Life is like a box of chocolates...

Yesterday was positive, today not so great, an excuse for a bit of Bowie though, the next day... Had a bit of a reaction in the leg this morning, first time since started running again, clearly down to yesterdays intervals. Is nothing serious but a little ache that hasn't been there for many weeks, around 6 I would hazard a guess at. Who knows if this may become problematic? Not me but for now I predict short term yes long term no. Ok I wont be running today and will have to scratch flat out speed work for at least another 4 weeks but I actually think the reaction is just because the leg is not used to the full range of motion and pounding thast intervals bring, the doctor said it could be a stiff for a while and it has been when fully extended. So no speed work for 4 weeks and then introduce it a lot more slowly and build up to eyeball popping intervals, easy (I hope) Plan for today now includes a couple of hours on Veera and an afternoon and evening on the sauce with friends from work and outgoing students. Previous experience suggests this will be good fun, we will stay with the students until they start to become silly and then go our separate ways and be even sillier :-) Will hopefully get some gentle hangover busting miles in tomorrow, maybe running but if not will have to be on Veera again. Have a meeting with the powers that be at Bobby Moore Fund on Friday as they want to discuss a few ideas I have, is very exciting I must say. Don't worry though it doesn't involve me doing anything crazy, promise....

I could have had a baby!

I took another step on the road to recovery this morning but before I tell you about that let me just fill you in on how the running has been going since we last met. Have been slowly upping the mileage and did 6.7 miles with the Sospans on a beautiful sunny morning on Sunday. Have been trying to keep below 70% WHR which has been going ok, averaging about 9.30mm pace. The good thing about going with club though is that I slowly start off and then attach myself to the front runners so the last two Sundays have been progressive runs starting off at around 10.00mm pace but slowly building up so I have been finishing averaging 9mm pace. Has given me a bit of confidence back :-) Anyway back to this morning, well I decided a few days ago that I would do an interval session of 4 x 400m today before giving parkrun a good bash on Saturday to see where I am and what I can aim for in John Hartson 10k in 4 weeks time. A spanner in the works immediately though when I got to the school at the bottom of the hill to find it locked so I couldn't use the track. I know it is half term but is usually open by that time, ho hum. Decided then to go to a long(ish) straight and very quiet road I know about a mile further on. Turns out the road was 241 metres long but I still only did 4 intervals. The first one was at 4.59mm pace, didn't even know I could run that fast, nearly killed me, the final 3 all at 5.40mm pace. I was shagged right out. Now I knew that I had not done much like this for a while as I did lots of long slow miles in build up to the challenge but just been back through the training log and turns out the start of August was my last 'speed' session. Over 9 months ago, like I said I could have had a baby in that time. At least I have a good base. So not overly excited or disappointed, glad to have done it and llike I said will see where Saturday takes me, got half a plan in mind but am not sharing it yet. And to think I was blaming the pregnant look on too many pies.....

2nd Gear

Have to say it has been a good week in Chez Rogerson, I haven't won the lottery or anything like that but I am a week into my comeback and am generally happy with my progress. Did a whole mile on Wednesday and upped that to 1.1 miles on Friday, both with no ill affects apart from a little stiffness in an old hip flexor war wound. Discussed the situation with Laura after Fridays' run and with her acquiescence decided I would ramp the mileage up a little quicker than I first planned. My thiinking is that if there is no reaction why shouldn't I go further, is my base fitness I need to work on again. Headed out this morning after 12.5 on Veera with a route in mind that would probably cover about 3-4 miles without ever being more than half a mile from home in case anything did flare up. 3.5 miles later and everything was fine :-) Kept it slow at below 70%WHR and felt extremely comfortable, coming in at 9.38mm pace, so next target is to join up with the running club next Sunday morning and do 5 or 6 miles with them. Am going to do Llyn Llech Owain parkrun slowly on Saturday too, hopefully as sweeper so I don't get too excited and overcook it. Have carried on with the strength work too and that has been harder, as I think I mentioned previously has been 3 years or so since I stopped doing it regularly, although I have had some sporadic core sessions. Am quite unimpressed by my weakness and how much I am aching from gentle squats etc but is a work in progress and will all come together and be worth it further on down the line. Am debating whether to join in with a kettlebell class on Tuesday night but am not entirely sure I am ready for it yet. Thoughts? Another improved week on the dietary front too, only one bad day and no alcohol, so tomorrows weigh in shouldn't be too bad. Keeping on with the easy sub 70%WHR running until the end of May then, all being well, am going to introduce some intervals and tempo runs to get a bit of pace in the legs ready for Llanelli 10k on June 30th which I will run to HR. *Wanders off to revise his plan....*

34 days later...

34 days since the wheels came spectacularly crashing off the challenge and today was a huge step forward. I am back in the hospital tomorrow morning and although I have felt capable of running for the last week or so I have been good and held myself back. I have however been cycling a few miles, up to 15 on the longest day, and also joined the local gym to motivate me to get back to my strength training. Is a beautiful day today in Llanelli and I already knew that I was going out on Veera to meet up with the running clucb who were going for their traditional bank holiday breakfast run which ends up in Wetherspoons. I also decided pretty much as soon as I woke up that I was going to try a little run post cycle, half a mile at most?, to test the injury. My thinking being that if it played up I could stop immediately and be able to tell the hospital that there was still a problem and if it didn't I would be able to report that. Well after covering about 10 miles, very slowly, on Veera, with scrambled egg on toast and a mug of green tea in the middle, I got home and immediately donned my new running shoes. The next step was a walk down to the field so I wouldn't be tackling any inclines or declines. Before I knew it, with my heart rate rising rapidly (I have never been so bloody nervous about a run) I was tentatively under way, it felt very strange almost like I had never run before. However I ran to the end of the field and back to the bridge and didn't feel the injury once so as long as nothing flares up in the next 24 hours I would hope I am back on the road. even managed to do 9.30mm pace when I looked, I thought I had gone a lot slower. So is baby steps from here, have been very sensible for the last 34 days, I must continue to be so. My only target at the moment is to hopefully be ready to run my local 10k by the end of June, not for a time, just run it, I will just listen to my body. Now I know there are going to be lots of excited blogs later about marathons and other races, pb's etc but I will be very surprised if anyone is as happy as I am right now I am going to celebrate today with a day off the healthy eating plan but tomorrow the hard work (happily) starts VLM 2014 is the big focus now.... Don't call it a comeback, I am back...