B is for Physio

Did spin this morning - great fun, but do have to wonder how those hill climbs at 30rpm with lactic building really train me for doing it Lance-stylee at 90rpm!

Anyway - the important thing is that this arrived in the post:

Well I had hoped to post a chunk of it - but the image is either too large or the quality too naff, so I'll surmise - Brunel (which has a very good rep) have offered me a place on their physio course, subject to my getting a B grade in the A level :oD


Kinda good eh - I'd prefer St George's, but it means I'm in regardless, subject to getting a B, which hopefully will be a doddle as long as I work solidly, so the pressure's off a bit.

I'm still aiming for an A :oD

Running Again

After a fair old lay-off (a week!) due to twinges after the Suicide Six and then a snotty lurgy, I decided to have a run today. I was going to do a forty mile cycle ride, but decided it wasn't a good idea to be out for three or so hours, particularly when rain was threatening. I decided to try out the nirvanas, which had seemed okay indoors (a few twinges, but they are new shoes),

I did the old Nonsuch six mile route, and the shoes did feel different. There wasn't as much roll in, which made my feet feel rather odd! Even so - heart rate was pleasantly low - I'd prepared myself for it going up and havign to slow the pace. I wasn't too strict on the HR, not worrying as long as it stayed below 145bpm. Here's the figures:

Pretty good overall - 9:10 average at 143bpm, which is pretty good, especially when I still felt quite gunky!

First impressions were that the outside of my feet, particularly the left, was coming into play more. Not that I wasn't landign right on the outside, but I just felt weight on bits that wouldn't normally have much weight. I suspect this set off a few foot twinges as muscles were worked differently, and unusual nerve sensations too. The run felt fine, although I did get the usual left quad tightening, which maybe needs further investigation. I do have a few twinges writing this seeveral hours later, but then any different shoes are bound to get the legs working in new ways, so maybe that's only to be expected. I'll see what I feel like tomorrow morning! These shoes seem fine for the tready anyway, so worst case scenario is to go back to using them for that.

My right leg has (and continues to) feel great - the slight ankle problems I had in the kayano seem to have pretty much gone today, but the rest of the leg feels fabulous, and ideally I'd like to get the left quad to feel like that - as it really feels fresh at the end of the run - even a twelve miler like a few weeks ago!

I was relatively pleased with the HR today - okay - it is drifting up a bit, but not too badly, and the course is definitely downhill in the first half and uphill in the second.

Anyway - next run it's back to familiar shoes I think, and then another try at the nirvanas, although I might throw in a quick try of the NB's at some point on the tready. Could be a busy week with the bike rides as well!

Priorities

Feeling kinda low today - I'd recovered from the suicide Six pretty quickly but went straight into a stinking cold. I'm giddy, snotty, and generally feeling unenergetic. Not too bad - I could go out and run, but everything is telling me it's not a good idea and may well prolong things. Still - I rather like to stay active - so what do I do? I guess all I can do is to try to focus on study and other stuff until I can get back out there.

So - we're coming up to December, and I know my IM training has stalled somewhat. I was up to a fifty mile bike ride some weeks ago, but have let it slide. This isn't disastrous, but I know it's a slide I have to halt. So - with that in mind - what are my goals for before the end of the year?

Biking
I intend to get out there and have done at least three sixty mile plus bike rides before the end of December. No excuses about weather and stuff - I should be able to juggle stuff. I'm also going to make use of the Oxshott bike group and Greenie who is always up for a ride. I need to make biking a priority - if I can come off the bike feeling decent then I can walk/run the marathon

Running
I've been getting rather distracted by shoes and how I was gettign a tight quad and a sore ankle. TBH I don't have the answer as yet, maybe it's just all the training on the other disciplines as well - who knows? Anyway - I'm going to aim for a fifteen mile run for the end of December. Even if I get into FLM, this will be plenty, and if I don't, then it's still tons for a July marathon.

I also want to get the shoes issue settled. I think that I've got quite tricky feet right now! Still - the nirvanas are great on the tready, and I'm going to try them outside. The NB's will also get a good try out, and I can see just what's right for what. It's rather annoying to have to fit in "shoe trials" and stuff, but ultimately at the moment I'm not runnign enough. It's tempting to set a target of three runs a week, but then I may end up de-emphasising the bike - which I don't think is a good idea, so I'll settle for a consistent two runs a week for December and leave the three for later

Swimming
It's been too easy to say "it's fine - leave it to the new season and then do more OW", but I do fear my endurance will drop if I'm not careful. So - the goal for December is to do a mile session at least once a week. I'd also like to fit in some swim classes - but it's provign tricky as all the local classes seem to be on a Monday or Wednesday, when I have college. I'm going to keep looking!

