Archive for August, 2007
August 31, 2007 at 9:06 pm · Filed under Running
Got home, and as is my want, flicked on the kettle while settling down to check out y’all blog updates. Jogblogs stream of consciousness post left me completely out of puff and I thought perhaps I could be excused this evenings training run as a result. I just started on my mug of tea, teeny weeny choolate biscuit and the next update in my feed when I heard my name being hollered, Romeo & Juliet stylee towards my non-existant balcony. Darn it, it was my cycle mounted, cattle prodding, slave driving, run enforcing, PT instructor, aka Shakti. I had to swap my unfinished brew for my Garmin and head out for an odds and sods sort of route through the local byeways in search of fancy dahlia specimens. 5k in total though so it still counts.
Popularity: 10% [?]
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Tags: Garmin, OGB
August 26, 2007 at 10:44 pm · Filed under Running
What better way to respond to the fast approaching day of doom than by having another lacklustre, self pitying week of pain?
I managed to pull it together a bit at the end of the week to record my second best running tally for a week but the cycling was almost non-existent and I’m practically bankrupt following the spate of train trips into work.
I learnt a few things about running advice this week. After tuesdays heroic and near-half marathon distance run, my body took on the appearance of a wizened and stooped ole hag as my hamstrings decided to double knot themselves in a silent protest.
At work, my limping was questioned and greeted with shakes of the head followed by the offer of tea and biscuits delivered to my desk. I like non-runners they understand my pain and the importance of a nice rest with a cuppa. Runners on the other hand tend to follow a completely different and slightly less appealing approach. I made the mistake of moaning in front of a runner yesterday, apparently the trick, when bent double with the pain of seized limbs, is to….. go out running and not just a light run to the nearest bus stop, we are talking a full on, hour long run to stretch out the limbs. Grief, I can almost hear my hamstrings discussing their next macrame move as I type.
Given that this runner was a bone-fide Ironman I thought I ought to listen and was sort of shamed into pulling on my discarded trainers. I left the flat unsure whether to go for an 8 or 10 km recovery run but ended up stumbling over my threshold after a puny 6.7 km. It was an almighty great struggle and clearly a big mistake to set off at 2pm, I ran out of water before I reached Chiswick bridge and then started to spontaneously combust. It hasn’t felt that hot since we last saw sunshine about 300 days ago.
So for the weekly summary:
Mon: nowt
Tue: 20.4 km run
Wed: crawled a bit
Thur: limped a bit
Fri: progressed to shuffling
Sat: 23 km bike, 6.7 km run
Sun: 5 km run
Popularity: 10% [?]
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Tags: GNR
August 26, 2007 at 8:36 pm · Filed under Event, Running
The launch date for the Richmond Park version of the weekly UK Time Trial has been set for the 13th October. The route details have been posted on the site and so today I thought I would go and do an early morning reccy.
The plan is to meet around Pembroke Lodge and start the run close to Richmond Gate, it then skirts around part of the Tamsin Trail and the path running along the edge of the main road to make a big (5 km) loop between Richmond and East Sheen gates. For convenience I started my run at East Sheen gate.
I’m fairly useless at getting my bearings in that park and despite having scrutinised the official route map for about 30 mins before setting off, I still wasn’t sure I knew where I was going. As it turns out, my GPS route looks pretty darn close to the one on the RPTT site so I’m happy.
This is going to make for one tough time trial! Its going to push my target of 30 mins for 5km back some way but it will be great training and I could always show up at Bushy Park for the occasional attempt at a pb.
Talking about Bushy Park - it’s the third anniversary of this fantastic (weekly, free) event on the 6th October. So if you fancy the idea of an early morning race followed by nibbles and champagne all before 10 am you should register online now and stick it in your diary!
Popularity: 17% [?]
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Tags: GPS, RPTT
August 22, 2007 at 9:13 pm · Filed under Running
Struggling to move at the moment, that 12 miler really kicked my ass yesterday. Came across this vid on Pats running blog and it made me feel better about the pain though.
