Fed up with ordinaryExtra ordinary is where it's at

I can’t believe it’s come round this quickly. It’s 47 days until the run and the organisation is in full swing. Today I’ve booked accommodation for three of the seven nights and somehow that’s made it seem very real indeed!

We had a get-together this morning and discussed some practical things like what do we do if someone can’t continue, what first aid equipment do we need to take and such like.

I’m hit by a mixture of excitement and nausea! Excited that it’s going to be a most excellent adventure. Nauseous that I have to run 150 miles in 6 days.

Booking places has raised a couple of issues though. Such as some places where we’re staying don’t serve food until 7pm but we’re arriving at about 4pm. So we’ll need to ensure that we have enough food with us to last until 7pm. That may sound a bit strange but even running 13 miles I get ravenous. After 26 miles, across Hadrian’s Wall I dread to think what my hunger will be like. I guess there’ll be plenty of sheep grazing nearby if things get desperate…

Today I did my second 10+ mile in a week. So far this week I’ve ran 25 miles, which is the furthest so far and I’ve still got a day to go! I’ll try and get a 5 miler in if I can to make it up to 30 for the week.

That’s assuming I can walk though! Today’s run with Rich was a good 10.5 miles and I was a little concerned before we set off. Concerned for two reasons. Firstly, I took a very brief run on Wednesday evening but about 2 miles in I got a really bad pain my left leg, in the bone, behind my calf muscle. By the time I got to about 3 miles I had to stop and walk for a bit. I took it very, very easy and got back home after running about 4.5 miles. That evening my ankles, calves and the bone in my lower left leg hurt a lot.

Secondly, my blisters haven’t healed yet. They were still painful and the run on Wednesday evening was painful.

Anyway, we set off and much to my relief all was well. My leg wasn’t hurting and although I could feel my blisters, it wasn’t at all painful.

However the last 2 miles of our run was on roads and mainly downhill (running downhill forces you to heel strike which is really bad in five fingers if the ground is hard). After about a mile I was in pain with my blisters. I had taken a pair of “normal” running shoes with me for just this reason. I should have stopped and swapped my shoes, but for some unbelievably stupid reason, I was stubborn and completed the run in my five fingers. What an idiot!

Now my feet are killing me and my blisters are bigger than they ever were! I’ve just returned from the bathroom after popping them and covering them in antiseptic. I do have to say that popping them has released a lot of pressure (and fluid of course!). I’m going to wear normal shoes until they go this time!

If you see me in my five fingers before my blisters have gone, you have my permission to give me a slap!

But not too hard…

I got my first blisters the other day, while running from Grindleford back home. The route was great but very muddy and I got various amounts of debris in my shoes.

I thought it was okay for a few miles but by the time I emptied my shoes, the damage had been done. The last 2 miles or so were agony. I had trouble walking home from the park where I stopped.

A couple of days of rest and they’re much better now, I’ll try a run today. It’s the first time I’ve had blisters and I wasn’t too sure whether or not I should pop them. I did a little online research and opted to leave them alone. Apparently popping is only good if you’re going to run on them so that they’d pop anyway. Much better to pop them in a sterile environment than letting them pop in your dirty shoes and get infected!

It made me wonder about getting a pair of Five Fingers KSO or the new KSO Trek model that comes out in the UK very soon. However, a quick look at the KSO Trek prices for the UK put me off… £165! In the US they retail for $125 (around £85). So if anyone is going to the US soon and would like to pick me up a pair, I’d be extremely grateful!

Saturday saw my first two run day. I wanted to see how I would cope with running when tired but it also meant I could get in a good mileage in one day.

The day started with a run in the company of my brother-in-law, Mr Mark Sprenger. He’s just started running and was up to about two miles. I’d told him that was nonsense and, seeing as he’d done that distance three or four times now, he could easily run much more than that.

He insisted that he couldn’t and also refused to believe that he was running too fast.

Anyway we set off and it was an effort to slow him down! He shot off at a ridiculous pace – probably about 9mph! The young whipper-snapper reminded me of me, out for a run with that wily old fox JP many years ago in my first attempt to get into running (I was unsuccessful then!).

We settled into a much more reasonable pace and made good progress through the parks. All in all we did 4.5 miles in about 45 minutes, which Mark was (rightly) impressed with.

Later on we went out for a walk through Longshaw and then retired to the shelter of the Fox House for food. It was snowing heavily at this point. I was going to run back from there while everyone else drove back and wasn’t too impressed with the snow.

In the pub, I had a dilemma over food. What do you eat before a run? I mean, I know what you should eat ideally, but in a pub there’s really only pub food. I was starving hungry as I’d not eaten loads after my run in the morning and so settled for a shepherd’s pie.

We didn’t stay long after that and I set off for the run home only 30 minutes after lunch. My stomach was still heavy but thankfully it had stopped snowing.

The route back was 9 miles, bringing my total to 13.5 for the day. It was all done in my Five Fingers, which is the furthest I’ve run in them in one day.

The next day my calves ached a little but I was able to walk and run without any issues at all. That’s good news for me as I was a little worried that my calves would be in pain. I must be getting stronger!

Now I’ve done a couple of 13 miles in a day, my next target is an 18 mile run. I think I’ll do one more 13 miler and then up it to 18 miles in a couple of weeks. Then by the first week of April I need to up it again to 24 miles or perhaps a full 26 miles.