34/31 yeah... I know, I know, those poor old legs...

yep you did read that right, 34/31 ie I've been running for 34 days - well it kinda goes like this...
Day 32 was New Year's Day and the lovely people at Strathclyde parkrun had put on a New Year's Day parkrun so it was only polite to go along and support and thank them for giving up their time, providing mulled wine, lovely goodies for post run nibbles and a chance to get the cobwebs blown away as you head back round Strathclyde Loch at kilometre 3!  This run was an exercise for me in keeping a consistent pace which is something I'm not very good at and need to work really hard at, so I was pleased with a respectable enough time, but even more pleased with a fairly flat line on the Garmin stats - this shows my pace was consistent, only increasing in the last 500m which was a big breakthrough for me in my head if nowhere else.
Then, 2nd January 2013 - yes it WAS only yesterday!  It feels like ages ago!  We went to Lenzie to take part in the Lenzie Jog - what a great wee event, well done to Kirkintilloch Olympians, who even managed to organise almost perfect running conditions :-)  as well as soup, roll and shortbread for after all for £1!  I opted for the single loop of the course, 4.5km John and some friends did 2 loops but I decided that one would be enough for me and hopefully I could build on my success from parkrun and manage another reasonably consistent run.  I not only managed it I finished in the top 25% of a race for the first time in  my life :-)  These are for some folk, minute achievements but they mean a lot to me and that's what it's all about.
I have set my goals for 2013, and along with the desire to continue to lose weight and get fit, my A goal this year is to complete the Highland Fling Ultra  27th of April and still be upright and possibly even smiling.  I would also like to achieve PBs at various distances so with discipline and consistency I'm hoping to hit them all.
So, today it was back to work, and I really wasn't sure whether to stop for a couple of days and then resume training at the weekend, although I woke with tired legs, I found myself packing a bag this morning. I'm not in my usual office until Monday, I'm working with the police in Larbert so as the sun came out at lunchtime, I found myself changed and off out for a wee explore of 'die umgebung' (one of my favourite German words).
I was only away half an hour and it was a stiff old pair of legs that slowly plodded the first km but picked up a wee bit for the next 2.5km and I felt heaps better after I'd done.  I thought I'd found a wee path back but it was a bit brambly and although I just thought I'd got a couple of wee scratches at the time, it transpires the back of my left leg is now covered in rather large weals - oops!
Ach well I'll put some germolene on them later :-)
I don't know what I'll do tomorrow, whether I'll take my shoes again or whether I'll rest, I think I am just going to listen to my body and if it feels up for it well we'll see...
I have entered 2 races in the past few days, the D33 ultra - well it opened early on Hogmanay and I was at the computer at the time... and the Devilla Forest 15k so I have a couple of shorter term goals now to look forward to before the Alloa Half Marathon and the ultimate goal for this year The Highland Fling.
More about them nearer the time, and back to fitcamp on Monday!
To those of you who don't go back to work until Monday enjoy the last few days of your holiday, personally I'm quite happy to have gone back on a Thurs as it makes the first week back a lot easier to get through when it's only 2 days long :-)

It's that time of year again... it's marcothon!

 

 Yep, Saturday was December 1st so not only was it parkrun, it was day 1 of marcothon!

After the rain/sleet and ice of Friday night's firewalking adventures, Saturday morning dawned bright and cold, we headed off to Falkirk to meet up with our parkrun buddies, and to catch up again with Sue, Jim, Jordan and Keira who had driven up from Ayr specially to watch the firewalk then stayed overnight to come to parkrun.  We had a great run, the boys shot off at the start and us ladies followed at a more leisurely pace, the paths were icy and the grass was icy, hearbreak hill was icy, but the sun was shining low in the sky and it was a beautiful morning to be out...
Keira did brilliantly, she finished the 5km with a blistering sprint and earned her hot chocolate in the tearoom afterwards :-)  Running with Sue was great fun, it's always nice to finally meet a 'virtual' friend.
Special mention too to a friend whom we met during last year's marcothon, Alan and his 'dug' Islay ran every day and we all looked forward to his daily photo of Islay out on their run.  It was fantastic to finally meet him in person after a few failed attempts through the year.

For those of you who can't be bothered to follow the link to find out more, marcothon is a personal challenge to complete 5km or 25 min running every day in December.  We did this last year and I wasn't sure at the start if I would manage it but I did and it gave me a really good solid base to start my Spring training from.

The biggest difference between marcothon 2011 and marcothon 2012?  By day 5 I was stressing about getting a run, stressing about not being able to do a run fast enough, stressing that John was being a hero and putting up with my stresses and coming out with me so I would go... This year?  I am loving it and looking forward to and (so far) enjoying every run!

There is a wonderful community growing around marcothon with runners from "a' the airts" logging their adventures online and it's great to read what everyone is up to, where they are running, what the weather is like etc...
There are blizzards forecast tonight so given that we still have some ice and snow from Monday, it should make for an interesting day tomorrow, but you know what?  I've got my wee spikes for my shoes and I'm really looking forward to it - I'd run in this weather any day before the rain :-)
So, happy running fellow marcothoners!  Time for a bath to ease out the aches, and to hang up the washing - you know when you first buy a dishwasher you realise you need more dishes?? Running every day you realise you need more kit... ;-)

An achieving day...

