Sunday, January 29, 2006
Eeek I hurt, and I'm tired...
My entry to Inverness has been accepted so now have to
accept the fact that I will be doing two halfs and a
10 miler in March. Eeek. Oh well, its better than
Sheila Morrisons month she is building her race
mileage gradually throughout the month, starting with
10 miles at Lasswade, a half marathon in Inverness,
and when Im plodding round the inaugural Edinburgh
half, Sheila is going to be running her 20 miler down
in Compton again! She is well mad.
Last Tuesday I had my best run in ages! Not sure what
happened but somehow managed to keep up with Fay and
Lindsay all the way round (well Lindsay got ahead
right at the end, but whos counting?). We went for
our usual run round the streets, for a bit of variety
we ran round West Barnes the opposite way to usual.
Exciting huh? Roll on these lighter nights. Its
weird when I get dragged out for a 10 mile run up
the Brunt in summer, I cant wait until winter when
you know that youre guaranteed a pretty flat run of
only about 6 miles
.and now I cant wait until spring
time. Cant please some people can you?
Thursday intervals where
.yup I guessed correctly 4
mins as fast as you can go, followed by a rest which
is apparently about 3 mins but feels more like 30
secs. Did ok, going further than 800m until the last
lap where I had to stop after 400m with a nice stitch
in my side. It still hurt on Friday, and on Saturday,
but seems to be ok today. It was a bit like the thing
that affected me at the Musselburgh racecourse race
last year. Dont know whether I actually pulled
something in the area or whether it was just a very
severe stitch, but it hurt.
Thursday night the interval bunch then went out to
Umbertos for a feed. It was great plenty of garlic
bread whilst reviewing the menus and then alcohol.
Such a shame I had work to go to on Friday
.
On Saturday I went out for a wee run on my own. Brian
dropped me off on the high street and I ran down to
John Muir Country Park, along to the wee bridge with
sand at it, and back along the beach to Belhaven car
park where I got picked up. Think it was about 5.5
miles (well thats what Im calling it anyway!)
And now Im exhausted. Ive just finished eating a
bag of grapes, and that came after a whole heap of
other stuff for lunch. I hate to think how much Id
eat if I ever upped my mileage any more
.Sheila
Morrison, Sheila Kerr, Fay, Val and I all set off from
Sheila Morrisons down to John Muir Country Park.
Sheila Kerr and Val ran about a 6 mile route through
the park, and Fay, Sheila M and I ran the festive half
route (but not quite as far as our start point was
different). So we ran through the park to the North
Berwick road, up the North Berwick road turning for
Lawhead and up to the stop of the hill. We stopped
briefly for some juice (and a toilet stop for those
that needed it funny dont think Sheila had a toilet
stop at all something odd going on there).
We then ran down to Knowes farm and along back through
John Muir Country Park. I was tailing Sheila and Fay
all the way along but still made it to the end in just
under 2 hours so not so bad. My feet hurt
though
..and my quads
..and my calves
..
Hope they take it easy this Tuesday
___________________________________________________________
NEW Yahoo! Cars - sell your car and browse thousands of new and used cars online! http://uk.cars.yahoo.com/
Monday, January 23, 2006
Nearly race time....
Well I have entered my March races hopefully (?)
they wont be full and Ill get places in them all.
Im not always the most organised at getting my
entries off in time, and missed out on a place in the
Stirling 10k last year because of it, so I must be
more organised this year. Ive entered Lasswade 10
mile which is a nasty, hilly race why am I doing it?
They even give you a graph with hills along one axis
and miles along the other this does not give any
idea of the scale of the hill that hits just after
mile 1 to really knacker your legs, followed by some
more hills until about mile 6. Great, looking forward
to that one. Im also entering Inverness
half-marathon the following weekend this is the one
Im worried Im too late for
.Ive booked the time off
work to make it a long weekend so Id better get in.
I then have a weekend off before Im running the
inaugural Edinburgh half marathon at 9:00am! Whatever
possessed me to enter a race that starts so early????
