October 2005 Archives

Well, what a weekend. As previously mentioned, Andy fell ill - we thought he may have overdone it on the run, but doubts grew when by Friday afternoon I was starting to feel a little ill myself. I got home and decided to take it relatively easy during the weekend. In order to cheer Andy up though, I dragged him to a store on Friday evening where he made a new friend : Nike Air Pegaus. To be precise... these :

Myself - I've been looking for a pair as well, but the purple and pink colours didn't really suit me... so I opted for these :

So off to home we went, where we lay like a pair of old socks, feeling sorry for ourselves, but not too much ;)

Saturday and Sunday were spent getting better - with the help of some delicious pancakes (with strawberries and peaches) made from a recipe Jeff shared with me. They were SO incredibly good that we had them on Saturday morning and Sunday morning... and if we could, we probably would have had them this morning as well.

This morning I wasn't sure that I should go to work, but I made it there and the day turned out to be pretty productive. After work though, I found the experience of my first winter in DST a little odd. Coming to work in the dark of the night isn't something I'm used to and I sure didn't think it would arrive so soon. :)

I got on my bike an hour after supper, but not before loading my iPod shuffle with some music that I LOVE. As I sat on the bike, I didn't notice the time much - I was trying to sing along to the music, which is the reason that I think nobody dared to knock on our door. I'm actually quite surprised - the kids in the village seem to have skipped our street, and there are no kids on our street either!

Right now I feel pretty good. I think my bout of illness has left the building and with any luck, it ain't coming back.

Andy's ill :( He ran too hard last night and for the past day he's been lying in bed with really bad stomach cramps and a worse tummy. I feel so sorry for him, but at the same time there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.

I got home too late to go out for a run tonight - I'll join the running club again tomorrow evening and see how it goes.

Thought I'd count the days :P

Our weekly (okay, so we've only been running there for 2 weeks :P ) club run took place tonight. We joined the same group we joined on Friday and the pace was relatively easy going and we all had a good time chatting. Andy seemed a little uncomfy, but everytime we asked him whether he was alright he nodded, or said 'yes' without giving us any idea that he was in pain.

After 5km I glanced at him and one look was enough to tell me that he wasn't okay. Apart from the breathing (I was breathing harder than normal as well, since we'd gone from a 5:45/km pace to a 4:45/km pace in 1km and stayed there for another 2km... not exactly the pace I normally run at) he seemed REALLY uncomfortable. I told the others in the group to carry on as I was going to slow down.

They slowed down as well - after all, we were running as a group! (and one of the girls said that the pace is MUCH faster than they normally run) - and for about another km we ran at the pace we started off at again. They then turned left to run about another mile while we carried on straight towards the club. We cooled down and walked the last 500m during which Andy told me that his hip and ankles were literally killing him.

I immediately thought I was going to kill him on the spot. I told him before that if he felt ANY pain he should tell me since he then rather needs to stop or slow down rather than risk injury which could keep him out of running for months at a time. He said that I seemed to be enjoying myself and he didn't want to spoil it. :(

In any case, now he's not running for the next few weeks until he's gotten (1) new shoes and until he is (2) injury free. He said that he might want to cycle with me again, but I doubt he should. I think he should just give those joints complete rest. His hip was just starting to get better too!

In any case... time for me to go crawl into bed. I'm really sleepy tonight.

Since Sunday I haven't put on my running shoes, but I have climbed on the bike on Monday for about 30 minutes. I felt a little off though, and only managed to finish 30 minutes of cycling before I finally got off.

Yesterday evening we had some grocery shopping to do and afterwards there was a table waiting for us at a restaurant - we celebrated a year together over the weekend but didn't manage to get out - which meant that in the end, no running took place. We'll make up for it at the club run tonight though.

This morning I got up a little earlier than normal - I wanted to start making some minestrone soup for tonight (using a slow cooker). I love this time of the year purely because it gives you a reason to make more soup and pancakes and other things that just does not go with summer. I'm a great soup lover :) And generally a cold weather person.

I'm not quite used to the English weather yet though. South African winters are a lot warmer than the weather we're having now even - and with the snow that apparently fell in Norway, I suspect our weather is in for another cold turn during the week. It won't be snow, but the air will probably become a lot more chilly. I need to stock up on some warm running and other clothes.

Ouch. My bottom is sore. :)

This morning I went to donate blood - I do it every 4 months and afterwards I know I should probably take it easy for a day, but sometimes I don't listen ... usually nothing goes wrong.

So, this afternoon, 5 hours after donating blood, myself and Andy headed out the door onto the trail for a run. It was quite humid, but we were having a good time. After 2km Andy turned around because he was feeling a bit more tired than he thought he should. I still felt pretty good, so I carried on.

