No running for a bit……

Time to hang the shoes up for a while – calf twanged with a snapping sensation last night, 2 miles into an easy and ‘experimental’ run just to see how it felt. Bang goes Sunday’s Devilla Forest race, and probably anything else for the foreseeable future. Grrrrrrr.

A theory

I am still getting a bit of bother with the calf.

I had a very comfortable run on Tuesday night with the club, if truth be told, the best training run in ages – not because I was fast, or managed to beat Susan L (I didn’t), or anything like that, but I was pain-free for the first time in months….The next day, I hatched an impromptu plan to run from the office at Haymarket, join the canal at the basin and run right round the towpath to Sighthill, then drop down to the Gyle Station where Theresa had left the car. It was getting dark about half way round and a bit ropey on the dark section around Wester Hailes, more from the bikes coming at me in the dark at fair speed. Got round to the car ok, and felt fine with just under 7 miles on the clock.

Fast forward to the interval session on Thursday – Ian R hatched a plan of the usual mile warm up, then 6 X 1Km, with a shortened recovery time each kilometre. Warm up was ok, but I only managed to complete two of the kilometre intervals before the calf got sore again. Decided to stop and take a slow session elsewhere, away from the track.

I’m now increasingly suspicious that my leg problem may somehow be related to the track sessions. It always occurs at intervals, and I think it may have something to do with running around in circles (no change there..), on a not so great grass track, with the strain on my left leg exacerbated by leaning around the bends.

Just a theory. I don’t think the cause is speed work per se, as I i’ve participated in the odd race in recent weeks, and of all races, the Carnethy 5 would surely have tested my calf to the limits…

So, no intervals for a few weeks, i’ll replace that with maybe some tempo running, or hill reps, just to see what happens.

Will see how it holds up today at the final Borders XC at Floors Castle today. Where has the winter XC series gone…?

Parkrun then Carnethy debut….

Theresa wanted to try another parkrun today, as her form is improving, so it was an early start – first stop Cramond, then into ‘The Gyle’ shopping centre (I hate that place) for brunch prior to heading on for my Carnethy5 debut. Theresa’s time is continuing to improve and conditions were ideal down on Cramond foreshore – cool and no wind. She managed to shave about 25 seconds off a recent 5K.

Carnethy was new to me so I wanted to get there sharpish to get registered and sorted. Its a pretty big event, logistically, you park in Penicuik, register etc then get bussed to Silverburn, at the foot of the Pentlands – all for 600 entrants. We decided to getting bussed out fairly early then we spent a bit of time hanging about, me getting psyched up for the race and Theresa getting pissed off with hanging about in the cold – no matter. I swithered quite a bit about what attire to settle on, shorts ticked the box, and then concluded after much indecision that there would be ‘no jacket required’. Very unfortunately for me, this set in motion an subconscious process of recall and I had to suffer the continual playback in my head of various songs by that that F*ckw*t slap-headed king of bland, Phil Collins.

Thankfully, I managed to reach my lactic threshold a few times on the climbs, and this coupled with my heart rate approaching the red-zone, took my mind off the pish spinning about in my head.

But what a race – fantastic. 5 peaks to climb @ total climb of 2500′ (first and last seemed the worst) Scald Law, South Black Hill, East Kip, West Kip and Carnethy – What more can I say? – i’ve got to hand it to seasoned hill runners. I’m just a big woose running downhill – teetering here and there, scared to open up some bigger strides, all the while all sorts fly past, without any apparent fear. Guess its all about confidence – can it be learnt? I don’t know. Anyway, this is where I lost a lot of places and I simply don’t do enough of this sort of thing currently to get better at it. The climbs don’t bother me – they are a bit of a leveller insofar as most folk just lock into line and walk , I enjoy the flat and have no problem with some of the easier gradients, but once it gets to about 45 degrees downhill, I start to lock up.

Would I do it again? Probably, just to see if I could work on my technique between now and 2013. Think I ambled in about 1:15, so no disaster and came in within the time I anticipated. More importantly,  my calf held up – I’ve been worried about it most of the past week, and have been massaging it and generally working at it, hoping it would ease off. Seemed to get away with it.

