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.

More pancakes

As you asked Phil, here's my current recipe!

Breakfast Pancakes

140 grams (5 oz) plain flour
7 grams (1.5 teasp ) baking powder
3.5 grams (0.5 teasp) salt
28 grams (2 tablesp / 1 oz) white sugar
1 large egg
240ml (8.5 fl Oz) milk
2 tablesp unsalted butter

Whisk together flour, baking powder salt and sugar. In another bowl, whisk together egg, milk and melted butter. Add egg mixture to flour mix and stir until smooth.

Heat pancake maker. Gently cook first side for 1 to 2 minutes, then flip and cook the other side.

I serve with maple syrup, sliced banana and vanilla ice-cream. Mmmmm. I don't think I can run far enough yet to burn off a stack of these!

Always looking to improve, so alternatives welcome!

Mr Stumble.

Pancake day

I like pancake day, because I like pancakes. And I can pinpoint exactly where and when I really started to like pancakes. The where was the "Olde Niagara House" bed and breakfast at Niagara Falls, and the when was 24th September 1992. About 8:30am. A stack of pancakes, gammon and egg for breakfast. Mmmmmmm.

This was the place, scanned in from my copious photos of the trip. One of my favourite bits of the 3 week trip, coast to coast and back again.



About 5 years ago, I decided I would start to finally make my own to recreate the Niagara House experience on Sunday mornings and it wasn't long before the Internet gave up a recipe which was damn good. I've been making them the same way ever since and demand always outstrips supply.

To work off the calories involved, from Monday (in anticipation!) I added another minute to each of my 3 sections to see what would happen. Thankfully, nothing has broken, but I can feel the additional strain in the ankle. I don't think it's going to tear again, I just think this is the residual tendon-scar tissue having a rough time in there. I don't have any problems with walking, stairs and all the old problems, it's just like one of the annoying rattles in the door of your car.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked my GP for a referral for physiotherapy again, this time on the NHS. I had a call about it last week asking how long ago the injury was sustained. As I have a record (here) that wasn't too difficult. However, no appointment yet. Hopefully, I'll get an idea about that this coming week.

I've was pretty lucky with the weather over the last week and always found the parts of the day where the rain had just stopped, or would start half an hour after I got back in. And for February, it's still really warm at 6C in the mornings. As I write it's 10C. I know it's going to be one of those record-breakingly warm winters, when the statisticians get to talk about it in a couple of months.

Results for the week.

Mon 2.69 miles, 27 minutes, 9:1 run:walk 10:03 pace. 6C
Wed 2.75 miles, 27 minutes, 9:1 run:walk 9:50 pace. 6C
Fri 2.77 miles, 27 minutes, 9:1 run:walk 9:45 pace. 6C

Hope all is well with you.

Mr Stumble.

Swinsty reservoir.

Another busy start to the week meant I had to abandon my planned run on Monday. I suppose I could have got up at 5am, but as I'm not training for anything in particular, I let it go for an extra hour in bed.

From Wednesday, things were calmer, especially as I'd taken the day off. We were off to Skipton in Yorkshire mid morning to collect my daughter who had spent a few days up there with her cousin in a rented cottage. So plenty of time for a run.

Still keeping with my trying-not-to-break-anything plan, it was yet another 8 minutes x 3, this time with the iPod, something I've not done for a while. I also allowed the pace to increase a little to an average 9:46 (gosh!). This all felt fine and although my ankle complained gently during the run, it felt fine afterwards.

After showering, and being Valentines day, there was breakfast in bed, flowers and such to sort out for D before the family climbed into the car for the two and a half hour drive via Manchester to Skipton. Stopped at a nice country pub on the way for lunch and arrived ready for an afternoon walk in the Peak district before heading home.

We drove out to Swinsty Reservoir and had a lovely walk round in some very pretty countryside. Ah - I miss being in hilly landscapes. It's fairly flat where I live, but having spent 5 years in South Wales, you miss the valleys. Here's a selection of photos taken on my Treo, so not best quality!

 

 

Fewston reservoir, taken from the dam between Fewston and Swinsty.

 

As we walked we were passed by a couple of runners. This would be a fantastic place to train, a fairly flat path around the lake, just over 3 miles round. Oh, I envied them.

