Halfway :)

So I am now halfway through. Feeling OK at the moment

Short summary:

Today's attire:
Pink Adidas T shirt
Black / Pink shorts
Dark Grey and Orange Triaxes
A late addition - my long sleeved Connemara Ultra T shirt, that I had put on to keep warm before the race...Well it was so cold I ended up running the entire race in it.

Today's nutrition:
Number of Gels consumed: 5 (one every 5 miles - last one at 22.5 rather than 25)
Nunn (salt) tablets in water: 1
Jaffa Cakes consumed: 4 in one go at the halfway point
Bananas conumed: 1, whilst running away from the halfway point
Water top ups: LOTS (it was NOT WARM but hydration is still important. I was starting to need a pee by the end though)

Mental state:

Amount of swearing about the hills: A lot less than yesterday
Amount of swearing about the views: About the same as yesterday
Amount of swearing about the weather: A LOT

New skills acquired:

I can now blow my nose in to my hand and chuck it in to a hedge in one swift manoeuvre


So another decent nights sleep, I got up this morning and my legs felt remarkably OK.

Showered, breakfasted and then on a small minibus driven by this man:

Father I've killed a man...

.... to the middle of nowhere. It was cold today, windy and absolutely pissing it down. Joy of joys where we got dropped off at Glengad there was a small shop with toilets. Unfortunately the place was shut, and tumbleweed was blowing past. I suppose until biblical times stables were a bit underrated, we found one opposite the shop (thankfully the horse wasn't in) let me tell you when you need a bit of cover from the rain they are surprisingly warm and cosy. Harold had to blow the horn a few times to actually get us out of the stable.

The first mile today was a bit of a climb. Despite feeling OK, I was a bit worried if my legs would work at all when I tried to run, or I would be made aware of some niggle I didn't know I had picked up. As we started running there was a collective groan from most of the group, but I felt ok. After the first climb, there was a nice gradual downhill for a few miles (broken by the odd climb but nothing too severe) and as I carried on I got more and more confident that I could do this again.

At the 6/7 mile point we really got to the edge of the coast, and the wind was quite gusty off of the sea. Went through a small town that obviously relied on having Irelands most Northerly pub/shop/whatever but the place looked shut. Not surprised it was GRIM. Bizarrely despite it blowing a gale and raining most of the houses had all their washing out - maybe it was nice at 7am this morning!

Just before the halfway point I actually felt really hungry. I'd adopted the usual gel strategy and eaten a good amount yesterday / for breakfast but my tummy was rumbling. So at halfway I managed to cram 4 jaffa cakes in to my mouth in one go, got a water top up and peeled a banana which I then carried with me eating as I ran along for the next mile. This made me feel quite a lot better.

A few miles more running and we were at the Knockamanny bends, a series of twisty turny bends and upward climb, at least for each steep bit it would flatten out a little before it went up again. I knew once 18 miles were out of the way there was a lot less hill to contend with for the last 8. I've started to like the 16 mile point actually, because I know I've got less than double figures to go, and 10 miles is a lunch time jog really. 16 miles is a Friday evening run so depending on where I am I can trick myself with one point of view or the other!

The only slight worry I have is over one of my toes on my left foot. As we came down "the bends" it was getting a bit bashed against my shoe, but hopefully it will sort itself out by tomorrow morning. It just feels a little bruised at present.

The coastal road coming back to Malin and Culdaff was really nice, and here three things happened. I got a big lift from people beeping and waving in their cars. I got a big lift from looking at the gorgeous beaches and the fact I could actually smell the seaweed. Also, I don't mean to rejoyce in someone elses misfortune but I overtook one of the blokes at 19 miles and never saw him again (despite sitting around for 10 mins at the finish eating/drinking). This lifted me quite a lot although I feel guilty for letting it do so. As I passed I asked him if he was OK, he said he was so I kind of left it at that. It could well be me tomorrow.

As I came back in to Culdaff, I saw Geoff (Mr 2:45 marathon man who had given me a lift to collect the numbers on Weds) telling me I looked strong, and you know I felt pretty OK. Because I recognised Culdaff centre (there isn't much to it) I knew the end was just around the corner and I came in at 4.35 - eight minutes quicker than yesterday. Less brutal climbs than yesterday but still a tough course. So I've done the hardest Marathon I've ever run and the second hardest I've ever run back to back. That's good then. I think tomorrow will be tough, and I'm going to need all my mental skills to get through it, and possibly a bit of pain blocking if the toe goes manky.

So I've refuelled, had a bath and I'm about to go and stuff my face yet again. At the moment my legs feel a bit more tired than this time yesterday, but just going to keep drinking / stretching and hope for the best.

Onwards. :)

One down 3 to go

Thankfully I got a decent night’s sleep, and spent the night breathing through unblocked nostrils. Hooray! 

Firstly a small summary of the day:

Today's attire:

JW Ultra vest (forecast was for good weather)

Black / Yellow shorts

Light Grey and Magenta Triaxes

Today’s nutrition:

Number of Gels consumed: 5 (one every 5 miles - last one at 22.5 rather than 25)

Nunn (salt) tablets in water: 1

Water top ups: LOTS (it was WARM)

Mental state:

Number of times I've muttered "F**KING HELL!!!!!" whilst staring up at a mahoosive hill today: 4

Number of times I've muttered "F**KING HELL!!!!!" because the view was so beautiful today: 7 :)

I woke up this morning not really feeling nervous, just wanted to get started. Ate my weetabix alongside several nervous looking people in shorts, went for a pee 50 times and checked out. You think I am exaggerating. Well maybe a bit. 47 times.

About 20 of us were huddled in the car park, a few less than I thought really. I suppose with an event this big you are lucky if you make it to the start line in one piece, or it seems like a good idea, then you don't train... anyway they all seem really nice if a little quick. I felt very underdressed in my vest / shorts combo, but was very grateful of the lack of clothing later on as we had a sunny day here. 

This is a new event, we are the first people to run these marathons, and to get things off to a suitably comedy start it appeared that whist the race director (Harold) was absent mindedly playing around blowing the starting horn at 8.55  the man with the timing clock thought that was the actual start and drove up the road with the timer clock on. He didn't realize no runners were following. False start! So it was almost 9.10 before we actually started.. Not that I should be bothered, start and the end is the only time I get to see the race clock. Had a nice chat with Graeme who I hadn't seen since the queue for the porta-loos at the Amsterdam Marathon last year. We meet in all the best places!

BEEEP! and we were off. Up the driveway of the hotel and out on to the main road. We wound along the road through Moville and Greencastle following the coast, which was lovely. The sky was blue, the sea was even bluer and people were out and about clapping us. We got to see little boats, pretty buildings, and some pretty fresh (well... alive) fish being landed from the Atlantic. I took it steady and tucked in behind two guys, and with them I stayed until about the 13 mile mark. A quick stop to top up my water bottle and some encouragement from Harold "You think this view is good, wait till 16 miles". Hmm, thanks.

