Farewell Strava

As I watch Facebook memories come past of me completing the Glendalough trail run last April, it is with a twinge of regret that I finally bid farewell to my good friend Strava.

We've had the best of times, we've had the worst of times.

On completion of the Glendalough race it became apparent that I have finally completely killed my IT band and that any further running would be detrimental to my health. not that it stopped me. I did indeed attempt to start running again,  but it was clear that the knee pain was not going anywhere, and that further exercise was just exacerbating the problem.

 So here we are one year later.

I have for the past couple of years been a subscriber to Strava, but due to the fact that I have not been using Strava for the last year that seems a little excessive. I therefore cancelled my subscription. And then, on a rainy and windy April morning, I finally deleted my Strava account.

I have downloaded all the data before committing to the final harikiri. Reading through the data does make for interesting bedtime stories. It seems that I took up running in 2015, and have completed a rather large amount of kilometers during the past nine years. Oh the memories.

So what now?

I think it is safe to say that my running days are now well behind me, and that I will have to find a new recreational activity. Luckily I live in Ireland. During the past couple of months I have slowly increased my hiking kilometers. There are oodles of hiking trails just outside Dublin in the Dublin mountains. Even ones’ that an ex Runner like myself can partake in. Yes, I am out of shape! 

So, onto the next adventure! 

Quest Glendalough Challenge - 2023

 The bulk of my time since December has been taken up training for the Quest Glendalough Challenge. And yesterday was D-Day.

So off I went. The weather was not on our side with quite a bit of rain during the week preceding the race. Even on the morning, it was a little moist. 

Nothing for it. 

No such thing as bad weather, just in appropriate clothing!!

I have to admit that I did fancy my chances of, at least, finishing. My big worry, really, was the first stage of the race which climbed up a mountain. Relentlessly. On a bicycle. And I will concede that the first three of four kilometers had me worried. But then the second wind came and I got into the groove. I actually passed some people!!

The second stage of the race turned out to be the deal breaker. The trail run down and up a mountain in soaking conditions was not what I was expecting. The route was so wet that it was changed to miss a higher peak, a fact that probably saved me. Getting back to the bike, the finish line seemed very far away.

The next stage was a rather longish bicycle journey thorough the beautiful Wicklow Mountains. The first couple of kilometers being a rather sporty dash down the mountain we just climbed. The brakes did well, I have to say.

Stage three saw us running up a mountain again, and down to a lake. By this time, I had nothing left in the tank, and the 1km kayak that followed was a welcome respite, just being able to sit down.

The last five kilometers back to the start was the longest five kilometers of my life. Literally. 

I put on a brave face...

I really enjoyed the race. My knee is not happy with me, but it will come around. I might just be back next year to give it a better go.

The Long Run – A love story

When I started running I could hardly imagine myself doing more than about 5 km. In fact, my heart cringed at the idea of 5km. It was on the “I will do it someday” list. Looking back at my beginning runs on Strava, it does not paint a pretty picture. I was doing 3km run/walks at a blistering pace of approximately 9min/km.

But I was moving.

Those early steps was what got me moving. To be honest, I did not fall in love with running immediately. I mean, I have never ran before. Never. And at the ripe old age of 42, lifting your feet and running is hard. Especially when you cannot breathe. Your heart feels like it’s about to explode your eardrums. And you wonder how you are supposed to get back home, which is now an endless 1,5km behind you.

But then, the next day, you find yourself doing the same thing albeit with a little more structure. Run a minute then walk a minute… or maybe start with 30 seconds… And then, once you have caught your breath a couple of days later, and you have convinced yourself that you will, in fact, not die, you hit the pavement again. And again. And again.

Then you think; “Well would it not be nice to be able to run a 5km”. And you go to a Parkrun. Beyond your wildest dreams you actually finish it! You catch yourself buying running shoes. You buy a hysterically yellow running shirt that can be seen from the moon, because you run late in the evenings after work.

Then somebody mentions that a 10km race might be a good idea. The voice that mentions it sounds oddly familiar…

You realise that you will not be able to do a 10 km if you keep running 3km stints. So on a lovely almost spring Sunday morning you don your running threads and you embark on “A long run”.

My first long run was approximately 10 km long. My pace was reasonable but would not have scared a tortoise to a complete standstill. At the end of it I was dog tired. Really, really dog tired. But somewhere during that long run, my love affair with running started.

And the next weekend I did it again.

And the weekend after that again, and further.

It is now three years later. I have conquered the 5km, the 10km and the Half Marathon. I am 19 weeks away from running my first Marathon. I have had exceptional luck, and exceptional misfortune. I have been bulletproof and I have been riddled with injuries.

Will I change it for anything? No way!!!

And all of that thanks to the long run.

