2019 - it’s a wrap!

QUICK STATS: run 1,565miles, bike 477miles, swim 59,230 yards. Races 7 

parkruns 30, parkrun volunteering 25, different parkruns 8 and fastest parkrun 23:57

January-  Ran the New Year's day parkrun double at Hanley and the Wammy; joined Derwent Running Club as a Social member, to help with my Marathon Training when it starts. We had the annual Family New Year's day meal and realising how much my nephews are growing up and a lovely birthday surprise weekend in Manchester for a cheeky parkrun and a visit to the Manchester Beer Festival….oh and how could I forget a haircolour change!! 

February - My marathon training began, my long runs were getting long!! WE had a girls night out to Bingo again, unfortunately, our luck had run out but we had a great evening catching up and it was the month of my best clean joke for a long time!  "I had a hen who could count her own eggs…..she was a mathemachicken"

March - The long runs keep coming and the aim is to run 18 miles before our week long holiday in Mexico, which I manage not once but twice so I could go away safe in the knowledge that 1 week of lower mileage would not hurt the training too much. Had a lovely week away in Mexico, we were testing out a few theories this holiday..was Mexico too far for a week's holiday, how was Cancun compared to Playa de Carmen and could I pack for a weeks holiday with just hand luggage! The holiday was both informative and successful in terms of our theories, the responses were; yes, no Playa is nicer and yes!! So no more waiting at the carousel of doom!

April - Early in the month means that I was getting into the tough weeks and my longest runs were coming up with a 20 one week and 21 mile a week later running to my parents' house on a very hot bank holiday Sunday!   It didn’t get any easier but knowing they were behind me was a comfort and that my miles would start to decrease helped to lift my spirits in the final mile. We decorated and swapped rooms around in the house, the carpet that had been down since we moved in finally went and both rooms got spruced up!  Our collective weight loss is becoming more and more noticeable and we had to take 8 bags of clothes to the charity shop!!

May -Can only mean one thing Marathon Month, but before the Marathon, we had the Market Drayton 10k and I managed a very respectable time of 50:29, I had secretly hoped for sub 50 but that wasn’t my A race so I let it go and carried on with the taper which should have been easy at a lower miles however it certainly didn’t feel like that.  Then before we know it were heading up to bonny Scotland and finally the marathon is here! 4hours and 3 minutes later and 26.2 odd miles and I crossed that finish line and yet again vowed to never run another marathon again…but I still wanted to run

June - After all the build-up, miles and hours put into training I was able to diversify my training again and with a Pool based sprint triathlon scheduled for September I needed to get back in the pool again que the 5:30am starts and being in the pool for 6am!

July - we are in the holiday season and we were heading back up to Scotland first to go to Rewind 80festiveal in Scone with another cheeky parkrun tourism and the commencement of our Scotland road trip in the campervan, we visited some lovely places and I got to swim in a Lido which was another first for me!

August -  The Hanley park renovations have finished and we could finally run the course 2B and start to use the bandstand again, shame they never did put the sides on it so we could use it as a shelter during the occasion wet Saturday parkruns….final bank holiday of the year before Christmas was an excellent opportunity catch up with friends and walk/wander and stagger the  Hartshill beer mile 

September- after much discussion about house renovations we decided to that wanted to update the garden and make it a haven to come home too and spend time in during the summer months (should we actually get some nice weather) so our GRAND DESIGNS garden work started and finished! I ran the Great North Run again and had a blast this is one of the best half marathons and one everyone should run and I closed out the month with the North West Sprint Triathlon.

October- We had a quick running weekend away to run the Bilbao half marathon and if it hadn't have been long I'm sure that I would have got a sub 1:50 but that is Brexit for you…also the realisation of the over the last couple of months starts to dawn on me that my running has really improved recently, my times are coming down which is great !

November- There was a brilliant weekend away with the girls to Wales and we saw our first snow of Winter 2019, we participated (very hungover) in Pont y Bala parkrun  and I finished in a very respectable 5th, to be fair there were only 24 people and we made up a third of them! I managed to actually get a 10 mile PB at the Derby 10k which I was really pleased with, but then got injured right after it!! Oh and I finish my contract in Nottingham and start to look for my next contact as well as updating my project management skills

December is all about going out with friends, catching up with friends and spending time with the ones you love! Oh and I ran my fastest parkrun in 6 years!!

