2 days till Marathon #7!

Two weeks has gone by in a flash! Strange feeling – my last marathon seems like really quite a long time ago, yet only four weeks since then. More than ready for the next one now J Again I feel prepared in body, but not in mind yet, but travelling back op north tonight, so I’m hoping by being in closer proximity to the race (and the hills) will get me focussed, sharpish J

So last weekend my parents did their epic walk – 100km from London to Brighton to raise money for the British Heart Foundation...Andrew and me went along to ‘help’ with the night section, although they seemed to be doing quite well enough by themselves still at 11.30pm when we met them! I found it really tough! There is a reason why we sleep each night. Between maybe 3 and 5 am my legs felt like they were made from stiff wooden boards and wouldn’t do what I wanted them too, they were heavy and stiff and I couldn’t think normally. I felt worse after 12 miles than after a marathon and I didn’t know what was wrong. We stopped at a checkpoint and had a terrific cup of tea, and as we were drinking it the sun began to rise. As we started off again, I felt back to normal. So, it was either the new day beginning, or a cup of tea which worked. Who knows, anyway, I felt better!

And the whole thing was a lot of fun! 

Running update since last blog:

Mon 17^th: rest

Tuesday 18^th: 30 min ER

Wed 19^th: rest

Thurs 20^th: Run 45 min ER (in Hull, rained, cold L )

Fri 21^st: rest

Sat 22^nd: 20 mile walk.....

Sun 23^rd: .......

Mon 24^th: 40 min ER

Tues 25^th: rest

Wed 26^th: rest

Thursday 27^th: 30 min ER

Fri 28^th: rest

Sat 29^th: 30 min ER

Sun 30^th: MARATHON #7 !!!

Food food FOOD

Today I have been thinking mostly about food, I have been hungry ALL DAY.

I decided to do a long run this morning. Firstly because I’m exactly half way between the last marathon and the next, so it seemed quite a sensible time to do it. Also, today was the London to Brighton cycle race and it goes right past my flat, and I can’t watch other people doing large amounts of exercise without feeling guilty.

So, food. I woke up hungry as usual.  I have been eating a wholemeal bagel with peanut butter and topped with a banana for breakfast before the last couple of marathons and am finding it an energy dense and tasty breakfast. Plus one cup of coffee and lots of water. So that sorted me out and I set off around 10.30am.

I enjoyed the route, I haven’t been to Wimbledon Common or Richmond Park for AGES and I was missing them. I have never been at this time of year before, I only started running there last Autumn, and it looks completely different in the summer!

OK, it's not a great view, but I wanted a break, sorry. And it's not very sunny. But that's not my fault. Pretty poor show on the weather front today, although of course the rain immediately stopped as soon as I did, and it's been quite nice ever since.

I first started to feel hungry around 3.5 miles (?!), I’d only brought Jelly Snakes, as I’m trying to eat ‘better sweets’ if there is such a thing, and they are made with natural colours and flavours, so I feel a bit better about eating a lot of  them. But they didn't cut it today! My breakfast ran out at about 13 miles, so the last 5 or so miles I found quite difficult. Since finishing, I have had some milk and an oat slice straight afterwards, then I made a risotto (delicious! If I may say so) x 2 helpings at about 3.30pm, then some frozen yoghurt, an apple and 2 slices of toast. It’s only 8pm and my stomach is rumbling AGAIN. But I burnt 1573 Kcal running, so I suppose that equates to quite a lot of food.

So this week has been a good running week:

Mon: 6.5 miles, 0:55:00

Tues: 3.6 miles, 0:31:34, 8’38’’/mile, 311 Kcal

Wed: rest

Thur: 7.1 miles, 1:00:03, 8’27’’/mile, 603 Kcal

Fri: rest

Sat: 7.3 miles, 1:00:05, 8’13’’/mile, 621 Kcal (Intervals!!! NikePlus route looks wicked when you do fast bits!)