Noticed they were doing free massage back at the finish, so got checked out there by no less than Angela Mudge, the regular first lady of the event for a good few years.

Looks like my fate was marked out from the start…..my number was 253, guess what my position was? Weird…

Results etc HERE

At last some miles….

Sheila M is marathon training for Paris, so Theresa decided to drive down to Sheila’s at Belhaven and then do 12 something miles to Haddington. The plan was that Sheila would already have done 5 miles before T arrived, so a run to suit all needs…..I didn’t really have a ‘long run’ plan this weekend, I wanted to see how the leg felt before committing to anything. However, this run to Haddington appealed, as it would encompass some previously uncharted territory, namely the new core path cut along the Tyne from Hailes Castle to Haddington.

Ambitiously (foolishly?), I decided to run from the house, thus making the final course 17 miles…..maybe not so wise, given the leg issues and my recent-ish long stuff only being up to around 12 miles or so. What the hell…

A pleasant route it was too – we timed it so that we would all roughly arrive at Haddington about 12.30. Familiar stuff really for the first part, down the hill to Dunbar, then through John Muir Park and the Tyne estuary, and then I basically tracked up the right hand bank of the Tyne, via Knowes, East Linton, Hailes Castle until reaching Haddington.

The newly cut path now makes it possible to walk/run from Hailes Castle to Haddington – it is still a bit rough and ready, but will get used a lot I am sure. It was extremely slippery in places, so much so that walking was the only option, albeit not helped by wearing a well-worn pair of Nike Lunarglides….I’ve noticed that there has been quite a concerted effort in getting these core paths designated and created in East Lothian, a very worthy cause and one I fully support. We have a few around the hills at the back of the house, all with proper gates – the routes guarantee responsible access, without any justification for a crabbit old farmer or tweed-clad Rupert to shout ‘get orfff my land…’.

I eventually caught up with the other two a couple of miles before Haddington, then we gatecrashed the Aubigny sport centre for a cheeky shower. Some confusion about who was to be picked up by our ‘taxi’ at Haddington (Sheila’s son and daughter in-law) meant there was one passenger too many (ie me) so alternative transport (ie a bigger car than a mini) had to be hastily arranged.

A decent lunch involving chips in Poldrates rounded it off nicely. Pleased to get away with this mileage and feeling ok-ish.

Nursing the calf

Calf nursing bottle – thanks Google!

Well, the calf is now sore in a ‘good’ way, following another painful but productive session with Ray at Head4Health on Wednesday. I’m slowly coming around to the ways of sensible advice and treatment, instead of running through injury, although  it has taken me about 3 months and 2 DNFs in that period. Consistent with the advice proferred by Ray, I skived off the monthly club 5k handicap last night, and instead watched everyone putting a great effort in, with the dry, windless and cold conditions producing some excellent times and PBs.

Decided to test out the leg with an ‘easy’ 6 miler – the usual work lunchtime route – Haymarket – Meadows – over Hunters Bog and back. All seemed ok, although the calf got a bit tight in last mile. Should maybe have stayed off Arthur’s Seat.

Running empties the head and also gets you thinking of all sorts of stuff, for me some of it a bit lateral at times. With all this cold weather, I was wondering about runners etiquette relating to snot, and how one disposes of it in socially acceptable terms…… is this taboo? I don’t think so, as most runners are practical sorts (or become that over time..).

I find a discrete spit acceptable, even within female company (is that sexist?), although I wouldn’t make a big thing of it. Others do – I quite often hear all sorts of heaving, hacking and other unspeakable noises, mainly from male runners, and usually during a race (albeit an environment where anything goes – just ask Paula Radcliffe). It’s a bit more tricky getting rid of nose gunk. By far the most effective and rewarding method is a quick snot out holding one nostril – but far from socially acceptable and it cetainly isn’t attractive – and not great in a race as you can’t always control the speed and direction. However, these new fangled buffs are great things, 101 uses, one of which is conveniently hanging around your neck and serving as the perfect hankerchief. So no need for projectiles.

