Unlucky 13?!

London Marathon Training - 13 weeks to go! 

Key - Orange - John Purple - Kelly Blue - Both of us 

So after saying how pleased I was that I was feeling strong and healthy last week...this week I go and get ill. Great. Typical. With 13 weeks to go...Unlucky? I guess actually, it's quite good to get the cold 'out of the way' (hopefully) so far away from the marathon. So after wanting this week to be the week that I up the miles, it was very much the opposite. 

A week of easier training miles for me whilst brewing Lemsips on a regular basis for the GFRG and trying to stay as fresh as possible for a weekend of racing.

Monday 15th January 2018 

The week started very well. After a very successful (possibly one of my best ever) training runs last Sunday, I was feeling rather pleased with myself. Having worked so hard on Sunday did make Monday morning's 3 miles a little painful but I managed 3 miles at 9:15mm pace - proper recovery. 

As I was, at this point in the week, aiming for 70 miles, I did a double day today. 5 miles in the evening around Ashton Court at 8:43mm pace. Legs felt much better -clearly the first recovery run had done its job. 

Not wanting to up the miles but with a weekend of racing ahead I to, double day-ed - top loading the week! Similarly to the GFRG my body was feeling rather creaky after the tough long run the day before.

Tuesday 16th January 2018 

I had a PSA meeting after work today that I knew would go on until at least 9pm so I needed to get my run done early. Luckily, I managed to convince John that running 10 miles at 5:30am was a good idea! It actually went pretty well. My body had recovered pretty quickly from Sunday's long run and I was able to do 10 miles at an average of 8:06mm pace so a solid GA effort. 

A solid 10 miles of GA meant two things: workout done early and hungry all day! Love the feeling of having one of the first workouts of the day on Strava and being able to eat my body weight in (healthy!) snacks all day. Another double day for me as I ran 5K with the running club at work.

 Wednesday 17th January 2018 

Today was not good. I woke up with a sore throat. A sore throat is my tell tell sign that I'm getting a cold. I dosed up to the max - desperate to halt the progression of this illness. I get into school and am surrounded by 30 sniffling, sneezing, coughing children. Oh dear. By the end of the day, I did not feel good. As I mentioned in my blog last week, 1 year ago last week I got ill. I got a cold and decided to 'run it off' bad idea. I got worse and worse and ended up taking 2 full weeks off training. So..I knew I had to try and different tactic. I decided to be sensible! I didn't run today. At all. I went home and went to bed and slept and rested. With a LOT of Lemsip and vast quantities of vitamins. 

Disappointing that the GFRG has come down poorly but very proud of her sensible decision to rest up. Running Daemon-less I was very much the opposite end of the spectrum bagging one of my best long runs for months, 15miles with 8+ with the running club, 1:46 = 7MM

Thursday 18th January 2018 

After a lot of sleep and (legal) drugs, I woke up and felt....about the same..but no worse! So I guess that's good. I drank lots and ate well and by the evening I was starting to feel a little better. Maybe this 'resting' malarkey does work! Continuing on the 'sensible' plan, I decided not to run again. 

Feeling knackered after two long runs in 4 days I opted for a lie in, instead of the planned recovery run. No double day, just 5 steady miles with the work running club in the evening where one of the guys managed his second 5K PB in as many weeks whilst I'm scanning eBay for new legs...

Friday 19th January 2018 

I was considering running in the morning today but thought better of it. Once again, I wasn't feeling any worse but felt like I was on the cusp of wellness! 

I did however have my first running club of the new term. 33 children ran today with 7 who had joined running club for the first time. As we had some newbies, we took it nice a steadily and stopped regularly. Afterwards, one boy (a newbie) came up to me and said 'That was the best club I've ever done!' - Made my day! 

So a grand total of 1 mile for today! The run its self didn't feel too bad. My breathing was slightly heavier and heart rate a little elevated but not too much. I was however coughing a lot when I stopped. 

Up very early with the intention of bagging a 10+ mile run but my sub-conscious had other ideas. Body (legs mainly) still feeling knackered from the long runs (DOMSed?) I found myself aimlessly pottering around the house, ignoring the clock and the need to get going, I finally started the run wearing half my wardrobe. It was very cold, but: shorts, trousers, 3 shirts, a coat, hat and scarf will always be excessive... The first mile I couldn't get out of first gear, a 9:xx mile and I opted for a steady 3 miles recovery instead of the longer run and some more time in bed before going to work. Meh.

Saturday 20th January 2018 

Despite not being 100%, I decided to race today. Had it been just any old race I probably wouldn't have but it was a team relay and I just couldn't let my team down. I was in a team with Clare, Alice and Louise and, having checked out the other teams entries online, I felt that we could do pretty well. 

Unfortunately, the weather was pretty grim. Very cold and that horrible drizzly rain. We collected our bib numbers and our team baton and, as there was no where to wait in the dry, opted to go and warm up in the car for a bit. 

As the start approached, we went for a warm up. I've not ran at Castle Coombe Race Track before so was looking forward to checking out the route. It was quite simply 2, 2mile laps of the track. Cold, pretty flat and very little wind meant that it was good 'Kelly' conditions! Despite being a bit snotty still, I was feeling pretty good and very excited! 

I was running as leg 4 so had quite a wait. Clare went first and got us into a brilliant position with her awesome sub 20min 5k! As some teams were all women and some were mixed, it was quite hard to tell what position we were in after each lap but for the whole time we knew we were up in the top 4. Louise and Alice both ran brilliantly and I was pretty sure we had a crack at the top 3. Each person does 2 laps so when Alice went on for her 2nd, I started taking off layers and having a bit of a jog...by this point, my feet were numb and I was really cold but the adrenaline started to kick in when I saw her approaching the handover point. 

