Back after a week

Cala and I went out for a run this morning, I havent run for a week and Cala hasnt for two weeks so it was an easy one, we ran for just over 2 miles and then power walked 2.5 miles so still a good distance. We are back to our usual routine tomorrow, Monday at Hove Park!

Last night I went to bed and ...

layed there planning my route to run this morning. Unfortunately I havent been out much running this week but last night I had a real feeling on wanting to get back out there. I awoke to a lovely sunny but crisp cold morning. Whilst Tim took the little people to the park I headed out with just me and the Nike+. I have been getting bored of running along the seafront so decided to head out to Shoreham on the road, cross over the lock at LadyB Marina on to the seafront and back to the lagoon. It was a 4.43 mile run and I had no trouble doing it at all, in fact I really enjoyed it. My knee started to niggle at the end but otherwise it was good. I ran down to the park meet up with the little people then Daisy and I power walked back home and did some stretching on the way.

I am really making a point of warming up, cooling down and stretching to help with my right leg problem.

Now I have been running for three months I can feel and see the difference, I have toned, lost a few pounds (not much due to amount I am eating), no longer get so much back ache and generally feel like I have more energy. BUT there are some downsides to running and I will list these as the Un-glamorous side effects of running, they are:

• coughing up and spitting flem!
• grunting
• injuries
• sweat (although thankfully I dont suffer too badly)
• red face
• both big toe nails starting to fall off - excuse me but what is this about??

Moaning minnie...

that's what I feel I am turning into. Since Cala and I have been running I always complain of a niggle nothing too real, a stitch, out of breath, legs ache, etc. It turned into a bit of a joke along with the grunt!!

Anyway as I have mentioned before on here I have started to have some problems with my right knee, always after our races on Sundays. Thinking that there must be more to it than my knee not liking to run on Sunday's I went to see the sports doc today.

I do have an injury or it could be a long term niggle that has been woken up with me start ro run so later on in life. Anyway my knee is not the actual problem even though I have the pain there but it is the muscles in my right thigh (I think the RFL, it's three letters anyway). After an hour of rubbing, stretching, etc with the sports doc I left feeling great but by mid afternoon my thigh was tender.

Cala and I were late going out tonight but we still put the instructions we have both been given for our injuries in place (Cala has a poorly shoulder but copes so well with it). We did a power walk warm up for five minutes and then started running, unfortunately my knee started to hurt straight away which was unusal as normally I don't get the pain until after. Anyway I managed to run up to the King Alfred and back (just under three miles) and then we power walked the last five minutes, did five minutes of stretching and I came in and put an ice pack on it. Thankfully 45mins later I do not have any pain.

Please please dont let this be a long term injury where I feel pain with every run! I don't think I could cope with it and I don't think Cala could cope with my moaning.

Opps...

No running the past two days just lots of eating... no wonder I am not losing any weight!!

Off to see the doc tomorrow re my runners knee and also have a training session planned with the lovely Cala in the evening.

P.S. The race on Sunday was featured in today's Argus but unfortunately Cala and I were not! Also still waiting for race results to be published.

Another race under our belt!

This morning was the 8k undercliff run for women refuge in Brighton. Cala had stayed over the night before and as Tim and Daisy were going off to church we dropped Sam off with Aunty Jo and Uncle Murphy before heading off down to the start line in Brighton marina.

The marina was deserted other than for runners and I mean real runners. Cala and I didnt know what we had let ourselves in for but thankfully by the time we reached the registration tent we were informed that there was two races today, one for a club running which was 20 miles long and our one which was 8k long. I can tell you we both breathed a sigh of relief when we realised most of the real runners were in the 20mile race!

Our race was very well organised and we collected our number with no fuss, chatted to some other competitors and even had our photo taken for the Argus (so look out for us next week). After a warm up, the Mayor of Brighton started the race and we were off. It was a flat course going 4k out to Rottingdean and then turning around and coming back to the start.The weather conditions were good, no rain, no beating sun but the only complaint slightly muggie.

Jo, Murphy and Sam were at the turn around to cheer us on and clapping (I was so proud to see my little fella clapping everyone) and I can tell you it makes a massive and I mean massive difference when you have people cheering you on, it keeps you going.

