marathon training - AnnaTheApple

September 11, 2019September 11, 2019

Game on, Chicago

I really don’t want to jinx things, but it looks like things are definitely getting there with my hamstring.

I obviously need to continue to play things safe and not suddenly be like wheyyyyyy 18 miler booooom. This hamstring injury (hamstring tendinopathy) is one that can easily be triggered again and regress. So I continue to proceed with caution. But *whispers* things are going well.

Daily discomfort is minimal – if it’s even there. Previously when it was at its worst, I’d feel it All. The. Time. I’d feel it walking. I’d feel it lying down. Now it’s rarely ever there. And happily sitting doesn’t trigger it anymore.

Most importantly, running isn’t an awful experience. There were runs at the start (like only a mile or a tester run) where it’d feel so uncomfortable that I’d feel this great stab of fear thinking “I cannot run 26.2 miles like this” and really doubt getting more training done. But now the discomfort is minimal. It’s still there, but every run it gets a bit less.

I ran 12 miles at the weekend and it was a run that gave me great confidence. Yes it did feel uncomfortable towards the end, but not the worst discomfort I’ve felt over this injury.

And the rest of the day it felt fine! Even the next day it felt absolutely fine. My first few runs when I was coming back I’d feel my hamstring discomfort a lot more post-run and that night and the next day, then it would die off again. But now it’s not there anymore.

Running those 12 miles felt like an absolute joy. Listening to a podcast, zoning out, having that time just running for a long time. Yes it was hard (Jesus how did 12 used to feel so easy??) and yes it wasn’t perfect, but it was so much better. I know I’m at that point in the injury lifecycle where it’s going. Every day is better, every run is better.

After speaking with a professional who knows a lot about this injury, he advised upping my hamstring strength routine and planning out my runs in relation to that a bit more sensibly. With the strength I was previously taking the weights very gently on the hamstring curl machine (as to not cause any regressions) and doing about 20 reps at light weight. Now I’ve upped the weight and I do around 10 reps, so it starts to get tough at the last rep. And he gave me a few more exercises to incorporate which focus primarily on my hamstring.

Previously I was very much focused on my glutes. But now I’m focusing on my hamstring (I still work my glutes and the surrounding muscles but the focus of my rehab is most definitely the hamstring now).

Just to be clear though, if you’re suffering from this issue too, you need to have a gentle and gradual build-up. It’s taken me many weeks to get to this point and it was only after talking to this specialist and him checking my strength and mobility that I was given the all clear to fully work the hamstring harder. The first few weeks of this injury you wouldn’t necessarilly do that.

I also asked if he thought me doing Chicago was sensible or if I’d do myself any long term damage. He said as long as I didn’t regress or get worse, Chicago would be fine. This is EXACTLY what I needed to hear. Someone who knows their stuff giving me solid advice. My mind is so much calmer now.

So going forward I’m running three times a week, one of those being a long run. Though realistically I won’t be going that long… probably 16 miles top. And between that I have set hamstring easy and hard days. So far so good! My hamstring is responding well. It’s getting stronger. The discomfort is getting less.

The thing about this injury is that you have to be patient, be sensible and not neglect rehab. It won’t get better on its own with rest. You have to push it and strengthen it. But it’s a very fine balance of not pushing it too hard and knowing when to back off. I think the past 15 or so weeks have evidently shown this for me! I’m going to do a more thorough post later on how I combatted this (though I don’t want to speak too soon because this could all fall down again!!).

I’ve read a lot of forums and I just want to put something positive into the Internet about this injury because so much of it was doom and gloom and never feeling normal again. I’m not quite back to normal, but eventually (all things being well and me not being an idiot) I hope to provide a bit of positivity from what I’ve learnt and experienced. (TOUCH WOOD!!)

Have you ever had a long-term injury?

Do you do regular strength work to keep an injury at bay?

August 23, 2019August 23, 2019

My first long run in a while

I would like to write a running-related post that doesn’t refer to my hamstring, but unfortunately that’s not where I’m at.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. I’ve had two relatively successful runs this week. I ran 4 miles on Monday and then 8 miles after work on Wednesday. They weren’t perfect but they’re giving me hope.

The four miles I probably ran a bit too quickly I guess but it felt comfortable and I didn’t push the pace consciously. I was just enjoying being out.

The run on Thursday evening was a bit of a worry to me. I wanted to do it later in the day so my body was more warmed up. And because I stand most of the day at work now as I have a standing desk, I wanted to do it straight after work, rather than drive home and do it there.

Kyle said he’d join me which was nice and it worked out well because we had some time to kill before going to his sister’s house for dinner that evening.