Heres to 2020 and whatever not only the new year but also the new decade holds :) 

parkrun comeback

The long and short of this post is that after the Derby 10 mile PB I got injured because I'm stupid and not invincible!! There has been a very painful sports massage, rest days, crosstraining and now I'm back running-ish! 

Two weeks ago, I finally got Sean to run our second local parkrun The Wammy, which is a relatively flat and fast parkun, at long out and back.  The only other time I have run here was on New Years Day as part of my NYD double, so this was my first opportunity to run this since I had got some speed back in my legs. 

The Wammy is flat and fast, the place to go for good run time and my running buddies asked me the night before if I was going to go for it.  But with being injured recently, unsure where my form was at and not wanting to put the pressure on myself, the sandbagging excuses came out "nah just going to go for a normal run".

After a brief chat with parkrun RD, we headed off for the start and then we were off......things were going well my legs felt fresh and springy so my thoughts of a parkrun time with a 24 at the start would be a nice way to finish out the year….these were fleeting and as the lactate started to build were replaced with “a low 25 would also be very good”. The course, after the turn around point, is slightly downhill and once again thoughts returned to 24🤔.  

As my watch beeped the 2nd mile, I tried desperately to work it out what pace was needed to for a 24 something finish, but the lactate build up was making maths difficult 😳 The way back felt longer than the way out and the finish felt a long way off. Looking at my watch I had less than half a mile to go and still I couldn’t work it out, every time I did it came out at a 23 at the start and that had to be wrong!!

Then I saw that fantastic finish line and surged for it, crossing the line, trying not to collapse, throw up and stopping my watch all at the same time! the result was officially 23:57 my third ever fastest parkrun! 

A great way to finish the year…..and now I am injured again :( so I am back spinning

Me a PB surely not!

My last race of the season was in November and I got a PB to boot, the race was the Derby 10 mile. The other 10 mile races I have done are; Flying Fox 10 which is a beast and very hilly and Castle Donnington which was around the race track which was also decidedly lumpy in places, so I was looking forward to a ‘nice’ flat race for a change.

Training had gone well,  with being back at home there is a new morning routine as my familiar running routes are on the doorstep and  the need to run on the treadmill has gone. But with coming home my normal once a week treadmill interval session had ceased; before you start yes I know these could now be run outside….but I can’t find the motivation to do this outside at the minute.

November in the UK was a decidedly wet with record rainfall fell during the month which saw record floods across many parts of the UK rain, which included Derby!  But the Derby race director and team in the week leading up kept everyone up today with what was going on via email/Facebook about the state of the race route and they were confident that the race would run, but the route may need to be tweaked.

The alterations needed to ensure we kept out of the floods meant that course it was going to be rather dull; a couple of out and backs with a loop through a park or two. Although it can be quite dull at times out and back the nice thing about it is that you have an opportunity to see friends which does help to take your mind off things a little. 

The miles were ticking by nicely and the legs were feeling fresh and they had plenty of miles in them, I kept a healthy pace of around 8 min miling, on the first out and back it was an opportunity to look out for Sean and it was great to see him just around the 2 hour pacer, which I knew he would be been pleased with. 

We pushed on through the park and out along the dual carriageway which was the second of the out and backs and the front runners coming back towards us. There was no clear indication of where the turnaround was and all I could see ahead of me was runners so there was only one thing for it, to keep pushing on.  

When we did finally hit the turn around point there was a cheeky downhill, under the dual carriageway u-turn and back up the cheeky little hill before heading off back down the road.  This was my next opportunity to look out for Sean, which help massively to distract me and kept pushing me on, then he came in to sight and he was now in front of the 2 hour pacer which was brilliant, with shouts of encouragement and high five I pushed on the to the finish.

Having worked out the maths, I needed to keep going at this pace or a little quicker to get a 80 minute finish time.  The legs were definitely feeling tired now but each time I passed someone it felt like I gain a little more energy and it was the last corner just before another sneaky little hill and the finish line came into sight…my finish time 80:47 seconds.....BOOM…a PB by around 2 minutes 💥 and Sean finished his run in 1:49 well under the unofficial target of 2 hours 👍. 

What a great way to finish off the year!! 

