Scottish weather 1 - Me 0

Having run over 5 miles last Monday, I decided to head out for a 6-miler this morning. I planned to go at a steady, comfortable pace, as I was increasing distance so I didn't want to push the speed as well. I thought I'd aim to average 9 min/miles.

About an hour after breakfast, I left the house at about 9am. It was cool but not cold, there was quite a nice breeze, and the sky was overcast - it felt like good running conditions. I felt really good, and ran the first mile quite gently. When I checked my Garmin though, I'd done it in 8m50s. So I tried to slow down but keep a steady speed for the next mile, but that also beeped at exactly 8m50s!

I felt really good - I was feeling strong and fit, running well and I knew I could easily run 6 miles, and hopefully keep this pace up for the whole run. This was also my first run over the Forth Road Bridge since injury - one of my favourite routes, despite the fact that it is always windy. I got onto the bridge, ran about half a mile across it - and the heavens opened. Suddenly the rain absolutely poured down, and for a few moments it was hail. The wind picked up, and within seconds I was drenched. It was really uncomfortable, as all my clothes got heavy with water, and my socks were squidging around in my trainers.

After some miserable metres, I decided to turn back. It was just horrible to run in, and I was worried about chafing or blisters from my wet clothes and socks. I turned round and it was even worse! The wind was blowing straight at me, and the rain was almost horizontal. The force of it stung my eyes, and I ran to the end of the bridge with them mostly closed.

As I got off the bridge the wind died down, but I was thoroughly soaked, so I stopped in a bus shelter to squeeze water out of my shorts and top, and wipe my glasses. The run home wasn't too bad, but my wet clothes and shoes made me feel pretty horrible.

So in the end it was only 4.6 miles. I did maintain 8m53s / mile average pace, so I was pleased with that, but I was a bit fed up that I had felt so strong to start with and still didn't complete 6 miles. When I got in I dripped water all over the house before jumping into a hot bath.















Absolutely drenched!

As for the rest of the week, I have been very strict with my diet everyday, and avoided cakes, biscuits and other snacks between meals. At times I found it quite difficult, and the lack of chocolate made me pretty grumpy. But I weighed myself yesterday morning, and I had lost 3 pounds! Yay! 1 more to get me back to my pre-Christmas weight! I think I'll try and be good this week too, as my parents are visiting next weekend, and we'll probably treat ourselves most days.















Stuffed Butternut Squash and salad - one of my healthier recipes!

In total, I ran 15 miles this week, which is 5 miles further than the previous highest week, so I'm feeling pretty good about that. Next week I'll have to try that 6-miler again, so I'll be keeping a firm eye on the weather forecast and choosing my day carefully. Needless to say, the rain soon blew over after that downpour, and it turned out to be a lovely, sunny afternoon. At least I got my own back by hanging my washing out on the line and getting it all dry in the sun - take that Mother Nature - KAPOW!

Spring is sprung!

Well the weather here for the last few days has been absolutely glorious. I'm quite capable of getting out and pounding the streets when they're covered in snow, or going for a cycle in the wind and pouring rain (albeit reluctantly), but I just find it soooo much nicer to go out in warm temperatures and sunshine. I'm the sort of person who is always too cold and never too hot, so running on a hot day doesn't usually bother me. (I say 'usually', because of last year's heatwave on 23rd May, which added about 30 mins to my marathon time, or so I claim).

It only seems a few short weeks ago that our village looked like this:















That was all very pretty, but rather impractical, and after a few weeks it just got boring. Thank goodness for spring, when we can enjoy even more beautiful scenery which I'll never get tired of, such as colourful fields of blooming rapeseed;
















big blue cloudless skies;




















we can dig out our sun hats and summer dresses;




















and play around in the cherry blossoms.




















Ok so the weather forecast is currently saying that we're going to have heavy rain and hail for the next 4 days running, but hey, that could be wrong! At least it should stay warmer, and hopefully the sun will be back out again soon to join me on some gorgeous spring runs and bike rides!

