Map reading fail...

Far be it from me to suggest that women can't read maps! As the proud holder of a geography degree, I have always loved a good map (although there is of course far more to geography than reading maps and colouring in...), and I like to think I'm pretty handy at following them. It's not the map so much as the "left" and "right" I find tricky, so I have been known to have the map upside down if necessary. Anyway, on this occasion I couldn't - obviously - take a map with me, and I blame my menopausal memory rather than my map reading skills for getting me lost and adding more than necessary to this weekend's run.

The plan called for 140-150 minutes, taken slowly, but as I had done 150 minutes last week I thought I could quite sensibly add on an extra 10 minutes or so. I planned out a route which would take me up to Woking, along some of the route to be used next week in the Surrey Half, then head along the Basingstoke Canal towpath to St John's and Brookwood, then back home. I reckoned this was about 14 miles which would be my longest run ever. I also planned to do some nutritional experimenting en route, with some chopped up energy bar in a little bag, and a sports gel sachet to take along the way.

I got up early to ensure I'd had my porridge, and set off just before 9:00. The first six miles passed really easily, I was breathing well and smoothly and just moving along in a good rhythm, one foot in front of the other. I had some more Desert Islanders to listen to, including Sir David Attenborough who was fascinating but had some bizarre music choices - a recording of an Australian liar/lyre (?) bird and some Balinese Gamelan music among them. Jamie Cullum was much more to my taste, and he even played some of his selections on the piano, and Hugh Laurie was very funny and chose some great blues and jazz tunes. Once I'd got to six miles I was in the middle of Old Woking and had to turn off the main road, with which I am very familiar, and head up a few back roads. I knew this part of the route formed part of next weekend's race, so when I saw some "road closed, March 9th" signs I assumed that was the way up to Woking, so I turned left. Oops. Half a mile later I was back where I'd been already, whereupon I had a choice to go round the loop again and get back on my planned route, or deviate and head off somewhere else without really knowing how far I was going. I decided to stick with what I'd planned originally, and eventually got back to where I should have been. At about eight miles I slowed to a walk up a not insignificant hill, and took the opportunity to get my energy bar cubes out. I think the action of running plays havoc with your other systems, particularly your digestive system, and my stomach didn't appear too happy to have anything put in it, other than the regular tiny sips of Lucozade which it seems to tolerate quite well. I had half a dozen tiny cubes and almost immediately got really bad stomach cramps. Three minutes later though, it had cleared up and I assume the energy began to be released from the fruit and nuts as I was able to keep plodding on.

Once on the tow path I felt as if I was "heading home", which of course I wasn't yet but it felt better psychologically. Lots and lots of anglers sitting along the canal bank - why? At 11 miles I tried my gel; the first challenge was ripping the thing open! Eventually I made a big enough hole to squeeze the gloop out through, and I think gloop is the best word I can think of to describe it. The taste was fairly nondescript although it was supposed to be lemon and lime, but the texture was quite vile and slimy. After the first mouthful though it wasn't such a shock, and I managed to get it down ok, although it was very sticky and I had to wash my hands in a puddle to clean the sticky off. I don't know what I was expecting but I didn't feel any discernible boost at any point; I guess it must have been working in the background though as I was able to keep going beyond the 2 1/2 hour point that floored me last week. I got to 13 miles in 2h 33m, but I knew I was still at least two miles from home. What can you do though? I carried on, with a short walk when I thought about stopping but decided I was feeling ok enough to make it to 15. My feet were aching and my hips were sore but nothing I wouldn't have been expecting after all that distance. I did indeed stop (running) at 15 miles, just five minutes short of three hours, and walked slowly home the last 3/4 mile, just to keep loose, and to phone hubby in case he was worrying about me being out longer than expected (he wasn't). I'd also run out of Lucozade in my running bottle, which is an oval shape so it's really easy to carry but it's only diddy and doesn't hold quite enough for these longer runs. For quite a long time I had been quite preoccupied with rationing what I had left and was even looking at puddles and wondering how clean they were...! So as I passed my friendly local Honda dealers as I walked home, I popped in and asked if I could top up with some water, which was very welcome.