Study
This is a tricky one - I'm doing it, and generally scoring well on homework, but I'm aware that I need to sharpen up on it. The first exam is January 10th, and it would be great to achieve over 90% in that. The more I can score in the AS exams, the less I need to score in the A2 exams to get the A overall - which is the goal. I may get offers of B, but I want that A!! AS exam is the 10th, A2 the 24th. AS is easier.

Hard to set an exact goal - but okay - for December I'm goign to schedule in six hours work a week on the AS, and ten per week on A2, not including the classes. This is because the A2 is harder, and also the A2 exam is two weeks later, so I should be able to focus on the A2 after the AS exam.

Social
Hmm - I do feel like I've rather neglected this of late - time to get out there and mix more! I might leave this a bit more until the new year, as I don't want to distract too much from the study. Still - getting down the running club at least once a week in December is a good target that combines social with training :o)

Exams are Here - Wibble!

Just got my exam statement in the post - which means it's all official! First one is January 10th. I knew all of this info already, tbh, but it's now down in black and white and stuff. It'll be funny doing an exam from *that* side of things for the first time in ages!

I've woken up with a sore throat and coughing and wheezing like mad today. Inoticed I was breathing a bit wheezily yesterday, but it's really taken hold, so I won't be biking today in spit eof fancying it. Right calf (on the leg I turned over in a rabbit hole) is still twanging a bit, so maybe it's a good thing. Talking of which - here's a pic - if I can get it to upload. Tried it a few times on the Suicide Six post and it won't take it. That's Vrap alongside me!

Training has kinda gone to pot a bit. I need to get out there on those logn bike rides, and I think I need to settle down and stop messing with my running shoes! Having said that, the tight quad I was getting with the kayanos had made me wonder if something was wrong, but partly it's just being in different running shops! It does mean I'm mucking up training as I wear in shoes and stuff, and wonder more about niggles. There's still over seven months to IM Austria, and I guess the bike is the thign I've let go most.

Coming off the bike feeling okay (so I can at least run/walk fluidly) for the mara is critical - if I do that I can get round on sheer bloody mindedness. I was up to 50 mile rides two months ago, with company, and was hoping to comfortably hit seventy by the end of the year. I can still hit 60, but it will be a faster build up. It's not time to panic, but equally I need to get serious - and fast! So yes, I'll throw in some races, but I think the biking has to take priority.

Suicidal but Feeling Great!

Suicide Six(ish) that is ;o)

Spent the weekend with Vrap, El Bee and Evil Pixel up in Brum. Great to see everyone again, and be leapt upon by raptorites on every occasion, although we did manage to fit some chess in!

Saturday morning we headed for a compulsory purchase store - um - I mean bike shop, where LB and Vrap willingly sacrificed themselves on the altar of everything that is a wicking fabric to prevent me needign to spend any money ;o) Then it was off to a running shop. Judst for a look round you understand. I did a video analysis - and they concluded I didn't pronate much, which really surprised me. It looke to me from the video like I did, but who knows. They also said that my right foot pronated worse than the left, which again was coutner to what I've heard in the past. I was confused, and they said the 2120 wasn't available yet, which is bollox as I've seen some in London, so I left without makign a purchase.

I was keen to try the blingy Vomeros though, but they didn't have any. Not that I thought they'd suit my feet, but I wanted to see what they were like. So in the afternoon (havign collected a Pixel) we headed off to Sutton Runner where I got another assessment done, which lined up more with what I'd heard before. No video camera though. The guy did spot the wear on my Brooks, which I hadn't noticed before. Bad wear on the inside of the sole at the front (and I mean bad wear). Might explain some of my niggles! To be fair, I have worn them a lot the past couple of years, and mainly for walking, which may or may not having somethign in common with my running. Anyway - he watched me run as well, and then hauled out some strong correction shoes. I hadn't intended to buy any shoes, but the NB857s felt so nice (and the shop peep's assessment of what I looked like in them matched my impression so well) that I ended up buying them! Hope I don't regret that, as it's going to be a bugger taking them back, especially as I walked back to the caverns in them! Ah well - a spontaneous buy that I may regret - hope not as I could do without wastign the money. They did feel decidedly different - hopefully ina good way, although I did have a minor calf niggle that night. Hopefully just the readjustment rather than a major issue. I've got the Nirvanas to try outside, and biking to do, so they may not get an outing for a while.

