22/02/20 – Hiders from the Storm

With the holidays done and dusted, it’s time to return to the serious business of Marathon training. We had calculated that we are both maybe a couple of weeks behind where we need to be in terms of target distances on our Marathon training plan. So it’s full steam ahead now to get back on track.

The weather though, had other ideas with two huge storms: Ciara and Dennis hitting on consecutive weekends. This meant postponing the longer runs until the midweek, when the wind calmed down a bit.

It wasn’t just the weather blowing obstacles in my path either. Just when I thought the glute was getting a bit more manageable, I go and pull something in my back. There I was performing the same set of exercises I’ve done religiously for the past six weeks and, suddenly, something went in my back and I was stuck hunched over like Quasimodo.

I bloody hate squats! Every sodding time I do something to myself whilst exercising, it’s always squats that do the damage. I managed to roll onto the bed and slowly get my back straight again, but as I twist and turn to get up off the bed, the protests start – eventually I get myself upright. At this point, I’m really worried I’ve done something major. I threw my back out once before, when I was a lot heavier and that took several weeks to get back to normal.

I hadn’t done my daily run yet either, so am now worryingly that this, rather than getting blown over by 60 mph winds, will be the thing that ends the daily streak after two and half years. I tried tentatively jogging on the spot. Hmm, suspciously pain-free. I couldn’t bend to put my shoes on, but the running motion seemed to be okay.

After wrestling on my trainers with Sue’s assistance, but clearly not her blessing, I set off for a tentative mile. I prayed with every step that I won’t trip and jar myself or, more embarrassingly, that my laces will come undone as there’s no way I’d be able to do them up on my own.

I got ’round very slowly, but unscathed and without any major back trauma, although my usual pre and post run stretch routine was severely curtailed. At this point, Sue thought I was certifiably mad. The stiffness in my back lasted for a few days and even went the pain subsided I still had restricted mobility. The tying of errant laces continued to be an issue and not being able to continue with my glute exercise meant an unwelcome return of some soreness there.

In addition to scaling up the Marathon Training, there was the Eastbourne Half to train for in a mere three Sundays time – thus we both needed to step up the mileage and, for Eastbourne, get some hill work in. I’d started with hill training the day after we got back from holiday, with the usual circuits near to home, adding on another 15 minutes at the end to get the endurance up again. However, the back spasm had mentally set me, err, back.

By the end of the week, I felt confident enough to tackle a longer run, if not yet quite ready for serious hill work. Dennis the Menace meant us both getting out on Friday or potentially getting further behind in upping the distance. A total of seven miles was bagged, albeit slowly and this led to a knock-on effect on my speed for the next day’s parkrun. We decided to stay close to home and do our nearest not done (known as a NENDY) which was Burgess Park. Many parkruns had already been called off due to flooding and incoming high winds, so we counted ourselves lucky to get this one done.

My luck was well and truly in, because although I was a bit heavy-legged from the previous days’ efforts, I managed to finally hit that elusive final Bingo number coming in at 34:03. Sue also managed to knock one off her list coming in at 36:21 – just four left for her now… Oh Happy Anorak Day!

Once the worst of the storm and the rain had passed on Wednesday, I could put it off no longer. I headed out again for a longer run, starting off the long pull up to the top of Crystal Palace parade to stimulate the trek up Beachy Head early in the Eastbourne Half. I had planned to up my distance from 7 to 9 miles, but in the end deliberately did 10. Although it was another mighty slow run, it felt comfortable and the glute was quiet, although still noticeable, especially on the inclines.

We rounded the week off with a visit to Dartford parkrun. Nice course around Central Park, but an extremely boggy hill – run twice – that brought back memories of the old home turf at Lloyd Park. Little to report in the way of noteworthy performance or anoraking though.

So to summarise, a fortnight that began badly as our plans were thrown into disarray by weather and, in my case, a back issue that thankfully wasn’t as bad as it first appeared. In the end, some solid progress by both of us towards getting back on track with our Marathon Training Schedule and useful work for next week’s Eastbourne Half.