Days 51 to 73 - A very big catch-up

I took a bit of a break from blogging. I thought this might happen. Fifty days in and I was running out of things to say. How does anybody produce something new every day? Serious bloggers must be people who need to be heard, who need to externalise, something like that. I'm the opposite to that in general, so I eventually had to take a break. (Actually, I didn't consciously take a break, I just skipped a day, then another day, and so on...)

Anyway, for those who have been good enough to follow my progress, I present below an update on the last three weeks. It gets quite good towards the end. Enjoy!

Day 51 - Rest

Day 52 - Rest
My hours at work bumped up this week so there was less time to fit in the runs.

Day 53 - Rest
Still more.

Day 54 - Rest
And another. Feeling very rested by now. It's not a bad thing having an extended break every now and again. It gives your body a good chance to recuperate and, for me at least, renews my enthusiasm.

Day 55 - Rest
I actually had a day off here, but spent all day in London and then drove up to York in the evening. When I plan ahead for days like this I always imagine I'm going to get up at 5.30am and do an early run. When I wake up at 5.30am I usually change my mind.

Day 56 - Rest
Away visiting friends. I did take the kit. I always do. I rarely use it when I'm away.

Day 57 - Rest
It's not really rest any more. It's laziness.

Day 58 - 3.52 miles
At last! Back on the wagon. It felt good to be out running again, but I was disappointed to find that my calves seemed unhappy to be back on the road. I thought that with all the rest they'd be healed and fresh. But I think they were tight instead, reluctant to engage. Consequently the whole thing felt like hard work.

Day 59 - Rest
I realised I'd got out of the habit of exercising in between runs. I hadn't been stretching, massaging or doing step ups etc, and I'm sure that contributed to the tightness,

Day 60 - Rest
More self-massage.

Day 61 - 3.54 miles
Felt a bit better than last time. I did quite a lot on the grass today, which is much easier.

Day 62  - Rest

Day 62 - Rest
I was away in a very rainy Belfast this weekend with work, joining the bedraggled masses in a gathering to coincide with the G8 summit.

Day 63  - Rest
13 hours door to door, including an 8 hour ferry journey, and I'm home. Run or roast dinner?

Day 64 - 4.24 miles
This run was great! I did the first 1.5 miles on the roads, then arrived at the field and ran the rest in bare feet. I stayed at a steady 7 min/mile. There's something special about running with your feet literally bare, and that feeling is enough to make you run a bit faster.

Day 65 - Rest

Day 66 - Rest

Day 67 - Rest
You're beginning to see why I haven't been blogging for a while. There's very little to report from all these rest days...

Day 68 - 4.28 miles
A steady run, not trying to go to fast. The worrying thing was that by the end I could feel pain located exactly where I was injured last year. Where the calf an Achilles meet. Not good news. I couldn't tell if it was the actually injury feeling, or the phantom pain that seems to come on from time to time. My running shrapnel round, that just makes itself known on occasions. Still, I came home and stretched and iced and generally walked around gingerly.

Day 69 - Rest
The good news is that I couldn't feel yesterday's pain at all. Very good news. I did some more exercises and stretches, and generally alarmed the people I was with by massaging my leg at every opportunity.

Day 70 - 6.05 miles
Breakthrough! A genuine breakthrough. I wasn't planning to run this far. I wasn't even sure I would run more than a couple of miles after the previous run. Early on I could feel tightness, so I stopped and stretched a few times. It felt much like every other run and I wondered when, if at all, I was going to be able to run without any discomfort. During one of those stretches my father-in-law cycled past and I got feeling of runner-shame that you get when someone spots you in all your gear and you're walking, or standing still. You want to shout out, "It's part of my training schedule! I'm supposed to be doing this! I do normally run!"

Then something happened. I can't explain exactly how, or why, but when I pressed resume on my Garmin and set off down the road I felt like a normal runner again. I felt like someone who could just pick his route and run it. That's what I always used to do. So I did. I set off down a woodland path and enjoyed myself. Dodging stones keeps one very busy in barefoot shoes, so I barely noticed the miles ticking by. When I arrived home I had gone over 6 miles! I couldn't believe it. And it didn't hurt at all.

Day 71 - Rest
Felt good. And slightly elated.

Day 72 - 5.16 miles
For the first time since I started this 73 days ago, I ran a completely normal run. My shoes, which are barely worthy of the name considering how thin and light they are, feel like normal shoes now. To me they have plenty of cushioning. I'm finding it hard to remember now what my old shoes used to feel like. How can you need more than this on your feet? Running on pavements (which generally are the least forgiving of surfaces) feels fine, comfortable, normal. Is this it? Have I done it? Am I a barefoot runner?

