December Status.

It's Christmas Eve. 8:15pm. Youngest is in bed and might actually be asleep. She's had a busy day, culminating in being Mary at the children's Christmas mass this evening. Joseph didn't make it through the whole service as he was a bit under the weather. Poor lad.

The teens have now hijacked the telly. I finally feel I have a half hour to write my blog, which kind-of says something about the past 2 months.

It probably comes as no surprise that, in November, I managed to damage my ankle again, or more accurately, my achilles tendon. I know exactly why it happened. I've been sticking with a 3 mile course as it's been getting darker and darker in the morning, but familiarity breeds recklessness, and instead of taking it nice and easy, increasing distance gradually, I've been gradually increasing pace. Now this isn't to any blistering speed. It's increasing from around around a 9:40 pace to 9:0X or slightly sub 9, and not really on purpose. It felt comfortable.

However, however comfortable for heart and lungs, my brittle tendons can't handle it. The damage occurred on November 19th and I left it for 2 weeks. On 3rd December I tried again and it felt just as bad - and I was undoing any healing that had taken place. So I find myself on the wagon again, waiting for things to mend.

The consequences are, of course, rapidly declining fitness and I can't wait to be able to pick things up again. Other forms of training just don't fit in my life at the moment.

But I've not stopped. The spirit is definitely willing, and with RICE, the flesh will heal. I just wonder how many times I'm going to have to learn this lesson over pace! New Years day looks like a reasonable target to pick things up again, so I hope to be back with some reports about that shortly afterwards.

In the meantime, Merry Christmas to you all.

Mr Stumble.

Tada.

Hi. My name is Stumble and it has been 40 days since my last post. 40 days, it both flies and crawls by. Once again, all I can do is apologise for another long gap and hope to do better.

In the gap, I have managed to reach my 30 minute running target again. This was actually accidental, as my vague "don't push too hard" plan had me run walking for another week or two. However, on Friday 12th my head was in too much of a fog, falling out of bed at 6:00 to run through our now dark streets (as yours must be too!), and I just hit the start button on my Garmin without programming in my normal intervals - which should have been 3 x 12 minutes with a minute between.

Nope, on Friday I just started running, and when the little "haven't you run a bit far for 12 minutes" alarm went off in my head, and the stopwatch said 13 minutes, I just kept going, thinking Blondie had drowned out the alarm - I do crank up Hangin' On The Telephone - and would take a rest at 24 minutes. I was just having a giggle thinking how un-rock-and-roll I must have been looking whilst Steppenwolf was playing, when I noticed I'd passed 25 minutes and realised what I'd done.

So I just kept going again and watched for 3.1 miles to come up. Done. Milestone reached. Thinks: Should blog this.

As far as physical injury and pain goes - nothin' doing at the moment and I'm feeling great again. I think I'm now addicted to running just because I know how bad I feel when I don't run. Things pretty much fell apart after 3 weeks resting my hip, despite regular visits to my local swimming pool.

I don't have any events planned at the moment and this is something I might take a look at now. 5Ks seem to be a nice distance to have a go at, and I've another 8 months till the next "Stourbridge Stumble 10K", although they do have another event called the "Stourbridge Stagger", which might be fun. I'll find out about that and let you know.

In the meantime, I'm traveling a lot at the moment and really not enjoying treadmills in hotels at all, but they are a necessary evil right now.

Very much hoping to get back to reading and commenting on your blogs again.

All the best,

Mr Stumble
===============

Training:
Date    Distance    Time   Pace   Run:Walk
12-Oct-07    3.11 Mi    30:38   9:51   ----
11-Oct-07    2.99 Mi    29:15   9:47   12:1
05-Oct-07    2.84 Mi    25:11   8:53   8:1
02-Oct-07    3.1 Mi     31:00   10:00   8:1 treadmill
28-Sep-07    2.81 Mi    25:49   9:12   8:1
26-Sep-07    2.61 Mi    25:12   9:40   8:1
21-Sep-07    2.78 Mi    26:24   9:30   5:1
19-Sep-07    2.78 Mi    26:23   9:29   5:1
18-Sep-07    2.4 Mi     24:00   10:00   3:1 treadmill
14-Sep-07    2.56 Mi    24:00   9:23   3:1
12-Sep-07    2.14 Mi    20:00   9:21   2:1
10-Sep-07    2.1 Mi     20:00   9:32   2:1
07-Sep-07    1.76 Mi    16:39   9:28   1.5:1
06-Sep-07    1.75 Mi    16:51   9:38   1.5:1

Stumble, rebooted.

To those of you who have kindly chivvied me along and gently prodded me for more news from the House of Stumble over the past 6 weeks or so, thank you. And apologies for being so lax in my blogging. Very poor form.

As Phil pointed out, this should be more than just a running blog. I think I've established I'm more of a run-to-live person than a live-to-run person. I have certainly enjoyed the benefits of being fitter, and boy have I been paying in the past few weeks for loss of form.

So, since last episode, I've been on holiday again. This time, a week in the county of Devon in the South West of England, specifically in Dartmoor. We rented a lovely little cottage in the middle of no-where ...



... and had a week of excursions and walking on the moorlands and coast of the area. Such as Bellever, in Dartmoor



... and the beaches around Exeter and Dartmouth ...




This area is close to where my dad's family come from, so there was the chance to visit places I'd last been to 30 years ago with my Grandparents, now long gone.

So a good time was had by all and it was with some grumpiness that I returned to work on Monday morning.

However, before doing so, I got in my first run of my new season of running. And it was a very gentle run. As many of you know, I have a habit of breaking something by going out too hard and fast - and also then going entirely the other way and making painfully slow progress for fear of repetition.

I know that I'm more or less starting from scratch now after 6 weeks off, so I'm going to follow a C25K plan, starting off slow and then maybe taking a week or so off the whole plan as I start to get my legs back - we'll just see how it goes.

Monday morning, it was very simple 1 minute run, 1 minute walk for 20 minutes, just to get the measure of things. And they measured up OK. This completely back to basics approach might seem a bit extreme, but as I see things now, I've got plenty of time and no particular target other than simply to reach a point where I get a consistent 10 to 12 miles a week in for fitness. I might run an occasional 5 or 10k for fun, but only for fun - pushing myself only gets me into trouble!

So there we go, I'm back on the road again. Hurrah!

Mon: 1.1 whole miles, 10 minutes in 1 minute chunks with 1 minute walking.

All the best.

Mr Stumble.

Cumbria.

That perennial problem. What to write in a running blog when you aren't running. And of course, the longer you put it off, the bigger the mountain. Well here goes ...

For the past month I have been mostly:
- working
- driving long distances
- swimming
- going on holiday (aka vacation)

Work. My recent switch of jobs has taken a bit of acclimatisation. Despite the hokey phrase, no-one really hits the ground running when taking on something new and challenging. I prefer to think of it as hitting-the-ground-digging. So there's lots going on and this has resulted in the frequent long distances en voiture.

Clearly, with running banned I've needed to do some other sort of activity to try to maintain at least some level of fitness. So, I've been off down the local swimming pool a couple of times a week to get in 40 laps before breakfast. This has been OK although my work schedule has been preventing me from making 3 weekly visits up until this week, when Friday shall be #3.

Before I get onto holiday/vacation, I have now had my latest osteo assessment for may hip. The outcome is fairly positive, in that it seems most likely to be a ligament/muscular problem rather than bursitis and that the 4 weeks of rest put me in a good position to restart running in 2 or 3 weeks, these things usually taking 6 weeks to settle down and heal. I will be back to a very gentle re-introduction - it'll be another lengthy walk/run programme (won't that be fun to read about) but I am so looking forward to it. I've really missed having running as part of my life.

So, finally, the holiday photos. Last week we had the distinct pleasure of spending a week in Cumbria, the English Lake District. This is my absolute favourite part of the country but despite visiting many times in the past, I've never actually climbed a Lakeland Fell until last week. The photos here are of Cat Bells, off Derwent Water. It's a classic family climb with lots of people on the fell. We arrived in Keswick and took a motor launch across Derwent Water to Hawes End, at the foot of Cat Bells.



As we took the launch, this was our view of Cat Bells.



The route is to climb from the woods on the right hand side of the photo, up the first peak, across the ridge and then up the second peak

This photo is from about halfway up the first peak and shows my boots and a view across Derwent Water to Keswick on the far shore.



