Is it really April?

 Hello. So what's been happening? Well I was going along running fairly well and then I hurt my foot.

Peter had had some kind of an injury - I can't even remember what - but it meant he couldn't run Parkrun full gas, so didn't want to do it at all. I had been finding parkrun was turning into more and more of a torture as plateaus were reached, so we started doing speed training on a Saturday instead - often on the Meadows but also sometimes at Arthur's Seat.

Nothing obvious went wrong. I was trying to do plyometrics, so maybe it was that. I was trying to do a deeper squat, so maybe it was that. I went to a lifting class  - I'd been meaning to do this for ages and signed up for all 10 classes at Edinburgh Uni - but I found it demoralising. We had to partner up and my partner didn't really speak English. We were meant to be the same height but I was a head taller than her. We had to keep raising and lowering the safety bar. It was like a bad episode of Mind Your Language. Did you ever see that? I never watched a whole one. Excruciating and not at all funny. Like my lifting class. One of my take homes from lifting class was that you should really be going into a deep squat with your feet flat on the floor to lift. I've never been able to do this - not even at Brownies - not even when I was 8 years old. Don't ask me why we were supposed to squat at Brownies. That's just what you do when you're in  a ring around a big mushroom.

Look how well-ironed my uniform is. Oh no it's not - it's fresh out the packet! It would never look like this again.

Anyway, what I was trying to tell you was that I did try getting into a deeper squat. Nothing popped or "went" or broke, but a little while after that my left knee was sore, and then that seemed to go away, and then my left foot was sore. It didn't seem to be all that sore so on Monday 12th February I went out a run on it, hoping it would just fade to nothing as many aches and tweaks do, but instead it became extremely sore and I had to hobble home.

That whole first week I couldn't put my weight through my left foot. I had to go about the flat holding onto walls and counters and surfaces and sinks. I thought about going to see the doctor or a physio but I didn't think there was much point. Also, how was I going to get there? 

The next week I hobbled down to the swimming pool and it was excruciating but I got there and it got me out the flat. It was good to get in the water, where I was absolutely fine.

As soon as I could, I set up my bike trainer and it was great to ease into a few harder sessions. I used to kind of laugh at Zwift - how could anyone cycle 30 miles alone in their room? I really like it now. I've had to get off my high horse.

The next week I went to see James Beavis again, the acupuncture and tui na massage guy. He threw everything he had at my foot, to help it to heal as quickly as possible and he told me to massage it every day with this strong smelling stuff - Hysan muscle comfort oil. The smell is STRONG, but the effect is good. Then I'd soak it in warm water - all to increase the circulation so that it had everything it needed to heal.

Before I'd broken myself I'd insisted we book a holiday to Majorca and we were set to go on March 1st - so that was my goal - to get mobile enough so I could lug my baggage to the airport and get through security and all - to just do the basics.

MAJORCA

So what did you do in Marjorca?

Well I thought I'd just swim every day because it looked like there was a nice-ish pool at our hotel. When we got there though it was full of leaves and closed until April. It was smaller than it looked in the photo - of course it was - so I think I would have gone a bit mad swimming up and down it anyway.

I could walk if I limped in quite a marked way - it seemed a recipe for futher injury but also I wasn't planning on spending a week just lying around in a hotel room. The weather was nice - sunny and windy and about maybe 12 - 14 degrees - fine for moving around but not warm enough for lying around. There was a bit of wooded hilly land just near our hotel so we set off up the hill to explore that. To our surprise there was quite a bit of butterfly activity - in fact, honestly, it was like we were welcomed to Majorca by the local wild-life. Our very first trip into the woods we were greeted by a humming-bird hawk-moth, which (they never do this) settled on a rock and sat still so we could take photos.

We were also charmed by the sight of tiny chains of caterpillars, marching across the forest floor.

We thought these caterpillars are cute but apparently they're a problem. They are Pine processionary moth caterpillars - and apparently they can give you a nasty toxic sting if you touch them. Before we knew this, Peter did in fact pick one up and play with it, but he must have not annoyed it, because he didn't get stung. He just wanted a good photo.

