Waiting in the lounge…

Bloody airport lounges… so, since the move to France , every flight back and forth has been delayed by at least an hour. I’m starting to overdoes on Costa Coffee. Just means lots of sitting in arport lounges, and when the terminals are, quite frankly, dissapointing in their lack of snap buy gadgetry shops, it’s just boring. How long can I go before the laptop battery goes dead… tick, tock…

On to more important stuff, the running is going really well. Loving it. Switching the long runs to a Thursday has been useful, and the training program I’m following has a nice 3 days of rest a week which seems to be considerably more effecive than the usual 1 or 2. Last night I got in 16 miles @ 8min/mile pace, as always a bit faster than I should have, but it felt easy. Felt a bit detached after the run, so made up for it with a nice curry.

Strangely, going back to interval training once a week is quite refreshing. Mixes it up a bit and just pushes you that bit more than normal.

Even got back on the bike last weekend, joining the masses of french cyclists on the road, and di a nice flat, smooth 25 miles.

All in all, feeling pretty chipper. And check out this site, 100 Pushups. Something different and something I have always been crap at… doing lots of push ups.

Vas-y, vas courir

So, a quick drive down South, a few bits of paperwork and I’m now a French resident… well, almost. I now euro-commute cross country boundaries. A whole new adventure to get my teeth into.

Luckily this hasn’t got in the way of my training, and if anything, has reinvigorated it. There’s something about running through the Bordeaux vineyards in glorious sunshine that beats running under gray clouds in an anonymous gray suburb of London. It also gives me a whole new load of routes to find/create/discover.

Started that last weekend, after my back had fixed itself over a few days and a trip to the physio. Got some nice runs in, although my longer run on Sunday felt unnecessary arduous, which I’ve put down mostly to recovery from the 13 hour drive down two days earlier.

Now I’m back in the UK during the week, did some interval training yesterday morning with a nice, steady 7 miles in the evening. I’ve moved my schedule around a bit to allow for more ‘at home’ time at the weekend and now do my long runs on a Thursday evening. This week it’s a good 14 miles. Anyway, if you’re at all interested, then the link to my schedule is to the side and here.

There’s a month and a half until my first marathon, and I’m feeling good about it. Still got some distance training to get in beforehand, but I will do that. The final thing I need to do is get a checkup from a doctor so that I can complete my registration.

Whoop, whoop…

Ouch

So, good weekend runs. two 8 mile runs and an 11 mile run, all over new routes, which as I’ve said previously always makes it more interesting to get out. Every thing coming together, feeling fresh and no aches or pains.

And then… a new one yesterday morning. I was just going through a country gate on an off-road footpath, turned to close the gate, closed it, and turned around and ran off… and kerblam… my back suddenly felt like someone had stabbed a knife into it. Took my breath away completely. Naturally, this happened 6 miles out, so there was not much choice but to get back, albeit much slower.

Since the run, depending on how I move, I keep on getting these stabbing, sharp pains in the middle of my back. No real back ache, so it doesn’t feel necessarily muscular, but more like some kind of trapped nerve thing. Saying that, I have no idea really, just hoping that it’s something that will repair itself over the next few days. Going to try to find a physio to have a look.

When it’s not one thing… it’s another. This running thing…

Pain and the ignorance of it

Well, after last weekends extremely refreshing run, I felt great and then a day later had a hurting ankle which was bruised. I immediately started panicking that the shin splints were coming back until I remembered the single moment on the run where I stepped awkwardly off road and slightly twisted my ankle.

As I soon as I recalled that, everything felt a little better again and I went out running. Yep, I know this wasn’t the cleverest thing to do, but the ankle held together without any problem. So, a little mind over matter seems to have done the trick. Enough to have run 38 miles this week, finishing with a good 8 miles this morning at a 7:20 pace.

And the weather has helped that. The summer is great, when it’s here. Another long run on Sunday on another adventure to find another route.