This is heading from the first peak to the second, across the ridge.



And finally, one of many views from the top. This looking North towards Bassenthwaite Lake.



I took this one late in the afternoon, after returning to Keswick.



If you've enjoyed these, I'll post a couple more from around Ullswater from later in the holiday.

Hope all is well with you!

Mr Stumble.

Stumble's end.

After struggling last week, I began this one hopeful that I'd put my injury troubles behind me and I'd take it gently while my bones healed up. Oh how wrong I was.

Monday was a great feeling 3 miler at a moderate pace, but Monday night, I couldn't sleep properly with the pain in my hip and sitting in the car for long distances has not been helping. I again left it till Thursday before trying again. The same 3 miles and again, everything eases up after the first mile so I'm almost not limping, but then I'm living off Ibuprofen.

On Thursday evening, we went to watch a local amateur production of an amateur production of Macbeth (that was the plot - I forget the real title!) which was essentially a farce and nicely done. At the interval, I was in such discomfort, I knew something had to be done, so I called the doctors magical-automated-appointment-system and got an appointment - the earliest available - for a week Friday! However, it was a start.

Yesterday, I called the doctor's surgery to moan about the wait. It turns out that they have a "bookable appointments" system for extremely un-urgent stuff, and then their normal daily appointments system for everything else. Being more urgent than extremely un-urgent, I got myself a same-day appointment, that very afternoon.

So, I go in and see the doc. He doesn't need to tell me to take a break from running - that's a given before I go in. The hip problem is not straightforward to diagnose, we agree on "dicky hip" (dicky being a very British term for "dodgy" or "not working properly) so I'm referred on to a hip specialist, for which I expect an appointment to materialise within 2 weeks. If not, then I'll be calling on my Medical Insurance once again.

Being on the Internet and thus having all manner of medical resources at my disposal, my own otherwise untrained diagnosis is bursitis. What started out as joint pain is now ligamentish and possibly muscular which might be bad. But hopefully, this will get sorted out with mainly rest and no high-impact activities. At worst, I'll have to get the bursa drained. Yummy.

So that's me done running for some time. I broke myself on the race I named myself after. I'm planning to do some swimming over the coming weeks to try and retain some fitness, but will need to balance this against the need to rest. In the meantime, I'll be reading the posts of all you fine running folk out there and feeling envious. And I plan to join you again in good time.

Mon: 3.16 miles, 30:32 minutes 9:39 pace. 11C HRAve:151 HRMax:162
Thu: 3.1 miles, 30:41 minutes 9:53 pace. 13C HRAve:148 HRMax:158

All the best.

Mr Stumble.

Getting hip.

Apologies to all for my dearth of entries for the past 2 weeks. I changed job on 1st July (in the same company) and promptly found myself travelling up and down this fair isle of ours, getting to know the inside of my car and the view along the West Coast train line more than I cared for. However, the interference with my running has only been minor from the job perspective, other things have happened ...

It was such a surprise how much my legs degenerated over just two weeks off. I knew that I'd need to take things easy, so on Monday (last week!) I set myself an easy 2 miles shakedown to see how things were.

Things seemed not bad' although my left hip still hurts after the 10k 2 weeks previously. So for Wednesday, I planned on a 30 minute easy run. However, on Wednesday morning, I found myself on a 3 hour car trip to Basingstoke with an early start, all day meetings then a dash back to chair the committee for the local scout group.

I finally got time to run just after 9pm and didn't want to loose the opportunity so headed out for my planned 30 minutes. My hip continued to ache for a mile or so and then settled down, but then at just over 2 miles, my right calf started cramping up. It was runnable, so I jogged home, but with little improvement by Friday, I ditched that run and iced and rested up.

I went to see my physio that Friday and she said to me "do you think you're not actually built for running ...?" but I dismissed this on the basis that nearly everyone I know as runners (that's you) run with pain at one time or other, and I've managed pain free before. The rest I took to help my ankle has simply shifted my aches and pains around. Its not going to stop me!

Monday came, so with the calf feeling twitchy but alrightish, I headed out for another easy 2 - a period of acclimatisation seeming necessary. With both hip and calf now giving me some pain, but not as bad as the previous Wednesday, I've started taking glucosamine as a supplement to try and help the hip and been doing more regular stretching to try and ease the calf.

I had planned to meet up with a local club run on Wednesday evening as an intro, but as I had another 6 hours in the car down and up the country, I wasn't back in time. I do think joining a club would be good for me, so it's on my list of things to do. Having left early and arrived home late, my Wednesday run got ditched. Thursday saw me back in London, but I got away at a reasonable time and managed a run after the kids were all in bed. This one was planned as another easy 2 miles to see how my calf was shaping up - hip pain being a given for the moment. With 2 miles under my belt and everything loosening up nicely, I added another easy mile on with no calf pain. I was very pleased with that and I think for the moment, 3 miles may stay my target distance whilst I try to get my hip sorted out.

If it's not one thing, it's another!

My ankle now feels a lot better and so my course of physiotherapy has stopped - I just need to take the time to get regular daily stretching in. Of course, if I end up back at my doctor with my hip and get a referral, it will be months again before I get an appointment.

Training for last 2 weeks.

Mon:2.1 miles, 20:05 minutes 9:35 pace. 13C HRAve:xxx HRMax:xxx
Wed: 3.22 miles, 30:01 minutes 9:19 pace. 13C HRAve:158 HRMax:168
Mon: 2.21 miles, 21 minutes 9:31 pace. 11C HRAve:135 HRMax:156
Thu: 3.03 miles, 29:06 minutes 9:37 pace. 16C HRAve:158 HRMax:177

Hope all is well with you!

Mr Stumble.

Waking from stasis

You couldn't say that its been a particularly dull week in the UK. New man in No.10, biblical floods and bombings at each end of the country. It's all go. I happened to be in London on Friday, and despite all the media's best efforts to tell me what was going on, I didn't know that anything had happened only a mile away from my meetings in the early hours of that morning, until I was reading the front page of the London Evening Standard belonging to the guy sat opposite on the train back home. Where I'd been, off the far West end of the Oxford Road, everything was business as usual.

Back at home, physio seems to be going OK at the moment and my ankle is feeling pretty good. The exercises I have now are a little odd - I have to stand on one foot (the bad one) and then dribble a soccer ball in a circle around that foot. I actually dribble an imaginary soccer ball as I'm so bad a football I'd only end up having to stop and fetch the ball every 10 seconds. Also, the only half-descent ball we have is in a shed defended by our new moat, courtesy of recent heavy rain.

I'm finding that the exercise really demonstrates how much my foot needs to re-learn about balance - it's been protecting the ligaments by shifting some of that work around, but the balancing on one foot exercise needs that ligament to do it's stuff. Hopefully it's starting to build strength again now.

My weight is currently down by 2 or 3 pounds on when I last ran. I guess this is down to to muscle atrophy effect Phil was talking about recently. I know I've lost a lot of what little form I had, and I'm needing more sleep at night now. Hopefully I can keep the weight off and get some fitness back over the next 2 weeks...

... because the good news is that my running starts again tomorrow morning. I plan a nice easy 2 miles shakedown and then probably a couple of 3 milers by the end of the week. However, nothing is set in stone as I don't know how bad things have got.

I shall once again be accompanied by Music as D and I bought each other iPods for our wedding anniversary this week. Tradition would have this as our "ivory" anniversary, but we feel that iPods are a much more environmentally acceptable and useful gift to give these days. Perhaps this will start a trend. "Save an elephant. Buy an iPod." You heard it here first.

The clippy arrangement works really well, so I'm very hopeful it won't fall of my shorts tomorrow.

Hope all is good with you.

Mr Stumble.

Stourbridge Stumble - Official results

It seems that official times were kept for the Stourbridge Stumble, I just hadn't noticed the timekeepers! Stourbridge running club published them a day or so ago, so I now have an official time:

59 minutes 36 seconds, placing 154 out of 203 finishers and 29th out of 39 in my category. This gives me a nice baseline PB to improve on in the coming months and years!

I had already planned to take a 2 week break following the race under instruction from my physiotherapist. This has turned out quite good for two reasons:

1) my left hip is not very well, I suspect because I overdid the finish in the race. It needs a bit of time to heal. My left calf also gave me trouble for a couple of days but has settled now.

