare.

For my swim session I did 100yd sets, I managed 3 sets under 2 minutes, the rest were just over.

I only get a half hour swim session on a Wednesday and go straight to watt bikes. The watt bike session was a long warm up then a 3 minute test. I managed 253 watts, an improvement since last time, not bad on tired legs, I wanted to redo the test another day.

Thursday, almost a rest day a dog walk in the morning and running club training in the evening. The training was 2 x 4 min efforts, then a 400 m effort and then 2 more 4 min efforts and another 400 m effort. It was tough, but good to attempt to run faster than usual.

Friday was again an uneventful runstreak mile and dogjog before work. In the evening was strength and conditioning, in other words a rest day.

Saturday is endurance day. The plan called for a 2 hr 20 min walk at high heartrate followed by a 3 hr 20 min run with a low heartrate. 5 hr 40 min of steady exercise. The weather was nice so I went to Fountains Abbey, so here are the pics

This was a heron in the river on the walk section along the River Ure

I noticed how orange and black the Abbey looked as I did a freedom parkrun.

I love this view, you get it twice on the Fountains Abbey Parkrun

I liked the way the snowdrops and skeletal trees reflected in the River Skell.

There are signs saying no public access to this Fairey Glenn, shame.

I went up to the Banquetting House for the first time.

It was a lovely view from there.

Sunday was endurance ride day, I didn't sleep well with wierd queries going around my head about Equinox24 and how I'd rack my bike with it's Adamo snub nosed seat, and other random stuff. So I got up tired and my legs were tired from the running too. The plan asked for a 4 hr 30 min ride at heartrate 130-140. After walking the dog Billy and I set out seperately. We were both heading for Richmond but my pace would prevent him training effectively, he was going with similar paced friends.

I set off and soon was paced by them, I worked hard to keep them in sight. At Masham they had stopped. Jeff decided to ride with me as Billy and Martin's pace was to much for his training plan.

It was nice to ride with someone for a change, Jeff said he would probably head back at Leyburn. I had to work hard at times to catch up, at other times we rode together. At Leyburn Jeff decided to continue on with me. The route is undulating and hilly with no flats, by Brompton on Swale my tired legs were arguing, I slowed to get some nutrition in me and soon felt a bit better on the long slog up to Richmond. Then it was time to head home more downs now, some quite fast, but there were still a couple of tough hills. We stopped to offer assistance to a couple with a puncture on one of their mountain bikes, but didn't have appropriate equipment. It was now apparent that we had totally over run our planned time, but Jeff had completed his longest toughest ride. 5 hr 35 min was the time it took to complete 66 miles with 3,839 ft of ascent, Jeff did 70 miles because he had to get home.

It was nice to ride with somebody.

When I got home there was still the small matter of runstreak. I struggled around a mile, before cleaning up my mucky bike.

So that's how my week has been, a good training week with a couple of minor incidents.

Week 6 update,

Ok, so here we are, 6 Sundays 39 days into 2015 already and I have managed to run everyday, this is a new record for me, previously I have only managed 34 days in a row.

Monday was swim and bike day, I managed 120 lengths of the 25 yd pool in just over an hour and that was followed by a tough watt bike session.

Tuesday was running club, I ran down to club, ran with the juniors, ran with the adults and ran home.

I saw the physio on Wednesday morning about my sciatica, she thinks it's rooted in my L5/S1 joint at the base of my spine and given me some exercises to strengthen my back, bug I still need to stretch my Piriformis too. She also said to carry on doing what aim doing. I wanted to run the Muddy Boots 10km but wasn't sure until she said that. After work I did 58 lengths of the pool followed by 2 x 20 minute efforts on the watt bike.

Thursday was hill training, what a disaster, I was demoralised at first as my leg refused to co operate and the other runners left me standing, but I pulled myself together and completed the training to the best of my ability.

Friday was rest day, I ran my mile early in the day. In the evening I did half an hour of Pilates

Saturday was a lovely bright day so I got out on the bike for 3 hours, I managed a big hill without irritating my back further.

Saturday evening was the Tri club dinner, what a laugh, it was a brilliant night, eating, drinking and dancing. I had decided not to dance for fear of irritating my back, but I couldn't resist.

Sunday, race day. I was supposed to run for 3 hours and 10 minutes today, but I figured the race would take at least an hour, so I decided to do a 2 hour run afterwards.

