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A painful 9-miler

August 7, 2011 in Bowling, Exercise, London, Running | 2 comments

I have lost my running mojo recently. A combination of general fatigue, period paid, back ache and nasty hayfever have knocked me over the past couple of weeks. And then, last week, I played a Team England Rankikng Event for ten-pin bowling. These were the hardest lanes I’ve ever played on, but I found some of my old form and lead qualifying right from game one. I cruised through into round two and increased my league, making the final. Unfortunately for me, I’m just not used to play 15 games in one go anymore and my arm had just had enough, complete with a blister on my thumb and I lost my lead at the end, finishing in third. That said, a cracking result for a ranking event and it’s put me in contention for TE, assuming I play the rest of the events. The downside was that I really ached the next day and so didn’t run.

I’m doing two half marathons within two weeks of each other, the first one being in Folkestone with Cathy and Cassie. However, training has been awful and this week I had to do a long run of 8-10 miles. My friend is doing a similar plan and we agreed to run it together, although we were both worried, me because I have no running confidence at the moment and have only successfully managed up to 4 miles over the past few weeks and she for similar reasons. However, we dutifully boarded the train to Putney where I was sat next to Andrew Baddeley who wasn’t looking very happy, but was friendly and reassured us that the route we were planning to run was nice. We hit the towpath and plodded our way down to Richmond. We did 9 miles in total in a slow time and it was agonising – back hurt, shoulder hurt, I was dehydrated and wanted to give up. However, we did it and we are at least now back on our distance target. Next time will be better.

DNF – Guts or Failing?

July 25, 2011 in London, Running | 7 comments

Yesterday, I ran in the first ever Redbridge 10k.

Actually, I lie. I completed 5k of the first every Redbridge 10k.

So, what happened? I’m gutted, really gutted. I could have cried. The race started out well. It was advertised as a flat course and it was, that said, it was tough due to the mixed terrain and it was uneven. Someone even said “this is like a trail 10k” as I overtook her. I agree. The course was made up of two 5k laps and it was very pretty. It was also at 5.00pm in the evening and was REALLY hot. I struggle in the heat. I also suffer hayfever and this course, pretty as it was, was the worst possible course for a hayfever sufferer.

Thursday night, I couldn’t bowl due to hayfever. My team mates took one look at my eyes and asked me truthfully if I could see properly. The answer was no, my eyes were streaming too much.

So, imagine what a completely exposed 10k was like, with 8k on grass, partly surrounding a lake and a lot of pollen. Not good.

I set out well, really well in fact and probably too fast. I hit 3k in 16 minutes, but despite it being too fast, my legs felt good. I doubted very much that I could keep the pace going the whole 10k, but I was confident of getting to 5k before slowing down. And then, disaster struck.

I felt a sniffle. I ignored it. I sneezed. I kept going to about 3.5k and then started to sneeze. I tried to run but my chest felt like it wanted to explode. I did a run walk to 4k and spotted a marshall and asked him if there was a quick way back to the start. He informed me no, that I would just have to follow the route and was I ok? I explained I had hayfever and didn’t think it a good idea to stay out on the course – he agreed with me, but again explained that I needed to follow the route round to 5k. I started to walk and felt snuffly again and eventually decided just to run back, although it was painful, theory being that it was less time out on a non-hayfever friendly course.

I managed to limp the 5k in about 29 minutes, which I didn’t think was too awful with walking and stopping in there. But then I made the decision to stop. My first ever DNF. I have always finished the race before.

I feel like a failure for not making it round. My lovely Twitter friends have said otherwise, but I failed to complete. So, making the decision not to finish. Does it make you a failure or does it make you gutsy? I am undecided. Had I just been having a bad race, I would have finished. As it was, I think I was having a good one.

Gutted. And feel like a crappy runner to boot. Yes, I wasn’t a good one anyway, but now I just feel like a terrible one who can’t finish what she started.

A dualathlon, of sorts

July 19, 2011 in Exercise, London, Running | 2 comments

Once again, I have been quiet on the blogging front. I have been insanely busy with the end of term, catching up with my debate groups and attending primary school plays. And running. Naturally.