Anyway, probably said enough on the matter, and it should be less of an issue as the weather warms, in about 8 months time.

Now i’m need to decide whether to go for the Lochaber marathon in April. Barely enough time to get up to a decent mileage…….

Celebration!

Currently imbibing some Orkney Black Portent wine, @ 16.5% ABV it is at the ‘Port’ end of the wine scale. very nice it is too, if a bit rich for my usual taste. We picked this up when up in Orkney visiting Theresa’s relations and doing other stuff a couple of years ago, and it has been gathering dust – so it got cracked open last night. 

Why am I celebrating? Well, after heading down to the penultimate Borders XC meet at Berwick – Upon – Tweed, and pulling out after a mile along the beach, realisation hit me hard in the face – I need to do something about my lingering calf issue and will be booking an appointment with Ray Head this week. My usual strategy of running through injury is not working, so Ray is the guy to sort this out. He did the bizz last time around with my right calf, so I have confidence that he will fix this. I want to be sorted for Carnethy 5 in 2 weeks.

Berwick is a tough course – like trying to run in quicksand for the first 1/3 mile, then you have the same on the way back. Not the most imaginative of courses, its a straight out and back, relentless mile on sand on the way out, up onto the clifftop track, along, turn around then then back along the sand – gruelling in a not really getting anywhere kind of way….I only got so far as the cliff-top, then slow jogged back to the finish.

Caught Andrew Crichton of Dunbar storming in first position, with the 2nd runner hanging in behind, 3rd position and beyond were well back and strung out along the other end of the beach as these two came past. 

Nice to meet and have a quick chat with Peter Buchanan of Porty, he ran well.

Hoping to be fit for the final leg at Floors Castle, be nice to do a new route.

Lammermuirs

After an easy 5.5 miler on Saturday, I decided to get off road a bit today, and persuaded Theresa to drop me off up at Whiteadder Reservoir deep in the Lammermuirs. Plan was to run back home – I thought about 11-12 miles, completely off road and in bog and heather. The old ‘Herring Road’, from Lauder to Dunbar formed a good part of this route, so it would not be too difficult to keep a good line. Despite not being particularly high, the steepness of the Lammermuirs has historically prevented the creation of a main road network through them, and there are only two main routes south through them, one of which, the A68, is pretty much at the Western boundary of the hills so doesn’t really count – as a result, you get amazing solitude.

It was a bit bit blowy at Whiteadder Reservoir, and the wind seemed to have switched from a westerly to a north westerly overnight, which was a bit of a bugger as I had hoped to run mostly with the wind behind me, but it turned out not too bad with the wind easing off.

Running up the burn, noticed quite a few traps set out on tree branches across the water – haven’t seen anything like this before, I think the gamekeepers up here have a ‘zero-tolerance’ approach to anything that isn’t a grouse, pheasant or partridge……..

There was a relatively modest climb up onto the moor, heading for Crystal Rig wind farm – felt a bit of a fraud, a fair bit of the return journey was downhill, albeit over pretty rough terrain at times. The Herring Road is well signed as you approach the windfarm, unfortunately this area is now blighted by turbines, but the Herring Road still follows a true path  through the network of turbines and access tracks…..

The turbines are quite intimidating and noisy when you run beneath them. There are now 85 turbines on this site, and it is the 2nd largest wind farm in the UK.

Once through the windfarm, a fantastic vista opens up as you approach Lothian Edge, where the hills steeply drop off to the foothills at Halls and farmland below. Beyond is the Tyne estuary and Bass Rock….

Dunbar looks deceptively close in the background………in the foreground is the Black Loch in the deep valley. Actually a chain of 3 little lochs and this deep valley carries on to The Brunt, where it continues to the sea near Innerwick…

The first loch in the chain, just east of Halls……

and here, courtesy of SCRAN, is a nice aerial image (looking north east) of the valley in 1977……not much change. In the background is Brunt Hill.

Lots of neglected farmhouses in these parts.