Muddy Boots is the first local 10 k that I ever did, it's a great race, undulating multi terrain. This year they have got a new route taking out the bridge in the first half which caused a bottleneck. The new course was more off-road. I planned to just enjoy the run and to walk up the muddy hill. And to gave a gel half way to test it's impact on my stomach.

I set off near the back and ran reasonably comfortably moving though the runners, As I reached the hill, I set off slow running it and soon was passing people, buoyed up I ran it all and noticed some Ripon Runners ahead I started to chase. I had never planned to race it today but just enjoy it. I was racing it and really enjoying it. The course was muddy but not too bad, the sun was shining and it was not too cold. I ran hard and until the last mile, when my back started to niggle, the distance remained constant between me and the other 2 Ripon Runners, but they soon pulled away over that final stage. I had a great race, finishing in 1:01:18 and very happy and the gel had not disagreed with me.

I ate my banana and drank my water as I chatted with friends, then I headed home to drop off my jumper, medal and tea before setting off again.

So about 40 minutes after finishing the race I set out again, this time heading for Fountains Abbey.

It took ages to get going and I didn't feel great, I thought the banana and water would have been enough energy. I ate a dextrose and felt a bit better, but not much, so I had another and was feeling much better, so I had another for good measure and felt back to normal as I ran my regular route to Studley Church. I ran to the visited centre and refilled my bottle before going into the Abbey grounds. It's ages since I have seen so many people visiting, It was sunny and felt warm in the sunshine, it was lovely to see families picnicking and children running and climbing around the ruins. I decided to go up to Ann Bolyn's seat, wow that was a tough hill. It was much quieter so high up and the views between the trees were fabulous.

I ran along taking a few pics before descending through a tunnel back to the water gardens

I then left the Abbey grounds and headed back up to the church

Before running home. 9 miles in 2 hours, and that's today's runstreak well and truly completed.

After getting home I walked the dog to keep everything moving gently.

So there you are, this last week of training.

#Janathon day 17, not gonna let it slip away now

This week my training plan was to do Parkrun to create a benchmark of where my running is at, then again every 6 weeks, do it again to measure progress. The weather had different plans. As forcast last night it rained loads on frozen ground and this morning that froze. The parkrun organisers made the decision to cancel for safety reasons. I thought they would. The dog walk this morning was a bit tricky in places.

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/fountainsabbey/  is great, it's 5km like all the others, but it is in the grounds of a World Heritage site. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/fountains-abbey/ The 2 lap course takes you around the Abbey twice and the beautiful water gardens. Afterwards lots of runners meet at the visitor centre for coffee.  So it is a shame that the weather caused it to be cancelled today. I think I might do it next week. (Weather permitting)

I still had a timed 5 km to do, so this afternoon I set off for Studley Royal, with the intention of running to the church as a warm up, then running home as the timed 5 km.  I set off and everything was going to plan, well for the first mile anyway, as I headed off road onto the public footpath every step was hard, sticky, slippy mud and puddles made going forwards difficult. I stated to formulates new plan, run up to the church as the original plan, then run down the drive to the cattle grid, then back to the church and back down to the cattle grid, that should be about 5 km. 

as I was running up to the church the first time, the cars coming towards me had their lights on and I realised how much the light was fading. The deer were by the road and cars were stopping to look, I had to run around the cars. I got to the gate by the church and waited for my heartrate to drop a bit before running as hard as I could the mile down to the cattle grid before turning and heading back up the deer started crossing and I worried they d stampede but the split whilst I ran past and I heard the rest of them crossing behind me, multiple hooves pattering on the tarmac. 

I pushed hard to the gate before running hard back down, the deer were now all across the road, it was getting dark and I was racing the light. I reached the cattle grid and my watch hadn't buzzed to mark 5 km so I turned and ran 100 m or so up the drive and back, it didn't buzz so I thought it wasn't working and set off over the cattle grids towards home, then it buzzed. I then walked a bit, it was properly dark now, I was glad I had a fantastic head torch, in a drawer at home, but because there was little or no light pollution my night vision was quite good. I set off down the muddy footpath through the fields and was surprised that I was still managing to run at a reasonable pace except where it was really slippery, it was sleeting now, but I was soon back at the road and heading for town and the lights. 

Running in the dark off road works as good training for Equinox24 in September.

I'm really happy to have run my 5km in under 30 minutes, it's the best that I have run since my back went in November. 

17 runs, streaked.