The 40-40-40 Challenge - and the Problem

So this year hasn't been brilliant, in terms of my running progress. There was the aborted Connemara Marathon, which I must try to stick in my head is actually deferred, not aborted. That means I'm going to have to run it next year, and I've seen that hill now. Also, Summer will probably want to make us walk up a mountain 2 days later, in some sort of revenge.

Then obviously the success of the K2B2, which you know, was brilliant, but felt a bit rushed, what with training for it in 5 weeks and everything. So when I entered the Chester Marathon in October (see sponsorship link, that's new that is, top right hand of the blog. Yes that one. You can click it. It works. Mind you, bookmark me, because it doesn't open in a new window) I really thought that I'd get the training programme sorted, and nail this sub 4 hours. I recalled that I'd have a problem with even attempting to do my sub 4 hour training programme for Connemara because when I opened my training plan 12 weeks before the marathon, it said "you should be able to run a 9 minute mile for 2 hours", which as far as I was concerned, meant that I was already ready for the marathon. However, it obviously turned into a moot point for Connemara, but it didn't have to be for Chester.

Let me tell you about Chester: on the wonderful Social Networking site, you can find out about new people, right? It's amazing. And you can stay in touch with old ones who do awkward things like moving away. That was what Kerry did, who was one of my favourite poetry people, he up and left for the Derbyshire Dales. Then out of the blue, he contacted me. I'm a good go-to person if you're looking for someone who likes running, and is well-into hair-brained schemes. Anyway, Kerry told me about a friend of his who likes running. A lot. So much so that he has a website called LucasKeepsRunning, and he does! (Check it out - HERE). Anyway, Lucas wants to run his 40th Marathon on his 40th birthday, with 40 friends. He's calling it 40-40-40, in a sort of Ronseal thing. Well, always a sucker for hairbrained schemes, this one especially appealed to me because I loved my 40th birthday. I mean, I really did. I don't remember ever enjoying a childhood birthday so much, I know they were a long time ago, but there was a lot of stress about them. There was always the birthday rivalries, would your party be thought of as a "good one" in the playground, would your friends come? I don't remember worrying about presents I got that much, but I did worry about going to other people's parties and whether my present would be good enough. But my 40th had none of that. Furthermore, I wasn't expecting presents, and I got hundreds! I felt a lot of love, and it was wonderful. I also made an important new rule, which everyone is invited to follow if they wish, which is basically that for a decadal birthday, you get to celebrate it all year. It makes a lot of sense. Lots of people apologise and feel bad that they didn't make it, so you just have another meal out with them, which is a great excuse.

So I was all in for helping this crazy guy with his challenge, and I also thought I'll get in with the training plenty early. I did a few 10k races, and started really getting my pace up. I didn't fall into that trap of letting my body believe it was an ultra runner, and didn't really have to run fast or anything. Then I did some interval training with moustachioed Chris. I'm not blaming him or anything, but my knee started hurting. I took 2 weeks off, I went back to the barefoot trainers (Chris and I don't see eye to eye on this subject!) I took glucosamine (definitely clutching at straws). The knee eased back into normality but still didn't feel massively right. I just about got over it when I started my 12 week countdown, I think I lost the first week. Almost immediately, my calf muscle on my other leg (right - it's worth making a note of this, actually) gave way, on a short run from the office. Not badly, but bad enough. I took a week off. One that I definitely didn't have at this point. Somewhat to my surprise, it got better really fast. Faster than I thought it should. I didn't push it, just made sure I was running. Speed now wasn't a concern. Then I went up to Edinburgh, having not really done enough training - I ran 9 miles the week before I left, I should have been up to 14 or so on my long runs. It was hard getting the training time, between shows, but I ran around Arthurs Seat, and felt pretty good about it. The star of my show, Jeremy Kyle, joined me, and so did lovely Steph. The next day I swam a mile, which made my legs feel like jelly, but surely all the walking up and down hills during the day was also doing me the power of good. The following day, when I had my biggest gap in my schedule, I had jotted down "hills" optimistically. I should have stuck to doing a proper hill exercise, but I prefer glory to structure, and I instead opted to go for a hilly run. I ran up the bottom of Salisbury Crags, and then I ran into Holyrood Park, and up the top of Salisbury Crags. Then i ran through the middle of the park, and up Arthur's Seat. I hadn't intended to go to the top, and that bit was more "slow motion" running, but I made it up there, which is always lovely. Then I ran back around the the back of Arthurs Seat, and all the way along the bottom, coming up the final hill to pass Pollark Halls and back home. It was a nice, nearly 8 mile run, and I felt exhilarated and happy. In short, I felt exactly like how Oatmeal describes in the Terrible and Wonderful Reasons. This was why I run.

Then, at the end of another long Festival day, I ran down a flight of stairs to get someone. That was when my left calf muscle pinged. Not in a bad way, but just so I noticed. I didn't run in Edinburgh again. I came home and 2 days later (5 days after injury) I went for a 6 mile run. My leg ached. I went swimming the following day, instead, calculating that as the Lido is, after all, a 50 yard pool, and not a 50m pool (like the Royal Commonwealth, which felt considerably longer!), that I had to swim 36 lengths to clear a mile. My leg ached, but not as much as when I ran on it. Every time I was on my bicycle, my leg ached.

I stopped. Each day I stopped made me feel like I was wasting time. And not doing what I wanted to be doing.

I met Lucas for the first time. Jon came up from deepest darkest Bury, and Lucas came down from Hull. He was enthusiastic, and not as crazy as you might think (it's all relative, after all). He told us about people dropping out through injury, and how hard it was going to be to replace them, but not to worry, because he had some ideas. And did I still have that chap's name, Lee, because he might be needed? I didn't tell him that I might need Lee myself. There was no point in worrying him. The other calf muscle fixed really quickly, after all. All I needed was patience. And I'm great at that...