STOP! Taper time.....

Ha! You see what I've done here?

Been a bit slack on the ode blog I'm afraid, so I'm gonna try and remember what we've been up to since last time I wrote.  Ok, so on Sunday we did our last long run before the race.  We decided on the Greenway for this one because it is fairly flat and my legs have started to refuse to work properly at the very sight of an incline!

We got an early start again and set off around 9am.  I say the Greenway is flat but there is definitely a steady incline all the way to the top.  I was still riding on the back of my recent new found form and didn't find the first couple of laps too bad.  It was a beautiful, warm sunny day as we ticked off the miles.  We got to the 16.5 mile marker at the point where we had left the car and I tried to forget that we still had another 6 miles to go (the last 3 up hill).  By the time we got to 20 miles I began to feel a bit wobbly bob and part of me wished that I would be savaged by one of the many dogs we past, so that I had a good excuse to stop! We both dug deep to get to the end and I for one was completed wasted when I got to the car. The Snickers that I ate straight afterwards barely even registered and I spent the journey home rocking back and forth with shooting pains in my thighs! I actually couldn't wait to get home and jump in an ice bath! Sad......but true.  I'm not worried about feeling like utter crap after this because we only had 500ml of water between 2 of us (idiotic I know). On the day there will be water stations at every mile to keep us hydrated and..... AND we will be rested and not running on tired legs like we have been for weeks. I felt relieved that we'd put all the hard work in, time to put the brakes on now.

Monday was rest day this week, on Tuesday we tested our legs and did a quick 4 miler.  On Wednesday we were supposed to do 8 miles but ended up doing closer to 10! Thursday was club night and in a moment of madness we agreed to go off-road.  We were mislead into believing that most of the 7.5 mile run would be on tracks.  Oh there were some tracks but there were also overgrown fields with pot holes, stiles and barbed wire, all with the potential to end months of training with a single ankle turn or severed artery (from the barbed wire!) I was probably overly catious and tip toed through the fields like a wimpy girl and a face like a smacked arse.  It wasn't all bad though because we got a good 3 mile downhill blast on the Greenway at the end.

By Friday we had got some miles in the bank, so we only had 10 miles to get through to reach our weekly total.  We had only had one day of rest since our 22.5 miler on Sunday and it took it's toll after just 5 miles at which point we we turned to each other and agreed that it would be wise to sack it off.  In fairness to both of us we probably could have got round, but at what cost?

Then for the first time in a long time we had the whole weekend off and went to the pub all day, now that's hardcore kids!!

Pink, pink, bling, bling.....

I am struggling to remember what we've been up to since last time I posted.  All the runs seem to blur into one!  After Monday nights intervals, we rested on Tuesday and then did our longest mid-week run on the programme - 12 miles.  We made it down to club on Thursday night and instead of doing our planned 5 miles, we clocked up 8, which I blasted through and really enjoyed!

 On Saturday, I begrudgingly bought a new pair of trainers. I say begrudgingly because they are pink! Seriously, I nearly left the shop when I saw them but I need them and they didn't have the ones I wanted in any muted (normal) colours. It really annoys me that sports companies think women want their sportswear to be pink and covered in diamante. Anyway I have modified them slightly by swapping the laces!!

C'mon Asics you're better than this!

      

On Sunday we did our penultimate long run of 20 miles.  We got an early start again and the sun was shining, which I hoped would make the task ahead more bearable.  We met our mate Lucy 4 miles in and she did a 10 mile circuit with us.  I told myself I'd had enough after about 9 miles and started to wonder what the point is.  I seem to be constantly running on tired legs and the long steady runs are becoming a chore.  Anyway with a bit of encouragement from Bozza and Lucy I got my head together and carried on. 

We left Lucy just after the 13 mile marker and I focused on the task ahead.  With 3 and a half today Bozza reminded me exactly what the point of all this was by reminiscing about last years London Marathon.   Thousands of people shouting your name, crossing Tower Bridge and the wall of sound as you finish on The Mall.  The very thought of this made the hairs on the backs of my arms stand on end and gave me that final push.