April stats

April has been a month full of distractions, with only 8 days of school amongst the Easter, Royal Wedding and Bank holidays. We also had a weekend away for my parents' Ruby anniversary celebration. What I'm trying to say is, I haven't done as much cycling and running as I would like, especially last week.

However, on the up side, I have done my first race since September; I've been increasing the miles as far as running is concerned; and the weather has taken a distinct turn for the better. The last few days have been glorious - warm and sunny.

So here are the stats for April:

11 runs = 37.4 miles
6 bike rides = 52 miles
2 Pilates classes
1 Aquafit class
0 gym visits

In comparison with March, this was quite a bit less cycling, and obviously the improved weather (and the fact that we've been away a bit) kept me out of the gym altogether. However, that's 15 miles more running than I did last month, which is my priority after all.

So what's the plan for May? Well we still have quite a few school holidays to look forward to - unbelievable but true - so I'll need to negotiate those. I hope to keep increaing the running distance - my furthest run so far has been 4.6 miles, so I want to get up to a 10k soon (6.2 miles). I hope to continue with pilates and cycling, and I don't want to abandon the gym altogether.

My other goal is to clean up my diet. This last week of Easter eggs and a family visit has lead to way too many calories finding their way down my neck and I really want to lose 4-5 lbs. So this week I'm going to try to cut out the snacks and stop indulging in treats. I usually manage to be good for about 3 or 4 days, and then I crack, sending Pete off to get me a mint chocolate Aero (my favourite). So I think I'd better keep a list of what I eat and be strict with myself. Let's hope the blog will keep me accountable - watch this space...














Sheep and lambs enjoy the sun!

Parkrun

Thanks so much to everyone who commented on my last post, and bigged up my 5K race result! I really couldn't decide whether or not to be pleased with my time, but you all convinced me that it was a good result after 6 months of injury, and I'm grateful for the confidence booster. The race I ran was a Parkrun event, which is such a good event, I thought I'd say a bit about it here.

A few years ago, a man called Paul Sinton-Hewitt had a brilliant idea. It was to set up a weekly 5k race at the same time, in the same place every Saturday morning. The first race was held near London in 2004, but over the next few years, Parkrun spread until there were races all over the UK.

The most ingenious part of Parkrun is the fact that it is completely free to enter. Before you participate, you register online, where you are given an ID number and a printable barcode. You only need to register once, and then you can race as little or often as you like. The race isn't chip-timed, but a timer starts as runners cross the start line, and when you finish, someone records your time, and gives you a tag with another barcode on it. After the race, your ID barcode and finish tag are scanned. Later that day, you will be emailed your official time.

All the race officials and marshalls are volunteers, so runners are encouraged to sometimes give up the chance to run in order to help out - the whole scheme depends on the volunteer spirit. This, along with sponsorship from some large companies, keeps Parkrun free.

The first Edinburgh parkrun was held on 17th October 2009. I took part, and it was quite busy, with just over 200 runners. The course is completely flat, (in stark contrast to my usual routes from my house), and I got my 5K PB that day. I thought it was a brilliant event, and resolved to go as often as I could. As is so often the way, I never quite managed to go again, until last weekend.














The Edinburgh course

I expected it to be much quieter this time, but in fact there were 287 runners, so it seems to be thriving. There was a great atmosphere, with lots of family groups cheering on a parent or spouse.

Apart from the fact that it's free and so easy to register, what I also love about Parkrun is the detailed statistics they provide after each run. When you log on to the website, you can see your time, position in the race, position in your sex-and-age-group category, your Parkrun PB and the details of all previous Parkruns you've done. For a stats-freak like me (and I think most other runners love their statistics too), it's a joy!

I would definitely encourage any UK based runners to seek out their nearest Parkrun, but I wonder whether there are any similar schemes in other countries?

A race!

As I've been back running for 8 weeks now, and completed 4 or 5 runs of around 3 miles or longer, I thought it was time to try a little 5k race. Robbie usually has swimming lessons on Saturday mornings, but today was a holiday, so the perfect opportunity to go along to a free event.

