Race minus 12 days - Shoes banished to the shed!

The missus has banished my shoes to the shed as they smell like cat pee!

Today I have felt tired but not sore like I was this time last week.

This week I need to review what will be in my rucksack.

Race minus 13 days - 16 miles done today, overdoing it this weekend, and just six runs left until the big day.

I did my last Wherryman's Way run this morning but did the reverse route, going from Halvergate to Reedham.
The weather was mainly light rain, interspersed with short patches where it was dry, and finished with heavier (but still not bad) rain - given my first Wherryman's Way run two months ago was also wet (but a lot colder especially when lost...), it was a little poetic.
On Facebook, I follow Great Superhero Run (https://www.facebook.com/greatsuperherorun?fref=ts), who raise money running marathons dressed as Spiderman, Iron Man, and Batman for the RNLI.
They live in Norfolk, and two of them were on the Wherryman's Way, near Reedham, on their way to Great Yarmouth - unfortunately I did not realised until about a minute later as they were not in costume but it did give me a boost as they became the first people I have ever seen on the route when I have been running.
I ended up doing 16 miles as by the time I reached the last bit, there was a risk I was be running towards the Humpty Dumpty 10k runners - all 400 of them! - so I took a diversion which added a mile to the route but I did discover another permissive pathway as a result.

Having washed, and got changed I found I was so tired from this morning's run I went to bed for an hour, which is highly unusual as I do not do mid-day sleeps.
I suspect the combination of 8 miles yesterday, along with doing a lot of housework and gardening, and also being up late, and then doing 16 miles today was too much with too little sleep.
Early night for me tonight.

With this weekend's running done, there are just six runs left - 2x6miles mid-week, 2x10 miles next weekend, and 2x3 miles next week - feels very much like home straight territory.

Race minus 14 days - trails of Reedham, and going lower

As it was a warm sunny morning, I took the IPad with me to take some scenic photos and to show some hidden gems for trail running around Reedham - 8 miles was done in the process.

My first field with a big (but not steaming) pile of manure.

About a mile later, I cam across my second pile....

This leads to the Brickstone Carr circular route if I want a shorter loop but I went left.

If you go past the Pettitts entrance and follow the road round to the right, there is a road that leads to a  railway crossing, and can take you either to the Yarmouth direction of the Wherryman's Way, or towards Reedham School and the main area of Reedham.

This one is just after the swan, and is for a colleague who likes to know if I've been chased by cows.

Having crossed the railway line there is a public footpath (left of the green sign) but running parallel to it is another route (wooden post centre right) which is also worth doing.

The next three photos are part of that other route.

Having reached the open area near to one of the three railway bridges in Reedham, there are wooden steps up to rejoin the public footpath - be warned, the steps are slippery so use caution.

Having got up the steps it is a short distance to the end of the public footpath and railway bridge leading to Reedham School etc.

I rejoined the Brickstone Carr trail from the other side having done the diversion.

The Brickstone Carr is the group of trees ahead which covers a good area, protected by swathes of stinging nettles.

There was some other land sealed by wire fencing, also set aside for wildlife and wild plants.

The last photo is of another field on the way back that has sweet corn growing, giving in its early stages a sea of yellow green whereas other fields had been vibrant green or yellow.

Finally, another 3/4 lb in weight was lost, so I am now 1 1/4lbs below the target I set myself.

Race minus 15 days - Weight target achieved

Last night when I weighed myself, I beat my target weight by 0.5lbs which is great.
Now it might be water related and nip up a little but I am hoping to broadly maintain it around this level.

I didn't do yesterday's run today - an extra day's break will not hurt especially as I am doing 8 miles tomorrow and 15 on Sunday.

Calories
Breakfast 252 (Muesli and Milk)
Lunch 250 (Green Salad and Cheese)
Dinner 566 (Pizza and Garlic Bread)
Snacks 837 (Lots of fruit plus two ginger biscuits)
Total 1905.  Allowed 1840 + 215 earned from 9000 steps = 2055, so deficit is 150.

Race minus 16 days - Today's run deferred/dropped?, and weight stabilises

I took the decision not to run this morning, in order to allow my body some more recovery.
I have not ruled out running those 6 miles tomorrow.