The last couple of miles were the hilliest; By now I had  noticed i’d lost a glove, and there was no way I was re-tracing my steps. Starting out in the cold and blustery hills, I had overcooked in the clothing dept and everything removed was tucked into the belt. I should know by now not to overdo the clothes, as I always run ‘hot’, even in cold weather.

The final hill was up the Brunt, a punishing, though short stretch of road then a more gentle, but longer climb up Brunt Hill until Dunbar came into view again.

Just over a mile down the track to the house and a pleasant, though not particularly hard run was finished. Not as long as I had originally planned, but good fun.

As I hadn’t taken enough photos, when I got home I decided to try out the gorilla pad I got for the digital compact, and checked out the timer function which I had yet to try. Seems to work fine…

Blue Monday

Officially the most depressing day of the year today, and also the title of the best selling 12″ single of all time. This is one of my favourite songs from one of my favourite bands. Well overplayed now, but when I first heard this in 1983 it sounded like nothing else……New Order were signed to Factory Records for all the the 80s, Factory were a ’proper’ independent label who had no real commercial nous, but had a really strong sense of aesthetics and artistic ethos. They ignored conventional music industry trends and ploughed their own deeply original  furrow, making and ultimately losing millions of pounds, ultimately resulting in bankruptcy. Peter Saville designed most of the record sleeves for the Factory bands, and the sleeves themselves are works of art, often bearing nothing but a fairly cryptic design with no reference to the band or song. The sleeve for Blue Monday was simply a die-cut replica of a floppy disc, then the most cutting edge data storage media!

Reputedly, the sleeve cost so much to produce that the single actually lost Factory money, despite it’s huge success. Most of New Order’s song lyrics are pretty obtuse, and no one quite knows what this song was about, the two most common theories are either about the death of Ian Curtis, their former singer in their previous incarnation as Joy Division, or else the Falklands War, a year previous……read whatever you like into it.

Mild hill run

Mary had planned a route for a longer one today, Susan and I weren’t quite sure what she had in store. It turned out to be a really scenic route well off the beaten track, skirting the Lammermuirs and some very quite ‘b’ roads. Mary was accompanied by her Siberian Husky (very good looking dog) and there were a few comments about unfair advantages etc etc.

We set out from Spott, and headed out to Halls, a spookily quiet but beautiful hamlet on a dead-end road leading up into the hills. The spookiness is emphasised by some well preserved, but empty farm cottages, all fully intact, but no-one evidently at home. Mary then led us off onto a farm track and by mile 3 we were well into the lower Lammermuirs, just north of Pressmenan Lake (one of the very few ‘lakes’ in Scotland).  This was quite a climb, and we dodged up and down on rough ground, over some burns and down a nice steep incline. The going was very firm, recent frosts had hardened the ground up, but Susan still remarked that her trainers would get a bit dirty. It levelled off a bit, then we eventually joined another minor road which connected with Stenton and we were back on familiar territory.

This was a useful and enjoyable route for me to do in anticipation of having to get a few more hills in before Carnethy 5. Calf was a bit sore on the climbs, but not enough to make me walk. We all seemed to cope ok, I was slowed by my calf at times, Susan felt she was not quite 100%  on the steep stuff, and Mary was bounding along with the dog without displaying much apparent effort!

Carnethy5 success!

I did Carnethy5 in 40 minutes – well enter it that is. Last year after naively trying to enter later in the evening and finding it full after 2 hours, I was poised over the keyboard at 17.00 tonight. However, the downside was I became detained in the office till 17.40, but no pain no gain as they say – the web entry system creaked from one page to the next as I filled out the form, no doubt due to the weight of the other 500 odd runners entering at the same time. Hope it is worth it……

Managed to do my first work lunchtime run for a fair few months today – excellent day to be out, cool breeze but clear skies, and a notable absence of New Year resolvers lolloping around the parks. My ‘standard’ lunchtime route is Morrison Street, then through the Meadows to the pool, up over Hunters Bog and back around the bottom of Arthur’s Seat and back.  A nice wee jaunt over 6 miles. Hoping to get some hills in next few weeks in readiness for Carnethy 5…….