9/22 – challenging indoor bike ride. Decided to do the Spinervals Time Trial Special, which is a pretty intense workout designed to increase your anaerobic threshold. From what I can remember, the workout went something like this:

Warm up
3 x 30 seconds
1 minute rest
1 leg drill (2 x 1 minute, each leg)
1 minute rest
Super spin (3 x 30 seconds, 15 seconds rest)
1 minute rest
Time trial ladder
2 minute rest
1 leg drill
1 minute rest
Super spin
1 minute rest
Time trial ladder
Sprint set
Cool down

I struggled a bit with the 1 leg drills and really had to work hard to get through the 60 minutes. Tough workout, but I’m sure there’s some benefit in there somewhere.

9/23 – Nice easy run around the soccer fields in the rain. Nearly a “progressive”, but one of the soccer complex guys stopped me towards the end to warn me they were locking the gates in five minutes. Better than a shut-in I guess…

Splits: 8:19 8:09 7:58 7:47 7:48

9/24 – Another easy run on the soccer fields, but today my legs felt tired – probably due to running 4 out of the last 5 days. Decided to take Friday off and rest up a little. Need to look after the foot. Walked a brisk mile back to the car as a cool down.

Tried out the eight-ounce New Balance MR790 trail shoes which felt tremendous – lightweight, comfortable and very responsive. Nice to add a bit of variety to the shoe collection.

9/25 – total (much needed) rest day.

9/26 – ran the Neptune Festival 8k. Felt pretty good through three miles, but my lack of endurance definitely showed towards the end of the race. I’d predicted a 30:50 finish time, so it was nice to finish 6 seconds quicker in 30:44. By the way, thanks to Fergie and Jon for (a) giving me something to chase and (b) pulling me through for 1.5 miles. Definitely a productive day and another step in the right direction. The comeback continues!

As an added bonus, I picked up 3rd place in the Masters category too. Nice. One other milestone; with the race warm-up and cool down I ran over 9 miles today – the furthest since I started running again three weeks ago.

9/27 – arranged to meet good friend Fess at 7:15 who was planning to run 18 miles. I was hopeful of an 8 to 10 miler and decided to tag along with him on the latter stages of his long run. Semi-intentionally, I arrived a little early and ran three miles on my own (8:20 7:51 7:50) before meeting up with Fess on Great Neck Road. Took it nice and easy for another 11 miles and ended up with a 14 miler. Great to have company and enjoyed just chatting and getting in the miles.

Ended up with 38 miles for the week, quite a bit higher than the previous two weeks which may explain a few of the aches and pains I’m feeling today. Think I’ll treat myself to a recovery day (aside from the 200 Squats and 100 Push-Ups of course) and resume running on Tuesday…

As with all my post-stress fracture runs, I started out fairly conservatively. I did, however, manage to “catch” my Virtual Partner (Jonesy) just after the four mile mark and eventually finished almost a minute ahead of him.

Splits: 7:58 7:35 7:31 7:03 6:38
Average pace: 7:21 per mile
HR average: 146
HR max: 164

To mix things up a bit I switched back to the Brooks Launch for this grassy run, and they felt great! To be honest it was nice not to have the pressure to stay on the midfoot as I do with the Newton Gravitas as I’m still wary of landing on the mid/forefoot with every foot strike. Although it goes against my natural running style, being able to throw in the odd heel strike is quite reassuring.

For the record this was also my longest run in just over a couple of months and took place on the two week anniversary of getting rid of the boot. Pretty good progress if I do say so myself.

Foot pain = 2 on a scale of 1 to 10.

To get started I did my usual 5 minute walk/1 mile run (7:22) but to mix things up a little decided to run a few “brisk” miles. The first one was a 7:08 which (a) really surprised me and (b) sent a wave of adrenaline through my body. At 6:35, mile two surprised me even more and from this point on my confidence only grew. I finished up with a 6:24 and walked back to the car with a big grin on my face.

It’s nice to be getting back into the groove, although I’m totally aware of the need to not push too hard. Too much too soon will probably set me back a long way. However, today was an excellent one and definitely another step in the right direction. Will be good to take tomorrow off and run/walk some more on Wednesday…..

Initially, my thoughts were to stay local, but I soon veered off along Dam Neck Road and ended up riding down to the oceanfront. Feeling pretty good, I headed along the boardwalk and then further north to First Landing State Park (venue of the inaugural Seashore Nature Trail 50k in December). At around 56th Street I could see Ally in the distance who was about 8 miles into her 15 miler — looking good and trotting along nicely. A few blocks later I coasted up next to her and waited for her to realize it was me.

