August 21, 2008 at 9:36 pm · Filed under Running
My running seems to be oscillating wildly between run one, love one, hate one. Today was time for another “love one”, thankfully.
I wish you could tell how you’re going to feel before you set off, when I get a duff run I feel like throwing in the towel and quitting, these are runs to avoid. Today I felt the starting of a cold so nearly didn’t bother going out but it turned out to be the sort of run that keeps me buzzing about the sport for ages. I’ve set myself up for a good weekend now I’m sure.
I drew up my half-marathon plan a few weeks ago and opted for a simple Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday plan. I hit problems the moment I transferred this to my pre-existing diary full of appointments (be-fitting my social butterfly status). Training plans clashed with life this weekend as I’m heading off to the coast to try out my wetsuit. This is a vital arrangement as I haven’t been in the pool since December and need to see if the 1 mile open water carnage otherwise known as the Great North Swim is a viable option.
So, running plans were randomly jiggled and resulted in me having to go out and pull off a 7-miler.
7 miles is an awkward distance for me. My commute is a perfect 6-miler and not much would persuade me to run half a mile beyond my final destination and back again. My other running routes tend to involve ever increasing loops of the Thames but the river fording points are limited and so throw up huge psychological tests or bridges that I seem too weak to resist.
I opted to run as far as I could away from my flat and then loop back round through Richmond Park. I loaded SteppenWolf onto the iPod and fortunately it kept me occupied for about 4 miles before I realised I hadn’t a flipping clue what was going on. By that time I’d reached the point of no return and had no choice but to push on forward.
I find it a little concerning that I have to actively mess with my own head in order to achieve simple training plans but I won’t lose sleep over it. At least I’ve found another good route with limited options for bailing out.
Right, I’m off to the seaside.
Popularity: 10% [?]
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Tags: commute, Richmond Park, Swimming, thames
January 27, 2008 at 10:48 pm · Filed under Running
I wasn’t on top form when my alarm went off on Saturday morning but by lunchtime I was beginning to contemplate an intermediate distance run along the river. By 3 in the afternoon as I started seeing signs of everyone else’s stronger commitment, I felt it was time to take the Garmin out for some fresh air.
I gave blood on Thursday evening and was intrigued to see what affect it would have on my running. I always feel good after blood doning but I suppose it’s going to impair my oxygen carrying ability for a while and that run was awful!
Awful I say.
My shins were screaming all the way and at the 3k mark I had to bail out. My stomach was in a terrible bad way as well and I just had to crawl back home to my bathroom. Now I’m sure my stomach issue probably had a lot to do with the previous evenings hydration choices but the shin pains could be related to the blood donation.
I had a hang dog attitude for the rest of the day, I hate bailing on runs. I’ve just checked it out though and apparently it take 4 weeks to replace all the red blood cells and eight weeks to restore the iron lost after donating so maybe I could cut myself some slack.
This morning I intended to make amends but I started the day playing with a little chum. After a couple of hours of the exciting door pushing game, he looked like this. I would have liked to look like that but had to go out and run around the hilliest park in the universe.
Darn half-marathon training.
I left the hypnosis tapes at home but unfortunately I messed up with my recording of the Archers and had to fall back on some emergency running motivation.
Feel free to have the soundtrack running in the background - go on you’ll love it!
It’s got quite a catchy beat and it nicely matched the rattling coming from my rucksac. For some reason I have taken to running with a book and a puncture repair kit in my bag and the overall effect left me convinced that I had a bunch of marines running behind me.
44 tracks of that ilk drove me absolutely nuts but I couldn’t really moan too much about my poorly shins with the drill instructor threatening to call me a pussy if I dropped the pace. If I’d been running with a rifle though I’d probably have blasted the iPod. New inspiration required for next week.
Popularity: 17% [?]
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Tags: blood doning, Garmin, hypnosis, Richmond Park
January 20, 2008 at 5:10 pm · Filed under Running
I bought a pack of jelly tots to act as a replacement for those noxious gels on todays long run. Unfortunately I finished the pack before I even left the flat. As punishment I loaded Paul McKenna’s “I Can Make You Thin” hypnotic track onto the iPod and set off.
So I’m kitted up, eager to go and in fact I have already assumed the running pose and motion, when Paul kicks in and starts telling me to breathe sloooooowly, innnnnnn annnnd ooooouuuutttttttt - for the count of 6 each way. Tying up my shoelaces causes me to hyperventilate, running in Richmond Park has me breathing so loudly and rapidly that complete strangers start handing me paper bags to breath in. I’m on about 60 breaths a second and Paul hasn’t even finished his first inhalation. I resist Paul’s instructions for fear of my brain cells switching down one by one til I end in an unconscious heap.
This guy really is going to have his work cut out with me. I can barely hear him over the gale force 5 swirling in the park but when he speaks up I get the impression I have Darth Vader growling from one ear to another. I tune in and catch him telling my left ear that I’m a super svelte racing whippet who only eats good foods and never ever eats her recovery snacks before she has done anything to recover from. Then he switches to the other ear and tells me about hunger and how good it is.
I know enough about this hypnosis stuff to realise he’s not just trying to mess with my head but he is trying to mess with a particular side of my head. Trouble is, I never check which speaker is meant for which ear when I put my headphones on. What happens if he’s putting my left brain into a right brain trance? Oh god, I could finish this run convinced that I am huge sugar monster.
