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.........