Double blogging including very successful halfing!

Abingdon Marathon Training - 5 weeks to go 

Few! I've had an awesome but seriously busy fortnight- this is the first opportunity I've had to blog. 2 weeks worth...it's gonna be a long one! 

Monday 11th September 2017 

A much needed lie in today before my first 'proper' day back at school with the kids. A really great day. I love my new class - they're super well behaved (which always helps!) and really young - I always forget how they start the year all sweet and innocent! 

After school, John and I ran to and from the GWR committee meeting to make a solid 7 mile start to the week. Just at recovery pace of 9:30mm. 

Tuesday 12th September 2017 

We were up super early (5am) today for an early morning run through the woods. We got out the head torches and did my new favourite route which goes up Bridge Valley Road, through Leigh Woods, down onto the Towpath and home. 11 miles done before most people are out of bed! Nice! We were feeling really strong and kept a good 8:27mm average pace which, considering the off road nature of the route, is pretty good. 

After school we had a PT session with Jules. This week went as follows: 

1 min sets.......30secs rest

Db to sh pup position......4kg

Sq n press......4kg

Upright row......10kg

Shoulder press.....10 kg bar

Squats to floor......15kg dbs 

Dips

Curls......10 kg bar

One arm rows......10 kg db.....30 ea side

Press ups

Seated row......#12

Sq jumps

8/10 ball slams

8/10 ball sq n press

Shoulder taps raised leg

Tube clean n press........12/8

Sq plus 30 kg bar

Press ups

Mountain climbers

Split lunge jumps

Sq plus 10kg plate hold

Sq hold

Bench burpees

Phew! A great workout as always. 

Wednesday 13th September 2017 

A gentle run first thing to get our legs recovering. 3 miles at 9mm pace. 

In the evening, we ran to club and joined the gang for our first winter 10 mile route of the year (I work in academic years!). I really enjoy this route through Westbury, Henleaze, Shirehampton and finally along the Portway and back up Bridge Valley road. Unfortunately, it chucked it down. The memories of doing this route, while getting splashed by lorries in the freezing cold in the pitch black, all came flooding (literally!) back. With the run back from club as well, we finished with a total for 14miles for the night at an average of 8:13mm - pleased with that. 

Thursday 14th September 2017 

Yet another early start today and another 3 mile recovery. The 9:55 mm pace showed that we worked hard yesterday! With the Bristol half quickly approaching, the rest of the week would be filled with gentle recovery runs to get our legs in the best shape possible. 

In the evening, we got ready to run, left the house, ran 5 steps and once again the rain started to pour. Well neither of us wanted another soaking after yesterday...so instead we ran to our local gluten free fish and chip shop! Salt and Malt do (in my opinion) the best fish and chips in Bristol so we never need much persuading to visit! 

Friday 15th September 2017 

You've guessed it ...another early morning recovery. Legs are feeling pretty good (fingers crossed) Sunday. After work, I popped across to the Physio Hut in the Triathlon Shop so Jenny could give me my pre-half marathon massage. She even remarked that they were feeling better than usual! 

An evening of resting and relaxing after a very busy week at work. 

Saturday 16th September 2017 

Last bit of recovery today before racing tomorrow. We ran to Ashton Court for a very gentle parkrun then nipped home to tidy the house before my parents came around. They come ever year to watch the Bristol Half. It's always a real boost to see them. We spent the rest of the day eating and sitting before getting an early night- perfect pre-race prep. 

Sunday 17th September 2017 

As usual before a race, I was up early eating my favourite pre-race breakfast of homemade egg fried rice exactly 3 hours before the start. Then back to bed for a bit as we have the luxury of being able to walk from our apartment to the start line in less than 10 minutes. My race goals for today were:

1) Finish in the top 20 ladies.

2) Try to hold as many miles as possible around the 6:30mm mark.

3) Get a time of around 1:26 - 1:27 

After posing for the customary GWR clan photo, we had a good 1 mile warm up before taking our places in the 'fast club runners' pen. Being so close to the front is ideal as I don't have to worry about getting caught up behind slower runners at the start. In fact, quite the opposite...

The gun sounded and we were off. I had checked out the other women around me and felt pretty confident that top 20 was on the cards...maybe even top 15! I was caught up among the quicker runners and felt great. I checked my watch ...6:00mm pace ..oops! I slowed down a bit, watching some of my female rivals storm on ahead...making a mental note that I'd catch them later, I continued to slow my pace down to what I knew I could sustain. The first 4 miles passed easily.  I was running with Dr Dave. We were chatting a little, posing for the cameras and working together.  The pace felt straight forward and I hit - 6:11, 6:25, 6:26, 6:32 mm for the first 4 miles. Seeing John pass me on the other side gave me an added boost - especially seeing him in 1st position for our club.

At mile 4, I turned the bend and ran back the other way down the Portway. This is my favourite part of the Bristol Half as I get to see all my friends going the other way. Waving and shouting makes the miles pass much faster. I'm always amazed by how many people I know! Every single shout makes holding the pace that little bit easier. Miles 5, 6 and 7 (6:24, 6:34, 6:24) went by also without much issue - pace of . On the turn, I counted that I was in 11th position - itching now for that top 10 spot, I pushed on. 

Mile 7 - 8 is often a challenge because it is slightly uphill on Cumberland Road. Knowing that my Mum and Dad were waiting for me at the top really helped and I dug deep and tried to keep to that 6:30 pace. Mile 8 was 6:30 exactly. I was overtaken at the start of Cumberland - pushing me down into 12 position but managed to overtake a local B&W rival to put me back in 11th -surely I could hunt down 1 position! 

Mile 9 passed by quickly (6:36) and I was feeling good. I also saw some of my favourite supporters - my good friend Fliss and my God Daughter Amelia. 

At mile 10, something strange happened, as we were going round Queen's Square, despite feeling that I was putting in the same effort, my watched showed a dip in pace to 6:55 mm. Not sure if this was due to a more twisty section of the course or a problem with the GPS signal but, not wanting all my fast miles and seconds gained to go to waste, I pushed on and managed to knock out the next mile in 6:33 - phew! Back on track. 

