Theresas training

Hi
Back again. Just a short one to say have just checked
my emails and was able to rate the half marathon on
runners world. Aren't they brave! Good to see the
organisation is getting a slating. Poor people at the
back didn't even get water!
Back soon,

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# posted by user : 5:56 AM  0 comments

Oh dear – another entry when the pain is still fresh.
Will complete diary in reverse order having just
arrived home from the Edinburgh ½ marathon. Well I
though Inverness was bad???? No way, warmth is
definitely worse than cold weather for long distances.
The route in Edinburgh was ok for an inner city ½
taking in Crammond etc but there were too many loops,
where you could clearly see the much faster runners
off ahead of you. The really irritating thing was the
cheats who cut across without doing the loop, but at
the end of the day, they are only cheating themselves!
(A**es the lot of them). Time wise I didn’t get a pb,
in fact this was my third worst time out of four
half’s. I am definitely withholding payment for
intervals until this situation gets better. I’m not
sure what went wrong (well apart from the bloody
obvious I didn’t run fast enough), last year was such
a good running year. Sheila says I’ve plateaued, but
I’m meant to have a good few years' improvement left
in me. Anyway this time I did take my splits, which
helped figure out where it all went a bit shit.

1 9.28
2 9.34
3 9.24
4 9.23
5 9.45
6 9.12 (not bad so far, but….)
7 10.21 (where did that minute come from????)
8 10.10 (and another minute)
9 9.31 (that’s more like it)
10 9.56 (not quite so hot)
11 9.38 (better again)
12 10.00 (well I guess tiredness was setting in…)
13 9.50
14 .48

So, but odd really given that I run 6/7/8 miles all
the time – would have thought the fatigue would have
set in later. (but I did have a gel at about halfway,
didn’t feel it helped but think it must have, guess
that could be why split 7 was higher – trying to get
over the bogging taste!)

Anyway well done to Emma who finished only about 20
minutes in front of me. All this training first thing
in the morning with no food must work. (Although I
don’t think I’ll give it a go)

Anyway back to last Sunday. Sheila Morrison and I did
go out for a nice run, through John Muir Country Park,
across the A1 and through some farms, coming out a
North Belton and back through John Muir to Belhaven.
We guessed it at about 8 miles. It was loads better
than the run I did last Saturday where I ran 4 miles,
picked up Brian at John Muir Country Park and then ran
another 4 miles.

Tuesday night there were new lady members at the club
so we took them out for the exciting town run – lucky
them! Did the full 6ish mile loop but took a good 5
minutes longer than normal. Good as a bit of a taper
for the Sunday.

Thursday Sheila M and I skived interval training and
ran for about 4 about town. Found some exciting new
paths (although not going to share as I might need to
use them for a shortcut at some point – I’m learning
from these cheats!)

So now I’m going off to wallow like a proper runner
that doesn’t get a Pb…..at least I ran all the way
round a 13.1 mile route though hey? If I think back 4
years I never thought that would happen!

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# posted by user : 5:02 AM  0 comments

The last week has not been so good. My hip was still
a bit sore on Tuesday, but when I started running on
club night I found a lot of other areas that were also
sore. Anne has sore shins – funnily I think that was
the only area that didn’t hurt. Felt pretty tired and
did about 4.5 about town. It was a struggle but at
least I kept going.

Better than Sheila and her full body melt down. Weird
that we both felt crap at the same point in the half
(at about 10 miles) and shuffled on to the end. Also
weird that we both had the same side of hip/pelvis
that was sore and therefore the same sore hamstring
(on the left). We’ve decided there must have been a
funny camber somewhere before we both suffered the
same thing. Sheila got in the car straight after
Inverness and 5 hours later (A9 was shut due to snow)
she got home, but was all seized up. So Sheila did a
no show on Tuesday – wish she had been there to
accompany me on a very slow run. As it was Anne had a
slow one due to her sore bits, so at least I had
company!

I’d had a bad day at work and then ended up being late
for club. I was in a really bad mood and to top it
off I parked in the huge puddle which meant I got
soaked feet before running. Due to my poor washing
management, I had also run out of clean tights so had
to go for ¾ lengths which meant my lower legs were a
wee bit cold. I turned up and everyone was in their
first set. I did a nice wee 200m warm up and then
joined in the second set. The task for the night was
3x5.5 mins with some rest in between, which didn’t
feel like a huge rest. Anyway, must do some good
being in a bad mood as on the last lap I managed to
overtake those in front of me before the finish!!!

