I love hills!

That’s what I kept telling myself tonight. I didn’t get to do my long run at the weekend as I was away, so I (sort of) made up for it today by running to, and then with running club. The route we chose was a hilly one and as I dragged myself up one particularly nasty one I was reminded of the section I had read in this weeks chapter of my training guide – Make Hills Your Friends.

Hm.

I’m not sure I would let my friends bash my arse with a bat until it is so sore it hurts to sit down, nor would I let them squeeze me until I had no breath left and was panting even when standing still (although I’m sure a couple of them would jump at the chance to inflict that much pain on me…) however that’s what it felt like I let the hills do to me tonight. I did try singing this mantra:

I love hills, hills love me, I’m going to run up all the hills that I see

For about 27 seconds before I ran out of steam. It DID work for a bit so I will be trying it again in the future.

I’m looking forward to a bit more running this week. My plan is: speedwork tomorrow, a short club run Thursday, An Epic Adventure with Abradypus on Saturday followed by the Janathon meet up and then, what is quickly becoming my favourite part of the month, the Regents Park 10k followed by scrummy eggs on toast with Alma and a host of other blogging running buddies. I shall endeavour to blog after every run so you’ll be seeing a bit more of me than usual – oooh lucky you!

Todays Stats

Run 6.5m

V slowly!

The reason I went commando today…

Oh how I wish I had a camera crew following me this morning – I could’ve sent my video in to you’ve been framed and won £250. I decided to run to work, so I packed up my (rather large) rucksack with work clothes, shoes, make-up, my lunch (vegpot, pear, yoghurt), keys and purse. I tried to pack as light as I could, I really did, but the pack still weighed about 10lb! Undeterred, I set out from home, some funky old skool choons playing on my ipod and a happy smile on my face.

5 steps later I realised running with a ruckscak is hard…10 steps later I was cursing my stupid decision to run with it – they really JIGGLE up down left right, I tried adjusting my gait to take it into account and ended up doing a sort of shufflle, hop, step, shuffle, hop, step that felt wierd but worked – it was pre 8am and I was not only out of bed but moving and that’s a plus in my book.

My you’ve been framed moment happened about 10 minutes in. I was going downhill so I sped up a little bit, after about 200 yds I heard a strange noise, I turned round to see my innocent vegpot (piri-piri – my favourite) splatted on the floor like some sort of wierd lunch road kill. I looked a little further up the road…there was something that looked suspiciously like one of my shoes…10 yards up from that…a pear…..20 yards further on another shoe…..10 yards on my scrumptious activia lemony creamy yoghurt pot smeared across the pavement…and running towards me holding my purse aloft was a lovely lady shouting EXCUSE ME YOU DROPPED THIS!!

Turns out in my early morning eagerness to get out of the house and get my miles in today, I forgot to zip my bag up and had left a little hansel and gretel trail…I was too embarrassed to go back looking for my knickers so I had to go commando at work today (don’t worry I had tights on!), oh the shame…

PMA and PRB

I started running in January last year, and by October had got to the point where I was running 3-5 miles 3 or 4 times a week and could comfortably run a 10k (albeit slowly). I found out I had a place in the 2012 VLM on the 29th September and at that point I was stoked. I felt strong, I was running well, I’d just run the Nike Run to the Beat half marathon which I thoroughly enjoyed and had The Royal Parks half coming up. But then I sustained an injury (achilles tendinitis – classic overuse) that put me out for pretty much 8 weeks and it all went a bit pear shaped.

Coming back to training has been hard. I’ll be honest, much of my problem over the last 6 weeks has been mental, not physical. And I think the problem is the sheer weight of the task ahead of me. I had an 18 week schedule in place and it scared me to look at it because instead of focusing on my current week, I was always looking 5, 6, 12 or 13 weeks on and seeing these enormous distances in for the long runs, and just thinking SHIT, WTF was I thinking? I can’t do that, I’ll never run that far, I won’t be able to do that and well, you get the feeling. I got into a negative state of mind about the whole thing, and it started to permeate into all areas of my life. Everything started to seem like a mammoth task, a huge hassle and I worked myself up into this state of permanent stress and just felt rubbish.

I started to feel better after running 8 miles on Saturday morning, and I wanted to maintain the feeling, so I started to properly read the Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer that Shaz had sent me.

The 1st thing it was good for was settling my mind about where I am in my training – the book sets out a 16 week training programme, and today is the start of week 4 which calls for 4 runs: 3m, 5m, 3m and 8m. So, I went to running club tonight and did 4m and I ran the whole lot – BRILLIANT!

The 2nd, and probably most important thing I learnt (or rather, was reminded of) is the importance of a positive mental attitude. I’m sure at some point in our lives, we’ve all come across a sickly, american-type peddling of PMA – at work or maybe on course or in a book, and, in this cynical day and age, it is easy to dismiss it as an airy-fairy idea used by bosses with no original ideas and Californians. DON’T!! Each training week in the book has a whole chapter dedicated to it with physical and mental tips as well as the schedule. Here is the extract from the book that really made me think:

“Reality is not a ‘once and for all’ thing. It’s something that we constantly recreate through our beliefs and behaviours. Change your thoughts or actions and your change your reality. Think what that means…you are the architect of your life. You are the one who takes the raw materials and experiences and constructs the structure that is your life.”

