Training Log Archive: Thumper

So....I woke up sore. But I wagered I could at least make 1/2 the race. With the bombshell dropped last night that Yorkshire didn't have a full team, the pressure to finish was off.. so I could turn up and run for as long as the calf let me. Frustratingly, I woke up with the heel more painful than ever... so ended up spending much of the morning farting about with various taping techniques (and the taping the birthday girl who insisted upon it!)

Now anyone who has managed to endure my blog for any length of time will know that anything that links me Yorkshire and running, is inevitably going to result in some sort of calamitous drama...


I arrived at the Yorkshire tent, very nervous (not about the race, but about receiving my treasured vest). Despite the team consisting of Hallamshire and Leeds runners, I felt very out of place, as I have had this on a pedestal for such an amount of time. Unfortunately, upon arrival I walked straight into the women's tent (both were blue) and was shouted out quite quickly (in a nice way), so i felt a total dick.

I was last to arrive due to logistics of meeting a builder, making a fuss of Sophie's birthday and then getting stuck in traffic. So I headed on my warm up alone, I decided to recce the course, to minimise heel pain and to see what was in store.

It was a completely different course to what I have spectated at Cofton park in the past, almost always up or down with minimal flat. Pretty fast conditions, but with some thick sticky mud in places...

I tried to analyse how I felt warming up (not great) and plotted my lines, then SLAP!!

I stacked it on the downhill, I then slid to the bottom. Much to the delight of an entire county team behind me. I was beginning to feel a bit like Bridgette Jones. Worse still, I landed on my "bad side", resulting in some hamstring spasm and my calf felt even more tighter.

God.. I just want to finish!

I got back to the tent, embarrassed and met with the rest of the team. We headed to the start. I wanted to be aggressive and take a risk today. It sounds cheesy, but I looked down at my vest and saw the Yorkshire emblem and just felt so happy and at peace, (finally)!

The start was a significant downhill slope, not ideal for me, but I went for it. I started at the back of our pen but followed the team through for the first 2 miles, thinking "this is on!" But all of a sudden I started feeling shit, my legs felt heavy and I quickly realised that survival was the name of the game!

Worse still, despite re-tieing my laces twice, my spikes never felt secure in the sticky mud.... So with a lot on my mind, I just ran as hard as i could, I didn't feel strong, but I couldn't raise it another level, not even for Yorkshire and I ground out a decent result.

I crossed the line after a hard sprint finish (which I lost), looked down at the Yorkshire emblem again and felt an immediate sense of catharsis. I found Sophie and Hatts and had a lovely kiss and cuddle and that was that. It finally happened, I ran for Yorkshire.

There will be plenty of times where I moan about my running, but never will I have the sense of disappointment when I look back on my time as a runner that I never managed to represent my county, which as always loomed over me. Psychologically this is massive for me and I feel very lucky to have got back running and to experience it.

As for todays performance, I finished 55th. About where I felt I should have been at the national. It will always look good on paper, but it wasn't a great run. The field was weak for 2 reasons, Trafford tomorrow (in perfect conditions) and the lack of World XC this year. I felt lousy throughout, I cant call myself soft a I ran as hard as I could, but I didn't have the never-ending gears that I felt at the National.

Its been a great winter though. I hope I can toe the line in Cardiff and I will try, but my heel was sore throughout today..so we shall see.

But I have learnt a LOT about myself as a runner in the last 6 months.

I need miles to run well, but I cannot race off mileage...a taper for a good performance is a 50 mile week and a mild cut back over the preceding weekend. I also need to tape my spikes up from now on.
The marathon/hm sessions work for me.
I cant start hard, but I can start medium.
If I back off immediately from training niggles (excluding the post National injury) I can get back on it quickly.
Its best not to squeeze extra races in (Dewsbury), the training is important when u are tapering so heavily for races

But on reflection despite a couple of disappointments, I achieved the main goal: to finally but to bed the Yorkshire jinx, before its too late and I'm happy with my XC season

C • Well done pal. 1

Shakeout plod.
Calf not happy at all. Dunno what I can do really, just got to wake up and pray for the best tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'll literally be living the dream, really hope the calf holds out.

I had strides planned but binned them

C • Best of luck tomorrow 1

Couldn't have run today if I wanted to, calves v. tight- but it was pre-planned anyway

Morning amble.

Left glut tight.

Heel v sore, calf tight.

Looking forward to not running tomorrow :(

Very slow plod around Linacre. 3 laps again to ensure bailout options.

Picked Linacre again as the uphills provide respite from my heels.

Left calf getting pretty tight now as I'm spending a lot of time trying not to put weight through my heel.

Apprehensive run around Linacre. Lovely morning.

Heel uncomfortable throughout, but by taking the anti clockwise direction much of the loop is uphill, which is less aggravating.

Appeared to work and got no worse

Session of 6 x mile/60s. Another calculated risk. I wanted to try and get a few more sessions in with one eye on cardiff.

Parked at the car park in holmebrook to give me the option of bailing at any point without having to run a minimum of 1.5 miles to my usual warm up start point. I was a little surprised to see no cars in the car park.

My plan for this session was to run comfortable, not chase times but try and run at a cadence that delivered something under 5min miling.

First mile was decent, second less so (but I was a little pre-occupied with a very large dog not on a lead), so I decided to stop looking at my watch and try to concentrate on decent form.

I felt relaxed an in control throughout, but I felt a bit sluggish. I was expecting post session to check my splits and see over 5 mins, so I was pleasantly surprised.

Just need to get through a double day tomoz then fingers crossed after a rest day and easy run friday my foot might feel a bit better.

It was ok in the session as I was (relatively) on my toes, but sore on the warm down and sore now... road running is a total no, no atm...which might leave me with some decision making to do post ICs (about Cardiff).

4.53, 4.58, 4.54, 4.56, 4.53, 4.51

Heel V. sore today, but this was a planned rest day
Ideally I would like to do a double day of an easy run and session tomorrow, then double easy on wednesday, rest thurs, easy fri....


Not sure if the body will let that happen...and theres norovirus on the wards..

A long week awaits

Very pleasantly surprised to wake up with my legs feeling the best they'd felt all week.

Set off a little later than planned but still managed to bag a few brownie points and was treated to some beautiful views around the resers, with snow falling through out the last 10.

Though I'd gotten away with it until at mile 16 my heel flared up big time and the final 2 miles were a very sore plod back in. Bugger.

Very sore walking around afterwards, has eased a little bit now, but I'm a bit anxious as to how it might feel tomorrow.

Had a chat with Hatts last night as to my best plan for the next few weeks and we agreed its probably best to trickle over the line and try and run as well as I can at ICs and Cardiff.

As I've stated before my running goals have always been:
Yorkshires: Top 6 (+ represent)
Northerns: Top 15
National: Top 60
5K: 14.50
10K: Sub 31
HM: Sub 68
Marathon: 2:24

This winter has seen me tick one of these off and get close enough in the national to be fairly happy that it was at least achievable (and significantly improve my best performance.)

My plan 18 months ago was to survive a marathon and complete a XC season by playing it safe...which is what I've managed to do.

So once I'm rested and shake the niggles off, I'm hoping to take a few risks and see if I can improve any more. But on reflection I'm really happy with the winter (for once!)