What a difference a week makes

The week after my last post, I headed out for a Sunday LSR in hideous conditions.  It was freezing cold and raining the whole time, with a wind that meant at times it felt like stones were being thrown into my face.  Honestly, being out in the rain in those temperatures for over two hours was incredibly hard (it had snowed the day before so you get the idea) and I found the run probably tougher mentally than I did physically.  At one point, in the University grounds, I stopped to let a car go past and the lady pulled over to ask me why on Earth I was out running in that weather!  It made me laugh but she really did have a point!  Anyway, I did 10.5 miles, and I only really stopped because I couldn't bear the cold any longer, I felt like I had more left in my legs.

A week on from that, and the sun came out.  I know, really!  Not when I first started running admittedly, it was freezing cold and the type of fog that means you can only see the path you are on and not a lot else when I first set out.  But by the time I was about 6-7 miles in, it was a glorious spring-like day.  I felt great, and added loops here there and everywhere, finishing with a total of 12.25 miles under my belt.  I was dancing around the kitchen afterwards, I felt on top of the world!  I had taken dextrose tablets with me to sort out refuelling on the go, and I did notice the difference they made.
I took this photo out on the run, with the comment that I wished it was a mile marker rather than mph.....

And so last Sunday, I was feeling really good about my run.  I was tired, from being out at one of my best friends 30th parties the night before, however having not touched a drop of alcohol I expected that having a bit longer in bed and going out a little bit later would do the trick.
How wrong could I have been.  I can't actually conjure up the words to explain how tough I found that run.  Every step of it, my body didn't want to do it.  I feel quite emotional about it even looking back now, almost a week on!  I had planned on doing 14 miles, but things were against me from the outset.  It was absolutely freezing, and on several occasions it snowed quite heavily.  I hadn't been able to eat a banana before my run as we had run out, there was my first mistake. I had forgotten my gloves, there was my second mistake.  I felt pretty wiped out but decided to add on loops early on anyway, there was my third mistake.  I got home in just over 13 miles.  I clocked it as 13.2 as my phone crashed as I unlocked it running down the road so I could stop the app (see what I mean about things being against me?!).  I had to walk a fair bit in the last couple of miles, more than I would have liked.  I was so exhausted when I got in the house that I couldn't summon the energy to speak, or even to swallow the glass of water I was trying to get down my neck.  It was as much as I could do to remain upright, and I found myself sobbing and blabbering about how I would never be able to do a marathon if I couldn't even run half of one.  Pete had been a star once again and already had a hot bath running before I got through the door, and I got straight into it whereupon I managed to calm myself down - in fact I almost fell asleep.

An hour or so later, clean, warm, fed and watered I was able to look back on things rationally.  Running that far on a pretty much empty stomach is a bad idea.  When I thought about it, I had only had one full proper meal the day before, and it was a late lunch.  I had a busy few days, and was tired before I started.  I hadn't taken any water with me - I don't tend to for runs up to around 10 miles, but this was an almost 3 hour run, so why I thought I didn't need water and could function just on sugar tablets I don't know.  And battling against the weather adds an element of difficulty that should not be underestimated!

In one week, mainly due to lack of preparation and lack of rest, I had managed to up my distance by just one mile, but up the difficulty level ten-fold.  The main thing is, I have well and truly learnt a lesson from that run.  Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.  And I will never, ever again underestimate how hard this is going to be.

Inspiration

I've been slacking.

Not only with writing my blog (which I have been meaning to do for over a week now) but also with my running.

I've felt like I've been in a bit of a slump.  All was going well, I had managed a nice 8 mile run and was feeling pretty good about things.  Sponsorship had started to come in and so I was feeling motivated to get out there more regularly.

