John O'Groats to Lands End - Five Weeks To Go

Only five weeks to go before the start of the Big Run. Last minute nerves.

I'm working full time Monday to Friday up until then so that makes it harder to fit in the miles. It will make things more sorted financially, so that's good.

After a big mileage week (130) the week before last, last week I only managed 50 miles. This weeks total will be 90.

So I'm getting the fear that I'm not doing enough miles to be fit enough for the run.

But I don't want to push the mileage too hard because I'm afraid of overtraining at this point. I'm also afraid of developing some kind of overuse injury. My achilles tendons feel absolutely fine now after some problems earlier on.

Now my worry is a tenderness that I feel along the front of my shins after a run. It reminds me of the shin splints I developed a few years ago. That put me out of the game for months.

So, on balance, I'd rather start the run somewhat undertrained but injury free and with my enthusiasm intact.

I do feel fantastically fit, though.

Months ago on weekends I was running 18 milers and the occasional 25 or 30 mile run. Then I thought, wait a minute I want to be running 35 maybe 40 miles a day but I'm not going to be running that all in one hit. I'm going to be running it in chunks. So I stopped doing the big long runs and started running 10 milers, but often doing two or three a day. I thought that made more sense.

But I did the 10 milers relatively fast, without a break and running all the hills. Usually eight and a half to nine minute miles. That's quite hard running if you're doing three in a day. I was thinking, train hard, run easy.

In June, when I'll be doing the run, each day will have about 16 and a half hours of daylight. That's a lot of running time. So I can afford to run more slowly than I have been in training. It takes less energy to run the same miles if you run more slowly. And I don't have to run the really tough hills. I can take a walk break whenever I want. I can take it easy. It's not a race. As long as a I do the miles.

My goal is a pretty loose kind of goal. I'm going to travel from John O'Groats to Lands End on my own two feet, running most of the time, off road most of the time, carrying my own gear, refueling with food and water as I go. The distance should be something like 1,150 miles and I'd like to do it in not too much more than a month.

35 days at 35 miles a day ought to about do it.

Put like that it doesn't sound too hard. And I honestly believe it isn't. It's what I was born to do. OK I've been running fairly seriously for a few years now and training specifically to do this for several months but my physiology has been in preparation for this kind of thing for a couple of million years.

You know something, I'm going to stop worrying about it. Right this minute I'm going to get up and go out for another run. Richmond Park will be beautiful in the sunshine. And I'll have some porridge and banana when I get back.

Then I'll finish off the press release for the The Road to Endorphia and get it off to some people. The Edinburgh Festival is only about 13 weeks away.

Hey Ho! Lets Go.

John O'Groats to Lands End - Training Ups and Downs

Last week I ran 130 miles. That's 13 ten mile runs. I ran once on one day, twice on three days, three times on two days and I had one day off. I took the day off before the last day so I was relatively fresh for that last day of running. That was one of the days when I ran three times. I was feeling so good that I ran all three of my runs really fast. I mean each of those three runs might have been faster than any other run that week. I ran hard and fast that day. All in all it was a good week.

This week in five days so far I have run 30 miles. I thought, that's OK, I've been working this week. I'll make it up at the weekend.

I couldn't get out of bed this morning (Saturday). I eventually dragged myself round the corner for a big breakfast just after noon. I had the sausage, egg, bubble, beans, tomato, toast and tea then did some shopping. I got a few things from the nearby Tesco Metro rather than getting the bus to the big Sainsbury's. That was a measure of my lethargy. Another sign of low energy might have been when I was stood in the aisle almost blubbering because they didn't have "proper" porridge.

I got home around two and unpacked my paltry stock of groceries. Then I went upstairs. Without thinking I lay down on the bed. I barely got my shoes off before I fell asleep in my jacket. I woke up at four.

I ran in the rain yesterday morning but this afternoon, after what must be about fourteen hours sleep in all, the sunshine can't tempt me outside. I'm sitting in bed typing this.

Still, my appetite seems to be fine and I'm getting some admin e-mails done. I've organised a second venue for the Edinburgh Festival. Well, I should say Peter Buckley Hill, of PBH's Free Fringe, organised the venue. All I have to do is take him up on the offer. It means I'll now be doing a total of 36 performances of The Road to Endorphia in Edinburgh. I need to update the Fringe Programme listing with the new venue details.

