12 Miles - 600 metres climbing :-)

Yesterday went better than i hoped so am on a high today.  12 miles doesn't sound like enough when 30 miles is 5 weeks away but it's a real step forward.  Think i've discovered a few things that i really must try to remember.

• Start slow, i've not got the discipline to do proper static stretching so starting off at a walking pace and gradually pick it up.
• Off road really is the way to go.  Hard man made surfaces really do hurt, so maximising the amount of off road really helps mimimise the pain.
• Antisocial is the way to go at the moment.  Having the freedom to go at my own pace makes a massive difference to managing my grumbly knee.

So yesterdays outing.  I felt good in the morning so figured it was a good day to push it a little.  It was easy enough to work out a route, head out the door, hit the hills and start walking.  I'd stayed at Lisa's in a town called Pontypridd just outside Cardiff, Wales.  Travel through town on a Friday night and there's not much to enjoy about Ponty but in it's defence it has some fantastic hills right on it's doorstep.

So, Northward bound into the Rhondda Valley it was.  Once, in the age of coal, the Rhondda valley was once at the centre of the industrialised world, it's safe to say it's not now.  Just like old industrialised areas throughout the world it's struggled to adjust to the changing world of the last forty years, certainly growing up there was not much fun when i was a kid and i don't think it's much better now.  Lack of jobs and prospects aside though it has some nice hills and as an adult i've found myself going back there more and more, often to enjoy the things i ignored when i was an adolescent.

Six miles in Archie and i found ourselves above Porth, with the sun out and feeling good it was a good place to be.

Oh, and yes, today my companion was Archie the wonder dog.  Fair play to him he's always up for an outing despite being a complete scaredy dog is a fantasticly loyal companion.  Amusing moment of the day was when after 8 miles he decided to literally just walk off the bank and into an algae covered pond, over his head he went and calmly as you like just swam back out.  Guess he was a bit hot and tired by then.  Anyway, here's Archie.

So, that's it for yesterday.  Really, really good day and hoping to move things forward this next week.  Will also try to take more photo's and make even try to get some of them in focus. :o)

Good, good weekend

Bleep test went well.  :o)  Got to level 10 which was much better than the shambles last time.  Sean got 11.4 which was also pretty fantastic.

Todays run went even better.  Managed 12 miles in 3 hours 9.5 running alone in 2 hours and 2.5 walking with Lis'.
Good couple of days.  Later on i'll write up some bits on today and even have some photo's.   :o)

Just deciding what movie to watch with the babies.  Good weekend so far.

Weekend plans

Had a couple of days feeling good so time to make some weekend plans. Have a couple of 3 day stints with the babies coming up and its Libs' birthday and folk club this week so need to fit stuff in where I can.

So, tonight another go at the dreaded bleep test, hoping to make it a lot less shambolic this time. And then, hopefully a long one tomorrow with Sean and Nige, I'll even try and take some photo's because this has been a bit short of them so far.

Sean knows better

It turns out Sean may have been right. It may be the case that a 30 mile trail run in 8 weeks was pushing my luck. Don't give up on me yet though. Just because he was right doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to listen.

My doubts stem from a trail run I attempted with Sean and Nige on Sunday. Running with others didn't allow my usual really slow start and I ended up suffering bad about 4 miles in. Real debilitating pain kicked in and I ended up barely able to walk down some of the hills. :o(
So I cut it short and ended up with 7 miles in 90 mins and pretty severe doubts. These werent helped when I had to walk down hills backwards the same night whilst walking Archie with Lisa. :oS

Monday morning was a world of pain but surprisingly it eased loads during the day, to the extent that I was able to do an easy 3 mile trail run Monday night. I've followed this up with a nice 6 mile trail run on Wednesday morning with little pain. Including walks that makes mileage of about 22 miles in 4 days, no reason for loads of confidence but a start at least. :o)

I mentioned the other day how podcast geekery is helping me get through the runs. I find it helps loads more than music and is making solo runs a real pleasure. It does however mark me down as a sad geek and has cost me a tenner in new apps so far.

Preferred pod cast list.

The talk show. (Apple geekery)
Appslappy. (App recommendations and reviews)
The engadget show. (General tech geekery)

Feel free to recommend others, my taste is pretty transparent.

Beep test

Sean (who I think I'll be building up as the villain of this story) decided that doing a beep test may be a fun idea.  For those that don’t know a beep test is a series of shuttle runs over a marked 20 metre course completed in an prescribed and accelerated time.  The basic idea is that you star off almost walking and then over 10 / 15 mins your pace increases until your going as fast as you can whilst simultaneously reaching your state of exhaustion.  It’s not fun.

What is funny however is three fully grown guys who absolutely should know better haring back and forth in a residential cul de sac whilst trying to hear Sean’s phone telling us when to turn and what level we’d reached.  We must have looked like freaks.  Not that I'm bitter because I was rubbish you understand, no, not at all.  It turns out that there was no need for me to spend any time googling professional athletes results, oh no.  Anyway, the upshot of it was that Sean’s about as fit as the fat one who bowls spin for the Sri Lanka cricket team, and if that sounds as though I'm on my high horse, please don’t think that, I'm only as good as a Russian female shot putter who’s just coming back from an injury.  And Nigel ?  He doesn’t count because he misunderstood the concept of having to stop if you miss two beeps, so he just showed he had the morals of a premiership footballer.

Other people

Just a quick post to link to a couple of cool things.

My friend Sean did the coolest run yesterday, 10 and a half miles over and around Pen y Fan, the highest mountain in South Wales, it's not big in the scheme of things but offers some pretty cool sights in between the Welsh weather.

Garmin linky

And i see Fatty's in the form of his life. :o)  Go Fatty!  Gives hope to us old guy's everywhere. ;o)

Leadville Fatty

Building it up

So, a solid week.  Last weekends 9 and a half miler left me with a bit of knee pain but not so much that it i needed to take a week off.  Managed a few bigish days with over 7 miles in and a run/walk yesterday of 8 and a half.

The plan was to try and be ready for a 16 miler in early september on route to the 30 miler in October.  AM not sure how much i'm feeling that plan now as looking at the route profile over half of the 16 miler is on asphalt and while i'm pretty sure i can tough that out if needs be, am not sure what it'll do to me joints afterwards.

All my miles this week were in the hills around Pontypridd, there were some pretty good views on offer.

Also got  to see some strange sites.  Fair play to Archie ( he's a collie / German shepherd cross ) he's not fazed my much.  He showed no interest in dropping his stick and playing with the 2 dead moles on yesterdays run, and as for the little fella below, Archie just wanted to make friends.  And yes, that horse really is less than 3 three feet tall. :o)

Have a busy week ahead of me this week, so will again be looking to fit in a couple of evening outings, hopefully of a decent length and then a big one next Sunday evening.