Small island, flexible runner

Today’s title links to a few things I’ve been enjoying in my running this week:

1. I’m still loving the lack of a schedule leaving me free to run on a whim without worrying about being recovered for a workout, or conversely just to go for an easy 30 minutes because it’s all I fancy.

2. I used to be pretty flexible. I trained in a martial art at least 3 times a week, sometimes up to 5 times a week. Flexibility is something I neglected while I was concentrating on the marathon schedule, but it’s something I’d like to give a bit more time and attention now. (Incidentally, there’s evidence that being really flexible is actually a biomechanical disadvantage to runners, but since I’m not trying to set any speed records, it’s something I like to pursue anyway. Plus, this way I can kick at head height, and that’s always fun.)

3. In respect to one of my vows to the running gods, I’m cross-training! A friend invited me to the circuit training she goes to and I’m so glad I went. It was a lot of fun and I hurt everywhere afterwards. Sneezing still hurts a bit, but I have progressed to being able to get in and out of sports bras without actually whimpering out loud. I clearly need more of this! 😀

4. Today’s run was a Destination Run, as I’ve decided to dub them. Unfortunately, the Destination was closed, but thanks to my scout-like forethought, all was not lost. More on that below…

 

 

As well as my early morning run, I went on another random route run with a friend yesterday. I love running with other people! The time went so quickly and even the steepest hill was fun rather than a chore. With that and my longer run today, the map is starting to get a nice series of wiggly lines showing my progress!

Today, the plan was to run to Bonne Nuit bay, which is directly north across the island and about 5-6 miles away. There’s a nice beach café there and I’d planned for this to be the first (of many, I hope) split long runs where I run somewhere, have some tea and cake and read my book, then run home by another route. It seems like a lovely and leisurely way to see the island.

Because I’m hoping to build these split runs up to some fairly good going distances, I thought it would be fun and also good practice to over-prepare a few extras in my running pack in case I got lost, the weather changed, I got blisters, etc. My fairly minimal kit was therefore: tape, small water bottle (I don’t tend to drink during runs that take less than an hour), banana, trail mix, Kindle (essential, obviously), new lightweight waterproof, inhaler, money, phone, and I wore a light fleece around my waist to wear in the break between runs.

It was a lovely, gentle run to Bonne Nuit with, astonishingly, no navigation errors. There were quite a few green lanes along the route, with beautiful flowers, farmhouses, and, of course, Jersey cows:

The view from above the bay was fantastic, although it doesn’t come out brilliantly in the photos because it was pretty overcast. Running down into the bay was a lot of fun, mixed with that growing dread as it gets steeper and goes on and on and you know you’ll have to climb back up it at some point.

To my disappointment, there was a sign on the door of the café announcing “closed until April 2014”. One element of island living that I’ve yet to adapt to is how heavily tourism affects everything here; I’m braced for half the buses to stop now that summer is officially over, but I hadn’t realised cafés would close for the whole of autumn and winter. Happily, I had come prepared!

I found a sheltered spot on the beach and sat down to a nice little picnic of what I’d brought with me, waterproof over my legs and fleece on to keep warm while I read my book. It did feel rather more appropriate than the café would have been as I’m currently reading Rosie Swale-Pope’s book, the account of her insane and wonderful journey on foot around the world. Admittedly, a picnic on the beach doesn’t quite compare to surviving on buckwheat in the Siberian wastelands, but I still felt that little bit more intrepid for it.

When I started getting chilly, I packed up and ran back home. Well, I walked most of the aforementioned hill. I also paused to fill my empty trail mix bag with sweet chestnuts, as I’d run past loads on the way out and I always love the feeling of “foraging”. I’m looking forward to chestnut soup this weekend!

I’m about to start a week of seven 8-8.30 night shifts, so food, sleep and pretty much everything is going to be a bit all over the place, but now I’m being flexible about running, hopefully I’ll still get some time outside to remind myself there is still a world outside the hospital!

