Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Has anyone seen my motivation?
Ok ok, I know Im getting a bit slack at this whole
writing in diary thing. Think the winter sadness is
finally getting to me. Motivation has been low this
week so no wonder its taken ages to write!
Tuesday the 14th I went to club for a nice run so I
could be all sweaty and smelly for my romantic
candle-light dinner later on. We did the usual route
round town in about 55 minutes so not a bad time for
me. Felt ok on Tuesday
.
And then Thursday came. Four and a half minutes
running as fast as you can, 4 times over. I felt a
bit like a grumpy teenager whinging that I didnt want
to do it
but I did. On the last lap Ian was
shouting encouragement (well actually it was more
like come on Theresa, catch them in a tone of voice
that suggested that I should start moving my arse) so
I thought Id best oblige, caught up with Lindsay and
overtook her and then finally caught Fay on the last
100 metres or so. It took a lot of mental effort (oh
and physical) to keep going.
And then the weekend
..motivation on a slippery slope
by now. I went out in the morning with Brian for a
short while Id managed to nag him into going out
seeing as he is running the Dunbar 10k in April. Its
been about 6 months since he ran, so he just went out
for 3 miles and managed fine (more it was me that was
struggling!) and said that he felt that he could
easily have run it again when he finished. Once we
did a 3 mile loop at Belhaven, I then ran up to
Eweford and on up to Little Spott, running down
Daniels Brae, round Spott and on down to Spott
roundabout. At around about this point, I became
bored. Mentally I couldnt be bothered, so
.I didnt.
I ran from Spott roundabout home, but struggled, and
walked up the big hill to my house. It was a long
run for me to finish off on my own, and it did remind
me just how much Sheila Morrisons constant chatter
helps you round a training run!
Sunday was worse. I stood in the kitchen deliberating
about whether or not to go when I was fully dressed
and ready. I thought about staying in and lazing
around, watching tv and at best doing an exercise
video. Eventually I forced myself out and enjoyed
part of the run, but by about 40 minutes had lost the
enthusiasm and started to daydream about the cheese
and banana toastie I was going to have when I
finished. That was the only thing to motivate me to
keep going!
And last night, there were only 4 women at club so Fay
and I ran together. It was tough for me cos I quite
fancied a slow plod and Fay doesnt really let you do
that
.so I had to keep going and try to keep up all
the way round. At least on Tuesday night I finished
thinking I was glad I had gone out!
So, I need to find the motivation
..not sure where I
put it though.
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Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Last Tuesday 7th was terrible weather. We headed out
from Halhill on the countess road side but then nipped
under the railway bridge and ran round the houses,
walker homes and on down to the harbour. We were
being pelted by rain and held back by wind all the
way. From the harbour we ran up by the pool and then
along back road before Val, Fay, Lindsay and myself
unanimously agreed not to run round West Barnes and
just to head on back. (Fay and I had a good excuse as
we had a committee meeting to attend). By this time
we were pretty soaked anyway, so seemed a good place
to stop.
On Thursday night we had intervals and it seemed like
we would be having an easier session only 4 lots of
4 mins running as far/fast as you can. This was less
than the last session, but (isnt there always a but
with interval training?) the rest period was less than
the last session. We did stop after the 3rd, and run
the 4th one back to the start. Quite interesting,
given the times that were knocked off in the last run
(Stuart was first over the line and had knocked about
15 seconds off on his last run. I managed to knock
about 10 off
.)
Friday night was the running club night out. Lots of
beer, wine, food and chat about running. Stuart had
handed out copies of the annual review quite
impressive really. Ian Sills and I did sign a few
copies, to keep the fans happy. Ive read the whole
review cover to cover, and runners all seem to have a
good sense of humour
. Although I never want to have
the misfortune of staying in the same hotel as Anne
and Stuart did when they went down to the London
marathon last year. Presumably theyve found
somewhere different for this year!
On Saturday Im sure some runners had sore heads! I
met Val for an early run down at Belhaven. We ran
through the woods to the wooden bridge and then back
along the beach. It was a lovely morning so nice to
get out. My head didnt hurt at all must have been
all the water I so sensibly drank the night before!
(in between and after the alcohol
)
The Sunday run I thought might turn out to be a full
club run. I was out again in Edinburgh on Saturday,
so had to make it an afternoon run. Sheila Kerr had
been discussing on Friday at the night out and it
seemed like everyone was coming along, but in the end
only Sheila Kerr, Emer and I went out. I had
protested on the Friday that Emer should come along
saying she is about twice as fast as Sheila and I.
This was a slight exaggeration, but not too far off.
So the run on Sunday was at a reasonable pace all
depending on how you interpret reasonable really.