Saturday I was really really tired. I’d had a good
night sleep and the Brian decided to take a trip to
Alnwick (for the fishing shop) so I slept on the way
down, slept on the way back up and then had another
nap on the sofa before I ran. I don’t think this
helped with the whole sluggish feeling. I ran from my
house to Belhaven (about 4 miles) and then met Brian
and we ran through the park for about another
4-4.5miles. How annoying is it though – he is so nice
and easy and bouncy when he runs whereas I struggle
with lifting my feet of the ground….That was his
second run of the year and still managed it fine.
Hmmm.

So today I’m going to try to get out for a short/slow
one this afternoon. Will see if Sheila M is up for it
after her entertaining for the weekend. Val and Fay
where off for a run this morning up Doon Hill. If I’d
been feeling better I would have trotted along with
them but there was no way after yesterday that I could
keep up. Let’s hope I feel better by next weekend!

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# posted by user : 3:44 AM  0 comments

Well last week I wrote after I had forgotten the
pain….this week I’m taking a different approach. The
pain is still there – my calves are quite tight, my
left hamstring hurts and my left hip – well lets just
say when I’m walking around it is quite a sight to
see, hobbling away….

So Inverness half – my first half of the year (and if
yesterday was anything to go by it could well be the
last!). Weather conditions were not kind – I spent
all morning looking out the window at the snow,
thinking this was not boding well….then it all turned
to rain and wind, and a very chilly wind at that.

I had not had a good night sleep on Saturday – kept
dreaming that I had forgotten my trainers or that I’d
turned up too late to register. Unfortunately,
nothing happened that would stop me running the race.

The route itself was probably quite nice, alongside
the river and then up into the hills, completing a
route and then running back to the stadium along both
sides of the river again. It was predominantly quite
a flat route (I think as I’m trying to block it all
out) but uphill between miles 3-6.

I’m not quite sure what went wrong for me – I know I
ran the first mile too fast as I kept up with Sheila
for it, but slowed it down for the next few. I passed
halfway at 1hr, so if I’d managed to keep it at that
speed for the whole race I’d have run a pb. If I’d
managed to run a negative split (ha ha) then I might
even have broken the 2 hour mark, which is the
ultimate goal. I passed 10 miles at 1hr 33mins, so
even running 10 minute miles for the next 3 miles I
would have managed a pb. I think I must have run out
of juice, cos I came in at 2hr 06mins and 18 seconds.
My legs were knackered and felt really tight and sore,
and my hip had been causing me pain since about mile 4
onwards – every step on the left foot hurt from then
to the end. The only victory was that I kept running
all the way, which I guess is a sort of achievement.

So, out of my 3 half marathons this one sits as no 2
time wise – second best and second worst. I think the
negative tone is due to the fact that when I was
running I couldn’t wait to finish, and every single
step felt like a huge effort. At Loch Leven last
year, I ran slightly slower but felt quite good most
of the way. At Jedburgh the weather was equally crap,
the course was probably more undulating, I walked for
a couple of minutes and I still ran faster…is there
any reasoning????????????

Anyway, decided to withhold my payment for Ian
Rowlands on Thursday night, as his interval sessions
have failed to help me on the way to another pb…..lets
hope this isn’t a slippery slope and that Edinburgh
half goes better….

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# posted by user : 8:23 AM  0 comments

Lasswade 10 miles – my first race of the year. And
what a race to pick! For all of you who have run this
one, you’ll know that it’s a “challenging” one. I’ve
been moaning about the hills all year and yet still I
ran round the race on Sunday and was surprised when I
turned a corner just to find…..yet another hill!

Sheila said that I should have written this piece on
the day, so that the pain was fresh in my mind. I
think it’s probably a good thing that I didn’t.
Although, out with the negativity. I ran a pb –
1:37:14 officially which was 51 seconds faster than
last year. Not bad when just recovering from a cold.
And I felt loads better running it this year than last
(in that I ran up the hills this year – a bit of a
change since last year!) I ran all the way up Roslin
glen, passing quite a few people on the way, indeed
even passing Sheila M at the top of the hill (which
never happens in long races, or where hills are
involved) but then stopped in order to breathe. Must
have been an altitude thing!

In the application form for Lasswade they have a handy
grid thing that tells you where the hills are, how
steep they are and how long they last. Ignore it.
Basically the route is hilly all the way to 7.5 miles
at which point you get a few more flat bits and down
hill bits.

Anyway, I kept it going with Sheila visible in front
of me most of the way. We both felt a bit crap at
about the 8.5miles mark so had a couple of starburst
each and then at the end had to run through what
Sheila described as porridge. The adverse weather
conditions had done something quite odd to the surface
we were running on so it was a sort of red porridge.

