Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. -William Faulkner

First started to feel a bruise after running about 13th Sept after a run. Didn't think anything about it. Thursday 16th after speed session, hurting some more. Saturday's speed session and Sunday's long run aggravated it. This morning (Mon 20th Sept) it was hurting but did not restrict my morning run. Tonight it is hurting more, I'll do a swim tomorrow instead of a run. I've iced it pretty much all day. I'll buy some Arnica tomorrow. In the mean time I'll have ibuprofen. Tomorrow's plan is to rest until 4pm and then do my scheduled Tempo run.

Quote and "What a week"

"The greatest pleasure in life, is doing the things people say we cannot do. -Walter Bagehot"
What a week I've had. A really hard and quality training week off the back of a fast 10k race then to finish it off I have a long run planned for tomorrow. The key sessions this week have been Tuesday, Thursday and today. I really felt as weak as a kitten at the end of Thursday's and today's sessions. They were both intervals covering about 6 - 7 miles.
I've listened to a lot of good podcasts today from Tri-talk. If you're interested in endurance sports I would recommend downloading some of the podcasts... http://www.tri-talk.com/

Stretching: Goods for you? & Quote

"A marathon is like life with its ups and downs, but once you've done it you feel that you can do anything." -unknown

Stretching. Good or bad?

Our muscles are like springs. The tighter the spring the more elastic energy is returned and therefore the more running economy. However like most things we have to find the right balance. Too little flexibility may cause injuries. Also best to use dynamic stretching before a key session or race.
Research: Int J Sports Med. 2002 Jan;23(1):40-3. Running economy is negatively related to sit-and-reach test performance in international-standard distance runners. Jones AM. Department of Exercise and Sport Science, Manchester Metropolitan University, Alsager, United Kingdom.

Quote and race report

Quote:

"Once you're beat mentally, you might as well not even go to the starting line." -Todd Williams

First I would like to thank my sponsors for supporting me through the Welsh Inter-Regional Championships.... errrm O yeah, I don't have any sponsors YET. My true support is my wife who looked after the house and Karla whilst I was away for the weekend in Cardiff; and puts up with all the training. I represented North Wales in the Welsh 10K Inter-Regional Championships at Cardiff. I'm not sure of the results yet but will update the blog when I know.

Personally the important result for me was a 10K (6.2 miles) personal best time of 33mins 22secs. I was aiming high at a sub 33 min time but I was pleased with the slower result for the following reasons:

- the hard training week I had (a tempo run and intervals back to back on Tues and Wed; then easy runs, swimming cycling etc...);

- the heat; and

- position in race compared to other good runners.

The whole weekend was great but now I'm tied after the travelling. A big thank you to Andrew Edwards from Deestriders Running Club for driving me all the way down and back.

My mile race splits were as follows: 5:17 5:18 5:24 5:22 5:21 5:29 1:12

The first 1/2 mile was quick, I got a bit carried away with the fast ellite runners (the ones who are sponsored) but luckily I noticed and slowed the pace. A team member, Jez Brown from Buckley runners, was next to me at the first mile. I told him that the pace was 5:17, which was too quick for him so he slowed down. At half way I caught up to Brendan Rothery (another North Wales team member). He looked unusually tied so I pressed on to catch the group of runners ahead. He said some words of encouragement which helped.

The rest of the race was spent fighting sore legs and playing mind games to keep up the pace; keeping an eye on the watch for pace, counting, trying to keep with the person in front of me. Then with one mile left I really felt bad. I actually thought I was going to faint. Very light headed and blurred vision. I did not want to faint because I only had a mile to go. I just kept running and then with 1/2 mile to go, just as I was thinking this is what it feels like to die, I saw the end, the end of the race, not my life. There was a lovely long straight finish so you could see the finish line, this kept me going to the end. Crossed the line knowing I'd gotten a PB but wondering why I hadn't run a sub 33 because it felt soooo hard.

Quote

Something inside of me just said 'Hey, wait a minute, I want to beat him,' and I just took off. -Steve Prefontaine

I've thought that in races too but most of the time I don't take off.

Quote and run

I ran. I ran until my muscles burned and my veins pumped battery acid. Then I ran some more.
Tyler Durden

This is what I felt like this morning. I did 3 X 5 mins and then 3 X 800m. It was hard because my heart rate was up and my pace was a bit down. Anyway, job done and over with. Tomorrow should be a nice long run with just me and my MP3s.

"We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love". Tom Robbins in "Still Life With Woodpecker"

I like this quote because I am often quick to judge others. When I stop and think my expectations of others can be too high. Everyone has a hard life and most, harder than me. Take running for example, I'm really quick to judge peoples running ability on their PBs for say a 10K or marathon. This is wrong because I don't know if they have a really stressful life or are handicapped in some way (phyical, mental etc).

Yesterday I went for a longish run. Intended to run about 12 - 14 but because the weather was sooo nice I ended up doing 16. I created my own love for running!

12 days to the Cardiff 10K. Can't wait.