Then on Tuesday 29th January I popped out to get my hair cut, and on the way home, I had a teeny car crash.  I say I had, I was a completely unwitting participant as I was stationary and someone crashed into the back of my car.
We were both in a bit of shock (especially as she had her baby girl in the car with her) but it seemed like there was no damage to either car.  I am getting mine checked out on Monday just in case, as it is a lease car and I don't want to be hit with charges for damage when I hand it back, however there is nothing visible.
When I got home, my neck had started to feel a little stiff, so I made sure to keep moving around and massage it a bit in the hopes that I wouldn't end up with whiplash (again).  However, little did I know that it wasn't my neck I needed to worry about, as much as it was my back.  I struggled to sleep that night because I just couldn't get comfortable laying down.  Pain all the way down my spine and across my shoulders.  This lasted for several days, alleviated slightly by my best friend codeine that I picked up after a trip to the doctors.  I didn't make it back into the office that week because I just couldn't sleep, and was in pain, so was therefore not much in the way of company!!  I also couldn't bring myself to go running.

By Sunday I knew I had to get out and run regardless, because I was getting myself very stressed about not running all week, so off I went.  I had said I would do 6-8 miles, depending on how my body felt once I had started.  I knew pretty much straight away that it would be a hard run.  It took me more than two miles to settle down into a rhythm, and by the time I was four miles in I wanted to stop.  But I dug in and kept going.  By six miles, I had just run to the top of a hill and had to take a short walk break because I was completely spent.  I felt a bit sick and my legs had really started to tie up, and I had searing pain across my shoulders.  The walk break made me feel a bit better, and so I started up again, and being the stubborn mule that I am, I somehow managed to run 9.77 miles.  I literally could not have run that extra 0.23 miles if you had been waving cake in front of me like string for a cat, I was utterly spent.  But I felt great too, which is a feeling that you only get from a workout where you feel like you gave it everything!!!

I found walking a little sore for the rest of the day, and had to take pain relief for my back and shoulders, but I was also very proud of myself!

So why have I not been running all week?  Why?  I just don't know what is going on with my head.  I had my first (of ten) personal training session on Wednesday, and so decided I would run once alongside that training session this week, before building up to two runs and PT during the week, plus a long run at the weekend.  But this week so far, I have only done the PT, no running at all.
I am a slacker!  I need a kick up the backside!

Well, today I got one.  Not literally, in so much as the kick up the backside for me came in the shape of a lovely afternoon spent with my friend Zeph.  She has completed 4 out of 6 sessions of chemo for breast cancer, and will then be having an operation, followed by daily radiotherapy.  Zeph was just emerging from a pretty tough time before all this came along, you would wonder how much crap one family could take, yet seeing her today, all I could see was strength, spirit, positivity and absolute courage.
We've not managed to meet up since the chemo started, we were due to last month but the snow put paid to that, and I'm so glad I got to see her today.  I needed that Zeph hug (you have to experience it to know what I'm talking about!) and to see her smiling face more than I knew!!!  Because that is what she did pretty much all afternoon - smile - and it's infectious!  Whilst telling me how sick the first three treatments made her, and talking about some of the side effects (not mentioning the hair loss, Zeph is bald, bold and beautiful - no headscarves or wigs here), she put more emphasis on how she knows this is treatable, how much the cancer has shrunk, and how much she is looking forward to getting her life back when this is all done.  How she might do weight watchers or slimmers world but can't decide which (the result of having to take steroids), how she is looking forward to getting back to work, even if she might not remember how to do anything, how she is hoping to get her bike out or maybe take up running again, or maybe the gym.  Planning for the future with a smile on her face, not dwelling on the situation she has found herself in at all.  We bumped into her husband and two sons whilst we were having a coffee, and as they left she said to me that when she felt at her worst, she only had to think about her boys to be reminded as to why she was doing this.

And quite simply, she has reminded me why I am doing this.
I don't know if you'll ever read this Zeph, but I love you, you are beautiful, and you inspire me.

Research Kills Cancer

One benefit of being snowed in - I have finally created my justgiving page!

Bit of a circular link situation going on here (I have linked from the page to the blog, and now from the blog to the page!)

Please give as much as you can to Cancer Research!  Every single £ will help push me around the marathon and will make all the training runs worthwhile.  After all, research kills cancer......