Then I asked to try the Vomeros. The guy was highly anti, and I can see why really, as they're neutral and I pretty obviously didn't run that way. The cushioning felt great, but my knee rolled in badly (hitting the other leg), so no way was I going to buy them, but another Nike shoe with similar cushioning would be nice. Shame really - they were lush!!

Sunday was the Suicide Six - a cross country race with pretty much non-stop climbs and decents, loads of mud in a few places (sucky stuff!) and I was glad I'd worn my old 2070s! I was runnign with Vrap, who was wearing fell runnign shoes, and for the bits of the course that were muddy, they definitely helped. After the ironman next summer, I may well look for a pair like that and do some more.

I also think that I noticed the uneven territory after runnign a lot of flattish roads. Next day and I'm twingeing in several places, mainly my calfs and quads! I think some more ankle etc strengthening would be good, plus feet strengthening for running on my forefoot going uphill for long periods. Might also help me not pronate as badly I guess.

We finished in just over 56 minutes - way down on time for a 10k, but there were lots of bits where we had to queue or slow down for other reasons, and mud is never as "efficient" in terms of getting the most out of the stride, as there'll be some slip. Some bits were fabulously fast, and I loved the descents where we could have a free run and let fly - just on the edge between control and losing control. Maybe there is a fell runner in me ;o)

Vrap and I are pretty much the same pace now, unless she was holding back a lot! Towards the end I think her hill climbing etc paid off on the hills, although earlier on I'd held my own no probs. We crossed the line together, and I think we'd both enjoyed runnign together again :o)

A great race, would definitely be up for doing it next year :oD

Wet Wet Wetsuit...

Plan was to go to the gym early, try out the wetsuit, and then head out on the bike for 40 miles or so. I woke up and it was positively persisting it down, so I abandoned the bike and concentrated on trying the wetsuit.

I've not seen any rules saying that you can't use a wetty in the pool, but for some reason I felt distinctly odd doing it! I'd decided to put it on underneath my clothes so I could just take off the top layer and get in the pool as quick as poss, rather than faff with the zip at the back in front of peeps!

Anyway - I got soaked on the way over - maybe I should just have worn the wetsuit and nowt else! There were several people in the changign room, and I did get a few odd looks! The wetty was feeling a bit tight - I did feel as if I was having to make more of an effort than usual to stand fully upright, which was a tad worrying, but I seem to remember similar with Holly's borrowed one.

Then it was into the pool - only one person in there - so I plunged in, ready to set off. I realised I'd forgotten my goggles, so it was back to the lock to get them, and then start all over again! It was an amazing feeling! The wetsuit gives so much buoyancy, it felt soooo different from the borrowed windsurfing one, and made a huge difference to my stroke. I felt like I was cutting through the water like a bullet! I did a length in about seven strokes rather than the usual 13 or 14, whizzing up and down. On the whole it felt much as usual, only faster, but there was one occasion where I lost balance. Sighting was a lot wasier too I think!

After eight lengths I called it a day with the wettie - I'd like to do some more wetsuit swimmign I guess but then again if I practise without it, when it comes to OW next season it'll be easy, and I'll have time to acclimatise before any races.

I did several lengths without the wetty afterwards and I felt sooooo sluggish by comparison!

On the uni front - got a UCAS envelope in the post - heart was in my mouth as I thought it might be my first interview, but it was just asking for my exam/uni certificates from my degree etc. I've posted them off already so fingers crossed!

Physio at St Helier

Today saw me at the local hospital - St Helier - for another day's fizzio. Must admit I was a bit dubious about it - I'd done enough to write my personal statement, and felt that I'd got a decent idea of the job. Still - a lot of what I'd done had been outpatients and at a private hozzie where ops were generally elective (knee replacements etc) so I perhaps hadn't seen much of in hospital type NHS stuff.

The day started badly when I arrived an hour early (doh!) due to not keeping accurate notes of appointments! I found a coffee bar (nice coffee for a hozzie) and killed an hour texting and generally watching the world go by.

Then it was back to the physio department and onto a general rehab ward. Here I met Claire and Faye, Faye is a student at St George's and ever so nice amd enthusiastic, as was Claire. Our first job was to try and get a woman to stand and walk a bit - she had dementia which is often an issue with elderly patients. I did however feel that we were itneracting properly which does make the job more than just pushing people's knees back into alignment and stuff. Then onto another patient who really didn't seem to be "On the planet" and it was actually rather uncomfortable watching as he kept yelling "no", but it was impossible to work out what was wrong. I think we all felt distinctly uncomfortable with it, and there was a mini-case conference about whether a psych assessment should be sought to see if the patient could make his own judgements and if so we should respect his wishes not to have physio. It's a tricky one, which has impact - his wife didn't want him home until he could walk, and if he didn't have physio then it was unlikely to happen. Plus of course he couldn't stay in hospital for ever.

