2012 in numbers

Some of the GRW-ers have been doing the running version of the 'year round-ups' that seem to be filling my Facebook feed, so I thought I'd join in (and with a more extended version here on la blog!)

2012 has really been a year of two halves running wise: build up to Manchester (Marathon fail) and now the build up to VLM (111 days to go).

Not really sure what went so wrong with the Manchester training: OK I now have my fab JogScotland group to go to once a week, but that's only one run out of the four.  I think also the extra weight I was carrying made it difficult to keep going but then that's a bit of a rubbish excuse.  Perhaps giving myself the get-out of not telling Grandad made the mental fight so much more difficult ... and therefore it was far too easy to give up.  When I read/share the stories of the other Good Run Wallers who have FAR more reason to give up, and yet keep positive and keep going through injury and disasters it makes me rather humble (and just a little bit ashamed that I gave up so easily)

Not now though! 

Since starting running again (post my VLM letter being delivered) I have: 

* Lost 2 1/2 stone through diet first and then running second.

* Knocked 4 minutes and 36 seconds off my parkrun PB 

* Stuck to my marathon plan through 3 months - even if I've been running less in the last couple of weeks due to flu/chest infection

I have also run my first half marathon this year (even if it did then knock me out for months), having previously been of the 'wouldn't run for a bus' brigade. And I've noticed a general improvement in fitness when having to run for buses - would never have been able to run between stops before.

Over the whole year (including the aborted marathon training for Manchester) I have: 

* Run 338 miles in 72 runs taking 49 hours 9 mins and 4 seconds to do so. 

* Burned off 27,434 calories (and managed to stop eating twice as many back)

* Improved my average pace from 13:30 m/m in 2011 to 12:23 m/m (and presumably in the last 3 months that has improved even more)

* Improved my average age grade from 34.95% (2011) to 39.8 (2012) but now pretty much always hitting the 40%s and with a best age grade of 48.25% on my last run of the year

I couldn't have done any of this improving without the support of my friends on the GRW who are always there with congratulations even if I only run as far as they warm up, and who are very willing to send me messages until I get my butt out of the door.  Discovering the lovely JogScotland group has also made a huge difference - especially as they really push what I think are my boundaries in speed and distance. Long may this continue! Am already signed up for Marathon Talk's Jantastic with the GRW-ers so that will be even more motivation for the challenges ahead.

Roll on 2013 - I'm ready for you now :-D

Congleton Parkrun

Those on the Good Run Wall know that I've been laid low with flu for the last couple of weeks - I did manage to get out a few times (including my birthday with the Jog Scotland lot) but not been blogging or seriously training.  

Now down south in Englandshire (well North Englandshire) with Parentals for New Year and doing the parkrun challenge with my Dad: I can't say I particularly wanted to go out into the pouring rain at 8am this morning (especially as my throat had a massive lump in making it a tad sore to swallow), however I said to Grandad that I would go in the car and see what the weather was like when we reached Congleton.

Actually, when we arrived the rain had gone off a bit, and we jogged from the carpark (typical Grandad chose the one that was further away) to the start just to see if my lungs were up to it, and as they weren't exploding I decided to potter my way round and just try and get round without having to walk.

Was a little dubious about the idea of a 3 lap run, but the locals were very friendly (I have to say more friendly than the Edinburgh lot!) and we were all chatting at the start line. Headed off nice and slowly (at least I felt I was going nice and slowly) and plodded my way round. It was actually quite nice having the three laps as it seemed to be a lot shorter back to the beginning each time. I'd covered my Garmin up with my coat/shirt sleeve but took a sneaky look at my pace at the end of the first mile, only to see my 'nice slow pootle' was actually about a 10 min/mile.  

Kept on plodding onward - knew my second mile had been a wee bit faster, but I thought that I was slowing down for the last lap (not according to the stats!).  Watch time says 10:59 - but I do know I started it early and stopped it late (someone behind me was told they got 10:54). But whichever way it's still a PB! (Previous best was 32:24).  Also got best paced run (average 9:45) AND my best age grade (48.2%). TRIPLE PB :D Hopefully on Tuesday when my chest is a couple more days better, I MIGHT be able to break the 30 minutes ... fingers crossed. Will update when the text comes through with confirmed time.

[Update 1: Stats from Garmin site ... oops]

[Update 2: Final PR text time - 30:50 :-D]

Mousie vs. Mousie

Well I'm nearly back to normal after a week of weird lethargy that turned into a streppy throat and nasty head cold - still a bit full in the nose and wanting in the voice department (gone from a soprano to a bass in the space of 24 hours) - but I decided it was time to stop prevaricating and get my trainers back one. After catching up on an ITV drama from yesterday. Oh and watching a couple of episodes of Elementary. And lunch.

Having a birthday meal today at my favourite local Italian (I do love living in a city where I can have so many choices) so as I was being indecisive on where/how far to run, I decided to get my butt out the door, confirm the table booking, and go from there. 

Was having horrible problems with a stitch from the very beginning of my run (I should have known lunch was a bad idea)  ... but I was determined to get a semi decent mileage in even though I had taken an emergency bus fare with me just in case.  Had to stop, stand, and deep breathe a few times, but it did actually seem to sort itself out after about 20 mins.  

Then had another wobble around about the 3-3.5 mile mark after having got a little lost (smart phones are wonderful, except when they decide to play up!) and then stopped off in a public loo.  Nearly gave up there and then, but decided I wanted to get to 4 miles if I could. 

By the time I found a useful bus stop, it was still reading 11 mins to the next bus, so I thought I'd run a stop along ... but for some reason unbeknown even to myself I then took a total detour through the Cowgate and decided I was going to run home.  The last mile or so was pretty tough: I stopped and immediately restarted a couple of times (whilst also giving myself a pretty stern mental ticking off). 

