Author Archives: Tom

Time for new shoes

When is the right time to buy new shoes and after how much mileage? If you were to ask several different people, you’d get several different answers. The commonly accepted rule of thumb is to change your running shoes after every 200-300 miles but if, like me, you’ve never really kept track of which shoes you wear and how far you’ve gone, what are you going to do? Trail shoes potentially have a longer lifespan than road shoes because they’re generally used on softer, less abrasive surfaces. Your weight, gait and running style will also affect the wear and tear on your shoes. For example, in the last 10 years, I’ve gone through two pairs of Hunter wellies because of the amount of walking I’ve done, my stride and my weight while my wife, who has probably done a similar amount of mileage, is still on her first pair.

My personal method of knowing when I need new shoes is by the feel of the shoe when I wear it and to examine the shoe itself. So, if you’ll pardon the smell, let’s have a look and see what we can see!
Continue reading →

C25K Week 3: Inflammation

This week, I explored the effect of what happens to the body after an overabundance of food, alcohol coupled with sleep deprivation and general fatigue.

This microcycle involves another set of intervals: 90s run, 90s walk, 3 min run, 3 min walk and repeat. Again I felt that this was a little too short – it’s only 9 minutes of actual running – so I tacked another 90s interval at the end to bring the time including warm-up to 25 minutes total (well, 24m30s) and then have a walking cool-down. Following on from last week, I set the pace for the 90s intervals at 6:15 min/mi and the 3 min run at 6:30 min/mi. That definitely made it challenging. I trained on Wednesday and Friday and in the Thursday, I cycled to work (11.5 miles either way) with a mind to introducing some cross training into my program. However, thanks to my competitive nature and Strava suggesting I could do an uphill section a little faster than before, I already had tired legs for w3d2 so I made up for it by pushing the final 90s interval at 10mph making (in theory) for 400m in 90s. Hard, but I felt great afterwards.

It all went downhill after that.
Continue reading →

C25K Week 2: Pace setting

This weeks sessions ended up all being done on the gym treadmill. I had hoped to do a bonus fourth session this morning but a late start and busy day got in the way of that which means no Garmin splits. The week 2 program is a step up from week 1 with the intervals going from 60 seconds to 90 and the rest going from 90 to 2 minutes, repeated for 20 minutes (although it doesn’t quite add up as the last rest period takes you to 21 minutes.) The total duration of the six 90s run intervals is 9 minutes, merely a minute longer than week 1 which is good for beginners as it helps their body to adjust. I felt it wasn’t quite enough for me and with that annoying discrepancy in the time, I ended up adding an extra 90s interval to the program and a 2.5 minute cooldown to round off the workout at 30 minutes.

Buoyed by my speed at the end of last week, during the w2d1 session, I gradually increased my pace on the treadmill to gauge how fast I could comfortably go. For the second two sessions, I pushed at a satisfactory 6:30 min/mi pace for the intervals. It will be interesting next week to see if I can keep this pace up for the 3 minute intervals. Even though I’m using C25K to help me work towards running a 5km at 7 min/mi, I’m using a faster pace for the shorter intervals, loosely derived from the pacing tables provided by the FIRST program. (You can read more about FIRST here and I do recommend their book, “Run Less, Run Faster“). As the C25K intervals increase in time, the pace will get a little slower.

Still, two weeks in and it’s all going well.

C25K Week 1: One foot in front of the other

After last weeks taster, I decided to being C25K in earnest this week, using the Cool Running Couch-to-5K program. I’ve touched on why I’m doing this before but for posterity, here the three main reasons why I’m using C25K as my training plan and I hope to expand on them in future posts.

  1. It’s a gentle introduction back to running after five months off with injury and should help to rehabilitate my broken foot
  2. I want to get to know and understand the program for myself so that I’m in a better position to help clients and other beginner runners with it
  3. Even though it’s marketed as a beginners program, I want to gauge if there is any potential benefit to a runner who is already quite capable of running 5km

Also, to reiterate, the only caveat to this program is that I will not continue if I have pain in my foot.

