With April let alone March now behind us time for a little update on how things are going on the running front & my preparation for an important June.
I have continued to clock up the miles more than ever (well by my standards you understand) but I did suffer a setback during the latest trip to Italy. Again this was not a glamorous one as I was there simply to carry out a number of repairs & decorations in the hope that the house will sell (don’t want to sell it but that is a long, long story that is worthy of a book in itself). The trip down had it’s mishaps, lost wallet, wrong turn into a Milan rush hour but at least that gave me majestic views of Monte Rosa (will I tackle it in July?) but I also discovered the beautiful Lago Veverone, set beneath the Alps & an idyllic spot for a run to loosen the legs after the drive through France. The evening I arrived at the house I again got out for a nice 8 miler but that was to be last run for 10 days!
Day 1 of decorations started well & by the end of it I had sanded 27 Louvre Shutters by hand, only a Fell Runner would have the tenacity to do that! un-fortunately only I would also put a 15mm splinter in my thumb & worse still a 10mm splinter down the back of the nail of my index finger, did you wince reading that. Two hospitals on Sunday morning sorted the nail one out, I won’t go into the pain but there was some typically amusing moments with the Italian Doctors & Nurses who like me could see the funny side of an Idiot abroad!
The next 9 days were full on refurb. I bent & knelt in a variety of ways that turned my legs to rubber so running was firmly of the agenda even if I had had any energy left. My spirits lifted mid-week when I began to feel progress being made but even more so because on my one link into the internet (breaking my i phone was another calamity not to bore you with here) I discovered Kean Rowlands had taken me up on my offer to fly out & join me. His help was invaluable & his company very welcome, just a word of warning though, he appears not to understand that he is colour blind so his painting needs a high degree of Supervision. I must admit though I was very impressed by his paper filler act as indeed I hope he was by my felling a tree on the spot intended rather than his head which was just to the right, little does he know I actually missed the intended spot. Our last day we finished early & finally got out for a run together & life began to get back to normal.
On the way back home we had a lot of banter, I showed him Veverone where we had both an evening & morning run before extending the second day’s journey to Laon in North France.
Back in the U.K. training for June & Core Exercises became my focus but the small matter of the Moelwyn Race was soon upon me (see an earlier blog for details of this race). The race itself felt hard & I soon regretted doing too many trail miles through the winter & not enough mountains. That said I shaved a little of my pb so not a disaster just a wake up call for June. This wake up call led to semi-disaster, a 5 mile recovery run the next day, 22 mile run to Bathesda & back 2 days later & 7 summits of the Oggie 8 a few days later finally took their toll on this 48 year old as I pulled up on Glyder Fach with a shooting pain through my left calf. This led to a long hobble off to the car. Kean’s proficy of ‘watch it lad, you may be over doing it’ looks to have proved correct on both fronts, yes I was over doing it & yes compared to him I am a lad! Just a word of thanks here to my friend the photographer John Rowell who failed to rendezvous with me at the summit of Y garn which led to much banter over the following weekend.
Un-fortunately the Idiot at home continued on his merry way last Sunday by convincing himself that he was already recovered as he went out for a 13K run, this gave John plenty of opportunities to get his own back as he & my training team (otherwise known as Doctor Iain Lea & Andy Smith) discussed the reasoning of ‘he’s doing what! with an injury! & the logic is? etc. etc.’ These wise owls were proved right as the run resulted in injury, ice pack & concern on whether June’s goals are now over & out.
Writing this 3 days later some progress made with two sessions of core exercises going well, is it too early for a run?
Life contains many other day to day issues some that weigh heavy on the mind but it is the experiences such as those listed above that keep me sane (you have the right to disagree with the sane bit if you want to) & looking forward to all the challenges ahead. Of course none of this would be possible without the support of an ever wider group of friends & people who prove they care time & time again, thank you. Now where are my trainers, Dorina have you hidden them?
