July Rundown

Wow, the beginning of July seems like a really long time ago. It was a long and full month, including a family weekend away, sports day for the kids, Robbie's swimming gala triumph, a work trip to Cambridge, and the start of the school holidays.

I had a few days in bed with a nasty sickness bug, and I spent 3 weeks teaching 5 days a week on a summer school - these two events contributed to my low running mileage for July:

Ran - 16x = 65.3 miles
Cycled - 3x = 39.8 miles  
2 Parkruns

It was a really good month, especially in terms of the kids' achievements. Robbie has now completed 4 parkruns and is keen to do more! I always check to see whether he want to keep coming, but he seems to really enjoy it, and I know he's got his eye on getting a free t-shirt when he reaches 10. 

My motivation for running at the moment is that I want to meet my goal from the start of the year to complete 1000 miles by December. I reckon that if I can average 20 miles a week, it should be in the bag. 

That's proving pretty tough now it's the holidays. 12 -15 miles feels a lot more achievable, but won't be enough, especially assuming I'll probably be ill or injured at some point. 

But it's good to have that motivation, otherwise I might be tempted to just relax, sit back and enjoy the summer sunshine... sigh...

The Holidays begin!

The summer holidays brings conflicting feelings. Part of me rues the loss of time to myself - the difficulty of fitting in runs and the impossibility of long bike rides. However, another part of me - the overwhelming majority - looks forward to the time spent with the kids, and all the fun things we can get up to without school or work getting in the way.

The first morning of the holidays looked like this:

Not even posed!

If only this enthusiasm for reading could last for 6 weeks. A week in and they're still doing some reading every day, but there's been a lot of bickering, shouting and hyperactive behaviour to contend with. We've been lucky with the weather, and able to go out most days.

Last weekend, there was a notable acheivement for the kids as they swam in the sea for the first time!

'Let me out!'

The water was cold at first, but then the sun came out and it was fine. I was nervous because Robbie and Emma are very confident swimmers at the pool, so I thought they might not be wary enough of the tide. But we kept a close eye on them and they didn't go in too deep.

It's been years since I swam in the sea too. I suppose in Scotland it was never really warm enough, and once we had the children, it was impractical.

The big waves were great fun, and Robbie declared the experience 'terrifying but fun'! Can't wait to do it again.

This week I took the kids to Seaford, where we did a bit of cliff walking. They were pretty keen to stop walking and go back to the beach for an ice-cream though.

Love that picture of them both admiring the view!

The following day it poured with rain, but we had a good time at the cinema. It's been lovely today, but looks like there'll be cooler weather and maybe rain coming. I'll be trying to fit in as many days at the beach as possible, and squeeze in the running when I can.

Reasons why I've been too busy to blog...

I think this may be the longest I've ever gone between posts since I started blogging. The only reason for this pause is that I've been too busy, and blogging is one of those things that has had to go. So to catch up with things, here is what I've been doing instead of blogging over the last 3 weeks:

Celebrating an 80th birthday with a family weekend away,

My Auntie Doris

We stayed in a house with an indoor pool!

(unfortunately we all came down with a sickness bug after that and were ill for a few days)

Then later that week was school sports day, in which Emma won the sprint by a huge margin as well as the egg and spoon race, and Robbie didn't mind not winning anything. That evening though, he took part in a school swimming gala. Most of the children were the older ones, but there was just one race for Robbie's age group. Not only had he been chosen to take part, he also won! It was a great evening, and we were extremely proud. Robbie was pretty laid back about it all as usual. 'I wasn't even swimming as fast as I can,' he shrugged.

Getting his medal at school

The following weekend Robbie did his second parkrun, and we ran together again. The weather here has been unusually hot recently, and we both struggled to keep cool. He was only about 20 seconds slower than the previous one though, and said he enjoyed it.

Last week I did my last of 3 weeks of teaching a summer school, and it was great to have that finished. I struggled to keep on top of all the kids' various needs as well as work and have just felt rushed off my feet.

After about 10 days of hot, sunny weather, I finally got to the beach with the kids last Saturday, when the clouds came over and there was a strong breeze. It was still nice and warm though, and we had a great day of paddling, relaxing, wandering along the beach and collecting pebbles.

Finally, I went to Cambridge on Sunday evening for a day of work training on Monday. It was a hot and sticky train journey but when I arrived, I had time for a quick run round the beautiful city centre before dinner. Then I had a really interesting day on Monday in a comfortably air-conditioned room.

And now I've finished work for the summer! The kids have their last day at school tomorrow and then I can't wait to have some fun days with them - yay!

Best Parkrun Ever!!

I've been running my local parkrun 5K as often as I can this year, which has worked out at about 2-3 a month on average. When I've been to volunteer, I've sometimes taken Robbie and Emma with me, so they know the event and some of the regular runners. I've often wondered when they'd be up to running it with me, and I've seen one or two 7-year-olds complete it, even if they walked at the back.