It was at about this point that I managed to catch a glimpse of a very familiar looking head....the Maestro...not too far off! Knowing that if he spotted me, he'd pick up the pace and I'd have lost my chance, I decided to try and run as quietly as possible and sneak up on him! Slightly closer than the Maestro, I spotted fellow GWR runner and frequent race rival, Rob. He was my next target I decided. Focusing only on real-ling him in, I pushed on alone - sorry Dr! - and covered mile 12 in just 6:27. In the final mile, I passed Rob and had my eyes focused tightly on the Maestro...unfortunately, despite a 6:28 last mile, I ran out of road. Even more frustratingly, Rob, who I thought I'd left behind, had clearly been sitting on my shoulder, and nipped past me on the line! Still, 11th lady, first GWR lady and very surprisingly a new PB! 1:25:32 - delighted! 

John also got a PB and finished as 41st man overall - out of 10,000 - wow! 

Now we come to the reason that I am writing this a week late...After the race John and I had a lovely dinner with my Mum and Dad before going to the running club for our Summer BBQ. A celebratory glass of wine turned into 4...plus a shot...thanks Dr Dave - just what I needed on a Sunday night! 

A really great night but one that I would pay for for the next week! 

Monday 18th September 2017 

The run after the night before! Incredibly, we managed to drag our still spinning bodies out of bed at 6:30am for a recovery run...really don't know how I managed to get round the Harbourside without throwing up!

In the evening, I did another 3 miles around the Harbour before Yoga. 

Tuesday 19th September 2017 

Today called for 10 miles and as we had PT in the evening, it had to be another early one (literally can't remember the last time I lied in!). This was hard work today. We decided to do 10 miles out and back along the Towpath. Head torches needed, we left home at 5:30am and it took us a few miles to warm up our legs into sub 9 min miles for the required GA run. This was one of those runs where you just want to cut it shorter and shorter...by 3 miles I was having to work hard to convince my legs to keep going! We almost stopped and turned around at 4 miles but John managed to spur me on to the full 5 miles before we turned around and headed for home. That is one of those times when I remind myself just how beneficial it is to run with someone. If I was on my own, I probably would have only done 6 miles! Instead, another 10 mile GA run banked. 

In the evening, was our weekly PT session. Jules had a monster workout planned: 

Warm up - Star jumps...Burpees.....squats.....plank hold for 30s.......X3

5 sets of 20 for 1000 reps.

Press ups

Squat jumps

Mat hops

Squat n press 8/10 kg mb

Mountain climbers...count on one foot!

Balance v sits 4/6 kg mb

Slams....8/10 kg mb

Squats plus mb hold to chest 8/10 kg

Split lunge jumps

Shoulder taps....count on one arm!

 Yes...you read that correctly...1000 reps! 

Wednesday 20th September 2017 

Just 3 miles this morning - recovering from last night's efforts. 

After work, we did another 3 miles before walking to the Retro Crisp Buffet...which is exactly what it sounds like! For dinner, we ate 3 platefuls of retro crisps - so good! Clearly it's what the pro marathon runners eat!

Thursday 21st September 2017 

Today we didn't go out early (hooray!) instead, we waited until the evening before doing a long run. As I had a super busy weekend lined up, this was to be my long run of the week. 16 miles along the Portway, over the Avonmouth bridge and back up the Towpath. Lovely weather, great company, and a really positive run with an average pace of 8:28, I was really happy with that. 

Friday 22nd September 2017 

A recovery run again this morning. Although one that was punctuated with worrying about a pigeon that I'd seen outside our apartment which was either in a very deep sleep (standing up on the ground in the middle of the walkway) or dead....luckily, when we returned from out 3 mile loop, the pigeon was not where to be seen...hopefully that means he was just sleeping! 

In the evening, we left Bristol and headed for London to watch John's favourite band Sigur Ros. I had listened to quite a bit of their music and liked it so I thought I'd enjoy a relatively normal gig. Well, Sigur Ros live are very far from a 'normal gig'. The music made up just a proportion of the atmosphere- coupled with the vast array of flashing lights, intense base, smoke and visual effects - the whole performance was an amazing sensory experience. 

My little sister has a new apartment just a few minutes drive from the Apollo and she kindly offered to let us crash her new pad! 

Saturday 23rd September 2017 

Since dragging her around Ashton Court parkrun, Amy has a new found love of running! We were up early (for Amy) and she gave us a running tour of her local area - which included the very stylish Chelsea Harbour! 

After a delicious breakfast, we drove to our next destination - the Cotswolds! Our good friend Cat was embarking on a mega challenge - running 102 miles - the whole of the Cotswold way - insane! 

We went to checkpoint 2 (27miles) to cheer her on. She looked mega strong and managed to keep up a brilliant pace throughout to finish in 27 hours - incredible! 

Sunday 24th September 2017 

My mileage this week was looking pretty low so I wanted to pop out early today and get 10 miles in before my friend, Steve's, stag do! 

 It was a lovely run...until I twisted my ankle on some uneven ground (bloody trail running!). When I heard my ankle twist and felt the pain, initially I freaked. In a split second, I thought the worst - 14 weeks of marathon training...4 weeks to go and injured...what if I can't run...what have I done! 

The pain was pretty bad and I couldn't put my foot flat for a couple of minutes. Despite my hysterics, John managed to keep a calm head and reassured me. After managing to calm me down, I was able to try some movements and put weight on it. I could see some swelling but I felt like I'd be able to continue running. Thankfully, I was able to run with only a slight pain. I finished the 10 miles and iced my ankle before getting ready for the day...fingers crossed it will heal in a couple of days. 

Putting my ankle out of my mind, I headed off to meet my friend Steve for his stag do! I was super excited to be invited and couldn't wait. We drove to Birmingham and raced 'clown cars'. These were 6 different types of car that proved to be brilliant fun. Some examples were: Robbin Reliant racing, push me pull yous (two front ends of cars welded together) and double decker cars...check out the pics!

A very busy but very fun fortnight! 

64.9 miles for last week and 54.1 this week.

 Running is still going strong...as is my social life! 

Training while on school camp!

Abingdon Marathon Training - 6 weeks to go! 

Monday 4th September 2017 

John and I started the week off with a 5 mile recovery run around Ashton Court. We were up early ready for my first day back at school after the 6 weeks off. In the evening, we attended our usual yoga class to stretch out ready for another week of training. 

Tuesday 5th September 2017 

Today I was taking my Year 6 class on school camp for 4 days. We were up early so I could get a really solid run in as I wasn't sure how much running I'd get done over the next few days - it all depends on how good the kids are! 