I've read the course profile, and I knew he meant - the "big" climb was starting. I could see a TV aerial at the top of a big hill seemingly miles away, and that was where we were going. This is where I lost the other two - I let them go on. I wasn't going to bust my arse to keep up with them. I'm thinking of the longer game here.

The climb between 13-16 miles was one of the hardest I've ever done. I would say if you are a runner, imagine taking the last steepest bit of the Rhayader 20 climb, stick it at 13 miles and make it last for 3 miles. That gives you an idea. As we went up we could see people working on peat bogs and cutting out bits of turf, and there were little piles of turf dotted all over the hillside. I could also see a view emerging over the bay. The combination of the blue sky, sea and gold silvery beach from such a height made for a view that was really amazing. Never seen anything like it. Beats a Caribbean island any day.Thankfully it was a few degrees cooler at the top of the climb. It has been a lovely day here but by 11am it was getting a bit warm.

I do like to be beside the sea side... for 26.5 miles

Of course we all know, what goes up must come down, and after 16 down we went. You would think this is good, but it was a downhill so steep it is actually quite tricky to run down with any speed (or maybe I just don't have the technique) a real quadricep masher. Suddenly the uphill didn't seem so bad. On I carried. It seemed to get warmer and warmer, and I was very thankful for the roaming lady marshal that kept appearing with water top ups. It is a self sufficient race with a water stop at halfway, but I needed those top ups today. I passed lots of fields with cows, sheep, even a few chickens. To me it seems a lot like running in the Lake District. So pretty.

Pretty soon I saw the signs for Culdaff, and after having photos taken of me by some random holidaymakers on the edge of the village (bad times if I am the most interesting photo subject!) I was there. I could see the finish down the road, and something within me still wanted to belt it for the line so I did - my legs still worked. It had started to drizzle which provided some welcome refreshment, and after doing the obligatory arms in the air over the line I sat on a wall with rain drops running down my arms and legs scoffing as much kit-kat / banana as my stomach would let me. 4.43. Pleased I hadn't wrecked myself. However it was by no means easy. My average moving pace was 10.34, if you take out stops to re fill bottles etc, and the course was long so went through marathon point in 4.39 and a bit.

Today's medal

My hotel is 100 yards away from the finish, so I went and checked in. Disgusting I know, but I literally just pulled a clean top on and went back out, I thought it important to get as much water / food in me as soon as possible after running and worry about being smelly / covered in my own salt residue later. The event had put on a buffet at the pub and I went and stuffed my face. All good stuff, the Irish races really know how to do post race food. Came back and had a bath. Ahhhhhhhh. Nice :) 

At about 5 I went back out to watch our man in a wheelchair finish. It took him the best part of 8 hours to do the course. How the hell he got up those climbs I will never know, at times he had to have someone behind him to stop him from rolling backwards :-0 and I thought I had "hill problems"! Sat and chatted with him at dinner - he must be in his 60s, and seems to have done every marathon everywhere in Ireland and a lot more besides. He thinks he has it easier than the runners because on a downhill he can freewheel, although today he had to have someone holding on to the chair on the down hills because they were so steep they were dangerous and the chair would have been out of control.

The man who thinks he has it easy - after the finish

My legs at the moment feel OK. There is sometimes that moment of dread when you get up out of the chair after a long run, but no aches and pains, no blisters or funny toenails and I feel fine. Cold seems to have gone (So I've found a cure scientists have been working on finding for years!) Bacon and Cabbage (and a huge pile of potato) for tea, thought it would give me salt, bit of protein, carbs and my mother always tries to make me eat more cabbage so she was pleased. What it will be like when I try to run tomorrow I have no idea, but I intend to take it super easy to give my legs a chance to warm up before getting in to any sort of pace. Not that I've got a plan, because I think with things like this you can't really have one.

Onwards. :)

Drugs, booze, hotel rooms, David Mitchell and some last minute stress

I don't mean to sound overly dramatic, but I didn't blog yesterday because I felt AWFUL.

Monday night I went to bed at about 9pm, and woke up at about 9am Tues. My nose was bunged up and I still had that "ache behind the eyes" feeling. Good job I raided Boots at the airport:

Drugs.....

Still the room here is lovely with a very comfy bed and I was pleased to spend some quality time there.

Bed........

I spent pretty much all of Tuesday doing NOTHING. I had my breakfast, came back to my room, had a little sleep, got woken up by housekeeping, went back to room, had another little sleep. In between this I sent some whinging emails to Gobi who has been very good at humouring me in my pathetic girl-flu state, and I have watched several series of Peep Show on my laptop from my sick bed with a bin full of snotty tissues next to me. Watching Peep Show always cheers me up. :)

Trying to be positive, I remember talking to one of the 100 Marathon club blokes at Connemara who was saying he did his Marathon PB at the tail end of a cold because it had forced him to relax so for little me that just really wants to get round there is definitely hope.

It got to about 5pm yesterday and I realised despite taking on a lot of water during the day I'd completely missed having any lunch (to be fair the breakfast at 10.00 was fairly massive so no matter really). I went down to the bar to get something. Plenty of nice food in the bar, went for fish since I'm next to a fairly whopping great puddle full of it leaping about and since I am in Ireland:

Driiiiink!!

I'm not sure if it was the bug, the fact I hadn't had lunch or the fact that I don't usually drink at all (I do like Irish Guinness though and I thought a pint with my food would be nice...) but as I got up to sign for my bill I felt decidedly weird. Before you all laugh at what a lightweight I am, I'm fairly sure I wasn't pissed on one pint of the black stuff, but I got to the downstairs lift and had to lean against it. As I got out I almost felt like I was going to pass out, walking along the corridoor to the room thinking "please let me make it - this will be embarassing if I flake out in the corridoor" and "I really don't need this NOW". I made it to my room and I lay down on the bed for 5 mins burning up - sweating but it seemed to solve the issue. A bit scary though. When I got up I felt quite a lot better.

Of course all this sleeping in the day meant it took me a while to drop off but another solid 8 hours sleep and this morning I woke up minus the aforementioned "ache behind the eyes". I am still snotty but I can deal with that. Views like this soothe the eyes:

The view eating my lunch

Tonight was the race briefing at the hotel I am staying at. Or at least most of the participants thought so. However an hour waiting around and then  a quick call to the race organizer, it turned out that the numbers were to be collected in Moville, 4 miles up the road from the Hotel. "Did you not get the email I sent last week?" Errr. That will be a resounding NO?

I got talking to 3 Irish chaps doing the same challenge, however when they offered to give me a lift to Moville they seemed nice enough but I sort of didn't feel comfortable with it (It's one thing sharing a taxi with a slightly camp hotel worker). Thankfully a nice man named Geoff also doing the Quad, his wife and their two daughters took pity on me and we whizzed up to get the info. Geoff did the Longford Marathon on Sunday (was my PB course for a long time) and now he's doing 4x4 - he runs 2:45 marathons. Aaaargh I *am* going to be last. Do I care? No not really.

So here I am. This is it. And I have a bright red nose for all the photos. :)

I am not a number.