So what makes the long run so special? Well, a couple of things, I would imagine. Firstly, the pace. I mean, a long run is exactly that. Long. Slow. You are not running for speed. Coach Greg Mc Millan described it very well. He said that the long run is there to get your body used to the motions of running. To get the biomechanics re-adjusted. To get you ready for the 5 or 6 hours of running you will have to do during a marathon.

Secondly, I think it is the therapeutic aspect of running, and the overdose of it that you receive during a long run.

A long run is when I think. When I wonder. When I look inside and outside and when the two get to know each other. It is some quite Me Time. It is also where I get to know my body. Where tired legs and tired mentality start to feel different. Where you start to notice that your mind does not want to go any further, but your body says; “I’m OK.” And then the times when your mind says; “Let’s run another 5”, but your legs just don’t want to.

I am only now getting back to proper training after a horrid bevvy of injuries that ended in both ITB’s being completely shot. I have just started, gingerly, running a month ago. Doing the 5km stints and hitting the gym like crazy, hoping against hope that the injury monster will abate and let me be. I have started on the road to my first Marathon the day before yesterday. I am doing my first “long run” for almost three months this weekend. It will not be a very long run. It may not even be a medium long run.

But it will be a long run.

And I am looking forward to falling in love all over again.

Rhythmic Breathing – Run to the Beat

Running with one of my friends I notice that he does the little “Steam Train” breathing ever so often. Never thought much of it. Then I got rather nastily injured and had to sit around for two months waiting for recovery.

When I started running again my breathing was all over the place. Sometimes felt like I was about to pass out from hyper ventilating and sometimes like I was about to pass out from under ventilating. So I started researching breathing techniques, just to get myself into a rhythm again.

It was then that I came across some interesting articles on rhythmic breathing. There is an especially informative one on Runnersworld.com by Budd Coates and Claire Kowalchik. I will put a link to the article below. In summary, however, it deals with Rhythmic Breathing and how it can be used to prevent injuries while running.

In essence:When you start to exhale, more impact stress it put on that side of the body.
If your exhale coincides with the footstrike on a certain side of the body, that side will be subject to more stress than the other, and will therefore be more prone to injury.
Rhythmic Breathing can be used as a trick to alternate the footstrikes on an exhale.

The principle is as follows;

You inhale for a certain amount of steps and exhale for one less. Typically inhale for three steps and exhale for two. This will cause the footstrike for each exhale to alternate for each set, thereby ensuring equal stress on the body.

Is it easy? Well, no. Not to start off with anyway.

I started off, as suggested in the article, by walking. Breath in 2, 3. Breath out, 2. After a while it seems to take post and I decided to take the new technique to the road.

MAJOR DISASTER!!

When you have run “untrained” for such a long time it is extremely difficult to teach yourself a completely new way of breathing. Especially on the trot, so to speak.

So I slowed down (WAAAYYYY down) and started by mimicking taking in three short breaths and exhaling two large ones. After about three kilometers it felt natural. So I stopped thinking about it and tried for it to come naturally.

No way!!

Not 300m later I was back to my old habits. I checked myself and started with the pattern again. Kept it going till the end.

Next run, I almost forgot to do the Rhythmic Breathing altogether! Only caught up about 500m into the run. Same struggle.

Towards the end of this run I however seem to come to a conclusion;

I was following directions as detailed in the article. Inhale for three strides and exhale for two. I, however, have a rather large lung capacity. The three stride inhale felt more like hyperventilating than breathing. So I upped the inhale to Four strides and the exhale to three strides. BINGO!

Seems that because I was not breathing in fully, as I am used to, the rhythm just never caught on. Did not feel natural. Once I increased the inhale to a complete “lungs full of air” inhale, the rhythm came more naturally.

Make no mistake, the pattern is still flexible. Last mile dash? Pattern quickly turns into an Inhale for Two, Exhale for One pattern. More effort up a hill? No problem. Inhale for Three, Exhale for Two.

Has it become second nature? Not yet. But it is coming more natural now. And what has become almost second nature is me just checking in on my breathing every kilometer or so. If I have lost the plot, I just bring it back in line, monitor it for a 100m or so and then let it be for the rest of the kilometer.

I also find myself doing a quick “this is how it needs to be” breathing regime when I hit the road. Helps me to settle into the Rhythm. And while doing that, sucking and blowing loudly, I all of a sudden realized why my friend sounded like a steam train chugging out of the station. Goes to show you.

For the Runnersworld article click here

Injury Recovery

So I killed my IT Band just before the Two Oceans and then further aggravated it during that race.

Gave it three weeks of R&R. No luck. Started acting up as soon as I started running again.

Off to the Physio I go…

So after two weeks of pampering I have been given the green light to start running again today. Slowly. And no more than 5km.

I aim to please.

It is now 04h00. Morning run about to be served. Watch this space…

OMTOM 2018

So I did it. Applied for a position last year and got chosen for the run!