Then it was off to neuro rehab - which means a lot of stroke patients. I saw three, but this really was enormous fun - it started off slowly with an Asian woman (not sure how the name was spelt but it sounded like Nancyelle). She seemed quite out of it still, and standing was "new" to her, but the physios got her standing for several minutes, and after looking totally blank she suddenly had a big grin on her face.

It was a great department - Helen (I think) who was a mature student like me, two students from St George's, and Edmond, a locum physio (who seem to get paid lots of money for beign physios!). We then had three patients on the go and I was watchign two of them - who were far more lively. Fascinating how after a stroke re-awakening the senses is - hand washing, rubbbing with a towel, running a comb over the arm and so on. We had a couple of real characters here and had a great laugh chatting but still gettign some great physio done. Ben was an old guy but rather liked the attention of the females, who went along nicely with it. Great to watch and really made me smile watching some "lively" people who responded.

Then lunch - and I chatted to the St George's students (Anne and Gemma) who were great and told me more about the job, the course at St George's and so on. After that I headed back to base to find out where respiratory was. I'd heard that this involved lots of snot and gunk and was quite unpleasant! Anyway - turned out there was a big meeting with the big boss of the trust coming down. It sounded interesting, but origianlly meant I'd miss out on resp, which was a shame, so I asked if I could do resp after the meeting instead of outpatients. Not that that isn't interesting, but I'd seen plenty of it. It was all agreed, so I went into the meeting happy, managing to score a number for the community physio team - to speak to them about the nature of their work (and possibly more shadowing).

The meeting was odd - lots of complaints about understaffing etc, and I got the impression the boss peep was actually wanting to help but didn't have the money. It seemed that the physios are employed by a different trust (or was it PCT?) to the doctors etc, and had not been paid for services - so we had the daft situation where they had a Service Level Agreement but weren't gettign paid for providing that service! The boss peep, to be fair, did seem to be tryign to help, but I guess everyone's strapped for cash and it seems like they're all havign to cut corners even if it just ends up passing problems onto someone else (namely the physios). Lots of stories of not enough equipment (hoists) so physios get injured, so can't work, and so locums have to be paid to come in, which costs far more than the hoist before a few weeks is up! The boss said thayt if the hoists came under her bduget that she'd order them straight off, but they might be the shared responsibility of her and the other trust so it might get more complex! What a way to run the NHS! I suspect it wasn't her fault to be honest - more the way the sytsem was set up.

Then a protest about how the sheer numebr of patients meant that the physios couldn't give treatment as often as desired. Getting patients safely mobile again is all part of agreeing to them being discharged, so regular physio can shorten the stay in hospital. It's a real false economy as in the end it lengthemns their stay which costs hundreds per night! Again it seemed that the parties involved couldn't work together but the bean counters were just worried about the columns of figures in the short term with no regard for the bigger picture - just my impression. The boss wanted evidence collected that she could take to a meeting to show how it was costing more in the long term, but as the physios put it, if we have't got time to treat peeps, we havn't got time to collect wodges of figures! They did go off into another meeting afterwards, so I hope something was resolved.

Then it was time to head to resp with Mark - all good stuff - we got to see a guy who had gunky lungs, and Mark did what I think was postural drainage (vibrations not thumps, although Mark said this was also an option he could use). Not too much sputum was produced (tries not to look disappointed), but there was some lovely wheezing and coughing! Then off to see a lady who ended up being an inappropriate referral - itnerestign to see the notes and all the chemical readings, and how Mark had to know how to read these.

Finally - onto the ITU (or is it ICU?), to see someone who was completely comatose after several operations - not exactly sure what had happened as I didn't think an ileotomy was that serious. Anyway - her sats (oxygen saturation had dropped), so we did some bagging (like on casualty) to make her breathe deeper and hopefully clear some muck from her lungs. After some of this, Mark fiddled with a long tube and seemed to be shoving about two feet of it into another tube that went down her throat. He said afterwards that this was a suction tube that was used to suck out any loose gunk as the patient couldn't cough it up.

A somewhat less lively end to the day than say the neuro rehab, but damn good fun, and I had an awful lot of good bits that I could use in the interviews. I really felt a lot more enthusiastic after today then I did after the day at St George's :oD

FFS! ARGGGGGGHHHHH!!!

