(03-01-2026) I am thinking what made my hip flexor go. I wonder if it was the general volume plus the tendency to do back to back fast 5k for parkrun and then a very long run 30k was perhaps too aggressive. THe other day in the tempo run I had my first almost big toe blister, at least I now know where it will happen.
(02-01-2026) While the hip flexor is not fully tightness-free I can run again without any increased tightness the next day which according to everyone is a very good sign. So I went for a Zone 3 run today and broke my 10k and 15k PBs… I have also decided to claim ownership (metahorical as Strava Local Legend) over a few Strava segments in my surroundings. Mine, My own, My Segmentssss.
(06-12-2025 to 01-01-2026) Mild TFL tendinopathy happened right after the rest week. My hypotheses are: rest week was too aggressive, meaning, I did too little, followed by quite an aggressive restart which included a fast tempo run such as I had never done before. Followed by a fast hilly parkrun and a slow return home during which my hip flexor was already hurting!!! What a silly move. I massively reduced volume and intensity. And slowly the pain turned into tightness and the tighness very … very slowly is becoming less.
(05-12-2025) Two weeks ago I went on a 30k run and it was very good. Since then I have had a rest week and icnreased my mid runs to 75 minutes which right now gives me 14km. I am sleeping more but not feeling any major effects of this. I did feel the effects of the deload week. My long-run during the de-load week was fun, I run throuhg both pedestrian tunnels in east London and ended at the Tate & Lyle factory. I now have bought 4 new shorts since starting training… I am also switching to merino everything.
(08-11-2025) Ran a PB at parkrun in Hackney Marshes. There was an important mental element. The first kilometre was incredibly silly at 3:38 min/km pace. This is too fast and I am pleasantly surprised it did not have a worse impact than it did. I slowed down and then tried to keep the last 2km as close to 4 as possible. It worked and I even had energy for a kick at the end, 30 metres or so. Looking forward to the long one tomorrow.
(19-10-2025) The visualisations have reached their final form. I had two gels in the last long run, it does make a big difference. The training is working. It will be interesting to run at elevation next week. The new plots show the weekly mileage/time with hover to see individual runs, not as pretty as waterfall but more compact. The other tab shows physiological adaptation I hope. With lower HR for same pace runs as training Phases advance. I cannot figure out how to get perfect tick and axis labels.
(08-10-2025) Training is going well, I am running 3 to 4 times a week with no pain in either leg or foot. I am still cycling to work sometimes, I have even tried running to work, this is probably the most tryhard thing I have done in a long time. It is nice in the early morning it is not nice at rush-hour in the evening. I made some initial purchases for this new hobby, a small running backpack for the aforementioned runs to work even though the Osprey Nebula works surprisingly well it is too big. I got shorts with large mesh pockets to carry a flask and food, and a selection of different types of foods from Kendal Mint Company, surprisingly okay with their very minty cakes, have not tried the gels yet. I made an entire self contained app to visualise runs, heart rate stuff and sleep but I won’t integrate it here yet.
(27-09-2025) Added some waterfall plots to visualize weekly mileage and time spend running, also a not very useful average and sum by weekday.
(25/09/2025) I have signed up to the Lea Valley ultra-marathon. Ultra-marathon covers any distance over 42.195, meaning that most people that have run a marathon, have in fact run an ultra-marathon, well done guys. Call yourselves ultra-marathon finishers, its cooler. Anyway, The Lea Valley Ultra is a 50 km (31 miles) race from from Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire to Hackney Wick in East London.
I am not sure what this page will contain, probably visualisations, some descriptive statistics on my training. Maybe ideas about strength training, gear and nutrition (something I have never had to worry about, the longest I’ve ever run in one go is 22km). Right now I am thinking how to best organise the data for myself.