Ironman Mark

Today’s dog “walk” didn’t go well.  We started off going through the woods a different way and ended up in a lot of brambles.  Then I got to a steep gorge with a stream going through the middle of it.  I didn’t fancy it but Sparkie did so he slipped down the side of the hill, jumped the stream and then ran up the other side.

He then looked fantastic, jumping over logs and brambles.  I eventually found the “normal” wooden bridge over but by this time Sparkie was on to a deer.  Not sure if he ever saw it but every now and then I’d get a glimpse of white jumping over something.  After a while he came back, only to go a-hunting again.

Me?  I was quite tired and achy.  I chose a foolish route and did lots of doubling-back, stopping and trying to work out a way through the ferns or brambles.  All the time wondering where the dog is.  In the end, I decided to not be too fussed with the running.   We did move out of the woods and on to the common, running around 5 or 6k in total.  But I let Sparkie take his time playing with other dogs.

I bought myself a nose clip for swimming.  Over the last few years I have developed an allergy to something.  I swim in the morning, go to work and am fine.  At lunch time I get hayfever-type symptoms.  They clear.  But then I get them again on the way home and have difficulty sleeping.  Searching the internet suggests that I am not alone and that a nose clip is the best solution.  We will see.

As you can see from my blog title, I am still nervous about the Pembrokeshire Coast Challenge.

It still seems an utterly foolish thing to do.  But hey, I am still planning to do it.

This week I have been doing some 1 hour long runs at lunch times (I’ve also been getting to work a couple of hours early though).  I have managed to find some muddy paths and tried a couple of pairs of shoes on them.  One pair stands out as much better than the others so that is my race pair.

One thing I am concerned about is getting “pins & needles” in my feet.  Normally, I don’t get them on long runs but I do get them about 25 mins into the run on a middle/long distance triathlon.  But I’ve been getting them running along the river.  I think the issue is that after several days of back-to-back running something must weaken in my foot or legs.  Oh well.  I know I can run through this.

Yesterday was a non-running day and just did a 40 minute swim.  I want to make sure I have a little rest before doing a couple of 1 hour plus runs this weekend.  Then next week, I’ve decided to do a couple of 30 minute easy runs before hitting it big time on Friday with 42k or so.

I am now just waiting for the sky to get a bit lighter before taking the dog for a walk (and I’ll make sure I have my rucksack and trainers with me and we might walk at about 9 min per mile pace).

Forrest Gump said “Stupid is as stupid does”.

In other words, don’t judge appearance, judge the actions.

Well I have entered the Pembrokeshire Coast Challenge.  I entered on a whim on Tuesday after reading something on an internet post.  It’s less than two weeks away.  It seemed like a good idea at the time…

But within a few seconds of entering my credit card numbers and clicking the last button I felt that I had made a silly decision.  The last couple of days hasn’t changed that either.

To be honest, I thought it was a silly decision when I clicked the button but I still clicked.  All my ironmans have been carefully planned from a year out. I’ve had a plan (or at least all the years but one I had a plan).  Now I am giving spontaneity a go.

After clicking, I told the person at work who sits opposite me that I had entered.  They said “where’s Pembrokeshire?”.  I wasn’t sure so I checked on google maps – it looked like the South West corner of Wales – Erm, that will take a long to get to (and where will I stay)?

“So how far is it?” – Erm, about 78.6 miles.  A marathon a day over three days!

“How much training have you done?” – Erm, not much.  I haven’t done a proper long run for nearly a year-and-a-half.   I have done a few hour-twenty-type runs but not many longer ones.

“How long do you think it will take?”  Er, no idea.  A quick check – the guy who won it took 13:54, the person who was last took 26:37.  That’s a long time.  The middle finishers took around 19 hours.  This was split for the 19 hour lot was: Day 1 – 5:44, Day 2 – 6:11, Day 3 – 7:20

So I told a few more people at work to make sure that I don’t chicken out.  One person thought it was appropriate that the official charity was Mencap.

I have had a few days now to think about it.  And I am scared.   The things that worry me are:

- injury: How will my body hold up?  What about my feet?  I get blisters easy

- the weather: What if the rain starts falling horizontally?  What if it is foggy?

I’ll have plenty of time to worry about the distance when I get there!

Poor Sparkie.  He has had to do a lot of running this week!

Some days we went somewhere where he could run off lead.  Other days we went somewhere where he could run on the harness.  Some days we did both.  And every day he had a at least one reasonably long walk too.  Poor dog.

Not sure of the total running in the last seven days but it will be over seven hours.  I also did three short swims but no bike.  It’s been a strange week in that wifey has been away and I have been looking after the kids.

So, today is the last day of a running week.  Sparkie did a 1 hour 45 min walk this morning we saw a few pheasants (may be 100 or so) and heard a lot more.  On yesterday’s long run on the harness, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw 300 or 400 of the things.  If you believe the download of my GPS, the average speed was 4 mins per km for a continuous 15:26.  That’s pheasant power for you.

Training is not going well at the moment.  There’s a few reasons for this:

• I had a cold last week and am just getting over it.
• I’ve had quite a few lunch time meetings or conference calls.
• I’ve had some long meetings and dinners.
• Getting home late means that I feel less than spritely in the mornings.

Worse than that though, I’m feeling guilty and pressured about things.  I have a programme.  I want to stick with it.  But I can’t because something gets in the way.  Or I am too tired.  Or whatever.  But it’s all adding up.  Especially when family stuff is added to it.

So, I’ve been thinking and thinking.  The more I think about it, the more I realise I need to get back to enjoying it.  If I want to go for a run (rather than a planned turbo session) then I should just go for a run and enjoy it.  At the moment, I’d either go for a run and not enjoy it, or do the turbo and wish I was running (or, at the moment, be sitting at my desk wishing I could go for a run or do the turbo).

I can’t see things are going to change for a while either.  There’s more family stuff coming up.  And I’ve also come up with a great idea at work which I suspect will keep me very, very busy.

So, I think I am going to have to throw the plan in the bin for a while.  Train how I want, when I want (or when I can fit it in).  It will hit me at Lanza but I’d rather be happy and pretty fast than unhappy and a bit faster.

But I still want to think about it a bit more.