First steps...

 Couch to 5K - week one, run 2. Run 1 happened last week. The foot is...improving, but not yet fixed, however, I reached the conclusion that not running wasn’t actually making it improve any faster. Things that *were* making it improve faster were less total mileage, more foam rolling, and anti inflammatory gel. So a plan was formed. Reduce my walking on weekdays - I’d been doing anything up to 8 miles most days and even more sometimes, so that needed to come down. The foam rolling is painful but necessary. The anti inflammatory gel 3 times a day is by far the easiest part of this whole procedure! 

Last Tuesday morning I put on my comfiest, most cushioned running shoes (yes, of course I have several different pairs - ask another runner, they’ll explain!) started the C25K app, and reminded myself that the plan here relies on me sticking to the plan. That means only running when the app tells me to run, and keeping the pace slow on those intervals. It also, at the moment, means slowing things down rather overall - the programme usually relies on 3 runs per week but at the moment I plan to cap it at a maximum of 2. Eventually I’d like to get back to a more consistent, regular pattern, but for now it’s about building things back slowly and being prepared to step back again if things with my foot seem to be getting any worse again. 

This morning I walked three miles with MrEH, then came back, switched shoes and got out there for run 2. I opted for trail shoes this time as I was planning my route to be through the woods and round the field - but those are also less cushioned and proved to be a bit of a mistake. I also assumed that the more uneven paths through the woods would help with the slower pace thing. Ummm. No, not so much - that still needs work. It WAS way more fun than just running round the roads though, so until I can get a bit further afield a bit of mud clogging up my road shoes and needing to keep a close eye on my watch for pace is stuff I’ll happily put up with. 

At the moment, it’s hard work. Really hard. You lose running level cardio fitness quite fast when you can’t run, and my last run was Christmas Day. It also builds back again quite fast though, so I know it will get better. I’ve also run the programme before of course, so I know that if you stick to it it works - although my reduced number of runs are very likely going to mean some repeated weeks, but that’s fine too. Slow and steady - no speedwork, no long runs, stay patient and do the work. Just being back out there again is beyond brilliant though - being injured sucks, particularly at a point where you REALLY need running for it’s mental health benefits. And even when it feels tough, those benefits are still very much there. And THAT is why doing the work will be worth it! 

Robyn 

Another one down...

 ...and there was November, done! It really does feel as though months are flying by now - possibly a good thing allowing for how 2020 has shaped up, but it remains to be seen how different the start of 2021 at least will be! 

Lockdown 2 has in many ways been less challenging than the first one - for me, at least. The lack of socialising is starting to bite a bit now - MrEH is routinely speaking with people on a daily basis for work, but I realised the other day that I can now go days at the time without speaking with anyone other than him, the checkout staff in Aldi or saying hello to random strangers in the street while out walking. 

On the subject of walking - it’s been a good month for it! 

We even managed to start the month with a bit of Underground Overground walking - although on some of this stretch the walking shares the above ground but with the trains too! It was great to be able to revisit this project for the first time since the pandemic took hold, although definitely odd getting onto the tube to do the return stretch back to Leyton!  

Running has taken a back seat a bit this month - I took a week out at the start of the month through conscious choice to try to ease out some niggles, and have cut back a bit on running elsewhere in the month too - ended the month on 8 runs and 35 miles. I have however now got only 12 miles to cover for my 500km annual challenge, which I’m pleased with! A series of bad runs also left my confidence somewhat knocked - so I’m now working to tackle that - the first stage being realising that where I’ve been doing run/walk intervals I’ve been making the run intervals too fast - often, for me, the trade-off of trying not to look at my watch too much. Yesterday mornings run started tackling that with a much closer eye on a far slower pace leading to far more running than walking and an improved overall pace. I've got caught by this before - getting torn between not wanting to rely on tech too much (because we are told it is a "bad" thing to do) and ending up not pacing myself well, so that is something to remember and take forwards again now.

Also positive during the month was the amount of stretching I managed to fit in. I gave myself a 7 hour target at the start and have exceeded that slightly, and in the process I've started learning what sorts of stretching and mobility work suit me and are most beneficial.

I’m planning to leave that time target in place for December, too - although it might drop off a bit during the Christmas period depending on what else is going on! 

December's aims are going to be to wrap up my annual running challenge and get that submitted - and otherwise just to try to maintain a decent level of activity. Strength & stability work needs more focus this month so I will be aiming to beat November's figures for those. Our morning walks (with additional distance top ups on days I am not running) will continue.  Away from fitness, I want to start building structure back into my days a bit more - from part way through lockdown 1 I began to struggle with an endless list of things to do, and the right thing for me at that stage was to let structure go, to a degree. Now though it's time to start rebuilding that I think, so I'll be doing some thinking about how best to tackle that. 

Robyn

Lessons learned...ish...

A misty morning at Netteswell Pond.