So from having to push myself quite hard to even get up to 20 mins, I ended up doing an hour of actual running and 5.3 miles ... link here to Garmin stats.  I also found the way to the Union Canal which I think may end up being a route for a long run one of these days.  Oh and I'm now on negative calories for the day, so looking forward to my meal out tonight.  Most importantly I won a bit of a mental battle with myself - bodes well I hope for future training!

The end is nigh ...

... at least in terms of concerts anyway! Last big concert was yesterday (and now I only have to get through Christmas services).

Managed to get back in the saddle yesterday as planned - and extended my planned route very slightly to include a bit of the prom at Portobello (I've mentioned how much I like the sea!) Was just over five miles again in just under an hour, which hopefully bodes well for my sub-30 parkrun challenge for the end of the year.  Explored a park on the route that I hadn't realised was as extensive as it actually is - looks like a great place to pause/paddle/play pooh sticks in the summer. Also wanted to experiment a bit and tried boosting myself with a bit of mars bar (which was supposed to be my post-run treat) in the last half mile which wasn't the easiest way to get sugar on the hoof ... rather hard to breathe whilst chewing chocolatey nougat.  Think I'll stick to proper stuff in the future! 

Also had a bit of a Garmin fail after forgetting to restart for a short while after a traffic light - but think I've managed to sort it out in GRG at least. Stats here.

Also trying to get the diet back on track having had a few too many days of treating myself to stuff: got a rather handy pack of pre-cooked lentils from Morrisons and various bits of anti-pasta to help turn it into salads. I had made myself one for lunch today, which was indeed rather scrummy, but ended up snacking rather too much on the lovely stuff provided for our Church AGM.

Have to get back up to my four runs again in the coming week (which is slightly easier when I don't have a concert every day): can't rest on my laurels too long! Got our staff christmas lunch tomorrow so will have to run that off at some point too ... might try and get my backside out of bed for an early one (whether that will happen I have no idea).

Resting and Races

Sleepiness finally caught up on me: the last few weeks I've been quite tired, but this week I've barely been able to drag myself out of bed at all. After managing a run (but little else) on Monday, and a few days of running around for concerts, I've had to accept that running hasn't happened mid-week this week.  I'm planning to go out for a nice slow/longish run tomorrow (perhaps down to Portobello and then up to Morrisons for breakfast/shopping).  It's not even been a lack of mojo really, just an overwhelming desire to sleep - my glands have also been up for a few days so I think it might be partly down to a bit of a virus.

I have been using my down-time to search for possible races for next year: I'm still considering the possibility of trying to fit in a 20-miler but they are so few and far between and as a church musician races on Sundays are a little awkward to fit in.  I have booked in for a local, hilly-ish 10 miler in early March just to keep the legs ticking over (and being local means I can get back for Evensong!).  It looks quite a nice course as all the uphill (and some downhill stretches) are in the first 6 miles, and then the last 4 are downhill all the way! 

So this is how my race diary is looking for the next few months: not particularly impressive/populated compare to many of the amazing peeps on GRW, but of course the big on is VLM! Will be nice to get some bling going on next year though :D

Skating!

Last night I was all hopeful for a nice easy run (if cold) as the temperature had finally dragged itself over the 0 degrees mark, and it was chucking down with rain.  Unfortunately, this morning the temp had dropped again and much of last night's rain had frozen making some of the pavements on my run rather lethal! Even the dog walkers in the park were skiting around all over the place - certainly a good way of keeping my pace down.

Did a pretty easy 2 miler to the shop to keep my hand in (or should that be my feet in) but without wearing myself out - quite pleased that 11 min/mileing is beginning to feel nice and easy as if I can keep that up I should break the 5 hour mark on the marathon (141 days to go).  My aim for the half in January is primarily to break 2:30, but 2:15 if I am feeling brave and fit by the time I get there!  Finally bitten the bullet and purchased train tickets for the trip, so there's no backing out now, especially as Grandad paid for the race entry.

Was just as well I took it easy on the run really: after lugging the tree home last night, and then carrying my shopping back, I'm beginning to feel a tad on the creaky side. Nothing a nice hot bath won't fix once I've got all my furniture re-arranged and the tree up.  Beginning to feel a bit more like Christmas is on the way ... 

Nov-tastic

The wonderful people over at Marathon Talk, as well as putting together some fab podcasts every week, run a number of motivational competitions including their Spring marathon training one called Jantastic (which incidentally a lot of the Good Run Wall peeps are already signed up to for next year - including myself).  The aim of this is to set realistic goals and stick to them: and ticking off each planned run gives you a percentage/points ... well if this month was part of Jantastic I would be getting 94% for only dropping one of my planned 17 runs (for reasons explained in my Grumbles and Bruises post). It's nice to see so many ticks in my planner!

Also had the rather fab news that, although still rather painfully injured, my friend from the wall has had good news from their physio which means they will be back in the swing rather sooner than they had feared: so glad that we won't be losing them after all. Sending lots of hugs their way whilst on the injured bench though.

November Planner plus lots of ticks!

Today, being Thursday, was a run out with my JogScotland group (complete with a t-shirt I personalised yesterday - I don't think my gel-writing skills are up to much!).  We were down to two Jog Leaders this week for various reasons, which meant that we had to be a bit more inventive with routes etc.  I went off rather faster than I had intended to do after Monday's rather longer run - and quite enjoyed being pushed by two more advanced runners - spent the run between the lead group and running back on ourselves, and the more middling group.  We had pushed ourselves rather hard in places so we did allow ourselves a bit of a walk break after about 35 mins (courtesy of a rather too steep hill than we could face) - but looking at the pace we were setting much of the time it was much harder than I am used to!

Stats are a little odd, as we did some sprinting and doubling back in the railway tunnel, and therefore without satellite signal, so I'm not going to put them up. I have compensated at least on the distance for this by altering the GRG map of the route - and despite the walk break have ended up by my best age grading (which does sound right, given the perceived effort etc to keep up with the faster runners vs the pace when not underground!)

