{"id":786,"date":"2020-02-06T11:48:40","date_gmt":"2020-02-06T11:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/runspoonsrun.co.uk\/?p=786"},"modified":"2020-02-06T11:48:42","modified_gmt":"2020-02-06T11:48:42","slug":"06-02-20-a-pain-in-the-butt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runspoonsrun.co.uk\/?p=786","title":{"rendered":"06\/02\/20 – A Pain in the Butt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

And so we\u2019re back. Did you miss us? Hmm, thought not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I say \u2018back\u2019, but actually I\u2019m writing this somewhere over Siberia, although it won\u2019t actually be posting until we are home. We are on the final flight after an amazing holiday in Australia. Not one, however, that particularly conducive to building up the Marathon mileage.

In my case, there has also been the glute injury to deal with, as Sue outlined last time. Aprt from anything else, it\u2019s such an undignified place to have an injury. With pulled and strained leg muscles and joints, it\u2019s so much easier to point to and administer relief to the affected area. More than once I\u2019ve gotten some very odd looks, when publicly kneading my right buttock when it\u2019s playing up.

I\u2019m pleased to report that it has gotten much better, although still not completely healed. Thanks to sticking religiously to the daily exercise regime recommended by my Physio, the pain has largely subsided. I\u2019m now left with a stiffness, that I sometimes feel impedes my gait. It\u2019s certainly impeding my times, I\u2019ve not managed a mile in under 10.30, in the month that I\u2019ve been here. After spending another 24 hours on my backside on these flights home, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll be concentrating on improving my speed just yet.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My stamina also feels distinctly lacking. Whilst I have gone back to running continuously, I haven\u2019t managed much over 3 miles. Doing 26 of the buggers in one hit looks a long, long way away at present, certainly more than the the 80 odd days it actually is. That said, there have been three long walks on the trip, so at least it\u2019s been good to get time on the feet. These walks included a stunning Tasmanian hike around Cradle Mountain lake, with an undulating return through the valley to our lodge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Cradle Mountain (the one day the sun shined on it)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Last week was a 10 mile City walk out and back along the Yarra River in Melbourne, on a warm, warm day. Although the following day the mercury touched 42c there. I\u2019m so glad we dodged that. Even walking for a mile in that heat, due to a Tram strike, was torture.

Parkruns have duly happened each Saturday, with last Saturday\u2019s inaugural run at Edinburgh Oval in Perth being a particular highlight and not just because it\u2019s a stunning course.  There is a something about an inaugural parkrun that brings out the best in everyone. And the mood, like the weather, at this one was particularly warm and sunny. I\u2019ve been lucky enough to do four inaugurals now, which is seen as a bit controversial in the UK. The thinking is that you shouldn\u2019t go to the first event, to give the admin team time to \u2018bed in\u2019 and iron out the kinks with their local community. Of course, I do get that and starting dates for new events in the UK can be quite closely guarded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our experience, the complete opposite is true for inaugurals abroad. They are happy to advertise their first event widely and are very welcoming of tourists. Last summer, we were lucky to be in Seattle when Perrigo parkrun launched, which again was a fantastic event and atmosphere. Not quite sure, why I feel the need to explain myself about the two UK first\u2019s that I went to, but suffice to say they are both walking distance from my house. I felt as a local, I was fully entitled to attend and have run them many, many times since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of our Aussie parkrun times have been anything to write\nhome about, due to various factors – not least the heat. Nonetheless, each one\nwas a pleasure, despite my personal frustration of just missing my final bingo\nnumber (the elusive 03) by one and three seconds over the last fortnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been managing to keep up my daily runs, admittedly most\nhave been the mile minimum. Other than parkrunning, Sue hasn\u2019t really managed\nmuch running in the last fortnight and is looking to quickly build back up her\npace and stamina now we are home.
\n
\nSo looking ahead to the next fortnight, we both want to get at least a couple\nof hour-plus runs in with a view to maybe tackling a Half Marathon at the start\nof March. The next few days will determine whether that is realistic for us.
\n
\nAnd finally\u2026 yep, the bit you all know is coming\u2026 it\u2019s fair to say, we haven\u2019t\ndone much pushing of our Sponsorship whilst we have been away. As such, after\nthat first delightful Christmas burst, it\u2019s all gone a bit flat. Over the next\ncouple of weeks, we will be ramping that back up via social media and email,\nnot least because we have several exciting announcements, opportunities and\nevents to tell you all about, BUT you could always get in early and beat the\nrush! It really would help mitigate those inevitable post-holiday blues, to see\nour totals ticking on upwards again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cheers all.  
Sponsor Neil \u2013 Alzheimer\u2019s Research UK<\/a>
Sponsor Sue \u2013 Bowel Cancer UK<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back Home again, naturally…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-london2021"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runspoonsrun.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runspoonsrun.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runspoonsrun.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runspoonsrun.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runspoonsrun.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=786"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/runspoonsrun.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":792,"href":"https:\/\/runspoonsrun.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786\/revisions\/792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runspoonsrun.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runspoonsrun.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runspoonsrun.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runspoonsrun.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}