Ralph's Health

I went out in the rain last night to get back on track with mid week training. It was horrible, very muddy, slippy underfoot, and my time was slow. But I did it. I'll be doing Macc Harriers orienteering round Bollington tonight, and have another run with Dave planned for Friday evening. All in all not a bad week, to make up for last two weeks.

My knees are still recovering after the weekend run. Sue looked at them over the weekend, and she recommended better warmups and stretches, and also warm downs. I'll do more of that. I think generally they are better than last week, so I'm ready to restart running in the evenings now, starting tonight. I have noticed my weight creeping up again so need to kep on top of my diet still.

I did the 13.9 mile Macc Harriers handicap race over the weekend. It was very cold and snowy, but brilliant weather, one of the best runs I've done. I came in 20/46, which I'm pleased with. Overall my time was 2:49, 6 minutes better than my handicap. Here are full results: http://www.mh.k313.com/mh/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=810&Itemid=48

Still not running this week, last night the pain in my knee was the worst it has been, but I'm not running. This is strange. I had done alot of warming treatment on my knee last night, which could have caused the addiitonal pain. However, I realised that my knee pain really started at the same time I got my new Merrell shoes, which happened to be the same weekend I did the Gravy Pud race. I put the pain down to the race, but I'm now wondering if it is the Merrell shoes? I wore my Inov8s to work today and they feel completely different, much, much lighter, more comfortable and generally a better shoe. I should have bought another pair of these instead of the merrels. Ah well. I'll get Sue to do some physio on it this weekend.

Read some interesting articles on Ibuprofen today, it is 50 years old. Botom line, stop taking it before or after exercise to manage pain. It is not doing me any good. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/phys-ed-does-ibuprofen-help-or-hurt-during-exercise/ My pressups this morning did not go well. I was due to perform 130! but only managed 70 in total. Not necesarily bad news though, as I did a boxing with weights exercise last night which much have had an effect. I also did 23 pressups last night. Pain in my kness is still there. I'm monitoring it as I walk to work, and I THINK the pain is reducing each day. I'm really annoyed about it all, not being able to run this week is not good. Making me fed up which has a knock on effect on my diet. Last night went to Viceroy for take away for first time in months. At least I asked for a healthier option. Today I'm watching what I eat more carefully.

Justt logging an additional 20 pressups...

As I reached my November target of 45 pressups today, I'll set a new one for December. To be able to to do 50 consecutive pressups.

Dave and I ran up onto Shining Tor from Bollington yesterday, a run of 15 miles and 2400 ft of climb. We last atempted this about 18 years ago and it is legendary in that we were a mess when we got back. Yesterday we both fared much better. Here are some photos from the top: Here is the route data:

I did an exhastion test this momring, and finally achieved my November goal of 45 pressups. About a minute later I tried to do more and could not get one, so it was definately to exhaustion.

Todays pressup exercise was 100 pressups - did it ok, because it got broken up into more manageable chunks. Here is progress so far this month: 2/12 80 5/12 62 6/12 78 8/12 100 318 total

I did pretty good on my running in November, the focus was on ascent. During December I want to focus on: 1. Speed - I want to bring my average mph back to around 6mph, whilst still maintaining some level of ascent. I'll do my hill runs but also mix in some flat running to help bring up my average to 6mph, and basically get me running faster. 2. Distance - I want to focus on longer runs. During November my average distance was 6 miles, I want to run longer runs so I'll aim to run at least 7 miles on each session. This will mean less runs on average, but maintaining at least 100 miles in total. I'll also need to figure out a few hills runs that I can do along which are 7 miles or more. I have some bigger runs planned already: Shining Tor from Bollington this weekend, 15 mile Macc Harriers race next weekend, I'd like to try a 20 mile run too, but running out of weekends for that. I might need to do that one evening. 3. Pressups - I did okay with my pressups in N

Quick note to record 32 pressups to exhasution this morning, then 20 and 10 this evening plus 50,20 5kg curls.

I joined Macc Harriers on Wednesday, after a slog round Bosley. Not a brilliant run as there wa too much mud and walking. Had a much better run out with Dave and Matt last night over to Lamaload, round the reservoir and back, navigating primarily by gps. Was good, finished in Bulls Head and three pimts.