Aches-wise: my knee was grumbling a bit during the 2 million graduation ceremonies I've sung at this week (well, that might be a slight exaggeration) but was actually fine when running; back is complaining a little again but that's probably the singing/weird seats and is feeling millions better having achieved hot water bottle; and blister seems to have randomly sorted itself out (feet are weird).

Still debating parkrun potential this weekend: I really should have a slower run in the week, if only to be nice to my poor joints, but I also don't want to get totally out of the habit of it! I guess I'll decide what to do when Saturday morning comes round (and I always have shopping to buy if not - so an alternate route is to potter over to Morrisons and bus home). Think 3 miles should really be my max though, so as not to go too far over the 10% increase if I can help it - don't want to end up with an injury again.

Downs and Ups

After a bonkers weekend involving a fabulous Thanksgiving feast with friends, a second feast courtesy of our amazing parish lunch team, and a day of singing a two and a half octave range (ouch), this morning started on a rather sad note.  I don't want to mention names (as this blog is supposed to be reasonably anonymous) but one of the really inspiring runners on the Good Run Wall is suffering from a very painful recurring injury that may put her out of the game for a long time or indeed permanently.  This person has been an inspiration to us all, not just me - as is her non-facebooking husband - as both have overcome so many challenges in the last few years, and although I totally understand her decision to leave the wall because of all the running posts - I will really miss her, her stories, and her support.

Sad Mousie 

The crazy weekend had also left me (even more) knackered and with a splitting head - so was half planning on using my gym pass for the Carlton to go and enjoy treadmills and saunas - but I want to be awake enough to enjoy that so decided on a circular route instead.  Once I got out the door it took about 2 or 3 mins to relax into the run (which is admittedly much better than it used to be!) and I decided to go for the longer of two possible routes I had considered which would take me round the park via Duddingston and then back up the wonderfully-named Innocent Railway.

However, when I got round to Duddingston (and after a weekend of rich food) I was beginning to feel like the dreaded gingerbread man was in possibility of making a visit, so I decided to change my route to head to Morrisons and its bathrooms! Nearly changed my mind again at a crossroads and was considering the possibility of continuing to Portobello - although that would have required a rather longer walk back.

Despite the dodgy tummy, I didn't really feel like stopping running - really felt today like I was getting into some kind of flow.  So once I had made a quick stop in Morrisons, and another quick one in a newsagents to top up my gas and electricity cards (hence some rather short laps in the middle of the Garmin stats) I ran most of the way home: making a 50 ish minute run rather than the planned 35.  Feeling pretty good for it, even if I can't really count it as 50 mins solid running, and I was definitely getting tired by the end. Also got the odd niggle: an annoying blister on the underside of my right foot (which might be sock related), and my right knee has started aching a touch since I started writing this post.  Don't think either are anything serious, but I will be careful on my next two runs just to make sure.

This is also the first ever run that I've done where every single other runner I have passed has returned my nod of hello: even though that's only 3 people, it's still better than previous experience!

For some reason GRG stats are a wee bit different to the Garmin ones (by 0.04 of a mile) - although I'm wondering if the GRG ones are done off the map plotting rather than the satellite. However, it's still rather nice to get close to the 5 mile mark again for the first time in a long time. Onwards through Week 9 of training ... 146 days to the VLM (and only 55 to my half avec Grandad).

  

Black ice

After conquering Arthur on Thursday, and knowing I have a rather full diary today, I had already decided that parkrun was out of the question this week as I am covering the museum opening hours, and needed to make a contribution of sorts to a Thanksgiving dinner held by a friend of mine ... so instead I had planned that my run was going to take me to Morrisons where I could stock up on things I needed for cooking.

After feeling exhausted the whole week, I was also quite glad of the long lie this morning - although Scottish parkruns start at 9.30 rather than 9 to allow for our more Northerly location, I have to get a bus out much earlier.  Had a few options routewise: a 3 miler via Duddingston, my usual 1.7 mile direct route (or with a wee detour to make 2 miles), but went for option number 3 which was a route via Abbey Hill (previously untested but overall turned into just over 2.5 miles and my allocated 30 mins).  

Mostly a nice slow, easy,  run - although that was partly necessitated by the weather: I asked SIRI for the temperature this morning and he said "Brrr, it is 0 degrees".  Quite a lot of black ice out on the footpaths - now as someone who rather painfully fractured her coccyx a few years ago, I am absolutely petrified of falling over and doing any more damage to it! Cue some rather tentative corners and a lot of staring at the state of pavements!

There were a few times I nearly though 'ok I've had enough' but each time I just told myself to go a little further, and ended up surpassing all my targets - definitely starting to win the mental battles with myself! Roll on week 9!

Stats from GRG

Mousie the conqueror ...

In the middle of Edinburgh there is a park, which is only there because of a whopping great volcano in the middle of the city: the high point being called Arthur's Seat ... around much of the hill there is a road, conveniently measuring 5k.  Despite living next to the park for my entire running life (admittedly that's only 18 months) I have never managed to run ALL the way around this road without stopping ... that is until today!

This morning dawned with one of the pinkest skies I have seen since I was a kid -  a friend of mine took this amazing and utterly gorgeous photo of it from his house while I was still curled up under my duvet hitting the snooze button! No surprise then that it has been chucking down with rain since about 9 am ...

Edinburgh morning sky, 22 November 2012 © Rob MacKillop http://robmackillop.net/photography/

Being a brave little runner (or not wanting to face the GRW peeps if I chickened out), I got my kit on and dragged myself out to our JogScotland meeting place.  Hadn't had very much sleep last night so wasn't really after too big a push - which I said to our leader.  Apparently 'not to big a push' turned out to be 4 1/2 miles around Arthur's Seat and back, but I stuck at the back of the group and it actually felt quite comfortable.

