It's all in the mind...

Not an especially good day running wise.
I'm still fretting dreadfully over the half marathon in September, and spent far too long playing with the numbers on the Race Time Calculator over on the Runner's World site, and ended up convincing myself that I would be looking at a time of two hours minimum to do the run...and getting quite depressed about it

When did I start getting so obsessed about what time I would run? I know when I started I was happy with just the thought of getting round successfully, but now its become about time too, which is dumb because I haven't even managed one race yet. So whatever time I manage will be a PB, and heck, just to finish will be good, I know. So why can't I remember that more often?

Today's schedule was a speedwork session. 90 seconds fast, 90 seconds recovery. I've still not got a watch that I can use (I'm planning to get one on Saturday), so instead we ran laps round the park - half the lap fast and half slow. It felt like roughly the right amount of time. I'd been feeling very grouchy about doing it; I wanted to do a 'proper' run (our 8.1 mile route) as fast as possible to see if I could match last week's time.

In the end though, the other half won and we ended up doing the speedwork. I was surprised by how hard it was - stupidly I thought it would be easy and now I'm worrying about my level of fitness as well as everything else. Oh, I do hope other people are right, and in just over a fortnight I'll re-read this and laugh. Right now, I'm not convinced though.

Tomorrow is a 5 mile run, I think, and then cross country on Saturday. That'll be interesting, I've only ever run on roads.

"Rain, rain, go away..."

The rain kicked in about 3pm, and it didn't stop. I don't mind a 'light drizzle', but this was more like a monsoon. Still, the '6M Steady' was on the schedule, and I remembered a quote from Bill Bowerman. He'd said "There's no such thing as bad weather, only soft people," and if I'm going to be serious about running these races, there's no point wussing out when its a bit wet.

So we went, and we did the run. It was actually 6.61 miles, but I hate running 'laps', so its a case of working with the routes we've got, and we managed to do it at a steady speed, mostly. I like running with the other half - I don't need to worry about any of that 'lone woman runner' safety stuff because I'm not running by myself, and I've got someone to help spur me on when I don't want to go...but we run to keep up with each other and its very easy to find our speed slowly increasing until we've gone from 'steady' to 'fast', and have to slow down again.

Today's speed was 6.84 miles per hour (8 mins 46 seconds to cover a mile). Thats slower than I want to do Grunty Fen (I'd like to go more for 8 mins - 8 mins 10 seconds per mile), but for a 'steady run' I reckon it was okay. Mostly I'm getting a kick out of the fact that we ran in the rain; it makes me feel optimistic that we'll be able to keep running when the weather gets really bad in autumn and winter.

Sock it to me!

I almost pulled out of last night's run. I really didn't want to do it, but the other half was going, and while I suppose I could have refused to go, I ended up dragging myself round the five mile route. That was completely different from what my schedule claimed I should do, but what the hell, I'll try and stick to it more from now on. Its just hard when it says I should do just a few 90 second sprints, even though I know it would do me good, because unless I run at least a few miles, I don't really feel like I've achieved anything. No such problems tonight though; it recommends '6M Steady'.

Anyway, the five miles was completed in 41 minutes. Which means 8 minutes and 14 seconds to do a mile. I'm not sure if I've managed to find a pace that I could run 13.1 miles at yet. The pace at the end of the run felt good, but I don't know, I'm starting to stress so much about the damn half marathon that I'm half wishing I'd never entered it. The other half cheerfully assures me that after I've run the race I'll look back and wonder what I was worried about. I hope he's right.
While I was out in the USA in July, I bought a couple of pairs of Nike Shox Socks (try saying that when you're drunk - or exhausted). Yes, this was at the same time I bought the demon Air Max 360s that stuffed up my feet.

Anyway, the socks are lovely. Padded and seamless on the inside and nice and cool. And, it would seem, not sold in the UK (here, regular Nike running socks are betwen £7 and £10, although you can probably find them for a bit less in places other than Niketown). But hurrah for eBay, where I managed to find someone selling Shox socks, and not charging an absolute fortune in postage. I was quite delighted to win the auction, beating off fierce competition from another bidder (who cheekily bid a whole dollar more than me), and landing the socks for $7 a pair inc. postage (much cheaper than regular socks here).

You know its bad when you get excited about some socks. I must be getting old!

So tired!

I am very tired today.

After yesterday's post, I decided to stick to the schedule and just ran the 5 miles listed. Funny how I can say 'just 5 miles' now, whereas a year ago, I wouldn't have dreamed of saying that.

But I am feeling tired. I'm not sleeping well at the moment, I'm feeling a bit down with some other stuff thats going on (nothing major but its playing on my mind a little) and I think its all starting to affect me - and my running. I really had to force myself round last night, and although I didn't check the time I ran, I know it was slow.

I'm hoping that my enthusiasm will kick in again when I get a nice new pair of trainers on the weekend; till then I suspect its going to be a case of mind over matter.

Too much, too soon?