Okay - what's going on? Just did the weekly weigh in and it's gone up again! I'm not snacking on crisps all day, I'm getting out there and doing 50km bike rides, running, and doing gym classes - and yet the weight is going up - WTF?

And no - it's not a blip - there's a definite trend to it. It's been up every week for the last month. I've put on over four pounds, in spite of doing 14 hour training weeks.

I seriously don't get it! Sometimes I've felt like I might be going a bit hypo - I don't really think I should eat any less!

Weight back to 14 stone 2 :o(. I was hoping to have hit the target weight by now, but the last few months have seen very slow progress, and now I seem to have lost all of that. I was this weight back in mid-August!

Cross County

Haven't done one of these for ages! Was good to see the club guys again though :o)

The weather was lookingn decidedly threatening, and after soem shenanigans trying to find the start (bad directions) I met up with the rest of the club (or at least the men, women were at Lightwater). We swapped stories as it had been a while since I saw a lot of them, and before long it was time to change and we were off.

I started way too near the front, and was quickly passed by a lot of people en masse. I found quite a comfortable position, got passed a few more times, but it was very crowded still, and a bottleneck in the course led to the human equivalent of a multiple pile-up. I got through the gap, and felt comfortable in that position.

The course was mainly downhill still, and continued like that, with lots of nice bits of uneven ground - all still fairly solid underfoot still though. The only downside of so much downhill is that you have to climb again, but there was a flat bit first - exposed, and muddy underfoot, which I didn't like as my feet slipped when I wanted to push forward. I edged to the side and more solid ground. Then a climb through a narrow track where it was hard to pass, but I gained on one guy and overtook him. Shortly after someone passed me, but as we continued to climb he faded and I passed him back. I seemed to be strong on the climbs, and passed another couple of people - off really, because I've done sod all hill training!

The course flattened out again, and we headed back to the start of the lap. I took another person just before the start, and caught a couple more on the downhill at the start of the lap. I was reeling people in throughout, but the field was strung out, so it wasn't happening too often. This continued through the rest of the lap - threw the forest and the twisty climb, then up onto the flat. I could see two people ahead and went for the first one. He was breathing heavily but I decided to take it slowly, timing my run to be on a flat bit. I was confident I'd left him behind as he seemed to be finding it hard work, and set about tackling the next guy who was 80 or so yards ahead. I pulled him back significantly, but ran out of course before I quite managed to catch him. All in all a good day out though - thoroughly enjoyed it. I'd originally not been that keen to do it, tempted in no small part by the fact it made me eligible for a place in the club FLM draw, but I'd gladly do it again. It was muddy but good fun. I enjoy racing :oD

Bike Ride

Bit of an odd day to do it but Greenie was free so we went for it! Did the Usual Ewell - Epsom Downs - Walton - Headley - Box Hill - Chipsyead - Banstead route - sort of two loop swith a straight bit joining them. It's about 33-34 miles, what with the couple of miles to meet Greenie.

All went well - Greenie was struggling with tired legs, but we mae the Box Hill climb no probs. I thought I was going to do it in record time but somehow didn't seem to beat it - 9:24. Still - all good stuff, and we tucjked into cake and coffee. Nicky (Happychap) turned up, and we had another round - must have spent nearly an hour there, which tbh is too long! I'd been fine warmth-wise, had my Aldi long sleeve top on. Wish I'd worn the gloves too, but was fine, but sitting around for ages left me shivery. I pedalled like mad to try to warm up, and it worked after about twenty minutes!

Could have gone further - was seriously tempted to do an extra six or seven miles to make up to forty. I've not ridden for two weeks and slipped behind schedule. It's okay though as that schedule was ahead of my original plans to do 60 milers by the end of the year. I felt good after the ride, so I'll do a 45 miler next week, then a 52(ish), and stabilise around there before trying some 60s towards mid-December.

# Heart Beat, Why Do You... #

Right - possibly the final try-out sesh for the new shoes, and I'm all set to do 30 minutes on the tready. I wore a cheapo HRM as that way the tready wil pick it up, rather than the coded Garmin mallarkey, although I must try hitting the "lap" button on that as each interval starts (like I haven't got my hands busy anyway!)