We set off at 5:30am feeling surprisingly awake! We took the first couple of miles steady, gradually picking up the pace. As I was feeling good, I suggested that we do a progressive run - with each mile quicker than the last. Here are my mile splits for the first 8 miles -

8:26

8:11

7:57

7:44

7:31

7:20

7:10

6:55 

Really pleased with that - a very successful run. We finished off the 10 miles with 2 miles cool down. 

After a very easy journey, myself, 3 other adults and 31 children arrived at camp. Our first activities were abseiling and the challenge course. After dinner, the kids played a game before going to watch a film. While they were occupied, I popped to the gym and did a 20 minutes treadmill run before bed. 

Wednesday 6th September 2017 

I was up at 5:45am to get an early morning run in before the kids woke up - 30 mins and 3 miles done. 

Today's activities were vertical challenge, raft building, the giant swing and areoball. Lots of cross training for me today! In the evening we had a campfire and while the kids watched some more of a film, I managed to get another 20min treadmill run in. 

Thursday 7th September 2017 

Another early morning start for me and another quick 20mins on the treadmill. 

Today we had climbing, archery, zip wire and canoeing. In the evening, the kids had a disco and I managed to squeeze in my last treadmill run of the week - starting to get a bit fed up with them now! 

Friday 8th September 2017 

No running today. After a jam packed week full of activities and being responsible for 31 children, I was feeling pretty shattered so decided to give my legs some time to recover. 

We had the trapeze and tunnel trail in the morning and then, after lunch, it was time to head back to school. In the evening, I was very much looking forward to relaxing with John (who I'd missed loads!).

Saturday 9th September 2017 

After a pretty exhausting week, we didn't manage to make it up in time for parkrun. Instead we had a lie in and then went out for a run around Leigh Woods. So nice to be running outside after a week of treadmill workouts. 10 miles flew by as John and I chatted away - great to be home. 

We were out in the evening to celebrate Ian's Birthday. For once we were pretty controlled with our drinking - I only had 2 glasses of wine to (hopefully) enable me to be in good shape for my long run tomorrow. 

Sunday 10th September 2017 

After watching the Great North Run on TV, we were feeling inspired to get out and continue our training. I needed 22.4 miles to get me up to a nice round 60 miles for the week so the plan was to do a stead run at around 7:30 - 8 mm pace. We went along the river Avon trail which is brilliant because it's flat but it was rather muddy today which slowed us down a tad. I also got covered into stingy nettles - ouch! We then joined up with part of the Green Man route before reaching the Bristol to Bath cycle path. I finished off with a lap of the Harbourside making it exactly 22.4 miles in exactly 3 hours and 1 second - an average pace of 8:02mm. Despite taking a gel with me, I didn't feel the need for it. My body was craving water instead - luckily I took some with me. I'm starting to think that I won't actually use gels for the marathon and simply drink water. It will stop me having to worry about it upsetting my stomach, I won't have to bother carrying them and I feel like it's healthier as well. 

A solid run that felt good - my furthest run of this campaign so far. 

Total miles for the week - 60 exactly! 

Racing again at the Oldbury 10

Abingdon Marathon Training 7 weeks to go! 

Monday 28th August 2017 

Bank holiday woohoo! Really nice having John home for another day so we did a gentle 6 mile recovery (with a pit stop part way through for cake!) after the Severn Bridge race yesterday. We spent the rest of the day soaking up the last bit of summer sun at our friend's housewarming BBQ. 

Tuesday 29th August 2017 

It's been a while since I've done a good speed work session so, when John mentioned (on Monday evening) that he was planning to get up early and bang out a speedy 10 miles the next morning, I was keen to go along...however, my mind changed very quickly when awoken at 6am...oops! Back to sleep I went...well it was my last week of holiday after all! After analysing John's data on strava, I decided to do what any loving girlfriend would do...go out and try and smash his workout! Mwhaha! 

10 miles with 10 sets of strides on the plan. I love running with strides; it makes the miles zoom past. My target was to try and keep all my miles around the 7:30mm mark. I used mile 1 as a warm up (7:53) then started my strides on mile 2. I decided to do 0.1 mile of strides every 1/2 a mile (at 0.4 and at 0.9). To start with, I found that when I finished each set of strides, my pace slowed considerably. Consequently, I set myself a new challenge - to finish the strides and then maintain a faster pace for the rest of the mile. I did the strides in miles 2 - 6 in a pace of : 7:29, 7:23, 7:24, 7:23, 7:14 . Once the strides were complete, I focused on simply maintaining a solid pace for the last 4 miles - 7:41, 7:32, 7:36 and 7:34. Boom! A really strong workout done and, most importantly, a quicker average pace than John! Hehe! 

Wednesday 30th August 2017 

Today John and I wanted to do a long run as we wouldn't be able to over the weekend. We set out with the intention of running 20 miles. Running to club, my legs weren't feeling mega fresh after yesterday's efforts but we were taking it relatively steady around 8mm pace. We managed to bag 5 miles before getting to club and arrived just in time to head out again with the 10 mile group. I haven't ran the summer 10 route for a while and I'd forgotten just how challenging it is when you're feeling a little tired! It's pretty hilly and despite being able to keep up with the boys on the flat and downhill sections, on the uphill, I just can't keep up - very frustrating - must do more hill training. John and I managed to get up to 16 miles but were slowing down and running out of energy so decided to cut it short. Still, 16 isn't too shabby for a Wednesday night. 

Thursday 31st August 2017 

Having failed to get up early on Tuesday, today I was more successful. Up early with John for a 5 mile plod around Ashton Court. Good to remind myself of what it was like to get up early and my 6 weeks of holiday was nearly coming to the end. This was the start of a few days of recovery before the Oldbury 10 mile race on Sunday. I spent the rest of the day with my Aunty and Cousin who came to visit me for the day. Had a lovely time showing them all of the best bits of Bristol - it really reminded me just how great this city is and how much there is to do and see. 

After eating far too much during the day, I was feeling guilty so did another gentle 3 miles around the Harbourside before Yoga with Amelia at Cargo 2. A really great class this week with lots of stretching and relaxing - just what I needed. 

Friday 1st September 2017 

Another 3 mile recovery run today before going into school (for the 3rd time this week) to finish off sorting out my classroom ready for the new term. I also had a sports massage from Jenny  to loosen up my legs ready for the weekend. 

