I haven't posted on here since I did the Great North Run, which is coming up to a year ago now. Since then, for various reasons, my exercise levels have diminished pretty quickly. Firstly I end up being too tired to head to the gym due to the drive home from work, which leads me to cancel my gym membership, when ends up meaning I end up doing very little.............but surprisingly, I haven't put on that much weight, so I don't feel that guilty. Plus I save £50 a month - bonus!
And then I get an e-mail from the good people at Bupa, telling me about their brand new event - the Great Birmingham Run (a re-christened version of the Birmingham Half Marathon). I get tempted to enter...........after all, I have done a half marathon the past two years in a row..............but my knees are knackered. Better to be sensible and not do the run.
And then I see a friend's Twitter feed..........and his speed and distance has improved to better than I've ever managed.......and I'm jealous of his amazing achievements already........so I get tempted to start running again.........the big question is should I do it again?!
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
Monday, 20 September 2010
The big day....
After weeks of training, and a few blog posts, the weekend of the Great North Run finally arrived. Well, saying finally is a little misleading - the weekend seemed to come around fairly quickly in a way. The fortnight leading up to the run flew by, and the panic set in.
On the Saturday afternoon, the road trip began. First stop was Cannock, where I met up with Kate and Ian, who I was travelling up with. Thankfully, Ian volunteered to drive the rest of the mammoth distance, so I could have a bit of a rest. Next stop was Manchester to pick up Les, who I practically emotionally blackmailed in to doing the run as well!!! On reaching Middlesbrough, we checked into the Best Western hotel, which was located next to a building site. Which had a lot of scally kids on it.
Things had been planned out quite well - I'd looked up an Italian restaurant near the hotel and booked it for the Saturday evening for pre-run carb loading. We headed down to the restaurant, and then all ended up having pizza instead of the intended pasta. Still the food was good, and the drinks and chat after were the perfect build up to the the big day.
After an average night's sleep (not because of the hotel - it was pretty comfortable - the problem was nerves), we had an early start, with breakfast at 6am. As part of the hotel deal, we had transfers to and from the race site. Despite the awful directions provided to the meeting point by the travel company, we found the coaches in time for the departure at 6.45am. The weather at this point wasn't great - it was raining constantly. The journey to Gateshead was hassle free, and we arrived at the race site to more rain with almost 3 hours to spare. Most of this time was spent trying to keep warm (courtesy bin bags) and find shelter from the rain, which we got in various places, including by the university, and at the nearest metro station.
We slowly made our way to the baggage buses to dump our bags, and then made our way to the start line. We did think we were going early, but the sheer volume of people and buses meant that this took a while. To put things into perspective, there were four or five colour zones, and I put my bag on bus no. 22. There were 54,000 people doing the run, and the start line was 1km long.
After the warm up (which was nearly impossible to do because of the amount of people), the run began. I was in the green zone, fairly close to the back (and rightfully so!). It would have been a little more pleasant if we weren't drenched from head to toe, but it couldn't be helped. It took me half an hour to cross the start point, and the first few miles went fairly well. The atmosphere was electric, and despite the rain, the roads were lined with spectators, which made it easier to keep going.
Around the 6 mile mark, the weather started to clear up, and the sun actually came out. It was pretty strong, but didn't stay for long. I had other problems though - both my knees gave up on me. The right knee has been problematic for a while, and I've been receiving physio on it. However, over the past 2-3 weeks, the left knee has become quite painful during training. The same pains returned at this point in the run. I tried to carry on, but the pain was almost unbearable. From this point on, each mile ended up being a mixture of walking as quickly as possible, and running as far as I could. Needless to say each mile got longer and harder.
