Post 162 - The start of winter, cross country, and trying to get consistency again

12th November 2018: Here’s what has happened since the Peebles duathlon. How time flies, that was now 2 months ago…

I won the Peebles duathlon, but it was at quite a high cost for the 2 weeks that followed. My legs were really deconditioned for running due to an Achilles injury (left me having done basically no running since July), and the soles of my feet had also softened up due to lack of running. My legs still hurt from South Africa anyway (the miracle half marathon I ran out there on an injured Achilles and grossly under-trained legs really destroyed my legs).

I had fitness from turbo training, but I had too much fitness for the low level of conditioning my legs had. So after Peebles, with its 20k bike sandwiched between 2 x 5k runs, my legs and feet were in agony. Waddling round like a lame duck. Unable to put weight on the outsides of my feet. Wanting to get back into running again, but being unable. Not wanting to turbo train, but having to turbo train because I couldn’t do anything else. I knew it would pass, but it was frustrating.

Winter targets will include cross country running, building running fitness for the Scottish East District cross-country championships, to try and get selection at county/district level, to run in the Scottish and UK inter-district races. I hope to have a strong winter of running and then have another crack in the spring at a sub-32 10K, and another crack at the Bere Island ParkRun course record. I will keep in touch with the swimming maybe once a fortnight, and cycle to work, and maybe the odd turbo session or night ride when the weather allows. Hopefully such a winter will set me up for a good summer of triathlon and duathlon. More on that in a future post...

Edinburgh night riding

But the main winter target is running. So waddling around like a lame duck wasn’t great for getting this target going. But I eventually tentatively got back into running. My Achilles still didn’t feel right, but I started back doing some interval sessions and trying to be sensible about building slowly.

I turned out for the East District cross country relays (4 x 4km) and surprised myself with a decent run on a filthy day. I was running leg one, got completely boxed in during the first mile, which held me back, which was good as I ran strongly in the final two miles. Not bad, I thought, given I had only been back training a couple of weeks.

Some clubmates keen to do their bit, some less so... #disgusted

Nice couple of chicken drumsticks...

The cross country races seem to come thick and fast in the early part of the season so I soon found myself on the start line at Stirling for race one of the east district league. 9km. 3 laps. A nice day. A hilly, tough course. I suffered so much on the final lap… no endurance, no fitness, no ability to run hard beyond 4 or 5km. And because it was dry, my spikes were like sandpaper on my feet, and they were badly blistered. Back down to earth with a bump.

Runners turned triathletes turned runners again. Stirling is a great location, but very tough

A little more training, a little bit of scenic cycling in the southern Highlands before the winter really sets in, with a girl I met at the wedding of two good friends in south-west Ireland. The wedding was probably the peak (nadir?) of my non-fitness - a 3-day Irish wedding, no sleep, no idea how many Guinnesses (Guinnii?) consumed, so bad (good?!) was the drinking situation that one night I was drinking espresso martinis for dessert after a main course of Guinness. And I hate coffee! But these were good. The morning after a night of no sleep, we were on the ferry to the Bere Island ParkRun - the ferry was fine, but it was all I could do not to vomit on the roller-coaster minibus ride to the start at the opposite end of the island. It was a sorry, soggy ParkRun, but strangely I enjoyed it, just jogging round in the wilds of Ireland. It cleared the head, then after breakfast/lunch it was off to bed at 1pm.

The railway on Rannoch moor

Glacial and painful

So, still building fitness, off to the national cross country relays in Cumbernauld. A short run, again 4 x 4km. A cold day, but good under foot. A hilly course. I first ran it in 2003, one of my first races in Scotland. Surprisingly, in the intervening 15 years, I hadn't been back to Cumbernauld for the National cross country relays, but I had been back to most of the other big races. 

I was on leg 2. My old club Metro Aberdeen came in first after leg one, my current clubmate came in just behind. I knew the boy I was chasing. I knew if I could keep with him it would be a good run. I had a pretty good run. I never caught him but he never got away and we had a 3-second gap for the whole lap. 2 of the really quick boys passed us, so I handed over in fourth place.