So week 1: I can say it went well. After discovering last week that I could push the pace on my foot, I decided to set a target pace for my intervals of 7 minutes/mile (8.6 mph). The first two runs this week were done on a treadmill at my gym and I felt fine at the set pace. The final run this morning was out on the road where I attempted to stick at the same pace. My splits after the split:
Continue reading →

C25K Prologue: The Road to Recovery

This morning I went out for a run, my second in the last five months. The first was a few days ago on a treadmill but today was out on the road. The plan for both runs was to do the week 1 training plan from the Couch-to-5K plan which is simply a five minute warm up at steady walking pace followed by 8 repeated intervals of 1 minute running and 90 secs walking for a total of 20 minutes. On the treadmill, I set my speed at 4.5 mph for the walking and 6 mph for the running. The temptation to go faster or for longer was great but I stuck to the plan as an exercise in discipline. Out on the road today, my intention was to run at a comfortable pace but to stick to the plan and timings.

Imagine my surprise at the end of the 25 minutes when my Garmin told me I’d run a total 2.5 miles. Not bad considering only 8 minutes of that was running. Looking at my run splits, the news gets even better:

There are two reasons this is an encouraging picture. Firstly, my fracture is obviously healed enough to withstand the force exerted on it at speed. Secondly, despite being heavier than desired and not having done any significant cardio training for the last 5 months (barring some cycling in the past few weeks), I was surprised that a 6 minute mile pace, albeit for a minute at a time, felt “comfortable”.

The third thing to come out of today’s run is wondering if the C25K program will help me achieve my goal of a sub-20 minute 5km time.

The potential risk with all this feedback is that I’ll end up pushing myself and my foot before I’m ready and set myself back a month or two. I have five weeks until my next (and hopefully final) hospital appointment and the last thing I want to do is jeopardize any healing. I intend to start running again during the week and will be doing 2 if not 3 days, sticking to the C25K plan. At least two sessions will be on the controlled environment of a treadmill and I will be limiting my speed. When I have the final all clear, I will start the C25K plan again but at a higher target pace to see how the plan can be adapted to improving speed. Discipline and patience are my friends…

I know it may not come across but I’m really pretty delighted after today’s run!

The Other 90%: Of Perception And Exertion

The Other 90%: a reference to the common saying that running is 10% physical and 90% mental.

My foot continues to be a pain, both figuratively and literally, and I have been advised to still not go running for the forseeable future (which, I hope, will be around September). This shattered my dreams that I might possibly have a mutant healing factor like Wolverine but hey ho.

After my last post in May, Karen left a comment about the first long run of the C25K program on Week 5 Day 3. The run in question is a 5 minute walking warm-up (standard for all the C25K sessions) followed by a 20 minute run. I emailed her as I was curious as to what it was particularly about that run that she found challenging. Her response was interesting.
Continue reading →

Distance over time

It’s now May. More to the point, it’s now 2013 and this is my first post. The days, weeks and months are speeding by at an alarming rate. Time flies, as they say, when you’re having fun – but the same can also be said when you are extremely busy. I spent the first couple of months of the year studying hard for my Level 3 Personal Trainer qualification. After taking the exams, doing the compulsory training days and spending time doing a nutrition case study, I had my final practical assessment in London 6 weeks ago and passed with flying colours. I am now fully qualified Level 3 Personal Trainer (with only a couple of modules left to do to complete my full diploma).

I know it was 6 weeks ago because the very next day I managed to break my foot – a Jones fracture on the 5th metatarsal to be precise – while demonstrating a running drill to a client. Not a moment I’ll forget, mostly because of the way my clients face went white but also because of the sound – as if someone had snapped a piece of wood in half. My client kindly offered to drive me to A&E but for reasons borne out of professionalism (and no little amount of embarrassment) I told her we couldn’t as she hadn’t done her circuits and forgive me if I have a little sit down.

So broken bones have lead to broken dreams or something similarly overdramatic. I had planned to attempt the Ridgeway Challenge yet again this year but even though I probably would have time to train for it, I think it would be foolhardy so I’m putting it out of my mind. Honest guv’nor.

Where does that leave me? At a good point I think. I have to start slowly back and am even thinking of doing the Couch-to-5k plan or joining my clubs Start-to-run course and get back to fitness slowly. It would be good from a training point of view both to avoid injury and also know exactly what it’s involved so I can knowledgably comment on it for potential clients. I may even aim to do a 5 or 10k or two by the end of the year – as well as take part in Cross Country season (which, I remember, I didn’t do last year because of Plantar Fasciitis).

More than anything, this has given me incentive to make sure I look after my legs better otherwise this neglected blog is in danger of becoming The Traildragon Catalogue of Running Injuries (2012 onwards).

I may even start blogging again but I make no promises.