The first two miles felt fine. We kept the pace nice and easy. Though I wanted to relax and chat, I found myself just concentrating so hard on what was happening with my leg that I probably wasn’t that good company to Kyle.

Unfortunately after the first few miles my left knee (same as the hamstring problem leg) started to give me a random pain. We stopped and I stretched and as we started again (my mind literally thinking this was it, it was over) it felt fine again. How random.

My hamstring/glute did start to ache a bit as the run continued though and it didn’t feel particularly comfortable. But it didn’t slow me down or make me change my gait so we pushed on. In fact, it just remained a constant ache the entire way through the run without getting worse.

What really surprised me about this run was that my endurance and fitness felt absolutely fine. Had my hamstring not been feeling uncomfortable I’m almost certain I could have gone on for a good few miles more before I’d start to struggle. This is HUGELY comforting to know. I haven’t run more than four miles for thirteen weeks. So it’s pretty crazy my body seemed fine with it. What’s helped, I’m guessing, is that we weren’t pushing the pace. It was very conversational, despite my moments of intense silent concentration. Kyle was fantastic is keeping me on a tight lease and pulling me back which definitely helped.

I have of course being doing cardio at the gym too, so I’m pleased this has carried over. Doing the stair machine frequently (and up to an hour sometimes once a week) has clearly helped. THANK GOD.

To be honest though, I would give up my fitness and endurance if I could lose the discomfort in my leg. But hey ho. I’m taking comfort from the fact that straight afterwards and today it doesn’t feel worse. Also, when I refer back to my training notes when I’ve previously had this issue I was able to run several long runs with the issue (even up to 17 miles) and it didn’t get worse. Thank god I’m so anal about these things as it helps mentally when I question what I’m doing.

Realistically, I do think it’s going to take time for this to disappear. And as long as running doesn’t hinder that by making it worse, I think I’m OK. I just need to be sensible with the build up, my pace and the recovery of each run. It’s definitely a mind boggling and stressful process but it is what it is. If it gets worse/regresses, then I’ll make some hard choices.

So I continue. A few runs every week, gently building up the miles. Fingers crossed.

How is your training going?

How do you come back after an injury?

April 3, 2019April 3, 2019

A missed opportunity, giant salads and refueling with cake

This weekend was fairly busy, but full of many of my favourite things.

On Saturday Kyle and I headed to Southsea parkrun to meet up with my running friends Michelle, Mark, Billy and Aaron. Unfortunately Michelle wasn’t going to be running as she’s injured (get better soon!) but the other guys were.

Kyle and I arrived a little bit late and as we’d parked a mile away we had to run quite sharpish to get there on time. We arrived with five minutes to spare and then spent too long chatting to the guys for us to realise it had started! Oops!

So this meant we were all pretty much dead last to start, which proved rather tricky. The first 30 seconds or so were us just walking and then trying to infiltrate into the crowd of 600 runners (when did Southsea get so popular??). But this helped ease me gently into the run. I then spent the first mile basically umm’ing and arr’ing whether to push the pace or just plod along.

Mark dashed off ahead and though I attempted to follow for a bit I decided to instead just to run on my own and see how it went. For the first mile I weaved in and out of people and after a quick sprint to get in front of a crowd I realised I didn’t feel so bad and decided to maintain the faster pace.

We got to the turnaround and as I headed back the way we’d come (Southsea is an out-and-back course) and I realised there was no wind. Usually you get one direction being really good and then you turnaround and you’re suddenly hit with the full force of the wind that you didn’t realise was there (such are a problem with the straight out-and-back promenade parkruns).

However, there was no wind. I mentally kicked myself. What a missed opportunity for a flat wind-less 5k! Ahh well.

I managed to get my pace a bit quicker towards the end (God the pain of a hrder 5k…urgh) and finished 22:01. Just shy of a sub 22 minute parkrun. I was pleased anyway to have put a bit of a burst in towards the end.

After finishing, we all lamented at what a shame it was that none of us had gone out with a fast time in mind. I mean, we hadn’t set ourselves up very well by not paying attention at the start of course!

Then we walked over to the Parade Tearooms to have some brunch. Predictably it was quite busy (it’s so popular there) but after a short wait we got a table.In true Anna style when ordering Kyle’s brunch I decided to hear what he wanted and then order something completely different. No idea why! I quickly had to change the order with the lady on the till (who didn’t look too pleased at first but I managed to explain what kind of idiot I was exactly and she seemed to soften a bit and find it funny).

So Kyle did in fact get his pancakes (and not the full English) and I got my beloved Jayne Salad. An epic salad of proportions I’ve seen no where else (bar maybe America where portion sizes are RIDICULOUS).

