Monday 3 February 2014

February 2014

Monthly total (each run is rounded down to the nearest whole): 132km over 10 runs.
Yearly total: 256km over 22 runs (2013 total:799 km)

Month end review - the 18th was the last time I ran in February. Well, not quite - I went out the following day but those damned Nikes had killed my ankles and shins so when I got a phone call it was all too easy to call it a day. I decided there and then to rest my legs until my new shoes arrived.

18th February
A tough run, not helped by the fact that I changed shoes from my Asics to a pair of Nikes that I had kicking around? Why you may ask? Well, I'll tell you. 09;00 this morning I had a 50 minute gait analysis done - something way more comprehensive than my last one and also not free (this one cost a smidgen under €60). I'd become concerned that my orthopaedic insoles (I need them as a result of my high arches) weren't compatible with my Asics Gel Evo 6 and the consultant concurred. He also had me do some walking pressure tests and a treadmill run test both barefoot and with shoes on (which he videoed). The end result is that I've very wide feet (which I knew), very high arches (yep...knew that as well) and that the combination of insole and Asics were stopping my feet from moving as they should (the pronation stuff). We had a good discussion on stretches that I could do to alleviate some of my problems (tight Achilles and sore shins). This was, for me, pretty valuable as it turns that squats are king (knew that, doing them),  curb stretches (toe on the curb and let the heel drop down) (knew that) single leg static stands are good (didn't know that at all) and he also suggest that I use the wall (put the toe about 6 inches up the wall, drop the heel to the ground and kinda lean forward) to stretch as well (totally new to me). I'm gonna do my best to do some, or all, of these at least once a day for at least 30 seconds. Anyway - back to the shoe - Austria doesn't have wide "feeted" runners apparently (I need 2e) so he gave me some suggestions (New Balance, Brooks, Asicis), told me I should aim for a neutral shoe and that was that. I scooted home, ripped the insoles out of my Asics, stuck 'em in the Nikes and did today's 16.6km run. Not good - didn't like the Nikes at all - felt too clumpy and too tight - on the plus side, the run didn't take any longer than yesterday...2 hours dead but I do have a blister on the horizon and my ankles feel pretty tender. Tomorrow's back to the Asics I think...it'll just be a few days as I've ordered a pair of new shoes - some Brooks Ghost 6s. ETA on arrival is about a week.

And now, for some colour...



17th February
A rough 3 days of rest - sleep for the first two days was kinda tricky, pesky shin pain. The run went well, slow, but well, although it's not as far as I'd though - only 16.5km - but it's a nice route through the Prater and onto the Danube. Both Runkeeper and Endo failed me today, and failed badly, so badly I've no idea of the time so I'm going to guess at 2 hours. After the run I popped into my local Bsandtig (sp?) and had a chat - as a result I've got a full hours analysis session booked for tomorrow morning - I'm hoping I can finally sort my shoe needs out as a result.


 
13th February
And all too soon another iteration is complete. Some 52km run this week and whilst today's run felt hard and I had to keep telling myself to keep going, to not slow down to a walk, it was still one of the quicker runs (1 hour 31). Not bad for the 4th run in a row. Next week I'm (planning on) upping the mileage to between 18km and 20km per run (I've yet to determine a route) but, for now, I'm going to enjoy the next three days of rest.

12th February
A day later and 4 degrees colder, and a wee bit rainy. Made for a fairly muddy run made tougher by it being the third day. Things didn't feel "easy", if that's the right word,  until the last 30 minutes when things (mainly my calf muscles) loosened up. Endo crapped out again though, downsizing my run again.. One more day to go. Planked (90 secs) it and "press-upped" (3x) before the run

11th February
A warmer day (it was about 7c) and I was sweating buckets. The run itself went OK but it felt kinda awkward - the niggles and pains from yesterday carried over a wee bit.. All the same, I knocked a minute off yesterday's time (ran it in 1 hour 31) which, I reckon, is pretty good. I can feel a blister brewing on my right foot and sleep last night was hard due to shin pain. I'll elevate the end of the bed (something I was doing last summer) as that seemed to help and it looks like I'm back to foot soaking again. Oh, and good news - Endo worked 100% today. I also planked for 90 seconds and I'm on day 2 of the press-up challenge (3 reps, starting at 1 and adding 1 a day). Both planks and press-ups hurt but no pain no gain.

10th February
And bliss it was. The first night of the rest days was kinda bad - sore shins woke me up about 4am and finding a comfortable sleeping position was hard but after that things got better. And now it's Monday. I've found a nice route, along the Canal to Rotundenbrucke (it's even got it's own Wikipedia entry) and then into the Prater, along some trail to the Hauptalle, up to the Lusthaus before turning around and heading home, I'd guessed, pre-run, that it was 15km or just over but it's actually, according to Runkeeper (Endo crapped out) closer to 14km (14.4km even). I was sort of tempted to extend the run, I'm conscious of the marathon looming, but I managed to avoid it. 4 x 14km is more than good enough for this week, especially if I can keep the pace between 6 and 7 minutes per KM. Anyway, I ran today in 1 hour 32 minutes which is a pace of 6 minutes and 34 seconds per KM.

6th February
The next three days are going to be bliss. No running, just rest. The run went well although I felt pretty tired during the last 2/3rds. Got home, cooled down, had a shower etc etc etc but about 4am the following morning some pain in both my shins woke me up. I think I just needed to stretch a wee bit, change positions from prone to seating, and maybe turn the heating on (whilst my body prefers "fresh" I think my shins prefer "warm"). Oh, and Endo crapped out again, it's getting annoying. 11km (ish) run in 1 hour 11 mins (ish).

The plan, post break, is to up the distance per day to 15km - I've yet to pick a route but I'm leaning towards running to the Lusthaus and back. It's a nice run along the canal and then up and back the Hauptalle.

5th February
Day 3 and all's well. This time I ran slow, as planned, for 40 minutes (I use Runkeeper to give me timed audio updates every 20 minutes) and then picked the pace up for the, well, it was meant to be 20 minutes but it was probably closer to 10, Pretty exhausting stuff. I ran the 11km in 1 hour 12 minutes, very slow indeed. My shins and knees, having done this for 3 days in a row are throbbing now and it's pretty uncomfortable. Still, one more run and then I get 3 days off so that's weird motivation enough. In other news, when I got back from the run I did my daily plank only to fail at 1 minutes 27 seconds (I was meant to do 2 minutes) so I've reset the "clock" back to 12 from day 17.

4th February
Day 2 of my 4 day run cycle. I decided to shake things up a wee bit here to tried as best I could to keep the pace for the first 20 minutes real slow, then pick it up a lot for the next before slowing down again. I managed roughly 17 minutes of the faster pace before I had to slow so that's not bad. I think I'll do the same tomorrow only this time I'll run slow(ish) for 40 minutes and try to finish faster.
The time, as you might expect, wasn't amazing, 1 hour 9 minutes.

3rd February
My three day rest seems to have turned into a four day rest without me realising. Anyway, I've extended the distance of each run to 11km now (still along the canal) with the basic plan being to run 4 x 11km this week and then extend to 15km for the next cycle. I'd really like to run a half marathon right now but I'm vaguely worried about my metatarsals (I'm aware they're being a wee bit stressed out right now) so I think I'll try to stick to plan for now.

Endo reported 11.25km run in 1 hour, 7 minutes and 12 seconds. That's some 5 minutes slower than my course PB - a wee bit disappointing but hey ho, next run tomorrow.

Oh, and in other news I'm on day 15 of the 30 day plank challenge. It started to hurt at 90 seconds so, from here on it's just pain but the good pain...if you know what I mean.