Epic New Garmin, Epic Garmin Fail, and Epic IQ Fail

As a Christmas gift from Kata I received the Garmin Forerunner 620 !!!!  It's an amazing gift and I am very, very happy with it.  Compared to the Forerunner 310xt that I have been using since I replaced my Forerunner 10 it is so light and looks very modern and is just generally awesome.  It comes highly recommended by everyone that knows anything about running watches, it made the Runners World "Gear of the Year" list, and some of the functions are mind boggling.  I can't wait to get up to speed (literally and figuratively).

Unfortunately, on Christmas day, keen to play with my new toy, I suffered a technology fail and for the first time since I started The Most Runningist Year Ever I didn't record my run on a Garmin!  I was gutted.  Basically I didn't know how to use my new watch.  I took it out for a walk in the woods, tested it, then uploaded it to Garmin Connect and so I was confident that it worked.  Unfortunately when I took it out on my run later and tried to upload the run, it wasn't in my History.  Oh no!  There were very nearly tears!  For the purpose of recording my runs I have used the very same run that I did on the 26th December on my log, 5.1km.  Suffering a Garmin failure was bound to happen at some point but to get over 200 days in then have a day missing (Christmas day of all days) is very disappointing.  Ah well, I've used the new watch since then and it works great.  I am certain the problem was with me and not with the watch.

In other news, everyone here in Kata's house is now sick with suspected and/or diagnosed bronchitis.  As I type, Kata and her sister are both in their beds coughing their guts up.  Kata was in a terrible state two nights ago so we went to the doctor yesterday.  He checked her out and diagnosed bronchitis and prescribed medicine to help.  I had similar symptoms so without even looking at me, he said that I probably have the same.  Now.....I have Googled "Running With Bronchitis" and I have since decided to believe I have not got bronchitis as surely only a total idiot would run with bronchitis?  But run I did.  My running run runs on but I think my IQ may have dropped several points.

Wrapped up against the elements, (sub zero temperatures and possible bronchitis) I ran my run.  Ones mind goes to strange places sometimes during a run and today it occurred to me that as well as looking a total fool, I was wearing a motley assortment of gear.

Mis-matched

Runners's Rule Book - Rule 3.9
If you head out for a run and you notice that your cap, watch, shirt, shorts, socks and shoes are all from the same manufacturer, head right back in and change at least one of the above.  

I think I am OK;

Hat:  Asics
Scarf:  Buff
Gillet:  OMM
Jacket:  Ronhill
Armband:  Adidas
Top:  Icebreaker
Gloves:  Hilly
Shorts:  Nike
Tights:  Adidas (again)
Socks:  Hilly (again)
Trainers: Saucony

On the other hand, I've just noticed that my iPhone, earphones, and new Garmin all match.  This is possibly not that cool.  Sounds like justification for a new iPhone if ever there was one!

Feeling blue

Merry Christmas and Boldog Karacsonyt!

I'm in Hungary for Christmas with Kata's family. I've managed 2 runs already in her home village of Nemesvamos and tomorrow I plan to run to the nearest town, Veszprem which will be a 10km out and back. 

Merry Christmas everyone!  

Nemesvamos 

Back to Where It All Began

One very hot June day in Budapest, I vocalised to Kata and Rachel an idea that I'd had for running every day.  Someone said, "was yesterday your first day then?".  Yesterday had been a run around Margaret Island in the middle of The Danube running through Budapest.  Well I am back in Budapest for Christmas (well, passing through Budapest, we are going to Nemesvamos for Christmas) and I find myself back where it all began, running around Margaret Island again with Kata.  

Taken at about 11am on a beautiful sunny morning (honestly)

Here's the view when I turn around and not shooting straight into the sun

Margaret Island could not be more perfect for running if they had built it for runners.  No wait, they have!  There is literally one lane of a running track all the way around the island marked out with 1km markers for the 5km loop.  It's amazing.  The surface is perfectly accommodating on sore ankles such as mine and the distance is perfect for one or two loops depending on how you feel.  Maybe I should finish with a run here on Day 365 to bookend the challenge?  Hmmmm.....interesting idea.  

Who's got two thumbs and loves running in Budapest?  That guy!   (Edge of Margaret Island on his right)

Kata's failed attempt to appear to be holding up the parliament is the fault of the photographer

Not An Awful Lot Happening, But I Took a Nice Picture

Running has been a bit dull and joyless in December.  I am injured for the longest time since I started, I can't run through the sore ankle, and I have had a cold for 2 weeks.  Marcothon is uninspiring and if anything is I believe having a negative effect on my running.  Possibly because I'm injured, and possible compounded by this minimum 5km thing of Marathon, I am on track to record the lowest mileage of any month since I started Most Runningist.  Moving home probably didn't help either!  The only positive thing is that despite everything I am still running every day.  With my common cold, the terrible weather, and the ankle injury, I probably wouldn't have been out at all this month if it wasn't for the fact that I have to!  Fair to say that December has been the low point thus far and I hope that when I look back on this challenge when I finished, that it remains that way.  

