This is ridiculous!!

The Fat Runner is injured again...

After the time trial he ran in Wimbledon Common, his achilles was feeling a little sore, but that seemed to pass with rest.

So the next weekend, he went for a run - aiming to run up to Hyde Park, run around the perimeter and back again - that is about 4.8 miles in total.

Well quite soon into the run, his achilles started to play up, but there have been other times when things have hurt and he's just run through it and it has been ok after a mile or so.

Not so this time!

After 3 miles, it became clear that he was doing more harm than good, so he was forced to stop running and walk the rest. And he has been hobbling since!

He used to read stories of people being injured through running and could never understand it. He used to play contact sports like rugby at a reasonably competitive level and could understand injuries in those kinds of sports... But injuries from running? You're having a laugh aren't you?

But he's now painfully (all too painfully) aware of his folly, and is doing his best to get enough rest and recovery to start running again...

Oh well - hopefully there will be a happier post sometime soon!

Heartbeat

Not an old Pet Shop Boys song, but TFR's heart rate chart from his run at the weekend. Do you remember me telling you that he thought he had gone off too quickly and that probably caused him to be slower than he was hoping for? Well he's downloaded his heart rate data from his forerunner, and the chart below says it all - most of the time he was above 175bpm, and at the end he got up to 192bpm!! So clearly the 220 minus age formula (for calculating maximum heart rate) does not work for him - it's been some time since he was even near 28 years old...

Picture of TFR from his first 5k

As promised, here is the picture of The Fat Runner. Say hi to him if you see him on the Wimbledon Common Time Trial, or if you see him training around Kensington Gardens!

First 5k race! For real this time!

Ok so it was a few weeks later than he said it would be, but yesterday The Fat Runner completed his first Wimbledon Common Time Trial!!

For those of you who haven't been to a Time Trial run before, then let me explain...

Basically, you sign up by the Friday before the Saturday you want to run. Nothing to pay. Turn up ten minutes or so before 9am on the Saturday. No numbers to pin on your tshirt. Run 5k. At the end, pick up a numbered token, and then take the token to someone with a PC near the finish line who will match your name to the token. And that's it.

And the results (and photos!) were on the website by the evening!

I'll post the photo of The Fat Runner later.

His time was 29:40. So a bit slower than he was hoping for, which he put down to starting off too rapidly and allowing his heart rate to get too high too quickly.

More details on this run will follow!