We went anti-clockwise, which meant there was a steep bit at the beginning, a reasonably flat section, and then a long slow downhill - at least that way the hill is soon out of the way! It was really nice having people to chat to along the way as it distracted me from the PAIN of that first bit of hill, and then we were so far behind the 'fast' group that we just plodded a nice leisurely pace home. I'm SO pleased to finally get over that mental hurdle of being able to get round the route, rather than always thinking that it's too tough. Arthur's Seat is officially conquered!

Also quite glad that I took a nice nibble of sugar in the form of a fun-size mars bar so I could get a jolt of something before walking back to the office ... had planned to run parkrun again this weekend, but as this run was much longer than we have done before I might do a slightly shorter run on Saturday so as not to try and push myself too far.

Stats from GRG site here: I did cut out our stops - but they were all roads/waiting on people so I figured I could allow myself the theoretical run-through this time ... now sitting in my office huddled in many layers trying to warm up again!

PB!!! PB!!!

No, I'm not just being over-enthusiastic: I got two PBs this morning and am now grinning like a proper Cheshire puss!

Before ...

Who could have guessed at 7.15 this morning when my alarm got thrown on the floor (and people wonder why I have the über-protective iPhone case), or indeed when I did finally drag myself out of bed at 7.45 that parkrun would even happen never mind anything else. Had not had the greatest of evenings yesterday as I got home and discovered Haagen Daz in the freezer (left by departed-flatmate) and scoffed half the tub which then made me feel very sick and guilty for the diet! Admittedly, six months ago I would happily have scoffed the whole tub and more ... but I was NOT feeling good last night. However, I threw on some running clothes, dug my watch out, and scrabbled for some bus change before heading to my local bacon roll shop for black pudding this morning (with a request for only one slice, not two).

Having kept an eye on the Lothian Buses tracker app (one of the best reasons for those living in Edinburgh to have a smartphone) I saw that the Cramond bus was not really catchable, but I thought I'd have a try with the full knowledge that I would have time to get the Silverknowes option should I miss it.  The 41 had in fact just shot past the empty stop as it had no takers, but having been caught by traffic lights 10 feet after it, the VERY KIND bus driver paused long enough for me to get my lycra-covered arse on board - which I felt sufficiently pleased with to tweet about (cos frankly bus drivers get so much stick normally).

By the time we reached Cramond, there were about 5 or 6 runners on the bus, although God forbid we should chat to each other on our way to the startline - spread out quite a bit along the path as we had oodles of time (which is actually why I usually grab the later bus these days) and took in the rather splendid morning scenery over the Firth of Forth.  Decided to warm up a little on the beach which was a mistake for two reasons: firstly I nearly tripped and twisted my ankle on the wee rocky bit getting down to the beach, and secondly the tide hadn't been out for that long and there were some really deeply muddy bits that were threatening to steal my lovely shoes.  Cut my losses (hope no-one was watching too closely) and did my warm up run on the prom with everyone else.

Having not had the best start to the morning, and having a few aches from my beach excursion, I didn't really want to push for a PB this morning, but instead trogged along to my Bach/Handel/Gluck playlist feeling like I was comfortable but not in danger of going backwards.  Even spotted someone's lost barcode, which I tried to wave to the marshalls around but they weren't watching (they were for the runners returning not us - did eventually rescue it and hand it in after finishins).  I know people have issues with parkrunners wearing headphones, but actually the combination of classical music (note the SMALL c) and the fact that I rarely have the volume up very high anyway, seems to mean that I'm much more aware of people around me that many people NOT wearing headphones!

Worked my way slowly through the field as the fast-starters began to tire a little (well, some of them anyway) and spotted a guy (who is in the VM 75-79 category) who beat me last week by a hair's breadth but who was running at a nice comfortable 10:30/10:15 pace ish and decided to let him pace me around a bit - super fast first place this morning shot past much earlier than normal and the first junior not far behind - it's nice to be among the parkrun old-hands at this point because we all clapped the front runners and gave the super speedy wee girl a big cheer as she whizzed past us!

Kept with my friendly pacer (who I did thank muchly afterwards) up until about 3.5k ish and then started to move forward a little - wanted to try and get the last mile closer to the 10 min mark but without dying - passed a couple of run-walkers who kept speeding up as I went past and then being overtaken by me as they walked again (both rugby type men, perhaps offended by being passed by a whale-girl? Quite pleased I eventually passed both of them properly).

I had re-jigged my playlist in preparation, so had the Bach Magnificat in the last kilometre followed by Handel's Dixit Dominum which are both good tempi for me to push a bit more without getting too tired. Had hope to finish to the descent into hell from Gluck's Don Juan but alas for me I finished too soon for it! Watch time was reading 32:26, but as usual had slightly missed the start and never sure how good I am at judging the extra time when in the funnel - well turns out that I was VERY good - official time is 32:24 which is both a PB (number 1) of 31 seconds with a LOWER AHR than my previous time, but also gave me my PB Age Grade too of 45.14%!!! Maybe my aim for sub-30 this year isn't so crazy after all?

Followed up my run with a nice long walk (including returning the barcode I spotted - as it was laminated) and a coffee in the Morrisons about 2 miles from the start/finish, which I combined with a wee bit of food shopping - so pretty good morning out and got home just in time for my results text.

Got a cheapy gym pass for a local rather swanky gym (for £2 after a joining offer) from payasUgym - so I think I might treat myself to their facilities this week between work and choir on Thursday - bit of treadmill running and a nice swim and jacuzzi afterwards. I feel I have assuaged my ice-cream guilt and more to deserve a bit of pampering.

