I guess I really ought to make a bit more of this blog,
after having set it up to publish my 2016 Spine race account, even if its just
for my own benefit so …
Well, the 2nd phase of 2016 for me is now well
underway. I’m pretty much recovered from the Spine though 2 months on it has
left me with a couple of foot issues. Firstly I still have a numb L big toe,
but more seriously it has left me with sore spots on the outside of both feet
which I now learn are Tailors bunions.
Normally bunions affect the big toe and I recall my mum
suffered with these. Tailors bunions however affect the little toe and are a
bony growth just below the big toe at the base of the joint. I’ve had these for
years but they’ve never been much of a problem before but it seems the swelling
of my feet into the boots I wore on the Spine has made them more painful and
whatever I run in now seems to make them hurt, to a varying extent. It’s
something I can put up with for 5miles or so but I wonder about how much it
will affect my running style on longer runs … I suspect I may find out this
weekend …
One thing I’ve found as I get older is that I need more
recovery time after a hard run and I also need to keep running more regularly
just to keep my head above water. Leave it for only a week or so and I feel
like I’m starting from scratch again. It also feels like these needs overlap at
times, which is a bit of a Catch 22 situation.
Prior to the Spine my running was undergoing something of a
renaissance in the 2nd half of 2015.
After I wrecked my back in 2013 I was happy just to return to running of
any sort. I’d been slowing down for years anyway and little I did seemed to
have much of an effect. The weight gradually built up and the speed kept ebbing
away. I accepted it as an age thing, as
gracefully as I could. Then for a reason I have still not yet worked out, I
lost about 1.5 stone in 2015. This may have been a combination of being more
careful over diet and just slogging out the runs – and learning to love running
again just for its own sake and not just in search of PB’s but whatever the
reason I was grateful.
In the 2nd half of 2015 I came 7th in
the Nomad 50k, 1st V55 in the Ridgeway 86 UK Trail Running Champs
(and got a PB on it too). I also managed to get 5-10yr PB’s in most distances
from 5k-marathon, running a 3.37 marathon in September and a 1.35 Half in
October. They were still well off the PBs I ran in 1996, but that was 20yrs ago
(Wow, where did it go?) and I was just grateful to be getting faster rather
than slower.
Then the Spine intervened. I don’t want to make that sound
ungrateful since it was the hardest race of my life so far and I loved the
experience and achievement, it’s just that as an interminably long slog it was
the polar opposite of what I’d been doing previously and training for the Spine
over the autumn/winter preceding it just knocked my speed hard on the head and
it’s taken a good couple of months of persistence and closing my brain to being
slow again to start seeing any return.
I did worry that 2015 was a blip, a one-off, but it seems to
be starting to come back ... a bit anyway. In the last week or so I’ve managed
to run (apart from a couple of superfast aberrations in July 2015) the fastest
time home from work for 2years, over 12miles and then on Sunday I ran the
Weston 5, a local 5miler in my fastest 5mile time for 5years.
I wasn’t sure it was going to happen though. We stuffed our
faces at Pizza Hut Saturday evening after Louises dance show and by Sunday
morning I felt pretty heavy/sluggish.
I wasn’t sure breakfast was a good idea but I went for it
anyway. The weather at Weston was good. It was a little chilly but there wasn’t
much wind, so it was just right. I set off pretty quickly determined to stay
with Rob & Darren for as long as possible and by the 1st mile I
was still with them and feeling ok, so I pushed on past Darren and then past
Rob just after the railway bridge.
I did a 6.48 1st mile, the fastest I have done
for some time and then did a 7.06 and 7.05, so I was quite happy with those
miles too. After 3miles I started feeling it a bit though and was beginning to
regret the fast start. I had been just behind Amanda Hewitt since the start and
whilst I didn’t manage to catch her I stayed the same distance behind until the
last half mile or so when she pulled away a few yards. My last 2 miles were
7.17 & 7.11 so, from struggling a little on the 4th mile I
managed to hold on a little better on the last mile, finishing in 29th
place in 35.41, averaging 8.5mph –
we finished in 3rd place in the team race too.
I was really pleased with the consistent splits and also
that I didn’t drop off too much towards the end. I do now need to maintain that
speed and build up the mileage as well since London is only 5 weeks away and
that will include Easter too.
Before that though, it’s the 65k 4 Inns this weekend. It’ll
be my 27th 4 Inns and hopefully my 26th finish. It’ll be
a family affair too with grandson Cameron on his 2nd time on the 35k
event, and son Aidan on his 1st time on the 35k (son is younger than
grandson … don’t ask!) I’m really looking forward to it since it was the 1st
Ultra I ever ran, when I was 17 and is my favourite too. It’s not quite the
sort of thing I really need to be doing 5weeks before London and is much more
of a throwback to the Spine sort of race endurance rather than speedwise, but I
just love it.
The Beast at the Weston 5
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