Week Four - Why?

'Why do you run?'

I get asked this question, and variations of it, all the time. Why are you running a marathon? Why are you getting up at 5.30am to run before work? Why bother? What's the point?

I'm going to attempt to give you an autobiographical history lesson now. Settle in.

Up until Thursday 25th April 2013 I was firmly in the camp of running is ridiculous, why on earth would you put yourself through it?

The previous Saturday I broke my finger in the first weekend of the cricket season - my first actual injury caused by a cricket ball for fans of the trials and tribulations of my brittle body. Anyway, at the time I was bang in to playing cricket, had made it to the first team and really enjoying it. So this was a disaster week one of the season. In my first 'real' job at Awbery Management Centre, my manager was a very clever coach of me. So clever in fact, that it took me two years to realise I was actually being coached. Mary was and still is a keen runner, and in response to my over-the-top angst about not being able to play cricket, suggested I try running.

It is important to note that I had spent a long time saying I would never start running. I had friends who had done half marathons and, God forbid, full marathons but I had no interest in it. But alas, on Thursday 25th April I dragged myself out for a very leisurely two miles at nearly 11 minute miles. I followed one of the 'Couch to 10k' programmes and before I knew it was running three times a week. I spent the rest of the year getting up to about 5 miles, before running the Derby 10k the following Spring - carrying my significantly heavier frame around the course in a tick under 50 mins if memory serves. 

I had got the bug - running was cool after all. One thing led to another and then I had a place in the Robin Hood half marathon for the September of 2014. Things were going great, I had got up to 10 miles and looking forward to the challenge. Then I got whacked in the face by a cricket ball (injury #2) and didn't run for 5 weeks. It was at this point, and during the following weeks, that I realised that running was now a habit and something that I had to do, rather than something I chose to do.

The moment I realised this was shortly after the emergency dentist, a nice chap called Rodrigo, had finished putting my mouth back together and I said: 'Will I be ok to run on Tuesday?'

He looked at me like a third ear had just popped out of my forehead, 'well... the tooth won't fall out if you do,' he responded. Obviously I didn't run on Tuesday, but running was so embedded in my life by this point that despite having blood everywhere, a lip bigger than that bird who was on Men Behaving Badly and a body in shock, I STILL thought about running.

Stupid, I know. 

So it became a habit, a way of life, and here I am with 2,256 miles under my belt and a marathon in 84 days. 

There are other pretty decent reasons why I run.

1. I get to enjoy a lucrative contract with Nike spend loads of money on really cool Nike trainers.

2. I get to dress up like an idiot and it be ok.

3. I get to raise a ton of money for some amazing charities.

4. Since I have grown out of getting a sew in badge of a whale for swimming 1500 metres and life has become all that more serious, the sense of achievement involved in being able to do it is pretty great.

5. I'm not going to lie, the Quain's were fat kids. We ate loads of carbs, cheese and trifle. We also drank blue milk like it was water. The latter years of Uni weren't great either. So it's good to be in decent nick now.

6. Because I run, I can eat carbs, cheese and trifle. Hooray!

Run #9 - Tuesday 24th January

Coolest thing about this run was this photo. Very steady 4 miles at 9s. Reckon I'm about two weeks away from being able to squeeze a run in during daylight. Praise thee.

Run #10 - Friday 27th January

Haha. I have used the word 'baltic' to describe many runs in the past. But GOOD LORDDDD. It's absolutely baltic out there. But Friday Morning Run Club is going strong (6.15am kick off for the lolz) and a really good seven miles at a decent lick including a very spooky, foggy trip through University grounds. Back to the office and in/out of the shower before things got awkward. Can't complain. 

Friday update - didn't bend my knees, picked up a heavy box and pulled my back. I am a FOOL.

Saturday update - couldn't put my socks on. Woe is me. Bed for the vast majority of the day. My body genuinely is made out of straw and syrup. Worried about tomorrow and 11 miles.

Gulp.

Run #11 - Sunday 29th February.

I've bathed in ralgex and taken a bunch of painkillers and I am back! I'm pretty sure I am going to pay for it over the next few days but it's good to keep to the plan at this point and keep the momentum going.