After 10 miles, things became very hard. I didn't feel as though I had any energy left, and when I was trying to run, I noticed that I was literally dragging my feel along the floor. Again, as hard as I tried, I couldn't go much faster. The 11th mile was all uphill, and by this point a lot of people were walking. We also had to move out of the way a few times for ambulances that needed to pass - some people were more unfortunate than me and ended up being severely injured. Just before we got to the 12th mile, there was a very steep downhill section - unfortunately, because of my knee problems, I couldn't even run down here. However, on reaching the 12 mile mark, there was a straight stretch to the finish, and I did force myself to run this (albeit very slowly). During the last mile, the heavens opened, and the rain started to hammer down, making it harder. For the last kilometre, markers were placed every 200m, and after 12-and-a-bit miles, every 200m seems much, much longer. I finally crossed the finish line, with my time being a not so great 2 hours 46 mins. But the main thing for me was to cross the finish line, which I did.
After completing the run, I headed over to the Macmillan tent for a chocolate bar, drink and a chat - seeing the Macmillan supporters along the roads cheering me and the other runners on really made a big difference, and gave a big push to carry on. Following this, I met the others (who finished way before me!!!) for a chat and catch up.
We then began our trek back home. After another mile long walk to the coaches, we were transported back to Middlesbrough, after which Ian very kindly drove us back home (via a service station where we had a well deserved Burger King for lunch/dinner!!). All in all, it was an amazing experience - I may even do it again......
On the Saturday afternoon, the road trip began. First stop was Cannock, where I met up with Kate and Ian, who I was travelling up with. Thankfully, Ian volunteered to drive the rest of the mammoth distance, so I could have a bit of a rest. Next stop was Manchester to pick up Les, who I practically emotionally blackmailed in to doing the run as well!!! On reaching Middlesbrough, we checked into the Best Western hotel, which was located next to a building site. Which had a lot of scally kids on it.
Things had been planned out quite well - I'd looked up an Italian restaurant near the hotel and booked it for the Saturday evening for pre-run carb loading. We headed down to the restaurant, and then all ended up having pizza instead of the intended pasta. Still the food was good, and the drinks and chat after were the perfect build up to the the big day.
After an average night's sleep (not because of the hotel - it was pretty comfortable - the problem was nerves), we had an early start, with breakfast at 6am. As part of the hotel deal, we had transfers to and from the race site. Despite the awful directions provided to the meeting point by the travel company, we found the coaches in time for the departure at 6.45am. The weather at this point wasn't great - it was raining constantly. The journey to Gateshead was hassle free, and we arrived at the race site to more rain with almost 3 hours to spare. Most of this time was spent trying to keep warm (courtesy bin bags) and find shelter from the rain, which we got in various places, including by the university, and at the nearest metro station.
We slowly made our way to the baggage buses to dump our bags, and then made our way to the start line. We did think we were going early, but the sheer volume of people and buses meant that this took a while. To put things into perspective, there were four or five colour zones, and I put my bag on bus no. 22. There were 54,000 people doing the run, and the start line was 1km long. After the warm up (which was nearly impossible to do because of the amount of people), the run began. I was in the green zone, fairly close to the back (and rightfully so!). It would have been a little more pleasant if we weren't drenched from head to toe, but it couldn't be helped. It took me half an hour to cross the start point, and the first few miles went fairly well. The atmosphere was electric, and despite the rain, the roads were lined with spectators, which made it easier to keep going.
Around the 6 mile mark, the weather started to clear up, and the sun actually came out. It was pretty strong, but didn't stay for long. I had other problems though - both my knees gave up on me. The right knee has been problematic for a while, and I've been receiving physio on it. However, over the past 2-3 weeks, the left knee has become quite painful during training. The same pains returned at this point in the run. I tried to carry on, but the pain was almost unbearable. From this point on, each mile ended up being a mixture of walking as quickly as possible, and running as far as I could. Needless to say each mile got longer and harder.