After

Grumbles and bruises

This past weekend has been rather over-run with concerts: both attending a rather good adaptation of the Ladykillers for the stage, and performing in two myself, plus a busy Sunday of choirs (both of which involve a hell of a lot of standing around - and usually with rather heavy music).  My back was very very sore on Sunday, so I decided to drop my Monday run in favour of some extra rest.  Yesterday  my hip joint was very sore too and my knees have been clicking - I've done much more running per week in the past and not started falling apart so I'm going to blame on the rather busy weekend.

Also have a rather worrying bruise on my leg at one of the weak points from when I broke it - I don't remember bumping it at all, so I hope it's nothing to do with the increased mileage (will keep an eye on it - I do seem to be bruising rather easily at the moment).

Parkrun went fine on Saturday despite us nearly being very late due to the traffic: wanted to keep it slow and steady and push right at the very end - which I managed fine but boy were my muscles sore the next day! Had to run for the bus to Choir no. 2 and it nearly killed me ...

No JogScotland this week for me, as my boss has called a staff meeting (I'm promised it will be the only one until next year or I would have skived) so am being good and sticking to my planned 20 min runs midweek with parkrun again on Saturday.  Today was going to be a really easy run, but the weather was so darned miserable (like running through cloud) I just wanted to keep going. Ended up doing 2 miles in 21 mins ... so hopefully if I can keep that sorta pace up more in future I might make my 30 min 5k target before the end of the year.

Tried wearing my HR monitor round the back rather than the front as it's been digging in a touch/annoying my breathing, but unfortunately it didn't pick up my HR at all - oops! Guessing with the pace I was doing (pretty well averaging 10:30 ish) that it was probably quite high though ... should probably make my run tomorrow a PROPER slow/recovery one!

I'll sleep when I'm dead ...

... which won't be long at this rate *exaggerates*

This week has involved writing lectures far too late, putting together a permanent exhibition of clarinets for the other job, ignoring the prospect of two different choir concerts, and faaaaar too much marking, whilst having nightmares about teaching - god forbid my PhD will get a lookin this week.

HOWEVER, I have managed not to drop a session: despite having absolutely no mojo yesterday I managed to drag my arse around a 2 mile loop to get my run in (and I am still running everything - not walking). And today I took Grandad along to JogScotland who not only welcomed him with open arms, but he probably knows more about them than I do ... sent him off with the fast people while I went with my usual group.

Our route was advertised as 'all downhill' - if you see the stats here you'll see that trading standards might have something to say about that one! However, it was as usual jolly good fun, and we all moaned about the hills together (especially the massive set of stairs in the middle) and getting a 4 miler in can only be good for my milage.

Grandad initially was coming up to do some decorating of my hallway (that he had ripped the paper off about 6 months ago!) but also managed to fix my bath that hadn't been working for ages - the washer had gone on the hot tap - being able to have a hot bath after the quite hard run - or even a hard day at work - does rather keep me sane.

Despite the bath this afternoon and a celebratory one last night, I'm still feeling rather creaky/achey - perhaps more related to the lack of sleep. I guess if I can get through this week with a full set of ticks in the planner, the rest of the marathon training ain't gonna touch me!

Off to the theatre tomorrow - after concert number one of the weekend - to see the Ladykillers - should be excellent, and hopefully not too late a finish as we are planning to do parkrun in the morning then treat ourselves to breakfast out!

Bananarama

I'm now in week 6 of my pre-marathon-training training, and in fact have slightly lost track of when the ACTUAL marathon training is due to begin (but it must be reasonably soon).  I gave myself 2 options today: stick to 30 minutes, or do a loop back to the flat (close on 4 miles) ... on my run itself I felt a bit bad about stopping after just over the half hour mark, but actually I'm glad I did.  I don't want to push myself too hard and not be able to keep up with the plan.  

Was also quite a hilly route I lumped myself with: although our JogScotland leader said to me that we should see hills as an opportunity not a problem, I am still on the 'ow' factor! Having said that, hills that had previously defeated me were conquered to the strains of Jacques Loussier and apart from road crossings I didn't stop until I stopped. Fingers crossed I can keep this up.

May also have wrapped myself up a bit too warm with a gillet and gloves:  although it is getting a wee bit nippy, I seem to have inherited Grandad's genes when it comes to overheating, and could have done with fewer layers! Was slightly cooking myself and that can't help keep going - had a few aches and niggles today too, which I'm sure will be fine, but I should keep an eye one.

After asking the good peeps on the Good Run Wall about the whole issue of eating after running, it turns out I'm not the only one who has problems.  I decided to make my own banana smoothie with some almond milk I got this week, a banana, and some natural yoghurt ... it was totally scrummy! I probably should try it with non-dairy yoghurt too: I'm not allergic but I do have to be a bit careful with dairy - but a nice cold drink and for only 34 calories for a (smallish) glass ... nom!

Stats here from Garmin site - was an utter b*****r getting it to find satellites today - must be sulking.

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside ...

Been trying out the panorama setting on the iPhone today (once I remembered I had it).  These are the two bits of beach I ran down this morning as my easy Saturday run - parkrun next week with Grandad and thankfully the car!  Been a lovely night away: and even if I did stuff my face (by my current standards) yesterday evening, I had FAR FAR less that I would have done for an equal stuffed feeling a few months back.

Not sure the Garmin was reading so well this morning - the beginning of my run is a bit off - but was happy to do a nice slow 2 miles to keep me ticking over - and it's been a long time since I've run over 10 miles in a week so I am pleased I'm building up slowly.  I am quite amused that the tide going so far out means that it looks like I ran through the middle of the sea!

Might go along and dig my way through RW website for a half marathon training plan so I can get my tapering in properly in January rather than  just trying to bomb round or something on tired!

Stats here (Garmin site)

LN-S-SR

Today was my second run with my JogScotland group - and found another person kinda my age to chat to pretty much all the way round was ace. We both have varying degrees/types of asthma and it was interesting to natter about life the universe and everything.

