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Sunday 25 March 2012

Cold baths work!!!

I'm in a bit of a reflecting mood today. As I was celebrating my longest distance to date yesterday, a friend of mine from Regency Runners reminded me where I was this time last year. Although I may come across as being dead confident that just really isn't the case, in fact it's quite the opposite. Last March I was sat at home whinging that I couldn't run and refusing to go to running club to even try, in fact I took myself off to the gym and sat in the car park having a panic attack. There was no reason that I couldn't run, it wasn't like I was injured or dead, It was because I couldn't get my mind set right. My sister Helen is a leader at the running club, and I was convinced that I was an embarrassment to her and a burden to everybody, crazy I know! This is certainly not the case, because in fact my sister is very proud of me, as I am her. So this time last year I could barely run a mile, yesterday I ran 20 miles in 4:22:18, not bad for someone who is 73lbs over weight eh?!

It has taken a lot to get some self esteem and self confidence back. I'm sure that many people have their own way of doing this like; having a strong word with themselves, that has never worked for me, because I am too hard on myself, nothing I do is good enough for my own expectations, in fact, many people who I have ran with or trained with will have heard those famous words from me, "yeah it was good, but I can do better." For me to take the first steps to getting back my self confidence I decided to take a good friends advice and see a hypnotherapist, Neil Stevenson. All I can say is that Neil was great, he gave me the tools that I needed to see myself in a different way and to realise that I am able to do whatever I want to, and that it is ok to like myself. 

So, back to this week’s training. I enjoyed a rest day Monday after my hideous 18 mile run the day before, and then was back to it on Tuesday. As usual I ran the 2 miles from my house to meet with the Regency Runners, I decided to take the 5 mile route. Usually, I go off straight away and the group eventually catches me up, but tonight I decided on a nice chatty run with Jo and Sharon, I had definitely had enough of running on my own during my run on Sunday, so really fancied some company. It turned out to be a great run, I really enjoyed it and I'm pleased that I had run with Jo and Sharon, even though I struggled to keep up with Jo over that last half a mile as she was getting a beasting by Rachel!

For one reason or another I couldn't get out running on Wednesday, which meant I would have to double up Thursday, rubbish! So I got up at 6am Thursday morning and went straight out for a 6 mile run. I must admit I didn't enjoy it really; because I'm used to running in the evening. Come lunchtime though, I had forgotten about it, and was thinking about a route for what would be my 5k time trial later that evening. So, I got back from work and kitted up, and made my way out of the door for my 3 miles. I have to admit that I am not used to running at any kind of speed, just getting round has been my focus over the last few months so being able to run some faster times during these short runs has given me a huge boost in confidence. Now, when I say faster, my 5k pb was 33.28, but I smashed that on Thursday coming in at 32.17. I have an amazing friend who calls me a proper runner; I think I am proving with times like that that I am not!!

Thursday night after my 5k triumph, I took myself off down the road to my marshal position for Regency Runners 10k. The group hold two 10 week programmes, a 5k, and a10k, with the final week being their time trial. The group has given me such tremendous support over the last few months that I just wanted to help them out a bit and give some support to those that were running. The run was a great success, with the first 10k runner coming in in 53 minutes (I think) and all runners coming in under 1h 15 minutes. It was great to see people achieve their distance, big smiles all round!

Friday I spent again, resting and carb loading for my run Saturday. As usual, Regency Runners had come up trumps with runners offering to run parts of my 20 mile route with me. I was hoping that this would make the run easier, and also to make it easier to arrange drinks and nutrition along the way. I started off at 7:30am with Jo, and I ran out to Barton and back into Warwick. I have never run this route before, and I really enjoyed it! Jo had chosen to ride her bike as she wasn't feeling too great, and I think really enjoyed pretending she had a megaphone to shout me along!! As we got into Warwick, a quick drink and then the "baton" was passed to Tanya who ran with me along the slightly "inclined" Primrose and Spinney Hill, again I really enjoyed this, I haven't ran with Tanya for ages so was great to have a catch up and she also pushed my pace a little which I was grateful for. 