Alice was just ahead of a female Avon Valley runner when she passed me the baton. After breathing a sigh of relief that I didn't drop it, I focused on trying to widen the gap. I had counted one woman pass me already but was pretty sure that I hadn't seen any others so I thought the team were in with a chance of 2nd place. I could hear a woman pretty close by and I heard a supporter shouting 'Go Beth' I realised that I knew the runner from a recent cross country match. I had finished just ahead of her then so I decided to try and shake her off. 

My watched beeped for my first mile - 5:51 ...woa! I was really going for it! I didn't dare turn around to look but I couldn't hear anyone near me. I was overtaking people but had no idea what lap they were on so I just focused on trying to maintain the gap on the girl behind. Mile 2 was harder - 6:17mm pace. 

As I came through for the start of my 2nd lap, it was wonderful to hear the cheers and support of my team. Mile 3 was hard work. I was starting to tire a little and then I heard some breathing...I knew it was Beth having caught up to me. Right. Plan 1 of shake her off didn't work. Plan 2, let her pass me and then sit on her heels. She pulled up next to me and I kept pace with her for a while. Trying to keep my mind focused and stick with her was hard. I was very tired now and we were still well over half a mile from the finish. 

She picked up the pace a little and I just couldn't hang on. 'Never mind' I thought to myself. You're not 100%, you'll be happy with 3rd. The gap got bigger. But then I remembered that it was a team event. It wasn't up to me to decided that my team would be happy with 3rd. Alice had worked really hard to get ahead of the Avon Valley runner on leg 3 and I was just throwing it away. Sod it. 'Grit your teeth Kelly - you've got 1/4 mile'. Almost in slow motion, I thought about all the different aspects of my running form that could help me close this gap. I lent forwards, stood up straighter, pumped my arms, tried to push off with my toes. I looked up and the gap was closing. I pushed and pushed and pushed I was sprinting as fast as I'd ever sprinted. Then I heard John's voice "You've got her!" This spurred me on even more. I could make out the individual voices of my team screaming at me. I heard the announcer yell "It's a real battle for 2nd place!" I was desperate. I wanted this so much. With all my might, I crossed the finish line just 1 second ahead of her! YES! I'd done it! 2nd place finish for the team! 

Lots of sleep and stretching meant waking up on Saturday full of beans and raring to go. I've been really excited about this relay event for a few weeks now and wanted to give it a good go. Baltic cold but a very still dead meant for speedy conditions. As the GFRG has said, the race took part on a racing car track which meant no camber, no pot holes, no sharp corners, bliss! I ran leg 1: 3.6miles in 5:31MM - well chuffed and not far off a 5K PB! Running against some much stronger runners I was really pleased to put the team in 4th going into the next leg. The rest of the team all ran stellar performance. Having a baton in hand really did bring us together and helped us find that extra bit of effort, so used to running for ourselves it did make a nice change running for and with others. A second placing overall in the mixed team category!

(PS - The GFRG's face on that finishing straight showed more determination than Frodo's attempt at getting to Mount Doom!)

1

Sunday 21st January 2018 

I woke up feeling pretty good. 90% better - so close! I decided to take one more rest day and then re-start the plan on Monday (all being well). 

Today wasn't about me anyway. Today was John's day. After a challenging first attempt at the Doynton Hilly Half Marathon a couple of years ago, this was to be the day that he showed the race who was boss! 

The race that shall not be named... a more detailed review of this one to follow in my blog as part of my 30 Races at 30 adventure. We turned up at the start of the Doynton Hard Half Marathon absolutely freezing! 2degrees, pouring down rain and a constant wind - great start. The gun goes and we're off! I've run this race before back in 2016 where I finished in 100th position in 2:14. This being the case I knew the route and how tough it was going to be. In 2016 I was 5+ kilos heavier and slightly hungover - I wouldn't recommend turning up to this race in this shape - the race will find you and it will kill you (not literally!) 

I started the race sensibly and ran steady for the first 4 miles where you run up and down over 1000ft of elevation change. This is where the first timers were exposed. I found myself overtaking at least 10 people who obviously hadn't researched the race (A mwah-ha-ha to myself!) 

The middle section of the race is less bumpy but more boggy. You find yourself shifting like John Wayne through various farmers fields carrying at least 5kgs of soil on each shoe - MEH. After reserving plenty of effort in the first third I was disappointed in myself (especially my legs) in this middle section as I didn't quite have the pace and drive I expected and wanted. 

The third section's multiple waist high streams (rivers?) would certainly wake me up and get my mojo back in check. Steadily negotiation a couple more tough climbs knowing that the last 3 miles were mainly road an reasonably straight forward. I found my stored energy from earlier and ran as fast as I could: wanting the best time and position possible whilst trying to stay warm enough to avoid hypothermia. I managed to overtake a couple more runners and bring my average pace down nicely. 

14th place with 1:46:21 - an improvement of 86 places and 27+minutes - absolutely over the moon!

Big kudos to all who took part, especially those wearing a GWR vest - top efforts all round and an afternoon in the bath with a beer well and truly deserved. Special thanks to the GFRG who braved the cold whilst suffering with her cold smiling throughout the day as always and possibly prevented my early death by feeding me soup, tea and cake once I'd finished.

A good week of keeping up the miles for me whilst the GFRG tries to keep away diseases and still dominates the relay. An old ghost laid to rest at Doynton and hopefully this afternoons worth of recovering will allow for another week of strong marathon training. 

Knowing what was to come at the Doynton Hard Half... Not sure the tall guy knew!