I've had my ups and downs

Following on from the last blog, outlining the huge backwards leap I've taken in the last 2 weeks, I've been looking at my Results Graph on http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/.

It covers the last 20 months and resembles the profile of a series of Alpine peaks. A number of steady downward lines punctuated by sudden short upward spikes with precious little stability. It doesn't look much but each peak and valley tell their own story:

• Starts off with 3 months of steady weight loss at the beginning of 2009 as I trained for the Paris marathon, losing 27lbs.
• Ten days of post marathon excess, a week of hard training then a month of limited training (as my legs recovered) mean comfort eating and half the weight goes back on.
• But that's OK as I have a new target and lose all of that and 3lb more in the 10 weeks leading up to the summer holiday in France
• Plenty of running in France off sets the foodie nature of the holiday to a large extent but a week of eating out and eating rubbish on the return means there's still a few pounds back on.
• Another consistent 8 weeks though that takes me to my lowest ever adult weight - 11st 7lbs - as I run well in a series of races and recognise weight loss as a major contributor to this and to potential future improvements.
• I've been ignoring ever worsening groin pain though and that and training fatigue leads to me taking a week off in mid October where I deliberately eat appallingly to 'get it out of my system'
• It doesn't work and with autumn giving way to the dark nights of winter, my 40th birthday imminent, the groin no better and a week's leave spent not away somewhere but sitting bored on the sofa I feel very down and try to find solace in food (as so often I do). That's just a vicious circle triggering more negativity and eating. Within a month I've put on well over a stone.
• But November isn't so bad. with the 40th out of the way I get back on track, despite running all but stopping and lose half a stone in the month.
• By the beginning of December I get the news that the groin injury will be long term and that Paris marathon will be a non-starter in 2010. I think 'f*ck it' and give up for December. Despite a few minor concessions to cutting the traditional excess at Christmas I still put on about 16lb in 5 weeks.
• With no Paris to aim for and no resumption of running on the horizon its difficult to get going in the New Year but a decent 15 weeks gets me slowly back to where i was at the beginning of December.
• I can't keep it up though despite running having resumed and switch off for 3 weeks and put 10lb on.
• Steady progress in June and good progress in July take me down to 11st 11lb and that feels so good and yet...
• Two and a half weeks on from that I've gone into gluttonous excess mode again when faced with feeling sorry for myself over the absence of holiday and worrying about a recurrence of groin pain.

And so the merry go round will start once again and later today I'll reassess my plans and objectives for the next couple of months.

Anyone else have a pattern like this or am I the only fruitcake at the WI show?

All over for another year

That's it then, summer holiday over with for another year. Its been a strange one too.

Between the summer of 2003 and last summer I can recall going to Crete three times, Corfu, Kefalonia, Kos, SW France twice, Paris three times, Rome, Barcelona, Prague, Budapest, Scotland twice. That's not bad in a little over six years but it all stopped after last summer, since when we've had two weekends away camping in Swaledale and 5 nights the week before last camping in Scotland.

Last week I was off work too but instead of heading to North Wales as we'd planned we stayed at home and went for trips out. During the week we went to Magna in Sheffield, the National Coal Mining Museum near Wakefield, to the National Rail Museum in York and then yesterday to the Castle Museum also in York. On top of that we twice went to the buffet at Agraah in Shipley, had a Chinese takeaway, ate in two of the museums and had sweets, chocolates, biscuits, peanuts, dips, cakes, crisps most evenings as part of 'treat week'. Oh, and we twice had ice creams too!

All in all it was pretty good, and the kids also went to the Thackray Medical Museum in Leeds and to see Toy Story 3 at the cinema. OK, we didn't get sunshine or to see another culture or sample another country's foods but it was OK.

What's all this got to do with running and fitness?

Not a lot, and that's the point of blogging it. With other temptations, a groin injury for me and a bad back for Sue there was limited running, only the short walk in Scotland and only two trips to the gym in the fortnight despite all the free time. There was also the 'traditional' feeling sorry for myself and (failing to) find comfort in eating crap.

A little over two weeks ago I was very much 'in the zone', feeling good about myself and weighing in at 11st 11lbs. Eighteen days later and I weigh 12st 8.2lb. Yes, you've read that right, that's a gain of 11.2lbs. Now, I know a good chunk of that will be water retention and 'food in transit' but even so there's some considerable weight gain that I can feel as well as see in numbers on the scales.