2) we've had extremely wet weather over this week, especially in the mornings I would have been running. I don't mind light rain at all, but this has been the sort of rain which turns streets to rivers. It looks like this will run through to next week too.

So, in the meantime, I'm doing my stretches and ankle exercises and plan to hit the roads again on 2nd July, possibly with the start of a half-marathon training plan. After a lay-off, I know I'll need to keep things easy - but I have plenty of time ahead of me.

All the best,

Mr Stumble.

Mr Stumble Stumbles!

This week, I've mainly been taking things reasonably easy so I didn't get a blow-out to prevent me running The Stourbridge Stumble. On Monday, I ran an easy five and Wednesday an easy three and a half. Everything seemed to be ticking over nicely. What's more, I borrowed my wife's iPod shuffle which I have found really helpful. It's like when I run without music, all I can hear is that voice in my head moaning about the time of day, wouldn't it be better if I hadn't started out in the first place and why not make it a shorter run today. That voice gets drowned out with even the fairly low volume on the Shuffle.

Mon: 5 miles, 47:49 minutes 9:33 pace. 16C HRAve:141 HRMax:155
Wed: 3.67 miles, 33:51 minutes 9:14 pace. 14C HRAve:148 HRMax:166

I took the rest of the week off so as not to overdo things before Saturday.

Race day finally arrived! This particular race is run at 6pm, which means a lot of finding things to occupy yourself with through the day. Family life generally means that Saturdays are busy anyway, and this particular one also coincided with my eldest daughter taking a keyboard exam and then heading off for a sleep-over. The logistics of this meant I had no-one to come along to cheer me on or take photos, so apologies for the lack of any footage in this report!

This race is a pretty low tech affair. My number had already arrived in the post last week, so All I had to do was show up at the start line. No chips, nothing to sign in. Nada. The starting point was a big "START" banner strung between a couple of trees in a public park and I spent 15 minutes shooting the breeze with a bloke, talking about a possible 10K in September, at Enville, slightly closer to home. Then, the massed hoards - well about 300 runners - followed the starter up to the trees. There was a fair old mix of club runners from at least 4 local clubs, plus various unaffiliated folk like myself. I knew my target for this was somewhere just under 60 minutes so I lined up at the back.

The course was loosely described to me before we started. A hilly grassy start through the park, then local roads and then into countryside. It's muddy in parts and there are some sections on sand, which would probably be better this year than last due to the enormous amount of rain we've had here since Thursday. I really mean enormous - we've had areas flooded, railway sidings turned into canals, abandoned cars and everything. My own back garden resembled a swimming pool for most of Friday - we've never seen so much standing water out there.

Thankfully, although it had rained on and off through the day, it stopped an hour or so before the race, but surfaces were very wet.

Then we were off. The first section was fast, even though I was telling myself to keep the pace under control, but once you're with a bunch of people surging forward, you can't help keeping that pace. By the time we exited the park, I'd got some better control and was hitting around 9:30 pace. We had already settled into groups and once through some streets and onto an open field, I could see all the leaders streaming away into the distance. However, I was with some club runners, so I couldn't be doing too bad!

As we neared the end of mile 1, I passed some people struggling up a grassy hill before entering a very narrow section, very overgrown with barely any elbow room between the vegetation, and a lot of nettles! This was now trail running and there were gates to negotiate and then a road. Unfortunately, we had to stop for about 30 seconds as the marshals let through several cars who has waited for the leading pack to go past, but then we were off again and into more open countryside. Much of this was uphill work and we followed the trail past a water station and then along the edge of a wheat field. By this time, I'd passed a few more people as they slowed back and kept on the tail of a guy in black top and tights who pulled me up through the field. Once through there I was passed by a couple running and then followed them past the man-in-black. They then slowed their pace within a half mile and I spent the next mile as we headed into muddy trails switching positions with them.

However, the trail became a fair incline and was very slippery with inches deep churned up mud and no dry path. A lot of people in front started walking which allowed me to catch up and pass a few. I was refusing to walk any of this and just plowed on through mile 3 until I hit the pond at 3.8 miles. Here the trail went through a 20ft long puddle the whole width of the trail. All you could do was edge round the side or plow through the unknown depths. I edged, but lost some time doing so. Then another climb and onto a sandy path that steadily rose back up to the central high point of the course. That was just knackering, but again I passed 3 or 4 runners, keeping my stride short and moderating the effort.

Then we were at 5 miles and it was all downhill, returning along the sections we had already run. As we ran through the nettle-alley I joked with the guy in front about it and then the pace started to pick up again as we were back into the open field. There were three of us in this little group now, a guy in a blue top and a tiny lady in a pink top. Pink top had passed me as we exitted nettle alley and had pushed on 20 yards in front. I kept on Blue top's right shoulder and refused to let him get away. We stayed like that for a half mile weaving through some roads. At this point, I'd fully recovered from the hills a mile back and was feeling the best I had through the race.

As Blue and I increased the pace, we closed the distance on pink and then we were back in the park. 300 yards to go and I realised I had a load of gas still in the tank. I put the peddle down and passed blue and pink turning into the last stretch and sprinted for the line like I'd sat on a wasp. I don't think they tried to keep up!

At the line, I tried to read the "official" time which looked like 59:06. My watch made it 59:25, and I started my watch when I crossed the start line, a good 10 seconds after the leaders. Anyway, as my head was a bit fogged up, I'll use my clock time as I don't think I'll get an official time posted from the race.

Once through the shoot, I stopped to speak to the guy in Blue - Mick and shake his hand as really he'd paced me through the last mile. And then it was over.

Splits were (bearing in mind a lot of tree cover and some lost GPS)

Mile 1 9:13
Mile 2 9:57 (including a stop for traffic)
Mile 3 9:29
Mile 4 10:03 (including swimming alligator swamp)
Mile 5 10:29 (sandy hill climb)
Mile 6 8:48 (thanks Mick!)
final 0.2 1:23 (7:29 pace)



















All finishers got a commemorative horse brass, and this one is mine.

All in all, I really enjoyed the event and am looking forward to more over the coming months.

Mr Stumble.

Preparation.

Bit of a mixed week for me, this week. I had planned to try out running shorter distances more frequently, with a longer run on Friday in order to start building my base mileage up. Last week was a mileage peak for me as I had two 10K training runs in there, but this Monday, I was feeling the results of running too far and walking too many hills - things were a bit more of an effort.

When Wednesday arrived, I rapidly found a little tightness in my right calf had turned into a nasty knot. This didn't worsen any further, but meant I shortened the run for safety's sake and subsequently cancelled all further running to allow my calf to settle down. I'm more and more grateful for the endless supply of ice from the fridge/freezer we bought last year.

In the meantime, the physio appointment which I got referred to back in January/February finally came through. Actually the letter permitted me to call for an appointment, which is almost an appointment! Being a "mobile worker" and essentially flexible in the way I apply time to my job, it wasn't a problem to take a mid-morning appointment, and I was offered Friday 8th (just gone).

This appointment was for a ligament in my ankle from damage done way back last year, but that didn't stop me from talking about all the aches and pains I'd had since Christmas. With all the history taken, yet again, we settled on the likelihood that I had some residual scarring in the ligament, and so I'm back on a programme of more stretching, frequent ultrasound therapy and a likely short layoff (2 weeks) starting right after the Stourbridge Stumble 10K.

Speaking of which ... I sent off my race entry at the beginning of the week and on Thursday got my bib number and race instructions. This is all getting pretty exiting now! The course map is a bit hand written so I've not really been able to figure out the route on map-my-run. There are certain sections which I can see and one or two roads and features named (like "golf course") but the rest could be on marked roads or unmarked paths. The description does say "There is a short section of pavement/road but most of the course follows well marked country trails." I guess I'll find out next Saturday.

I'll be running for the benefit of my son's cub-scout group, for which I am a committee member this year.

Training for the week:

Mon:3.52 miles, 32:12 minutes 9:09 pace. 13C HRAve:153 HRMax:158
Wed: 4 miles, 38:00 minutes 9:30 pace. 5C HRAve:138 HRMax:150
Fri: rest up calf.

It looks like Wednesday wasn't much of a workout anyway, with my HR ave at 138. I suppose it is a sign of progress though.

For the coming week, I'm planning a 5 miler tomorrow, then 3.5 on Wednesday, two rest days and then the race on Saturday. I really don't want to break anything between now and then.