This reminded me of Maggies brilliant post from last years Janathon about PRB , and now all of a sudden I feel like the marathon is doable again. I’m going to break it down into weeks, and just concentrate on what I have to do each week rather than what I’ll have to do in the future.

So THANK GOODNESS for Janathoners because without them I would have found PRB or the training book that has become my bible!

Well done to everyone that has maintined 23 days continuous exercise – you are all ROCKSTARS, and I look forward to seeing you at the post-Janathon pizza and beer meet up!

The one in which I admit to almost going mad

So much I want to tell you, struggling to organise my thoughts, so am going to do a bit of a stream of consciousness which I’ve never done before so please go easy on me in the comments.

Last 3 weeks

Have generally been pretty rubbish training, eating and life wise, mostly down to my

State of Mind

Which has been extremely

Stressed

Due to a number of factors

Home - still no ceiling in the hallway and the leak hasn’t even been fixed yet, cleaner resigned, hubby not being v helpful, brakes on the car have gone, cats fighting constantly, one of them still injured and we’re January skint…

Work – start of a new year on the back of possibly our worst month ever in December has meant very close supervision and involvement (which I hate) from my boss who also happens to be my brother so…

Family – not really felt like talking to him outside of work which is rubbish as we’re really close and have always managed to leave work at work in the past, which has also meant I have not seen as much of my lovely nephew Ethan as I would like, but I have been to see my Nan and I have planned to see bro et famille in a couple of weeks so now I can worry about other things such as my …

Marathon training

Or more specifically the lack there of, which led me to wobble for a bit, but luckily help was at hand in the form of 4 people without whom I would have given up and deferred my marathon til next year:

Abradypus - for pacing me to a PB at the St Albans parkrun last week (2m 21 seconds just in case you haven’t read this post)

Alma - for pacing me roung the Regents Park half in my 2nd best 10k time and also my longest distance since coming back from my injury

Elaine – from my running club for being encouraging and nagging in equal parts and getting me out this morning for an 8m run which hurt, but I did it and now feel so much less stressed about everything, I can’t believe I had forgotten the healing power of running. Also, after reading the brilliant book my 4th support pillar,

Shaz, bought me way back when I got my marathon place (The nonrunners marathon training guide) in which the training programme calls for a 7 m long run this week which means I am exactly where their people normally are by this week and they get a 100% success rate of getting people round a marathon, I have decided I am going to do it and it doesn’t matter what time in, so now I am following this training schedule and I’ve de-complicated my life and my schedule by listing just the running and if I fancy going for a swim, or a cylce or doing some weights I can but if I don’t want to I don’t have to and I feel sooooooo much more relaxed about everything and I’m going to drink lots of some beer to celebrate.

Thanks for sticking with me!

Oh , and here is a pic of my new shoes as requested by Local Adventures (who wants to get in touch with his feminine side – Hmmm) and a couple of Oliver trying to eat hubbys roast dinner last week!

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Still Here!

I am still here – have been working out and doing a bit of running. Got some news shoes, will be trying them out tomorrow so I promise a longer post then, but for now I am trying to tackle my 145 unread posts in my google reader…sorry if I’m commenting on old posts but at least I am eading them all!

@stalbansparkrun and an awesome PB!

I’m so excited I’m not sure I can say much and stay coherent.

I ran the inaugural St Albans parkrun today. This is now my closest parkrun, so I’ll be visiting as often as I can talk my hubby into walking into work so that I can have the car. It’s a lovely venue – easy to get to, great parking, a cafe on site, the course is very picturesque, nice and FLAT and the volunteers were all very encouraging.

I met up with abradypus and jovialgnome (very funny man but just don’t mention the sheep). We commented on the cold, chatted to other runners and I was even able to call on my not very vast experience of parkruns to tell someone new how the barcodes work. After a short hello, we’re here, good luck from the race, sorry RUN, director (it’s a run not a race according to the rather tasty Danny Norman of Parkrun HQ – he is that tasty to look it I’d agree with anything he said although the competitive devil inside me was screaming IT IS A BLOODY RACE!!!) we were off. Beforehand, I had mentioned to abradypus that I would like to get a PB – hard enough that you want me to shout at you, she asked, Yes, I replied, but please stop at physical violence… She was as good as her word and dragged encouraged me round to PB. Not just a 10 second scrape through PB but a whole TWO MINUTES AND TWENTY SECONDS faster than my best ever 5k which was at MK parkrun in June last year. I finished in 31m35s – thats 10m 32s per mile – WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Straight after the race, I drove to Daghenham to see my lovely Nan. On the way, I was getting texts from Alma, Louise and Shaz all congratulating me and because I was driving I couldn’t reply so I’d like to say THANKS BUDS!! Also, I tried explaining to my Nan about my PB, she’s 84, very independant and fit – she told me in her day 3 miles was a short walk to work so I’m not sure she was that impressed. She is going to come and watch me in the marathon though, so despite my wobble on Thursday (I had a good moan on Twitter and Facebook and got lots of supportive replies thanks ) I am still committed to my training. I must remember not to get caught up in what everyone else is doing. I’ve only been running for a year, so it doesn’t matter what time I do it in, or whether I do 20 hill training sessions, or if I run 3 or 5 times a week or if my average pace is under 10 mins. It’s just brilliant that I am going to complete the London Marathon. End of.