Taper madness and travelling

Ok so I feel like I am coming down with a cold. Not going to bang on about it, but just let me get it off my chest:

I NEVER EVER get colds and then come the most important "thing" ever.... atchoooo! Gah! I knew I should of bloody booted Mark out of the car last week when he started sneezing and slobbering like something out of Ghostbusters. Mark if you are reading this I blame YOU! :) I've got First Defence going up my nose at regular intervals. Still, it is over 48h until I actually have to run so I suppose we'll see. There is nothing to stop me spending two whole days in bed now if I wanted to. Perhaps I just need a decent nights sleep of over 6 hours. Perhaps it is taper madness. I bloody hope so. Arrrgh! Rant over.

I had a rubbish nights sleep last night, so opted not to do my final run around Penn early AM but wait until I got over the water. It appears that Wolverhampton is shit (who knew). Usually when I need to get the train somewhere, it is very easy to hop on a bus that runs every 10 mins and stops at the stop 100 yards from my flat. 10 mins later I am at the train station, and all the London bound trains start at Wolves going via Birmingham Airport. However on a Bank Holiday there appears to be one single bus that goes around the whole of the city, so they run few and far between, with the 10 minute journey taking... 40 mins!!! Thankfully Zoe said she could give me a lift if I was in need so I took her up on her kind offer.

The trip to the airport was fairly uneventful, and so was the whole check in process etc despite it being a Ryanair flight. If it all goes wrong at Serco I may go contracting and offer to sort out Ryanair's IT:

Just switch it off and switch it back on again

This always makes me smile. So I'm a geek but I don't care. It also appears their check in screens run on XP. :-0

Walking around the departures bit and having had a good look in the electrical shops, I may have to have a visit to the Apple shop in either Birmingham or Cribbs causeway when I get home. I might just have promised myself an Ipad if I get through this OK.

Due to the miserable weather, we had some crazy fun with turbulence taking off and landing, but mostly the flight was OK. There was the usual rush and stampede of little old ladies to get on the plane first due free seating and thankfully I managed to sit next to someone fairly inoffensive - I'm sure he also thought very highly of me. Be warned if you fly in to Derry, it is a weird landing. The plane comes in over green fields, and you think "Oh I will probably see the airport in a sec" and then a load of water appears, to the point where you are getting lower and lower (I saw the whites of the eyes of some ducks) and look like you are going to land in it. Then at the last possible second you see the tarmac. I guess these plane drivers must know what they are doing before they get given the keys right?

The taxi rank in Derry is also slightly chaotic. It is a bank holiday in NI, but 20 miles down the road where I am in Co Donnegal it isn't, either way it lead to taxi shortages at the airport. To cut a long story short I ended up sharing a taxi with some random bloke who was going in to Derry city, and then we carried on to where I am staying. The result being: 1) we both got cheaper fares 2) I got a guided tour of Derry having the city walls etc pointed out to me 3) the bloke I shared the taxi with works at the hotel I'm staying in so I have made a sort of friend.

Pretty much as soon as I got in, I got changed and went out for a run. My hotel is on the banks of Lough Foyle, so I did a loop of the golf course, and then headed uphill to run along a quite high up road that runs parallel with the shore line. I felt ok, I think the word of the day is "jittery". I did get the most amazing view. One side of the Lough was sunny, but you could see exactly where there was a massive raincloud - so you kind of had a half and half picture of rain on one side and sunshine on the other. This was where I turned around, so I had the raincloud catching me up on the way back and a view of a really lovely rainbow. Typically I had no camera on me, but it will be in my head for a while. I should really get a running phone with a camera as I see a lot of things that would look great as a blown up photo on the wall. Amazing I hope it is some sort of good luck sign.

Lough Foyle Rainbow pic from Google. Similar to what I  saw today. 

I'm knackered and going to bed early. Night.

One week to go until Marathon #4 - a Muff filled Sunday morning

Next Sunday I will have done the Muff Marathon. *snigger*

Doesn't everyone?

The route is here:

http://www.extremenorthevents.com/images/uploads/documents/2012-Quadrathon-Day-4.pdf

And here is the course profile

Quad day 4 course gradients - first and second half 

So it looks a bit flatter than the first 3 days. Sub 3.50 and a London Marathon "Good for age" place then?

An easy 8 yesterday and an easy 7 today. Seemed strange to be finished running by 10.30am. Thankfully I have had running around getting bits and pieces to keep my occupied. I've got an easy 4 to do tomorrow morning before I get on the plane and that is it until the first Marathon on Thursday. Can't remember the last time I had two rest days in a row. Seriously!

In between writing this I am doing bits of packing. I think I've got everything. I know Ireland isn't exactly a foreign country but I don't need to be stressing about trying to find bits and pieces when I'm out there.

Contents of suitcase include:

25 GU gels, Ibuprofen, Antihistamines, Insect repellant, lots of Nuun tablets, massive amounts of vaseline, various t shirts / vests - will see what the forecast is before I sport a vest. Long sleeved tops, shorts, clothes to wear in the evening if I can be bothered / feel alive enough to attempt to socialize. I have 4 pairs of trainers so I can wear a new dry pair each day. Swimming costume as I think that it will be nice to lounge around in the hotel pool after I'm finished. I keep thinking I've forgotten stuff. Aaaargh OCD!

Not sure what else to say really. I sort of feel like I'm on the edge of a life changing moment. I suppose I am.

When I get back there are a few things I need to do. After this week's funeral etc and with more thoughts turning towards my Auntie as the Quad approaches I definitely think life is too short and people only regret things that they DIDN'T do or say. I don't think it is going to be a completely new me but perhaps a slightly more confident one. All good intentions. We will see if it happens or I go all chicken like I usually do.

I will blog when I get out there. A squillion billion photos will probably appear of FB. :)

Much love everyone. Thank you for all the support it really means a lot to me so keep it comin'  xx

One week to go to MARATHON #3 !!!!

You can guess what is coming next :)

Next Saturday I will be running here:

http://www.extremenorthevents.com/images/uploads/documents/2012-Quadrathon-Day-3.pdf

And this is the course profile (gradients):

Quad day 3 course gradients - first and second half 

I think it is safe to say that I will be pleased to get past the 18 mile mark.

This evening I have been out for a curry in Birmingham with my "Curry Husband" P, my lovely friend M (his actual other half) and little E. This title of curry husband and wife has been bestowed upon us because we spookily always end up choosing the same insanely hot things off of the menu. Today was no exception, having basically some whole chillies in a token coating, the same chilli laden main course, and almost fighting over the "red stuff" they have with the popadoms. (Secret ingredient = crack? The red stuff has scary addictive properties).

I would also say intelligence, kindness, wit and chocolatey stuff are fairly key 

This prompted me to think about food when marathon running.

So we've already decided that eating crap when training for a Marathon is not the way to go, though I guess one can get away with a little more cake than normal. However what to do in the days before a marathon, and for an event like this what to do during / after? After 2 Ultramarathons, 6 Marathons and 10+ 20 mile races (plus numerous training runs) I should have some sort of strategy by now.

