November 2005 Archives

Last night I went for my first run in nearly 2 weeks. The reason? I was probably a little lazy.

By now I've accepted that I won't be running in the London Marathon this coming year and have started looking towards something else. I've decided that the Shakespeare Marathon is probably the better choice since it gives me two extra weeks to get ready for it - and a slow training program to just get me round started last night (short, but darkness scared me).

Since some snow fell on Monday and some of it hasn't melted yet, it was incredibly cold. My gloves barely kept my hands warm and I was quite thankful for the extra warmth of the reflector vest that I had on. Andy came along and we decided to keep it short and just start off slowly again. He wanted to make sure his hip was okay now and I just wanted to jog a little to get loose.

Tonight I'm running with the club (it should be a load of fun in the dark) and afterwards I have a whole lot of work to do. Outside it is close to zero degrees with rain that is falling. Something tells me I'm going to need something warmer to run in tonight. :)

With a cold weekend forecast (View image) I'm looking forward to sitting in front of a nice warm fire. Unfortunately that isn't happening as we're off to York.

Last night I found myself playing squash with Andy. I'm still not exactly sure how, but I managed to hit my own hand, leaving me with a blue bruise across my finger. Ouch. - It also has me typing painfully although there is no swelling. :)

Yesterday morning I woke up and realised that it has been more than a week since I have done any exercise worth mentioning (apart from playing squash on Saturday that is). I got to work and started dreaming about what I'd do in the evening. A run perhaps? With a mixture of fog and darkness facing me, that wasn't a very attracting option. Oooooh, wait, I can cycle!

So I cycled for 40 minutes last night and it felt like complete and utter heaven. I wasn't even that tired after 30 minutes and was it not for my brain telling me that going on to do 50 minutes would be overdoing it... I'd have kept on until I finally fell off the bike. Afterwards I tried something new.

An Ice bath.

Now, considering that at the moment (and at that moment) it was incredibly cold outside, I wasn't about to dump a load of ice into my bath. Instead I just ran the cold water tap - believe me, this was sufficient. I got into the bath and as the book which I read said, it took my breath away at first, then I went completely numb and finally I got out of the bath and wrapped myself in a bath sheet. It was COLD!

We have snow forecast for Thursday and Friday - how much fun is that? Its only November and we're getting ready to see snow! I'm looking forward to it in one way, but thinking about running in more cold weather is making me feel like shivering already. I think I might go hide in the Sauna at the gym ;)

After being ill for a week I'm going to attempt some exercise tonight. Not running though, but pilates. We've got 2 hours of it booked for tonight and I'm looking forward to it. I'm feeling human again (lots of good rest during the past 4 days) and really looking forward to the weekend...

Myself and Andy is going to take part in our first Cross Country meeting for the season on Sunday. 2 laps of approximately 4.5km each... it doesn't sound too hard if you listen to people that have run there before ... and it is my favourite discipline as far as running goes.

I have learnt valuable lessons today.

- If someone advises you to arrive at a race with a long vest and gloves, do it. There's probably some experience behind the advice and it shouldn't be laughed off.

This morning I woke up with a little bit of a cold and feeling a little sluggish and off, but since I had a relay to run, I got up and went to the race headquarters to get my number. After that I went to the starting point of my stage and chatted for a while with two of the other club members. It was absolutely FREEZING. I had taken the advice of another one of my team members and arrived with a long sleeved vest, but unfortunately didn't pack some gloves. This left me with some lovely blue hands. :)

Soon it was our turn to run (although, the timekeepers were ALMOST late) and as we set off, my legs told me that it didn't like the cold weather. My calves felt really sore as they wound themselves up nice and tight. I decided to just take it easy, but as anyone knows, knots in calves don't leave without pain. I kept running, but after a mile and a half I was in extreme pain and with 2 miles to go, I took a walking break. 200m later I felt okay again and I ran at a steady pace to the end of the stage. It wasn't too slow either :)

I think I'll remember my gloves for the rest of the winter - and some nice long tights while I'm at it.

Right now, all I want to do is get some sleep.

With each passing day the weather is getting colder and more motivation s required to get me outside for a run. Our cheques for the London Marathon was cashed a few weeks ago, but since we bequeathed our entrance fee, we won't know whether we got an entry until early December. From what I hear and read though, the chances are slim that we did get an entry (something about the date it was cashed on) and that leaves open the question of whether we want to do another marathon if we didn't get entries for London. There is the Paris marathon which is a week earlier and the Shakespeare Marathon which is two weeks later - I guess we'll keep on training and wait to hear from the London Marathon organisers - should anyone else have any suggestions on other marathons around the end of April, please feel free to let me know!