On Friday, I got my second run in, yet another 8 x 3, this time in the rain. It took a while for my hands to warm up - it was 6C with a light wind, so there was a bit of a chill - and looking at my pace, it seemed to have encouraged me to try getting home sooner ave. 9:24. Again no problems aside from not being able to see much when my eye-glasses misted up. And this time without the iPod, as I didn't want it to get a soaking.

Planning to move back up to 9 minutes next week to try it out again.

All the best.

Mr Stumble.

Elliptic Curve

After a long week away studying night and day, I was very glad to be leaving Wembley for the 3 hour trek home. As aluded to previously, I have not run outside all week, and this was becaise I found the place a nasty mix of building site and, well, "rough neighbourhood" only starts to scratch the surface.

When I pulled into the car park at the hotel on Sunday night, I stepped out onto crunchy glass, glass that, earlier that evening, had been part of the passenger window of the car in the next space. I moved to an underground car park straight away.

Thus I was thankful that I had selected a hotel with a gym so as to avoid the urban dangers outside. I also avoided some freezing temperaures and snow, which was a bonus.

Although small, the gym had the two things I was looking for. An elliptical trainer and a treadmill. The plan was to use the elliptical for 10 minutes and then do 2 lots of 8 minutes on the 'mill, adding up to slightly more cardio work, but with less impact. Thus I would be able to train each day without blowing up my ankle. This worked out OK except for Thursday when I woke up feeling just rotten and abandoned hope of achieving very much of anything all day.

The results:

Monday 1.6 miles at 10 min pace ( 2 x 8) plus 10 mins on elliptical.
Tuesday 1.6 miles at 10 min pace ( 2 x 8) plus 10 mins on elliptical.
Wednesday 1.6 miles at 10 min pace ( 2 x 8) plus 10 mins on elliptical.
Friday 1.6 miles at 10 min pace ( 2 x 8) plus 10 mins on elliptical.

All this followed by that full English breakfast I spoke of last time.

I found the elliptical quite difficult. This was because I felt off balance all the time and it's like you're constantly supporting you weight on your quads - the isn't the same "rest" that you get in the return part of your stride. This may well be why it's good at what it does, but it does little for calves, as Phil says.

All the best.

Mr Stumble

The Lost Post

Very short post. I wrote a more lengthy entry last night, but got my old pal, Blue Screen Of Death, just as I was about to post. I'd hoped Blogger did some sort of auto-save-draft like gmail, but it doesn't yet, you have to press the button .. like that .. and then hit the edit button to carry on. Bah.

In short:

- Friday was an 8 mins x 3 @ 10 minute pace. Nothing unusual
- Weekend, ended up working so didn't post
- This week, in Wembley on a course.

The hotel has a gym, and I'm visiting daily, doing 10 minutes on the elliptical followed by 8 mins x 2 on the treadmill. I'm not running outside, and will explain this one in a later post.

Anyway, having just burned off 350 calories, I'm off for a full English breakfast to prepare for all the upcoming mental exertion. Doing encryption today, if one can be said to be able to "do" encryption in a single 8 hour stretch!

All the best.

Mr Stumble

Notes from a Stumble.

Apologies for falling into the "blog hole" for more than a week. Since I ran on Wednesday last week, I've been worried about this ankle again. The sore tendon is back, and I think it's the extra minute that did it.

So I took a whole week off and it got marginally better. Yesterday, Wednesday, I went out again, and held it back to 8 minutes and a very easy pace. It loosened up around half way round, and since has sat there - not so much aching, but in a pre-ache. Hard to explain.

I've finally been to the GP for another physio referral, but that won't be for a while now. Next week, I'm spending the whole week at a training establishment, next to Wembley stadium. No it's not soccer training! The hotel has a gym, so I'll be probably trying out an elliptical trainer if they have one, and if it's any good may get one myself.

Being none impact, it should be better for me, but I do hope to get a run round the stadium if I can at least one morning.

Meanwhile, planning another run tomorrow, and hopefully a more rapid post.

All the best.

Wednesday 2.35 miles 24 minutes @ 8:1 10:13 pace

Mr Stumble.

