#Janathon day 13, all 4 - 1 and 1- 4 all

No! Not a musket in sight . All 4 runs in 1 run tonight.

Tuesday means lie-in, no need to get up and run a mile before breakfast as it's running club day.  No need to dog jog, just a nice (chilly) walk with Jed, then walking to and from work and another walk with Jed. Ah! Nice  and sedate, until 5pm.

I jogged the half a mile to the Rugby club to warm my legs and heart up a bit. Glad I did, it was really cold, breezy and sleety. Very wintery. Next was the fartlek session with the junior runners, I was soon warm chasing them round the streets. I couldn't manage the fartlek, my sciatic bum didn't agree with the changes of pace, so I just ran steady. I had a good cooldown and stretch with the youngsters. Nearly another 3 miles complete.

Next was the adult run, I ran with my usual group and decided I would take it how it comes. The group was large, 24 and soon spread out along the street, I was near the front for the first 3 regroups, but soon worked my way to the back. There were a few snow flurries at one point.  At each regroup I thought, "I'm not too far behind I'll carry on' I did the whole route today. At the end I really was at the back after getting stuck at the traffic lights but Andy stuck with me. I feel better after completing the session, I was tested than last week and although I had a few aches and the sciatica was like an electrical storm in my buttock, it was still better than last week's 4.2 miles. 6.7 more miles completed, who whoo! I stretched off and had a chat before a slow jog the half mile home and more stretching.

On the way home the skies were bright and starry and the pavements were glinting with frost. 

Runstreak day 13 is well and truly completed 4.5 miles walked and 10.68 miles run. 

#Janathon day 12, It's just another manic Monday

Thanks to The Bangles for today's title, I'm sure I've used it before, I've certainly thought it many a Monday.
so here I am at the end of a manic day, eating my tea at nine o'clock at night whist I write this.
I started the day with a mile to keep my runstreak going and was shocked that the wind had got up and it was raining too, iI felt battered when I got in for my breakfast. I ate my banana anfd yogurt and drank my coiffee before taking Jed out, I decided to jog with him since I had my phys kit on and maybe I wouldnt be out in that yucky weather so long.
Jed had other ideas, he didnt care if the weather was rotton, he wanted to stop and sniff all the time. We got home, I dried and fed him, then made the packed lunches before a bath and walk to work.
I was at work till five pm tonight at a meeting. this meant I couldnt be in the pool at five for an hours swim with a lane in. I thought I'd probably give swimming a miss today. I walked home and took Jed for his walk I thought that maybe I would swim, I only needed half an hour for a warm up then two lots of eighteen lengths, and if i took my cycling kit i could go straight from the baths to watt biking, as I do on a Wednesday.

So I went to the pool, I was quite quiet really, I felt a bit self conscious as I dirupped the breast strokers with my front crawl. I wove between them for an 8 length warm up, waited a minute then set off on my first set of eighteen lengths of constant sighting and weaving. them done, i faffed aroung in the shallows waiting for five minutes to pass then set off again. i dont know where i lost count but I ended up doing twenty lengths instead, but at a similar pace as the first eighteen. That'l do.
Then was time to get dry and fight into my sports bra with a damp body, nightmare. Finally dressed in my bike kit I walked to Ripon Cycling Studio where after a warm up I did 3 lots of nine minutes with a recovery of two and a half minutes keeping the watts at over 184. It was tough but I managed it.
Phew it was now nearly eight pm and time to walk home, stretch, upload the data and have a bath, eat tea and blog.

Now that is why Monday was manic for me today

#Janathon day 11. Watching MAMILs

No! Not those mammals

Or those

These MAMILs

After going out and battling the weather for hours yesterday, I was relieved on my one mile run that the wind had died down, but there were still strong gusts. So Billy and I did our bike training indoors. He found a video workout on You Tube. http://youtu.be/M45BSE6Qz3E . Billy used the rollers and I used the turbo, I'm not stable enough for the rollers, I fall off a lot. Billy is very good on them.

The session was one and a half hours of mixed efforts, all quite short with differing recovery periods.