Fifteen miles done then. In my head that's quite a milestone; it seems a lot more than 13 for some reason, and it's what the Marathon organisers say you need to be able to do comfortably four weeks before the event in order to know you'll be able to complete it safely. So that's that ticked off, and now next week's Half should be a doddle. And I never in a million years ever thought I'd say that! (And there'll be helpful marshalls so I won't get lost...)

Catch up

I haven't posted for a little while as, to be honest, there's not much to add... All is ticking along very nicely (apart from the calendar which is suddenly whizzing along alarmingly fast - I turned the page this morning and now the Marathon's on the next page!). Six weeks tomorrow, which must mean I am 3/4 of the way through my training programme, and it's getting quite heavy duty now. My midweek run was 75 minutes this week, and tomorrow I must do 150 (2 1/2 hours), although I may make it slightly more in order to get to 14 miles if I can.

I had intended to do 14 miles last week but didn't quite make it. I know I could have carried on a bit longer but I'd already done more time than the plan said, and quite frankly I was done in (and bored). I went to Godalming and back. Now I had always thought Godalming was miles and miles away; turns out it's really not as far as all that. This is a strange thing I have discovered while planning routes that I anticipate will take me an hour, two hours etc. - nowhere is as far away as you think and you have to add bits on. Obviously a mile on your feet is much longer than a mile in the car.

Anyway, off I trotted last Sunday, road for the first part as the tow path through Guildford fell victim to the floods over Christmas and is washed away, then picking up the path through the town centre and out along the River Wey towards Godalming. I was hoping it would have dried out enough by now so as to be passable, and indeed for the most part it was. There were just a couple of muddy parts to hippety hop over and around, a fallen tree to crawl under, and a large party of ramblers to pick my way around without any of us falling in the water, and it was so much nicer than running along the roads. It was very windy (as in lots of wind, not lots of bends...) though, on the way out. At a couple of points I swear I was running backwards. Much easier coming back! I had finished my audio book during the week, and had been pointed in the direction of the Desert Island Discs podcast library as something good (and free) to listen to. It's not something I normally tune in to (more a Radio 2 girl) and I found it really interesting. For rights reasons they only play about 30 seconds of each tune on the podcast version, but it's more about the people really. Each episode is about 40 minutes, or roughly 3 miles, so on Sunday I got through Torvill and Dean, Sir Ben Ainslie, Ant and Dec (who were devastated when Kirsty told them they'd have to be on separate islands, it was quite sad!) and Clare Balding. 

I had done exactly six miles when the tow path became impassable (unless I'd been prepared to wade through the mud, which I wasn't) and I was just short of Godalming, so I turned around and came back at that point. On the whole I try and plan circular rather than there and back routes, but I didn't want to come back along the road, and anyway the view is different on the way back. This meant that by the time I'd got towards home I'd "only" done 12, but as I said, I was pretty tired at this point, so I just added half a trip around the block and came home. 151 minutes, 12.77 miles. Not even a half marathon! But I still have four long runs to go (one of which is the Surrey Half next weekend) before the pre-race taper starts. Tomorrow I am going to experiment with eating on the run, as the odd jelly baby here and there doesn't give me enough of an energy oomph to keep going much beyond the 2 1/2 hour mark. The energy bars I made last week are delicious but I'm not sure how easily portable they are. I'm going to chop one into tiny cubes tomorrow and hope it doesn't all melt and go too gooey in my bum bag... I'll let you know next week.

Oh, and I have a job! Wasn't looking for a job but the opportunity arose, so I went for an interview (something I haven't done for about 27 years) and I have a post as "Learning Assistant" at the National Trust, Dapdune Wharf - 18 hours a week from March to November, helping out with school visits and family fun days, and birthday parties. One of the questions they asked was "What experience do you have of organising children's birthday parties?". I could do that one! I start next week, although I have told them that until mid-April I may be somewhat preoccupied (and I better not catch a cold off anyone).

So, despite saying there wasn't much to say, I appear to have rambled on as usual. I do have a habit of that (I was worried I'd done it at my interview too, but they seemed very interested and pleased with what I had to say, and they liked me enough to give me the job). "Concise" is obviously not in my vocabulary!