So, later today I'll reassess my objectives and plans in light of this but before that I'll put this latest setback into context...

Day One (again)

Suitably chastened by Allison's stern rebukes I decided to cancel yesterday's club run and just test the groin with a 2.6 mile jog with Bethan.

I made a point of focusing on engaging the core muscles - (semi) specifically the ones you'd clench if you were desperate for the loo but not yet near one - and suffered no discomfort during the run. It took a bit of concentration to keep that up. Its something I found hard at first but then more or less got in the habit of doing it every time though I suspect that recently when I've tired either at the end of longer LSRs or during races I've let slip.

Afterwards there was no great problem and certainly no lower abs discomfort at all, just that feeling of the left hand side of the groin somehow feeling slightly 'misaligned'.

By this morning even that had passed.

However, I'm going to be cautious as I've been here before - chasing miles or times while it gets progressively worse and have come up with a plan:

1) Start on the core stability exercise program again
2) Cut back on mileage this week by just running once more with Beth and doing 6-8 miles at the weekend
3) Replace this week's runs with cardio & weights at the gym
4) Cut back LSRs to 10/12 miles max for the next couple of months
5) Really concentrate on engaging the core at all times during runs

With luck that will keep me on track without anything getting worse.

To kick that off I revised the core programme today and did the first set:

• Plank
• Side plank
• Swiss ball hyperextension
• Bridge
• Static lunge
• Walking lunges
• Single leg dips
• X-band walk
• Supine hip extension
• Lying hip adduction
• Piriformis stretch

All lovingly tabulated into an Excel plan in the colours of my favourite Adidas Adizero kit. I really need to get out running again soon don't I?

D-day

Perhaps I'm being just a tad melodramatic in comparing today's run with the Normandy landings but it doesn't feel too great a leap to me this morning!

This is a post about my groin. You have been warned.

To re-cap:

• First started getting pain in lower abs late August last year. Ran through it and it got progressively worse while also being misdiagnosed by physio.
• By late October I'd virtually had to stop running and was getting twinges through the day too.
• Went to see a consultant early in March who diagnosed Sportsman's hernia and referred me to a sports physio he recommends.
• Began series of core stability exercises while gently starting running again.
• also began trying to engage core muscles while running.
• After about 6 weeks there was no presence at all of pain before, during or after.
• After about 12 weeks I slowly started to drop the daily core stability exercises.
• Still no recurrence even with speed training and racing, and long runs up to 13 miles.

However...

...for a few weeks I've felt a hint of 'something' - difficult to pinpoint, not pain as such, short lived and possibly imaginary...

...then on Wednesday last week I could definitely feel it after the Castle Douglas race - a pain in the lower left abs towards the inguinal canal, that stayed for 3 days. Since then the pain has eased off but the left groin area feels loose or disjointed a bit.

Its a worry. A big one. Last year gave me 4 months off and left me feeling depressed and having the prospect of £2.5k's worth of operation to fund.

I'm really hoping this will just be a warning and that if I start the core exercises again, after a week's rest, and engage the core muscles during every run it'll disappear again and can be held in check permanently by these actions. The fear is that there's still an underlying weakness that will just get worse as pace or mileage increase. Last year a week or more of rest didn't make any difference at all.

Tonight is a 7/8 mile tempo run with the club and this morning a very gentle 2.5 mile jog with Bethan. I'm really hoping to get through both pain free and will know by Thursday morning - no pain by then means its nipped in the bud.

Nerd porn

After 10 days without really having a laptop its good to be back online on my new netbook. I've even pushed the boat out and bought MS Office so there will be no more messing about with MS Works spreadsheets.

Its amazing how much is stored on a pc - pictures, videos, weight/running/training/racing spreadsheets, lists - all now lost.

One thing that is good to be back with is Garmin Connect. Fortunately, as its not stored locally all the old data is still there and I've been able to look at the last few runs. Twostick out - the 14 mile LSR from the Sunday before last and the Castle Douglas race.