Link to my justgiving page

Enter the Dreadmill

Don't get me wrong, I love snow.
I am not averse to the odd snow day here and there, especially as I can very easily work from home and so don't have to battle against icy roads and traffic jams.  It makes everything look pretty, and a snowy welly walk all wrapped up, followed by a big fat roast and a cuppa is one of my most favourite things.

However, I would really rather like it to bugger off now please and thank you very much!

Because of the snow, I missed out on catching up for a cuppa and a gossip (and most importantly, a massive hug) with my friend Zeph last Friday.  She is undergoing chemo for breast cancer and as such, the timing of meet-ups has to be carefully arranged in order to coincide with 'good days', and this meeting was arranged before Christmas!
Not only that but I couldn't even put my afternoon off to good use and head out for a run instead, because the snow was coming down thick and fast and I knew how difficult it would be, not just underfoot but visibility-wise.

On Saturday we ventured into Wokingham, and I got myself a couple of pairs of new trainers, hurrah!  I got a pair of Ascics for 'clean' runs, and a pair of Adidas trail shoes for the majority of my running through the muddy university land.  The roads and paths around town were not too bad, although slippery in places, however our road (which is a cul-de-sac) was, and still is, a white snowy ice-rink.  As are the paths around here.  Because of that I had to face the fact that if I was going to run at the weekend (given my track-record of clumsiness), it was going to have to be on a treadmill.

There isn't much in life I dislike more.  I think I even prefer the dentist or needles.  Hell, I even think I would prefer an afternoon of DIY over an hour on a treadmill!!!!
So it was with some reluctance that I found myself in the work gym on Sunday morning.  There are two treadmills, and surprisingly one of them was in use (I know, I am plainly not the only nutter at Symantec!) but the one I normally use was free.  I soon discovered why when I realised it wasn't turned on.  Luckily for me, the man who was using the other treadmill was just about to finish, and when he did he told me that the treadmill I normally use is currently out of action.  So a stroke of luck really that he was just finishing as I arrived.

There are many reasons why I dislike treadmill running;

• It is dull.
• I always find myself running at an unnatural pace.
• The gym is a LOT warmer than outside.
• It is dull.
• There is nothing to look at, the view never changes.
• I find myself looking at the dials, and am always disappointed that it has only been 30 seconds since I last looked and not the 5 minutes it feels like!
• It is dull.
• I always feel like I am running faster than normal, however it nearly always takes me longer to cover the same distance.
• I don't know how to program the treadmill, and after an hour on the 'quick-start' setting, it assumes you are done and instigates a warm-down.  I have no idea how to override this!
• I miss the feeling of having been out and about in the fresh air.
• It is mind-numbingly dull!

I definitely think that running on a treadmill is less of a physical challenge than running outside, but much much more mentally challenging.

Anyway, I managed 10k on the dreadmill, and then to make up for the lack of fresh air and cheer myself up, I headed out for a beautiful snowy walk with my best friends (followed by that roast and cuppa no less).

Now today I really don't know what I should do - risk a tentative run outside (it is currently snowing, again) to try out my new trail shoes, or head to the gym and another dreadmill session.  My heart wants to head out into the snow, but my head is telling me that I am a clumsy oaf and should stick to the treadmill once again.  What to do?!!!!

A Pain in the Bum

Back in August I went to watch an Elvis impersonator in Holyport Village Hall.  Not just any Elvis impersonator, but Ben Portsmouth, a champion Elvis impersonator!  I had seem him perform before and he is pretty good (if you like that kind of thing), but even so it was one of the more surreal nights of my life!  Sitting at a trestle table in a village hall that had been decorated with an Hawaiian theme (including Hawaiian confetti) wearing a Lei and singing along to Elvis.
At the time I remember how uncomfortable I found the chairs, and spent all night fidgeting from one bum cheek to the other and moving around trying to get comfortable to no avail.
The following day I was off to the Olympics to watch Tom Daley dive (and win a Bronze medal as it turned out), and beforehand I went for a little run.  However when I was putting my trainers on I had real difficulty with quite extreme pain in the back of my right leg, starting in my bum and radiating down to my knee.  After a bit of hopping around and trying to walk it off I decided to just start running, and it didn't bother me too much during my run surprisingly.  However, the pain would come back every time I had rested and then started walking again, and first thing in the morning it was really bad.  So I went to the doctor who decided I had a dose of Sciatica and prescribed me some strong anti-inflammatory painkillers and told me it could take up to 6 weeks to get better.