It was Edinburgh Parkrun, held every Saturday morning, free to attend, and a race which I had only done once before, its first ever event in October 2009. Parkrun is a fantastic scheme, which I'll come back to in my next post - stay tuned.















Warming up before the start

Anyway, I didn't really have a clear goal this morning, other than to complete 5k in a better time than recent training runs (around 27m30s), and see how close I could get to my PB. The route is very flat, unlike all my training runs, and I set off much too fast, being pulled along by better runners.

After a while I realised I was unlikely to sustain a 7m30 pace (haha), and controlled myself. I seemed to get in a group of women, and we ran together for a while, and this got me through the first mile in 8m13s. This was a bit fast, but I wasn't sure how well I could do on a flat course. So I kept going, some of the women dropped off, and I ended the second mile on the tail of one speedy looking woman. She got me through mile 2 in 8m14s. So far, so consistent, but a few moments later I really began to tire. The faster woman powered ahead of me, and I slowed down. I was starting to get a stitch, and those last 1.5km of a 5k are always so much longer than they should be. My 3rd mile was 8m49s.

As I got to the finish, I heard someone coming up behind, I tried to sprint, but he still overtook me. My final time was 26m31s (Garmin said 26m28s so near enough). I was 183 out of 287 runners, and 3rd in my age group (in a field of 17 women in the 35-39 group). This is apparently, and mortifyingly, a 'veteran' category. Hmph.




















A great place to be...

I don't know what to make of it really. I'm quite pleased with the time, as it's faster than I've been managing lately, but it is still about 90 seconds slower than the previous time I did this race (and my 5k PB). Looking back at my Garmin data, I am quite a way off the speed I had last August, just before I got injured, which I think was my real peak as a runner so far. It shows that I've got a long way to go to regain that fitness.

Anyway, it was great to take part in a race again, I really enjoyed it. I was surprised how busy it was, and how excited I felt to be running in a big pack of runners, all going off together to do the best that they could. I can't wait to do another one soon so I can try and improve on that time!

Easter holidays

Things we have been doing in the holidays. More attentive readers may notice that none of these are in any way running, cycling or pilates related;




















Dressing up















Doing jigsaws















Eating Fish n Chips at the seaside




















Paddling in icy sea















Sunbathing at the beach















Tea and caking





















Playing at the farm

...and lots more besides. Normal service should resume soon.

Weekly round-up

Despite school and playgroup being closed for the Easter holidays, it's actually been a pretty good week, workout-wise. The kids spent 2 mornings with the childminder, which gave me the opportunity to get out on my bike, and I managed to fit in 3 runs as well.

It looked like this:

Tuesday: Cycled 15 miles
Wednesday: Ran 3.1 miles
Thursday: Cycled 6 miles
Friday: Ran 3.7 miles
Sunday: Ran 4 miles

In my last post I was whining about having a few crappy runs, including Wednesday's. I had been feeling tired and slow for the last 4 runs. So I decided to change things a bit; on Friday I arranged to run in the evening instead of first thing in the morning, I changed my usual route for one that was less hilly, and I took my ipod with my running playlist of motivating music. These 3 changes conspired to help me get a great run at last. I went through 5k in 27m18s - my fastest time since coming back, and my average pace overall was 8m50 per mile - not bad!

Then on Sunday I had a lovely run in the morning sunshine, and did 4 miles, which is my longest distance since September and the advent of the evil Plantar Fasciitis. The only problem on that run was having to stop to turn up the volume on my ipod, and then having it too loud for the rest of the run. When I got home, my ears were ringing for about half an hour afterwards!

So in total, I cycled 21.2 miles, and ran 10.8 miles. That's quite an increase in running, and I feel ready to run 3 times a week regularly now. My feet are doing well, so I'll keep building up the distance.

To add to my fun this week, I got myself a new toy - ta-dah!















My very own torture-machine, also known as a foam roller. Oh it looks all innocent in the photo, doesn't it? Not so. I've been having a marvellous time rolling my aching leg muscles over it while watching tv in the evenings. It also doubles as a toy for the kids - they love balancing on it and rolling around on the floor too!