Nearly Taper Time...

Last long run this weekend, then it's taper for Edinburgh marathon on 22nd May. I have a 10k race on 8th May to fit in along the way and want to do well at it so huge huge thanks go to my wonderful "coachhubby" :-) who took me out on Wed evening for a paced run. I still struggle with maintaining a consistent pace, I just can't quite get to grasps with it unless I'm on the treadmill, so I really appreciate the help and reassurance that I get from these sessions. I guess it is one of those skills which comes with practice and I'm not afraid to keep practising so maybe one of these days it'll all come together - would be good if it could be next Saturday!! Oh and again 2 weeks later :-)
I've had a sore leg this past week, and had a good, hard physio session on Thursday evening - no serious damage done, he just thinks it's the cumulative effect of a long training programme, this is probably the hardest programme I've done yet but I've really enjoyed it and hope it pays dividends. I left the physio adorned with some "magic tape" I am a bit cynical when I see this sort of thing being touted at expos, but I have to say it has really reduced the pain, and matches my new shoes :-)

However it did mean that I wasn't able to do my long run today so it will be on Sunday. It's been a holiday for us because of the Royal Wedding, I spent the morning listening to the TV and popping through to see highlights, while making a "Milk Man" superhero costume... cape with hood and ears, and shorts in lovely cow print fleece :-)
Tomorrow we are off to Rowardennan on Loch Lomond to marshall at the Highland Fling 53 mile ultra race. John had intended taking part, but an injury 2 months ago curtailed his training so he had to withdraw and we were asked to help with marshalling. I'm looking forward to it, we will be at about the 20mile point and it looks like the weather should be fairly kind to the runners so should be a good day out. Who knows, maybe one day I'll have a go at it? Fingers crossed the weather is also fair for me on Sunday as I have to do 20miles and then we have a day off on Monday for a local public holiday so can have a well deserved rest :-)

I don't B**** believe it:-)

It's been 2 full weeks since I last posted! Crazy crazy times, it's all been running, training, sleeping oh and work... I feel kinda guilty that I haven't been on here for so long, because I really want to keep a diary of our year and that's 2 weeks missing out of it already :-(
Apart from me completing the 100 days challenge, we also had a good running weekend that weekend, we did the Strathclyde parkrun on Saturday morning which meant up at usual work time and out the door by 0745, it was a beautiful day and my new "coach" coached me to a new PB for 5k! Then we headed off up to Fort William for the Lochaber marathon on Sunday 10th. As it was such a lovely day we drove all the way up the road with the top down on the car which was great, lovely to get the sun on your face and you get a much much better panoramic view of the scenery than you do from a car with a roof on.

see what I mean?

We stayed overnight in Kinlochleven and after a lovely dinner, an early night and a good sleep we were up and preparing for the race on the Sunday morning. I wasn't racing, but I did have a long run to do so I had decided to leave before the start and run to the bridge over the Caledonian Canal so that I could get John's photo as he crossed the bridge.... Unfortunately I took a wrong turn, which gave me a good long run but meant I missed him crossing the bridge, I did however get some photos of the runners who were further back the field. Then I decided to head off up Neptune's staircase for the rest of my own run. Neptune's staircase is a set of 7 locks to allow boats up and down the hill and each of the locks has it's own wee hill so it was a fabby wee hill session - made all the better by the admiring and genuine "Well done Lassie" I got on topping the last one from the Lock keeper who had been watching my progress :-) Lassie I ask you!! Mind you he was getting on a bit!


I took his advice and crossed to the other side of the canal at this point and headed off for another few miles before I turned and retraced my steps. I stayed on this side of the canal all the way to the road and this gave me a long steady downhill as opposed to the individual hills on the way up. I headed back the scenic route I had inadvertently taken to get there and back into Fort William ultimately completing a nice 15 mile run in scorching sunshine and a strong headwind.
In the meantime John who was still rehabbing remember, was on his way back to the finish on the Shinty park and came racing home in an amazing 3:31!!! A new PB for him even though he was going to go and "take it easy"!!! Honestly... Men!!!
Glad to say he had no adverse after effects and made a good recovery, the post race beer possibly contributing some well earned carbs and hydration :-)
A leisurely and scenic evening drive down the road, back to bed and up for work next morning! A hard week's training followed and we decided that we would do our long runs on the Saturday this time and for a change we decided to run on the West Highland Way.
We started off from Mugdock Country Park and headed towards Drymen, what a fabulous, fun run! There were some cracking big hills and I had a blast running down them and dodging the boulders and muddy puddles - didn't manage to avoid all of them I have to confess - oops!
I really enjoyed the experience, I think I am growing to love trail-running. I wouldn't have tackled it nearly as robustly a year ago so I am really proud of the improvement not only in my strength but also and perhaps more importantly in my confidence.
Another crazy week of training and work, including Bootcamp on Tuesdays as usual and before I knew it it was Good Friday - yay Holiday!! Guess what? Still woke up at 6am :-) It was another beautiful sunny morning and we decided to take a drive through to Glasgow as it was time to buy new shoes in preparation for Edinburgh marathon in 4 weeks. A visit to Achilles Heel where once again I got exactly what I was looking for and new socks too :-)
After a lovely lunch we came home and spent the rest of the day working in the garden, no weeds left but what a workout for the hamstrings & glutes!
Yesterday dawned dull and drizzly and we went back to Strathclyde parkrun, this time John was chasing a PB and I was going to try very hard to pace myself properly on my own, he missed his PB by 4 seconds as he had to stop and tie his shoelace! I was 45 seconds slower than when he'd paced me round weeks ago so I still haven't got it quite right, but will keep practising. This morning's long run was on the old railway line to Dunfermline, and it was a shocker! Legs were just shot and although I managed 22km I had hoped for another 10km but I didn't have it in me I was so so tired, both mentally and physically.
Tomorrow is another holiday as it's Easter Monday and hopefully it's going to be another nice day so we will see what that brings :-)

100 Days

I COMPLETED THE
100 DAYS CHALLENGE!
100DaysChallenge.org

Well there you go :-) I did it 100 Days of continual movement of 30minutes or more!

Just back from a glorious weekend, will post more about it later :-)

Lazy Days...

Sounds good but they haven't really been lazy days :-) just not running days.
I had a rest day on Friday which was just as well as my legs were aching from the pummelling they'd had the night before, and I wasn't feeling very great :-( I guess I can put it down to age and gender, but I don't like it! My internal thermostat seems to have gone on the blink! However, I got through the day at work and had a lazy evening reminiscing as we watched reruns of old TOTP shows from 1964-75 remembering all of the songs and cringing as we recalled some of the fashions =:-0 but it passed the evening. I didn't have a great sleep and despite setting the alarm for later as it is the weekend I still woke early so was up by 7am. I decided to leave my long run until tomorrow in the hope I'd get a better night's sleep tonight. However, I felt much better today so had a very productive morning getting through a mountain of ironing, baking my first wholemeal loaf - pictured above and as delicious as it looks, washing windows, doing laundry and generally just catching up with the hated chores.
A trip to the supermarket to do a big shopping this afternoon a nice steak and baked potato dinner and a chilled evening and it's almost bedtime. Tomorrow I think I will run the reverse route of the run I did along the Forth & Clyde Canal on 12th February and posted about on 15th, then I ran from Falkirk to Bishopbriggs, tomorrow I will do it from Bishopbriggs back to Falkirk. Hopefully the gale force winds we've had for the past 3 days will be less and will at any rate be behind me the whole way - with luck the rain will stay off too! Will be nice to see the changes that have occurred along the canal in the last 6 weeks as Spring takes hold.