Much better yesterday.
Did 6 miles plus one of the two drills. I was able to do the steep hill sprints OK but decided against doing 2 x 20s of hopping. The only place I could do them was up the middle of a road where I'd a) risk death and b) look a complete cock.
The run was pretty much fine. My AT muscles were still sore but seemed to respond well to the run and have eased a little since. Only issue was the ice. Even through the woods the snow had been compacted and on pavements and along the single track road many areas were grey ice - thick, solid and treacherous.
Diet went very well too. Obviously the calories from the run helped but I was doing pretty well even without that and finished the day 350kcals under target which I was happy with as a one off as it helped offset the previous 2 days of excess.
Today's exercise will be hill repeats which I'll do on a dreadmill, then tomorrow its cross training at the gym. Friday and Saturday remain a mystery. As its race day on Sunday I'm considering not running on the Saturday to get a bit more spring in the old legs. On Friday though I've to get down to Warwick for 10.30am so I have 3 options: 1) run at the gym at 6.30am, 2) cross train at the gym at 6.30am or 3) have another rest day. I'm erring towards 1 or 2, with 2 having the advantage of not being running (ahead of Sunday) but meaning considerably under target miles for the week.
Any thoughts?
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
Tuesday, 7 December 2010
BOGOF
What's this? Two blog entries in a single day?
Afraid so. Seeing Jo's latest entry on surviving Christmas got me thinking about how I'm planning on tackling it so, for the record, here goes.
First up, I expect to gain over Christmas. Its unavoidable.
I know there will be all sorts of foods to pick at from peanuts, Kettle Chips and Bombay mix to dates, and tins of Quality Street. I'd also expect to get something of a chocolaty/sweet variety as a present. Then there's Christmas dinner (which will be replicated on Boxing Day) where copious consumption will be the order of the day and even items like the veg will be smothered in calorie laden butter. New Year's Eve will mean a hefty curry...an evening at the pantomime will probably be followed by a meal out...then there's the cheeses, the trifle, party foods, mince pies, brandy butter, cream, custard, Christmas cake...
...so, the plan (only to limit the damage) is:
1) Diet up to the evening of the 24th and make sure I'm straight back on the waggon by the 2nd/3rd January.
2) Try to get under 12st by Christmas Eve so there's some loss 'in the bank'.
3) Try and have a couple of days between Christmas and New Year where I don't gain, just maintain.
4) Keep up the running throughout in order to burn a bit of excess off. That'll include 6 miles on Christmas Eve, the same on Christmas Day and 12 miles including a 7.5 mile race on Boxing Day.
5) Try not to buy too much food. That's a toughie as I usually do, and if its there I'll eat it, but I'll try.
6) Not worry and enjoy it - I know that a quick gain over Christmas will be matched by a quick loss as soon as I start counting again.
Sound like a plan?
Afraid so. Seeing Jo's latest entry on surviving Christmas got me thinking about how I'm planning on tackling it so, for the record, here goes.
First up, I expect to gain over Christmas. Its unavoidable.
I know there will be all sorts of foods to pick at from peanuts, Kettle Chips and Bombay mix to dates, and tins of Quality Street. I'd also expect to get something of a chocolaty/sweet variety as a present. Then there's Christmas dinner (which will be replicated on Boxing Day) where copious consumption will be the order of the day and even items like the veg will be smothered in calorie laden butter. New Year's Eve will mean a hefty curry...an evening at the pantomime will probably be followed by a meal out...then there's the cheeses, the trifle, party foods, mince pies, brandy butter, cream, custard, Christmas cake...
...so, the plan (only to limit the damage) is:
1) Diet up to the evening of the 24th and make sure I'm straight back on the waggon by the 2nd/3rd January.
2) Try to get under 12st by Christmas Eve so there's some loss 'in the bank'.
3) Try and have a couple of days between Christmas and New Year where I don't gain, just maintain.
4) Keep up the running throughout in order to burn a bit of excess off. That'll include 6 miles on Christmas Eve, the same on Christmas Day and 12 miles including a 7.5 mile race on Boxing Day.
5) Try not to buy too much food. That's a toughie as I usually do, and if its there I'll eat it, but I'll try.
6) Not worry and enjoy it - I know that a quick gain over Christmas will be matched by a quick loss as soon as I start counting again.
Sound like a plan?