All the best,

Mr Stumble.

Harvington.

This is our cat, Spats.



As with most cats, Spats is inquisitive. This week, Spats decided that it would be fun to squeeze through a pretty slim drainage hole in the deck only to find she couldn't get out again. Cue deck disassembly. Of course as soon as she was out it was as if nothing had happened. "What, me! Get trapped? Nah. I could have got out any time I liked." Bah.

It's been half-term this week, so kids home from school and I took a couple of days off to herd them around. Not that this meant any holiday lie-ins of course as my youngest tends to get up between 7 and 7:30 so I try to get out running well before that to allow D more Zzzzz time.

On Monday, things were feeling pretty good so I set myself the 10K target I spoke of last week and set off. These longer runs are now starting to involve at least partial double-loops of my regular circuits and I now have a couple of these add-ins which put either a half or full mile on the end of a run, depending upon how well I've managed to estimate to mileage on the rest of my course.

Funny thing is that when I start the second loop, I feel so much better than when I go first time round. It's like, regardless of mileage, the second half always feels better than the first.

Anyway, I managed the 10K in 57 and a bit minutes and was quite pleased with myself, although my hips were feeling a bit sore. On Tuesday, we took the kids off into Wales to go climb a mountain. Well, walk up one anyway. This was Moel Famau, a 554 meter bump in the middle of a country park West of Wrexham, in the North East of Wales. From the top there were fantastic views over the coast and across to Mount Snowdon some 50 or so miles to the East. Snowdon is the highest peak in England and Wales, only Scotland having anything higher.

It was pretty blowy at the top with a couple of rain showers on the way up. However, we all had to alternate between T-shirts and 3 layers with waterproofs as we climbed, the weather being so changeable.

My eldest daughter was off at the Brighton Fringe Festival with her theatre group, so we had to get back for her being dropped off, and then got in a quick celebratory Chinese take-out; her successful show and our making it off the mountain alive. I should have learnt from last time though as my run on Wednesday morning was just rotten, and I struggled home after just 3.5 miles. It's time to cut out the junk!

On Friday, things were better and I got a second 10K in around the same route, although this too was more of a struggle than Monday. I'm considering now trying to run shorter distances more frequently, and having a longer run at the end of the week. Some juggling of schedules needed to achieve this though.

Yesterday, we all headed out into the countryside again, this time closer to home. I've found a website called Walking in Britain and dug out a walk near Harvington Hall, just outside Kidderminster, about half an hour's drive away. It said it was only 5.8 miles, but I think it was more like 8 and the kids (and wife) were all flagging after taking more than 5 hours to hack across some pretty overgrown countryside. Here's a few snaps from various parts of the trek.

Training for the week

Mon:6.21 miles, 58:20 minutes 9:24 pace. 10C HRAve:149 HRMax:155
Wed: 3.55 miles, 33:13 minutes 9:22 pace. 5C HRAve:150 HRMax:156
Fri: 6.21 miles, 59.06 minutes 9:32 pace. 10C HRAve:154 HRMax:158

All the best.

Mr Stumble.

The bust.

To get in my 3 run commitment this week meant running on consecutive days. I'd already run on Monday (previous post) but as Wednesday and Thursday were away days, this meant Tuesday and Friday would make up the numbers. Given my attempt at doing a 5K failed in the small print last week, I ended up sponsoring the wife of a colleague to do a similar event elsewhere in the country and setting up my own 5K course to have a go on Tuesday, and see what sort of pace I could maintain.

This turned out be a fun thing to do - I didn't manage to make myself feel too sick as I did the last time I tried running at a sun 8:30 pace, and it was good to have this sort of target to hit. I managed a 3.2 mile circuit (I had brain fade at the end and added 0.1 miles by failing to look at Mr Garmin in time) in 26:36, an 8:19 pace.

The other thing I wanted to do this week was to extend my running time to 50 minutes, regardless of the pace. I added in a couple of roads here and there to my normal route and came in within 30 seconds of my target end point of the run, a red post-box down the end of my road. This run came in a smidge under 5.5 miles, as is becoming usual, the first two miles felt clunky, mile three was OK although it's on concrete slabs for a good half mile, so uncomfortable, then mile four onwards felt just great. Plus it was in light rain which also helped with my temperature gauge.

The plan for this week is to extend out to 55 minutes, perhaps just tipping over 6.2 miles. This will be a milestone as it means I can run 10K, giving me 3 more weeks training for The Stourbridge Stumble to improve fitness. I know that 10K will be harder than on the roads as it is on track and grass, and not flat!

Training for the latter part of the week:
Tue: 3.2 miles, 26:36 minutes 8:19 pace. 10C HRAve:155 HRMax:167
Fri: 5.49 miles, 50:31 minutes 9:13 pace. 12C HRAve:163 HRMax:166

It does seem strange that my recorded average heart rate on the longer run was higher than shorter, faster run. I suspect that this has more to do with my cheapo HRM than what my heart was actually doing. Whilst on the train earlier this week, I calculated what my 70% and 85% heart rates should be: 144bpm and 163bpm respectively. These are using the "subtract your age from 220 ..." method, rather than having actually finding my maximum through genuine effort. I think this is pretty reasonable to work with for the moment.

Meanwhile back in real life, all sorts of things have been going on. My son now has a school to go to, it's all confirmed and the costs are covered. My daughter is off in Brighton with her theatre group, and they have a few performances of a show which the kids themselves developed and wrote. We get to see it when they get back, later this week.

Meanwhile, the house next door to my brother - the adjoining semi - was raided by the police on Friday. He lives a couple of streets away and I run past his place on most of my circuits. It turns out that this neighbouring house was a sizable hydroponics lab! It was one of several houses raided last week around our quiet suburban district which seem to have been purchased with the sole intent of growing cannabis. It's one way of paying the mortgage I suppose.

Thanks Phil for your comment on movies. Here's another bunch of favourites which nearly made the list:

I love "Delicatessen", especially the saw-playing scene, and when they are trying to find the squeaky spring in the bed! Then there's Twelve Monkey, Fargo, Brazil, Blues Brothers ...

I'll add on your suggestions to my Amazon rental account, always good to see new stuff. Mind you, Wizard of Oz always scared me as a kid - it was a regular X-mas movie on the BBC and the flying monkeys made me hide behind the sofa.

I'm a regular at the cinema, but this year has been slim pickings for good movies. Hopefully, things will pick up again second half of the year.

And finally for this post, I managed to leave my iPod Shuffle in my shorts, and so it's been for a swim in the washing machine. The initial prognosis is that I now have a 1GB memory stick. All of the bits which use the internal battery don't work. My daughter's Samsung mobile phone went for a similar swim two months ago, and after a lot of drying out, lived. However, it was fully discharged and switched off when it went through, something I can't say of my Shuffle. Bah.

All the best

Mr Stumble.

Prawn Crackers.

It has been a long week, and a while since I posted. In my defence, my time has been taken up doing a truck load of tech support, partly for my nephew's notebook PC which has been very ill, and more bizarrely for the local convent. Once you've done a favour for a nun, you're more or less in their grasp forever, even though they reimburse you with offers of cash or alcohol. Or both. They do appear to be extremely tax efficient in the dealings though!

The particular incident this week involved a nun of uncertain age (I wouldn't even hazard a guess) having been sold a laptop by a spotty teenager in a local PC World store. Of course, to the teenager, a new notebook running Vista is easy peasy, and installing Office 2007 a trivial matter. To Sister M.M. here, getting past the warranty card for some OCR software with the bundled scanner / printer was already too much. Too much information demanded which she simply didn't know how to answer. We started by ripping that card up.

I don't know about you, but I'm seeing more and more people getting left behind in the rush to "technologize" our lives, mainly because society (and a certain OS manufacturer in particular) has an expectation that everyone knows how to operate a PC.

Of course, in reality, most people don't really have anywhere near the level of knowledge to know how to protect themselves and their IT investment in the way they are expected to, and the elderly have an even tougher time because it is so far removed from the majority of the lives they have led. This isn't their fault. They want stuff which just works. You don't have to patch your dishwasher every week in case someone modifies the water in some nasty way which will turn all your plates pink and melt the cutlery. Really, if we need to use it, why should IT be different.

So, in the knowledge that in 30 years time, I'll be asking my daughter to do the same for me, I try to help out where I can.