A few weeks ago I wrote about being foolish, and continuing to run when I wasn’t feeling 100%, and ending up making myself poorly for a good few days. Having acknowledged that, I vowed to myself that I wouldn’t do that again - and indeed I even took a full week off running to properly recover my energy levels. 

Last week was another “low energy” one - nothing lurgy-related this time, simply one of those things that happens from time to time as a result of a health issue. I’m used to it - sometimes it stops me doing things sometimes it doesn’t. Sensibly I decided that running on Monday wouldn’t be sensible, but instead I’d go for a longer walk. I was still low on energy on Tuesday but decided it wasn’t enough to put me off running...and by the end of the week I’d set my sights on my planned three runs in the week and my weekly goal distance. Circumstance also lead me to do quite a lot of walking throughout the week, including a trip to the sorting office to collect a parcel that the postman didn’t even attempt to deliver. Friday’s run was frustrating - my legs felt heavy, I felt generally really tired. I ticked off my three miles and called it a day. I told myself that the weekend would be more relaxing, with less distance...

...well it sort of was...! I think this might be the most distance I’ve recorded in a week since I originally got my first FitBit back in April 2017. I’ve done 100km weeks a couple of times - notably the week we did our first Underground Overground walk, and on a few other occasions since then too, but I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve hit 114km in a week. Ironically it really wasn’t intentional, and undoubtedly it wasn’t a great week to do it either! 

This week will be a bit less active for sure - I’m planning 2 runs, and quite a bit less walking, probably saving any higher mileage days for the weekend when MrEH wants to head out as well. There’s no question that I do need a bit of recovery time and this time I intend to remember the lessons I’ve learned previously! 

Robyn

After the rain...

 We went out this morning for our walk, as usual. This is a habit that will stand out as a good thing from the pandemic - we decided right at the beginning of lockdown 1 that we were going to walk each weekday, and barring the odd day when it has simply been too wet, or when one of us has had something happening early in the day, or the handful of days I have been away, we’ve continued ever since. It’s a great way to start the day - some movement, some fresh air, some daylight, and a chance to talk over whatever needs discussion before MrEH settles to his days work, and I try to not annoy him too much just by pottering about the place doing...whatever. 

This morning my plan was to walk with himself, then add on another few miles running afterwards. My kit was on, I walked in my running shoes to facilitate a smooth transition from one form of exercise to the next. And then, 10 minutes away from the end of the walking bit, the heavens opened. There had been a little light drizzle earlier on, but the actual “rain” wasn’t due until 10am according to the weather forecast app. The app is an inveterate liar - I know this. Today it proved it. 9.15 = deluge. Deluge to the point where I said “I’m not running in THIS!” and we squelched home. A change of clothes was needed by both of us when we got there too - as I say, a deluge! 

A few hours later though it was altogether a different story - the sun was out, the sky was blue and it was quite clearly perfect running weather! I love this time of year - the temperatures are great, far nicer to running than the sticky heat of summer. The colours are amazing, and the light too - just beautiful. So I found some dry leggings (there was no way the ones from this morning were going back on!) and some dry running shoes (ditto) and laced up and got out...to discover that my legs felt heavy, my breathing felt rough, and it generally felt like flipping hard work! Frustrating when this happens - there’s nothing you can do about it but grit your teeth and get on with it, or give up and walk home if it feels REALLY thankless. Today I was only after a gentle 3 miles to round off my week - usually I’d round it up to 3.1 for the straight 5k, but today, no - I reached the turn towards home and decided that the straight line rather than the “add a bit of distance” short diversion was in order. Of course when I got home, and looked at the stats on Strava I discovered two things - firstly that it was substantially faster than it felt, and secondly - THAT WAS WHY IT FELT SO TOUGH! Honestly - will I ever learn?! 

Robyn

Medal Monday...

 

In the running world, we love a #MedalMonday hashtag - and so you can imagine my glee when I heard the post drop through the door earlier today to discover that my medal and shirt from running the Vitality Virtual London 10k a few weeks ago.  This is a run that I would never have signed up for in its usual form - too busy, too crowded - so it going virtual because of COVID-19 gave me the opportunity to participate, albeit on a route near home rather than in London, of course. 

I ran it when I was really struggling with running a few weeks ago - with hindsight now I think it is pretty certain that I was suffering from some form of virus at the time - no, not THAT virus, not the right symptoms! I was SO determined to do it though  so went for it when really, I probably shouldn’t. It was slow, but I got it done, and the medal feels like a very well deserved reward! 

This morning I went out for my first run in just over a week - and things felt SO much better! From the full-on slogs of a fortnight ago, it felt great to be able to run the first mile at a decent pace, then switch to run/walk intervals for another 3 miles - bliss! Everyone has the occasional bad run - you expect that, and just have to shrug it off and remind yourself that it IS just a one-off, and that the next one will be better. When the one after that, and the one after that, and the one after THAT too is still grim though, it becomes ever harder to overcome and get out there again - hence the week off, in part, and yes, that break feels as though it has done the trick, thank goodness! It’s wonderful to feel enthusiastic about lacing up my running shoes and getting out there again on Wednesday now! 