The last race the kids ran was a 1K, and they both had to stop and walk quite a lot of it when they got tired, so I wasn't sure either of them were ready for a 5K yet.

However, last Saturday morning I asked Robbie if he fancied running with me. To my surprise and excitement, he said yes! So I quickly registered him on the website and printed off his barcode. This meant he would get a time and all his stats for the run.

On the way

Pete brought Emma along to spectate, and we were all there for the start at 9am. I was pretty sure that we would finish last, and thought we would probably walk a fair amount of the course.

At the start

As we set off I encouraged Robbie not to run too fast. He kept saying he felt really fit, but I got him to jog at a steady pace rather than dash off. We settled in fairly near the back of the pack. After a loop on the grass, we saw Pete and Emma again. I thought we might start walking soon, but we kept going. I was surprised when we passed 1K, and then 1 mile, and we still hadn't stopped to walk. I asked Robbie if he wanted to walk and he slowed for about 10 steps but said he was fine to keep running.

So we carried on. The course goes on a path around a lake, and we overtook a few people who had started walking themselves. There was one couple of women who would sprint past us, then stop and walk so we'd pass them, then they'd sprint past again. I hoped we could stay ahead of them...

Robbie seemed to be enjoying himself, and he didn't stop chattering the whole way round! I'm sure he could have sped up if he wasn't so talkative. I just couldn't believe how well he was doing, he just kept going. We passed the 3K marker, then the 4K and I realised he wasn't going to walk at all.

As we got nearer the end, we saw Pete and Emma again, and some of the earlier finishers, who gave Robbie a lot of encouragement. He was by far the youngest runner there, and so he got a lot of friendly support. As we approached the finish line, the couple we kept overtaking passed us for the last time and finished just ahead. I told Robbie to run as fast as he could to the finish, and he suddenly shot off ahead of me, taking me by surprise!

With his all important barcode

He finished in 98th position (1 ahead of me) out of 103 runners - not last! His time was an impressive 36m35s, which I was amazed by. I think my first 5K - which I'd trained for - was about 33mins. Robbie had never run further than a mile before, and he walked most of that.

Triumphant!

I was so glad I'd asked him to join me. It was such good fun running round with him, and I felt incredibly proud afterwards. As a junior runner, he'll win a free t-shirt when he completes 10 parkruns, so I'm hoping that incentive will help motivate him to do more! By far my slowest parkrun time, but definitely my favourite one yet!

Stats

Heathfield Midsummer 10K Race Report

This year I haven't really been running as many races as I had planned. This has been partly down to being busy and doing family stuff most weekends, and partly due to focusing on the marathon and then recovering from it.

So last week on a whim, I decided to enter a local 10K. The last day for online entry was Thursday and I did it at about 5pm that evening . I had been procrastinating about it for a while...

Having entered, I spent a concerned few days looking at some fairly rubbish weather forecasts of rain and wind, but on Sunday morning, it was actually quite warm and sunny, and most importantly, dry. We'd been to a friend's party the night before and it had been a late night for the kids, so I left them and Pete at home recovering, and drove myself to the race.

Arrived at the start

In my sleepy, confused state, I forgot to take any money, and when I started driving, I realised that there wasn't much petrol in the car. It should have been enough, but as I got to the location, I got a bit lost and drove a few miles the wrong way. Luckily I found it soon, but it was a slightly stressful start!

This was a small race, but a local Grand Prix race, which means that the local running clubs send teams of top runners to compete and win points in their leagues, so there were a lot of fast runners there. There were some fun-runners too, but it was quite a fast field overall. I picked up my number, and it was soon time to line up for the start.

Preparing to start

The course was advertised as being 'undulating for the first half and uphill for the second' - uh-oh! It was run on quiet country roads, with just the occasional passing car to worry about. Most of the route was under a canopy of trees, and I thought that if it had been raining we would have got really cold, but as it was, the conditions were perfect for running.

The course proved to be as advertised - we started with a long downhill, then an uphill, then a downhill... and so on. I picked up speed on all the down stretches, and ran the first 5K in about 25m30s, which was faster than a lot of my recent 5K runs. I knew that the second half would make up for this though. Throughout the race I kept picking off runners, and no-one really overtook me after the first 2Ks or so. Just after the 7K mark, the long uphill started. It was just a slow, steady, 3K climb to the end.

Course profile - yuck!

It wasn't too steep for most of it, but it was relentless, and a bit of a slog at the end. The very last part of the race turned into a field (the local rugby club), and there was about 200m to run around the field to the finish. As each athlete entered the field, their name was announced on a loudspeaker, which was a nice touch.