I hate to think what time Ill have to get up at to
eat my breakfast!
Anyway, despite the tone above Im looking forward to
racing season. Hopefully my legs and breathing have
been sorted out by then (have made some appointments
at the leg man and at nursie to try to sort them out
soon, honest. Also going to the optician so I can see
all those hills even more clearly
)
The running last week did get better following the
disastrous Tuesday night short one. Thursday
intervals we had to run as far as we could in 3 and a
half minutes with 2 and a half minutes rest in
between, x 5. I was slightly disappointed as Id
joked that morning that we would be doing 4 minutes.
Maybe thats this week
..anyway, managed to beat
Sheila round for 4 of the 5 sets. Mind you, she did
go flying round on the 4th one (which meant she got
the theory wrong, as we turned round after the 4th one
to run the opposite way round the track and try to all
finish together. Going faster at the 4th one only
meant she had a harder 5th lap to run!) Must figure
out where she gets the energy from to go flying
round
.
On Saturday we had nearly a full club ladies
run
.Sheila Morrison, Sheila Kerr, Val, Fay and I all
went for a run in the afternoon. It was a lovely day
so we ran along the beach at Belhaven and then ran
through John Muir Country Park via a very muddy track,
past a farm and then onto East Links Farm Park, and
back to Belhaven Bay via John Muir Country Park again.
It was a good run, and I felt ok (well apart from not
being able to breathe but since when did that
matter?)
On Sunday we then went out for a longer run again
Sheila Morrison, Val, Fay and I. We ran through John
Muir Country Park to the North Berwick road, then
along by the A1 for a short period. We then crossed
over the railway and ran on up to Biel. I say up to
as there are pretty good hills there. I felt quite
good as I managed to run up all the hills I stopped
briefly after hill number 4 to try to catch my breath,
but to no avail. Never mind hey, Im convinced Ill
get it sorted out sometime
. My feet started to hurt
at about mile 7, along the soles, the ends of my toes,
you name it. Need to figure out how to avoid that for
these long races Ive got coming up.
___________________________________________________________
NEW Yahoo! Cars - sell your car and browse thousands of new and used cars online! http://uk.cars.yahoo.com/
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
getting better....????
Ive been back at work now for 2 and a half weeks, and
could do with a break already
.why is that always the
way after Christmas holidays?
Last weeks running was marginally better
. On Tuesday
we had a committee meeting, which means only a shorter
run is possible. We ran round West Barnes and up past
the pool, down by the harbour and along past the train
station back to Halhill. Think we managed to run
about 4.5 miles. Sheila Kerr didnt make it as she
had been ill since the Thursday night hmmm that says
a lot for Ians interval training, doesnt it???
On Thursday Sheila Morrison decided she had sore
throat so would go for a slow jog as opposed to
intervals. So on Thursday there were the fast
bunch
and then me! Lindsay also came along, so she
was only a wee bit ahead so it wasnt so bad. Ran 3
minutes as fast as you can followed by about 2 mins
rest. Not sure why but my 3 mins as fast as I can
gets me the same amount of distance when running
intervals as it does when I do the 5k. Think I might
be suffering from Sheila Morrisons problem of not
pushing myself hard enough
.although that said she did
very well at her race on Saturday.
Sheila ran the 10k at Bishopbriggs and with a best
time of just over 53 mins (I think) in 2005, managed
to run this 10k in 51.15. I tell you, I definitely
need some of what she is having! Although Sheila does
say this was also due a bit to sibling rivalry and the
fact that she was concerned her sister might pass her.
(well done Ailsa if you are reading!)
I went out early on Saturday morning and ran across
Belhaven Bay and then back through John Muir Country
Park. It was a lovely morning although a wee nip in
the air.