After dropping 4lbs in 4 days, no doubt water related, my weight nipped up a pound and since then settled around being 2lb above the target weight.
I suspect by race day I might lose those final two pounds, providing I remain careful about the food I am eating, particularly as tapering is when classically runners tend to put weight on.

Calories;
Breakfast 252 (Muesli & Milk)
Lunch 317 ( cheese roll)
Dinner 498 (Chicken Jalfrezi and Rice)
Snacks 732 (Banana, Orange, Peach, 2 Apples, Large Nectarine, Cappuccino, Jelly Pot)
Total 1799 - Allowed 1840 + 231 Earned (10000 Steps) = 2071 meaning a 272 calorie deficit.

Race minus 17 days - Jellied Legs, and Ravenous Appetite

This morning I did my first run since the weekend's exertions, and my legs felt like heavy jelly.
There was no flow to my running, and on a number of occasions I found I had stopped, at which point I kicked off again but in the end 5.5 miles was done.

Clearly energy levels are not back to full so I may need to consider making tomorrow's 6 mile run an easier effort than the planned medium effort.

My hungry levels this morning were off the scale, and it felt like that no matter what I ate, I could not get enough energy into my body.
It did eventually settle down but this was a first during my training.

Calories
Breakfast 694 (Muesli & Milk, Post-Run Milk, Banana, Strawberries, Belvita Crunchy Hazlenut)
Lunch 287 (Same as yesterday, leftover beef marinated in soy sauce and sesame oil, and green salad)
Dinner 498 (Large White Bap with Tuna and Mayonnaise)
Snacks 652 (Orange, Apple, Banana, Ice Cream Wafer, and Eat Natural Cereal Bar)
Total 2131. Allowed 1840 + 937 earned from 17000 steps inc 5.5 mile run = 2777.  Calorie deficit is 646.

Race minus 18 days - Thighs slightly less sore than yesterday, level 7 coffee, and the cost of double cream

As week 1 of the taper is equivalent to a recovery week, there was no run today.
This is a good thing as my thighs were still making (albeit more minor) complaints when going down stairs.
Tomorrow is 6 miles medium effort but if necessary I will do it at easy pace or a mixture.

Taylors of Harrogate have released a limited edition strength 7 coffee that did not taste horrible but not brilliant either but I had this on top of a normal brewed coffee and whilst I was not buzzing, my body was probably on caffeine overload, making the rest of the afternoon hard work - if anything I would say it had the same effect as Klatchian Coffee from the Terry Pratchett Discworld Books instantly sobers you up which is not good if you were sober to start with.......

My calorie intake today was slightly over my calories expended.on account of having some strawberries with double cream but this is more than offset by calorie deficits of the last few days.
Breakfast 388 - Porridge made with milk and blueberries added, plus a banana.
Lunch 287 - Green Salad with some leftover roast beef that I have marinated in soy sauce and a little sesame oil.
Dinner 624 - Pasta bolognese.
Snacks 750 - Banana, Apple, Orange, 2 Peaches, Ryvita, and Strawberries with double cream.
Total 2049.  Allowed 1840 + 123 calories earned from doing 6000 steps, leaving an overconsumption of 86 calories.

Race minus 19 days - Sore, so sore....., This Week's Training Plan, and Yo! Sushi!

The price of running 29 miles over the weekend when your previous run was 9 days earlier is how sore your thighs are the day after i.e. today.
Walking up stairs was manageable but going down a flight of them results in your upper half moving forward and downward but your lower half staying put......

This week's training (week one of three tapers) does not start until Wednesday when it is 6 miles medium effort, repeated on Thursday, then 8 miles long-run on Saturday, and a 15 mile long-run on Sunday.

For dinner today, I went to Yo! Sushi! and had my first sushi restaurant experience on their Blue Monday (all blue dishes are £2.70).
It is an interesting experience especially as we were on the "bar" section, where I had three dishes, and two cups of green tea, and was full - total calories was just 513.

