humph :<(

was full of good intentions last night, after a day of resting my hammy felt fine


but this morning after early teentaxi service and then shopping in town it ached again

so no running


but plenty of cross-training - in the garden!


now nearly famous - I am quoted in RW on their quote the forums page - a comment about bras!!!

no exercise

still no exercise - feeling sluggish

however

hammy is feeling much better

and I have gone so far as to make a training plan - starting back at 30 minutes run every other day and building up slowly -

no races planned til September, so time to get this right and lose some weight too ...

and its very nearly the weekend too!

still hurting

still have a sore hamstinrg - which is not helped by walking on hard pavements

not sure whether I should be getting more (nonrunning) activity so I can stretch it

OR

icing and resting

have booked with the phyzz for Thursday week - first appointment we could both do

advice oh wise ones??

sunny Sunday

what a glorious day for a run

no, not me

mrbeanz and runningteenbeanz went out for a plod - supposed to be a LSR, but they both came back looking like it went a bit quicker than instructed!

but at least they went out together, which I am really pleased about

I did go for a swim this afternoon, just a gentle swim and jacuzzi - even went in the outside pool, which I thought would be full of kiddies, but it wasn't so that was nice

another rest day tomorrow I think

still tired :<(

I still feel tired - partly I think because I have a sore hamstring and walking is an effort.

Stupidly went for (slight) style over comfort in London and wore my flat Eccos rather than more cushioned Merrels.

Did not help my hamstring heal as I plodded the concrete pavements.

Hoped I'd be out for a plod this weekend and now not so sure.

Was going to swim this morning, but instead been taxiing scoutteenbeanz to stuff - I am happy to do it but was not how I imagined the day.

Derby are at home the afternoon so going for a swim near the ground is not a good idea.

So plan C is to skip swimming today and have more rest (and maybe a bit of gardening) then swim tomorrow and gym on Monday

back to Cambridge and London again Tuesday/Wednesday, so more pavements and no running :<(

back to work

been trying to get back into the groove of work after a distracted week or so

so

off to London tomorrow and Cambridge

travelling light, so no running gear, just lots of pavement pounding

plan ot swim Saturday and have a first run on Sunday

Then use Hal Higdon's 4 week recovery programme

resting, resting, resting ....

Well I have set my new targets for running and fitness:

Lose 3 stone over the next year or so

and

Run a 2:15 half marathon

THEN enter another marathon

I really do want to do another marathon, but I found 6½ hours on my feet just too long - definitely not cut out for ultras!

So healthy eating starts here and if necessary I shall go back to WW

later that day ....

well its been a funny day - went for a swim this morning, alternating gentle swim with jacuzzi

felt good afterwards, but now as stiff as ever

its ok when I get moving, but every time I sit down for a bit I have to get the muscles going all over again

and they say tomorrow will be worse ....

reflecting on the day and reading other peep's reports makes me realise I was not alone in having a bad day at the office

a small consolation

and chatting running on the way back on the train with tigerrunner was just great

my current plan is to have a few days off, then gradually get back into it

and really work hard on losing some weight - healthy eating and exercise

again!

So the day arrived ....

London Marathon 2005
Saturday 16th April

First, a trip out to the Expo. I arrived about 10.00 so there were virtually no queues to collect numbers. Collected number, chip and kit bag then on into the expo.
I looked briefly at the souvenir kit but decided to come back later (by which time they had nothing I wanted, so saved some money there). On inside and a wander round. At the Asics stand I met CdK – we were both booked in for gait analysis. A stange sensation, running on a treadmill with a rearview of my feet, sometimes in real time – not too bad, but sometimes the view on the screen was a slomo veriso of what I was doing – brain confussled by that – had to look elsewhere. It seems that as I have not had serious problems and injuries and I do not pronate (is it a word, Word spell check doesn’t think so!) much more than the average bear, I am OK to go on with by current shoes (Asics 2010s). Would they have recommended a change if I had been wearing another brand I wonder?
Then a meet with Benz – who was (not surprisingly) buying more running shoes. A phone call to Pix revealed was not very close yet, so we went off to eat a Bagel.
More retail opportunities for Benz and then we found the RW stand and crowd of forumites – including Tigerrunner, RichK, Cougie, and other peeps whose names have escaped me now (was Nicko there?). After some chat and the arrival of Pix and XFRBear, it was another carboloading opportunity – the past queue took half an hour, but we were entertained by the Penguin, John Bryant and Sam Murphy, all with good advice for THE DAY.
Soon I met up with the coach load of Derby peeps who were staying at the same hotel as me and it was off to the edge of civilisation (Essex and the M25). The IBIS hotel was clean and friendly, but sadly lacking in food, which was why I had been carboloading during the day – only a panini or baked potato for evening meal – did not want to risk the curry!
A quiet evening watch the box, reading and listening to music was followed by packing and an early night. Did not sleep too badly and soon the alarm was ringing to say it was.