This was my kind of salad! Chicken, cheese, coleslaw, potatoes, tomatoes, beetroot, carrot, cucumber, fruit (yep) and lettuce. You needed quite the strategy to eat this without it toppling everywhere. A Jenga salad if you will.

The next day I got up a bit later than I would have normally as I really wanted a solid lie-in and having lost an hour from the clocks going forward it meant 10am. I felt really well rested and ready to hit my final long run before Manchester a week later.

I headed out with the intention to run 13 miles, but with some wiggle room if I fancied going further. Generally I’ll run 13-16 miles the Sunday before depending on how I feel. I’d given myself enough time to do up to 16 before I needed to back to shower and get ready for afternoon tea with my mum for Mother’s Day. So no pressures, just relaxed running however I fancied.

It always takes a few miles for me to get into a run (which is why I think I much prefer long distances than to 5ks or 10ks when I’ve basically just warmed up), but as I got into it I realised I felt good. Not just physically but mentally as well. Like it was good to be outside, good to be running. It was fairly warm so I was glad to be wearing a vest and also happy I’d put some sun cream on my face.

As I got to 7.5 miles I stopped at my trusty dodgy tap for a drink before heading on. I was listening to the BBC 5 Live movie review podcast and was chuffed to hear the review be so good for Kyle and my next planned movie, Us. I know it’s going to be scary, but knowing that Simon Mayo is a big horror movie wuss and still enjoyed it has hugely helped calm me a bit. I really enjoyed Get Out so fingers crossed it doesn’t traumatise me like Hereditary did.

When I got to the point of making a decision between 13 or more miles I decided to push on. It was partly me feeling like I was good to run further but also down to the fact that the 13 mile route was a bit rubbish whereas the longer route was nicer. Though it was more into the wind annoyingly.

I finished the run feeling strong and happy. An ideal last long run before a marathon! Then I quickly got myself together ready to go for afternoon tea with mum.

Handily it was just a 20 minute walk to the village to Donny’s where I’d booked a table for us.

We were quite excited as we hadn’t had afternoon tea for a while and it’s something we both love to do (ALL THE CAKE).

We’d both gone for ham and mustard sandwiches and they were crustless tiny little things. I mean they were tasty but very small. Now for a reasonable human being that’s fine – afterall, you’re having a scone and cake afterwards, but for a greedy person like me they were quite dinky and didn’t really touch the sides. I’m not a fan of cutting crusts of bread either – such a waste.

The scone was delicious. A little pot of strawberry jam and clotted cream – divine.

I mean, again the portions were fairly small and the scone wasn’t warm, but these are MINOR details from an afternoon tea connoisseur like myself 😉

The slice of salted caramel cake was so divine. Very sticky with a rich flavour to it. My mum had lemon drizzle and she loved it too. Handily I got to eat her icing as well as she’s not a fan (I love this about my mum – I’ll always get her icing, especially good for Christmas cake).

Do you like afternoon tea?

What’s the last long run distance you’ll do when you’re tapering?

What’s your favourite kind of salad?

March 6, 2019September 16, 2020

Marathon Talk Run Camp 2019 – part 2

On to the second part of my Marathon Talk Run Camp recap.

Catch up with Part 1 HERE.

After a fun evening I was up at 7am to get myself ready for the Carsington Water Half Marathon, which most people from the camp were doing too. To get in some extra miles, a few of us decided to run there. It was about 5 miles away so this would make a solid long run.

It was very misty that morning and a bit chilly, but I knew it would clear up and get warmer later so I decided to wear a vest and arm warmers. Though it was quite amusing that the guys I was going to be running with had somewhat overdressed, the wusses 😉 They regretted it within a mile!

I forwent breakfast and had a black coffee – as is my usual pre-long run standard. And then we got going. The first part of the run was back up the giant hill that we’d done hill repeats on the day before. It went on f.o.r.e.v.e.r. We tried to maintain a jog but it turned into more of a walk as the hill goes on for a fair way (we only did a small section of it during the session).

Then we got going properly. We ran down the long trail which was, for the most part, flat. As the trail had originally been a railway, it cut through hills and there were pockets of cold and warm air, which were very bizarre to run through.

Eventually we moved off the trail and onto the road and then across a field with a giant hill on it. Dave’s magic route cutting off a corner of the road, I think I’d have preferred the road 😉 The views, however were beautiful.

We got to the race start area and I picked my bib up and met up with the others who had driven there.

We had a quick photo of the Marathon Talk group and then everyone headed to the start.