Popularity: 9% [?]
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August 21, 2007 at 10:05 pm · Filed under Running
Today was a day for making amends for last weeks limp lettuce training efforts.
I had a fairly heroic route in mind but given that it took me over an hour after the garmin had locked on to my window ledge accessible satellites, to actually push myself out of the door, I couldn’t be sure that I wouldn’t cop out at an early stage. The plan was to make an additional bridge extension (Kew Bridge) to last weeks 10-miler but the trouble with that, is it would end up looping back past my house within the first 6k - pretty dangerous. Luckily I had transferred the omnibus edition of the Archers to my iPod and the everyday tales of country folk kept me busy up to the psychological safety of Hammersmith Bridge.
I was struggling at Putney Bridge and audibly huffing and puffing as I passed the crowds at the bus stops. I’m normally fairly happy when I’m out on a run and manage to save the grumbling til I make it home but today I was seriously arsey. By 17k I was suffering, and the groans increased in intensity as my calf seized up. I had to stop for a bit to massage the knot away and then I tried to walk a bit to stretch it out, but I was in that zone where walking is about 20 times more painful than continuing with the run so I had to start shuffling again.
I’d just starting running and grumbling again when I spotted John running towards to me. He was off on a reccy of the 10 mile loop I blogged about last week and that gave me a boost for about 30 secs.
I didn’t know quite how far this run was going to be but I reckoned on close to 13 miles. I wanted the boost of having completed the half marathon distance before I trek up to Newcastle but I also wanted it to be over right NOW! Finally approached home with the garmin reading 20.3 km, I needed 700 metres more to make it a half marathon. Strangely my local Stella shop is precisely 700 metres away. However, I am strong - teetotal strong and I resisted the lure, choosing instead to head upstairs to roll around groaning on the floor. This teetotal malarky is going to be tough.
Popularity: 12% [?]
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Tags: Garmin, Stella
August 21, 2007 at 10:10 am · Filed under Running
Diabolical training week, with only five weeks to go to the big day I managed only one, paltry, solitary run.
Mon: nowt
Tue: nothing again
Wed: 42 km bike
Thur: 16 km run
Fri: 42 km bike
Sat: mmm does off road go karting count as cross training?
Sun: and then there is punting down the river although I was punted so it probably doesn’t count.
Popularity: 9% [?]
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Tags: GNR
August 17, 2007 at 6:43 pm · Filed under Rambling
Oh dear, I’ve been had, EatDrinkWoman tagged me the other day and although I did my best to ignore it, I now notice that Kathy got in on the act and tagged me too. Clearly no escape, I have to answer a list of questions, boring you all senseless in the process and then make folk like JogBlog and NoWetsuit Girl repeat the chore - I’m sure they’ll love it.
Jobs I’ve Held: Newspaper gal, fruit picker, sandwich maker, factory worker, care assistant, packer, merchandiser, van driver, supply chain assistant, SBO analyst, SBO manager, data analyst, web master, personal tutor, management accountant. A little eclectic selection of jobs many of which all of which have been carried out between studies. So in addition I’ve been a medical student, a chemistry undegrad and a postgrad astrochemist.
Movies I Can Watch Over & Over: None, I can’t imagine anything more torturous than watching a film I’ve already seen. I might come back to this though, there is perhaps something I’d be prepared to watch again. I’ve been to see the musical Blood Brothers 3 times if that counts?
My Guilty Pleasures: Gadgets and Stella, and for a very guilty pleasure I might combine gadgets, stella and a box set of the L Word - joy for a week!
Places I have lived (in order): Aldershot, Cyprus - Larnaca & Limassol, Bridlington, Sheffield, Nottingham, London
Shows I enjoy: L Word, Desperate Housewives, The Apprentice
Places I Have Been on Holiday: Good grief, I can’t imagine anyone would be interested in this stuff! Cyprus, N. Spain, S. Spain, Portugal, France, Austria, Italy, Germany, Switzerland (I know, I should have just put W. Europe and be done with it), San Francisco, Madeira, Borneo
Favorite Foods: Chilli, Spag Bol, Curry, chilli prawns, listen I’m salivating now and this list could go on for ages, how about we say I like every type of food except Celery!
