Runs this week: 3 (all at easy pace) Total miles run: 10.81 Swimming: 2 sessions

This week was my first week back after a week off after the Ashford 10K, and it was tough going. I don’t think it was so much the lay off from running that caused the problems, but the massively increased intake of beer and bad food!

It doesn’t feel like I’ve run at all, but I did manage to fit 3 runs in, including an early morning 2 and a half miler. My long run today wasn’t exactly long, at only 5 miles, but it was tough going - especially as it was raining for the whole time.

Still, it feels good to now be back in the swing of things, particularly as this time last year I’d just had my stress fracture. This winter therefore will be my first winter running. This hit home today as the clocks went back last night, so this afternoon it was practically pitch black by about 4.30pm.

I think I may buy a headlamp to go running with. Even though most of the roads I run are lit by streetlamps it seems that more and more of them are left turned off - I guess to save the council money! There’s nothing worse than running and not knowing where the ground is!

I’ve also been running this week in my support ASICS. My orthotics in my NB’s were just hurting too much. I’m due to see a new podiatrist next weekend which I’m really looking forward to. I want to stop worrying about whether or not I’m doing more damage to my legs every time I run.

OK, I’ve kept meaning to start posting again, but it just hasn’t worked out!

I’ve been so busy either at work, or running or swimming, that this site has taken a bit of a back seat. That will hopefully change now as I make every effort to start blogging again.

So, what’s happened since my last post way back in July?

Firstly, I’ve take part in two more 10K races. The first of which was the Great Forest 10K in Bedgebury Forest in Kent. The second was last week at Ashford - the Givaudan Ashford 10K.

I’ve also had a bit of a health scare. The day after the Great Forest run I experienced a strange reaction after using some rub on ibuprofen muscle rub on my legs. I couldn’t breathe very well, and kept feeling really dizzy. In the end it was that bad I called out an ambulance. After they calmed me down we came to the conclusion it was some kind of panic attack after a mild reaction to the ibuprofen. However, they did an ECG and the results weren’t normal. One of the readings showed either an enlarged section of the heart due to disease, or due to it basically being larger than normal due to exercise. The week after I visited a private consultant. I’ll explain fully on the site what happened shortly. Suffice to say it was a pretty scary couple of weeks!

Anyway, I’m OK now and if anything it was good to have all the tests carried out, as I now know I’m fighting fit!

My orthotics have been giving me problems recently, and I’ve been switching between my structured ASICS with no orthotics and my neutral NB’s with the orthotics in. The ASICS either mean my legs don’t feel great, or the NB’s mean I get a massive blister on my left foot.

I’ve decided to go and see a new podiatrist in a couple of weeks at a running shop based at the Julie Rose Stadium in Ashford. I’m kind of thinking that it makes a great deal of sense to see a podiatrist with a good experience of treating runners.

So, a lot has been happening - but I’m sure a whole lot more will happen too!

I’ve started training again today after a week’s break. The next race is the Crowborough 10K at the end of November.

Both of these two things helped me out on my 7 miler tonight. It was baking hot (although there was a stiff breeze in places), and so a nice new New Balance running hat and a pair of Sunwise wrap around shades came in very useful.

The run was good too. I felt strong and breathed well, but the last two miles were quite tiring on the feet. Especially the tendon on the inside of my left ankle - right where it joins the ankle.

I slightly twisted my ankle last Sunday on last week’s run, so I think it may be from that. Just to be on the safe side though I’m going to move Monday morning’s 3 mile easy run to Tuesday morning.

7 miles - 9:24 AvgPace (bang on the target!) - 144 AvgHR

Yesterday’s run ended in a post entitled ‘Ouch, ouch, ouch!!!’, so tonight I had to try and run through some stiffness.

I was pretty worried when I set out, but thought I’d give it a few minutes to see if I warmed up OK… and, I did.

It felt a prett easy 3 miler, although with a Pilates class straight afterwards, I’m feeling a tad worn out now!

3 miles - 9:26 avg pace - 136 avg HR

Ouch may not be the right word. But tonight’s run hurt. It hurt a lot!

It was the first speed interval session of the new training plan, and it went a little like this…

As ever I was supposed to start off at 9:24 pace. This, again as ever, didn’t happen, so the first 1.5 miles was run at 9:07. I felt good. The only problem was I still hadn’t really decided what route I was going to run.