I found it a tough session and as workouts go, it was probably the equivalent of the  three hour fifteen minutes steady ride that was on the plan, except I would have been out on my own not watching a peloton of MAMILs for an hour and a half.

Does that make me a MAWIL?

This afternoon I was supposed to go with friends to see another friend's dance show at the Sunderland Empire, unfortunately it has had to be cancelled due to structural damage to the building caused by the high winds. What a shame, for the building, the dancers , who have been practicing for months and for us who were looking forwards to it. 

In Sunderland, a statue on the roof of the Empire theatre toppled over and was left on its side hanging from its base 90ft (27m) from the ground.

The theatre has had to cancel performances while the statue remains insecure and surrounding streets are cordoned off.

#Janathon day 10 bright and breezy

Saturday should be a day for lay ins and after listening to the wind howling and whistling around the roof all night, a lay in is what I had, I didn't get up till 7 am then felt lazy for it. After a banana and a yogurt for brekkie, Billy and I set out to walk the dog. The wind was dreadful, it would stop us in our tracks as we turned corners. The training program is for 1 hour 20 minutes walking getting my heart rate up before a 2 hour 20 minute run keeping my heart rate down. So we decided to walk by the river. At Rustic Bridge there was a tree down and there were loads of branches all over and the rivers Laver and Skell were racing. We saw a couple of herons by the river bug not many other people or dogs.

Further along the Skell the water was really high, almost up to the path level by the confluence with the Ure. As we walked along the Ure, back towards home, we were really surprised at how high it wasand we had to climb on a wall under the bridge to be able to leave the field without having to go back the way we had come. 

The wind was not letting up, but when we got home and fed Jed, we set off for our run's, Billy went with Martin and I went on my own as I am much slower than them. I took a small water bottle and some dextrose with me. I went up to Studley to the deer park, 

Photo from a run in the summer

I seemed to be fighting the windy he whole way, I spent the nect hour and a half fighting the wind and slipping on the mud, at one point I suddenly found myself sat on my bum as I ran down a grassy slope with the wind pushing me along for a change.

By the time I set off home I was  tiring and my sciatica was niggling. I managed 10.32 miles in the 2 hr 20 min time scale, and continued on home. I actually ran 11.59 miles, I think if it hadn't been so windy I would have completed the whole run in the timescale. 

I am happy with today's run though it's the furthest I've run in weeks and I did both sessions running practically on empty, and there were 1700+ calories burned out running on this bright and breezy Saturday morning.

#Janathon day 9 rest day

So today is rest day, now, how to incorporate rest day with Janathon and run streaking. 

A gentle mile, well that was the plan but it's blowing a gale and it was hard work for half of the run and felt like someone had their hand in my back pushing the other half. I then jogged the dog walk.

So that's it, Janathon and runstreak covered by 7 am. That means it will probably be 24 hours beforI run again, therefore it is a rest day.

This afternoon I went for a half hour sports massage on my sciatic buttock and leg. These massages are doing loads of good so far, they complement the stretching and roller ing that I have been doing.

Still waiting for my "urgent" physio appointment. But in the meantime between Libby and I the worst of it is over (I hope)

#Janathon day 8 training day

Tonight was training at running club. Never know what it will be, and I like it like that. I jogged to club to warm up a bit. For the training session we ran about 3/4 mile steady then did some ploy metric stuff on the street corner, then it was a long effort, followed by a longer 10 min effort, then it was speed work. Blooming hard work and towards the end my sciatica was making itself known. So after stretching with the group I jogged home and stretched again. Very pleased with 5.62 miles. 

#Janathon day 7 Workout Wednesday

Early rise for my runstreak day 7 effort. Just a mile, but it was done by 6 am. I did this route on day 2 and today I was 15 seconds quicker, yey!

The thing with training for endurance sports is finding time and trying to get a lwork/training/family/life balence. I have developed a routine which means that most days I am up early and then busy solidly after work, no rest for the wicked. It's not easy but it will all be worth it when Ironman UK and Equinox 24 come round.