Started training in all earnest in October of 2017. All was well.

Then 2018 hit and with it the injuries. Foot. Then other foot. Then three weeks before the race ITB. Eventually ended up running the half marathon with a dodgy ITB that gave out at the 6km mark and had me limping home. But I did it.

A personal victory if ever there was one. I could have stopped anywhere during that race, but I did not. Too stubborn, or too stupid? Don’t know.

All I know is that I did it.

My time? 2:39:38.

What’s next? Would love to do the Ultra…

So here are some pics taken on the day.

Rosemary Hill Trail Run

And back we go to training. On Sunday I took part in the Rosemary Hill trail run. It is getting a little cold now in the mornings. You would think that winter is on the way...

Luckily there was a fire to ward off the worst of the cold.

I have to say, this one went well. I think my fitness level is better now, and the Easter break also did wonders. Managed a respectable 1:05:09, which is not too shabby if you take into consideration that this was a proper trail run and the going was interesting at times.

 

Modern Athlete Irene Ultra

 

Keeping up with the training and the promise to do the Two Oceans (which I am struggling to get an entry for, by the way). I have yesterday donned my threads and partook in my first Half Marathon. 

All in all, I can honestly say that it went better than expected. There is an uphill climb (I think Olievenhoud Avenue) about 13km into the race. It is, in the greater scheme of things, not a huge or long uphill, but I really struggled with that one. But once I reached the top there, the I was pretty sure I could finish it.

Did not break any records, but I am suitably chuffed with my 2:20:55 time. 

Two Races in Four Days

 

I am rather pleased with myself. 

On the 12th of Feb I did my first proper trail run. The Hedianga Beast. And although it was only 10km, it was a proper slog. I really suffered. My 10km times are in the 1 hour 5 minute range, but for this one it ended up being 1 hour, 35 minutes and 52 seconds.

The heat did not help. And the trail is not a soft, meandering trail. This is proper trail running. Will I be back. HELL YES!! I think I'm in love.

And then, 4days later, on the 15th Feb, I did the 10km Spar Lantern Race in Irene. Now I have to admit that I was still sore and stiff from The Beast. It was also ridiculously busy, which made the first kilometer or so more of a walk than a run, but eventually it all came together.

I would love to say that the race was easy and no problem, but I was still recovering from The Beast. It was difficult.

But that said, I did finish in 1:03:31, which to my mind is a job well done. Oh, and I have also joined Team Vitality, because temporary licenses do get expensive very fast ;-)

Oh, shut your mouth!!

 I started running some soft trail runs. They are mostly run on golf courses and they are timed. Great stuff. Although not the toughest of races, they are good training, and training I need. Meandering through the golf estates (apologies Mr. Greensman) through the dark is quite interesting. Who knew that the roughs were indeed rough. One or two almost sprained ankles there. And the hidden sprinklers do not help!! Not to mention the sprinklers that are operational at that time of night, giving a short, sharp wakeup shower.

Great fun.

And then I saw the pictures that were posted on the facebook page. You do want to shout "Oh, shut your mouth!!!"

In my defense, I was out of breath!

Johannesburg City 10K Run

 Well then. After the realisation in April of 2015 that I was, in fact, a fat slob, I started running. Well, jogging. Well walking fast and for short intervals. After a bit of a false start I eventually managed to do the running and exercising thing more often during 2016. This culminated in me being in some shape (yes, round is a shape) to run in the JHB 10k City Run last weekend. And my time of 1:02:40 is reasonably, shall we say, not too shabby for an our of shape middle aged man.

This, of course, in preparation for the Two Oceans. You see. Not just blowing smoke about that one...

The 2 Oceans Project – Update 19/04/16

No… I have not forgotten!! I’ve been busy!

Good news is that I passed my last PPL subject and I am now in the home straight for my PPL. Happy dance!!

As for the 2 Oceans Project, I have been training these last two weeks. Last week I did 20,5km and the week before 15,9km. My pace is steadily increasing and I am up from a horrible 8:00/km to a better (but still to be improved) 6:22/km. Still some way to go.

Also signed up for Team Vitality and got my race numbers. Now to find a race or two to compete in.

I have set myself the goal to compete in two 5km races before the end of June. Two 10km races before end October and a half marathon by the end of Jan 2017.

Will keep you all up to date.

The Two Oceans Marathon

Firstly, congratulations to all the brave guys and gals that completed the Two Oceans this past weekend. My hat off to you.

Secondly…

I think I might join you next year.

That gives me a year to prepare. Now, I may be a fool, but I am an old fool. Therefore I will only do the half marathon next year. Still… for somebody that can only do a semi-non-disastrous 5km at this stage, there is some work to be done.

Onward then, James. And don’t spare the horses.

Watch this space….