Once the warm up was out of the way it was time to speed up for half a mile at the target pace of 7:04. I did a good job, covering the half mile in 7:06 pace. This section was slightly uphill and the breathing was very hard! I don’t think I’ve ever breathed so hard when running. It wasn’t a couldn’t breath, just a feeling of breathing really, really hard. I was glad when the half mile was up.

The next quarter of a mile was a gentle jog at 9:29 pace, before speeding up again for another half mile. This time it was easier (probably due to no uphill gradient!) and faster - with a pace of 6:56. Again though I was happy with the next quarter mile jog.

At this point I still felt pretty strong.

The final half mile was again uphill, and I started to tire quite badly. The legs really started to feel like they were full of lactic acid, and the joints started to stiffen. 7:19 was the best I could manage.

Once I finished the final fast half mile I cooled down for 1.75 miles at 9:32.

This is where it started to hurt. Everything felt stiff. My form seemed to go out of the window. It was hard enough just to lift my feet off of the ground!

I think I realise now how I’ve never really trained at this intensity before. And the sad thing is, it also felt great!

Yes…. I think this is what it feels like to be addicted to running!

I’m unable to run on a Monday or Tuesday evening, so once again the alarm clock went off this morning at 5.50am.

It wasn’t that difficult to get up though as I had a pretty bad night’s sleep… so was awake anyway at half 5.

I spent a good 10 minutes doing gentle stretches and roller exercises before going out as I had quite a tight tendon on the outside of my left ankle.

The target was 3 miles at 9:24, and as always I’m beginning to think that 9:24 is too slow a pace for me. I couldn’t have run much slower than I did really without it being completely un-natural. In the end I averaged 9:03 (with an average heart rate of 137).

Tomorrow will be a rest day to give me time to recover for my speed session on Wednesday.

I went on my first long run of the new training plan yesterday… a steady target of 9:24 for 7 miles. You may not believe this, but it ended only slightly outside that - at 9:21 for 7 miles. This was also the first time I’d ever run over 1 hour!

It was a pretty hot day, but there was quite a bit of broken cloud and a nice stiff wind at times, so it wasn’t too hard going.

We were at the gym, so my route was around the West Malling area - which doesn’t normally motivate me too much for a long run…

The first 2 miles is along a dual carriageway - quite a nice wide path, but not the nicest view in the world! I then turned towards a village called Larkfield, where I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many petrol stations in the space of 1 mile. Other than that, nothing much to write home about.

On the way back I cut across some wheat fields on a bridleway, which although quite pretty, was quite hard , as the ground was dusty and slippery (and also uphill).

The last couple of miles were back along the main road, and also were uphill.

It felt much loner than 7 miles, but I think that was due to the fact I didn’t have a clue where I was. I think a route is always longer when you haven’t been there before.

I was worried about my left ankle before I started, and it hurt a bit during the run. Every time I get a pain in that area now I wonder if it’s the start of another stress fracture. I think I’m starting to understand what’s a muscular twinge now though and on this occasion I think it’s all right.

When I got back to the gym my Mum and Dad met us, so after some lunch I played my Dad at tennis. It was the first time I’d played tennis for at least 20 years, and it was also the first ever time I’d beaten my Dad!

After tennis is was nice to hit the outdoor pool.

An easy 2 mile recovery run. Nothing more, nothing less!

I’ve been off of work this week (on holiday), so spent yesterday lounging by the outside pool at the gym. I wasn’t there for long and I did put on some sun tan lotion, but obviously not enough! I felt very light headed last night and woke up this morning with some sore bits!

So, I was in two minds as to whether or not go for the scheduled run this morning. But as it was due to be the first tempo run of the 11 week plan, I thought it wouldn’t be the best of starts if I didn’t bother.

The first mile to warm up was due to be run at 9:24 pace, but as always I found it difficult to run that slow to start with - so ended up running the first mile in 8:58.

The next 3 miles were to be run at 7:54… which was tough going. However, averaging things out I managed 7:59 - which I don’t think is too bad at all. The actual running felt OK, but every time the clouds disappeared and the sun came out it was just very very hot and hard going.

I was supposed to warm down wit a mile at 9:24 again, but due to the route I planned coming right past my house after 4.5 miles, I thought I would call it a day!

I went for a swim this afternoon too to work on the front crawl drills I got yesterday at my swimming lesson… but that’s a-whole-nother post!

Today was the first day of my 11 week training schedule - as prescribed using the Smart Coach system on RunnersWorld.co.uk.