I sort of wanted to run with my friend John but I was getting vibes from him that he wanted to do his own thing, and no one likes a clingy hanger-on that you feel you have to politely run with 😉 so I decided to just run however felt comfortable.

The Carsington Water Half Marathon is one loop around the reservoir and then a 10k out and back bit. It was described as undulating and compact trail underfoot. It was dry and quite warm now the mist had cleared. It was very scenic – such a perfect day for it (albeit a leeeetle warm after being so used to cold weather).

I started running and got myself into a nice rhythm of around 8 min/miles. After 5k runners who were doing the 10k started coming back the other way as it was an out and back race for them. It was fun watching them come the other way – it’s like people watching but for runners: “ooh love her leggings”, “wow look how he runs” etc.

But then I got a bit bored. I didn’t have my music, I wasn’t especially pushing the pace and I really wanted to talk to someone to take my mind off the monotony. Sometimes I feel like a fake runner when I feel this way. I don’t always rely on music or podcasts to run but sometimes running is DULL and I need some external entertainment. Yes it was beautiful and peaceful, but I was bored. Though admittedly this is good training – training the mind for the monotony of a marathon.

I heard a man catch up with another man behind me and start chatting so I was able to listen in to their conversation (somewhat creepy I guess) and found they were both at the run camp too. This was interesting! And then one of the men pushed on… and I dropped back to chat to the other man (who I later found out was called Gareth).

Ahh and what a relief! He was happy to chat, we were running the same speed and now the miles were flying by. It’s amazing how much two people can waffle on about running having never met before.

The undulations were fairly hard going but with someone now to distract me it went a lot easier and quicker. I was hot and my lovely arm warmers were now annoying me and causing a bit of chafing. I worried we were going to have to do the entire loop of the reservoir again but then realised no we would do an out and back section.

We then started to see the faster runners heading back towards us and knew it wouldn’t be long. I cheered on lots of people from the camp – including the very speedy Sarah (from Art of Your Success – her designs for running goodies are amazing FYI). It was also INCREDIBLE to have Dave Moorcroft (and his lovely wife) cheer us on too. As well as Tony Audenshaw give us a cheer as he ran past (what a legend).

As we go to mile 11 I could feel myself speed up. I was going into race mode without even being aware. Gareth wasn’t quite in that mode and told me to go ahead. I felt a bit bad but I thanked him and headed off. I put the hammer down and felt ready to stretch the legs a bit.

It was amazing to run to the finish feeling strong (some might say because I sandbagged 80% of the race… but heyyyy ;-)) . I finished 1:42:41 which I am so pleased about considering I’d run the miles beforehand (and the day before!), it was warm and hilly and I hadn’t been trying particularly hard until the end.

Holly Rush came first female (I mean she’s just incredible) and Sarah came third, so very well done indeed to them.

John very kindly gave me a lift back to the centre and I was able to grab a shower before the masses and so actually have hot water. I was also then one of the first in line for lunch… priorities eh 😉

I also found the stack of chocolate cake – I mean WHAT.

All in all the weekend was so much fun -as always. I’d fully recommend people to go to it if it sounds like it’s something they fancy. It might be basic accommodation but it’s really not the point of it. It’s the least important part.

Having gone to the different events over the years I’ve gotten to know so many other runners. And actually meet people I only really talk to via social media (like the lovely Anji Andrews – she’s an incredible human!).

It’s just so nice to spend time with like-minded people who you can have a giggle with, run with and talk running shizz with. And with these camps, as always, it’s not about the running – that’s kind of additional to the fun of it. On to next year I say!

Have you ever done a run camp?

Do you ever get bored while running?

February 19, 2019September 16, 2020

18 miles – feeling tough

I know I’m a bit of a weird creature in that I really do enjoy marathon training.

In general it’s enjoyable, it’s fun and I like doing it. But it can be hard. My motivation can dip and I can find myself wondering how am I going to do it.

Usually it’s the long run that I dread (though it’s also the one I feel most accomplished with and happy about usually). The thought of running 18 miles, almost three hours of running for me, well, it’s a long time. It’s a long way. It also means waking up on a Sunday morning and not being able to just lay there, or get up whenever. Because the later you leave it the more it eats into your day.

I felt this way leading up to my weekend long run this week. I had 18 miles planned and originally I was going to do it on Sunday. But the thought of going to bed Saturday night knowing I had to wake up and run all that way seemed really unappealing. Kyle offered to run a bit of it with me which was lovely but the route we’d go would mean he’d run 9-10 miles with, still leaving me with a good chunk left on my own. Urgh.

