No Time

And by no time I mean im not running with a watch at the moment. Its a concious decision rather than I forgot to wear it. I figure all it does really is encourage me to look at pace and distacne etc when that really doesnt matter as I come back from injury.  A watch can make you feel guilty about walking and right now I need to walk every now and again to rest the soreness. Its actually surprising what a few minutes of walking can achieve in relaxing the muscles again. If I look back I had reached the point where because I could run anything and everything I just did and at faster and faster pace – because I could and it felt good. Then i’d look at the watch and think wow 7 min miles – thats awesome – as my body slowly broke apart.

Sounds so sensible but the newfound commonsense (we’ve been here before I know) isnt quite there yet as I did 10 miles or so this morning through the rain and mist – but I loved being out again and actually running. I guess Murph did too …

Happy dog in a wet forest

Tongues out on the misty beach – Looks grim but I like it

Oh hey dude you got any treats we’ve been runnig for an hour

Before the mist

 

How not to prepare for a run …

Definitely not by going out the day before to see old friends drinking your own body weight in Guinness and then going out the next day for a seven mile run of hell.

I mean I kinda enjoyed it in the sense of it’s always great to be outside and running but it was instant redline as the body rebelled.  Ah well what ya gonna do, stay in and train forvever, has to be a balance.

Christ man breathe, take photos, anything just stop a minute

Always beautiful

Catching up

I dont mean catching up with my form – That’s coming along nicely as it is – I mean catching up with the blogging!  This is sundays run – and I’ve run twice then, I’ve been slack – and busy to be fair.

It was my first “back to back” run for aaaaages and happy to report there were no extra pains from stressing the foot 2 days in a row. At the moment im alternating between the Hokas and the La Sportiva and it seems to be working – fingers crossed. So only 5 miles or so along the beach – was so good to get back out on it

And I met some old friends I havent seen in ages

Welsh cobs I think – Love these!

New things!

Well the beach isnt new – though admittedly ephermeral but I have got some new stuff to show off!

Firstly in an attempt to cushion my feet a little more I’m trying out Hokas

Challenger ATR2 or something

I want to see if the extra cushioning helps. I’ve run in them a few times now (and am wearing to work too) and yes the cushioning is pretty amazing. They do lack in grip and stability on technical rocky sections as I found out last night. Unlike my Xtalons theres no connection with what I’m running on and I didn’t have the confidence I usually do on the trickier bits.  Maybe that will come with time. However for longer runs where theres less trickery and more grass I think these could well be perfect.

Last night I did 7 miles after work down to Witches Point and back as I was feeling good, the sun shone and … I just wanted too. Bit longer than I planned but hey when the suns shining make hay! I don’t appear to be suffering any after effects today so fingers crossed either i’m on the mend or the Hokas are doing some good.

On the way back I bumped into old and new friends – The calf was curious but the mother not so. I took it easy through the herd, kept an eye on the buggers and got out alive (As one local very nearly didnt a few years ago)

Running the bovine gauntlet

And finally the BEST new things I have…..

From the wonderful ceejaykay

Some amazing homecrafted bracelets! My photo skills dont do justice to how awesome they are – one says Ultra Badass and the other says f**ckit do epic sh*t and I cant decide which i prefer so I wear both!  My friends at the pub think theyre great but especially the story behind them. Who knew blogging got ya friends and cool pressies!

So thanks ceejay you made my day!

 

 

 

 

Hey look!

I can run!  3 miles but I can run!  Really slowly and carefully but no pain apart from everything going “oh shit we’re doing this again?” which is natural.  Now to rest again and build up real slowly!

Its kinda lucky the tide was in as I wouldnt have undobtedly gone further

Laying off

Last weekend I headed for St Davids in West Wales to camp with some friends for one of their birthdays. Of course I also intended to run. We were going to spend saturday walking the coastal path so I headed out ahead to run for a while and then wait til they caught up.

It became apparent to me after a mile or so the ankle is pretty much screwed at the moment. I waited for them. I walked the seven or so remaining miles with them. I decided this is no good and it’s actually time to really rest it now. Enough is enough. Plus with some family stuff coming up its time to focus on important stuff, running is just running. Probably a good chance to recharge mentally too.

We saw some great sights though!

The heather was the most amazing colours!

Islandy things

Hey look a coastal path ….

Seals!

More heather

The bay where I waited for them – Was so hot I even swam

More bays

Friends with alcohol are the best friends

Slow progress back

The legs still ain’t right after the ultra, they don’t have any bounce and it’s hard to push off, I did around 4 miles on the beach but wasn’t really feeling it. Plus my left ankle is once again really protesting so I’m resting it as much as possible til it decides it loves me again and then I can go batter it to death.

Good news is the blackberries are appearing here too!

Free food!

 

Catch me while you can

The sun shone yesterday and I just knew I had to be out in it for a short run. Plus the problem with an injury which only appears after a few miles of running – literally no discomfort at any other time – is that you don’t know if its gone.  So off I went to the beach.  The news is that the quad still hurts a little but I can feel the rest is improving it. To make sure I wasn’t going to screw things up again I took it super easy. The odd thing is that I find it hard to stick to super easy as when I stop thinkning about it my body naturally ups the pace, had to keep reminding myself to apply the brakes.

I think to be fair the time off running (Im counting 4 runs in 3 weeks as off running) is helping me recharge mentally after Preseli, on those days I’ve not been reading or thinking much about it deliberately so if you’ve wondered why I’ve been quiet and not invading your blogs (you know who you are) its purely some time out from the whole thing to recharge perspective. I’m getting to the point now though when I really want to be back fit and training again so as soon as the quad says go – Im gone!

Was missing this place though

Just peaceful

Recovery run?

Not actually sure it’s a recovery run of its 4 days later but it still hurt like a recovery run. I only did 4 miles as everything was still a bit sore but I wanted to try these out – my reward for the training and completion of Preseli

La Sportiva Mutants

Check the tread out on these bad boys!

Can’t judge them until I’ve worn them more and yesterday everything hurt anyway which isn’t a fair test :p 

Was good to be back at the beach though on the relative flat! 

Common Sense?

I have decided to take a week (at least) off running. Which won’t be at all easy as I love it but I think after the summer the body is telling me it needs to recuperate a bit and the sensible thing to do would be to listen. The last year or so has probably been a bit of a shock to it after all :p

I have to admit that although its far better the foot isn’t fully healed and although I can run on it I’d rather not being running through avoidable pain. My right knee has begun its dull twinge again and in the last week I’ve felt tweaks in the left hamstring and right quad. Not much but all added up I’m guessing the right thing to do is take a short break.

Plus the tides are all wrong and the forecast is grim for the next week so if there ever was a time it’s now. Wish me luck I’m gonna hate it =(

I can look back on a summer of adventure, fun and improvements though. I ran up Pen-Y-Fan and Snowdon, the highest mountains in Mid and North Wales. I ran the Welsh Coastal path plus an inland half marathon in West Wales. Ive covered 225 miles in less than 3 months which is a lot for me.

My favourite photo from the summer

Not the most exciting, scenic or interesting of my Snowdon run but I took this when I turned a corner and saw the path and distance ahead and wondered whether to run to the summit that day or leave it til the next. I’m glad to say I ignored the voice saying “take it easy” and went for it. Thats why the photo is special to me.