It certainly started off as an easy day, with just a 2 mile easy run. Target pace was 9:24 a mile… but I went a tad quicker at 9:03. Average heart rate was 139.

It was a lovely day for a run… nice and hot with blue skies.

I’m off of work this week, so I went to a Pilates class before the run, and had a massage after it. It was the first massage I’d had since the SheRunsHeRuns Bluewater 10K last week… so my calves feel a whole lot better now.

My god it was hot this afternoon!

I went out at about 5 o’clock and it was baking. It would have been very easy to just have a short run, but with my 10k race next week I knew I had to do at least 5 miles today.

Although it was so hot, I felt pretty good today, apart from a slight pain in my left knee on the inside. A couple of times earlier in the day it felt like the knee had lost its stability. It didn’t feel too good after about a mile, but about 10 minutes later the pain had gone. Pain is probably to strong a word to be honest. It was more like a dull ache.

I’ve been swimming a lot this weekend, so I think the knee pain could be down to that. Too much breaststroke!

I have actually been trying as hard as possible to learn the front crawl. I’ve always practically drowned when I try to breath doing the front crawl, as I don’t think it’s physically possible for me to not breath through my nose at all! So, I bought a nose clip. I may look like a synchronised swimmer, but at least now I can almost do the front crawl. Today I just about managed a length (25 metres).

A heavenly run tonight… it was pouring with rain!

I absolutely love running in the rain. I love the feeling of it against your face and body, I love the cars splashing puddles over you, I love it!

Apart from that, nothing really to say about tonight’s run!

I’m pretty pleased with myself tonight…

I had an away day at work today at an outdoor adventure type place… so I spent the day outside doing some very minor exercise and eating a lot of buffet style food at lunchtime. The weather was quite good too, which all lead to feeling a tad tired by the end of the day at 4 o’clock.

Still, tonight I was planning to do a speed session, so I did some stretches when I got home and then went straight out.

The first mile was average, with tight achilles tendons and rather heavy breathing.

The second mile I picked up the pace to 7:29 min/mile which felt pretty good. It’s funny, but I still find it much more natural and easy to run faster than slower.

After quarter of a mile at base pace (just under 9 min mile pace) I picked up again to 7:46. This time just for three quarters of a mile - due to it being uphill!

Down to base pace again for quarter of a mile and then another mile at 7:41, before cooling down at base pace.

All in all a good run. The weather was baking hot with little wind, and having had pretty poor food all day and hardly any liquids I think I did pretty well.

It felt like I could have held an 8 minute pace quite comfortably, so that may be my pace for the 10k next weekend. I may do the first 5k at 8minute, and then try to pick it up from there.

Another early morning session this morning…

I left home at 6.20am and didn’t exactly feel like running. To spice things up slightly (!) I ran a route I hadn’t run for months. To be honest the main reason I changed routes was because the one I did this morning has a bit more life to it. It goes in to my local town and back again, so at 6.30 in the morning there’s a few people about. And at that time of morning I find it easier to run if I see other forms of human life out and about It also makes me feel good knowing I’m exercising whilst they’re plodding their way to the train station, or even worse… standing around lazily at the bus stop trying to avoid the 10 minute walk to the train station!

My feet also didn’t feel great this morning, so I decided to curtail the run and only do 2.36 miles. I considered adding on some more, but it would have been another mile, and I didn’t really fancy tweaking something with less than 2 weeks to go until my 10k race.

I’m glad I did keep it easy as at lunchtime today I started to get a dull ache just where I did my stress fracture above my left ankle. The feeling has subsided now, and to be honest I’m not sure if it was muscular, tendons, ligaments or something more worrying with the bone. I’m going to try and block it from my mind in preparation for what will hopefully be a decent 4 mile run with tempo intervals tomorrow evening.

You know when everything just kind of feels right? Well today’s run was one of those days!

I didn’t think it would be as I had a strange feeling in my foot all morning, which I couldn’t work out as being a muscle pain or something wrong wit a bone. So, the first 10 minutes were going to tell me if it would be a long run or not, and luckily, it felt just just fine, so I headed off for my normal 10K-ish route.

It was also perfect conditions this afternoon. Slightly warm, but overcast with a nice breeze. I’d bought a new Nike Dry-Fit running vest this morning, and to be honest I can’t believe I’ve waited this long to get a vest (I’ve always gone for standard t-shirts before). It was so much more comfortable that a normal t-shirt. It ma sound funny, but even feeling the breeze against my shoulders seemed to make me run stronger!