Running around Bilbao city at night!

As promised here is my recap on the Bilbao half marathon, this will be my 2nd night time half marathon, the last one was 3 years ago in Las Vegas.  Most would think that running down the Vegas strip with no traffic would be amazing but I was in my "I don’t like running funk" so it was all a little bit meh which was not helped with me being ill at the end of it.

Anyhow....Sean found night time half marathon and flights were only a couple of hours, so we signed up and hoped for good weather, surely in Spain, the rain stays mainly on the plane right…

Following our arrival on Friday evening, on Saturday we found ourselves exploring this quaint City as we used Sean's soon to be patented "Google-Zen-maps" for the Race Expo and scoped out the race start…no it's over here or is it here.  Once we finally found the start area and got it locked in for later we headed off for a nice cosy Italian to help fuel us for the evenings run and replenish us from this morning's roam around the city and 13,000 steps!!!

Not necessarily the right preparation for a half marathon, but it was done, so we meandered our way back to the Airbnb for a quick relax, with the dark skies looking very foreboding.  As we dressed for the race and made the decision to catch the tube to the race start to save our legs and stay out of the rain for as much as possible, we emerged from the tube in a haze of deep heat to the race start area which was heaving and bumping out Queen way up to 11!

After a long queue in the short loo line, we said our goodbyes and headed off to our race starting pens. The rain had been coming down in fits and starts although, it seems to stop just before we headed off, which I hope would be the case for the rest of the race. They released the fireworks and flames over the starting arch we were off. I wasn't sure what my race strategy was going to be, the GNR had gone better than expected and felt that a sub 2 again would be on the cards again Then the first mile clicked by 8 min🤔 a little quick, slow down or the wheels may come off.

As we ran through the city streets my pace did settle down for the next couple of miles and it was lovely to see people out cheering us onwards and upwards with Vamos and rapido, the City looked very different at night and now in the rain, we pressed on. 

Only now as I'm reflecting on my pace and race, it's clear that after halfway I sped up considerably, I don’t remember it being a conscious effort on my part but quite clearly, from the splits I had decided enough was enough and let's get this over with.  However, there was the realisation at around 11 miles that I might be able to actually break 1:50 for a half which has been unheard of in the last 4 years!! Although, as the bleep on my watch signalled 13 miles,  then 13.10 miles the finish was not in sight and then as I rounded a corner I could see the finish and the clock said 1:51:47 my official finish time.

But its raining!

So how do you start writing a blog post…for me it's about having something to write about, quite often during a run a subject heading pops into my head or an interesting question (dependant on your viewpoint) creeps into my brain.  During the run the foundations of my blog take shape, then it gets beaten into submission and we end up with a blog post. 

Why am I  telling you this, well you may have noticed that there was no blog post in October; I was running and even ran my fastest half marathon in quite some time in Bilbao so why no blog?  Well there were a number of things but the biggest was the uncertainty of my previous contract; I won't bore you with the details but there were 3 weeks of uncertainty and a lot of my free-thinking time was taken up by all that noise. 

Anyway we are through it all now, currently looking for my next contract and wondering where I will end up next, which means there is plenty of time to think, run and write....which leads me to the subject line of this actual blog.

Imagine if you can, you are rudely awoken at 4am in the morning with the rain bashing against the window and it sounds like it's settled in for the duration, your training plan says 10 miles and your alarm set for 5:30…joy! You drift off back to broken sleep periodically you wake up and hear the rain, check your watch and start to contemplate your life choices…..

Well that was me last Thursday morning, as my alarm went off at 5:30am I lay there thinking I have to run BUT IT'S RAINING, and so the bargaining started between brain and body;

• Body: why not go later it may stop raining later,
• Brain: quickly checks the weather, there is a yellow weather warning for your area, no it isn't going anyway
• Body: you could go tomorrow  
• Brain ou have made plans to go out with Liz before you head of to Wales for a girls weekend
• Body: you could do 5 now and 5 later 
• Brain: great get wet twice…genius 
• Body: you could not do it 
• Brain: it's on my plan what heresy is this
• Brain:  get up buttercup and put on your big girl pants it is only rain, you won’t melt or shrink! 

Needless to say I did get up and ran 9.50miles  in 1:26 in the end so 95% of my plan was completed, oh and the rain stopped around 1:10 in my run, so I should have gone later!!!