I decided to float the idea of running to parkrun on the Saturday. We’d have to set an alarm and get up relatively early anyway on the Saturday and by combining the long run with parkrun would break it up and mentally seem far easier because all you were doing was travelling to parkrun – a destination run is far easier, mentally, than just a big loop. However this would mean that Kyle would be running 15 miles in total rather than say 12-13 miles. Bless him, he agreed to do it.

So I woke up Saturday morning just after 6am to run about 5k beforehand, then picked up Kyle to then run to Havant parkrun. Though Havant parkrun is actually only four miles away from where he lives we needed to run a bit of a long-winded route to get there to get the extra miles. Actually it was very similar to the route we did last week to Southsea. The very hilly route through Waterlooville, Purbook and up the dreaded Widley hill…

As soon as I started running I realised this run was not going to be easy. My legs felt heavy and I felt tired. I was a lot slower than the week before. Annoyingly the thing about running an almost identical route is that you have an identical comparison. After the first three or so miles after Kyle joined me we both moaned that it felt so much harder. It could have been because earlier in the week we’d done our first speed session in a while… or the fact that we’d gone to the cinema the night before and had a Subway quite early for dinner. Either way, it was like running through porridge. We were probably 30-40 seconds per mile slower.

But we got to Havant with 10 minutes to spare

We were both dreading parkrun at this point. I’d just run 15 miles and Kyle was on almost 12. The run there had been so hard and such a grind. And Havant wasn’t a particularly easy parkrun. It wasn’t flat and had an especially steep downhill section which would be brutal on our legs. The ground was also very uneven and hard.

Zack, Kyle’s brother, met us there. He was just going to run parkrun (never “just” but you know what I mean) and was very kindly going to give us a lift back. He’d forgotten his barcode and wasn’t feeling very well so all of us were a bit “meh” about starting the run.

Kyle and I decided to run separately as neither of us wanted any sort of pressure to run at a pace we didn’t fancy. We just wanted to zone out and run however we liked. I was amazed to find that as soon as we were off my legs felt a lot better. Maybe the mini-break had helped? Whatever it was I was able to find a nice rhythm and run quicker. Perhaps I just wanted to get it done and finish the run.

I caught up with two men who were chatting about one of them surprising his partner with a trip to New York and I was able to zone out and listen to them chatter. I briefly considered telling them about the best cookie place (Levain Bakery) but decided not to interfere. Though when I went past them I wished the guy a lovely holiday and he laughed and said thank you.

I finished, HUGELY surprisingly to me, in 23:24. Kyle wasn’t too far behind, having cruised nice and easily in, followed by Zack who hadn’t had struggled a bit but still managed a stellar strong time. We were all glad for it to be done though! What a feeling to have 18 miles under my belt! And no injuries or niggles. I was quite surprised my calves didn’t feel too bad considering I’d forgotten my compression socks… perhaps it is all in my head that they work on long runs eh!

I enjoyed a truly wonderfully hot bath when I got back to Kyle’s. I wanted to lay in there forever it was so good. And then enjoyed a giant mug of tea and steaming bowl of porridge. Honestly, these are the simple things I really crave after a long run. So good.

This photo makes me laugh – Kyle looks very happy with the run haha

For the rest of the day though I felt so drained. I was exhausted. I haven’t run that far since the Portsmouth Coastal Marathon at the end of December and I could really feel it. I even had a 40 minute nap later in the day. I was just absolutely shattered. It’s amazing how quickly you lose the adaptations your body makes during marathon training.

Luckily though I was able to significantly refuel with a solid dinner with Kyle and my parents that evening at the newly opened Hancock’s in Whiteley. It was my dad’s birthday on the 14th (yes, Valentine’s Day) so we went out to celebrate.

The meal itself was a bit “meh” but the company was lovely. I went for cauliflower bites to start which were a little boring. Basically just cauliflower with buffalo sauce on.

My dad was disappointed that they weren’t able to do steak (something was wrong in the kitchen apparently?), so instead we both ordered the whole chicken (each). It was about the same price as a full rack of ribs so we were both SUPER surprised at how big it was. I mean, it was literally like they bought a family sized chicken from Asda! It was quite tricky to eat to be honest. Like carving straight in on your plate.

But the pudding was the star of the show. Chocolate fudge cake brownie. I mean, wow.

I think Hancock’s needs a few more weeks to find it’s feet if I’m honest. The food was OK but nothing to scream and shout about. My pudding was amazing but Kyle had the waffles and really it was just a waffle with a blob of ice cream on and some sauce. But as I said, it was the company that was the best bit. My parents, Kyle and me had a really nice evening together. Crazy I know, but sometimes food is secondary for me 😉

How far are you willing to run to get to parkrun?

What are your cravings post long run?

Have you had a disappointing meal recently?