BOOM! It's back

new beckenham fast cars early hours, a photo by ultraBobban on Flickr.

So, would you believe it? The last 3 weeks I have bemoaned an injury and then prior to this, a miserable summer since the awesome 2nd place at the NC50 miler. So what has been the problem? Massage did not sort it. Rest did not sort it. Apart from a broken leg nearly 3 years ago I have not had a running injury since I switched to forefoot running 4+ years ago.

The culprit? Well. There has been a titter on Twitter amongst my running buddies about the one thing I have changed earlier this year. Compression shorts. I have had an issue in the past with a pair of Salomon S-Lab which went on Ebay pretty quickly. This time, a pair of Nike compression shorts (well 2 pairs actually) that presumably altered my gait cycle in some way to cause this issue.

As a good scientist I always experiment but there are those Eureka moments that come from time to time from pure serendipitous activity. Here was mine. Both sets of shorts were in the wash. I wanted to go out for a quick run a few days after my Lea Valley breakdown with Eric. I chose an old pair of v thin undershorts instead and behold; no problem at all. Good science is about repeat-ability and on 5 subsequent runs, chose non-compression undershorts as my sartorial undergarment, found that there was almost no issue. Slight tenderness in the hamstring led me not to run the Downslink 38, something of which I was gutted about, but a 20 mile run and a fast 10k on Tuesday, followed by BOOM, a 6k run to de-stress after a 13 hour day at work and after the first 2 miles at 7.09s, a 6.29 mile!!! UB is back.

As C3PO once famously stated...."thank the maker!"

Mrs UB back from Bulgaria and a run up the Palace

Olympic Torch Relay Crystal Palace - The happy couple, a photo by ultraBobban on Flickr.

Mrs UB flew back in from Sofia this morning from a wedding that work commitments wouldn't allow my attending. 3 days away from a heavily pregnant wife is not so good. However this pic of 2 days after our wedding at the Olympic torch relay cheered me up no end as we were off on honeymoon last year 2 hours after this shot was taken!

Tonight was a do I or don't I run after a nice 10k slow with Irish Sue last night. I have a theory as to the root of my injury issue. I will keep this close to my chest for the moment but changed one thing and headed up to the top of the Palace (I have avoided hills for 3 weeks now) and hit this run hard. Very little issue even up at the top of the hill which is a 15% incline. What joy...and then a sub 8 afterwards. Baby steps are needed here but a real breakthrough. The change is small and from an unlikely source but as a true scientist I am going to repeat my experiment tomorrow to see if there is a pattern in the results. I'll let you know what it is in due course. Fingers crossed please!

A pain in the arse starts subsiding

green belt relay - Tappo on how he was going to beat me in this leg, a photo by ultraBobban on Flickr.

Sue texted me this morning wanting some miles so I thought seen as she ran 20 on Sunday and wanted a recovery run, I would tag along as she ran to mine, rather than the usual me to hers. Tentatively at 9s on the flat we bimbled along and had a good old catch up on the gossip.

5 miles later and we had dipped to 8s and the hamstring felt OK. I can feel it now a little but it is just uncomfortable rather than a pain. I'd rather be in the form I was in for this photo with Tappo where I ran sub 7s on the Green Belt Relay for 7 miles. If only!

Downslink 38 unlikely

After the trainer wars, a photo by ultraBobban on Flickr.

Just got back from what was billed to be a nice 16-18 mile run with Eric. After running 2 miles to Forest hill station i met up with Eric and we took the tube to Tottenham Hale, allowing us to run back through London on the River Lea Navigation Channel. This meant crossing no roads until we arrived at Limehouse Basin. I had told Eric that I would be a little slow as was on a recovery which was fine by him. First 6-7 miles were fine. We ran past the Big Breakfast house, stopped off to take some shots along the route, chit-chatted about cars, wives, holidays and social stuff....funny that we never really chat about running when we are running. Then I felt the strain in my hamstring. What is frustrating is that the drive part of my gait cycle just isn't happening.....I can't turn on the beans, not a bit. So we slowed down around Limehouse and ran the Thames Path back to Wapping and tubed it most of the way back with a mile-and-a-bit recovery warm down back home.

I am now 90% sure that the Downslink 38 is not going to happen. Gutted.

That Sinking Feeling

Normally I have a positive disposition, a glass half full type of bloke. I'm getting the feeling that the next few weeks are going to be baby steps forward and that sinking feeling when recovery takes a step backwards and the wheels fall off.

