Theresas training

The Mighty Deerstalker - Race Report

2010-04-08T07:13:00.001-07:00

So somehow, Jane manage to talk me into running The Mighty Deerstalker at the last minute. Just the 5km we were running, with only 3 bits of water to run through - couldn't be that bad could it? Well given that neither myself, Jane or Ian could walk for about a week after the run itself and I was using the tried and tested method of going downstairs backwards - obviously there was something challenging about the run itself!

The 5km started in the daylight at 2pm, with a large gathering of country gentry at the start line and a smattering of fancy dress. I stuck to old running clothes as my preferred option for running - but seemed that some of the runners had hatched a cunning plan as things such as masks and snorkels came in handy for them later on in the race. We started by a 200m run up a field to a hay bale wall which we had to climb over - at the same time as the rest of the country gentry.....which made it more challenging than it should have been!

On a bit to the ponds, all nicely stagnant and full of frogs and toads. Lovely. Janie got stuck and was pulled out by what I thought was a helpful marshal, although don't think Jane enjoyed flying through the pond on her stomach! Up to the top of the hill following mountain bike tracks, going up some balance beams and under a net before then being able to come back down the hill again. Phew! Or so I thought..... Going down was at least as hard as going up. Some nice obstacles to climb over and under on the way... with a net to climb under at the end before hitting some road to run along. Road? Whats that all about. Far too normal for a race like this. The along grassy path, through a river, then a tunnel full of freezing cold not so fresh water to the waste, with a funny gate to help us climb out. Then I can't truly remember - there was more stagnant water, more fresh water, a hill, a tunnel we had to crawl through, a net to crawl
under and finally the finish line. Approx 1hr40mins after the start. And there were another 170 behind us!!! Thats some 5km if you ask me - crawling a whole 5km would be quiker! Interestingly the GPS measured it just shy of 6 miles....which sounds a bit closer to the truth!

Mad man Ian ran the 10km - goodness knows what length that race really is! He did all the same as us plus a big scree slope to run up and down. Oh yeah - and most of it he ran in the dark with a head torch on. Mental. And somehow, despite all that, he came 10th! an achievement - helped only by the fact he cheated by avoiding some of the early ponds, running round them rather than through - a bit girly if you ask me!

I expect to see all club runners there next year! Just watch the stairs for the week after......

I'm back.....but not in quite such good form as Paula

2008-11-02T10:52:00.000-08:00

Have spent this afternoon a bit frustrated at my pc - had to watch new york marathon on the computer as a live feed from new york as the british tele had to show really important rugby, darts and rally driving. It was worth it though to see Paula win - think she did a slower time than her previous two wins at new york but managed an impressive negative split (approx 1hour 13 and then 1hour 10). Last week I saw her win impressively at the Great South run - and that was shown on channel 5. No wonder nobody gets into running if they only show it on the telly 2 a year outside of olympics/world championships. Football is on every other day year round! Anyway was mildly disappointed that Paula missed a world best at the great south run, by about 20 seconds, and a course record by about 10 seconds. Just a little bit more push...... I s'pose she did at least get a new British record....

So, apart from watching those much faster than myself....what have I been doing? well analysing my fellow club members running styles seems to be one of my favourite past times at the mo.....although for some reason Stuart seems upset with his comparison to Banana man. I don't know why. Secretly I think he's pleased someone has likened him to a superhero....and I'm sure he'll eat a lot of bananas too as a runner. If he doesn't want to be likened to banana man he'll need to stop running with a big puffed out chest.....

And Ian Sills - everyone else knew what I meant when I said he runs like a gorilla! Big arms swinging as he runs. I'm not dissing either of their styles - it seems to work for both of them! Now I just need to figure out the rest.....

Running wise I've been out and about. Town runs, intervals yawn yawn yawn. Went out a week ago on Saturday in gail force winds. Lovely 6 miles into the wind, turn around and the wind turns around with you. How annoying! Went out with Sheila M and Val that day. Head down into the wind. I had the advantage in the windy bits - they were too light and just got blown backwards.....and then there was more of me to catch the wind when it finally was behind us to get a bit of a push along!

Last monday we decided to shake up the jog scotland group a bit as they were getting a bit too relaxed and cosy... we did this thing where you run in line with the person at the back running to the front and setting the pace, and then the next person at the back running to the front and setting the pace and so on. This led to a fast pace though as you had to sprint to get to the front, and once there seemed to keep a faster pace going. We then did loops of west barns as hill training, with a run up the back road as the final hill. The best did 5 laps of west barns and the rest of us (me included!) did 4.5 laps of west barns. No easy feat really!!!!

And then yesterday did a bit of a trek with Sheila K up to Spott, round by the ford and onto pitcox, down through the secret garden and some of the paths near Biel, and back through john muir country park. Turned into a bit of an epic but needed to up the mileage a bit anyway.

I'm off to figure out who Ian R, Frank and the rest run like....back soon.
T

thought my blog was a jinx - until today

2008-10-19T13:16:00.001-07:00

well that's a new excuse anyway for not writing for so long.
Been doing lots of races recently and most of them going ok/well and loads better than this time last year! Will try to give some update on the most exciting bits......

just after my last update we did the Cafraemill to Gifford run. Sheila, Jane and I all left early to ensure that we could finish before it was totally dark. Felt loads better running without knowing I was wayyyyy behind all the others. Good being in front. Must say quite rude of Ian to run past us before the end - Brian Marshall showed much better manners by letting us finish first. (in saying that he was about 45 ish minutes before us if you look at the times we all finished). Time for a shower a bit of a disappointing tea - if you've read Stuart's blog I had the same potentially canned spaghetti with tomato sauce. Some onion and cheese would have helped slightly. Also main course + pudding. I don't know but would much prefer more savoury food especially after a long run like that.

Then had a bit of a run around Grantown that weekend - had taken Brian away for a night or two for his birthday treat. Some fishing for him, some running for me, lots of food and lots of watching the Olympics for me. (So much so that our room didn't get serviced as I don't think I left it for long enough!!!! that was the weekend of lots of rowing and cycling medals though.)

Final summer series race on 19th August - not too far behind Sheila M which is my usual measure of how I'm running. Sandra bet us both though!

On the sunday 24th Sheila M and I ran from Tyninghame and ran along up and over Traprain Law. All because Frank wouldn't stop saying on the bus back from Braemar that Traprain was easier than Braemar. (after a few beers). I beg to differ. There is no way I could run all that way. Think the hills are defo harder.

The next Sunday 31st August Sheila M and I did another long one. Sheila moaned less than she had when I took her up Traprain. A little bit less anyway.

And then - the reason for the long runs - Glasgow Half Marathon on 7th September. My first half marathon this year. My first half marathon since the disasters which were Aviemore and Jedburgh last year which where by two slowest halfs (or is that halves?) ever. Wierd year 2007 - 2 fastest halfs/halves/whatever and the two slowest! anyway luckily managed to follow Sheila round and did the route in 2.04.31. A good bit faster than those worst halfs (somewhere halfway between the best and the worst - in fact closer to the best so I was pleased).

Followed by Stirling 10k on 14th September. My best 10k for a while too - the only one under 55mins this year and managed to beat Sheila. Although she wasn't feeling so well and probably still recovering from last week. I was pleased with my time - 54.16. Yeah. Good route, flat but scenic. Felt fast too. Brian did this one and got a pb.

Then Thirlestane 5 mile on the 21st - really like this run and the mix of on and off road. Shame about the sheep shit. Especially on new shoes. Anyway = did 45.52 and think it was about a minute faster than last year (or so). So going the right way. Also felt good most of the way - mentally and physically. Another pb for Brian (surprise surprise)

Then Norham 10k on 28th - had managed to do some mental prep in advance to tell myself that it wasn't that hilly/undulating etc. Started ok - althougth Sheila was off ahead by the 1 mile marker and Jane overtook somewhere between 1 and 2. Managed 56.02 and was mildly disappointed as I was trying so hard to get 55 something, but equally was about a minute faster than last year (unlike Stuart et al). Sheila 53.45 so she was about a minute faster than she had been in Stirling - I think she's better at these wee hilly courses..... My back was sore at this one - my lower back/pelvis was out of alignment but didn't seem to bother me too much in the race which is a good thing. No pb for Brian but no surprise as he last set one for this distance two weeks ago on a flat as a pancake course. He was only a few seconds off though......

Since then I had a lower mileage week, watched the Great North Run (glued to the screen to see how Jo Pavey would do), done a few flat runs through John Muir and round the farms, and also a couple of mental hilly runs up the Brunt/Daniels Brae etc etc

And today - did 10k in Scone in Perth. Man it was hard. Think I maybe wasn't mentally in the right place for a race, and also found the multi terrain difficult - the grass was fine, the mud ok but the lumpy stoney bits with pot holes hurt my wee gentle feet. Anyway at points I thought I'd be doing well to get under an hour so actually was quite pleased with the 57mins dead I got at the end. Brian as ever only a few seconds off his pb. Which on a flat road race would probably = a pb......

So thought maybe the blogging was a jinx on my times - they improved when I took a long break. However.....didn't work today so thought that couldn't be the reason!

Today is Amsterdam - have spied the times on the web already - well done to all!

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every run is an adventure....

2008-08-10T12:56:00.001-07:00

well can't even remember what I've to say but since the last time I've written I've achieved a few firsts:
first adventure race
first run where you have to run through rivers
first run where you have to run through thigh high mud
first heptathlon (same as first adventure race but actually giving credit for all the different skills used - hiking, swimming, fence climbing, mud bathing, hurdling (obstacle avoidance), rock climbing, and running!)
first race where I've come last
first race where I didn't actually try to race (I enjoyed it - funny that)
and first race of 12k which = pb!!!! and given that the pb is over 1 hour and 50, shouldn't be too hard to get another pb at that distance!!!!

So, yeah - have a look at the photos on the running club website. Braemar was something else. Managed to persuade Brian it was a good idea. Was not in a good place when Jane didn't turn up for the bus in Dunbar as everyone else going was going to be waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay faster than me. But phew, they met us in Perth. Jane and I ran together and didn't attempt to race. If so, no doubt I would have hated it, got an injury, had a stitch most of the way, fallen about a million times, and at best finished a maximum of 5 minutes faster. Given it took us 55 mins to do our first 4km we did well on the second 8 I feel. Hilarious. Couldn't stop laughing. Especially when I splattered mud all over myself which Jane kindly helped me wipe off, otherwise I'd have been mistaken for a very large dalmation. Hmmmm.
And since then on nearly every run I've done I think that I've been in training for the next adventure race. Take last Thursday nights intervals for instance. As the pitch was flooded someone decided it would be a good idea to do intervals on the beach. I asked the question as to whether the beach was dry (meaning was the tide in/out/had it just gone out and left big puddles) to which everyone looked at me as if I was stupid. But.....very clever question actually. Tide was in and coming in more, big metal bridge was impassable. So we ran across the salt marsh (the clue there is in the name - it's marshy in dry whether never mind following the monsoon rain we've been having). So after running through some more little rivers (jumping just wasn't working) I got to the beach eventually. Did one interval and decided it was a bad idea as my hamstring was niggling and then ran back to Halhill. Daft.
Hamstring pain came on in Musselburgh Summer Series race last Tuesday. Nothing serious and have had a massage already. Massage found many painful points, so will have to go back for follow up soon I fear. ITB sore, quads bad, calves bad and glutes very very bad. Must be using these muscles sometime then? Did ok in the summer series but not as well as i'd have liked. Although I passed 3 people and any time I pass anyone it's a miracle. Just a shame about the 7 or so who passed me.
Was out a week ago on the Saturday on what was meant to be a long run (think I did about 11 or 12 though) but struggled with it. First hour was fine but sticky and muggy heat. I feel that takes it out of you. Plus I met Fiona and stopped for a 10 minute chat which I'm sure didn't help. Anyway could hear the thunder over Haddington/North Berwick direction when I still had 3-4 miles to go and started to panic. Had planned on going back over Doon Hill but didn't fancy getting struck by lightening so changed my plan and trecked through the jungle that is the path from the bottom of Doon Hill to Pinkerton. Big mistake. Would have been quicker running up any hill - even Starvation Brae.
On that note I tried starvation brae. Ran for 2.5 mins and stopped. When I could breathe again I did another 2.5mins. Then a final minute and I was at the top. My legs had gone all wobbly - like they used to when I sprinted in swimming and couldn't walk when I got out of the pool. Disastrous. Can't believe people can run all the way, and keep going. Mad people like Anne and Clarissa who run up it for fun on a club night.
So in between crappy wet weather, there has been muggy, sticky, nasty weather. No decent running weather really. So not really any decent running. Well apart from Musselburgh 10km. Where I did 52.55 which is only about 3-4 seconds off the pb. Although most people got pbs. And big ones. Which leads to the usual it was short (with 2x GPS telling you that). Quite like my dads view - a trundle wheel will be more accurate than GPS so lets count it as a 10km!
Anyway a bit of a ramble but thought no point in telling you about all the sweaty runs in hot sticky whether where I walked up hills. Best keep the excitement for the next episode.................

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i'm getting slagged

2008-07-05T11:15:00.001-07:00

cos it's been ages and ages yet again.
Have i got a good reason? not really. But didn't want to jinx anything cos................yup the running has been getting better.......long may it continue!
Key highlights of recent month (or so)
Dechmont Law 10km race - second time I've done this one and really enjoy it. Think it's my favourite 10km. All run on trails and track, with a bit of a looped course but not annoying in the least. Smallish field, bit cramped at times but really nice to run on something other than road and pavement and with the scenery not including houses. Anyway did 55.45 official which was a couple of minutes slower than last year but probably the best 10km time I'd run since about July/August last year. (well I was so hacked off after Glasgow 10km last year that I didn't even write the time in my log so guess it could still be quicker). I'm waiting for Sheila and I to get a call about our indecent exposure - we needed to utilise some outdoor space pre run, as all runners do, but we were a bit close to some CCTV cameras at the time......
The day after Dechmont I ran with Sheila - she needed to do a long one before the Barrathon. We did a lovely 12/13 mile loop that I had planned. With a few hills but not as bad as I could have made it. Good plan though as Sheila's slow pace is still faster than mine so I think I was working even harder. Once finished I shovelled in some food as Sheila got changes and then I ran 5 miles with her middle Jog Scotland group. I am so amazed that I managed it.
Peebles 10km race - I find this one tough - no idea why. Think it's because of the small field again and the fact I come somewhere near the back. Anyway did 55.11 so faster than the week before and less than a minute slower than last year. Also all of the ks where under 5.50 and with the exception of two the rest were under 5.40. Very tired at the end. Although whoever is updating the club championships better update my points - I get 4 for this as Mary was the only other Dunbar woman running.
Did the Mussleburgh summer series. Twas hard work. Bit slower than last year but not tooooooo bad. 30 secs or so.
East Kilbride 10km race - the overall time was annoyingly disappointing. The last two km's were crap but the rest of the race went very well so have to be please overall. First km was slow as bunched up and hard to navigate round folks but after than was running under 5.30kms until midway (at which point I caught Sheila up and was feeling pretty good) and then it went a wee bit pete tong but still on for a good time until 8kms where a 1km long hill really tired me and made my km time go up to 6.30. Eeeeek. Anyway did just over 57 overall so not so bad I guess. Please with the time up to 5 miles anyway as was under 45 mins.
Did the 5km in the park with Sheila and her jog scotland mob. Although less said the better I think! I arrived in the park in my work clothes with about 20 mins until the start of the race, still needing to get my race number and chip and put my bag in and go to the toilet. Not so good really. Never rely on trains. Never. Had to do a bit of a striptease in the park (seem to be making a habit of this indecent exposure malarkey) and thought I might get in trouble as the police were standing watching me getting changed. Had to improvise on the toilet point too. Was a tad stressed when starting so lucky I finished as I did. km times all ok (under 5.20) except the 4th one as I lost it a bit mentally at that point. Never mind though.....still did about the same time as I did 2/3 years ago when I last ran this one.
Last Sat was very warm and muggy so really struggled. Had also decided on a not so easy route taking in Brunt hill, down to the ford at woodhall dean and up the other side and then running on to Thornton via Innerwick. Got caught my Anne and Stuart stopped halfway up a hill.
Anyway am persuading Brian to give it all a go again. He's a natural. Last Sunday I took him on a route that went halfway up the Brunt round towards Brunt house and over the Brunt hill via grass path and he managed the whole thing fine. Hmmmmm. I found it hard and I've been running it for ages.....
Did the Longniddry summer series on Tuesday - good route, haven't run it before which always helps. Very warm and muggy so felt crap at the end but overall pretty pleased with my time and performance.
And today did 13 miles, with hills and felt ok for most of it. Physically good until about 12 miles. Then v tired. Mentally hated the bit from about 11 - had to go down to civilisation and run near cars and people. I hate that. Not what running in the country is all about at all.......

where does he get the time

2008-05-26T14:19:00.001-07:00

So Stuart can train for a marathon, work in Glasgow and update his blog everyday. I manage to update it every 3 weeks or so.......but I s'pose the last time I updated it, I did 3 in one day!
Nothing exciting has happened since then really - no unexpected bat girls flying past, no cat women scratching.....hmmmm just gone straight back to normality. Normality which is now sleep, travel, eat, work, eat, travel, run, eat, sleep.....
Managed to fit a race in last week - the Glasgow Women's 10km. Had to do a bit of psychological prep as I knew it wasn't going to be a good race, and also knew that last year I had a very good race so always a difficult one to deal with. But I kept telling myself the important thing was to enjoy it, get round, time not important la la la la la. Yeah right. Enjoy it? Well I say I did now, but ask me at the time I was running and I think you might have got a different response. Must say I did enjoy the goody bag. Some quite large bag of chocolatey cornflake bits with cranberries and apple chunks, the obligatory tunnocks caramel wafer (always in Glasgow do you get your caramel wafer), banana (which did for breakfast the next day) and some oat bar that never quite got finished. Felt a bit crappy afterwards which I take as a good sign that I tried hard, but a bad sign as my time wasn't so hot. Major goal was to get under the hour - which I
did. The real goal was 55 mins though, which I didn't. Haven't managed under 55 in about a year now. Dunno where the training is going wrong but will need to keep working at it. Managed under 57 which doesn't sound so bad, although is nearly 4 mins slower than last year, which then equates to quite a lot a mile (more than Stuarts second for sure!).
Other than that I've been slowly building my miles and on Saturday there I went out on an epic hilly adventure. Up the brunt, down to Spott, up Daniel's Brae, round the Pleasance, back up the hill in the field near the red chimney (with the usual couple of walking bits) and then up and over Doon hill. Pretty pleased but took it at a pace I knew I could keep up at. Made it up Daniel's Brae - not a pleasant experience but once over the top and round the bend there I got my reward. A fox in the middle of the road. Cool. It's been ages since I last saw a fox. I'm easy pleased.......
Although Sunday went out for a wee trot in John Muir with Sheila K and struggled with the breathing to begin with. Here's hoping that's not a result of my run round many rape fields the day before......might need to start measuring my breathing again to see if there is a pollen issue going on......
Anyway best go as have some more crappy telly to watch - so important you know. Quite into this online demand telly - watch what you want when you want to, rather than someone telling you what you can watch at any one time. It's great - just log on and you can watch as many old episodes of house hunting programmes, drama or comedy. Guess where some of my precious time is going rather than blog updating then!

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and in response to Stuart

2008-05-10T12:53:00.001-07:00

In response to Stuart's comment - "getting married for about 3 weeks" - that's not much commitment is it? I must disagree - bet he didn't spend 3 weeks getting married - that's some party! Am still married so...............made it 2 months so far! Good commitment. Shame the 11 and a half years before the wedding don't count anymore.....................

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Hannah the hen

2008-05-10T12:49:00.001-07:00

Totally forgot to mention the other highlight of the past month - Hannah's hen party. A couple of us headed up to Edinburgh to partake of some cocktails and saving off the world. The theme was superheroes and villains but think that we were all superheroes. The run down goes something like - two batgirls, one with a very short black batgirl dress and Jenny in her purple lycra, a few cat woman with Anne also a catwoman in her black shiny lycra, one supergirl - Hannah the hen herself with a tiny crop top and tiny skirt - lovely!. Two wonder women - the bridesmaids but not planned that way. One welsh superheroe type, and one 60's superheroe type and one Lara Croft (that was me, lacking inspiration had to figure out what I had in the house I could use. Luckily had a water pistol from a previous hen night and could use one of my running water belts to help the costume out. Although overall I feel Jenny should get the prize for the best outfit
overall as purple bat girl from the 60s with proper bat mask with proper bat ears, and she truly had been practising with her cape and had the swish just perfect - very impressive!!!!

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guess i'd better....

2008-05-10T12:42:00.001-07:00

we'll it's been a while and I'm getting a bit of stick about my lack of updates. No wonder. Haven't written anything 5th April!!!! Well had another sort of wedding to plan so thats my main excuse. And getting back into the work thing. And that the weather has been a bit depressing until the past week or so where everything has got a bit warmer.......
so the running has been hard since returning from my honeymoon. Not so sure what's happened but seem to have lost any small amount of ability I have. I've struggled on and today managed to run 10 miles (running my usual ish speed rather than dragging my feet around) and it was warm. Lovely run through John Muir and along the Tyne, along past Knowes and over old A1 up towards Biel Burn and round a loop to Beesknowe and down to Tynefield and back through John Muir. Very warm & drank loads. And even more when I got home. Soooooo thirsty. Glad I managed to get round in one and felt ok most of the way - big improvement on previous long runs! Did 10 miles last Saturday too, but did 4 to pick up Sheila Kerr and then we went 6, but had a couple of walk breaks. Including that hill in the field nearby me which gets me every time (well everytime apart from about 3). Did a couple of 9 milers/9.5 milers previously too - some ok, some felt dead
hard. Hopefully will be able to go up now to above 10 miles - mentally that would be a boost.
Key highlights so far in the past month - running wise - ran 6 mile loop last week marginally faster than I did in marathon training 2 years ago and felt good and that could have gone a bit faster. Ran loop on Tuesday at club reasonably fast and kept it going for the full 5.5 miles.....(I think though not totally sure of the distance). Ran some fast 300m and 200m in the last couple of interval sessions I've been to. Have helped out a couple of times at JogScotland - it's good fun too, no pressure at all and you stretch your legs. Orthotic thingys seem to be going ok - toe not quite so sore but still getting a bit of pain, generally after I run and not before.
And then the party...it was fab. Lots of booze. And some food. I had a great time - Nether Abbey in North Berwick. Will definately be heading back there - we had a great night and the rooms were great too. Some of the gang were there too and seemed to enjoy the booze and food stuffs.
Now I need to get the thank you cards organised and sent out to all - we are just about there with that. And the garden improvements are going well. I'm picking the plants and Brian is planting them all. that's my kind of gardening..........
So guess I'd really better start updating more often - only problem is prizing Brian off the computer as I'm sure he's now addicted to various different forums and websites (all fishing related and nothing dodgy - honest!)

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I'm back....well sort of

2008-04-05T10:27:00.001-07:00

Hi all, well I've not written many entries for a while but really that's down to having been away in New Zealand getting married for about 3 weeks. New Zealand was great - fab weather, really nice folk, lovely scenery, great beaches and we are planning to go back. I met my nephew (2 weeks old, and went to see him again when he was 4 weeks old - very good timing!), and saw my brother again after nearly two years. The wedding was small but perfectly formed - arriving by speedboat at the beach! It was a bare foot affair - we had shoes but after being in water up to your knees and then stepping on the warm sand, there was no chance the shoes were going back on! And guess what - I didn't run for the whole 3 weeks. The closest thing to exercise was a 10 mile hike (or tramp as the NZ'rs call it) between some volcanos (so pretty steep going). Again amazing scenery! Awesome! And I did some white water rafting. It was fab also.
And now I'm back. To say I'm suffering with post holiday blues would be an understatement. Made all the worse by the severe deterioration in my fitness levels. Doing a bit better now - only cos I went out last Saturday for nearly 5 miles, Sunday for about 6, Tuesday for nearly 5 and Thursday for about 4. This morning I made it about 7 miles so gradually, gradually I'm building back up. Although 2 hours seems like miles away still (well it is isn't it!)
So that meant I didn't run the boundary race - marshalled instead. A bit scarey considering I was standing in the middle of the road - think I managed to block the high street at one stage but so long as the runners had room to run I wasn't worried! The less said about getting roped in to do the finish times the better though.....
Anyway should have a bit more time on my hands now to do more updates, although the house is undergoing a bit of a renovation so will be kept busy with that for a while. Well until the next holiday that is!

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my left foot....

2008-02-10T14:21:00.001-08:00

well it still isn't quite right.
Was quite frustrated by the Saturday after it started hurting so did 11.5 miles anyway. It hurt, then it was better, then it really hurt if I stopped at all so no stopping allowed, then it didn't hurt at all, then real pain for about 5 mins before disappearing completely. Nice route through John Muir, up to Biel, along to PItcox, along to Eweford and back to Belhaven.

Sunday it hurt again, but did 5 miles in the dusk through John Muir and back along the beach into a head wind. The head wind was tough. Had to put some effort in to get back, and without being able to see the bridge at all it felt like the beach was endless. Foot didn't hurt at all when running. Only when walking. Hmmm - hope that doesn't mean I have to run all the time.....

Tuesday - town again - did a bit of a different loop around to alleviate boredom.

Thursday - 5km handicap - didn't do a great time and felt like I was really putting a lot of effort in. (well bpm was 175 with max allegedly 190). Still over a minute slower than fastest and nearly a minute slower than usual, but faster than January (to be fair if it was slower then I would have been well devastated!)

Friday - club night out - enjoyed myself but it does mean that Saturday's run wasn't going to be great.....and I was right. Saturday ran down to Dunbar via the bottom of Doon hill and then back along through town to the car. It felt like I was putting in a lot of effort and not really getting anywhere fast but hey have to make allowances. On the plus side it was a gorgeous day, blue skies, was running in t-shirt and 3/4 lengths. Fab!

And today - headed out with Sheila M. Had one of those runs where you know that you are going dead slow but can't make yourself go any faster at all. Well lets just put that one down as a bit of a "recovery run" - made it 10 miles around Eweford, Pitcox, down through our secret garden to the old A1 and back through John Muir and across the beach. Beach was busy today - some horse race thing going on and a whole bunch of folk with dogs (not the usual ones, but a proper organised gathering). Was nice when we were running but the fog soon came in.....

Need to get my foot sorted - no doubt it will cost a fortune. Have to at least get a chiropodist to look at it. Runner's feet are minging - I've so much hard skin on my feet it's unreal. And my corns are hurting when walking and running. (I sound like a 90 year old not the young spring chicken I am!) And then need new trainers (again) and I think I probably need a reassessment of my running style and understand if I do need some kind of insole or orthotic. The last podiatrist said it wouldn't help me (yup I'm beyond help yet again) due to my wonderful outer foot/forefoot strike with supination going on. Probably the oddest foot strike ever. Also think I'm going to need a massage as I'm sure the stabilising of ankle/foot is knackering my lower leg muscles.......