Postscript, its Monday and a very similar conversation happened this morning, this time I did delay my run till around 12:00.  The sky had been clearing from the rain earlier, it was looking windy but there was some sun earlier! First, 4.5 of my 6-mile run was dry and breezy..then it happened a few spots, to begin with, and just before I was into my last mile the heavens opened and I was soaked through the skin....and all I could hear was some faint giggling. 

Great North Run Re-cap

My Great North Run POST it was a bit longer than intended…sorry!

As you will have seen from my last blog post I have run GNR 4 times in the past and this was to be my 5^th time. We travelled up on Saturday after a fast spin out on the bike for me and a cheeky parkrun PB for Sean, having been to the race a number of times before we decided to skip the expo/ pasta party and our only aim was to get to Start Fitness for some new trainers and possible new kit!

So after a brief stop for lunch, we arrived in Newcastle dumped our bags and hurried out of the door to StartFittness three shopping bags later with two pairs of new trainers, new bike helmet and a few other essentials (honest) we headed off some pre-race day hydration via Brewdog. 

The lovely thing with it being race weekend is how many people there are in the City, now to be fair I have never been in the City when it isn't GNR weekend so that might be normal vibe, although perhaps race weekend does mean that the number of people wearing GPs watches, trainers and previous race t-shirts…. after sampling a couple of ciders and watching the world go by it was back off to the hotel and chill out for the rest of the evening. 

To race morning, if you are stopping in the City Centre you do get afforded a bit of a lie-in, as the walk to start is around 20 minutes, and that is mainly because it is so congested with people.  Having so many people around this does help in terms of determining “which way to the start” my advice would be to follow someone who is wearing at least two of the following, you are going to find yourself at the start of the GNR:

• compression socks,
• clean bin bag,
• running shorts /tights
• technical t-shirt
• superhero costume,
• fruit fancy dress costume
• trainers

This start is a specular feat of organisation, this year there were over 54,000 people taking part and I would imagine for most of us trying to organise a party with around 20-40 people is enough to give you palpitations, so taking on 54,000 is not for the faint-hearted!!

We found my starting pen easily enough (Zone C) and I joined the nervous throngs of runners, some stretching, other biting their nails, talking selfies and talking to friends.  Next was the warm-up and then the countdown and finally the claxon went off, as we edged forward at walking pace Sean walked/jogged alongside the fence until I passed the start and then I was off…..

Ooh look a portaloo with no queue!!! Quickly detour off and pause Garmin…back running again. My main objective was to keep to around 8:45 mile pace and try not to head off to fast at the start which is downhill and very easy to get swept along with all the excitement.

  

With a target time of sub 2 hours, my steady pace should get me there, I the 1:50 pacer came up alongside me so it was decided to hang out with him for the race.  Which is pretty much how my race went, we yoyo-d a bit in terms of being ahead of each other and my plan was to run in the middle of the road that way it was easy to dash left or right if there was a need to overtake or dodge someone randomly stopping!

My middle of the road strategy was good until there was this realisation around mile 7 that I had missed all the ice pops, following a quick correction and a detour to the left, there was an ice pop was in my hand within minutes.  Three ice pops later had the desired effect, my pace was back, core temperature was down, legs and body were ready to tackle John Reed Road around 10 miles in.

Before we knew it we were heading down to the seafront and the long mile and a bit to the finish, at one point there was a little wobble and it felt like someone had swapped my head on to a different body mid-race, but just as quickly everything came back to me and the finish was looming fast…throwing my hands in the air as I a crossed the finish line, which a chip time of 1:53 which was will within the goal going in! 

If you have never run this race, it is well worth the trip up North at least once, the people of the North East come out in their thousands to support this race, there is so much additional aid and support give out to the runners; from ice pops, jelly babies, jelly bean, sweets, oranges, beer to very much needed on this day sunscreen! You will never enter a race where there are so many people willing you along the way offering encouragement and support all the way so from me a very big THANK YOU.

      

Personally,  there are so many other races I want to run so I’ll leave it another couple of years before venturing and allow others the opportunity to enjoy the amazing atmosphere and brilliant race.

Next is my triathlon on Sunday and the Bilbao night half marathon in October!

