Repaired?

Last week I noted that the Plug-N-Play connector on my UltrAspire drinking bladder had broken. The part bought online arrived very promptly. But, and there always seems to be a but, it was subtly different to the broken one in that the ridged pipe part was slightly smaller diameter. I noted that the red pie is 'Big Bore' so presumably this part suits the normal piping?

Anyway this is the only part listed so I widened the push part using 2 layers of heat shrink tubing. Note that I'd already checked that the plastic wasn't damaged by hot air by testing it on the broken one.

By only placing a loop at the tip I hope to have made a firm hold and a seal for the Big Bore tubing. It was certainly a tight fit and it was only possible to fit the pipe after a fair soak in hot water.

Just needs testing now. When's the next 'long run'?

Christmas Week

I'd idly planned that this would be a 30km week, the third running week of the block. I don't know how this was ever going to work out as we'd also planned to walk on Christmas day.

Christmas Day near Oxstones

At the end of the week we'd booked to be away in Staffordshire. There was a plan to do lots of walking which I tend to count within my run distance as although it's low impact that's potentially offset by pack and boots. Anyway soon after arriving on Boxing Day it started to snow.

Lovely looking if you're a tourist

We'd not packed for snow and so only did a few shortish road-based walks. That was lovely nonetheless and show that the moorlands are neglected by visitors in comparison to the hot-spots of the Dark Peak.

Skipped Tuesday

On Monday, a hundred yards away from home my right knee/quad was irritated and only improved by my taking dainty little forefoot-landing steps. Big strides were at best uncomfortable. This was a nuisance as I was going swimming and then had a circuit of shopping to do; into town and then back via a few independent shops. Really I should have turned around straight away and worn my usual shoes but I wanted to rest my legs!

At the physio she found tight muscles in both legs but nothing of concern in the joints. A new finding was tightness into my left foot probably due to more forefoot running.

Tuesday morning was to have been a run but by the time I was dressed by right knee was twinging and so it din't seem wise. So I went swimming again. The legs seemed fine on the walking so perhaps I back out too easily?

That meant that today, Wednesday, I went for the run even though I wasn't convinced. I went into the local woods for the slightly softer trails and varied terrain rather than the road route I'd missed yesterday. I've a wide variety of options in the woods and as things were going OK I adjusted for a just-under-10km circuit. As time wen ton there were no problems and so put a little bit of effort in.

Much of the route was done at a pace that kept me between 135 and 155bpm for most of the time (higher on the first ascents) which certainly felt tougher than my long run rule of below 140bpm.

The good news is that both knees felt fine, clearly running gait is dissimilar to walking, although there were some knots in my calves but they went after some rolling at home. The goal is another couple of 10+km runs this week to complete around 33km.

Untimed drills

Monday and Tuesday have been leave days for me but rather than take a lie-in I was at the pool at 'work time'. I tried to track lengths but failed to count some of them and then took ages finding floats etc that made the record useless. That's probably no bad thing as at least half of the time I was doing drills and they aren't intended to be timed, technique is the key.

I'm quite clear now that my legs are a problem for me. When using a pull buoy I feel faster (not sure if I am) and less tired than using my legs. Lengths of with just leg kicking are glacially slow and barely achievable. Basically my legs are wasting energy and probably slowing me down.

Having scanned the swim-smooth site once again a contributory factor could be over lifting my head when breathing as they comment that this pushes the legs down. With a pull buoy this will be resisted and help efficiency. At the Goodwin I tend to rotate a lot for breathing as the pool is so choppy. 

Slow drilling

Before going to listen to a choir I had a spare 50 minutes to go for a swim. The pool was very quiet so I took the opportunity to try the freestyle drills we did over the last few weeks on the course. My leg kicks are still almost useless! Overall I felt a little more confident in my stroke but didn't record a clear development as I was doing too many things to give a tidy record. I messed up length recording too.

Slow, but not slowest

I wasn't sure what my knees would be capable of this morning. Both felt tired, presumably from swimming and standing around at work but neither especially uncomfortable. As they didn't feel great I wasn't confident enough to skip today's run and go with the group to Hathersage tomorrow.

As I was getting ready I discovered a leak in my water bladder (more of that later perhaps) and it was raining so I left the house in a less than perfect mood. I was aiming to run my Blacka moor half marathon circuit. The rain stopped and restarted but managed to reach a zenith at Fox House where it was pretty unpleasant. Over the next km or so the weather cleared and the view became quite dramatic.

Looking south. Lumix FT25 images merged in Hugin

The descent via Oxstones was slow as I focussed on form rather than speed. I really want my legs to feel comfortable again! I've noticed that on ascents and level ground I feel more comfortable if I lift my legs more and on descents I'm starting to get a feel for lifting my heel to facilitate fore-foot landing. Both are more effort than the 'ultra shuffle'!

The whole pace was slowish but I was walking ascents I've run previously in order to avoid over working on my long run.

Broken connector

Whilst organising my bag for today's run I noticed that it was dribbling. When I examined the bladder there was a slow trickle from the hose connection point. The hose seed a little looser than usual and didn't have an O-ring which I though should be present. I poked around with a screwdriver and recovered a piece of plastic and O-ring from the connector. Basically the end of the male portion of the connector had sheared off.

Should be one piece!

I've not been unreasonably hard on the connection although it was always a bit difficult to get to seat. Last time I'd even oiled it as per the instructions!

Notably the parts are available online and although the webshop suggested that they can be used for an 'upgrade' I'm sure there's wear and tear element in there too.

Image stolen from Ultramarathon Running Store

The part attached to the bladder feels to be pretty firmly inserted so I'm hoping that I can just repair the pipe and use the old connector. I must oil this more often!