On Wednesday after I had run, blogged and done all the things I wanted to do before supper, I went downstairs to have some supper with Andy. As I sat down an intense pain shot down my right leg and up my spine and left me in a great amount of anguish. I managed to sit up and find where the actual source of the pain is and the rest of the evening I spent half-sitting, half-lying with a heat patch and a heated wheat bag on my leg. I still have no idea precisely what happened, but thankfully it had gone away by last night.

Last night we went to 2 hours of pilates - I really do enjoy it. Afterwards I felt a little tired and we relaxed in the spa after which I was ready to go home and sleep. I slept well, although I had a strange dream which involved me turning up at a triathlon event without my wetsuit and bike. How bizarre!

On Sunday I'm taking part in the High Peak Relay - and apparently parking is a problem at some of the handovers, so we'll go early and try to find the place I'm supposed to be at. Afterwards I have to jog the 3.5 miles back to the place I started at, which should be a fair amount of fun, but it gives me the mileage I have to do for Sunday, so I'm happy.

Righty, more work awaits.

Yikes, it is COLD out there my friends! Tonight we arrived at the club and found that many people preferred their nice warm fireplaces inside their houses to running outside in 6C weather.

We set off with a nice mild group - Andy joined us tonight! - and after about a mile a faster group joined up with us, which led to some of the people in our group being pulled along. 2km later and we realised that 2 of the girls that started the run with us was no longer with us. Myself and Andy volunteered to turn around and find them and after that Andy went back to the club, while I jogged with the two ladies for a few miles.

It was a nice and relaxing run and I feel a lot better than I did this time last week. Although, then I was recovering from illness and now I'm almost perfectly healthy again!

We got our schedules for the race on Saturday - I'm running the 5th leg now instead of the 2nd (a whole mile longer :) ) - and I'm starting to really look forward to it.

Hope everyone is well. I need to go in search of a fire now....

Winter is finally here. After a weekend of rain that is now a definite.

Yesterday afternoon I felt like a little run (I had 5km scheduled for Friday, but didn't feel quite myself, so I skipped Friday and vowed to run on Saturday) which led to me and Andy heading out the door and onto the Cloud trail. We took it really easy and for the first 3km things were good. After that the Forerunner decided that it was too cloudy and lost signal until we got home, at which point it paired up with some satellites again. Luckily I know that at the point that we turned around (3km), the route that we took back is exactly 2km, so I wasn't too upset by it.

This morning we woke up to a cold, windy, soggy morning. The bed was really snuggly and with the promise of a fire being made, chances were slim that I would want to willingly leave the comfort and heat of the house for the cold weather outside. I had 10km to run though.

Just before 2pm I put on some shoes, Andy got his mountain bike and we set off on the road. It was such a great and relaxing run, and I didn't feel that the pace that I was going at was too fast at all. It was just right. I ran the little hill that kills you at the start of the run, found some even ground and stayed on it for the next 5km, then turned around and with 3km to go, turned onto a downhill before hitting the last 2km which were slightly uphill again. It felt good though.

And with no illness threatening to strike this week, I think I might have a good week ahead of me. :)

Last night I fell asleep with difficulty, but this morning at 5:45 I woke up because my mouth was watering. Literally watering. The smell of bacon being cooked was in the air and with that also the crackling you hear when breakfast is being made. I was sleepy and in a daze, so I pulled the duvet over my head and tried to fall asleep, but somehow that didn't quite work.

A few minutes later Andy came strolling in, with a lovely plate with bacon, an egg and 2 croissants on in the one hand, and a cup of coffee in the other hand. I felt so spoilt! I got breakfast in bed :)

Tonight is another club run and I'm in two minds about which group I should join this week. If I go with the faster group and my legs take as much strain as they did on Wednesday I'm going to feel like I've let myself down. If I go with the slower group I might feel more rested tomorrow, but I'll keep wondering if I shouldn't have gone with the faster group. Oh well, we'll see how I feel tonight.

Last night I arrived at the club to go for a slowish run, but then Carolyn asked whether I wanted to run with them (which I knew was going to be a much faster pace) and I went with the faster group. There were a lot more runners in that group last night and the social aspect of running as a club really showed up.

The first mile went by very quickly. I got to speak to one of the newer members of the club and then to some other people. What surprised me though, was that last night we did a route that is much more hilly than the route we ran the past few weeks. At first it didn't hurt or bother me, but after 3.5 miles, running at 8:30 a mile was starting to really speak to my legs. My legs and chest started hurting, but I kept up and felt really good about not pushing myself - falling back at times and catching up when I felt stronger.

After 4 miles, one of the girls in the group said that she was also hurting and since we were relatively close to the club we went on another route towards the finish (slightly shorter, but still with an uphill). We finished just short of 5 miles and although I was utterly tired, it was one of those satisfied tired feelings.

Andy didn't run with us though - he opted to go to the gym instead and then went home and cooked supper, which was ready just in time for us to eat once I got home.

Tonight I'm not doing any running, but tomorrow evening I'm running with the club again.