Ouch that hurts...pass the butter please
Sunday's run left a couple of muscles feeling pretty sore yesterday. Mainly anterior tibialis.
The AT is a muscle that dorsiflexes the foot and also assists in ankle stability. My guess is a longish, hard-ish run on Sunday on a very uneven and often slippy surface just tired them out.
Gave them a bit of a rub last night but still feel a bit sore today. A run later might help loosen them up but I'll give them a good rub a few times too.
Pecs and triceps still sore since Saturday too. I did 3 sets of barbell chest presses - for the first time since July - on Saturday so I guess that was predictable.
The aches contributed to my over eating yesterday.
It was a rest day so I needed to be pretty frugal to stay within limits. I'd done this successfully by 5pm and was planning basa, oven chips and mushy peas for tea (OK its not high class cuisine but it ticked the 'quick and easy as we haven't been to the supermarket for 8 days' box). Trouble was Sue decided to stay on at work for half an hour doing some prep work, which meant she also hit rush hour and was about an hour late.
With aching muscles, hunger and two kids asking when mum would be home I hit the bread. Half a dozen slices later she was home but by then I didn't really fancy a full meal (and discovered there wasn't enough oven chips for more than one anyway). I had a cheese and onion toastie, and 3 homemade ginger biscuits and a yoghurt. Oh, and a couple of slices of toast later too...
On the plus side the calories probably wont have done me any harm in terms of recovery but they'll have made the week far harder. Lets see where I get to by Friday though.
The AT is a muscle that dorsiflexes the foot and also assists in ankle stability. My guess is a longish, hard-ish run on Sunday on a very uneven and often slippy surface just tired them out.
Gave them a bit of a rub last night but still feel a bit sore today. A run later might help loosen them up but I'll give them a good rub a few times too.
Pecs and triceps still sore since Saturday too. I did 3 sets of barbell chest presses - for the first time since July - on Saturday so I guess that was predictable.
The aches contributed to my over eating yesterday.
It was a rest day so I needed to be pretty frugal to stay within limits. I'd done this successfully by 5pm and was planning basa, oven chips and mushy peas for tea (OK its not high class cuisine but it ticked the 'quick and easy as we haven't been to the supermarket for 8 days' box). Trouble was Sue decided to stay on at work for half an hour doing some prep work, which meant she also hit rush hour and was about an hour late.
With aching muscles, hunger and two kids asking when mum would be home I hit the bread. Half a dozen slices later she was home but by then I didn't really fancy a full meal (and discovered there wasn't enough oven chips for more than one anyway). I had a cheese and onion toastie, and 3 homemade ginger biscuits and a yoghurt. Oh, and a couple of slices of toast later too...
On the plus side the calories probably wont have done me any harm in terms of recovery but they'll have made the week far harder. Lets see where I get to by Friday though.
Monday, 6 December 2010
Phew
Yesterday's recce of the Calderdale Way proved a toughie.
It was still very cold, especially when we set off, and there was still a mix of fairly deep frozen snow and patches of glass like ice to contend with.
As we departed we met a chap from another club that Mark knew - the captain of another club and their top runner - and he (and his dog) ran round with us. That was nice but I suspect it did mean the pace pushed a bit faster than we wanted at times.
That was generally ok. The only time I struggled was on a 1 mile stretch along an icy woodland trail that climbed about 130m in the process. Along there I gradually began to fall behind: first 4m, then 5 and finally about 10m so I stopped for a wee and they stopped further ahead to wait. still felt zonked for the next 10 minutes after though.
Got home about 2.30pm and had a warm bath and a read of Stephen Fry's latest auto-biography before doing two more 'Christmas' butters.
The diet wasn't so good. Not terrible, but not so good either.
When I got in I was hungry and knew I needed some carbs and protein quickly. A milky coffee, piece of orange & geranium dark chocolate, half a packet of 'Pom bear' crisps one of the kids had left, and 3 pieces of bread and spread were thrown down without much thought.
Then, at tea time it was a modest portion of oven chips, lots of peas, a mixture of fried onion, mushroom and tomato and about 350g of fillet steak (half beef and half venison).
Nothing too bad, considering the run, but later I did have 4 slices of toast and 3 mince pies...
Not overly concerned though. I didn't log my intake but suspect I'll still have been close to maintenance, maybe even below. The scales tell a different story, one of overnight 1.6lb gain, but I know that will have vanished by the morning.