Although I was pretty tired when I got back home I felt like I could have kept going for at least a couple more. That’s always a great feeling to have… once I’ve done my 10K race in two weeks time I’l probaby start to up the miles.

Just time for a half hour session on the treadmill this evening before my Pilates class.

I made it as close to a tempo sessions as possible… and so ended up doing about 3 and a half miles in the half hour - which included a very slow 5 minute warm up and cool down.

The pilates class was great and really helped me stretch out my legs.

I’m not going to get a chance to go out running Wednesday, Thursday or Friday this week, so I had to go out for a run before work this morning. The alarm went of at 5:55am and I managed to get out of the door at about 6.25am.

I was pretty nervous going out this early, as last time I had a very early morning run my achilles tendons were pretty sore for a couple of days afterwards. So, I started off pretty slowly, but I also began to feel loose pretty quickly too. The first mile or so I felt a tad breathless - but having only been up for a half an hour I guess that wasn’t too much of a surprise.

I made sure I had a good stretch when I got home and a recovery drink before my normal berry smoothy and peanut butter on wholemeal toast, before setting off to work at 7.45am.

I’m looking forward to sleep now!

A big step today.. my first 10k run since coming back from my stress fracture!

It wasn’t the easiest of runs in some ways, but in others it wasn’t too bad at all.

The negatives were the heat (it was supposed to be raining this afternoon - but instead it was baking!) and tired lower legs. I started off with quite tight calfs, but after about a mile they started to settle down. My right achilles felt a little bad as well at one point, but then I just adjusted my form slightly and it seemed to clear it up.

Now for the good parts… my heart and lungs seemed to be handling the work pretty well. I ran faster than I’d planned - at a pretty consistent 8:55 mile/min pace, but even up some tough hills my heart rate only reached 163. The average rate was 150 - which is my normal base training rate.

So all in all a good run.

It’s 3 weeks today until my first race of the year - the Bluewater She Runs He Runs 10K. I’m still undecided about how I’m going to approach it though. Should I treat it as a simple training run, or should I go for a decent-ish time? I’m going to see how I go over the next couple of weeks.

Training this week could be tricky, as I’m going to be out Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - so I may have to force myself into some early morning sessions.

Another 3 miles on the treadmill today at the gym. Im planning on doing a long run tomorrow, so I just did a gentle 3 miler at base pace.

Had a good run tonight. It was my Pilates class at the gym at 7pm, so I went out at 6pm after a good stretch.

I started with 0.8miles at what felt a very slow 8:31min/mile pace. After that I did 3 sets of half a mile at about 7.40 mile/min pace with a quarter of a mile recovery in between.

It was the first time I’ve done a really serious speed session on the road since my stress fracture, and it felt good. It was great to get up on my toes pushing the pace.

I think I could have gone further too… but Pilates was calling!

Pilates was good but painful. A lot of the exercises were focussing on the hips and outside of the legs, so these started to get a bit sore as the hour session ended. It was good to end with some real good stretches though (and then the obligatory swim and sauna!).

I was in Sheffield today on business and forced myself to go to the gym for a run.

I did about 30minutes (3 miles-ish) at base pace with a few minute bursts of speed thrown in. It is a bit hard to fartlek on a treadmill though… there’s just not enough lamp posts to run to! It was even harder as I knocked the emergency stop button as I went to a fast pace!

Well, it’s the day after my first run with my new Asics Gel GT-2130’s (without my orthotics) and I can still walk OK!

My ankles feel slightly stiff on the inside but other than that I think all is OK. The pain I’ve been having inside my calfs over the last few weeks has also subsided - so on the whole I’m feeling pretty good.

I’ve just spent about an hour stretching and using the foam roller so I should be good enough for a run tomorrow. I’m up early tomorrow to go on a business trip, so I’m going to have to dig dip to force myself on to a treadmill in the hotel’s gym tomorrow night.

My first run without my orthotics since before Christmas (6 weeks ago), and with my brand new pair of Asics Gel GT-2130’s.

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Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that there haven’t exactly been many posts recently! To be honest I’ve just been so busy with the day job that I haven’t really had the time to commit to updating this site. Also, I was forced to have about 3 weeks off of running as I continued to have my sports massage sessions to try and get rid of my painful achilles tendons.

Taking 3 weeks off just as I had got back to a regular routine was very difficult, but what with the daily stretch routines in the morning and evening, and the weekly massages, I’ve certainly noticed a real difference in the state of m lower legs.