Lakeland Reflections 2012

I had a dream last night that I was at the start line of the 2013 Lakeland 100 and that I hadn’t trained and wasn’t prepared. I set off anyway and went quite quickly, reasoning that I had nothing to lose and it might be the only time I’d get ahead of Terry Conway. I couldn’t remember the course (an account of being asleep) and then remembered that I hadn’t sorted my PF or ITB issues out and had forgotten my rucksack. I’m honestly surprised I didn’t have one of those “and then I realised I was naked moments too”.

The oddest thing about the dream is that I haven’t entered the race next year. I’m not even doing the 50.

I started writing this post back in August but never got around to posting it, so it’s a bit late. It’s probably for the best as I’ve now got a bit more distance from the race and some more perspective. I’ve moved on from the race – I’ve “done” the Lakeland 100, beaten it, got the medal and the t-shirt and went from a DNF in 2011 to race finisher in 2012 – and I’m focussing on new challenges, new goals. So why write this now? Because I learned a lot about myself and my training and I feel I should share that in case it helps someone else.
Continue reading →

Winter is coming

Shortly after my last blog post, way back in September, I ran to work one morning and by the end of the commute, a mere 8 miles along roads, I was in absolute agony. There was a dull throb in my left foot and after a few hours, I could hardly walk. I went to my GP a couple of days later who confirmed what I suspected – Plantar Fasciitis. No more running for a while – rest and recuperation. That was at the beginning of October.

I haven’t been doing a very good job of it to be honest. The reason I suspect this has come on is because of tight muscles and as I keep going on about this and about how I need to stretch and foam-roll and restore the balance to my legs, you’d think I’d have got it sorted. But I haven’t. And I don’t. And I really, really should. Bad Traildragon! So I’ve only got myself to blame and my cross-country season has been all but written off.

What surprised me on further reading was that Plantar Fasciitis is an extremely common complaint and not just in athletes and runners. Apparently 1 in 4 people will suffer it at some point. I know I’m not alone: Tom Goom, a Brighton based runner and physiotherapist wrote about treating ultrarunner Jody Raynsford’s PF. I should probably get my foot properly assessed to see if I can determine what the exact causes are – I have problems with my right leg but rarely with my left so for it to go so suddenly and without warning means something isn’t right. I suspect it’s my running shoes which are getting a little beyond their best-by date.

On a side note, when I went to my GP I said one of the reasons I went in was because I wanted to be sure it wasn’t anything more serious, like a chipped bone. His response was “How can that be? What on earth do you think can get chipped?” Reading Tom’s post, the first thing he does is to rule out “a calcaneal stress fracture (stress fracture of the heel bone)” – so I wasn’t wrong in wanting to rule out skeletal damage. I should trust my instincts more!

So, there we are – my latest diatribe about my continuing ailments. As I don’t have much running to write about at the moment, I’m going to have to think about some other topics to discuss instead. Hmmm… I wonder how long I can keep the seasonal themed titles going?

Forever Autumn

The club run on Wednesday night was my first significant run (even if it was only 8 miles) since the Lakes which means that I’ve spent two months off running, give or take. Gym visits and a mix of strength and circuit work have kept me ticking over though even if I haven’t been working to a plan and the visits have been merely to assuage any guilt I’m feeling about not running – up until I remind myself that I still feel ITB related pain in my hip, knee and foot.

Like thousands of others, I received a rejection letter yesterday that informed me that I hadn’t got a place in the London Marathon through the public ballot. I have mixed feelings about this but find myself in the position of having to decide whether to go for one of the places that my club invariably has. I think I should – while there are plenty of marathons to do, both on road and off, the London Marathon is a bucket-list race and could be quite an experience. The reasons I’m not sure I want to do it are a) it’s a road race and b) there are 36000+ other competitors.

If I don’t do the VLM, I have to decide what else I do want to do. That’s very much up in the air because, aside from revisiting the Ridgeway Run, I wasn’t planning to do any ultras and stick to shorter distances. Potentially much shorter distances… remember that pie-in-the-sky thinking about doing the British Masters Track and Field champs? Yeah, well… that. But people keep talking about events and I keep thinking “Hey, yeah, that sounds good!” (The latest is the Norman Conquest 100 in May and my wife suggested a 100 mile ultra in Brittany – the Raid Golfe du Morbihan – which would mean relearning my extremely rusty spoken French. That would be a sacrifice I could live with I suppose.

But that’s next year. This year isn’t over yet – I have my PT course that I need to concentrate on and get done and Cross Country season officially starts on the 20th October. Holiday’s over and it’s back to the grindstone. How’s everyone else doing?