29/2/2016 – Teenage Dirtbag

It’s me Birthday, It’s me Birthday, I’m going to party like it’s me Birthday. Well, actually I went and ran 15 miles. Not quite the party I had in mind to kick off my teenage years.

The dubious benefit of being born on Leap Year Day is that I’ve only had 13 actual birthdays, thus I can proudly claim that I’m only 13. The teenage years are supposedly hallmarked by irritability, mood swings and grumpiness. Sue says she is unsure she’ll notice any difference. Cheek!

As we are currently away for football matters, the long run day moved from Sunday again, which meant last week was an odd one as far as midweek training went. Monday was a full gym and swim session, wearing a knee support for the first time – not taking any chances at the moment as it continues to bump and grind, especially at night.

Tuesday was the perfect day for a run, sunny, only a little chilly and not too windy. I set off around the False parkrun route feeling good. In my head I was running strongly, freely and without pain or soreness – thus was expecting a decent time when I stopped the watch at the end of the second lap. Gutted! 33.41 – not great at all. Almost as slow as my deliberately easy run on Sunday. I”ve no idea what went wrong. It might be the hilliest route of the regular 5Ks I do, but I was feeling good. It really took the shine off what I’d thought was a decent session.

Later that day, Sue went out and ran the classic 5K route in a lifetime best of 32:57. Almost a minute faster than me and her previous best 5K time. Brilliant work from the missus, especially has she has a few niggling issues on her right side. Unsurprisingly, it did nothing to lift my feelings of inadequacy.

The first of the birthday gatherings happened on Wednesday at Beckenham Town v Fisher. I broke my alcohol fast for only the second time this year (excluding last Friday’s mouthful of Baileys which I forgot was alcoholic until I’d downed it). Six bottles of Becks and a mountain of cheese and biscuits rather set the diet back and that was only the first day of a week of gluttony.

In the gym earlier that day, Steve had me jump on a weight/fat analyser gizmo. To my surprise, the overall results weren’t too bad. His main area concern was my Visceral Fat reading which was 11, apparently, it should be under 10. Visceral Fat is the dangerous stuff around your organs and I have have too much.  It’s notoriously difficult to shift, he told me to avoid saturated and trans fats as far as possible – so fry-ups, fatty red meat, chicken skin, mayonaisse and cheese are all off the menu for the foreseeable. Not the best timing to have a birthday, then. I’ll just have to start next week.

I was due for an early run on Thursday morning, but due to a combination of Hangover (on 6 bottles of Becks, REALLY?) and dodgy tum, it wasn’t prudent to step outside until lunchtime. A chilly turn around the classic course with only one goal in mind, to best Sue’s time on Tuesday. I wasn’t in the peak of condition but managed to scrape 20 seconds off her time coming in 32:37. Normal order has been restored, with the welcome side effect of blowing the hangover away.

Friday was an enforced rest day, as we had a birthday lunch for Sue’s Dad in the excellent Sportsman pub at Seasalter followed by a hugely enjoyable Chris T-T  gig back in the smoke.

If Wednesday saw me fall off the Wagon,  Friday saw it driven it off the road and upended in a ditch. Let’s just say Saturday turned into another ‘enforced’ rest day. I could barely move, let alone parkrun. Sue was, rightly disgusted, especially as she wasn’t exactly on top form herself, we’d agreed to pick John and Dan up so one of us had to go.

With Palace playing back-to back away games on Saturday and Tuesday. We decided to stay away for my birthday in Cheshire, so the long run was conducted on unfamiliar but very pleasant surroundings.

The route involved a disused railway track, now leisure path called the Middlewood Way, then 11 miles out and back on the Macclesfield Canal.

It was an almost perfect day for running. The going was, for the most part, firm and flat, if a little uneven on the towpath. Still, a bit of instability underfoot is good for the core, or so we are told.

The scenery and views were lovely and the Birdlife sightings included flashes of  a Kingfisher which is always uplifting.

The only downside to what was a lovely, pain-free training run was the biting cold, but even with that, I felt I could have pushed on for longer at the end.

The time was still rather slow at 3:11 but a better pace than last week and overall I felt content with it. Sue trundled in 10 or so minutes behind me, equally pleased with her efforts.

A Happy Birthday, all round.