Robyn 

Pressing pause...

 

I’m not good at admitting when I need to step back a bit - this applies generally, but all the more so when it comes to running, and especially when I’ve been on a bit of a roll with consistency and distances. 

Last month went well - 3 runs per week, 11 in total for the month. I exceeded my monthly target of 50 miles by 7, increased my distance to beyond 10k, ran the Virtual Vitality London 10k, and got myself to within 50 miles of my annual mileage target too. I also did several strength sessions, a fair bit of stability work, and a LOT of stretching, however, I also aggravated a bit of a niggle in my left foot and ankle, and ran on when I knew I wasn’t really feeling “right” which has lead to me feeling rather out of sorts and under the weather for the past week. And of course in spite of THAT I ran some more... Add in quite a lot of walking and general time on my feet, all this on top of a LOT of mileage covered walking in September too, and frankly, my body is crying out for a bit of a break.

This week then is a re-set. No running for at least the first few days - instead either a strength or a stability session each day, and a longer yoga/stretching session too. Walking to get my daily aim of 5 miles in, but not too much more. Plenty of fruit and veggies, lots of water. Listening to my body and giving the niggles a chance to settle. All being well I’ll get a run in on Friday - just possibly Thursday - but I’ve suspended any weekly target for this week, and won’t be putting myself under any pressure to do too much until things feel right again. With what is now being referred to as “Lockdown 2” approaching, I think it’s likely that I’m going to want to be able to get out and run or at least walk plenty over the next few weeks, so a bit of stepping back now should help to put me in the best possible place to allow that. 

While I’m not spending too much time on my feet this week, I plan to turn my attention back to some of my old unprocessed photos. I’ve got airshow stuff going back years that I want to look back on - from the 2 Lancasters flying together in 2014, through to the various classic jets that we no longer see fly for various reasons, there is plenty of stuff to be working on, and the new laptop is proving to be an absolute delight to work on, too. Slightly more up to date software is also meaning I can get far better results from my processing, so that in itself is proving an incentive to work on some stuff that I ignored or just simply missed previously. I’ll maybe post some of the results here - but in any event a fair number will appear on Instagram (@robyn_pf) or Twitter (@EssexHebridean) and as usual everything will land up on my Flickr account (Photozone72) so pop over there and take a look! 

Robyn

Bling & things...

 

My medal arrived for my September challenge - and it’s a beauty! A bit of “bling” always helps as a motivation booster, and as a result at least in part of this one arriving I have now signed up for two further challenges - the first is the “Virtual Vitality London 10k” Which I will need to run at some stage next week, and the second is a little further off and will be a run & walk challenge again as it’s to cover 214 miles in 7 weeks at the start of next year! In an ideal world I would love to head into London for the 10k - and indeed I’m still considering a drive in to park in the area close to my office, need to think of a suitable 10k route mind you. It would feel more “right” to run it within a London postcode, at least, though. 

Other than that, the consistency of 3 runs a week continues. I have just done run 2 of this week - in the pouring rain, no less - as I write (several hours ahead of hitting publish!) I’m curled up on the sofa in a huge cosy hoody and snuggly socks, slowly drying/thawing out. and feeling notably disinclined to venture outside again probably for the remainder of the day! While I joke about it, actually knuckling down to run in the rain is a big thing for me - I REALLY dislike it. Aside from the general unpleasantness of it, I run in glasses, and have to cross at least some roads on pretty much any route I choose, simply because of the environment I have to run in, and rain splattered glasses + traffic = serious risk of getting run over. Add in this time of year, and I have the added issue of them steaming up when it’s wet too - meaning even less vision - not great! I also loathe the fact that running in the rain means that my thick naturally curly hair instantly launches itself into the kind of tangles that take ages and a lot of ouches to remove. Ugh! Today there was the added barrier of having had a really tough, low-energy run on Monday, and knowing that today was going to be more of the same - which makes it seriously tough to motivate yourself to go and do it, but it is of course going and “doing it anyway” that means that next week, when my current state of low energy passes on, I will hopefully reap the benefit of some far more enjoyable runs! 

I’ve also invested in a “balance cushion” recently - basically a flat round pvc cushion that you inflate to around 50% full of air which makes it devilishly tough to balance on. Great for improving core stability though, so I’m trying to work in a couple of 15 minute sessions per week using that, as well as a couple of weights sessions as well for more general strength work. The full Strava subscription is helping too with the motivation to do stuff like this now as I can input workouts of this type manually and they all feed back into my profile to show me how I’m doing building fitness over time - a surprising help at points like this where otherwise I could feel well and truly disheartened. Being able to see the progress in the form of graphs and charts makes a big difference. 