A km later I turned around - I only wanted to run at least 5km. With 800m to go, I suddenly felt a bit dizzy; I realised that if I didn't sit down right there and then, I'd probably fall over. So I sat down on the nearest patch of grass. As I sat, all dizziness disappeared and I jumped up quicker than I sat down. The adrenalin and shock was probably what made sure that I didn't faint at that stage. I had sat down on a nice little patch of thistles!

So with an itching and burning bum, I walked home as fast as I could, trying not to laugh, and at the same time not to cry or scream. Once home I got into a bath and a quick scrub later all felt well again.

All of this has taught me a valuable few lessons.

1. Don't go run on the day that you donate blood and
2. Watch where you sit down!

Tonight was SO MUCH FUN! We went over to the club for our second run, and this time the women's captain came over and had a chat with me. She suggested another group for us to run in and said that since she and her training partner were taking it easy, they were going to run with us as well. It ended up quite amusing though :)

Firstly we all start off together - about 9 of us in the group. The first km goes well as everyone tries to warm up their muscles in the rain and wind and it passes in about 6 minutes. All is well.

Then for some reason, myself, Andy, the TC and her partner sped up and 2km later we had lost the other half of the group. We were going at a lovely steady pace of between 8:30 and 9:00 a mile. After 3 miles we saw another group from the club and joined them for the remaining 2.6miles. It was slightly slower than when only the four of us were running together, but it was still a nice pace. By the end we had done 5.6 miles!

It was absolutely wonderful to run with them. My legs didn't feel heavy, I wasn't out of breath too much, I could hold a conversation, but I broke a sweat and afterwards it felt like I had run.

There's a XC relay 3 weeks from now and the women's captain have asked if I could run on that Saturday. I've of course said that I'd love to run! Andy has to check whether he's on call, but he might run with the men's team :) Right now, he's downstairs though, claiming that the run had killed him - I'm sure its nothing a little bit of chilly can't cure though.

It seems that tomorrow is going to be a very rainy day, which is a good excuse to tell him to take a nice rest. I have a squash game around noon, but apart from that I plan to take tomorrow easy as well - then go out for a relaxing run on Sunday.

Good luck to everyone that is doing races this weekend - I'll be thinking of you!

Last night myself and Andy went to a yoga class, except that the class has changed and is now a pilates class. Nothing could have pleased me more. I love pilates! So for an hour we got to relax, work on aligning our spines, use our abdominals and have fun.

The instructor said that next week there'll be yoga on the Thursday, but from the following week it will become a permanent pilates class. I'm really really happy about this. I've been looking for a pilates class for ages.

Also, from next week, we'll alternate Fridays - one week we'll run, and the next week we'll go to a yoga class. I need a bit more flexibility. :) Tonight though, we're off to another run with the club - we've received the application forms to join!

I know that running with a club is about running with a group with similar abilities than yourself. Tonight was our first run with the club - although I didn't expect to run extremely fast, I didn't exactly think that myself and Andy would end up in a group that ran approximately a minute and a half slower than our average pace on a 5 mile. We ended up running just less than 4 miles in 40 minutes. We didn't even break a sweat and we could quite easily have joined a faster group, but then again, they might have been too fast for us.

Afterwards the group leader said that we should go with a slightly faster group on Friday - apparently there will be a "mid" group between the group that we were in tonight and the one up from us which he thinks we should join until we feel comfortable to join the faster Wednesday group. We'll see how it goes :) Wednesdays could easily become a nice slow run between two hard days - myself and Andy tend to push each other when it is just the two of us - maybe we need a bit of slowing down :)

Well, not completely accurate. I knew they existed, I just didn't know they could become this sore.

This morning at 6:00 I was reminded of what a great guy Andy is. He had to be at work by 7:00, so he got up at 5:30 and got ready for work. At 6:20 he came and said goodbye. Now, he knew that this morning I was planning on doing some cycling - he had set up my bike in the lounge so I could watch early morning television while I was cycling. If he didn't, I have to admit, I might have been tempted to stay in bed (it was extremely snuggly and warm this morning), but as he did, I knew I would have felt guilty if I stayed in bed.

I got out and onto the bike... and 30 minutes later I got off the bike. I got ready and came to work. Now, 6 hours later, I have an extremely sore rear and my chair is one of the softer ones! I want to laugh, because I'm amused, but I doubt anyone else in the office will find it as amusing :) Hopefully they'll numb a little towards this afternoon.

Of last night's plans to just lounge, nothing came. Instead we went to the pool after supper and I swam a relaxing 1000m. I really enjoyed it, although there were one or two swimmers that nearly made me choke with their waves. I really feel motivated at this stage to get up to the point where I can swim 2 miles before working on speed. At this moment form is just about the only important thing in any case. :)

Tonight's run was absolutely wonderful. From the word go we knew that we didn't plan on running so fast that we would end up breathless. Today's run was meant to be truly relaxing, easy... and if I dare say it, slow. We never pushed the limits beyond the point where we could hold a conversation - in fact, we had a conversation the whole way through.

