Days 103 to 107 - Fatigue, hills and exploding bowels.

Day 103 - Rest
Just travelling home from London today, after our fun night out at the athletics

Day 104 - 4.87 miles
Not much to report from today. Running still doesn't feel as easy as I'd like. I'm hoping that after a few weeks back with the club I'll be feeling a bit fresher.

Day 105 - Rest
I've really got out of the habit of doing an stretches or massages on the off days.

Day 106 - 7.03 miles
This was quite an eventful one. I jogged down to the village hall car park to meet with the club. Tomorrow is a league race (which I'm not entered for), so there were fewer people present, and everybody was hoping to drop down a group. The net effect, when that happens, is that the groups remain largely the same, but everyone refuses to be in group 1.

I set off somewhere between groups 2 and 3, not really knowing who I was running with. Within a couple of miles I, and another guy, caught up the group in front. A bit faster than I really wanted to go, but it seemed like a good opportunity to test myself. Almost immediately my shoelace came undone, and I spent the next mile (all uphill unfortunately) catching them up again. This was quite exhausting. Then, having reached Old John, the high point in Bradgate Park, we set off downhill. It was here that my downill problems really affected things and I was about a minute behind by the time I reached the bottom. And I was beginning to experience fatigue in my calves. Not pain, just fatigue, affecting my form. At the same time I was beginning to experience a familiar stirring in my bowels that often comes on in my first longish effort run after an idle period.

For the next couple of miles, through the woods, I was struggling to keep up. And my bowels were causing me increasing problems. And then, with less than a mile the er.. urge for expulsion, became almost too much and slipped off down the donkey track home. Mercifully it wasn't far and I made it in time. Relief. I then had to jog back down to the car park to let my clubmates (one or two of whom had kindly gone to look for me) that I was not lying in a bush somewhere.

In summary. Fatigue, hills, and exploding bowels.

Day 107 - Rest
I'm increasingly finding that I experience no discomfort on rest days, even after a faster hilly run like yesterday. Good news.