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so first update of the year

2008-01-31T13:37:00.001-08:00

I've been busy.....and ill.....so it's been a while coming!

Last run of last year was fab. Sheila and I set out from Stenton and ran up round Stoneypath, along by Stoneypath Tower to Garvald, round by Traprain law, through Luggate and back to Stenton. Felt a really good run, hilly, managed to run all hills except the last wee bit of the hill from Luggate back up to Stenton. Gorgeous scenery. Especially at Stenton Tower. Met Fiona as she was out for a wee run round Trapain. Longest run for a while and felt like a good effort. Little did Sheila know how important it would be......till she was picked in the draw for the club's London marathon place!

Plan was to run again on 31st December - but felt like I didn't fancy it. So went out for the day and had a wee wander about Peebles. Couldn't really eat all of my lunch and then began to think something was wrong! (well not being able to eat my lunch is always an indicator that something is up). Started to think that I was feeling better so got ready for the black bun run, but felt a bit crap when I got there so didn't run. It only got worse from there - I was struck down with Norovirus aka winter vomiting virus for the next few days. It is baaaadddddd. Don't catch it. I refrained from running for nearly a week but even after that couldn't manage very far or fast for a wee whiley.

Did a 12 mile one on 13th Jan - longest since the bug. Felt really hard.

16th Jan was my birthday - a big one at that. Brian took me away to Paris for a long weekend so some more "rest" time from running. Although Brian kept moaning his legs were tired from the amount of walking we did! Paris was fab - I'm really into the whole concept of a weekend away somewhere foreign, with different language and money. Only disappointment was the fact I only managed to fit in 1.5 pancakes in the weekend. And the weather on our return......

On the Monday after I came back - 21st, Sheila and I headed out for another long run. It was raining pretty heavily all the way and most cross country routes were soaked through so we did a loop up round Wester Broomhouse, Spott, Second Ford, Pitcox, Little Spott, Spott, Closed Road, and back to Sheila's. The rain was icy cold and we were freezing. Had to shower and then Sheila made some lovely soup to help us thaw out after. Forgot to mention that Sheila did a 4 mile run before. And after the soup she headed out again to train her jog scotland folks. A bit of a recovery run there I think!

Last Saturday we were through in Glasgow - picking up my wedding dress (yet another excuse why I have no time to be typing updates so regularly). We then headed up to watch the athletics in Kelvinhall. It was great - Great Britain and NI won. Saw some folk I've watch on telly a few times - Craig Pickering, Jessica Ennis (who got 4 pb's out of 6 of her long jumps) & Lisa Dobriskey to name a few. Very good. Pole vault even more impressive in person than on the telly. Must go again.....

And on Sunday we headed out for another long one. Sheila ran up to meet me, doing an extra 4 miles again. We then headed out in gale force winds up Doon hill and round the fields up to the top of the Brunt. From there we headed down to woodhall dean (and up the other side), left towards Innerwick, then right to Thurston Mains and a loop round by Elmscleugh, Woodhall and then retracing our steps down to the ford at woodhall dean and then back up over the brunt (but by a slightly easier route) and back to mine. Sheila was being picked up by Ivan, and he was meant to take a malt loaf with him as part of Sheila's post run fuelling plan.....but Ivan being Ivan he forgot! It was a very impressive run though, especially given the weather conditions and the hills on route. I was very pleased - one of the hills I've only made it all the way up once before, and one only twice before. So getting a bit better.....until

Tuesday. My foot hurt. Don't know what it is or why but today (Thursday) had to sit out intervals. Lucky for me the weather is atrocious! Lets hope it gets better soon.

Will endevour to update more regularly.....

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last update of the year????

2007-12-28T10:16:00.001-08:00

Can't believe the last update was on the 16th - where does all my time go? Managed to get tree, put tree up and tidy up before Christmas but Brian thought I was going a bit cleaning mad. One day later and the washing basket is full again and the house looks like a bomb's hit it! How does it happen? is it better to live in a big mess all the time and never tidy up? who knows. Any way the amount of books Brian got, looks like we might need to rethink our bookcases/furniture layout etc etc......

anyway back to the running (briefly). On the 18th did 5 miles roond toon in the dark. Ran with Lindsay. Vicky off and never saw her again, and the rest did the full route so only saw them when we got back. On the 20th twas intervals but I had a half day to get on with the delights that are Christmas shopping. Got back to Dunbar a bit early so went out for a slip about town (it was frosty) with Fiona, finishing back at Halhill - sadly missing the delights that Ian R had dreamt up as a Christmas treat and just trotting round a few times to keep ourselves warm. Gave Ian R his usual Christmas pressie from Sheila M and myself - he got amazing book, beer, light up fluffy pen and pair of fishnets (all to help out in his new role as secretary). Got him a large pair of tights as he has very long legs.......

Out on the 21st (after a day of drinking at work too) - there's a surprise. Mainly food and little drink in the pm. Freezing cold. And then on 22nd only went out for 5 in the dimming light after being out Christmas shopping again.
On the 23rd went out with Sheila and Val - a bit of a tempo run for me then! Basically did the Doon Hill race route but starting and ending at Val's rather than Halhill. Twas hard - I was not so hot on the hilly bits - forgot to take my inhaler in the morning and there was a good strong headwind up in the hills.

Had a couple of days off and then did the Ayr Turkey Trot on Boxing Day. Quite good to get yourself out there when normally all you want to do is curl up on the sofa and polish off some more chocolate coins. Was about a minute and a half slower than last year - but it was windier than last year. The first 3km where into head on wind - very blustery. Those kilometres took about 6 mins which is slow in a race. The head wind is also not great for breathing - very hard to catch a breathe. So overall pretty pleased with how I did as managed to pull it back a bit in the later stages - did 56.42 which is not great but not bad either......faster than I managed in Norham anyway.....and only about a minute slower than Dunbar and Glasgow had been. Anyway I know I ran as hard as a I could - heart rate sat above 170 (about 172/173) for most of the way which was about 90% of max, going up to 180 towards the end. Haven't sustained higher than that for that
period of time before so was pleased.

On Thursday 27th Sheila and I went for a wee slow jog about toon again in the dark - to try to keep burning off a few of the extra calories we keep adding in. We were also working out a plan for a long one soon.....something interesting ahead I think.....bought some new socks so will give them a try. An inspired black pair - can shove in the wash with other stuff and not wait for a white was, and probably a better plan having black sock for the messier runs! (Sheila's master plan) and a marathon fresh pair - in the hope they help you to run a marathon and finish fresh as a daisy. I'm thinking that's a big ask for a pair of socks I paid £6 for.....

Got an OMM running rucksack from Santa - plan is to use it to weigh down the others and try to slow them down a bit.....

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please don't make me go out again...........

2007-12-16T14:13:00.001-08:00

well no written much recently - mad with Christmas parties and work. and trying to dry out from my run last Sunday! what on earth possesses so many normally quite clever and sensible people to run 13 miles, with about 8-9 of those being through John Muir Country Park, in the complete p###ing rain that was last Sunday? Anyway, a number of miracles occurred -
1 - I managed to run the whole way (don't think I've manage that on the festive half in the past)
2 - I managed to run the whole way in less than the handicap time I set myself (haven't managed that before either)
3 - I nearly managed to keep up with Fiona (she somehow gets full of energy half way through and wants to run faster, luckily for me she's a very supportive and encouraging running companion as.....
4 - we managed to come first (yee - ha!)

so more than 10 minutes faster than 2006 (and about 3? mins faster than 2005) I'm quite pleased! Sheila M did very well - I think she is more suited to mad small races, with muddy slippy bits and big hills than a nice flat road race. Mad really. She should take up cross country!

anyway guess I should try to remember what I've been up to in between my last entry and now......

Tues 27th - ran around toon in the dark
Thurs 29th - think I did painful interval session - making it up as I go along
Sat 1st - went to Alnwick so Brian could spend ridiculous amounts of cash on fishing stuff at a warehouse sale, then headed out for a wee run in the afternoon. Discovered Goats cheese salad could possibly be the worst pre run lunch I've ever tried. Run was a bit hopelous. Went to a pals wedding that night,
Sun 2nd - marshalled cross country and then went for 9 miler with Fiona and Bessie (Fiona's dog). Bessie was great - about 10 times a better runner than me! She ran about twice the distance of Fiona and I. It was hard work. I'd like to blame it on the wedding the night before but don't think I drank that much.....
Tues 4rd - wee run aboot toon in the dark - had a meeting
Thurs 6th - longer run aboot toon. Didn't do the handicap as had big run on Sunday and needed to get mileage up as only running 3 times that week
Fri/Sat 7th/8th - went to see ma & pa & gran and other folks. Went to Glasgow on the Saturday - big mistake. Still no Christmas shopping done - I'm not doing so well this year.....
Sun 9th - as above - run in pi##ing rain
Tues 11th - just back from Manchester, arrived a wee bit late but my fabby running compadres waited for me and still got in about 5 miles
Thurs 13th - intervals (what with the excellent running club ladies night out the night before. tiredness getting worse and worse this week. food at Lauderdale amazing though.....great stuff. Not sure same could be said of my interval session)
Sat 15th - (again night out last night - work this time). Did about 10 - trying to keep it easy. To be honest don't think anything would have been able to go any faster even if I tried
Sun 16th - (again a night out last night - that's 4 in a week now! guaranteed I won't have that many in the next 6 months!) did about 6 or so miles - in the hills same as yesterday. Brian met me to go and get the tree - although unlike Stuart and Ann we didn't take pity on the last tree left, we're going back tomorrow to see if a more well rounded, less bald number is available.....

so this week, I think I may catch up on some sleep. Also need to do some Christmas shopping.....and tidy the house.....and put the tree up.......aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

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AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

2007-11-25T12:07:00.001-08:00

i had a very very frustrating run today - for a different reason than it felt it was crap. Bloody dog followed me. I stopped frustrated after 5 minutes of it running in front of me, jumping up at me and generally just frustrating me. For most people it would be annoying......but I really really don't like dogs! I'm ok with them if I know them or their owners, or their owners are present but not me and dog on my own. Aaaaargh. I kept trying to tell it that I didn't like it, and to go home, but no - so dopey are dogs it thought I was trying to play with it!!!!!!!!!

A few years back, in between our old hoose in west lothian, and our new hoose near Dunbar, we rented some accommodation in East Lothian while looking for our new abode. And they had dogs. And the dog followed me. And one day it followed me so far it decided pastures were greener were I had gone (ok only about 2 miles away) but it got lost for about 2 days chasing rabbits. So I also have a fear of leading dog astray so far that it won't return.

I had to stop at 5 mins as I said above, then thought about running back home (I was pretty pi##ed off) and then thought sod it and carried on up the hill. I then had to stop again for a couple of minutes halfway up the hill so it would run back home.

Run got better after the dog pi##ed off home.....

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dib dib dib

2007-11-24T09:57:00.001-08:00

Its been sooooo cold recently.. don't know what possessed me but got all my hair chopped off. Seems that every ounce counts as a runner, so this is quite a pain free and easily achievable way to lose a bit of weight. Wonder if it'll help me go faster? Wonder if that's why Stuart always keeps his hair about a millimetre long????? I'm guessing I'll make up for whatever minute weight loss it was by having to use many more hair clips to keep it out of my eyes. I hate having hair flopping about when running - it always amazes me that some women just run with it all lose and blowing all over the place. Some even manage to look quite glamarous when doing so. (not me though - don't think I've ever looked glamarous when running......it's a push when I'm not running! you should see some of the recent group club photos we've had taken - i look horrendous......)

Any the past week....

Last Sunday I did one of these get up, get ready and go runs. Essentially as I'd had a bit of lie-in and wanted to do something with the rest of the day and didn't want to have to wait until breakfast had settled. So just did an easy 6 miler from mine to Dunbar and down to East Links to be met by Brian, before we went and bought loads of lovely vegetables (oh yeah, and I seem to remember a couple of scones sneaked their way in there too)

Tuesday - club. Jenny got chatted up by one of the boys in West Barns (lucky lucky Jenny). We thought we were doing well (did the full route) until Fiona and Christina overtook us (when I had to retie my lace). We just couldn't keep up. Hmmph. At least Jenny has the excuse of not really having run for the last 6 weeks. And not cleverly she had had her tea before she came out, and was thinking it might revisit at any point on the run.

Thursday - intervals. I did 800m. Good plan I think when I saw how little rest Ann and Karen were having after their 1km. Freezing cold and pretty windy. Stuart showed me his new running specs. Interesting - have a wee look at his blog if you want to see them......defo worth a look.

Today - long run. Headed out with Sheila and Val. Not long into the run Val had whooshed off (just like a wotsit) so Sheila and I ambled along. Through John Muir, up Tynefield way and over to Biel house, up through what I refer to as "the secret garden" and out at pitcox. Straight on towards Eweford, turning up to Wester Broomhouse at the Pleasance. From their straight down and through the trees and on back to Belhaven. Clever planning meant we were quite sheltered most of the way out as in John Muir, with the wind behind us most of the way back. Clever huh?

Then this afternoon Sheila, Fiona and I ran at the orienteering at Yellowcraigs. We did the long course (about 4.2km apparently but takes way longer than running 4.2km would). We were very pleased with ourselves. It was a fab afternoon. And we had an electronic dibber thingy. Hannah is going to be soooooo jealous that she didn't get a go of that. After we finished we even got a print out of how long it took us between each checkpoint and our running total time at each checkpoint and the end. T'was very impressive - would be good if they did that for running races - would make a lot more sense sometimes than some of the chips or timing systems in place.......Now I need to nap.

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what's wrong now?????

2007-11-17T10:39:00.001-08:00

Did a bit of a long run last sat - 10.5 miles I think. Over the top of Doon Hill and round Spott, up Daniel's Brae (I made it up - I'm sure all of Dunbar could hear the effort I was making by the huge noisey breaths I was taking but I did it - it's been a while.....) down towards Eweford, up to Wester Broomhouse and then back over Doon Hill. Was lacking in energy and enthusiasm from about 9 onwards. Yet again. Was then browsing through the runners world website and read a wee bit about caffeine crashes. Got me thinking about whether or not that was my problem. I never used to drink much caffeinated coffee - mostly decaf - and certainly didn't used to drink coffee before a race. Decided at some point this year to change this in order to get the much publicised benefits coffee is s'posed to give you, especially when racing. Info on the website sounded very familiar - have coffee, have loads of energy at start of race, crash and burn mid way
through, feel that you have absolutely nothing left in legs. Will try to give up on the coffee for a while - well reduce dramatically and go for decaff where poss. See if that makes any difference. It can also make very funny things happen to your heart rate apparently - no where near as funny as what my heart rate monitor was telling me. I started running at 30 bpm - so nearly not beating at all then - and it didn't seem to rise much from there. I was going up hill at 79 bpm and down at 133?????? Safe to say I think it needs to take a wee trip back to the running shop - again. Didn't seem to do so well with it did I? only bought it in May and changed battery twice before taking back to the shop - they changed battery and still it doesn't work. Man. Hope they give me a new one this time!

Sunday was the annual Goat's Gallop with Haddington Club. Well it's always good fun running this one when there are other's there that have not ever run it. It's good to see their faces when faced with the downhill section! Left early and took it easy - walked quite a bit of the way but defo think heart was working.

Monday - took HRM back - they'd better get it back to me a bit faster than last time.....

Tuesday had train trauma - couldn't make it to club on time. I hate trains.

Thursday felt the need to make up for Tuesday so didn't attend intervals but went for a run with Sheila, Val and Fiona instead. Val and Sheila were on form - although they did keep taking the shortcuts. Fiona and I dropped back after about 30-35 mins but managed to get about 7 miles in.

And today - no coffee pre run and not sure if it's a fluke and I would have had a good run anyway, but managed to do about 13 miles, feeling quite good most of the way (both physically and mentally). Went over doon hill, round spott farm and down to Spott, along to the second ford (near turning to Pathhead etc) up over to Pitcox, back along to little spott, down Daniel's Brae and up to Spott again and attempted to go over doon hill but had to make a last minute alteration due to cooos having a drink in the field I was going to go through. Ran round the bottom and via Pinkerton instead. Managed all the hills except had to stop on my nemisis hill (the one from house with red chimney through field to Spott farm - defo walked it more than have run it). I still ran up but had breathing breaks. Also allowed myself to walk the final hill - if the coos hadn't been in the way I would have been down hill not up hill to home. Was a bit windy too so pleased
with the run. Hope it keeps on going like this......

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Paula's back.....

2007-11-07T14:09:00.001-08:00

well even more inspiration for me after watching the New York Marathon on Sunday - twas fab! Paula returns, first marathon in 2 years and she wins, and not only that she ran a better time than she did 2 years ago on 11 weeks of running training. So what's the excuse for not managing to do as well then? I guess I forgot to say that she did a bit of cross training, and her mileage is probably the same in a week as I do in a month, so guess 11 weeks training is like 11 months of my training! that puts things in perspective a bit....

well we are back to the depressing town runs - actually ok in November and December as they are a novelty and you get to spot the first house to put up the christmas lights...the best christmas decorations....the most over the top christmas decorations.....the christmas decorations that are having the biggest impact on the national grid.....the most tasteful decorations....keeps us going through December anyway. Unfortunate for those kids in West Barns that feel the need to torment us as we run past. Guess it gives us the chase to try out some plyometrics and do some sprint work......

last Thursday was the 5km handicap - wasn't a great time but didn't do the worst time ever either. would have been better if someone hadn't felt the need to put me off my stride by asking me for directions mid run. unfortunately didn't quite manage to catch Sheila - I got close at one point but not close enough.

on Sat I headed out with Sheila and Val to do the Festive half route, starting at Belhaven and doing it the other way round. We tried to stay off the North Berwick road as much as possible, but even for the short bit we did run on the road it was horrendous. Too many cars - that don't move out of the way and don't slow down. Scarey. The run itself was fine although Val just shot off when we went back into John Muir - luckily Sheila wasn't feeling as good as Val or I would have been left for dust. It's odd - felt that I ran that one better than some of my recent races.....

on Sun I persuaded Brian to go out from Belhaven. There were tonnes of surfers there and we wanted to run along the beach but tide was in so headed through John Muir for a bit and headed back out along the beach. We cut back over to John Muir though as we weren't sure if we would be able to get over the bridge at Belhaven. Brian stopped to inspect the fish in the Biel burn, I ran on up to Winterfield where Brian picked me up and guess what? we picked up our post run scones. Fabby.

and then watched the marathon...........

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Aviemore & more......

2007-10-28T13:01:00.001-07:00

I've only just recovered in order to write my piece. I don't think I'll do much on the running - the running really isn't up to much at the moment! Earlier on in the year I manager to get 3 pbs in the space of about 4 or 5 weeks and now I've managed to get too pw's in the space of 3 weeks. (to be fair I think Aviemore's official time was prob a pw, today at Jedburgh probably wasn't quite as bad but still my second worst ever.....). No clue why or what is causing it - just anything after about 4/5 miles in a race is feeling too far, and even that much feels a lot harder than it should. Resting heart rate fine, but once I start running it seems to rocket - higher than previously when running the same pace. Very odd.

Now I have been working on the motivational piece (well kind of) by seeing Mo Farah, then listening to Steve Cram chat for 40 minutes about his career and then having the pleasure of listening to Liz McColgan - on a different evening - also talking for about 40 minutes. All of them very inspirational - and really only a tad faster (ha ha ha) than me!

I hate this time of year - dark when you leave for work, dark when you get home. The only good thing is that it's not too hot to be craving macaroni cheese, mash tatties (sorry Stuart but mine are fab), veggie lasagne and all lovely comfort foods. Just need to make sure I figure out the best for fuelling these runs.

Anyway DRC did pretty well at our orienteering outing - think we came out top in one of the categories (although to be fair I think we were against kids in that one) and 4th in the harder one we did. Pretty enjoyable and we were quite good as well! Might need to take it up as a new sport.....

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A wee boost

2007-10-07T11:31:00.001-07:00

well things have been going a bit better - I think. Not going to bore you with all the specifics of every run since I last managed to update but generally speaking intervals are going better, hills a wee bit better, general running fine but still races not getting much better....

did manage an interval a couple of weeks back that was my fastest 400m ever - had sat one out so had a good rest and the next one I went woosh (just like a wotsit) round the track, passing Hannah and Clarissa, and getting on the heels of Karen and Anne for the first 150-200m. Kinda felt it was a bit wrong to pass them and lo and behold they pulled away after the 200m mark. Finished that lap in 1.35 so pretty pleased. It was mid interval session though, so that meant I still had another 4 to go. Suffice to say they weren't quite as fast.

also recently did a repeat of the 800m session that I mentioned in my last entry. Although this time I did the whole session and did a faster interval at the end - 3.45 I think. Woooo hoooo!

In between times Jenny took me out on a bit of a tempo run up to Wester Broomhouse, along to the Pleasance, back under Eweford to West Barnes and back to Halhill. Tiring but pleased I kept up.

I've done a couple of longer runs - one through John Muir, along the Tyne and up Biel, round to Pitcox, Pleasance, Bowerhouse, Eweford, West Barnes and back through John Muir and today one from home up to the top of the Brunt, down to Spott, round to Pitcox, along to Biel and down to the river at Knowes where my chariot and chaffeur were awaiting me. On both I managed all the hills and felt ok. Feet hurting a bit though - achy on the top and burny on the bottom when running. Slightly worrying as they are pretty important when running!

Now I just need to translate all of this into better more consistent races. Did Thirlestane Castle race a couple of weeks back - it felt pretty hard to be fair. Would be a lovely route if I didn't feel the need to race it. Was a few minutes slower than my five mile time from Haddington so not great but it was cross country....and a bit long I think. Did Norham the week after - lovely part of the country, very scenic, but all those hills don't make for fast times. Well not for me........did a definite PW for about 2 years. But I kept running - no stopping and no giving up. And I wasn't last (quite) there were about 5 people behind. Bit of a far cry from Glasgow women's race where there are about 12000 behind.

Anyway even that cloud had a silver lining - crap time on Sunday = better handicap for 5km club race on Thursday. I got 27 mins, managed to run 25.33mins and won the trophy!!!!! A wee boost for the next month having the trophy on the mantle piece. Aaaawwwwwwww

Anyway have been reading about the importance of confidence and self belief for runners - Craig Mottram apparently is full of confidence. He wins important medals so it must work (well apart from in the World Champs - but even more importantly shows that even the best have crap days!)

Am heading up north for the Aviemore half next weekend - can't wait as it's a bit multiterrain and sound beautiful. 1000 runners with 200 on the waiting list. I'll let you know how it goes - not expecting a great time given that it is multiterrain with styles/gates etc but think it will be very enjoyable. And with a 1000 runners, and the times from last year, I'm hopeful there will be a few more than 5 behind me......

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will I ever be able to lose weight?

2007-09-10T14:47:00.001-07:00

So feeling a bit better - incidently last week thought I was the only human possible of getting up, weighing myself, going out for a 10 mile run, weighing myself and actually gaining weight. Herein lies my weight problem....I exercise. Maybe if I give it up and eat junk food all day I'd lose weight? Everyone then comes up with why I weighed more - popular were "it will have been all the water you drank" - well my scales told me I was no more hydrated after the run than I had been earlier (yup clever scales - tell you how fat you are (%age wise rather than making an insulting statement) and how much water you are). Second most popular reason was something to do with muscle - nup not buying it. Maybe breathing makes me gain weight???????

anyway imagine scales that really did tell you how fat you are - they could have great fun, especially if they had a memory function. You can just imagine it - early sunday morning stepping on and them coming back with "What the f have you been eating? Jeez you are way too heavy - and lardy. you better move that fat lazy ass to burn up some of that fat. And don't get back on until you do" How cool? Sounds like something the two women who wrote "skinny bitch" would come up with! (cheeky book, designed to give us a kick up the butt to make a concerted effort to eat better - don't read if you eat meet & especially not if you've eaten meat in America)

so onto running then.....it got vaguely better. Firstly didn't get a pw in Glasgow - 55min40 so it was close but Dunbar was 55min45 so that stands as the pw for the last couple of years. Must have run badly in Dunbar then given the Glasgow effort felt particularly poor.

Tuesday - club - legs hurt. Jane did well on Sunday - her first 10km and normally would say there is no better 10km to make your first. Anyway she was quite spritely on Tuesday. I wasn't. Struggled through the woods up to Eweford, and onto the Pleasance before heading over to Wester Broomhouse, down the closed road, down to Spott roundabout and back through the trees to Halhill.

Thursday - intervals. Nice - 2 sets of 3x800m in 5 mins. For my fans out there (are there any?) you will already be aware that I don't particulary like intervals that are over 400m long. Checking back through my running diary.... the last time we did 800m we did them in 6min15secs. Bit of a reduction in rest time then. I did 800m, 400m, 800m big rest followed by 800m, 400m, 800m. Managed to get quicker throughout and was a bit better than last week. Last interval in 3min 49 secs so not too bad.

Saturday - headed out on long run with Sheila K. Sheila hasn't run more than 6 miles for weeks so didn't really tell her where/how far we were going so she did well to make it round the 10 mile loop - same as last week through John Muir, along the Tyne, over the A1 and up towards Biel mill, through to Beesknowe and down to Tynefield and back through John Muir. Essentially flat and going quite a easy pace so felt good after. Weighed before and after to see if I'd gained even more weight but fortunately lost about a pound (although that will probably only be water - sods law)

Sunday - headed out on my own. Got Brian to drop me off near Innerwick and ran back through the trees to near the windfarm/woodhall, along to the Brunt, up from the Ford to the Brunt house (ran all the way - yeah hah!) and then up to the top of Brunt hill, down through the field and back home. Felt pretty good. Liking my new saucony. Trying to run a bit more heel to toe - 1/ to stop knackering my shoes so quickly and 2/to help my calves feel less sore. Feeling sad as no running watch at the mo - took back HRM as it had broke. Must have been working it too hard...............

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things can only get better.....surely.....

2007-09-02T13:56:00.001-07:00

think i may have managed a pw today at Glasgow 10km (or past 2 years anway). oops. well porridge and rice milk, whilst working ok for the last couple of weeks, clearly didn't agree with me on race day. Doing ok at the 5km mark, in line with last years first half split - and then a lovely lovely stitch. Can still feel it now! Had to slow it down considerably over the rest of the race.....guess it's back to the dry cereal for me, and if that doesn't work, either will have to give up on shorter early races or attempt them only after some lovely blue juice. Or maybe just try not to go too fast to begin with. Wasn't feeling too good going into the race but somehow managed to get the positive mental thing going on yesterday and today (until I started running that is!). Just checked my other crap 10km for the year - Dunbar and it was 55.45 so it could be a close run thing. isn't it funny how when you are having a good run, you think the course is flat
and good for pbs, and on a bad day you feel every little tiny pimple???? how odd.

past week had a few runs in it - none of them that good! Ran round John Muir with Brian on Sunday - breathing difficult especially starting. Monday did 10 miles but flat through John Muir. Managed ok but should have felt easier. Feet really really sore - not in my favourite Saucony's but Asics, and they were generally achy. Tuesday club did about 6 miles with Sheila M and Sheila K but really not feeling good. And intervals on Thursday....again not great. Had only had a couple of hours of sleep and had been drinking the night before so actually probably not toooooo bad - did cut most of the distances short though. Obviously need to keep going though to get used to this running quickly thing! Will update once have official time and splits - if I can face it!

