In about October I started suffering from pain in my lower stomach which had a serious impact on my training and racing. I believe that I damaged something when I ran the “Pain Barrier” (having fell down about 10 times) and the niggle I picked up and dismissed eventually forced me to stop running.
I did a bit of turbo training and swimming, as I am not use to these sports I find them a lot more difficult than running.
Myself, Rose James and Janet Hampson were all injured and we decided to set up a group for new runners called the “Doncaster Pacers”. This would be the “Run England” group of Doncaster Athletic Club. This gave us a new focus and in late January we were ready to launch. This has been a fantastic experience and we have recently finished the first course boasted the membership of Doncaster Athletic Club by about 20 members. We will continue to work with the group so they can achieve their full potential.
We are grateful for the support of coach Paul Brown who has helped us lead the sessions and every one else who has helped and encouraged the group.
The next Doncaster Pacers course starts on 20 May 2014, we already have 12 non runners signed up. Its just £40 for the 9 week course and then its free for the rest of 2014.
Doncaster was lacking its own Parkrun until around the time I got injured. A number of people got together including myself and we were mentored by the Barnsley Parkrun for about 6 weeks who signed us off. The main drivers were Mark Hudson and Dom Patterson. A great group of regular and occasional volunteers formed and the event has been held every Saturday morning at Sandall Park starting at 9am since.
I am there most weeks, I have run it about 4 times and I enjoy time keeping and taking photographs of the runners which are uploaded to the Doncaster Parkrun group.
We have encouraged the Doncaster Pacers to run at the parkrun and about 10 have done to date. The parkrun is a great addition to the running comunity of Doncaster and I am proud to be part of it.
My Rehabilitation
As I have been involved with the Doncaster Pacers and the Doncaster Parkrun I have focused my energy on these projects. I am also the men’s captain at Doncaster Athletic Club, manage the Doncaster Athletic Clubs website and I am involved as an assistant with the organisation of 3 open road races in Doncaster. So although I have not done much running most of my time when I am not at work is spent on running related things.
I had 4 physio appointments, 2 with Eddie Fletcher and 2 with Jenny Blizard. They helped me overcome my injuries. I also visited my GP who was also very helpful to my surprise.
As I was running with the Doncaster Pacers beginners course my running was dead steady which helped.
Since December 1st 2013 to 12 April 2014 I have run a total of 200 miles (only 10 miles in January). Go back 12 months, I was running 200 miles a month! The thing is, I did not feel that I had lost much fitness.
To test myself I ran the Parkrun 3 times and I did 22, 21 and 20 minutes.
The South Yorkshire Road League came around, this was the reason I joined DAC 7 years ago and I did the first race in 31:57. Not a PB for 5 miles but off the back of zero speed work and not much running I was delighted. I think this shows that with a minimal tick over mileage with a bit of swimming and turbo training you don’t loose fitness very quickly.
Today I decided to run 10 miles, the furthest I have run since October (6 months ago). This was 50% off road, with a good hill in it and the railway footbridge in Sandall Beat woods. I had a couple of slower miles but I averaged 7 minute miles!
My splits:
1) – 1m – 6:41(6:41/m) – 125cal
2) – 1m – 6:34(6:34/m) – 117cal
3) – 1m – 6:30(6:30/m) – 117cal
4) – 1m – 7:48(7:48/m) – 117cal
5) – 1m – 7:05(7:05/m) – 118cal
6) – 1m – 7:06(7:06/m) – 115cal
7) – 1m – 7:23(7:23/m) – 119cal
8) – 1m – 7:14(7:14/m) – 115cal
9) – 1m – 7:01(7:01/m) – 119cal
10) – 1m – 6:45(6:45/m) – 117cal
