Johnno's sort-of-training-log

Discussion in 'Training Logs' started by Johnno, Feb 18, 2015.

  1. Nachi

    Nachi Valued Member Supporter

    Wow, it sounds like you had a fair share of trouble, but I'm sure it must have been a good experience anyway. Hats off to you for being able to run something like that. I always admired people who could or even found the courage to try :)
    How many marathons have you run so far, if I may ask?

    Edit: Also thanks for the detailed story, it's inspiring :)
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2015
  2. Frodocious

    Frodocious She who MUST be obeyed! Moderator Supporter

    Well done for finishing, despite the setbacks. It sounds like you had bad luck on the day. Take some time to recover, get back to training and try again - better luck next time! :)
     
  3. Smitfire

    Smitfire Cactus Schlong

  4. belltoller

    belltoller OffTopic MonstreOrdinaire Supporter

    Man, what a story. Don't know whether to laugh or cry. I'd echo wot others here have said - a bad moon settled on you the night before.

    The last half I ran was like that - just a nasty, ill-begotten sod that had me feeling heavy and sluggish from the get-go.

    Makes one wonder how athletes who train for years for that once-in-a-lifetime event (such as the Olympics) deal with that.

    But like boxers and MMA fighters who train for months and months for that championship fight only to be conquered by the lurgy, sprain their ankle climbing into the ring, come back stronger and go out on a win!
     
  5. Johnno

    Johnno Valued Member

    That's what I'm trying to work out. Was my preparation inadequate? Would I have had more left in the tank in the later stages if I'd gone more slowly early on? Was I just unlucky on the day? Am I too old and decrepit for this distance? Right now, I really don't know the answers.
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2015
  6. Johnno

    Johnno Valued Member

    Thank you. This was my first marathon. Whether it'll also be my last is currently undecided! ;)
     
  7. Johnno

    Johnno Valued Member

    I passed the Banana Man at the nine mile mark! I remember thinking at the time: "It's taken me nine bleeding miles to overtake a banana!"

    I felt considerably less amused however when he overtook me at about nineteen miles.
     
  8. Johnno

    Johnno Valued Member

    Saturday 2015/10/17: did my regular parkrun.

    First time I'd run since the marathon, and unfortunately I had to go to work straight afterwards, so I did a very gentle run, chatting al the way round with a couple of friends.

    Then an hour or so later, my lower back started going into spasm, and it's been extremely painful ever since. Don't know when I'l be up to running again, or doing anything much. I'l try doing a bit of my Taiji form in a day or two, just to see how that feels. Might even go to the doctor, although I don't have much optimism that that won't be a complete waste of time. :bang:
     
  9. Frodocious

    Frodocious She who MUST be obeyed! Moderator Supporter

    Bad news about the back spasm. Have you tried putting some heat on it - that always works well for my back when it spasms up.
     
  10. belltoller

    belltoller OffTopic MonstreOrdinaire Supporter

    Have you had this before? Pull a muscle at some point? The doctor might give you muscle relaxers.

    Might try taking some potassium supplements and putting a heat pad on it, as Frodo suggested, though I canna stand anyone or anything going near my back when I'm having one of those.

    Sorry to hear that.
     
  11. Johnno

    Johnno Valued Member

    I screwed my back up when I was nineteen years old, and it hasn't been quite right since then.

    It's generally okay if I take really good care of it, although certain activities are always troublesome, e.g. gardening. I'm not sure exactly what set it off on Saturday, because it just started out of the blue.
     
  12. belltoller

    belltoller OffTopic MonstreOrdinaire Supporter

    Yeah, it does seem once something happens with the back - its prone to go out every so often.
     
  13. Johnno

    Johnno Valued Member

    Saturday 2015/10/24, parkrun.

    First run in a week. Had a really good warm-up beforehand, including a gentle run round one lap of the course. Took it vwery steady (and had a good natter with a friend all the way round.) My back was a bit sore at first, but felt a lot better by the end. Had a good stretch afterwards.