Saturday 2nd September 2017 

Saturday means parkrun day! I knew I needed 7 miles to make a lovely round 60 miles for the week so we ran there and back as well. As much as I love run parkrun flat out, I also really enjoy a gentle run because I use it as a chance to have a good ol' chat and catch up- finding out how everyone's running journeys are going. 

Normally, we like to spend the day before a race, relaxing, eating and generally doing very little...well this wasn't the case today. After convincing our good friend Cat to run the Butcombe Ultra while drunk at the BBQ on Monday, we thought we'd better pop along and support her. John did some calculations and worked out which checkpoint he thought she'd be at. We arrived only to find that she was going great guns and had already passed...on to the next checkpoint we went. Assuming that we had a bit of time to kill, we went to the bar and go a couple of drinks and snacks. We'd literally just made it outside when Cat appeared looking so strong and super happy! She finished in 4th place overall and 2nd lady - seriously impressive. Very proud. 

Next stop for the day was to go hang out with some friends at a rugby club cider festival. Beautiful sunshine, great rhubarb cider, a bouncy castle (yes I had a go!) and fab bands playing made for a lovely afternoon. The only downside was that we were standing up for a long time and not really resting...hope that doesn't cause us a problem in the race tomorrow. 

Sunday 3rd September 2017 

Today was the Oldbury 10 miler. Its leisurely start time of 10:30am meant that I didn't have to eat my usual pre-race breakfast (egg fried rice) until 7:30 which made was rather nice. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't kind to us. It was very very raining and also rather windy...maybe it will calm down I thought...

My aim for the race today was to get all miles as close to 6:30mm pace as possible. I was also hoping for a good position but wanted the pacing to be my main challenge. At the start I noticed that the lady who beat me last week was there again today...round 2 ding ding! 

I set off and was feeling pretty good for the first mile. One lady I didn't recognise stormed off ahead and was well in front. I was running with my new rival from Bitton. She was clearly planning on running the exact same pace as me so I formulated a plan to sit behind her and let her pace me before sprinting past her at the finish to take 2nd place - simples! However, I didn't quite manage to execute this cunning plan. The first 4 miles were solid 6:26, 6:29, 6:31 and 6:36. The course was flat at tarmac, the weather was cool - on paper the conditions were perfect for me - but something just didn't feel right. My legs felt really heavy and tired and lacked the spring and energy that I knew I needed to sustain this pace. My Bitton rival managed to maintain the pace and as I slowed slightly I could just see her inching away, mile by mile. I dug in and really tried to pick it up and get back on track but it just feel like the whole course was steadily uphill. Then the wind really started to pick up - great! The rest of the miles were pretty depressing time wise 6:40, 6:37, 6:53, 6:50, 6:57 and 6:48. There was nothing I could do but dig deep and try to hang on for a PB. 

I finished in 3rd place in a time of 1:07:23. I'm pretty disappointed with the time but I put it down to spending too much time on my feel yesterday combined with racing hard last weekend.

 Luckily, I scrapped a PB by around 20 seconds which does mean that I have now officially PB'd in every distance - 1 mile, 2 miles, 5000m (track), 5k (road), 10km, 10 miles, 20 miles, half marathon and marathon in 2017! 

I was really pleased to get 3rd place and especially delighted that alongside Louise and Claire, GWR women won the team prize for the 2nd year running! I also won my first ever hamper! John hit his target of sub 60mins and finished in 5th position - amazing! Always proud x. It was really great during the prize giving ceremony as almost every other prize was going to a member of GWR - so wonderful to be part of a club that's friendly, great fun and also really successful in so many different age categories. Well done everyone. 

So another week of training gone and only 7 weeks to go. Next week I'm taking my new Year 6ers off on camp so will be a relatively light week of training. I will still try and run as much as possible...but might have to be before the kids wake up or after they've gone to bed - oh dear! 

Total for this week - 61.6 miles

A week of tapering leading up to the Severn Bridge Half Marathon

Abingdon Marathon training - 8 weeks to go 

Monday 21st August 2017 

This week was going to be a mental battle between wanting to train hard and run lots of miles and having to taper (reduce miles and effort) in order to give me a chance of a successful half marathon on Sunday. I decided to continue training as usual for the first part of the week before reducing miles and just focusing on recovery runs towards the end of the week. 

So I started my week of with a body pump class. I've done pump before, so I knew what I was letting myself in for, but not for a few years. Body pump is a class where you use a barbell with weights to do exercises in time to music. I enjoy classes with music in as I find it distracts me from the pain of the workout! This was an excellent class led by an instructor who clearly knows his stuff - definitely keen to return - hopefully with John as well. I also ran there and back to get some miles in. 

In the evening, John and I ran 3 recovery miles around the Harbourside before Yoga for some much needed stretching. 

Tuesday 22nd August 2017 

I spent today resting, tidying the house and starting on some planning for next term. One of the reasons I was resting is because John had planned a particularly challenging speedwork session for tonight. Once John was home, we headed back to the Bristol to Bath cycle path with the aim of running 10 miles with 5 at half marathon pace - which for me now is between 6:20 and 6:30 minute miles. 

The warm up run to the cycle path felt good. My legs didn't feel too bad and I was keen to hit the target and get a good workout in. The first 3 miles were 8:06, 7:41 and 7:34 so a good steady warm up pace. Once we hit the 3 mile mark, John started to disappear into the distance (his half marathon pace is 5:50!) As I said, I was keen to get a successful workout so really started working hard at what felt like a good speed. However, when I checked my watch I was only doing about 6:45mm. This first mile was uphill, so I knew it would be hard but, from the effort I was putting in, I felt like I should be moving quicker. Right - I thought to myself - what can I do? I thought about my form - I ran upright, I pumped my arms, I tried some positive thinking, I really worked at it. Mile 4 beeped and I looked down - 6:37. Not bad but not what I should be doing. I dug deeper still for mile 5 but it was just getting harder and harder - mile 5 passed in 6:34 better but still not where I wanted to be and I was quite simply working too hard. 

After mile 5 I stopped. Checked my heartrate (177) and took some deep breaths. It wasn't until I relaxed that I realised that I'd clearly been very tense. My shoulder was painful, my legs felt incredibly heavy and (despite not having eaten for the last 3 hours) I had a stitch. This is unlike me and I realised that I had two options. 1) Push on, try harder and keeping working - digging deep when everything hurts is good mental preparation for the marathon. 

