Adam in Runderland

Well the year has ended much the same way that it began, slowly. It has been an amazing year with the peak coming in the summer but it has started and finished with illness and injury. January and February were lost due to a knee problem but I recovered from this with four months of good, strong running; half marathons, marathons and ultra marathons in March, April, May and June. My body was pretty knackered after the 35 mile Shires and Spires and 70 mile Round the Isle of Wight so I eased off over the summer to facilitate recovery. I had treatment for shin pain and rested. By September I was desperate to get back on it and the next couple of months I managed to achieve my aim of PB’s in the 5km Parkrun and Half Marathon. By November I was running faster and better than at any time before. Then flu hit and I was out of action for three weeks. The illness is still lingering now and all I have managed since the beginning of November are a few steady 5k distances. I’m be...

This is my first post for some time. I have had man flu. The only thing that has been running is my nose! Although out of bed and back at work my sinuses and chest are still in a bad way but I'm desperate to get out there again. A week or two can be passed off as a rest period but once it stretches beyond this to three or four weeks I can feel my fitness ebbing away. Thankfully I haven't got any events lined up until February but I still miss my weekly Parkrun, the Parklands Jog & Run sessions on a Monday and the opportunity to go for a stress relieving run on my own. One ray of light during this time came when Chris Lamb, who runs the PJR sessions, turned up at my door on Saturday with a trophy in his hand. Apparently I had finished as runner up in the Runner of the Year Award for our group. This was a fantastic surprise and the icing on the cake of a great year for my running. I have wonderful memories of enjoyable races, a drawer full of t-shirts and medals...

This week a group of us traveled over to Daventry, a small town 10 miles from Northampton. It was their first ever Parkrun so we went along to show solidarity and support. When we arrived the rain was coming down and it was much colder than previous weeks but given that it was now November we couldn't complain - except Mick who was wearing a vest! We parked the Parklands Jog & Run tour bus beside a small area of parkland on which volunteers in high viz jackets were already setting up the finishing poles. The start was only a few metres away and so we began our warm up as we waited to see how many people would turn up. As the magic 9 o'clock hour approached the crowds swelled until over 200 had gathered at the start line. After a few teething problems with the megaphone and an introduction from the local Councillor we were ready for the off. An impressive number of marshals cheered us on our way as we headed uphill across the road towards Daventry Country Park. Th...

I was looking forward to my last half marathon of the year in Lode. I ran it last year with a group of friends and enjoyed the totally flat course that is located to the north-east of Cambridge. It is a small race with less than 250 entrants run by a local running club with all proceeds going to charity. Last year's Lode Half Marathon In 2013 there was a strong wind that wasn't noticeable on the way out but on the return leg of this out and back course was directly in our faces. This year the weather had been calm, sunny and warm the day before but was due to turn on the Sunday we were running. Sure enough as Pete, Marc and myself drove along the A14 the rain clouds gathered and promptly emptied on our heads shortly after we arrived. The start line is on a playing field in the village of Lode. Registration took place in the village hall which contained a table laden with home made cakes and offers of tea and coffee. We pinned our numbers to out Parkklands Jog & Ru...

After almost a year of trying I finally managed to break my 5K PB this weekend. I thought that at the age of 38 I would never beat the 19:21 I set last December. Had I peaked? Was that the fastest I would ever be able to run the distance? This weekend I didn't expect to be running particularly well. Only six days after my half marathon PB I wanted to set another good time but wasn't looking for anything special. Funny how things turn out. There are weeks when I try and plan my preparation down to the last detail and when the day comes I don't run well. Others, like this time, everything happens to fall in to place just right - no rhyme or reason. It just happens that I had a good carb rich dinner on Friday night, I slept well and managed to get up early enough to have a good breakfast with plenty of time to spare before leaving the house. Instead of driving to the park I jogged down meaning that I was warmed up and ready to go on the start line. The weather too was pe...

Six weeks after taking part in the BUPA Great North Run I arrived at the start line of the BUPA Great Birmingham Run. This is the second largest UK half marathon after the one in Newcastle with 25,000 people running. A group of us from Parklands Jog & Run made the trip up the M1 and M6 in a minibus hired for the occasion. It was a beautiful clear day and unseasonably warm. We arrived in the centre of Birmingham, dropped our bags off and found the starting enclosures we had been allocated. I was in Orange just behind the Elite and Fastest Club runners. The event was live on Channel 5 and a helicopter hovered above filming the hoards of people warming up before the start. Our wave set off at 10:20 with 13.1 miles ahead of us. The first part of the course was fast. I find that everyone tends to go off quickly at the beginning as you are full of energy, anticipation and adrenaline but we were helped by the fact that it was all downhill. Having felt out of sorts for a week...

