Trail Runner magazine and 2011 week 2

For Christmas I got a two year subscription to Trail Runner magazine. It's an American magazine with a definite lean towards ultra running. All the articles on races and routes have a very heavy American bias (though in the latest issue there is a photo of the Dolomites) so are perhaps as not as relevant to me as they could be, but the writing is inspiring and the photos are excellent and it makes a good read. And there are a lot of pictures of shoes. The latest issue has an article on winter training which advocates lots of hill running. The magazine has a website with a few of the articles on it, including a whole section on nutrition which seems to be a hot topic at the moment. There are also some free digital editions to look at.

I found it quite useful to write about my first week of training so thought I'd share what I did in week 2 (last week) as well:

Long run: I didn't do either a 4+ hr run or consecutive day 2+ hr runs so didn't really tick this box in week 2. That said, my hilly run was quite long...

Hilly run: rather than spend Friday evening on the sofa watching telly with my wife and a cold beer, I ran from the house to Bridge of Allan, met up with a friend from work and we both ran up Dumyat, and then I had to run home again (via Sainsburys garage for a bottle of coke). All in it was 17 miles with about 500m ascent so that'll do. Dumyat is a prominent wee rocky hill on the end of the Ochils just north of Stirling, and it has a great path to the summit which makes a good run up and down from Bridge of Allan, Stirling University or Causewayhead. There's a short, sharp hill race up it in May each year.


Intervals: I did a hilly fartlek through the snow on Kinnoul Hill in Perth one lunchtime, which was almost enjoyable.

Cross-training: 40 minutes on a rowing machine watching Bruce Parry ride a reindeer.

There were a couple of other wee runs as well so I managed 33 miles in the week. I have a bit of arthritis in my big toe, and after the 17 mile run on Friday night it was very sore, I think due to too much tarmac and me wearing my trainers sans sorbothane. It worries me a bit since I have had all sorts of compensation injuries in the past, some of which have lasted for ages, so for the time being I am going to concentrate on running trails and hills and not worry about recording big mileages.

Week 3 is going well so far, including one run that was a bit of a revelation.