I entered all of the races I said I would in my last post.
I went along to Running Bear to buy a replacement wet weather top (I must have realised it was going to rain a lot in January!!) for my 1999 blue-purple model (of course, I haven't got rid of the original, silly of you to even think that was a possibility)
Late December & Early January was really about getting myself going again. This seems weird as I've just about carried on running all year, but illness and injury were common themes during 2013 and I felt that age was beginning to catch up with me. Things just don't work as well as they used to.
I also took on a new job and that has meant some changes, things are still changing so I don't know how this is going to pan out.
I set myself a target of getting back to my modest November level of fitness, trying to use a hill course as a tempo run a couple of times a week. At the time of writing, I'm probably back to that level, so that is nice and positive.
The only race to date has been the Blymhill 10k. This was a tough hard slog from beginning to end. I realised how slow and unfit I was, and given the deep mud everywhere, I was just glad to finish in one piece, and was very disappointed with my efforts. Hardly a ringing endorsement of my fitness levels but it shows I'm still moving I suppose.
Mileage for January has so far peaked at 38 in one week, but to make any real progress now I must maintain that kind of level, and worryingly mileage for the week after dropped to 30, it still doesn't take much to knock me off track. Also I have to sling in some faster work to lift the tempo a bit. And of course, I have to stay illness and injury free. So far, running with a Mueller knee strap has helped tremendously, I have none of the pre-Xmas problems with my knee cap.
I've just recorded a fairly good run up to and round the Wrekin, it's really time on my feet I'm after with the long runs at the moment, so all is very positive for the next month. And it's slightly exciting. If I can break the run/ill/injured cycle and actually start to progress then that will spur me on a little more.