Love a good stat or two

As the Great North Run edges ever closer, I’ve been thinking about my previous half marathons and times, which then lead me to review  my power of 10 page. If you are registered with a club it means you have an UK athletics number and the majority of your races times are logged on to run Britain and also the power of 10 which is a great resource. Check out the links to see your own results.https://www.thepowerof10.info/ sometimes they do struggle to find international races times but some of mine have made it on there.

This got me thinking I’ve run GNR 4 times what was my fastest, my slowest and the average??? The scores on the doors are: fastest  1:44 (2013 #purplepatch), slowest 2:09 (running with a friend and having a blast) with an average of 1:55:13, not too shabby. The average finish time for the famous race in 2015 was 2:12:19.

I’m not one to leave it there, so I delved deeper in to my half marathon stats:

Total half marathons: 40 

Same race multiple times: 8

• GNR, Potters arf, Robin Hood and Stafford *4
• Birmingham *3 
• Brighton, Cardiff, Liverpool *2

Counties covered 7: England, Scotland, Wales, America, Spain, Portugal, Ireland

City run in: 11: Birmingham, Cardiff, Dublin, Edinburgh, Las Vegas, Lisbon, Madrid, Manchester, Nottingham, San Francisco, Santa Monica

Fastest  1:42 (Nottingham 2013) 

Slowest 2:25 (Stafford 2016) 

Average 1:55:31

Total official distance covered 524 miles 

Total time run 77:12:05

Now I’m running unattached, meaning I’m longer attached to a running club, it’s a shame to think my times will no longer be recorded under my name and being able to access this type data will disappear. Perhaps it is time to join a virtual running club, but which one to choose…. 

Use it or lose it!

More recently I have been questioning if I have the ability to be as quick as I once was. 

Looking at my power of 10 results for the last 9 years of running, there is a clear purple patch for my running between 2013 and 2014; the majority of my PBs were achieved; it was at this time I started to introduce interval sessions and the long tempo runs and the results can clearly be seen.

Although I have continued to keep up with the interval sessions and the occasional long tempo run, you can clearly see the decline in my results for the last 5 years… my heart wasn’t really in it.  I often refer to this period as straining my CBA muscle which, I have to say, is worse than any bone or ligament issue.  You know you should do it, but the burning lungs sensation and aching legs all feels little too uncomfortable so you back off or decide on another easy shorter run.

I have been quite honest about the lack of running mojo for the last couple of years and this year we turned a bit of a corner when it comes to running mojo, it’s definitely back…although I’m still not wanting to push myself into the uncomfortable place of training; the burning lungs and aching legs.

To be honest I’m often torn between wanting to be quicker(getting back to my PB ways) and worrying that this is where it all went wrong last time and why I felt out of love with running.  Perhaps I just need to go with the flow, continue to enjoy the running and trust the process. And to be fair my average pace per mile is coming down, slowly,  and in the last couple of months my parkrun times are coming down to the 25-26 minute range and I even ran my fastest parkrun in 3 years in June.

Over the next few months, I’ve a couple of half marathons (GNR, Bilbao) and sprint triathlon (North West) coming up and the aim for the half marathons is a sub 2:00 for the GNR, possibly a seasons best for the Bilbao and for the triathlon it would be nice to get an overarching PB for this and possibly try for a quick 5k at the end. 

So perhaps the question is not do I have the ability to get quicker,  as we know there are many veteran lady runners who are much quicker than me, but is more about do I have the desire to get quicker and what is the cost I’m willing to pay.

this is not a dress rehearsal folks

You only have one life so live it!! There is no point waiting for something to happen, waiting until....you retire, have enough money, until the right time comes along because you never know what is around the corner. 

Over the last few years people I have known  have been taken too soon; some through ill health, sudden catastrophe events or via tragedy. Equally I have close family and friends who have been given life limiting diagnosis's and are having to carry on living their lives.

After each tragic announcement I take stock, reflect on my life what do I enjoying, what is bringing me joy and what is brining me down. Because the saying is true life is too short and you never know when your time is going to be up or when you can no longer do what you once did.

You don’t want to reflect on your life and wish you had: laughed more, loved more, spent more time with loved ones, danced in the rain, sung your favourite song at karaoke, hung out and chilled with those you love. 