All being well I should hit my October monthly running distance target, a modest 50 miles, early next week, and that will also hopefully see me caught up on my annual mileage challenge too - leaving that very achievable indeed, barring disasters. This feels like a real turnaround from 6 weeks ago when I committed to getting the consistency back, and really does go to show that you can make quite a substantial distance in a relatively short period of time. Onwards! 

Robyn

Running update

 

4 weeks of my return to running plan complete and so far, all going well. A commitment to running three times a week was the key thing, (with 2 the first week as otherwise it would have meant running three days on the trot - not a good idea!) and sure enough I hit that target. I had no real mileage plans for running this month - just consistency, aiming for at least 2 miles per run, building up the time and distance slowly.

As well as the physical side of running,  I’ve been focusing on the mental side as well - I’ve always found that reading about running makes me more enthusiastic about it too, so discovering Runners World magazine on the library website has been excellent. Also good for enthusiasm is new kit - and I’m loving my new Capri-length leggings from Lucy Locket Loves. Friends have been singing their praises for a long while, so when I saw some good deals come up I leapt at the opportunity and bought a couple of pairs, and they are indeed every bit as good as I was told, I’ll be buying more! Also finding new routes to run - like the gorgeous patch of woodland above - is always a great incentive. Views like the one in the photo just stop me in my tracks every time! 

As anyone who runs knows, one of the big temptations is to try to do too much, too soon - increasing your training load too much can easily lead to injury, but when the enthusiasm is running high it’s REALLY easy to be drawn into overdoing it! Being an impatient sort, I struggle with this as much as anyone, but have tried to rein it back as much as possible - 4.5 miles in week one, 8.6 in week two, 10 miles last week and 13 this week. It’s amazing how quickly the body remembers how the increased mileage feels too - 4.5 mile runs this week felt no harder in terms of effort than those 2 miles back in week one! 

One more thing I have done to bolster the enthusiasm is to upgrade my Strava subscription to the premium level. For the equivalent of £4 a month it gives me far more stats than the free version did - and I’m endlessly fascinated and motivated by the facts and figures around my running, so that is guaranteed to act as encouragement. My current favourite thing is that I can compare my efforts on particular stretches of runs (known as segments on Strava) to effectively compete against myself which definitely appeals! 

So - where from here? Well initially it’s just continuing with the three runs a week, and keep chipping away at my annual mileage target too - I signed up for the 500km challenge again way back in January and thanks to a fair few months during the summer with almost no running at all I entered September a fair way behind on that. Having said this, the same thing occurred last year, and I made the target with a few days to spare, so I’m confident that all being well I can do the same again. I’ve set myself a goal for 50 miles this month., as well as joining in with a few virtual challenges too. I want to try to do at least one run a week where I note my 5k time to feed through for “Notparkrun”. And finally I want to start working on increasing my distance again, so one run per week will get slightly longer, traded off against another getting slightly shorter. 

Above all - and by far the most important thing - is to keep enjoying it, that is, after all, the best incentive of all! 

Robyn

Challenge complete!

 The challenge: 80km per week averaged over 4 weeks = 320km total. This was total movement - walking, running and any swimming - everything recorded in either my FitBit or my Garmin counted. The challenge was for the anniversary of the Battle of a Britain, 80 years ago this year, hence wanting to include the 80 in there. 80 miles per week was a step too far, and 80km running over the month was dismissed as being too much to throw myself into off the back of several weeks of barely any running at all. The 80km total movement in a week though while relatively demanding (a little under 11.5km per day) was achievable even allowing that I knew I had several days in the month with guaranteed lower mileage (2 days travelling home from holiday, 2 days travelling to/from a camping trip with friends and a day at an airshow) - I could add extra distance in other days to take account of that easily enough. I also liked the idea of being able to mix up walking and running, and even possibly a swim - variation is key to keeping things interesting!

I enjoy a challenge of this sort - and particularly at a time like this when I’m both trying to keep activity levels high generally, and aiming to rekindle some consistency in running. Knowing I have a target to aim for encourages me to stay motivated when perhaps otherwise I might give in to not quite feeling like lacing up and heading out -and a monthly goal is easier to focus on than a more long term annual one. The promise of a medal to come if I achieve my target is all the more encouragement too! 

I ended the 4 weeks on 339km, so well over what I needed. More than that though I committed to - and achieved a return to regular running when we got back from the Hebrides - 2 runs that first week back, and three runs each of the next two weeks. I should end this month on 30 miles total running distance - which is my second highest monthly total this year, and a great place to build from going into the end of the year.

I’m keen to find another challenge to crack on with for October. I’m going to be using Strava for running goals - I’ve set a 12.5 mile target for this week to start with - and we will be keeping up with our regular daily walks too - on days when I am not running I’ll be looking to cover at least 4 miles on these. I’d like to swim a couple of times but this will depend on finding a local pool which is open as the open air one is now closed for the winter. I want to incorporate more strength training, and continue with plenty of stretching and mobility work too as those are all things which will help with the running too. I’m not going to set any overall distances to aim for outside of the running - October will be more about variation and consistency. Bring it on! 