Sun: 18.5 miles, 3:03:37, 9’55’’/mile, 1573 Kcal

Next weekend my parents are walking a 100km walk for the British Heart Foundation. I know. MENTAL :-D Here is their page if you would to check out further details of their amazing challenge, which they are doing in memory of my Grandad who died from a heart attack a few years ago: https://www.justgiving.com/susan-lomax 

Andrew and me are going to be walking with them through Saturday night section (for moral support, although who will be supporting who remains to be seen). Its's around 20 miles in the dark....spooky, wooooo! I did a 100 km trek with my parents and my friend Lisa a few years ago (Trailwalk), so this will be like old times! It was a lot of fun so I can't wait to do a little bit of it again! Head torch at the ready....

Back in the game!

Last Saturday's official chip time was 3.48.37 woo hoo! And here's a picture to prove I was there, as I realize up until now you've only had my word for it:

I was totally beating those men. Absolutely. They weren't about to overtake or probably lap me. No.

The race organizers have sent me a breakdown and report of my lap times, which is really very useful and I'm really pleased with my splits. I appreciate that it's not particularly interesting to anyone else, so I'll summarize quickly and painlessly - I kept my pace between 8.25 to 8.57 min/mile for the whole race, and my last lap was my fastest! I've never managed to keep my pace steady through a whole marathon before. Laps, well then, there may be something in them.

Anyway. After the excitement of the race I was hit by a migraine which ruined the next few of days and annoyed me because the massage had sorted out my legs so I felt that I could have run again easily. Got back running on Thursday and then did:

Thursday AM: 3.5 miles, 30.44 min, 8'35''/mile, 304 kcal
Thursday PM: 5 miles, 42.52 min, 8'34''/mile, 425 kcal
Friday: 3 miles, 26.16 min, 8'31''/mile, 252 kcal
Saturday: 6.5 miles, 56.59 min, 8'44'/mile, 554 kcal, 
Sunday: rest day
Monday: 6.5 miles, 55.00 min

If you run twice in one day you get an award on Nike Plus!

Pretty nice running weather this week, nice a light and warm, but a bit polleney, and there are too many flies, and today I swallowed one, which is disgusting. Bleugh. Despite the flies everyone is happier definitely in the sunshine and it's nice to be out in the park in the evening when it's full of people doing active stuff. I saw a guy running on the spot on roller-blades, now that's anidea! You could do that in the winter indoors if you couldn't get out running in the snow.

Anyway, off to bed, early run tomorrow (and now I've said it, I can't chicken out).....

Marathon #6: The Kent Road Runner Marathon...the one with the laps

Well, I had mixed thoughts about this one beforehand. Originally, I had dismissed this race, as it is 17 laps around a cycle track (the Cyclopark, in Gravesend), and looked on the website to be full of fast serious people chasing PBs. Not for me, I thought, and pottered off to look for a more relaxed/less monotonous affair for Number 6....

Alas! This was not to be. Due to my inability to transport myself without public transport, and the lack of any kind car-driving souls around this weekend to assist in travelling to far flung corners of the UK, there were no other options for a nearby race this weekend. So then, I signed up to the 2nd Kent Road Runner Marathon.....

Well, I was wrong! In fairness, I had done a bit of research since signing up, and saw that the inaugural Kent Road Runner Marathon last year had got rave reviews from 94% of people who did it. Pretty good. So I was looking forward to the day and to doing another race. I NEVER thought I’d say this at the beginning of the year, but 3 weeks seems like a long time since the last marathon, I want another!

So, up at 4.50am. Ouch!!! Made my way up to Kings Cross (the tube is nice at this time of day, I had not a seat, but a whole carriage to myself!), where I met a fellow runner called Nick who was also bound for Gravesend and chasing a PB of 3.15 to qualify for London next year (wow!). We then met a couple of other runners at the station, and all caught a cab together to the start of the race. I’d been a little down about having no one to go to this race with, but I guess the advantage of being on your own is that you’re more likely to get chatting to others, and this race was so friendly, I met loads of lovely people. Including Emma, who is in remission from leukemia and is running 3 marathons in 6 weeks – amazing :-D Long distance running is a great community to be a part of, and today proved it.

Collected number, had a look around and had a last minute cup of tea and tried to eat the rest of my breakfast. Wasn’t hungry earlier and having a slight panic I’ve not eaten enough, but now it's too close to the start! Ah well, the advantage of doing 17 laps of the same loop is that you get to pass the drinks station 17 times (which has Cliff Energy Blocks, my favourite!) - nom nom.