I encourage everyone to take stock; do more of what you love, reduce the time you spend on the things that don’t bring you joy. Try and find the balance between being healthy vs indulgent and if you struggle with being too indulgent then be active.

Learn to love yourself what ever shape you are in, your body is a wonderful powerful machine and there are many who are currently going through treatment who would wish to have the body you have.

When your time is up, no one is going to care that you worked those extra hours, or you had an empty washing/   ironing basket, a spotless house or not a wrinkle insight  what they are going to miss is you. Make them smile at the memories made together and they’ll take comfort in the fact you lived your life to the fullest!

Now go out let go of the anger, negativity as they only person they hurt is you.  Go and be around people you love,  make awesome memories and hold on to those things.

Just keep swimming

Following the marathon, with the next six months stretched and whilst we are waiting for summer to load I’m contemplating what to do with my next….. it’s true that marathon training really does consume you both physically and mentally, there is little time to think or do about anything else. 

This happens slowly and you don’t notice it happening, nearly every waking hour is taken up with thinking;

• about the route you will take, 
• the pace you will run, 
• have you got enough gels to get you though,
• will last night’s tea make and unpleasant reappearance where there are no facilities….
• do I have the energy to run again, 
• race day is T-minus x, 
• RACE DAY
• Finish line photos posted to the social media of your choice,
• retold the story about how the wheels fell off, or that you had an amazing race and yes you are pleased with your time!!

and then all of a sudden you have all this free time and mental capacity to do stuff….but you don’t know what to do with yourself. Personally, I’m not going to go on a 20 mile training run for shits and giggles if I ain’t got a marathon to do!  During my long runs, I’d dream about the stuff that could fill my day when not running, and now it is here I’m at a bit of a loss. 

So there was only one thing for it…sign up to a triathlon!  Which I have the North West Sprint Triathlon the end of September it’s a pool based Triathlon so (hopefully) there will be no getting out of the swim and bursting into tears! But what it does mean and with all this additional time I can finally get back in in the pool and back on my bike. 

So far it is week 3 of the new training plan and I’m keeping up my 2 early morning pool swims a week, it’s not easy and something I don’t enjoy that much, mainly because it is pure alone time with my thoughts…which is a scary place to be, because believe it or not I’m not very interesting. The strategy to keep me amused is to a) try not to imagine what those other weird floaty things are in the pool and b) remember what lap we are on.  Another good game is how many laps can I get done before other people join my lane Wednesday's record was 36.  But in the words of Dory “just keep swimming swimming”.

There has not been much in the way of bike training year other than spectating at the Potters Arf the other
week, so I need to up my game there but the awful summer weather hasn’t helped and my bike is need of some TLC maintenance to sort out the squeaking disc brakes.  Currently, my knowledge of how to sort this out has come from two YouTube clips and it looks easy enough what’s the worse that can happen...

Well I really enjoyed the majority of that..

Edinburgh has come and gone, all over in the blink of an eye! scary really after 16 weeks of training where every run felt tough, then slowly as the runs got longer they started to feel a bit easier and dare I say a little more enjoyable. Having said that I was really pleased to be done with the 2+ hour runs.

I had set my goals for Edinbrough which were twofold:

a) finish time with 4 at the start

b) still have the desire to put my trainers on and run again

To help me enjoy the run I had created an awesome music playlist, that I was really looking forward to listening too. It was an interesting mix of songs that I love both listening to very loud and singing along to in my car very badly! I'd purposely not listened to music too much in training and my long runs have mainly been listening to podcasts to distract me so listening to my mix was going to be a real treat.

Before my race, my training had really been turning a corner, with dropping around 10kgs and actually enjoying my running, my speed has started to pick up. So many people had started to question my seemingly soft target of a 4 something marathon.  

Did I achieve my two goals?

Goal 1: Finish time was 4:05 ✔

Goal2:  I really enjoyed the first 22 miles my songs where awesome, each one was a joy to listen to not quite singing out aloud but there was a lot of smiles, air guitars, air drumming and plenty of dancing hands. 

The weather had perked up which was brilliant as conditions at the start was awful, downpours and heavy drizzle then as the start got underway the rain dried up and it stayed dry for the entire run (despite the advanced weather warning!!) and finally the crowds where brilliant out in there droves clapping, cheering and telling everyone how brilliant they were.