On Sunday Sheila Morrison and I went for our long run
supposed to be about 10 miles but not sure whether
it was closer to 9.5 miles. We ran from Belhaven
through John Muir Country Park, along the North
Berwick road, along by the river Tyne and back round
past Knowes farm and through John Muir Country Park to
Belhaven. Sheila was fleeing along you wouldnt
have known shed run a race the day before. I wasnt
fleeing but it was definitely one of my better runs
for weeks. Breathing not sooooo bad but still not
right so think Im on for another trip back to nursie
to get some new drugs (cos the ones I got in December
dont seem to be working
..) and I really dont want
to resort to indoor running in winter time.
Tuesday night was club night again nice old jog
round town in the dark. Sheila Kerr came back, but
still not quite back up to having fully charged
batteries. Lucky for me really as I had a really sore
stomach so we hobbled back to Halhill together after
making it as far as the swimming pool managed to run
for about 30 minutes so guess its still better than
most of the population.
Ive now got my Scottish athletics membership card so
am off to enter a few races try to keep me
motivated
.
___________________________________________________________
To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre. http://uk.security.yahoo.com
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Back to work.....
The first week of the New Year has not gone so
well
.its been pretty cold and running has been
tough.
On 3rd Jan Sheila Morrison and I went for a run
through John Muir Country Park for about 4 miles with
Sheila Kerr. We then decided to continue on up to
Eweford and Wester Broomhouse, running along the
grassy path that the Doon Hill race goes along to the
Pleasance and then running on down to Bowerhouse,
Eweford and back down to Belhaven. The run through
the park was good nice and flat and sheltered.
Running up to Wester Broomhouse was a different story
my legs hurt and I couldnt breathe very easily.
Usually one or the other is a problem, not both at
once! It got really cold then as it was about 3:30
and it was getting dark, so that was even harder
.
Then on Wednesday back to work. Eeek
.dont know
why it is so hard to start back after Christmas but it
is
..I really struggled on Wednesday (and
Thursday
.and Friday). To all of you who are just
starting back tomorrow ha ha it will be even harder
for you, and you will have to do a full week as well!
On Thursday it was the handicapped 5k. Record numbers
turned out with Sheila Kerr coming along to intervals
for the first time, and Emma coming along again. I
was down to run in 25 mins with Sheila and Sheila in
25.45. I had a pretty bad run considering the last
time I managed to do 25.01, this time was 25.51! Not
sure that was all down to the cold weather, could also
have something to do with the mountain of chocolate I
have been working my way through since about the
second week in December, to say nothing of all the
meals out and good home cooking
..Now its January I
have to take stock and cut down a bit on the calorie
consumption. No wonder everyone thinks January and
February are such depressing months. All this
dieting you have to do, and running in cold weather
too.
On Saturday I went out for a wee jaunt round town on
my own. I only got out at about 4:00 and after less
than a minute of running bumped into Fay who was out
walking and much more sensibly dressed given the
dreary weather conditions. I ran down by the harbour,
up at the swimming pool, down the back road, along
dump road and along the burn to West Barns. At West
Barns I did the easy loop (the one we do on New Years
Eve) rather than running all the way to the top of the
hill. I then ran back up through the houses to my
starting point. A nice easy 4.5miles I think.
And today was the long run day. We set out with good
intentions but with the first stop after 5 mins
(Sheila M toilet stop) and a few regular breaks
after that (Sheila toilet, me stretch legs and try
to breathe stops and top of hill stops) we managed our
way round. I think I did run out of fuel after about
7-8 miles. We ran from Belhaven up to Eweford, Wester
Broomhouse, then Spott, onto the second ford and down
to Pitcox. From Pitcox we headed down to the A1.
I saw an empty bottle of Irn Bru lying at the side of
the road and suddenly had huge cravings for the full
sugar version. I new then that I was dehydrated and
probably required some sugar. I did have a few
emergency joosters with me (handy as they are
vegetarian and nice and sharp tasting, not too gloopy)
but as Brian had found my stash a few weeks earlier, I
didnt have many left! From there we went for the
shortest route home which meant cutting across a
track from the roundabout at the A1 and down into West
Barns. From West Barns we ran along the burn and
along the dump road until we were back at Belhaven.
