2013 Running Review & Happy New Year

So it's the end of 2013 and what a year it has been! I am down on miles from last year due to bad health and injury and I think another factor is I only ran 1 marathon this year and no Ultras but will be making up for that next year as I have two full marathons and two ultras booked in already!

My original target miles was 637 to match last years efforts but I readjusted this around November when I was suffering with high hamstring tendonitis to 600. I blitzed  two back to back days of 4 mile runs earlier this week to make 600 completely forgetting today was still 2013 and there was also an easy run to do on my marathon training plan so I ended up with the following statistics -

• 135 individual runs - 11 of those runs were on a treadmill
• 603.01 miles total - 44.30 were on treadmill
• Time spent running 108 hours 53 minutes 21 seconds (that's made me want a snooze just reading it)
•  Average Speed 5.4mph 
• Calories burnt 52,260 ( That's the equivalent of 177.1525423729 McDonald's cheeseburgers!)

I entered 18 races and started and completed 16 of them, the other two I am pleased to say were not DNF's, I have a Did Not Finish clean sheet this year but made up for it with two Did Not Starts! For health reasons earlier in the year I had to pull out of the two biggest races  which were the 24 Hour Adidas Thunder Run and The Grim Reaper 40 mile ultra. I'm pleased to say I'm going back for the Grim next year but unfortunatley the Thunder run sold out too fast so that will have to wait until 2015.

The 16 races I did complete consisted of -

 1 x Full Marathon
7 x Half Marathons - including 1 on a treadmill due to the actual race being cancelled due to snow.
3 x 10k's
1 x 5k
1 x 9 mile event
1 x 5 mile event
1 x 20 mile event
1 x 17 mile event which was sunset to sunrise with no given distance to complete.

My favorite race of the year by far was the Holly Challenge Sunrise to Sunset and I am going back for more next year hoping to complete 30 miles in the Summer event as lead up to the Grim.  My target miles for next year is a big increase jumping up to 1000 miles but with two marathons and two ultras on the horizon I'm thinking the miles will look after themselves.

Thank you to all my readers and supporters over the last year you won't have to wait long for another update as I am racing in Dirt Run 10k tomorrow, 2014 will be starting BIG with a little half marathon in a foreign country in 4 weeks then London it's all going on! So all that's left to say is Happy New Year everyone! For anyone that is thinking about taking up running or exercise in the new year as a resolution or just because you want to be fitter and healthier I leave you with this.....

Sunrise to Sunset Holly Winter Challenge

This was it, my last race of 2013 and I wanted it to be a good one. The day before I had gone out into the sales and bought a nice purple thermal base layer long sleeve top and a buff and I had spent most of the evening trying to construct the buff into a pirate buff! oohh arrrrrrr! I had also purchased some Kendal Mint cake as I had forgotten to buy any jelly babies and my running stash was rather on the low side plus it was all 60 miles away in Worcester. I had a little nibble of the cake with some shots of Sambucca just before retiring to bed.. now I know why I slept so bad! I woke up the morning of the 27th December and the Sunrise to Sunset challenge with the worst butterflies in my stomach I think I've ever experienced before a race.

I hadn't raced since the start of October at the Bournemouth half marathon which I will admit I struggled with a little and this was a big event so how was I going to fair at a smaller one? It was also worrying that the furthest I had ran in one go since Bournemouth was 10 miles due to injury and illness. The wind sounded terrible as I sat in my sisters spare room getting all my gear together to be picked up at 7.30am by Anjie. Still at least it wasn't windy and raining. I could barely stomach the banana I had bought let alone the oat cereal and before I knew it my mom had arrived as she was my support for the day. Just after 7.30am we set off in the car to make the short 1.5 mile journey to Lightmoor in Telford where Anjie and I would spend the next few hours running as many laps of the 0.84 mile course as we could or indeed wanted to. I had been mulling over a few goals my main one being minimum of half marathon distance I knew I could do this, the next one being 20 miles then a marathon then 30 miles... but of course all of these were just numbers. As we parked the car we had a short walk up an incline it wasn't steep but did go on abit and it was very muddy with lots of slush and puddles. Arriving at the top of the incline we found the headquarters and what was also the checkpoint it was a little gazebo, god know how they got that up in the wind at 6am that morning!