So on to this week.......Because of a trip to my parents house in Norfolk I did my mid-week run a day early.  Twas a beautiful day as I donned my new trainers on the Greenway for a fairly brisk 9 miler.  I spent a very pleasant day in 'The Big Schmoke" on Wednesday going on the London Eye and then to  a show to celebrate my Mum's 70th Birthday. Bozza put in an appearance on Thursday amid another panic by the British public as hoards of morons queued at petrol stations.  Fortunately I don't need any fuel to get to the shops for a while because I stocked up the cellar with 'tins' the last time a snowflake fell in West Yorkshire *smashes head repeatedly into a wall*

The weather took another turn for the better and we went for a very short 3 mile blast round to get a bit of life back into our legs.  On Friday we went off road and completed an 8 mile circuit of the Pingo trail.  My parents are very lucky to have this sort of thing so close to their front door and it made a welcome change to pounding the pavements and negotiating traffic. Sunday will be our longest run (22 miles) and then we begin our taper.

Bring it on..................

Three on the bounce.......

That’s the number of runs I’ve had recently where I’ve actually felt like my old self. On Saturday morning we got up at the crack o’ sparrows for our weekly long run.  We decided to ease off a bit and do a 15 miler, so as not to burn ourselves out.

It started twatting it down the moment we set foot on the Greenway and within half a mile we were soaking. Oh well at least any passers-by couldn’t see how bad my roots have got! We set off slow and steady and I feared I might have a bad run. Ok, my legs were a bit stiff and I was a bit mardy until we reached the half-way point but it got better. Bozza’s running Tourette’s was in full swing. It’s like the running equivalent of the Monica Seles grunt.

The rain stopped and we coasted back to the car having caught up with a lad who was running 26 miles with a pack on his back and wearing lots of unnecessary clothing (to aid weight loss?) in preparation for a 40 mile ultra-marathon. By this time my hair had dried out and I looked like a homeless person!

Last night we had 2k intervals which we decided we could do on the road rather than the track (always seems to make them longer to me). Now 2k (1.25 miles) doesn’t sound that far and it isn’t if you’re not running flat out! Man these were tough and I actually started to foam at the mouth like a rabid dog at the end of the first one! Because we were just running up and down the same road and it is on a slight incline it meant that we really felt the benefit of the downhill on the second (and last) intervals. We decided to hold a bit back on the penultimate one and go balls out on the last. Due to the sheer effort I put in I ended up with large amounts of snot flooding out of my nostrils and streaming down my face. Running’s not about glamour though is it?

Back on track?

It’s been 4 days since my last blog and I am well and truly over my Spen 20 trauma!  I rested the day after and then decided (perhaps stupidly) to go out for a 5 miler on the Tuesday. As soon as I started running the pain in my shoulder came back and I (sensibly) decided to bail after a mile and a half.

I made a promise to myself and Bozza that I would listen to the advice I’d been given (from several medical professionals may I add) and start doing back/core strengthening exercises.  I was quite shocked at what a wimp I have become when it comes to supporting my own bodyweight! I could hold a plank for about 5 secs before collapsing in a heap and I could barely muster one chuffin press up!  I use to be able to knock out 20 of these bad boys with relative ease! In fact Bozza can vouch for that because he said he wouldn’t marry a woman who couldn’t drop and give him 20, which I promptly did on our wedding day!

We had decided to swap things around a bit following the Spen 20, so Wednesday nights run was 10 miles.  We were joined by our friend Lucy who isn’t training for anything (yet!) and was worried because she’s been ill and hasn’t been out for a while.  She had no problem knocking out a steady 10 miler in an hour and a half though! Bozza’s running tourettes had flared up again but I felt alright (makes a change) until the last mile when I thought the contents of my stomach might spill out onto the pavement! I’ve been having this terrible problem with bloating recently (just to add to my woes!) and it’s been really getting me down because it’s making me feel heavy and sloth like.  This is a dangerous situation for a recovering anorexic to be in because I feel self-consciously huge and automatically assume that I’m eating too much. On the advice of my dietician I have split my meals up so that I’m not eating too much in one sitting and overloading my stomach! This also ensures that I never get too hungry and then end up bingeing or making poor food choices.  I have also been advised to up my protein levels and eat less refined carbs.  I’m not going to obsess too much about it (I’ve done enough of that over the last 15 years) cos that just wouldn’t be healthy and I’ve taken a bit of a liking to chocolate Hob Nobs!