2) End the workout there - I've still done 2 miles at a good pace and focus on the half marathon at the weekend. 

I chose option 2. I felt that I really wanted to give the half a good go and I didn't want to risk injury or simply tightening up my calves any more than was needed. 

I did the next few miles slower and steadier using them as recovery. Surprisingly, when I reach John at the end of the cycle path, he said he'd faced the exact same issues. After a bit on analysis, we concluded that that workout was simply too hard to do after the marathon paced efforts on Sunday. It was only then that I remembered we had the same problem during our last campaign - we really need to learn from our mistakes and plan better in the future.

 

Wednesday 23rd August 2017 

I'd booked a sports massage in today with Jenny. I ran there as well to get a recovery 4 miles done. I really feel that a massage in the week before a race makes a huge difference. It's lovely to stand on the start line with legs feeling (relatively) fresh! 

I also bought a selection of different brands of gels to try during training - a little experiment to find the type that suits me the best - I'll share the results of the test in a few weeks time. 

In the evening, John and I decided to walk to the running club as we were going out for food afterwards to celebrate Paul's birthday. We didn't run as we both had backpacks with changes of clothes in. However, we underestimated how long walking takes compared to running! We missed the start of the group runs so just did our own thing instead - another recovery run around the downs. 

Dinner was at Wahaca  which had an excellent, detailed gluten free menu. The waitress was very careful to explain which dishes might have cross contamination - she clearly knew her stuff. 

Thursday 24th August 2017 

Today I was going to check out my friend Julia's new house in Nailsea. I had planned to drive but not told John so he had gone to work taking our car park fob with him. This meant that I had no way of getting my car out of the carpark! Not to worry I thought - I remembered John telling me that the cycle path I take to school goes all the way to Nailsea. I used the Sustran's  website to check the route and sure enough, I could follow the Festival way - route 33 all the way from my front door to Julia's! 

It was a glorious sunny day and the route was fab! I started off rather slowly - I've started to find that (now I'm getting older) it takes my legs longer to warm up and get to a good speed (something I need to remember for races - must warm up properly first!) so I plodded along for the first few miles. The route took me through the other end of Long Ashton to the one I was used to. It's always surprising what a big village it is!  I then went towards and through Failand - another really lovely village. Then I was delighted to come across a beautiful cycle path between Failand and Backwell - all purpose built, away from roads, fields all around - stunning! There was a short 1 mile section on a country lane without pavements which wasn't ideal but the road was relatively quiet so not too bad. I would highly recommend trying it out for a run or cycle - 8.5 miles from Bristol to Nailsea - excellent! My pace got quicker for the last few miles but averaged out at 8:42mm for the run. 

In the evening, John and I did another few miles around the Harbourside before our 2nd yoga class of the week. 

Friday 25th August 2017 

Having picked up a new pair of running shoes from my good friend Clare, I popped out today to try them out. When Clare mentioned that she was giving away a pair of shoes she didn't use, and I realised that the pair in question are my favourite brand, I was delighted! New shoes feel so springy (especially as my current pair has done over 600 miles- oops!). 

Just the one run today - tapering sensibly!

 

Saturday 26th August 2017 

With John feeling under the weather, I went out on my own this morning for my last recovery run before the Severn Bridge half tomorrow. Legs felt pretty good. Not really springy but I guess that's to be expected having done a lot of mileage over the last few weeks. I spent the rest of the day with my feet up, eating and drinking sensibly and generally resting ready for tomorrow. 

Sunday 27th August 2017 

Today was the Severn Bridge half marathon. I was up at 6 am (I always have to eat 3 hours before the race) for my usual pre-race breakfast of homemade egg fried rice! I then went back to bed for another 20 mins before getting up and ready - excitement starting to build! 

Marcus, John and I have raced every single one of these races from the start in 2014 (the plan is to keep running it every year!). I find this race especially difficult because the course is very undulating with a couple of seriously steep hills. Last year I finished around 6th place so my aim for this year was to better that. I knew that prizes were given out for the top 5 and trophies for the top 3 so my aim going into this race was to place and get myself a trophy. 

We got to the start line in plenty of time and started right at the front. Marcus was planning to run a similar time to me, as was Woody (although we all knew he was in very good form) John wasn't feeling good at all so also decided to run with me so it was really lovely having a group of us running together over the iconic bridge. 

Standing on the start line, I looked around - sussing out the other girls - seeing who I recogninsed. Annoyingly, I quickly spotted last years winner (who I know is capable of a 1:24 half) and a couple of others who looked pretty nifty. Still, I thought to myself - you're in with a chance here! 

I planned my race tactics  - I wanted to get a good position from the start because this isn't a race where you can make up time in the 2nd half - the 2nd half is seriously hard! From the off, I counted the women around me and committed their kits to memory. I quickly got into a good position of 4th place and settled for a little bit. Then I decided to overtake two women who were clearly from the same club and working together (2 birds, one stone!) comfortable in 2nd place I felt good! Until I saw a lady, who I recognised, storm passed me. I picked up the pace a little to see what pace she was doing, but quickly realised that I couldn't stick with her for fear of burning up too soon. My plan was to try and keep her in sight - I was in 3rd position and happy with that for now. 

Mile 1 and 2 are downhill so I made the most of them with two relatively quick miles (6:23 and 6:23 - consistent!).   The first little hill comes in around mile 3 and then the undulation begin. While I'm racing, I split the race up into sections to make it more manageable. The first 3 are my "get into the rhythm" miles. Once those are gone, I feel better because I run 10 miles all the time. My next target point is 5 miles because mentally it's a nice number and it's half of 10...it works for me anyway! Then I set my target to reach is 7 miles because that's over half way, then 10 miles and then count down to the finish. 

At mile 4 ish I started to see the lady in 2nd place slow down a little as Woody overtook her up ahead. This gave me some encouragement to dig in through the difficult undulating section. John had spotted my target and ran with me and at this point Marcus started to drop back a little. So it's just me and John now working together to catch 2nd place! Miles 3 - 6 were - 6:44, 6:51, 6:37 and 6:48. In this race, I knew that 'The Hill' was in mile 7. But, I'd done it before and so I knew what to expect. I really struggle and get anxious when I don't know the course and don't know what's to come. However, I'd done my homework on this one - I spent a lot of time analysing the strava data so I'd reminded myself of where the big hills were. I got up the hill - slowly but surely (and with lots of positive encouragement from my number 1 man). I didn't stop to walk and was rewarded with a lovely long downhill. A 7:55 minute mile did however spoil my pacing somewhat - but I didn't dwell on that, I just wanted to achieve my aim of getting a trophy! 