Off to work! 🙂

Small island, moonlighting runner

One of my favourite ways to really optimise my running dose in a day is to listen to running podcasts while I run. A particular favourite recently has been the Runners Connect podcast, which is typically an interview with a runner who is also specialised in one thing or another, whether a distance at competition or thyroid problems in runners. One recent interview was about work-life balance for people with full-time jobs. The interviewee was Matt Elliott, a full-time primary school teacher and extraordinarily successful competitive runner (and looking at his photos, a man built with the proportions of a flamingo. In the legs, I mean, not the neck. That wouldn’t help with running at all).

It was a inspiring to listen to as I ran and I really admire Matt Elliott for what he does, but the last few days of full-time work while fitting in running have got me thinking. I love interviews like that, and I love idly reading running magazines, websites, and others’ blogs, all of which talk about the importance of the non-running­ bits of running training. Since I’m tapering now, these bits are particularly prominent in my mind. You know, stretching, nutrition, icing injuries, rest, sleep, all that jazz. I’ve had a niggle in my right foot since I ran the New Forest half with my family a couple of weeks ago (injudiciously but I must admit delightedly PR-ily quickly), which I try to ice after runs. I switch my running shoes alternately and when I’m not at work, rest my foot (sit around) if it hurts. I try to eat healthily. I go to bed early.

But I’m definitely not ticking all of Matt Elliott’s boxes. For instance, during his breaks at work (half an hour for recess, an hour for lunch, free periods) he does stretching routines and foam-rollers and so on. My shifts have worked out very well for my running in that I’m not working the weekend of my marathon, nor doing nights too soon before to mess my body clock up. My last pre-marathon run*, though, did have to be wedged in yesterday morning between two thirteen-hour shifts. I iced my foot for ten minutes while inhaling breakfast before work. I can’t honestly say I did any stretching yesterday, although I did start taking the lift instead of the stairs in the evening when my foot started hurting.

I got home at quarter to nine pretty knackered physically as well as mentally and having used up all my frozen here’s-one-I-made-earlier ones already this week, I’m afraid my only healthy option for dinner was going to take nearly an hour to cook (by which time I planned to be asleep), so instead I ate some popcorn. And a cinnamon bun.

Matt Elliott wouldn’t approve and I felt a bit grumpy about it to be honest. Alright for some, with their perfect schedules and restful tapers and weekly massages, I huffed as I slumped sleepily in the lift at work. The truth is, though, he’s a world class athlete. I just really like jogging around outside, and sometimes I like jogging around in the same direction as other jogging people being shouted at by people kindly lined up to encourage us in our jogging endeavours. I run to be fit, to have fun, to meditate, to de-stress, to see places, to push myself physically, and to strive for improvement.

Running a PR ticks the improvement box, but even if I never got a PR, I’d still be doing all of those other things. Most runners, myself included, are pretty numbers-obsessed. Mile splits, average pace, race pace, interval repeats, distance, time, heart rate… You name it, runners measure it. Numbers are deeply satisfying to aim for, write down and compare with others. But they’re not the purpose of running.

Still slumped in that lift, I came to the following conclusions:

Stretching, good nutrition, rest, and everything else are things I try to do because I want to be fit and healthy, and I want to be able to keep running. It’s part of my life that I love, but not the only part. Medicine is something I love too (maybe not so much in the last few hours of thirteen hour shifts, but then how much do I love running in the last few miles of a twenty miler?). Even if my training isn’t so perfect that I’m accelerating towards my lifetime PR at maximum speed, I’m still getting many other rewards from it, and I am still improving in spite of shift work and cinnamon buns. Getting stressed about being stressed during my taper is just plain silly.

I would like weekly massages though.

Sadly, it doesn’t get this light on morning runs any more. To quote Sean Bean, winter is coming. 

*And a lovely run it was, too. Just out and back along the seafront with the waves whooshing against the sea wall next to me. The rain even had the grace to hold off ‘til I got home. Thanks, rain!