Challenge accepted

First of all, a big welcome to all my new Blog readers, and thank you so much for joining me. I had some lovely comments of support and encouragement which has given me an extra boost as we approach the business end of things. 

This is just a quick post to update you on my challenge this week, which you may remember was to run for 60 minutes brisk again, but try to do better than last week. Wednesday was the day, so I stocked up on porridge (with fresh blueberries and condensed milk), waited a bit for it to settle and set off. I did the same route as last week, which starts off downhill and then takes in a bit of the not very nice main Aldershot Road before veering off along a very nice stretch of road towards Wood Street Village. A couple of months ago I'd have told you this road was really hilly, now I just see it as gently undulating, with as much down as up, and no really long stretches of incline so I am never too far from the top. 

I went as far as around the green in the village and back again, and to cut a long story short I did it! Exactly 6 miles in 66 minutes 08 seconds - a few tiny seconds quicker and I'd have been under 11 minutes a mile, but I was very pleased with that, especially as I feared I had started too quickly and by two miles I was struggling and having to adopt a "run three minutes, walk 30 seconds" regime while I got my breath back and managed to get back into rhythm. I had my "Running Tunes" playlist on (save the book for long slow runs) and at key moments it must have known how I was feeling as it threw some crackers my way - and bear in mind this is MY choice of music so no snide comments... Born to Run is of course great motivation; Knights of Cydonia by Muse has a great driving beat; and Katy Perry just had me singing my head off: "I am a champion and you're gonna hear me ROAR!" (The one or two passing motorists at this point may have thought I was a bit mad but what the heck!) 

Oh, and I have made myself some homemade energy bars:

Loads of fruit and nuts, chocolate and honey and probably about 1000 calories a piece... I am allowed to eat things like this now.

Please just let me be better than Amy Willerton

Yesterday the London Marathon organisers published their list of "celebrity" entrants in this year's race, thereby opening themselves up to a stream of abuse on their Facebook page about how many of these people are not real celebrities and are denying genuine runners a place etc etc. I hope you can see the list here:

Marathon celebrity entrants

if you are interested. How many of them do you know?! Admittedly there are one or two genuine greats in there, a couple of Olympians and some serious runners like Michel Roux and Sophie Raworth, but Amy Willerton? Seriously? Although I may be doing her a disservice - she may indeed be out there every Sunday getting hot and sweaty and weeping over her sore hip flexors and despairing over how far she has yet to run... (And Michael Owen probably won't make it to the start without knackering his hamstring.) But I guess if they raise money for their good causes then good luck to them, self-taught milliners and all. 

(However, I must admit to being a tiny bit excited about Margaery Tyrell from Game of Thrones being in it - do you think she could introduce me to Jon Snow (who still knows nothing by the way)? That will mean nothing to non-GoT'ers, sorry - and it's coming back soon!! And Jimmy from Downton Abbey's in it too...)

But enough of them - we all know that all of the tens of thousands of ordinary people out there pounding through the endless wind and rain are the real superstars, even if we don't warrant a name check. There is still running going on; it's been an up and down week. On Thursday I had to do a "60 minute brisk" which I procrastinated and put off and off through the day because I was a bit scared of the "brisk" part, even though I knew there was only me who would ever really know if I cheated and just ran a regular 60 minutes. Eventually I told myself to man up and get out there, just as it started to rain (having been lovely all morning). It turned out to be just a light shower though and then the sun came back out, as well as a very gusty wind which doesn't help. I wasn't sure if I was running that much faster than normal - it all feels like bloomin' hard work to me - but I guess I must have been as I completed 5.79 miles in 64 minutes, at a time of 11:08 minutes per mile. That's a good half a minute or so quicker than normal and I was quietly chuffed (and loudly puffed!). This week's challenge is another 60 minutes brisk and "try and improve on last week's 60 mins distance".