I also need to get photographs done, a press release written, a flyer and poster designed and made print ready. I need to study and plan the route from John O'Groats to Lands End. I need to plan and book transport - how I am I going to get to the top of Scotland? and how am I going to get back from the extreme southwest of England? I need to write a show. I need to write a show that is funny and interesting. And I need to get up off my arse and run upwards of a hundred miles a week for the next three weeks so that I will be fit enough to do the run or the fact that Tesco Metro in Mortlake doesn't have "proper" porridge will be the least of my troubles.

Anyway, in the eternal words of Scarlett O'Hara, I'll think about that tomorrow.

Right now I'm going to get up and have some microwave lasagne with a couple of baked potatoes. Yeah, the appetite is still working.

Friday Morning Ten Miles Richmond Park

Ten miles without a twinge. A really sweet run. Blowing out the second ten miler yesterday was the right thing to do.

As regards my readiness for the John O'Groats to Lands End run I'm not too worried about my fitness. I'm really confident about my cardiovascular fitness. Even running twenty miles a day my resting heart rate on waking is usually in the low to mid forties. I may have the face of an old fart but I have the heart and lungs of a young god. A pagan god of course. But not Apollo. Maybe Dionysus. Yeah, Dionysus drunk on endorphins.

And I've never really had any problems with my joints. Never any lower back pain or trouble with hips or knees. And problems with my achilles tendons have been episodic rather than chronic. And it has always been pretty obvious what has caused the problem. Usually increasing mileage by silly amounts. Or the time recently when I ran almost thirty miles on roads in those beautiful Inov8 shoes which were meant for soggy cross country conditions.

But now, even after showering and eating and everything has had a chance to stiffen up there isn't a whisper from that left achilles tendon.

So I'm feeling good. I've just had a couple of baked potatoes and spinach cannelloni. Time for a nap.

Knowing When Not To Run

Today the second ten miler did not happen. After a stiff and slow start the ten miles in the morning was fine. Then a baked potato, spinach, pasta and cheese, bread and butter lunch was followed by a two hour nap.

But when I woke up I did not feel right at all. My resting heart rate was over 50 but I would have let that go if my left achilles tendon had not been feeling decidedly weird. It hurt, it was swollen and it felt funny when I was walking downstairs. There was a tightness all the way around my leg just above the ankle.

Once I had made the decision not to run I stopped worrying about it. Worry is hard work, and it's all wasted energy. If I was going to rest instead of running then that was going to be good quality rest. I read, I ate food and I watched TV. Now and again I did some gentle stretching.

What I do tomorrow will depend on how my leg feels. Just now it feels as if it has definitely benefited from the rest. I don't believe in sticking too rigidly to a schedule where training is concerned. It's important to listen to your body and to know when not to run.

Anyway, 50 miles over three days ain't bad.

Two Ten Mile Runs - A Perfect Day

After the impromptu 20 miler yesterday I slept late today. In fact I didn't go out for my first ten miles until midday. And it was a pretty good run. I felt fine.

Afterwards I showered and had lunch of two big baked potatoes, steamed broccoli and smoked fish. Oh yeah, and a couple of slices of bread and butter.

Then a lie down seemed in order, just a little nap.

Anyway, three hours later I was struggling to wake up. I was really reluctant to get moving and go out again. My left achilles tendon felt a bit dodgy, my heart rate was up to 49 beats a minute, I felt a bit dehydrated and my piss looked decidedly green. And anyway, if I went out running now it would be dark before I got back.

I was very close to wimping out.

But it's the beginning of April already. Just two months till I start out from John O'Groats. I need to put in the miles. I reckoned I would start out slow and if my achilles got worse I would walk back.

I started out and I wasn't feeling great, but I told myself that there would be lots of times on the road from John O'Groats to Lands End when I would be feeling worse. There were lots of times running between Inverness and Glasgow last summer when I felt like shit, my mojo was low and there was just no fun left in it.

What you have to do then is find the pace that works, you have to find the rhythm, and you have to remember, you have to allow your body to remember, that this is what you were made to do. Each one of us has the body an endurance runner, selected over a couple of million years of evolution.

Bottom line, you just keep running. And so I did, and pretty soon I was feeling OK, and pretty soon after that I was feeling fine and by the time I had got to the top of that last tough hill and was two thirds of the way through the run I was feeling fantastic.

A second 20 mile day and a good start to another 120 mile week. Perfect.