When I run I feel unfit.  I struggle for breath, for speed, and my body hurts.  I suppose it's my cold and I need to make allowances.  I am hoping that I'll be over the cold in the New Year and I an start to concentrate on the spring races and setting some targets for myself to beat my PBs.  I am also thinking about a 10km minimum again for February (only 28 days) but I am not sure.  10ktober was tough. 

Inverleith Park is on my Doorstep.  I am Lucky.

One morning though I did go out in the freezing cold and limped around the Marathon friendly 5km circuit around Inverleith Park.  I stopped momentarily to take the above photo of the half frozen duck pond.   Once again I am reminded how lucky I am to live and run in such a beautiful city.  

Here's the latest log.  I am on Day 201 of Most Runningist Year Ever, Day 23 of Marcothon, and despite everything the running run runs on.  

London Calling

Last week I was in London for 3 days through work.  It gave me the opportunity to mix up my regular running routes by running in a completely different city!  Unfortunately my location near Tower Bridge didn’t lend itself to the best routes – it’s a pity I wasn’t close to any of the big parks.  Each time, I ran across Tower Bridge, along the Thames to Monument, passed by The Tower of London and back across the bridge.  It was a decent 5km route to keep Marcothon going.  Running in London was notable for the following highlights (lowlights?);

·         It was utterly freezing!  I mean seriously.  For some reason I assumed it’d be warmer in London than in Edinburgh. I was wrong to assume this.  There were a lot of runners, I was the only one in shorts.  Fortunately I’d packed my windproof top so tat afforded some top half warmth, but my legs and fingers were frozen.  

·         London is busy.  The first day I ran in the evening and it was just chaos.  I couldn’t get running at all really for all the people.  The next two days I ran in the morning and that was a bit better.  The route along the river was up and down stairs too which wasn’t ideal.  I didn’t break any speed records I suppose is what I’m saying.  The best part was when a woman (a grown woman) was roller-skating on the pavement at rush hour while texting.  I am not making this up.  She nearly ran (skated) into me and I had to stop dead in front of her because I basically didn’t want to be moving towards her when the collision happened.  I was and still am stunned by this.  When she saw me 2ft in front of her she looked surprised.  She was a good roller-skater though because she weaved around me in a very tight space t very short notice. 

·         There are a lot of roads in London.  There is a lot of traffic on these roads.  Crossing roads takes time.  Jogging in London is very stop, start.  

The Tower of London

Tower Bridge

The Square Mile

The Tower of London Again

It wasn’t particularly enjoyable due to the business, the rubbish route, the freezing cold, and my sore ankle.  

London.  Nice place to visit, wouldn’t want to live there.  Next time I am picking my hotel based not on it’s proximity to my office, but it’s proximity to a big park.  

Wooooaaahh, we're half way there, woooaaaahh, my ankle's in disrepair...

….but we’ll make it I swear, wooaahh, despite the wear and tear.  

That’s quite enough of that.  I can’t stand Bon Jovi, the ridiculous, hair-rock, no talent, ass clown.  

I haven’t been updating the blog recently mostly on account of the fact that Kata and I moved home this week and it is utter chaos.  We are living out of boxes and I only got internet connected yesterday.  So that means there is a lot to update on.  Firstly, as per the title of this blog entry, I am now halfway through The Most Runningist Year Ever.    That milestone (day 183) was reached on Friday.  It passed without ceremony unfortunately.  The plan was to run to the pub at lunch time and celebrate with a pint, but through some people being too sick to run, others saving tem self for a big race on Saturday, and some forgotten P.E. kit, it was abandoned.  Instead I  went for a 5km run around Inverleith Park after work and  in the dark.  Ah well, never mind, no matter.  I feel a bit sad actually that I am now closer to the end than I am to the beginning.  I know that the entire point of a challenge is to complete it, but I don’t want it to be over.  It feels like no time at all since I started and I’ve loved it.  Sure, there have been bad runs, but there have been great runs too.  There are now no more significant milestones until the end.      

Also as per the title of this blog entry, I have a sore ankle that I can’t run through.  I am now into week 3 of sore ankle.  I’ve just been manning up and running through it, but it’s not going away.  I need to ice it and elevate it and I will try to do that.  I bought a new pair of shoes at the weekend because my Mizuno shoes are in a really bad way.  The heel in particular is worn away to nothing.  It’s possible that the worn shoes are either causing or at least not helping the sore ankle so fingers crossed my new shoes help.  I went for a gait analysis at Run4It and they suggested a neutral shoe like the Mizuno, but not the Mizuno, so I now have a pair of bright orange Saucony Ride 7.  I’ve been out for one run in them so far and they seemed good.  Bouncy.  But maybe anything will seem bouncy after the worn out pair I’ve been wearing for so long.  I am sorry to see those shoes go, I achieved all my PBs in them, but they have to go.  Hopefully I’ll break a few PBs in my new, orange shoes.  