So today went something like this:

Get up, run, eat breakfast, walk dog, get cleaned up, make packed lunch. Walk to work, work, got a lift home today, eat tea, go for a swim, go to watt bikes, come home, clean up, log and blog, go to bed. See, no time for mischief at all.

#Janathon day 6 back in the pack

Tuesday is Running club day, so I didn't run this morning as I was running tonight, don't want to overdo my running yet. So dog walk and walk to work was my morning exercise today. 

After walking home from work and getting changed I walked to the rugby club where Ripon Runners meet, minis aged 7-10 who stay on the field and Juniors aged 11- 16 who run around the town and countryside most weeks but occasionally do a field training session all at 17:15 on a Tuesday evening and Adults who meet at 18:30 on Tuesday and Thursday.

Firstly being a coaching assistant for the juniors, tonight I assisted withthe session was on the field, a pyramid session. The kids were soon warmed up and running well, no sign of Christmas excesses hindering them. They're like little rockets and they love it, they're not as keen on technique sessions they just want to run so a pyramid session is good, they run and we as coaches critique and advise. 

After that it was time for the adult session, I decided to run with my usual group. Aware that my pace is gone and that I have not run much lately, I decided that I would just do a couple of regroups then cut off. 

There were lots of runners tonight, quite a few newbies, once they were put in relevant groups to their ability, my group set of, the pace was quick and I soon was at the back of the group, by about 3 mikes and stop 3 I'd had enough, my leg was grumbling, time to call it a day.

I found running with the pack tough, but I'm glad I did it, 4.2 miles run with a mini regroup for head count and 3 proper regroups. I am recovering at last. 

#Janathon day 5 back to work, back to routine

The hardest part of Janathon, I always find, is the blogging. And here I am at 21:30 blogging.

I jogged, I did that at 6:00 this morning before walking the dog, and then the Monday routine kicked in.

Walk to work, work, walk home, ( tonight I entered the Yorkshire Marathon when I got home, I was so surprised and pleased to get in, as it sold out very quickly last year and it had opened at 9:00 am this morning but I couldn't even try to enter till I got home at 16:00),  walk the dog. Go to the pool for a swim, come home get changed and then go for a Watt bike session.

A Watt? I here you ask.

Watt bikes are stationary bikes, you can set them up to match your own bike and the sessions are designed to work on your cycling techniques. 

We are very lucky to have a watt bike studio in Ripon and I like to go twice a week, it's a good workout, far tougher than out on the road but I can feel my road cycling improving.

Tonight we did a warm up then 3 x 10 min efforts with 3 min active recoveryand a cool down.

It was a tough session.

#Janathon day 4 a nice day for a ride

Janathon day 4 started with runstreak day 4, a little bit further today, and a little bit quicker, pleased with that. Still a long way from where I was but steadily getting there and resisting the urge to overdo it. I am so pleased to be running again.

After walking the dog it was cycle time. Time to wrap up like a Mitchelin man, brrr it was chilly, about 2 degrees, but it was lovely and sunny.

Targets were 3 hours cycling at between 130 and 140 Heartrate

I decided to head off on my usual Masham route and depending on the state of the roads decide where from there. The roads were not too bad but there were some icy bits in the shade and around puddles and potholes, but mainly ok so I decided to go up to Leyburn. I like this route, it has fantastic scenery and the hills are not too bad. I am avoiding big hills until my back is totally healed as hill climbing started the whole back situation off in the first place. 

At Leyburn I was a little behind my target of 1 and a half hours for  being around half way, but that was the main climbing out of the way. The route home was much kinder, except the traffic lights between Leyburn and Contsable Burton, I never get through them, it's like someone is operating them ans as I get about 10 feet from them they go red. The same happened today.

The views up here go on for miles.

My average pace slowly increased but not enough, the total ride came in at a pace that would be 9 hours 25 min for 112 miles, but there are 196 day until Ironman Uk to improve. 

The whole journey was 46.7 miles average pace 12.5 mph, average cadence 58, average heartrate 126. And overall time 3 hours 43 min 40 sec. With an elevation gain of 1893 ft. 

Targets not met today but it was a good ride.