Back to Scotland

Janie here:
Well you have already heard about this disasterous run on Saturday. After Theresa spectacularly fell down the rabbit hole she decided to hobble home and I thought I would carry on as it was such a lovely day but not do 12 miles. Decided to to a hilly shorter route which felt ok but after running along the flat coast of Nice for a week felt very hard. Had to walk up the hill back to Theresa's and also legs very tired but added my miles up for the week and had done 35 miles (no wonder I was a bit tired!). Have rested for a couple of days Milly and I did 8 miles this afternoon nice gentle run through the woods of Pencaitland with only one hill to negotiate. Felt great. Milly does not seem to have been slowed down by not running for two weeks in fact was having to stop and wait for too often! Planning a short run tomorrow and the same 8 miles on Thursday and Friday and then a long run at the weekend in Dalbeattie Forest. Sore knee better too - just hope I don't fall over again as Theresa and I seem to be jinxed at the moment.

Disaster strikes....thrice

Theresa here - blogging with others does remove the pressure of regular updates but guess it would be good if I wrote a little every now and then. With Janie away on an unexpected extended holiday, I've been slogging away on my own or at club, looking forward to our first run back together again.....so thought I'd update on how that went.

But to the first disaster......Gala 10k. This was to be my first race after my foot injury in November last year, first 10k since Norham. Thought I was feeling ok and relatively relaxed, and have rolled out the heart rate monitor again to help with my training so was intrigued to see that 1) I was running the race dead slow - slower than goal marathon pace 2) my heart was beating like billyo (172-173 bpm which is high for me in a race 3) legs were getting me nowhere but importantly 4) I could go no faster. Anyway, consoled myself with cake at the Fat Cat Gallery in Lauder on the way home, and then cycled from Pencaitland to home as penance (not sure if thats penance for the bad race, the cake or both.....)

Decided after Gala that I needed to start training faster and as luck would have it the train on Tuesday night was well late to Dunbar so I got to run with Neil Teather. Yay - an unplanned tempo run for me, a nice easy run for Neil. Then I went to intervals on the Thursday and by then I was going on average 2 mins per mile faster than gala, with a lower heart rate. I'll never understand this performance malarkey.....

Disaster 2.....for some reason after much deliberation and inaction, I suddenly decided it would be a great idea to try to conquer my Gala issues by taking part in the Gala sprint tri. Hmmm. Swim went well - apart from the fact that both contacts were AWOL immediately after. Then onto bike. Not so good. People got punctures and still passed me. A basket and a loaf of bread and my look would have been complete. Currently I'm blaming my poor cycle performance on my equipment (all good workmen blame their tools don't they) as everyone else seemed to have pro tri equipment and I had by Halfords hybrid not so expensive model with me. Defo need a proper road racing bike, with clippy on pedals etc, so I can get a little bit more speed up! So confused was I it took me three attempts to hang my bike up before the two lap run. I say run, shuffle would be more appropriate. Stumbling over the tree roots and tree stumps, walking up any incline over minor and finally I'm finished. Rewarded myself with cake at Fat Cat Gallery. Phew.

On the Monday I went out and did an 8 miler over Doon Hill to try to add some hills back into the running, build up some leg strength etc and felt good. Tuesday club run was sluggish (due to the tri and the hills I think). Thursday and intervals felt surprisingly ok, actually feel I'm getting back into this running malarkey until..........

Disaster 3 - Jane and I planning a nice 12 miler. Beautiful day, and I had planned a beautiful route, not too challenging, nice mix of off road and road, flat and hills. 1.5 miles in and I do an "Alice in Wonderland". Yup down a rabbit hole. Walked home and have been icing, elevating, compressing ever since. Ankle resembles a baby elephants - must try to send the photo into the blog. Can't believe it.

This better not take long to heal.........