When we started it was already getting dark. After 2km it was completely dark and we had to watch where we put our feet. Considering that we were running on a trail between trees, we mostly had to guess where to put our feet. Not that it stopped us from enjoying ourselves. Along the way we were making jokes and having fun.

Tomorrow evening is our first club run. Afterwards we'll decide whether we'll go every Wednesday and Friday or whether we'll just run on Wednesdays. Fridays is supposed to be our complete rest day, which could be moved, but ideally we'd like to keep it as a day of rest.

Right now I need to go get my contacts out. Have a wonderful day/evening!

The program is a "volume builder" of sorts. It is the Hal Higdon Novice marathon program with some cycling and swimming added since I'd one day like to finish an Ironman Triathlon event.

Andy starts work at around 7:30AM on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. On Wednesdays and Thursdays he starts at 7:00AM. This means that he normally gets out of bed at around 6:30AM and this normally motivates me to get out of bed - which is when I'll do a bit of cycling or go swimming or do some other things.

The "problem" creeps in when he feels like lying in :) I just don't get up. I lie in myself and end up only getting out of bed once he leaves, which by then is time for me to get ready for work.

This morning was such a morning. I had planned on getting out of bed and cycle for 30 minutes at 6:30. Andy got out of bed at 7:15 and left for work just after 7:30 :) Yes, he was late for work, but he should just arrive before 8:00AM.

I'll cycle this afternoon when I get home though :) I'm just amused with my own incapability to get out of a snuggly bed when my other half is still in bed. I think its one of those temptations that need to be fought... who knows, I might do it one day.

Other news : I'm feeling surprisingly good after this weekend. There is no stiffness or soreness left from the ride or the run and I feel quite ready to tackle another week. Only 8 weeks until our trip to South Africa! I'm feeling really excited about it all now.

On Wednesday myself and Andy will be joining the Ivanhoe Runners for our first clubrun. It'll be quite a bit of fun to run with other people again on a training run :)

This afternoon we went for a lovely run. Just 5km planned. And we weren't going to do it fast. Well, not the second half. The first half flew by. It was absolutely amazing to feel like you could go faster. Then our legs remembered the cycle yesterday and immediately it felt incredibly heavy. Mind you, still not uncomfortable, but we had to work to keep up the same kind of pace.

We slowed down and just ran home. Afterwards Andy said that his legs felt dead, but we're glad we went for a run :) My legs feel fine now that I've stretched them out a bit, but I think they might ache slightly tomorrow!

This morning when we woke up it was cold and misty outside, but something inside of me wanted to go for that cycle. I wanted to explore the Cloud Trail more - the furthest we've been down it before was 10km and apparently it is 21km to Derby from where we live.

So myself and Andy packed a backpack with some water and grapes, put on some gear and took our mountain bikes out for a ride.

The route was incredibly pretty - you can see that it is autumn. Yellows, greens, browns and oranges surrounded us in the trees, fields and on the paths. I still cannot believe how green the fields stay during winter here while the trees lose all their leaves after first painting the world around us.

After 15km we unfortunately had to turn around - there were major roads covering the last 6km of the out route and I didn't want to be hit by a car on the lovely Saturday morning. We started cycling back, stopping on one of the bridges that is part of the footpath and having some grapes and water. We also held some "stick races" on the river Trent - tossing a twig from the one side of the bridge, racing to the other side and cheering the sticks on. It was great fun.

By the time we got home we were incredibly tired and sleepy, which meant that after a nice long shower, I dropped onto the couch and dozed off a little while Andy played some games on the pc.

It was such a great day :)

Yesterday evening no run took place. Instead I was inside, assembling my new trainer for the better part of 2 hours. Afterwards of course, I had to do a quick test on it, callibrate it and after that it was just about time for bed.

This morning when Andy left, he reminded me that I wanted to do a ride today, so after he had gone, I got up, tried to act awake and in my half dazed state got onto the bike. A few minutes later I was huffing and puffing and peddling my heart out. I enjoyed it - might just need a towel for the amount of sweat.

Tonight we're going for a run again - don't know whether we'll run at the gym or on the Cloud Trail, but I'm looking forward to it.

Yesterday evening we did our first run in the dark. After work I met Andy at the gym so we could run on the grass, and after a quick change of clothes, we warmed up, stretched and then set off on our planned 22 minute run. The cold was hurting my knees and my other joints, but that could be due to the lack of exercise last week too. My legs felt heavy and horrible and although I knew I could speed up if I wanted to, there was a lack of energy that kept me from doing so.

By the time we finished I was all too glad to finish the run.

Hopefully tonight will be a better one. :(

The weekend was good, although I haven't done any training in almost a week - apart from a lazy 8km mountain bike ride yesterday. This week it is full-steam ahead again though, and training will be more normal.

