Lloyd Biddell

Since the Milton Keynes half last Sunday I let my legs recover for a few days, especially since they haven't done much training over the last couple of months. I was going to go out for a run on Thursday/Friday but in the end didn't bother. Yesterday I went out for a very short 3.5 mile run at a fairly easy 7 min mile pace around my usual loop. I was intending to do another half loop, but as you get tired its all so easy to cut it short which was what I did. My legs were ok but were relatively quite tired considering the short distance. Today I was going to do the same loop but at the last second went out into the countryside so I couldn't do any shortcuts. I took the early part nice and steady and although my legs still had a few aches from the last week felt pretty good. In the first half I was running around 7.15 min miles, before not being able to help myself and increasing the pace in the second half to around 6.45 min miles. Overall I did 7.1 miles averaging 7 min

I was 50:50 right up to the night before as to whether I was going to run the Milton Keynes half. I knew that I had lost quite a bit of my fitness over the last couple of months because of various injuries. In the end I decided to run as much as anything because the entry fee was steep and I didn't want to not get my monies worth! I got to the land of the roundabouts ok and the weather was surprisingly sunny, about 18 degrees and quite humid. In fact the humidity made things feel uncomfortably warm. As I knew that I was nowhere near pb form (1.22) I decided to try and get round in about 1.30. The first mile I somehow did in 6.00 which was way too fast (though didn't feel so) and then settled down into race pace. The first three miles I did in 19.15 (6.25 av.). It was at this point that I knew my legs were not right - they just felt like lead. I knew that if they were bad then things were just going to get a whole lot harder. The strange thing was that my lungs for the main

Last week I haven't done much again because of the foot problem but I also rested a bit anyway after the exertions at the footpath relay. This week I went out for a very short 3.5 mile run on Tuesday to test the foot (without the orthotics ) and I didn't really feel much during the run, although I felt a small amount of stiffness afterwards. Hopefully I'm heading on the right track now. Today I've done some of my first 'proper' orienteering at Pooley Fields near Tamworth. The weather was dreadful - heavy rain for most of the morning and some of the worst conditions I have run in for a while. Having said that by the time I finished it had stopped raining ( didn't notice), but the damp undergrowth ensured I stayed soaked anyway. To be honest I didn't enjoy the run very much, as was demonstrated by the amount of swearing... I was making the most simple of mistakes and couldn't even stay on or find the paths which is pretty basic. I think some of i