After 10 miles, things became very hard. I didn't feel as though I had any energy left, and when I was trying to run, I noticed that I was literally dragging my feel along the floor. Again, as hard as I tried, I couldn't go much faster. The 11th mile was all uphill, and by this point a lot of people were walking. We also had to move out of the way a few times for ambulances that needed to pass - some people were more unfortunate than me and ended up being severely injured. Just before we got to the 12th mile, there was a very steep downhill section - unfortunately, because of my knee problems, I couldn't even run down here. However, on reaching the 12 mile mark, there was a straight stretch to the finish, and I did force myself to run this (albeit very slowly). During the last mile, the heavens opened, and the rain started to hammer down, making it harder. For the last kilometre, markers were placed every 200m, and after 12-and-a-bit miles, every 200m seems much, much longer. I finally crossed the finish line, with my time being a not so great 2 hours 46 mins. But the main thing for me was to cross the finish line, which I did.
After completing the run, I headed over to the Macmillan tent for a chocolate bar, drink and a chat - seeing the Macmillan supporters along the roads cheering me and the other runners on really made a big difference, and gave a big push to carry on. Following this, I met the others (who finished way before me!!!) for a chat and catch up.
We then began our trek back home. After another mile long walk to the coaches, we were transported back to Middlesbrough, after which Ian very kindly drove us back home (via a service station where we had a well deserved Burger King for lunch/dinner!!). All in all, it was an amazing experience - I may even do it again......
Sunday, 12 September 2010
Seven days left!
The only reason I've said seven days instead of one week is that it sounds slightly longer.
Training has been pretty much non-existent this week, for two reasons. Firstly, I'm just lazy. Secondly, after my run last week, my left knee was hurting. This worried me a bit, as I've been getting physio on my right knee. I decided to rest my knee for a while until it felt better, but the pain remained until the end of the week. A trip to the doctors has confirmed that I have the same problem with my left knee as I do with my right knee. It's a bit of a setback, as I don't think there is much I can do in a week. I'm just continuing with the training, but not pushing myself too hard.
This morning, I went for a 6 mile run, and the plan is to do another couple of short runs this week. The run this morning was pretty hard work to be honest, I didn't feel as though I had much energy, and to be honest, felt as though I was dragging myself around. The positive (if you can call it that) is that despite my knee problems, my average time wasn't any worse. Although I would have liked to have done a longer run, it's taken me a while to recover from the 10 mile runs, so I thought it best to take it easy so I'm not in pain on the actual day.
There's a mixture of nervousness (read fear) and excitement about the big day - the atmosphere is great (which is expected with 54000 people running), but the prospect of the run followed by a drive back to Birmingham is a little nerve-wracking. Here's hoping for the best!
Training has been pretty much non-existent this week, for two reasons. Firstly, I'm just lazy. Secondly, after my run last week, my left knee was hurting. This worried me a bit, as I've been getting physio on my right knee. I decided to rest my knee for a while until it felt better, but the pain remained until the end of the week. A trip to the doctors has confirmed that I have the same problem with my left knee as I do with my right knee. It's a bit of a setback, as I don't think there is much I can do in a week. I'm just continuing with the training, but not pushing myself too hard.
This morning, I went for a 6 mile run, and the plan is to do another couple of short runs this week. The run this morning was pretty hard work to be honest, I didn't feel as though I had much energy, and to be honest, felt as though I was dragging myself around. The positive (if you can call it that) is that despite my knee problems, my average time wasn't any worse. Although I would have liked to have done a longer run, it's taken me a while to recover from the 10 mile runs, so I thought it best to take it easy so I'm not in pain on the actual day.
There's a mixture of nervousness (read fear) and excitement about the big day - the atmosphere is great (which is expected with 54000 people running), but the prospect of the run followed by a drive back to Birmingham is a little nerve-wracking. Here's hoping for the best!
Sunday, 5 September 2010
2 weeks to go!
With only a couple of weeks to go, I had to go out for another run this morning. In all honesty, it was pretty uneventful!!
I left the house early on a Sunday morning, when most people were still asleep. The first five miles or so actually didn't feel too bad - I felt I was actually running rather than power walking, and I wasn't too tired. The weather was a major contributor to this - the past couple of weeks, it's been pretty sunny, whereas it was cloudy and breezy this morning, so it actually felt ok.