Stamper card

We had to register and get our numbers, I was number 58 and Anjie number 4, we found out that 16 people had pulled out... wimps! We had to sign a disclaimer to say we were fit and well to race.. I signed it though as per previous blogs I have doubts on my current level of fitness! I needn't have worried about not having any jelly babies with me as the supply table soon got filled with goodies from jelly babies, jelly beans, crisps, jaffa cakes, coca cola, squash, water and even cups of mulled cider! At 8.17am we had the race briefing from Denzil who may I say puts on a fantastic event and looked after everyone really well. We were given a laminated card with numbers to represent the amount of laps we had done and had to get it punched at the end of every lap. Oh god I thought this doesn't bode well as everything about the race from the weather to the mud and now the stamper card reminded me of the Grim Reaper Ultra!!

At the start

Where I spent most my time eating and chatting

At 8.20am we had a little countdown and we were off! I started running with Anjie following the other runners I think in total there was less than 70 of us, we followed a little muddy path down a slight hill that then ended up with a big puddle to go through though you could at this point just about get around the edge of it. Then we came up to a steep hill made up of compacted stones and mud, we ran up this then there was a nice little descent still muddy which then bought us to a puddle the size of a lake that spread across the whole path..we followed suit and stepped cautiously across the side of the bank but still managed to get right in the puddle and suddenly my whole right foot was swamped with water and mud and it was cold..... Then the strangest thing happened.. normally I would have been cursing a race like this with these conditions, I don't particularly like races not on pavement and I certainly don't like hills or mud or water but I just started smiling and was thoroughly enjoying myself. We then came to where Anjie had parked her car and the rest of route we had already done on the way to the HQ, it was the long incline and before you knew it we had ran 0.84 miles and were already getting our cards stamped. We set off to go around again, I think we ran the first two laps together then Anjie said I could run on as I wanted to loosen up my legs a bit, we were going to run our own races so off I went I ran up the big hill and finished that mile at around 9.45 minutes but this I decided was too fast, I then decided I was going to go for distance, time was no object to me I could run until 4.01pm when the sunset. All the way around my Nike dri fit tights were falling down or felt like they were and I was constantly hoisting them back up this was really beginning to ruin my race experience. I decided to just have fun so I started walking up the big hill and it was sociable, all the other runners were walking this hill and we all chatted to each other along the way it was like we were out on a leisurely stroll! After a couple of laps I started just running straight through the middle of the big lake/puddle and enjoyed it every time as my feet soon dried out just before running through it again. With the checkpoint coming around so often I began to stop and chat to people, whether that be the organizer Denzil, Denzils mom who was looking after the supply table and who was also keeping my mom company and my mom. I was having a good time.. no a great time and I really didn't care when I was looking at my watch and it was telling me I was running (or eating and chatting) at 30.25 minute miles. Time was no object I was just having fun. My trousers were still falling down or was it my knickers? I thought it was more likely my knickers and rather than going through the palaver of taking my muddy trainers off then trousers I called upon my mom with her magic handbag that's got everything in it and went in the portaloo with a pair of scissors and cut them off! Just under mile 10 my mom wanted to stretch her legs so I took her on a walk down to the first little puddle she made it through that part then up the big hill and I warned her of the lake I had been running through and she could see the state of my old stinkers but she wanted to complete a lap with me so we strolled on down to the lake and spotted a runner clear the puddle using the bank on the right hand side. Mom made it over problem free whilst I was still continuing to run through the middle. That was probably my favorite lap of all. I had realised however my knickers were never the problem it was always my trousers as they were still falling down.

rarrrr! 

finished!