The LSR looks to have been slightly hillier than a normal LSR by about 200ft extra of elevation with pretty constant ups and downs but the first half generally downhill and the second half more generally uphill, giving mile splits of:

8:57
8:15
8:17
8:10
8:00
8:15
8:28
8:22
8:11
8:20
8:27
8:12
8:19
8:28

The notable increases/decreases look to match pretty well to changes in gradient, so happy with that.

Castle Douglas was more of a surprise. I'd remembered the course as constantly undulating gently and the first mile or two bein generally downhill. That doesn't seem to be the case. Mile one and two look to be billiard table flat, mile three had a long uphill drag and short decline giving a small net ascent, mile four was up and down a fair bit and mile 5 had two downs and an up to give a slight net descent.

That gave rise to confirmed mile splits of:

7:15
7:17
7:29
7:12
6:43

I don't think it tells me anything that will change the plan for Birchwood though.

More camp than Kenneth Williams

That was my last week in Dumfries & Galloway, staying on the shores of Loch Ken.

It's funny how holidays are never quite what you'd envisaged they'd be. In this case I'd had a ragged notion that the holiday would include hiring a mountain bike for half a day, 3/4 runs, some swimming in the loch, lots of hill walking and several trips out ion the loch in a canoe or kayak. I'd also kidded myself that it would be a few days of healthy eating punctuated with the odd treat for all my physical exploits.

In the event I ran once (the race), did one 4 mile walk up/down a hill in the Galloway forest and had 40 minutes each in a kayak, canoe and rowing boat. I also managed about 20 seconds swimming in the loch. Ah well.

Food wise was even worse. Probably Monday and Tuesday weren't too bad - if you exclude the post race chips and bag of jelly babies that is - but after that it wasn't good. There were few obvious candidates for eating out on an evening and limited to a single gas burner we fell back on fish & chip shops for 3 nights, a disposable barbecue for one and a pile of cheese sandwiches for the other. During the day there was the novelty of frying eggs and bacon at six am, the lure of the on site sweetie shop and three trips to tea shops for scones and or cake. Oh, and a trip to an ice cream parlour.

It was still a decent break though.

Castle Douglas 5 Mile Road Race

This race provided one of the sternest tests yet in my running career.

Not the actual running of the race – that was pretty straightforward – but actually finding out when and where this Brigadoon of races would take place tested my endurance far more than the average weekend long run.

We’d decided to go camping for a few days in Dumfries & Galloway and while trawling the net for likely things to see and do I saw a fleeting reference to a ‘fun run’ as part of Castle Douglas’s Civic Week. I assumed that meant a one mile jog round a park but a bit more Googling found a second oblique reference that suggested it might actually be a 5 mile road race but there was no mention of time or location. Obvious solution: look on runners World’s events listing. Nothing there. OK, try John Schofield’s site: nothing there either. A bit more Googling and I had a date and a time: well, two times actually. It was almost definitely on the 27th and would start at 6.30pm and/or 7pm and would probably start somewhere in or near ‘Lochside Park’. I tried an appeal for information on Runners World’s forums – all that got was a virtual tumbleweed.

It was mentioned as a club championship event on the Dumfries RC website though so I felt sure it must exist and decided to just check with the local Tourist Information when we arrived in the area. They were pretty good and confirmed the location and that the start time was 7pm (the race at 6.30pm was to be a ‘bogie race’ and that’s not what you might think), but also advised calling in at a tea room down the road where the event Chairman would have all the details. When I got there only the Chairman’s wife was in residence and she couldn’t confirm what day or time the run was taking place let alone whether there were entries on the day and recommended I “...just turn up about seven - I’m sure that’ll be fine”.

After considering her advice I got there just after six and was the 5th person to register (so I got an ‘elite’ number), and headed back to the car to kill time until just before seven – the now confirmed start time. The fee was £4 so there’d be no souvenir t-shit/mug/towel but that wouldn’t have been in keeping for such a hidden event!

By the time I got to the start area a few minutes before seven there was quite a throng of runners chatting or warming up as they preferred. Around half were from Dumfries RC, with the remainder from Dumfries Harriers, Annan & District AC, Galloway Harriers, various other Scottish clubs and a fairly small smattering of unattached runners. And me. In the event the lady in the tea room was right – by 7.10 they’d just about finished registering runners and we got underway about 5 minutes later.