I started to feel it at around the 6 mile mark (the uphill sections didn't help), and the last four miles were pretty hard work - very hard work actually. I have to admit that I walked more than I wanted to, but my legs were completely knackered. I think this may have been because I pushed myself a bit too hard at the start of the run.
After getting home, I was mildly disappointed to find out that my overall time was only 5 secs a mile better than last time. As much as I would like to get a good time for the run, as I've said before, I'll be happy with just completing the run!
I left the house early on a Sunday morning, when most people were still asleep. The first five miles or so actually didn't feel too bad - I felt I was actually running rather than power walking, and I wasn't too tired. The weather was a major contributor to this - the past couple of weeks, it's been pretty sunny, whereas it was cloudy and breezy this morning, so it actually felt ok.
I started to feel it at around the 6 mile mark (the uphill sections didn't help), and the last four miles were pretty hard work - very hard work actually. I have to admit that I walked more than I wanted to, but my legs were completely knackered. I think this may have been because I pushed myself a bit too hard at the start of the run.
After getting home, I was mildly disappointed to find out that my overall time was only 5 secs a mile better than last time. As much as I would like to get a good time for the run, as I've said before, I'll be happy with just completing the run!
Monday, 30 August 2010
I need new knees...........
I was debating on whether to write another update today, cos it's been a pretty uneventful week in some respects. But I promised myself that I'll keep a log of what I've been doing, so here goes.
The 10 mile run last week affected me quite badly. Although I didn't realise at the time, I'd pulled a muscle in my leg which stopped me running for most of the week. So unfortunately, my plan of 3 runs a week went to pot, but that couldn't be helped I guess. I could have gone out for shorter runs, but it would have been a waste of time, I would have practically walked around, so it just wasn't worth it.
The first run came on Saturday. Being up in Liverpool for the weekend gave me the opportunity to meet up with my friend Tim, and go for a 5k run with him. It wasn't a particularly easy run, but we managed to get around in 31 mins, which is a tad faster than my usual time. It was also the first time I'd run with someone, and I can honestly say that I'm not a very good running partner - I could barely speak after around 1 mile!
I forced myself out the house again this morning for another 10 mile run. I did the same route as last week, but the other way around to last week. Overall, apart from feeling tired, there were no major issues. I realised that my legs felt the worst - I didn't actually feel that tired, but felt as though I couldn't move my legs any faster. Whether this is a good thing or not, I don't know. Overall, I managed to beat my time from last week by 1 min and 10 secs - that's an improvement of 7 seconds per mile!!!!!!! Not exactly earth shattering........but as I've always said, the main aim is to get around the course, regardless of how long it takes me. A good time is a bonus.
As I write, my knees are feeling quite sore and tired - anyone know where I can buy some new ones?!
The 10 mile run last week affected me quite badly. Although I didn't realise at the time, I'd pulled a muscle in my leg which stopped me running for most of the week. So unfortunately, my plan of 3 runs a week went to pot, but that couldn't be helped I guess. I could have gone out for shorter runs, but it would have been a waste of time, I would have practically walked around, so it just wasn't worth it.
The first run came on Saturday. Being up in Liverpool for the weekend gave me the opportunity to meet up with my friend Tim, and go for a 5k run with him. It wasn't a particularly easy run, but we managed to get around in 31 mins, which is a tad faster than my usual time. It was also the first time I'd run with someone, and I can honestly say that I'm not a very good running partner - I could barely speak after around 1 mile!
I forced myself out the house again this morning for another 10 mile run. I did the same route as last week, but the other way around to last week. Overall, apart from feeling tired, there were no major issues. I realised that my legs felt the worst - I didn't actually feel that tired, but felt as though I couldn't move my legs any faster. Whether this is a good thing or not, I don't know. Overall, I managed to beat my time from last week by 1 min and 10 secs - that's an improvement of 7 seconds per mile!!!!!!! Not exactly earth shattering........but as I've always said, the main aim is to get around the course, regardless of how long it takes me. A good time is a bonus.
