Aches and Pains

With my usual organised chaos of a training plan I have continued to think about doing something, even writing it into a plan on occasion, just to not bother at all and do something entirely different.
So in general just doing the same as always...  plod plod plod.

There is a lot to be said for OCD and getting used to something.

Trying to mix it up a bit I went out a road run, 10 miles in horrendous weather, even a knight on his noble steed (read workman in Citroen berlingo) stopped and gave a drookit rat (me) a lift through a very long large flooded part of road. Cheers.

I did note on this run my achilles and ankle were still a bit tender. Had a few wee ankle turns on my Glentress run but thought it would settle down. Heading of to Stinchar Bridge next day with Stan for a wee 20 miler was never going to help.

Pretty rocky path in parts but at least the weather was good. I started off well, ankle ok. As the miles went on and tiredness set in the aches started raising their ugly wee heads. I think my knee was taking a beating for me trying to change the footfall on my ankle. Usual story.

Took a rest day hoping all would be better. Unfortunately my knee started really playing up, it seemed to seize up and just randomly start aching, I found I couldn't straighten my leg and had no twisting movement without pain. Ahh well, just don't try and twist or straighten it then.

Do I stop running, rest and recover, well slightly. Took another day off. I had ordered 2 ankle supports. They arrived yesterday and I went out my run this morning with only one on. My right ankle is fine at the moment but when running longer distances on uneven ground both really suffer. Makes sense to be prepared.

Funny thing about running is I never seem to straighten my knees so the one pain that was causing me worry was fine. But only when running it would seem, I limped about all afternoon at work. Ankle held good but I looked like I had a club foot my shoe was so fat with the support on. I am optimistic it is just wee niggles and they will pass if I ignore them and take plenty painkillers.

Less than 2 weeks to Glen Ogle. Hopefully all will be well. Not confident but looking forward to it.

Rain rain rain

Well for once it hasn't bothered me! Wonder if I'm just getting used to being cold wet and miserable.
It felt like every single day I was out burn running, my wee path through the woods had turned to a full flowing burn, the trail paths at the side were under water as was a good lot of the golf course. After running out of dry trail shoes I decided it was time for the good old boring windfarm with it's closed main road. At least the paths were mostly dry even if it was raining and the wind was howling! hmm windfarm = wind. Good resistance training.

Blerrugh:

Enough of that!

After deciding I was going to enter the Glen Ogle I started wondering how I was going to train for it. The more I see the photo's etc the more I think it is not my kind of race.. gulp. All runable paths and not many hills = fast and painful in my mind. With this in mind I get the gear on & get my butt to the gym. Dreadmill speed stuff, off to the club, miles reps, cool. That was when I was on holiday last month. Lately. oh plod plod plod. Back to normal then.

Glentress:

Enjoyed a nice long run with Munro round the Glentress black run. I ran ALL the uphills. Felt really easy and comfortable. Reached the pylon and begun my decent. Before long I realised my legs were wrecked. Stumbled and toe poked my way down cursing my stupidity at running All the way up!

The thing about the black run is it's not easy. Just when think your getting there and it's all downhill, it goes right back up again. I knew this from a previous run but was still wondering if I had taken a wrong turn! It just seemed waaay to hard. Even Munro had given up running about like a maddy and was trotting alongside me, poor boy. Eventually we finished and celebrated with coffee and shortbread. Well I did, Munro got his bag of kibble.

Obviously I was just being over dramatic as after a wee rest day legs were fine and off we plod to the windfarm yet again. 10 miles this time dry but windy. Fine wee jaunt, but still something is missing. I'm just not happy with my constant  plods. Trying to get the miles in is not the way I like to think about my training. I'm not a miles equals performance person.

After a trawl of the net and a look through my old training plans and races I'm trying to work out what is missing, it's not motivation, at the moment I am loving my running. I find in 2006 I ran the Lochaber marathon!!! hhmm is it time to return I wonder? .. check the shift pattern and I see I'm weekend off.. it's a sign. So duly send away my entry. Register with My Asics, get myself a training plan.. 33 weeks for us beginners lol. So my plan starts November 4th. It says nothing of a long run (33 miles) on day 2 but I guess there is always going to be a blip in any plan!

Yesterday was my first X coutnry this year. Ayrshire relay champs. As usual off the nightshift .. yukk but it was a 1300 start so I did get a decent sleep. This is always a good wee run round the Irvine beach park. Us Torts took silver, thanks to Nats running a stormer. Even the rain stayed off . Good times.

Having myself a new goal which I know I am going to struggle to achieve (keeping to a training plan) with lots of pace per km speedwork etc.. not sure how I'll cope as the speed goes up with the miles. I know I'm a plodder and I'm going to have to really stick in. It's as much a mental issue as a physical one for me! Hoping it will keep me focused through the winter. I saw on the WHW forum some dates for the Glee runs, again I am working every one. I know I don't want to spend too much time running LSR's on my own again so they are not going to be my main aim. Wonder if I can run the Fling off the back of marathon training? I'm sure I can. The Cateran off the Fling? The WHW off the Cateran? I'm not soo sure.

Now I'm off for a T time run round the trail with the boy. The joys of  NOT being nightgshift tonight and having 5 days off to go out and play ... yess.