Blister

Practicing the route for the Downside/Chilcompton/SOTF virtual run. I was feeling tired and hungry after a hard day of deep cleaning the kitchen. My left achilles was still sore and tight - it became really sore and tight by the end of the run. I got a bit lost and stung and ended up running about 0.6 miles further than the actual video version will be.

Swunch at BOA - it's £6 a session now! Pleased to get in 92 lengths, despite feeling tired/fatigued and achy in my shoulders/arms I was going along quite nicely and for once was the fastest swimmer in the pool - I think relaxing due to not having super fast swimmers helped.

Recording the Downside School to Chilcompton virtual run loop. I took advantage of a small window where the weather was sunny and not too windy (which has been rare the last couple of weeks). My achilles was sore to start with, but didn't really got any worse, but my hamstring became sore a few miles in and was really fatigued and the most sore it's felt for a while now. I think I was still tired from swimming and circuits.

Recording a virtual run from Radford Mill to Greyfield Wood (via the Somerset Coal Canal path) and back. I wanted to do this earlier in the day to get enough sunlight because of the dense foliage in the wooded areas, but after an exhausting day of collecting patio bricks from Warminster (two trips, 35 minutes each direction and nearly destroying my car with too much weight!) by the time I finished with that, I barely got to the start point of the run just before 7pm. Most of the run w as OK because it had sunlight or wasn't too densely wooded, but some areas were and were quite dark, causing a large amount of shaking in the video. But the good thing is because England were playing in the football, it was very quite and in fact I only went past 2 people towards the end of the video, otherwise (apart from a few cars) I had the trails to myself. My left hamstring and achilles were tight, fatigued and a little sore from the start, but they just about held out for the (longer than anticipated) run - my arms were also very tired from moving all those bricks. Annoyingly the GoPro battery died just a few minutes before the end of the video and I sued the small cable to charge it with the gimbal, but it took a long time to get any charge in and so had to record the last part in 4 smaller sections, waiting for the battery to charge a bit each time. I (more less) got there in the end.

After a long day at home trying to get things (on the PC) done I drove to Downside and decided to do 2 sets of 4 x 200m with 200m walk/jog recovery on the grass track. I had planned to do a hill session in Ammerdown Wood, but it was too late and I wasn't sure if I'd cope anyway (with the hamstring etc). This seemed like an easier, more sensible option, plus I knew it would be quite/deserted - which it basically was. I did a warm up jogging around the trails for nearly 2 miles (cool down was 2 miles around the fields). The grass was wet (and had lots of magic(?) mushrooms growing in the lanes! I had to carry my phone to record the splits (I still haven't found my watch), so the wet grass and phone carrying would have definitely slowed me down, still I was surprised how slow my splits were considering how fast it felt like I was running. I was aiming for 800m pace, but couldn't quite match it. My achilles was playing up from basically the end of the warm up too. My recovery was just under 2 minutes in most cases and I did a 400m walk recovery between the sets.

Recording a virtual run from RSPB Ham Wall on a lovely, still, sunny morning. I was worried on the way about the weather because as I drove through Wells it became very foggy and cloudy, but to my delight it was blue skies and sunny when I arrived - and it stayed that way until after I left. I planned the route last night because I saw an opportunity where the weather looked good for a change. My left achilles and hamstring were still quite sore form Tuesdays session but I was hopeful they would manage - the achilles didn't feel too bad once I got going, but the hamstring didn't like it, especially on the wet, grassy sections. I got plastered in ticks, the most I've ever found after a run, maybe 20! I think most of them must have come from the 'No Entry' section I did where people don't generally walk and it's a lot more natural. A lot of them were tiny and a lot of them had already bitten me by the time I noticed, 20 minutes after the run. Hamstring (also hip flexor and achilles) felt really sore, tight and fatigued after the run.

Team Thie circuits: 25 seconds on/5 seconds off, 3 sets of each exercise for 35 minutes. I struggled a bit today, mostly in the arms.