Cala and I kept a really good pace throughout the race and even increased the pace towards the end and again finished with quite a fast sprint even if I say so myself. Another girl tried to over take us near the finishing line but we were having none of it and pulled our 'road runner sprint' out of the bag!

As I mentioned before the race was very organised; quick registration, good warm up, very informative, four water stations through out the course, steel band to see us off and welcome us back, a great medal (it was a heavy silver keyring with a trolley coin on a funky pink lanyard, banana's and water at the end and finally a blinking great goody bag. Not stuffed with just your usual flyers but a towel, bottles of shampoo, suntan lotion, etc. So well done RISE on organising a great race.

And of course well done to us on finishing 8k in 45minutes.

If we based our marathon time on the above we would finish it just in four hours! Och and that is without stopping I sooooo don't think so.

I wore my Nike+ on my arm for this race and unfortunately the arm band rubbed so I won't be doing that again. Also now having problems with my knee again so will be seeing someone about that this week

After the race we headed back to Jo and Murphy's where we were greated with more cheers and claps and the best cooked breakfast I have ever eaten. A big THANK YOU to the Irelands this morning for not only the most delicious breakfast but for looking after Sammy too.

When I returned home I looked up some other races and found out the Great South Run (10miles) is on in two weeks so we are hoping that will be our next one but there was no entry details on the website so I hope it is not full. Will keep you posted.

It was double the distance

I had a great night sleep last night so was ready for a run this morning. I ended up leaving later than planned as Tim went for a run first. I decided to do the exact same route as Cala and I last night as I wanted to know the distance plus time was not on my side as I had to get back to make packed lunches and the school run - oh the glamour!

Anyway the route was from home along the beach to the King Alfred and back via the road. The distance was 2.76miles (it recorded 1.34 miles yesterday so I must have turned it off half way through).

So far I have run 87.61 miles since using the Nike+ over 31 runs. The key thing now is to start increasing my distance each time I run. I may be able to do five miles ok but I have to also consider the other 21miles I will be running on the 18th April 2010 - urrrrrh!

I think I am...

on race come down. We talked about and trained towards the 10k for a few months and what with the family all down I didnt get five minutes on Sunday. All I have done this week is eat and I mean eat! Oh the other thing is sleep, recently our nights have been unusally broken with the little people so I have been quite shattered.

I seemed to have got a random knee injury on Sunday, the reason I say random is it didnt start to hurt until late Sunday night and by Monday morning I was limping, it was right in my right knee joint like a really dull ache, it was worse after I had kept it still for a while. We were meant to go to our usual Hove Park training on Monday night but I was in too much pain with my knee and also I had read that if you are new to running and taking part in races you should not train for at least a couple of days afterwards, I didnt need telling twice! Thankfully when I woke up Tuesday the pain was gone.

Tonight was my first night of running since the race and it was hard to go out. We ran to the King Alfred and back. The Nike+ was playing up as it recorded it incorrectly saying we had only done 1.34miles when it is more just over two miles. I could feel a little tweak in my knee so didnt want to push it plus do you know I just wasnt in the mood to run tonight. One thing I do know is I need to also do another form of training other than running, I need to build the strength up on my upper body so I think I will also start swimming at least once a week.

We have an 8k run on Sunday morning. 9.15am start which I prefer rather than mid morning and it is on the Undercliff Walk between Brighton and Rottingdean so a nice flat route, although it wont be nice if the weather is bad. I have a feeling our time wont be as good as Sunday's 10k, no I am not being negative but I am just not as prepared for this. The good thing is it will give us another opportunity to learn to pace ourselves and slowly build our running distance - plus we get another medal.

Note to self: need to purchase large trophy cabinet!!

We blinking well did it!!!!

Today was the day of our first big race - 10k along the seafront in Hove!

As we had 30 people coming for lunch afterwards to celebrate Sam & Carl's birthday, Saturday and first thing Sunday was manic but that was a good thing as I was very nervous about this race. Cala and I have talked about this for a few weeks now and all our friends and family know about it and I wanted not only to finish it but finish it in one and a half hours! So how did we do?

Cala and I set off at 10am, we parked at Tesco's and walked down to the starting line (just under a mile). The sky was clear, the sun was out and the heat was on! The place was packed and I didnt realise but it was a mixed race i.e girls and boys, there was 1,800 of us in all. As we are becoming real runners we thought we had better do the warm up. Thankfully we then bumped into mum, she took the very important before race photos and we gave her our blue t-shirts to hold.