Earphones whipped out and re-assembled, I continue with the run. And its a tough run. Why am I doing my long runs in the hilliest park in the metropolis when I live slap bang on the banks of a flat river route?
The park is full again, I’m an hour later than last week and my first impression is that there are more walkers than runners at this relaxed hour. Then I get caught in a stampede of crazed runners one of whom tries to scare me half to death with a new years sweaty greeting, they may be friendly but they are ridiculously fast. I would bet that none of them were running round in a hypnotic trance but there must be more to it than that. I’m going to go back to Archers next week. See if I can pull a bit more pace out of the hat then.
13.32 km 1:48:51
Popularity: 18% [?]
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Tags: hypnosis, Paul McKenna, Richmond Park
January 14, 2008 at 9:12 am · Filed under Running
I have just woken from a solid 13 hour sleep and I would still be soundly snoring if it weren’t for the third rather persistent alarm bouncing on my ear drum. Yesterdays long run knocked me flat and I feel I could sleep for a minimum of a week - waking just in time for the next lsr.
The day started with me persuading myself that I really did want to leave the confines of my fluffy duvet and head out into the howling wind for a two hour slog in the park. Having conquered myself I moved on to Shakti and even managed to persuade her that she wanted to come out on the bike and act as my Mr Motivator.
Mr Motivator isn’t the worlds best personal trainer, she bailed on me at the second hill and went home for a warm bath. Now that’s just cruel! I continued into the wind, running on the spot between blusters. I started cutting corners but it didn’t help me much, its a weird park and trusting my innate bearings doesn’t help. If I’d stuck to the perimeter route I’d have covered off 7 miles, my short cut came out at 8 miles - doh!
Every runner in London must have headed for Richmond Park yesterday, I was on a conveyor belt of running bods (many of whom kept lapping me!). They surely can’t all have entries to the marathon. The only time I had a clear stretch in front of me was on one of those wrong turns I made. I ended up in a near vertical quagmire, trying my best to stay upright. This was fun at Grim 8 but at that point I just wanted to be sitting in the coffee shop reading my paper, not sitting in a waist high deer pat wondering if I would ever be found.
Still, that’s my first LongSloooooowRun completed in this years half marathon training plan.
It was truly slow.
I’ve started recording my runs on the Fetcheveryone site again and have noticed that it now gives a prediction of you half marathon and marathon times based on the last run. After Saturdays time trial run my predicted time for a half was 2:45:06 not bad compared to my GNR time of 2:56:00 but not good enough for beating the Wilmslow cutoff. Todays prediction was 3:13:00. good grief perhaps I should have stayed in bed!
Popularity: 22% [?]
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Tags: fetcheveryone, GNR, Richmond Park
July 6, 2005 at 9:30 pm · Filed under Cycling, Road
Well, after my second long distance ride in a week I can say that I am well and truly knackered. I got home this evening after a 75 mile day trip and was so tired that I sat on the loo and remained there for the next 30 mins just taking refuge.
It was my first audax ride - the so called West London Sight Seer. The route took us too and from Hampton Hill via Kingston, Richmond Park, Putney, Westminster, London Bridge, Greenwich, Millenium Dome, Mudchute, The City, Hyde Park, Nottinghill, Hammersmith and Isleworth. A real sight seeing route.
It was a complex ride with 4 pages of detailed route notes but very enjoyable. I stuck with a group of 4 guys and they were an absolute pleasure to ride with. I would certainly recommend it. Quite a slow tiring ride but very interesting, I saw a new and different side to London - it was the first time I’d used the Greenwich foot tunnel for example.
The route came in at 65 miles but we made a few minor errors in route which probably amounted to the extra 5 miles. The riding time was 6 hours and 8 mins although we added extra time with essential tea breaks. That amounts to an average speed of 11 mph - not so great eh?
I damaged Peryl’s wheels by getting the rear tire stuck in a narrow cattle grid type thingy, thats the trouble with narrow race tyres. Just scored the rims, no real problem.
I will definately do more audax rides, I found it to be very friendly and quite manageable, there was just one hill on the way into Greenwich park that caused my heart rate to go through the roof. Other than that I managed to keep with the pace.
Popularity: 20% [?]
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Tags: airnimal, chameleon, folding bike, hyde park, Richmond Park
April 10, 2005 at 12:49 pm · Filed under Bikes, Commuting, Cycling, Equipment
Four days and Peryl hardly got a ride in, my excuse is that I’ve been ill and in truth I’ve felt just a little intimidated by her.
Still, thats all changed now. I replaced the seat and we headed for the hills yesterday, or at least we went to Richmond Park.
Blimey, blimey that bike can move. I went down one of the hills at such a pace I nearly wet myself. Can’t tell what speed I was actually going as I had set the wrong wheelsize into the computer! Must have been 60mph at least!
Today i went into work and set a time of 37mins which is really pretty good for me, now if I could remove the traffic lights I might really be able to set some records.
All in all I am pretty happy with Peryl the Airnimal Chameleon, I’ve sussed out the balance so I can stand in the pedals and have begun to feel that old confidence - the trust between man and bike. I was talking to my dad about the importance of feeling in tune in your bike, London is a scary place to ride without trusting your machine. He described me as a cyclotaur - half woman, half bike. He thinks he’s funny, what can you do?
Popularity: 22% [?]
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