At the top of the hill we were greeted by Swallowtails and Wall Browns.

We hadn't really thought there would be many butterflies about - but as they days went on the tally grew. Let's just look at their pictures. Warning; some of them aren't butterflies.

common blue

common blue

malarkey

grasshopper (missing a leg, wasn't us.)

hawk-moth casts a long shadow

holly blue

Lang's short-tailed blue

linnet

Red Admiral

Red Admiral

Top o' the hill.

Small copper

one and a half small coppers

small (blurry) heath

Southern fried chicken Brown Argus

Southern Brown Argus

Speckled Wood!

Tortuga!!!!!

I managed about 5 miles most days and even did 9 once. This was way more than we'd been hoping for so was really encouraging. I was slow as anything and Peter had a free rein to take off on his own if he wanted but once there are butterflies around he is happy and actually was moving more slowly than me a lot of the time.

So now weeks and weeks later, I have been just assuming I had a stress fracture - or a stress reaction - which I'd never heard of before but apparently is a thing and it's the thing before a stress fracture. I found a program on-line which wasn't meant for plebs but a pleb found it and has been using it. It gave ideas about what to do in what order to rehab the foot - so I've been doing, as it's become possible, walking without a limp, heel raises, some very tentative hopping and a bit of skipping as well. I've moved onto a "back to running" program and I've done three runs now with progressive amounts of running and walking. I'm trying to be careful. I've started to think about doing a run-walk marathon. I've been on about this before. Jeff Galloway is a big proponent of mixing walks into your runs which he says works really well and can even make you faster. I'm not really looking to get faster but I would like to be able to go longer again - so maybe that's my way in. So I'm thinking about doing that once my foot feels normal - which it doesn't yet.

Holiday Snaps

With Laurie Anderson Excellent Birds.

 

TIME FOR A YEARLY ROUND-UP

 Oh no you're not going to tell us all about your knee again are you?

Well no, not really. In order to save a lot of chat I have prepared a graphic for you. My year in sport.

I think getting out on my bike was the best thing about this year, sporty-wise, and I'm hoping to do it again and do it more when the weather gets better. 

Meantime, we're recently back from Tenerife. I'm still carrying extra beef from the chips'n'beer, but it was lovely to be away in the warm sun.

We spent a bit of time with Colin and Joan Wilson, while we were out there. I knew who Joan was back in the day because we were hill racing at the same time but I don't think I'd ever had a conversation with her. Colin is also a keen runner but is big into butterflies too, so he and Peter had been trading butterfly chat on t'internet and we realised we were going to be in Puerto de la Cruz at the same time.

It was really nice to have company on holiday - usually we just go ourselves. We all ran on the dirt running track at the side of town and Colin and Joan got us to come and swim in the harbour.

Joan and I swapped stories about how we were trying to adapt to aging and what races we had done and might do and what we were thinking about training.

Here's a bunch of photos in no particular order.

At the harbour

At the track

At the track

Colin and Joan arriving for a track session

The water was a little bumpy in the harbour!

Colin and Joan again

Even just looking through my photos there made me want to be back in the w-a-r-m sun... I need to make a wee slide-show to music of all the photos.

But meantime, since we've been back we've squeezed in 3 parkruns, and at every one my knee has been feeling better.

We were out there this morning at Holyrood Park. A lot of the local parkruns were cancelled because of flooding and ice, but Holyrood went ahead. I felt the best I've felt post this last injury and the first 2 miles were the quickest - but I eased back on the downhill because I just couldn't face slipping and getting another injury - so I was 5 seconds slower than last parkrun - but I felt better. My weekly mileage has just gone over 20 miles - and I'm not really trying to push it up, but I do feel stronger. 