As I write, my knees are feeling quite sore and tired - anyone know where I can buy some new ones?!
Sunday, 22 August 2010
5 weeks to go.........
5 weeks to go till the big day (of the Great North Run, just in case you were wondering). I was awake fairly early, so decided I may as well get the dreaded run out of the way.
It started off reasonably well - when I say started off, I mean the first mile or so. After that, things got hard. Firstly, my hamstring started playing up. Secondly, I had to run up a hill - running up and down hills is still hard work, especially with my knee. It also seems that the Sun Gods were against me this time - despite running early in the morning, the sun was out in full force fairly early today, which made for uncomfortable running conditions.
I also took a bit of a risk this time - despite it being a longer run, I decided to run from home, rather than driving to the gym and running from there. This was a risk to me because I know the roads around my house, so it would have been easy to take a shortcut and head home early. Although I cam dangerously close to doing that, I did push on, and complete the run (with some walking involved).
At one point, at about 4 miles into the run, I was particularly tired and was running quite slowly. A bus stopped in front of me, and a fat kid got off....and then proceeded to take the piss out of me. Was I offended? Not really, more annoyed to be honest. Now this kid wasn't just fat, he was morbidly obese, so I couldn't really get too offended, cos he's probably gonna die of a heart attack in a couple of years, after his in-bred parents feed him a few million more Big Macs. In hindsight, I probably should have shouted abuse at him, he would have been able to run after me anyway (he could barely walk). But there always was the risk of him sitting on me if he did manage to catch me up.
I continued with my run, and was running through a fairly nice part of Solihull...........when a car managed to run over a squirrel in a way that launched the dead squirrel towards me. Luckily it didn't hit me. But I was running for a bit with my eyes closed. Honestly.
The last leg of the run was very hard. The increase in distance may have been a bit too much, and my legs felt like mush. My overall time took a big hit because of the last couple of miles. But, at the end of the day, I managed to get a 10 mile run in, and over the next few weeks, I'll try and do the same sort of distance, and hopefully it'll be a bit easier.
It started off reasonably well - when I say started off, I mean the first mile or so. After that, things got hard. Firstly, my hamstring started playing up. Secondly, I had to run up a hill - running up and down hills is still hard work, especially with my knee. It also seems that the Sun Gods were against me this time - despite running early in the morning, the sun was out in full force fairly early today, which made for uncomfortable running conditions.
I also took a bit of a risk this time - despite it being a longer run, I decided to run from home, rather than driving to the gym and running from there. This was a risk to me because I know the roads around my house, so it would have been easy to take a shortcut and head home early. Although I cam dangerously close to doing that, I did push on, and complete the run (with some walking involved).
At one point, at about 4 miles into the run, I was particularly tired and was running quite slowly. A bus stopped in front of me, and a fat kid got off....and then proceeded to take the piss out of me. Was I offended? Not really, more annoyed to be honest. Now this kid wasn't just fat, he was morbidly obese, so I couldn't really get too offended, cos he's probably gonna die of a heart attack in a couple of years, after his in-bred parents feed him a few million more Big Macs. In hindsight, I probably should have shouted abuse at him, he would have been able to run after me anyway (he could barely walk). But there always was the risk of him sitting on me if he did manage to catch me up.
I continued with my run, and was running through a fairly nice part of Solihull...........when a car managed to run over a squirrel in a way that launched the dead squirrel towards me. Luckily it didn't hit me. But I was running for a bit with my eyes closed. Honestly.
The last leg of the run was very hard. The increase in distance may have been a bit too much, and my legs felt like mush. My overall time took a big hit because of the last couple of miles. But, at the end of the day, I managed to get a 10 mile run in, and over the next few weeks, I'll try and do the same sort of distance, and hopefully it'll be a bit easier.