The run itself was boring as I had to stay close to home in case I had to abort so it meant lots of doubling back tedium. But 11 miles/1hr 30 is good, I'm happy.

Next week is a relatively chilled week which is nice, only a hour next Sunday 'to allow your body to adapt to the training loads' (righto) before the march towards 18+ miles begins with 10, then 12, 14, 16 in the coming weeks.

Banger's o'clock...

Week Three - Going Places

Week threeeeeee. Great news. 

Pulled up pretty well after Sunday's 8 and a bit miler - feeling good in my body and with every run and week that I can tick off the more confident I am getting that my knee is good to go. If I could do the hands up celebration emoji on here, now would be a good time for it.

With that confidence, I've started to think about which charity I'd like to raise money for. There are few greater motivators than making a difference, however small, for any of the great charities that do amazing things for us, our families and friends. I'll never forget a literal double decker bus of British Heart Foundation guys going absolutely mental for people running the Great North Run at about 11 miles. It makes such a difference when you're beginning to flag/hate life - be it during the lengthy training or the actual day itself.

In the past I have ran for the British Heart Foundation and also Balls To Cancer raising around £1,250 which is a-m-a-z-i-n-g so I'm really keen to get something tangible out of this and hopefully do something good for a deserving cause.

I have a few ideas in mind about possible charities, but I'm interested to hear from anyone who has any suggestions too. I might do some mad vote in a few weeks (no electoral college system used by BQ). But yeh, let me know.

So, week three.

Run #6 - Tuesday 17th January

The absolute definition of a recovery run this one. Which I think is the point. Drifted through the first few miles at over 9 mins per mile then picked it up once I had loosened up a bit. But yeh, no dramas, all good.

Run #7 - Friday 20th January

Big news kids, today marked the start of FRIDAY MORNING RUN CLUB! It's an attempt to break up the monotony of running at night after work around the same streets near home. So it goes like this; drag my sorry state out of bed at 5.45am, get in to running attire and drive to work. Drop my shit off at my desk (with the wonderfully glamorous running gear and my work coat playing off each other like a dream), do a quick warm up and zoom off in to the Nottingham morning. I can't tell you how nice it is to run somewhere different. I also can't tell you how worth it is to be up, running and in full flow when the sun starts to come up on a clear sky morning. It's the bomb.  It also took a good two miles for me to feel my fingers but that's ok. 50 mins (as per the plan) at a rollicking 8.01 mins per mile for 6.28 miles. Good start to the morning. Now time for some New Ways scrambled eggs on toast and a day of Jelly Babies.

An 80 minute stint awaits on Sunday which should be ten miles or so. Out tomorrow night for a birthday in London sooo let's hope that gin offers good fuel properties. 

*Note to self - remember to rehydrate self on the train back on Sunday.

**Note to all - membership to BQ Friday Morning Run Club is one chocolate bar a week, if you are mental, see you at D90.

Run #8 - Sunday 22nd January

Well, considering I was in McDonalds at 2.30am this morning and dancing pretty keenly to big bangers in the hours preceding, today's run has gone remarkably well! I was wise enough to have a lot of fluids (and a Galaxy Salted Caramel) in the hours leading up to setting off so by the time I got out the door I felt ok and hallelujah, there was even some daylight to enjoy.

First things first - look at that bloody average pace! Target time BOSSED. 

And it felt comfortable in doing so, so that's a real plus point. This route was quite hilly so that can account for the fluctuating mile times, whilst I am pleased the knees felt pretty good both going up and down the hills. Ten miles is quite a distance (only sixteen to go - CRY) and it was June that I last covered that much distance. Did a few more mins than the 80 slated, but my sister was picking me up at the ten mile mark and I really couldn't be bothered to walk it. Soz plan. 

Much like Friday morning, it is so nice to run new and different routes. 

So on to Week Four which is pretty similar to this one I think, maybe a few more miles in total than the 20 of this week.

Things are a movin'...

Cheers.

Week Two - Shut Up. You're Fine!

The absolute hardest thing about running is not the actual physical act of running. It is the mental side of it. 

From buying those first thirty quid trainers in the only colour they have left because you're not quite convinced you'll still be doing it in three weeks, to dragging yourself out the door for the first time, to carrying on for the final half a mile when all you want to do is stop - it is all a battle with your own mental evil vs. good Kermit the Frog or whatever meme is currently every-bloody-where.