We headed off through John Muir Country Park, joined
onto the A1 slightly before the North Berwick road and
then headed to over the A1 to run a flat route along
past some farms (no idea what their name is, when I
look at a map I will update you). The route then
comes through an underpass at a farm where there is
usually a nice bull to gently tiptoe round and out at
the roundabout nearest to West Barnes. From there
Sheilas knee was hurting so she ran back on the road
through West Barnes and back to Belhaven. Emer and I
took the path back through John Muir Country Park,
taking a slightly longer route by turning left and
running past the farms, back to the bridge at the sand
dunes and then back through John Muir Country Park.
Definitely think that was the quickest Ive run that
route anyway!
And now Im just off to get changed for another run
about town. At least the weather seems to have
changed for the better!
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Monday, February 06, 2006
slipping about town...
Tuesday was freeeeeeezing! The frost was out and the
air was crisp. Lovely. Sheila Kerr was a wee bit
late down to training so I held back for her and we
had a very easy slip around town. We started out by
running in the streets at the front of Halhill, down
Countess Road and then round West Barnes. We were
overtaken by the men running up the hill at West
Barnes they were probably already on their homeward
stretch of the town run! We then went up the back
road, where we passed all the other ladies (clearly we
had set off in the wrong direction) and then passed
Keith on our way up towards the pool. We stuck to the
roads in fear of slipping off any little cliff paths
into the sea, and ran round by the harbour and back
along Countess Road to Halhill. Think we did about
4.5 miles? At a very reasonable pace
.
Thursday night was interval training, and as it was
the first Thursday of the month it was time for the
handicap 5k. For some reason I had managed to get
myself all uptight and nervous before getting to
Halhill probably due to the bad run I had the last
time I ran this session. For some reason I told
Sheila Morrison to put some effort in before we ran
Ill not be doing that again! Sheila M won the
trophy. She set off with a handicap of about 25mins
30 or 25mins 45 or something, and ran the course in 24
mins and 24 seconds! See what happens if she actually
applies herself? Anyway, I think Ian needs to do some
work on those handicap times
..I ran a respectable
race, got the best time for me for the loop (24mins
and 40secs) when I had a reasonable handicap (25 mins)
but was still quite a bit down the pack (although not
last by ages as per the last one!). Anyway, I was
pretty pleased with my run, and went out for a meal to
celebrate! (well the meal was really to celebrate my
birthday
..)
On Friday I had a day off work and amongst other
things went for a sports massage. It was supposed to
be for 1hour but I spent at least 1.5 hours there, if
not longer. My leg man is just back at work after a
bought of illness so was using my legs as his first
practice run! Lets just say I dont think hes
forgotten what to do. The bruises arent quite as
impressive as the first lot, but lets just say my
legs are still tender and its now Monday! On a
positive note, whilst much of the work was agony, I
could feel my muscles easing off much quicker than
they had at previous massages!
On Saturday morning Sheila Morrison and I went on a
long run. Sheila wanted to fit in 15 miles due to her
20 mile race at the end of March. I wasnt keen to
step up so far and wanted to run a maximum of 13
miles, so we met in a mutual point at the end of the
road to Whitesands. I had spent a good amount of time
on the Friday with a map and piece of paper, measuring
different routes to ensure that we did an accurate
distance. On meeting Sheila had run 3 miles and I had
run at least one. From the end of Whitesands road we
ran a 12 mile loop that was lovely, but not easy. We
ran down to the car park at Whitesands, onto the
caravan park and along the road heading towards
Skateraw. Along this path we turned up to meet the A1
and crossed this to get onto the road to Innerwick.
We ran along up past Thurston Manor and took a right
turn along to the Brunt and Woodhall. From there we
followed the route of the Lammermuir club 10k run,
along past Spott Mains Farm, down to Doon bridge, up
the closed road to Wester Broomhouse and the down to
Eweford. We took the decision to run back to Sheilas
as this was the slightly shorter route and also down
hill! The run took longer than expected for the
distance, however not surprising given that I did walk
up a couple of those hills (bad bad bad) and that we
did have a little slip around on some ice near the
ford at the Brunt. Good training though
.Also we had
half of one of those delightful gel things with
caffeine, and that did seem to have some sort of
effect, so will try more of that in future long runs.
On Sunday am Sheila Kerr and I headed off for a
shorter easy run along Belhaven bay and through John
Muir Country park through some farms and back to the
Belhaven car park. The weather was nicer than Saturday
and the beach was virtually deserted which was
great
.the beach was absolutely soaking though and my
feet were sodden by the end. I washed my trainers by
hand on Sunday night, only to notice that they are
absolutely knackered no wonder my
legs/feet/everything has been getting sore. That
means another trip to running shop, more money
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