Traction control

Wednesday morning was a little less cold than anticipated, but still below freezing and the coldest air temperature I've run in. Having run at 4C in a long sleeved under shirt, T-shirt and some old trackie trousers (I can't bring myself to buy running tights) I was pretty sure I'd need something extra to ward off the 4.5C difference.

I added a windbreak zip-up fleece, bobble hat and upgraded my gloves from some sailing gloves, with the first finger and thumb half open, for thermal gloves. The sailing gloves are intended to allow for the tying of knots and fiddling with little metal pins holding the sheets in place. They are also really good for accurately pressing buttons on a Garmin.

Having loaded up on the layers, I was already overheating as I made my way out the front door, so I had a few moments to cool down slightly - taking in the gloriously clear sky, just starting to lighten, before kicking off.

This run moved me forward again now 3 x 9 minutes with one minute walking between. Again I kept the pace down and followed my MapMyRun planned route. It was pretty slippery out there and in some spots I was only really keeping myself upright and letting momentum carry me forward. Mind you I had plenty of padding if I did go over.

The gloves only lasted the first mile before they came off, and the hat lasted another mile before I just couldn't stand the heat. I was pretty much roasted at the end, so will be replanning my run-wear for next time.

9 minutes felt pretty good, but now 24 hours later I can feel that right ankle tendon complaining again. I've been wondering if Carmen has something similar which has put her out of action for a while.

Not wanting to loose this progress, I'm considering rolling back to 8 minute sections for a while longer, then trying again at 9. Physio help would also be great and I keep promising to get an appointment but can't see where in my diary it will fit until mid February.

Hope all is well with you.

Monday: 2.7 miles, 10:02 pace 27 minutes. 9 run : 1 walk.

Mr Stumble

For the benefit of Mr Stumble

I've been considering over the last few days what benefits my sorry attempts at running have brought me thus far. I was somewhat surprised when I realised that since I started way back in April last year, I haven't had a single "bad head" day related to lack of sleep.

I had recognised a pattern. If I had less than 7 hours kip for more than 2 nights in a row, I'd wake with a bad head which would progress to debilitating migraine by lunchtime, and then ease off in the evening.

The response to this was clear. Go to bed earlier. However, over the past couple of weeks, I've broken this golden rule of sleep at least twice with no ill effects. The conclusion: my lack of any conditioning and fitness were having a much more corrosive effect on my life than I had ever guessed at.

The maths of the benefit are pretty positive. I spend about an hour and a half running each week and gain between 5 and 7 hours each week awake in return. That's a bargain.

Over the last week and a bit, I've maintained my running schedule much better. Monday was my last run at 7 minutes x 3 and went OK. Wednesday I moved up to 8 minutes x 3 which strangely felt a more comfortable distance and time.

Friday nearly didn't happen. I got stranded in London due to the storm-force winds closing the rail network. I had a suit, my PC and a credit card. The credit card got me a room for the night, so I ditched the PC, jacket and tie, and headed out into the West End with a collegue for a good Chinese meal and spur of the moment tickets to Spamalot. Cool.

Having made the best of a bad lot, I still didn't know how I was going to get my Friday run in. Thankfully, despite chaos at Euston station, I managed to get a train home and arrived by lunchtime. So first job was pounding pavements which was great relief from the previous 24 hours.

Monday 22nd was much colder. I'm starting to increase the clothing layers now and I expect it to be well sub-zero centigrade tomorrow morning, probably -2C or lower. I'll be watching my step!

Last 4 runs :

Monday 2.1 miles, 21 minutes @7:1 run:walk 9:59 pace 11C
Wednesday 2.42 miles, 24 minutes @8:1 run:walk 9:55 pace 13C
Friday 2.46 miles, 24 minutes @8:1 run:walk 9:46 pace 11C
Monday 2.4 miles, 24 minutes @8:1 run:walk 10:01 pace 4C (trouble crossing a road!)

Phil, congratulations on your marathon finish. Just brilliant!.

Mr Stumble.

Good intentions.

It's been one of those weeks of good intentions but poor results. Following my run on Friday 5th, the tendons in my right ankle felt sore through the weekend. I knew I was off to London very early on Monday, so wanted to run on Sunday evening, but when it came to it, I was worried about not giving it enough rest time.

