19 Miles after 3Wks Out

I'm finally running again. I went to the gym on Tuesday and did an hour on an elliptical trainer and then went back on Thursday with the intention of trying out a treadmill to see if that cushioned my ribs sufficiently for a run. It didn't and I was frightened that the pain would be doing me damage so I did an hour on a bike instead. So I was able to do a good bit of CV work this week but it's no substitute for running. Still concerned about the pain the impact of running was giving me, I called my osteopath on Friday for some reassurance. She agreed to squeeze me in at the end of the day for another check. The upshot of that was that it's ok to run on the pain I'm experiencing. I won't be doing any further damage but I could still be feeling it for another couple of weeks. With this confidence I did Parkrun on Saturday morning. I started slowly but as I got into it the pain eased as my osteopath said it would and I was able to lengthen my stride and finish at a good pace. Happy I was running again I needed to get a good long run in today. Having had three weeks out from running I decided not to take the balls out and just get a solid 19 miles in the bank this morning. Of course this Sunday was Mother's Day so I had to drag one child out of bed and the other away from his Xbox to give Tara her presents and breakfast in bed. Following that I had to spend all morning unblocking the kitchen sink which involved emptying out cupboards, removing the dishwasher and washing machine and ultimately took a good couple of hours to fix.
Finally at 13:00 I got out of the house to run. It was very sunny today. A nice spring day but too warm for my liking (for running in anyway) but if it can do this in March it could certainly be like this in April. Personally I'm hoping for a traditional grey London day on 23rd April.
I did three loops local to my house so I wasn't too far from home if anything went wrong. It took me 02:52:00 to do 19 miles and I was barely out of breath at the end but my legs were not too happy about it. I need to whip them into shape in the coming week. They need to wake up and understand we're not done yet!
I think I saw three fellow PWRs whilst out today, who tooted, waved and pretended to dribble basketballs respectively. It does give me a little boost.
Next Sunday is my last long run at Bluewater that I'll be doing with the balls. A couple of Petts Wood Runners are coming with me and I'm going to have to get up at 4am for the 05:30 start so this week I'm going to try to get to bed earlier and get up earlier to adjust my body clock a bit so that 4am on Sunday is less of a shock.
I got my Final Instructions magazine and notification of my running number from VMLM this week. My running number is 55748 which indicates I should be at the Red Start but after a quick exchange of emails with my VMLM contact he was able to confirm that I will be moved to the Green Start. I'm not sure if that means I will get a different number but I should be getting another letter about it soon.
Now it's lighter in the evenings I should be able to get out into the park after work to do some ball skills which is relaxing after a day of looking after other people's children, and of course, this Friday I'm in Runner's World!

Hot & sunny today (the weather, not me)

Walking & Cycling

I had hoped to be able to run 18 miles this last weekend, preferably with the balls but that didn't happen. My ribs are being sooooo slooooow to recover. I tested them out with a very cautious lap of the park behind my house on Friday night. I managed to complete the half mile loop without the pain making me stop, which is progress but it confirmed for me that a long run is still out of the question. So I went to watch my son play rugby on Sunday whilst many of my fellow Petts Wood Runners were putting in between 18 and 22 miles. Some of them even ran 20 miles of the VMLM course (cutting out Docklands). I would've loved to do that.
So, a little depressed on the way back from rugby it suddenly occurred to me that I can still walk! It's the jarring of running that's hurting my ribs. Surely it would be better for me to do a fast walk and be on my feet for three hours than to just go home for an afternoon nap in the beanbag? Now enthused at the prospect of being able to do something, I got changed and set off for a walk in my new Brooks Glycerin 14s that I didn't get to wear at Silverstone! Now I'm not used to going out for this sort of walk and I overdid the layers. I very quickly had to put my waterproof jacket in the backpack and remove my hat and gloves. I covered 12.53 miles in 03:00:26 which is an average of 14:24 per mile. Not the sort of stats I wanted to be writing about at this stage but at least I was out there. However, walking creates a very different footstrike to running and my heels didn't like it much. Too much heel in a walk.
Having had a bit of a chat on Facebook with our track coach at PWR (thanks Mike), he suggested I could get on a bike at the gym and to a bit of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). So I made enquiries this afternoon and tonight I've been at the gym! Something I haven't done for years. I thought I was going to have to sign up for a month (or until the end of April as we're past the 14th of the month) but when I got there it seems you can just pay your money and get on with it. Things have changed since I worked in the leisure industry. You used to have to fill out a health questionnaire and book an appointment with a fitness instructor for a 40 minute induction to show you how to use everything. Not these days it seems: '£8.75 please. Off you go!' (not her exact words but that's essentially what happened). That's great but you then have to walk into a gym full of much younger and better looking people and pretend that you know what you're doing. The machines have changed a lot too. I managed to get my recumbent bike working without looking like a numpty and did a 3 minute warmup. I then did 20 sets of 60 seconds hard peddling at high resistance followed by 60 seconds of recovery peddling at low resistance. This became 50 seconds hard and 70 seconds recovery after about 10 minutes but I was pleased to be able to do something. I admit I was feeling a little wobbly when I got off the bike. This is all new stuff to me. I'd much rather be pounding the pavement but before I left I had a little go on an elliptical trainer to see if that would bother my ribs. It didn't, so I might go back tomorrow for a session on one of those.
I don't have any pictures of this walking and cycling so this weeks image is me on a bike when I was two.