17 laps means you have to keep count . So, each runner gets 16 x wrist bands to start with, and after each lap you take one off and throw it into a box, and when you take the last one off, you know you have one lap to go. I had 4xblue, 4xwhite, 4xpink and 4xblack. Why are you telling me this, I hear you say, this is boring! Well, that may be so, but patience, there is a reason - I took off each band in colour order, first blue (doesn’t go with outfit), then black (too hot for black), then white, and finally when I was down to the pink (the best) I knew there were only 7.5 miles left to go. It’s a bit silly, but I found the action of actually taking a band off each lap really helped me mentally. 

And the laps had the opposite effect on me to that which I thought they would. I was expecting to find it a very difficult race, I don’t generally like lap races, but I think with them being so short (approx 1.5 miles each), that it helped to break the race down and kept me focused on each section. Until, the last couple of laps when there were people around me finishing and I had to keep going....then it got a bit tough.

Well, the course started like this:

Turned into this:

And ended like this:

It is not flat (don’t believe what they say) and sometime about half way through the race someone tilted the track so it became even less flat. You may not believe me, but this is a fact, and is easily verifiable – you just need to run around it yourself a few times, you’ll soon find the hills.

I would however like to say a big THANK YOU to the lady who was stood on the steep HILL and had a tambourine and shouted my name and encouraging things EVERY lap!!! I actually looked forward to that hill!

Well, by lap 11 I was sure of the parts of the lap I found hard and the parts that were easy and could make up time. I felt good most of the way, apart from there was something wrong with my left leg which bugged me for a few miles in the middle but then settled down, and after about 20 miles I started to get a headache from the sun and getting a bit of dehydrated. But, well, you can make it through the last few miles feeling a bit rough.

And by then I knew I was on target for 4 hours. The (infrequent) feeling of getting to the last few miles of a marathon and finishing strong is brilliant, and I finished in 3.48.59 which is my fastest time this year, and I managed to pace myself properly :-D (and this is the ‘gun time’ so my official time will be a little bit faster - I know I know, obsessive). Totally worth running 26 miles to get the medal, it's epic!:

Quick post-race massage and some stretching = big recommendation to get your legs back to normal ASAP, I’m finding it makes a big difference to my recovery time. Then back to the station with some of the runners, and back to London....

Great race, great people, great day! 6 down....7 to go!

Run down

Monday 20th: rest
Tuesday 21st: 11 miles LR
Wednesday 22nd: rest
Thursday 23rd: rest
Friday 24th: 35 mins SR
Saturday 25th: 20 mins HR
Sunday 26th: 7 miles SR

This week I have been rubbish and everything seems really hard. I'm really tired and my legs feel like a sack of potatoes but won't move as fast, I don't feel like going for a run and it hurts when I do.

I am in a dip.

I hope it doesn't last long.

What is wrong????? 5 days till the next marathon! Get it together!!!

Running in the rain

This week has been spent mostly resting and running/ walking in the rain.....

I like running in the rain. Only in the summer, the winter is too cold. I think this is a bit strange, no one else does, so I thought about why I like it:
1. The smell of rain when it's warm smells like the earth
2. Running through puddles
3. Watching the rain splash into ponds
4. The feel of rain on my face (good for skin)
5. The sound of rain on leaves as you run under trees
6. It's easier to keep going
7. The air feels clear
8. You might see a rainbow
9. What are you going to do about it? Might as well enjoy it :-)
10. It will stop eventually, and then everyone else will be in a good mood again

Well, that was this weeks thought. This is what I did whilst running in the rain:

Sun 12th: 4 miles
Mon 13th: rest
Tues 14th: rest
Wed 15th: rest
Thurs 16th: 11 miles
Fri 17th: rest
Sat 18th: 6 miles walk, 4 miles run
Sun 19th: 3.5 miles

And on Saturday I broke 3 of my Nike records! Since I got my watch and became addicted to recording obsessively what I do, I ran my fastest 1km, 5km and 1 mile. Still not very fast. But I will work on them. Feels good to try to do some speed-work again, I've been neglecting it, but it's time to bring it back.....

Marathon #5: The Marafun, Orpington

Well this was a great marathon, one of my favourites!