Amidst all this, I did manage some running. I was actually aiming for a 5K racing being run this weekend (well, yesterday) as our previous plans for this weekend got altered, leaving an open slot. However, when I rechecked the small print, the "Race for Life - Telford" turned out to be a women only race, and there was nothing else doing within a reasonable distance. Aside from dressing up, I wasn't going to get past the start line. Sunday, also happened to be my birthday, so a busy day in other ways, topped off by a delicious and not-good-for-me Chinese meal. Plenty to run off this morning then.

Recent training has been:
(last week)
Mon: 3.37 miles, 31:14 minutes 9.16 pace. 10C HRAve:X HRMax:X
Wed: 4 miles, 37:00 minutes 9:14 pace. 9C HRAve:151 HRMax:X
Fri: 4.2 miles, 38:14 minutes 9:06 pace. 12C HRAve:X HRMax:X
(this week)
Mon: 4.85 miles, 47:49 minutes 9.52 pace. 8C HRAve:145 HRMax:157

Those prawn crackers really did slow me down this morning, but then again, my target this morning was just to run for 45 minutes and then jog back home. As I'm travelling on Wednesday, I plan a short run tomorrow morning and then to pick it up again on Thursday with a 50 minute run at just under 10 minute pace.

I'm aiming to get up to around 6.5 miles in the next couple of weeks and then work on improving pace to get a 10K practice time under 60 minutes. The race I'm aiming for is this year's Stourbridge Stumble on June 16th. This is a multi-terrain race and not flat, so I expect my pace will be more like 10:30 on the day. We'll see eh!

Hope all is well with you.

Mr Stumble.

Bunny hops.

It's been an odd week. I needed to finish last week with a reasonable mileage as I had missed my mid week run. Thus I ran on Sunday and got in 2.5 miles and then ran again on Monday - my first run on sequential days - and got in 5 miles.

I'm not too sure that I like running without a rest day, but it's probably something I'll have to get used to - and hopefully enjoy in the coming months.

On the Monday run, as I approached my 3 mile marker along a suburban road I noticed a fairly sizable white domestic rabbit sat in someone's front garden munching on their perennials. It noticed me at about the same time and after assessing my sweaty frame for a moment made a mad dash back across the road and through a gap in a wrought iron gate which I suspect was home. This looked like a bunny who had done this sort of thing before (we have one just like it, only smaller and gray), and it's owners probably didn't realise that their gate wasn't up to the job. So I'll keep a lookout for it, and if we get a repeat, I might go knock on some doors to let them know.

On Tuesday, D developed a nasty cold and sore throat, and retired to bed Tuesday evening, not to emerge until today Thursday morning. This essentially blitzed Wednesday for running, and I got a bit of an earful this morning for sneaking out early for 4 miles, but not early enough to be back in time for my youngest daughter getting up. This is the cue for everyone to get up, regardless of the day and D would certainly have preferred to stay in bed again. More bridges to rebuild!

So the summary for the latest batch of runs:

===========
Sun: 2.56 miles, 22:37 minutes 8:51 pace. 13C HRAve:156 HRMax:X
Mon: 5 miles, 45.28 minutes 9:06 pace. 10C HRAve:149 HRMax:156
Thu: 4 miles, 37:59 minutes 9:30 pace. 9C HRAve:140 HRMax:156

Monday felt like I was running a 10 minute pace - just horrible - but turned out I was kind of where I planned to be. Today felt like I was running an 11 minute pace through treacle with all sorts of twinges in my legs. As you can see it was a lot slower than Monday, probably down to a late night Wednesday as my brother came round, and then an early morning.

Hope all is well with you.

Mr Stumble.

Anger management

I'm not a person who gets angry easily, in fact it's pretty damn rare. But this week, I've managed to spend a couple of days incandescent with rage, kicked off by some mad policies at my workplace, related to my intention to move on to a new role, and then my next door neighbour's builder attaching a building to a wall on my property without permission. On Tuesday night I had more than had enough and was off planning to emigrate to New Zealand and set up on a mountainside with a small herd of goats.

Thankfully, I didn't do anything rash and lifestyle impacting in the heat of the moment and the latter part of the week has given me time to take stock and calm down.

Midweek was also very busy with travelling, so I managed to run Monday and Friday only - so far - early mornings and just being knackered in the evening put paid to anything on Tuesday through Thursday. I might get a couple of miles in over the weekend to try to make up the difference. That said, today's run was something special.

I exited the house and decided that I needed to edge up again from 4 miles. However, I didn't want to set a target distance, I wanted to set a target time of 40 minutes, and run that at an easy pace. So, after a moment of re-mapping my route, I set off in the opposite direction from normal, planning a 9:30 mile pace for 40 minutes. This would bring me in at about four-and-a bit miles. Although I started off with a little stiffness in the legs, mile 2 had an I-could-run-this-pace-all-day feel to it, and with a long flat segment between miles 3 and 4 started what might have been an in-the-zone-ness I've heard talked about before I had to wake up again to avoid getting knocked down on a main road.

As I approached the end of mile 4, I was feeling just great. I didn't want to stop so headed on past the top-end of our road and added on another mile, finishing in 47:23. What's more, I still felt strong. This might be a combination of the benefit of 4 rest days, if such a benefit exists, and the selected lower pace.

So this weeks training so far:

===========
Mon: 4.01 miles, 35:52 minutes 8:57 pace. 7C HRAve:149 HRMax:162
Fri: 5.03 miles, 47:23 minutes 9:25 pace. 7C HRAve:153 HRMax:191

I think my HRM was having it's own bad day this morning as I don't think the Max figure is any way right, and this probably brought my average up from about 148 (at a guess).

So as the week is ending, I'm now back to my normal calmer demeanor. I've re-evaluated my expectations - I'm probably going to be disappointed over something - and know what my options are. And I might squeeze in those few miles in over the weekend.

One last thing for this post. Whilst on a rare visit to the office this week, one of my colleagues, Ranjit, approached me sheepishly with a sponsor form. Of course, I had no problems sponsoring him for a 10K in Manchester in 2 weeks and we had a great chat about shoes, injuries and training. There were a fair few parallels and I knew he must also be listening to Fdip as he's an avid podcast listener too. It was just weird to find someone I've worked with for a good 5 years has essentially gone through the same stuff that I have, with the same influences and at the same time, but completely independently.

All the best.

Mr Stumble.

Blossom falls

It's almost like Spring is over here, and April hasn't finished yet. One section of my run takes me past a long line of cherry trees, and they've been in blossom for the past couple of weeks. It's been a lovely sight, especially when I catch them in the morning sun. This week though, especially Wednesday and Friday, the trees have been ditching the blossom and, as it's been a wetter week here, the petals have been drifting together to make little pools to drench the unwary runner's shoes.

I was only unwary once though.

On Monday, having had two full weeks of running at 30 minutes, I added on an extra 5 minutes, taking the route of "run for longer" rather than "run faster" which certainly seems the best advice at the moment. I'm getting pretty good now at guessing the target distance and then finding a new combination of side roads on map-my-run, so when Mr Garmin's alarm goes off when I reach target, I'm no more than 200 yards from my front door.

The run came in at 3.9 miles, so Wednesday and Friday, I just set Mr Garmin to alarm at 4 miles, to make it a nice round number. All the runs went fine, even the one with the wet foot, but my legs have been telling me to definitely take the weekend off.

I started wearing my heart rate monitor again on Monday, just so that I could start to record my heart rates again for future reference. It's not the cleverest of devices, but it gives me my peak rate and average for the run, which is OK for now.

Training for the week:

Mon: 3.90 miles, 35 minutes 8:59 pace. 11C (rain) HRAve:153 HRMax:170
Wed: 4.01miles, 35:41 minutes 8:54 pace. 11C HRAve:150 HRMax:168
Fri: 4.00 miles, 36:46 minutes 9:12 pace. 11C HRAve:147 HRMax:169

At the moment, I'm planning on just repeating 3 x 4 miles next week, but I probably need to start thinking about mixing it up with longer, slow runs. I have some reading material on this, and might start pushing up my Wednesday mileage, whilst using Monday and Friday to work on other things.

On the home front, I'm just about to change jobs, albeit within the same company, and disengage from a rut I've stayed in far too long. This shouldn't affect my running, although I do expect more travel to London. I'll just have to pick my hotels so I can run through Hyde Park or up The Mall for a nice change of scenery.