The course was a good one – almost all on road aside from the last section back into the park and gently undulating all the way round in a large almost un-marshalled loop, relying on 4 arrow signs to guide any runners as to which turns to take.

My race was pretty good too. Having spent much of the winter away from the sport nursing a groin injury I’m still feeling my way back and the two races I’ve ran (the club 5k handicap and Washburn relay) were both ones where I ran without a plan, set off too quickly and tired in the closing stages so they didn’t really tell me anything about where I was but did give me a few things to learn (see July's last post). So, this time I knew what mile splits I wanted and did my best to stick to them.

I'd set a target for myself of 7m 20s per mile. That was 1s faster than Washburn but for an event that was a mile longer. It would equate to a 10k of 45m 31s - faster than my PB from last year but not quite down at the sort of time I think I'm capable of this year, so, a decent benchmark of progress.

I set of quickly again, aided by a slight downhill, but this time I noticed it and slowed myself up so that mile one was completed in 7:16. By this stage the field had thinned out a bit and a lady runner seemed to be using me to pace her. Letting gravity do it's thing on a short downhill managed to shake her off and took me past 3 others in mile two which stayed pretty even at 7:18.

Mile three continued to undulate but had a little more up than down. During that mile I was passed by one guy early on but passed him again at the end of a long drag and he faded away. Time for mile three was 7m 30s - not sure if that was just the hills or a lack of concentration - I suspect it was maybe the former as by the end of it I had 4 runners in sight ahead of me whenever there was a long straight stretch, which mile three had a lot of.

I could see throughout the penultimate mile that I seemed to be very slowly gaining on the gang of four. They were quite spread out - a stick like veteran from Annan AC, a twenty something lad from Dumfries Harriers who looked like a thin Kurt Cobain, a guy in a yellow vest and a lady from Dumfries Running Club furthest ahead. Maybe mile four was a little flatter but they seemed to spread more by the end of it with me only a few metres behind the vet, who in turn was only a few metres behind the Harrier, then a fair gap to the chap in yellow and probably the same distance as ever between me and the Dumfries lass. I felt less fatigued strangely, as if I was only just truly finding my rhythm, and ran 7m 12s for mile four.

In the early stages of the last mile it was interesting to watch what was happening ahead of me. The vet drew level with the Harrier but didn't pass him and half a minute later the Harrier had pulled away again. I assumed that meant the vet had gambled on an increased effort he couldn't sustain and had shot his bolt, and took the opportunistic approach of passing him there and then.

I'd read, and subsequently practised, that when you pass someone you should sustain the increased speed for a little longer to put distance between you and mentally break them from any notion of going with you. In doing that I found I wasn't far behind the Harrier so decided to be opportunistic again and pass him in the same move. The increased pace felt sustainable so, knowing I was probably approaching the last half mile I carried on at that pace to the finish - running my quickest mile split by some way at 6:44. That felt good.

What didn’t feel so good was the pain for 48hrs afterwards as I was feeling my groin throughout that time (well someone’s got to and I was the only volunteer...) but hopefully I can get that under control again. It’s certainly not as bad as it was last autumn so fingers crossed.

Overall time was 35:29 and an average of 7m 12s (the course measured slightly short). I was 30s behind the Dumfries lass, only 6 behind yellow vest, 12 ahead of the vet, 18 ahead of Kurt Cobain (who the vet evidently passed again), over a minute ahead of the chap who'd passed me and then been passed back and about a minute and a half ahead of the woman who was using me to pace with in the first mile or two. 34th overall out of 108, which considering it was a very clubby event, was good, and the time is the best relative time I've run to date and equates to 44:45 as a 10k time.

So, what have I learned this time?

1) Pacing did make a positive difference - as expected.
2) Patience is indeed a virtue - stick to the pace and you'll get your rewards but...
3) ...continue to 'read' other runners - are they breathing hard, slowing, looking ragged - if so take advantage and pass them, don't slow with them.
4) I seemed to get stronger (relatively and in terms of pace) later in the race, implying I need to do a bit of warming up (which I've neglected thus far this year) and so hit my straps earlier.
5) There's more in the tank, especially with a few pounds more lost, so dropping the target to 7m 10s at Birchwood could be on the cards, particularly as its flatter.

Mind you, all of that is dependent on the ol' groin. More on that later...