Robyn

Ticking along...

Everyday life ticks on. I'm still furloughed - trying to make the most of the additional time but getting back to a degree of normality in terms of everyday routine now feels well overdue. MrEH has been working from home and in the light of the Government's updated advice today that those who are able to should do so again, we can't see that changing any time soon, either.

 Meanwhile the attempt at some home grown produce is coming along nicely - I'm routinely picking enough tomatoes daily to eat with my lunch, and Sunday's runner beans were entirely home grown which was delicious! We also have kale which I'm picking as needed ready to steam or saute and throw into...well, pretty much whatever I cook, to be honest. That is definitely a good side effect of this year's oddness - that we have had time to grow bits and pieces like this and supplement the food that we buy. 

We have done a spot of foraging too - the Giant Puffball from last week, of course, but also sloes ready for Vodka (MrEH is not a gin fan, hence we tend to do flavoured vodka instead) and also some Rowanberries to try infusing into vodka as well - I'll try to remember to report back on that one - and some rosehips for syrup. We may yet go out after crab apples and to see what else is out there too, but either way we will have done quite well out of free food this year, the plum jam we made a few months ago is entirely gorgeous and I may struggle to stop himself eating ALL of it before I get a look-in! 

My September mileage challenge for the Battle of Britain 80th Anniversary is coming along nicely too and providing a good incentive to run more regularly, although possibly the bigger incentive there is realising that yet again I have let my mileage drop off through the summer to the extent that my annual distance challenge is looking doubtful. Will I ever learn? I think I have made the connection a little earlier this year than last though, so hopefully as long as I can maintain the current routine of three runs per week, and start to build the distance a little too, I *should* be ok for it - we'll see. It feels good to be running regularly again and using our morning walk as a "springboard" to run from is working well. 

I've also had three great examples of customer service lately which deserve shouting about. First up was an issue with a piece of cheese which Highland Fine Cheeses sorted out very swiftly indeed (cheese - Mmmm!). Then an order for one pair of full length and one pair of capri length running leggings from Lucy Locket Loves sale stock arrived as both pairs being capri length - again resolved promptly and efficiently. Finally today I got around to reporting the step-counting discrepancy on my Fitbit Charge 3 - a 15 minute phone call saw them run through all the issues and arrange for a replacement to be sent to me so hurrah for that, too. We're all quick enough to complain when things go wrong, so it's only right that when companies demonstrate this level of really excellent customer service we shout about that, as well. 

Other than that, I am crossing my fingers that the weekend's planned Headcorn Air show does actually go ahead - I'm really looking forward to seeing some aviation in an airshow setting after all this time, it's been a very strange year without it! At the moment the weather forecast is looking reasonable, although not exceptional - it would be irony itself if the show goes ahead in spite of Covid, but the weather then steps in to cause cancellation of the flying! 

Robyn

An unexpected find...

I'm working on distance for my September challenge at the moment. It's commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, so I wanted to centre it around the number 80, but having been running relatively little recently 80km running in the month was going to be too much to set my sights on, so instead I have looked to combine walking/running distance. I'm aiming to do an average of 80km per week across the 4 full weeks of the month - 320km total across the month. A week and a half in I'm doing OK - being in the Hebrides for the first week should have been an absolute gift, but in the event we had two days of appalling weather that week which combined with the first day of our journey home reduced our walking distance rather. Still ended up on 55 miles though. Week 2 also saw a couple of low mileage days, and I came in just below my target mileage, meaning that I "used up" the extra miles banked in week one. Week three is so far looking rather good - with 4 days of the week done I'm currently on 36 miles, or 58km, giving me a decent chance to bank some more additional distance against the risk of poor weather next week. 

 To build my mileage I've been looking for any excuse to get out and walk - so yesterday afternoon I grabbed my litter picking stick and a black sack and headed to the woods for another rubbish clearing wander - first a circuit picking straight rubbish, then a second for recycling. It's getting better with just a half bag of each this time - hard to say whether that is because people are dropping less, or just that someone else has also been litter picking, though. While scanning about for rubbish though, my eyes lit on the item at the top of the post - no less than a giant puffball mushroom! This particular one was around 8" across - plenty big enough for 2! Yes, of course we ate it! There was a second one too, but that has been left in place in the hope that it will spore, creating more of them for the future. This is the first time we've seen these so close to home so it would be nice to hope that some more appear - I think that particular area will be a feature of our walking for the next few weeks anyway! 

 Beyond mushroom hunting, I'll just continue clocking up the distance, three runs per week of 2 - 3 miles each, just to rebuild the consistency. My daily morning walks are routinely 4 - 5 miles now, I leave MrEH to head home when he needs to start work and round up the distance on my own. I'm also still doing most of our shopping on foot - double value there as it builds mileage for me, while also reducing mileage and fuel use for the car so win/win. Might have to find myself a challenge for October as well, to keep the momentum going! 

