It's been a long time.....

....... well, the virus lingered and I became disillusioned with ever running again.

Ok, so that may seem dramatic  ......
but having three months out with shingles last summer and then taking an equal amount of time to get my fitness back, to only  be ill again two months later and unable to run really pissed me off.

I know, I know, in the grand scheme of things it's nothing really and of course some of my fellow runners have injuries or had operations that have curtailed their running so they are in the same boat too but ........

Anyway this is just to let you know if you were wondering, I am running again and it has taken until this week to get my fitness back to how it was the week before Christmas.

So in other news, I'm planning to run the Bideford 10k again on 15th May but have decided not to blog about my training again so as

a) Not to bore you

And

b) Not to tempt fate ........ as it seems as soon as I crow about how well my training is going I come down to earth with a crashing fall and illness and if it's not going well its just plain depressing.

Anyway the plan is to run the race (that I haven't even entered yet) in an hour and knock one minute 20 seconds off last year's time .....

I'll let you know .......

No Braunton 10 miler for me today ....

Ok, I'm sorry I've been rather neglectful over the last month and not kept you up to date, but after my last post my health and running just went further down hill ........ and I haven't been able to use my Christmas present either!

My Christmas present

On the Monday after Christmas I set off on a 30 minute 'easy' run and if you look at my time it all looks great .... 10 minute miles! However what it doesn't show is that I had to stop after 15 minutes to catch my breath and stopped the clock for a minute or so!

Me stopping???

Yes, I know ..... unheard of (the only other occasion being the day before I was diagnosed with shingles).

Two days later I tackled the hill training on my favourite hill ...... 10 minute warm up which coincided with a hail storm then 3 x 3 minute hill reps at hard pace ....... oh dear God, I couldn't get out of first gear, no matter how much I tried. What a struggle!

What to do?

I ran slowly uphill for another 10 minutes .....

Now you'd think that running back down hill for 20 minutes would be easy peasy ............

Wrong!

............ and so I came to a decision .......

As I passed the OB and woofers I managed to gasp 'I can't run it, there's no way I can run 10 miles .......'

Once we were all back in the truck the OB asked whether I was giving up on the Braunton 10 altogether or just the recce run four days later.

Well a few minutes previously I had meant the actual race but of course you know me, I started to wobble and decided it would be the recce but would run on the Friday to see if by some miracle I was a runner again!

I didn't run on the Friday nor the recce on the Sunday, nor for another 10 days  ....... I really didn't feel well at all. At one stage I thought the shingles was back with itchy spots and feeling exhausted as I had in the summer.

I'm sure you're wondering why I hadn't been to the quacks, but I assumed it was a 'virus' and as I learnt many years ago you just have to let them take their course. Pills don't work!

I did however make a doctor's appointment after trying to run again and not even managing 3 miles and the real crunch was the next day walking with a friend for just 1.5 miles and finding I was breathless all the way back and being pressured by said friend and the OB.

After listening to all the above Dr. Fernandez said ' as I've been saying five times a day for weeks to people it's a virus and I can't prescribe anything for it' (yeah I know!) 'You have your goals even if you're disappointed .... mine is to walk up the hill out of Shebbear without getting breathless'.  I did however have a blood test for everything imaginable and he'd be on the phone that evening if there was anything untoward with it. As I was on my way out he did mention that it could be cancer, lymes disease, vitamin D deficiency (as 'we don't get much sun in North Devon' ..... I think it's his Spanish sense of humour)

There was no phone call!!

Good news then!

Today ten days later and the day of the Braunton 10 mile I put my running clothes on and my new TomTom watch and ran 3 miles on the TT .......
My aim and of course pep talk to myself was 11 minute miles ..... no pressure ..... you're not training, just see if you can run 3 miles without stopping .........

So the first mile was my usual straight out the traps sub 10 minutes!

Slow down, slow down .............

Second mile 10.03 ......

You've guessed it ..... the third mile despite being the long slow hill I hate (or as I gasped on my way passed the OB and doggens 'I hate this fucking hill!!!)  10.58!!

I couldn't have run further but didn't need to stop to catch my breath along the way either so fingers crossed I'm on my way to recovery ........