Theresas training

Well I was right about the long run last weekend being interesting. It was even windier than usual (the weather that is....). I was heading out with Sheila and her running friends (from White Horse Harriers her old club) and Val and Fay. We were planning on doing 5 or 6 so I was heading off earlier to try to get 5 or 6 in first and then head out with them. I thought I'd be smart (which is a change for me when planning a run) by trying not to run the majority of the way in a head on gale. Even then it didn't really work very well. Ran from Belhaven up beside the hospital towards Eweford. The bit from the end of that road to Eweford itself probably was the longest part of the run - it was definately a struggle moving at all! I then ran up the right path to the Pleasance, the grassy path to Wester Broomhouse, down to Eweford, and down to Belhaven. Then went with Sheila and her friends through John Muir Country park to the bridge and back across the beach (with a back
wind propelling us along). The best bit though was lunch at Sheila's after - veggie lasagne for me!

Monday I went to pilates to keep working on that core strength.
Tuesday I was interviewing for the running club so couldn't go on club night.

Wednesday I talked Sheila M into a run round town. We went from Belhaven, down dump road and along the burn to West Barns. We did the usual loop around West Barns and then ran through the tree scheme, past Halhill and train station to station road. From there we headed down Spott Road, round Lochend Road, the loop round Middlemass Road, and back along Spott road. We ran round Walker homes and down the back road behind the Hillside (lovely refreshing smell blasing out as usual). Then along to the pool and down Back Road down to Belhaven again. Got quite damp but it was ok. Good run - longer than the usual town run

Thursday night I struggled though - intervals felt harder than usual. Did 4x400m warm up and the plan was to run 8x600m in 4.5mins. In theory that should be fine but I was slowing down in the 4th and 5th (they were both over 3 mins which is baddddddd) i then ran 2x200m with a toilet break in the middle, followed by the final 600m which I then managed to get back under 3 mins.

Saturday I planned on doing the long run for the weekend. It was a lovely day - quite bright and not too breezy. I ran from East Links through John Muir to West Barns, up to Eweford, then Wester Broomhouse, the closed road and up to Spott. I then ran onto the second ford and down to Pitcox. From Pitcox I headed towards Stenton but turned down to Biel mill. I then ran on straightahead taking the final right turn along to the road that leads to Hedderwick etc. I ran down to the A1, crossed the road and into John Muir Country Park at Tynefield. From there I followed the path through the park to East Links. It was a good run, felt ok and pushed it up all the hills. Cool.

Today thought wasn't feeling quite so hot. Legs a bit sore but I had managed to persuade Brian to come out for a run. We ran from Belhaven through John Muir to the bridge at the beach area and then back round the outside of the trees so just a wee 4 miles or so. Quite warm but still a breeze to keep you cool.....loads better than last Sunday though!

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just checked the confirmed results for Lasswade and I got faster!!!!! official time (and pb) of 1.33.11, which means I knocked off OVER 4 minutes from last year.....
glad I checked - the above time more accurately reflects what I timed myself....

so this week has been a bit of a recovery week

Tuesday did a gentle run round Dunbar (in the dark) missing out the big hill in West Barnes as we just did the small one, not running round Walker homes and also cutting out Middlemass. Still a good run considering my heart wasn't in it.

Thursday did 6x800m in 6 and a quarter mins. 1,2,3,4 and 6 were all under 4 mins. 5 slipped a bit over..... Fastest was 3.51.

Today went for another massage - low calfs, quads, gluts etc etc hurting. Was massaged for 1 hr 40 mins, spent about 1 hr 30 mins in pain......
Then went for a run. I ran round the bottom of Doon Hill, then down to the house with the red chimney, up the the closed road to Wester Broomhouse, across the grassy path to Pleasance, down to Eweford, left and down to West Barnes, cross road to Biel Burn and back to Belhaven. At Belhaven Brian met me and took me to Lauderdale Park for possibly the best ever cheese scone.

I moaned about the headwind last week in Inverness - I'm sure the headwind today was much much worse - I was jogging on the spot at points.

And severe weather warning for tomorrow, with snow. Not sure how good that will be for the long run of the week.....

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Forgot to go on and on about how good my pb was - previous pb was 2.03.45, and did 2.00.18 at Inverness (with a head wind in places - did I mention that?)

Also last year at Inverness did 2.06.18 so 6 minutes off last years time....

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So latest update then…..

Tuesday 6th March – ran round town, in the dark. Did about 5 miles – had to cut off towards the end as had a meeting to go to. Ran around with Alison and Jenny, but when I cut off I tried to catch Sheila K and Lindsay as they had cut off before me. When I got back to club I spent 10 minutes chatting to Sheila M so was late for the meeting anyway – oops! Sheila M has quite a crowd of JogScotland people running with her at the mo, so she had been out with them.