Thursday night was track night.  Lucy joined us again for 16 x 200m intervals.  Unfortunately when we got to the 3^rd interval Lucy had to drop out because of pain in her knee.  It must have been bad cos she’s hard as fuck!!! I was also feeling pretty hard as I was thrashing out the 200’s.  For the first time in about 6 weeks I actually enjoyed running.  I felt lighter on my feet, had less pain and was running faster.  The healthy rivalry between me and Bozza was back and I let him know I was there. I got a couple of twinges in my back so held back a little bit.  I felt like a different person both mentally and physically.

So hopefully I have weathered the storm, my form will improve and I will climb out of my running rut.  I have posted this picture of myself  finishing last year’s Leeds Abbey Dash (I can’t help but laugh every time I look at it) to inspire me to dig deep and always give it everything I’ve got!!!

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"I will not be beaten by someone in a tutu!"

"Your back bone connected to your shoulder bone....."

Day release?!

Well after 3 (yes 3) days of complete rest it was time for the Spen 20 race. Alex and I ran this last year as part of our (rather poor) marathon training and at the time it was our longest run by about 7 miles. It’spretty brutal by anyone’s standards. Not only is it a bloody long way, but it has 1150ft of ascent. My legs felt fine, so I had no indication of the absolute torture that was about to come……….

The sun was shining by the time me, Alex and our mate Andy arrived at race HQ. I was glad to see that one of our team mates Rob was also rocking the slept on a park bench look. This was in stark contrast to his wife Kirsty who was marshaling and looked as glamorous as ever, firmly cementing her MILF status!


Many people use the Spen 20 as a training run prior to the London Marathon, which made the atmosphere very relaxed. There was a good turn out from the Spen crew again as we made our way out to the track for the start.


I decided to set of steady and tucked in about 20m behind Rob and Bozza. After a couple of miles I developed an intense pain in my shoulder which stayed for the remainder of the race.  When I got to 4 miles the pain was so bad (it was making other things hurt e.g. my lower back) that for the first time ever I seriously thought I would have to pull out. I decided to push on to magic mile number 6 and see if it eased……it didn’t and I was really struggling. I had long since given up on keeping Bozza in sight and was just concentrating on making it to the next mile!


At mile 12 I did something that I can’t remember doing in a race for a long time and walked. I sheepishly sneaked by someone from the club who was marshaling and was passed by a woman wearing a skirt…….for Gods sake NO! Just NO!!


I necked a gel at mile 14 (probably too late) and managed another couple of miles before having to walk again. Thank God for the support along the way. I could hear our friend Kirsty shouting my name way before I reached her and for ages after I’d passed!!

I had no idea of what my true time was because my Garmin had stopped for some reason. I got to mile 19 and a steep section and the pain was almost unbearable, I thought I might pass out (it hurt a lot you guys) but there was an man in front of me who was old enough to be my granddad (OK not that old) who was cursing to himself as he chugged up the hill! If he could keep going, so could I.  Just for info, I beat him by the way!!

I managed to pass a girl who I’d played cat and mouse with in the last half a mile but I had nothing left when I got to the track. Rob and Bozza were already back (you probably guessed that) and they did a great job of cheering me to the finish and I crossed the line feeling “ errr how you say?” Oh yeah fucked!!


My official time was 2:49:19 which is 9 minutes faster than last year but as always it wasn’t good enough, nothing ever is! I'm not saying I didn't achieve anything because I did, I ran 20 miles in pain but I shouldn't let my own disappointment detract from achievements of others.  Bozza put in an absolutely sterling performance and finished in 2:43:17, go Bozza!! Andy finished in a respectable time of 3:26 without getting sun stroke and our friend and neighbour (who let's be fair was bricking it beforehand) pulled a spectacular run out the bag and finished in 3:33.  Oh and oh Spen Ladies won the team prize, a prize, a prize I tells ya!!!!

"There goes my hero....."

After a Snickers, copious amounts of squash and a couple of brews we made our way home (with the bottle of real ale we received for competing) for some well earned sausages and an ice bath!


I had a bad run today and I could have given up but I didn’t.  S'pose I'd better build mesen a bridge and get over it really......... 

Hard track sesh.....

After Saturday's trauma and after a day of rest I was feeling considerably better than I thought I would.  Miraculously the pain in my shins has gone.  It has been replaced by lower back pain which I suffered with for quite a while at the end of last year. It was almost certainly caused by overtraining and weakness in my glutes, hamstrings and core muscles.  Previously it has been eased by running and normally becomes painful when remaining in the same position for a prolonged period of time e.g. when in bed trying to sleep!