Janathon fail, but Jantastic still going strong

In case you hadn’t noticed I’ve failed at Janathon this year. I didn’t do anything on Saturday (mad dash to the vets with a poorly cat disrupted my plans) and I decided to have yesterday off too, as I was still feeling a bit wobbly after Sundays efforts. However, I’ve joined Marathon Talks Jantastic as part of team WD striders, and committed to 4 runs a week which is going well so far. Tonight was a 4m jaunt with Cheryl and Gill from running club. I had a bit of a wobble at a mile when my calf muscles cramped up but after a little stretching and a hill or two they were fine. On the way home I passed a fried chicken takeaway and the smell was soooo tempting. Fried chicken is my 2nd favourite take-away (pizza being my fave obv as it is manna from the gods) and I was sorely tempted to swing in and grab me a 2 piece box n chips…but I resisted.

After reading Bens blog last night, I decided to join him on the weigh-a-day however I shan’t be posting a daily pic of my bod and weight (I think I’d lose my very loyal follower!)  – just my weight whenever I blog which will probably be 2 or 3 times a week. I’ve started using myfitnesspal again to log my food, and am back on the biosynergy supplements, whilst easing myself back into healthy eating. God isn’t losing weight boring and full of admin? So, hopefully I will have bored you all away and no-one will make it far enough down the post to actually see my weight. I’m annoyed at myself for putting so much of the weight I have lost over the last year back on, but I take comfort in the fact that I am still a massive EIGHT POUNDS lighter than I was this time last year. Whoopibloodydo.

Todays Stats

Run: 4m

Time: too embarrassed to say

Weight

A Grump of athoners

Was the collective noun that Abradypus came up with this morning to describe our little group that got together for the Regents Park 10k this morning. Upon spotting me waving and giving a cheery ‘MORNING!’ Louises reply was ‘Oh god, she’s perky!’ – I took it as a compliment as I’m not normally known as a morning person (my hubby, mum and brother will vouch for my usual morning grumpiness) so it’s makes a fun change to be the annoyer rather than the annoyee!

Maggie made the long journey from ooop north last night and stayed with me. Oliver shamed me by begging her for some key lime pie, and to be honest was not much help when I was trying to make her bed up either!

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My normal RP running partner was in attendance (Alma) and we were joined by Rachel and Katie whose blogs I have always admired (I suggest you take a look – Rachels for the amazing Lego dioramas, and Katies for her uber creative and laugh out loud diagrams and flow charts). I shan’t go on too much about the race – I’m 2 weeks back after 8 weeks out so I always knew it was going to be hard, but Alma made a wonderful running partner and I only had a very short walk around the 4.5m point, when I made the fatal mistake of slowing down on a hill to take my fleece off and couldn’t get started again – it was a bit like trying to do a hill start in 2nd gear. I think I somehow ended up with my 2nd fastest 10k pace (tbc) and I can honestly say I tried my hardest – for the first time in my racing career I threw up after crossing the finishing line as a result of the effort I put in!

WEIGHT LOST	5K	10K	HALF-MARATHON	MARATHON
2 lbs	12.4 secs	25 secs	52 secs	1:45
5 lbs	31 secs	1:02	2:11	4:22
10 lbs	1:02	2:04	4:22	8:44
20 lbs	2:04	4:08	8:44	17:28

Interesting, according to an article on runnersworld losing a pound in bodyweight makes a difference of approximately 2 seconds per mile to your speed. As I am 4lbs heavier than when I ran my fastest 10k, this makes perfect sense to me (see table above) so my new goal is to lose 30lbs before the marathon (at a very a doable rate of 2lbs per week) which should result in me finishing 23 minutes quicker than I would right now. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Todays Stats

Run: 6m

1hr 10 mins

How long does it take…

…to get your fitness back after 8 weeks out? I felt great at saturdays parkrun, I even felt ok last night at club, but tonights run was HARD. I thought it was my lungs that would struggle, but my breathing was fine 1 second after slowing to a walk (I think giving up smoking has helped) so it wasn’t that…it turned out to be my legs. Like lead they were. Full of concrete even. Leaden and full of concrete. Like the mafia had done a hit on them. Hoping 10 hours sleep will fix it. Night night.

Todays Stats

Run: 5m

1h 2mins

Gross photo alert…

Today I feel like a proper runner, because I have my first one of these…

Yes, you read that right,  I am proud because I have a disgusting black and yellow toenail!I know I’m mad because my husband has told me. I’m sure I’ll end up with more over the next 16 weeks and the novelty will wear off, but I had to share the 1st one. Sorry to all the squeamish peeps.

Todays Stats

3.33m run

38m 10s