End Of Week 3 Marathon Training

So it's the end of week 3 marathon training and my heads all over the place..

Week 1 I ran 32.53 miles,this total mileage should have been lower if it wasn't for the Sunrise to Sunset race.
Week 2 I ran 24.42 miles every run was done as it should be on the day it should have been with the exception of one run.
Week 3 ...went out the window I ran 23.74 miles which is the total I had to run but due to seeing friends and family and actually having a social life outside of running I had to shift runs around to different days which has thrown my body out of sync on the running front.

Last week I made the mistake of moving my long run of 11 miles from Sunday to Saturday; again to accommodate a social life ( having a social life and marathon training is rather hard unless all your friends and family are runners or you want to go to bed at midnight every night) , on the Sunday I only managed to run 1 mile of the intended 4 due to my hamstring yet again becoming a prominent problem in my running! I wasn't going to do this again as I know for sure that I will never ever skip a long run as this is the base I need for the marathons and ultras entered. The piddly 4 mile interval sessions I can go without but the long runs no way hosey!  With yesterdays tough interval session of 10 mins threshold pace with a 2 minute recovery repeated 3 times my mind had taken over today and I told myself I was too tired to run, my hamstring was tight and I began to feel rather low about my running. Was it wise to continue with my hamstring bad? It clearly hasn't cleared up properly since November when I was having physio and there is no way I am pulling out of London i'll limp to the end if I have to. There was also no chance of me taking months off to resolve the problem so after a quick moaning minnie post on run for fun I had a virtual running buddy Chris who would also be running 12 miles today. It's always better to think there is someone else out there running the same as you and tie up together online when you get back.  I'd got all my gear ready, part of the long runs is also trying out refueling during running. I had my camel bak with some electrolyte drink in it.. cherry I think. I had my new Shadow Pak a very slim waist pack that sits flat against your stomach without bouncing. This I filled with jelly babies BOGOF in tesco..nice!

The run was pretty much robotic same as last weeks long run, when you are running on your own for over two hours with nothing but cars zooming past and a dull grey sky all around it's hard not to switch off and just get the job done. I intended to do the Blackpole, Fernhill heath loop which would be 7 miles then the Tolladine and dreaded Ronkswood hill loop which I estimated to be around 5 miles, perfect. All was going well at marathon pace of 11 min to 11.27 min miles I was running bang on if not a little faster at times my hamstring after 4 miles either wasn't hurting anymore or I just chose to be stubborn and blatantly ignore it. It was cold, it was wet and it was boring, at mile 8 I dropped my only tissue in a puddle...bugger... oh well. I whizzed down Tolladine trying to make up some time as I knew I would slow down for the Ronkswood hill which was covered in dog shite and even some sick on the pavement... you gotta love the rough parts of Worcester. By mile 10.5 I was mulling over my pace as although i'm aiming for a 5 hour marathon in London (or I have Worcester as a backup plan pb) and trying to train myself to run slower to maintain a constant pace there was a little niggle going on in the back of my head.... Here's the deal..

what the inside of my head looked like!

Torremolinos is just over 2 weeks away, it is a half marathon with the first 6 miles flat then the final 7 miles a steady ongoing climb with a very very strict cut off time of two and half hours for road closures. They are more strict over there than here apparently. Two hours and 30 minutes... I should be thinking not a problem. My very first half marathon time was 2 hours 31! since then (missing out the beast and sunrise to sunset) I have always finished around the 2 hours 15 mark so why am I now worrying that I wont make the cut off for Torremolinos. The final mile of todays run was all about numbers.. now I'm rubbish at maths at the best of times with a calculator sat in front of me so why I decided that mile 11 of a 12 mile run was the best time to start working out split times based on todays run which was slower than I will be running in a half marathon anyway I do not know!! There were numbers floating around my head until I made it back to the front door exhausted both physically from the running and mentally from the sudden onset of panic that i'm going to fly all the way to Spain just to get a DNF! Either way the flights booked the hotels paid for and the race is entered so I will do what I do best... keep running!

Dirt Run new years day 10k

What better way to start the new year off and go towards my yearly target of 1000 miles than a little 10k? Only problem is this is a race I have done before back in July in 25 degree heat and I hated it, infact it was my most hated race ever just pipping Coombe Abbey Park half marathon. Why did I decide to run it again you may ask? Well I wanted to race new years day this was only 5 miles away and I suppose I wanted to lay the demons to rest as I intend to with another race this year.