Websites I Visit Daily: The pages that open automatically on my browser are: admin pages for my blog, iGoogle,Bloglines which then leads me to read as many of your updated blogs as I can manage, Flickr, Facebook, Runnersworld and PhysicsDiet. I couldn’t live without Bloglines and facebook though.
Body Parts I Have Injured: Skin and right side from hip to toe. Nothing to really moan about though.
Awards I’ve Won: got a few judo medals in my prime and the odd consolation academic award
Nicknames You’ve Been Called: Deathwish, warriorwoman and Wolfie - take your pick!
Popularity: 24% [?]
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Tags: Diet, OGB, runnersworld, Stella
August 17, 2007 at 8:06 am · Filed under Running
I took the day off work yesterday, I was just too fed up with it all to cope with a full 5 days, plus I have to deal with a girlie Hen weekend this week which will play havoc with my running schedule. It seemed the best thing all round was to take an impromptu holiday and go running.
Having dedicated an entire day in its honour it was going to have to be a long one. Time to try out the Oxford Cambridge Boat Race loop, a 4 bridge jaunt along the Thames in the summer rain. 16 km in total (10 miles) so my longest run to date if we disregard the runs that included a little bus ride in the middle.
I’m pleased to say, it didn’t take me all day but it wasn’t far off at 2:05:00 and it did play havoc with my muscalature and left me with strange blue patches round my mouth. The latter from the juicy blackberries that I had to sample on the final 2k stretch, yummy. This morning I’m aching like crazy, with stiff shoulders and mangled calves (is that the plural of calf? I don’t want any animal rights protestors on this blog cos I haven’t done anything nasty to baby cows!). Anyway, lets just say the pain has reminded me just how far this damn half marathon is going to be.
First blog update I check out this morning directs me to Bob Almighty who is in training for IronMan New Zealand to raise money/awareness for ALS, a terrible motor neurone disease that sends the afflicted into a rapid spiral of paralysis leading to death. Bob’s fundraising page is here if you are interested and I would really recommend checking out the home page for the war on ALS foundation. There is a video there showing the IronMan attempt of Jon Blaise (Blazeman) who faced his diagnosis with ALS by putting his body through that gruelling event. ALS usually results in death within 1 to 3 years, imaging dealing with that and deciding to train forIronMan at the same time. Watching him ride that bike with his arms strapped to the handlebars because he can’t hold on, and roll on the floor to try and relieve the pain in his legs, does put life just a little bit in perspective. There are some true warriors out there and I hope his struggle goes a long way to motivating others.
Popularity: 12% [?]
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Tags: thames
August 12, 2007 at 11:58 pm · Filed under Event, Running
It was a less than an auspicious start to my East London running debut. I took the carb loading to a whole new extreme and I was still bulging at the seams when I was dragged from my bed this morning at 6am.
Knowing that it was a ridiculously early start I had travelled over to OGB’s last night, so we were practically on the race doorstep. Before leaving my house though I polished off the left over pasta for my tea, and then on arriving at his folks house I discovered that I’d been included in the family dinner arrangements and there was a whopping great plate of chicken curry waiting for me. Well it was all jolly nice but I have to say I struggled to get that plate clean! From there it was on to the pub where for probably the first time in my life I was unable to finish a pint of Stella. Absolutely bursting.
As I couldn’t drink, it seemed that the next best thing was to start an argument. I chose East London and the complete absense of wild life as a starter. Firstly, my companiable Bexley Heathian drinking buddies took offence at being called East Londoners, it seems that despite being to the most right of London I’d ever been I was still not in East London! Goodness knows where this strange land is. Secondly, one bloke put up a good fight for the existence of a few cows in a field somewhere to the left of an unlit snicket. On further cross examination it appears that the said cows all had brightly coloured caravans attached to them and it was deemed that these cows fell into the species of “gypsy ponies”. Case closed, no wildlife existed and I got to go home and quietly explode.
