Returning to Running

I am crossing my fingers but I do believe there is some light at the end of the tunnel as I am beginning to run again. Albeit very short runs and I am still feeling my injured heel. I am finding that after a mile my plantar fasciitis hurts a lot for a few minutes and then goes enabling me to run short distances. Currently there is no lasting affect and this is the difference compared to  back in May as then when I ran I was limping by the evening and the following day.

I have had a very frustrating time with this injury and I began to consider if my running days were over and perhaps I just wouldn't be able to do this anymore. It was difficult with the weather being so good and seeing other runners out and about when I was driving only rubbed this in as a sore point.

My last proper run was on the 23rd of April 2010. Since then I ran a few times in May in hope that I could just ignore the injury. I had a couple of goes in July and then at the beginning of August I have managed a number of very short runs :- 2 miles on the 1st , 2 on the 2nd , 3 on the 4th , 4 on the 6th and 3 miles this morning.

I tried cycling for a while and as good a sport as it is (love watching the Tour De France) I just found it wasn't for me. Partly I suppose because I didn't give it enough time, my bike was a freebie given to me probably about £70 retail but is a heavy town cycle not a specialist light road
cycle. It was heavy and sore on my back side and there was the constant threat of traffic on our Suffolk roads. When I cycled for an hour or hour and half I just didn't get the same effect that runners high , I just felt sore in the back side. I wouldn't rule it out in the future but it would have to be with a proper road cycle.

So in the break I have totally festered and when I got on the scales I had managed to put on 7 kilos and go from 83 to 90 kilos! Thats a lot of extra weight and is another prime cause I believe of plantar fasciitis.

I am not out of the woods yet as I say I can still feel pain at the beginning of a run.I highly recommed wearing Fitflops  these have been my saving grace as I don't feel any pain when wearing these. I am now making use of the Scholl Orthaheel Gel Heel Orthotic. 
These seem to help.

All I am attempting to do in the near future is hopefully continue my recovery and once again get fit and at the same time lose the weight I put on. I am going to plan out out a gentle return to running using a heart rate monitor instead of running to pace per mile. I don;t know about you but I have always followed training schedules using pace as the key factor.  Running using a heart rate monitor will be new to me and this will exciting to see how well this works in practice.

Thanks to runners who have posted me kind words of encouragement during my break. I am sorry that I haven't been to on the ball in returning any comments. I just found that as I wasn't running it was difficult to have anything to do with running without feeling frustrated and jealous. I stopped buying Runners World magazine as well as clearly I was no longer a runner.

Hopefully I am back!

Cycle ride to Flempton Suffolk

Back to the cycle this morning on day 6 of Juneathon. The weather was overcast but a little humid. I felt a bit stronger on the bike this morning after 2 days of not cycling.

My route took me through the villages of Fornham St Martin, Hengrave , Flempton, Culford and back to Bury St Edmunds. I did 11 miles in total for a total cycle mileage for the week  of 60 miles the most I have ever done. For a non cyclist with a heavy bike I found it hard at times. Not sure if I will beat this but for the mean time I need to carry on cycling as my foot injury hasn't yet improved for me to run on it

Off to Hessett

White Horse Beyton

Out of bed at 6am and off for a cycle ride whilst it was still cool and before work. Yes this morning it was already lovely and warm and I knew I had to get out early before it became to hot later in the day.

My cycle ride this morning felt a lot easier and the saddle didn't bite half as much so if nothing else I am wearing my back side in!  I followed theNational Route 51 out to Thurston. The cycle route is part of Sustrans one of the UK's leading sustainable transport charities.

Beyton Suffolk

From here I followed the Thurston Rd into Beyton and turned near the White Horse pub on the road up to Hessett. I stopped for a quick drink at All Saints Church Beyton, this is one of those lovely round tower buildings. Beyond Hessett I followed the same road turning right at Smallwood Green before emerging at Bradfield Woods.

From here the Felsham Rd took me through Bradfield St George , Lt Whelnethum , Sicklesmere and home.

Railway Crossing at Thurston

My route was a total of 17.5 miles which took me 1hr 33 mins. My pace per mile is coming down but is still less than 12 miles an hour so can be classified as very a beginner which I am - having cycled 3 times this year! My pace per mile is now about 5.20 which is down from 5.45 .

All Saints Beyton

Its progress and I hope to get under 5 minute miling. Thats my target as I build up to the Juneathon.