So present at Holyrood this morning were some more Porties who I have not seen in a while. Shelagh was telling me she has osteoporosis so has to have some horrible infusion in a couple of months time - she was keen not to fall on the ice! Janis was telling me she's had a cardioversion for her atrial fibrillation and is feeling much better. I'm thinking that we have reached a certain age! I half-heard Shelagh saying that someone had compared the years of aging between something like 53 and 63 for women as running through an alley with a sniper shooting at you. I wish I'd got the detail. She said she thought it was just luck what happens to you. I find myself having this conversation with people more and more as we all devise our survival plans. I have no doubt there's an element of luck, but firmly believe you can stack the odds in your favour.

So this year wasn't as bad in reality as it was on paper. I wouldn't have been happy last January if you'd  told me I'd be injured for much of the year and not run for at least 7 months. I didn't love it but I am stronger and I really enjoyed getting out on my bike. I'm really enjoying getting running again now.

According to Strava I swam 62 miles in the pool, which I find quite amazing. I'd like it if I could get back running a lot stronger. Already I find myself thinking I'd like to do a marathon - but I'm not going to push any mileage at the cost of being able to run at all. We shall see. I'd like to do a lot more on the bike this coming year too. But Jim doesn't always fix it for you the way you want him to, so we'll just have to see. :-)

Happy New year.

Parkrun!

 

Holy cow! It's been a while.

I started doing little bits of running right at the end of September and have been playing it all by ear. Road runs felt worse than grass runs, so most of the runs have been on grass, up Arthur's Seat. I've been running 3 times a week at most and 5 miles at a time at most - at first the runs were more like half walking half running.

Then the 2nd week of October we both got Covid and I took two weeks completely off running. There's a spaciousness about having been away from running for so long because it's not like I'm scrambling to retain fitness - I'm starting from scratch so what's another week or 2's wait? It didn't really bother me.

My lungs have been irritable ever since and so I've not been pushing. At first my legs felt quite dead, but I'm slowly gaining a bit more spring. According to things I've been reading, as an older lady runner what I should be concentrating on is lifting heavy weights, doing HIIT and sprint sessions, and doing plyometrics. The trouble is when everything's held together with rubber bands and glue you're reluctant to bounce around too much.

I don't really know how to lift weights. I'm toying with doing a course at the Pleasance in January - which would mean getting up early on a Sunday morning to go - we'll see.

Plyometrics, flyometrics. We're not ready for that yet - springing, jumping, bounding and all that. Well actually I can bound a bit. Sometimes I do :-)

And intervals. I like intervals! I've been doing the odd test of speed, nothing as structured as an interval session. I do intervals indoors on my bike.

On top of this I've been trying to eat more protein - it's really not easy. The vegans say there's plenty protein in plants but when you look at the numbers there really isn't. What I'm going on is - again - advice to your older lady runner - we have more trouble maintaining and building muscle so we need to keep the numbers up - or that's what I'm giving a try at the moment anyway.

Lastly, well not lastly but even I'm getting bored, so I'm thinking about you - but another thing I'm trying which is most disgusting, is drinking fishy collagen powder because we lose collagen as we age and apparently it might help my body to repair skin, tendons, connective tissue. Seems worth a try - but honestly, two teaspoons of fishy powder in a glass of water - gag-tastic. I feel like Elizabeth Bathory drinking the blood of virgins to stay young. Fish virgins. You can get beefy collagen as well but I'm scared of mad cow disease.. If anyone out there said "too late", congratulations, you made an obvious joke.

So anyway, what I really wanted to say was that I went and did a parkrun today. It just sort of hatched as an idea. I've been going a run at the same time as parkrun these last few weeks because then Peter and I are both as knackered as each other for the rest of Saturday. This morning I had the notion that maybe I should just run the parkrun. It was bucketing down when we got up and so an off-road run wasn't all that appealing. Arthur's Seat has been very squidgy. I didn't think it was likely and I didn't tell Peter but I took my card with me just in case.

I had a good sized warm up and I didn't feel too bad so I went and stood a bit further back than usual at the start. The first mile was the trickiest because it's really congested towards the back and the last thing I wanted to do was a lot of braking and dodging around. Hell for knees.

But the field spread out and it was nice to not have that much pressure.