I got back on the road 2 weeks ago now, and it’s been going well. I’m now back to about 15 miles per week - over 3 or 4 runs. So, the regular training log posts will start again… and I’ll return to posting other articles too.

Training began in earnest today, as I let behind the boring monotonous easy base building runs of the last couple of months.

The next few weeks are still going to be pretty easy going, especially as my legs get used to my new forefoot/midfoot landing.

Today’s run was really good. 10 minutes warm up followed by 6 30 second strides with 1 minute recoveries, and then another 10 minutes to cool down.

What was really noticeable was how much easy it was to land forefoot when running the strides.

My calves are really tight today - probably due to an overexertion at the gym yesterday. I’m booked to have a sports massage tomorrow. A slight treat for myself as I’m off of work this week!

My legs felt like lead tonight, and I also felt like I couldn’t breath at all. But other than that it was a great run!

3.64 miles at an average 8:38 mile/min pace with an average heart rate of 147.

I didn’t try too hard to get a forefoot strike tonight as my achilles are quite tight, as were my calf muscles. It felt pretty midfoot though.

I’m going to have an exercise free day tomorrow to try and recover nicely for a slightly longer run on Sunday.

A slight issue with my Garmin tonight! I stopped it to do some stretches after a mile, and then forgot to restart it again until after another half mile. Oh well! So the above distance isn’t exactly right!

I’ve been doing some form drills at home the last couple of nights, mainly running on the spot to ingrain the feeling of forefoot/midfoot footstrike and landing below my centre of gravity. So tonight I stopped running a couple of times, and then ran on the spot for a couple of seconds before starting to run again. This really hammered home the right feeling to me. It felt good running too. My right calf was a bit tight, so I’ve iced it tonight, and the achilles are bit tight too, so I’m hoping I’ll be OK in the morning.

I also managed to run most of the run at a cadence of 176 a minute - which may explain the faster average pace.

I thought tonight’s run would be hard work, but it turned out to be pretty good.

I’ve been away all weekend as it was my 36th birthday last Friday and my present from my 6 year old son was a weekend away with just him! I’d been trying to take him camping last year but due to the amount of rain we had there was never a time that was guaranteed to be dry… so he’d said to my wife that he wanted to take me away for my birthday.

So, it was a pretty busy weekend… and on top of that the clocks went forward last night. In effect I was up at about 5 o’clock this morning.

A Sunday evening run therefore didn’t fill me with much excitement. But once I got started I realised I felt good and strong. I had a lot of breath overall the run felt really easy. Footstrike also seems to be getting closer and closer to my centre of gravity.

I don’t think I’ve ever been as hungry on a run as I was tonight…

After about 2 miles I was absolutely starving and thinking of every food under the sun. It didn’t help that at this point I passed a fish and chip shop!

I really had no energy whatsoever, but I didn’t let myself stop running. I was no way going to admit defeat and walk.

I don’t know why I was so hungry… I had a good lunch and also had a banana about an hour before going out. It could be that I’ve got the start of a cold - which I guess could just be sapping my energy.

The shins didn’t feel too bad today, but what with the hunger it was hard to concentrate to much on my form. I think I did a pretty good job of midfoot landing though.

I think an early night is in order!

I’ve been concerned all day today about a dull pain I’ve had just above where I had my stress fracture last year.

I haven’t got any pains elsewhere, and it doesn’t seem to be worse when I’m walking. It just feels like someone has kicked me in the ankle. I’m hoping that it’s just the tendons around the area, rather than an inflammation of anything else. I’ll ice it for a bit in a minute, and hope that it clears up by the morning.

I’m due for a 3.5 mile run tomorrow evening, but I’ll have to see how I go.

I’ve been suffering the last couple of days with shin splints. I thought Sunday’s run wasn’t too bad, but I must have been really heel striking.

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Another run today starting at my gym.

The actual run was OK… so much so I decided to add a mile on at the end (I was only going to do 2 and a half miles originally).

The bad news is that just as I started this extra mile a massive hailstorm set in. I was soaked and absolutely freezing. It took about half hour to feel my arms again once I’d finished!

Well, after last night’s training run I was really worried that my achilles tendons would be unbearable this morning. Due to the fact I was almost landing toe-heel rather than midfoot on the run my right calf was really quite tight afterwards.

However, when I woke up this morning both achilles tendons probably felt the best they’ve felt for months. So, so far, so good!

I started to re-read my Chi Running book last night, as well as doing some of the exercises in there. But that’s a-whole-nother post!

