Html, shtml

Nearly midnight on Wednesday and I'm fiddling around with the new-look club website.

Tom at work has done a fantastic re-design job and the comments so far have all been favourable, which is great.

The only thing now is that I have to get my head round some slightly different ways of managing the content. Now's when I wish I knew a bit more about html.

Running. Oh yes, I suppose I'd better write something about that.

Sunday was a great day out, which I've already written about.

Last night I did a 12 x 200m session at Hamilton football grounds. It was the same session I did the previous Tuesday and although I haven't compared the two, last night's one felt a wee bit faster.

I had a small reaction from the "a" place this morning, more so on the left ankle.

Tonight I did seven miles which were meant to be slow but I think I did them at marathon pace. Tomorrow is eight miles at marathon pace.

At least the bloody fence and deck are stained now.

How happy does that make me?

Very, very, very happy.

Strathyre to Callender

Strathyre to Callender
Originally uploaded by Sparks57.

We had a superb guest run with the club today which you can see on the satellite image. I've written some words for club members here.

I had very little jip in the achilles area. It was an interesting run for me because having decided not to do the Mull half marathon, I needed to push things today to see how I got on.

The first few miles were impossible to do much other than climb through fields and wade through glaur. Good fun but impossible to get any speed.

From about four miles, I was able to accelerate a bit but keeping up with one of the club's racing snakes was impossible (I did manage for about a mile-and-a-half but then she just effortlessly glided away).

Here's how it went:

5 = 7.54
6 = 9.05 (we stopped for water)
7 = 8.02
8 = 7.42
9 = 8.12

All in all, not very fast, but much more to the point, no great pain in the achilles.

A rest day tomorrow then either fast miles on Tuesday or an intervals session.

Soggy Saturday

Running
Originally uploaded by Sparks57.

I've sat down several times to write a quick entry but failed to get round to it for 101 different reasons. Anyway, here we go...

I did the 15 miles last Sunday without any significant grief from either achilles, which was a welcome relief. I even managed a wee bit of speed towards the end.

I didn't have a particular route in mind beyond the rough idea that I could squeeze 15 out of two circuits of Strathclyde Loch, round Ravenscraig and a bit more.

Tuesday - I was swithering about doing the club's time trial of four fast miles but opted instead to go for the 1 mile + 12 x 200m with 100m recoveries + 1 mile, which I did around Hamilton football grounds.

Wednesday - eight miles after I finished work but because I was late, I was still running at nearly 10pm.

I skipped Thursday because it was another late one at work and thought about doing the session on Friday, which was a rest day. No chance. I wasn't home until 9pm.

Saturday morning was intended to be the SAL annual general meeting but things cropped up and I didn't make it.

After swaying in the wind all week, I've decided not to do the Mull half marathon tomorrow and instead to go for the club guest run from Stratheyre to Callendar, which is about nine miles.

I'm aiming to do it at a fairly fast pace to see how I get on. Hopefully the weather won't be too bad - it's chucking it down right now.

Heavy heart

I'm not feeling very upbeat about running right now.

My last outing was Thursday evening when I did six miles at about 8.30mi pace. All in all not the most testing of runs.

Towards the end both achilles tendons were giving me grief and on Friday morning they were very tight.

Despite having missed Sunday's, Tuesday's and Wednesday's sessions, I decided to stick to the schedule and not run on Friday evening. I have to admit that part of the reason was that I didn't get home from work until around 9pm.

I'd planned to go out early on Saturday for a very easy four miles but I had a couple of drinks last night (four bottles of low-cal Cobra to be precise) and that went by the wayside.

I must be getting old and less tolerant to alcohol or maybe it was the change from the usual Michelob Ultra but bloody hell did I have a bad head this morning. After FOUR bottles of watered-down Indian beer!!!

What happened to the days of necking can after can of Tennents lager and living to tell the tale the next day?

Anyway, the tendons were even tighter this morning probably because I didn't stretch at all last night.

So, no running today. Tomorrow is a scheduled 15-mile run.

As I write, I really don't know if I'm going to do that distance. I have a feeling that I should just go out and do what I feel is right.

Whatever else, some serious stretching beforehand will be carried out to minimise the risk of unnecessary pain.

Aside from that, I'm desperate to find out if these Sennheiser headphones work while I'm running!

Thinking sunny thoughts!