We chatted for a couple of minutes before I continued the ride along the main Cape Henry trail and Ally made her way back to the car to complete her long run. The ride along the trail felt good — nice and cool and a good mix of gravel, dirt and mud from all the rain we’ve had this week. I ended up on North Great Neck Road, briefly stopped at 20 miles to have an Espresso Hammer Gel (my favorite) before turning around to head home. In typical fashion I had to fight a headwind all the way back to the house, but surprised myself with slightly negative splits.

Good ride, kept it in an easy gear the whole way and nice to be out and about for almost three hours burning some calories. Not exactly a substitute for a long run, but it’s about as close as I’m going to get at the moment.

Looking forward to another run/walk tomorrow…

I decided to wear my Newton Gravitas for the first time since the stress fracture, and they performed great, despite the wet and slightly muddy soccer fields.

On a scale of 1 to 10, the foot pain was about a 2.8 — probably the lowest in the four recovery runs to date. Hopefully on the next outing the discomfort will be even less. Things are looking good, but I’ll definitely still be taking it easy for quite some time.

For the record, workout was 5 min walk, 1 mile run — repeat 4 times with an extra 5 min walk at the end.

Splits for the 4 running miles: 7:31 7:31 7:26 7:03
Average heart rate: 132bpm

Later in the day I also completed Week 3, Day 2 of the Two Hundred Squats challenge. If nothing else, the squats will help build some leg strength which should stand me in good stead as the comeback continues.

Reps: 27 34 21 21 maxed out of 50 [total = 153]

The left foot felt about the same as Tuesday, which is definitely a positive sign. I was a little concerned it would flare up in the third mile of running, but it didn’t, and if anything it felt a little better as the “workout” progressed. It will be nice to rest up tomorrow and maybe try something a little longer on the weekend if everything is doing good. See how I feel. By the way, when I say “something a little longer”, I’m talking of a 4 or 5 mile run – not exactly marathon training, but it’s a start!

Stats just for the record:

5 min walk, 1 mile run (7:34), 5 min walk, 1 mile run (7:17), 5 min walk, 1 mile run (7:09), walk back to car.

Today was my first timed/measured run since the Army/Navy 10k way back on December 1st. I think I mentioned in that post I’d be embarking on a bathroom remodeling project and wasn’t sure how much free time I’d have to exercise. Well, as predicited, I only managed a couple of 20-30 minute jogs – neither of which were very taxing or beneficial I would imagine.

With only 9 days to go until Christmas, I figured today was as good a day as any to launch a comeback in an attempt to get ready for a busy couple of months of racing in early 2008. Even though the wind was strong and gusting over 20mph, the temperature felt pretty good for an afternoon run (in the low 50′s), so I headed out the door with the intention of running an easy 6-8 miles.

Running against the wind was tough, but my legs and lungs felt surprisingly ok. I didn’t push the pace at all and just let my body dictate the speed of the run. With just over 30 minutes elapsed I decided to turn for home and run the same course back to the house. Luckily I was able to take advantage of a tailwind for at least 2 of the last 4 miles and despite slightly fatigued legs towards the end of the run, I was happy with how everything played out.

It’s good to get an 8 mile run under my belt and this will hopefully be the start of a minor comeback! I just need to keep the momentum going this week and grab every opportunity to run…

“I have many happy memories of good races at the Great North Run, so it seemed a natural place to start back,” said the 33-year-old. “I chose a half because I wanted a good quality fast race to come back and blow away the cobwebs.”

The world marathon record holder’s last run saw her win impressively over 10 kilometres in Madrid with a course-record time of 31 minutes, 16 seconds on December 31, 2005.

Paula’s daughter Isla was born in January this year and Radcliffe quickly got back into training, including staying at a high altitude camp in the United States. But a stress fracture of the sacrum related to childbirth caused another setback, ultimately wrecking her hopes of chasing the World Championship 10,000 metres title last month in Osaka.

Having faced so many obstacles, Radcliffe was adamant she must listen to her body and not race until 100% ready. Instead, she continued her preparations for a comeback with a tough schedule at her regular training base of Font Romeu in the French Pyrenees.

Radcliffe admitted: “It has been a really frustrating time recently, especially missing out on Osaka and watching the 10,000m, which seemed more open than it has been for years. I had to be patient until my body recovered and I have been able to get a good base of running and decent training in.”

She added: “I was extremely frustrated to miss the Commonwealth Games and London Marathon with my foot injury, but the joy of having Isla helped to cope with that a little bit.”

Original story: The Press Association