No run today

Another lovely morning but I needed to be in work early and with my brain functioning so getting up even earlier to run was not really an option.

Same applies to Friday - but this time I also have a long drive home at the end. Followed by a Forum Social - to which the lovely PH is coming :))

And we WILL be running on Saturday morning too!

Better

I really didn't want to get out of bed this morning at 6.30 to run. But I am so pleased I did!

It was a lovely morning - sunny but not hot. I took longer over warming up slowly and it felt better.

3.4 miles done before breakfast :)

Back to it!

I managed to get up and out this morning. I really have to remember that the first two miles are always horrible.

I am exploring new routes in Cambridge - staying in a different hotel and lots of cycle routes to try.

Anyway, recently I have struggled with my running and blamed it all on the fact that it is all uphill coming home. Which means that if I go out for 4 miles, the first two are awful anyway and most of the return is awful because it is uphill.

Well today I was running on the flat so no excuses there. And the first two WERE difficult - tight calves, breathing difficult ....

But mile three was a revelation - I felt like a runner! OK a slow runner but I remembered why I do this.

So tomorrow I'll go a bit further and get more pleasure for the additional pain.

still haven't run ........

I should have run again today

and again I didn't

but I did have a gentle swim with the teenbeanzes

I have not really got my act together on work either - too much surfing

but a few interesting websites on the way

this one was mentioned in the Guardian - a fascinating insight into what you can do with a bit of processing and a lot of data - the Guardian is campaigning to make publicly owned data - such as that from Ordnance Survey - available for public use

this is one for all us runners, especially when coach is looking


and a couple to try and put things into perspective - the small and the large

humph

Tuesday
birthday tiring and uneventful - mrbeanz was off collecting some of studentbeanz's stuff from Uni before we get rid of the BIG car today

so it was just teenbeanzes and me at home

pressies? - DVD from SB, long handled loppers from one TB and a book from the other

MrB had been going to buy loppers - but TB thought of it first! So it was flowers from him.

What I really want is a man .............................

.........................to come and dig up the brambles and concrete path


Wednesday
Very long governor's meeting in the afternoon, where they tried to persuade me to stay on the Education Committee when I start my new job. I have resigned but they find it hard to accept, even though I have told them I shall not be able to come to meetings (they are during the day). They even offered to make the meetings in the evenings so I could come!!

I could not face running club after that - nothing to eat for 6 hours, brain numbed and a dash in and out the house was too much - so I wimped out.

TB offered back the words I give to him when he wimps out of a session -

'well you'll never improve if you don't put in the training'.

And he's right of course.

And today I'm waiting in for parcels of exam scripts to be marked, collecting a new (for us) car and trying to get some work done.

Will try to do some core stuff at some stage.

TOTM looms I suspect ......

another year goes by ........

another double done yesterday - I rather like the morning plod outside and the evening on the tready, it's a routine I could get used to - I don't think it is as good as one long plod, but I just can't find time for that in one chunk in the week

today is not a running day- which is just as well as I was up early to drive to Manchester, do some teacher training and then drive home, do the teenbeanz taxi service, make tea and watch the footy

and age another year :>)

not a very exciting birthday, but that may come later when studentbeanz comes home and we can all go out for a meal together

actually I really do not feel my age - I certainly don't feel 10-20 years older than you lot - this running lark has a lot to answer for!

sizzling struggling Saturday slog

up early again to run - out at 7.15 and it is already hot

the plod down the river is so much better than my old run along the main road - if only because it is mostly on cycle track and traffic free

as last week I ran as far as the gym and picked up a bottle of sports drink, drank some, diluted it and carried it with me for the next 4 miles before dumping it in the recycling bin

total distance plodded 11 miles - but I walked the last mile

too hot and tired and too uphill for anything else

how on Earth anyone manages a marathon on this heat I can't imagine

feeling weary

I have not posted for a day or so - not sure why

but did run on Wednesday at the club

and gymmed on Thursday

and had a deeep massage today

so am still a runner(ish)

study day

today is what is euphemistically knwnn as a study day for the teenbeanzes - which means to say they don't need to go to school as they have no exams today

however they will not be spending the day revising for the remainder of their exams so I bribed them to come to for a swim with the promise of lunch afterwards

we swam

and lunched

and now they are back glued to their computers, not revising

at least I got the blood rushing through their veins for a while

I need to digest and then do those core exercises before Coach catches up with me

hot and humid

a hot and humid plod in the park this morning in which I decided to enjoy the park and not worry about the pace but 3 miles done

nice undulations though:



then this evening a tready hills session to make up the miles for the day to 7

and lots of stretching too!

even hotter

yesterday I met up with the sports therapist, Anna, who usually inflcits her masssage on me

this time she decided it was time to look at how I run and work out why I get the pain in the side of my back

it was a useful session and she has given me even more exercises to do and suggested I concentrate on not leaning forward so much when I run - I tend ot look at the ground a lot

so today I tried to put that into practice

the forecast was for it to be hot, so I decided I wanted to go out about 7.00 am which meant if I was going to breakfast i woudl need ot get u at 5 for that

so breakfast at 5 and then back to bed for a couple of hours - I kept dreaming about triathlons - I wonder why??