I tried to sprint as hard as I could to the finish line. At the end there was a bottle of water and a medal - no frills! I sat on the grass for a bit and watched a few runners come in before leaving.

I really enjoyed the race. The next day the results were online, and I finished 147 of 212 runners, in a time of 54m24s. I was 31 out of 73 women and 6 of 14 in my age group. I was quite happy with my time on a hilly course and up against some good runners.

I did feel quite tired afterwards though, and after blogging in my previous post about a busy weekend, I've been feeling unwell this week. I called in sick to work on Tuesday and stayed in bed all morning. I think it's a virus as I haven't got a cold, but have been achey, weak and dizzy and my temperature has been up and down like crazy.

I'm feeling much better today though, but perhaps it's a lesson not to overdo it at the weekends!

A Busy Weekend

It's been a very busy couple of days.

I started Saturday morning in the same way as many previous Saturdays this year - with a parkrun. It was a pretty horrible morning, with constant rain and very strong winds, but I was really in the mood for a run. When I arrived, there were predictably fewer runners than in the recent warmer and sunnier weeks. A lot of the run is on grass, so trainers were soon covered in mud and cut grass.

I felt ok during the run, and as I came to the last 500 metres or so, there were a couple of women in front of me who looked to be slowing. I gave it all my effort and managed to overtake both. I started to feel really sick, as though I was going to throw up, but I stayed ahead of them and crossed the line in 25m16s, which is my equal fastest time this year - yay!

My highest ever position among female runners at parkrun is 4th, and I had hoped that this might have been enough to get me into the top 3 this time. Sadly though, when I saw the results later, I was 4th again! I'll have to wait for a cold, wet winter day when hardly anyone else turns up.

After the run it was home for a quick shower and change, and then I went off to work. I was examining in English Language Tests. When I finished, we had been invited to a friend's barbecue, just round the corner from our house. By then the weather had improved slightly, although it was still windy. I got the train back, walked straight to the party where Pete and the kids had been for a couple of hours, and got stuck in.

It was a really nice evening as there were a lot of kids playing together while the grown-ups ate and drank. As it got late and dark, the kids showed no signs of slowing down, and I ended up having a few lagers. Eventually we got back at about 11.30pm, and everyone fell asleep.

Then this morning, I had a race! This was my first race since the marathon in April, and I only entered a few days ago on a whim. It was a local 10K, and I ended up driving there alone, as the kids were too late getting up!

The weather was dry and warm, and the course was very hilly, but good fun. I'll write a proper report about it later, but I had a good time there, and was only faintly aware of having had a late night and too much beer the night before.

Posing with medal in the garden

This afternoon we tried to relax, and after a supermarket shp, we went to a lovely cake shop for a delicious cream tea. This was a real treat which we haven't done for a long time, so it was really nice.

Now it's Sunday evening, and we're all exhausted - probably a sign of a weekend well spent!

Encouraging others to run

Not long after I ran Brighton marathon (in April), a friend of mine told me she was thinking of getting fit and taking up running. Her ultimate goal was to run a Half marathon and raise money for a charity close to her heart, but for now she just wanted to get started. So a few weeks ago we started running together.

As I'm not a personal trainer or running expert in any way, I googled some beginner training plans, and cast my mind back not that long ago to when I could only run 2 minutes, walk 5 minutes and repeat. We started one Sunday morning with a stroll to the start of the local trail, then alternated 3 minutes of running with 2 minutes of walking, over about 2.5 miles.

As she works and I work, and she has 3 kids and I have 2, we only managed to squeeze in one run per week together, but she did also do the occasional run on her own in the week. About 3 weeks in to our training, another school Mum said she'd like to join us.

So we've been running together as a group of 3 for the last 4 weekends, and it's been good. Although I have sometimes felt that I'd rather just go at my own pace, overall it's been fun to pass on my enthusiasm for running! One time when I wanted to increase my mileage, I just ran a few miles on my own before we met up and another week I ran 5x in total instead of my usual 4x, to make up my mileage, so it's been ok.

I must admit, it's quite nice to think that my running has inspired others to think they can do it too. I certainly think that almost anyone is capable of becoming a runner - if you want it enough, you can always find time, and it's something than can be learnt and trained for from nothing.

Meanwhile I hope I can encourage my kids to run and do other sports. So far they are both keen and confident swimmers and both love being active in general. They're not really interested in running yet though, and I don't want to push it on them and put them off.

I hope that by seeing me exercising, they will assume that it's just a normal part of life, and that by attending running events and races, they might be inspired to take part. They have participated in a few children's races - some they enjoyed, others not so much - and they have marshalled at parkrun 3 or 4 times. Last week, I volunteered and they accompanied me as I handed out position tokens at the finish. It was good fun, and I hope that these experiences will help promote the idea that exercise can be fun and normal!

Little angels...