I've been saying I'm going to run Grunty Fen, the Great Eastern Fun Run (both half marathons) and the Hellrun for what seems like ages, but last night saw me put my money where my mouth is for Grunty Fen and the Hellrun, and fork over the cash, an event which was quickly followed by a minor attack of panic as theres no way I can get the money back so I really do have to go through with it now.

But despite that, I've found myself looking for other runs to do. Theres a local half marathon the week after the Hellrun, but I'm not sure if that'll be too much too close together, although by that time I should be able to do 13 miles on consecutive weekends, I guess. Then theres another half in December (despite my early reassurances to the other half that we wouldn't do any runs in December), and even one on Boxing Day (but I'm not sure if I want to do that). I can't help wondering if its a good thing to be planning what races to run when I've not even done one yet, but I guess I'll try and hold off booking anything else until after Grunty Fen so at least I have more of a feel for things.

Tonight should be a five mile run. I'm following a training plan from Runner's World, but I'm impatient and want to run further than that; now that I'm back into it, I like doing at least my 6.5 mile run, and I can't help feeling that the plan is too easy and maybe I should be looking at the 'advanced' schedule. But there again, by the time the weekend rolls round I'll be doing 10 or 12 miles, and with my knee being slightly iffy, perhaps I shouldn't try pushing it. I guess maybe I'll just play it by ear (or knee!) and see how it goes when I'm out there.

Sunday

Yesterday's run was good, and I was pleased, but today was a struggle. I suppose I can't be too surprised as I did have both wine and vodka last night, and I think that, combined with the shake drink I had for breakfast, combined to make today's little run (6.6 miles) more of a challenge than I expected. Still, I managed it in 55 minutes, giving me a speed of 7.21 miles an hour (or 8 minutes 19 seconds to cover a mile). So I won't complain too much.

It has made me decide to cut out alcohol from now until Grunty Fen though. I went through quite a long period of not drinking at all, and I can take it or leave it most of the time, so it shouldn't be too much of a hardship. Rich has said he's not going to, though, but since he'll be drinking cider, I won't be jealous.

My knee problem is getting a bit worse though. My left knee aches quite badly sometimes when I run for a longer distance, and it started to hurt quite early on in the run today; I guess it hadn't quite recovered from yesterday's run. I'm pretty sure it's my trainers combined with the fact I run on pavement. Apparently I have a neutral gait, and was recommended a pair of Nike Pegasus shoes. Of course, this was from the Niketown in London, so I guess they weren't going to suggest a pair of Brooks! I got on great with the Pegasus shoe until I ran longer distances and my knee pain started. I figured I'd worn the cushioning out, and bought another pair of the same shoe, which, to be fair, did stop the pain a little. This was a month or so before going on holiday, and just before we left, the pain started up again, pretty much as bad as before. So I then bought a pair of Nike Air something-or-others. Those stopped the pain in my knee wonderfully, but I guess they were too small, or the wrong shape, or just not designed for real running (despite what they said in the shop) as I then started to get blisters on my toes and my toenails really started to go a bit gruesome.

So I'm back wearing the Pegasus, which aren't doing in my toes, and spraying Deep Heat now and again, and counting down the days until Saturday, when I'm off to Advance Performance to get my running checked again, and buy a new pair of trainers. I'd rather not have to, but I don't want to damage my joints!

Today also really flagged up the difference between running and walking. The run was in the morning, and later on in the afternoon we took the dogs for a longer walk. We covered 7.5 miles, both off and on road, and it took us three hours (although the dogs do dawdle given the chance). It still burnt off 526 calories though, and the dogs enjoyed it, but goodness, you burn them off so much quicker running.

...but what if I come last?

For what its worth, we managed the 8.1 mile run in 65 minutes. That works out at 8.07 minutes to run a mile. I'm pleased enough with that - I did a little bit of speedwork in there (a sustained sprint as fast as I could) which wore me out more than I bargained for so my speed dropped for the last couple of miles. If I could run all 13 miles of a half marathon at that pace, I'd be looking at a time of 1 hr 44 minutes. Allowing for me to get tired, though, and my speed to drop over the latter half, I'm reckoning 2 hours. That wouldn't be too bad.

However, I've not run a race since school, and I'm really quite nervous about it. I'm really quite scared of coming last. Apparently, its not all that bad, according to an article on Runner's World...and I guess someone has to come last. I just don't want it to be me.

It's worrying me quite a bit, and I'm hoping that as we build up the distance leading up to the race, I'll start to feel more confident, otherwise I'm just going to be a bag of nerves come race day.

For some reason, the run really wore me out, and I found myself in the Tate feeling dizzy and faint. I did manage to get to see the piece that I wanted to see, as well as Lictenstein's 'Whaam!'. 'Whaam!' was a bit of a let down though. I've seen the piece so much in reproductions that the it simply had no impact any more. It seemed like other people felt the same - visitors strolled past it without even looking (but then, maybe thats what people are like on a Saturday). Down in the Tate's shop, they had a whole range of tat...sorry, 'products' with 'Whaam!' on, from notepads to mugs and a two part poster of the piece. I found it strange; after all, 'Whaam!' had been in their storage for years, why didn't they bring it out earlier if it's worthy of making such a fuss over?