We stopped at the checkpoint and mom had a mulled cider or two! After the 10 mile marker I felt like I had crossed a big step the next one was the 13.1 miles, the next two laps I ran without stopping at the supply table and was pleased that I had achieved my first goal. My glutes were hurting and I think they had been from around mile 8 but it wasn't a major concern to me. The next lap Anjie and I ran/walked together, there is something to be said for going slower and simply enjoying yourself, my time on this day for half marathon distance was.... drum roll please.....absolute personal worst of 3 hours 24 minutes to give you an idea that is over 1 hour over my average and 1 hour 16 minutes slower than my pb!!! but I was laughing and smiling without a care in the world the whole time and I told Anjie I felt like this race had set me in a positive mindset for the Grim, after all that has a 26 hour time limit I know knew what I had to do. I had to run/walk a lap and spend an hour at the supply table chatting. As I was coming up to the 15 mile marker and by now had ran 17 laps my sister and her partner Simon were on the phone saying they had arrived to support me and also give mom a lift home and possibly me if I was near finishing. I carried on with the next lap knowing they would all be at the checkpoint waiting for me and I had decided I wanted to do 20 miles at least, I would stop at 20 or would I? as I felt so good, I've never felt this good at a race and would I kick myself for stopping but then I am only in week 1 of marathon training after coming back from injury. Did I want to run a great race but risk ruining my training for the next 3-4 weeks. As I came through the checkpoint Anjie had finished with an amazing distance of 15 miles she did brilliant! I told my supporters I wanted to get to 20 miles and we loosely worked out it would be around 6

the old stinkers at the end

more laps, I was still taking 15 minutes to complete a mile even not stopping at the checkpoint but I told them I would be 30 minutes maximum and they were happy to stay. As I started my next lap I was kidding no one , it would be at least an hour to get me to 20 miles my glutes were hurting, my pirate buff had fallen out and I now looked like a running nun, a knickerless nun (or Knickerless Norah as my sister so lovingly named me) and I decided I had ran a brilliant race and had enjoyed it more than any race I think I have ever done so as I approached the checkpoint and had my final stamp on lap 20 I was just under 17 miles. I told the marshall I was going to double back on myself so I can come through the finish line at bang on 17 miles and that's what I did. My sister got the most amazing picture of me finishing with both feet of the ground and it just sums up my race that day.... I was absolutely flying! I then got presented with my medal and commemorative Sunrise to Sunset Challenge glass. This is by far my favorite race of my running history so far.

me flying to the finish

Marathon training day 3 intervals

So it's day three and the weather has not improved one little bit! Who's clever idea is it that typically you need 16-18 weeks to train for a marathon and they place London on the 13th April meaning there are thousands of people out there like me watching the rain thinking "I've got intervals today" Ok so they may not be saying exactly that but probably something along those lines..

To tell you abit about my training plan it consists of 5 running days per week. Monday and Friday are rest days though I've switched things around this week to tie in with christmas and the sunrise to sunset race. There is one easy run day (this to me means run however I want around 10.30 min miles as this is the pace I find 'easy') there is a recovery day which I will be sticking to by the book to make sure I'm running slow enough to recover from my long run, there's yes you guessed it a long run and two interval sessions.

Today was an interval session this to start with I dislike as I have to sort out my heart rate monitor and the shock is still there when I have to wrap a cold belt with wet sensors around my chest... Brrrrrr but I like the idea of mixing up my running as I feel that's why I have stopped improving as I just run at the same speed all the time.  This session consisted of a 10 minute warm up, then just at the end of the warm up it all kicked off! I had reached the main road it was noisy busy, Kesha & Pitbull had just started playing full blast in my ears, my coat was flapping around, my watch was vibrating and beeping at me to tell me to run for 4 minutes in heart rate zone 166-179 bpm...trust me it was all going on and it took me a few seconds to settle down. This section was followed by 90 seconds of recovery running and to repeat both sections 4 times each this led me to finish with a 3.02 mile run in 32.06 minutes.

I find intervals that much fun constantly mixing the running up within a route that I half considered setting up a 5 hour interval repetition workout on my watch and do the full London Marathon in intervals but then I had words with myself though it could be fun to try it.

My next run is the 27th December the Sunrise to Sunset challenge so all that's left to do is wish you all a Merry Christmas and thank for reading over the last year.