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getting worse

2007-08-25T13:50:00.001-07:00

guess what - haven't written in a while. that's truly because the running isn't worth writing about at the moment. cannot believe how badly I'm running at the mo. thought it was on the up a bit after I manage to run most of the 12/12.5 miles a couple of weeks back, but that must have been a piece of luck! headed off down to a wee place called Auldgirth near Dumfries for a long weekend - twas Brian's birthday and he fancied a bit of fishing. Unfortunately his fishing went as well as my running! He didn't catch anything whilst we were down in Dumfries, but then we came back, he headed down the Whiteadder (about 20 min drive away) and then caught two salmon! sods law.

Anyway whilst down there I managed to muster up the enthusiasm for a 9.5 miler on Fri 17th and a 6 miler on the 18th. Sunday 19th I intended to run but got too lazy instead. Then Monday 20th I headed out at 7am, as that was our last day in B&B and I wanted to get out, run, come back, shower, pack up and have breakfast at 9. My first few steps were not a run, nor even a job. Pain in every muscle in my legs led to some funny kid of tip toe gait. Must have looked interesting. Only went for 4 miles - it got better as I got into it a bit.

Then we came back - Tuesday was the last of the east lothian summer series, and the one I've done best in this year I think. That said I was over a minute slower than last year and I thought I was running badly then! Nice wee jaunt round John Muir, followed by a bbq. Very enjoyable. Managed to catch up with Sheila M for a wee bit - she's just back from Brazil and has run about 2 times in the past 5 weeks. Beginning to think training is over rated give her performance on Tuesday and Alison's on Thursday. It so doesn't seem to make a difference to other people if they stop for a while - I keep going and manage to go slower and slower. Things aren't shaping up well for the race on 2nd September. Shame and it's my fav 10km of the year (usually - not sure it will be this year though).

Thursday night - intervals - my second session out of the last 6 and boy it shows. we did 12x400m, each in 2min45 and extra 3mins after each set of 4. Managed to do them all but at particularly poor speed. At least my poor speed was consistent at 2mins per lap. Reading back in my blog did 1.51 or 1.52 for each towards the end of may. Excellent - not sure how but have added an extra 8 or 9 seconds. think there must be something in the air......

And today. Plan was to do 12. It was really windy and quite hot/sunny as well. Didn't manage so well on the first hill up towards top of Brunt hill, then down to Spott and headed over to 2nd Ford on way to Pitcox. Didn't do so well on the next hill either so decided to turn around and head home. Ran past some "thing" that was on in Spott, which had teas. that would have been a better way to spend the day. Anyway managed to watch a bit of athletics (ok so all 3.5 hours of it). Much easier watching than doing.....here's to easier running!

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more holidays required - all this running is tiring me out

2007-08-15T15:18:00.001-07:00

well - not so sure that anything is getting any better - and so decided I may as well take another holiday! Heading off for a few days, although as ever the trainers will be in attendance. Will need to suss out some decent routes....

headed out on the sunday after the last entry - sunday 5th august. Managed to persuade Brian to come along too. Intended to do 5 but cut it down a bit as managed to find some excuse to get home (probably to eat some more chocolate). Ran along the beach where I got to stop a couple of times as Brian was watching a Peregrine attacking the sea gulls. we cut back along the soggy salt marsh and through John Muir but only did about 3.5 miles. I felt loads better than the day before.....until Brian said that he felt we were going lots slower than usual. Hmmmm - maybe I should leave him at home????

Tuesday night was the ELSS race at Musselburgh. Got an ok handicap - ie thought I'd be somewhere near it based on last years time. Headed off ok and then got a big stitch. So....when will I learn that I just should not eat for ages and ages and ages before I try to run fast? yup was a bit peckish just over an hour before so thought an oatcake or 2 would be ok, but no. terrible, terrible, terrible. stich eased off about 4 mins before the end of the race so I could speed up a wee bit again but I was slower than last year, and slower than the handicap.

Thursday I headed along to intervals. 5 sets of 4x200m in 1min15. Struggling to do the warm up - knew it wasn't going to be a good session! Did the first 2 sets, took an extra long break and did the last 2 of the next 4. That seemed to be sensible and managed all of the rest. in a moment of fun someone (wonder who?) had hidden Ian's relay batons. He was quite puzzled for a while, when he thought he had misplaced them but the "good" members (keen for further punishment) helped "find" the batons (whilst Ian was in checking if he had left them in the changing rooms). Twas quite funny though! Fay and I were allowed to sit out - Ian ran himself, and I got to shout out the times. Quite a responsibility but would do it again - almost like getting revenge! Was a very close race too.

Saturday was Haddington half marathon. Given my recent performance I decided against entering - no way was I going to attempt to run a race, long distance and with hills, when I can't manage 200m easily! So headed out for a bit of a hilly long run in the morning. It was loads better than the last week, with a couple of minor, short little walks at the top of the two nastiest hills, but otherwise ran about/at least 12 miles. So please with that. Then headed over to Haddington to watch those running the half - so much better than running! Dunbar performed well - although a woman came in 3rd and bet all of the Dunbar runners (and most of the field obviously - new women's course record for a very good run!).

Sunday I went to run round the bottom of Doon Hill but chickened out when I saw the cows. Ran aimlessly round some fields until I found a path - then headed on down to Dunbar, Spott roundabout and through the trees to meet Brian at the recycling. We'd been doing some interior clearing up and had decided to recycle a "Billy" bookcase from Ikea that really, really had seen better days, including recycling quite a lot of its contents. The fun continued when we got home and tried to move the wardrobe from our bedroom downstairs. I don't think I've sworn so much in a few years. So it started out with a bedroom that needed to be redecorated - now we have a couple of holes in the walls in the hallway that require some attention....at least we got it down though, without really hurting ourselves! And I managed to watch the London triathlon - good time management!

Tuesday night the world was conspiring against me to stop me heading out for a run. Festival traffic made the bus late, waverley station renovations mean the train is on a bit of a random platform - these two issues led to me missing 6.05 train by 1 minute. Fab - 30 mins to while away in Waverley while waiting the next train.....I phoned Brian for a moan. Decided to head on out anyway, esp as had a meeting after so was only planning on a 5 miler and should be able to get in 3-4 in the time I had. In the end it all turned out ok - met up with the others after 15 mins and Jenny headed back with me to add on a bit to her run. Lovely. Now all we need is some decent weather!

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I'm back - but still very much in holiday mode....

2007-08-04T13:56:00.001-07:00

hence the lack of writing for the past week even though I've been back at home.... anyway have certainly been on holiday mode this week, although think I'm doing quite well. Washing basket is only full, not over flowing. And managed to do the housework today (although it did really really need doing - had a whole spare cat's worth of cat hair on our living room rug - let me know if you see any naked cats around as I think I could help them out!)

Anyway, was in sunny ole France whilst the whether in Britain has not really been great. Went away in a big group of folk and did some cool stuff whilst there - included eating a lot of bread, cheese, croissants, pain au chocolat, cheese, bread etc. Did manage to keep up the running - did 7 runs in the fortnight I was there, just to keep ticking over did about an hour a time (very slowly though). Managed to cajole Brian into keeping me company on 3 of those - although he didn't half moan a lot. Annoying but - he hadn't run since the Haddington five mile race and then kept up for about 6.5 miles in pretty warm weather, including quite a stretch on the beach. Pain he is!

We were lucky in the area we were in - near the beach so could run along it. So much better that other beaches I've run along - this was hard and flat, without those annoying rimples you get that hurt your feet on some beaches. Better than running on road for sure. Also found a nice wee trail in some trees that must have been just over 3 miles that we ran along a couple of times. There were loads and loads and loads of cyclists. Not just your ordinary little family of people out for a wee cycle on a sunday but groups of fully lycra clad, professional looking folks practising for the next tour. Bizarre. A few runners as well though. The abundance of cyclists meant that there was of course an abundance of nice, smooth cycle paths everywhere. Fantastic for runners - you just need to keep your wits about you a bit!

Anyway - important notes for anyone else going to France in the near future:
1 watch your feet - you thought Dunbar was bad for dog shit? you ain't seen nothing yet. There is poo everywhere! The pavements are actually just paved with it!
2 you sometimes get to pay extra to eat your food outside? amazing huh - check the menu.
3 doesn't really matter what you eat or where - you will be surrounded by smokers who will breathe their smoke over you all the time
4 if you are vegetarian - hope you like omelette, chips, cheese and bread. Although did manage to have a fantastic couple of salads when I was out...
everything is served with chips, everything
5 the pancakes are to die for - have them just with sugar. or get one of those alcoholic ones that they set light to at your table. They look cool.
6 if getting a train from a non-major train station make sure you check all the wee notes in the timetable. Or better still ask the person at the kiosk lots of questions about trains there and back - this will ensure that you don't attempt to catch the last train only to find out it's not going your way because its not a sunday or a fete day. the seem to have some bizarre ideas about when they run their trains!
7 go to Euro Disney if you can - I so need to go back
8 don't buy expensive wine - the cheap stuff tastes just as good
9 get proper french chocolate - preferably go to see the factory (counts as sight seeing) and buy some afterwards (counts as a souvenir)

Won't say much about the running since I've been back - clearly not a lot to tell! Last week was dead chuffed as ran for about 10 miles (longest I'd run for about 3 weeks) and managed to run up all the hills on quite a hilly route. Fab I thought. (From Knowes, up across old a1, by Biel, up the hill at Biel and along to Pitcox, up the hill at Findlay's spring water (the worst ever I think) down to second ford and up hill towards Spott, up house at red chimney and up hill in field and finally up the hill to my house. Wow. Great. Monday night went to Pilates but unfortunately my instructor didn't so thought I'd head out for another run - again made it up the hills. Ran up towards Doon Hill, round the back and up to the top of the Brunt and then back down to the house.

Then club on Tuesday - think Val was on a mission. The try to tire Theresa out mission. Man I think she nearly killed me. Ran through John Muir but it felt pretty fast to me! and that was Val out for an easy run. She thinks it was down to my just coming back from holiday - very nice of her to say so.....then sandwiches and pizza. Yum. Wednesday Val and I spectated at North Berwick Law race - fab. It's such a good race to watch and cheer all the club on. Funnily one of my friends at work ran it for the first time, loved it and ran a good time. But had great difficulty walking on Thursday and Friday - especially negotiating the stairs!

Thursday, unfortunately had to go out for a meal in Edinburgh instead of managing to do intervals. Shame.

And then today. The worst run in ages..... one of those where every footstep is hard work from beginning to end and your brain is busy telling you negative, can't be bothered type thoughts all the way. Should have cut back but didn't. Big mistake. Ran about 12 miles. (or about that time - could have been about 3 the speed I was going). Anyway got back just in time to catch the highlights of the Salford triathlon. That was the aim. Then carbo loaded - maybe my legs just didn't have enough fuel (ha - for those who know me, will figure out that that's unlikely to happen!!!!)

lets hope tomorrow is better!

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update....

2007-07-09T13:15:00.001-07:00

So whatever I said about running a 10k after a hen night counts double when running a half marathon after a wedding.......very very daft.
That's about all I can say about East Kilbride half.

Sheila M picked me up at the Gyle before 7, had only gone to bed at 1. This stuff they say in all the running advice books/mags/websites about getting a good nights sleep must be right. I was knackered!

Don't think I've recovered yet anyway as have not even updated my paper log yet!

EK was on 24 June. Splits were:
1 9.10
2 8.42
3 8.10
4 9.26 (bit of a hill)
5 8.57
6 9.56 (that's the long steep hill)
7 9.13
8 9.03
9 9.30
10 9.48
11 10.46 (the long steep hill again)
12 9.32
13 9.00
.1 1.01

So 2.02.01 total - was bit disappointed - was running so well until mile 9. My hip started hurting - I tried to ignore it or think of those going through more pain but that didn't work. Pressed my finger into my glutes (not a good look) whilst running up the hill to mile 11 and that actually did relieve the pain a bit. But still sore. My third best half mara time, but equally 3rd worst out of 4 this year so far! Think I'm raced out.....

26/6 - Tuesday club - ran up to Eweford and round to Little Spott, Spott and back to Halhill. Teaching all the newer runners the route for the next weeks summer series. Not sure that was a good plan or not - maybe if they hadn't known they would have tired on route and I could have beat them. Might need to be more astute next race. Felt a tough run - legs sore. Need massage - have one booked for

27/6 - Wednesday - torture night. Legs massaged for first time in months. Boy it hurt.

28/6 - Thursday. Luckily Anne, Ian R and Stuart were heading down to Norham to run 3km in the name of the club championships. Those of us more normal runners stayed at home and went out for a mid length run in the rain, round John Muir and some other damp spots.

30/6 - Sat. Headed out for a long one - doing about 5 before meeting up with Sheila K for another 5. Again bloody hard run - legs just didn't want to move. Went round the bottom of Doon Hill - bit of a mistake as the grass is growing up to waist height, with seeds all getting stuck in my trainers etc. Made it to Sheila's and then had a wee rest and restock the fuel levels before running out to the lighthouse, round the cement factory and back home. Didn't make it up the hill though - amazed I made it as far as I did

01/07 - Sun. Went out for another run. Not sure what possessed me but anyway. Ran round the back of Doon Hill (well I say ran, kinda wheezed my way up the hills). Ran up to the top of the brunt, round to the house with red chimney, up the closed road, Eweford and down to Belhaven where my chariot awaited......and on for a scone to Lauderdale park. Ahhhhh.

03/07 - Tuesday - ELSS race at Dunbar. I was dreading it. With a Capital D! sometimes it is sooo much worse when you know where you are going. I'm disappointed that Fiona didn't stick to the race master plan (run round slowly and overtake people on the down hill just before the finish line!). Fay ran well considering she had done mad run 40+ miles in the past 6 days, including a run that morning. I'd be doing well still to be able to move after that intensity of running. All in mad mad mad celebration of her 60th Birthday on Thursday 05th. So of course we had to have cake afterwards.......

05/07 - Thursday - intervals. Feels like it's been months since I've been to intervals. Soooo hard. And even worse when you are tired anyway, and don't get a warm up in cos you arrived late. Did these funny sets again - 10x400m, in 2mins45secs. big rest after 3rd and 6th interval - an extra 4 mins. Fiona was flying - tried to keep up but gave up on lap 6, took it easy and then went for it on number 10. Still only managed 1.42 whereas fastest previously was 1.39/1.40.

07/07 - Saturday - long run. Headed out on my own - round the back of Doon Hill, onto the second ford, from Pitcox on towards Stenton, down to Biel mill, down to the pink house on the old A1, and down to Knowes farm where - yup chariot was awaiting. (or more correctly I awaited chariot as chariot driver was busy looking at the fish jumping up the weir). Hmmm. Felt a lot better than most of the runs in this update. At least managed to run up all the hills. Terrible weather meant second ford was actually a ford - think that was the only time I've had to use the bridge there.

08/07 - Sunday - mid length run. It was soooooooooo hot. Didn't feel too bad when running, but after I stopped I figured it was actually pretty hot. Did the easiest run possible to get mileage to an acceptable level for the week (acceptable being 25-30 on average, higher being even better!). Ran from house down to Dunbar, round the coast and Winterfield golf course, along dump road, round West Barnes and through John Muir to East Links - where you've guessed it, my chariot awaited. Much prefer this point to point running rather than looping round - means no big hills right at the end of the run!

Anyway tomorrow is my first night in my promoted club position as membership secretary - best go an prepare.

Random thought for the day - what is going on in the world of tights at the moment? I thought running tights were not the most flattering but way more sensible than the wierd and wonderful tights women are wearing. They range from the spiderweb type patterns, to neon brights and now white with black spots. Is this all about trying to recreate your youth when woolly tights came in all colours to match your outfit when you were about 3? not quite sure what the story is.....

at last..........an update. (sorry Steve if not exciting enough......)

2007-06-22T13:20:00.001-07:00

Well, ok then, didn't quite manage to keep up the good intentions of writing in my diary more regularly. Brian went away for a week so I filled my social calendar up and then because the computer wasn't on 24/7 I couldn't be bothered writing.....
Anyway Steve (previously nice man from Musselburgh, now not sure about the "nice" and running for Dunbar) told me I needed to spice up my diary a bit - not sure he gets the point that this is my TRAINING diary - not putting the juicy stuff in here............

Lots of running - again....

13 June - Wednesday. Sheila,Val and I set out from Belhaven to run along the Tyne to Haddington for some tea. Some of you might ask why not just drive but that's not so much fun, and you def can't eat as much on arrival without burning some calories first. Val showed us the crossing of the Tyne from the race on Saturday - doesn't look much fun to me - imagine steep slop upwards of well worn path, that looks like quite slippy mud, where you could be running hard to get to the top, slip, fall flat on your face and slip back down towards the river. Shame for any runners behind you at that point....anyway think I will remain in the support crew for that race. It was a hard run to Haddington - you can always tell a hard run as you'd rather sleep after than eat (which as you'll know is very bizarre for me&Sheila - none of us could finish our main course!) Fantastic food as ever at Poldrates.

14 June - Thursday. Madness of Portabello 4 mile race. Weather was like a winter day - raining and very windy along the prom. Pleased with my time though (and obviously - a pb - first race of that distance). Bet Sheila - but not by much - 22 seconds or something. I ran 33.48 which was less than 8min30sec miles so good enough for me. Fiona is my new best friend - she swapped a banana for a mars bar - mad - a mars bar is worth way more than a banana. Good to see her out running again, after the terrible chest infection.

17 June - Sunday. Learnt a few things today.
1. don't run the day after you've been out on a hen night.
2. drink plenty of water on the day before and on the day of the race - more if you are on a hen night and also rushing around before the hen night trying to find something suitable to wear and failing miserably.
3. get more sleep than about 3 hours - probably something to do with the very drunken hens arriving back with their nutritious snacks (aka chips and curry sauce) at 3.am.
4. running in muggy heat is crap (ok so I already knew this)
5. if you are going out the day before (not necessarily just on hen nights) with a lot of meat eaters, and you are a veggie, take some spare carbohydrate snacks to ensure you are not starving and are fuelled appropriately for the race.
My stomach was actually rumbling at then end (again unusual for me...............)

19 June - ELSS race 2 at Musselburgh. Steve back from his honeymoon - seems to be very cheeky following getting married (or maybe just because he was out with a whole lot of women and his wife was back at home..........)
Hoping the run was longer than last years otherwise I'm in big big trouble - almost running backwards in comparison.
For some reason I told Sheila where to buy her trainers cheap so she was really bouncing along in her new ones. She went wooshing past (like a wotsit) just before the 4km point - seems like she's figured out the whole point to racing is actually to run fast. Damn.
Stuart's birthday so Dunbar club sang to him in the "Levenhall Arms" and Anne provided yummy chocolate cake. Sheila was probably right though when she said our singing was even worse than our running....

21 June - meant to be at intervals. But thought, been doing a lot of short/fastist running sessions recently. Really need to run slowly. So headed out through John Muir Country Park. So hazy couldn't even see the sea....

22 June - went out for further slow trot with Sheila. Round John Muir again - still hazy.

Sheila is busy trialling a new breathable shorts method - although think it would be best if she just bought some new ones or got out her needle and thread. Don't ask her to show you...........

Other exciting facts not very forthcoming at the moment - will need to think of something interesting for the next installment.

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Morrison's back on form

2007-06-10T11:26:00.001-07:00

I guess I've been bad at updating again. No wonder. All this running, so little time. Better take a tip from Stuart and just update more regularly (although not daily) rather than less regularly. (oh yeah and will only take a tip from Stuart re how reg to update blog, not re how long/far/fast to run....) Wont be able to remember all the funny little witticisms now that time has passed. Will give it a go tho....

28 May - Bank holiday. Thought about doing the rigg race. Many times. But knackered. So went for run with Sheila M instead - good job I didn't go for the rigg race. Couldn't make it far with enthusiasm, kinda dying off on hills (and flat bits....and grassy bits....) Ran from Belhaven to Eweford and alongside A1 to Spott roundabout. From there went up road to Spott, turned at closed rd up to Wester Broomhouse, ran along the grass to Pleasance, back to Eweford and then on into West Barns. From West Barns ran along Biel burn and back to Belhaven via the dump road. Legs dead, sore and I had no energy. Alround great run then.

29 May - club. From Halhill through the trees and straight ahead round Eweford and into West Barns. We ran along the burn and into John Muir, round the trees and back to Halhill via the road (shortest route home at that point, still knackered).

31 May - club - intervals. Managed to do a good warm up, followed by 8x600m in 4.5 mins. Managed then all in quite good time (although a couple crept above 3 mins). Legs still dead. Thank goodness Val was there as I'm not sure I would have completed the whole session.

2 June - Haddington 5 mile race. Oh my - weather was sooooo warm, but no breeze. Horrible, close, nasty warmth. Can't breathe very well in that. Anyway had managed to persuade Brian to run so we headed over and joined the other Dunbar runners in the line up. Brian was off after the hooter went so that was the last I saw of him. A tough race - fast from the start (I hate that) and a lot of good club runners. Eeek. Anyway got a pb (hard not to given the run I had last year). Bit disappointed as wanted to run 8.5min miles all the way - 1,2 and 5 were. Shame about 3 & 4.

3 June - Sheila M and Theresa have another expedition. This time from Belhaved to Dirleton (for lunch, open arms hotel). We ran through John Muir Country Park, along the Tyne and up towards Lawhead. Then ran through a path in the woods. Then lost the path and ran through lots of nettles in a field. Worse even that the nettle escapades of the week before. I had to climb up a wooden shooting post and then find the shortest way to the road. But we did find it. And we kept on going, all the way to Dirleton. Not the flatest route, and possibly not the best plan to run it the day after we had both run a race, but Sheila cleverly took some money with her and we had ice lollies and fizzy juice on the lawn prior to our meal. And guess what? Ivan was late.....at least he turned up! and he remember the bags!

5 June - club. AGM night so shorter run required. We ran from Halhill to Eweford, up to Wester Broomhouse, down the closed road, down to Spott roundabout and through the trees back to Halhill. Meetings will never be the same again - I got promoted to membership secretary (Bob) with Ian Rowlands being minutes secretary (Sheila is going to get him the skirt and fishnets required) and Hannah is on the committee too (along with a few others who are still serving....) should be interesting.....

6 June - first race of ELSS. Haddington 5km ish - couldn't remember my time from last year, but funnily was aware that I had been slower. Ran round a grassy loop before running on a path along the road round the golf course, then a path off road round the golf course, cross the river a couple of times and finish. (that'll make sense to anyone who has run it, and mean nothing to those who haven't) communal shower followed by drink in pub. Alright way to spend the evening really - shame about the run first!

7 June - intervals. So so so slow. I'm not good with this lack of rest. Just about managed to drag myself around. New concept 4 blocks of 5x200m - so 20x200m in total. first 4 out of the 5 in 1min15 and last one in 4 mins so a longer rest in between the blocks. I should have just kept running - legs sore, weather crap (raining pretty heavily) and feeling tired. Luckily just me, Karen and Anne running. Think Stuart went about as far just running between the start and finish points!

9 June - long run. Sheila M and I decided to stick to the roads today (well sort of) as getting bored of nettle stings (although think Sheila know has some in very interesting places!). Ran from Belhaven, up to Eweford, Wester Broomhouse, closed road, Spott and along to the second ford. Turned and headed towards Pitcox but cut across a path on the way that takes you through some trees (and a few nettles), out by a farm on the road from Stenton to Pressmennan. In Stenton we headed on through and then turned right and ran along by a nicely fragrant pig farm before turning back right again as a loop to the road that runs down to Biel. Sheila seemed to have forgotten about all the undulations but we made it from Bield down towards A1 and then along to Knowes where we had strategically planned a recovery vehicle. Think it was longer and hillier than expected, and had a slight drought problem on route - need to plan a bit better next time!

Then home for shower and bite to eat before taking up the very important role as chief support squad for Dunbar runners at Trapain Law race. Mad mad people, all paying money to run through a river, up a very large hill and back again. Anyway hope the photos worked but not convinced. Give me a normal camera over digital any day. All the excitement is in putting your film in 6 months after you took the photos and the element of surprise as you get the prints back, as you don't have a clue what you've photographed!

10 June - Dechmont Law race. Sheila beat me (about time) although I was in the lead for about 10 mins of the race! A tough one - smallish field (over 100) and run mainly on track and trail - nice running surface a bit like John Muir without all the knobbly tree routes. Really please with performance (although think heart rate monitor nearly exploded - only spent 20% of time in zone 4 and the rest I think in the top zone peaking above my max again at 196 - oops!) anyway legs dead, heart going some and breathing hard all the way so don't think I could've gone much faster. First time I've raced the day after running, especially the day after a long hilly one! Anyway clearly the long one didn't tire Sheila at all! Quite cute seeing the wee ones (and not so wee) running the 2.5km fun run first. Worringly saw some of those who had been at East Linton yesterday. No official results yet but think I was about 53.36 with Sheila under 53 minutes somewhere. No bad considering
hills, trails, big long runs the day before etc etc - 3rd fastest 10km ever and still faster than I managed in Dunbar on a really flat route. And it was roasting - horribly clammy and muggy again. Will update once the official results are in.....promise!

just about recovered....

2007-05-27T13:24:00.001-07:00

Sat 19 May 07 - Well I've just about recovered enough from the trauma to be able to write about last weekend - nasty nasty nasty weather that's all I can say! Sheila M and I headed North to take part in Loch Leven Half Marathon. When we got there we realised that we had forgotten the necessary black bin bag to keep us warm and dry - and boy was it needed! We headed along to the local shop to buy some, ended up with wheelie bin liners which where like floor length dresses - or they would have been if the wind had died down long enough to stop whipping the excess up round our necks. We must have been a right sight. And so the wind and rain continued, and we would have continued looking a right sight. Sooooo tiring running into the wind - think it was behind us for about a mile, and we were sheltered for another one - see if you can guess from the splits!

1 - 9.08
2 - 9.00
3 - 8.08
4 - 9.13
5 - 8.42
6 - 9.01
7 - 9.18
8 - 9.43 (that'll be the hill out of Scotlandwell - head wind not good for those of us who can't breathe well)
9 - 10.04 (still suffering from the last hill and they have another one)
10 - 9.11
11 - 10.27
12 - 10.21
13 - 10.18
.1 - 1.07

Last 3 miles where headwind hell - I put my time at 2.03.49, think the official is 2.04.03 or something. Sheila and I agreed we could take five minutes off for wind factor.....think that's a fair assessment.

Sun 20 - Sheila M and I headed out for a light trot as a recovery run from yesterday. We headed out at 5 so we had a good day to recover - I watched a bit of the great manchester run so was inspired after seeing Jo Pavey win, Kate Read (?) good run and Mo Farah coming third. The Sheila and I started to run - not sure we quite match up with them speed wise but the wee 4 miler helped the stiffness issues.