I was very good last night I was in bed for 10pm and had no problems falling asleep then I was awoken at 12.01 am with the fireworks going off for new year so I sat up in bed opened the curtains watched for a few minutes then plonked back down into my pit. The best thing about a new years day race is the very sociable starting time of 11am, I woke at 8am and was now feeling nervous, this race was always going to be about fun and not actually a race as such just a training run (which I was down for 4.5 miles today on my training plan). Getting ready I realised I was pretty in purple, I had my purple thermal top on, I dug out my purple RFF vest, my socks have always been purple then I realised it was peeing it down! I mean literally the worst rain you could imagine and it was windy. So out came my..you guessed it.. yes purple waterproof jacket. I decided to wear my buff over my ears then slip my baseball cap on top to keep the rain off my face and keeping my ears warm. The only other problem was the jacket has no pockets and neither did my capris - yes I didn't make the same mistake of wearing the knickerless norah fall down nike tights!

I eventually got myself sorted with my Y fumble arm pocket, in that went my waterproof phone cover and in that would be my car key. I was not carrying anything else around with me except two tissues it was simply too wet. All the way there I decided if this wasn't the first race of the year I would have stayed home in the warm, I must be mad! Pulling up at 10.30am I made my way to the registration tent to get my number. Unlike the last time I was there everyone was huddling inside a make shift circus tent type thing that sounded like it was going blow over any minute, there was one desk with two people behind and what looked to be 8 separate lines all merging in a circle in the middle... organized chaos sprang to mind. I eventually got my number, number 100 I quite liked having that number though I have no idea why. The junior race had started at 10.30 supposedly then the senior race at 11am.. by 11am the juniors still hadn't appeared near the finish line, the tent was still almost blowing away, it was cramped, wet, cold and miserable and it was doing my head in. I couldn't wait to get going just to have some space and quiet! At 11.15 am we were told to make our way to the start..all I could think about was the nightmare that was the woods when I last did this course the bit with the vertical climbs that you had to pull yourself up with ropes.  Just take it slow Sarah you are not racing you are simply doing.

We were off slipping and sliding everywhere, instantly I found my pacer I decided to stick with her to save me doing something stupid like breaking my leg. I'd managed to move my buff down the back of my neck which was brilliant as it kept the rain and cold out and I was rather snug the only problem the wind was posing was us all trying to stay upright as we were being blown sideways towards the lake at one point. The mud at first didn't bother me it wasn't that hard to run through just cold and wet my trainers soon filled up with the brown water but once it was done it was done I wasn't going to get any wetter than I was at that point as I was already soaked from head to toe... I was now fully in for the ride. I started talking to a lady called Rebecca who had not done the course before, I ended up chatting to a few people who hadn't done the course before and I felt like I couldn't lie to them when they asked if it was hilly.. I'd like to think I helped them by telling them about the woods as after all it was too late they had already started. As I got to the dreaded ropey woods I felt happy and confident, after all I knew what was to come and knew I just had to get on with it. This time I thoroughly enjoyed myself, I did slow right down as did everyone else as you simply couldn't run through the mud I think I added a quarter of a mile onto my garmin just by slipping sideways constantly rather than moving forwards. I'm not going to lie the woods were no easier this time around in fact they were physically harder the rope cut into my hand more as it was wet but mentally I had it covered. I was elated to get back out onto the fields again though.With a stile to tackle I was soon at the drinks station at 2.5 miles going well.

Although I wasn't racing (yeah right of course I was!) I did check my previous course time from July which was 6.25 miles in 1 hour 13 minutes so you basically know from that admission alone I was racing otherwise why would I care about time? Throughout the run I never looked at my time I just always looked at the distance. Miles 3 - 5 were not much to talk about I had taken over my pacer and was off on my own, there was more mud, more rain, rain coming down that hard a drop hit my lip and I half expected to taste blood. We ran past a really stinky field, it smelt like rotten meat eurgh it was vile the only good thing about that part was the field was full of christmas trees I presume growing for next year. I then noticed the course had changed, sneaky sneaky so now I no longer had my back up plan of knowing what was coming next. Suddenly at mile 5.5 I was faced with having to climb over a rather large fence, I don't do climbing. This took me a while to get over as it was high and slippy but I made a friend at this point though I didn't get her name she does triathlons so we were chatting away about that. She left me at 6 miles as were had again gone of the course I knew and was back in some muddy woods, I spent a lot of time tree hugging in this part and cut my hand when I made a bee line for what I thought was a tree branch that was in fact a massive thistle, still at least I was still on my feet and not on my bum!