Recording a virtual run from Cheddar Reservoir during English vs Spain European final and a window of good weather (no wind and clear skies). My hamstring and achilles were still tight and sore, so I was apprehensive about how they would cope and they did struggle but got me to the end - but were very tight/sore after the run. I stopped 5 times (at gates) but overwise overaged sub 7 minute mile pace throughout.

Team Thie circuits from 17th July 2023. 2 sets of 30 seconds on, 5 seconds recovery.

A taper session on the grass track at Downside ahead of Sunday's 800m race in Yate. I did 400m, 200m, 200m with plenty of recovery between each rep. I felt quite a lot of lactic acid by the end of the 400m effort - which at 66 seconds was a bit slow, but to be fair the grass was wet (evening mildew), so it's probably worth 1-2 seconds faster on a proper track.

Walking back to the car from Shepton Mallet viaduct after recording the virtual run.

Recording the 2nd part of the Beacon Wood virtual run around the Shepton Mallet area. I had planned the route carefully on maps but had never actually run it, so inevitably got lost a few times and ended up running further (it was supposed to be 5 miles exactly). Not ideal preparation for Sunday's race, but I wanted to make the most of the clear sunny day - which turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far! I got scratched by brambles, stung by stinging nettles, and cut by barbed wire fence, but I think the video came out well! I had to walk over a mile back to the car after finishing at the viaduct (ex-S&D line) in Shepton Mallet.

Yate AC Masters Open 800m. I had lost all motivation for this race by Saturday night and I woke up Sunday planning to stay at home, but in the end Eunice actually persuaded me to go (they were both going to come to watch initially but stayed home in the end). I'm glad I went because I took 2.3 seconds off my season best and got to chat with some people and just get out of the house. No idea what my splits were, if anyone was calling them out I didn't hear probably because of the wind. It was quite gusty in some parts, so I'd say I lost nearly a second from that. I started steady and put myself straight to the back of the pack, it felt hard from the start but I felt like I was holding back a little. I went around the guy (V50) I was trailing just after the bell and managed to chase Pete down into the last 200m, I didn't quite catch him (didn't have the strength/fitness) but I finished less than half a second behind him - the closest I've ever finished to him in a race.

Warm up with Pete and cool down with Louise for 800m race at Yate.

Recording a virtual run around Shapwick Moor Nature Reserve. I did the planned loop, plus a little extra where I got lost trying to find the Sweet Trail replica (which turned out only to be about 10 meters!). Then jogged a bit more after to (try to) look at Noah's Lake. I managed to pick and eat some blackberries at the end too, they went down very well! I wasn't actually going to run today because my calves were still sore, but there was a window of 'sunny' weather so I decided to quickly grab my stuff and go. It wasn't completely sunny the whole time, but the cloud layer that came over was thin and there were still shadows most of the time.

First track session at TBAC since 10th August 2023! My legs were still stiff and sore from the previous weeks activities but I wanted to get down and do a 'proper' track session before my BMC race in Exeter next week. My plan was 2 sets of 400m in around 65, 400m walk recovery, 200m in around 31/32, short(ish) recovery and another in the same time. I overcooked the first 400m in 63 (but the first 200m of that was about 30), I could feel the lactic acid building up in the last 100m. The 200s surprised me because I didn't think I'd hold so close to 30 (the first was 30.00). I ended up with 5 minutes recovery after the 400m and 2.5 minutes after the 200m. I took a 10 minute slow walk break after the first set, the lactic acid had built up a lot and my body wasn't flushing it away. I didn't feel like I could repeat the first set, so I changed it to 300m, 300m, 200m (so it still added up to 800m). I felt heavy starting the first 300m and had to go into lane 4 around the bend to overtake slower runners and the home straight had a bit of a headwind. I felt really tired by the end of the 2nd set. I started a cool down with two new random guys from Paul Kings group and only managed 600m before my right quad cramped up! So I had to stop and hobble back, but I waited about 30 minutes in the car then did a lap of St Johns field to finish the cool down.