Running.

Well, this year has been bloody hard work not to put to fine a point on it.

Screwing up my knee ligament MCL in January meant the whole year has been a struggle. I would have probably been better off asking 20-12 weeks off completely and then starting again, instead of my ad hoc training which ended up just hurting the knee more I guess.

I've ran around 650 miles this year as a result of my on, off training. I know we still have a couple of months to go, but last year I did 1255 miles in the year.

Oh, I have somehow managed to plod to the end of Leicester marathon last Sunday, very slow, over 5 hours, but hey I got there. I've only done two 10 mile or longer runs in the last four months. But, now I've survived the marathon it's time to get my arse back into gear.

So now it's going to be quite low mileage but keeping healthy and being able to put in consistent miles week in, week out.

What is next.... Well amazingly I won a place as an ambassador to the Milton Keynes marathon. So I have an insane three weeks at the end of April.

My last long training run for MK will be the London Marathon, then MK Marsthon and then 4 days later, Hardcastle 24, where I really want to just keep walking/running for the whole 24 hours, it's a bitch of a 5km looped course :)

So I'll be posting at least a monthly update on my training for MK and these other events.

I'm putting in this insane effort, to try to raise money for Guide Dogs. Because they have always struck me as suck a sensible helping charity, that are trying to make life easier for lots of people.

https://www.justgiving.com/stephaniegelder/

Good luck with your own training and don't hesitate to shout if you have any questions about Milton Keynes.

I'm on Twitter as @booktrunk and on Facebook

Steph

Running injuries

so how well or badly do you cope with running injuries.

I quite often have little niggles, but plod on with them. But, this year has been pretty much a running disaster.

I picked up a knee injury a whole 2 miles into the Spine Challenger in January, and limped another 10 miles and that was that, I managed to plod out a short ultra in May Hardcadtle 24, but my knee wasn't great, and since then it's got worse, I've even resorted to a physio, that was good, but also broke my only good knee when he went to see how flexible I am :) oops!'

Anyway, at the end of July I took a big decision, and I'm not running at all in August, I already feel fat, bloated, and lazy :) like taper madness but worse :) I did purchase a turbo trainer, and I'm using that 3 or 4 times a week between 30 and 70 minutes at a time. Trying not to use it any more because the knee doesn't hurt doing it, but don't want to overdo it.

I have no idea how my knee will be it's certainly a lot happier, can walk or even run up a coup,e of flights of stairs pain free, but walking up and down them all day at work and it still begins to slightly ache at the end of the day, so I might actually need to take longer off, which is a really scary idea.

Have all sorts of thoughts going through my head, including getting a treadmill as that should be gentler on the knees and do some training on that when back, but I don't really know what I'm going to do. I need a plan so that I can come back sensibly.

I was hoping to run 1500 miles this year, and due to this damn knee I've barely managed 500 miles so far. Oh well,ci guess I need to be patient and see how it goes.

Still not even 100% sure what it is, MCL tear, or Pes anserinus tendonitis. I think it started as a tear, and now just constantly irritated.

So nothing exciting to report. 

I have a nice shiny new pair of trainers, Asics Gel Nimbus to slip into when I start back, and I also have a real urge to buy a pair of Inov-8 Ultra 290s 

Hardcastle 24

http://www.hardcastle24.co.uk/

WOW!

I entered this a few months ago as it sounded fun, I didn't really know what to expect, but for my £70 I got free camping from Friday afternoon if I wanted it (for myself, my OH, and our dog) until we finished on Sunday, a barbecue on the Friday evening and of course my entrance to the 24 hour race.

It was my first 24 hour race, and will not be my last. In fact I've already decided I have to go back next year to do more laps.

I was a bit lazy when it came to course prep, and did zero prep on what the 5km (ish) lap involved, I just knew it was not flat and so a bit more fun than running around a dull flat loop.... Well it certainly wasn't dull. It had a couple of very easy runnable sections, and a couple of hills that were fun, ok, one of them was a complete and utter bitch! I need to go back there to take some pics of the course. (Facebook Group for the race) Anyway (after a crap few months with barely any training due to an annoying knee) I managed to plod around 12 laps before my left calf just became a lump and didn't want to know about hills anymore.

I have to say it was one of the most pleasurable runs I've ever done. The organisers were really friendly, and everyone was so cheerful, also, the fact there were teams competing as well as individuals meant there was always someone hanging around at the start of each lap to say hi to as you plodded around. I just had such a great time and loved it.

Timing was via a chip, so no having to mess around marking how many laps you had done. Oh, I forgot,  in the evening they had a barbecue, and so had hot burgers, n bits of chicken breast for you to grab at the end of your lap. The food on offer was all tasty and in plentiful supply, nearly all of us had our own box full of bits we could nibble on at the end of our laps.

I struggle to review races, I went, I ran, and that's it, but seriously it just felt so friendly and relaxed, I loved it. I am so looking forward to going back next year to do a few more laps.