It did take a few weeks to die down, but since then I have been pretty much OK.  Up until now.  The pain is back.  I can still run OK, but walking is often really quite painful, and for the past two nights I have found that it has been nearly impossible to get comfortable laying down in bed unless I take codeine.  I actually felt something go 'ping' in my bum when I was curling up in bed a couple of nights ago which was incredibly painful.

I have been googling this morning (as you do!) and have discovered a condition called Piriformis Syndrome which seems to exactly describe my symptoms.  Reading the wiki page it all seemed to fall into place with regards to where the pain is and possible contributing factors (over-pronation and issues with hip abductors such as in groin strain, ring any bells anyone?!!).
Luckily it would seem that I can fix this by doing some proper stretching, and also by strengthening my core muscles.  So it might be time for me to bite the bullet and head to the gym and get some proper advice.

Oh and perhaps that pair of new trainers I have been saying I would get since October would be a good idea too eh!!

Who'd have thought an Elvis gig in a village hall could have such lasting effects...........

Glorious Mud

So todays little run involved a lot of slippy slidey sloppy splashy mud and I am now covered.

In order to distract myself from how tough going I was finding this short little run (think along the lines of pain in both of my legs, in weird crazy new places, stitch, unable to control breathing, or anything else for that matter!) this song popped into my head and I had it stuck in there for the rest of the run.

Enjoy!

Glorious Mud

Also, in order to make sure I didn't just refer to this run as 'the one where I felt crap and almost slipped over a lot', I took some photo's;

You should be thankful this isn't scratch and sniff!

I'm thankful I was out running and got to see this........

Happy 2013!

A lot has happened since my last post.  I shouldn't have left it so long to write the next one, but to be honest I don't know where the time has gone!

Running has been hit and miss since then.  I managed to catch one of the many winter vomiting bugs that were doing the rounds, and essentially it has taken me the best part of 5 weeks to get over it, and the cold and chest infection that led directly on from it.
I tried running with the chest infection in the hopes that it might just shift whatever it was that was lingering, but it didn't work so I gave in and went the antibiotics route.  So now, I am just about better.  Still the occasional wheeze and the occasional cough, but generally back to feeling a lot brighter and slowly getting my energy back.  I managed a 6 mile run yesterday, and this evening I sorted out my marathon training plan.  A scary prospect but it feels good to have a plan in place!

Christmas was lovely.  Busy running about all over the place, but that's ok when it's all nice stuff that you're doing.  It has to be said that I didn't spend enough time acquainted with my own bed, but I enjoyed spending time with my family and friends, and doing stuff I enjoy - I made mince pies, cake pops and my first ever naan breads!

I went to the funeral of Foxy, the guy I mentioned in my previous post, and although it was incredibly sad it was also strangely uplifting, which might sound odd, and did take me by surprise.  Maybe it is just me but I took something away from that day about love and friendship, and living life to the full.  If there is something you have always wanted to do, what is stopping you from doing it?  Have a go, what's the worst that can happen?

So here we are in 2013, and this year, I will complete my first ever marathon.  Quite probably my only ever marathon at that, so I want to savour this!!  It might not be everyones idea of a good time, but this for me is a dream that I have been my own barrier to achieving for years now.  I say that because (apart from the ballot) there has been no reason why I couldn't have trained for a marathon years ago.  I've watched the London Marathon on TV for as long as I can remember, and all the time I have been running I have always convinced myself that I would never be able to do it, that it's too hard for me.  Well why the hell can't I do it?  Of course I can, I just need to have a little bit of self belief and with the right training, a little bit of luck and a following wind there is nothing to stop me.

And if at any point I am struggling with motivation or fitness, or it hurts too much, I just have to remember why I started this whole business in the first place and I'll be right back on track.