Tue 22 - For some reason Sheila M and I thought that Daniel's Brae would be a good idea for our club run. So off we headed (Sheila M, Alison and I) took a detour through the trees to get to Spott roundabout in a more scenic way, then running up to Spott, down to the ford, up Daniel's Brae, back to Eweford and under A1 to head back to Halhill via Lochend wood. 2 things shocked Sheila - 1) the amount Alison talks and 2) the fact that she could talk and run up Daniel's Brae quite calmly on her first attempt. (I know how much she can talk but 2) also surprised me as I puffed my way up) She calmly said something along the lines of my legs are burning and carried on running. Amazing.

Thur 24 - Intervals - 12x400m in 3 mins. Last time we did this session was 26th April. And I managed to do better times all the way - probably got something to do with Alison going so fast from the start (she was prob about 5 secs in front of me each lap) and Val and Fay pushing from behind. Probably averaged 1.51 or 1.52 each time, with the last one 1.40 so faster than before.

Sat 26 - Long run. Sheila M and I headed out from mine, along to Doon Hill and followed the path over to the Brunt. We ran on past Ann & Stuart (literally, they where out in their car) and on to Aikengall. Fine so far and about 8 miles covered, and all hills run up (and the rest obviously, apart from the climbing and opening gates moments.) and then....Sheila said may as well go somewhere different. And never ever do this unless you have checked the route on the map first. Our short cut turned in to a very hard long cut up a mountain (ok so up cock law) and past cows and sheep and millions of dodgy barbed wire fences to clamber over. We then managed to get back to the road out of Oldhamstocks, run onto Innerwick and then do some more cross country to get from Innerwick back to mine - so overgrown by the burn at Innerwick - nettles to the waist. Not so bad if you have asbestos legs like Sheila but my wee sensitive legs were getting stung to bits - the air was very
blue.....
Anyway quick sprint to home and in for some lovely homemade cheese-cake. Made it all worthwhile I'm sure - we think a 12 mile run and 2 mile hike is fair.....

Sun 27 - Edinburgh Marathon! Not running, but as bad (or worse) marshalling! At least when running you keep warmer, and it's over quicker....it was really enjoyable at first (apart from the rain) and up until about 2 (so clapping for about 4 hours solid and shouting well done for a lot of that too) but then the back gets sore, and hands really ached. It was cool and breezy and some heavy rain showers but overall everything seemed to go smoothly.
But well done to those running - all looked good as they passed me at 10.5 miles, and 24 miles on the way to the finish. First male was running their debut marathon - what an achievement!
Now I'm deliberating about an easy run tomorrow or heading over to do the rigg race - what's best?

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bad bad bad bad Theresa, not updating diary

2007-05-17T14:23:00.001-07:00

only cos I've been running so much. This is going to take ages for me to type...might even need to do it in a couple of episodes!

Last time I wrote was 5th May. Here goes....

6th May - ran with Brian from East Links, through John Muir, over A1 just about Tynefield to Hedderwick direction, round the farms and out at North Belton, back through John Muir (nice new tar road is quite bouncy) and back to car. Ran this in my old trainers - not so nice and bouncy as my brand new Saucony's. Awww - hope the Saucony's last - think I could be a convert. So lovely and bouncy on my feet. Anyway went for scone afterwards - worlds best at Lauderdale park.

7th May - bank holiday so guess what - went for a run. Headed out with Sheila for a long run (12?) - headed from Belhaven up to Eweford, Wester Broomhouse, Spott and second ford. Then on to Pitcox, and through a magic gate into a secret garden. Trotted along and went over a cool old bridge next to a hidden cottage, past Biel house (I think) and headed down to the A1 just opposite Tynefield, heading through John Muir back to Belhaven. Found a new wee path in John Muir to avoid boredom. Rain started when we got to the A1 - nasty big raindrops that soak you through - bummer. Shoes kept me bouncing along though - up those hills like tigger. Then lovely food at Sheila's.

8th May - missed club tonight as Sheila M and I went to a running clinic at Run and Become. It was cool - some people from Optimal Fitness talking about lactic acid testing (although you have to be able to run on a treadmill for 40 mins and I think there is no hope of me managing to do that - high boredom factor!) and core stability. Also Hayley Ovens (international athlete - just googled her and think she did the 1500m in Commonwealth Games) and also Yvonne Murray (not telling - you should know who she is) where there giving a chat. We went out for a jog (Sheila and I both bet Yvonne Murray - am thinking of taking this up professionally now - although concerned that she was maybe holding back a bit) and then went back to the shop to ask any other questions. Then guess what? Yup - we went out for dinner. Fab dinner at First Coast - fishy stuff for Sheila (scallops and lythe) and courgettey things for me (courgette and mint fritters & then courgette, sultana and pine
nut linguine). We both had delish pud - banana, covered in hot toffee sauce, covered in toasted oats, with blob of ice cream. Yum

9th May - headed out for another run. This time with Sheila M, Val and Brian. From Belhaven, through John Muir to Tynefield over A1 as per Sunday's run, back through John Muir to Belhaven. Approx 8 but a good speed - Val's fault. And this is her after taking time off........

10th May - intervals, but had to take it easy in advance of race on Sunday. Did all 24x200m but did them at kind of 10k pace (1 min for 200m, so 8 min miles). Found it hard to hold back though - the first six I did in 53 secs each, then was sensible and did the rest at a min - apart from the last one. Did it in 45.

13th May - Glasgow Women's 10k race - fabby race and great organisation. Look forward to this one every year. Sheila M and I were running this one, starting in the second pulse start. Distressingly pressed the wrong button at some point in the race which means that I didn't get my splits. Also had to try to guesttimate how I was doing, without having proper timings on my wrist. Felt quite good and enjoyed it, although it was tough and warm when not in the breeze. Managed to knock nearly 2 mins off my time from last year (55.03 last year, 53.09 this year) and just 17 secs outside by pb. Way better than Dunbar, and this one is def hillier. If only I'd run 2 secs per km faster and I would have managed a pb. How annoying! Although Sheila not speaking to me (lasted about 2 seconds) cos I managed to finish in front of her. Quite a good race though, as managed to finish in top 10%! how good is that?

15th May - Tuesday club night. Sheila M and I were planning on doing a longer one, but as it was a nice night we decided to head up the brunt. Luckily I was prepared with my water bottle belt. Although many were taking the mick out of me....Quite pleased though as legs were very sore after Sunday but made it up all the hills totally. Very cool (had a wee walk just before Spott farm but made it up the horrible hill in the field, then all the way up the Brunt). If you can run that you can run anything....(although still too scared to try Starvation Brae)

17th May - Intervals. Stuart was taking us tonight - he's meant to be tapering for the marathon, but I'm really not sure he knows what tapering is! Tonights session was 16x300m, in 2min15secs. I did 3 out of every 4, but ran the last one as well so did 13 of them. Only ran them at half marathon pace (or maybe slightly faster) so felt ok. Did the last one substantially faster - 1min11 compared to 1min33-36 for the others. Still no faster than my best earlier this year though....Legs feeling tired - races and hills obviously have an effect.

Now will need to stretch them out before the weekend.....

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lots and lots of running

2007-05-05T11:20:00.001-07:00

Got a lot to catch up on again - better get on with it.

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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training is hard enough as it is without trying to train for a marathon toooooo...............

2007-04-18T13:36:00.001-07:00

well been running a lot again - mainly so I can burn off all the chocolate I'm eating. Worringly am eating less and running more and still not losing weight. so annoying.

anyway
9th April - easter monday - ran from home, round bottom of Doon Hill, behind Spott farm, down Starvation Brae, round to second ford and down to pitcox, head towards Eweford but turn up at Pleasance and down Closed Road. Bumped into Stuart at that point, he'd been running longer (and clearly a lot further) than me but seemed quite perky. Crossed over to run up to house with big red chimney and head up through field to route behind Spott farm for Stuart and round bottom of doon hill to Pinkerton for me. Thought I'd done well running so far and making it up all the hills so gave myself permission to walk up through the field and up the hill at pinkerton towards home. Legs pretty sore from long walk yesterday (in different places to running soreness - muscles that help you lift legs over fences and gates very painful)

10th April - Tuesday club night - Ran with Alison out to John Muir, through trees, over bridge and up to second farm, doing loop back to East Links Farm Park, along to Biel burn and then along burn to West Barns. In West Barns we found the faster of the lady runners so a good route for us. We then headed fastest route back to halhill. Alison was feeling ropey by the end as she had her rabies jab that day - she wasn't foaming at the mouth tho....

12th April - Thursday intervals - Did 2 mile warm up as we were heading out to umbertos after. Thought I'd try and work off some of the badness in advance.....My favourites - 400m (well 200m is my real favourite but anything 400m or less is good news). Did 12 x 400m in 3 mins. Most of mine were under 2 mins. Fastest was 1.41.

14th April - Saturday long run - Beginning to feel like I did when marathon training (or maybe worse). Legs dead and was pretty warm/close so harder to run. Got Brian to drop me off in Stenton and headed up (and I mean up) the road towards Presmennon(?). Turned left along farm path and briefly got lost in some trees before finding path again and coming out on the road that heads towards findlay's spring water and pitcox. I then ran the wrong way round the route of the second ford - actually finding it easier than the usual route though. I was running towards spott trying to figure out the best route to make the run the right distance. So ran down to closed road, up to Wester Broomhouse, over towards the Pleasance, back to little Spott, up to Spott and back down to near closed road before heading up beside house with big red chimney, to hill in field and route round Doon hill and back to Pinkerton. Guess what - walked up hill in field and hill from pinkerton - again!

15th April - twas roasting. Poor Hannah and Fay running the Paris marathon - I couldn't cope with the heat here nevermind the sweltering heat they were running in. Good on them both for completing, and from what Fay says making it round without any black eyes from the fights for the water. Anyway this was me taking it easy - to be honest had no energy to go any faster. Brian and I ran together round Pinkerton, bottom of Doon hill, behind Spott Farm and up over Doon hill to home. Good run once we got to the top of Doon hill. Bumped into Frank during our run (well after about 9 mins). He'd done his run for the day at that point though, lucky for him!

17th April - Tuesday club night. Running with Alison again - Jenny pulled in just as we were heading off so she caught us up. Swear she was perkier than me and she did 19 hilly miles at the weekend. Jeez - my training is bad enough, couldn't face doing the marathon thing just now. We headed up through trees from Halhill, up to Eweford and under A1 turning right at fork paster Bouerhouse(?) and then on up to Little Spott. Don't know what was wrong - we had the option of cutting back earlier but carried on to Little Spott. Madness. We then ran on up to Spott and round down back to Halhill. Felt hard but also felt I wasn't moving that fast. Think trainers are a bit knackered but haven't had them long. Might need to take them back.....

Well mad training continues with intervals tomorrow and Arthur's seat on Friday. Lovely. Not sure what I've got planned for the weekend except for......watching London Marathon. Wishing all my fellow club mates and mad running friends all the best for their runs on Sunday. Here's hoping it's not too hot and there is plenty of water for all!

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more boasting......and not......

2007-04-08T12:53:00.001-07:00

Well I was doing really really well keeping my diary up to date but sadly I've let it slip - focusing far too much on the running than the writing about it!!!!!

Will do a quick resume to get us back up to date before I need by next chocolate fix (Brian's opened his easter egg - chocolate tastes even better when its not yours!)

27 March - Tuesday - first club night where it was actually daylight! For some reason I tried to keep up with Clarissa so it felt pretty fast for the first 2-3 miles. We headed out through West Barns and down to East Links, turning left and running through the farm, then right and back through the trees, before heading up back road and over by the Jet station back to Halhill.

28th March - Wednesday - as I have a race at the weekend I was trying to fit in my runs during the week. Brian was away up north so thought I may as well make good use of the time. I headed out with Sheila M from Belhaven, up to Eweford, the the right fork up to the Pleasance, across the grassy path to Wester Broomhouse, down the closed road and along to Spott roundabout and back via Halhill to Belhaven. Another run in the daylight!!!

29th March - Thursday - pacing session for all of us doing the half marathon on sunday. No watches allowed! Running 4x400m, 2x800m and 1x1600m. My pace was to be 9 minute miles, so 2.15 for the 400m and 4.30 for the 800m. Its very hard to judge when the people in front of you cant get it right.....and when Ian R pulls funny faces at you to make you think you are going too slow. Anyway did 2.07, 2.11, 2.11, 2.17, 4.35, 4.29, 8.40. So a bit out at the end then

1st April - Sunday - Edinburgh Forthside Half Marathon (although seemingly lots of comments on the website about whether it really was a half marathon. I'm not arguing - felt a long way to me! what is it with runners - bad run, bad time = grumpy person. good run, good time = can't have been the right distance. Hmmmmm - never happy). Anyway course doesn't really inspire me but the whole thing was a lot better organised than last year. Splits as follows (with a bit of guess work)
1 - 8.52 (missed the marker but approx)
2 - 8.52 (17.44)
3 - 8,38 (26.23)
4 - 9.13 (35.37 - hill)
5 - 9.18 (44.55 - more hill)
6 - 9.16 (54.11 - took energy gel)
7 - 8.34 (1.02.46)
8 - 9.39 (1.12.25)
9 - 9.34 (1.21.59)
10 - 9.38 (1.31.38 - getting slower and slower until....)
11 - 7.44 (1.39.23 - clearly the markers aren't uite right)
12 - 9.25 (1.48.49)
13.1 - 10.02 (1.58.51)

So another pb for me - my splits are a bit all over the place - enough for me to think mile markers where in wrong place but still a half marathon for me. Better be - otherwise it would take me a long time to beat that one......3 races this year and 3 pbs. Amazing......don't think I'll manage another in Dunbar though. (well given that I'm writing this after Dunbar I have got a bit of an idea if I did or not but must keep the suspense building)

Loads of the club did well in run on Sunday - pbs for Me, Steve Pattison, Stuart, Ian S, Jenny, Lucy etc etc etc

3rd April - Tuesday - meeting at club re race on Saturday so only a shortish run. Good though given legs are tired after Sunday. Ran from Halhill along to Spott roundabout, up towards Spott, along the closed road to Wester Broomhouse, along grassy track to Pleasance, down to Eweford and back to Halhill via the trees. Nice evening. Like this running in the daylight - loads better.

5th April - Thursday - it was the 5km tonight but due to race on Saturday I jogged round slowly - legs felt pretty sluggish which doesn't bode well for a race on Saturday. Eeek. Route was loads nicer in daylight and at nice pace. Nevermind though......

7th April - Saturday - Dunbar 10km. Official time 55.45 - think that could be my worst 10km time in about a year and a half. Ooops. Haven't typed the splits in - watch is upstairs and I'm far too lazy to go and get it - will input splits later.

8th April - Sunday - chocolate allowed!!!! Thank goodness. No running today but Brian and I decided to walk from Whiteadder Reservoir to home - it was well windy so sure I burnt off a few calories, that I can readily replace by eating my way through chocolate eggs. It took us 4 hours.....good job we took a picnic with us.

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Wind is settling down.....

2007-03-25T06:05:00.001-07:00

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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and even more boasting....

2007-03-17T11:24:00.001-07:00

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.....

more boasting....

2007-03-12T15:43:00.001-07:00

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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Another pb....and first Dunbar running....what a weekend!

2007-03-12T15:34:00.001-07:00

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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I love hills - really I do (do I sound convincing????)

2007-03-04T13:18:00.001-08:00

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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Fw: wee update

2007-03-04T12:40:00.001-08:00

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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dark and gloomy....apart from the shorts!

2007-02-12T14:30:00.001-08:00

I know, I know – poor show again! Honestly, its hard enough trying to fit the running in with the work and socialising never mind the writing about it afterwards! Also, given my performance throughout January, it's not really worth writing about….

28th Jan – Sunday – left house planning on doing long run. Wind soon put a stop to that. Was walking soon after I passed Pinkerton, round the bottom of Doon hill. Didn't get much better. Ran up closed round and across the grass track at Wester Broomhouse. Then down to Eweford, West Barnes, down along the Biel burn and through John Muir to East Links car park, where my chariot awaited….

30th Jan – Tuesday – ran around town. It was dark.

1st Feb – Thursday – handicap 5km. Only 6 of us running. Ran quite well, only someone needs to tell Ian Sills that its rude to overtake a woman, especially close to the end. (That or we need to think about getting a separate trophy for first female). Anyway, you guessed it, I was second. Bummer. Struggled to get into first place and Ian just bounced on home past me. I hoped this was a return to form – I managed 1min5secs faster than Jan, and 5 secs faster than December, and only 1 sec slower than October after peak of marathon training. About time I had a decent run. Although next time we need to do something about the traffic – was going great guns round Lochend road when a car decided it wanted to drive down the road I was about to gallop across. To which my response was I'm not stopping, followed by a realisation that if I didn't stop I would probably come of worse than the car, at which point I stopped, as did the car (an emergency kind of stop) so I carried on….I'm sure that added on a couple of seconds to my time…. It was still dark.

3rd Feb – Saturday – headed out from Belhaven on a longish run at 9:30. Headed out with Sheila M, Val and Fay – needless to say didn't see much of Val and Fay at all! Ran up to Spott, round by the 2nd Ford to Pitcox, along the road back towards Eweford, but turned up to Little Spott, down Daniel's Brae and up the other side, through Spott again, up the closed road to Wester Broomhouse and back to Belhaven. Made it up all the hills and felt loads better than the last foray with Val and Fay – although still think the starting speed manages to knacker me far too early on in the run. Lovely day – mild, sun shining and definitely not dark! Best weather for running in we've had for weeks, and weeks, and weeks……

4th Feb – Sunday – after a chance meeting with Sheila K on the 3rd (in the hairdresser, getting my hair dyed the obligatory club purple – Sheila M/Anne etc) we went out for a wee run. Headed out from Belhaven again through John Muir Country Park through the trees to the wee bridge and then back along the beach to the car park. Nice day – again – although cooler than 4th.

6th Feb – Tuesday – ran round town. It was dark. And shorter run than normal – committee meeting. Got new running top though – Helly Hansen, courtesy of the club. Quite a snug fit but kept me warm. I've just washed it – it says max shrinkage 6% - I'm not sure I could even afford that much!

8th Feb – Thursday – intervals (ie running round and round in circles, in the dark). I arrived late so no warm up for me….straight into the session of 6x800m in 5.5mins (or 1km if you are fast). Did ok – first two were slow (no wonder – no warm up) but rest were good speed. Alison made me run faster – last 800m was 3min49secs which I'm sure is one of my fastest. Then we did 2x30m sprints. Think I should stick to those – managed to beat Grant and Anne on those ones – obviously have a good start and burst of power, just trying to sustain any further than 30m that I'm not so good at. Although not so bad again this week….
Anne gave me some lovely green shorts to try out – cycling style. (some club members really want green shorts, and cycling are more comfortable to run in – although dodgy for men!) Not sure Anne was impressed with my comments about me looking like the jolly green giant in them, although she nearly choked on her coffee when I said that I would need to take along a tonne of sweetcorn to each and every race that I run in them!

9th Feb – Friday - running club night out – Garvald Inn. Nice food, shame about the waitress who was clearly not into good customer service. Anyway alcohol was flowing nicely, snowflakes were falling outside….everything you could want for your Christmas night out! (I know its late, but we did have 2 nights out before Christmas too – anyone think we should reform as social/drinking club with a bit of running on the side?)

10th Feb – Saturday – Sheila M not running – she's saying she has a virus. Hmmmm – what kind of virus can you catch from drinking way too much red wine? You'd think she'd learn….I went later on in the day (to give me a chance to rehydrate fully). Ran about town in the dark – thought I was going well until I measured the course after. Actually only running normal training speed. Weather crap again and it was dark.

11th Feb – Sunday – on my own again – motivation lacking a bit. Headed out from house, down to Dunbar, round coast/cliff paths, and Winterfield golf course to Belhaven. Nice views. From there I headed out the dump road to Biel burn, turned up to West Barns and then onto Eweford. Crossed under A1 and ran on path alongside A1 to Spott roundabout. Crossed again and ran past Newtonlees to Broxburn and back up to home. Made it up my hill, but it was a struggle. Weather was odd – very changeable. Spitting when I left the house, then it got warm (so much so that I thought t-shirt/shorts would have been good), then windy, and finally raining and cold again. Please, please, please can I have a nice running day at the weekend again?

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lovely weather continues.....

2007-01-27T10:12:00.000-08:00

More wind and more difficulty in running. Thursday
the 18th we had 10 x either 600m or 400m in 4 mins.
So a bit more consistent this week I did the 10x400m.
Each one was a relatively ok time (2mins or under
mainly) but was a bit knackered by the last one. It
was pretty cold and windy which made breathing
difficult. Also we were running more than 400m as we
had to take a diversion across the tracks (further
than last weeks) due to the soggy, marshy conditions.
I swear if you added a couple of hurdles on the way
round we could have trained for steeplechase instead
of doing intervals!

On Saturday I just went out for a wee run later on in
the day after spending time in town hunting round for
a dress to wear to my work ceilidh on Fri 26th. I
started from East Links and ran a loop round the
trees, and West Barnes. It was getting dark and I
couldnt run my first choice of route as the tide was
very high, so couldnt get over one of the bridges
without getting very wet. My legs were agony after
Thursday no idea why but every bit hurt..

Sunday Sheila, Val, Fay and I headed out for a bit of
a longer run. Well I say we all headed out but Val and
Fay soon disappeared off into the distance. I
struggled along running better than I had done the
previous Sunday but still finding the head wind parts
difficult. We ran from Belhaven along the dump road,
into West Barns and along the old A1 to the
roundabout, where we then ran round Hedderwick the
opposite way to usual. From Hedderwick we went along
a track for riders/walkers that takes you onto the
road to Biel. The headed on up towards Biel, taking a
right at Biel so we cut along to the road from East
Linton up to Stenton. From there we ran down to East
Linton and along the A1 back to Belhaven. I was
pretty hungry and feeling pretty tired towards the end
but kept it going. I have no idea how I ever managed
to run a marathon finding all the distance runs
tough going and they are probably half marathon
distance max!

Tuesday night I ran round town with Lindsay. We ran
round some extra houses at the beginning so we didnt
feel quite so bad cutting out West Barnes at the end.
Also took a sneaky short cut so we didnt have to go
up the really steep hill at the swimming pool. We
met up with Alison at the pool and ran down the back
road with her, but did skive West Barnes, instead
running up to Jet station and down to Halhill. Legs
still hurting think Ill need to book in for a
message pretty soon. (and actually ensure I stretch
after I run)

Intervals on Thursday we were back to a choice of 600m
or 800m again in 4.5 mins. Again we made use of our
clever little idea of running 500m and then back 100m
towards the start it means we got to hear our time
each go and also it meant we could sort of race Ian
Sills and Grant (ok so they were running 200m more
than us but a bit of competition is still good!) The
last one we ran the 800m so did run 5km at speed.
(although fairly distressing that if you add up the
times of all the intervals they are still only about
the same as my best 5km time will I ever get any
faster? Will I ever make under 25 min for a 5km
again?????)

And today, Saturday, I went out for a wee run at about
12:30. Did ok given that I had a few drinks at the
ceilidh last night, got home quite late and didnt
sleep very well. Oh I was sort of tripping up over
nearly every little stone, tree root, rabbit hole,
undulation etc in my path but otherwise it went well

don't try to run in a head wind!

2007-01-17T14:16:00.000-08:00

Well what have I been up to this week? After last
Sundays not so good run I decided to take it easy on
the Tuesday it was good though as it was Karens
first time back at the club after having Aidan and
also Lindsay was back to trot round after rehab-ing
due to her dodgy knee. (see shes sensible and takes
time off I just stick my head in the sand and hope
itll go away!) We ran round town taking a few wee
short cuts here and there but the run itself felt
quite enjoyable.

On Thursday we had the choice between 600m or 800m in
4min30secs. We had to do 8 reps. Karen made the
sensible choice of doing 400m. Clarissa and I made it
up as we went along. I did 2x600m, 1x400m, 2x600m,
2x400m, 1x800m. I totally made it up. Also instead
of running 600m around the track and then walking to
the start, I ran approx 500m round the track, turned
round and ran back to the start to cut out on the
walking across the track bit. Cunning huh? (not sure
Ian thought so..)

At the weekend I didnt have such a great time with
the runningwind, wind and more wind. Im sure it was
some conspiracy the weather reports (I know I
shouldnt believe them) said Sunday would be nice and
calm and dry so I thought Id leave my long run until
then. So Saturday I headed out for 6 miles or so in
the last hour of daylight so did a wee bit of country
(round Eweford and into West Barnes, along Biel and
the dump road and then up Back Road and round town).
It was very, very windy when running around Eweford,
but managed to get a bit of shelter when running
through town.

On Sunday I wasnt very well organised so headed out
at about 1:30 after having breakfast about 10:30 and
nothing else (well apart from about 6 toffifees that
I have left from Christmas). My pre run fuelling
proved to be far from ideal.I ran from East Links
through John Muir to West Barns, up to Eweford. From
there I ran up to Wester Broomhouse, down the closed
road, up to Spott, round to the second ford and down
to Pitcox. Nearly all the way was a very strong head
wind, which almost blew me back down the hills I was
struggling to get up! For some reason I decided to
struggle ontowards Stenton, head down towards Biel
Mill and across via Beesknowe to come out at the Biel,
Hedderwick and North Belton Road. Then I crossed over
the road and ran through the John Muir Park back to
East Links. I think the route was about 13 miles but I
certainly didnt manage to run all of that I totally
ran out of steam just about Biel Mill I was
starving! Stomach rumbling and slight sick feeling
hungry not just my normal level of could eat a huge
plate of pasta hunger. I was soooooooo tired after as
well I nearly conked out at about 6:30! Running into
strong wind is just not a clever idea. Must plan my
route the next time to head out in a sheltered route
with the wind behind me for the run back!

And then Tuesday. I was having a bit of a transport
difficulty having had a cancelled train at South
Gyle I then made my way to Edinburgh Park and got a
train to Edinburgh. I got into Waverley to see the
5:30 train heading out of the station. So then I got
the 6.05 train, which would mean that I would have to
drive home, change very quickly and head back down to
Dunbar. I texted Sheila so she could let me know if
anyone would hold on in case I was late. Then sods
law the 6.05 was about 10 minutes late and then
followed a slow train out that stopped at every stop
on the way! How annoying. Anyway made it to club in
time to catch Sheila at about 7:10 and went for about
a 4.5 mile run round town at a nice easy pace. At
least it worked to reduce my public transport rage
(sort of).

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still out of sync

2007-01-07T08:50:00.000-08:00

Well I guess my first new years resolution has to be
to remember to write in this diary. I cant believe
Ive forgotten again..must be something to do with
getting older. I need some of Vals memory mints!