 Robyn

Has the U.K. Weather got Coronavirus?

 

Well, it seems to be running a temperature, and also appears to have developed a persistent cough across most of the country over the last few days! Seriously though, there has been some awful weather in many places over the past 24 hours - with the worst effect being the train derailment up in Aberdeenshire of course in which 3 people have sadly lost their lives. We’re so accustomed to thinking of our weather as being fairly uneventful - much as we like making a fuss about anything  bit extreme for us - that it comes as a bit of a shock to be reminded so brutally that actually it does still come with it’s risks from time to time. 

Here the worst we’ve had so far is roasting hot temperatures, a brief shower of incredibly large raindrops this afternoon and a few rumbles of thunder, although even that has been enough to make this evening feel distinctly cooler. Sleeping has been a challenge these last few days so hopefully it might feel a bit better tonight. 

I did another short run this morning - the photo above may have already given the game away on this one! Slightly further, and a higher running:walking ratio than Monday - hence the slightly faster pace too (Monday was a stately 11.54 min/mile pace) and again, everything felt fine I’m pleased to say. The next one will be Friday and slightly further again - I’m determined to build this back up again slowly and steadily though. I’ll probably do some longer ones in the Hebrides but there will be a lot of walking involved too - there always is up there as a rule - even the 10k race I did there last year saw lots of breaks to take photos etc and I still managed to finish inside my target 60 minutes which I was thrilled with! I’m a long way off being able to achieve that at the moment! I’m starting to feel enthusiasm for running again which is great though! Hopefully the weather will have cooled off a bit by the time Friday comes around too and running might feel rather more pleasant and less sweaty! 

Robyn

A trial run...

 

(Yes - this is a completely unrelated photo - I posted it on Instagram last night though, and it brought back such brilliant memories I decided it could feature on here, too! It is of course our arrival on Lundy by helicopter a couple of years ago - a fantastic experience!)

It’s been quite an active sort of day here today, in spite of the fact that I have only *just* managed to reach my 10,000 daily step target. We went for our usual walk first thing - a habit that we started at the beginning of lockdown when we were first both at home all week, and have carried on with since - it’s not something we even think twice about now - the standard routine on weekdays is up, wash, dress, walk, and it’s definitely something I’ll really miss when things change again. Once we hit the 3 mile point this morning we were nearly back to home so I left MrEH to carry on back to start work and I picked up the pace to add a final mile of gentle run/walking to see how my sore hip and back would hold up. I settled on short bursts of running with similar length or slightly shorter bursts of walking in between - roughly a 55/45 split I reckon. Just that mile was plenty for this morning allowing for how hot it was too - I was positively dripping by the time I finished! So far, so good though, everything feels OK and I’ll be running again on Wednesday morning if that remains the case - slightly further this time. 

I’d originally been planning to come straight home and launch into today’s workout for the 21 day strength challenge I’m doing, but in fact I was SO hot all I wanted to do then was just have a sit, some breakfast, and cool off a bit!  The downside of this was that I had to knuckle down and do the workout in the mid afternoon heat instead - ugh! It got done though - and I followed it up with a lovely long stretching session in the hope that my legs might ache less this week than they did after the same workout last week! I could barely move by the end of last week so anything that might help will be welcome! 40 minutes of stretching and breathing and discovering that my body is FAR more flexible than I expected it to be really hit the spot!

Robyn

Progress...

Another few days of sunshine and we just might have our first tomato ready to eat! Tradition of course states that if there is only one ready then it will be cut in half and shared - MrEH would be most upset if I snaffled it for myself! We harvested some of our kale this evening too to have as part of dinner - thankfully the cabbage white caterpillars which had made it home have now moved on without decimating the entire crop! Currently we seem to have just a single runner bean setting - hopefully a few more will appear before too long. 

Progress too on my injury - or rather some diversions from it! I decided that not being able to run at the moment meant a good incentive to focus on strength training instead - and handily one of my favourite instagram influencers, Alice Liveing, has just begun a 21 day challenge focusing on strengthening which I have decided to start working through. I did day 1 yesterday - legs - and it was certainly effective - my lower body is roundly berating me today and I suspect may have entirely gone on strike by tomorrow! Day 2 which I did today was arms and core so I’m expecting similar levels of rebellion from those in the morning! I’m also continuing with daily stretching and plenty of walking - and hoping that the combination of different activities gives me the best chance of being able to get back to running sooner rather than later. Once we’re back from the Hebrides regardless of whether I am back at work or not I may try to find a local gym I can get back to using too - I’ve really been missing my resistance work since lockdown began, and with my usual gym being close to the office even though it is almost certainly open again now it’s been impractical to drive all the way into London just to go and it’s not worth starting up my gym pass again just for a single visit a week. 

Right - time for some stretching! 