Anyway - started off at 10kph, and right away my HR hit 160! What gives?? It doesn't normally get up to that until quite a while in, even if I run at well over 12kph. Odd! Maybe I was ill. I decided to put the speed up to 12kph and see what happened. The HR stayed the same, which was definitely weird. And then it dropped - to upper 150s, lower 150s, and then to 145-148bpm. Where it stayed for about ten minutes, still at 12kph, and drifted up slowly over th enext ten minutes. After that, My right forefoot was burning a little, but I seemed to recall that that wore off last time. Time to up the pace!

I actually held back a little from the Creation session - I did 2 mins at 14kph and then 3 mins recovery rather than 2 (at 12kph), but it was still a good workout. A couple of intervals in and my legs had acclimatised to the speed. All went well, and I didn't have to drop the recovery speed at all.

All in all a good session - got a few twinges afterwards around my ankles, but the shoes are different from the kayanos, the pounding is very even ona tready, so hopefully nowt to worry about.

Evening - and I'm tempted to go down the club as I do feel reasonably fresh! Would eb good to see everyone, and I do want to get back into the social side of things and have people to run with. Shame I couldn't have done this run yesterday. Legs are up to the run but I guess I shouldn't overdo it.

Tomorrow is trying out the wettie in the swimming pool (I shall feel a right prune) and then off for a bike ride with Greenie - should be good, and I suspect cake will be involved at some stage!

UCAS News
Well the good news is that I have acknowledgement of my application, so things are underway. I have to wait now for interview dates and stuff. I have a day at St Helier's lined up for next week, so hopefully more to talk about there. Must chase the other places up too.

Study is going pretty well - although some of module four is a bit tougher, and I do need to review it. I got some homeowrk back (old exam questions) last night that I'd thought I'd done well on, although I did use the book in places, but I'd missed out some crucial points on the longer answer questions and scored 60% overall - which isn't good enough. Okay - hopefully coursework and stuff will help drag me up, but I need to do better than that. I may get a B offer, but I really want that A now. I need to plan a regular study timetable.

Life without work is gettign a bit too unstructured - too much faffing and not getting stuff done. It's great to have the freedom, but too much freedom takes away the urgency! I still seem to be lacking drive a bit - it's easier to put stuff off than get my head down and do it. Not sure why because to all intents and purposes I'm very much enjoying the course.

Interval Training

Probably a bit of a daft idea - doing intervals the day after a PB for the year 10k race. Ah well - it was only intended to be a gentle work out in the nirvanas. 20 mins max, after the success of the 10 minute sesh the other day.

Anyway - I decided to wear the Garmin, for no other reason than to track the heart rate. Distance would be...well - zero hopefully, but it would be interesting to see how HR varied.

The plan was just to do a couple of mins warm up at gentler speeds and then do 20 mins solid at 12kph. Trouble is, it gets boring. Like - really boring! So what did I do - I pu the speed up to 14 kph for a minute and then did 2 mins at 12kph again. Basically an interval session, although not as tough as the two mins at 14 I did a while back. Here's the graph - it starts 30 seconds or so before I turned the pace up to 12kph.

Not bad, all things considered - and I did get some recovery each time - but was generally going up a few bpm every interval - so HR at pace was higher and so was recovery - hence the general upwards trend.

I did get a bit of pressure under my right big toe - but then I had that before. This did tend to ease off a bit as I ran - maybe I was getting used to the shoes.

Afterwards - I had niggles, but then I had some from the 10k the day before. PLus I think it would be unfair to blame new shoes for niggles - given that I had various bits probably weakened from the 10k, my muscles may well have put stress elsewhere. Plus I think new shoes do often feel a bit like that - not that they're wrong, but the body is a tad uncomfortable while it gets used to the slightly different movement.

Wednesday - and I'm going to have another crack on the tready after body pump - just hope we don't do lunges, which always knacker my calfs. These do seem to be a bit of a weak point for me (calfs I mean)

Oxshott 10k

This was all a bit last minute - watching the 10k at Nonsuch last week (wish I'd done that one now) I really felt like doing another race. Okay - I hadn't trained that much on running since Elmbridge, but I did think I'd probably got faster, and I wanted to see by how much. Plus there was the little matter of getting under Vrap's 10k time of 47:49 to make for an interesting challenge!

I'd been tinkering with the Virtual Training Partner option on the Garmin, and figured that if I set Gary Garmin (that's what he's called - honest) to run the 10k in 47 minutes, then all I had to do was to stay ahead of him and I'd be home and dry. Only problem was that I tend to run a fair bit to HR, and the screen that shows Gary Garmin doesn't show HR. Still - it only needed a quick press on a button to flick between the two.