So Monday turned into a long day - 5 hours of travel, 7 hours of work and wasted on my return. Tuesday, however, was an altogether different kettle of fish and I was working from home. I didn't manage to get up early enough to run first thing, so decided to brave the oncoming forecast rain at lunchtime. Happily, this rain turned up the moment I stepped back in through the door, having completed another 7run:1walk x3. This was done purposefully at a lower pace, just under 10 minute/mile pace, as although I don't find the running difficult on the cardio/energy/breathing side, the slower pace is far better at damage limitation to my tendons.

This meant that my next scheduled run would be Thursday, giving myself a day recovery. However, Thursday was another day in London, this time starting even earlier. So no time to run in the morning and, as we do most Thursday evenings, we had a baby sitter booked for an evening out (seeing Pan's Labyrinth at the local Arts cinema - very good!) so no time then either. Bah.

The weeks second run occurred 2 days late, on Friday morning, bright and early-ish. Again, this was a slower paced run, the same as Tuesday and all fine.

This then left me with a problem. To fit in a 3rd run would mean going out on consecutive days, Friday and Saturday, or Sunday and Monday. My next week diary is again shot through with 2 trips to London on Tuesday and Thursday, leaving me Mon, Weds and Fri as convenient days to run. I don't want to jeopardise Monday by running Sunday and then needing a rest day for my ankle, but then I do want to get my 3 runs in for this week.

So, I might write this week off as "underachieved" (there's nothing like emotive language to spur you on to improve) and stick to a regular schedule next week. I'm also going to try to keep my future London meetings to Tuesdays and Thursdays only - if I have any choice in the matter!

Mr Stumble

The uphill struggle.

A late post for a run last Friday. This was a middle of the day run, it had dried up nicely and as I was working at home on nothing in particular, the luxury of an hour's break for a run, shower and lunch was welcome.

Since the previous run on Wednesday, I'd had some moderate tendon soreness again in my right foot, but this had all but gone by Friday morning, so I went ahead with another 7run:1walk x 3.

The route I'm now using gives me a short light downhill, followed by a steady slight uphill incline for a half mile, then a substantial flat-run along a busy main road before turning downhill. It finishes with a bit of uphill. RunningAhead tells me that the biggest elevation changes are 50ft up and 80ft down, which doesn't seem much over half mile distances and are purposefully much less than in my original 3 mile course.

However, the extra slight ankle stretch going uphill is still causing me problems. Since Friday, my right ankle has continued to be sore through the weekend, and a long trip down to London today gave me an additional excuse not to run today to give it a little more time to settle down. The plan is to run tomorrow (Tuesday) early - I've seen the weather predictions and don't want to be out after 11am - and see how it goes. I might even drop back to 6:1 for a while, to see if I can maintain something while my ankles try to build some strength and I can push on up again.

Of course, Christmas feeding hasn't helped as, once again, I find I am that little bit heavier. This in turn loads my ankle up and isn't helping. I get the feeling I have the ankles of someone 2 stones lighter. So, I'm going to see what I can do to reduce my weight through being more careful about what I eat. I don't want to use the D word. I'm just going to eat less and better, that's all.

Friday: 2.21Miles, 21 minutes running @ 7:1 run:walk. 9:31 pace

Mr Stumble.

How I did in '06.

After spotting Phil's snazzy diagrams and run-metrics, I thought I'd take a look at RunningAhead myself and see what it could do for me. As it turns out, quite a lot. My Garmin does not have the data upload facility - it's the cheapo one - but manual data-upload really only takes about 60 seconds of clicking and typing, so it's not really a problem, especially if you do it regularly.

Of course, having found it, I then hacked in all of my Garmin recorded runs from last year too. This told me that I'd run a grand total of 32 times last year (probably more like 40 with pre-teched-up runs taken into account) and racked up just over 69 miles. If nothing else, this is 69 miles more than I ran in 2005. However, I also note it's under a weeks mileage for Thomas at the moment, so I have a clear perspective on this one.

It's return-to-school day here in Blighty, at least for two of the three kids, so schedules were as ever mucked about, especially as we've all become so used to staying up late and sleeping in late. My plans to run this morning went out the window, so I've run this evening instead. I can't really leave it later than 8:30 to run, as I know the weight of prevarication increases exponentially thereafter and I'd end up eating my way out of a tub of pistachio nuts for the remainder of the evening.