The weather is getting colder now. We had darkness and freezing temperatures this morning until about 7, after which the sun came up, but the temperatures stayed more or less the same. The central heating seemed to be off, although I checked, so maybe we'll have to check some of the radiators. One of these days I'll need a kick rather than a shove out of bed to get out and train.

I'm expecting my bike trainer to arrive this week - Andy ordered me one for those cold mornings during which I should go cycle, but feel too afraid to. The darkness scares me - I'm afraid I might be hit by a car or something.

I grew up in temperatures in excess of 20 degrees (Celsius), which means that the English autumn is making my toes freeze. I found some socks to wear, I thought I'd share :)

Yesterday afternoon I arrived at the Hood Park fields straight from work in the hope of having Andy's first run with him. He said that his hip was feeling better and there was no pain, so we figured it'd be okay. As we were making our way to the fields though, he felt a dull niggle, which then made him decide to rather not run. I did a slow jog around the fields for 18 minutes before my calves started to cramp up. My legs were still feeling a little stiff from the race on Sunday and I didn't want to run into injury, so I stopped.

An hour later though, everything was fine... no stiffness, no soreness. Nothing.

This morning I woke up and wanted to go for a run, but just in time realised that I was already late for work! Andy said he felt okay this afternoon - once again we met at Hood Park and this time he ran with me for a full 20 minutes without any pain. I was taking it relatively easy - it is after all a rest week - and only started speeding up in the last km.

I feel a little tired though. It could be due to a lack of sleep, or maybe I picked up a bug somewhere and its just working itself out. Tomorrow will have to see whether it gets any run at all :)

... and what comes down further than it went up, must go up again.

This morning I woke up, groggy and not really willing to leave my warm bed for the utterly cold weather outside. I saw clouds from my pillow and knew that once I left the house, there was no turning back. The temptation was big.

I got out of the bed though and made my way to Kimberley in Nottingham to run the Goose Fair Gallop 5 mile race.

We didn't really know where we were going as we were driving, but Andy had a relatively good idea in which direction to drive. The map we had was useless, but thankfully the signs to the Leisure Centre was really good.

Now, I read on Runner's World that the course was Undulating. This was a big factor in my decision to run, as I didn't feel that I was in a shape to do a lot of hills and end up being so tired that I walked more than I ran.

Km 1 - The Start
We all walked from the gathering point to the start and I took my place in the middle, not too close to the back, but not quite to the front either. In front of us was a load of buildings and the local people came out and clapped hands as the alarm sounded and we started our run. The first km was all uphill. No, seriously... it was all uphill from the moment we started. I managed to keep a fairly decent pace, so I wasn't too bothered, it was almost as if I was running at home.

Km 2
The hill would not end. After running a kilometer, I realised that there was more to come, purely because it was as clear as daylight. I looked forward and saw more hill ahead of me. Around every corner there was one. It seemed like there was no end to it. Luckily after another 500m, we suddenly hit a footpath and it started going downhill!

Woo! I let my legs just fall and enjoyed the absolutely wonderful scenery that lay ahead of me. This downhill, as luck would have it, went on for another 1500m until we reached the 2km mark. It felt a little odd, and I knew we were going down steeply, but I didn't realise what I was in for the next 5km....

Km 3 - Km 8
At the 3km mark, a marshall handed me half a glass of water and I slurped it down - the sun shone down on us during the downhill and by now I was a little thirsty. So thirsty indeed, that I nearly choked on the water as a few drops went down the wrong way.

Then I turned the corner and another hill stared me in the face. I ran my steady pace, feeling a little out of it, but in general enjoying it and just carrying on, doing my own thing. All in all, I was there to just enjoy it, right?

The hill didn't stop. For about 5km it seemed that every corner we took, it was an uphill. At some stage I thought that there couldn't be more hill, but there was. And more. And more! Another girl ran with me and at some stage she muttered 'Someone should have warned me about the hill!' to which I silently agreed.

Just after the point of 6km, I felt my back starting to go into spasm. This happened during the Worthington 5 Mile race as well, and I got scared, seeing myself lying next to the path, not being able to finish. So I started walking, rubbing my back, hoping to get the spasm out.

Luckily it did go out and I could carry on with my journey.

By the time we reached the 5 mile mark, I didn't feel as "fresh" as I thought I would, but I didn't feel as dead as I thought I would either. I actually felt pretty good. I crossed the line and made my way towards the table to receive my T-shirt when a little girl ran towards me. "Number 359! Excuse me, can you go over to that table - you won a spot prize."

So I went, received some hot-cross buns, received my t-shirt and a package and put on some tracksuit bottoms. It was still freezing and I was in no mood to get ill.

I'm relatively happy with the time I ran though ( 43'44"), and looking forward to my next race - whichever that may be!