Long Runs

I’ve now completed the first 7 weeks of my 18 week plan. After yet another bout of sickness, mainly consisting of a painful sore throat and cough, I went to the Drs. She thinks there an inflamed something or rather in my nose, as has prescribed me the steroid used by asthma sufferers, to be inhaled nasally instead of orally. Unfortunately it will take a month to take effect. But she told me it was safe to run, so I’m back on track.

I’ve now done long runs on Sunday of 14 and 16 Miles (thats Miles, not KMs…). I have however decided to adopt the Runners World Magazine “Get You Round” tactic of running 5 minutes, then walking 1 minutes.

I still haven’t solved the blister problem. My new saucony shoes do allow me to run longer than any other shoe I’ve had, and if I cover effected areas in blister patches I can actually run pain free, however I’m not sure that will hold up for the full 26.2 Miles (or 42KMs). I shall be heading off to the podiatrist soon.

We’ve had some lovely snow in London over the last few weeks. Unfortunately Tim and I live close enough to work that we can walk in, so no day off making snowmen for us. It hasn’t effected my training though, I’ve just done my long runs on my treadmill.

My next race will be the Bath Half Marathon on March 15th. Tim and I are making a weekend of it, and are staying in a nice hotel for a couple of nights, and taking the Monday off work.

http://www.runninghigh.co.uk/

Next week is a “recovery” week, looking forward to the long run “only” being 12 Miles. You would think that I’d be losing loads of weight with all this running, but no. Apparently its very common to put weight on. Something about putting on muscle. I’m careful about what I eat, but still, I have to eat more than usual the day or two after a long run, as I get VERY VERY hungry. Speaking of hungry…wonder what’s in the fridge…

The Start of the Plan

Tim and I travelled to Orlando late November for a wonderful three week holiday. We even managed to do a few runs every week in the morning. It was lovely running around the lakes near our hotel, and plenty of other slow plodding runners for company. It was my first trip to Orlando without catching a cold!

After our lovely trip, we returned to a cold-snap in London, and 2 days after arriving home I promptly got sick :(

I was sick for nearly two weeks, and barely ran at all! The terrifying official start of my marathon program on the 22nd December got closer, and closer, and I was still sick. The 22nd cam and went, and still only the odd slow plod. Then finally I got a bit better, was able to sleep at night, instead of coughing ALL NIGHT, and finally started running again. My training schedule is 3 runs per week, plus an optional 4th. Needless to say I didn’t do the optional fourth. I did manage to do all three runs, some slightly shorter than scheduled, but it was the frequency I was focusing on.

I took advantage of the time off over the Christmas break to drag Tim outside for runs in Regent’s Park (a 12 min walk from our house). It was a bit chilly, so we bought some winter running kit. Long tights, running jackets, long sleeve shirts, running beanies, gloves. Lots of layers. The week after buying our kit, we knew we’d done the right thing. Snow and ice on the ground. The lakes in the park had frozen over. It was cold.

I’ve so far done three weeks of my seventeen week training program, and have done the three runs a week. My Sunday long runs have been 8, 10 and 12 Miles so far. I’ve struggled a bit in the last 2 miles of each run, and I’ve taken plenty of walk breaks, but I’ve finished them.

My First Half Marathon

I ran a half marathon on October 12th. It was my first. And it was the inaugural Royal Parks Half Marathon…so newbies together then.

I got to Hyde Park nearly an hour before the race, and immediately joined the toilet queue (or one of the queues). The queues were rather long, and agonisingly slow. The men decided to ditch the queues and use the bushes, while the women looked enviously on. Eventually, with less than five minutes to the start of the race, well, several women (and I may possibly admit to joining them), decided to duck behind a screen…and pretend we were camping.

After an exceptionally awkward start, and learning the horrible lessen, that you can over-hydrate, the race started about a minute after I managed to find a gap in the fence and get to the start.

