Mission Statement

Welcome my little blog, my name is Martin Hookway and this blog is a way for me to log my personal thoughts & views as I am attempting to complete personal & physical challenges each year with other like minded people.

The next Challenge's:

LONDON MARATHON (21st April 2013)
EDINBURGH MARATHON (26th May 2013)
YORKSHIRE MARATHON (20th Oct 2013)

THE ADIDAS THUNDER RUN 24 hour Race
#PROJECT100in24 (27th to 28th July)

I will be running as usual with GPS with Runkeeper & tweeting as I run on @TEAMB_O_B as long as I have phone coverage so all your support will be gratefully received.

I am currently funraising for Rainbow Trust so please dig deep if you can to help this amazing charity.

Rainbow Trust is a Children’s Charity that provides emotional and practical support to
families when their child has a life threatening or terminal illness; immediate
help is available for families 24 hours a day. Support is offered from diagnosis
through treatment and, should a family become bereaved, we continue to support
them for as long as they need us. They help family members cope with the present
and prepare them for the future.
So please dig deep & help this great charity, just think £10 is a meal at KFC so by donating £10 you will not only be helping yourself but you'll also be helping others ;o)

Cheers for taking the time to read my blog, its greatly apreciated, fingers crossed it will bring a smile to your face. My challenges never quite go to plan... ENJOY.

Thursday 21 March 2013

*#%£@ : Insert own swear word then think positive

5 weeks to VLM, 10 week to Edinburgh Marathon & 19 weeks until I attempt to run 100 miles over 24 hours in the THUNDER RUN 24 aaaaaand I'm still struggling to run due to changing my running style! Hence the title of this post.


Don't get me wrong, if I had kept heel striking I'd be in a bigger mess. Changing my running style has also made me faster, I changed to a more mid foot/toe strike & I've got new PB's in both 5K (19:24) & 10K (41:21). Not only have I got faster I was feeling stronger, in my last post I was getting ready for the Grindleford Gallop, a 21 mile trail race over 3500ft of hills & fields with an Ultra feel to it. I ran this race in a conservative manor as I never wanted to get injured this close to VLM, the weather was not brilliant so the views were not to be seen but it was lots of fun, 3 climbs, lots of mud & a really fun down hill made it a really entertaining race, mix into that a healthy dollop of good Twitter friends & you get a very good day. The torrential rain & snow held off & my legs played ball, I felt strong right up to mile 16 then when we were crossing the Chatsworth estate I pulled up with cramp in my thighs & calf's.  I reverted to walking for a bit & once I walked it off I started running again, sadly I had to revert back to heel striking as my new style was causing the cramp & this felt odd, it felt clumsy & hard work. The last climb was a killer, I walked the most of it drinking a cup of tea I picked up from the last control point, (see I told you it had a great Ultra feel to it) I was cold to the bone on that climb but the tea helped & so did your support. Those of you that follow me on Twitter will know that when running long races like this I have my phone read out all your tweets. A couple of you took massive advantage of this & quite literally had me laughing out loud at your tweets of support. The last down hill was a tad technical on tired legs, so I turned the tweets off as I needed to concentrate, I ran the top with @Rustyw5, who by this point had ran the furthest he has ever ran & was not thanking me for it at all. It was a hard end to the race but LOTS OF FUN, even if it felt like a lottery on whether or not my legs would cramp up again leaving me in a messy heap rolling down the trail.
I'm the ninja on the left, @Dunsrunner is on my right. Photo courtesy of @Mikew30 & his backwards running 
All in all a great event & I recovered fast, I did a couple of fast training runs the following week & my lower legs started to ache, to top it all off I came down with a bit of cold, head aches, sore throat & feeling sick so I held off running for the rest of the week as I had Gainsborough 10K coming up, Gainsborough was to be my last PB attempt before I slowed down & upped the miles for TR24 training. I decided not to run in that weekends Parkrun but went to support The Wife & Lucy, Lucy is 8 years old & has come on leaps & bounds since re finding her interest in running, she's joined the school athletics club & the schools "run walk club" at dinner time (thats Lunch time for my Southern followers). She set off near the back running with Sue & I met them on the turn around about 1mi in, I ended up running with them from this point as I could not resist. Lucy was running really strong, smiling & chatting away to me, I love running with my family, it really does put a smile on my face. With about 800 meters to go Lucy was pulling away from Sue so I took her barcode & we picked up pace, there is no better feeling than seeing your Daughter get her "race face" on, seeing her grit her teeth, open her stride & hunt down the grown woman in front. Hahaha she nailed a massive sprint finish to overtake her finishing in 32:17, another PB! The marshals at Scunthorpe were fantastic again, praising her throughout & shaking her hand at the end, this really makes running that bit more special & adds to the magic for her. Lucy asked if she could save her PB sweet money this week to buy a pink runners water bottle, this brought a massive smile to my face and put the icing on the great start to a weekend. I cant emphasize how much I love running with my family, this Parkrun had set me up for my own PB attempt on Sunday. I still felt "icky" in the morning but thinking back to Lucy wishing me good luck for my PB really helped me suck it up, Gainsborough went a dream, unlike last year the rain held off & I headed out fast & strong, I felt sick a few times but I kept grinding through the gears on this fast course & managed to get my PB by over 3mins. Ian Man, @Mikew30, Sarah, Ian Man all got PB's & @Joel_L80 ran his 1st ever 10K. Happy Days!!! As Lucy gets a trip to the sweet shop on PB days, I get to open my bottle of special JD. I spent the rest of the evening sat on the sofa toasting all the other PB's my Twitter friends had destroyed over the weekend. Social Networking at its BEST ;o)

