Minor Set Back

Since my last Post I had a minor set back with my training (The clue is in the title!). Yes, I managed to put my back out. Now I wish I could tell you it was while completing 200 sit ups or maybe running 50 miles, but sadly no. I managed it while getting out the car! The actual day I done it, the agony was unbearable I was getting cramping pains that according to my wife were probably no where near as painful as labour pains! To this day I don't actually no what I'd done, but on day one I believed I was going to die (Well I'm a man, I would think this!). The pain improved daily and within four days I was back to running. I figured I'd probably missed out on about 20 miles, a long and short run.

I bounced back though and after running a gentle 4 miler to check I was back to normal, I followed this up with my new longest run, an 18 miler. I was really chuffed with the run not only for the distance but also the quality. The first half of the run was progressively rising and entailed some challenging hills. The run also took me on part of the Marathon course that I am training for, on the North Downs, so this gave me a chance to get a feel of the terrain. I still have till September to train so to be at 18 miles on a long run already is ahead of schedule, but I want to be prepared for this challenging Marathon.

I suppose what you could class as another set back was losing my Running Log from the last 4 years. I was signed up to the Training Site 'Buckeye Outdoors' which due to the recent severe weather in parts of the US has lost all information stored on their server. I was gutted when I learned of the news, I realise this site is a one man band and appreciate all the effort it must have taken to set up and maintain the site but to lose my log from so far back is so disheartening, and I feel for everyone else in the same boat. I would have thought that there would have been or at least should have been a better back up system for a site responsible for holding thousands of people's treasured logs......There, I've got that of my chest!

On the flip side I now have a new site that I have joined, recommended to me by Dan from 4 feet running which is Running Ahead. I have managed to upload some runs that were still stored on my Garmin, but it looks like I've got to start over. I will learn from the experience though and back up my information.

That's it for another running week, but lastly I will share a video that Marathon runner Ryan Hall 'tweeted' the link to on Twitter. There is a series of short interviews from the RunnersWorld website with legendary Coach Jack Daniels with some great advice on several aspects of running. I recommend taking the time out to take a look.