The first two miles were quite good, I ignored all the mad people racing off at the start, and kept to a nice slow pace I knew I could maintain for the duration of the race. We ran past big ben, and over Westminster bridge, and then started down the road towards embankment. It was unfortunately at around the 3 mile mark that I could feel the blisters popping up! And with 10 miles still to go :(

The run on the road was otherwise pleasant, I certainly wasn’t last, and even managed to overtake quite a few people by maintaining my nice slow pace. At about half way, we left the roads, and headed for the parks. We ran past Buckingham Palace, which was great, and then heading into Hyde Park. The blisters at this point were well and truly in evidence, and the pain was forcing me to walk patches.

The sun got hotter, and I was regretting the decision to wear the non-technical charity vest. It was around this point that my spectator, my lovely Tim was there, to cheer me on. Because the track wound around Hyde Park a fair way, Tim was able to run around and see me several times, each time he was a very welcome sight! Especially when he gave me a powerade, as I’d “hit the wall” after two hours of running/hobbling.

The course doubled back on itself quite a few times. Some runners afterwards complained about this, I however found it very encouraging. Just the sight of plenty of other runners, they haven’t all finished yet then, kept me going. There one on guy ahead of me, running in this enormous costume. It was a real boost whenever I saw him. If he could do it in that costume, I certainly could do it with all my extra fat!

I walked most of the last 4 miles, in total agony. The only reason I didn’t pull out like any sane person, was that people had sponsored me. The thought of facing them on Monday, and explaining…”well, I had blisters…”. Nope, I was determined, even if I walked the entire remaining distance, I was finishing.

The wonderful stewards were very encouraging…”Not long to go now…” they kept saying. They were of course lying, which I told them. It made them laugh. The drinks attendants at the last water station were calling out “get you ice cold water here…”. They also were lying, but anything that brought a smile to your face at that point was VERY welcome.

I must say the Marie Curie cheer point at 10 miles, was the most wonderful thing. See, now I was glad I’d worn the charity vest. Even after three hours of shouting at all runners, not just their own, they were extremely vocal when they saw my coming. I even managed to jog for a kilometre past them (I did stop as soon as they were out of sight though).

Three hours and five minutes, exactly. That was my time, according to my timing chip. You would have thought this would have put me off my dream to run the London marathon… no. It only made me more determined!

How it Began...

So last December I decided I was unhappy with being an unfit fatty. I had trouble keeping up with my rather tall husband as we trek around Disney World. This was made especially worse as I used to be a fit sporty kid. I used to ride my bike all day, run cross-country races (I even won once), and swim laps for an hour without blinking. As an adult though I struggle with a flight of stairs.

I decided to run the London Marathon 2009. That would give me over a year to train, surely that would be enough time?

As part of my “plan” I entered the Royal Parks Half Marathon, despite having never run a race as an adult.

I spent hours researching training plans, subscribed to Runners World Magazine, bought new trainers (and more new trainers!) and books and other kit. I already had my own treadmill, as this wasn’t completely out of the blue…I had been running irregularly for the last two years.

I started following a 5K training plan from the Nike website, and then I followed a 10K Nike plan. I decided to do an actual 10K race at the end of the plan, to get a bit of “race experience”. I entered the Bupa Great Capital 10K on 20th July 2008.

After the 10K I started a Runner’s World half marathon training plan, it was relatively achievable 3-4 runs a week. Speedwork…err interesting.

I also entered the Adidas Women’ Challenge on 7th September, a 5K fun run to get some “mass start” experience. As I understand, the difference between a race and a fun run, is a race gives you an official finish time (either chip, or crossing the line), a fun run doesn’t. You have to time yourself.

A few days before the half marathon, the London Marathon public ballot results came out…I didn’t get in. I was depressed, although I know in advance the odds were 1 in 5, I think this year they were 1 in 8 with the new online entry system.

After running my half, I decided I really REALLY wanted to run the London Marathon…it was after all the reason I’d started training properly.

So, I applied for a couple of charity places…and got one!!!

Thank you VICTA (Visually Impaired Children Taking Action)