Race day dawned and as OGB was still smarting from his unexpected bike ride to Bushy Park yesterday, he attempted to punish me by making me run behind the car as he drove to the shopping precinct - oh how I laughed!
As is usual for the start of race events we were both in a jolly foul mood and wondering who we could blame for the race entry, running and probably even life in general. On arriving at the Bluewater shopping centre I found another grievance, I needed someone to blame for building the mall and therefore the start of the race at the foot of a flipping great chalk pit. We were surrounded by cliffs and it was clear that this flat (as advertised) race was going to involve some serious climbing.
I’m going to struggle to keep expletives out of this post, those XXXXXXX hills were absolute XXXXXXXXX monsters!
We had runners dropping to walking on that very first incline, still within ear shot of the rabble rousing, horn tooting, starter man whatever his official name is. Now I don’t have a problem with walkers per se but it still continues to wind me up no end that these same walkers seem to stick with me throughout the race and on many occassions beat me soundly at the finish. There ought to be a law against walking and still beating me! As it happens its not solely a back of the pack predicament, OGB had exactly the same problem 21 minutes up the field as he was trounced by an “elderly” hill walker.
As can be seen by the elevation profile, kindly supplied by Dom, the first half was pure evil interspersed with some joyful, head over heels, crazy downhill sections. As I am now a veteran fell runner (ahem) I made the most of these sprint sections, and there was one particularly vicious switchback downhiller at 3.4k which I careered down at break neck speed overtaking about 15 in the break away group. Its one of those occasions where momentum favours the fat, trouble is the downhill soon turned into an uphill and the moment I turned that corner someone slung my 5 stone coat of lard back on me and I came screeching to a near standstill. Tis a bugger that I have a head craving speed yet a body designed for lethargy.
Second half was fairly flatish, it was along some motorway, possibly the M25 but then maybe not as they’d managed to close it for the occasion. I was afforded a little extra joy at the end as there was another smashing downhiller back into the chalk pit and across the finish line. Managed to pick off another bunch of pesky run/walkers on my best ever sprint finish. Overall time was still a bit pants though, but what do you expect when you have two pre-race dinners?
SheRunsHeRuns Bluewater 10k at EveryTrail
Map created by EveryTrail: GPS Travel Community
SheRunsHeRuns Bluewater 10k 1:16:04
Great organisation and good marshalls but its only going to appeal to the car owner as there are no baggage drops and its too early for public transport. Bonuses were ashtray sized medals and a dinky little lego brick for the kids. I wish I got a lego brick, but I won’t moan as I did get a pot noodle which made me very happy as I like pot noodles but I never buy them because they are the meals of pikeys just as kebabs are, and I never buy those either.
Popularity: 23% [?]
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Tags: everytrail, GPS, OGB, Stella
August 12, 2007 at 5:55 pm · Filed under Running
Here’s a quick update on the GNR training status. Quite a low mileage week but at least the runs were taken at race pace. Race reports to follow.
A scary article in Running Fitness suggests I should be up to 45 miles per week in my build up to a half - holy moley! I’ve no intention of racking up those miles too quickly though, I’ve been plagued with assorted right leg ITB niggles and right knee pain since I started and lately right ankle dodginess and if I’m going to get carried away with my hypochondria there’s a slight DVT type pain in my right calf! Need to keep these in check so I don’t have to bail before the big day.
Mon: nowt
Tue: 42 km bike
Wed: 8 km run
Thur: 42 km bike
Fri: 42 km bike
Sat: 27 km bike & 5 km race (BPTT)
Sun: 10 km race (SheRunsHeRuns)
Popularity: 16% [?]
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Tags: BPTT, GNR, knee
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