Firstly I suppose I'm fairly lucky in the fact I have a cast iron gut, although I do live in fear of the first time it gets upset when running. I don't think I would quite be eating tonight’s uber hot meal before a big event, but I'm happy enough that most restaurants wherever I am staying will have something suitably pasta-like or potato-ey to give me a decent carb meal. I used to get paranoid and actually take little boxes of my own pasta to races, but I really can't be arsed with those games now. I can usually find something. The way I understand it is not to eat loads more leading up to a long distance event, but just change the proportions to include a lot more low GI quality carbs. So that is what I try and do. However never underestimate the chilling out powers of some nice chocolate the night before a race.

For a long time now, I have made a point of drinking a lot of water. I don't drink tea or coffee, not for health reasons but because I don't like either of them. Never have. I always have a 1.5 L bottle with me, and try and fill it up / drink the contents twice a day, so I get through about 3 L per day, plus admittedly when times are tough I do have a bit of a Diet Coke habit. Some might say this is too much liquid, but I feel OK on it, and also if I lose track and don't drink as much I can feel a difference in myself. Although I'm not teetotal, I rarely actually drink because I don't like the dehydrating effect.

So during the run, what then? Well some people go for jelly babies, some for bananas, jam sandwiches etc but I tend to stick with carbohydrate gels, the current favourites being GU. Vanilla + Caffiene because it tastes nice, and a Lemon and Lime GU because it has a bit of a sharper twang to cut the sweetness. During Marathons I tend to take one every 5 miles. They are a bit of an acquired taste, I don't quite understand quite why people get all squeamish about swallowing them. HTFU. I've had worse culinary experiences but each to their own and they do upset a lot of peoples tummies so I can see some reasons to avoid.

Recently there have been times when I've been getting leg cramps in bed, and bizarrely a very twitchy eyelid. Over the summer I sweat quite a lot (noticeable in the heat, and I probably do it just as much in the rain but can't tell). So I did some research and wondered if it was my salt levels (yes sometimes when the sweat dries I'm left with a salt coating. Nice). So I tend to add a Nuun tablet to my drinking water. Placebo effect it may be, but I don't get cramps when I do this on a regular basis.

I can't say I've ever hit the wall in a Marathon or Ultra (the wall is where your body basically runs out of carbs - stored as glycogen and the result is you are supposed to feel like you are running through treacle) and I hope that it is a combination of being hydrated/fuelled to start off with, regular water/gels on the run that has got me through like this. Sometimes I take on Powerade/Gatorade/Lucozade if they are available, but I've got round without. If all else fails, full fat coke does a good sports drink job. I think its true what they say about not trying new things on race day, but if it's a choice between crashing out and trying something new I'll take the risk.

So what about afterwards? Well I try and eat something straight away and keep hydrated. Ideally I would say "chicken sandwich" would be my post race choice but these are very rarely around, so I tend to have a milkshake and possibly a bag of crisps which are usually a bit more available. I've seen and read stuff about milk being good for recovery, and when I get back from a long run tend to have a glass of purple top (1%) from the fridge. I think the crisps are partly a salt thing and partly because after 5 x sickly sweet gels I want something savoury/salty!

So I hope this all works over 4 days. It seemed to when I've done back to back weekends of long runs. I will just have to adjust accordingly if I hit any problems.

One week to go to MARATHON #2 !!!!

So then, this time next week I will be contemplating the fact I've done 2 marathons back to back. I think this should be achievable relatively easily. I've done a Half and Marathon on consecutive days at Disney. That was for the sheer nuttiness of the place and the medal bling. Earlier on in the year I did the Rhayader 20 on a Saturday in March, and the Ashby 20 on the Sunday (free hoodie and packed lunch after Ashby would have been rude not to) . So back to back Marathons, even hilly ones should be OK on paper. That is how my brain deals with that one.

Next Friday I will be running here:

http://www.extremenorthevents.com/images/uploads/documents/2012-Quadrathon-Day-2.pdf


And this is the course profile (gradients):

Quad day 2 course gradients - first and second half

So a bit of an uphill start and a bit of a pimple at 17 miles, other than that hopefully I'll be feeling OK.

Today’s topic for obsession: The WEATHER

I used to say to people "You know it's amazing the amount of hours I've spent out running, and the amount of times I've got soaked to the skin I can still count on one hand". That was until springtime this year. Now I haven't just run out of fingers and toes but I’ve actually lost count (although I do log the weather conditions for each run so if I wanted to I could probably tell you.) It seems now, pretty much every time I think about going out of the door it starts to rain. So I wait a bit, it brightens up, I go out and then it pisses down on me anyway. One particularly vile run saw me walking back up the stairs at work with my trainers squelching and water actually running out of my shorts down my legs.

During the Quad training I've tried to go out at a number of different times of day / conditions. There is obviously a slim chance that some of the event days might be in a 30 degree heat wave so I've been out in the midday sun in the small heat waves that we have had. I've been out when it has been blowing a gale and I've been out when it has been chucking it down so much that water is flowing down hills like a river, with popped up drain covers sprouting fountains of water everywhere.

I think overall I prefer cloud + a little drizzle, hopefully anything extreme won't be a problem.

I did learn a valuable lesson in the Lake District a few months ago. I was up at V's for a weekend of cow watching, ice cream eating and dog cuddling and had to go out for a long run. So off I went in the pouring rain, for a 15 miler, but as I came back up the road to hers soaked to the skin I felt a pain at well - no other way of describing it, the lower part of my back / top of my arse crack. Because I'd stuffed a load of crap in the back pocket of my shorts, and they had got weighed down with the water some of my seams had rubbed a huge patch of skin raw through my them.  Getting in the shower - well I actually almost fainted with the stinging and doing a long run the next day would have been tricky – thank goodness it was a rest day because sitting down was actually fairly difficult.  A few weeks later at the physio the scars were still there - he had to question whether I had been leading a more interesting social life than I let on.

What to do then? Well every runner’s friend, VASELINE. As it happens one of my anti blister strategies is to Vaseline my feet before a run. That with a combination of Nike Triaxes and very thin socks means I never get any foot blisters. So rest assured I will be Vaseline-ing any bits where I believe seams will rub if the forecast looks dodgy. Grim but true. I'm not going through that pain again!

What more do you need. More on GU at a later date

I've started looking at the forecast for the area around Londonderry and at the moment it looks fairly cool and showery, but that only goes up until next Tuesday. I think it is safe to say I will be checking again. Several times a day.

Today saw an easy lunchtime 9 miler which was very nice, despite getting rained on again. Took in the hilly Ashton Court grounds, and the turnaround point was the middle of the Clifton Suspension bridge. I thought on the way back “this will be the last run in Bristol for a while”. That is how everything feels. “This will be the last time I do X before  the Quad”, “This is the last time I will see person Y before the Quad” .Feels strange winding down, even stranger that I consider a 4 day block of 10/9/8/7 to be a wind down - all distances that I used to consider a long run. How life changes!

One week to go to MARATHON #1 !!!!

I couldn't think of any pun, witty or otherwise for the title, so  unfortunately I've resorted to FACT!