Running up hill on tarmac still feels a bit awkward on my knee, and steep downhill also needs adjustment - I was definitely compensating with my left leg - but the rest of the time I was running quite relaxed, and I don't think I made anything worse.

Getting to the bottom of the long descent feels like hell as they turn the gravity up to full again. 

Looking at my Garmin I could see that sub-30 mins was still a possibility so I tried not to slow down. I got in just a handful of seconds under it.

Hurray! First parkrun since February. All those months of not being able to run! 

So it was my worst time ever today and I got a right soaking but I was 3rd in my age category and I'm delighted to get round.

More bicycle adventures.

 Since my last blog, which was written in August but not posted, my knee has been continuing to get better. I've had it a couple of walks up Arthur's Seat and each time it is less awkward on the uphills and the downhills. I tried a few more running steps but there's just a bit of a shock in it and since I've not run for so long it seems like I might as well wait a bit longer and see if we can get it so it actually doesn't hurt.

Meantime we are suddenly in the middle of a heatwave.

On Tuesday I was free and the sun was shining and the wind was coming from the East so it seemed like I needed to head East. I've been continually trying to reduce the amount of stuff I carry with me while still having enough to effect a self-rescue - like bike tools and a phone and at least one camera - and this time I also wanted to bring swimming stuff - just in case.

I set off using the start of the route I'd pinched off my friend Michael, which has quirky little alternatives which cut out some unpleasantness on the way out East. This route didn't go to Gifford but about 18 miles in I knew I was within a couple of miles of Gifford so diverted there to the Lanterne Rouge for a scone and a cup of coffee.

I go easy on the coffee these days so when I do drink it I feel it. It hit the spot. I think I thanked the woman who served me too vehemently because she looked a bit taken aback. The caffeine will make itself known. Now buoyed up with enthusiasm, I resumed my adventure.

Eventual route was Gifford - Tyninghame - Gullane - home.

Whether it was the coffee, or the bright sun with cool breezes, the beautiful scenery, the freedom, the whizz whizz whizz of my tyres on the road, or all of the above, I hit a delightful groove and was enjoying every minute.

I had promised myself a stop at the cafe at Tyninghame if I wanted because last time I did this part of the route I had a rather sad sandwich under a tree in the rain in East Linton and then just 5 miles down the road at Tyninghame people were sitting at tables drinking tea in the sunshine. This time I felt no need to stop though so pressed on. Instead of heading inland to avoid North Berwick I decided to go the coastal route through NB, Dirleton and then see if I could find the courage to go a swim at Gullane. I had packed my swimming stuff in an old bum bag and strapped it securely over my lock on the rack at the back and this arrangement worked very well.

The logistics of trying to get changed at the beach using only the cover of one of these small camping towels without frightening any children were taxing and getting in the water was comparatively easy. The water was nice and it was a shame I couldn't really do it justice by going a proper swim but I was already pushing it. It just seemed like since we were going to have a pocket-sized summer squeezed into one unlikely week in September, I should do as many summer things as I could manage.

I had a tail-wind all the way home so the last 20 miles or so were a breeze. I arrived home feeling very pleased with myself with just shy of 65 miles under my belt.

Since this had gone so well I decided it was time to tackle the Talla Circuit which I had again pinched from Stewart Whitlie off Strava. It had looked like a gnarly, hilly, scenic 50ish miler, starting and finishing in Peebles. I had been biding my time and waiting for the right moment to attempt it. There were a few practical problems to address before going - like emptying the back of the van which has been turning into a shed in the last year or so. Peter had a large moth trap stored in there! There were also old car parts which are probably no use but might be. Anyway, I did a bit of clearing, and Peter, rather reluctantly, agreed to come too. I have been feeling massively enthusiastic about the cycling just because it's been getting me out and about and discovering new places and it feels like I can finally get some of the buzz that I used to get out of running - but he still has running, so I can see his point. Also he's got an end of the summer, end of butterflies wistfulness about him at the moment. 

Off we set yesterday morning with the bikes in the van and headed for Peebles.