Day 73 - Rest
And generally telling everyone about my breakthrough. Probably worth a blog, I thought to myself...

Day 50 - Waiting for tomorrow

I've reached the stage where I'm drumming my mental fingers waiting for my rest day to pass. Definitely not ready to do consecutive days, but keen to get out there again nonetheless. Having cleared 3 miles last time I'll be up to 3.2 or so tomorrow and it feels good to know I'm making a bit of progress.

Day 49 - Shortish trail run

I was up early this morning. A beautiful cloudless sky, cool air, and a low sun. I was at the 3 mile mark in my schedule, and I couldnt resist any longer having go on a trail. You can't live where we live on a day like today and go running on the roads.

I found the trail reasonably runnable in my Vapor Gloves. But I moved slowly. I'm still tryng to get that cadence ingrained in my system which meant that when I was dodging stones or skipping around roots I didn't pause in my rhythm. Must have made me look a bit silly at times but I didn't want to slip into a different pattern.

I found that I was dodging around a lot more than I might usually do, zigging and zagging from side to side, running up the banks of the path. It was difficult to press on forward, and I think will need to consider invest in something more appropriate to that surface if it's where I want to run. I know Merrell do the Trail Glove - that was their first barefoot shoes - and there are quite a few others out there. At what point do I decide I've earned a new pair of shoes? Perhaps not quite yet.

Day 48 - Right calf sore

Today I've taken an extra day off. My left calf cramped up horribly two days ago, but it's my right calf that's really hurting today. So I'm responding to my body and giving it a rest. I'll try again first thing tomorrow morning.

Day 47 - Good news

The good news is that I don't feel too bad at all after the cramp yesterday. My left calf has recovered well after a night's rest and I'm confident there's no actually damage there. Curiously, my right calf has a bit of lingering soreness instead. I've tried to do some calf massage today, while watching TV with the family, but I think it is probably quite distracting.

Day 46 - Cramp. Horrible Cramp.

As I move through my slow increase in mileage I found myself at the 2.75 mile mark. I've done quite a bit on grass recently, and I'd had an extra day's rest, so I opted for road. I was keen to run it all in one go and see how it felt, to build a bit of confidence that I can nearly run 3 miles.

Here's the good news: it felt great, right to the end of the run. I was at least 1.5 miles in before I felt my calves at all. And, as has been the case recently, they felt like they were working, rather than complaining. I had to do a few inclines (it's impossible to run around here and avoid them) and I finished the run on a donkey track at the top of a steep road just next to our house. I felt good and looked forward to getting back home, drinking my protein shake, stretching out, and ticking off another run.

Here's the bad news: Having finished the run I started walking down the steep road. After about 10 yards I felt that tell-tale sensation that says calf-cramp is on its way. That feeling where you know that if you don't straighten your leg out and stretch that calf immediately it is going to seize up in cramping agony. So I quickly found a wall, pushed against it and stretched out my leg. As I released the stretch, I could feel it going again. So stretched again. This repeated a few times, with my calf never really releasing. Never going into full cramp, but never relaxing. My walk down the rest of the road must have made it look like I had a wooden leg as dared not bend it. And it remained in nearly-cramp for a good 30 minutes.

For the rest of the day it has been aching and smarting and complaining. So why did it cramp? Overuse? I guess so. But I wonder whether it had something to do with walking steeply downhill. It's very difficult to engage the calf walking steeply downhill. Maybe I moved from heavy use to no use at all and it flooded with lactic acid that had nowhere to go. I'll have to see how it feels tomorrow before I know if there is any damage, but I suspect it will be fine, just sore from the cramping.

Day 45 - Rest

It was raining today. Summer had disappeared. So I opted for an extra rest day. And I enjoyed it.

Day 44 - Gear: Sunwise Twister Sunglasses, and my wonky face

Rest day. Time to look at gear again. This time it's my sunglasses.

I only got these quite recently. Sunwise Twister glasses - a bit of a budget option from Sunwise (they fit into the 'cycling or running' category so they're fairly generic) They come with interchangeable lenses - a very pale yellow pair, the orange ones you can see in the photo, and a darker brown pair.

I'd always been a bit dubious about running in sunglasses. Partly because I didn't want to look like a poser, and partly because I don't really like wearing things on my head. And I imagined I'd be very aware of them as I was running. I actually chose to get some for a slightly odd reason - race day nerves. I get so nervous on race days that I wanted to try literally hiding behind a pair of sunglasses. I thought that maybe, if I had glasses on, I'd feel more like I was in my own bubble, my slightly fragile psyche hidden, and a veneer of confidence displayed. Maybe I would run like a champion.