Afterwards there were loads and loads of sandwiches,
biscuits, cakes etc etc. I’ve given up on biscuits
and cakes at the mo, so made do with about a million
sandwiches. (Followed by a stop off at Dobbies for
soup and a roll, and a scone and coffee back at
Sheila’s! Oh yeah and then I went out for tea. Not
sure I reaped any benefit from the run then????)

Nice man from Musselburgh was there – amazing he even
knew I was talking about him in my race diary. This
time though he told me I wasn’t allowed to walk up the
hill – and I didn’t. Amazing! Anyway might need to
start using his name soon, Steve, it was good to catch
up. Will see Steve and Mary and some of the other
Musselburgh and Haddington runners at the Edinburgh
half no doubt.

Tuesday night was a nice short club run as we had a
meeting afterwards. Lucky as the weather was crap and
my legs were a bit dead feeling. Sheila M as per
usual was trotting off in front like she had a brand
new pair (of legs) from somewhere.

Wednesday night Sheila and I did our Pilates so now my
inner thighs, stomach and shoulders are all aching.

Tonight at intervals we did 3x5 mins (stopping where
you are on the 2nd and turn round to run back on the
3rd) which was an easier session given that there are
a few of us going up to Inverness to complete the half
marathon on Sunday. I ran a nice easy pace – good
excuse this half marathon but my legs felt like dead
weights still. Will need lots of carbs and rest to
sort them by Sunday. (That’s my excuse for lots of
pasta, lovely)

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# posted by user : 1:58 PM  0 comments

Well I’ve still not found the missing
motivation…..however this week I did find myself a
nasty cold. My nose is presently falling apart, lips
are all nicely cracked and peeling, and as for
breathing……why do I catch a cold right before all of
these lovely races I have coming up????? I’ve now
decided the poor motivation thing was also linked to
big nasty cold settling in.

Anyway last Thursday night Ian didn’t bother shouting
“encouragement” – he just told me to move my arse. It
worked, so guess the direct approach is best! We were
doing 4 x 5 minutes and the last one we turned round
and ran back. So this time I just had a few people to
pass…..and pass them I did! (thanks to Ian’s
“encouragement”!)

On Saturday Sheila Morrison and I did a nice wee
number, from Belhaven through the country park and
back to Sheila’s – approx 4.5 miles. What was even
better was the coffee and biscuits that followed. It
was good to get out, and as Sheila has had a bit of a
break from running (nasty chest thing followed by
“romantic” weekend in Seville), it meant that we had a
nice steady paced run.

Then I watched the rugby – what a game!

On Sunday though we were running a longer, hillier,
route in preparation for Lasswade. Sheila Morrison
and I, along with Fay and Val, set off out on a trek
up round Spott and onwards…. After 2 miles, Sheila
and I sent Fay and Val off on their own, as there was
no chance we were going to keep up with them. We
headed up from Belhaven, through Halhill woods, up to
Spott from the Spott roundabout, round the second
ford, down to Pitcox, along to Little Spott, through
Spott, back through Halhill woods to Halhill, and a
shortcut through town to Sheila’s. I measured it on a
map and even being nice I think it was only 12 miles….

On the way back to Sheila’s we were passed by Val and
Fay (on their way home in the car) as they had been
waiting for us for about 25 minutes. Ooops. Anyway I
blame Sheila and her numerous toilet stops. (I guess
at least she had an excuse for stopping….not sure what
my excuse was but I’m using this damn cold for now!)

On Tuesday I had already texted Sheila in advance to
find out how fit she was feeling. By this point I had
taking to doping myself up with cold remedy to stop
the thing getting a proper hold, and to attempt to
recover before Lasswade on Sunday. Luckily, Sheila
wanted a slow run…..so we ran slow….and for not very
long at all. It was freezing cold with a bitter wind
so we stuck to sheltered streets and didn’t really do
hills either.

On Wednesday Sheila and I headed off to North Berwick
for some more Pilates training. We did some
interesting things with exercise circles between our
legs that you can really feel the next day….apparently
it’s very good for runners…..

Today we decided that trying to run the handicap would
be too much when racing on Sunday, and also needed to
do something a wee bit longer than 3 miles due to the
lack of running on Tuesday night. So while the rest
of the club was running 3 miles as fast as they could,
Sheila and I were off on another gentle trot round
town. Lovely….at least the nights are getting
lighter. Fay said that we should run it as she was
doing it and running at Lasswade – I did respond that
the plan was for Fay to tire herself out completely
tonight, so that Sheila and I stood a chance of
finishing before her on Sunday. (Well done to Fay for
winning anyway - let’s hope your handicap is reduced
for next time!)

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# posted by user : 2:14 PM  0 comments