Suffolk Words, Sayings and Stories

A friend of mine was walking up Abbeygate St in Bury St Edmunds, behind two very smartly dressed girls. A woman on the other side of the street waved her hand to the girls in greeting  whereupon the following remark from one of the girls fell upon my friends astonished ears :

Hessett Village Sign

'Why do her wave to we? Us don't know she'

In a corner of Suffolk I recently heard a woman with her child and dog in a railway booking station ask for 'A houle, a half and a pup return ticket'

I had a clear out recently of race t shirts. At so many races now the organisers give out a race t shirt often with the name of the race and the sponsors and quite often these are cotton not technical shirts. I was hoarding these shirts but never hardly  wearing them. I was running out of space in a wardrobe and these were the culprits so I have now got rid. This got me thinking as to what you would prefer as a race prize. Cheaper race entry and no prize? A medal? A  t shirt ? A certificate? A goodie bag with some food and drink? Or perhaps you have entered a race and had something fairly unique as a prize?

Personally I go with the medal which has some what gone out of fashion in recent years. Let me know your preference.

A cycle trip to Hartest Suffolk

This was a lovely sunny lunch time cycle ride out to the village of Hartest. With the weather being so good I was keen to get back on the bike and go for a spin whilst I am unable to run.

What I am finding is that cycling requires a little more pre planning on a route to follow - firstly to avoid any of the major roads and secondly because in the space of an hour or two you can go a lot further in distance and need to ensure your route takes you back home and not leave you 20 miles away. I like maps and have a number of the ordnance survey explorer maps of Suffolk which have a scale of 2.5 inches to a mile. The map I use most often is the Explorer 211 for the Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket area which shows all of the public rights of way and paths and walkways.

The route I decided on was Bury St Edmunds / Nowton/ Hawstead/ Lawshall/Hartest/Brockley Green/Whepstead and back to Bury

The saddle soreness was immediately noticeable when I got on the bike today but is no big deal and was soon forgotten once I had gone a mile or two. After 3 miles when I reached Nowton there was very little traffic. From Lawshall I took a turning along Hartest Lane which was a narrow minor road which was pretty much a down hill section for nearly 2 miles.

Hartest green was around 10 miles in to the ride and the ideal place for a short stop for a drink and a banana and to take a few photos. Hartest is part of Suffolk which is little more hilly than most and is an area known as High Suffolk. I came down Hartest Hill into the village and I think this may be one of the steepest hills in Suffolk. Surrounding Hartest green are many bright coloured cottages. As with virtually every village there is a war memorial to commemorate those from the village who died in the 1st and 2nd world war the memorial was unveiled by Capt. E H W Backhouse on 24th October 1920, it cost £20.

My return to Bury was along the Brockley Road and here between Brockley and Whepstead there was a yellow carpet of oil seed rape fields.Extra Virgin Rapeseed Oil is said to be possibly the healthiest and most versatile cooking oil you can get.

My cycle ride totalled 18 miles in 1 hr 40 Min's. I was about 10 seconds a mile quicker than on Wednesday.

I give in - lets try cycling!!

I can't rid myself of the curse of plantar fascitiis and several others have told me that I am doing myself no good by trying to run every few days.

Its because I love my running that I don't want to give it up but at present it is just not working for me. Even after a break of a week, if I run I am ok over a short run of a few miles but the next day I am hobbling and limping. The Scholl orthotic inserts will help but I was deluded if I felt this would provide a major wand cure. The spring is here and summer dawns and with it a great selection of road races but my winter training will now count for nowt. The 12th of April was my last proper week  of training and a month on from this my level of fitness will have slipped. I will have to start all over again from scratch when I eventually get over this injury.


So for now I am taking up cycling. This has the great advantage of not causing me any further damage to my foot.I have a road bike this was given to me and is very much an ordinary bike and definitely not one of those fancy Dan £2,000 jobs More's the pity!

Several folks have suggested to me why don;t you try cycling including Revrunner, Darren Baker and finally my better half said to get out there and do it
I am going to stop running for 1 month and then see if I am ok to run again. I think I will know if this is the case. Like a lot of people with plantar fascitiis I find my foot can be painful first thing in the morning when I stand up on it. Hopefully in a month perhaps this will have healed and I can run again but there are no guarantees with this and I know this can linger for many months .