Anyway the last time I wrote anything was last year,
Christmas Eve. So Ive got a few to update you all on
then

Clearly on Christmas Day I did the traditional thing
of getting up, opening presents, eating far too much,
spending time with the family, watching telly, staying
up late. No thoughts of running then. But on boxing
day something strange came over me and I decided to
run in the Ayr Turkey Trot. A 5k and 10k down in Ayr,
and for some reason I opted for the 10k. The route is
pretty flat out along the sea front, along by the
river and up round a housing scheme before heading
back along the river and then the sea front. I made
the mistake of thinking it would be nice and mild by
the sea front, and according to the temperature gauge
in the car it was a fairly decent temperature.
However, that is not what my ears were telling me as I
stood out to watch the 5k race they nearly froze
off. I started the run with the thought of just
having a nice easy run, but had to catch those folk in
front that I thought I should be faster than.it
wasnt my fastest 10k of the year (ok it was the
second slowest) but Im glad I did it. Splits that I
recorded were 5.31, 5.36, 5.39, 5.19, 5.47, 5.25,
5.26, 5.41, 5.37, 5.02. Official time was 55.13.
Actually serves to show how consistent my times have
been this year pretty much all 10ks around the 55
min mark, with the exception of my pb run in September
of 52.52.

On the Saturday 30th I headed out with Sheila M, Val
and Sheila K. We ran from Belhaven through John Muir
Country Park around East Links farm park and through
the first farm, back through John Muir Country Park
along the beach for the majority of the way, but as
the tide was in we cut back over to the dump road and
back along to Belhaven.

Due to my lack of running through the week I also had
to head out on Sunday 31st. I ran from home round the
bottom of Doon Hill, up behind Spott Farm, down
Starvation Brae and into Spott. From their I ran to
the second ford and round to Pitcox (running up all
the hills). From Pitcox I headed down to the A1 and
to the Belhaven fish farm where I got a handy lift
from Brians mum and dad back home. Then we ate in
keeping with the season we ate far too much, which
proved to be a bit of a crazy thing given that I had a
mile and a half sprint to run that night. Brian
seemed to think a sprint would be a good idea after 4
glasses of wine so we both headed off to run the
Black Bun run. Anyone who remembers the weather
that night will understand how crazy the 17 of us who
turned up must have been to run in the wild weather.
I quite like Emmas view though that this run is our
annual punishment for all the bad we do in the year
its quite fitting. Anyway of full stomach I set off,
quite sure if I pushed it too hard my lovely lunch
would be revisiting somewhere in West Barnes so tried
not to go too hard. I finished in my slowest ever
time of the three years that Ive run this, but with
weather conditions and trying not to puke I guess I
did ok.

Anyway now we are into the new year, the first club
session was on the 4th of January. I thought Ian was
giving us a nice session but no, we ran the handicap.
Fantastic I hadnt spent all day worrying which
meant my adrenalin wouldnt have been quite at the
right levels for a fantastic performance. (well
thats my excuse). I ran (after a fashion) and it
felt hard but actually produced my slowest ever time.
And I got a stitch. After reviewing recent
performance at the handicap I note that my late
2006/early 2007 times are all slower than late
2005/early 2006. Wonder whats going on there then?
Frank won well done.

On Saturday I headed out on my own for a longer trot.
I had to drop the car down to the garage in Dunbar so
ran from there to Spott roundabout and on up to Spott.
I ran up Daniels Brae (because Sheila Ms done it 3
times in the past fortnight I thought Id better
bloody check if I could still make it to the top too
and I did). Then I headed onto Pitcox, along towards
Stenton and then down to Biel mill. I thought I was
running quite well, trying to stay relaxed and enjoy
the run when a guy passed me at Biel mill running at
least twice the speed I was going. Only slightly off
putting..
Then I crossed over the A1 and ran through John Muir
Country Park to Belhaven where Brian was waiting to
pick me up. I passed Hannah in the park all gadgeted
up with the GPS on, off out on her long run.

And because everything is still not quite in sync
after the holiday period, I headed out again today but
it felt much more of an effort than yesterdays run. I
ran from the house down to Dunbar, round the harbour
and the cliff top trail where I bumped into Jim and
Val. I stopped to walk with them and have a wee chat
and then headed round the golf course again to meet
Brian at Belhaven. This time he was joining me for a
wee trot round John Muir, which by this point I would
have been happy to do without. We ran round and
through a bit but Brians calf was niggling so we
stopped short and walked back something to do with
no runs for 4 months and then running a mile and half
sprint with no warm up, no cool down and after 4
glasses of wine maybe? Anyway heres hoping a return
to form happens for both of us soon

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Merry Christmas!

2006-12-24T11:57:00.000-08:00

Well its been a while since I wrote but I thought
Id better wait until Id done some running unil I
wrote an update. Immediately after the festive half I
developed cold. It started with a throat so sore it
felt as if it must have been red raw. It moved
through the stages to become a lovely sneezy and later
snottery cold. I have no idea where snot comes from
and why but it seems such a waste to keep throwing it
all away. I also managed to develop a lovely deep
cough at the same time, culminating in me losing my
voice at the weekend of the 16th/17th. I wasnt so
bothered about missing the town run on the 12th Dec
it was the womens xmas night out so it made getting
ready easiery. Also not bothered about missing
running on 14th as it was a works night out in town so
I was going to miss it anyway. But missing out on
daylight weekend runs at this time of year is sooooo
annoying. Its not often you get to run out into the
country in the daylight at this time of year, and to
miss 3 possibilities in a row was really really crap.
So I couldnt run on the Saturday 16th, nor the 17th
and I had a day off work on the 18th so thought I
might head out then.but no chance.

So, the 19th was my first run in over a week. I still
had my lovely deep cough which I demonstrated at
regular intervals on the run. I managed a slowish run
with Sheila K and Val around town for 55 minutes so I
was quite pleased. (although I did have a coughing
fit for about 10 minutes after). We then sampled some
of Annes baking (nice biscuits) and did the draw for
the club place. Val is running London! That leaves
Fay and Hannah running Paris, and Val, Anne, Ian R,
Ian S and Stuart all running London (apologies if Ive
missed anyone.)

Thursday was something else! As a treat (hmm if Ian
R ever offers you a treat, think twice before you
accept).anyway as a treat we got to run a trough
relay. Ill explain. A trough means you start out
with the longer distances, work your way down to the
shorter ones and then back up to the longer ones.
Although not sure everyone grasped that we were
working our way back up to the bigger ones..So we got
paired up with a partner, unfortunately for Anne she
was with me, but we got a headstart as all the other
pairings were man/woman so we were at a bit of a
disadvantage. Anyway 1200m esch, then 800m each, then
400m each, followed by 800m, followed by 1200m. It
was tough definitely not what you need when you are
getting over your cold and its your second run out in
just over a week! At least we went out to the Indian
after though so it had its good side. And Sheila M
and I gave Ians his present will need to check to
see whether he has kept the original version we gave
and hung it up in pride of place.

Saturday at 9 am Sheila M, Val, Fay and I headed out
for an early morning escape from the chaos. We ran
from Belhaven up to Eweford and then Wester
Broomhouse. From there we went down the closed road
before heading back to Dunbar and round the harbour
and back to Belhaven. It was a beautiful day and
quite mild which is better than the weather has been
on previous weekends.

And today Sheila M, Sheila K and I all headed out for
a run. It was a frosty cold morning so we headed out
through John Muir. Sheila K cut back to Dunbar along
the A1 just as we headed up to go across to Hedderwick
way. Then we went on a bit of a tour I had checked
out the route on a map but didnt do it right before
the run. That meant that we did end up having a bit
of a mystery tour. We turned right instead of left to
join up with the road towards Biel. Then we ran on
and took a path to the left to Beesknowe. Right so
far.now this road links up with a route that joins
the road from Pitcox down to the A1. But that is not
what we did. No we headed down a path that came to an
end in the middle of a field. So then we ran round
the field, on into the next newly ploughed field, ran
round the edge and then joined up with the road beside
North Belton anyway. We were rather muddy once we got
out of the field, I think I managed to slide a good
proportion of the way back rather than running it! We
checked out the map when we got back to next time..

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help required.....

2006-12-10T10:44:00.000-08:00

Well on Saturday I thought about running and that is
about as much as I managed.I went down to Alnwick
with Brian (fishing shop) in the best part of the day.
When we finally got home it was getting dark and I
couldnt be bothered, so decided to do an exercise
video or two instead. Although, I then asked Brian to
remind me next time that running (probably up to 20
miles) is easier than my Tae Bo video, and the whole
session served to remind how not fit I am.

So on Sunday I decided to take the easier option (ha)
by running. I ran down through Pinkerton and round
the bottom of Doon Hill, behind Spott Farm and down
Starvation Brae. Doing ok so far.then headed through
Spott and up Daniels Brae. Clearly I didnt have my
positive thinking head on as I only made it about a
third of the way up at which point I started walking.
Then I felt bad so started running again. It was a
bit breezy last Sunday so I think the wind had taken
it out of me a bit. When I turned from Little Spott
and down onto the road from Pitcox to Eweford the wind
was behind me so I managed to run up a few hills with
absolutely no effort at all loads better. Then I
headed up by the Pleasance (head wind) to Wester
Broomhouse, down the closed road and up behind the
house with the red chimney. Ran up to the gate and
then walked all the way through the field. The wind
was so strong by this point that even walking up was a
struggle. Through Pinkerton at high speed (back wind
again) and up through the field walking into head on
gale. Not sure Ive been so glad to see home in a
long time. Not sure that was easier than a wee video
in front of the TV.

On Tuesday we had a meeting after club so a shorter
run was required. I ran with Fiona and Alison we
ran round West Barns, along Shore Road, Back Road, the
pool, the harbour, and then along the main street to
see the lights, along some other paths (to change the
scenery.wow different route) and back to club. Did
52 mins in all.

Thursday was 5km handicap night. I hate it with a
passion. Its tooooooo hard Anyway I had a sore
back all day so thought running might be even worse.
Had to keep telling myself to relax, breathing wasnt
so hard for the first 100m or so. Sheila had set
off in front of me so had to try to catch her I did
but probably only because she hadnt been well. Then
quite a few others caught me up. Ar least I made it!

On Saturday Val, Sheila and I went out for a short run
around John Muir we ran from Belhaven across dump
road to the burn, then through to West Barns and along
to the turning to East Links, down the road and round
the farm and back through the park to Belhaven. Val
was running well. As was Sheila. I kept up.

And now to today. Yuk. Felt terrible. Back still
sore (since Thursday) and it was windy. Today was the
festive half and 10km. I was down to do the half (in
2hrs05 even though it took me 2hr15 last year) and
this was the longest that I had run since the
marathon. Anyway it felt it. I struggled all the way.
It was horrible. When I finished Im not sure which
parts of my body didnt hurt. Im so glad Fiona
stayed with me or I might have stopped and started
crying somewhere! Everything ached! Im now getting
over it, after relaxing on the sofa all afternoon. Oh
well, hopefully next year Ill get somewhere near a
reasonable time I was even slower this year than
last!

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in the bleak mid winter

2006-11-30T14:48:00.000-08:00

My next run was on Tuesday 21st too busy marshalling
the cross country on Sun 19th to fit a run in (well it
was a handy excuse).

Tuesday club run about town. Ran with Sheila K and
Sheila M we went down some slightly different
streets to try to make the run more interesting
although I dont think it worked! Both Sheilas
decided I was being bossy as I tried to make them run
round West Barnes after the town I was just using
some many tried and tested techniques they used to use
on me (such as keep running and ignore her shell
follow anyway). My influencing techniques failed me
though (probably because they were both wanting to go
back) and I couldnt face the West Barnes mob on my
own so I added a wee loop up Countess Road and along
Spott Road, back down Kellie Road. Lovely

Thursday 23rd had the choice of 1200s or 1600s.
Theres no surprise in what I opted for.I went for
1200s obviously. Due to the time delay we did finish
the 1200s after those doing the 1600s on many of
them..It was a bad night typically windy of a
Thursday track session. We got 9 minutes to do our
1200s and only had to do 4, and even then it felt far
too difficult. On the third one we only did an 800,
but made up for it by doing the full 1600 at the end.
That took us just over 9 mins so we were right to go
for the 1200s. After the session we had a bit of a
taster sports massage so I got my knees done again.
Think more drastic action might be required (although
unsure what). Sheila M had an unusual suggestion of
what to do with a golf ball although not sure it
would be such a good idea.

Saturday 25th I went out for a light trot at 9am. A
beautiful day you really appreciate running in
daylight during winter. I ran round the bottom of
Doon Hill, up behind Spott Farm, down Starvation Brae,
through Spott and down to the first ford and up
Daniels Brae. Had some amazing views out over
Belhaven Bay to Bass Rock, North Berwick Law and
along. The route was quite deserted and I was doing
well saying hello to anyone I did meet until Daniels
Brae the guy I saw there just got a wave as I didnt
dare waste any breathe when trying to get up that
hill! From there I ran down and along beside the A1
to Spott roundabout. I then managed to get a handy
lift (as we were a bit strapped for time before the
rugby) to Lauderdale park for a lovely cheese
sconemmmm

Sunday 26th I went out early again but didnt feel as
good as Saturday it was windier too so running was
hard work. I did a bit of an uninspiring route round
the cement factory, down to Barns Ness Lighthouse,
along Whitesands and back home. Although dead proud
that I managed to run up my hill. First time Ive
attempted it in ages, and after the undulating route
yesterday, including Daniels Brae.think I might be
getting back to normal. Although knees still
bothering me clicking loads. Im not doing well at
the squat/lunge routine. The last time I tried (Sat
18th) I could barely walk the next day. Although I
really dont want to have to take time off so Id
better start doing them again.

Tuesday 28th town run again. The Christmas Lights
had been turned on, but Val and Hannah were going to
fast for me to even see them. (well it felt fast to
me, so maybe Im not really getting back to normal!)

And finally tonight. Intervals again. Although
quite enjoyed it as my choice was between 800s and
600s, I opted for the 600s as shorter is better as far
as Im concerned. Doing better timewise than last
week each 400m was under 2 mins, and the final
interval I did the 800m in 3min55 so quite happy with
that. Now Im knackered and need to head off to
bed.

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Back to normality................unfortunately

2006-11-18T08:51:00.000-08:00

Well back to normality I guess. After a nice week of
not running (but working out in the gym and pool at
Cardrona, Peebles, I had to get back to the task of
running.

My first run after the marathon was the rather
uninspiring run around town on Tuesday 7th November.
Fay and I were both late because of the trains, and I
had picked Sheila Kerr up so we headed out for a light
trot around Dunbar. We took it very easy as Fay had
been ill and Sheila has been on a boat for months, so
no running for her. We ran from Halhill, down to
Shore Road, up Back Road, along by the Harbour and
back via Countess Road to Halhill.

On Wednesday I did some lunges, squats and stretches
in the vague hope of sorting my knees out. Not
working although my quads are painful for about 2
days after doing them so I guess there probably is a
muscle imbalance there somewhere.

Thursday the 9th I went to intervals brave woman.
Did an easy session though did 2x800m, 1x400m,
2x800m. Should have really been 5x1km, but timewise I
would have just had to have keep running round and
round. 800m was ok, but the 400m in the middle was
probably gave a nice breather

Saturday the 11th I just did a wee 6 miler from East
Links car park through John Muir and cross over the A1
to Hedderwick/North Belton etc, coming back into John
Muir and back to the car.

And then.on Sunday for some reason I agreed to do the
Goats Gallop. Sheila M, Val, Fiona and I made the
sensible decision to set off 30 minutes earlier than
the rest of the crowd. Good move as this meant there
was no pressure to finish quickly and actually most of
the runners came in at around the same time. It also
allowed us to have a nice relaxing climb up the hill
and wander round the cairn to have a look at the
plaque. Lunch at Goblin Ha followed good fun. We
were slower this year than last, but I definitely
enjoyed the experience a lot more.

Monday 13th my first time back at pilates in ages.
Felt pretty tough especially the plank and the inner
thigh manoeuvres.

Tuesday 14th another town run. This time I did the
full effort Halhill to West Barnes, looped round, up
Back Road, swimming pool, round harbour, along the
back roads to Walker Homes, round there and back onto
Spott road, down Kellie Road and back to Halhill.
Felt ok, although we werent going that fast. Could
feel pain in my stomach muscles all the way though
pilates..

Thursday 16th intervals again. Well at least Im
right back in there. This week was 6.5mins for each
interval and we had to choose between 800m or 1200m.
Val, Fiona and I opted for 800m until the last one
where we did the full 1200m. Wise choice considering
the leading men doing the full 1200m were only about
10-15 seconds behind us. Val was being a hard task
master too (and now I find out that she was sick all
week too!). Val kept making us take a second off the
first lap (ok so we started at 2:06 for the first one
and then 1:58, 1:57 and 1:56 for the next ones) but it
hopefully did me some good. Im feeling quite
sluggish at present feel like running marathon speed
(ie very slow) all the time!

And today headed out with Sheila M and Val this am
to do a loop from Belhaven, through John Muir and over
A1 to Hedderwick, North Belton etc and back to John
Muir. We then crossed over to the beach to get back
over the bridge to Belhaven, although unfortunately
had to double back on ourselves as the bridge was
inaccessible a bit of a bugger really. But we made
it in the end.

Have got my photos from Dublin they are cool. Will
need to get together with Sheila to write the piece
for the club newsletter now.

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more marathon news....

2006-11-05T05:25:00.000-08:00

Well Ive just about recovered enough to write up the
more full entry than previous. Club was good on
Tuesday Val had figured it out and looked up the
results so she knew by the time we got there. Anne
though was speechless (and for those of you who know
Anne, know that doesnt happen often!!!). Sheila
brought along her pink bubbly for the evening and we
scoffed that down. Now for the run itself though..

Sheilas chip time was 4:35:20, completing the first
10km in 1:12:01, first half in 2:23:30. Think that
also means she ran a negative split second half
being run in 2:11:50 if my maths is anything to go by.
She ran the whole way and felt not too bad after.
Pretty good considering she fell out the back door the
Wednesday before and twisted her ankle! She said she
had me and all my positive thoughts repeating through
her head all the way. Shame I seem to have misplaced
the positive thoughts. Anyway Sheila was 39th in her
category and 4967th overall.

As for me I was 5379th overall. Ran the first 10km
in 1:10:12, first half in 2:21:20 and chip time was
4:44:00. (although Im not sure about these splits
think they must be from start time rather than time we
actually crossed in which would mean I did first 10km
in 1:04 ish and first half in 2:15 ish which ties in
more with my own records). Splits as follows:

Mile 1 10.24 (Sheila goes behind skip to pee)
Mile 2 10.24 (up hill)
Mile 3 10.01 (still sort off up hill, first water
stop, boys kick bottles across road)
Mile 4 9.44 (enter Phoenix Park)
Mile 5 10.03
Mile 6 10.24 (take gel, drink water, top up water
bottle)
Mile 7 10.00
Mile 8 9.35 (leave Phoenix Park)
Mile 9 10.19
Mile 10 10.01 (steep but short up hill bit)
Mile 11 10.06
Mile 12 10.42 (long draggy up hill, wind in face,
take 2nd gel, drink water, top up water

bottle)
Mile 13 11.01
Mile 14 10.45
Mile 15 10.21
Mile 16 10.55
Mile 17 10.46
Mile 18 10.56 (right knee starts to hurt behind
knee, Sheila catches up after
waterstation, we run
together for a bit. Take 3rd gel, drink water and
dont top up water thing)
Mile 19 11.24 (send Sheila off on her own, have a
walk, feel knackered)
Mile 20 12.56 (have toilet stop (in a toilet unlike
Sheila), walk a bit, now its hot)
Mile 21 & 22 24.25. Works out at 12.13 each. (knees
hurt, nice man pats me on back
to keep me
going, lots of other people look as if they are in
agony
too, really
thirsty need water)
Mile 23 11.58 (right knee really starts to hurt v
painful. Figure out I need to finish as
quickly as possible and only way to do that is to run
as much as possible.
Do a funny limpy hobble run for a bit)
Mile 24 12.35 (another hill (well a pimple but it
looks like a mountain at this stage)
more water phew!)
Mile 25 10.59 (too many people around to walk)
Mile 26 11.18 (pain is nearly over!)
0.2 1.50 (that is definitely short but Im not
complaining!!!)

Only annoying part was no toilets near the start
thank god for McDonalds. I will never slag them off
again.

Met lots of nice people before, during and after the
run. Lots of support on route, with kids hanging out
for runners to High 5 them as they go past. Loads
of water and Gatorade stations, and portaloos on the
route. Funny though as every alley, road, skip or
tree for the first 10 miles seemed to have loads of
men down it peeing. Would have made for an
interesting photo!

Weather was good considering it was end of October
well a bit too windy in some places and too warm in
others. I even managed to get sunburnt slightly.

After finishing it was really hard to walk back to the
B&B we were half a mile max away from the finish and
it was tough going. I didnt really feel like eating
afterwards (unusual considering the amount we ate in
the days preceeding!). Feet were sore sort of
bruised feeling on the soles. Really felt it when in
the shower the non slip markings were agony on the
feet. Anyway recovered pretty soon after demolishing
the finishing bag snickers and headed on out in our
Finisher t-shirts to get bladdered only not so bad
as some we saw on the way home.

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Sheila's fecked

2006-10-30T15:19:00.000-08:00

well just a short message from Dublin. Sheila had a
good run - she even managed a negative split. I on
the other hand......at least I finished. Although
presently doing the never again thing.....

i don't think i ever made it clear this helping Sheila
with her training actually extended to running the
bleeding marathon as well but there we go. Much
bloody use she was as a running partner. She
disappeared behind a skip after about half a mile for
a pee and then I didn't see her again until mile 18 as
she tapped me on the shoulder as she shuffled on by.
anyway didn't really enjoy the 20 mile marker to the
end bit, my knees are broken and my backside hurts.

Anyway a couple of pieces of advice for tonight (I'll
bore you with the splits, and times later)
1) - Hannah don't bother trying to do more than one
marathon next year - you'll need time to get over the
first one
2) - all women - don't bother doing anything to your
bikini line in the week before a marathon. Chaffing
or ingrowing hairs are not a joke.

Apologies to anyone I led slightly astray - although
I'm sure it was only Val who had figured it all out.
Why else would I have been doing all those long
runs??????

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i've been concise for a change...............

2006-10-27T04:03:00.000-07:00

Oh my god Ive done it again. Old age is setting in
and I just cant seem to remember when I last wrote in
the blog! Must try harder.

Last update was from 15/10 Sunday shortish run.

Since then
Tuesday 17/10 club town run. Ran quickly round
again just about 4.5 miles cos we had a meeting
afterwards. Interesting point to run was injured man
lying in street in West Barnes.

Thursday 19/10 New Order concert in Glasgow so
unfortunately no intervals!! Think it was a good plan
though cos knees have gone all clicky. Very odd
feeling they are more numb but sometimes
hypersensitive than anything else. Maybe the dancing
helped???

Saturday 21/10 went for a run on my own. One of
those days were you drag yourself out and probably
shouldnt bother. Ran from East Links round John
Muir, over A1 to Hedderwick/North Belton etc and then
back through park to East Links. The run got a bit
better after 40 mins. Why is it when I started
running the first 5 minutes were the worst, you got
over it and then you ran on comfortably, and now its
the first 40? Must be a reason for it.

Sunday 22/10 a better run this time. Went with
Sheila from Belhaven through John Muir to North
Berwick Rd. Then turned round and ran back but over
A1 to Hedderwick/North Belton etc as per yesterday,
and back through the park to Belhaven. Made it to 10
miles today. It was ok Sheilas leek flavoured ice
cream wasnt great though!

Tuesday 24/10 I am knackered far too much work
going on. Luckily Sheila is heavily into her taper so
we did a slow run round town for about 4.5 miles. We
stopped to have a quick review of the Creel menu, but
unfortunately Frank caught us. Nevermind.. Ian
Sills gave me a row as I would bring the club into
disrepute (think we all contribute to that Ian).
Anyway bought Val a cake as it was her birthday on the
Thursday before nice wee snack for afters..

Thursday 26/10 had to get massaged due to knackered
knees. Due to overtight quads and not stretching or
doing enough strengthening stretching exercises. Am
going to have to do squats and lunges on a very
regular basis. Baah.thought running was meant to be
good for you?

Friday 27/10 just went out for a wee run this
morning. Twas freezing but as my day off I thought I
should. Just a wee light hearted trot through John
Muir. Trainers are now a bloody mess! Anyway am in
the middle of updating ipod so must get back to it
promise to update a bit sooner next time!

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a long awaited update...

2006-10-16T13:42:00.000-07:00

My computer has been broken and had to get it fixed -
its not even that old. Bloody technology.

Anyway my last entry was Sheila M & I and our long
trek through Oldhamstocks. Ran a few since then but
not sure they were all that exciting.

On 3/10/06 we went out on the town run it was dark
and wet. Couldnt hack it so only did about 4.5
miles.

Thursday 5/10/06 was the first handicap 5km around the
houses of the year. Tried to run a tactical race (ha
ha given that there were only 4 of us running I had
a one in 4 chance of winning, but unfortunately also
had a one in 4 chance of coming last.) Anyway didnt
set off too fast and tried to finish faster finished
fast but only as I stopped breathing half way down
Kellie Rd for the final time. Anyway final time was
25.11 about 30 secs slower than my fastest time from
last year. At least it wasnt slower than my slowest
time from last year. (and no, I wasnt last. Helpful
that Fay and I went first though.)

Sat 7/10/06 was Doon Hill race. I was marshalling
and at the last minute most club mates ended up doing
the same (even Ian Rowland who did start running but
had to stop to marshal at one point. And he still
finished faster than I would have if I had run the
whole way..) It was good to watch my marshalling
skills are improving. I managed to shout well done
to most folk running past. Obviously I didnt shout
anything at George Armstrong far too scared about
what he might have shouted back. Need to think about
how I progress my marshalling for next year Frank
suggested shouting very well done at a few people
think I might manage to build that into the
repertoire.

I had gone to bed on the Friday evening planning to
get up early to fit a 9 miler in before I had to go
and help out at Halhill, however my nice warm bed was
proving too hard to leave so unfortunately had to go
out for a trot in the pm. Did around 9 miles from
Sheilas through John Muir (although diversion round
West Barnes due to fact a very high tide meant there
was no path near the Biel burn. We ran on over the A1
and round Hedderwick, back to Belhaven with our
diversion through West Barnes again.

On Sunday 08/10/06 we headed out for a longer run, and
got some lovely weather again. Headed out from
Belhaven up to Eweford, Wester Broomhouse, Closed
Road, Spott, Second Ford, Pitcox, Stenton, on to
Luggate, round to Kippielaw, down to East Linton and
through John Muir to Belhaven. A good run with a few
hills in there, of which I ran up them
allexcept for the one out of Stenton. Got
halfway up that one and thought Id better conserve
some energy

Tuesday town run. Managed to keep going for over an
hour this week. Only cos Hannah was so excited about
getting engaged! (congratulations) We had lots to chat
about.

Thursday 12/10/06 intervals again. Ians says hes
trying to slow us down for winter dont think hell
need to do much where Im concerned. Legs seem to
quite like going slowly. Anyway did 12x400m in 2mins
45secs. Val and I obviously had the right idea as we
were able to speed up along the way. Others obviously
tried too hard at the beginning and started slowing
down by the end. Val also had a great plan of going
to the toilet in the middle. Must keep that in mind
for any hard sessions in the future.

