Sixth (No ) Sense

Week 6 Schedule

Monday: run for 45 mins
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: run for 45 mins
Thursday: rest
Friday: run for 10km
Saturday: rest
Sunday: rest

Monday's run was mostly great. I planned a 5ish mile route. Part way round Rick suggested "turning right" onto a run he had done recently. We motored on round and it was a good run. We chatted and I felt like I could run all day. There was a bit of hillage in the middle, but my calves didn't hurt too much. My left knee twinged occasionally, but was fine. Then I got to the home straight (after Rick had gone home. He runs a bit at the beginning without me and I run a bit at the end without him). I decided to go on my detour round the estate near home to extend the run by a few minutes. I hit what can only be described as "The Wall". My breathing and general fitness felt fine. My legs did not. My left knee joint felt like concrete. My right calf was very tight. Each left step was more a stamp. Not helping my knee at all. Each right step was more of a shuffle. The noise I was making whilst running went SMACK, scuff, SMACK, scuff, SMACK, scuff. The tightness in my right calf meant I started to get pins and needles in my right foot. I tried to stride through it as, when I have been striding the end of a run in previous runs, it tends to eliminate any twinges or pins and needles. I managed about 4 strides before my legs automatically went back into SMACK, scuff mode. I tried again. Same thing. I kept up the trudge for the rest of the half mile home and made it in 49 mins and 59 secs. Turns out I had run 5.61 miles. Pretty much equalling my furthest ever. Only a full minute faster. And that's with the trudge for over half a mile. No wonder my legs gave up, I was at quite a fast pace for quite a long distance. Ultimately I can't complain about running as far as I have ever run and faster, but it was not the most pleasant finish to a run I've ever had. Of course, as I've said before, these runs where you have to force yourself home make you a better runner. My legs recovered fairly quickly (shower scrub was a big help), although my knee was a bit clicky the next day.

Wednesday, I had a "quarterly meeting" at work. Similar to the meeting we have every Friday, but out of office hours... and much longer. It starts around 6pm and finishes around 8:30pm. Means I have to do over an hour and a half overtime just to get to the start of the meeting. Then a few hours of listening to waffle. At least they feed us though. The upshot of this 12/13 hour long day is I didn't have time to run after work. My solution? Go into work an hour late (who can complain when you're doing 12 hours?) and run 5 miles before work. I planned a route which was 5.12 miles and set off at about 6.30am. It's nice running at that time once you get going. There's very few people around or cars on the road and the air is crisp and clear. Just as I got to the point where I can go one way or the other I decided to go the other way around. Big mistake. It meant the first 3 miles of my 5 mile run was solid uphill running. By the end of the third mile I didn't know if I could go on. Just as I was slowing down and only yards from the crest of the final hill my iPod on random decided to play One Day Like This by Elbow. Can their be a more hopeful and uplifting song? It helped give me that extra impetus to run on. Then, cliched as fuck as it might be, as I was running down the other side of the hill on a quiet morning under a blue sky I really did beleive it was it was looking like a beautiful day. If I'd had curtains with me I may very well have thrown them wide!

I noticed on this run that when I get tired and my head starts to hang down, rather than just putting my head down, I also lean a little to the left. Could this explain my left knee and right calf hurting when I'm getting tired? I think it could. I will endeavour to keep more upright, or at least slump more centrally at any rate. Hopefully this will prevent Monday's nightmare finish from happening again.

By Friday I was full of a cold. Perfect. Nothing like more hardship when you're facing a challenge. This was the big one. The practice 10K (6.2 miles). I got home from work and felt strangely better and was really looking forward to it. Ive found myself missing running on my rest days now. Rick ran the first bit alone and I picked up with him after about a mile (I would run this same mile on my own at the end. Saves us having to travel to run. We just map a route that goes past both our houses and meet up along the way). What can I say, the training must be paying off, becasue we chatted and just did it. No real tweaks, pains or struggles. It was almost too easy. So much so I double checked the distance. I started to feel it on the last mile alone, but I've felt much worse at the end recently. Rick said he did it in about 55 mins as we went past his house. Mine was closer to 56 mins (can't say exactly as I forgot to press stop on my watch in my elation). Here is the route.



Big race is next Sunday. Bit of an easy week next week. This week was much more work, this is the hardest week I will do in any of the 10k training. I clocked up 17 miles on 3 runs. It's more a case of keeping my hand (Feet?) in and resting for the big day next week. I feel ready.

Don't forget to sponsor me at http://www.justgiving.com/craigwtonks and Rick at http://www.justgiving.com/rick-gilpin