This week I ran. Last week I had a total week off. Monday was 3.6 miles, Tuesday 5 miles, 10k on Weds and this morning, 2 miles. Each time the first mile has been a stiff slow 9s plus. Like an old car cranking up and spluttering as the tired pistons slowly warm up, my legs gently creaked into action. Wednesday was probably the better of the runs as by mile 4, I was comfortably at 8.45s and dipping lower. It is mighty frustrating to not be cruising around at 7.45s and putting in sub 7s for tempo runs, not travelling far and keeping away from my beloved hilly runs. A little at a time dear readers.......and on reflecting on this while I am writing this, I have returned to a glass half full type of bloke. There are 3 races on my radar before the birth of baby UB, 1 marathon, 2 ultras. Will I be ready in time?

Race Report - Farnham Pilgrim Marathon

I arrived at Farnham this morning in high spirits. After a quick drive down through traffic-free London on a Sunday morning, I walked from the car park to the start and Paul Ali of Ultra Tales magazine hailed me. It took me about 20 seconds to work out that it was him as my brain was still not yet awake. At the start, after the usual 'race admin' I bumped into Peter Bowles, Helen Smith and Dave Ross for a bit of light banter before the start..........and then we were off. Helen and I ran together for ages and we caught up on the usual races and in-between race stuff. Helen, as I have found out today, has an extraordinary memory for random things and asked me some questions about stuff I probably say when I'm tired and sugar-low so it is always good fun for her to recall my ramblings.

We set off at a good clip, 8.30s on the hills and 7.50s on the flats and maybe a bit quicker on the downs. Farnham is a lovely course and extremely well signposted and even better marshaled. In fact, the number of water stations was advertised as 9. I think that the world and his wife had come to man a few unofficial water stations and save for a section where it clearly stated 'no water for 2.4 miles' Were every 2 miles or so. I ran with just a bottle and a couple of the Second Surge double espresso gels from Keith Godden's Ultramarathonrunningstore.com which was the first time I had tried them out and Keith, I'm going to give a 'thumbs-up' as they are palatable, easy to carry, easy to open, although does need a swig of something afterwards to wash the gloop down.

So the first few miles was quick and I felt good. I spied George Fairbrother and was mid-way through a catch-up and he stopped for a piss-break so our conversation ended abruptly. George....a man of few words! We approached St Martha's Hill and my high hamstring started playing up. This took me by surprise as I had put some miles in last week and not a sniff of a problem. I did a quick calculation in my head; walk home back to the start, or finish the race. No question of what I was going to do. However, the pace had to drop. I told Helen that i was going to walk the hill and I saw her keep looking around to check if I was behind, which I was for about 2 miles to the halfway point. Paul Ali trotted past looking in awesome shape for Spartathlon in 2 weeks time. I then decided that damage limitation was the only solution. I was going to finish this but knew that a competitive time was now out of the question. To describe a high hamstring tendinopathy (HHT) is like describing a pain in the arse, as that is exactly what it is. As a biologist I am acutely aware of injury and recovery, however as a runner I'll always push myself beyond that. The uphills require the hamstring in particular, and so it was that to conserve my body for the Downslink 38 in 3 weeks, I walked the hills and ran the flats and downs, albeit tentatively. Fueling was fine, hydration was fine, I just felt a lot like Robert Krubica who I had watched on the WRC Rally of Poland on Saturday night before bed, coming in to the finish, nursing a lost wheel for the last 12k of a 25k rally stage, trying not to cause too much more damage, whilst leaving himself ready for the next stage.

The best bit of the course, a little lap around the ruins on St Catherine's Hill. Hilarious! So damage limitation needs to have positive outcomes and I strived to achieve these to keep my PMA on the positive side. Normally I am a back of the front runners or a front of the middle runners, call it what you wish. The damage limitation meant a new group of runners were there to chat to. A few were very chatty and I gravitated towards these, but here, in the back of the middle were quite a few moody fuckers. None more so that the utter arsehole that shouted and abused the awesome marshals for going the wrong way. Now with signs, marshals and orange spray and tape it is pretty impossible to go wrong. I took great offence to this idiot who unnecessarily shouted abuse and profanity at the lovely marshals because he couldn't follow some simple signs. He then ran off in anger, fueled by some adrenalin and vented spleen at about 7s......overtook about 10 runners and then (happily for the rest of us) burned out and then walked the last few miles. It was only when I was happily tucking into my pint of cider at the Barley mow, that I saw him limp past. Tosser. Hooligan. Gives us lovely runners a bad name.

So I trundled over the line in a pretty piss-poor 4.23. Second half was about reducing any longer term issues with the HHT and then there was the finish. Not a moment too soon. Medal, T-shirt, mug and goody bag and then off to the pub for Stowford's finest cider. Great to catch up with Pete, Helen and finally have a good chat with the legend Dave Ross, who came in 4th today, not so good as his 2nd last year. Nursing injury and forking out for treatment is the key to the next week. Marathon 42 is in the bag though.