Dw i heb dy weld ti ers talwn!

Greetings from not so sunny Wales!!!

It been a while, so a quick summary, i've moved to Wales!!!, i didn't run the Glenmore 24, weekly physio hasn't sorted my troublesome hip/back, i'm 32 days into the Likeys 365 challenge which requires me to run every day for a year!, i completed the 30 mile Mountain Trail challenge up in Brecon, my next race is the 46 miles Beacons ultra in November, i now work for www.likeys.com, i'm off to the Arctic to run 120 miles in March, there is not such thing as a flat mile in Wales, i now know 2 people who have run across America, Mimi set another world record, Hoka running shoes may look odd but they are great......

I hope to blog more regularly so to record my 6633 training up here in Wales, and because according to my stats 98 people have read/visited this blog in the last month and therefor i need to give my fan's(!) something to read :-)

Kevin.....

back problems.....

Well it was always going to be a big ask, but after 2 good days in the welsh hills (after deciding not to do the WAAT4 race) i was hopeful that all would be good for the South Downs Way 100, but from the off my back was aching and slipping and sliding around in the mud for the first hour or so did me no favours. i had resigned myself to stopping at the first checkpoint but also had to remind myself that 2 weeks ago i was flat out on the floor of the bathroom unable to move, it wasn't painful but ache like that is only going to get worse over 100 miles and i didn't want to get stuck out in the middle of nowhere and cause the race director (James) any problems, so at the first checkpoint i withdrew and walked the 10miles back to the start, the decision to withdraw turned out to be the right one because my back was quite sore by the time i got back to my car, so i have restarted taking the anti inflammatories and doing my stretches etc, and give it more time to heal.

So what now, well for reasons that will become apparent later i have withdrawn from the Fire and Ice ultra and decided to do the Glenmore 24hr race again (i did 100 miles at this event last year) so i have 9 weeks to get myself sorted......

Life goes on....

For personnel reasons running has not been the priority recently and i've only been able to do miles as and when, my back/hip had been fine until i did some gardening and managed to aggravate it again but with further stretching we seem to have fixed that particular problem, to be honest I've put in enough miles for the WAAT4 but not nearly as many miles as i would have liked for the South Downs 100 but i still intended to do both events but i may have to rethink both after putting my back out brushing my teeth (no laughing please) it was serious enough for me to have to go to the doctors where i was offered a course of morphine!! so i have 6 days to go from unable to walk to running the WAAT4 and 13 days until i try to run 100 miles even for me that's quite a big ask...

5 years ago....

It was 5 years ago this week that i was running in the Sahara desert it was my first multi day event having done 25+ marathons and a couple of 50 mile events, i remember it well it was a great way to spend a week,  5 years on and i'm watching a friend of mine run the 2012 event, it's hard because i know what she is going though but she is strong and will be fine but it doesn't make it any easier.

It's been 5 weeks since the Thames Path 100 and I've run 4 times in that time, all of them were painful experiences, I've had 5 weeks of rest and physio and have seen no difference in my back in fact i think it's gradually got worse, it's baffled the physio so we have agreed that i will start running again and see if that eases the situation, I'm to continue with the stretches and use the heat lamp as often as possible and promised not to do anything silly (might struggle with the last one!) i'm going to give this a go for a week or so and see if anything changes before we decide what to do next, it's a frustrating one because everything we try doesn't seem to work even though we know we are in the right area be it be the SI joint itself or one of the surrounding muscles...

2cm

Well its been a great start to the year training has gone well a 50 miler done already so every thing was looking good for the Thames Path 100, but within 10mins of starting i got a feeling it was not going to my day again, from the off my back started hurting this was joined by my hip at about 10 miles neither are unusual and didn't slow me, i was making good progress with 26 miles done in just over 4hrs, now my right foot started hurting and swelled enough for me to have to undo my laces, plodded on to 40 miles and started to walk, walked big chunks of the next 12 miles, seriously thought about walking the next 48 miles through the night (i like running/hobbling/walking in the dark) but my foot was only going to get worse, Carole confirmed that it was probably a silly idea so i decided to call it a day at the 52 mile checkpoint, it was a complete contrast to the 50 miles of a couple of weeks ago which one of the easiest/nicest 50 miler I've done, this was just 10 hours of pain... 