I’ve never suffered more after a run. Usually you’ll be out of breath but after a minute you’ll be fine. I couldn’t breathe properly for days. Lungs rattling. Coughing. I think it was a combination of the cold air, having not run in the cold so far this year and not being used to it, and having not run so intensely for a long, long time.

This was quite a poignant run for me. I wrote the below on Facebook, hopefully it will explain why:

I ran the Scottish National cross-country relays today in Cumbernauld, for the second time. This was one of my first runs in Scotland, 15 years ago(!) back in 2003 for Metro Aberdeen RC. 

Back when the vest was black & gold (today it's an Edinburgh AC vest), when race entry fees were sent by cheque to organisers' home addresses, when race photos were taken on actual cameras with actual film and if you were lucky the actual real photos were handed out at training 2 months later, when if you were lucky (or unlucky...!) you got to travel to a race in the FlintstoneWagon...

...when club tents/gazebos didn't exist and it was a stampede to find the biggest tree to shelter under, when race results were posted out to club secretaries on actual paper and then photocopied and handed round at training, when the race t-shirt was a long-sleeved heavy cotton thing that weighed over a kilo when you sweated, when satellite watches and Facebook and Strava didn't exist...

...when Kudos was a pat on the back from the big boys and they bought you a beer somewhere on the A90 on the way home and it was the best thing ever (the big boys know who you are, heroes). 

#nostalgia #blinkofaneye #runningisgreat

This was accompanied by the following photos:

One of the "big boys" 15 years ago and still a hero. Metro Aberdeen stalwart Rob Taylor

Scenes in Cumbernauld, cross country is great

My vests on the wall of my flat

The next race was the Men’s Health 10k in Edinburgh. A great route, from the Royal Mile, down to Holyrood Park via Princes Street gardens, then back out for 4 miles into a headwind to Murrayfield stadium, near where I live. I was third at this race last year. I didn’t know what to expect this year. I knew I was running quite well in shorter races, but not so well in longer races. All I wanted was a strong final two miles as that’s where I am currently weak.

It was a good race. Two went off hard at the start, I let them go. I pulled them back when we turned into the wind, but I also dragged 4 or 5 others with me to form a lead group of 7 or 8. Then there was a bit of ding-donging for a couple of miles when one got away. I let him go. I’d wait for the flatter roads out near Murrayfield to up it. And sure enough, I pulled him back and ran 5:15 for the final mile into the wind to take the win. I did 33:29, which you’d never expect to win a 10K, but importantly, I’d had a good final couple of miles.

Such a great finish, a good few people in the stands too

Then it was into the National short course cross country championships (4km). I had decided that by this stage, I was properly used to running again, legs conditioned, body re-adapted. I hadn’t had much consistency since I started to try and train for running again in October, with blisters and deconditioned/painful legs, and the Achilles still not right, and the rattling lungs, and a few stomach issues. I felt I wasn’t achieving any consistency in training, and hadn’t yet properly knuckled down to really serious stuff. But after the 10K race I had a good, tough, no-hold-barred 6 x 0.5 mile interval session and then the short course cross country on a flat and fast and firm course. I hoped for a decent run.

I had a decent run. 4:48 for the first mile, being swept along in the tsunami of runners. My fastest ever mile. I was just a couple of seconds off my fastest ever 3k as well (which means I’m probably fit enough to run sub-9 for 3k on the road in good conditions), I held on for a 5:01 mile 2, and a 2:30 split for the final half mile. A decent run. We took National team silver as well, with some of our fast young whippersnappers having turned up.

Silver medal team: 3 youngsters and an ex-youngster
who wants to believe he is still young but whose body keeps protesting otherwise

But. My Achilles felt sore during the run. And sore after it. I was planning to really crack on with the training, start getting into a routine, get the quality going, try and drop a kilo or two, really ramp things up for the East District championships and try for district qualification. And now I am dealing with a sore Achilles that if I don’t manage it properly, it will end up costing me another 3 months. Right when I want to be pushing on and training well.

This sport (by “this sport” I mean running and triathlon and duathlon) cracks me up a lot of the time. Fingers crossed I get through it. It’s less about trying to achieve perfection and more about overcoming and making the best of situations. Seems that’s how it has been for me since 2003! We’ll see how it goes…