Calories for today;
Breakfast 373 (Muesli and Milk, and a Banana)
Lunch 228 (Big Salad plus some leftover Tuna with Mayonnaise)
Dinner 513 (Yo! Sushi! 3 plates)
Snacks 772 (2 Peaches, Orange, Pear, 2 Ryvita, banana, leftover ham, and a cappuccino)
Total 1886 consumed.  Allowed 1840 + 316 extra (12,500 steps walked) = 2156, leaving a deficit of 270.

Race minus 20 days - the last day before three weeks of tapering, plus Achievement Unlocked.....

So today the schedule was 26 miles (plus 6 miles yesterday), which I changed to 32 miles in one go, but all this was thrown out of the window with the virus I had last week, so having done 8 miles yesterday, today was about achieving as much as I could.

Given this was the last opportunity prior tapering occurs, I was determined at least to achieve a personal aim of mine to run from Cantley Sugar Factory along the river all the way to Great Yarmouth - having 2.5 miles to get to Cantley, the section between Cantley and Reedham was 3.5 miles with no nettles of pain this time because they had finally cut it all down on the route!

Another mile got me through Reedham to the Wherryman's route towards Great Yarmouth.
8 miles later, and I am in Great Yarmouth, and once I had bought a bottle of water, I killed some time running around the town centre until it was time to catch the train back to Reedham.

Nearing Great Yarmouth I had a nice chat with someone who was walking out of Yarmouth along the route, and also had to contend with green plastic "flooring" that when has no grass that slippery under foot.

Having navigated the slippery flooring, I made it to "new" haven bridge and then the end of the route, you find yourself at ASDA, but the big disappointment was finding most of the train station sealed off, no electronic displays as to when the next trains would be departing, no staff - what a way to welcome people to the town.
It was finished off with a 2.5 mile run/shuffle home - more shuffle/walk as the 30 min break made running hard, not to mention I think I had hit my limit as well.

Race minus 21 days - First Run In 9 Days, And "The Miraculous" WeightLoss Continues.....

This morning I did my first post-illness run, at a very leisurely pace for nearly 8 miles and it felt very comfortable.

It had rained overnight and the long grass and weeds etc were full of water, so within 30 seconds my shoes were drenched, and shortly after so we're my legs and shorts.

By the time I was done, I was caked in chaff from the long grass as per the photo below.

The weigh-in last night had me 3/4 lb lighter than the day below, taking the three day total to 3 1/4 lbs - either I have some major water retention issues day to day, which to be fair might true given I have had cancer of the bladder twice in the past 11years, or my weighing scales are untrustworthy....

Tomorrow I aim to be out running at 5.30am with a generic let's see what can be done.

It will not be 32 miles as originally planned but if I can manage 15 to 20 miles that would be a good outcome.

Food consumption today has been;
244 calories Breakfast (Post-run milk, and Porridge with milk)
445 calories Lunch (Pasta, chicken&Bacon Sauce, and 20g Cheese)
1044 calories Dinner (Wagamama - Yaki Udon plus half of Edamame Beans, and Chilli Squid)
748 calories Snacks (Pear, Peach, Strawberries, Large Costa Cuppuccino, and a Costa Granola Square)
Total = 2481 calories consumed.
Allowed 3199 calories - 1840 + 1359 calories earned from morning run + walking.
Under target by 719 calories.

Day Two Post-Illness Recovery, and Why You Can Never Trust The Weighing Scales.

Today's calories were;
373 calories for breakfast (muesli, milk, and a banana),
280 calories for lunch (Lunchbox full of salad with a very small amount of sundried tomatoes in oil, gherkins and two boiled eggs)
330 calories for dinner (Granola Square - I was not at home, so no main meal)
813 calories for snacks (Peach, Apple, Orange, Banana, 4 Malted Milk Biscuits, Multigrain Breakfast Bar, and a Naked Pecan Pie Bar)
Total is 1798 calories.  I allow for 1840 calories, plus I earned 138 calories from the 7000 steps I did today - net deficit is 182 calories for the day.

Last night I weighed myself, and in the space of two days I had lost 2.25 lbs, which makes me think the 4.5lbs increase I mentioned in yesterday's blog was probably higher than reality.  I will continue to weigh myself each day to check how it changes over time.

I had an awful night's sleep - it was too warm, and I kept drifting in and out of sleep, so the optional short run this morning was sacrificed to get an extra hour's kip - tomorrow, I will be getting up to hopefully do six to eight miles.