It also looks like we've finally got a school sorted out for my son next year. This has been a big source of anguish for us over the past year as getting the right placement for a very bright autistic boy in the face of budget cuts at the city council has been very difficult. My youngest daughter has been off nursery school with a bit of a fever for the latter half of the week, hopefully we'll see a bit of improvement tomorrow. My eldest daughter got a new Yamaha keyboard this week as an early birthday present and between gymnastics, trampolining and homework has been practicing away on it. I did give her some headphones so she doesn't keep us awake though ;).

Finally, today, 28th April, is my blogiversary. And my Runiversary, a whole year since I started out pounding the pavements. Here's to the next one then!

All the best.

Mr Stumble.

Looking ahead.

It's been a weekend of review and goal-thinking-about. The first review item is that last week, mainly due to my mad Wednesday dash, I topped 10 miles for the week for the first time. This is something I intend to build upon, mainly by adding run time and extending my loop somewhere - I don't quite know where yet though.

Secondly, I checked my resting heart rate on Friday afternoon and was pleasantly surprised at a nice low 58 beats per minute. I don't think it's ever been that low before, having sat between 68 and 72 for some years now.

As far as goals go, I'm trying to find a suitable 5K to run in the next month. This will mean some family logistical problems as weekends are packed with all manner of swimming, dance and theatre classes for the kids which I don't really want to interfere with. I can see, though, a 10K possibility on 16th June. This is the 2007 Stourbridge Stumble ("Stour" rhyming with "ow" - as in I hurt my head) the race for which I selected my moniker nearly a year ago.

From where I sit now, it's 8 weeks away and there are plenty of 4 and 8 week preparation plans out there to adapt. I've been looking at a couple of plans on Runnersworld.co.uk to give me some idea of what I need to do. This has meant that I actually need to understand what "strides" are and what Fartlek really means so I can decide whether or not they are going to be suitable.

Don't worry, I'm not about to go try some mad speedwork before I've worked more on my endurance and made sure that my ankles are up to it. However, it doesn't hurt to find out. I'll also be finding out a bit more about how understanding heart-rate can help me train. Again runnersworld tells me to find my maximum heart rate as follows:

"Do this by warming up, then running as fast as you can evenly for three minutes (ideally on a treadmill), then resting with two or three minutes gentle running, then repeating your three minute maximal run. During your second run you should get a higher maximum heart rate than with any other method - though use your heart rate monitor to take readings throughout it, as your heart rate may peak before the end."

I may try this in the next 2 weeks, which should then help me know what easy, medium and hard training heart rates should be.

As for Friday just gone, I had a reasonably good run and found my average pace was just under 9:00, a bit faster than I was aiming for. It was significantly easier the Wednesday though.

Fri: 3.40 miles, 30:14 minutes 8:54 pace. 5C

=================
On a non-running topic, my CISSP exam results from April 1st (it wasn't an April Fools trick!) came through, and I passed. I don't get any more detail than that - they just tell you pass of fail, but it's such a relief that I don't have to study and do the whole lot again.

All the best.

Mr Stumble.

Head boiled again

It was Monday-Legs again at the start of the week and I battled on through to get in just over 5K in 30 minutes. This despite the fact that the temperature was up to 10C and quite pleasant I just felt - yuk.

Today though, was somewhat different. I've found generally that I can't tell how a run is going to go until I'm about half a mile down the road. Today, I was half a mile down the road and thinking about a 5K race I may enter in about a month's time. And then I was wondering what sort of PR I might set - it being my first race and not having a PR yet. And then I was thinking that I would need to know what my race pace should be before the race. And then I looked at Mr Garmin who told me I was running at around an 8 minute mile pace.

So, I was feeling pretty good and decided I would try to maintain a faster pace for as long as I could and see what happens. The way I began measuring the effort was the feeling of resistance I was getting in my quads, something akin to wading through water, except very "thin" water. I used this and a steady breathing rate to try to maintain a steady pace and just kept giving it a bit more gas.

At the 3 mile mark, I knew I was well ahead of my normal pace and was wondering where I would end up running to, as I would have to walk back. I was also feeling a little nauseous having completed the main 400 yard incline section in my otherwise flattish circuit. The main problem I was having here - and sorry if this is a bit gross - is that I was building up a load of phlegm at the back of my throat and, well, I'm not a spitter. So this had only one place to go and my stomach just wasn't liking it.

I could also feel my heart rate was probably close to my HRMax, though I had no good means to record it. This lasted for a couple of hundred yards and I was back to a more comfortable throat and heart as I passed 5K and my usual finishing point.

I completed the run having covered 3.6 miles in 30 minutes at an average pace of 8:22. Nothing mechanical broke. My head looked like it had been boiled, which is probably a good indication of effort - I haven't had a boiled head for months now. This might show that my normal speed, which I've been keeping down to spare the ankles is not really fast enough for a good workout, but 8:22 is too fast at the moment. It's nice to know it can be done though.

So, having done this, I arrive home to find in my mailbox 2 pieces of advice which advise me to do something entirely different. Firstly Phil (thank you!) suggesting I run 30 minutes more frequently in the week and add some lower effort workouts to make a total of 5 sessions.

Secondly, from Runner's World who drop me an email every week or so with links to some wise words for beginners. One of their 35 training principles for beginners is:

"#3 Go farther, not harder Once you reach the magic 20-minute mark, build up to 30 minutes (then 40, 50 and 60). Don’t make the mistake of trying to get faster – don’t try to run your 20-minute course in 19 minutes. Increasing endurance is your first priority. "

So I think the message is clear. This morning's push for speed might have been fun to try, but it's not going to be any good for me to continue right now. I might look to increase my pace slightly as I know I can sustain it, but not currently to anything faster the 9:00, probably more like 9:10. Instead, I need to increase my workout frequency, thus increasing my weekly mileage and perhaps then increase the time I spend out there on each run. But, keep the 10% per week rule in mind.

Training so far this week:

Mon: 3.11 miles, 30 minutes 9:39 pace. 10C
Wed: 3.60 miles, 30 minutes 8:22 pace. 5C

All the best.

Mr Stumble.

A non-stop week

The weather in the UK this week has been extremely good, which is unusual in two ways. Firstly it's April and usually it rains. Secondly, it's a school holiday and usually it rains. I've worked only two days this week, burning some of my admittedly pretty good vacation package which has left plenty of time for more escapades to keep the kids out of trouble.

On Wednesday, we were back at the Wrekin, introducing some friends to the hill which they hadn't managed to get to despite living in the area for 7 or 8 years. So another ice-cream fuelled climb after which my knees started complaining, mainly because of the descent. Here are a couple of shots from the top, firstly the toposcope:



And my eldest daughter resting at the trig point ...



On Thursday, we went up into Cheshire to visit Beeston Castle which the kids always love, especially as there is a farm nearby which makes it's own ice-cream in loads of flavours, which is a nice treat. Mine was apple pie and custard. Mmm.

This was a shoddy photo I took of the castle from the ice-cream farm.



It was a bit hazy.

After this we drove to the Delamere forest, which I'd never been to before, to see what it's like. It turned out to be a very pleasant place for a nice gentle walk in the woods.



Meanwhile, on the running front, things have been steady and good. Wednesday and Friday were both repeats of Mondays 30 minutes non-stop, and with no real problems - my ankle grumbled a bit, but only for an hour or two, so I'm hopeful that this is going to be a good base from which to move on from.

What to do next, I'm yet to decide and could still do with a nudge towards either longer distances or improving pace. Or whatever. Advice would be gratefully received!

Wed: 3.22 miles, 30 minutes 9:20 pace. 4C
Fri: 3.20 miles, 30 minutes 9:23 pace. 7C (back in shorts again!!)

All the best.

Mr Stumble.

*** 30:0 ***

It's what we call a Bank Holiday today, essentially a day off for everyone, unless you work in a DIY / home improvement store or any place selling garden plants and ornaments.

Thankfully, I don't work in either, so have planned today to continue our spring odyssey around the local hills with a visit to the Clent Hills, South of Birmingham. But before any of that, there was the small matter of 3 miles to get in first.

So with the nation taking a lie-in I stood outside the house at 7:15 busily programming Mr Garmin in a totally new way. No more of these run walk intervals, I want automatic 1 mile lap pacing and a 30 minute "your done" alarm. Caution? Wind? Pah!