I didn't sleep that night due to the pain i my leg but my remarkable recovery rate kicked in the next day and by the time i got to see the Physio on Monday lunch time i had very little foot swelling to show him, but he did notice straight away that my pelvis was wonky and after measuring my legs decided that my right leg was 2cm shorter than the left which in itself isn't that unusual but add that to what he call's silly mileage and it may go some way to explain the various ongoing problems with my right leg, the quick and easy fix is a small wedge in the right shoe and some physio on my pelvis to realign it and relieve the pressure on my lower back.

has it really been that long!!

Blimey it's been over 6 weeks since i last posted, and it's been a busy 6 weeks, work and life has been crazy, I've had a bad run of cold and a ear infection, pretty much all my mid week running has been at 05:00 in the morning with long runs confined to the weekends, but I've made the weekends count and the distances for the last 6 weekends has been 26, 26, 32, 15, 50, 27 all these runs have been along either the Ridgeway or Thames Path with a friend Carole who is running the MDS this year, she been great and will do well at the MDS, just need to sort out her dodgy knees!!

I had originally planned to run the North Face Transgrancanaria race but the logistics of getting to Gran Canaries for a weekend proved to be not as easy as you'd expect so i made a last minute switch to the Thames Path 100, running the 100 miles from Richmond to Oxford on the same weekend at the beginning of March, looking forward to it, i have a lot of friends either running or helping and Carole has suggested that she will forgo her lie in to throw cinnamon buns and ice cream at me as i near the finish.

I plan to have a few weeks off from running after the Thames Path 100 and concentrate on getting the decorating done and out of the way before i start thinking about my next race at the end of May - The Hardmoors 110!!

Is it just me or did 2011 really fly by

Well that was 2011 over in a flash!

It seems like only yesterday that i was getting off the plane in Whitehorse to help with the 6633 there was snow but wandering around in t-shirts is not the norm, the -40's came out a couple of times to remind us what proper cold actually is but that doesn't take anything away from Lori who still had to cover the miles and show the army boys how it should be done, no race in 2012 but we'll all be back in 2013 this time i'm competing currently only the 120 miler but i can already hear the 350 miler calling...next up was South Africa various injuries had meant i had done far from ideal preparation, 4 weeks before the start i had to take a couple of days off work because i couldn't walk because of the swelling in my right shin and after a trip to the physio i basically wrote off Comrades but i like a challenge and with the help of some heavy duty medication lots of physio and rest i made it to the start line in Durban, just over 10hrs later it was all over i had finished the 57 miles both IT bands were trashed but i had finished the original shin injury nowhere to be seen, had a bit of a rest over the summer just to let everything settle down, still managed a couple of marathons one being on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year, bring on the Glenmore 24hrs a 'see how far you can run in 24hrs' race round a 4 miles off road loop, well i surprised myself by doing 100 miles easily had a bit of a wobble a couple of hours in but after a chat with the medic (Andy) i was up and running again, the only 'injury' i took away from this race was the midge bits which troubled me for about 3 weeks after the race....to round of the year i did the Beacons ultra which the race is just a small part of a great weekend away with friends but it's still 47 tough miles which needs to be done before you can hit the pub...

I still managed 2000 running miles in 2011 considerably down on previous years but considering the various injuries i think it's only to be expected...

So whats happening in 2012?? i start the year injury free!! which is a result, i have entered 3 biggish races, the Transgrancanaria (80 miles across Gran Canaria), the Hardmoors 110 (110 miles round the North Yorkshire Moors) and a soon to be announced 5 day Ultra in Iceland.

I've got a feeling that 2012 is going to be a good year!!!