"Orange Citrus" apparently

http://www.runningshoesguru.com/2014/08/saucony-ride-7-review/

Finally, I didn’t get through to the next stage of the Asics Target 26.2 Challenge.  Apparently as a first timer, I was too similar to the runners in the sub 3:30 group.  Essentially my story wasn’t interesting enough.  As a magazine, the story of “Decent Runner Gets a Bit Better” wasn’t good copy so I’m out.  That’s fine, but it’s amazing how quickly I turned!  From just being happy to be through to the boot camp (top 47 out of nearly 3000) and grateful from the experience, I now feel a bit bitter.  All logic is against this, there is no reason to feel bitter, but I do.  I do feel inspired now to be the best runner I can be not just for myself, but to prove something to others.  Again, illogical, (Runners World and Asics don’t care about me) but that’s how I feel.  

Marcothon is going well.  On day 7 now and I’ve ran 5km every day.  Mention for Abby who in order to keep up with Marcothon, went out for a run at quarter to midnight one day!  That’s dedication. 

Moorfoot XC and Marcothon

Yesterday (Sunday) a bunch of us ran the Moorfoot XC.  the Moorfoot XC is in Peebles, confusingly. Running buddy and recent pub quiz buddy Brian gave us a lift to Peebles, and as we drove in Kata and I remembered that a couple of years ago Kata ran this race while I held the bags!  Well here we are two years later and we are both running it.  It was more trail than Gala XC but a lot harder than Lauder XC.  In fact I think this goes down as one of the hardest races ever.

I got off to a really slow start and was wheezing badly.  The race started with a lap of the sports field which included a scramble up a slippy mud slope.  Running downhill out of the field, the pack was still very tight.  I knuckled down, pushed on, and once we got on to flat I managed to pull away, catch my breath, and get into my stride.  The first section was on a beautiful river path and when I managed to lift my head up away from checking where my feet were going, the view of the crisp autumnal morning by the river was stunning.  I have to admit it beats the view of most city road races - I can see how people could get into this.  The trail snaked back on itself, crossed a bridge and it was heartening to see so many runners behind me given my bad start.  There were two HBT runners ahead of me and I made it my aim to pass them.  First up was Andrew who is a great runner but just returning from injury.  Showing no compassion I passed him uphill through a wood.  There's no way I'd catch him under normal circumstances but he is just getting back into it and I think taking it easy.  Once I was passed him I didn't think there was much prospect of him catching me so I made Mairead my next target.  She was easy to spot as apparently she is something called a "Golden Trotter" for the year and so is wearing the mankiest, most ridiculous vest held together with pins and tape that's possible to imagine.  I honestly never though I'd catch Mairead but fortunately (for me) I managed to catch her on a really long steep uphill that required some walking.  I made a big effort and managed to get by her.  I say "managed to get by her" but I waved and said, "Hi Mairead" as I passed and she said "Hello".  It was all very civil and I am not sure she knew we were racing!

Kata's jump is many orders of magnitude better than mine

The big hill was murder and to make matters worse, after a short downhill, we had to do a lap of an awful field then run part the way back up the hill again!  I'll be seeing that cursed field in my nightmares for weeks.  As I left the field though, I saw Kata about half way down the first side, so not too far behind me.

The final section was a woodland trail and as we ran back into the area where spectators were, I heard some Trotters shout, "Come on Steve" followed almost immediately by "Well done Mairead"which made me think, "JINGS!  Must run faster".  So I summoned whatever I had and pushed on to the end.  I am happy with how the race went and I really enjoy it.  I lost a lot of places (maybe 10 or 12) on the uphill field section because the path most worn was narrow and I had no energy to take a wide path and boost, so I had to stay in line behind the runner in front of me.  Results are in and I finished 94th out of 198 in 34:29.  

Even her standing is better than mine

Well done to Moorfoot Running Club for a well organised and beautiful race.

Oh yeah, and apparently some dude called Marco invented a Marcothon which is running 5km every day for a month.  Ha!  Only 5km?!  Pfft!  Weakling.  I accept his challenge.  Kata and I and a few thousand other people will be running 5km every day in December.

End of November

November has been the Least Runningist Month Ever of the Most Runningist Year Ever.  I logged only 173km this month.  I'll put it down to a hangover from 10ktober and there being no long races this month.  Here are the totally mediocre stats....

Count:	34 Activities
Distance:	173.13 km
Time:	13:51:15 h:m:s
Elevation Gain:	1,633 m
Calories:	14,671 C
Avg Time:	24:27 h:m:s
Avg Distance:	5.09 km