They devided everyone up, those to complete in 45mins, in an hour, etc and we were off! We started off on the grass heading towards the king alfred, then it was back up to the Angel (on the grass) where Jo and Murphy were to cheer us on and then thankfully onto tarmac which is what we are used to running on. It seemed to get easier from here (I always find the first 500metres hard work when running).

Then it happened, we were running behind... Jordan, her brother and the cage fighter and we over took her and ran straight into the lenses of the paps! Yes that's right we over took someone that had done a marathon - wey hay!

We made our way down to the lagoon and I saw Daisy across the bowling green as she was jumping up and down waving. We ran on, round the lagoon, pass the steel band which I must say was very uplifting to hear and put a spring in my step. It was then back up to the Angel and on the way we passed mum and also Jo and Murphy who supplied us with water - big Thank you.

We were doing ok, it was hard at times as the sun was beating down with no breeze and it was nearing midday so it was hot. We managed to keep a good pace although at times we sped up but we knew that to keep going without stopping we had to keep at a slow pace.

It was then back on grass at the Angel and back down to the King Alfred... and finally the home stretch to the finish. At this point I would like to add that we sprinted the last 100 metres.

We had done it! We crossed the finishing line without stopping during any part of the course, received our medal, a bottle of water, a disgusting green energy bar and was greeted by my lovely family.

Our time: 58 minutes 07 seconds

THANK YOU to my mum, my lovely husband Tim, my little people Daisy and Samuel, Jo and Murphy for supporting us in our training and for coming along to cheer us on and take photos.

Also thank you to Martin and Andy for coming along to cheer us on.

I got it...

the letter telling me I did NOT get a place in the ballot for the 2010 London Marathon. I also got a sorry you didn't get in magazine with alternate pages saying sorry you didnt get in or how I can run for a charity if I raise loads of money.

Deep down I knew that I wasnt going to do the 2010 London Marathon as Cala and I set out to do a marathon together and unfortunately due to demand she didnt even get to go in the ballot. But if I am honest deep down I was hoping I would get in and then she could run in a charity place and we could split the fundraising between us. Charities expect at least £1,500 per person plus £100+ joining fee and in this current climate I think it would be very hard for each of us to achieve this. I am going to find it hard enough running a marathon without the worry of raising such a huge amount of money.

Today was also the day we got an informative email from the Brighton Marathon organisers. It had information about training, equipment, the route, etc and we have booked to go on one of their training half days, all about running a marathon.

They have driven the route and then sped it up so you can see where the 26miles go! So I sat down with a cuppa and watched the route speed past my eyes and I was just shattered looking at it.... 26.2miles is a long way.

I also got a registration pack for the charity I am running for... Rockinghorse Appeal.

I know that Cala and I can do this, my only worry is we are not motivated by the route as we know the town so well. As we live on top of the route I think we should incorporate elements of it into our training, I thinking the hilly parts so we know we can cope with it.

It's Friday evening and I havent run today, only 1 day until our 10K. I am looking forward to it but feeling a little nervous.

Back to the ironing now!

Can you believe it...

Not only did Cala and I see the most beautiful sunset tonight and I mean beautiful but probably the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen in Hove (could I say beautiful anymore). The sun was setting over Worthing pier and the sky was all orange and yellow - beautiful!!

Ohhhh back to the other can you believe it! Cala and I did our longest run tonight 5.15miles. We ran from home to the Angel and back again all in one go without stopping. The weather conditions were perfect, warm but not too warm with a slight breeze. Normally we start out saying where we will run too but tonight we didnt we just went and ran and ran. It felt really good and although when I reached home and actually stopped I was out of breath I felt like I could have run some more (of course I say that after I stopped)!

I treated myself to a chinese - two reasons 1. I havent had one for ages and Tim eat my dinner! 2. I didnt have any bread for lunch tomorrow and as Daisy and Sam love chinese, guess what they are getting for their lunch.

Before the run tonight I was dreading Sunday thinking how am I going to do it but after our run I feel really good and that we do have a chance of finishing 10k under one and a half hours. My only worry is if it is a hot day as the race doesnt start until 11am.

2 days till our 10k!