Day two of marathon training and what an improvement!

So it's day two.. don't worry I won't be blogging everyday but with plans to publish a book on my running in 2015 I am finding it useful to keep a check of certain things but after this week I will be blogging weekly about marathon training and of course the races I have coming up and my end of year tally up.

Where was I? Day two... before I even looked outside I could tell, as my scottish funner friends say, it was blowing a hoolie out there and after yesterdays poor effort I decided I'd give todays run a bash on the treadmill, though with the treadmill being in the spare room the scenery wasn't the best what with a clothes horse full of clean clothes to iron and put away and a full basket of clothes to wash....bah!

Last time I used my watch on the treadmill it actually worked they were totally in sync with time, miles and indeed speed this time however was a different matter, maybe this is something to do with the master reset I had to perform yesterday? Anyway if you listen to my watch it will have you believing I ran 2.88 miles in 40 minutes at around 13 minute miles.. now I know my training plan was a 40 minute easy run but seriously!? I was running at 6.4 mph on the treadmill as opposed to my usual 5.7mph outdoors and THATS 10 minute miling.

I've decided to go with the treadmill readout which was 4.01 miles in 40 minutes as I know I wasn't running or even walking 13 minute miles. With that run in the bag I felt great after the first mile with a slight twinge in my left glute that soon disappeared I actually enjoyed the run. I'm not sure I can say the same for my next door  neighbor as I don't know which was louder my thud thud shake shake of feet pounding or my ghastly very loud singing to my new favorite cheesy tune Pitbull & Kesha Timber!  Either way the 4 mile run was done, abs ripper is also done and I even threw in a weight session on the arms and of course as I'm being a good runner from now on I even did my stretches.

Let the endorphines flow.

Start of London Marathon training and since when did running become so damn hard!?

My official London Marathon training starts Christmas eve, but with not a lot happening on the running front in the last few weeks and having some hours to kill I decided to start early with a gentle 3 mile run. Thing is I don't do gentle! One of my downfalls is always try to maintain a good pace hence why this training is going to be so challenging for me to slow it right down to 11.30 minute miles....

Today though I would have welcomed 11.30 minute miles as I simply couldn't run! I started on my usual 3 mile loop but changed my mind at 1 mile to head up the canal, my chest hurt, my eyes were streaming with the wind blowing in my face, my legs ached my bum ached everything hurt but no matter how hard I tried without actually walking I simply couldn't slow my pace down! Since when did running become so damn hard?

I managed to maintain my usual running speed with splits of 10.22, 10.32 & 10.55 even when I got half a bramble bush stuck on my sock and dragged it along for a while before it broke loose leaving me with raised lumps and scratches on my right leg.  If I had gone the same way I had came I would have finished up at just under 4 miles but between trying to wipe my watery eye with my snot rag and my legs feeling as though someone had swapped my running capris for a pair of concrete trousers I cut it short and ended the run on 3.10 miles. All I keep thinking is what have I let myself in for? With this Sunrise to Sunset race in less than a week, London & Worcester full marathons entered for next year and the Grim Ultra I seriously considered the fact that I don't like running anymore...

After my run when I had time to think I realised maybe it's not that I don't like running it's more the fact I don't like the amount of fitness I have lost since the 17th November when I was running 24 miles a week and peaking with my split times at around 8.25 - 9 min miles now I am a sloth, a tortoise due to injury and illness taking hold and me averaging 3 miles per week but you know from the old kids story the tortoise wins the race.

Supporting Run for Fun at the Enigma Christmas Double Marathon

Last year I was taking part in the Enigma Double Marathon (day 1) I decided to go back up to "the lake" and support my fellow Run for Funners taking part in the Enigma Christmas Double Marathon the weekend of the 14th December. There were some funners I was yet to meet and I fancied a little run around the lake to see how my leg was doing.

I started out on my journey at 6am for the hour drive to Swindon to pick up Anjie we both felt nervous and excited as though we were actually taking part in the race, sporting our RFF tops and hoodys with Anjie in a very festive christmas hat we then started the final leg of two hours to Milton Keynes to Caldecotte Lake. We arrived with minutes to spare and followed the runners to the starting line and they were off! 