    Hopefully I can get back to my normal schedule now, because I really want to do some speed work before the Leeds Abbey Dash in November, when I would love to take another bite out of my PB!
     
  14. Johnno

    Johnno Valued Member

    Tuesday 2015/10/27. running club.

    Dropped down to group 4 because my back still feels a bit delicate. Ended up backmarking the group because the chap doing it had to leave early anyway, and he actually dropped out quite early on to escort a lass who was feeling poorly back to 'base'.

    I think we did about six miles, and it was a nice gentle pace which suited me just fine. Because I was having a good old natter most of the way round, there were a couple of times when I suddenly realised that I had run most of the way up a fairly steep hill and hadn't even realised that we were climbing! So definately no problem with my legs, then!

    Also, my back held up really well, so I think I'll just resume my normal schedule from now on, but continue to stretch my hamstrings every day, which seems to help my back.
     
  15. belltoller

    belltoller OffTopic MonstreOrdinaire Supporter

    That is definitely a good sign. No voltage-drop across your cardio alerting you that you are on an incline is even better than no problems with your legs!
     
  16. Johnno

    Johnno Valued Member

    Saturday 2015/11/07. My usual parkrun (in the pouring rain!)

    After about a fortnight of inactivity (apart from doing lots of stretching) it was really nice to be running again. And the good news was that I woke up with no pain in my back!

    Did as quick a run as I could. The conditions weren't really condusive to a fast time, and I started a bit to far back on the starting 'grid' and got a bit boxed in by slower runners for the first few hundred yards. So in the circumstances, a time that was almost exactly a minute below my PB wasn't too bad at all. My legs still feel strong from all the long runs, I just need to get a bit of sharpness back and then I can aim for PB's again.
     
  17. Johnno

    Johnno Valued Member

    Tuesday 2015/11/10: running club.

    I returned to my usual group (5) and back-marked the group. We had 27 runners, which was too big and to unweildy. A couple of times we had a situation where half the group was waiting around for the rest who had got seperated at traffic lights when the lights changed. But we still managed to average about 8.5 mpm which was the plan. We did 6.25 miles.

    I ended up running the last mile or so rather slowly with a lad who was struggling with tight quads. The philosophy of our club is that 'no one gets left behind', and it's something which I feel is very important.
     
  18. belltoller

    belltoller OffTopic MonstreOrdinaire Supporter

    I was going to mention before that you're case is a bit unusual in that you've kept training - I think most take some sort of break after a marathon.
     
  19. Johnno

    Johnno Valued Member

    I didn't want to lose all the benefits of the training. And at my age, if you stop any activity for a while then it's scary just how quickly you lose your 'form' - and how long it takes to get it back again.

    I had planned to work on speed rather than endurance once the marathon was out of the way, so it did feel like it was going to be a break, of sorts!
     
  20. belltoller

    belltoller OffTopic MonstreOrdinaire Supporter

    Yeah - you know it makes good sense to do that.

    Uh-huh. I'm just remembering a friend of mine of years past who I ran with and who'd motivated me to do my first halfs - telling me that I'd find my speed to have increased quite a bit ( I was just doing 5 and 10ks at this point ) after doing a first marathon.

    I suppose he was saying the aerobic gains made by the long distance running fuel the capacity to do the anaerobic speed work - I reckon this doesn't work the other way around - sadly my nearly complete lack of formal exercise physiology is showing here.

    Anyroad - ja, I'm picking up a bit of energy coming from your post-event musings that you're keen on having some fun with this new-found 'battery-pack' that was created as a result of the training for your marathon - whatever the correct descriptive terminology is!

    Some experimentation with the idea of taking it to a new level. You're low-keying it (wise on your part to do so :)) but its there.

    Your in a good place, Johnno. Enjoy it. Just be careful of expectations - those are the joy-killers. Have fun.

    I'll be off for a bit to catch up on other stuff but I'll check back with youse guys!
     

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