Saturday 14/10/06 Val, Sheila and I headed out for a
long one. Unfortunately I didnt measure it in
advance. Anyway it was a nice day. Ran from
Belhaven, through John Muir, through path in field,
along by Tyne, crossed at Knowes and up towards
Lawhead, back through Smeaton and along the Tyne to
Knowes. Then we headed up to the A1 from Knowes and
crossed over the bridge and ran on to Biel (nice
hills) and joined the road from Stenton to Pitcox.
Once we got to Pitcox we agreed on shortest route home
down to roundabout on A1 and over shortcut to West
Barnes, along dump road and back to Belhaven.

Sunday 15/10/06 initially I thought about doing 9
miles, then 8, and by the time I actually headed out I
had got it down to between 3-4 miles. I ran from my
house down to Pinkerton, round the bottom of Doon hill
and on to Spott house. I was then going to run
through the field (as per Doon hill race) and round
back home. I got up the hill in the field and saw a
cow. On its own. I didnt stay long enough to check
it out it could even have been a bull. So that was
about turn and back the way I came. I ran through
Pinkerton again and run up the field they use in the
Doon Hill race. I made it up just and thought to
myself that it was hard enough doing that why on
earth would people run up that, turn right at the top
to run up the undulating road, then run up round the
field to the trig point? Madness.

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The greatest plans.....

2006-10-01T10:39:00.000-07:00

So Sunday the 24th September, Prestonpans half. An
excellent planor so we thought. Plan was for me to
get to Sheila Ms for 8:30, then head over to the Pans
to register between 9:00-9:40. It had been absolutely
pouring in Dunbar for at least 2 hours at that point,
but with my optimistic head on thought it might have
been nicer weather in Prestonpans. So we headed off
from Sheilas and drove to Prestonpans, thinking that
it was perhaps a bit damp to be running a race (ok so
the rain was like thunderstorm rain at times). As we
pulled into the car park, at about 9 so probably only
the really keen there so far, we noticed that 1 they
were mostly male, and 2 very skinny, serious looking
runners. The rain and the fact that only 80 had pre
registered led to us doing an about turn back to
Dunbar, planning to run the half distance once we got
back. Although the rain got heavier so we had
coffee and shortbread instead. Good training hey?

We did head out later on on the Sunday, at about 4pm.
The rain was now a light drizzle, although it was
still misty. We ran up from Belhaven to Eweford,
Wester Broomhouse, closed road to Spott. Then onto
the second ford and round to Pitcox, back along to
little Spott and down Daniels Brae and back up to
Spott. Then down to Spott roundabout, along the cycle
path to the other road into Dunbar near the cemetery.
Along into Dunbar, along the high street and down Back
Road to Belhaven. Felt a bit tough, but I kept it
going up all the hills, which is only about the second
time Ive managed to get up some of them. Needless
to say I was knackered afterwards!

Tuesday night was club night, but due to train
disasters only made it in time to head out with Hannah
and Jenny. We ran through the trees, up round Eweford
and down into West Barnes. From there we followed the
town route along shore road, up back road, down round
the harbour, and then along Spott road and Lochend
road back to the club. Variations on a theme for the
next 6 months I guess

Thursday night and guess who was the only woman
doing intervals? Yup you guessed it. There were only
four of us and needless to say there was a bit of a
gap between the other three and me. Anne was taking
the session as Ian was away camping in Geneva. Lucky
sod. Anyway the plan was to run 2x400m in 2.5mins,
1x800m in 5mins, 1xmile in 10mins, 1x800m in 5mins and
2x400m in 2.5mins. I decided to make life a bit
easier for myself and ran 2x400m in 3mins, 1x800m in
6mins, 1x1200m in 9mins, 1x800m in 6mins and 2x400m in
3mins. The session felt soooooooo hard and my legs
were allllll heavy. It was horrrrrrrrible.

On Friday my legs were sore.

On Saturday Sheila M and I went on a new epic
adventure. From Belhaven, up to Eweford, Wester
Broomhouse, Closed Road and then up behind Spott Home
farm. Down the Brunt and up the other side (although
I didnt run far up it..) along and round to
Aikengall. Then we ran over a nice wee path to
Oldhamstocks, along some roads and crossed over near
Torness to run round East Barnes, to Whitesands, round
the golf course, through town and round the cliff edge
and the Winterfield golf course back to Belhaven.
Lovely weather..and lots of mars bars.

Then my knee hurt. Still does a bit when I try and
do certain things with it so following my mums
excellent advice I just wont move it that way for a
bit

Lunch at Sheilas with Sheila K dropping in. She had
parked her boat for a wee stop and trip home. Off
again today I think with about another 4 weeks sailing
until shes made it round.

mud, mud, glorious mud....

2006-09-23T14:01:00.000-07:00

Oh my god I havent written for ages. Have no clue
what Ive done since the last time I wrote. To write
this will have to resort to the non technological
method of reading my paper running diary to figure it
all out.

Seems I havent written since my club on 12th Sept.
So first run after that was intervals on Thursday
14th. Hmmmm 4 brave souls turned up me, Fay, Ian
Sills and Grant. Ian Rowlands cycled down in order to
train us how crazy given the weather. Anyway for
some reason we thought it was a good idea to go ahead
and run. The plan was to do 4x400m (3 mins), 2x800m
(5 mins) and then a mile. We managed to run the
first two miles although we couldnt see for rain,
and I was slightly concerned about running in the
thunder and lightning. The track was a bit soggy and
waterlogged by then so we decided to call it a night.
Luckily for Ian R, Ian S had a spare top for him to
put on and we did decide it would be a tad crazy to
cycle home in that weather so Ian R got a nice lift
home to. Madness..

And on Saturday 16th there was even more madness..It
was the weekend of the Lammermuir circuit, and for
some reason I let Sheila M talk me into a half
marathon. We headed up into the hills about 13 miles
away from Halhill, and then ran back. Simple
really..except for the hills I guess. Weather was
weird pretty humid so warm and stifling. I ended up
walking up the Brunt (I did manage to run up it once
didnt really enjoy it then though). Sheila was
flying there must be something to be said for
sunbathing, drinking red wine and eating croissants
that means you put in a fantastic running performance!

After the run we all had soup and sandwiches. I could
barely talk I was so knackered. I havent been that
tired after a run in ages. (for those of you who know
me might not believe I couldnt talk but its true
you may think that was a blessing!)

On Sunday I could barely move. My legs were so sore
it was unreal. I decided to walk from Belhaven to my
house, around a bit of the coast to try to loosen off,
followed by a stretch. It helped ever so slightly.

And now onto this week crazy still. On Monday I
managed to get out of bed without too much pain so I
took a half day just to accompany Sheila on a nice
trot round Dunbar. Pretty much did the same route as
I did on the 10th (golf course, John Muir, Smeaton,
John Muir, Hedderwick, John Muir etc). Did a bit
longer but ran it slightly quicker (alarmingly)
although seemed to have more walking breaks this time
so that could explain it. Made it home before
midnight though so not all bad. My new trainers were
out on their second outing (1st was on Saturday).
Luckily Sheila hadnt put on her new ones as she
disappeared in mud up to her ankles at one point. Was
quite hilarious at the time, looked like she had
hiking boots on. Had they been new though we might
have cried..

Club on Tuesday good turnout for the ladies except
they all disappeared into the horizon not long after
we set off. Sheila, Vicky and I ran at the back
although quite brave for Sheila and I even to be
running I think! We headed out to Whitesands and ran
back along the golf course. Managed to run over the
course as nobody was out playing, so the ground was
more even although Sheila still found some hills for
me to run up!

I missed intervals on Thursday at a personal
development thing all about impact and image. Very
interestingso instead I ran a short one on Friday.
In the rain again. And the dark (well dusk, but I
guess well be back to town runs on Tuesday night).
Ran from East Links through the trees, round by the
farms (muddy field/muddy hill building) and back to
car park, along to burn, along burn and back to car
park. Tried out my new water belt thingy which seems
really comfortable but my arms are a wee bit tender
today so think I must have been bashing my arm off the
bottles. Must figure out how best to wear it low
slung seems to be best although the fashion for belts
this season is quite high waisted. Oh well..Ill
just have to be an unfashionable runner.

Quick update from Sheila K she was in Orkney on
Friday. No wind I cant believe that in September!

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2006-09-13T13:08:00.000-07:00

Did I mention I got a pb just over a week ago? Im
sure I didnt talk enough about that. It is such an
uncommon event that I think I might need to labour the
point a bit..Anyway it kept me happy for a bit but
is now a distant memory really. Onwards and upwards I
guess. (or downwards hopefully if we are talking
about times!)

Last Tuesday (5th September) Val took us out for a
hill & speed session. Now if you read running books,
runners world etc etc they will all tell you to focus
on either hills, speed or distance, but not to do more
than one of these at once. Maybe I should lend them
to Val? We headed out along Kellie Road and through
the new houses. At that point I thought I was doing
well, legs felt quite fresh and my race (and pb)
hadnt taken too much out of them. Then we headed up
the hill towards Spott. I realised that actually legs
werent quite so fresh, race had taken a bit out of
them and this was hurting (a bit). We turned to the
right and headed up to Wester Broomhouse. I checked
the time at the farm (less than 20 mins) and nearly
started to cry no way we had only been running for
that time. Although at that point at least we were at
the top of the hill and only had flattish and
downhills to get back to Halhill. Anyway, I survived
guess it wasnt so bad. I managed to keep up and it
was nice as all the ladies ran together (apart from
Clarissa who is still cheating by using a bike. Youd
think giving birth was difficult physically or
something. Anybody who watches Coronation Street or
Eastenders knows that you puff and pant a couple of
times and the whole thing is over in less than 25
minutes!)

Thursday night intervals. Enough said.

Na s'pose I better go into that in a bit more
detail. We did 2x800m in 5 mins, 2x400m in 3 mins,
2x800m in 5 mins and 2x 400m in 3 mins. Took it a bit
easier on the 800m (running over 400m is hard) and
then got a row from Ian for talking. Got beaten by a
young boy (definitely under 10) for the vast majority
of the session. Just when I thought I was running
well..

And Ian doesnt seem to have got the hint about
bringing me some sweets to make me run faster round
the track. (well it works for dogs and horses doesnt
it????) Val kindly made a cake for after the session.
Plum and walnut it was delicious!

Decided to do a mad long run again on Sunday. Great
the sun came out. I managed to drag myself out of bed
and started running at about 9:30. Trotted from
Belhaven up the back road towards town, along by the
Rocks and along the cliff path and golf course back to
Belhaven. Probably should have stopped there, but
no.ran on through John Muir Country Park, having to
stop every 5 feet to ensure I wasnt savaged by any
dogs, along clever field path and then along Tyne,
over the river at Knowes and up towards Lawhead. Then
along to Smeaton (I quite like this route in case you
are noticing a pattern), back along Tyne, clever field
path, up to old A1, across to Hedderwick etc, under
new A1, North Belton, John Muir Country Park, left up
to buildings and muddy hill/field in 5km route, back
through John Muir Country Park to car, stretch legs
and collapse. Easy.

Tip of the week I have discovered this walking
downstairs backwards thing after a long run really
does help!

And then this Tuesday did a nice flat one. Jenny
came back! Its always a good thing when a new member
comes back again.obviously didnt tire her out too
much the last session. We ran through the trees at
Halhill, took the road opposite sort of round Eweford
and then down to West Barnes. Dont know if there was
a diversion off the A1 or something but we were
getting a bit annoyed with the amount of cars speeding
past us. In West Barnes we ran down along the Biel
burn and into the park, along the road to the first
farm and round back through the trees, through the
park, up beside the hospital and back to Halhill.
(Sheila and Val ran back up to Halhill via the trees
ie the same way we left, and Hannah added a bit on
round town to get a longer one in).

And now all this running and writing I am knackered.
I will go and collapse on the sofa and watch you are
what you eat so I feel virtuous and that I have a
great diet. (although last week all that happened was
that I ended up really fancying a big creamy bun!)

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On a race high!!!!!

2006-09-03T10:44:00.000-07:00

Ive now written so many of these diary entries I
cant even remember what runs Ive got to talk
aboutI could just make a few up and test to see
whether anyone is reading.I havent had any comments
for ages not even dodgy ones!

Think I need to start with last weekend the 26th was
the Saturday and I was heading out for a medium long
run, as Id planned to do the truly long run on the
Monday bank holiday. So on Saturday I wasnt very
organised and hadnt even figured out what time I was
going to run or anything until about 10:30. I went
out and hid some juice in strategic places, came home
and started running at about 11:00. And sometimes I
wonder should I have bothered? I ran round the bottom
of Doon Hill, behind Spott Farm and then down
Starvation Brae into Spott. From there I ran down the
second ford and down beside Findlays spring water to
Pitcox. From there I went down to the A1 and then
along down to the old A1. This was the most exciting
part of the run some funny cycle race thing going on
down at the roundabout on the old A1. I then dragged
my weary self along the old A1 and crossed over to run
round Hedderwick, under the A1 and back to North
Belton etc and again towards the funny cycle thingy.
I went into John Muir and then ran shortest route
(well I say ran but I think that is well and truly an
exaggeration) back to the caravan park at Belhaven
where Brian was awaiting me to take me home. My
excuses are that the first part of the run was hilly
so I tired myself out, Ive been working hard, and
that the weather was sticky hot, humid and made it
hard to breathe. Otherwise known as not having a
great run..and I even had an energy gel. Think it
was faulty though certainly didnt give me any
energy!

Monday was loads better. I dropped Brian off for the
train at about 7:30, drove round to drop some juice
(and mini mars bars they must have made all the
difference) off at strategic points and then parked
the car and started running. Started at Belhaven and
ran up the back road, through Winterfield Park, down
the coast and round the golf course. I then headed
out through John Muir Country Park (detour to West
Barnes as the bridge was down and back into the park)
and along to the North Berwick Road. I then (rather
cleverly) followed the John Muir sign post through the
field, rather than taking a chance with my life on the
North Berwick road. Dont know how long the sign
post has been there but clearly Ive missed this whole
path thing for quite some time. Niftily it takes you
under the North Berwick road and to the path alongside
the Tyne that I normally run along. I then crossed at
the bridge at the ford at Knowes, ran up to Lawhead
and down through Smeaton to East Linton. From there I
ran back along the Tyne (and clever field path),
through John Muir but up at the first set of farms to
the old A1. Then up round Hedderwick, under A1, North
Belton, John Muir Country Park, left at farms to muddy
field thing, round usual route to Belhaven (detour
West Barnes bridge totally not across river at that
point) and halfway round golf course to finish. Did
pretty well, not many stops, no walking (except the
hill at the golf course at the end but for health and
safety reasons) and felt pretty good. Had to use Ian
as my new inspiration and motivation to keep moving
through had to keep thinking near the end, if Ian
can run 50 miles I can run another couple.

Tuesday though I was knackered. And I got to run with
Anne who even at her most knackered will be well
faster than me on Tuesday night runs. And Clarissa
who would have been a bit handicapped if running,
seeing as she hasnt done any in the past 10 months,
but no she was helpfully assisted by her bike. Anyway
kept it short (but not sweet as there were hills
involved.) Up through trees to Eweford, right at the
fork, up past houses (Pleasance?) and through grassy
field (again cleverly signposted but I did know that
this route existed) to Wester Broomhouse. Then ran
down to Spott roundabout, through trees and back to
Halhill. Well far enough for my weary legs.

Wednesday legs even wearier than yesterday. Watched
tele.

Thursday intervals. Ian seems to have recovered
from his 50 miler (came 3rd so maybe not quite so mad
to enter after all, although after Thurday's session I
still have some question over his mental state). We
had a lovely session of 4x400m, 4x200m, 4x400m,
4x200m. I cleverly sat out one the first of the
second set of 400m. I say cleverly because I ended
the 200m without being able to breathe very well, and
with quite short rest before the 400m so thought I
might end up knackering myself if I hadnt. Also,
legs still pretty sore..and I had a race on Sunday to
look forward too.

Friday rest day. Did good level of carbo loading at
work (ie eating junk food cos it was there)

Saturday rest day. Ditto Friday.

Sunday race day. Did the Glasgow 10k quite like
the route as its a good one for PBs. Weather was
conducive to good times (ie it was not too warm, and
drizzly all the way). And I got a pb need to wait
for the official times to come out though (so long as
chip worked).

Splits
1km 5.39
2km 5.24
3&4km 10.21 (ie average 5.10 each)
5km 5.23
6km 5.23
7km 5.09
8km 5.11
9km 5.08
10km 5.09

Annoying things
getting bunched in at the beginning (but that could
work as a good race ploy ensures you dont get away
too fast),
the last km has changed so actually big long stretch
of uphill (well ish as much as it gets in Glasgow
flat races, but still not a good place to stuff a hill
in)
not beating the girl I really wanted to beat to the
finish. I passed her on the final km but she passed
me going on the uphill (ish) bit
coffee shop near Glasgow Green took about 10 mins to
make four very expensive, quite crap takeaway coffees

Fantastic things
- getting a pb!!!!!! (previous pb 54.05 from this
route last year, this one 52.52 although will have
to check the official times)
- running a negative split 26:49 for the first half,
26.03 for the second the way it should be done
- legs feeling pretty good most of the way and having
a comfortable run (although obviously not that
comfortable)
- having by chance read something in a magazine (not a
running one) about ensuring your shoulders are relaxed
back and down when running, not tensed up, as this
will really help your breathing. (it works wish
someone had told me that ages ago)
- having to try to figure out how to beat this time!

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lots and lots of running.....

2006-08-24T13:25:00.000-07:00

Well I have been a naughty girl havent I? Its been
a while since I wrote in my diary so now I have an
epic tale to tellstarting over a week ago.

On Tuesday 15th we went out for a nice club run, on a
flat route around John Muir Country Park, taking it
easy in anticipation of the big hill that we would
have to run up the following night. We probably did
around 6.5 miles in total.

And then onto the big hillWednesday night was the
Carfraemill to Gifford run. Sheila decided we were to
run the whole thing (against my better judgement, but
my quad had been a bit niggly the previous night).
Any how, George Armstrong was being the sweeper at the
back, needless to say that he ran the whole run with
me! Im not so hot on steep hills (and I couldnt
breathe on the way up). Amazing views next year I
will set out a bit earlier and ensure no sore bits
before we start. At the bottom of the hill Sheila and
I met up again and got a lift back to the Goblin Ha
with Claire & co. Once there the plan was to have a
shower and head down for tea however I went in the
shower and shrieked a bit due to the fact it was ice
cold and ran back out again (Im not good with pain).
We then headed down for tea (poor portions for
veggies, ok for those eating meat. Sheila took pity
on me and gave me a few chips and one of her
profiteroles!). George made a few cheeky comments
about my plateau at a very low level. Cheek!

On Thursday I braved the intervals, even though my
legs were complete dead weights. (At least Im
committed). We were supposed to be doing 4x400m,
4x200m and 4x400m, I did 3x400m, 4x200m and 3x400m and
then a 200m relay. I was paired up with Grant for the
relay, (luckily) when I passed the baton over to
Grant I was in second place and Grant legged it round
the track as fast as possible to ensure we
won!!!!!!!!! Its been a long time since Ive won
anything so I was fair chuffed.

Saturday marked the day of an epic run for Sheila and
I. We set off at 8:00 and up round Winterfield golf
course, round by Eweford and down to West Barnes,
heading through John Muir Country Park to the North
Berwick road, We then ran along the Tyne and up to
Lawhead and then down the road past Smeaton garden
centre. From there we headed back along the Tyne
again and to the John Muir Park. After a quick Mars
Bar and lucozade break we ran through the park,
detouring round by some of the farms and East Links,
up the golf course part way and then back onto
Sheilas. Afterwards we had a well deserved cheese
scone and a coffee. I then headed on home to relax
and ended up spending the afternoon watching the
London tri and some athletics. Fantastic!

Following the epic journey I had some well deserved
rest time and the next run was Tuesday 22nd August
the final summer series race. I had persuaded Brian
to join me, as the run was only 5km and in Dunbar,
with a barbecue afterwards. There was quite a
gathering and in the spirit of being nice I suggested
Brian could go in front of me with a handicap of 28:30
whilst I had one of 28:00. I set off with Val and
Sheila and managed to keep up with Val for the first
7-8 minutes but then she was off. I kept it going
though and managed to pass a few folk so that I
finished in front of Fay and Sheila (not bad if youve
been reading about the poor performances Ive had in
other summer series races!) and had a time of around
25 mins. Brian the complete pain (Im not talking to
him for at least a week) had a time of under 24 mins
23:46 I think. How annoying with only one very slow
training run under his belt!!!! The barbecue after
was fantastic, ate far too much food and some people
maybe drank too much alcohol, (although not me I was
too thirsty after my exertions to be drinking
alcohol!)

On Wednesday I headed off to leg man for a wee leg
rub. Id forgotten how much it hurts. Especially
when you have tight bits! Ooowww. So the quads were
pretty bad bit lumpy bit in the middle, and the IT
band was pretty tight, especially where it joins the
knee, shins werent great whatever he did to them
was a really sore sharp sort of pain and then the
calves they are just something else. My calves are
so huge they are really fully grown heifers - if only
I could sell them off at market Im sure theyd fetch
a decent price.

And finally onto tonight another lovely set of
intervals. Tonights joy was 3x600m, 3x300m and
finally 3x600m. Wasnt too sure about it as I dont
really like anything over the 600m but actually it
wasnt too bad. Managed to whiz round the 300m ok,
but suffered for it on the first of the second set of
600m. Its all good fun really (easy to say a few
hours later) No relay tonight phew! So now Ian has
only a few days before his very epic journey no
doubt all will go well but had better wish a public
good luck message for his 50 miler! (That is totally
crazy why do I think its a good idea to go to
interval training with a clearly mad person doing the
coaching????)

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plodding along...

2006-08-13T10:05:00.000-07:00

Well another week running, another week getting
slowerOn Tuesday it was the second of the
Musselburgh ELSS races along by the river. Started
with Sheila M (which is always a bad move as I try to
keep up with her and then knacker myself). Finished
which is always a bit of an achievement in 37.48 but
did 37.17 last year. An extra 30 seconds? Where did
that come from? Consoled myself with egg sandwiches at
the end.

On Thursday it was intervals. Did 10x400m which feels
like an achievement in itself, although the fastest
one was only 1.48..could do better

Saturday I decided not to run at Haddington I had a
sneaky peak at last years results and realised I could
be in with quite a chance of being right at the back
of the pack and thought I didnt really need that so I
went out for a nice wee run, down through Pinkerton,
round the bottom of Doon Hill and behind Spott House,
down Starvation Brae, over to the first ford and up
Daniels Brae, down to Eweford cottages and along Biel
Burn to the caravan park where I was getting a lift
home. Made it up all the hills so was really chuffed,
although the breathing sounded pretty impressive on
the way up Daniels Brae.

In the afternoon I went to lend some support to my
fellow club mates by watching the end of the
Haddington half. I thought I got there just in time,
but missed the winner (caught everyone else though!).
Some pretty impressive runs, not least by our own
Stuart Hay who got a pb and won the prize for First
East Lothian Male. Pretty damn good hey? Ill need to
figure out what his trick is.

And today I planned on going out for a long one (well
longer than yesterdays 9 miles and possibly even up to
15). I went out the same route initially as yesterday
running round Pinkerton and round the bottom of Doon
Hill. Then I headed down towards the Spott round, by
the house with the big red chimney. I headed up the
closed road and then along the grassy field at Wester
Broomhouse to get to the road to Pitcox. There I got
mildly attacked by two dogs good job their owners
were present to hold them whilst I went on took a
while to catch them though! I ran onto Pitcox (yet
more hills) and then down to the A1, and down to John
Muir country park. I ran along the old A1 for a bit
until I came to the gate into John Muir that we use on
club nights and in the festive 10km and then ran back
along to East Links where Brian was waiting for me
with some juice. I had a slurp or two of energy then
set off with Brian to run the 5km route in advance of
the 22nd. It was hell. All that sand with very tired
legs is not a good idea. Hopefully it will be better
on the 22nd. And this week for some mad reason Im
running Carfraemill to Gifford (transport permitting).
All this running aint doing much good to my times
though. Dont fancy Stuarts training approach though
run 30miles one weekend and then 13.1 is easy the
next!

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Feeling better.........until I did a Sheila

2006-08-07T13:33:00.000-07:00

So now Ive recovered from my bug, Ive been trying to
catch up on the running..Last Tuesday night we had a
committee meeting, which was a blessing in disguise as
that meant I could only do 4-5 miles before hand. We
set off from Halhill and ran down to West Barnes,
through John Muir Country Park, turning back once we
got to the East Links farm park. From there we ran
back along another track to the Biel Burn, ran along
the burn to West Barnes, up at West Barnes to Eweford
and back to Halhill via the trees. Last week the
women were severely depleted in number, with only 4 of
us there. That meant Anne and Hannah ran on and Val
and I ran together Val certainly kept me going
thats for sure!

Thursday night was interesting although not sure our
brains were working properly when we decided what we
were doing. There were only 5 of us Ian Sills,
Stuart, Anne, Val and I, so Ian decided we could form
two teams and run a 10km relay. For some reason we
decided boys against girls. The boys doing 400m each
and the girls doing 200m. They only finished about 7
minutes in front of us (?) but it is the fastest time
Ill ever get for a 10km run (42.32 for the girls
against my pb of 54.05). As I joked to Val after we
could give that method a try at the next boundary race
Anne could run the first 4km, Ill do the next 3 and
Val can have the final 3 and the glory leg it could
work..

On Saturday I thought Id better attempt a longer run
I set out from mine and ran around the cement
factory, along Whitesands and round the golf course to
pick Val up at her house. I left at 9 but even then
it was roasting hot. Just as I got close to Vals, I
did a Sheila. Yup I tripped up on some uneven
ground and went flying in a superb superman fashion.
Shame my knee and hand didnt think it was quite so
superb. Lucky I did it just before Vals as she
tended to my knee before we carried on. Although
carrying on wasnt easy it was so warm, and clearly
I ran out of energy as I was zapped out as we came
back along the beach. On running up the back road we
bumped into Clarissa so got our first glimpse of baby
Holly too. So generally a good run, although I was a
bit disappointed with the poor performance in the
second half poor Val was being held up a bit!

On Sunday I decided to see if my knee was still
working (it is, sort of, but I have a pretty
impressive bruise and some nice grazing that makes my
knee look a bit like a 5 year olds) surely you are
meant to grow out of all this falling over malarkey???
Anyway I ran cross country round the bottom of Doon
Hill, up behind Spott Home Farm etc, along to the road
to Spott, down Starvation Brae (which was difficult as
knee was tender, although I still think running down
is the wise option), down to Doon Bridge, up beside
the house with the red chimney, up round the bottom of
Doon Hill to Pinkerton and back home. It was windy
and therefore felt cooler (and probably was about 5
degrees cooler than Saturday, but still over 20 which
is way too hot for a sensitive northern girl like me!)

So hopefully the bug hasnt had too many lasting
effects on my fitness, certainly none of the runs was
particularly easy feeling and limbs were a bit tired
so now Im back on the pasta and chocolate to try to
rebuild the energy stores. Shouldnt take me too
long..