It was still very cold, especially when we set off, and there was still a mix of fairly deep frozen snow and patches of glass like ice to contend with.
As we departed we met a chap from another club that Mark knew - the captain of another club and their top runner - and he (and his dog) ran round with us. That was nice but I suspect it did mean the pace pushed a bit faster than we wanted at times.
That was generally ok. The only time I struggled was on a 1 mile stretch along an icy woodland trail that climbed about 130m in the process. Along there I gradually began to fall behind: first 4m, then 5 and finally about 10m so I stopped for a wee and they stopped further ahead to wait. still felt zonked for the next 10 minutes after though.
Got home about 2.30pm and had a warm bath and a read of Stephen Fry's latest auto-biography before doing two more 'Christmas' butters.
The diet wasn't so good. Not terrible, but not so good either.
When I got in I was hungry and knew I needed some carbs and protein quickly. A milky coffee, piece of orange & geranium dark chocolate, half a packet of 'Pom bear' crisps one of the kids had left, and 3 pieces of bread and spread were thrown down without much thought.
Then, at tea time it was a modest portion of oven chips, lots of peas, a mixture of fried onion, mushroom and tomato and about 350g of fillet steak (half beef and half venison).
Nothing too bad, considering the run, but later I did have 4 slices of toast and 3 mince pies...
Not overly concerned though. I didn't log my intake but suspect I'll still have been close to maintenance, maybe even below. The scales tell a different story, one of overnight 1.6lb gain, but I know that will have vanished by the morning.
Sunday, 5 December 2010
So far...so good
I wanted a good weekend and I'm half way through and on track so far.
Friday's trip to the gym was successful if tedious. It was six miles at about 8.45 pace with 6 x 90s at 6.45 pace. In itself that was fine, its just that being in the same place for 50 minutes, running in a warm gym isn't fun. I really need to start remembering my iPod. There are TV screens but the 3 nearest me were showing X-factor hits videos, Sky News and a boxing magazine programme. The boxing and news were useless as there was no sound. On the up side at least there was no sound for the X-factor stuff either. I should count my blessings.
I've been enjoying the walk to and from the gym in the dark through the snow. Its probably only 1.75 miles as the round trip but alot of it is across a golf course with lake, fountain and hills all looking good in the snow. Also been enjoying a post exercise latte as they do Costa coffees at the gym bar. Sadly they don't do gingerbread syrup but caramel is a reasonable substitute.
Yesterday I changed my routine slightly and ran outdoors for 6 miles in the morning rather than saving it for the gym in the afternoon. It was a 'base pace' run so doable in the snow/ice/slush. Very tiring though as the thick slush was very hard work and speed dropped right back to nearly 10 minute miles.
After snow clearing (oh my back) it was off to the gym in the afternoon where I did 20 minutes on the cross trainer, core exercises and some chest presses with a barbell. Going to try to do a simple upper body weights session once a week. Brief swim afterwards then more coffee.
That gave a leftover calorie glut yesterday but a homemade pork & mushroom stroganoff with brown rice and peas disappointingly wiped that out in one fell swoop. Nice though :).
This morning I'm meeting a guy from the running club and we're heading off to 'recce' leg six of the Calderdale Way Relay route which we're racing next week - so 12 hilly miles in the snow and ice to come!
That'll take much of the day as we need to drive to Halifax, leave a car then drive to Bradford before running back to Halifax and driving to Bradford...its all a question of logistics.
Should still have time to do a smidgen of 'cooking'. I'm doing the flavoured butters for Christmas dinner. Yesterday I did the parsley/lemon/garlic one for the peas, and the anchovy/rosemary/lemon zest one for the purple sprouting broccoli. Today will be the sage/chestnut/pancetta one for the sprouts and the orange/cumin/thyme one for the carrots. They really lift each veg beautifully.
Talking of veg (and Christmas dinner) I've added another dish to my menu: creamed corn. Its apparently popular at thanks giving, very simple and I thought I'd give it a whirl. Any of those familiar with the foods of the colonies tried it?
Friday's trip to the gym was successful if tedious. It was six miles at about 8.45 pace with 6 x 90s at 6.45 pace. In itself that was fine, its just that being in the same place for 50 minutes, running in a warm gym isn't fun. I really need to start remembering my iPod. There are TV screens but the 3 nearest me were showing X-factor hits videos, Sky News and a boxing magazine programme. The boxing and news were useless as there was no sound. On the up side at least there was no sound for the X-factor stuff either. I should count my blessings.