Robyn

Not running...

It would appear we have an injury. Only myself to blame too - I did a strength workout with weights on Friday, and threw in a new exercise for the first time - which is fine, except I should have done it either unweighted or with very light weights for the first time, not the heavy dumbbell that I was using for other, more familiar, lifts. It wasn’t even a conscious decision - I simply didn’t think. Now the positive from this is clearly that I was able to do the movement with a significant load straight off - the negative however is that a I have pulled either something in my back, or my piriformis muscle again. Cue lots of hip pain and a very sore lumbar region, and, realistically, no running for a few days at least.

It does feel rather as though each time I commit to getting back to regular running something comes along to get in the way again, and it’s really frustrating. I’ve also currently got in mind that our Hebrides trip is not far away so I want to be extra cautious as the last thing I want is to risk making things worse and so get in the way of the walks we have planned. Thankfully at the moment walking seems fine - so for the time being it’s plenty of that, plus lots of stretching, plentiful foam rolling, and a few doses of ibuprofen until I see how things settle down. It’s already feeling a lot better today than yesterday - but I know from experience that patience is going to be key - and that’s something I struggle with! 

Robyn

The thing about running...

...is that sometimes it’s really good fun. Tuesday was a good example - 2 miles, pretty hard work, definitely pushing myself, but in spite of that, I really enjoyed it. Other times though, it really isn’t - and today’s run was a good example - best described as HORRIBLE! 

It was warm when we went for our walk first thing - temperatures up up to 30C were promised for the day but the forecast suggested it would be after lunchtime when that really kicked in. Even at 8.30 though, there was never any question I needed anything other than my running kit on, and even just in that, it was warm. We walked - 3.5 miles this morning, across to the pond (above) where to our delight we spotted a Common Sandpiper, our first of the year and a fairly unusual sighting for our little town, then home, MrEH settled down to his work day and I grabbed running belt (keys, phone) and Garmin and headed back out again. 

Almost immediately I knew it wasn’t going to be one of those fun ones - the heat had picked up even more, my legs were saying “no thanks” within the first five minutes, and I am in the middle of one of the energy slumps I still get from time to time as well. The first mile was OK - on the route I ran today that first mile is entirely downhill so pretty much guarantees a decent pace. After that though things got less pretty - I’m not a fan of hot weather running at the best of times, and today was NOT the best of times! At a mile and a half I passed the first of my “get out options” - places where I could simply loop back towards home for a shorter run - the temptation was strong but I dismissed it and carried on - probably walking more than running by that stage. At just short of 2 miles I gave myself a talking to and switched to structured run/walk pattern. Another couple of “get out options” came and went. By the time I reached just short of 3 miles I was overheating to the point of feeling sick, my breathing was wheezy and it had really stopped being any sort of enjoyable - in spite of wanting 4 miles ideally I decided to just stop the Garmin and walk home - sometimes you just need to know when you’re beaten. 

There are always positives from a run like that - today’s were; that I didn’t bail at any of the places I could have done, 3 miles is better than no miles, and it was time on feet (and still 4 miles with the walk home!) - and time on feet is good. Runs like that just happen sometimes - there’s little you can do to predict it and in fact this morning I was actually quite fired up for my run - all you can do is learn from it, and file it away under “next time will be better”. Hindsight being what it is, I should have run the final mile as a “walk the uphill, run the down” but we all know what they say about hindsight! 

So - learn, move on. One more run to do this week, and I will probably make that trail centred I think, and probably on Saturday when temperatures will have dropped a bit. That one will be better - well, it can’t be any worse! 

Robyn 

Getting back to consistency...

Another run for me this morning - reverting to an old favourite local route, in fact the same route where I did a lot of my couch to 5k running! I’ve decided I want to get some of my old pace back - and the starting point with that was returning to a route I know well. This morning was just 2 miles but pushing myself a bit - still run/walking but certainly more running that there’s been in there for a while! The next stage now is continue with my plan of three runs a week - including some speedwork during one of them, and then in a couple of weeks I run the same route again and see how I’m doing.

Before lockdown I had been working towards picking up pace again with more consistency and more miles during January, then a niggly injury in February that left me not running much at all for a while and then easing back in on the treadmill during March...then the virus started taking hold - and the gym felt like not such a good idea for that last week...and although I have been running since then it’s not been with any degree of regularity. I’ve struggled with motivation a lot - running after work was a straight commitment - plus my boss soften asked me during the day if I was running later and once I’d confirmed to him that I was planning to, it felt less easy to change that plan! Being at home all the time though, there isn’t the structure in place that prompts me to go out and run at specific points. I’ve now realised that if I leave it to run in the afternoon I will talk myself out of it during the day, so I have taken to dressing in running kit first thing, walking with MrEH and then running immediately afterwards. That gets it done before I have a chance to come up with excuses not to, then I come back and just get on with my day.