I managed to pick up my pace on the downhill of mile 8 (6:24). I was feeling strong and felt like I could run forever. This positive mental attitude continued in mile 9 (6:41) although, as I had slowed a bit I decided to try a gel. I wont reveal anything about the gel or how I found it as I want to wait until I've tried all the different brands so I can make a fair comparison - I will also blog about my results. 

Miles 10 and 11 I knew would be hard. These are the mile which climb steadily uphill back over the bridge. I knew I'd slow down and just tried to keep the pace as much as I could. I did remember to look over the bridge (for the first time in 4 races!) and admire the view! Despite John trying to encourage me to go faster, when I'm into a long gradual hill like that, I find it very difficult to get any acceleration at all. Instead I focused on when the downhill would arrive - I counted the pillars on the bridge and again, broke the mile down into smaller, more manageable chunks. Miles 10 and 11 passed in 7:04 and 7:26. Mentally, I knew I wasn't on for a especially impressive time, although I wasn't really keeping a good check of my splits I remembered seeing too many miles pass with a 7 at the start! Nevertheless, John was still encouraging me and mile 12 was downhill (mostly) so I managed to pick up the pace a little to 6:44. Mile 13 had a couple of hills in it but I managed 6:53 before sprinting down the hill and towards the finish (beating a man in the sprint finish - always nice!) crossing the line just behind John with a time of 1:30:20 - while this would have annoyed me not so long ago, as I was focusing on the position, I really don't mind those pesky 20 seconds (I'll leave the OCD worrying to John!). 

I was hoping to see someone at the finish line giving out prizes (as advertised on their website) but none of the race officials were in sight...slightly confused by this, John and I went to investigate and found a little table, tucked out the way a bit, with trophies on...after nervously asking the race organiser if one of those was for me, I was told that I had finished in 3rd place and was handed a beautiful wooden, hand crafted trophy, another medal engraved with my position and the date and an envelope containing £60 in cash! Really over the moon with my race today. I feel like I worked hard but didn't over-do it and I'm feeling more and more confident that I'm getting stronger and fitter- looking forward to the marathon! 

Really well done to all the GWR runners  - especially Woody who got a PB! Really impressive on this course. Good effort from the Maestro ...even if he did get beaten by me (1st time ever!) a great run from him as he wasn't feeling 100% either. The GWR men won the team prize for the 2nd time and the women's team came in 3rd. A huge thank you to John who ran with me despite the fact that I'm notoriously difficult/ annoying to run with! 

Another week done - 56.1 miles total for the week. 

The running bug is catching! Watch out!

Abingdon Marathon Training - 9 weeks to go 

The title of my blog this week relates to this picture...read on to find out more! 

Monday 14th August 2017 

After a really successful week last week, I was keen to continue making the most of my summer holidays to train as well as I could. Today I was meeting a good friend Fliss and her daughter (my God daughter) Amelia in Leigh woods for a walk. I decided to run there and back as well. My legs were feeling quite achy after yesterday's long run but not too bad so I managed to run up Nightingale Valley (a VERY steep path in the woods). We probably walked a good couple of miles (with lots of meandering to look for dens, mushrooms and sticks - all very exciting to a 2 year old!) which really helped to loosen my legs up a bit. 

Amelia is also getting pretty good at running now - exciting! Looking forward to when she can try parkrun! 

When John got home from work we ran around the harbourside (3miles) before our usual yoga class. 

Tuesday 15th August 2017 

We were up early today for our morning run. John wanted to get some speed work done to get his legs ready for the Towpath race on Friday. I also did my own speedwork. 4.6 miles with 6 x 0.1 mile strides. I've not done many strides yet this plan and I'd forgotten how much I enjoy them. Strides are basically sprints for a short distance where my aim was to get my heart rate up and think about my running form. I find they really help to pass the time - I will try and do some more in the next coming weeks. 

I had a lovely lunch today with John's mum in Banco Lounge - brilliant for vegans and coeliacs because they have separate menus with loads of choice. 

In the afternoon, I went to a pureabs class at puregym on the harbourside. The class was alright - as I've often found with puregym - the staff come across rather bored and lack the enthusiasm that I've been used to at other gyms. Still it felt good to work on my 'focus area'. 

John cycled home from work today so I ran out a couple of miles to meet him. It was a lovely evening so we stopped off at the Cottage on the harbourside and enjoyed the sun and a cheeky drink!

Wednesday 16th August 2017 

Today I did back to back classes. Yoga first - another great class - really loving this at the moment. Followed by a CX class at Vivo gym.  A really excellent class with a very enthusiastic Australian leader who clearly knew his stuff. This class was also ab based but to music and had a great fast pace about it - I'll definitely try and do that again next week. 

In the evening, John and I ran to club as the plan asked for a medium-long run. We ran The Maestro's new 11 mile route which I enjoy but find very challenging as there are about 3 miles into the middle of the route which are all uphill and on very rocky uneven ground. By the time we got home, we'd covered 14miles in 8:40mm pace which isn't bad for a hilly route. 

Thursday 17th August 2017 

Up early today to run with John before he left for work. Just a gentle 3 mile recovery run. During the day I went to Clevedon to meet my good friends Steve and Fliss and their son Sam. Really nice to catch up with them. 

John cycled home again today so, in the evening, I ran out to meet him on his bike to add another few miles to the total. 

Friday 18th August 2017 

My sister Amy came up from London today to stay for a couple of days. I told her to pack some sport clothes as I had a cunning plan in mind! I eased her in gently...I managed to convince her to try my yoga class. She actually really enjoyed it! 

We then met my Aunty for lunch before going to Harbour and Browns a new restaurant in Cargo 2 at Wapping Wharf. They do a bottomless Prosecco lunch (usually only on Saturdays and Sundays but I managed to convince them to let us have it on Friday!). The food was fantastic and the service excellent - we had hardly drank half a glass of Prosecco before it was topped back up! After spending a good couple of hours chatting and drinking, I realised that running today wasn't going to be a good idea! And actually, I felt really good for having a rest day - my calves were certainly thanking me! 