One weeks time I will be contemplating how my first Marathon of the 4 went. I do seem to swing from moments of extreme confidence to feeling I ought to say my goodbyes in case I collapse on an Irish road and get nibbled to death by sheep.

Next Thursday I will be running here:

http://www.extremenorthevents.com/images/uploads/documents/2012-Quadrathon-Day-1.pdf

And this is the course profile (gradients):

Quad day 1 course gradients - first and second half

Yeah...... so I never said they would be FLAT, did I?

This morning I went to H's husbands funeral. I don't think a detailed description is really appropriate for this blog but I will say two things:

1. I hope when I go, people will be fighting for space - no seats left and we were pretty much standing squashed around the edges of the chapel (that is a GOOD thing!) I hope she gets some comfort from how popular he was.

2. Go and hug a loved one NOW and appreciate them because things can change so quickly. Being in a Premier Inn in Bristol and no teleporter to Cambridge I don't have that luxury, and frankly I could really do with a hug today. I could hug the man on reception but I fear he may like it too much.

Anyway, the subject of hills.

The first 3 days of the Quad are quite hilly. With that in mind, the slightly sadistic side of me has been winning the battle recently, I've been throwing in some quite hilly bits on my long runs, particularly the bits at the end of a 20 where say I've done 10 with the girls and then 10 on my own - I try and find a few ups and down in that last 10 so I'm running the ups and downs tired.

I think there are 2 races that are responsible for curing any "hill fear" that I did have. Mentally I hope I've got the hill battle won.

1. The Rhayader 20 - a lovely Welsh race usually in March. You start off in the town, and fairly soon are running up a 5 mile climb. It starts off gradual but miles 3-5 are quite steep and you end up quite high up - a noticeable temperature difference at the top.  On this first epic climb, depressingly there is a false summit - you think you've got to the top at about 4 miles in, and then you realize there is another mile to go. Then eventually.... hooray, not a mirage but at the actual summit there is an ambulance(!) and a drinks station. Following this  there is a massive downhill (which sounds easy but it it can wreck your quads if you're not careful) where the people in front of you look like little ants snaking round the hairpin road bends. The rest is undulating - so if you can finish the following 15 miles and still feel OK you haven't done too bad. Below is a photo of me doing my normal cheezy photo arms in air pose about 2/3 of the way up the first climb - note I am still running!

One woman Mexican wave on a Welsh hillside

2. The Connemara Ultramarathon. Quite frankly if I can get up something called "The Hell of the West" after 37.5 miles of running, all other hills are pancakes in comparison. I found this "flypast" on Google Maps which is quite cool http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3fHzFs7rAc and also this one from someone's car http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQeIoWl6bpY&feature=related .Happy days.

So we will see what Ireland has to throw at me in the hill department next week

Bite Watch -  the swelling practically non existent, I still look my legs are covered in some huge weird love bites. Classy.

Lovely 10 miler tonight, didn't get out of work till late (not that I really minded), got back to the hotel and again robo-Nat just kind of took over. I ended up going down to the Portway and under the bridge and back for a change. Can safely say 10 miles doesn't seem very long any more - an evening spin or a lunchtime jog-ette. Cool!!! :)

Bite watch - Performance enhancing bites?

So having googled last night what to put on insect bites and having seen some fairly horrific pictures flash before my eyes, I opted to use Ibuprofen gel on them. This seems to have done the trick as far as the swelling goes. Been taking antihistamines and will probably do so for another couple of days.

I am pleased to report my legs are almost back to their normal levels of yukkiness, thank goodness for that!

However the previously raised areas are now bright red/purple, I had much fun tonight rolling up my shorts leg at the club and watching people gasp in horror.

I am so happy it hasn't stopped me from running. I had to do some effort tonight, 8 mile progressive. For the running uninitiated this is where you basically start off with a slow mile and crank up the pace a bit after every mile in fairly even intervals, then last mile slow again so you are not going from flat out to a complete halt.

The boring splits (minute miles)

10.34
10.07
9.42
9.08
8.38
8.09
7.22
10.20

Where on earth 7.22 came from at the end I have no idea - I thought that 7.40 ish was the best I could hope for, but as the last fast mile came I felt good and I gave it some welly. Perhaps the bites have improved me in a Peter Parker style-ee.

I figured that with the wind down for the Quad and the event itself, my opportunities to "go nuts" will be limited for a while so I might as well enjoy a bit of speed. And I do enjoy running fast now. (Thank you Gobster)

I realise I might have sounded slightly pathetic last night - of course I'm grateful that I am healthy going in to the event, but I've trained so hard and feel like I'm running so well I just don't want anything to wreck it now. Rather than dreading the event at the moment I actually feel quite excited  :-D

Twice shy

I woke up this morning with itchy legs. Yesterday we stopped to refill our water bottles and I felt something chomping at the back of my legs. I thought nothing of it until about 4am this morning. I was in a half dreaming happy state, and it was that nice sort of itch that felt really really really nice to scratch - until I regained proper consciousness due to my legs stinging and worked out what was going on.

In the shower I realised that I have:

A bite the size of a small child's head on my right hip
One the size of a tennis ball on my right calf
One the size of a squash ball on my inner right thigh
My left leg - well that has one huge bite that has turned the whole of the back of my left leg bright red

And all these lumps are hard and HOT to touch :-0

I'm not exaggerating, I could prove it actually (in a tasteful way) but this blog shall remain photo-less.

I am pencilled in for a sports massage tomorrow. About a week before an event I usually spend an hour with "big John" who used to be in the Navy amongst other things, and is very very good at his job. Massage normally conjures up ideas of scented candles and whale music, but the only scent in John's room is anticipation of pain and the only music is the yelping of the specimens he is dealing with. Anyone who has had their IT band stripped will know what I mean. For the record I don't tend to cry or scream in pain, but try and keep talking through it. When it just about gets too much there is usually a pause as I forget to breathe, followed by uncontrolable laughter as the pain hits. Weird huh. Apparently he has rugby players that blub.

So I don't think the massage is gonna happen - I don't really need one it is just a nice to have, and to be honest I should probably save my money and go to him in September when 4 consecutive marathons have broken my legs.

Good news is that I did a little run when I got back from work, and despite all these deformities sticking out of me they don't seem to have stopped me from running normally. I think I should be thankful I didn't get bitten in the back of the knee or similar because with the amount of swelling that would have given me real problems.

I'm sure I will do another bump update tomorrow. Despite having an OK run it is still stressing me for some reason :-S

T - 14 days: Monsoons, Caravans and too many Jolly Ranchers

So this is going to sound boring and smug, but no problems on Monday after Sundays 21 + an extra bit miler. *Does smug face*

Monday I had to do a 3 mile run in the evening. Some would call this a recovery run I suppose, for the non runners reading the idea is the day after a long run a short slow run is helpful. I've read many articles about this - some say it helps get lactic acid out of your legs, however during a long run there shouldn't really be much of that. I've also read even after the most hardcore workout your lactic acid levels go back to normal within an hour. Some say that doing a short run in a tired state boosts fitness. Either way whatever it actually does in physiological terms these runs do seem to get the legs working again, and if you are feeling a bit stiff it seems to ease things a bit. Perhaps it is a bit of a mental thing too, convincing yourself you are OK after the previous days effort. I managed to dodge the slug population of Warmley and Mangotsfield quite well.

