Every time I pull the laces tight, I wonder how I’m going to run in these shoes. The thin leather has just five millimetres of cushioning around the back heel, and there is even less between the rest of my foot and the muddy ground. I’d bought them, secondhand from ebay, which is always a bit of a gamble, but for the cross-country races that I’ve done in them, they have served me surprisingly well.
Running on the soft ground is cushioning enough. It’s only when you hit the tarmac and the concrete that you need more from your shoes. Today it was grass, the gnarly woods and a bit of bog, which wasn’t as boggy as last time. It only went up to my knees.
Strangely, although my effort levels didn’t feel high, I was a tiny bit quicker than last year. Might I be getting stronger? It’s hard to say, as last year’s race was the second XC in two days. And if I drill down to heart rates and power etc, there isn’t much difference, so how come it felt easier? I don’t think I understand technology.
I didn’t put the burners on because I was having such an interesting conversation with Stan, a 77-year-old runner from Liverpool Running Club. It was incredibly inspiring to see someone that age doing cross-country, given how the terrain is so uneven. I hope that didn’t sound patronising – I genuinely wish that I’m at least road-running at that age, but cross-country is so much harder.
Stan Cottier has been running since 1967 and ran in many a race where the likes of Ron Hill also took part. Granted, he only caught sight of Ron when he was being lapped, but in his heyday Stan had some cracking times of his own. His half marathon PB was 1:16, and his marathon best was 2:49. He’s hoping to get around 2:10 in this spring’s Liverpool Half Marathon, which is ten minutes faster than my hope, so I may try and hang on to his coat tails.
A few years ago, he had a ceramic hip put in – not plastic, because he was a runner. The surgeon told him he could carry on, so long as he didn’t ‘go mad’. ‘Well’, Stan told me, ‘it depends how you define the term, isn’t it.’
It seems to have been a week for running interviews. On Thursday afternoon, I had a five-kilometre pootle around West Kirby with Andrew for his Five A Day challenge – it is for him to run a 5K with a different person each day of the year, and chat to them about their life in running. We did wonder who would finish first, as he is hoping to create a book of people’s stories from the year. Can I get that novel pinned down by then?
I have managed just over thirty miles this week which includes a more continuous long run than last week – a nice steady ten miles that didn’t tire me out. So today was a pleasing icing on the cake – or will be, once I’ve got those shoes cleaned.
This is how my training went – I changed around the columns as it might be a bit easier to read it on a mobile.
| Mon | Run to the Gym (1.5 miles) |
| 25 mins treadmill intervals – 5 x 3 minutes | |
| 40 mins – S & C | |
| Little swim – big jacuzzi | |
| Tue | 20 mins – Yoga |
| Wed | 2 hour long run on undulating road |
| Swimming lesson – 40 mins | |
| Thu | 20 mins Yoga |
| 40 mins S & C and weights at home | |
| 5K easy with Andrew | |
| 60 mins – small hill repeats – pushed hard on all the ups. | |
| Fri | Swim – 30 mins |
| Tortoise group mentoring 4.5 miles | |
| Sat | |
| Sun | Cross Country race with a half-mile warm up |
theleadlesspencil 
That’s a genuinely impressive week – bravo.