Cycling 43 years ago.

PB at Silverstone Half

Well, that's what I should be writing about today. Instead, all I have to report is that I haven't been able to run since my last post. I was on top of the world last Saturday following the fast time I put in around the park. I was feeling great and full of confidence that I had a very good chance of putting in a sub 01:50:00 finish at Silverstone. Then Sunday night happened. A bit of horseplay before bed with my 9 year old son and out of nowhere he punched me in the side with such force he sublaxed a rib causing two ribs to cross over, pinching a nerve. I had the rib put back on Monday by my osteopath and she said I should be ok to run on Wednesday - so not such a huge problem then. However, come Wednesday there was no way I could run and I was still in significant pain on Thursday. I went back to the osteopath Thursday night and although all my ribs were where they should be, a bit of light poking and prodding revealed bruising of the intercostal muscles, diaphragm and abs. I've been icing them every hour since where possible but on Saturday night I had to admit to myself that there was no way I was going to be able to run at Silverstone today. Gutted does not begin to describe it. Guinness were there taking publicity shots ahead of the marathon and I really wanted to put on a show in my final race before the big day. However, my osteopath was very clear that if it was hurting and I ran on it I would be delaying my ultimate recovery. As much as it hurt to let go of todays race, I have to consider the bigger picture. Hopefully I'll be running again in the coming week and able to put in 18 miles around the park with the balls next weekend, although I'm currently living in fear of the next sneeze as they're still causing me terrible pain.
Rest is quite possibly the hardest part of training.

He tests my love sometimes

New Unofficial PB

The hamstring feels good. I've been exercising & stretching it and today I ran for the first time with out bandaging it - and to be honest, I didn't even think about it until I was on my walk home.
I was contacted this week via Twitter by a Runner's World editor who wanted more info about my record attempt for a feature in the next edition of RW. I sent her some stuff, she sent me a draft, I filled in the gaps and edited it and I'm going to be in the May edition (UK) which is out on 31st March. It's going to be 200 words and a photo. I might have to renew my subscription! We have left a gap in the article to put in my PB for a half marathon with the balls as I'm running the Silverstone Half next weekend. So naturally I want to put in a good time. With this in mind I went out today round Norman Park to see how long I could maintain a 08:30 mpm pace. It turns out I can do a whole half marathon at that pace which I did in 01:51:16 - averaging exactly 08:30 minutes per mile. My fastest miles were one and two which were both 08:19 and my slowest was mile ten 08:42. Mile ten could have been one of the ones where a dog tried to tackle me. Two dogs had a go today which delayed me slightly.
Around mile 12 I caught up with another runner who said "Hello Kev!" when I pulled alongside him. I confess I didn't know who he was and wasn't able to get a good look at him as I was concentrating on the balls. My running club, Petts Wood Runners, has got so big recently I assumed it must've been another PWR but it turns out it was Robert Elbourn, the stranger I overtook a few weeks ago who took the trouble to find me online and sponsor me. Thanks again Robert and good luck with the Brighton Marathon. I hope the 18 miles you were running today went well. On the subject of sponsorship, if you would like to send me a good luck message with a few quid for my charities (Orchid Cancer and Demelza House Children's Hospice) feel free to follow this link! www.virginmoneygiving.com/kevhowarth
So I left Robert and powered up the final straight to finish the 13.1 miles I wanted to run today. I still had enough for a good sprint finish and felt pretty good at the end. Dare I try to go sub 01:50:00 next weekend? We'll see. Should be safe for a sub 01:55:00 though.
I walked home thinking about Silverstone and found my new race shoes (Brooks Glycerin 14s) waiting for me in the porch. Happy days!

Happy with that. Even though I don't look it.