Saturday, May 05, 2007
lots and lots of running
19th April - intervals. Bit of a rubbish session (for me) as I only did every second one so ended up running about 2.5 miles. Hmmm. Def not enough to burn off the chocolate intake. Those running the marathon on Sunday also did every second one - but a sensible option for them. Fiona nipped in to see us at the end. Unfortunately she had been struck by a nasty chest infection and the doctor told her not to run on Sunday. Bummer - esp as she had deferred her entry from the previous year so couldn't defer again. How annoying to be struck down after doing all that training - we did suggest she consider running Edinburgh at the end of May so the training wasn't lost.
20th April - took the day off work to go and run up Arthur's Seat with Sheila. It was cool - we started from Meadowbank and then ran up the steep side, round and down, along to Dudingston and back along the innocent railway, then back to the park and back up Arthur's seat on the less steep side. Think knackeration was settling in then tho and gave up a little on the hill, thought it was longer than it was but actually quite short from that side. We trotted back round and down to Meadowbank where we got a shower. Then onto Khushi's for a nice dinner. This is a new annual running event - used to celebrate my birthday (which was in January) but actually timewise this was good as halfway between mine and Sheila's birthdays.
After running we headed to run-4-it. Sheila's friend was working (from her jog scotland course). I wanted a vest, had taken my trainers with me to have a look at other cushioned shoes that may be better and was also considering a heart rate monitor. Well got a bright yellow vest, and bought my hrm - timex as I like their watches. Trainer wise I was recommended another type of cushioned shoes - Saucony's. Two assistants said from the wear on my shoes it looks as if I supinate (opposite of pronation ie instead of rolling in towards big toe, I role out to the other). Interesting given that only last summer I moved from Asics Kayano (top of the range for pronation) to a neutral shoe. So going full circle then.....but they didn't have my size to try.
21st April - Went out for a bit of a leg loosener, and to test out the hrm. Also had to head to Sheila's to pick up my make up that I'd left at hers from the previous day. Just ran from home, round the bottom of Doon Hill, up the closed road to Wester Broomhouse, then down towards the Pleasance, Eweford and tehn down to Belhaven. Brian picked me up and I got my make up and headed off for one of the best cheese scones in the world at Lauderdale park.
22nd April - well of course spent the morning watching the marathon. Then went out for a run, managed to persuade Brian to come along. Just ran from home round the cement factory to whitesands, and back to home. Ran all the way up my hill so was quite chuffed altho annoyingly Brian managed to get just about to the top on his first attempt and after only doing a couple of runs this year! Annoying.
24th April - went out with Sheila and a couple of her jog scotland group - although they are running 5 miles consistenly so not so much beginners any more. Headed out to John Muir Country Park and then back to West Barnes, up to Eweford and back to Halhill through the trees. Got to hear all about the runners escapades in London - they all did really well esp in the heat. Val loved it - not sure which one she is going to sign up for next!
26th April - 400m again tonight - cool. 12 x 400m in 3 mins. Felt good and had hrm on (although obviously not properly) as concerningly managed to be at 240 bpm a few times (and my max is meant to be 191). Anyway all of them were under 2 mins, pobably averaging about 1.53 or lower. So better than two weeks ago most of the way through. My last lap was 1.41 though, so same as fastest two weeks ago. Don't know what I did right but must figure it out so I can do it again!
28th April - my friend had been over for the Friday/Saturday so sneaked a wee run in later on on Saturday night. (my original plan had been to go early on the Saturday morning but too much pink fizzy stuff kinda put pay to that!) I ran along the road to Doon Hill and then turned left, running up to the top of the hill to a gate. Then turned to the right along a path through some fields and ended up at the top of Brunt hill. Cool view, then jogged down the hill, turning right and running through a few more fields to get back to the road from near my house to Doon Hill. Nice loop of about 4.5 miles that I can build some new route variations on. Good downhills too - which I think kinda killed my legs for the next day....
29th April - went out for a long one with Sheila - without telling her where we were going. We ran from Belhaven up to Eweford, up to Wester Broomhouse, down the closed road and then through the fields by the house with the red chimney to run behind Spott farm. Made it up those hills but didn't manage too many more on the run. Ran down past Black Loch (after reading about it in Stuarts blog) which Sheila really liked. We came out at Pathhead/Halls - amazing scenery and then went round by the ford to Spott, then down to Belhaven via the closed road to Wester Broomhouse and Eweford. Good run in terms of location - not such a good run in terms of energy levels - running up the hill from the ford I ended up stopping, whereas the last time I'd run up that hill I'd barely even noticed it was a hill. I blame my big run down hill yesterday.
1st May - club night. Had a meeting so could only go for about 5.5 miles. Ran through trees to Eweford, up the right fork towards Pitcox but cutting up to the left at the Pleasance and over to Wester Broomhouse, down the closed road, down to Spott roundabout and through the trees back to club. Nice run.
3rd May - intervals - handicap 5km. Got to club and realised after wasting some time that I'd forgotten a key piece of kit so had to rush home, change, rush back to club, before we got started. Only managed one lap warm up. Ran quite well - hrm helps to tell you that you still have a bit to go before hitting your max (my average hr was 169, peak 183 with my max being 191 so ok) but got a bit of a nasty stitch and had to stop for 2 cars (where I've nearly been run over before, so thought I'd better stop. Complete pain). Did it in 25.01 - Ian's time. My watch said 25.00. If it hadn't been for those cars I might have broken the 25min barrier (by about a second!) AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH. Anyway did manage to match my second best ever time (although the previous time it won me the trophy back in Dec 05). And now no more attempts for about 3 months, until after the summer series....
5th May - today. Went out for a nice hilly run - ran round the bottom of Doon Hill, behind Spott Farm and then down Starvation Brae into Spott. I then ran down to the Ford and up Daniel's Brae (made it right to the top and kept going) then headed down towards Eweford, but turning up at the Pleasance to Wester Broomhouse and then down the closed road. From there it was back up to the house with the red chimney, through the field (again running all the way up the hill) round to Pinkerton and on to home (running all the way up my hill too). First time I've run up all those hills so pretty chuffed with that. A wee run on the cards tomorrow and probably a longer one on Monday again...
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