But a marathon is 26.2 miles so what about the last bit….. last 4.5(!) miles were tough, it felt like I'd been handed a piano and to run into a headwind all the way to the finish!! 

There were a couple of walking breaks but I soon started running again. It helped to remind me that although this was tough, this was nothing compared with what Dad had to go through during his treatment.  When his last few rounds of radiotherapy were well and truly kicking his arse (excuse the Bowel Cancer pun), he continued to get himself to the hospital have his treatment because he knew that was what he needed to do to beat cancer.  

I also remembered telling him that his last few treatments were like the last 4 miles of the marathon, tough but you know you need to carry on because you don’t want to waste the first 22 miles…….

Eventually, I rounded the corner and the finish was in sight, halfway down the white runway to the finish I threw my hands in the air and even tried to smile a little!

I'd finished and yes I do want to run again, but just not marathons!

Your pace or mine!

Nine days to my marathon and my thoughts are on what my actual pace is going to be. As my long run mileage has dropped my pace has got quicker and last Sunday I ran an old favourite race of mine Market Drayton 10 and got achieved my fastest 10k in 5 years and a course pb!!

So the temptation is to change my goal from a 4 something to a 3 something at the beginning of my finish time; perhaps I could go for a 3:50 … but this is a dangerous game because then you find yourself looking up London marathon good for age time (cough 3:53) ***looks away whistling 😗 ***

But 26.2 is a long way to go and anything can happen so I’m not considering changing my marathon time goal of a 4 something. Ideally a low 4 something as my A  goal and anything starting with 4 as my B goal. 

So my pace is going to  be 9:15 and see how I get on, this should give me a around 4:03ish time so let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Now to keep injury free and try and relax over the few days

May means marathon month!!!

I have arrived in May with more me miles (677) under my belt than the total sum of the miles run last year (663) !! 

My last long run of 20 miles was over two weeks ago and the taper is upon me, this is where I start saying “yeah I only have 14 miles for my long run this week”. It always amazes me how I go from ugh 7 miles is tough to running treble the distance in a couple of months, but needless to say I got there. It's strange that the long runs are getting shorter, I'm finishing them really knackered!! 

Although I’m enjoying the thought of the mileage dropping, maranoia is upon me;  I’m already thinking that I should carry on running 20 miles just in case I forgot how to or that all of my fitness will disappear. Which is ridiculous and many a marathon runner can testify they will have had the same thoughts, I just need to keep reminding myself that the hard miles are done, the training is been successful as I’m still in one piece and slowly getting quicker.

There is around 2 weeks to go now until Edinburgh, my Bowel Cancer uk vest has arrived and I need to iron on my name, which is more taxing than running the marathon 😂😂

Getting Stronger ?? part 2

However this week it’s a different story; I'm feeling very tired and as if I'm starting with a cold; that scratchy feeling at the back of my throat and a lot of sneezing….. But I pushed on and carried on with my training.

With 11 hilly off-road miles on Tuesday with Derwent runners and I have one more 20mile run to do, but with working on Friday I was struggling to decide when to fit it in, especially as we had a busy weekend as well.  Then the idea struck me why not get an early finish on Thursday and follow up my 5 mile run with another 15miles bringing me up to 20 on the day. 

Unfortunately my headphones gave up  halfway through my 6am treadmill 5 miles run and then despite hoping for an early finish, it didn’t happen  meaning I didn't get back home until 18:00.  But I pushed on to get it done, which I did but it wasn't pretty and it was getting very tough towards the end.

Sleep came easy but I didn’t stay asleep for long as my legs ached soo much and my general feeling like crap got worse and then before I knew it is was 6:30am and the sun was streaming through my window. After a long day working from home and moving furniture,  I  managed to get out of the door around 17:00 for a 4 mile run, whilst it was the best I had felt all day something felt off.

I've still been sneezing all day and felt like there was a cold lurking in the background waiting to pounce at any

minute. As the evening wore on the worse I felt and decided to take the next two days off from running to hopefully re-charge the batteries and perhaps it was the effects of overtraining and burn out….

So fingers crossed next week I started to feel a little more like my old self again, just in time for the taper!

Getting stronger ?? part 1

I started this blog post last weekend and it is now a post of two halves…..