Tuesday I had a speed session which to be honest I was dreading. 7 miles with 2/4/6 at a 10K-ish pace. I'd gone back home from Bristol to run with Dudley Ladies, I managed to run the first easy mile with them before taking off like a rocket. My 3 fast miles were 7.45mm or slightly quicker, and they felt ok. Not quite Mo standards, but for me that's quite good. I actually caught them back up for the last mile (they did 5) so all good.

So why was I dreading it? Well it was a stiflingly hot evening for starters although I've found it easier to run in the heat recently - if you just get on with it you get used to it. Let’s face it - not been much of an issue this summer. I have a bit of paranoia that a lot of slow running means my legs and my lungs will "forget" how to run fast. I am almost certain if I had a bad speed session and could only muster 8.30mm for the same level of effort as 7.45mm previously I'd feel like it was a massive step backwards. In reality I hardly ever have a bad speed session, but funny how one off day / off session has the potential to do my head in. The logical part of me says we all have off days but the other bit of me doesn't listen. So I dreaded it because something *might* go wrong... typical me worrying about something that hasn't *actually* happened!!! Anyway over all it appears I am getting quicker at the moment.

Wednesday I had a rest day, but I actually went out for a run with my work colleague M in the evening. He was freshly back from a 3 week holiday in Las Vegas. People take the piss a bit, but he is also a runner going out 2-3 times a week when he is at home. Because we've been staying away we've been going out for 3-3.5 miles when he would have gone out and done his home routes with his mates. I am not the quickest of runners, but I am faster than him, and I have no problem running with someone whose preferred running pace is 2mm+ slower than my "easy" / Long run pace. As long as the pace is not going to knacker me I am pretty happy to go out and do a little extra run any time with anyone. It seems 3 weeks off have helped M's aches and pains and he seemed to be running more comfortably than before. There are some running routes in Bristol I wouldn't have investigated if it wasn't for having the company of M, I get a bit nervous about doing new routes on my own if I don't know the area so it has worked really well. From a personal safety point of view I have to ask myself who is protecting who though.

So towards the end of each week the 4 day long run build up starts. This week I started tapering a bit - 10/14/10/18 LOL. With a normal single marathon I would be cutting right down now, but my legs will have an awful lot of stress on them over the 4 days so we don't want them to be too relaxed going in to the event.

Thursday: 10 miles. Pretty much as soon as I stepped out of the building at work, the heavens opened and I mean opened. It was like someone chucking a bucket of water from the sky for about an hour. Within a matter of seconds the downhill from work was flooded, inches of water appeared from seemingly nowhere both on road and pavement. Water was bubbling out of drain covers, cars driving past were creating huge waves, but it didn't matter because I was completely, utterly and totally soaked to the skin within the first quarter mile. Quite an amazing deluge, that only really stopped as I got to the 5 mile turnaround point having gone up through Ashton court and over the bridge. I could see car drivers laughing at me and a solitary ice cream van man parked up in Ashton court was wiping the steam off the inside of the window of his van looking at me in total disbelief. Still it got me thinking I could have 4 days of this in Ireland. Best get the shittiness out of the way in training. At least I can say I prepared in everything!! I have at least 4 pairs of trainers I could comfortably wear for a Marathon so I think I will be taking all of them and having a fresh pair on every day in case I end up paddling on one of the days. I don't think there is much point in raincoats unless it is going to be cold. Skin is waterproof!

It had been my plan to get up at 05.30 Friday, scoff some porridge and go and do 14 miles before work. No chance. Thursday evening we went out for food and decided rather than do nothing after eating we would go to the cinema. It was a really weird atmosphere in the restaurant, as in people kept knocking things over, dropping and smashing stuff and generally being clumsy. A waiter nearly tripped over my chair, and then to top it all off another waiter slipped on a stray chip and ended up crashing a massive tray of empty dishes over his own head. All his colleagues scurried in to clear it up, but no one actually asked him if he was ok. What is the world coming to? :( When he came over for something and I asked him if he was alright he looked genuinely shocked! All this chaos meant we got quite a late showing of a film and ended up getting back to the hotel at about 11.50pm. Knackered. Actually to be honest on Wednesday / Thursday I found myself feeling slightly unwell at times.

I have to wonder if some of this midweek excessive tiredness and weird feeling was due to high sweetie consumption on Wed/Thu. M had got us some American sweets to share at work, and thinking back I think the amount of very bright food colouring, artificial flavouring and pure sugar I ate midweek might have actually made me feel a bit funny, e.g. slightly hyper followed by a massive crash in energy. I shall be avoiding that sort of thing in future (don't mean to sound ungrateful!). I do think it made me feel off colour (bright cherry Jolly Rancher red to be precise)

So Friday morning the alarm went off as planned, and I could tell without getting out of bed it was dark, windy and raining outside. In bed I stayed. I can get up when I have to, and I am better than I used to be, but it would be fair to say I am not really a morning person. I love my bed. We left Bristol at 3pm, and after picking up M's son from his Grandparents etc I finally got home just before 7pm. I had crashed out on what was probably another sugar low in the car, but when I woke up and we were still in that long M5 traffic jam surrounded by every caravan and motor home in the northern hemisphere I started to get very twitchy and fretful, desparately wishing I had just got on with it at 5.30am and mentally kicking myself. I got home, did a wonder woman change and out again at 7.05pm.

And you know what? I bloody did it. 14 miles knocked out with a frightening focus really. I just ran and ran, no faffing, just got it done. By the time I got about 4 miles from home it was dark, but I was on a safe main road so I felt ok with it. And for all the tiredness and end of week "meh" this 14 - it just felt effortless. I think that's positive sign. I didn't feel like I'd run at the end of it.

Saturday I went with my friend Jane for a run in a different setting, Telford to Ironbridge. I have obviously covered a lot of miles in training and I've found that variety of routes, and doing runs with different people is the key to staying sane. I'd wanted to go with her for a while, another friend lives in Telford and has a route that ends at... THE MOST AMAZING CAKE SHOP IN THE WORLD. (Yup, I liked it a lot.) It was great to run somewhere new. But back to those cakes!!!! OH MY GOD! They really are very special. Amazing. And little tea cosies on the tea pots. And the Queen and her corgis were there. There is also a pork pie shop up the road. Next time, first stop pie and cupcake for pudding. Health food. I love Ironbridge, and I love the cupcake shop.

I need one of these....

Invasion of the tea cozies

Spoiling what would have been a nice picture of the cakes (I speak for myself here Jane)

So is Marathon training is an excuse to eat crap? No! My first Marathon I expected to lose loads of weight training and I never did. I think people seriously overestimate what they are burning, and therefore actually end up eating too much under the premise of "carb loading" (in actual fact leading up to the event it is the proportion of carbs you should change and NOT the amount). At the moment I seem to be getting comments from people (esp those I haven't seen for a while) that I look slimmer. I suppose 70 miles a week does that to you. I don't weigh myself that often but I think there may have been a shape change, and without meaning to sound like I spend vast amounts of time feeling myself up(!) I do notice how my leg muscles, stomach muscles and even my arms feel different. Running this high mileage makes me feel good and I want to keep it up after the Quad.