All that and only about 9.5 miles. And I swear it was
getting colder as we ran along
..
Anyway Im hoping this week will be a bit more
successful. At least everyone else might be knackered
after they start back at work, so keeping up might be
a bit easier! Must go and see a man about my legs I
think
..
___________________________________________________________
To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre. http://uk.security.yahoo.com
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Happy New Year
I have a few runs to write about this week
last entry
on 22nd December so since then have done quite a bit
of running. Unfortunately the w/c 19/12/05 was one of
my lowest mileage weeks ever
. We had our short run
on the Tuesday, intervals on the Thursday and then the
final run for the week was Saturday (Christmas Eve).
Sheila Morrison, Val and I went for a nice we trot
through John Muir Country Park through to the wee
bridge and back across the beach, probably about 4.5
miles.
I had a lovely Christmas day running wise I got a
new Nike long sleeve running top; some go bars (good
for breakfast on the run), Kelly Holmes book and also
gold membership of Jog Scotland. Along with the gold
membership of Jog Scotland you get a technical t-shirt
and membership of athletics Scotland amongst other
things. I am still waiting for my pack from them
though.
On Boxing Day I was at my mums through in Beith.
There had been a hard frost there and it was way too
cold and slippy to think about running. Brian had
fancied a walk on a beach so we headed over to Largs
were Brian got to walk and I did a wee run along the
promenade again about 4.5 miles. It was good to get
out and there were loads of kids out trying out their
Christmas bikes/roller blades/kites etc. It was a
nice flat run too
.
On Thursday 29th Sheila Morrison and I went out for a
run in the snow we went for a run along the beach
which was interesting as it was frozen in parts, and
there was snow and ice along the way. We then ran
through John Muir Country Park for a bit, along part
of the route of the festive 10k up to the farm and
back along to the farm park and through John Muir
Country Park to Belhaven Bay car park.
On Friday 30th Sheila Morrison and I then decided to
try and run up in the hills as the snow was beginning
to melt and the beach and John Muir would be muddy and
sloppy to run on. So we started on our trek up to
Eweford, which near the tunnel under the A1 was a bit
treacherous so we were tip-toeing across the icy
patches. We then went up to Wester Broomhouse, ran
down the closed road and on to the main road up to
Spott. By this time our feet were soaking as we were
kicking snow back up at ourselves along the way. We
ran on up to Spott and the down to the first ford and
up Daniels Brae. Unfortunately, it was pretty slippy
on Daniels Brae as well so Sheila and I gave up
acting like hamsters (running on their wheel and going
nowhere fast) and walked up most of the way. The
wind then got up to help us on our way back down. I
got soaked again when running over what you thought
was a bit of slushy snow but actually it was ice and
snow on top of a rather massive puddle. The water was
very cold
Saturday was 31st December and therefore the black bun
run. The weather was good but the run itself not
quite so good. A 1.5ish mile run from near the Masons
Arms to West Barnes and back. I made it to the end,
and was still breathing (just) so not too bad, I
guess. Also I was faster than last year by over 30
seconds so that is probably an ok improvement over the
distance
.although it should be better. Ian Rowlands
commented that now Ive made it to real runner status
everytime Im asked how a run goes I shrug and say
not great/should have been better or something along
those lines
..
And now Ive been out for my first run of the new
year! I had to run down to Dunbar to pick up the car
after leaving it there last night. Quite a revelation
as I got up at about 10:40, set out for the run at
11:15, having no breakfast and not a lot of water (and
I am probably a tad dehydrated!). So I ran about 4
miles at normal Tuesday night club pace without eating
first (although I had a good feed the night before
thanks Sheila!). Therefore, I probably dont really
need to worry quite so much about having a pre run
snack on Tuesdays and Thursdays unless Im starving.
So now I have to think of the new year resolutions and
running goals for the year. Might put that off until
tomorrow, think I need a nap!
___________________________________________________________
Yahoo! Exclusive Xmas Game, help Santa with his celebrity party - http://santas-christmas-party.yahoo.net/