Barring stops to wait for peeps, we did 3.7 ish miles (Garmin says .69, GRG says .74 with the same GPS data!) and in about 45 mins. Was mostly uphill on the way back which was a bit tough, and may have occasionally blasted it too much uphill as the speedy group met us and then ran off again - quite glad of the odd pause at traffic lights.

Had a bit of a walk after 3.5 miles, but then zipped up the man-suit, and got jogging again, until the speedy group passed me shouting encouragement and I joined them (well at least tailed them) for the last 200 metres - any more might actually have killed me.  I'm really enjoying this mid-week social run and although at the moment it's my longer run of the week - soon enough it'll be my mid-week 'ticking over' run of 45 mins/4 miles.  Hence  long and not-so-slow!

Feeling a tad achey so quite glad I can actually cut Saturday to just a wee short run - might try just a very slow 2 miles in North Berwick on my very-mini-break.  Need to get my ass into the gym and do some weights training again to strengthen my core and just help prevent any injuries.

On a side note: I've had issues the last couple of days, having run before lunch, in managing to eat after. Yesterday it took me nearly an hour to eat an Innocent Veg Pot, and today I've struggled with my Ryvita and pate.  Plum and a snickers were somewhat easier but I must ask peeps on the GRW if they have the same problem!

Got 800 calories left for dinner, so am joining a friend/colleague for dinner at a local Italian to have some pasta and kinda start my holiday before we head to choir together.

Brolly-gate

Wednesday is my (droppable) session where I'm planning to try and do a tempo run, hills or speedwork.  Accidentally forgot the lunch I'd made for myself this morning so ended up offering to do the work lunch run - after all it was p-ing it down with rain and I was going to get wet anyway ...

Route therefore ended up including a hill straight out the door - not that it seems to show up on my stats! Pace also seems to be oddly different between GRG upload and Garmin website - must be because its Halloween - maybe bats have got in the satellites.

The most annoying thing about running in the rain in a city is UMBRELLAS! Now, I already have an issue with people using golf umbrellas in cities when they are on their own, but it's even worse when you are running and having to duck under 50 brollies a second (not that I've picked up the Scottish habit of exaggeration or anything).  And strangers do seem to huddle together on the pavement making it very difficult to get anywhere - I did try and avoid the busier parts of town as much as possible but still rather frustrating.  I have also ordered myself a hat today - it's not particularly helpful running when your glasses are so covered in water they no longer work (and I'm far too much of a woos to go for contact lenses).

This is also of course the last day of the month - and possibly the first month since I started running that I've not skipped a planned run (well apart from the one I unplanned because of flu) and therefore my GRG planner is looking nicely full of ticks! Proud Mousie!

Portobello road ...

... always reminds me of the song from Bedknobs and Broomsticks (and yes, I probably could sing most of it!)

In this case though, my scheduled 30 min run ended up as a nice easy one down to Portobello.  I would say I've never managed to run the whole way before - but I'm not sure it counts as I did have to stop properly at one set of traffic lights.  Annoyingly when I did finally get to cross I nearly got run over by an idiot who hadn't seen the 'no left turn' sign and decided to try and plough into me as I crossed over. Cue gesticulation in hi vis gloves to the sign and shaking of fists.

However, despite that it felt like a pretty easy run - kept it nice and slow and steady, pushing the pace very slightly for the second mile and then making a concerted effort to kinda bomb it a bit at the end (technical term that).  Felt like I could have run home and back again, but decided to be good and stick to my planned time!  Heart rate monitor was also playing up (either that or my heart stopped half way round - I suspect I need a new battery) so haven't put that up on the GRG website.  I actually seem to be enjoying this whole running lark at the moment ... long may that last! Stats here from Garmin just for the giggles

Also super proud of one of my GRW friends and her husband who ran a totally inspiration half marathon yesterday after one hell of a couple of years -  think it's the only time a race report has made me well up!  And good news from another GRWer who might finally be on the way to a recovery after being injured for ages ... you all inspire me guys.

Hell - I might just sing Portobello road to celebrate after all ...

The trouble with tribbles ...

... or in my case Italians! (This does have a happy ending, I promise)

I was rather sad to have missed parkrun this morning: I had gone out last night (in my new trainers to wear them in a wee bit) and was really well behaved - just had a couple of glasses of wine with food, and was home by 10.30 to get a good night's sleep in.  I even followed the advice from December's Runners World regarding making sure I had water whilst drinking and when I got home. Dropped off nicely whilst watching QI on the laptop.

And then it all went wrong! At about 1.45am my (thankfully temporary - 8.5 days to go) lodger and her brother crashed in, stomped around the flat (admittedly my hearing is super keen at that time of night) and then she decided to have a shower for 20 mins. Not a 'quick soap down I feel manky' shower - but a full on 'shampoo commercial' style shower with relevant soundtrack ... and right behind my head. Never mind the cost of her having her second shower of the day, she was bloody noisy, and I live in a block of flats and I'm pretty sure someone's bedroom is on the other side of the bathroom wall.  Now, in the past I've forgiven silly mistakes like that, but last night I was livid and ended up having some very polite words with her.  Despite her apologising, her excuse being that she'd asked if it was ok to shower when she got home at night (7 -11pm was what I was thinking, not 2 in the morning which is frankly tomorrow), she then proceeded to chat with her brother for another half an hour. Loudly.  And her parents turn up next week.  

Rant over!

So unsurprisingly this morning I couldn't face the early morning needed to bus myself out to Cramond! However, I did need to grab a birthday present for a friend, and replace some headphones at some point this morning, so I decided to go out before lunch to sort out the present and incorporate the local cigar shop into a very slow run (trying to keep my heart rate down).  