In the evening, it was the last in the series of the Towpath races. Amy did a fantastic job of helping John and I take entries (hopefully she'll come and help again next year!). Then we moved to the finish line to wait for John. He ran really well and managed to secure 2nd place for the series - awesome! 

Saturday 19th August 2017 

Today, was parkrun day! It was even more exciting than usual because we'd managed to convince Amy to give it a go as well! The 3 of us ran together and Amy did brilliantly. I really enjoyed running with her and (despite her quote of "Worst morning ever" to Marcus when asked how she was finding it!) I hope she'll give it another go. 

Sunday 20th August 2017 

Today the plan called for one of the hardest workouts - 18 miles with 10 at marathon pace. 

John thought it best to split the efforts into groups of 4 miles, 3 miles and 3 miles (and because I always take on board his advice, I decided to do the same). We met our friends 'The Woodys' near the start of the Bristol to Bath cycle path - a really good route for marathon pace efforts as it is relatively flat. 

We did 4 miles to warm up before starting our first block of efforts. I felt really good - my legs felt fresh having had a couple days of little or no running - and my breathing was steady. 

mile 5 - 6:43

mile 6 - 6:38

mile 7 - 6:37

mile 8 - 6:38 

The next mile was recovery. Whilst it was great to get my hear rate down and settle my breathing and recover a bit, I found it difficult to get back up to pace again - something to consider for my next marathon pace workout. 

The next block of 3 miles was the hardest because this section of road was quite undulating. This highlighting the importance of me doing more marathon pace miles on undulating ground. 

mile 10 - 6:45

mile 11 - 6:47

mile 12 - 6:48 

I took another mile recovery before starting my last block of efforts. Once again, I found it really hard to get the legs back up to speed. Luckily, the last 3 miles were downhill - hooray! 

mile 14 - 6:44

mile 15 - 6:37

mile 16 - 6:32 

I finished with 2 slow miles to recover. 18 miles done at an average pace of 7:29 mm. Feels really good to have hit 10 miles at marathon pace. It wasn't easy today but I managed to push through. I definitely feel stronger than ever and after a week of heavy exercising, high mileage and lots of drinking, I feel really pleased with that run. 

Total for this week - 61.4 miles 

Plan for next week - I'll be taking it a bit easier as I'll be tapering for the Severn Bridge half marathon on the Sunday. I'm really hoping for a good position so going to give my legs lots of recovery in the second half of the week. Still going to keep up the weight and strength training as much as possible and probably aim for around 50 miles. 

My results from trying out a Vegan diet for a week.

Abingdon Marathon Training - 10 weeks to go!

In last weeks vlog (video blog for the less tech savvy!) John and I explained that we were going to try out  a Vegan diet initially for 1 week to see if it had any impact on our training. Our reasons for doing this:

1) We've been following an athlete (Jason Cherryman) who has been trying out this plant-based diet and had successes. 

2) I'm concerned about the environment issues that arise from eating meat. 

3) I put on a bit of weight during our holiday so need to shift that and I'd like to reduce my body fat percentage. 

4)Lots of our friends are doing it! 

5) For fun! - Something new to try! 

So for one week we planned to only eat foods that were plant based - no eggs, butter, milk, cheese, meat and of course everything had to be gluten free as well. 

Monday 7th August 2017 

Today John went back to work so I was left to fend for myself. Those of you who know me will know that I don't like being along and I have to be doing something all the time. So I had to think of ways to fill the hours between 8am and 6pm when John got back from work. The first thing I did was head to Asda to do our Vegan, plant based, gluten free shop! This took a while because I had to read the back of every packet - I was amazed at how many products you expect to be Vegan have milk powder or butter in. Anyway, I still managed to buy a considerable amount of items in what was probably my healthiest ever shop! 

I filled the rest of my day by tidying, ironing and watching the athletics - very inspiring. 

I want to make full use of these next few weeks of summer holidays; I can actually train like an elite athlete. My aim was to run twice a day and do an element of weight training or cross training every day. I am aware that this is a more than I usually do so I planned to listen to my body and stop or reduce the mileage if I feet it was doing more harm than good. 

Today, I used moveGB to book into a pure 'abs' class. I ran 3 miles there - nice and steadily as my calves were especially tight after yesterday's efforts in the long run. Unfortunately, when I got to the gym the class wasn't on. Instead I used all the weights machines do work my arms (which are often neglected). 

For my first Vegan lunch, I had quinoa which I boiled with a vegetable stock cube to give it some flavour. Once it was cooked, I fried some mushrooms, courgette, olives and  spinach before adding in some hummus and putting the cooked quinoa back in the pan to mix it all together. I ate it with rice cakes - it was really good! 

In the evening, it was a GWR committee meeting so John and I ran to club and back which added on an extra 4 miles for the day. 

For dinner, I cooked a vegetable stir fry. I used rice noodles and sweet and sour sauce (the only packet sauce which was both vegan and gluten free). 

Tuesday 8th August 2017 

Today's I decided to try out a class at the Vivo sports gym on the Welsh Back. The class is called 360 rig and is basically a circuits class using this large multi-use piece of gym apparatus. The best thing about it is that it's given me lots of ideas for how to use this rig (which is available for anyone to train on in the gym). The class was 30 mins and definitely got my heart rate up. I ran there any back to get an extra 4 miles ticked off. 

In the evening, John and I ran to the river Avon path which is a relatively new discovery for us. It is dead flat and relatively quiet so idea for speed work. Today the plan called for 10 miles with 4 at half marathon pace. We planned to do 3 miles as a warm up, then 4 quick (turning around after 5 miles) and 3 miles steady back home. I am hoping that my new half marathon pace is going to be between 6:20- 6:30mm so for today's workout I wanted to aim for around that and see how it felt. After a hard run on Sunday and lots of training already this week, I knew this would be a challenge but I was keen to give it a good go. 

We ran the first 3 miles steadily to get to the path. When my watched beeped at 3 miles I picked up the pace and hit 6:31mm average. It felt like I was working hard but I was pretty sure I could continue this for 3 more miles. Unfortunately, the path then got very muddy so despite putting in the same amount of effort, I wasn't hitting the pace I needed. Trying not to let this bother me, I focused on not slipping on the mud and falling into the river! The next two (muddy) miles were 6:44 and 6:50 - a little disappointing so, when I reached the paved path, I really picked it up and hit 6:22 for the last mile of effort. 

