Friday morning, when I woke up, I expected to walk very stiff and uncomfortably. I had booked a few days off because I was supposed to be doing Connemara Ultra and so had kept the days free as I thought it would be good to get some decent training in with good recovery and plenty of sleep. I had slept for about 10 hours and as I got out of bed I was amazed not to feel achy at all... what a change from last week! One thing I did notice was that my ankle (the one that I had the cast on) felt very stiff. I tried to stretch it but it didn't seem to eleviate the feeling much.
I went to the gym to do my 30 minutes on the rowing machine. A chap who was using one of the machines with only one hand told me to wait a minute as he was nearly finished and the rower he was on was much better than the one I was about to use. For the first time in a while, I missed the fact I have suspended my membership at Rockcliffe Spa and thought it's maybe time to reinstate it! As I got onto the machine, I noticed he had had the tension on at level 10. I felt quite the weakling turning it down to level 3 (the only level I've ever tried doing rowing at) when he had done his session with only one hand, so I put it down to level 5 instead. It only took 2 or 3 minutes before my ankle (which had felt rather uncomfortable since getting on the rowing machine) clicked and it was like instant relief and the stiffness went away immediately. After 10 minutes and finding level 5 relatively easy, I changed it to level 8 for the remaining 20 minutes. All went well, although I started to feel it in my back for the last 5 minutes. Again, weak core muscles, I thought.
I noticed my eating had started to go back to normal too. Last week it was as though there wasn't enough food in the world, but from Thursday my appetite got back to it's normal levels. Graeme suggested it may be because I shocked the hell out of my body last week, and now it was getting used to it all again. He said this with a glass of red wine in his hand and I have to admit it was absolute torture not to pick up a glass and have a tipple too. I thought about how crap I am if I drink too much caffeine, and I thought about how crap I am after only one glass when I have to do a long run the following day and declined his offer of a small glass. Much to my disappointment!!! I actually said that after my long run on Saturday I'd have some wine because doing deadlifts on Sunday after alcohol was no problem, and he said he would refrain from buying a bottle of wine on a Friday as he felt awful drinking it on his own (saying this as he drank the whole bottle!).
So, I slept fairly well on Friday night, apart from getting up in the early hours to go to the toilet and feeling incredibly sick. I would have blamed this on alcohol (had I had any) but realised it must have been the blackstrap molasses. I take it last thing at night because it's known for making you feel sick to have iron on an empty stomach (but ironically the effects are diminished by up to 60% if it isn't taken on its own!). I felt relieved I hadn't had wine too and felt quite smug that I'd managed to refuse a glass when I really really wanted one!
I had some breakfast at about 7.30am and by 8.45 I was out of the door. I was lucky because the weather was crisp and cool but beautifully sunny. I chose a route that I do when I'm jumping up in mileage. It's mostly uphill on the way out and so the opposite coming home. I do this when I'm worried the last part of a run may feel difficult and I relieve the difficulty somewhat by running downhill or on a decline for the majority of the way back. I was hoping that in 2.5 hours I'd get to about 13 miles on a 3:3 run/walk.
The first half (predictably) was tough, but I think the hill reps I'd done on Thursday helped from a confidence point of view. Every time I ran up a hill or long incline, I kept thinking that I'd ran for longer (or steeper) during hill reps, so three minutes up this hill was nowt! It worked wonders, and hills I'd normally just give up and walk were all ran (if they were during a running three minute section). During the last half an hour of the run I noticed my back was really aching. I haven't suffered from an achy back during running since my training schedule was sorted for me by William and Shaun (which unbelievably is getting on for 3 years now!) and it reinforced the need to do a tougher deadlifts session. My foot (which was injured for 8 and a half months last year) was also aching, but this is something to be expected and always aches when I progressively run for a longer period of time. I think it's something I will have to deal with for the time being before it finally settles down (or I get fit enough that it takes much more running before it rears it's ugly head). When I got home, I'd done 13.19 miles, so I was happy with that.
I had a bath and a recovery drink, followed by some vegetable and lentil broth and then I was straight back out for my walk. I'd planned 8 miles (adding 2 miles on to last weeks' attempt) but this time I wanted to walk it faster and on a much more challenging route. So, I did a fairly tough coastal route with some steep climbs and steep steps. I got to 4 miles and was absolutely knackered, and my back, yet again, was aching. Those last four miles were shattering and I was glad when I was done. I did walk faster than last week (where I'd basically bimbled along the road) but with the tougher route and terrain, I only managed 30 seconds a mile faster this week. So... that's something to improve on!
My run/walk turned out to be 12 seconds a mile faster than last week, and overall today I spent just over 4 and a half hours on my feet with a total of 21.19 miles. Not bad for the second week back training! :-)
Graeme and I went to the cinema and I noticed I wasn't that hungry at all. Afterwards we went to my favourite Indian restaurant and I had a starter and main meal but was uncomfortably full when I was finished and didn't eat another thing for the rest of the night. I didn't want any wine either. I couldn't help but think it would impair the anti inflammatory effects of the tumeric and ginger in the curry I had just eaten, and so decided not to bother.
So, getting up this morning... how do I feel? Fine... absolutely fine. My ankle again was a little stiff but after a bit of manipulation it now feels fine. My back is aching a little, but nothing enough to even give much consideration to. I'm looking forward to this afternoon when I get to do my deadlifts. I like to do them after a big Sunday lunch at my mams house... after all, all of those potatoes I always eat need to serve a purpose!
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