At the moment the biggest mental battle is believing that in under four months time I will be ready and able to run 26 miles. 

And that isn't because I don't have the motivation - in my head I feel like I have to run a marathon. I'm bought in to the training regime (albeit slightly adjusted after last week's faux pas). But the fear of my knee giving up the ghost again is a concern that is hard to shake.

I have therefore decided to embrace the following motto:

SHUT UP.  YOU'RE FINE!

The mind is an incredible thing, but it's also a massive pain in the arse. Structurally my knee is sound - the bloody knee specialist said so. There is no damage to the bone, there is no ligament or cartilage damage anymore - but my mind remembers the pain and what that meant in July last year. Quite simply, when I am not thinking about my knee it doesn't hurt, when I am it does. I think the mumbo jumbo word for it is psychosomatic or something. In any case, this is something I need to shake.

After last week I need a good week this week to kickstart the process and more importantly - start to have a bit more confidence in the knee.

As discussed last week, running back-to-back days is a massive no go for me currently so I have switched out the Wednesday run and replaced it with a spin/swim session on alternate weeks. This should allow for recovery time as well as changing up the training a bit to help avoid the utter tedium of four runs a week.

I've never had any sort of coaching so my running technique is pretty organic in how it has developed. I don't think my running style is an issue as I had ran 2000+ miles before my first real injury but it is important to take on any guidance that can be gradually be introduced in to how I run - it's certainly not perfect! So thank you to those eminently more knowledgable people who I have spoken to over the last week who have shared their thoughts with me.

If we can excuse the mad techno backing track, this video has been helpful. The main thing I am taking from it is to drive my knees 'up but forward'.

I think I have a habit of dragging myself a little bit and forget to make proper strides which probably isn't the best idea. I am also concerned that I do not move my arms in the most efficient way and look rather more like Peter Crouch doing the robot - obviously a squished down version of Peter Crouch doing the robot, but Peter Crouch doing the robot all the same.

So I'm going to work on all that this week.

Here goes.

Run #3 - Tuesday 10th January

Yaaaaassss, we're back in business. Well, I think we are anyway. Such a claim should probably be put on hold until I wake up tomorrow. If I wake up and don't have knees like a 65 year old then we are back in business. Steady four miles tonight at 8.43's which came in just under 35 minutes. I know I said I wouldn't run more than the planned time but I needed the confidence that I could do it without problems. About 25 minutes in I started to feel something but it quickly calmed down - I'm pretty sure that's because I told myself 'SHUT UP. YOU'RE FINE!'

Run #4 - Thursday 12th January

It's baltic and it's raining. This is not a face of happiness. This is a face of complete and utter resigned acceptance. But it's fine! My knee is behaving. No adverse reactions to Tuesday's run meant I could push on to the first more lengthy run of the plan - 50 minutes (or 51.31, but shhh), and a steady 6 miles at 8.34. There were a few minor instances of SHUT UP. YOU'RE FINE! (SUYF! from here on) but definitely an improvement again from Tuesday. Fingers crossed for no reaction and we move on to 70 minutes on Sunday and if we get through that then things really are moving.

Run #5 - Sunday 12th January

Today was really important. It was scheduled to be a 70 minute run which will easily be the longest run since the end of June last year, and the first of the more lengthy distances of the plan. Failing today wouldn't quite have been curtains but it would have been bad news. I got my sister to drive me out beyond Repton to allow for a fresh route and set off. The rain wasn't too bad until about half way when it absolutely chucked it down and I failed miserably to avoid the puddles - as did a great chap in a Sainsburys van who gave me a fresh soaking. However, great success!

Far too quick in terms of target marathon pace but no big issue at this distance. The most encouraging thing is the mile by mile times and to still be able to chuck out negative splits - something I could rely on pre-July.

I'll be doing my usual praying to the marathon gods for no adverse reaction to this distance and duration and then we will start week three on Tuesday!

Week two bangers for your listening delights - Let's Dance is great in the rain FYI.

It's been a good week!

Cheers kids.

Week One - Foundations

So, a wee bit of context to start things off.