Hurrah for the weekend

I've been on call for the last two weekends, and thats meant I've been pretty much stuck at home, waiting for support calls. Now that I'm off call, I finally get to do something!

So today we're going to the Big Smoke, and visiting the Tate Modern (to see their rehang) and some sort of prision museum (which I'm guessing will be a complete bundle of laughs) and fork over some cash at the framing shop, where I've got one of my posters in for framing. Not that I can complain, I guess, as I know they'll have done a good job. I'm just a bit grumpy about paying for it, as its not one of my favourite posters, and I can think of lots of other things I'd rather spend the money on. Still, it will be nice to have it back, and maybe I'll feel different when I see it again.

Before heading off though - in fact, as soon as I finish this post - we've got a run to do. Today is an eight mile run that loops in a circuit through a couple of local villages before swinging back round to home. Its a pretty run, and I don't get too bored with it.

At the moment this is being classed as a 'long run' as its the furthest distance we do, but before Grunty Fen rolls round, we'll have to be another 5 miles further on at least.

Choices, choices

My original plan had been that I would run the London Marathon. Reading around, I discovered just how small my chances are of getting a place through the ballot system - I'm looking at something like 1 in 5. Considering that both of us (the other half and myself) want to run, the chances of us both getting a place through the ballot in the same year looks even smaller.

I suppose we could have run for charity. Around a quarter of all places on the marathon are 'sold' to charity (10,000ish places out of a total of 45,000).

Theres plenty of charities offering places, but the prospect of having to raise £2,400 or more for the two of us to enter was just too daunting. Don't get me wrong, its great that so many people raise so much for causes they believe in, but the 'price tag' of £1,200+ a place seems very high indeed - far too high for me to manage, anyway.

Other marathons don't seem to have this huge 'do it for charidee' aspect; you can run them for charity if you like, but otherwise its simply for the personal achievement. You can simply apply directly - no ballot or anything.

So in September, we're going to cough up our 50 euros and sign up for the Paris marathon in April, 2007. If by some miracle we both get into London, then I suppose we'll just write off the Paris entry fee - but I'd rather get our entries in now, before everyone else who gets rejected from London has the same idea.

In the meantime, though, it seemed like a good idea to do some shorter events, to get used to running in a proper race, since its going to feel quite different than just going for a run after work. Once again, the Runner's World site was a source of inspiration, and I found myself eyeing up several different runs with an air of enthusiasm that I wouldn't have believed possible that first time I staggered round my first run.

One 'race' a month seems about the right number. It means I've got something to aim for every month, rather than just one big event in Spring next year.

So: September 10th is the Grunty Fen half marathon, October 15th is the Great Eastern Run, and November 12th is the Hellrunner.

Out of all of them, I think I'm looking forward to the Hellrunner the most. Classed as 'adventure running', it goes through woods, and mud, and water, and then up sandy hills. Its all off road, and its going to be very hard indeed for me with my pavement, on-the-flat running, but you get a teeshirt at the end, and I'm hoping its going to be a cool one (I'll be devestated if I do it all and the teeshirt doesn't say 'Hellrunner' on it!). And it'll certainly be an experience!

Keeping Track

I've been running since August 2005, when I took it up as a cheap form of exercise to help me lose some extra weight.

The first run I tried was three and a half miles, and it took me over 40 minutes, and I had to stop several times on the way round.

But I kept going, and earlier this year I ended up getting quite serious about it; early May saw me (and a sometimes unwilling Richard) regularly running six miles in the evening, in around an hour, as preparation for my holiday in Yosemite National Park and my hike up Half Dome (with its scary cables). I felt I needed to be as fit as possible to do it; the thought of not being able to climb Half Dome because I was too unfit was enough to spur me on to keep running.

It worked too. I was able to trundle round Yosemite perfectly happily, sometimes covering sixteen miles in a day, without any problems. It was fantastic and felt like a real achievement for me. But with the holiday over, I found it difficult to spur myself on to run. There was no purpose - the simple 'keeping fit' reason wasn't enough. I needed another challenge, and the idea of running a marathon fitted the bill perfectly. It would involve training, it would be one heck of a challenge, and there was a set date to aim for (April 2007).

Like I tend to do, I threw myself into finding out as much as I could. I found the Runner's World website, and picked up some pretty useful information - including training plans. I filled in my London Marathon application form, and I discovered that there were other races I might want to do when the inevitable London rejection letter comes through.

And so here I am, August 2006, planning for marathons and half marathons, eating muesli, dried fruit and weetabix rather than toast and chocolate, and wriing this blog to try and keep some sort of track of where I'm going - and where I've come from.