I’m looking forward to running in the Hebrides before too much longer too - my plan is that some of the miles for my virtual challenge will be run up there. That challenge is another RAF related one commemorating the anniversary of the Battle of Britain  - I have to set my own distance for this one and currently I’m toying with making it a combined walking/running challenge with an average of 80km per week for each week of the challenge, or just a running one and just aim for 80km over the month. I’m not in any hurry to decide so will probably wait and see how I feel a bit closer to the start date. Either way, I think a challenge will be good to give me something to focus on and an incentive to get out there and run regularly again!

Robyn

We’re going....hopefully!

Finally got to my shots from Tuesday’s Reds Display practise at Scampton - not too many that I’m happy with, but allowing for the grey overcast conditions I expected that. I did get the shots I wanted of the two jets running in for the Gypo Pass though - and one of those is above.

Back at home, we’re starting to prepare to hopefully get to the Hebrides before all that much longer - ferry tickets are now booked thank goodness, and circumstances actually mean we get an additional day and a bit over in Uist this year as well - our usual ferry crossing is not available, and because of the limited capacity on the ferries at the moment we decided we’d make “plan A” the day earlier, rather than running the risk of actually losing a day or more of our holiday. Thankfully the booking went smoothly, and we have secured accommodation for the additional night also - wonderful! I really feel as though this trip is needed now - although I’ve been furloughed from work since April, and MrEH has been working from home, we’ve not actually taken any holiday time at all this year yet - everything that we did have booked was cancelled of course, so a few weeks away will be just perfect.

I also plan to get back into the habit of regular running again before we go away - I have another virtual challenge coming up and plan to run an 80km month later in the year - more than I have done for a while so I want to get back to the routine of it beforehand to prepare. I also hope to do some of that mileage in the Hebrides too - I love going there with a challenge to work on as it’s such a fabulous place to run! I went out today for the first time in a couple of weeks - just 3 miles, a reasonably paced first mile, a far slower second one, and then some speedwork mixed into the third for good measure - I’ve not done speedwork in a fair while so that was long overdue. The plan is to try to throw some in once a week from now on - but we’ll see how that pans out! For now, it’s back to the old routine though - 3 runs a week, that pattern works. Time on feet, build the miles up gradually. Time to make it happen.

Robyn

Running in circles...

I had to drive my Dad to London again today for another appointment - so decided to seize the chance to fit in a run around the lake that I frequently run round after work in more normal times while I was waiting for him. My Garmin chose not to record it properly - although the run log is there on the watch, it refuses to transfer to the app. Sigh. I confess I had to talk myself into this one - my motivation to run has been back to rock bottom again all week, and running had turned into something I “should” do rather than something I wanted to do. Today, with the lure of a nice location and some water to run round, it became something I wanted to do again. Drizzly rain put a bit of a dampener (literally) on things, but I managed to get 2 laps round in before it got heavy enough that it became unpleasant, and I made a dash back for the car. And yes, I did feel better for it - movement is a wonderful thing!

Robyn

Day 98...

An utterly glorious run this morning! I’m still struggling a little with actually getting out of the door to run - and I’m still not entirely sure why, but for now the thing that is working is to get my running kit on first thing, then head out straight after we get back from our start-the-day walk - otherwise known as “before I talk myself out of it” and today was no exception. I followed the route we took for yesterday’s walk to start with - heading for the Common. Thankfully no downpour requiring shelter to be taken today although it had clouded over by the time I reached the top - typical! FAR nicer temperature wise than it has been of late though.

Then, over the M11 motorway- far busier now than it would have been a few weeks ago of course, but still I think not quite as much traffic as would have been normal for that time on a Monday morning,  an appreciable amount more traffic noise though! My route then took me a short way along a quiet road before turning left along a footpath which runs through a short section of woodland before turning right and running along the field edge parallel with the M11 and bringing me to a bridge allowing me to cross back over again...

From this point I had a lovely long downhill stretch - firstly through some paths, then quiet residential streets, and then back onto the town’s wonderful network of old roads - now cycle and pedestrian tracks. We’re incredibly fortunately to have these - it’s possible to get all round the town using them and barely needing to touch the main roads at all - today I used only a few short stretches of pretty quiet roads, plus having to cross over one slightly more major one (And the motorway, but that didn’t bother me much at all!) - far more pleasant than constant pavement pounding! 

I’m not one to take regular selfies when I run but today I was enjoying it so much, and the cooler temperatures meant I wasn’t quite so closely resembling a tomato as sometimes occurs when I run - so I made an exception - as you can see from today’s “sweaty selfie” above. It felt great to get this route run - when we walked it a few weeks back I started thinking it would be a great one for a run and I really wasn’t wrong. In spite of the rain over the past few days road shoes coped fine with it too although I imagine at some times of the year the section round the field in particular and perhaps over the Common too might benefit from the added grip of trail shoes. Today though 5 miles, no mud, and a lovely cooling breeze! Bliss! 

Robyn