Tewkesbury inaugural parkrun

Mrs is away on business so I decided to check out an inaugural parkrun (yes, I still go to them sometimes), so off to Tewkesbury parkrun I went.

It was a beautiful day for it, bright, clear, and sunny

The course is four laps of a field, not the most inspiring layout but it has the almost unique quality of being able to see all almost the runners almost all the time.

Tewkesbury Cathedral can be seen at the top centre of the satellite view

With tomorrow's Ultra finally upon me, the day called for a gentle jog round. This was enforced by forgetting my running shorts, thankfully I had some casual summer shorts with me, so I jogged round in those.

The scale makes it looks precipitous, but it's just a gentle rise and fall on each lap

I don't usually comment on parkrun distance accuracy; just because my Garmin reads 4.95km or 5.05km doesn't mean that the parkrun universe will implode. However today's route only measured 4.45km which I think is probably worth taking a look at!

I was a bit surprised at my time, I was only plodding!

It's a beautiful friendly run, I wish them much success in the future. It'll be an interesting course if we have a long wet season, expect cancellations and/or muddy knees from the short steep bit between the fields!

Juneathon day 20/30 - Aldenham parkrun, inaugural event

Today marks the 2/3 point through Juneathon, 20 days of consecutive running out of the 30 day challenge. I decided to celebrate by attending an inaugural parkrun event. Inaugural events have taken on an odd hue of late - the number of inaugurals attended used to be on the most events table and qualify you for entry onto the table, but the column disappeared a while ago.

These days a most events table entry looks like this:

17th position (L-R: name, club, total different events, total UK events, total global events)

There followed a sustained period of heated debate about if tourists should go to inaugural events at all as it places a heavy (believed to be unacceptable) extra load on the brand new team at their first event. There were tales of stressed event teams, and much anxiety. There were also plenty of stressed tourists who had enjoyed inaugural hunting as a kind of purist element of parkrun tourism.

We also knew that at an inaugural (when there was generally only one on any given Saturday) we were likely to see our fellow tourists.

Unfortunately I think the hyperbole on the topic didn't do much to give new event teams confidence - they imagined uncontrollable hordes of tourists descending on their parks and overwhelming them. We started to see communications from new events requesting that tourists wait a week or two before visiting. A visit to an inaugural became something you didn't really shout about, attending a first run event risks community disapproval and attending an event on its second, third, or fourth running becomes a badge of honour.

I stayed out of the debate, the Internet - and in particular Facebook - is not the place for nuanced conversation!

As it was I did pull back from inaugural hunting, but I miss them. I like the joy on the faces of new parkrun parents as their pride and joy comes to life. I like that no one knows where the course is or the route, and the excited discussion afterwards about "that bit with the mud" or "the wobbly bridge".

So I will be going to inaugurals when it's convenient, I may even travel a bit like I have done before. But I will keep an eye out on the tourist Facebook groups and if a new event is worried and would prefer a softer start, I'll show some respect and attend at a later date.

Two laps, one hugging the shoreline and the second taking a shortcut

So, with all that in mind I hopped in the car and drove to Elstree and Borehamwood to visit
Aldenham parkrun's first event. It was a nice morning for running, not too hot, quite overcast, and the odd spot of rain. We got to Aldenham Country Park at around 8:35 and immediately spotted some parkrun regulars to catch up with.

100 Aker Wood (as featured in Winnie the Pooh) seems to be the biggest attraction, and around the grounds are the houses of the characters. Nicola took some great photos in the wood - I wish I'd had a wander round myself now!

The run was a good one - I decided to go for a bit of (what I call) pace after plodding along for most of Juneathon so far. The surfaces were good, some concrete along the Northern side of the reservoir and mainly firm trail through woodland for the rest.

Pacing was good at around 5 minutes per km for the first 4km, and then a faster one to finish - my official time being 24:49, a second better than my watch time. There were 78 finishers in the end, a lovely size for a new parkrun. The event team were happy, and the runners gave unanimous praise.

Good luck for the future, Aldenham parkrun!

My Juneathon totals: 20 runs for 141.67km in 14:29:03

Who's a knotty boy, then?

I'm ramping up the exercise, and it's wonderful.

Total exercise duration per week, all logged in Training Peaks

Ran my first parkrun without stopping last weekend - it's only 5km but parkrun is a big psychological milestone for me. I went down to the inaugural Clair parkrun event Haywards Heath. It was an unexpected hill-fest - but I ran it all non-stop, and set a "comeback PB" (my personal best since coming back from injury) of 28 minutes and 29 seconds. A far cry from my 21 minute all time PB, but all in good time!

4 and a bit laps of the recreation ground - dizzy yet?

You can see the hills in my heart rate, until it all just goes through the roof on the last lap!

There were a few familiar faces there including some inaugural hunters, and parkrun team member and host of The parkrun Show podcast Danny Norman. Great to see you all again, it's been too long.

I've been on a few bike rides too, including a 110km mission on my Time Trial bike - first time I've ridden it since Galway last year!

I vowed that once my training ramped up I'd make sure I was doing the right things to stop myself just getting injured again. Part of my multi-prionged defence was to get strong, and Ben and Josh at Athletic Edge have been doing a great job getting me started down that road over the last month.

Another tactic was to get regular sports massage, so this morning at 7am I turned up at SW19 Physio to get beaten up by Christine the chirpy South African masseuse. Mrs has been seeing her for quite a long time, on and off, and it was about time I tried it.

In their own words:

SPORTS AND DEEP TISSUE MASSAGE

Our massage therapists specialise in sports and deep tissue massage and can help you in the treatment of:
✓ Minor injuries
✓ Injury prevention
✓ Back and neck discomfort
✓ Maintenance 
✓ Pregnancy massage
✓ Relaxation.