I left Tanya at 10.5miles and ran up the hill towards Leamington, where I had arranged to meet Lina at 12/13 miles. I decided at this point to stop, and have a bit to eat. I don't know about anybody else but I can’t run and eat at the same time! It's impossible! I was also starting to get a bit of back ache so wanted to stretch it out a bit, I managed to find the stretch I needed by getting myself into some kind of weird squatting position, much to the amusement of Lina and to the horror of an old lady walking past! I knew that I needed to concentrate on keeping up right and engaging my core working my gluts (see Cathy I do listen!!) so after a few moments and a good drink, we set off for the last 7.5 miles. The next mile and a half was all up hill to the top of Cubbington, which was broken up with the appearance from Clair and her two lovely children to cheer me on, I was told not to stop (rubbish!!) so carried on and pushed through 14, 15, and then 16 miles and I felt good. Lina was periodically running behind me to check my posture and was reporting back to me how I was looking; each time she was telling me I was looking strong. I was surprised at this point that I wasn't too tired to keep myself up right, those exercises from Cathy must be working and I just kept telling myself to keep my back straight. Mile 17 was really enjoyable, I had got into my stride and at this point I was keeping pace quite well, we then ran down The Parade to the Pump Rooms where we had arranged to meet with Tracey.

Again I had a quick stretch, a drink and a couple of jelly babies (courtesy of Clair!) and set off, I really shouldn't have sat down while I had that drink as my legs had started to stiffen up but after the 18th  again I felt ok, probably because I knew this was the final stretch before home! This did start to feel like a bit of a slog, but remembering to keep my back straight, engage my core and keep my shoulders back it stopped me from tiring too much. During my last half a mile I couldn't stop smiling! How is it that this girl who is so overweight has managed to get this far and achieve this sort of distance?? I want to say that it is sheer gut and determination but I'm not sure that that is quite right, without the support of the group and its leaders there is no way that I would have got this far. 

So, I got back home, ran upstairs and got straight into the cold bath that I had ran before I had left home, with my kit on. Lina kindly made me a protein shake and bought it upstairs, just as I was screaming due to the cold! After 30 seconds or so I was ok, I sat in there in a grump for 10 minutes or so before getting out to get warm. It wasn't long before I was fast asleep!

I expected to wake up this morning with very sore legs, but to be honest, apart from them feeling a bit heavy, they feel good. I took myself off to Sport Relief (not to run, I'm not that stupid! No comments please) as I had agreed to marshal as had many of the Regency Runners. As I was walking around I realised that my legs didn't hurt, I certainly don't feel that I ran 20 miles yesterday! Cold baths work!!!!! EVEN IF I MOAN ABOUT THEM TO ANYONE WHO IS LISTENING!!!!

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Final few weeks

I am writing this whilst looking at my training plan. It makes interesting reading, well, to me anyway!! It's pretty messy to look at as there are scribbles all over it where I have been forced to change my mileage because of injury or just simply when life gets in the way! When Rachel first gave me this plan I didn't think for one moment that I would manage it, and to be fair, for the first few weeks I didn't manage it. I was struggling with a niggling hip injury through January and for a few weeks I tried to run through it, which wasn't effective at all as a) I made it worse and b) I couldn't manage the long runs, in fact every run was a struggle. Being told by my physio Cathy I had to stop running was hard to hear and even harder to do but I really needed that rest! Slowly I have built the mileage back up and I am now on track again. Phew!


The last couple of weeks have been quite tough to be honest. Many of the runners from Regency Runners were training for Silverstone Half Marathon, and I have working my training around their runs, so when they hit taper week I was so jealous! I didn't have the option of cutting my training down, it just meant instead of running 35 odd miles this week I would be running 28 miles, rubbish! Then after Silverstone I didn't get the option of a rest, I was back out running Tuesday and covered just over 37 miles during the week. I have also realised this week that I am getting fed up with running. There is so much else that I want to do! I want to take swimming lessons so I can improve even more (and get out of the dry hair brigade once and for all!), learn to ride a bike properly, get back into the gym, spin class, weights, and training for a marathon wrecks all that and my social life!! So, I made a decision once this marathon is done I'm laying off the running for a couple of months. The plan is to go back to training at Peak Fitness after the marathon which is a personal training fitness studio in Warwick, the trainers are fantastic and really know their stuff, so I have arranged a consultation with Oli my old trainer and have given Oli the challenge of helping me get into shape once and for all! I have changed my diet over the last 6 weeks or so and have dropped 12lbs, but to be brutally honest, I still need to shift another 73lb. So you can understand now why I am so bloody slow!