It was pleasant at 5 and I was tempted to go out without breakfast, but I have never tried runnign longer than about an hour without breakfast

so out at 7.15 and down the river path, drink at David Lloryd, on another mile and then home

I took a slightly different route home, to get more shade and ended up doing 9.8 miles - pretty slowly but done.

Highlights of the run?

• a goldfinch that fluttered from bush to bush along side the path as I plodded
• a dark irridiescent green dragon fly/damsel fly (?) by the river - I need to look it up
  
• seeing the peregrine falcons that nest on the cathedral tower - through a twitcher's telescope!

retirement??

Not about running

Many moons ago Mrbeanz and I taught in the same school - my first teaching post, he'd been there a year

Now we have an invitaiton to a retirement do - 4 people retiring who we taught with - ok they had been there a few years when I started, but not many


and now they are retiring and I am planning to go BACK to teaching


am I MAD????

club run

"How far did I want to go?" I was asked.

About 5 miles I said.

So off we went - Ex Lady Sprinter leading the way - she is getting quicker every week I reckon. V69 started off with XLS and I tried not to go off too quickly to give my legs a chance to get used to the idea of a (slightly) quicker run.

Boy, was it warm.

After a while V69 dropped back to run with me and we plodded along, him telling me how much I have improved since I began running with him- and how proud he is of XLS - who has improved even more!

And so we trogged along, me struggling to keep going without walking (but managing it because V69 told me that I used to stop and now I don't!).

XLS took a slightly longer loop round the lake, which meant we ended up ahead of her and paused for a while. And then off again and plod back to the club.

4.8 miles done.

'rest' day

no running today

but I have done my core stuff

and am about to sit in the garden with a coffee before getting back to work


as other people are posting garden pics I thought I would too

not much fun

some days it just has to be done

the plan says 7 miles, but no time to do it all in one go - so time for a double

this morning I went on my tedious out and back undulating route and did not enjoy it - too trafficy, back ached,

and I only managed 3.6 instead of the planned 4 miles

no way I was goin back out there this evenign

and mynicer down to the river route is off road and less secure in the evenings I feel, so off the gym - and maybe setting a precendent that this is what Mum does on a Monday evening

and on to the tready where I managed 5 km before I had had enough - back ached but I think that is my boredom threshold!

so only 6.7 miles done

and it has shown me the result of not doing my core stuff

so there will be more of that tomorrow

hot, hot, hot!

I have to have a new tactic for long runs - I am going to try to do them on Saturdays, but not let them hog all the day,

also I don't do hot weather running (so why am i doing an autumn marathon I hear you cry) so need to do them early

so set the alarm for 6, got up and had some breakfast - the new pre-run breakfast is fruity meusli left to soak in skimmed milk overnihgt - very tasty this morning :>)

and back to bed until 8

then off out to run

(I didn't sleep very well last night - I think I was thinking about the getting up and the long run and .....)

4 miles down river, mostly traffic free, arriving at the gym (after a slight detour to get to 4 miles)
into the gym to use the facilities, buy a lucoazade sport and have a bit of a stretch

and then 4 miles back home again

8 miles done - first 'long' run ticked off and the furthest since FLM :>)

the numbers:

Mile	Pace	AHR
1	13:45	123	downhill - walked first 5 min
2	13:16	138
3	14:18	137
4	12:56	139
5	12:45	138
6	14:08	140
7	13:44	141
8	16:05	135	walked mostly up the steep bits
0.2	14:55	138
8.2	13:49	136	1:53:29

the undulations


by the time I got home the sun was really quite hot - so I was pleased to have got the run out of the way

Oh and I did enjoy it !

running early (well not very early)

sun shining through the curtains at 6.00 am did not tempt me out of bed!

but at 7.00 I did get up and go out for my 3 miler

it was a beautiful morning - getting warm by the time I got home

and then I went for the torture with the phyzz

and because I confessed to not doing my core exercises as much as I should have done, she decided to have a go at my muscles instead of moving on with new core stuff!

OW!