Anyway we decided to do our track session tonight, which consisted of the following:

1 x mile warm up
14 x 400m (95s), 200m (90s) recovery
1 x mile cool down

I had a word with myself earlier on in the day and I'm trying to remain in a positive frame of mind.  
After our mile warm up my legs felt fine, tired but not painful. My back on the other hand was and it was making me feel like I was running lopsided.  I have tried to explain this on numerous occassions to people and all I can liken it to is when the tracking is out on your car, when it pulls to one side, you have to wrestle with it to get it straight. 

The laps went down really slowly and by the time the others had finished their 100m interval session we were only half way through! In my head I was saying "I'll do 10 and then I'll stop".  Then I'm thinking "Ok, I'll do 12 and then I'll stop". Thing is once I'd done 12, I thought "I may as well do 14!" Bozza really helped me get through the last few by running with me for the first 200m. 

By the time we'd completed all our laps the track was empty and there were just a few stragglers left in the club house.  We still had a mile cool down to do n'all!!

I think that was probably the hardest track session we've done to date.  Dunt matter though cos I put everything I'd got into it and saw it through to the end.  I've had a look at the track sessions we've got coming up over the next few weeks and I kind of which I hadn't.......!!!!

Stop the bus, I wanna get off...

Now it may sound like I'm making excuses but I wasn't feeling too clever after Wednesday night's 10 miler.  Bit of a sore throat, headache, sore legs, sore back,  just general shitness really.  I think I made the right decision to give Thursday a miss.  On Friday morning I woke up with a sore throat and spent all morning contemplating whether to play catch up.  Anyway, before I knew it I was on the Greenway.  It was a very pleasant day and it was quite nice not to have any roads to cross. Despite feeling pain from my shin splits when I first set off  I did a steady 5 miles and felt ok afterwards. 

Come Saturday and my sore throat had gone but I still had the pain in my legs, back etc. The plan was to do 18 miles at race pace (I still haven't decided what that's going to be yet!) We set off around 10am and 5 minutes in I got a stitch, not a great start! I have to say I was feeling very, very uncomfortable but decided that I would have to grin and bear it until I reached the magic 6.

When we go to the top of the Greenway and turned round we had done 6.5 miles and I was still struggling.  My legs were incredibly heavy and they wouldn't bend where I wanted them to. I felt like the tin man!  I still had a terrible stitch (I don't even know whether that's what it was) and my lower back was aching.  It's a bit of a cop out to say that the Greenway is uphill in one direction, because there is only a small gradient.  But when your in physical and mental agony (oh the drama!) you really feel the benefit of even a slight downhill stretch.

We had hidden a bottle of water and an energy gel at the point at which we got on the Greenway so that we could fuel up on the way back (11miles) and I just kept telling myself that I would feel better once I'd had a drink etc.  After a couple of bad experiences with energy gels my neighbour Sally had given me a raspberry flavoured gel to try.  It had a much nicer flavour than other gels I've had.  It tasted like the jam you get in a cheap doughnut and wasn't at all snot-like!  I can report that it didn't give me any digestive problems or make me want to barf and I actually think I noticed the boost it gave me (if only for a few miles!) I would highly recommend them http://www.highfiveonline.co.uk/energy-gel-plus-orange-flavour-i51.html

By the time we got to the end of the Greennway and joined the road we'd covered 13.5 miles.  There was a slight uphill section and then a downhill into Dewsbury.  We both put our foot down a bit here and for a fleeting moment I thought I was going to run the last 4.5 miles relatively pain free.  Sadly that wasn't to be.  The gel wore off, the pain set in, Bozza disappeared into the distance and my head dropped.  I am too embarrassed to even admit what pace I slowed down to at the end (call it what you want, but don't call it running!) There wasn't a single shred of me that was enjoying this run.  Oh fuck it I had to walk the last 1.5 miles and felt like collapsing into a bush outside Tesco and screaming "I can't do this anymore, it's too hard!"

I seem to remember feeling the same way at this point in my training schedule for the Edinburgh Marathon last year, I just hope it doesn't last.  Anyway with a few words of encouragement from Bozza, a chocolate milk, 4 brews and an ice bath I decided not to beat myself up about it and move on.  Hmmmm I wonder if I'll be alright for next weeks Spen 20 race?.........Course I bloody will!!



I've looked better!