Talla Circuit - a 49 mile circuit with a nasty 7% climb!

It was after midday by the time we got parked up in Peebles and where it had been warm in Edinburgh, in Peebles it felt really hot. The sun was baking down. It had been a while since breakfast. It didn't feel like the optimal time to be setting out on an adventure, however set out we did. I also felt a bit responsible because I'd urged Peter to come with me telling him we'd have a great time, which is a dangerous thing to promise, because you never really can tell.  I was reflecting a few days before that I've cycled close to 2000 miles this year and never got a puncture so - well getting punctures is just part of cycling, bound to happen. In the first 5 miles I noticed my front tyre was singing a different tune on the tarmac and then soon after that realised that was because it was going down...Boo... no need for panic because we had all the stuff with us - but it didn't seem like the best of omens. My tyres were hard to lever off and it was a bit of a faff. It was sweltering. After a bit of swearing and straining we were back on the road.

The road was busy-ish for a while and the heat was making it feel like hard going - but when we came to the turn off for the Talla Reservoir things improved immediately and substantially. I had never even heard of Talla before Stewart had posted his bike ride and it's always amazing to find something new quite close to home. Because of the sun, I guess, there was a fair bit of traffic - quite a few motorbikes, some cars, some motorhomes, one or two cyclists. I knew there was a HARD CLIMB ahead at some point but hadn't studied the map that hard and didn't have a sense of where it was going to be.

Peter's picture of the climb. He abandoned the climb because he wanted photos. I abandoned it because my legs wouldn't go round any faster on my granny ring,

We saw the climb ahead with a silver car making its way really slowly down it. I wanted to wait until it was out the way so we'd have a clear run at it but Peter kind of urged me to get a move on and I caved. The guy in the car was really taking his time. Being a runner I don't have cleats on my bike or any of that jazz, but old fashioned cycle clips. I had to get past this boy in the silver car and he'd only left me 6 inches of tarmac and then he stopped his fecking car to say to me "I hope you've got plenty of gears on your bike". I didn't have space and took a foot out a clip in case I had to put a foot down. I got past him but I never got my foot back in the clip, which has a floppy strap and is a footer. All of this is my own fault but I was cursing the guy for getting in my way right at the start of the climb. It is steep right away and there was no time for trying to get my right foot back in the clip. I went down to my granny ring too quickly which was a mistake because then my little legs had to whizz round unfeasibly fast just to keep moving forwards, and I had to keep all my weight forwards so the front wheel didn't lift off. All of this and I was just hacked off. I got up the steepest part to a green grit bin at the side of the road but then pulled over as a girl on a white racer whizzed by me breezily saying it was a terrible hill. I was glad to see her boyfriend had a much tougher time and didn't even make it as far as the grit bin. If I'd thought I might have gone straight back and tried again because now I think I have to go back just to go all the way up the hill without stopping.

Anyway - it was good at the top. After a breather I carried on and it was never as bad again and then we were treated to a long, long, fast downhill past loads of bodies of water - whether they are connected or separate or all Talla or all have different names I don't know, and a better person would google it and find out. Maybe you are that better person! Then you could tell me.

So anyway.  It was hot and the middle section was great, but then getting back to Peebles started to feel hard. We were both pretty much out of fluids. We had brought sandwiches and ate them at the far end of this road. I didn't really have enough saliva.

After a while on a flattish road we turned right onto a long climbing road. Peter had said how hot and dry he was feeling and as we were passing a small river at the side of the road I expected him to call a halt but he didn't - but then he did, saying "I have to put my head under that water". I went and washed my face and put water on my legs but Peter went for a more immersive experience and one which seemed to revive him wonderfully. He was in a much better mood after that and then it helped that shortly after this we rounded a corner and there was a long, long scenic and pretty downhill.  There were a few more bumps in the road before finally arriving back at Peebles but I've forgotten them.

This snake was at the side of the road and we stopped to investigate, but it was dead. I would guess it was sunning itself and got run over. Such a shame. We cursed all the drivers.

At last, back at the van. I would like to do this route again on a cool morning.