Sunday's long run was a bit of a let down. After last week's half marathon I was feeling confident, and the plan said to drop back to "just" two hours, so how hard could that be? Unfortunately I skimped on breakfast; feeling full of Saturday's pasta still and wanting to get out a bit earlier so as not to disrupt lunchtime again, I didn't think I had time for porridge so just had half a banana and a bit of houmous on half a mini pitta. And right from the beginning I just felt a bit off; I couldn't summon up the energy to go at more than a trot and wasn't really feeling the love for the whole running malarkey at all. After all, it's incredibly tedious and painful, why would anyone want to do it? I went up to Brookwood again but via a different route so I only had time for a couple of laps when I got there. (It was very puddly this week too so lots of hippety hoppety dodging and weaving over wet bits.) Even then I slightly mistimed my heading for home so in fact had to run an extra 10 minutes or so over the two hours in order to get home - can't just stop in the middle of nowhere! I was listening to my audio book still, about running, and it was telling me about how I should be running more upright with my hips forward and my legs more directly below me so I was consciously trying to keep my hips forward, with the result that by the time I got home I could really feel it in my lower abs and hip flexors. This is why you need to do core strength and conditioning as well as running... I also had a lot of tension in my right shoulder for some reason, and a grumbling soreness in my left ankle and foot, and generally felt a bit rubbish. All afternoon I could feel myself stiffening up too, hobbling about every time I got up off the sofa (which wasn't often admittedly). 

Still, it was another session ticked off the plan, over two hours on my feet, over 11 miles covered and important lessons learned about the value of porridge, even if I do have to get up earlier. It felt really slow and laboured but turned out to be still under 12 minutes per mile (just) which actually I'd have been thrilled with not that long ago. I have to keep reminding myself how far I have come and how much fitter I am than I have ever been, even if the weight is still refusing to shift. And, as a friend on the Virgin Marathon running forum said: "It's really easy to beat yourself up over the miles you don't do and much harder to praise yourself for the miles you do do." So well done me! 

PS If you didn't watch "I'm a Celebrity..." last year and don't know who Amy Willerton is:

Anyone got an Ark?

Yuk! Is it ever going to stop raining? I know I bang on a lot about the weather but honestly...

I did manage to grab a window of opportunity on Sunday for my weekly long run - as the runs get longer it's less likely to stay dry for the whole thing, but it did on Sunday. I was a bit later than I'd intended leaving the house because we got caught up watching the Ladies' Snowboard Slopestyle. What a bonkers sport that is, if it even is a real sport - it's just kids "mucking about" on snowboards! But brilliant to watch, and fantastic that we won a medal. So it was almost 11:00 before I got out of the house, knowing I had a good 2-3 hours ahead - my plan said "run a half marathon" for this weekend. I hadn't been able to find a "real" half this weekend (not without trekking to the other end of the country anyway) so I just planned on running the distance, if I could.

I didn't have a clear idea of where I was going (not a good plan really) when I set out, because, as I have said previously, all the off-road courses are just bogs and now even the roads have giant puddles in the kerbs and verges, but in the event I ran up to Brookwood, just less than four miles, and went into the cemetery. I have never visited the Brookwood Cemetery before but it was a lovely place to run. It is the largest cemetery in Britain, and one of the largest in the world, and it covers all denominations and nationalities from around the world. In fact while I was there it looked as if there was some kind of ceremony going on in the Zoroastrian Cemetery, which I thought sounded like some sort of Martian Jedi kind of religion but hubby informs me it's actually Rastafarians. I didn't go too close as I didn't want to intrude. There are a whole load of pathways winding round the cemetery, through all the different religions and nationalities, and no traffic. It was incredibly peaceful and quite moving, especially in the Military corner, where I removed my headphones and just ran quietly and contemplatively (is that even a word?). Unfortunately many of the paths were puddly, and the grass verges incredibly boggy, so I didn't escape with dry feet, but that's par for the course at the moment. At least we only have puddle floods here - my heart really goes out to all those poor people in Somerset and along the Thames who have real floods.

I did a few laps, until William told me I'd done 8 miles, did one more short loop and headed for home. It's never as far on the way back is it? I had to add on a bit otherwise I wouldn't have made the full distance - and of course sod's law dictates that, on the route I chose, at 12 1/2 miles the pavement was completely flooded to a depth of about 4". So home I came in really squelchy shoes. 