So - to the race. My lift turned up early, and after a quick wind up about being lost in Worcester Park (donut!! :-P), we were off. The journey was without incident, and the only problem before the race was getting into the men's cubicle to have the customary pre-race dump. In the end it was a close call. I ran half of the distance to the start line, hoping that the Garmin would find the satellites! I noticed several others tutting at their wristware, and was worried. If it didn't tune in in time, then I couldn't use Gary Garmin :os. The pre-reace announcements were being done, and it was still seeking satellites - eek!

We were off - and I noticed a Sutton Runner (my club) who normally does about 42 minutes near me. Hmmm - too fast - my HR was already pushing 170. I was streaking away from Gary Garmin though! I tried slowing, but the HR didn't drop, and I was still gaining on Gary. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea using this option - particularly as I was in some doubt as to whether the staellites had locked on in time. Maybe he was still left on the start line, desperately looking for satellites. The standard screen I use showing pace, total distance, HR and time has served me well, so I switched to that, and didn't look back.

The second kilometre is uphill a fair bit, and although there is a downhill, it's hard work. It also contain a roadworks sign, that was lying on the ground, presumably because the roadworks were finished, but for some reason they hadn't removed it, so while busy looking at my Garmin, I managed to trip over it. I did the mad cartoon running to try to regain my balance, and then crashed onto my hands and knees. I was up fairly quickly, but was fairly badly grazed, and someone asked if I was okay, which was good. I said yes, and pressed on - fed up to have wasted time.

In the end it wasn't a bad kilometre - only two seconds outside of my target of 4:42, in spite of the hills and the trip. Hmmm - I was supposed to be trying to get my heart rate down wasn't I? The course then undulates quite sharply, with alternating uphills and downhills (the race blurb says it's flat apart from one hill between 8km and 9km). I slowed on the uphills, and took advantage of the downhills to make up the lost time, so pace really fluctuated quite a lot in the short term, but as you can see from the splits, was pretty even, as was the HR until the final few kilometres which were mostly uphill, and of course the sprint finish!

Kilometres four and five both saw me under my target split, and I was pleased to hit half way in 23:12, which was udner my Bushey Park time from a few months back - and I still had 5k to go. I reckon I must be under 22 minutes for that if I do it again, but we'll see. I had plenty left, and out in a good sixth kilometre. I was making use of the downhills to gain speed, knowing that the back few kilometres contained uphills. It had to - as we'd had a lot of downhill as well as a fair few uphills.

Between six and seven it's a very slight but definitely there long drag uphill. I was feeling a bit whacked here, but I'd worked out that I could afford to lose a bit here as I was 18 seconds inside my target at halfway, plus a sprint finish would gain seconds too. A slight downhill at the end of the kilometre, got me closer to the target split, and I ended up just one second outside. Nice!

More uphill followed, again slow, but in some ways that takes more out of you. I'd figured that I could do about 5:00 for the remaining kilometres and still get under Vrap's time, so I relaxed and just tried to focus on the runner ahead and not losing ground. In the end it wasn't a bad kilometre - only seven seconds lost. I was still ahead of schedule!

The next kilometre was the worst, as it did indeed have a "proper" hill - a steep climb over the railway that really left me gasping. Still - there was a downhill the other side, and my legs weren't feeling too bad. I did lose another ten seconds, but that was okay - I was tired but feeling okay, and knew there was only a kilomtre to go. I started to push the pace, as I knew the finish wasn't far away. Then I saw the entrance to the race HQ, where the finish was located, and pushed harder. HR had hit 180 by now, and I was gasping now, and hadn't really got enough air for a sprint even though. It was great to see Heather cheering, but then she decided to push me into a sprint finish by racing me to the line! It did make me speed up though!!

I crossed the line in 46:46 - well inside my target of 47 minutes, and that was including the fall in the second kilometre. That's got to be good - it was without much speedwork, and on two runs (or less) a week. I'm getting fitter - in spite of the weight going up to 89.5kgs.

So - all in all, a good day, and I know I can go a lot faster if I put the run training in. Therein lies the problem - finding the time with all the tri stuff! However - I do think having challenges along the way keeps the trainign itneresting, so I've entered the New Year's Day 10k in Hyde Park. I may well be close to knocking ten minutes off my time from Jan 1st 2006. Probably not quite, but I should be a decent chunk under 45 though. Mustn't go crazy on speedwork though - need to build endurance!

I ran the race in the kayanos, which felt fine, but have tried the nirvanas on the treaddy for ten minutes, and although they felt different, seem to be okay. I'll be using both and building up the mileage in the nirvanas to see how they fare. At the moment my future shoes are undecided! Kayanos are great for short distances I think - but we'll see!