Monday, 16 August 2010
It's getting harder.............
.........and that is the exact opposite of what should be happening. I've been running 3 times a week for about 3 weeks now, and surely logic dictates that I should find it easier to do. Going by the past week, that isn't happening. The first run was reasonable enough, I managed to get another 3.5 mile run in before work on Tuesday in a similar sort of time to what I've been achieving so far. Things went a little wrong on Thursday morning though.
I woke up at 4.30am, and literally had to drag myself out of bed. I hadn't slept too well, and felt absolutely exhausted (I think the 4.30am starts, and 3-4 hours spent driving up and down the M6 every day is starting to get to me). Still, I pushed on, and went out for a run, planning on doing my usual route. The only conscious difference was that I left my knee support at home to try and gauge whether my knee was improving, and whether I would need it for the big day or not. I ran for about a mile or so, but then just felt physically drained. I tried to push on, but couldn't push myself to run at a reasonable pace. I somehow dragged myself around the route, then got in and got ready for work. It wasn't a good run, and I still haven't looked at my Nike + wristband to see how long it took me. The only positive from this was my knee didn't give way completely - but I think I'll carry on using it for now.
Sunday morning's run was marginally better, but still had it's fair share of problems. Tiredness was one of them (having been out on Saturday night for a stag do), but the unexpected problem for me was the change of weather. When I left the house, it was grey and cloudy. The sun quickly burnt through the cloud, and having next to no breeze made for uncomfortable running conditions. Luckily, there were no problems with my knee this time, but fatigue set in fairly quickly, and I did stop and walk a couple of small distances - something I had avoided doing the past couple of weeks. I also wasn't completely prepared - I hadn't looked up my route properly, so ended up missing a turn. This wasn't a problem as such - but I tend to memorise a route in an area I don't know very well - so this forces me to stay on track, and I don't deviate from the route for the fear of getting lost. I didn't get too lost when I missed my turn, but my run ended up being half a mile shorter than I had wanted it to.
The run was by no means a disaster (although I haven't checked to see how long it took me) - all in all, I managed 7.5 miles - but it could have been better, and the improvements I should have seen in the past few weeks just weren't there. Let's hope this week goes better!!!
I woke up at 4.30am, and literally had to drag myself out of bed. I hadn't slept too well, and felt absolutely exhausted (I think the 4.30am starts, and 3-4 hours spent driving up and down the M6 every day is starting to get to me). Still, I pushed on, and went out for a run, planning on doing my usual route. The only conscious difference was that I left my knee support at home to try and gauge whether my knee was improving, and whether I would need it for the big day or not. I ran for about a mile or so, but then just felt physically drained. I tried to push on, but couldn't push myself to run at a reasonable pace. I somehow dragged myself around the route, then got in and got ready for work. It wasn't a good run, and I still haven't looked at my Nike + wristband to see how long it took me. The only positive from this was my knee didn't give way completely - but I think I'll carry on using it for now.
Sunday morning's run was marginally better, but still had it's fair share of problems. Tiredness was one of them (having been out on Saturday night for a stag do), but the unexpected problem for me was the change of weather. When I left the house, it was grey and cloudy. The sun quickly burnt through the cloud, and having next to no breeze made for uncomfortable running conditions. Luckily, there were no problems with my knee this time, but fatigue set in fairly quickly, and I did stop and walk a couple of small distances - something I had avoided doing the past couple of weeks. I also wasn't completely prepared - I hadn't looked up my route properly, so ended up missing a turn. This wasn't a problem as such - but I tend to memorise a route in an area I don't know very well - so this forces me to stay on track, and I don't deviate from the route for the fear of getting lost. I didn't get too lost when I missed my turn, but my run ended up being half a mile shorter than I had wanted it to.
The run was by no means a disaster (although I haven't checked to see how long it took me) - all in all, I managed 7.5 miles - but it could have been better, and the improvements I should have seen in the past few weeks just weren't there. Let's hope this week goes better!!!
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