It's a GLORIOUS autumn morning - the kind they write hymns/poems about. The air was crisp but with glorious sun, which for someone who overheats as easily as me was perfect (but not so cold my lungs caught fire).  There was a slight dewy dampness about making the fallen leaves smell gorgeous, and I EVEN got a head nod from a couple of fellow runners and some good hearted encouragement from some dog walkers.  

Kept the heart rate pretty low until the last 1/2 mile of my planned route which was all uphill, and even then it didn't shoot too high (concentrating on bouncing along without too much effort).  Pace was pretty slow, but then I had intended it to be. And I didn't stop until the cigar shop, when I got to confuse the chap behind the counter by a) turning up in full running togs, b) having Handel blasting out of my discarded headphones, and c) knowing exactly what I wanted ...

Decided to pause my Garmin rather than stopping the run entirely, and instead ran back home from the cigar shop - so having intended to try and manage a nice slow mile, I ended up quite happily doing 2.  A definite silver lining to the cloud of last night.

Oh and the new shoes are doing fine!

Stats today are from the Garmin site, as then HR will show up!

Having fun in Sweatshop

My beloved New Balance shoes seem to be coming to the end of their life: according to the GRG shoe tracker they only have about 100 miles left in them (which will be out before I have a chance to go to Running Bear when I'm at my parents' for New Year).  So I decided to pop down to Sweatshop while the sales are on, and grab a new pair and get my gait properly checked while I was at it.  Read all their advice on the website about what to wear (shorts so they could see my knees were covered up with a wrap skirt because of the temperature).

The girl who was on duty in Sweatshop was really lovely and helpful: we were chatting away about how long I'd been running and the amount I run a week (more of that anon). Turns out we have the same issue with Achilles tendons, although mine is much more pronounced.  My feet seemed to pass the health test though, and she had me running on the treadmill in some neutral shoes to do the actual test - have to admit the treadmill was quite scary as there was no front to it, and I felt like I was about to run off the front of the thing!

She then talked me really clearly through my gait test - which apparently shows I have good mid-foot striking technique, but have slight hip wiggling problems because my core probably needs to be stronger (although I might still end up kicking my calves).  I find it quite amusing that I basically mince when I run!  The test confirmed that I am wearing the right shoes having neutral but cushioned ones (for some reason she thought my New Balance ones were support shoes, but that may be a confusion over an old model).  But I was then taken through a good selection of shoes, both price-wise and styles, I think 6 or 7 pairs in all.  We narrowed it down to two favourites and I said she could choose which of the two would be best ... I am now the proud owner of these rather snazzy Brooks Ghost 4s!

What was also nice was that we got into a discussion about Shockabsorbers: the run bra versus the level 4 impact bra ... and she gave me the white version of the new run bra for the price of the old one because they only had it in white and the one I wore into the shop was black. To be honest, I'm not that bothered either way (although white actually is easier to wear under work clothes!) but she was so kind not only with than but with their sock offer too (I'd accidentally picked up 2 x £6 and 1 x £9 - but she gave me the £9 ones on the 3-4-2 offer).

The only thing that slightly surprised me was being told off for aiming to run four times a week - especially as both the marathon plans I am looking at are based around that.  Having chatted to a few peeps on GRW though, I think I'll stick to the four, with an allowance to drop my midweek tempo/interval/hill session on Wednesdays if I want to (for now at least) without feeling too guilty!

Basically I would give my shopping trip a 10/10 (it would have been 11 if the place was slightly easier to get to!) I wish I'd got the name of the girl who served me, but I'm definitely going to email the manager and say how good she was and how helpful.  Having planned to spend circa £100 (up to £120) on shoes, I walked out with shoes, 4 pairs of socks, and a new bra for £113 ... great value! 

JogScotland attempt II

You may remember my previous rather duff experience with a JogScotland group, partly caused by doing a hard session with the flu, but also dropping into a rather more experienced group than I was capable of keeping up with. I'm rather sad to say that it did rather put me off for quite a while.

About a week ago I decided to try and get in touch with the Edinburgh Uni Central group, who run from a building not far from mine ... and after a bit of a communication fail (I guess the guy I emailed first must have been away/left) I got through to a couple of the Jog Leaders this week who said to come along.

Basically it was great fun! We did just over 40 minutes and 3.5 miles at a nice slow and steady pace (with the odd pause to wait for others to catch up) - didn't feel like I was either dragging the group back or trying to whizz off ahead (although I might try and move up a group when my training steps up a bit more).  It was quite a bit longer than I had planned to do, but with a rest day planned tomorrow I figure I'll be fine.

The best thing was that  everyone was really nice and friendly and I will definitely be going back next Thursday!

Garmin stats here (which includes all the pausing)

My first interval session

My first attempt at running intervals ... (planned run = 15 mins)

Slightly annoyingly my Garmin didn't pick up the satellite signal for a bit (and it wasn't looking promising even doing the tradition 'hopping outside door to stay warm') so uploaded the Runkeeper report as that was what I was using to set times.

Plan was:                                                            

5 min steady

3 x 1 min fast/1 min slow-recovery

4 min steady

What actually ended up was:

5 min steady @ 10:08

1 min fast @ 7:11

1 min slow @ 9:57

1 min fast @ 7:52

1 min slow @ 12:47 

Then the last two intervals ended up more like 4 x 30s (oops - messed up my statistics)

4 mins steady @ 12:12 

And then I forgot to turn the app off! Garg (technology)

So turns out I'm not very good at judging how fast I'm going! Lesson should be that next time I should probably wait on my Garmin waking up so I can work things out a bit better. Pretty pleased I held the 7:11 and 7:52 pace as well as I did (that's usually my last 10 feet pace!). 

Dare I say it? I think I quite enjoyed this!!! Even if it did hurt in places .... and the sunset as you can see was AMAZING.