From Tomorrow's blog through to the big day, the blogs will have a 21 days to go countdown style heading.

Post-illness 4.5 lbs Heavier Recovery Day One - Eating sensibly and upping the movement

Over the last two weeks, some prior to the illness, and probably most during the illness, I had been eating far too many unhealthy foods, resulting in my weight going up by 4.5 lbs.
It could well be that the real gain is less but that is the figure when I stepped on the scales last night, so in the same way I accepted the surprisingly lower than expected weight two weeks ago, I will also accept the higher than expected weight last night.
I do intend to weigh every day between now and the Thursday before the race, which will remove some of these variations.

So with three weeks and two days to go, I need to rebuild my fitness and hopefully remove some the weight recently gained - the former is more important than the latter but they should go hand in hand.
Today's calories were;
373 calories for breakfast (muesli, milk, and a banana),
324 calories for lunch (Lunchbox full of salad with a very small amount of sundried tomatoes in oil, artichokes in oil, olives, gherkins and some stale bread)
710 calories for dinner (Chicken and Chorizo with long-grain rice)
238 calories for snacks (Peach, Apple, and a small cappuccino)
Total is 1645 calories.  I allow for 1840 calories, plus I earned 142 calories from the 7000 steps I did today - net deficit is 337 calories for the day.

Compared to the average steps of just 3000 in the last few days, today's 7000 steps is a good step in the right direction.  Tomorrow should be a lot higher, especially if I go for a short run in the morning.
Looking at my garmin connect data, I have gone from average steps of 100k per week down to 35k this week - no wonder the weight piled on with a drop like that combined with no doubt excess eating in the same time period.

A good first day - lets hope for three more weeks of the same.

"That's Not Good When You Have A 100km Race To Do"...and limping over the one million step mark

You may have noticed an absence of posts in the last seven days or so, as I picked up a virus that went for the throat and then had a party in my chest.

Tomorrow I aim to go back to work having been off since Monday but in running terms, I will give myself a bit longer to recover, and will not do any until Saturday, which means a nine day gap - this means in the most important two weeks of the training plan, I will not be anywhere as active as I should have been.

46 miles of running have been lost, and the big 32 mile run for Sunday is now unrealistic, so whatever is done this weekend will be well below the level for the ultimate run weekend.
This is frustrating but another way to look at this is that I have just over three weeks to be race ready.

My daughter asked me today how many days gap between my last run and my next run, and when I answered, she responded with the "That's Not Good When You Have A 100km Race To Do".

Last Sunday should have been the day when I clocked up my millionth step since I bought my Garmin watch nine weeks ago - as it happens, it was today with 4000 steps that I "limped" over the one million mark.

Knowing when to rest - sore throat

I did my six milers on Tuesday and Wednesday but today I choose not to do the Thursday one.

I had picked up a dry sore throat yesterday, so rather than risk prolonging it, and putting the weekend running in jeopardy, I have given myself an extra day off from exercise - this will be the first session I have missed since following this schedule.

Shattered! The price of too many unhealthy food choices?

There have been too many days of recent where fresh cream cakes, homemade millionaires shortbread, homemade chocolate truffles et al have been eaten, with total disregard to managing my calories.

Today was meant to be that turning point back to the correct ways but my long-run yesterday seems to have taken a bigger toll on my energy levels today than other long-run Sundays have on a Monday.
Temptation was all to easy in the end, and a salted caramel muffin from Sainsburys resulted in an unnecessary 450 calories being consumed - a lot of better food could have been eaten instead for that many calories but lets hope it ends today, and tomorrow does not become day six of poor food choices.

I should have also got more sleep last night but choose instead to catch up on some TV, and do some ironing - tonight I will be a bed by 10pm, so I get 7 hours good sleep before I am up for day 1 of 3 consecutive mid-week six milers, with rucksack.....
So far rucksack has only been used on long-runs but from now on, I will use it each run, so my upper body learns to be more used to it, and maybe it is a light form of strength training?

Given my training schedule is about to ramp up in the toughest two weeks before taper, having a five-day food binge was not sensible, but maybe I needed it to let some steam off ahead of the final push.