When you come for massage treatment, our therapists will ensure your muscles are assessed, stretched and stimulated by using techniques of deep stroking, cross fibre friction and vibrations.

About massage: 
Minor injury is by far the most common musculoskeletal problem. It can be extremely painful and may seriously affect a person’s occupation, sport or quality of life. If not treated properly at an early stage, a minor injury can sometimes lead to a more serious condition in the long term. Massage can treat the majority of such minor problems quickly and effectively.

Injury prevention is another area where the importance of massage should not be underestimated. Massage is the only actual treatment that can be applied specifically to help prevent injury. This is not only in a sports context but also in terms of posture and stress.

By stimulating the blood circulation through the body with massage, the waste that has accumulated is removed more quickly and completely and more fresh blood from the arteries is supplied for repair and nutritional needs to damaged muscles. And in a complementary role with other therapies, such as physiotherapy and chiropractics, massage can greatly speed recovery because of its wide ranging benefits:

✓ Breaking down of adhesions
✓ Breaking down of scar tissue
✓ Increase tissue permeability
✓ Improved tissue elasticity
✓ Pain reduction through increased circulation.

Firstly it didn't hurt anything like as much as I was expecting - sure there were moments that made me yelp a bit, but for the most part I could carry on a normal conversation. I explained my background and how I got injured in the first place. She started by working on the left IT Band ("Wow, that's tight!") and then the right ("Oh my God, this one is even tighter!"). She found a few knobbly bits and gave them some attention. Most of the bits that really needed work were on my calf muscles and glutes. There were lots of gristly bits ("Ahh yes, here's one right here!") that needed attention.

After that she spent the final few minutes on my back and shoulders, and packed me off with some advice about drinking lots of fluid today (apparently there's a lot of "stuff" that gets released from the muscles into your blood after a massage) and keep moving.

The first few times I got up from my desk today I hobbled around like an old man. It's the evening now and I'm home and showered. Legs are feeling better, but apparently tomorrow they'll feel floaty light.

I'm booked in again for the Tuesday after Ride London, and I'm already looking forward to it. I'll aim to go every second week or so, but not too close to a race or heavy training session.

Happy to be making positive pro-active choices about injury prevention. First race is this coming Sunday - Virgin Active London Triathlon, Olympic Plus distance - 1,500m swim, 80km bike, and a 10km run. Mrs will have lots of obligations over the weekend (more on that later!), and I'm really looking forward to it. Can't wait!

This rest day is a training day

I have been almost relentlessly positive about my training progress. This is in part because progress has been rapid - I had (and still have) weight to lose and strength to gain, therefore any structured plan would show an improvement. It's also in part because I try to take a positive approach to everything I do - I find that if I can remain positive and focused about training that transfers directly to other areas of my life. I've found it's important to have a mental strategy to deal with alterations to the training plan as it can become a problem if that level of positivity hinges on each session being completed succesfully.

This week the weather has been very warm in the UK. I'm a big fan of summer, I love the sun and being outside on my bike or (now I'm a bit lighter) even running. It does take a few days to adapt to the overnight temperature though - as a result this last week I've had three consecutive nights from Wednesday to Friday night of very broken and unrewarding sleep. This peaked on Friday when I'll wager that I got no more than 30 minutes uninterrupted sleep at a time. Not only nowhere near enough sleep, but definitely not enough to sustain a heavy training load.

Saturday was due to ba a long and hard day, challenging at the best of times. Up at 4am, pick up Danny Norman (go and download The parkrun Show now) and drive to Marple in Cheshire for their inaugural parkrun, drive home. Sleep for 3 or 4 hours. Get up again, cycle up to Clapham and meet some work colleagues at 11pm for the London to Brighton Night Ride - and, in order to make it a real Ironman-worthy training session - cycle back home afterwards.

Marple parkrun was gorgeous. A challenging undulating course on a beautiful hot early-summer morning. I met some great people including Tom Williams and his wife Helen and daughter Rosie, Tom is a presenter on Marathon Talk (grab it from iTunes) and UK Manager for parkrun. David and Sharon Rowe who have been involved in the parkrun community for many years; and James, Marple parkrun event director, and his crew. I even got to say hi to Tony Audenshaw, who I know as the voice of Tony's Trials in Marathon Talk, but is apparently better known as Bob from Emmerdale. We had a lovely coffee afterwards at sleepy coffee shop and bakery Libby's in Marple Bridge - I'm not sure they knew what had hit them!

Marple people and parkrun people in the sun (check out how sharp the shadows were at 8:30am)

As I was driving back yesterday early afternoon I knew something had to give. I was absolutely shattered, only a Grande Filter from Starbucks and Danny's chirpy chatter kept me focussed enough to get home. I collapsed onto the sofa and was micro-sleeping almost immediately. Regrettably, I had to call the night's 180km mega-ride off.

I have a real problem with people who promise to do things, and then don't show up - it's a behavioural trait that winds me up, particularly when others have gone out of their way or might be looking forward to your presence. I try very hard not to be that person so missing the ride was not a decision taken lightly.

Would I enjoy cycling 180km (if indeed I made the distance) in a catatonic haze? Would it make me a better Ironman? No on both counts, and it would have a negative impact on my adaptation of the week's productive load.

I ate well yesterday afternoon, made an effort not to nap, and turned in at about 11pm in the end. I slept solidly until 9.30am today - a sleep that gave me far more training benefit than the ride would have done.

So I'm sorry I missed the ride, I hope the guys that did it had an awesome time, but for me - my night's training was spent dreaming and recovering. It was a positive decision, it was the right thing to do.

Rest is training too.

Preston's Perfect Parkrun

I took a trip to Preston on Saturday to support their inaugural parkrun event - I wrote it up on @parkrunfan's blog - check it out here.