Taking a quick look at my watch I knew I wasn't going to beat my previous time of 1 hour 13 but that's because they had changed the route, I finished the Dirt Run 10k ( 6.1 miles) at 6.40 miles with a time of 1 hour 22 minutes. Wahhoooo I had finished, god I was cold, god I was wet but it was well worth it just to say I bloody well did it in such awful conditions and I actually enjoyed Dirt Run!

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!

How many medals! Running Tattoos and Run the World with Run for Fun

With it coming closer to the end of the year and only one more race booked before 2014 I decided it was time I sorted out my medal collection and purchased a new bar to hang my haul on.

And here it is... brilliant plenty of room on that bottom bar for some new ones in 2014 starting with Torremolinos and London!
My latest addition is the Run the World with Run for Fun medal. An event created by Maureen in the facebook group Run for Fun with the amount of members that signed up we each had to run 300 miles between the 1st January 2013 and the 18th November and we smashed it!

Run the world officially finished with a total miles for the year of 60,565.8 thats 2.43 times around the world and what fun we had doing it collectively as a group being updated each month with where we had visited. My contribution to this total was 538 miles.

 

Having not ran since the 17th November now due to my injury although the physio said I can run just not as much I'm feeling like I need a break so taking another week off from running making two weeks rest in total which I'm hoping will see me coming back stronger and injury free. Taking advantage of this two week break I decided to get my second or you could call it second and third running tattoos done on the back of my ankles. In April they will be complete with my finish time and date for the London Marathon added underneath the writing. It's a great phrase because really it's simple when the going gets tough in a race just keep running same as in life whatever it throws at you just keep moving forwards and you'll get there in the end.

 

Finding out my right side if heavier than the left!

Why do people pay for sports massages is the question on my lips after last nights ordeal! I had heard sports massages hurt and can cause bruising but very good for helping reduce the build up of lactic acid in the muscles.  I am the proud owner of a foam roller which is meant to simulate the same feeling and give a similar effect in the comfort (if the words comfort and foam roller can be used in the same sentence) of your own home but I was in so much pain with the foam roller I realised after two years of running a total of 1192 miles my muscles may need a helping hand before I could fix them myself.
Couple this with the fact I've been harbouring silently an injury that simply will not go away no matter what I did or didn't do I knew physio was the way forward but with it being a costly excercise I was stuck. Lucky for me being a member of Run for Fun a very kind lady Anjie who will be running the Grim Reaper with me told me she had a very good physio who would see me for free and she would kindly give me a lift to see him in Swindon and back. Excellent...

So last night we made the hour journey to Swindon me in shorts, tracksuit bottoms, and stinky trainers thinking I will be told I can't run at all and worrying as my 'proper' marathon training starts on the 23rd December. We arrived at Dannys house and I was led into his physio room and introduced. We went through the basics of how much I run, when I run and the type of running I do and I was rather pleased with myself when I found out I was normal as I have a neutral running gait.

The normalness wasn't to last though as I was asked to stand up to get weighed. Getting weighed doesn't bother me in the slightness and I quickly pointed out I knew my weight was 9 stone 1 pound but Danny told me this is a different way of being weighed. In front of me were two sets of scales I was told to put one foot on each, stand up straight and look straight ahead. Turns out I am not normal in the slightest as the right side of my body (the injured side) is half a stone heavier than the left side! My right hip is also out of line from the left hip and at an anterior angle? Wow this stuff baffles me but I knew this would all help my road to recovery.  What followed then was eye wateringly painful (is eye wateringly a word?) Sports massages hurt! Alot!

What started with some cream being rubbed on the front of my right thigh then turned into the muscle being pressed on very hard by elbows and arms.. never felt pain like it. After a few minutes I could feel it easing off but apparently this is my body getting used to the pain rather than it not hurting anymore. The left leg hurt alot but not as much as the right leg. Why do people pay for sports massages? I think the answer may be that although they hurt like a bitch my legs felt amazing after and still do now. Danny advised my injury is a tendon injury rather than muscle so won't be a quick recovery but has let me continue to run but drop down from 5 x a week to 3 x a week missing out hills, sprints and intervals and lowering my overall mileage to 5 miles or less per run with a rest day between each run.... cue unhappy face but obviously ALOT happier than being told I can't run at all. This coupled with me stretching everyday, even at work whilst waiting for the kettle to boil on tea braeks and keeping up my stretches from now on should see me all set fit, fixed and ready to start marathon trainig on the 23rd December.