I've only worn them for one race, but I have used them quite a bit in training. I've been pleasantly surprised that they don't interfere with running at all. They weigh next to nothing. And once they're on, they're on. They don't move about at all. They just sit there. The two lighter pairs of lenses don't block a lot of light, but they do give the world a lovely glow, which makes the whole running experience feel quite surreal. And in the race? Well I ran a very relaxed race that led to a PB. I don't know if it was the glasses that did it, but I suppose that's a pretty good endorsement of their mystical psychological powers.

The only thing I don't like about them is that they show up the wonkiness of my face. Or my ears. Whatever is wonky. I basically have one eyebrow revealed and the other covered when I'm wearing them. Sadly, I didn't realise quite how wonky I am until I got these glasses. But since I'm hiding behind them so effectively, I don't need to worry, because nobody knows it's me.

Day 43 - My shoulders move strangely

Today I went for a run with Rhiannon. Down to the field to do laps. It's a nice way of running together, with each doing our own thing at our own pace and meeting up every now and again. After a few laps Rhiannon had completed her set so she watched me running. And she came up with some helpful feedback.

Apparently, when I run, I don't move my arms much, but instead move my shoulders back and forth. I think this must look quite silly, like I'm doing a kind of shimmying dance to whatever I'm listening to. More importantly, it means I'm wasting lots of energy moving my whole torso to balance my legs. So today I practiced running with arms deliberately moving - more than I wanted to naturally - and with my shoulders steady.

The trouble is, and this is comparable to landing on your heel etc, it is very hard to unlearn this shoulder movement. It actually felt quite exhausting keeping the arms moving, and I wasn't terribly successful in keeping my shoulders still. Even when I tried very hard to relax, to feel the movements of my body, and I was sure I  was very upright and steady, I looked at my shadow and saw the old shoulders partying away. I could probably do with a few tips on how to fix this. Or I could just boogie every time I run.

Day 42 - Gear: iPod and headphones

No running for me today. I'm beginning to find that my calves feel consistently good on rest days. This is good.

Meanwhile, I thought I'd blog about a few of the bits of gear that I use for running. They've been cobbled together somewhat over a few years - birthday presents, bargains etc - so they're quite a mixed bag. Today I'm starting with my iPod and headphones.

This is a 'somethingth' generation iPod nano. Small colour screen, 4GB storage. I bought it about 7 years ago when I was training for my first marathon. The first time I'd really done any serious running. GPS watches were still the preserve of the wealthy at the time, but you could buy an iPod nano for £99 and an Nike chip and foot sensor thing for £40. I wanted something to track my runs, and I'd always fancied an iPod, so I invested.

This had the double effect of giving me some feedback on my progress and also giving me something to listen to. For long runs I would build up a playlist of podcasts and songs, sometimes trying to fill up to three hours. A few songs first, then a podcast, then a few more songs, another podcast etc. The playlist was important because, once you had the Nike thing running, it was particularly fiddly to change between tracks. So I was particularly careful in creating a playlist for my first marathon.  Generally I had found that songs were okay, but podcasts were better, more distracting. I wasn't sure how long it would take - I hoped for under 4 hours, but actually came in under 3:30 - so I built a playlist full of podcasts and threw in the odd song. Sadly, I did something wrong in the week before the race. Maybe I updated iTunes or something, but, unbeknown to me, the option to include podcasts in playlists had been unchecked. The result being that I ran the entire marathon to a playlist of 7 songs. On repeat. Forever.

Nowadays you're not really supposed to wear headphones for marathons, so I guess I won't get the opportunity to redeem that particular failure. But I do still do solo runs with my iPod. I used to wear it in a little wallet on my arm but, now that I have a GPS watch and I'm not depending on it track my speed, I find it easier to carry it in one hand, with the headphone cord wrapped round a few times, and easily switch between tracks.

My headphones have been upgraded too. The standard issue Apple ones were fine, but they had a habit of slipping out, and the outer shell of them would pick up a lot of wind noise. These new ones I have are from Panasonic (or more accurately, from my parents-in-law). They can't fall out, due to the over-the-ear design, and the wind noise isn't a problem because they are of the type that sticks right into your ear canal. The only weakness is that you have to have just the right sized ear canal in order for the rubber bits to make a sealed chamber. Without that, you don't hear any bass. Fortunately they have three different sized rubber caps (I seem to need the extra large) so I've found the one that fits best. But 'jogging' can do exactly what it sounds like, gradually jogging them looser. For podcasts it's fine, but for music you do have to keep sticking them back in fairly frequently.