No, not a post about using the RunClub showers the other week, after a freezing speed session leaving my extremities...well, cold and the ensuing curious communal atmosphere of male inadequacy! But similar. One of the reasons, I've concluded, that I succumb to injury the very moment I decide to gear up for the March Wilmslow Half Marathon, is a rapid step up in mileage. I can't quantify this. Rapid simply means 'a bit more'.
How much more or more than what, I can't say. But what they do say, they being those who know, is that 'increase' should be incremental. No more than a 10% increase in mileage a week. So let's talk numbers. Hmmm, lets not! I've not used my Garmin for a while, but am content that I run all the way, the right distance that either gets me back to the front door, or the same route as the group I'm in...and then listen to them compare distances! We all set off from here and we've all made it back to here...job done.
I know this sounds a little flippant, and I don't mean it to be, but I look at other peoples blogs and see the DailyMile Widget and think 'yeah, that could be useful'. I'd like the idea of logging my miles. Then I can be measured, meaning measured in my approach, rather than in miles. And I can reflect and judge. So I signed up to DailyMile, and back logged my runs since Jan 1st 2013...or at least those I could remember. Then I got as far as publishing the widget...and bottled out, concluding it might look a little like willy wagging.
Woo hoo, Look how many miles I've run! Clearly I'm agonising over small stuff...no, not about the showers! But there's no two ways about it, I need longer runs and I need to increase my total mileage, but need to be careful. I've had a good week of running around, I'd say. The usual pre-circuits warm up with Chris on Monday, club speed work on Tuesday. I even managed to tag on with 'James-11 weeks to London' mid-week, then a wild 11 mile torch run on Thursday. That was great fun.
Saturday was ParkRun in a beautiful sunny frosty Wythenshawe Park and Sunday one of Tony's infamous training days, hill reps in Lyme Park, sideways rain and low cloud. And that, should I choose to add it up, makes a week of bang on 40 miles. Good, bad or indifferent, I don't know. On the one hand it seems this is a reasonable effort, on the other it feels unquantified, inadequate! So if next you see the DailyMile widget on my blog, you'll know I've stepped up to the plate, and joined you in the communal showers of running!
