Back on the radar

The Bringer of Pain - The Foam Roller!

With work piling up blogging has taken somewhat of a back seat. I found it hard to justify writing a blog post when I was seriously behind in submitting a journal paper and a conference paper. The paper might be of interest to all you carbon road bike lovers. As part of a post-doc I completed last year I've been doing research for the HiPerDuCT program, The aim is to introduce ductility into  high performance composites, the idea being that things like your bike don't fail catastrophically if you over load them - thereby hopefully avoiding something like this. The work is now off to a journal called Extreme Mechanics Letters, which has a pretty awesome name by engineering standards. The conference paper has been looking at how to improve manufactured quality of thick composites - think wind turbines. Not likely to be much use for your bike, but it does mean I'm off to San Diego for a conference. This means some winter sun, which in turn means a chance to get some miles in on a bike while exploring a new city - watch this space for photos.

So what's happened while I've been away?

I ran the Aztec west fast 5K in 21:34 (21:31 off my watch). I'm reasonably happy with my time and think its probably a reasonable reflection of where my training times would put me. However, I think there is definitely scope for a bit of improvement... I'd like to think if I keep the training up I'll dip under the 20:00 mark. Though as my friend John reminds me I don't need to run fast in an Ironman.  The course is a nice fast flat run - three laps around a business park in North Bristol. I had to admit, it was a touch worrying when in the line for the loos a couple of "youngsters" (I'm still totally down with the kids), were discussing their target times. I'm going to take it easy and just go under 17:00.... I may be a little out of my depth here. In the end I decided the plan was to try and get a feel for how I'm running, avoid using the watch too much, and just aim to keep an even pace. 

My splits, 3:57, 4:16, 4:21, 4:44 (Bah!), and 4:12, were fairly respectable, and I managed to out kick a couple of people at the end (I think they may have had 20+ years on me though). The kick, although good for me place wise, meant I probably left too much in the legs. I think next time I need to sit on  4:00/km and suck it up when it gets hard.  If I blow up then at least I know I've given it everything. Next one is in Jan so we shall have to wait until then to see.

One cool thing that has also started has been the BADTri trail runs. I was a bit apprehensive about doing them given I've had a few bad sprains on my ankle from playing cricket. Fortunately, while muddy, they've not been quite as bad as some of the manure filled fields we used to suffer through in high school cross country.

The first one, up at Leigh woods, was done on the night of the new moon for extra darkness. Once the group spread out a bit it was pretty tricky finding your way through the mud and the trees but really enjoyable. Running with a head torch really focuses you. I did one lap of the course but the second time round someone shouting for help meant we ended up stopping to investigate. We didn't find anyone, the forest is like an echo chamber in the dark. In the end the police were called, but I have no idea what happened. There was nothing in the news so lets go with a positive outlook.

The most recent trail run was at Stoke Park. Slightly more open but with a truly viscious hill to run up. I could just about keep my grip walking but some people were flying up. I got lost running across the fields, but then, so did everybody else. This was a bit more of a mud-bath but again really good fun and hopefully adding a bit of variety is going to help with my all round performance. My highlight was managing to stay on my feet for all the slippy muddy parts, but then falling over on the packed trail. Standard. Note to self. Watch your own feet.  

Regular training wise, I managed to ruin myself in the pool. I occasionally get a bit of foot/toe cramp when I'm swimming and I can usually tell when its about to come on. If I flex my toes while I'm kicking, I look a bit daft but it usually goes away. This time, it didn't work, and I ended up with a horrific full leg cramp. I was coming to the end of my set which was 15x200m @ 3:15+30 rest and pushing off my whole leg locked up. Fortunately I managed to drag myself out of the pool as the lifeguard didn't bat an eyelid as I was rolling around looking like a muppet trying to stretch it out. I suspect my lack of proper recovery after the previous nights track set may have contributed. Anyway, my calf's been a bit shitty since then, so  as penance for improper recovery I have been inflicting further pain via the foam roller. Bringer of such miserable pain. Lets hope its sorts out my calf.