Anyway - thanks to David Denton for organising the place at the last minute, Heather for the lift and support, and 26.2 for the cakes which I didn't want to knick but Heather assured me you guys'd be okay with it! Oh yeah - and Vrap for making an interesting target - I'd have probably just been content to beat my Elmbridge time otherwise. Make it a tougher one next time though eh? ;o)

I Got an A :oD

Okay - not an A for homework or anything, but the Uni applications are going in and the tutor has to predict me a grade. I was a bit worried as obviously the guy's only known me a couple of months - I know I find it hard to predict grades for one year students. Still - he's predicted me an A :oD

I just have to get it now!

Hopefully all the good stuff will persuade the places to offer me B's to take the pressure off a bit. I have three good grades already from 1981(!) plus a first class degree so fingers crossed. Let's just hope I don't blow it at interview :oD

Get Comfortable Peeps!

...this is a long one!


Been a while since I posted - training has been erratic. Everytime it started getting going, something happened! I had a good start to last week, then I got earache!

It was half term, so I made the most of the evening body pump and Pilates sessions. I had a good twelve mile run too on Monday, but did get that tight left quad again - annoying, and I wondered what was causing it. Still - the first half was all below or close to 150bpm, and the pace was sub 8:30 (often by a fair bit). It was later I slowed, but still all well under nine minute miling - just the HR went up. Hilly though, so not altogether surprising.

No cycling - partly a lack of Greenie to cycle with, partly laziness, and partly the earache that turned up on Wednesday. I hadn't realised it was at first, so did a mile swim, and a BP class Wednesday evening, but by Thursday it was clear there was an issue, so I retired to bed.

A damn nuisance, as Wednesday I'd gone to the opening of the new SBR shop in Fulham. All sounded great in the invite - tri celebs stuff, discounts, goody bags etc. Trouble was - I got there, and nowt! Yeah sure, a shop, but the staff "Thought something was happening later but weren't sure when". Doh! Anyway - I got some new goggles, didn't exactly need them but will at some point, and some bodyglide. Then I got tempted to look at shoes, as they had Mizunos. I said "I wear kayanos, what's the equivalent in Mizuno" and they suggested the Nirvana and the Creation. Both looked good, but I tried the Creation first, and it felt good on the tready, so I bought them. I was a bit surprised as they looked symmetrical at the back, but the bloke assured me they were right.

Anyway - ANyway, I got home, but couldn't try the shoes out due to earache. I was out of it with ear ache, and generally felt run down. I did check on the web to see how much the shoes would be, and found that they were a neutral shoe! All very odd! I now had serious doubt in my mind. I thought I'd give them another chance but decide to try a longer sesh on the tready.

I wasn't exactly 100%, but Saturday evening I went to the gym, armed with the new shoes, and tried an itnerval sesh from hell. Hadn't done one of these for ages and in new shoes it was rather a daft way to start, but I resolved to pull out if it started hurting. It actually felt great - shoes seemed fine, although my lungs were bursting. I must do more of these as I got a lot of pleasure from it. Maybe the shoes were okay after all?

That evenign though - the achilles on my left heel was complaining. Now - maybe it was just because I'd done a hard session, btu I've doen them before without that bit being triggered. The previous time I'd felt anything like that was when I first started runnning and used Asics DS, which didn't have enough anti-pronation built in. I was worried! It was worse the next morning. There was too much doubt in my mind - I decided to start again, and resolved to go to Sweatshop and get re-evaluated.

They were great - spent over an hour and a half with me. The kayanos let me feet rotate still (interestign, as they hadn't done six months ago, but I could feel the difference when I tried other shoes). We went through several - NB, Saucony, plus several others, and then the nirvanas. They really did feel like the dog's danglies. My feet just felt like they wee moving so much more efficiently. Sadly the pair they had were half a size too small - fine for a trail but long term not good - so I have a pair of 11.5's on order from another branch. Plus a bonus - they're £55!!

Still waiting for those - and can't wait - only downside is that if they work I guess I'll need a second pair for outdoors! Plus I do have a new pair of kayanos and a nearly new pair of 2100s that are not ideal! Might use them for shorter runs - might strengthen my ankles or something.

All that remained was to take the Creations back - rather a nuisance, as Fulham isn't exactly on the doorstep! Still - they were okay about it, but I never really got an apology for recommending a neutral shoe to someone who had made it clear he needed stability shoes! Of the two shops, Sweatshop impressed me way more!