So today I switched my garmin forerunner to the cycling function, got a back pack ready with a spare waterproof jacket , a map and a drink. Pumped up the tyres and set off.

Cycling isn't something I have actively tried before. I have of course used a bike to get from a to b , pop into town but as a form of exercise no apart from the stationary cycle machines in a gym. I have also been a bit wary of traffic and know that bikes always come off second best in a fight with a car, I am therefore a real novice - totally green so this makes this a bit of an adventure and something exciting to do as a temporary replacement for running.

I put on my ipod and listened to Mark Kemode and Simon Mayo's Film Review podcast.  The episode I listened to included a review of the latest Iron man 2 film. As a boy I was a fan of all of the Marvel Comics including Ironman, Spiderman, The Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer to name a few  and this latest offering is definitely a precursor to the launch of the Avengers as a film.  The film introduced the Black Widow character played by Scarlet Johansson. The film is worth a watch if you like comic book character films.

The miles passed by on the bike fairly easily but at no great pace. My route took me through the villages of Fornham All Saints, Fornham St Genevieve, West Stow, Ingham and Timworth  all to the north of Bury St Edmunds. Obviously you can get a lot further afield on a bike and travel further than on a run. I stopped a couple of times for a quick drink but other than that I just kept going. I wasn't sure what I could do and how far to go and I wasn't prepared if I had of got a puncture.

But I did 14 miles in 1 hr 20 Min's for an average speed of 11 miles an hour.From what I can see this is very much an average speed for a complete beginner. Club cyclists spin the wheel at around 18 miles an hour.

Road-bike.co.UK indicates the following as a guide with all of the provisos concerning weather , hills equipment, traffic etc

• Beginner, short distance (say 10-15 miles): average speed 12 mph. Most cyclists can achieve 10-12 mph average very quickly with limited training
• More experienced, short-medium distance (say 20-30 miles): average speed 15-16 mph
• Reasonable experience, medium (say 40 miles): average speed 16-19 mph
• Quite competent club rider, some regular training likely, medium-long distances (say 50-60 miles): 20-24 mph

I forgot to take my camera so along with a puncture kit and a phone I will be better prepared next time. Did I enjoy it? Yes as a substitute for running it wasn't bad and I will want to make it competitive and give my self some challenges and improve my speed and the distance I cover.

Did I get bum ache? Yes my backside just isn't used to sitting on a bike.

The only other problem today was the amount of green fly in the air. There must be some outbreak of the pests at the moment and cycling meant keeping the mouth closed and wiping away the green fly every so often.

Thurston Suffolk

6pm 9 miles in 1hr 15 mins 11 secs
Week to date mileage 34 miles
Month to date mileage 55
Average weekly rate 30 miles
Average monthly rate 130
Year to date 961
Lifetime 10554

I drove down to the Fox in Eastgate Street and parked along the Broadway which is a wonderful row of houses in a handy location for the park and town.

My evening run plan was to head out to Thurston via Moreton Hall and the national cycle network route 51. The Sustrans project which has a vision of a national cycle network is a real success with over 10,000 miles of cycle pathways around the country. Route 51 runs between Colchester and Oxford. That said I haven't really cycled on it! We have a shed with at least 3 bikes in a state of disrepair -flat tires, slipped chains.

Perhaps a well known fact - James Moore from Bury St Edmunds was the winner of the World's first official cycle race in Paris in 1868. James Moore was born in Long Brackland. His winning bike is to be seen at Ely Museum.

Once through Moreton Hall I passed the Flying Fortress once an oasis in an airfield in countryside but soon to have neighboring houses and locals which must surely please the landlord. At this point you begin to pick up the route 51 signs and a long section of fencing along the airfield.

Route 51 is a handy running route with the obvious benefit of being car free though there is a fair amount of traffic some walkers and a good no of cyclists.

There was even a box of discovery apples that some friendly soul had placed on the route with a notice to help yourself and a supply of carry bags to boot.

This time of year when fields have just been harvested is quite beautiful but there is an element of sadness as well as it reflects the year moving on a pace and raises thoughts of Autumn and the clock change when we are pitched into darkness until March. However melancholy thoughts are short in this beautiful countryside which we can take for granted sometimes.

My run followed the cycle route until this takes you across the road and along a narrow road track to the railway crossing point and into Thurston. Keeping a straight path i ran up to the Thurston Community College and after a bit of a circuit around the village returned back to the Fox by the same route.