It may have been a beautifully bright morning, but the fog remaining in my head made this task a bit longer than expected. However, I hit the road after this minor delay and just kept going, keeping the pace as controlled as I could as I followed the flatter course I've been using for the past few weeks.

There was a little discomfort towards the end in the old plantar fascia, but I don't think any damage has been done. I'll use a bit of ice over the next 2 days as I need it.

However, the deed is done. Only 346 days to complete my C25K. At this rate, I'll be ready for a Marathon in about 8 more years. Actually, that suddenly looks optimistic when I look at it.

Of course, what this means is that the goal is met. I will shortly need a new one, although I plan for the moment to establish this 30 minutes as a base for a week or two, before adding anything further or trying to improve my pace. My guess is a little more distance is the better approach, but I wouldn't mind some advice on this.

Mon: 3.09 miles, 30 minutes 9:45 pace. 4C

At this point, I think I need to thank Thomas for giving me a kick up the arse. You were right, and I needed it

Following this momentus occasion, the family headed off to the Clent Hills where we had a pleasant walk around the paths, which were quite busy as they were running an Easter egg hunt. From the viewing point (the big blue starry thing in the middle of the map linked above) I took this photo looking North West towards The Wrekin, where we were a couple of days ago. You can just make it out on the horizon in the photo,



It's there, hazily merging into the clouds just right of centre, on the horizon. We could also see the Long Mynd further West, The Clee Hills (a future expedition) South West and the Malverns to the South.

If you do plan on coming to the UK and seeing the countryside (or perhaps you are already here!), there is a mapping service which allows you to view and print small sections of detailed maps so you can plan routes ahead. The service is at Ordnance Survey and is called Get-a-map. Very useful. This is the one I used today, starting in the car park by "Nimmings Plantation"



All the best.

Mr Stumble.

Shropshire hills

School holidays are upon us here and the kids are already a week into their Easter habit of driving D mad. I've taken a little time off to ease the burdon a little, so yesterday we all piled into the car and headed for a little adventure, in the Shropshire hills. Target on Thursday was the Stiperstones (sty - per - stones) which I haven't been to for for a very long time.



Stiperstones is part of the Shropshire Way walking route but we were only planning a small incursion to determine the lay of the land and consume a picnic.

It was a beautiful sunny day, hazy in the distance but glorious all the same.

Here we have part of the ascent, my son taking the lead....



Manstone rock .....



... and my son atop said rock ...



Stiperstones has an incredibly rough and stony trail, so after lunch, we abandoned and went across to the Long Mynd, to the East. This is a long ridge, stretched out North-South-ish and home to the Midlands gliding club, with both fixed wing gliders ...



.. and parascenders ....



... and some cracking countryside ...





... that being the lovely town of Much Wenlock in the background.

As you may have noticed, I took the opportunity to update my own blogger photo too.

This morning, I got in a further 3.1 miles, moving forward to run 25, walk 1, run 5. So I'm very nearly there. I'll see how I feel on Monday as to whether I dispense with the walk this end of the week. Having got this run in, I then took the kids off to the Wrekin in the afternoon. The Wrekin is a local hill from which our local telly signals are broadcast. It's a 977 foot climb from the car park and my four year old daughter walked from bottom to top assisted only by a Smarties ice-cream half way up. Amazing. She's such a tough kid for someone so small.



Training
========
Fri: 3.10 miles, 30 minutes, 25,5:1 run:walk 9:42 pace. 5C

All the best.

Mr Stumble

Getting closer.

I'd forgotten just how horrible exams are you know. While Thomas spent 5 hours 40 minutes running an ultra, I spent a roughly equivalent amount of time hacking through 250 multiple guess questions in a CISSP exam in Oxfordshire. Despite a pleasant night's sleep in a local hostelry and a hearty full English breakfast to fuel me up, an hour in, I was suffering brain fade already trying to recall minutia of ISO17799, TCSEC standards, elliptic curve cryptography and what types of fire extinguishers to use on a petroleum fire. That'd be Class B then. Foam, gas, CO2, powder.

However, there were no moments when I wished I was trying to run that Ultra instead. No no no no no no. At least a can still walk after an exam!

Results are probably 4 weeks away, so I may mention them in May some time.

Studying has taken a lot of my time in the evenings over the past month and I know with my head buzzing with factoids, sleep has been a bit of an issue and might have been the cause of my Monday legs. This Monday was much improved on the previous two and the 15,15:1 run:walk was no real problem. This might also have been assisted by my new improved stretching regime. This consists of stretching for about 4 minutes rather than the one or so I've been doing previously - I have been lax.

Monday went so well that I've kept with my rash increases in running time and ran 20,10:1 this morning with no apparent ill effects. My ankle feel exactly the same as at 11 and 15 minutes, which is a little stiff and with the slightest of warning aches, but no more.

So, at this point, I have 24 days to complete my full C25K target within one year of starting out. This might actually be some sort of record, I don't know. But given 8 planned runs between now and then this should not be difficult and I might actually do it in one of the next 4 runs.

What I have certainly achieved now is running continuously for the longest I ever had. Once I get to the 5KAIO (5K all in one), I'm certainly planning to establish that as a base and start to increase as best I can.

Mon: 3.17 miles, 30 minutes, 15,15:1 run:walk 9:28 pace. 4C
Wed: 3.21 miles, 30 minutes, 20,10:1 run:walk 9:22 pace. 4C (garmin a bit suspicious today)

All the best,

Mr Stumble.

Half and Half

Very quick update - gotta study! As planned, did a 15,15:1 run today through another grim and overcast early morning. I had my Monday legs on for some reason and the early part of the 2nd 15 minute section was difficult, and both legs were complaining. However, the last 5 minutes or so were by far the best part of the run. Don't know how that works.

Hopefully, I'll repeat this effort on Monday and move on as planned later in the week.

Fri: 3.1 miles, 30 minutes, 15,15:1 run:walk 9:41 pace. 5C

Monthly stats for this year:

March, 2007: 40.2 Mi 6:27:22
February: 27.5 Mi 4:31:00
January: 25.0 Mi 4:06:12

All the best.

Mr Stumble

I don't like Mondays.

Busy week again this week and I have a professional exam coming up this weekend, so I'm going to be short on time getting things written up here till next Monday.

However, after some mulling and welcome comments and feedback, I'm accelerating my slow pace of increases to hopefully get the magic 30 minutes without stopping in the next few weeks.

Mondays though seem to be bothering me. Monday morning just gone was just a horrible slog to get through the run even at 11:11:8 minute run segments. It's the same as last week - and it's not like I've been partying or staying up late. It was a grim cold grey day and suited my mood. On the plus side though, Monday took my current shoe mileage over 100 miles, so a milestone of sorts reached.

This morning was an entirely different matter. Running 13:13:4 actually felt easy(ish), and I felt I could easily have wrapped the last 4 minutes onto the 13. Why didn't I? Well, I'm a slave to Mr Garmin and didn't want to mess my records up. Plus, I've been impetuous before and have paid the price, so I'm keeping to the plan.

This has spurred me on though, and on Friday, I plan a straight 15:15. It then looks like this:

Monday 15:15 (As I don't like Mondays and see this as maintaining the gains only)
Wednesday 20:10
Friday 25:5
Monday 30 (or maybe Wednesday, as I've established my Monday problem)

Being ever pragmatic, if whilst I'm going for the summit of my goal I can feel the impending blizzard of injury, I'll retreat to the base camp of crushing failure to re-plan my assault on this little ambition, no doubt with a block of ice round my ankle.

The ankle BTW is still not properly fixed. It's not painful, just feeling a bit stressed out. A couple of weeks ago, I chased after my physio appointment. In their wisdom, the local NHS Trust has decided to centralise all of the physio services in the city, to make them more efficient. Thus instead of having to wait a week or two for an assessment and treatment plan at our local doctors office, I now have to wait until June (I think it is June this year) to get an initial assessment some place about 4 miles away.

All being well, I'll be able to run there and back by that time ;).

Training this week.
Mon 3.14 miles, 30:22 minutes, 11,11,8:1 run:walk 9:41 pace. 5C
Wed 3.11 miles, 30 minutes, 13,13,4:1 run:walk 9:41 pace. 4C
[Garmin problems both days, probably related to high relative humidity and thick cloud.]

All the best.

Mr Stumble.

