It's all uphill to a meltdown...

A sign of things to come...

Three things that I wasn't expecting to have to deal with this week - sub-zero temperatures, freezing cold arctic winds, and MrsC's pregnancy hormone-imbalance compounded mood swings... For reasons that I can't go into (apart from the fact that she does read this blog and I'd like to keep my teeth & testicles in their present location) I won't divulge the details of the mood swings. Let's just say that I've recently discovered that going for long runs does have another plus side... Which is just as well because this was my longest/hardest training week for a while, and after this, things should start to ease off as I taper down towards next months London Marathon. Just five weeks to go!!!

Monday equals 'rest'. Well, my rest may not be everybodys idea of rest, but swimming a good number of lengths with a pull-buoy between my legs (Honestly, is sounds like the start of a Jimmy Saville joke...) in order to give them a rest seemed like a rest to me...

The base for a lot of my training.

As usual, Triple Tuesday crept upon me to signal the beginning of the training week.
Part one was probably the most psychologically difficult part of the day. Dragging myself out of bed, put on some warm running clothes, then going out for a very, very, cold 5k jog at 6am is never a nice way to start the day. In fact, cold is an understatement. My buff was pulled up over my face and the condensation from my breath actually froze solid! Part two was my weekly coached swim session. I found it very tiring and, after 50 lengths of varying intensity, I was grateful to haul myself out of the pool.
Part three was a very cold track session. After a 4 lap (1 mile) informal warm-up we did an 800m (0.5mile) group warm-up moved into the core of session - 6x1k efforts with 200m recovery. (Just to be anal my effort times were 3:35/3:33/3:30/3:28/3:28/3:25). I will hold my hand up and freely admit that I detest running on the track. It hurts and I find it an uncomfortable experience. However, I also regard it as a necessary evil as it makes me focus on form and speed. As with the lunchtime swim, I was glad when I finished... I jogged another 5 laps (1.25 miles) to cool-down before I was able to stop and step off of the track.

A pre-planned busy workload, sustained only by a flask of coffee and a container full of cold pasta, prevented me from training in the daytime. Just as well as I had arranged to meet MrsC from work mid long run... I cracked out 10 miles in a comfortable 1:11 before meeting her outside her office in central Bristol. We then made our way slowly home; MrsC cycling whilst I jogged along in front. Pregnancy is getting the better of MrsC's energy levels of late though and at times I had to stop and wait for her to catch up with me. At the end of the 15.6 mile journey I was spent. I had nothing left in the tank; but, luckily, recovery was provided by a most welcome honey & golden syrup sandwich... (Sugar rush!!)

Petrol not required...

Determined that the arrival of a baby is not going to slow me down in any shape, way, or form, I had decided that, come what may, I was going to get a jogging buggy so that when I do my long runs in the evenings or at the weekends, then baby can come too... (I told my 19 year old daughter this and her response was "you're kidding, right?" err... no.) Anyway, I'd been looking at a few of these buggies on E-Bay, as these things cost a fortune brand new, and had set my sights on a Jeep Overland Limited Jogging Stroller. After a bit of price haggling with MrsC ("I'm gonna bid x-amount on this", "No you're not", "yes I am, after all, if you want a baby free lie in on weekend mornings then I'm going to need a jogger...") I made a high bid eight seconds before bidding finished, and got it for a steal... My first big baby purchase - and, inevitably, it was running related... I wonder if I can get it up and over Kelston Round Hill...?

I swam at lunchtime on Thursday, just an easy 32 lengths to keep the body moving, then in the evening I ran a looping 10.5 miles into Bristol Temple Meads, back out on A4 to Keynsham, before heading on to the running club. It was good to get some more miles under my belt, but more importantly, it was good to be able catch up with some of our friends and have a good old chat. You can log the miles and fuel the body, but sometimes you have to feed the soul too...

