Jubillee Weekend Blogging pt1 of 3

I've been busy... So you my lucky readers will have the pleasure (dubious or otherwise) of 3 blogs...

One on an update on my running

One on the British Cardiovascular Society meeting

and one on things general...

So running...

In a couple of weeks I'm doing a half marathon in the Lake District - with a fair chunk of up and down...

http://www.greattrailchallenge.org/TheEvent/Default.aspx I'm doing the half, because I don't know how much the hills and terrains will slow me up, it's been 4 weeks since Belfast so my legs are now fully recovered (the 10km personal best helped gee up the marathon blues)...

However, training is partly about going beyond what you'll face on a race day, the Kenyans say "Train hard & run easy", or my modified version "Train hard & run less painfully"...

So, the Great Trail is going to be running a third to a half of a way up a mountain.  My training to go as fast as I could to run up a full mountain.  Fairfield is mountain I love, and one I know fairly well, which reduced the fear of the new and made it something that if the running thing didn't work I would enjoy walking around.

Now, normally Fairfield is a 7-8h walk, at least it is for me, so anything under 7 I was going to be happy with.  Throw in a hot spell (it was hitting 30c in the valleys at times) and gale force winds then it was a proper challenge... and met my criteria for being tougher than anything that GreatRun is (probably) going to throw at us.  For instance, I suspect the route won't include a V0 bouldering problem (I went the walkers way, rather than the runners way... ooops).

So, how did I do... I was blown/tripped over once.  Found an energy sweet I don't like, decided to invest in a new hydration pack... and finished in 4:49... As ever the details are here:


As ever my post run analysis was honest - could I have gone faster? Yes, by choosing the right route (a bouldering problem will slow me down, and a 6ft jump ain't in my repertoire, by being more confident on the rock strewn paths (time and experience will bring that) and by fuelling and drinking better on the go... However, I'm not complaining, a sub-5h Fairfield, 10 miles and 3000ft is good for me.  Ok, the course record is 75min, but that's just silly!

So, 2 weeks... Plenty of time on the evil stepping machine to simulate steep hills, try and find rough and ready paths, and keep the fitness levels up there.

Those watching on Facebook will have spotted I've changed apps for my instantaneous updates, I've a new phone, with a new operating system so have moved from Cardiotrainer to Endomondo... So far so good...  So the HTC Desire bows out with 936km this year, and so far 18km on the Lumia 900 - which means I'm 8 miles shy of 600 miles - good job I've a long weekend:-)

TTFN

Paul

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Something a little bit political...

Well the legs still don't want to run, walk and climb is fine, run makes them feel a bit leary ... Probably the two most contentious words in the congenital heart world (UK branch) are "safe and sustainable", a quick trawl of the support websites or facebook will show many a group being set up to save a hospital or a ward. I won't be joining any of them. Not because I don't care, but because I care too much. The origins of Safe and Sustainable go back to the Bristol Hospital Enquiry, and quite simply this is designed to ensure that the surgery that heart kids get is the the most appropriate, done by well trained and supported surgeons who are used to doing the operations and are in a surgical setting which are designed around the needs of the child going through the surgery and their family. Is that too much to ask? I don't think so. I want every heart kid to get the best surgery available to them, I want their parents to be given the best advice, support...
Read more

12% of a plan…

  It’s been a month.     A month since the new heart valve was inserted… the chaffing has died down, I’ve been sensible and built my walking up, restarted my apple fitness plus bits and bobs (boy has it been a long time since I bent like that, or cycled/spun like that) and I’ve been for two runs – a gentle 3k which worked as a prelude to my return to my local parkrun… I finished, my tally went up 1, and I remembered just how tough it is to run the first mile on so soft, dry sand… In hindsight I would’ve been better to walk the first third and conserve my energy (and pool of fitness) to the prom and the grass thirds…   Relive 'Return to Parkrun!' Yes, it does look the first bit is out to sea…  Monday was a random day off work to get out and do something, so with a bit of head scratch and some nifty plotting on the OS Mapping app I wandered along the canal, and then down the Transpennine Trail & “loop line”… Almost pancake flat, I know...
Read more

It’s a kind of magic (the science kind)…

  Well, operation done – I have a funky new valve and a bit of a sore groin.     I was in hospital for 28, sleepless, hot, hours and unconscious for about 4 of them.     While the insertion points for the three catheters I had in me in at the same time heal it’s a case of taking it easy, let my body get over the various manipulations (sore throat, the impact of the still there frozen shoulder) and the simple lack of sleep from stress and some noisy neighbours on the day ward I was on.  There’s really not a lot else to say… I went in, did the usual pre-op checks, had a chat with the interventionist, had a chat with the anaesthetist, signed the all-important consent forms (kids – that’s when you know you’re an adult; parents, that’s when you know your kid is in charge), was wheeled across to a hybrid cath lab… laid down, bit of banter with the team and the next thing I knew I was waking up, sore and not actually knowing whether the funky valve had fitted me…...
Read more