Bonking on purpose, walking on tired legs, new mantra, Look ahead to Week 12, and is it a Gnome?

This morning having got up at 6am, put some washing out on the washing line, I went for a 15 mile run with my weighty rucksack on.

I had a few nooks and crannies in Reedham that I had not yet explored, one of which was a public footpath which revealed a set of steps that led down into a hollow - I will do photos next week.
Beyond that it was a fairly mundane steady 12-ish minute mile running except I had decided I wanted to know how far could I keep running without topping up with food - obviously I drank water as appropriate because it was sunny clear skies and I was not aiming to be dehydrated.
I was wondering if I would make it through the whole 15 miles but I bonked just before the end of mile 14, after 2 hours and 50 minutes of activity.

Bonking at that stage allowed me (unplanned) to find out my walking speed on very tired legs especially given they did 5 miles on Friday,7 miles on Saturday, on top of the 14 miles just done.
So for the final full mile, I walked as briskly as I could sustain, and it took me 16 minutes 49 seconds - this is useful to know as it starts to give me a sense of my walking speed when I need to give my body time to recover, and also I can start to get a better sense of potential finishing times for the big day itself.

I have been reading a translated Japanese book by Haruki Murakami called "What I talk about when I talk about running"- I am currently about a third through it and it is a refreshing read of a Japanese author who likes to run, and is part travelogue, part training log, and part reminiscence covering his preparation for the 2005 New York Marathon.
One of the comments he makes refers to a quote (origin unknown) that I am adopting as my mantra;


With week 11 complete, Week 12 is the penultimate week of serious training, and will involve 3 x 6 miles (one easy, then two medium effort), an 8 mile on Saturday, and a 20 mile run on Sunday.

I did take one photo before I went out for the 15 mile run, that of me in my gear and with my rucksack on - I will leave you all to decide how Gnomish it is......

Healthy Eating "suspended" for a couple of days - my first fresh cream cake in months tasted wonderful

Running is progressing to plan but both today and tomorrow, my food consumption will be intentionally less healthy than usual.

A colleague had brought in birthday cakes, and I decided to treat myself to a fresh cream apple turnover - It was eaten slowly and every bite was savoured - it tastes delicious!

Tomorrow, I am bringing into work homemade chocolate truffles and homemade millionaires shortbread for a different colleague who is moving onto pastures new.  In addition, we are heading to an Aussie Pie shop in Norwich called the Flaming Galah!, and I have never been there, so this will be a good experience based on how popular it is at work.

Weekend onwards, I will revert back to a more sensible food regime through to the big day in just over five weeks (gulp!).

Reflections about the marathon that never was

Whilst I haven't been beating myself up about not completing the 26 miles on Saturday night, I have been dwelling on that training session since then.

These are my reflections about it;

1) Night-time running takes a lot more concentration (even with torches), and particularly on lumpy fields - this is likely why I felt so wiped out on Sunday but thankfully no running until Wednesday morning, so plenty of time to mentally and physically recover.

2) On race day, I will not be running laps of the same route - it is 100km from Lewknor to Avebury - every step will take me to something new, especially as that entire trail is new to me.  Running the same loop over and over again, clearly take an entirely different level of mental fortitude, that probably has to be built up.

3) I did not bonk, so like all recent long runs, I got it right nutritionally.

4) I've noticed in recent long-runs that as I get close to 18 miles, my feet swell up and there is no space between my toes and the shoes, so today I bought a new pair of trail shoes that are a half a size bigger than my current ones.  The existing ones will still be good for short to medium runs, plus I could use them in proper cross country races, where you end waist-deep in ditches of icy cold water.

5) I choose not to complete the other 8 miles on Sunday, as there was no gain to do it, and I could give myself that extra day to recover.

6) Time-limited training sessions do not reflect race reality where a lot of time-slack is built into how long I need to complete it by.  On race day if I can do 15 minute miles, I complete it in 16 hours - I have 22 hours to do it in, in order to get my shuttle back to the beginning.

7) Running two hours in the dark was a big achievement, especially as I had no prior night-time running experience.

As a final point, on Saturday I did 42,000 steps.  On Sunday I did 2,000 steps.