So Silverstone came around and it turned out to be a hot one! The day was great, as it was like a day out for the Regency Runners with 11 of us running; it was brilliant to see all those t-shirts around the course! 



My race didn't quite go according to plan, which was really disappointing as I had run well over the distance last week and was quite confident that I was going into the run a decent race, but I wasn't going to go crazy, as I didn't want to risk injury so close to the London Marathon.




I started the race with Jo, Sharon and Clair, through to mile 1 and looking at my watch, I was way over pacing this, according to my pace band but I felt great and was really enjoying myself. At this point, Sharon eased off and dropped back; Jo went to check that she was ok and reported back that she was fine, so we carried on. I should have known better and that this was a stupid idea as I know that Clair's pace is way faster than mine, but I was having so much fun! We came though 3 miles and looking at my watch I should have slowed down, at this rate I would be close my my 10k pb! But, I didn't slow down. At 4 miles Clair started to pull away from myself and Jo so we just carried on, chatting whilst trying to fight off the heat! Going through 6 miles and as I thought, only 1 minute out from my pb, but I still felt strong and I thought I was just banking minutes, oooops!

I got through to mile 8 and I started to find it difficult. I had kept well hydrated and had been taking glucose tablets so I imagine the only reason was that I had gone off far too quickly. I told Jo to run on and I eased off and slowed down to make sure I could finish the last 5 miles! Not long after, Sharon came past me, and then I saw her passing Jo, it seems she had the right race strategy and stuck to it, I could have kicked myself!!I found those last few miles really tough, I had back ache, my feet were so painful and my gluts ached and I was going so slowly I doubt you could really call it running, those banked minutes soon disappeared!!! When I hit 12 miles I decided I'd had enough and just ran, geez it was painful, that finish line couldn't have come soon enough! 








So, as I said before following the Silverstone Half I was straight back into training, Tuesday I ran a nice 6 miles with Regency Runners, then some pump and boxercise on Wednesday (mainly as I couldn't get out and run as I was staying in for a delivery that didn't turn up, grrr) then a 7 mile on Thursday and a 5.5 mile on Saturday. Sunday was long run day and this week I needed 18 miles. I wasn't too confident going into the run as I had struggled so much with Silverstone but I did my usual preparation before I went out, and headed out at 8am. I decided to really keep an eye on my pace, remembering how hard last week was! I felt really good through the first 8 miles, even though I had left my iPod at home and I was running on my own, this was surprising as the route had quite a few hills to get my backside up! As I got to 13 miles I was really hurting, again, back and glut pain. It was really tempting at this point to just run through the park and go home but stubborn as I am I kept going up the hill and through Warwick town to repeat some of the loop that I had started off with. I hate running laps, so I found these last few miles bloody hard work! At about 14 miles I was close to tears, but, I just had to suck it up and get on with it, I just kept telling myself, less than 4 miles, less than 3, less than 2. As I got closer to home I realised that I was going to run out of road, so I had to run past my house for half a mile, then back. This was awful and running past my house was soul destroying, but if I wanted the miles I had to do it.

When I got home I stretched off, well, as much as I could and then had a protien shake. I didn't feel great I have to admit, my legs were throbbing and I didn't know what to do with myself! I had been toying with the idea of a cold bath for a few weeks, a few friends had recommended it but I was never brave enough! I had even tricked my friend Jo into having one so she could tell me if it really was THAT bad, apparently it was!! Anything would be better than this pain, even a cold bath, so I got in, and oh my god did I scream! It was hideous!! I managed to last about 5 minutes before I gave in and jumped out, close to tears, sod it, I then ran a very hot bath, thats more like it!! I think I lay in there for best part of an hour, and probably fell asleep, not the safest thing to do I have to say!!

I'm not quite sure how I would have managed training for this without the support network that I have. Running on your own for this distance it damn hard work so I'm not sure how people do it, I certainly have a new found respect for them!


Sunday 4 March 2012

Apparently it's good luck?!!

I'm excited writing this post today, because now I actually feel like this marathon is possible. This week I have hit a grand total of 35 miles, smack bang on target according to my training plan, which have given me a huge confidence boost. When I was injured a few weeks ago I never thought for one minute that I would have made this progress, I was questioning whether I was going to make the marathon at all, which had put me on a real downer. I guess this really does show that hard work pays off. I know that I haven't finished the marathon yet so I may be getting ahead of myself, but at least now I believe I can do it.