Yesterday, I was super hardcore. My toenail fell off over the weekend and the irony is that it did not turn purple through running; it was from wearing ill-fitting boots. Pretty boots, mind. Anyway, to cut a long story short, they turned a toenail purple and it fell off over the weekend. Everyone thinks it’s from running, so I let them think I am hardcore. Oh, wait. Anyway, yesterday was my first run sans toenail. I set out on what was supposed to be a comfortable 4 miler down to the Waterlink Way and back again. Actually, it wasn’t easy at all, I’ve been exhausted through the lack of sleep so my runs have been very lethargic recently. Nonetheless, I ran my 4 miles in 37 minutes and 45 seconds. A little slower than I would have liked, but this time last year, 4 miles probably would have taken me closer to 45 minutes. I didn’t see anything exciting, but a crazy man did tell me “rock’n'roll”.

So, I got home and then waited for my friend to pick me up to go cycling. I have aspirations of being a cyclist, but I have a blokes bike and it hurts my bum and I have no confidence to speak of on the road. My friend was supposed to pick me up at half twelve. He texted to say he would be at mine just after one. He turned up at nearly two. We eventually got going and quickly realised that my gears are fudged so I couldn’t go up any hills so we just did 6 miles which was not very hardcore.

But, because we are elite athletes, we went to the pub to refuel and drank beer and ate food whilst discussing plane crashes for five hours. Yeah.

Oh, does anyone else think that I need to add a category called ‘beer’? Or ‘pub’?

Juneathon 9/10/11 – Failure and redemption

June 12, 2011 in Exercise, Juneathon, London, Running | 9 comments

On day 9, I was supposed to run the Crisis Square Mile Run with Jog Blog. Alas, I got a migraine and I did not. Then when I started to feel better and considered joining the group for pizza, I fell asleep for 12 hours.

On day 10, my migraine had mostly gone, but I still had some tension. I didn’t feel like running, so my friend said ‘come for a walk.’ So I did. It rained. We sheltered in a pub and ended up drinking until 1.00am.

On day 11, I ran 8 miles with a bit of a hangover and not much sleep. This was my day of redemption. I met my friend Helen and we decided to run our ‘boat race’ route – a lovely, scenic 8 mile route starting at Putney Bridge, weaving down to the Barnes Bridge before crossing over and running back up the other side of the river. Helen set the pace and we set off comfortably, before she started insisting that I was speeding up. I tried to hold myself back and she stayed with me looking comfortable, but insisted that she felt pretty bad. She stuck with me for nearly 4.5 miles before demanding her bus pass. I left her to it and ran off; she carried on to 5 miles and then got the bus to the other end. I run a bit quicker on my own, because I’m not talking, so I thought I’d be able to manage quite a quick pelt back towards Putney. Unfortunately, due to the rain, the trail next to the river was very muddy and slippery. I don’t like mud and I really don’t like watching my step. I also really don’t like running through puddles and there were a few bits where the trail had flooded completely and like a typical girl, I gingerly picked my way through around the outside, whilst hardcore male runners just ploughed straight through and splashed me. I also helped a runner coming the opposite direction doing the same thing as me – but she got caught in a tree, the branches in her hair and one poked her in the eye. I would be more sympathetic, but I helped her get free and she didn’t even say thank you, which is just rude. Muddy patches over, I checked my Runtastic application and realised I had about 4 km left to go. I felt fine, so I decided just to give it some for the last 4k and finished the 8 miles in 77 minutes, 21 seconds, a pace of 9 minutes and 40 seconds per mile. The last 4k was done in 21.27, which wasn’t a bad effort having already run over 8k.

Then I waited for Helen because I beat the bus. Yay me.

Still lots of work to do to turn myself into a 9 minute miler, but it feels as if things are going in the right direction. I didn’t feel stiff afterwards and my legs are fine today so I think that implies I’ve got more to give. We shall see.

Juneathon Day 8 – Running and a Doughnut

June 8, 2011 in Exercise, Juneathon, London, Running | 8 comments

I am well aware I have been slacking, but today it was remedied after I arranged to go for a run with Will after work. Now, Will is new to this running lark but is already a super-speedy person and so he has been tasked with turning me into a 8.50-9 minute miler which he seems quite happy about, despite my whinging today.

He took me off on quite a nice route along the canal, into Victoria Park and then back again, where we then walked to Tesco and bought doughnuts. Although I have done some speedier runs, it was a lot harder doing it after a days work and my back decided it was going to flare up on me, so I had to stretch it out. Luckily, it was more or less ok after that, bar a little soreness. Will was true to his word and got me round the circuit of 3.16 miles in 27.23, at a pace of 8.40 minutes per mile and even treated me to a very short rendition of ‘Proud’ by Heather Small as we passed the Olympic Stadium. Yay. His next task is to get me to maintain it up to 4 miles and then 5.

Hope you’re all enjoying Juneathon – will catch up with the blogs soon!

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