However, 2 hours is still a bit short for digestion, so I ate reasonably lightly, knowing a Christmas Pudding, which had survived this long because of us all being ill, would be a delicious high-carb reward on my return.

Today, I moved up to 7 minutes x 3. RunningAhead helped me plan a slightly longer route and I headed out into a relatively warm (9C) blustery, drizzly, dark evening. Aside from a calf twinge at the start of the second 7 minutes, all went fine. I even managed to tidy away some stray bin-lids which were blowing down the road - good deed for the day. Still some slight tendon strain in the right ankle after the run, but I expect that will subside before Friday.

2.18 miles, 21 minutes running at 7:1, ave 9:39 pace.

Back to work tomorrow. Bah!

Mr Stumble.

Spritely, for the New Year.

Staggered out of the house this morning at about 9:30. It's not that I had a bad head from revelry, I'd just been daft enough to stay up after the Big Ben bongs to watch Amnesty's Secret Policeman's Ball and not managed to unstick myself from the sofa. All those nuts, dates and Black forest gateaux probably didn't help either.

The particular 20 minutes I selected turned out to be the best, sunniest part of the day. I spent half the run squinting into the Sun which all the incline parts of the loop point at and the other half at the neat purple blotch in the middle of my vision.

Mustn't grumble though as it felt fresh and new, and nothing like the miserable Thomas Hardy poem about New Year I studied decades ago, but still comes back to me on New Year's day.

I found this morning I was a bit more spritely than anticipated, and had my first 6 minutes at a 9:10 pace. This meant I would run out of road if I didn't alter the route - well actually I'd have to run past my house for a few hundred yards and walk back - so I added the Woodlands Walk back in - it tacks a few hundred yards on in going across, running parallel to the road and then coming back again. And it's far more pleasant than the main road.

I followed on with the next two 6 minutes at 9:23 and 9:20 giving me a total run of:

1.94 miles, 18 minutes running at 6:1, 9:18 pace.

All remains well with foot and ankle, so on Wednesday I'll move to 7:1 x 3, and alter the course again.

At the moment, this new approach seems to be working, so I might start thinking about a 5K target for March soon.

All the best to you.

Mr Stumble.

The stolen week.

Got up extremely late this morning. Woken up by the bloke delivering the weeks groceries some time way past 9:30am, which is embarrassingly late. However, the whole family has an excuse for being stay-a-beds. We're all just getting over a whole week of some dread lurgy, pitched somewhere between a nasty cold and all out flu. I actually had a flu jab just after my last run on 21st Dec, so I suspect I picked something up and had that and a de-activated flu virus to handle.

I was third of the five of us to get something, hitting me on Boxing Day, but having two kids with fevers and stuff gushing from just about everywhere for the previous two days had meant running had been suspended anyway. Then D got it a couple of days ago and I was Mr Mom while she got the fever and achy bones. My son spent nearly every waking hour since Christmas wrapped up in a blanket and watching a constant loop of Doctor Who in the living room. I don't think he remembers he was ill now - sci-fi-self-hypnosis.

However, not wanting to fish for sympathy (sickness is what holidays are for isn't it?), I've not posted on the subject till now, as I've not had a run to talk about.

Which I do now.

After the groceries had been packed away, I headed out to try and do some catching up and general lung-clearance. I know I'll have a continuing cough for a week or so, and I think one benefit of the exercise is to get fresh air into bronchioles which otherwise just hold the gunky stuff. Lets say I cleared some of that out and leave it there.

Although still short, all seemed to go well and I don't have much feeling of tendinitis at the moment. Still keeping to my previous plan, the run was:

1.88 miles, 18 minutes running @ 6:1 averaging 9:34 pace (best pace 9:18 on first 6 minutes)

It's unseasonably warm here. 10C this morning and I managed to find a time between rainstorms, so although the streets were wet, I stayed dry.

Had a nice post card from my Physiotherapist this morning, with a "Hope all is well" message. I'll have to write back.

Just checked on my target 10K date: Stourbridge Stumble 2007: Saturday 16th June 2007 at 6pm. It's in the diary!

Best wishes for a Happy New Year to you. All being well, I run NYD morning.

Mr Stumble