Marathon running is often used as an allegory for life. While it serves this purpose well I find that another distance is even more appropriate – the ultra marathon. This year I ran my first ultra, in fact I ran three in a month. The first was the 35 mile Shires and Spires followed a few weeks later by the Round the Isle of Wight race which consisted of 39 and 31 miles back to back over a weekend. During the hours I was jogging and the many more hours in ice baths and recovery I reflected on the lessons that could be learnt and applied to my life. The first was  We are not alone. The second was Enjoying the journey. This time I will look at: 3. The goal is to finish. One of the biggest differences between an ultra marathon and any other running distance is the fact that the finishing time  doesn't  matter. Every other race I have taken part in has had the challenge of setting a good time or beating my previous one. The infamous Personal Best is alway...

It's hard to believe that it's only a year since I ran my first half marathon. As I made my way to register for the Northampton Half I remembered that day 12 months ago when I stood in Abington Street and nervously awaited the start not knowing if I would manage to complete the distance. This year I felt more confident and enjoyed seeing a large number of familiar faces from Parklands Jog & Run and Parkrun. The race start had moved to the Guildhall as over 500 people assembled in the sunshine. My injury problems had not resurfaced during the Great North Run and I had rested during the week to ensure my body had time to recover sufficiently. Feeling healthy again I was aiming for under 1:40 with sub 7:30 miles in the back of my mind. At 10 o'clock prompt we were set off but my GPS watch still hadn't managed to locate the satellite. Unfortunately this remained the case throughout the day and so I was left in the dark as to my pace. I went off fast hoping to g...

Finally. After what had seemed like an eternity of not running due to shin splints I was back in my trainers on the start line of a running event. The previous weeks had been spent getting increasingly frustrated at not being able to run and undergoing a number of physio sessions which involved having needles stuck in my legs and a number of daily exercises to undertake. Ouch! But last Sunday I was in Newcastle with 57,000 other runners ready to tackle the 13.1 miles to South Shields. There are two iconic runs in the UK; the London Marathon and The Great North Run, and I was about to do both in the same year. We had traveled up the day before and stayed with a sister of the wife of a friend. They lived quite close to the race. So close in fact that when I opened the bathroom blind in the morning I could see the start line! I was running for Wellchild, a charity that supports sick children and their families. After a breakfast of cereal, a mars bar and coffee I headed to t...

After a few weeks of discomfort in my lower left leg I finally managed to arrange an appointment with my physio. It was only six weeks ago that I was there asking about a problem with my upper right leg! The treatment and exercises prescribed soon sorted out my hip flexor strain and nerve damage and I was hoping for a equally fast recovery this time. The problem I've experienced has been a sharp pain down the inside of my shin bone. It seems worse when I am at rest than when I run and I have felt less confident planting my left leg causing me to overcompensate at times. I have applied the RICE technique but it has made very little difference. My fear has been that it may be a fracture which would be devastating. My next race is the Great North Run on the 7th September and I have resisted booking any further events unsure whether I will be fit to run. During August I continued to run with the aim of completing the challenge set by my running group of 100 miles and 1000 pre...

Over the past year I have taken part in quite a few different events and run close to 1000 miles. Recently I was thinking about where and when I have run and trying to choose my favourite experiences. I thought I would share the top 10 with you. 10 - Night running.   9 - Park Run Christmas Day   8 - Lode Half Marathon   7 - Rock Solid OCR   6 - River Wye 5 - Shires & Spires Ultra My first Ultra Marathon took place just a few miles from home in the heart of the Shires. The 35 mile run took in the beautiful villages of north and west Northamptonshire. The weather was perfect, the scenery stunning and the race exhausting. It was a new experience to be able to stop and eat, to walk up hills and to chat to so many different people on the way around. Not only that but I finished in a pretty decent time too and was back for tea. 4 - Parklands Jog & Run Joining a group has kept me running. If I hadn't go involved with this motley crew I don't ...

This week I took part in my first OCR (Obstacle Course Races) training since June's Mud, Sweat and Beers event and I've got to say that it reminded me just how much fun these events are. The sessions are part of the Parklands Jog & Run group I attend on a Monday night. We met in Abington Park at 7:30 in the evening and began with a gentle warm up before the first session. This was relays with a partner involving one of the pair running up a slope and back while the other did continuous exercises. The first 3 minute set was press ups, then burpees followed by sit ups. By the end of this triplet I was feeling pretty knackered as we jogged over to the nearby stream for the muddy part. The park is hilly and slopes down into a gully which the stream runs through. As a result the ground surrounding it is quite wet and soft. There are a number of fallen trees, broken railings and branches to contend with as well as the slippy conditions. The course took us over fi...