I've been enjoying the walk to and from the gym in the dark through the snow. Its probably only 1.75 miles as the round trip but alot of it is across a golf course with lake, fountain and hills all looking good in the snow. Also been enjoying a post exercise latte as they do Costa coffees at the gym bar. Sadly they don't do gingerbread syrup but caramel is a reasonable substitute.
Yesterday I changed my routine slightly and ran outdoors for 6 miles in the morning rather than saving it for the gym in the afternoon. It was a 'base pace' run so doable in the snow/ice/slush. Very tiring though as the thick slush was very hard work and speed dropped right back to nearly 10 minute miles.
After snow clearing (oh my back) it was off to the gym in the afternoon where I did 20 minutes on the cross trainer, core exercises and some chest presses with a barbell. Going to try to do a simple upper body weights session once a week. Brief swim afterwards then more coffee.
That gave a leftover calorie glut yesterday but a homemade pork & mushroom stroganoff with brown rice and peas disappointingly wiped that out in one fell swoop. Nice though :).
This morning I'm meeting a guy from the running club and we're heading off to 'recce' leg six of the Calderdale Way Relay route which we're racing next week - so 12 hilly miles in the snow and ice to come!
That'll take much of the day as we need to drive to Halifax, leave a car then drive to Bradford before running back to Halifax and driving to Bradford...its all a question of logistics.
Should still have time to do a smidgen of 'cooking'. I'm doing the flavoured butters for Christmas dinner. Yesterday I did the parsley/lemon/garlic one for the peas, and the anchovy/rosemary/lemon zest one for the purple sprouting broccoli. Today will be the sage/chestnut/pancetta one for the sprouts and the orange/cumin/thyme one for the carrots. They really lift each veg beautifully.
Talking of veg (and Christmas dinner) I've added another dish to my menu: creamed corn. Its apparently popular at thanks giving, very simple and I thought I'd give it a whirl. Any of those familiar with the foods of the colonies tried it?
Friday, 3 December 2010
Gym bunny
No outdoor runs since Tuesday's, but a lot more snow!
Its been the gym for the last two days and will be again today.
Whilst it was ok to run in the snow on Tuesday the hill repeats would have been impossible so they were done on the dreadmill. They weren't done quite to plan. I was meant to be doing 6 x 90s at 6:20 a mile pace with 2 mins active recovery between. In the event I managed 75 - 90 seconds at 6:50 odd. Not quite sure why I struggled. It may have been that the gym was warm.
Yesterday was cross training day so I did 50 minutes on the cross trainer as well as my resistance exercises. Big thanks to the blonde girl with the great bum and lovely slender waist for exercising in front of me and so taking my mind off the tedium of the x-trainer.
Today is 6 miles with speed intervals. Again, I don't trust trying to run at pace on the snow and ice so its treadmill again. Tomorrow will be a steady 6 miles which I'll do outdoors in the morning then Sunday I'm due to be doing 12.
Diet wise all is going fairly well. Lost 3.6lb in the week. It would have been more but for Wednesday's mini binge. The snow came down heavily and sue's work closed at 11.00. By five past she was in the car and on the road. It then took 5 hours to crawl 1.5 miles into Bradford centre where she left the car and got trains back to Leeds station then here. That delay meant I started absent mindedly picking at bread while the kids had their tea, then when Sue got in we had the ropa vieja we'd intended and then after tea I had even more toast. Not good.
Feeling optimistic though. Just need a good weekend to really cement the good start.
Its been the gym for the last two days and will be again today.
Whilst it was ok to run in the snow on Tuesday the hill repeats would have been impossible so they were done on the dreadmill. They weren't done quite to plan. I was meant to be doing 6 x 90s at 6:20 a mile pace with 2 mins active recovery between. In the event I managed 75 - 90 seconds at 6:50 odd. Not quite sure why I struggled. It may have been that the gym was warm.
Yesterday was cross training day so I did 50 minutes on the cross trainer as well as my resistance exercises. Big thanks to the blonde girl with the great bum and lovely slender waist for exercising in front of me and so taking my mind off the tedium of the x-trainer.
