Cycle Logical

Bit of a detour on a late autumn day

05.11.2014
Day 205

A crisp, bright, November day: cycled to and from Waterloo Bridge from Catford for work, and jogged across Waterloo Bridge twice as part of an extended lunch hour. All grist to the mill.

The transition from summer to winter training is always difficult....dredging out the right (warm enough) kit, the old worries about whether to cover up your skin tight running tights with a pair of shorts to cover your modesty....long sleeved tops under T-shirts - is that too Sheldon off Big Bang Theory? Then there's the lack of daylight hours and the overwhelming urge, precipitated by work stress, family stress, general malaise and persistent injury, to hibernate.
It is time to sort out my winter timetable, and to make the most of bright, crisp mornings like this.

Warming to the theme again

It's beginning to feel a lot like winter

04.11.2014
Day 204

Circuit training with Alana, Hyacinth and Erik, courtesy of Team Shape U, and in the evening, my first track session in weeks, overseen by Coach Adrian Musson of Kent AC 
The morning was all about the arms and back, pull ups, arm swings with weights, presses, battle rope etc. I felt weak and half asleep. This evening's session, a mile warm up followed by 6x1000m, that's 22 times round the track, left me in a happier place.

My strength is coming back. I may not have been with the frontrunners, and Vicar's Hill and Hillyfields training may have defeated me in my barely awake state this morning, but this evening I rallied. The last 200m of every 1km rep I tried to sprint. Of course it was not a sprint, but I extended and pumped arms and had that stretched feeling in the stomach that goes with proper effort. For the first time in weeks I did not feel like giving in, but rather had a tantalising taste of running well. That satisfaction, I hope, will prompt more committed recovery efforts to nail this PF once and for all. Off I go to the stairs for my fascia stretching exercise.

Reading is not doing, is it, Ronnie?

03.11.2014
Day 203

Work day. Cycling in and home again in suddenly cold weather. Long running tights are the order of the season. An email from Ellie Brown today includes an interesting link about plantar fasciitis (hereinafter referred to as PF)

Thanks to the New York Times, picture by Michael Skovdal Rathleff

 Rolling my right foot on a cricket ball, pulling back my toes toward the shin, stretching and rolling my calves, circling my foot...I keep on keeping on at the old PF. I have spent £70 on some more cushioned trainers. Meanwhile, one of the faster runners in my club, similarly afflicted, is undergoing a series of laser treatments and acupuncture. She has a full time job and no children. Nuff said.
 The NYT article states:

'Until recently, first-line treatments involved stretching and anti-inflammatory painkillers such as ibuprofen or cortisone. But many scientists now believe that anti-inflammatories are unwarranted, because the condition involves little inflammation. Stretching is still commonly recommended.

But the new study, published in August in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, finds that a single exercise could be even more effective. It requires standing barefoot on the affected leg on a stair or box, with a rolled-up towel resting beneath the toes of the sore foot and the heel extending over the edge of the stair or box. The unaffected leg should hang free, bent slightly at the knee.

Then slowly raise and lower the affected heel to a count of three seconds up, two seconds at the top and three seconds down. In the study, once participants could complete 12 repetitions fairly easily, volunteers donned a backpack stuffed with books to add weight. The volunteers performed eight to 12 repetitions of the exercise every other day.'

Of course I will give this exercise a shot, using a couple of 5kg dumbbells instead of faffing around with rucksacks and books. I promise that, although I have little inclination to perform a series of therapeutic exercises after cycling home from work and making the dinner, I'll stretch harder and more frequently. From tomorrow.

Sluggish Sunday

Now there's a gloomy outlook

02.11.2014
Day 202

The day after the night before. A blustery suburban walk with husband. Intimations of mortality

In fact it was a jolly day, despite the almost constant rain. A long lie in, tea and papers in bed, leisurely breakfast with friends over West Wickham way, then catching up on work this afternoon. Plagued by hangover, I read that Amy, our top woman at Kent AC has run the New York City Marathon in 2:52. By comparison, I feel as if I could not jog to the end of the road. Perhaps the rest and almost constant eating occasioned by my birthday celebrations will give the plantar fasciitis time to heal, but as I write this I feel it throb. It has been a barrier to decent mileage for more than two months now. I have a race in less than three weeks.
This is the last day of self indulgence. I promise.

Hangs head in shame

My altruistic tendencies may be the reason why...

Siggy, whose birthday is also today, ran rings round me

but it's my birthday and I'll jog if I want to, then pig out at breakfast

01.11.2014
Day 201

This was my slowest HillyfieldsParkrun in two years. My legs were weak, my breath was short, I felt like walking.
Today is my 52nd birthday. I have been determinedly cheerful, despite an execrable run this morning. I am really not feeling too well. It cannot just be giving blood two weeks ago (although it does take several weeks for the blood to replenish, as I have said before). Today, though, I feel my new age. Better, though, that I feel really loved. Wonderful, thoughtful presents from family and friends, many greetings, cake and love from Parkrun buddies.  Such love will shove the anxiety out of my head and heart for a day or so.
Then it'll be back to the drawing board, training wise. Sleep, cross training, massage, fartlek, protein. Time to change my ways.
The result was almost three minutes slower than my PB: 25.42. Shame.

Fright night: suitably haggard for Hallowe'en

31.10.2014
Day 200

Cycle to and from work. Pounding hangover makes morning downward dog a challenge.

It's scary, how a few drinks and a late night can throw you off pace, both physically and mentally. The cycle ride is a toil, but the weather is unseasonably warm and balmy, so there's sense in my dawdling through the parks, admiring the waterfowl and the sunlight bouncing off the Shard. The sandpaper-behind-the-eyes feeling persists through the working day, and it's all I can do to take a stroll in sunlit Embankment Gardens, where I ate avocado, lentils, rice and quinoa without much relish. A reviving afternoon, however, because my lovely workmates led by Designer David Vallade came to my desk with card, present, tea and chocolate cake. Touched, I was. Lovely to feel loved. 

Protein

Nuts. lots of nuts, might help

30.10.2014
Day 199

Sitting: in theatre, in office. Fretting: when will I feel stronger? Yoga: to try to calm, extend, elongate, focus

This week I've been thinking a great deal about protein. Erik, who likes to taunt me with 'you're vegetarian, ergo you're weak', (although he'd never say ergo, of course), recommended protein powders if I really couldn't eat a nice salmon steak. Some copywriting I did for a communications firm was about Cinnamon Soho's now infamous brain burgers (calves brains deep fried with spices), all spooked up for Hallowe'en, and now I am blessed with a new Twitter follower, name of That protein, which intrigues.
Until I earn a regular income, I can't be sending off for fancy packs of chia seed and pumpkin seeds, ground to a pulp, in the hope that they may become my font of eternal youth and speed. It's my 52nd birthday on Saturday. I've planned to celebrate it with a return to Parkrun with my fellow Hillyfields Parkrunner buddy, Siggy, whose birthday is on the same day. I've warned her I'll be in the slow lane. For the rest of the day I'll be celebrating in a low key way: lots of food, plenty of alcohol. Chocolate, cake, sugar, chips. I have found, in the past, that no-holds-barred feasting improves my stamina, so it's a cheering thought, to spend the birthday week that was to have been all about fun and friends, and now looks like being work-dominated, eating more junky stuff, devoid of animal flesh, of course.