Sunday 17th April
No porridge for breakfast, so it was a bowl of muesli for me, with a coffee. pack up on th coach and off we go.

Arriving at Blackheath by a circuitous route owning to road closures, there was plenty of time to get sorted. met up with CdK – Pix was stuck on another train. We dumped bags, queued for the loo and then made our way to pen 9, meeting up with other forumites, including Kathy and K2.

First Paula and co went, then the wheelchair racers and finally at 9.45 we were off. It was a slow walk to the start, taking about 12 minutes and then we were on our way. The advantage of being in pen 9 at the blue start is that there were not too many of us – I think the blue start is mostly club places, so they are mainly faster peeps and it was not too crowded.

My plan was to run a mile and then walk the first minute of the next mile and target pace was 13:30 miles, so of course I went too fast for the first mile (12:46) and so it went on. In a more accessible format than a long blow by blow commentary:

I

do

not

know

how

to get

rid
of

this

big

gap

here

distance/miles	av pace for mile	AHR	comment
1	12:46	150
2	13:42	148
3	12:54	139
4	12:53	148	40 minute 5 km - PB, so definitely gone off too fast!
5	16:16	144	stopped to put compeed on toe
6	12:59	151	1:25:45 10 km
7	13:20	151
8	13:43	147
9	13:36	145
10	13:52	145
11	13:59	146
12	15:04	146	stopped to speak to Nicko and Pix
13	14:32	142
14	14:56	142
15	14:21	135	A few tunnels round here loss of signal means mile markers not quite right I suspect.
16	11:15	135
17	15:08	133
18	21:46	133	Brilliant to meet forum supporters at Mudchute – made a real difference – thanks guys.
19	17:53	129	seriously slowing down here
20	9:08	124	more underpasses
21	16:22	124
22	16:23	125
23	15:19	124
24	16:35	120	struggling here - I want to stop when the traffic lights turn red!
25	17:56	120
26	16:05	120
26.2	14:44	137	6:32:28

In short a disappointing time – had hoped for 6 hours. BUT I did complete it!

Excuses: it was very hot and I did not get nutrition right – although I'd tried them before the gels settled badly in my stomach. Although I did not have to stop it got to the stage where running made it feel worse.

Lessons learned – lose some weight and get in more training and more long runs before I try another one.

What was that?

Oh yes, I do want to do another one, but get fitter first, so not taking so long over it - time on feet was knackering!

last plod

So been out for my last plod before Sunday.

Slow, but better than the last one.

Should have done it at the club yesterday evening, but instead I chatted to the other woman doing FLM on a club place. She is a fast peep - was going for 3:15 but fell a month ago and banged her knee.
Still not recovered, so just hoping to get round without doing more damage.

Must tot up how much I have at stake for WaterAid.

Tomorrow a gentle swim, a massage and then off to London - working there Friday, and staying over.


wibble

catching up

Well that was awful.

Back from what should have been an hours plod to build confidence for NEXT SUNDAY eek.

But I just coudl nto get going, eventually it did not feel too bad, then my back began to ache. Usually that does not happen unless there is anuphill bit near the end, but this was after 20 minutes, so I am afraid I turned round and came home. I know I should not make that deecision so early in a run - it takes 20 minutes to get going anyway.

Maybe it was the gardening yeterday, though I did not do anything strenuous really.

Anyway I have done a good set of stretches and my resolution for the week is to do them every day.

I only ran once durigngweek too, as I was working solidly on a projectthat had to be done by 5.00 Friday - it was except there was too much to email, so I had to post it :<(.

Now that project isout of the way I have plenty of time to panic about FLM eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek

tapering underway

was scheduled for a 2 hour plod

coudl not face my usual long run up the main road and back, so looked for an alternative route.

went out for an hour, unexciting route, but at least a new one, with different houses and gardens to look at

then looped back to pick up teenbeanz who came out with me for a second different loop;

did not go as far as we should have done (too many golfers impeding our route) and ended up only doing 1:45 - but it was very hilly!


where: road & park
what: 7.4 miles
time: 1:44:41
pace: 14:12 mm
AHR: forgot strap for first half!

gym stuff

decided a gym session was in order so:

10 minutes walking on steep tready, followed by 5 minutes walking backwards - slower and flat - good for upper leg they say

20 minutes cross trainer

30 minutes leg strength and streeeetching


felt better for all that


rest day tomorrow and an hour or two plodding on Sunday - hope the weather is good - sunny but not hot please