I had a well-deserved rest day on Monday after that 14 miler Sunday morning. I have found that I am recovering faster, so my legs weren't too heavy and I feel I may have even managed a short run, but I keep being told that rest days are as important in training so that’s what I did, and geez I was bored!!

My weekday runs went well, I followed my training plan so completed a 5 mile run on Tuesday. I took the usual 2 mile run into Leamington to meet with the Regency Runners; the planned 5 mile group run went straight past my house at 3 mile point, so this would make up my 5 miles perfectly. I don't know if it is my confidence that is growing or that I am getting a better runner but I felt really strong on this run. As usual I left a few minutes earlier than the rest of the group so I didn't get cold after the run in, but after a mile or so the faster runners in the group whizzed past me, all giving me a shout of good luck which I think is really nice. I finished the run in good time, which I was so happy about as the week before London I have a 10k to compete in and I thought I had lost my pace completely, but it’s still there.....hooray!
Thursday was a 6.5 mile run, which I took at a slightly slower pace. It felt a bit of a chore to be honest as I had been stuck in training all day with work and knew I had to do the same all over again tomorrow, but I got the miles in, and that’s what counts. Friday was an 8 mile run with MY Jo and Sharon which I really enjoyed. Not one of us were up for a paced run so we had a really nice chatty run, which although it was 4 miles up hill, we had nice 4 miles of gentle downhill to look forward to on the way back. We also managed to pick up the pace for the last mile so were very smug when we got back, high fives all round!
My gym session happened on Wednesday this week and again I opted for the upper body circuits. I'm not getting the pain so much afterwards now so I think I'm getting used to it, so next time I'll be upping the weights. I have also been continuing with my core work as set to me by my physio Cathy, and I think that is having a good impact on my running form, so anyone who has weak core and gluts, get them sorted!

Sunday came and again, I had a long run, this week I was tackling 16 miles, I was so nervous. I had never run this far and I always get so apprehensive about these runs. I had a restless night, waking up many times, the last time being 5am, listening to the rain, great. I was up just after 6am and had some breakfast, just a couple of Weetabix and a protein shake. I got my bits and pieces ready, glucose tablets, iPod, gels and a drink, and wrapped my phone in cling film as it was still throwing it down outside! I used to enjoy running in the rain but it had been ages since I had, but at least it was quite warm. This morning’s plan was to run 5 miles, meet group at 8.30 for 8 miles and then run 3 miles home, easier said than done!!
As soon as I left I knew that I wasn't running very fast, but I felt comfortable and as I had a long way to go I enjoyed the slower pace, my iPod was also playing some great songs for running so I really enjoyed my first 5 miles. I met with the group in Leamington and had a few minutes to grab a drink and a quick chat and catch up before heading off for the next leg of the run in the rain! Only a mile in and I had some good luck, a bird pooed all down my arm, gross! After lots of laughing by MY Jo and Sharon I knew I couldn't do anything about it and just figured that since the rain was so heavy it would just wash it away! I thought it had better bring me some luck and get me round these 16 miles.
The run was a bit hilly but over all I enjoyed it. when I got to about 10 miles I started to slow a bit, I wasn't struggling so much I just knew that I needed to get round the whole route so I guess I was saving my legs a little as they were feeling heavy and my gluts were a little tight. The last mile was lovely as it was downhill, Jo had already gone ahead and Sharon had waited back for me so we enjoyed that last mile together. We got back to the pump rooms and I was at 13 miles, so I had a quick drink and stretch off before taking on the last 3 miles. I didn't feel too bad to be honest, however I was absolutely drenched!
Sharon jumped on her bike to ride alongside me home and Lina decided to run a mile or so with me too which I was so grateful for. I took those last few miles slowly but I felt comfortable and I kind of got into my stride a little bit, a far cry from the 12 miles a few weeks ago when I simply burst out crying when I finished! I was still able to smile and laugh with Sharon as I got closer to home and I think I may have been able to get a couple more miles out of my legs, hooray! I just need to mention that it was still chucking it down when I got home! I'm so grateful to Sharon for that last three miles, as I really don't think that I could have done it alone. I guess that bird poo did give me some luck after all!!
I have been so emotional today after that run, and very proud of myself. Like I said before, I now believe that I can run this marathon, I just wish it would hurry up so I can get a Sunday morning lie in again!