Today is 6 miles with speed intervals. Again, I don't trust trying to run at pace on the snow and ice so its treadmill again. Tomorrow will be a steady 6 miles which I'll do outdoors in the morning then Sunday I'm due to be doing 12.
Diet wise all is going fairly well. Lost 3.6lb in the week. It would have been more but for Wednesday's mini binge. The snow came down heavily and sue's work closed at 11.00. By five past she was in the car and on the road. It then took 5 hours to crawl 1.5 miles into Bradford centre where she left the car and got trains back to Leeds station then here. That delay meant I started absent mindedly picking at bread while the kids had their tea, then when Sue got in we had the ropa vieja we'd intended and then after tea I had even more toast. Not good.
Feeling optimistic though. Just need a good weekend to really cement the good start.
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
Running in a winter wonderland
We had about another four inches of snow in the early hours of yesterday morning so there was a reasonable accumulation. Walking wasn't that great - a mix of fresh snow, compacted snow, lumpy ice and slush on the roads.
Managed to get out for a fairly early six miles in the largely virgin snow. Its nice to have all the right gear: Helly Hansen L/S base layer, Gore tights, shorts, gloves, Gore hat, Gore windproof jacket and Innov8 GTX shoes. I don't normally bother with shorts over tights - I can't help but think the fellas that do that are either very insecure or just want to look like footballers - but if I took my hat or gloves off the only place to put them would be down the tights so best to cover them up yesterday!
It was the first time I'd worn the jacket. I got it in the Sweatshop sale at the start of the summer: not cheap at about £70 but reduced from £140 and excellent quality. Its not waterproof but is windproof so ideal for conditions like yesterday. The shoes also came into their own. The grip is about as good as you can get and the Goretex fabric meant my feet stayed dry and therefore warm.
The run itself was hard work. I ran along the road to the woods and then on to a park and around the lake. Even with the rubber studs on the shoes there was still a tendency to slip slightly in the snow with every stride. Navigating wasn't so good either as in the woods everywhere looked the same. However, everything looked beautiful - the woods could have been a forest in eastern Europe and running beneath the heavily snow laden overhanging trees round the lake was absolutely lovely (think Narnia).
Didn't see another runner at all but did get told by two ladies out dog walking that I deserved a round of applause. Not that I got one. Its the thought that counts I suppose.
Diet also going fine - just a little ahead of 'target' so about where I'd expect.
Wednesday is hill training but I may have to go to the gym for that as running fast up snow and ice covered hills would be stupid to even attempt.
More snow forecast for today and tomorrow but then dry for the weekend (though it wont get above freezing). Ice should make Sunday's 12 miler interesting as that's a recce of a hilly route forming part of the Calderdale Way Relay for the week after.
Managed to get out for a fairly early six miles in the largely virgin snow. Its nice to have all the right gear: Helly Hansen L/S base layer, Gore tights, shorts, gloves, Gore hat, Gore windproof jacket and Innov8 GTX shoes. I don't normally bother with shorts over tights - I can't help but think the fellas that do that are either very insecure or just want to look like footballers - but if I took my hat or gloves off the only place to put them would be down the tights so best to cover them up yesterday!
It was the first time I'd worn the jacket. I got it in the Sweatshop sale at the start of the summer: not cheap at about £70 but reduced from £140 and excellent quality. Its not waterproof but is windproof so ideal for conditions like yesterday. The shoes also came into their own. The grip is about as good as you can get and the Goretex fabric meant my feet stayed dry and therefore warm.
The run itself was hard work. I ran along the road to the woods and then on to a park and around the lake. Even with the rubber studs on the shoes there was still a tendency to slip slightly in the snow with every stride. Navigating wasn't so good either as in the woods everywhere looked the same. However, everything looked beautiful - the woods could have been a forest in eastern Europe and running beneath the heavily snow laden overhanging trees round the lake was absolutely lovely (think Narnia).
Didn't see another runner at all but did get told by two ladies out dog walking that I deserved a round of applause. Not that I got one. Its the thought that counts I suppose.
Diet also going fine - just a little ahead of 'target' so about where I'd expect.
Wednesday is hill training but I may have to go to the gym for that as running fast up snow and ice covered hills would be stupid to even attempt.
More snow forecast for today and tomorrow but then dry for the weekend (though it wont get above freezing). Ice should make Sunday's 12 miler interesting as that's a recce of a hilly route forming part of the Calderdale Way Relay for the week after.
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