Thursday 8th March – no intervals. Was on a bus heading northwards to represent the club at the Inverness half marathon. At least I'm guaranteed to be first Dunbar runner & first Dunbar lady. How cool!

Friday 9th March – went for a trot in Aberlour. Brian was fishing so I got in about 7 miles alongside the Spey. It was a lovely day, on a nice, flat, scenic route. Enjoyable run, would recommend running around the Spey if you are ever up there.

Saturday 10th March – spent the day in Inverness shopping with my Uncle and Aunt from Orkney, my cousin and some others who were also down for the Inverness half. Probably not the recommended way to spend your day before a race – it was hard work wondering around all those shops and trying on clothes……Went out for a good feed on the evening to power us round – pizza and pasta for me! Aunt and Uncle both suffering with cold. I've been sneezing a bit too since last weeks race – think it took it out of me a wee bit….so have been stuffing down zinc to try to head it off. Not sure it's working….

Sunday 11th March – first half of the year. The weather for Inverness was not bad, quite warm but a cool breeze which got up a bit just before and during the run itself. The first 6 miles were less hilly than I remember from last year. Unfortunately between 6-9 was hillier than I remembered. Also the pavement was a bit uneven – uncomfortable for the feet after 9 hard miles. Well the good news is I got a pb – 2.00.18 was the chip time. Obviously the not so good bit was that I missed the 2hr mark by 18 seconds. Tried to sprint the last .1 but still couldn't make it. Splits below:
1 – 8.25
2 – 8.47
3 – 9.03
4 – 9.17
5 – 9.28
6 – 8.47 (total at this stage = 53.49 so in line with usual 10km times)
7 – 8.39
8 – 9.43 (head wind and a bit uphill)
9 – 9.19
10 – 9.11 (total at this stage = 1.30.44 so still in there for a sub 2 hour)
11 – 9.30
12 – 9.51 (flat but again a head wind, this must be where I lost those damn 18 secs)
13 – 9.24
.1 – 48
Well my Aunt ran really well – especially considering her cold – I think she got a pb (natural runner, even after some beer the day before) at 1.34.34 and was 4th in her category. My Uncle wasn't far behind and again think he got a pb at 1.35.xx…..
A good run all round then really (although I wasn't thinking that from about 9 miles onwards…..easily forgotten after the event)

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Now I've tried the shorts….lets just say I think I'll be testing them in the dark. Good job I'm an average height with good thighs on me. Any shorter or thinner and I think they'd be ¾ lengths!

Latest training update then….

Thurs 21 – options were 5 x either 1km or 1.4km in 7.5 mins. I did 4 of the 5 then got a stitch on the last one. Possibly due to eating a nice bran bagel from the bagel factory in Waverley station less than an hour before running. Thought I was starving, but guess that's unlikely….. My fastest km was 4.55, which is more than my fastest in a race would be. Weird.

Sat 24 – went out quite early with Sheila as I was having a sports massage at 12, then heading along to the rugby (bit of a mistake that one). We ran from Belhaven up to Eweford, Wester Broomhouse and down the closed road and on up to Spott (where we ran past Amanda). Then we headed down the hill and up Daniels Brae, where miracle upon miracle I made it up ahead of Sheila. (she said I had to put that in). We then headed down towards Eweford, but ran up by the Pleasance over the grassy track again to Wester Broomhouse. Then we ran down to Eweford, West Barns, the dump road and back to Belhaven. The weather was great – it was warm and calm. We were running well – a good pace too (at one stage I think we managed to be about 10 minutes ahead of where we would have been in the run when we headed out last year).

Sun 25 – I was only going to do about 6 today, but Sheila was planning a long one so with a few long races on the way I thought it would be a good plan to join her. Again we ran from Belhaven up to Eweford, Wester Broomhouse and down the closed road. Then we headed up Val's SAS route (the track up the field towards Spott Farm). I ran up the track without stopping (well until the top) but that is huge improvement on usual. Then we ran up the track over the hill (Doon hill) and right through a field. (sort of parallel to the normal path behind Spott Farm but up a bit). Then we joined the track that we would use to run up the Brunt. By this time we were nearly at the top of the hill so thought we'd better carry on up. Amazing views – and I felt more virtuous due to the fact that I'd nearly run all the way (any stops were on the flat easy bits….) We then ran through some field (avoiding the livestock) and joined the road at the bottom at the Brunt, running along the road and then down Starvation brae towards Spott. We then headed down to the Ford and again up Daniel's Brae. By this time the hill running had obviously taken it's toll as I just couldn't face running all the way up the hill. This time Sheila bet the pants off me….. from here we ran back heading toward Dunbar, again taking the path by the Pleasance up to Wester Broomhouse, Eweford, and Belhaven. It was cooler and windier than yesterday but still a decent day for the running.