I hadn’t been out for a run since last week (due to a little bit of a hangover at the weekend!), but tonight was surprisingly good.

I concentrated on footstrike again, and at times, if anything, I was landing toe-heel. It was unbelievable how it suddenly clicked in to place. As soon as my feet were landing below my centre of gravity the footstrike just felt ‘right’.

My achilles and calves are a bit tight though now… although other than that it doesn’t even feel like I’ve been out for a run. I hope the achilles pain isn’t really bad in the morning… I’ll let you know!

Today’s run was one of those runs that I’m not really sure went well, but at the same time I’m not to sure if it went badly!

It was quite a nice evening tonight, but pretty cold. Just how I like spring evenings. It took a while to warm up - my legs and feet felt really heavy to start with.

I’ve still got a starnge tight pain in the left hand edge of my right calf muscle, which after about 10 mins starts to loosen up. And as for my feet, they just feel strange at the moment. My achilles tendons were their normal selves (tight, then loose, then slightly tight again!), but I just didn’t seem to get comfortable with my footstrike. i think the proble is I’m still trying to land mid-foot, but as I’m running so slowly this just doesn’t feel natural.

At one point I thought I’d just run without thinking of foot-strike, and felt myself landing more on the heel - although I’m pretty sure it was the base of the heel rather than the back of the heel - so maybe my efforts are starting to pay off.

Saying that, I have had mild pains every now and again in the base of my heels over the last couple of days, so that may also be indicative of a more forefoot landing.

I guess it’s still early days with my orthotics too. I’ve walked for 35 years without them, so to get completely used to them within 3 months does seem a bit unrealistic!

I’ve also had mild knee pain the last couple of days in my left knee. It hurts the most when I straighten my leg fully - right in the middle of the knee cap. And whilst running tonight I was certainly aware of my knee. When I got home the knee was mildly painful for about 10 mins. I think I’ll just have to keep an eye on that one.

After a pretty restless sleep last night I didn’t exactly feel like going for a run this morning. But as we were all going to the gym anyway, I thought I may as well.

I’ve felt pretty good after my run-fit class on Friday evening, so I decided to extend the route to about 3.5miles.

The first mile or so was very difficult. I felt really breathless for some reason. It was still hard running to a 9.50min/mile pace though. My natural easy run pace seems to be at the 9min/mile pace at the moment.

By the end of the run I was feeling OK - and a gentle swim, sauna and time in the spa certainly helped too. As did the burger and chips for lunch!

I was really in two minds as to whether or not I should go out tonight. I’d had a twingy pain in my left heel all day, and was concerned I may have overstrieched my achilles tendons last night.

After much consideration though I decided to go out. I’m kind of coming to the conclusion now that it’s OK to have some discomfort as I get back to my pre-injury mileage.

I also felt it was time to start putting in more mileage. So, instead of my normal 2.25 mile route I did 3.5 miles (still at very slow base building pace).

I have to admit I felt really good. I didn’t feel breathless and the legs felt strong. I concentrated hard on landing midfoot - although I still have no real idea if I am successfully landing midfoot or not. I really must video my running soon to get a good idea of my form.

My achilles tendons also felt OK, but they are a bit tight now, so I’ve just spent half an hour with an ice bag on them. The real test will be when I get up in the morning… that’s obviously when they get their tightest.

Why the question marks you ask? I’ll tell you… I step outside to go for my run this morning and the first thing my Garmin Forerunner 305 tells me is that it’s batteries are low. I could have sworn I’d fully charged them after using them last time.

Anyway, it was a gentle run yet again today. I went out last night and for the first time in about 6 weeks I had a few drinks. So I wasn’t expecting much this morning.

I felt pretty good though, and if anything it was even harder to run slowly at base pace than it has been over the last couple of months.

I think it’s time to start increasing my mileage this week. I’ve still been going to the gym at least twice a week, as well as going to my Pilates class… so I feel stronger than ever.

My achilles tendon pain has even got better in the mornings, which I think is down to the strengthening exercises I the gym, the foam roller exercises and a slow increase in road mileage.

So, things are looking up!

It was the first time in a long time that I went out for a a training run on consecutive nights tonight.

When I woke up this morning my achilles tendons felt OK, and my ankles felt strong all day, so I thought I would risk it.

I still can’t get used to running so slow and I’m finding it so hard to land midfoot. I may video my running at the weekend to see just how well (or not) that I’m doing.