Saturday afternoon despite my legs feeling OK I crashed out again. Not sugar related this time, For the first time in a while I simply had nothing to do for the afternoon, and on days like this the general pattern seems to be:

Get up early
Run
Shower
Lunch
Tell self "I will just have a little lie down on the bed for 30 mins".
3 hours later wake up :-0

Gah. Still awake at 2am on Sunday morning.

Sunday was the muggiest day of the year, off we all went doing a 10 mile loop sweating our proverbials off and myself and Massie carried on doing another 8 stopping for water at every possible point. As I drunk it, it just came out of my skin. Massie did well - 18 is the furthest she has ever run, it was lovely to see a big happy smile she was so happy to have done it. She looked so comfortable too. I think she is going to rock the half marathon she is doing in a few weeks.

Me - well a mere 65 miles this week, so yes I have cut back. Oh and I keep counting down T-x days at the top of this blog looking at it I've discovered that I've been counting down from the day of the last marathon. So the first one is in T-10 days (SHIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!!!), and a fortnight today I will hopefully be dangling my feet in the water by the Redcastle hotel surrounded by empty Guinness glasses :)

Dreams

One of the best running experiences I've had was the Manchester Marathon.

On that day I got a massive marathon PB almost breaking 4 hours (and lets face it any other conditions and I would have done - but it's still something I want to prove). I battled the elements of sleet, light snow, gale force winds, and flooded paths / roads ankle deep in water. When I got that medal round my neck it really felt well earned. But that's not why Manchester was the best.

At the 3 or 4 mile mark at Manchester, I was jogging along some industrial roads, and there were a few spectators around clapping as much as their frozen hands would allow. Then on the side of the road, I saw two raincoated figures jumping around like lunatics.

Them: "NATALIE....NAAAAATTTTAAAALLLIIIIEEE!!!!"
Me: <gapsing in shock> "OH MY GOD!!!!"
Random Bloke running next to me: "So you know them then?? Hahaha"

Two of my lovely friends Wendy and Heather from Dudley Ladies had got in the car on the Sunday morning and driven up to Manchester to come and support ME. They were fully aware of the forecast, and it didn't put them off. No one has ever really done that sort of thing for me before. It was so unexpected and I cannot describe the complete rush of emotion that went through me when I saw them. From that point onwards it kept my mind active thinking would I see them again out on the course, would I see them at the end. I figured they would probably be somewhere at the finish. They were, they saw me power over the line (well I was in my head...), and after collecting my medal they saw me cry. I hope they know what a difference they made to me that day. We went for a meal afterwards and they just simply made it one of the best days ever.

I have literally just woken up from a weird dream that a similar thing happened in Ireland, in a nutshell on the last day of the Quad familiar faces from various areas of my life were there on the course. I know this isn't gonna happen, I mean flying to Londonderry and ending up finding me on the course / in Moville on the last day is an expensive and time consuming jaunt.

I had an odd experience on Sunday that brought home the mental side of long distance to me. A van had parked half across the pavement as I came back round the village green. This was at about the 21 mile point (I cocked up my route planning and ended up doing 21.5). The fact that the van was there and I had to manoeuvre round it requiring extra steps and effort really pissed me off to the point where I felt like picking up a rock from one of the many well kept front gardens and smashing the screen, or scratching out "ILLEGALLY PARKED" on the side of it. Silly I know. Obviously I would never *do* anything!!!

So anyway I can dream, and mentally I might have to use that false "there is a slight chance my friends will be there" hope to keep me going. I think with something like this there are a number of head tricks one can use to keep on track. I'll let you know what they are afterwards!!!

T - 21 days: A week of being lost

Ok so this was my last mahoosive week before cutting down for the event. Another 70 mile week (Having said that I've just got my plan for next week and I suppose in relative terms it is still high miles)

After a previous heavy week I got given a somewhat puny sounding 3 miler to do on Monday. Whilst I love any opportunity to get out, it seemed very odd setting off, coming back up the big hill to work, stopping my watch and not having a single bead of sweat. And a rest day Tuesday! I felt lost. It wasn't right. Yes these rest and easy days are important but it has rammed home the fact that I need to be thinking of something to do when the 4x4 is finished. Maybe I should just enjoy running for what it is but I kind of do that anyway.... what to do next.... Still, I have time to decide and I don't think there will be anything "silly" until next year.

Wednesday was the last one of the Halesowen midweek race series. I'm sorry if anyone from Halsowen AC ever reads this, but I hate this course. Or at least I did. It is 3 twisty turny laps on some quite narrow paths, with tree roots, rocks, some drops that are so steep I always feel like I need a climbing harness. I love XC but this course I have had some depressing experiences on. There was an outside chance I might be in with an age group prize, and I needed to do some speed work, so amazingly despite pointing out the downsides of the course to my coach he actually suggested that I do it. Gah! Totally surprised me there. Thanks!!! :)

It did not start too well, I believe it is very important to do a warm up and a cool down when you are attempting to run at (relative) speed so on the WU I went to do a quick look at the course, and some bits were pretty messy. There is also a little wooden bridge that goes across a stream. I believe they had put some matting down for "safety" reasons however this saw me almost sliding off sideways in to the water - it was lethal! Rather than freak me out I found the whole situation so comical that in a strange way it actually relaxed me - I thought it would be impossible to put any proper effort in so was resigned to a plod

So we assembled and started, and as we went round the athletics track and on to the main course I felt quite good. And so it carried on. The nobbly bits didn't seem too bad, the boggy bits were ok, the big grassy hill was a mere pimple and I was passing people the whole way so grew in confidence. I was still slightly careful on the bridge though, and there is a particularly steep drop where I think I said to the marshal "I bloody hate this bit" on every single lap to which he smiled politely obviously thinking "get down there you wimp". I minced down that but otherwise - all good. An average of 9.00mm is a good XC pace for me, so I'm really happy with that off the back of some really high mileage weeks. Turns out that the lady I needed to beat in my age category was about 20 seconds in front of me, but as I didn't really know who I was gunning for I'm not too gutted (I think actually even if I'd beat her it might have been mathematically impossible t get in to 3rd place) but I don't need a cheap bottle of wine to keep in the fridge for 3 years before throwing it out un-opened. I had a good run!

Some of the delightful Stourbridge R.C.

Thursday night I was lucky enough to have some company for my 10 miler. The lady I was running with had been having a few bad runs, so it was nice that she came out of the end of it feeling like she'd had a much better one. Sometimes after a few bad runs your mental confidence just goes a bit, hopefully now she is on an upward spiral. I love having different people to chat to on runs. For someone with my inept social skills it is a good way of socializing and actually talking to new people. It was however not a good night, my lovely friend H's husband had taken a turn for the worse and died on Friday morning. I feel totally gutted for her. She came to the running club on Sunday and I hope she knows she has always got her friends. I know it's what people always say but it's true.