There round 5 weeks left to the marathon, getting stronger both in terms of my running and mentally. I ran 21 miles to my parent's house on Easter Sunday.  We have had a very busy weekend with decorating the two back bedrooms, I'm convinced it would have been easier to move but Sean said that I was a bit too dramatic!

I said that I was more than happy to decorate, but there was a 20 mile in the plan for some point at the weekend and the plan was to run to my old homestead and would be needing a lift back.  We settled on Sunday as  most of the decorating would be out of the way and would be left with glossing (which I hate!) but at least I could the skirting boards meaning shuffling along on my bum!

We had been blessed with a wonderful Easter weekend, wall to wall sunshine and warm temperatures it was a joy to be out running in it even doing a long run! I had my podcasts ready, my hydration pack and a front-loaded route. There is nothing more soul destroying than having to find an extra 2 miles at the end of your run.  Off I set with the sun on my face and a spring in my set; the run went well I ran up to the Bet 365 stadium and then on to the canal for a run into Stone. 

Miles 4 to 10 were along the canal which was lovely, quiet and peaceful and odd barge tootling along and 

giving a cheery wave, I also saw a couple of Herons on the banks and managed to take a snap before I continued with my run. Half way is done with an average pace of 9:20 and now on to the next stage of the run was along the busy A34.  I  decided to change things up and put some music on, it was going to be too difficult to hear podcasts as cars zoomed at 60mph. 

Miles 11 to 18  along the A34 were very different to the canal on the only notably site was a viagra packet on the side of the dual carriageway… I didn’t stop to check to see if it was empty or full but it did distract me for a bit thinking about why and how it ended up on the side of the road.   The music definitely helped me up and over Yarlet Bank which is a bit of a climb, but once it is out of the way it is mainly downhill or flat for a good couple of miles.  As I approached Stafford my pace alarm was going off to tell me to slow down, which I did try to do but not that well as my average pace of 9:08 between miles 11 to 18. 

Miles 19-21 (?) there was a lot of bargaining going on with regards to the route, I had already realised that it would be 20 miles well before my parent's house, now the dilemma was, do I go up one big hill and run around 22 miles or take the alternative shorter route few a couple of sharp inclines and only run 21 miles…….21 miles it was.

As I turned in my parents street I was well and truly done in, but 21 miles at this stage in my training is great going…especially when it is followed up by 7 chatty miles with Jen the then next day!

You do have love long bank holiday weekends, these are even better when the weather turns up.  As I said that the start in terms of my marathon training, things are going well and getting stronger all the time!!


However, part 2 .........

Highs and lows of a 20 mile training run

Pre run:	Have I got everything I need? hydration pack ✅, gels ✅ , podcasts ✅, Garmin and headphones charged ✅, route planned ✅, phone ✅, emergency£2 ✅….  Right let’s do this🏃
Mile 2:	20 miles is a long way, perhaps I could shorten it, do 14 miles now and go out for 6 later? I’m I mentally strong enough to do this, I still have 18 miles to go
Mile 6:	whoop whoop gel time! Also, I get to stop and take in my surroundings but mainly the joy of stopping is quite nice.
Mile 8:	this is really silly, why does anyone want to run a marathon, I still have another 4 miles until I can stop and have another gel
Mile 10:	only mile 10, I know it’s halfway but really it feels like it should be more like 12-14 miles,  still 2 miles before my next gel/stop is this route long enough or am I going to have to reroute
Mile 12:	whoop whoop gel stop!! A gel has never tasted so good!! Oh no it's over too quickly time to get going again and brilliant only 8 miles to go
Mile 13:	what I still have 7 miles to go!!! Gutted
Mile 14:	why on earth did you plan a route which includes a hill at mile 14, you could have gone along the canal again!!
Mile 16:	only 4 miles to go, but in distance, it’s only 3 miles, need to re-route!
Mile 17.5	left turn extend extend
Mile 19:5	another bloody hill, we are going move to the bottom of the hill
Mile 20:	Done IT!!!! To be fair there was a point between mile 6 and 14 where I was kinda in the zone, whilst these were my random thoughts I didn't once think about giving up. The podcasts I listened to this run where: David Tennant does a podcast with James Corden Oxygen Addict with Simone Mitchell Ted Talk - can't remember for the life of me! Marathon Talk - night at the science museum with Martin