It was gone 1:30 by the time I got in, and by the time I'd done my stretching, stood in a bin full of icy water up to my knees (by choice this time so it was medicinal... Still not nice though), and had a hot shower, we didn't have lunch till half past two by which time poor hubby was Hank Marvin. I would like to put out there how much I appreciate his selfless support, and his endless encouragement, of this mad enterprise I've taken on. I'll have to try and get out earlier next weekend! (And it's only 8 more Sundays.)

So, I have now officially completed half a marathon distance, in 2 hours 34 minutes, so not too shabby. I was pretty done in by the time I finished and couldn't possibly have carried on and done it all again, but it's a big milestone ticked off, and it's a time to carry into the actual Half Marathon I'm doing on March 9th - it'll be interesting to see if having crowds (of runners and spectators) makes a difference to my time. Note to self though: do not get carried away and set off too fast!! I am now pretty confident that I will make it to the end of the London course before they start to pack everything away. I just wish it would stop raining.

Happy Birthday Mum

She would have been 73 today, and I can't believe this is the seventh birthday she's not been here. I still miss her every day, and think about her so much - particularly at the moment with the running and everything. I like to think she'd have been proud of me; I remember as a teenager we used to watch the Marathon together and cry over everybody's achievements. She'd have thought I was bonkers mind you.

She would also have been so proud of these two - now 20 and 19 - and of her four beautiful granddaughters too. Such a shame they didn't have long enough to spend with her.

Happy Birthday Mum xxxx

Getting warmer

And not just in the old children's hide and seek way, although it is getting nearer and nearer too - into single figures weeks now...

No, it is actually getting warmer; today I spotted some green buds appearing, some brave crocuses struggling up and I almost got too hot. I've probably put the mockers on it now and we'll get hit with real winter at last, not just this awful never ending wetness. Can you buy ice chains for running shoes? (Let's not go there, cross that bridge and all that.)

So where were we? Getting wet I believe - am I really just talking about the weather? Although it's very important when you're trying to fit in running sessions without catching double pneumonia. Anyway, Sunday was a glorious day here and my plan said 120 minutes. Perfect for it, except that I felt awful. I'd had a really grumbly tummy all the previous evening, I slept really badly with stupid tunes and thoughts buzzing round my brain and on Sunday morning I just felt a mess - and it was all in my head. The very idea of going out for two hours was freaking me out, the grumbling in my tummy was nerves and I just stood over the washing up and cried at the prospect of how much I still had to do. At that point I was so close to giving up but hubby was so good and supportive, and, after a little cuddle, he chucked me outdoors.

So off I went, nice and steady, round the 10 mile route I had planned. I don't know if it was the weather, or the porridge, or just the fact that I was out there when I so nearly hadn't been, but it was a super run. I got to 5 miles in less than 56 minutes, at which point a man at least 15 years older than me went whizzing past and disappeared up the road to puncture my bubble briefly, but I stuck to my steady pace and carried on. At 7 and a bit miles I got to a bit where the road dips under a railway bridge, and the dip was full of water. I'd gone too far to turn round and go back so I just waded on through - it actually felt quite nice, like a little ice bath to give my feet a little pep up - and carried on in squelchy shoes. I stopped William a little way from home to allow me to cool down and enjoy the sunshine, but by that time I had done 10.66 miles in 2 hours 2 minutes. The first time ever I have run double figures (and I did run the vast majority of it, with just two or three bits of walking to catch my breath) and I felt pretty ok. After my stretching I sat in a cold bath which is supposed to be medicinal but was actually really unpleasant! Then I had a warm bath and a delicious roast beef dinner prepared by my lovely hubby - ooh the protein! - and spent the afternoon feeling pretty smug.

Yesterday, to ward off any potential ill-effects of the long run, I "treated" myself to a leg massage at a local Sports Clinic. I'm sure it was very good for me but ouch ouch ouch! I have bruises today.

This week is a "taper" week, with fewer sessions to allow for a bit of recovery, before a half marathon on Sunday. I'm not actually running a real half, that comes later, but I plan to do more or less the distance. So today was just 30 minutes. I thought I'd see if I could push it a bit, and I did 3 miles in 32 minutes 56 seconds. That's under 11 minutes a mile! The fastest I've ever done! Not sure I could keep it up for much further and I was quite pooped by the end but still. It's all good for the lungs. And it was quite warm.