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I wrote this yesterday - damn technology....

2006-08-01T03:54:00.000-07:00

Well its that time of year for my mid year performance
review at work, so whilst its been gorgeous sunshine
for the most part today Ive spent a considerable part
of it in front of my pc reminding myself what a great
employee I am..
Therefore I thought Id spend a bit more of the day
doing a mid year review of my running performance for
the first half of 2006 but unfortunately its not going
to be anywhere near as good as it would have been (PB
wise) last year. Anyway.here is the low-down.

Have worn out two pairs of trainers and (fingers
crossed, touch wood etc etc) the third seem to be
doing ok
Have bought no big gadgets so far
Have been for a number of deep tissue sports massages
due to tight spots
Have consistently been running four times a week (and
sometimes more)
Have now been going to interval training for about a
year
Im now on my fourth running log (so entries like this
are a complete pain in the butt)

Anyway races:

05/03/06 Lasswade 10 miles official time 1 hr
37:14 *PB* (2005 time 1hr 38:05)
12/03/06 Inverness ½ - official time 2hr 06:18 (PB
at time 2hr 04:57 Jedburgh 2005)
26/03/06 Edinburgh ½ - time 2hr 07:07 official
time could be anyones guess. PB above
01/04/06 Dunbar 10km 55:02 (PB 54:05 Glasgow Sept
2005; Dunbar 2005 55:09)
23/04/06 Grangemouth 10km 55:39 (PB above;
Grangemouth 2005 56:08)
21/05/06 Britannic 10km 55.03 (PB above; Britannic
2005 55.56)
27/05/06 Loch Leven ½ - 2hr 05:03 (PB above Jed;
Loch Leven 2005 2.07.57)
23/06/06 Haddington 5 miles 45.23 *PB* (by default
never done before!)
11/06/06 Glasgow RFL 5km 25.25 (2005 time 24.41)
25/06/06 East Kilbride ½ - 2hr 03.45 *PB*

So performance so far not bad I guess 3 PBs out of
10 races not great but out of the 6 races that I also
ran in 2005, I ran 5 of them quicker in 2006. (If only
you could have race specific pbs instead of distance
specific!!!)

Also have upped distance this year although a bit
scary as yesterday Sheila M and I ran in one day what
I would have run in 2 weeks in the early part of 2004!

Quick run down for the week
Tuesday club night, the weather was hot and I was
nicely sticky! Who says women dont sweat??? Anyway
attempted a run through Halhill trees up round Eweford
and down to West Barnes along the Biel burn and back
to Halhill. Breathing a bit difficult hopefully
because Ive been without my performance enhancing
drugs (also known as inhaler) for a week and a half.
Struggled along and collapsed into cold shower.

Wednesday was 4 mile Haddington summer series race. On
a positive note both Sheila M and I went the correct
way this time. On a more negative note it was far
too bloody warm to be running. I must have thought
this on the way through Lennoxlove and for some reason
thought a little walk would be more pleasant, although
started a light trot again as I was overtaken by
George Armstrong. Haddington and I dont seem to mix
on a race front (not on that route anyway) as I also
got a stitch funnily enough at the 5 mile race I got
a stitch and walked there too.

Thursday was intervals and was slightly cooler than
Wednesday. Did 12x300m with a decent rest as Ian was
taking pity on us as we had run hard the previous
night. Managed to beat Ann on one of the warm up
sprints (no doubt as she was conserving energy but may
as well boost myself with the thought). On the last
300m managed to finish in 1min12 but was aiming for
1min 10 so need to push even harder next time.

And then onto Sheila M and mines epic journey across
East Lothian yesterday. We ran from mine to town,
picking up Val on the way. Then round the harbour, up
by the pool, round by the cost and Winterfield golf
course. Sheila was concentrating too much on the
golfers and not on the path and did a spectacular
side-twist somersault unfortunately missed her
footing and landed on the ground (ok she fell then).
After all the golfers rushed to her aid she managed to
get up and trot on through John Muir Country Park,
down North Berwick road to the Tyne, along the Tyne to
East Linton, through East Linton, along the Tyne to
Hailes Castle and then on into Haddington for lunch at
Poldrates. We had a couple of wee stops on the way
(ok a picnic or two) and a lovely large lunch at the
end. I didnt measure as was too hot for gps all the
way but based on previous measures it was between
17.5-18 miles. Well deserving of a slap up lunch.
Ian is in no danger of me joining in his 50 miler
thats for sure not sure if Ill ever manage to find
these long distances any easier.

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Feeling crap - please give sympathy generously....

2006-07-30T11:32:00.000-07:00

Well my diary update really will be a short one this
week have only done one run since my last entry.
Not through choice either have been feeling shocking
so no running done since last Tuesday club night (not
that you can really call that running either!) So
last Tuesday we ran up towards Spott, turning off to
run up Brunt hill and then back down to the club. My
legs were a bit achy (ok on the really hilly bits they
were burning) and all I think is that it must have
been a while since Ive done hills and that maybe Im
not running so well at the moment. Plus Im not that
good in the heat and it was 27C + when setting off.
Ignored the fact that actually I felt a bit shit on
the train on the way home..ooops.

Well as I discussed with Sheila sometimes you feel a
bit shit cos you have been working hard and cant be
bothered and sometimes maybe your body is trying to
tell you something, and it can be hard to figure out
which is which. Ill maybe try harder next time
though.. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were spent
trying not to puke with an appetite returning Saturday
morning, alongside some slight nausea and stomach
cramps. My thoughts are mild heat exhaustion or
whatever, as stupidly had been sitting out in the
midday sun at work for a meeting, boiling my blood but
not stating this so we could move into the nice air
conditioned building. Then I tried to run..

So at least my legs have had a well deserved rest,
hopefully Ill still be able to run when I give it a
go on Tuesday. Its meeting night so at least it will
be only a short one. Also seeing as I wouldnt have
been able to run on Saturday Im quite glad I went to
the airshow rather than Musselburgh. The parachutists
alone were worth it - phwoar

Also more news on the baby front Clarissas baby
arrived (with a bit of cajoling) so we now have two
new juniors Holly (Clarissas) and Aidan (Karens).
I guess Id better stop feeling sorry for myself as I
bet Clarissa had a worse time of it than me.

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post holiday blues

2006-07-16T11:52:00.000-07:00

Ive been away on holiday so at least I have an excuse
for my lack of diary entries; however it now means I
have a huge number of runs to write about.

I went out and ate some sweets that Tuesday 04/07/06
Im sure it helped fuel me round the run later on. We
ran from Halhill out through the trees and round the
Eweford cottages, down to West Barnes, along to East
Links Farm Park and back to Halhill via the hospital.
I felt reasonably well considering the trek Sheila and
I had ran the day before.

On holiday I tried to run, but really the motivation
wasnt high. In Harrogate I ran for over 5 miles,
running round 3 different parks twice each. Flat as
pancakes but warm and muggy. Did a bit of fartleking
for the last 5 minutes or so trying to persuade
myself that I had put some effort in!

In the Lake District I had to try to find somewhere
flat-ish to run. We were staying north of
Bassenthwaite Lake so ran on a wee road near there
it was only mildly undulating. The weather was
cooler, windy and a bit damp and only managed to keep
going for about 4.5 miles here. Read a book about the
Bob Graham round and thought Ian R could make that his
next challenge all this hill training he is doing
should be good practice!

Then I did another run around Gretna motivation at
an all time low (plus Id run out of inhaler whilst
still in Harrogate, so Im convinced this wasnt
making the running any easier!). Did about 5 miles
but still struggled. Nice hotel and no we didnt get
married.

Arrived home this Wed and headed out for Sheila Ks
leaving tea. Had a good night (apart from knocking my
full glass of wine all over the table), but am so
jealous of Sheila leaving her job to go and sail round
Britain and then to spend time with her partner
crewing on boats. How fantastic. Really must figure
out something cool to do with my life

On Thursday I eased myself back into interval training
lucky me. Did 4x400m warm up, followed by 20x200m
in what started out as being 1min30secs but I think
Ian took pity and gave us a bit more rest. This was
then followed by another relay this time 2x400m.
Trying to run for a full 400m without breathing was a
bit of a challenge lets just say I was glad when we
had finished.

Friday morning Sheila and I headed out for another
long one at 8:30am. We ran up the back road, round
Winterfield golf course, through John Muir to the
North Berwick road, up to Lawhead as per the festive
1/2, along to Smeaton garden centre, down to East
Linton, along the Tyne back to the North Berwick Road
and back through John Muir to Belhaven. It was warm
but a nice breeze to help us on the way. The mini
Mars bar halfway really helped though.

And finally on Saturday, in a fit of madness
considering how stiff Id been on Friday pm after our
long run, Sheila, Val and I ran again. This time a
shorter run along the beach at Belhaven and through
the park. Phew at last I am back to present.
Unfortunately I have work tomorrow and am now feeling
that terrible dread of having to return to work. Oh
well, will just need to book in some more holidays..

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2006-07-04T05:58:00.000-07:00

Well another late entry.Im so tardy! Some people
actually write in their blogs every day, and I
struggle on to do it once a week! What a week!

On Tuesday at club there were only 4 women Anne,
Fay, Val and I. We ran from the club up round
Eweford, under the A1 and the right fork in the road
up towards Pitcox. We then turned along to Little
Spott, ran down Daniels Brae and up the other side
towards Spott. From there we ran down to Spott
roundabout and back to Halhill via the trees. Val and
I ran together enjoying the weather and the scenery
and chatting about Vals sons wedding at the weekend
past. It felt a bit tough on the way up (well I guess
East Kilbride gave me a bit of an excuse to have sore
legs) but better once we reached Spott.

Intervals on Thursday were interesting we did
12x400m in 2 mins 45 secs. Not great if you are at
the slower end you get enough time to run, stop,
start breathing, quick swig of water and you are off
again. And after all that we did 2x200m relay
(male/female pairings). That was good better than
the last relay I attempted anyway. Managed to pass
over the stick! And Ross and I came second.Jennifer
managed to get a huge head start on the ladies leg, so
Ross did a good job on trying to close it down.

On Saturday, in the heat, I decided to go a long run
by myself. Mad I know but never mind. I headed out
with GPS, ipod, camelback you name the gadget I
probably had it with me. I ran down past the cement
factory, along Whitesands, round the golf course to
town, round the harbour and along the boundary race
route on the cliffs. Then round Winterfield golf
course, which was 8 miles at the end of the golf
course. Then through John Muir to the North Berwick
road, along the NB road for a bit and then ran along
the Tyne to the Ford, crossed the bridge and ran along
the Tyne again to Preston Mill. I hadnt quite run
enough by then (although I had run out of water and
was sweating like a pig) so did a wee loop at Preston
Mill to bring the total to 15 miles longest ever
run. Didnt stop much either (although I was taking
it pretty easy most of the way!)

On Saturday afternoon my brother, fiancé, mum and dad
came over for a barbecue so I got to restock on some
of the calories I had used up. This was the first
time Id seen my brother in 2 years as he has been out
in New Zealand and my first meeting of future sister
in law. All was good especially judging by the
amount of beer and wine bottles that needed to be
recycled the next day.

And madness of all madness yesterday Sheila M and I
headed out on another long run. This time the weather
was more in our favour, cooler but still muggy. We
hit some juice and water as well so dehydrating was
not a problem. We ran from mine again, same route
round the golf courses to Belhaven, then through the
park heading towards the NB road but turned left at a
farm/some cottages about a mile from NB road. We
headed back along the A1 until the road to East Links,
ran down there and to the left to add some distance by
doing a short loop round the farm and down to the
sandy bridge, then back through John Muir Country Park
and back to Sheilas. Another 15 miler (although the
GPS gave up the ghost after about 6 miles needs
another battery!)

So since yesterday Ive not been able to stop eating
today Im trying to be a bit healthier but after four
large oatcakes, half a pineapple and two rolls I think
Im going to give in and go and get some sweeties.
Anyway Im going for a run tonight so that should help
burn some off! (Thank God its meeting night and I have
an excuse for a short run

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Success at last

2006-06-25T11:59:00.000-07:00

Managing to build the running back up a bit this week,
although not quite to the higher levels it was at a
few weeks back.

Tuesday night was another summer series race, this
time in Musselburgh. The route was a shade under 5km
but still around the 3 mile mark, running round the
race track. It was nasty weather raining with a
cold breeze, but deceptively warm (which you only
figured out when you where running and feeling a tad
too hot). I did ok, although 3 people passed me
(cheeky). Did 24.05 and came 5th female. What was
scarier was the chat in the pub afterwards when Stuart
was getting advice from all parts on how to get under
3 hours for a marathon (involved lots and lots of high
mileage running). Anyway one useful titbit of info
was for anyone training for a marathon to run a 10km,
10 mile and half marathon race in the 6-8 weeks before
the marathon and to add the times together to get
quite an accurate view of what time you could do in
the marathon itself. Interesting huh?

On Thursday night Fay and I went for a run about
Dunbar. Some of the club had headed down to Norham
for the two banks challenge about a 2 mile race. I
needed to head out for something a bit longer and also
was a bit late leaving work so wouldnt have made the
Norham run anyway. We ran down the back road, along
shore road and up past the hospital to Eweford. From
there we ran up the right fork in the road to the
pleasance, and up to Wester Broomhouse, down the
closed road and back to Spott roundabout. From here
we headed down Kellie road, along a trail onto Lochend
road (one of many shortcuts to use in the next 5km
handicap around those parts) and along into town. We
ran round the harbour before getting back to Fays
about a 7 miler.

And today Sheila M and I headed over to sunny East
Kilbride to take part in the Diet Coke ½ marathon.
Well it seemed a good idea at the time (and that time
was shortly after finishing Loch Leven ½ frustrated
due to the head wind!). We left Dunbar at about 7.15
am but everything ran pretty smoothly and we arrived
at the park and ride in EK at about 8:30. A shuttle
bus took us to the start where there were toilets and
an area to leave your bags etc. We started on the
race track to take part in a two loop race, as there
was also a 10k event on. The race basically loops
round loads of roundabouts, you go up a hill, then go
round all the roundabouts again, go up the hill and
then a couple more roundabouts and a trail through
some trees and then you finish. The organisation was
great, the marshals good and probably as many
spectators as you would get in an Edinburgh race
(which granted isnt that many, but they were good).
The roads themselves were a bit uneven I fell at a
hole in the road after the 2 mile mark, went down with
a bit of a thump, and left an even bigger hole in the
road. Lets just say I didnt do that again on the
next run round.

So the splits (I think the markers were out again):
At the 2 mile marker (missed the 1 mile sign) 17.43
(average of 8.51 per mile)
Mile 3 10.09
Mile 4 8.48
Mile 5 9.23
Mile 6 9.26
Mile 7 10.15 (took a gel there)
Mile 8 9.03
Mile 9 9.52
Mile 10 9.09
Mile 11 10.07
Mile 12 10.25 (could have done with another gel)
Mile 13 8.18
Mile.1 1.01
Total 2.03.45. Have just checked the website and
this is my official time. And that = a pb for me!
(previous pb 2.04.57). Even with falling over (which
might have been a smart move as next year hopefully I
will be able to beat this, so long as I dont fall
then!) At last.

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2006-06-18T08:10:00.000-07:00

Ive not much to say this week as I was so tardy
last week with my blogging, Ive only done two runs
since my last entry (its not only my blogging that is
getting tardy).

On Thursday at intervals we were doing 16x300m in 2.15
mins (I think). I missed two to enable breathing on
most of the others. It was a good session (as the
interval was less than 400m) but tiring!

On Friday Sheila M had a curry night, as some runners
from her old running club (Whitehorse Harriers) were
up for the weekend. It was a good evening Sheila
has started early on the wine so it was an interesting
night. Although you have to watch out when you head
round to hers for coffee in case you get the dodgy
mug. Very off-putting. Still Karen hasnt had her
baby and Clarissa has about 3 weeks to go! Ann had
provided a lovely chocolate mousse cake for pudding
will need to build in some extra runs to burn it off.

On Saturday I fully intended on going for a run to
burn off some of those calories however the last few
weeks have wiped me out and I was far too tired to
even think about running. Instead I persuaded Brian
to go for a walk with me round the bottom of Doon Hill
and then back over the top to home. We probably
covered about 4 miles, which is better than nothing.

On Sunday (today) we were meeting at Sheilas at 10 to
go for a run along the beach with the Whitehorse
Harriers. I had already decided to add some distance
on by running down to Sheilas via the cement factory,
the golf course at Whitesands, and the golf course at
Winterfield. Unfortunately the detour would have
taken more than an hour and I couldnt drag myself out
of bed early enough. I ate a banana flavoured Go
(SIS) bar for breakfast when still asleep and dragged
myself out of bed at about 8:30. (In the words of
George Gilhooley they are minging by the way) I left
the house at about 9 and ran to town and then round
the cliffs and the golf course at Winterfield before
picking the others up at Sheilas. From there we ran
through John Muir to the sandy bridge and came back
along the beach. It was tough going along the beach
as the tide had just gone out and the sand was a bit
gloopy. Also everyone else was quite fresh whereas I
was knackered!

For some reason I have entered the East Kilbride half
marathon next week so I was glad to get a longer run
in before that (I think the run today was about 10
miles). I knew the course was a two loop route before
entering but only just figured out that means that I
will probably get lapped by the really fast runners at
the front that might be a bit demoralising!

I am now surfing the internet for some new toys to
buy. Im thinking of a nice pair of MBTs (not very
trendy looking but apparently good for joint pain,
muscle pain, back pain, posture and getting rid of
cellulite! And all for just over £100..sounds too
good to be true)

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It's getting hot out there....

2006-06-13T14:29:00.000-07:00

Well this has been a bit of an uneventful easy week
for me. Due to the change in weather a few shorter
runs but nothing substantial.

On Tuesday I was late for club and as it was AGM night
I only had time for a short one. Good job really due
to the heat. I ran along the road to the Hospital,
through and up to Eweford, under the A1, along the
other side of the A1 to Spott roundabout, crossed over
and back to Halhill via the trees. As I knew I only
had time for a short one I tried to go fast,
unfortunately I had not taken any water with me and it
was sooooooooooo hot that I was more than glowing upon
my return to Halhill.

On Wednesday it was the first of the East Lothian
Summer Series races in Haddington. I remember this
one from last year it took place on a hot evening
and because of that it was a pretty tough run. This
year as well as Haddington, Musselburgh and Dunbar
runners there were a Jog Scotland group as well the
Georgettes (as George Armstrong is coach). It was
good to have some other runners there and a greater
variety in speed. It also meant there was less danger
of Sheila M or I going first and getting half of the
runners lost in a field somewhere! Anyway Sheila M
set off with a handicap of 27 minutes and I went with
27 mins and 30 secs (1 min less than last year!) and I
ran it in 27 mins and 22 secs, and managed to beat
Sheila M time-wise (she did 27 min 42 secs but every
second counts!!!!)

On Thursday Sheila M and I had intended on getting in
a longer run as all the runs so far this week had been
quite short. Initially it was going to be 12 miles,
then 10-12, then 8-10 and we actually ended up going
on quite a flat 8 mile route, and walking bits of it!
We think we managed to run about 6 miles though, and
it was very hot. We set off from Belhaven and ran
through John Muir Country Park, crossing over the A1
to run round some farms (Biel/Ninewar????) and back
via North (or South?) Belton Farm and along the A1
back to Belhaven. We were starving by the end (well
it took us a while due to the walk breaks, and getting
lost in some trees when we were trying to find a new
route).

At the weekend I had a 5k in Glasgow the womens
race for life. It is the first race I ever ran and
have now completed 5 of them in a row. Unfortunately
my successive streak of improvement stopped this year.
My first race for life I did in 32.??, the next in
28.??, then 26.?? and last year 24.41. So it was
going to be a hard task to improve on last year, and I
didnt manage to. Excuse wise again it was very hot,
and also I managed to put my back out getting into the
car on the way there which nipped a bit for the first
couple of kilometres. Splits were 1st km 5.26;
2nd km 5.07, 3rd km 5.20, 4th km 5.00, 5th km
4.29. So I had managed to pick it up after the 3rd km
but just too late to do my time justice, final time
was 25.25. Anyway, I beat Heather from the Weather
(and probably over 10,900 others) with my dad saying I
was within the first 20-30 to cross the line. So I
guess its not all bad (also shows you that not many
club runners run these races!)

And tonight is Tuesday club night. The womans
section is growing and growing. So tonight a pack of
9 women headed out and this wasnt all of our female
members. We ran up through the trees at Halhill to
Eweford, ran under the A1 up to Wester Broomhouse,
down the closed road (Ossie Dean), across and up Doon
by the farm, through the field and down through the
farm. We came to a locked gate so had to climb the
wall and drop down at the other side. It was a bit of
a sight with me being the only scaredy that didnt
want to drop (and didnt want help in case I hurt
anyone!) From there we headed back down to the A1,
crossed at Spott roundabout and back through the trees
to Halhill. It was a good run (apart from the hills)
and I gave my new trainers an airing. I have no clue
now about trainers and what I need. It seems to
change every time I speak to someone different (and I
think it depends on what the most expensive shoe in
stock is). Im now running in a pair of Asics clouds
they are nice and fluffy! Lets see if they last
any longer than my last two pairs.

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The easy way to get a pb....

2006-06-04T11:46:00.000-07:00

Oh dear things went a bit downhill after Loch Leven
especially the food! Sheila Morrison and I headed
along for a mid afternoon snack to an Inn in Kinross
that had been recommended to Sheila think someone
was having a rather cruel joke. Good old Scottish
hospitality won the day though we asked for a
starter each with a portion of chips and vegetables to
share however you would have thought that wed asked
for monkey brains and crocodile meat the way they
looked at us. In the end we got our starters with
chips on a plate like you would a main course. The
food was so good.not! Sheila had salmon quiche made
with tinned salmon, frozen chips and frozen veg (it
was hot when we ate it but clearly had come from the
freezer) and I had lovely battered mushrooms (so good
that I gave Sheila one to try with absolutely no
hesitation) that were pretty greasy with the same
frozen chips and veg. Nice.

On Monday Sheila M, Val and I went out for a run
through John Muir Country Park, reverse of the 5km
handicap route we run. It felt hard although we kept
it going not bad for me two days after running a
half marathon.

But Tuesday was a different matter.Sheila M, Sheila K
and I were all pretty knackered so only managed to run
through the trees to the Spott roundabout, along the
A1 at the other side of the Spott roundabout, through
to Eweford and round the farm and back to Halhill.
Think we managed about 3 mile in all, with walk
breaks! Not so good hey? But then we took Sheila K
out for her birthday tea (well only two months after
the birthday but at least we remembered!)

On Thursday I couldnt make it for the 5km handicap
run but arrived in time to see the finish Sheila M
won! She did a good time given the surface, and the
handicap must have been well timed as everyone did
just about finish at the same time. I was going to go
out for a wee trot on my own but had a stinking
headache and my heart wasnt in it so did some
hovering instead well its sort of exercise isnt it?

Saturday was Haddington 5 mile race. Ive never run a
5 mile race before so anytime I did would be a pb.
With this thought in mind Ive scoured the fixtures
list for other funny distance events that Ive never
run before, as this is definitely the easiest way to
get a pb. So some useful races are: Milnathort Dash
5.5 miles, Moffat Gala festival take your pick from
15km, 4.5km and 2.5km, Dundonald 10.5km, Ceres 8 mile,
Canal Canter 7km, Graham Clark Memorial 3.9miles and
so on (note how I didnt quote the 50 miles and 100km
races Im not that desparate for a pb!).

Also if you are really cunning you would run the first
one at quite a steady pace so you could quite easily
get another pb next year when you run the distance
again! Although I would like to point out that my not
so good performance at Haddington wasnt due to this
thinking but more due to eating far too much too close
to start time and giving myself a pretty major stitch
which required both hands gripping it and some walking
just to manage to finish. Im not even going to
embarrass myself by putting my splits in my blog!
Well done to all the other Dunbar runners though!

And today.Sheila and I had a 15 miler planned, which
would be the longest run Id ever done. Sheila said I
wasnt to put this in my blog and just to tell
everyone how long wed been on our feet, however I
must say that we probably only ran between 12-13 of
the 15 miles (or 14.7 according to GPS). The route
had a few hills in it, and although cooler than
yesterday when racing at Haddington, it was pretty
humid and hard when running through the sheltered
bits. We ran from Belhaven, through John Muir Country
Park, along the Tyne to East Linton, up to Stenton
(thats where the walking started to come in) had a
quick peek in the art gallery and got some extra water
there, along to Pitcox (luckily running as Jim and Val
passed us on their bikes), along and down to Eweford
and back to Belhaven.

And one of our key topics of conversation was the need
for better running pants last week at Loch Leven we
didnt have enough time to sort ourselves out before
running which led to some nasty chaffing (for Sheila).
Also cotton numbers are just no good in this hot
weather (as per cotton t-shirts they are not very
breathable, hold the sweat (nice) and dont dry very
well) but also man made fabrics have their own
problems. Sheila thinks she has come up with a
cunning plan to stop pants chaff..although I think
its a bit dodgy and not sure Ann Summers stocks
enough pairs to sort out the all of the female runners
in Scotland. Do men have the same problem? What is
the answer?

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Cow hunting...

2006-05-28T10:56:00.000-07:00

So last week (15/05/06 21/05/06) was a low mileage
week only 17.2 miles covered in the week. This week
has been a bit higher (22/05/06 28/05/06) as I
managed to run about 22.85 miles (although the quality
was variable..)

On Tuesday 23rd Id been running a training course at
work and had to dash back to make it to club just
about on time. Luckily Sheila K was also late so we
set out for a run together after the other ladies had
headed off. I call it run..but I think that would
probably be a breach of the trade descriptions act.
Actually we went for a shuffle slightly faster than
walking pace around the beach and cut back across
and round John Muir, without actually running through
any of the trees. We were both a bit knackered.

On Thursday at intervals we ran a pacing session at my
request. It seemed to have helped before Jedburgh so
thought I would give it a go although it took some
of the ladies a wee while to get the hang of what they
were supposed to be doing. As I was running the half
on Saturday, I got to run at my half marathon pace (or
actually what I would like to be my half marathon pace
of 2hrs for the half). This was a lot slower than
usual interval pace and did take a bit of getting used
to. Anne was spot on nearly with her session she
was only 4 seconds out in total, which is pretty good.
I was thirty something seconds out. Oops. We ran
4x400m, 2x800m and 1x1mile all at the pre determined
times, without any watches. I like this session its
good fun!