Moo.

Last weekend I planned out a new course to something a bit less hilly. Not that I'm running up Everest or anything like that, but I'm not doing myself any favours by stressing my ankles, and this in turn might be holding me back from my main goal of just running for the whole 30 minutes.

The new course also has the benefit of not including a fairly fast and busy dual-carriageway road, so my risk of coming off worse in a runner vs. car bout has been reduced.

Last Monday morning was one of those days where you really feel like not running. It had snowed overnight and the pavements and roads were slushy - half melted snow holding together pools of ice cold water.

On top of that, I just felt like crap and my right calf was mooing achingly, even before I set out. However, once I'd dragged myself downstairs and out into the bright and sunny morning (0C, 32F), I was determined to battle on through.

I ended up over-compensating for feeling rough and completed the course much faster than I had intended and average 9:27 pace with the first mile under 9:00. With the slushy surface, any slight mis-step (and there were plenty) would send a jet of water from the sole of one foot straight onto the front topside of the other one. The foot-freezer-effect would then set in for a few hundred yards, but I was surprised how rapidly my feet warmed and dried out after each splash landing.

My calf continued to moo all day, but was much improved by Wednesday, another cold and sunny morning, -2C (28.5F). Although below freezing, the ground was dry with no ice, and I felt great on return, having managed to control my pace better. So on Friday, it was time to move up to 11,11,8 minute run segments and see how that felt. It felt pretty good.

So my plan now is to run 11,11,8 tomorrow then 13,13,4 for the remainder of the week hitting 15,15 a week Monday. I do think this flatter course is going to make a big difference. I should have done this months ago!

Training for last week:

Mon 3.18 miles, 30 minutes, 10:1 run:walk 9:27 pace. 0C
Wed 3.11 miles, 30 minutes, 10:1 run:walk 9:39 pace. -2C
Fri 3.14 miles, 30 minutes, 11,11,8:1 run:walk 9:34 pace. 5C

All, the best.

Mr Stumble.

A little entertainment

After seeing Mike's video, linked to by Phil, I thought you might like a little entertainment from over here too! Not a cute vid, but I find this quite funny to watch.

This is my eldest daughter, sat next to me on a freefall-drop-ride at Drayton Manor park in Staffordshire UK. The scream you can here is from the young lady to my left (not visible in the video). And yes, I was a bit deaf afterwards. The grunty gargling noise during the descent is me. :)



Enjoy.

My Stumble.

Charing Cross

Have you ever been in a public place and suddenly and unexpectedly had the spotlight swung on you? You know, you arrange the chairs for a school concert - just mucking in and suddenly someone thinks you need to be presented a bottle of bubbly in front of 500 people. That sort of thing.

Last Tuesday I was on the Tube heading South to Embankment listening to FDip before a customer visit and what do you know, the spotlight was suddenly on me. And that exact same feeling of "OMG I want to run and hide" came over me. Not easy to achieve on a Tube train.

Of course, I should have expected it. I had sent Steve a short note, intended as a minor contribution to the C25K episode, kind of a "I'm doin' it and this really helped me" note, but it probably arrived too late and missed the deadline for inclusion. And then this little boomerang hit me 2 weeks later as we were pulling into Charing Cross. The woman sat opposite noticed and even briefly put her book down to frown at my obvious squirming. Isn't it strange how even though you know no-one else can hear what you're hearing through those ear-buds, your (well, my) brain acts like it's on the tannoy and the SuperTrouper has swung over and lit me up.

Anyway, goofy as it was, it was heartfelt and I did mean it all. This blog, as a tool to meet other runners and the subsequent chivying along and advice received, as well as reading what others are up to, really has kept me going.

So, really, thank you. And thanks Steve for the mention.

Back to this week, whilst not in the City I've had 3 good runs this week.

Mon 3.1 miles, 30 minutes, 10:1 run:walk 9:41 pace. 2C
(Garmin tells me it was 3.41 miles, but I think it got confused somewhere)
Wed 3.1 miles, 30 minutes, 10:1 run:walk 9:41 pace. 2C
Fri 3.15 miles, 30 minutes, 10:1 run:walk 9:31 pace. 0C

As noted, Mr Garmin has started getting a bit confused again, I suspect through some reflected signal somewhere it placed me almost a third of a mile from where I actually was on the course. I was very surprised to see my pace over the first mile reported as 7:44. I don't think so. I'm looking at other course possibilities now as I've just added more height to the top end of the run and could do with a flatter course. I'll see what jockeying MapMyRun will turn up.

Hope all is well with you!

Mr Stumble.

Breaking 5K

This week has seen some really lovely sunny mornings to run in, followed by rain later in the day. This is of course perfect for me, and getting out of bed when it's light is so much easier.

Things continue to progress slowly but surely and the graph from RunningAhead shows my mileage drifting upwards to the point where I am actually running 5K now, with 2 walking breaks.

I've managed to stay at 10:1 run:walk all through this week without anything breaking. I have certainly found there to be an increase in complaint from my ankle tendon, but as things stand on Friday afternoon, it seems to have started getting used to the extra effort and there is less grumbling down there than at the beginning of the week.

I now plan to keep this going through next week and then add an extra minute so I'm running 11:11:8, then continue to keep my total running time at 30 minutes whilst I continue increasing towards 15 minutes. Hopefully, this very gradual approach will prevent further injury.

I think I can now say I've partially met one of my goals here. I am running for 30 minutes, I just have to work on the "stopping" part now.

This weekend sees me at a family event in Somerset which I'm looking forward to. Unfortunately, it clashed with a real 5K event I had hoped to run, the "Hearts First Jog - Wyre Forest 5k" on Sunday. This looked like a really good one to start as it's in a place I love to go walking anyway, it's only a half hour ride to get there and it's in aid of the British Heart Foundation. However, family first, so I'll continue looking for another opportunity as I carry on training. It would be great to post my first PR in something before I get a year into this blog!

Wed 3.11 miles, 30 minutes, 10:1 run:walk 9:39 pace. 2C
Fri 3.11 miles, 30 minutes, 10:1 run:walk 9:39 pace. 3C

Mr Stumble.

Sunrise

My luck on the weather front seems to be holding out. Over last week, even though we had significant rain, enough to turn our back garden into a mini swamp, I managed to run in barely a drizzel on one day, overcast another and clear skys the third. The Friday temperature dipped to zero C, nothing a pair of gloves couldn't sort out.

This was my second week of running 9 minute sections and it's been going pretty well. My right ankle continues to feel a little sore the day after, but nothing that causes me to hobble. I keep thinking I must do some preventative icing, but then forget at the point where I collapse on the sofa at around 9pm. Especially as I'm catching up on Battlestar Galactica, rented from Amazon. Hadn't seen any of the new series until a couple of weeks ago and am pretty hooked now.

Mon 2.70 miles, 27 minutes, 9:1 run:walk 10:00 pace. 5C
Wed 2.75 miles, 27 minutes, 9:1 run:walk 9:50 pace. 4C
Fri 2.85 miles, 27 minutes, 9:1 run:walk 9:29 pace. 0C

I seem to be falling into a pattern where my pace improves over the week, then drops back to 10:00 mile the next Monday. Must be to do with what I eat over the weekend, this weekend being especially bad as we had a bit of a family get together on Saturday night, involving copious amounts of Chinese food, pies and beer. Not good for The Plan.

Earlier in the week, I listened to Fdip and Steve's C25K discussion. I wish it was all that easy for me! I'm stuck at around week 6 mark - my mileage is ahead, but I just can't make those larger additions to running-distance-per-interval without risking it all. This said, it did help me make the decision to at least increment a little bit this morning, and so I ran 3 x 10 minutes, finally making it back over 3 miles for the first time since around July last year. This did mean a modification of my route, and I did have some trouble crossing a main road, essentially pushing my way across through a gap in a line of cars heading into town, nose-to-tail at about 20Mph.

This morning also marked another glorious moment. I was running after Sunrise again! I couldn't see Sunrise itself, as there is a ridge to the East of my house. The sun came up at 6:47, I started running at 6:56 and caught it's first rays whilst running through the Woodlands walk at 7:10. It really was lovely out this morning and certainly the best part of todays weather thus far.

Mon 3.05 miles (nearly 5K), 30 minutes, 10:1 run:walk 9:51 pace. 2C

Hope all is well with you.

Mr Stumble.