As soon as I finished the speed work, my legs had had enough. My calves were tight and legs felt really heavy. I ran one more mile (8:44) before John took pity on me and suggested that we walk the last two miles home. 8 miles done with some good efforts - pretty pleased overall. 

When we got home, I cooked Vegan burgers with mushrooms, onion and lettuce - yum! 

Wednesday 9th August 2017 

I met my aunty for lunch today and had the first experience of just how difficult eating out can be for vegans. We went to a cafe and every item on the menu had bread, eggs or milk in. Luckily they had gluten free bread - but what to put in it when you can't have any meat or cheese. I chose humus and roasted peppers and it actually wan't too bad. 

In the afternoon I ran to purgym and tried out a 'legs bums and tums class'. I have to say I was not very impressed. The class comprised of us running back and forth accross the room carrying a weight and occasionally doing an exercise (eg: squats, plant, press ups etc). The instructor (who was about 21) clearly couldn't care less about technique and just wanted to act like an sergeant major! 

In the evening we just did 6 miles with the GWR crew before heading to Hubbox (a new restaurant in Clifton) for Marcus' birthday. I had pre-checked their menu online and knew that there were a couple of vegan gluten free options. I would really recommend Hubbox - the food was great, nice atmosphere and excellent service. Also - the sweet potato fries were gluten free - a rarity! 

Thursday 10th August 2017 

Today I met with the Maestro at lunchtime for a run. We did 7 miles around Ashton court which was lovely as they were just getting ready for the balloon fiesta. 

In the evening, John and I had a PT session with Jules. I ran there which took my daily total up to 10 miles. PT today was BRUTAL. Jules started by giving us a range of exercises to do eg: squats, sit ups, press ups (all with weights) probably about 10 different activities in total. we did 25 reps of each exercise which was pretty hard. Then he announced that we were going to do the whole thing again but with 50 reps of each! Seriously difficult - 50 reps is a lot and really pushed us both to the max.

When we got home we treated ourselves to gluten free vegan ice cream with vegan chocolate sauce!

Friday 11th August 2017 

We were up early today to see the hot air balloon launch from Bristol's annual balloon fiesta. By 5:30 am we were up and about running up to the observatory where we knew they'd be a good view. We were not disappointed. Over 50 hot air balloons were launched and drifted through the sky and towards our flat!

 We chased the balloons home and enjoyed watching them glide past our balcony.


During the day today I went to yoga at Cargo 2. I'm really starting to notice results from it. For example, when I first started, I couldn't do the side plank at all - today I held side plank for a good amount of time on both sides.

I rested for the rest of the day as I wanted to give parkrun a good crack tomorrow.

Saturday 12th August 2017 

Due to the balloon fiesta taking place in Ashton Court, parkrun was cancelled so a group of us took a trip to Riverfront parkrun in Newport. When we arrived I was delighted to see that the course was flat and concrete - my two favourite things in a run! It was also an out and back course which I love, because, I like to know where I am going and I look out for landmarks on the way out that I look forward to seeing again on the way back.

My aim for today was to get a parkrun PB (sub 19.23) so I knew that all my miles needed to be under 6:10 mm pace. That shouldn't be too hard because it's been aaages since I've ran a flat parkrun. I set off, running along the river, and got into my rhythm. But because I'm so used to running at marathon pace, I'd got into my 6:45 rhythm! Pleased that I noticed early on, I quickly upped the pace and stormed passed a whole host of men (always fun!) until I hit 6:05mm pace. This felt comfortable so I tried to maintain this pace...until I saw the Maestro not too far ahead! Ahha! The chase was on. I picked up the pace again in mile 2 (5:55mm) and was gaining on him for a while...until the turn when he clearly spotted me and panicked that I was so close! With him speeding up, I couldn't catch him but I did manage a 6:11mm last mile which got me a 6:03mm average and a new all time PB of 18:44.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and napping before heading out in the evening for an engagement party in Clifton.


Sunday 13th August 2017 

After a rather heavy night yesterday, we quickly decided that it would be best to run in the evening -after we'd recovered. We spent the day eating, hydrating and napping before heading out to run about 5pm.

I wanted to do a run of over 20 miles today but wasn't sure I'd be up to it given that about 60% of my body was still made up of Prosecco! However, once I got started, I actually felt really good. My legs felt strong and I felt like I could just run and run. Unfortunately, John wasn't feeling quite as spritely. He did 10miles with me and we averaged around 8:30mm pace. Once John left I decided I wanted to challenge myself to run the last 11 miles at all under 8mm pace - this was so that I could practise pushing myself to run faster towards the end of a race (negative split). Up to about 14 miles it felt really easy. There were balloons overhead, it was dry but not too hot - perfect running conditions. From 14 miles onwards it was a bit harder but I pushed through the pain by ticking off one mile at a time. One strategy I use when running is to bargain with myself. My deal today was that I get a sip of water after every mile that was under 8mm. This helps you to forget the pain that your body is in and just concentrate on the time and distance, it also helps you not to focus on how far you've got left - I just think about each mile one at a time.

I arrive home to find that John had a delicious dinner all ready for me! Risotto with onion, white wine, mushrooms and spinach with home made sweet potato wedges and asparagus - seriously good!

I finished 21 miles in 2 hours and 49mins with an average pace of 8:04. Really really pleased with that run - I'm really feeling the benefit of eating healthily, upping the miles and cross training.

Total for this week - 70.01 miles 

Next week, I'm going to try and do much of the same. Similar number of miles, trying to weight train regularly and run twice a day where possible. John has also advised me to try and run more longer runs so I will add that to the mix as well. 

So how did I find the Vegan diet. 

Well, I feel very healthy. I've lost all the extra holiday weight and dropped a couple of % of body fat. My friends however have had to suffer my increased windyness! Furthermore I've spent a lot more time on the toilet than usual! Have I missed anything? Yes. I really miss hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipped cream. Also eggs - on of my favourite things are John's eggy breakfasts! 

So next week, I am going to continue to eat as much vegan food as possible to continue to eat healthily. I am however going to re-introduce eggs, cheese and milk to my diet. When I am shopping or out at a restaurant, I am going to look for vegan options first and foremost and I am going to cook vegan food at home. I've really enjoyed the challenge and would recommend others to give it a go. For health, weight loss or just for fun! Why not?! 

First ever Vlog! 11 Weeks to go!

11 Weeks until the Abingdon Marathon 

This week, we thought we'd try something new - a vlog! Enjoy!