Official GRG stats here (not including the bit where I forgot to turn watch off)

Tempo and Tempi

Now as a musician, tempo generally means something completely different to me than to the average runner (and don't get me started on cadence!) ... however, today's planned 20 minute run seemed to turn into a Tempo run: ran the first mile mostly at sub 10m/m pace, although thanks to some necessary road crossings it took me more than 10 minutes (must try this down on the parkrun course some time).  Second half of the run was both slower but also hillier and require negotiating puddles and roadworks so took pretty much a whole minute longer.

My heart rate was actually not too bad for the faster half of the run, but shot up after trying to keep my pace up going up a short (but reasonably steep hill).  I think I need to spend more time trying to keep my heart rate down rather than my pace up!

I'm also experimenting a bit with my long marathon playlist (I figure it'll give me time to weed out the slow movements) and have picked up a few suggestions from friends.  I definitely need something with a reasonably upbeat tempo to run to, and things I can sing along to also help - perhaps this can be my crazy running gimmick to help earn extra pennies for the VLM - I'll sing all the way round!

The best laid plans of Mousie the marathoner ...

I think everyone knows by now that I love to de-colloquialise as much as I like making plans  (even if they don't come to fruition).

After my marathon training fail last year, pulling a muscle then getting flu (although partly also having the get-out clause that Grandad didn't know), I've decided to extend the marathon training this year so I definitely get to the start of VLM at least ...

Last night I was taking a more serious look at training plans: having started with the idea of just using the one from the Non-runners Marathon Guide for Women (Dawn Dias) which appealed to me on the basis that she was a complete non-runner/non-exerciser who wanted to do a marathon for charity - and has a wonderfully (slightly acidic) view of the whole process with the knowledge that she is writing after the event and did get round the course to completion.  I had put her plan into the Good Run Guide website pretty much as soon as I had my acceptance for London - and then extended it back along similar lines to get myself running again gently.

I then had an email from Grandad asking about the Essar Four Villages Half Marathon in January - which was admittedly a month before I was planned to get up to that distance - but then I figured I could take that month out of my extended plan, and just do the middle bit of my plan twice (I hope this is still making sense!)

HOWEVER (and this may be where I go into the realms of fantasy), I was pootling around the Runner's World site yesterday - ostensibly to see if there was any way of reporting a potential missing magazine - and ended up looking at their more detailed plans ... some of which are still designed for running 4 times a week (as the NRMGFW plan suggests) and I looked at the mileage tally for the 16 week 'Sub-4.30' plan which pretty much matching up with my already-planned January mileage anyway. 

I may well be getting far too over confident with my recent improved running prowess but I thought I might assess how I'm going round about the half-marathon time and maybe start in about week 3 of the RW plan (the first 3 weeks at least have the same mileage anyway). 

I guess I don't need to start counting my chickens yet as I haven't even got back up to four runs a week (this week is the first) ... although I have now got over nine hours worth of music on my marathon running playlist on my ipod to get me through! Because of course the score to my run is the important element ...

Virgin London Marathon: 183 days to go

I seem to start so many blog posts with "it's been a while" - not being one of life's natural runners I do find it very easy to get out of the habit.  But then I did something very daft and joined in with the general VLM buzz on Good Run Wall and entered the ballot thinking that no-one ever gets in on the first try. Well there's my theory (and I wish I'd bought a lottery ticket that day instead).  Also didn't manage to keep it so well hidden from Grandad this time as I wasn't sure where I'd be when the ballot was drawn so gave the parental's address not my own.* 

Decided (as I wasn't going to get out of it this time) that I'd better start working on the marathon training pretty much straight away - with pre-marathon-training training.  I'm using the same plan I was working on for Manchester, but drawing it back to, well, three weeks ago.  I'm doing my next half marathon with Grandad in January, a month before the plan says, so I rejiggled everything, and am basically doing the middle bit twice.  I can of course always re-assess after the half to maybe step up the plan a bit more ...

So today was the end of week 3 of my training: GRG stats can be found here: I also did a quick 5 min cooldown run after pottering around Homebase for 10 mins.  Given that I've had the flu this week I'm pretty pleased with only dropping one run and also for the hill profile of this one! With the flu I've just pushed my first 4 run/week week to next instead (with two very short runs in the middle of the week just to get me going again)

What I have been managing, which I was less good at last time, is running all the way. I'm purposefully not pushing past my planned time too much so as not to wear myself out.  And hopefully building up slowly will mean I can continue this - my only blip was about a 2m walk in the middle of parkrun last week because I actually felt like I was dying! (Entirely mental of course).

Here's to the next 185 days ...

*Note to new readers (and old ones who have forgotten this weird quirk of mine): Grandad is actually my father ... it's a long story but I blame my niece entirely!

I think the world got out of the wrong side of bed this morning ...

Not entirely sure how I dragged myself out of the house in trainers this morning (or, in fact, again later to work!):  I would like for the sake of the English language to call this morning's weather caliginous, but frankly damned dreich would be more appropriate! It's never a good sign when the path outside my bedroom window turns into a stream just from the rain.

I was however, utterly determined that I was going to get my backside out of the door - even worked out an alternative set of clothing so that I have dry stuff for my gym induction tomorrow (like I need extra things to do on a Sunday).  Not sure the stats are even worth bothering with - I ran the first mile in 10:34 (with the odd pause to cross roads) and then lost the will to carry on ... the trip back (1.3 miles) took another 24 mins so nothing to write home about. I did learn that the one surface my fancy trail shoes are RUBBISH on is wet stone!

The rest of the day has also been rather annoying from the snail's pace of the library assistant updating my card, to the badly organised box of songs that I had to sort through (for which I blame my fellow students not the music librarian), to the guy at M&S Collection who obviously had a sense-of-humour-ectomy at some point.

Spent most of the afternoon in my office finding and learning more music ... one of these days I will actually have time to do it properly! Still got a concert (front of hoose) to get through before I can turn in for the night and hope tomorrow is more successful ... help