PB celebrations
I took Monday off as a rest day & dosed myself up on Flu tablets, the JD had cleared my throat & the sickness had about gone. Tuesday I felt great so went out on a 4mi training run. I again felt strong & picked up pace, all went well until for the 1st 2 miles then my shins got instantly tight, by mile 3 I had to stop dead, I was limping badly but the more I walked the tightness (throbbing) went down. I was not happy as my Runkeeper had paused itself at mile 2 to top it all off. I eventually got back to running but had to heel strike again. as running on my toes was causing my shins to tighten. Once home I jumped straight into a good old ice bath before going back to work & although a tad aching the pain had gone. I've not ran since but have been icing, stretching & massaging the tissues around my shins (where it hurts) with a tennis ball, I can foam roller without pain but when I got to the point by my shins with the ball it certainly comes keen. Day by day the aching goes down & I'm getting more & confident that I can run again soon.

I now need to take the positives out of this, I've coming up to the end of my 2nd year of being a runner & I've already ran a 50mile Ultra, I've ran around Great Britain, raised lots of money for charity, I'm about to run in the London Marathon & I've already PB'ed my 5K, 10K & HM times this year & its only March. Those of you that read my blog often will know I'm constantly telling you this, I'm not boasting, I'm writing it to tell myself. I put far too much pressure on myself but when I write on this blog it takes me away from that, I tend to look back in 3rd person mode, I then can put everything into perspective. At the end of the day I put my body though a lot, then I decided to teach it how to run differently, again while doing too much, running too hard, running too fast, all too soon. For now I'll forget about the training plan I have on my fridge & maybe start up a Runstreak, my friends on twitter have been great at supporting & giving advice, one thing I have noticed is that the ones doing Runstreaks tend to avoid injury more. I may not stick to this Runstreak as I do like cycling & have promised myself to start swimming, but the moral of this is to cross train more & listen to my body. I have had some great advice from @Mineamie who has also battled with the same problems when she changed her bike for a pair of running shoes. She called it her KitKat Leg, I've been calling mine something a little *#%£@ stronger as it has been making me very angry but maybe I need to stop being angry & look more positive again. Taking you back to the title of this post:;

*#%£@ : Insert own swear word then think positive

Maybe I should change it to "Insert your own positive thoughts", I'm confident I can drag myself around the busy streets of the London Marathon, after all I'll be running suited & booted as my Super Hero alter ego MEGA MARTIN & running it for the kids at Rainbow Trust. As for the TR24? Well that's a different kettle of fish, I do need time on my feet in training but I once read that running 100 miles is 10% physical & 90% mental so I should be ok.... ;o)


Thanks again for ready my blog, I don't pretend to be a writer, I just throw down whats in my head & then click Spell Check (if I remember), at the end of the day this blog is more like a diary & can get a tad messy, sooooo THANK YOU!!! If you are feeling generous PLEASE click on the link for Rainbow Trust & donate a pound or two towards the poor kids I'm doing this for. You guys have already donated over £600 so please keep up the great work in spreading the word, spreading the love & showing the support.

YOU GUYS ROCK!

3 comments:

  1. Another fab post, Martin! Definitely a great idea to look back at the year - can't belive how much you've done in your first 2 years of running!! WOW!! Also new PBs already and only March! It's frustrating having injuries, but as soon as your legs adapt to forefoot you'll be unstoppable!!

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    1. Awwww thank you for your kind words,they are really appreciated. It's been very frustrating knowing I spent my 1st year of running being reckless & running silly miles without injury but as soon as I calm down & start following a training plan I pick up niggles. Fingers crossed you are right, I love running LOTS.

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  2. http://tp-speed.blogspot.com/

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