Parkrun Sandwich: Yorkshire MT – Week 8

I’ve just inhaled the first of my two chocolate eclairs, and aiming to slow down and savour the second, if it is at all possible. Oh, no. It isn’t. It’s gone. It’s like eating air though, when the choux pastry is all nice and light, so to ‘inhale’ a chocolate éclair is probably the only way to go. I normally only have one, every now and then, but I’ve expended a lot of energy today, so it is definitely a two-éclair day.

Having had a couple of lacklustre efforts at the long run during the past couple of weeks, I needed to try and bag something that would give me a little bit more confidence for the upcoming marathon, so I tried to put into place everything to give me a fighting chance.

The week before prep: Had only two runs in the week beforehand, at a steady average pace, although my second got incrementally faster as I felt full of energy. I did a bit more yoga, and strength and mobility exercises than I have done, as once again, I could feel the twinges in my lower back/top of my glutes that I knew would begin showing up in my knee if I didn’t keep on top of it. The best exercise for that has been ‘walking on stumps’. It’s one of the ones I learnt in Nigel’s Run True course. It’s where you sit on the floor, nice and tall, with your legs straight out in front of you, a tad wider than hip width apart, and your arms crossed touching your shoulders. Then you ‘walk’ on your bum, forwards and then backwards. You’ll feel your whole torso rotate in the opposite direction to your hips and it’s a good one to help clear up that lower back tightness.

The morning of prep: Having heard the rain hammer down in the night, and seeing the grey clouds still emptying their wares in the morning, my initial aim of leaving the house at 7.30 was just not going to happen. I did think that it would be a good idea to get the larger part of my parkrun sandwich done before the filling. Then, as the rain continued, I wondered whether I should delay the long run to tomorrow. But, eventually, I got up to make the tea. I downed a shot of coffee and a small amount of tart cherry juice as the tea was brewing, though not at the same time. The coffee was to help the morning movement, and the cherry juice was a thing I was trying out, having heard it feature in an episode of Marathon Talk.

I am having a little experiment with different foods, to see if they give me a bit of extra vim (in a legal manner). Coffee doesn’t seem to wire me up in the same way as others have described, even though I don’t normally drink it. It does help me go, though. And that is useful of a morning. I’ve tried chia seeds in water, with a splash of lime juice because I read about that in Born To Run. Again, not seemed to notice any extra energy happening, but the gloopy tapioca style consistency is not too bad so I’ll keep it going once or twice a week. Only been trying the cherry juice for a few days. It’s not supposed to pump you up, but apparently it does help with your recovery, because of its anti-inflammatory properties. I’m not that sure yet if it is working, but a small dose of it is quite nice. I will keep that going daily for a while and see how I go.

The run: Apart from those two drinks and two cups of tea, I had one banana, an hour beforehand. I hadn’t got around to buying gels, so pocketed the chewy blocks that had seemed to give me trouble last week. I left the house at 8.10, so was already late. I had google maps talk to me through my headphones for the shortest running distance (around 4.4 miles) to Parkrun. The ‘slow’ part of the Long Slow Run had to be shelved for a ‘Steady’ pace, in order to get me there on time. I could still talk (although I didn’t, as that would have looked strange), but it was at the top end of easy.

I reached the start just as the Run Director was shouting ‘Go’. I paused and let half the field go for a few seconds, but I didn’t bother stopping my app. It was, actually, the right thing to do, because I settled in at a nice pace with the mid-pack. It kept me controlled, which gave me a chance of trying to get another ten more miles in afterward.

Breaking up a long run into different sections is psychologically easier, for me, than seeing a huge long stream of miles ahead. I think that was why today’s run was a success. After getting my barcode scanned, I aimed to loop around the full park twice over, before heading homeward. I spotted John and Colin at the end of my first loop, and John decided to bob along with me for my second.

As we reached the finish, John said:
‘I normally run back via Oxton and take in those two steep hills. An extra bit of strength training on tired legs.’

He lives about half way between the park and my house, and Oxton was roughly, if a bit circuitously, in the right direction.
‘Or we could head back the flatter way?’
‘Well, let’s do Oxton,’ I said, ‘and I’ll allow myself a walk on the steepest parts.’

It was a compromise I was more open to, having tried Jeffing in the past few weeks. There had been very little walking today so far, but I was happy to mix it up a little as the miles got into double digits. The steep part was at around 13 miles, and I was surprising myself at the energy I still possessed. I’d taken a chew-block at 5, 9 and 12 miles so far, and felt okay, and very comfortable speed-walking up the couple of sections where the road nosed upwards. More importantly, I was comfortable returning to my running. My calves didn’t feel like solid lead. I was tired but not overpoweringly so.

I did the final three miles by myself and tried to push the speed a little in the last mile and a half. More to give myself a belief that I had more in the tank, than for any other gain. I stopped the clock, happily,  at 17 miles and walked the last few hundred yards as a cool down. This time, no loo breaks were needed, which was nice. My tummy didn’t feel dodge, although I was dreaming about a fry-up towards the end.

I have about four more weeks before the three-week taper, and there is still a lot of work to do but today has given me a huge dose of confidence. Even if I have an off-week or two between now and then, I’ll know that it will still all be adding up to making me just a little bit stronger.

Day	What I Did
Mon	Yoga Strength
Tue	Yoga Strength
Wed	Run: 6.31 miles [10.15 km] Pace: 10.51 mins/mile [6.53 mins/km] Yoga Strength
Thu	Took our grandson swimming and entertained him all day. Then had wine.
Fri	Supposed to be a steady run – turned into a progression run Run: 5.13 m [8.25 km] Pace: 10.49 mm [6.51 m/km]
Sat	Parkrun sandwich   Run: 17.01 m [27.37 km] Pace: 11.27 mm [7.00 m/km
Sun	I may do a little three mile leg turnover to tick the miles over 30. Will also do some Yoga and Strength work.