 Many were in fancy dress including Maureen in her Reindeer costume. We made the short walk back to the pub where we got a prime table over looking the lake where I devoured a full english whilst watching the runners go by each lap. I felt like a member of the Royal family in the royal box at the London Marathon watching the runners come by. We were very quick to notice how fast a marathon goes when you are watching in a warm pub rather than actually taking part!

The laps are the same as before 7 laps of 3.75 miles each and Anjie, Rebekah and I were trying to count how many laps Maureen, Nikki, Emma, Kelly and Dennis had done as we wanted to venture out and catch them on the last lap to run with them. We headed out around 12.30 and did a steady lap ourselves, it was cold, my chest was still bad but my leg is 100% better so I was pleased. As we finished our first lap we decided to head back the opposite way to catch up with Maureen and the ladies as we wouldn't be able to run quick enough to catch them up. We soon came across them at the long straight by Tesco and chatted our way back to the check point.

 

I then ventured out on the final lap with them whilst Anjie waited to take photos of Dennis and Chris finishing. The last lap we had a good old natter about running and the group and just before the final straight I left them to take their well deserved glory and headed off on a shortcut to see them finish. Never have I spent such a good day in the company of brilliant and inspiring people, they have certainly inspired me to take on the Enigma Christmas Double marathon in 2014.  They all finished the second day aswell with some big pb's in the bag and medals galore it was a fantastic running weekend and I ended up with an 8.44 mile run in the bag from the laps I completed with them.

Emma, Kelly and Maureen finishing day 1

Maureen and I

Dennis the gringo on the 2nd day

RFF hot drinks afterwards

End of day 1

To Ultra or not to Ultra?...that is the question

I have been booked into the Holly Winter Sunrise to Sunset Challenge for months infact probably since the start of the year. Set in Telford on the 27th December I thought it would be a great little race to take part in as I'm staying with family only 3 miles away. The concept of the race is to run as far as you can between sunrise 8.20am and sunset 4.01pm. The route is an 0.84 mile loop and I had heard recently there is a hill.

My intention was to go into this race with the half marathon distance in mind due to recent injuries, illness and other niggles I've not trained half as much as I would like for a half marathon let alone anything else and with the race coinciding with the 5th day of my London Marathon training schedule which starts on the 23rd December I didn't want to push my luck.....

But now after receiving my final instructions..... I am sat here thinking I should just go for it. From a previous Ultra I have done I know I can do 30 miles in 8 hours well my legs can...but can my mind as that's not had any marathon/ultra training since January this year. What is the worst that can possibly happen? I know the route is short and probably mind bogglingly boring doing an 0.84 mile route over and over and over again and the chance to drop out will come around every 10 minutes or so but really does it matter if I drop out?

Maybe it will be a good thing I just go for it, with no time to worry about it or plan for it months in advance as I have other marathons or ultras I really do think I'm just going to go for it and attempt to run literally as far as I can (in a circle mind else I'll end up practically back in worcester) between the hours of 8.20am and 4.01pm.

We shall see what December 27th brings so watch this space.......

Run For fun 5k Christmas Run

I love my birthday for two reasons, one it's my birthday obviously and two the 1st of December is the annual Run For Fun 5k Christmas Run. Another event created by Maureen in the facebook group Run for Fun, we can either run 5k on our own, as part of a training run, in an event, or a few funners that live near to each other met up and ran it as a Run For Fun event. For our efforts we were rewarded with a goody bag put together by Maureen with a christmas hat, chocolate goodies and a rudolph medal. One of the best things about these events is they are flexible, some people do them sooner or later than the 1st December, some run, some jog, some walk or a mixture of all three! As I am injured still and not running properly, I went out and ran 1 mile but will be doing the full 5k later in the week. And here I am with my ever so stylish Elf hat and medal.



And here's some of the Run for Fun that was seen across the country yesterday, the only day other than the 25th December that you will see Snowmen, Santas, Reindeer and elves causing mischief!