Saturdays run was a 12 miler. Or it was supposed to be. I felt OK after Fridays hot and sweaty 17, Zoe and I headed off down the canal towards Halesowen. She had some maps in her rucksack, and decided that she really needed to find a footpath that she had meant to find on a previous run but couldn't. This did not bode well! It started OK, but we lost the path, ended up in a huge field, and somehow ended up in the middle of a patch of ground that had nettles in all directions. My poor legs are still tingling as I write this on Sunday night. We were lost. We tried to head for some houses, but short of making a run through someone's back garden we were stuck. From my Garmin upload it seems that we spent ages going round in a big circle, thinking we could find a way out of where we were - in the end we doubled back and went on the road. So almost 13 then.

It wasn't the nettles that gave me a complete sense of humour failure, but the fact that as we emerged from the undergrowth some old people out walking their dogs were there. One of them immediately started snarling, not in a playful way (the dogs not the OAPs lol). You can tell when it is serious. I love dogs, but despite me stopping in my tracks, turning away from the dog and glaring at these people to "get that THING away from us!!!!" they seemed completely un bothered by the lack of control they had over it, or how much it may be upsetting us. I shall stop there because it will make me go off on one and it is too late in the evening. It's not the dog’s fault that's for sure.

Sunday I did 21 miles. As I mentioned before, H turned up which was great, I think sometimes in times of severe upset and stress if you can get out there for a run it is a help. Not a cure all obviously but I hope she still manages to make it in the next few busy weeks.

Again, this is getting dull and old news I'm sure but my legs still feel great. Onwards........ :)

Can you dedicate a run...?

If you can then this evenings 17 was for Steve.

Heather if you ever read this little diary back at some point, I was thinking about you most of last night, and most of today after I heard the news.

Life can be just........ ugh I don't really have any words  :(

Another reason at the end of the month to push on through and raise lots of money

xx

T - 28 days: High Mileage Weeks

It seems that every week I am running higher mileage than I have before. To be expected considering what I am putting myself up for.

On the quiet (or perhaps it is obvious to everyone else...) I am a bit of a geek about statistics when it comes to running, and probably many other things (Have you seen Star Wars in Ascii?? BRILLIANT!). I log every run - the distance, the time, the weather conditions, what shoes I was wearing, what sports bra(!), where I went, if the run was flat, hilly etc, surface underfoot, and the type of session it was. So obviously it goes without saying I know my total weekly mileage:

2 Weeks ago - 63 miles
Last week -  66 miles
This week 70 miles

Holy crap! I quite happliy average the 50s but this is new territory to me.

Strangely it hasn't seemed like a chore. I've managed to find the time. I'm quite lucky in that I don't really have a rigid work routine, so I can take a little more than hour for lunch or bunk off a bit early to do a run - however my guilty conscience dictates that I will make up the time elsewhere either by staying late or stuffing a sandwich down with one hand whilst typing with another. At the moment it seems to be working. Despite some horrible weather conditions recently I am looking forward to every run at the moment. My legs whilst occasionally feeling tired at the end of a run seem to be feeling good and recovering well.

This week I had a pretty easy run on Monday with the club. My legs felt good after the previous Sundays hilly Lake District 20 - although I can't say I was massively pleased to be dropped by the "steady" group in the middle of the woods because we were doing an easy chit chat pace. Thank goodness us girls stick together and Emma and I found our way back without being axe-murdered. Supposedly they did try to find us so I can't be too cross.

Picture the scene, it could have happened so differently:

Interviewer: "So Mo Farah, what do you think cost you the Gold medal today"

Mo Farah: "Well I'm not sure, but I used to beat everyone else down the road back to the club in training, was always first in to the showers and I used to get the pick of Lynn's cheese wraps before anyone else got there."

My point is I don't think too fast a pace in training is the way to go but hey, I take some blame less chat more running we might have kept them in sight.

"Just run a bit quicker . OK?"

Despite a lot of long runs and slow miles, I have been keeping a bit of speed in the mix and was somewhat surprised at my pace on Tuesday when I had to do a run with some 1 mile effort sections in. I ran some miles at the effort I would expect to run a 10K at, ended up clocking 3 miles that started with a 7. It felt great. I will have to get to some sort of 5K or other short distance race soon and see what happens before this effect wears off.

These days I do a lot of my running in Bristol. I have a few routes from work, and there are some really nice ones. Where I work is basically at the top of a big hill, and I think that 1 mile climb at the end of every run can only be a good thing for strengthening the legs. These days I have no fear of hills in fact some hills that I used to notice seem to have dissapeared these days. Thursday lunch time saw me winding my way up through Ashton court for a (short) long run, with deer peering at me from over the fences. I'm a sucker for this sort of scenery - I think I'm regressing, loving the routes that have cutesy animals (no horses or cows on the loose thank you) and the prospect of seeing balloons and other interesting stuff. I made my way over the suspension bridge and as usual the heavens opened at the furthest possible point from home. With rain dripping off my nose and down my back, for the first time I noticed they have signs up with the Samaritans phone number on the suspension bridge, although I was in more danger of throwing a tourist off rather than myself. FFS have some awareness of your surroundings and don't just stand there gawping when you see me running towards you! 

One of the more amazing sights from some of my Bristol runs

I've explored loads of new routes whilst down there - the Festival Way, Blagdon Lake, Clifton Downs, the Bristol to Bath Cycle path in both directions from Warmley. Fabulous. Things I'd never see if I didn't run.. I shall miss those routes if/when we run out of work there and we get moved on to a different contract. 

I got back home Friday night and proceeded to do another long run, and up at eight am Saturday to do... another long run. I train with and without music, but I have to say Saturday I was feeling great and bopping along to "Sounds of the sixties on Radio 2". Yes I am officially old. Secretly I also quite like Pick of the Pops with Tony and Elaine Page "Musicals" show on a Sunday. Shoot me now, or at least get me a new zimmer frame for Christmas.

I'd been looking forward to Sunday, as I've been staying away a fair bit whilst my work buddy is living up in Las Vegas - it seemed like I hadn't seen the girls from Dudley Ladies for ages. Another few hours putting the world to rights (one of them very kindly stayed with me to 16.5 miles - it always helps not to have to do these things on your own) and an end to the week - 20 miles in the bag. 

I am sad to say that one of my friends husbands is suffering from cancer in an almost identical form to what my Auntie had - he had been given a first dose of chemo but it doesn't seem to be working - in a similar way to her the cancer is quite agressive :( and another running friends mother is also similarly ill. I really feel their pain. It definitely reminds me why I am doing this and makes me feel more determined to give it some effort and dig deep when I'm feeling the pain. In real terms I don't actually know what pain is do I?

I've just treated myself to a Sunday roast dinner and then the afternoon in bed catching up on the Olympic Women's Marathon and Triathlon. Stuff the subsequent Sunday night/Monday morning insomnia, sometimes that level of laziness is just what you need. Recovery is as important as training! :)

28 days to go and its all good.