On Sunday 23rd April I aim to be running around the streets of London (panic?), and over the course of the next 16 weeks I am following a very regimented training plan to get me there. I was meant to break my marathon cherry in Berlin last September, but in a typically male way I decided that I didn't need to follow a plan and could just up my game (and my distance) and I'd be fine. Turns out that doesn't work and if you run 17 miles before the body is ready your body is gonna break down. 

And break down it did! Sprained medial ligaments in my left knee pounding like a drum on every single impact, be it walking or running for a number of months. So, running was very quickly a no-go, Berlin was off the table and I had to go swimming which sucked. It was only in December that I managed to get any sort of milage back in my legs after damaging my knee at the end of June. 

Not cool.

So yeh, context. This week I start my very-regimented-training-plan and I think that it is going to be tough. I need to be running three times in the week which is pretty bleak at this time of year as well as a long one on Sunday - the day of rest! In the past I have managed to motivate myself pretty well by writing about it. Not necessarily for the consumption of others, but if it is down on paper (or screen), it sorta means I have to do it. Otherwise I'm a let down and no one wants that.

So I'm going to write - and the crowd goes wild!

I plan to write an update every Sunday for the next 14 weeks with real time content throughout the week updating on each run, probably some fairly inane rambling but it gives me something to think about out on the roads other than how great it's going to be when Liverpool win the league.

So, week one - the plan describes this week as thus; 'The next four weeks are about building a base of easy running - building time on your feet without the fatigue of faster running. This will form the basis from which to introduce more marathon-specific training.'

Ok - cool.

Oh, one final piece of context. The blog title. The Running Jaffa Cake. Jaffa Cakes are like aeroplane fuel when it comes to half marathons so... much like the miles, just gonna double them right up and become one for the marathon. And it's nice and catchy and looks funky in the font up at the top.

This is my plan, it is based on four runs a week with the main distance run on the Sunday with smaller conditioning runs throughout the weeks. This came from the magazine that they sent out with the YOU GOT A PLACE IN LONDON! letter.

All being well this should be relatively achievable. It is only one extra run in the week, it'll get tougher when the milage on a Sunday heads up over the 10 mile mark. It's worth saying that I ran 65 miles in December based on three runs a week ranging from five to seven miles so the really deep foundations are already there.

Run #1 - Tuesday 3rd January

The plan said run for 20 minutes but until now I've been so in the routine of running to completed mile marks. So I ran for 25 minutes and did 3 miles. Now obviously this is a dangerous precedent so it is the last time I will do this. Felt my knee a little but I think that's more me building up the start of this training plan in my head and fretting. Decent pace, 8.35 per mile. 8.30 is the marathon target pace.  One down!

Run #2 - Wednesday 4th January

It's pretty cold (2'c) and I'm not hugely feeling it. I don't know if I have ever run back-to-back days before but alas, I now have. Steady enough half an hour - knee alright and 3.52 miles in the can at 8.33.

Run #3 - Friday 6th January - CANCELLED

Well, this is a little embarrassing. The knee. Always the knee. It flared up the night of my last run and is still sore now. As this wrote me off for four months last year I've got no option but to be cautious. It hurts in the same place and I am concerned. I won't be running today and we will see how the weekend goes. Gah.

Sunday 8th January

Feeling more optimistic now sports fans. I have done two thirty minute spin sessions this weekend and also walked round the village and I think (pray) that it has only been a minor flare up. 

So that, hopefully, is good news. It is also a massive jolt of reality and DON'T BE AN IDIOT. My knee can not hack back-to-back running days. Even three miles was enough to do some damage on the second day so I am going to reassess the very-regimented-training-plan and perhaps replace one of the week runs with a spin or a swim - yay.

I have had concerns about my knee going in to this training cycle which I think is only natural - but I expected trouble to hit after big milage, not after six miles in two days. But it is good to know now and, touch wood, come out the other side still ticking.

Anyway, this is what I've been listening to in Week One. Yep, I'm going to do a different playlist every week to keep me sane and trust me - it'll be FULL of bangers.

So all in all, the week of laying 'foundations' hasn't been all that successful and the irony of me altering the training plan after one week is painful. But with any luck I'll be able to get going again on Tuesday without a long term issue which would risk derailing the whole shebang.

Fingers crossed!