Wasn't feeling so up for this one, I don't mean I felt negative about it, I think just being busy with some other stuff at the moment, I hadn't had the normal build up of thinking about the marathon for a while beforehand. It kind of crept up, and all of a sudden it was only one day away! And I didn't feel prepared for it in my mind. Plus, when my alarm went off, I thought it was because I had to go to work...normally I sleep quite lightly before a race because I'm scared I'll sleep through the start, but was out like a light last night!

Anyway, I finally woke up properly. Orpington is in Kent and only 30 min on the train from Victoria so should be easy. Although, to get there, have to catch 2 tubes, 2 trains and find the start from the station. And that will probably go wrong somewhere....so that is why I look half asleep at Victoria....

It's so COLD today! Totally hadn't noticed till waiting at the station. Completely inappropriately dressed, if it rains I'm buggered. Well, it's May, I didn't think I'd need layers or waterproofs, it's Spring!

Finding the start is easy, and I feel much better once we get there. It's ridiculously early, people are still setting up! but it's a nice relaxed atmosphere and leaves plenty of time to get our race numbers and take some last minute fuel on board:

The Marafun is 9 this year. It's organised by a chap called Martin Print, who set up a charity called Footsteps International with his wife, to raise money for street children who live in Kenya. There is no race fee, but when you register you can make a donation to the charity in place of this, so all the race fees go straight to the charity, which is great, and then you can raise money on top of this either for Footsteps International, or your own chosen charity. It's a great idea, and  because it's essentially a free race, it has a nice 'community' feel to it, there's no chip timing or road closures or police, all the people helping out are volunteers and all the cakes and drinks are home made, and it feels as if everyone involved really wants it to go well. It's a nice feeling, and a lot of people were very kind to me, and it was a really touching experience. 

1. Ready: 

2. Set:

3. Go!

The route is really beautiful, it's mostly along roads, but pretty roads. The race is relatively small, but full of lovely friendly people. I met a chap called Neil who is a '100 marathon runner'. He stopped to chat at about mile 10, and asked about my '13 marathons' which is on my top, so I told him about it, and he asked if I'd done many before. So I said today is my 10th ever marathon. I feel quite pleased about this, I'm in double figures now! But I said, that's not as many as you! No, said Neil, I've done 500 - odd. WOAH! I feel a bit stupid and think he will just run off. But he is very friendly and has so many running experiences and tips to share. It was a privilege to run with him, and I will definitely be doing some of the races he recommended. There were several 100 marathoners there today, wearing their blue and yellow tops. I like their tops. I guess I could cross out the final '0'. Or keep on running..... 

Also, there are lots of 'undulations' (hills) which I actually found myself enjoying?! I had a conversation with my Mum about hills recently. She and my Dad had done a long walk (a very long walk, they are worse than me) along a canal, and she said that coming upon a hill was a relief because they had been using exactly the same muscles for hours walking on the flat, and a hill gives a chance to use different ones. Walking also uses different muscles, and that is why often runners will walk up some or part of a hill during a long race, to give the muscles that you use the majority of the time a break. You may loose some time going up the hill, but you will probably get that back once you are back on the flat.

The race went by really quickly, I think that this is happening more lately, the mile markers seem to come along more quickly than they used to. I felt really good the whole way up until the very end.....

Where I went the wrong way!!!

Idiot.

Instead of turning left and going straight on, I went straight on....and on...and on....until finally realizing there was no left, I had seen no arrow markers for some time, and unless I was in considerably worse shape than I felt I was, I had definitely not seen that giant teddy outside the 'Dreamland' shop on lap one. So, around I turned, on a main road in front of dozens of cars. Why don't I ever make mistakes in private??? Back to, literally the water station, and to the arrow that was right in front of my face when I ran past it. 

So I completed 26.65 miles, my longest officially timed race, in 4.01! Result!

I was expecting to finish around the same time as Andrew, who did the half marathon, well I was frightened he would beat me to the end ;-) In fact, he did 1.42, amazing time! And we finished at about the same time = draw! 

Some coffee and chocolate cake, oh, and some crisps (oops)...back on form!

I am proud to say that the Marafun is 13 in 2013's Number 5, and to everybody today who helped me out and helped me through, thank you, I will always remember this one, and I will definitely be back for more :-)

http://www.marafun.co.uk