Tues 27 – I'd lost my running watch some point between Sunday and packing my stuff up on Tues morning, however had found my GPS so thought I'd use it instead. How wrong I was. There is ongoing debate about the reliability of the club GPS as it measures the full club town run as about 6.3 or 6.4 whereas most of us think its longer. My GPS clearly wasn't working well as it said 5.9, and measured us as running about 5 minutes less than Lindsay's watch has. Think Lindsay might kill me as I made her run the full route in anticipation of the measure, through howling winds and icy icy cold rain – so hard it was actually similar to hail. Good run though, and felt virtuous (again – that would be far too many times within the space of a week!) at having run the full route.

Thurs 1 – was trying Ian R's theory that you need to have a good warm up prior to running the 5km. Neil and I headed out nearly as soon as we were changed – I did 9 laps warm up and Neil did 10. (I also knew I was only going to fit in 3 runs this week so needed to increase the mileage on this one to make it count). So the warm up was good but the 5km was not so hot. Ian R had decided to set a far too optimistic and challenging time for me to start with. Alison and I headed off together as she had never run the route before. We got passed before we turned into Lochend road, to which I commented that we were unlikely to win! Boy was I right – think we managed to fill the last positions. I was more upset at Ian's question as to whether we had been talking on the way round. Talking? I could barely breathe never mind talk.
Although I've got my new club vest now – it's pretty cool. It's got my name on the back in green and black lettering. Looks quite smart – hope it makes me go faster!

And finally – today…
Sun 4 – first race of the year. Lasswade 10 miles….Just reading through last years entry to see how much I moaned. Not that much considering. Don't think I enjoyed much of the run at all – well it was ok from 6 miles onwards. That was when I started to feel a bit more human, and got my breath back from the nasty first hill. I won't even start to suggest I ran all the way – stopped on first nasty big hill (Roslin Glen) and again just up round the corner to try to catch my breath. Then at 5 miles – but not for long there. Horrible head wind on a lot of the hills, which did make breathing really really difficult. Walking bits are quite obvious when looking at the splits….

1 – 8.38
2 – 8.16
3 – 10.18 (nasty big hill)
4 – 9.01
5 – 10.25 (first half = 46.40)
6 – 10.20
7 – 9.06
8 – 9.01
9 – 9.04
10 – 8.56 (second half = 46.30, total 1.33.10)

Quite even really – well the first too were too fast, and the hilly ones too slow but otherwise I guess I am quite pleased….and ran a negative split (just).

Anyway, did manage a pb….official time (unscrutinised) 1.33.26. Previous pb was 1.37.14 so nearly 4 minutes off. Think the rest of the club managed to get pretty good times as well.

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worryingly - I did post this timely on 21 Feb but it never seemed to arrive. And I thought I was doing so well....

hey hey - I'm getting better at this updating thing. I deserve a prize! Just a wee update for now...

13th Feb – Tuesday club night – motivation low, and despite the weather not being tooooo bad (but it was still dark) I only managed to do 4.5 miles. Slowly.

15th Feb – Thursday, intervals. This week seemed like it should have been an easy session. We were doing 6x800m in 6.5 mins (so a whole minute longer rest than previous week). Reason for the increased rest was that the faster bunch were doing 6x1200m whereas last week they did 6x1000m. Anyway, it didn't make much difference to my running or speed. I was actually slower on a few of the sessions than last week – how is that?

17th Feb – Saturday. Headed out for a longish run. I ran from the house and covered about 6 miles - round bottom of Doon Hill, behind Spott Farm, to the top of Starvation Brae – running down the steep hill, through Spott where Anne and Stuart passed me in the car and then down to Spott roundabout, and along to pick up Sheila Kerr. We then headed out to Whitesands, to the lighthouse, along towards Torness, back round the lighthouse and up past the cement factory. At which point I then started my warm down. I'd been running for 2hours20mins and was feeling a bit tired, hungry etc etc so walked up the road to my house. What a beautiful day though, great views from the top of starvation brae, lovely looking out towards the sea and quite warm when out of the breeze.

18th Feb – Sunday. Just a 6 miler planned so headed out from East Links and ran through John Muir, up to A1 and across at Hedderwick/Ninewar. Round the farms and down at North Belton, back into John Muir and back to East Links. Again a lovely running day – bright and sunny although cold and frost still on the ground when we were out running.

20th Feb – Tuesday club night. Train was late – not helpful given I was meant to be on the 6.05 so this gets you in just in time for club (or not as the case was last night!). Neil was on the same train so suggested we run together – to which I replied that as he was loads faster I might need to send him on to come back and pick me up. Neil seemed quite happy with a slower paced run…..I puffed my way round (tempo run?) Anyway it probably was very good for me to have to keep running at a slightly faster pace. Actually it wasn't so bad – it can't have been because we were so busy running and talking that we missed our turning into Middlemas Road and got a wee bit lost. Anyway my cheeks matched my Helly Hansen red top by the end! And I had many pancakes as my reward when I got home. Yum.

Oh yeah – still haven't been brave enough to try the green shiny shorts yet.

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