Friday was wet. Very wet. Heavy rain fell on me as I ran from Keynsham to Bath. I was soaked to the skin before I even got onto the cycle track to run back to Keynsham via Bitton. The thing with the rain is that, when running, I don't really notice it unless it's freezing cold and driving into me. I'm happy to keep running through it as that's the only way that I have any hope of staying warm; it's only my face and hands that start to go numb. All was well until I came off the path at Bitton and ran alongside the A41275 Keynsham Road. There was a lot of water on the road and most of it seemed to be sprayed up and over me by the passing vehicles. I swear blind that some of the drivers must have been doing it on purpose. Gits. Like a drowned rat I finally made it to the end of my 12 mile loop and I honestly cannot remember that last time I felt so happy to get out of the rain and into the dry...

Saturday mornings 5.5 mile run in the rain wasn't much fun. After 3 miles I felt my stomach lurch and, reading the danger signals, headed through the doors of Longwell Green Leisure Centre & dived straight into the nearest loo. Bloody typical; after three days of consecutive double figure runs with no pit-stops, I get attacked by the Gingerbread Man on a little 5.5 mile jog... I wasn't amused... The afternoon was spent shopping for maternity clothes and then travelling to Trowbridge in order to pick up the running buggy. Because it's got big wheels, I had to detach them just to fit it into the boot of our Renault Megane - And that's got a rear end bigger than Bella Emberg...!!

Sleet greeted the cold Sunday dawn and, as I started running an 18 mile loop with fellow London Marathonner, JaykeeBoy, I knew that I was i for a bad run. To start with, I was struggling to breathe. The cold air was attacking my lungs with every inhalation, which in turn made me try to breathe a little shallower, which meant that my body wasn't getting all the oxygen it needed. When we hit the first hit I knew that the weeks higher mileage was going to haunt me. My aching quads felt stiff and tight. Because of this, and the cold air breathing, my body wouldn't let me change up a gear to run any faster...
"Okay", I thought "We'll hit the railway path in Saltford at the 6 mile point. I will have warmed up by then & it'll be easier to up the pace..." No. We got on the cycle track, headed for Bitton, then, as soon as I tried to pick up the pace, my stomach lurched and I was in need of the loo. Bugger. I dropped the pace back down, all too aware that I was going to wreck JaykeeBoys training run, and the closer I got to Bitton Station, the more painful my stomach got, the urge to use the loo got worse, and the more scared I was to fart...

Running on empty

The pit-stop brought small relief, but something still wasn't right with my body. Thanks to the sore quads, it hurt my legs to run. But, worse still was the fact that something still wasn't right in the stomach department either. Two miles further down the path, at Warmley Station, I made a second pit-stop. After this visit, my stomach definitely felt better & I was able to take on a carbohydrate gel and some water in order to keep going.
The final 10 miles were a war of attrition. It really was a case of digging deep inside myself and using everything I had left to run on through the pain of a very tired, empty, exhausted, body, with legs that were tight and on the verge of cramping up. JaykeeBoy knew that I was suffering (He'd have to have been blind not to...) and did his level best to keep talking, and keep my mind occupied so that I couldn't dwell too much on the fact that it would simply have been easier for me to stop running and call a taxi home... We came off the track near the Bristol Academy and navigated our way through Barton Hill to bring us finally, and mercifully, to the end of the loop.
After saying our goodbyes, and me apologising for ruining his run, I jogged back to my car. When I got there I looked at the reflection of a shattered old man in the car window and had to ask myself, what the hell was I doing trying to kill myself by running like this, early on a Sunday morning. The answer was the same as ever - despite having to push myself far beyond my comfort zone, despite the pain, the exhaustion, the cold, wind, rain, and occasional sunburn... I love it. That's why I run...

Don't ask me why though. It doesn't make any sense to me either...

Weekly totals:

Run miles: 72.94

Swim lengths/metres: 122/6100m

Sit-ups: 640
Press-ups: 320

Hormonal Houswives: 1