And then Saturdaywhat a disaster! Sheila M and I
set off at about 11, only to find her car had no
diesel in it and we had to detour to the petrol
station. We then got on the way to find a huge queue
at the bridges there were road works on, and it was
a holiday weekend. We decided to detour again via
Kincardine Bridge, only to arrive in Kinross at 12:50,
when the race started at 1:00. We abandoned the car
and ran to the start (about a mile warm up at quite a
fast pace). We grabbed our numbers, haphazardly
pinned them to our chests, and went round the side of
the building to get rid of the excess fluid we had
consumed in an effort to start the race well hydrated
(I pity anyone who decides to go for a walk down that
nice country path there are now a few rivers that
never flowed there before!) We got to the start line
and I was still trying to arrange myself so that I was
comfortably for the run and the hooter sounded! I
couldnt believe it Ive never been so ill prepared
for a race start. Never mind the energy and stress we
had used/built up swearing at all the bloody caravans
on the way! And the wind! What a pain. Although I
was top of the class at higher geography, Im not very
good at figuring out wind directions and how these are
going to affect you, which may have been lucky as boy
was the wind a nightmare for the last 3 miles.
Absolutely head on and energy zapping loads of
people were walking and it was a bit of an internal
fight not to join them, but it was quite a boost
overtaking people all the way to the finish. Did the
pacing session work? Well I didnt start my watch
dead on the start so here are the splits (for a 2 hour
half I need to run 9min10sec miles), although the
first one isnt quite correct lets just say I dont
think their mile markers were quite in the right
place:

Mile 1 8.44 (remember I didnt quite start my watch
on time
Mile 2 9.42
Mile 3 9.14 nearly there!
Mile 4 8.37 obviously a downhill or something
there???
Mile 5 9.12 nearly spot on again
Mile 6 10.64 think the markers were wrong look
at mile 7
Mile 7 7.58 can only do that sort of speed at full
on sprint!
Mile 8 10.21 see what I mean about these
markers??? And this was the dreaded hill
Mile 9 9.12 again nearly spot on
Mile 10 9.07 downhill again
Mile 11 9.37 not bad at this stage in the game
Mile 12 10.36 not so good the wind was really,
really blowing at this point
Mile 13 10.02 kept it going anyway
.1 1.00 took a while should have managed that a
bit faster!

My total 2.04.04 although I didnt start the watch
quite on time, shucks. My official time was 2.05.03
(Sheila 2.01.52 as she ran with me until 8 miles), and
my official pb from Jedburgh last year was 2.04.57.
Damn 6 seconds outside it!

Damn that wind if it hadnt been blowing this would
definitely have been a pb! Also if the race had been
chipped from start to finish I would have got a pb due
to delay getting to the start after the hooter.
Although this is by far the closest Ive come to my pb
this year, and given the conditions.So it was a sort
of unofficial pb type thing as I would have been
under the Jedburgh timemight try the East Kilbride ½
at the end of June its chipped and flat. So long
as its not too hot though.you can never please us
runners with the weather!

As for the cow hunting Ive now ticked off 24 out of
94. Im going again tomorrow to tick off the main
cows in the city centre. Annoyingly some are well
hidden I couldnt find number 18 The
International Moovers which is apparently in ocean
terminal somewhere, or number 5 Circus Cow which
is apparently beside number 79 Catch of the Day
which I did find, down beside the Scottish Executive
in Leith. If anyone sees these cows let me know where
Ive gone wrong.

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ipod injury...

2006-05-22T13:50:00.000-07:00

Last week I managed about 29 miles again so that was
two weeks in a row with high mileage. This past week
though the mileage has come down, circumstances and a
race all at once!

Last Sunday Sheila Kerr and I headed out at about 3pm,
we were worried in the morning that it might be too
hot, however seemed that we had planned our run at the
best possible time as it had cooled down by then. We
ran on through John Muir Country Park and did a small
loop in the beach before heading back. Think we made
it to about 5 miles, maybe a bit further.

On Tuesday we headed out from Halhill, up to Spott,
down to the first ford and up Daniels Brae. I stuck
at the back of the pack with Sheila Kerr probably a
good move given the mileage covered at the weekend.
The weather was crap it was raining as we left and
my shower-proof jacket kept me dry for all of about 2
minutes. As we headed down from little Spott the
heavens opened. We were absolutely soaked. Although
in a perverse sort of way the run itself was quite
nice (and I made it up all the hills, and didnt stop
on Daniels Brae - not even when the big 4x4 tried to
run me off into the ditch..

On Thursday we had intervals 6x600m in 4mins and
6x300m in approx 2 well we got to walk back to the
start point, so if you were slow at walking we got a
bit more rest! Not bad session though. I have
decided that I dont like anything longer than 400m
seems far too long! I was trying to pace myself in a
conservatory way due to the Glasgow Womens 10k on
Sunday, however, couldnt contain myself. The last
600m I did 10 seconds faster than the others. On the
300m the last 3 I ran quite quickly (thought Id
better put some effort in to beat Fay, Sheila et al)
and the last one I really did go as fast as possible
(at that stage that isnt that fast really)

So onto Sunday and the womens 10k bet Anne is
regretting telling me how to work out my splits!
Sheila and I were separated this year, as we both made
the mistake about being honest on our entry forms
about the expected completion time so were put in
different coloured groups, only to find that most
other people had just stood where they fancied. We
were overtaking people walking after only 2-3 minutes
of running and they thought they would finish in
less than an hour? Some of them seemed to think they
would finish in less than 50 minutes..

Anyway here are the splits:
1st km 5.38 tripping over those slow people in front
of me
2nd km 5.31 still weaving my way round but getting
slightly better
3rd km 5.27 getting there.
4th km 5.21 thank goodness, getting to some clearer
running
5th km 5.27 oh dear on the way back up again
6th km 5.29
7th km 5.44 the first major (ish) hill Pollock
Park
8th km 5.55 more hills, clearly worse than the last
one
9th km 5.21 feeling relieved, its nearly all over
10th km 5.05 can really put the effort in, its the
end!

Total 55.03 (matches the chip time, so I must be
pretty accurate at this recording malarkey!). Sheila
M 53.58. Last year I got 55.56 and Sheila got
54.03, so I knocked off 53 seconds from last year, and
closed the gap a bit on Sheila from previous.just
need to keep moving in the right direction (and get
Sheila to move in the wrong one this wont work if
she keeps improving too!)

Had a peek to see how Emma did think she did 47.28.
I can only dream..

So the weather was hot, I was tripping over people for
much of the way and I ran with my ipod for the first
time in a race (which did help at those points were
you really could give up gave you something else to
focus on. Also couldnt hear how heavy my own
breathing was a good thing I think!) I now have an
interesting running injury from the ipod it nips a
bit! Now have to decide whether to ipod or not at
Loch Leven??????

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Check out the cows!

2006-05-14T04:53:00.000-07:00

Am trying to keep up with the mileage targets I set
myself last week I ran just over 29 miles and now
trying to sustain that.could be difficult though
given the speed I run and all the other life things
you have to do (like work unfortunately!)

Anyway on Tuesday we ran down to John Muir Country
Park from club, Sheila M, Lindsay and I ran for about
8 miles. We went through the park heading towards the
North Berwick road and then turned back on ourselves
along the rougher path that follows the beach. It was
really warm on the way out but got cooler and
therefore nicer running weather towards the end.
Sheila M was scampering along at the front, having a
better running night than shed had the week before.

On Thursday there was only one male at the intervals.
Plenty of women though wonder what that means????
Anne, Emma, Jennifer, Lucy, me, Sheila K and Val were
all there (hope I havent missed anyone). Sheila M
was otherwise engaged. Our delights of the evening
where 8x400m in 3 mins and 8x200m in 1.5mins
although Ian did take pity on us towards the end and
extend our rest time marginally. It was tough going
even though it only adds up to about 3 miles.

Yesterday morning Sheila M and I went out on a long
run training for Loch Leven half in two weeks. We
ran from my house, down through Pinkerton and round
the bottom of Doon Hill, up behind Spott Mains Farm
etc, down the Brunt (and up the other side forgot
about that) along to Falsely Cottages through to
Thurston Mains, along to Innerwick and then a loop to
Thornton and back down to the A1 turn up to Innerwick,
with a bit of cross country back to mine. I measure
it and Im sure it was only about 12.5 miles but
Sheila thinks it was longer..It was a really nice
route, and not toooooooo hilly. Although apologies to
Sheila we were meant to do the loop round Thornton
so it was mainly downhill although I got the turning
wrong and we ran the uphill way round. Ooops. It was
funny weather warm when in a sheltered bit but cool
when the breeze hit you.

Today Im going out for a short one with Sheila Kerr
will see how far I manage but planning on somewhere
between 4-6 miles. That should keep the miles up!

Also entirely unrelated but how exciting Cow Parade
has come to Edinburgh. Ive only got 10 weeks to find
the 94 cows. Cool. Check out the website!

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more running....

2006-05-07T06:50:00.000-07:00

What a week! Its the first time that Ive run five
times in a week I think! Holiday weekends help
matters greatly though..

On Monday Sheila M and I ran through John Muir onto
the North Berwick road, up to the old A1 and over the
bridge at the pink cottage which goes over the railway
line. From their we ran up round Biel and on to
Pitcox, before running back down to one of the new
roundabouts on the A1 and a shortcut track over to
West Barnes. From there we ran back to Sheilas, had a
quick shower and headed back out to Pilates. How
disciplined?????? (well apart from the quick buffet
snack in between which involved a lot of cheese and
quite a few crisps!)

Tuesday night was a different story bullies Morrison
and Kerr wouldnt allow me to run further and made me
take a short route back to Halhill. I was up for a
short route anyway seeing as we had a committee
meeting that night but this was shorter than even I
had planned! We ran through Halhill woods, down to
West Barnes, along the road to the Biel burn, along
the Biel burn and back along the dump road, through
the houses to Halhill. I only was planning on running
down the road to the farm park and back so not much
further..

On Thursday night it was the handicap race and the
first time I had run the route through John Muir
Country Park. We ran it the tough way round along
the road first and back through the sandy path in the
trees. Luckily Frank caught up with Fay and I quite
early on, and gave us directions to ensure we went the
right way! It was hard going although Emma didnt
seem to find it so bad when she bounced past me after
about 18 minutes. Ian R got a chance to run as Bob
did the timings so he was the next one to come
bounding up behind me. Although he did shout
something so I knew Id better speed up , which meant
a quick sprint to the finish. It took a fair bit
longer than the route around the houses, but was a
whole lot nicer!

Saturday, and Brian fancied a spot of fishing down the
Tweed. I had no other plans so accompanied him down
to a place near St Boswells and ran along side the
river, through a few fields and around a really nice
estate for about 4.5 miles. The run was nice,
although I used about 4 face wipes trying to clean the
sheep shit of my shoes afterwards. And that was me
being careful.

Today I went out for a wee run with Sheila K and Fay.
We ran from Sheila Ks, up round the cement factory,
down to the lighthouse, along the John Muir way for a
bit and onto the beach, back to the lighthouse, round
Whitesands and back to Sheilas. Probably about 7.5
miles. The weather was a bit odd mist off the sea,
but warm at the same time. I think it needs to
thunder. Today was also the Edinburgh 10k which
Lindsay was running so will need to find out how she
did. Yesterday any mad people would have run the
Edinburgh to North Berwick 22 mile road race will
find out who they were and how they managed on
Tuesday!

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Lots of running......

2006-05-01T06:33:00.000-07:00

Ive been a bit naughty and havent written for a
while the last run I wrote about was on Easter
Sunday, where we were egg rolling for fun.

On Easter Monday, 17th April, I went out for a short
run at Belhaven. I ran through John Muir Country Park
until coming to the small wooden bridge part way
through and then cut back across the sand. It was
very windy, so I had made sure that I ran the way
round where the wind would be at my back on the beach
rather than head on! For some reason I thought it
would be a good idea to try out Ians suggestion of
doing intervals on the beach and did just 5x2 mins
fast, with 2 mins slower recovery in the middle. I
havent repeated this since its even harder doing
intervals on your own compared to at club!

On the 18th club night we went from Halhill down
through John Muir Country Park and up past the first
farm, round to East Links and back to Halhill. Anne
was meant to be tapering for London, but dont think
she was doing a very good job of it.

On the 20th Thursday club night intervals again.
We did 4x400m in 3mins, 2x800m in 5 mins and 4x400m in
3 mins again. Sheila M got all confused and thought
that the last of the first set of 400m was our last
interval and ran really quickly on that one, not
realising she wasnt even halfway at that point! I
did a 400m instead of one of the 800m for a bit of
extra recovery.

On the 23rd, whilst most of the running world would
have been tuned into the London marathon (or running
the London marathon) Sheila M and I were undertaking
our own marathon a how much can you eat type! We
went to Grangemouth first and ran the 10k, followed by
lunch with Sheilas sister Ailsa at Bean Cross.
Starters, main course and Sheila also ordered a
pudding. Then back to mine for more food, wine and to
watch the marathon (I had recorded all 6 hours of tv,
but we only made it through to 4.5. We think we saw
Ian though after 4 hours of viewing, at that point
watching all those who finished under 3 hours.
Grangemouth was as scenic as ever the pavements were
very hard and hurt my feet. My new asics kayano had
an inaugural run as my last pair of trainers wore out
after 2 months. Managed to rip quite a bit of the
sole off of the new trainers tooneed to figure out a
type of trainer with a much harder wearing sole they
need to last a bit longer than 6 miles!!!!! Anyway did
my splits again at Grangemouth a bit odd again,
anyway
5.11
5.20
5.34
5.20
5.32
5.35
5.49
5.41
5.44
5.35
Its probably similar to the womens elite splits at
the marathon only their times were for miles rather
than kilometres! I got 55.39 as official time, which
was faster than last year but not as fast as Dunbar
and still not a pb Sheila M got 53.10, so is still
ahead by someway about 15 seconds a kilometre faster
than me.

On Tuesday (25th) club night Sheila K was back, and
Amanda, so I think we had 11 women in all. Most of
the women seemed quite sprightly and were way ahead
from the start so Sheila K and I decided to take it
easy. My legs seemed to be quite sore from Sunday
anyway, so we ran up past Spott roundabout, along up
to Spott, but turned up towards Wester Broomhouse and
came back to Halhill via Eweford. The other ladies
did a bit of a longer sort of cross country route
running up behind Karens red chimney at the bridge,
up behind the farms and down Starvation Brae before
running back to club. Anne had turned back at some
point and joined Sheila K and I on our trek her legs
were not quite her own at that point! No wonder, I
was impressed she was out running!

On Thursday (27th) Brian and I were up for a long
weekend in Grantown on Spey. So I did a nice run (red
marked route) through some woodland there. The run in
the woods was about 5.5 miles so from B&B the route
was just over 6.

On Friday (28th) I went out for a longer one again
through the trees on some marked tracks. I did the
same (red) route as Thursday but added another (blue)
route before it so ran about 8 through the trees and
with some extra bits added in made it to 9.5 miles.
Not bad for being on my own, although I do lose the
willpower at about that stage. Also went flying in
the trees, all these tree routes sticking up. Had a
bit of a sore left shoulder and knee after that.

On Saturday (29th) I went to Balmoral to cheer Sheila
M on at the 10k road race. Shame but you couldnt
enter on the day a good thing because if you could I
might have bowed under the pressure to do so. Instead
I felt a huge amount of relief at not running weird.
Must have been Sheilas tales of the hill at the
start from last year. I did watch those finishing in
about 52/53 minutes and wonder why they were running
faster than I could though..Later I went for another
run in the trees where I noticed my knee was still a
bit sore after my escapade on Friday. I did two
routes again but shorter the blue and the green
route so did about 4 miles in the trees and about 4.5
miles total. I ran with my ipod on this one after
seeing something when flicking through a running
magazine about it now being proven that running to
music makes you go faster. Might try that for my next
race and see if its true at least it will help me
to relax and maybe breathe a bit better.

Now (Monday) Im due to be heading off on a long one
in about half an hour so Id better get my skates on
more next time..

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Easter eggstravaganza!

2006-04-16T10:59:00.000-07:00

Ive had another quite light week of it its all
gonna change soon though.

Last Tuesday we had a committee meeting after club so
could only fit in a short one ran from club through
the trees to Spott roundabout. We then headed up
towards Spott, up the closed road (Ossie/ Ozie? Dean)
and down by Wester Broomhouse to Eweford and back to
Halhill. Some of the ladies ran along the grassy path
at Wester Broomhouse to add in a bit of distance
before running back to Halhill.

On Thursday we have started the summer training
interval sessions. Tonight was 2x800m in 5 mins,
1mile in 10 mins, 2x800m in 5 mins. I cut out one of
the 400s from the mile to get a bit of recovery in but
otherwise managed the full session and kept a
relatively even pace throughout all of the 800ms. Not
bad for the first summer training session, will need
to keep it up now.

After club all those who had been at interval training
went along to Umbertos for a bit of a feed. There
were 18 of us at Umbertos quite a gathering. Karen
and Clarissa came along to catch up a bit on the news,
seeing as they havent been running for some time now
bumps are really showing now! Also Ian Sills came
along although feeling a bit down about his injury
he wont be able to run London but hopefully will
catch another marathon this year, and defer his London
entry to next year.

Umbertos was good as usual plenty of food and drink
flowing.

On Friday I was back at my leg man for a quick rub.
Legs not too bad this time, slight tightness in quads
where they join the knee, slight tender spot in
hamstrings, ITB ok, but oh dearthe calves were very,
very, very tight. They really hurt when getting
treated. Eeek, must stretch more religiously as I
dont want an injury that means no running. Think I
will head back for another quick go at the calves
quite soon.

On Saturday I decided to take it easy as the legs were
a wee bit tender and also it was a lovely day. Brian
headed out fishing up the Tyne at Samuelston, so I
walked from there to Haddington, had a wander around
Haddington and then back to Samuelston. Samuelston to
Haddington was about 3 miles so walked at least 6
not bad really and it loosened the legs a tad. On the
way into Haddington I walked along part of the route
that we ran on one of last years East Lothian Summer
Series runs the one where Sheila and I got lost
(along with about 10 others who were following us).
Better luck this year I hope.

And today we had our Easter extravaganza. Sheila
Morrison, Val, Fay and I ran from Vals house up to
the A1, crossed over and ran around the bottom of Doon
Hill. We eventually joined up with the route we took
last Sunday, where if we turned left we would run
round the farm and end up near the top of starvation
brae, and right took us down past Karens big read
chimney to Doon bridge and Ozie/Ossie Dean. At Ossie
Dean we went into the field to go and roll out Easter
eggs. It was a bit tough as there was lots of barb
wire about but we managed to crawl over the gate and
under the barbed wire. We got up to the top of the
hill and rolled out eggs down. Sheila had decorated
hers as a man, Val had half as dark blue with gold
stars to represent Australia and the other half a red
headed man to represent Scotland and I painted a green
stripe around mine to represent the Dunbar running
strip. Fay hadnt time to decorate hers and didnt
get into the painting session we had at Vals before
we set off. Once we had rolled the eggs, Fay headed
off home as she has picked up a cold and didnt want
to push it. Sheila, Val and I ran up to Spott and
turned to Little Spott and ran up Daniels Brae. And
I ran all the way up yee hah! From there we ran
down towards Eweford, but instead of running under the
A1 we headed alongside the A1 on the path towards the
Spott roundabout. We crossed at Spott roundabout and
headed back along Spott road to Dunbar and into Vals
where we had a brief pit stop for juice and cake!

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Taking it easy...

2006-04-09T07:46:00.000-07:00

I havent got a lot to write about this week. On
Tuesday I had a work thing so couldnt go to club. I
had a lot of other commitments too this week so
couldnt fit in an extra one. So Thursday was the
first run of the week and it was the handicap 5k. It
was going ok too the first time since I won back
November/December time that I managed to overtake
anyone when running round. I managed to get to the
front of the pack for the second trip down Kellie road
but at that point figured out I wasnt going to be
able to run much further with the agonising stitch I
had. Id already tried the breathing trick but had
figured out that I wasnt going to get rid of the pain
that easily. It was a bit like whatever happened to
me at the Musselburgh race course race last year.
Anyway, whatever I had eaten earlier on the day didnt
appreciate being shaken up and down rapidly..

On Friday I was through at my mum and dads and on
Saturday went to the Vitality show at the SECC. There
wasnt as much fitness stuff as I was expecting but
was still pretty interesting. Had a quick trip into
the discount Achilles Heel store but didnt see
anything to purchasewill have a quick look online
once Ive finished writing this. Stitch still
hurting.

Today Sheila, Fay, Val and I all went out for a run.
We headed off up to Spott from Belhaven, via Eweford
and Wester Broomhouse and Ossie (???) Dean. (all this
time Ive been thinking its called Dozy Dean lucky
Vals here to keep me right!). From there we headed
up along what Sheila calls Vals SAS course up at
the bridge to the cottage with the big red chimney and
then up through the fields beside the farm buildings.
Turn left and you can run up the Brunt, but we passed
on this and kept on going. We then got to run down
Starvation Brae and back down to the Spott roundabout,
along to Eweford and back down to Belhaven. It was
about an 8 mile round trip, good quality though as it
was uphill to the top of Starvation Brae. This is
only about the third time I have run up that way, and
managed to run up all the hills, no stopping. I tell
you, this weeks lighter mileage and disappointing
stitchy thing have helped the motivation no end I
actually wanted to go further than we did and felt
like I had enough energy to manage it. I guess a rest
week every now and then really can do the world of
good

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Still no pb in sight....

2006-04-02T10:44:00.000-07:00

So another week goes by and much has been made of the
shambles that was Edinburgh half marathon. Im now
beginning to feel quite sorry for the organisers (if
you review the comments on Runners world website you
will too they even had to put out an official
apology that was reported on the BBC website!) Shame

Tuesday night I think I felt a bit tired, but even
better than that, Fay also felt tired! Amazing all I
need to do is tire her out but getting her to run a
fast half marathon and then I can easily keep up! We
just went for a short run, and as it is now lighter in
the evenings, we made our first trip up into the
country. We ran through the trees at Halhill, up to
Eweford, Wester Broomhouse, back to Spott roundabout
and down Kellie road back to the club. I found it
tough going though..obviously all these races are
beginning to have an effect.

Thursday night Brian and I went out for a light jog,
planning on running through John Muir Country Park. I
was planning on going for 6, then moved this down to
5, then 4.and eventually we ended up doing about 3.5
miles! We couldnt go through the park due to all the
mud and grime. There had been a new path laid by the
burn, but unfortunately it was under a couple of
inches of water, so we werent running there either.
We cut up to West Barns from beside the burn and ran
up through West Barns to Eweford, back down beside
Halhill and then turned in at the hospital. From
there we ran over to Back Road and down back to the
car. How annoying that Brian can keep up (in fact
its usually me struggling to keep up with him, whilst
he lollops alongside) without any training! Wish he
would give me his natural ability if hes not going to
use it.

And then finally Dunbar boundary race. And yet
another race where I dont get a pb. So
disappointing. It was quite warm but windy on the day
and we had a good turn out. Club members all turned
up early to help out with registration and setting up
the hall. On the way round it was really nice to see a
lot of friendly marshals I know and they all shouted
their encouragement as we ran past. I felt a bit crap
at about 4k to 6k but then managed to pick it up a bit
after that. I felt I ran the last 2k quite quickly,
but my brain really wasnt working well at figuring
out my splits and what I should be doing. I was so
not on this planet that I forgot to take my splits,
not that I think that would have helped. Emma was
first Dunbar women at about 48 mins, then Sheila M,
closely followed by Fay, then me, then Val, Lindsay
and Vicky. Sheila M, Fay, Me, Lindsay and Val where
all within about a minute and a half of each other. I
didnt get a pb (was 54 seconds outside it), and
didnt beat my own time from last year (9 seconds
slower, so I probably was slightly faster given I had
to run slightly longer) but my official time is
quicker than last year, so not all doom and gloom!
Brian is disappointed he didnt get a pb, stopped at
about 3km as he thought he was going to puke but his
determination got him round at 50mins and a few extra
seconds. Not bad for having about 3-4 training runs!

Today I went out for another run. I could have had a
day off, but Im not going to be able to make it to
club on Tuesday so thought Id better fit one in. Did
just over 8 miles (GPSd it to be sure) and it was a
nice scenic route at a nice easy pace. Ran from my
house down to Whitesands, round the golf course, along
by the harbour and up by the swimming pool, along then
around the cliff path and round Winterfield golf
course, along up by the hospital and back to the train
station for a lift home. I quite enjoyed it but as
ever, found it difficult after about 6 miles on my
own. Saw a lot of amazing junk that has been washed
up by these high tides, and had to dodge a lot of
golfers but otherwise quite enjoyable.

Next run is the dreaded 5k handicap. Hope Fays
handicap has been reduced!

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Brave people

2006-03-26T05:56:00.000-08:00

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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No money for Ian....

2006-03-26T05:02:00.000-08:00

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 didnt get a pb,
in fact this was my third worst time out of four
halfs. I am definitely withholding payment for
intervals until this situation gets better. Im not
sure what went wrong (well apart from the bloody
obvious I didnt run fast enough), last year was such
a good running year. Sheila says Ive plateaued, but
Im 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 (thats 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,
didnt 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
dont think Ill 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 Im learning
from these cheats!)

So now Im going off to wallow like a proper runner
that doesnt 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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I still hurt....

2006-03-19T03:44:00.000-08:00

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 didnt 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). Weve 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!

Id 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 didnt
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. Id 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 dont 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 Im 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 Id
been feeling better I would have trotted along with
them but there was no way after yesterday that I could
keep up. Lets hope I feel better by next weekend!

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I resign....

2006-03-13T08:23:00.000-08:00

Well last week I wrote after I had forgotten the
pain.this week Im 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 Im 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 Id
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 Im trying to block it all
out) but uphill between miles 3-6.

Im 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 Id managed to keep it at that
speed for the whole race Id have run a pb. If Id
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 couldnt 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 fasteris 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 isnt a slippery slope and that Edinburgh
half goes better.

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Hills, hills and yet more bloody hills

2006-03-09T13:58:00.000-08:00

Lasswade 10 miles my first race of the year. And
what a race to pick! For all of you who have run this
one, youll know that its a challenging one. Ive
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 its probably a good thing that I didnt.
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. Ive 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
Sheilas! 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 wasnt allowed to walk up the
hill and I didnt. 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. (Thats my excuse for lots of
pasta, lovely)

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Bloody cold...

2006-03-02T14:14:00.000-08:00

Well Ive 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
breathingwhy do I catch a cold right before all of
these lovely races I have coming up????? Ive now
decided the poor motivation thing was also linked to
big nasty cold settling in.

Anyway last Thursday night Ian didnt 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 Ians
encouragement!)

On Saturday Sheila Morrison and I did a nice wee
number, from Belhaven through the country park and
back to Sheilas 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 Sheilas. I measured it on a
map and even being nice I think it was only 12 miles.

On the way back to Sheilas 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 Im 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 didnt 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
its 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 - lets hope your handicap is reduced
for next time!)

___________________________________________________________
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Has anyone seen my motivation?

2006-02-22T14:04:00.000-08:00

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 itbut 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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2006-02-14T10:17:00.000-08:00

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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slipping about town...

2006-02-06T08:23:00.000-08:00

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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Eeek I hurt, and I'm tired...

2006-01-29T07:48:00.000-08:00

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

___________________________________________________________
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Nearly race time....

2006-01-23T14:23:00.000-08:00

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.

___________________________________________________________
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getting better....????

2006-01-18T12:27:00.000-08:00

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
bunchand 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.

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Back to work.....

2006-01-08T08:20:00.000-08:00

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..

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