Blister

After a terrible start to the day (I drove into the side of an older lady's car while pulling out of Redwood Close), we went to Heaven's Gate. Eunice allowed me to run. I couldn't do the planned hill session at Ammerdown because I had to create a claim on my insurance. I recorded the run for my Swift Trails channel (despite Eunice not wanting me to, but it was a lovely sunny autumn day). I did a 12-minute warm-up, drills and then 10 efforts during a 36-minute run ranging from 30 seconds (mostly around the minute mark) and finishing with a longer 2-minute effort before resting for 5 minutes and then doing a 12-minute cooldown. This one felt quite hard considering I haven't run since Tuesday. My calf's became quite sore too.

Run with Tyler in his first ever race - the Clock Change 1.5km fun run in Calne.

Team Thie Circuits #189 - 3 x 25 seconds on/5 seconds off for each exercise, continues all the way through. I struggled tonight, mainly I think because I ate a heavy meal just 2 hours earlier. So did pause the video a few times for a longer rest.

Temp run along cycle track towards Thicket Mead and back in the dark using my head torch, MP3 player and watch to get me though. strava was also recording on my phone (in my pocket) to get my pace and distance. Legs and lower back were really right, sore and tired and I just generally felt heavy/tired - most likely from the recent increase in interval training I've been doing. I tried to make it a bit progressive, starting controlled and comfortable and trying to gradually increase the effort/pace roughly every 5 minutes or so. I was a bit surprised how slow the pace was for the effort, but considering how my body felt I can't really complain.

Warm up and cool down for tempo run along cycle track. For the first time in the 27 or so years of living in this area I discovered there is a public footpath that goes from Somervale Road straight up to Wells Road! So I tried it out on the way back home. Felt tired and sore warming up, my left achilles was especially sore/inflamed.

Decided against trying to do an interval session in the end because a) it was sunny and wanted to capture a virtual run (Whitehall loop seemed most logical due to lack of time/daylight) and b) I felt tired and had not recovered from Tuesday's tempo run. I struggled my way around this (did moreless the same loop as the summer version, except started in a different place. It was sunny for the first 2 or so miles then annoyingly cloud came over and it was cast over the rest of the run. I decided to keep recording anyway and since it was Halloween realised I could turn the last half of the run into a spooky Halloween virtual run (which I did!).

Walking/exploring around Ebbor Gorge with mum, dad, Eunice and Tyler (their first time). We managed to get to the top and see the nice view despite not having appropriate walking shoes. Dad fell (twice in the same spot) on the way down, going back to the car, otherwise, he did pretty well considering how he would have coped a few months ago.

Jogging around Norton Town Park and batch (15 times around the top loop) while Tyler was at theatre group. My legs felt stiff, tired, heavy and very achy, which surprised me after having 3 days of rest (apart from the walk around Ebbor Gorge yesterday).

Recording a 'Zombie' Fartlek virtual run around Asham Wood on a bleak, cast over and slightly foggy day. My legs weren't feeling amazing, but better than yesterday. I didn't really warm up properly (just did Frankinstein and pointers) and did 8 efforts of around 1 to 2.5 minutes each.

Team Thie circuits from 6th November 2023. 25 seconds on/10 seconds off and 2 sets of exercises.

The original plan was to do 5 x 1km at roughly 3000m race pace, which I was hoping would be 3.20 per km. But arriving feeling tired, achy, and stiff, I decided to play it by ear and aim for at least 3 reps. My warm-up took a long time because I was chatting to a few people and then rushed 2 strides before starting. The first rep felt hard and a lot faster than I was running - even the first 200m was too slow, but the good thing is I kept even splits. On the second I managed to speed up slightly; on the third, I managed to get down to that 3.20 pace and then some in the last 300m. I decided not to attempt a fourth, mainly because of my legs' soreness. Lousie was there, and this was my last session/run before turning 39! My achilles felt really sore while cooling down.

Helping my dad replace some of the fence in the garden. We only managed two panels because digging the holes took significantly longer than they should have - the ground was full of rocks, and I had to drill through them all.

A mini hill session at Ammerdown Woods while Tyler was at gymnastics practice. I didn't have time for a longer session, but I wouldn't have coped with one anyway as this felt tough. I did 4 reps of the hill from the bottom car park to the top where it levels, then 90 seconds walking followed by jogging, ~4 minutes recovery between each rep. Achilles felt sore while warming up.

Recording an autumn virtual run along Mells River, including the Mells Estate 'Scouts Camping' ground, which annoyingly had a car and two dog walkers drive through as I ran through! My legs felt tired today but I got back in one piece. It was muddy, but not too bad underfoot for most of it.

Recording a virtual run from Wellow to Bath - well attempting to. The whole day was a disaster. I planned to record it today because it was initially predicted to be sunny, but just as I was about to leave, a huge blanked of cloud came over. I waited 30 minutes and it seemed to be passing, so I took a chance and headed off to stash my bike in the planned location. Well, that turned out to be the first disaster. I put it into a farmer's field and somehow got spotted immediately. The farmer's son came down in his JCB to investigate but I drove off, thinking it was just bad luck timing that he would be going into the field. I drove up what turned out to be a bridleway only to be confronted by the farmer, who immediately accused me of fly-tipping. I tried to explain what I was doing but he wasn't having any of it. His son came back and I eventually pursued him I was genuinely just trying to use it to get back to Wellow. I drove off down the bridleway, which was a really bad idea, full of holes and just narrow and bumpy - to top it off I came face to face with a tractor cutting the hedges just before I got to the end - luckily he reversed to let me out. I got to Wellow and another blanked of cloud came over. I considered going back home but thought I put so much effort into getting to this point that I should just do the run (and quickly because time was short). Apart from the bad weather, the run was going well and at least it was quiet, but not as autumny as IU had hoped (still a lot of greenery). I got through the long tunnel just to discover the shorter one was closed for drainage repairs. So I had to to detour and find my way back to the other side of the tunnel before continuing. I got the the end and caught the bus back, then cycled to the car and got home expecting angry Eunice to be there, but luckily she wasn't, so I managed to quickly shower and change before she got home (well she rang and asked for a lift just 10 minutes before my call with Barclays and Becky). To top things off I had the GoPro in hyperview mode instead of superview, which is the mode I wanted.

Team Thie circuits - 3 blocks of 25 seconds on with 5 seconds recovery.

Short hill session in Ammerdown Woods while Tyler was at gymnastics. I was initially going to aim for 5 reps to progress from last week, but I still felt really tired probably from watching Wells carnival last night (over 4 hours standing). So I did 4 reps instead, but managed to run each faster than last week by a few seconds.

Recording a virtual run around Becly and Black Dog Woods in Chapmanslade on a beautiful sunny day. I've been suffering from tonsillitis since Saturday/Sunday and have been feeling really rough and lethargic, but felt relatively a lot better today and with the nice weather I didn't want to miss the chance to record this run - annoyingly most of the autumn leafs have now dropped to the ground - but it still looked beautiful, especially in the sun. I coped surprisingly well, just felt a little lethargic/tired, especially in the past few miles, but managed to push through and complete the run.