Overseas Training

Jane here:
We have just had 10 days in the South of France. When we went I was not sure whether I would run or not but packed kit, just in case. I had a bit of a niggle in my right hip before we left so thought a week off might be a good idea and also our gite was on a mountain side so it was definately going to be "mountain running " if not altitude training! After about 3 days my legs were getting restless so off I set for a 5 mile run. Ian set off before me giving me some very vague instructions i.e. turn left at the third tree, look out for the yellow postbox etc. I started well and after about a mile was feeling strong and really enjoying running in warm weather and thought I would probably extend the run to about an hour or so. Then, bang, I was on the tarmac, blood everywhere! Resisting the very strong urge to cry I looked at the damage. My right knee was bleeding and visibly swelling and my thumb was blackening as i looked at it and already almost twice its normal size and very painful. I got up and gingerly put weight on my sore leg and although painful was not obviously damaged. Looking around so see what had made me hit the deck in such spectacular fashion I saw a pipe sticking out of the wall at the side of the road at about mid calf height - well that would do it!!!. I hobbled home up the mountain road which made the hills of Dunbar look flat. Obviously when I got home Ian was still out running so I mopped myself up - no ice available or any other first aid kit! so propped my leg up and sat in the sun feeling very sorry for myself. So that was the end of that weeks training - new I should have stayed on the sunbed with a glass of wine!
After we got delayed by the nice volcano we got moved to a hotel in Nice just behind the Promanade des Anglais and by Monday felt I could try another run, although still bruised and battered had obviously not done any real damage. Did two days of 6 mile morning runs and 3 mile evening runs and 3 miles on the last day. Flat easy running, great, sea on one side - fabulous. And probably good practice for the marathon in Palma in October. Learnt a few things - I find running in heat hard - will definately need to wear a hat and a race belt with various bottles of water, energy drinks etc to hand and wear lots of suncream and do lots of running in the middle of the day during the summer to get used to the mediteranean heat.

Brian again....

Buoyed by my Gala 10K PB on Sunday, and celebrating the virtual absence of my left calf niggle, decided to do a 'longer' one on Tuesday club night. Ran down to the club (about 4 miles) caught up with the crowd then upped the pace a bit for the remaining 9 miles. Seemed to work quite well - ran with Frank and Graeme which kept the tempo up, then left them and returned to the club. Nice route, out through John Muir park, back out the old A1 then through West Barns to Dunbar. Kept a decent pace going, around 8.15 average, thanks to them both.



Mid week 'longer' ones take their toll if you are a nine till fiver like me, so rested up Wednesday. Joy of joys, intervals beckoned on Thursday so sauntered down for 4 X 800m and 4 X 400m at the club. First 2 X 800m felt ok, managed sub 3m for both, then disaster, the right hand calf decided to niggle, then pretty rapidly after the 3rd 800m it contorted in an inexplicably sudden, agonising tightness - FFS, what the hell is going on? Anyway, I 'manfully' (read stoopid) attempted the first 400m of the 4, but then cowed off the track and took some sage advice from Ian Rowland on stretching.

I was literally struggling to walk on it on last night and this morning, so, having taken a day's leave on Friday, felt obliged to indulge my mild obsession (is that an oxymoron?) of fly fishing. Drove down to the Tweed near Peebles and had a very pleasant few hours fishing for trout. What has this go to do with running you say? Well, I started wading, stuck a thermometer in the water, and the bleeding temperature was 42 degrees - FFS, its the middle of April - anyway, goretex chest high waders don't have very good insulating properties so the virtual ice bath seemed to have a medicinal effect on the right calf. The sun was out, the odd fish was rising and my calf was soothed - life is good again. I even caught a couple of fish, an 18" grayling and a 14" trout.

The 'ice bath'

Re-invigorated by the fishing, and with a becalmed calf, I decided to have a gentle 'bimble' of a few miles when I got home - dead slow, nice and easy, no pressure, you get the picture. And it was very enjoyable (and very slow - 11 miles at 9.43 min/mile ave) BUT, calf was intact at the end, I enjoyed the run, and had a couple of bottles of banana bread beer to look forward to at the end.

Let the fun begin

Brian talking.......S'pose my marathon training could now be said to be formally underway as of a 13 miler last Sunday....felt good, no niggles, stitch, calf problem or any other 'awful impediments that afflict a very average runner. Trouble is, i've registered for the Edinburgh - North Berwick 20 miler on 1 May, so i'm really going to have to get my skates on and hike up the mileage - but not overdo it at the same time....hmmmm. Theresa reckons 2 or 3 decent runs, say 15 - 17 miles between now and then will take me up to the requisite distance with (just) enough time for a mini-taper.......or not. Over and out.

Jane and Theresa's 12 mile run

Theresa here - feeling the pressure now that Jane has announced our hoped for times for the marathon. Following our (I think at least 12.5 mile) run today, and my inability to stand up and sit down without pain in the quads - getting round the marathon will be an achievement. As will going up and down any stairs the week after!
Jane here - Am too unable to stand/sit down without pain and am very hungry even though have just had lunch..... think our times are a bit optimistic but we have loads of time!!!