Another wee tick in a box in the Big Book of Life for me today :-)
This for those of you who aren't local, is the Clackmannanshire Bridge, it's the newest crossing of the River Forth and is a great link to The Wee County.  However, I have a thing about crossing bridges over water, according to my learned friend Malcolm it's known as Gephyrophobia. 
I have crossed this bridge on foot a few times since it opened as it forms part of a great 20mile loop for us from the house over either this or the older Kincardine Bridge, back over the other one and home again and whilst I have run some of it, I usually walk part of it, sticking as close to the fence as I can, especially if it's windy.  Well after all the preamble, the point of this is that I ran all the way across it today and into a headwind so big :-) about that...
This morning we went along to Falkirk parkrun to volunteer, there was a good turnout once again and although the sun was hidden behind the clouds it was a pleasant morning for a run.  
I am following a new training program (I think I've mentioned this before!) and my weekend sessions are a 60min easy run and a 10mile Long Slow Run henceforth known as LSR ;-)  I could race the 5k at parkrun instead of the 60min Easy occasionally if I want, but tomorrow I am going for Afternoon Tea with Prosecco in Glasgow with 3 friends from work, to celebrate one of them getting a promotion, so I had to swap and do my LSR today and I'll do the easy run in the morning when I get up.  So, I decided that I would run home from parkrun, John dropped me off in the middle of nowhere and said "see you at home - you should head in that direction..." we have a strange relationship in some folks eyes LOL!
There was a wee ENEasterly blowing which meant that I was running into it all the way across the bridge, but I made it the whole way across and carried on along the carse and up the hill into Clackmannan.  A wee downhill out of the town to reward you for the climb up and then along the main road to Alloa.  It feels reasonably flat but when you look at the stats on the Garmin it's a steady climb all the way home.  I've a wee bit of an ache in my achilles and stiff legs now, but apart from that nothing too drastic, I came home and feet went straight into a bucket of rainwater which was fine and cold and helped to chill things off!
A recovery shake, an epsom salts bath, a yoghurt and I felt fine, so I baked some muffins and cookies to pass the afternoon.
This evening has been spent watching the football, Bayern Munich v Chelsea, I've no favourite to win, and I'm not even a football fan, but I enjoy the competition of the big games... Euro 2012 starts in a fortnight and I'll probably watch most of those games too for the same reason.
Still doing reasonably well with the eating, and no alcohol for 12 days now, just 6 more to go until Brussels when I may have a wee vin rouge in the Grand Place as I partake of the jazz festival, then on Sunday we run the 20km race - but more about that nearer the time.

Blogging along

I am not doing very well with coming back to update this on a regular basis, it's not that we're not doing anything, it's just that I don't seem to find the time - that's a feeble excuse given the amount of time I can spend online catching up with facebook friends!

However on Monday 9 April I am embarking on a new journey, I am going to be a guinea pig and undertake a 4 week training and nutrition plan with John and Pamela from Pinpoint-Fitness. These are the guys we did our personal training with in January and February and they have devised a new workout regime which they are hoping to market so myself and 4 others are going to road-test it :-)
On the running/training front it's still going pretty well, I had a couple of short but tough runs on Thursday up at Crianlarich, and got a new PB at Falkirk parkrun on Sat then we went back to Callendar Park on Sunday morning to meet with a group of fellow nutters to do a hill rep session on our beloved Heartbreak Hill (HBH) the weather was kind to us as the good weather lasted all over the weekend - it was forecast to break on the Friday but didn't.
We had blizzards on Tuesday though to make up for it! There's still snow on the hills but hopefully the sunshine will continue and we will move into a long, sunny Spring and Summer.

I am going to blog about this experience here http://helenatpinpointfitness.blogspot.co.uk/ so if you're at all interested, feel free to pop in for a look!

Another 6 weeks has passed...

I really don't know what is happening to this year, it's flying in waaaay to fast!!
The clock's 'spring' forward tonight which means that Summer won't be too far away and we get the pleasure of light mornings and long light evenings and I feel so much better :-)

So what have we been up to since I last posted early February? Work has been stressful and pressured so every non-working moment has been spent either running, training or sleeping trying to forget about it... it's settled down a bit in the past few weeks but it's still not the happy place it used to be :-(

We have been to Falkirk parkrun most Saturday mornings, either to run or volunteer, and I have successfully run all the way round the course, and conquered Heartbreak Hill - at the same time I got a new PB by 5minutes so that was a good morning :-)
Apart from that we have been training, both for a couple of half marathons and for our upcoming adventure at the Hoka Highland Fling - I am running a relay leg and John is doing the whole distance solo! (53miles)
We went to Paris for the Semi-marathon de Paris on 4 March and both had good runs, we both got new PBs! It was a very well organised event with about 23000 runners and we had perfect weather conditions so there was no excuse for not doing well :-)
2 weeks later on March 18 we ran our local race, the Alloa Half Marathon, once again we had fantastic race conditions, sunshine and barely a wind along the notorious hillfoots road, once again we both PB'd :-) we had a number of friends running and everyone did really well so all in all it was a great day out.
On Thursday I had the exciting experience(!) of having an MRI scan on my left leg, what a racket the machine makes! John also had the day off on Thursday and so he decided he was going to do a 30mile long run along the Forth & Clyde canal from Grangemouth to Clydebank, this meant that he could meet me at the hospital. It was the best day of the year so far, no wind and wall to wall sunshine, warm enough for running but not too hot. He covered the 31.5 miles comfortably and when I met him at the end, he looked like he'd run 10miles or so not 31.5! He is hopefully in a good place with his training, he managed another 12miles yesterday...
I had a day off yesterday and wanted to go and conquer Conic Hill, as I was a bit nervous about it and it's my relay leg on the Highland Fling, so we set off in a freezing cold wind from Drymen, and ran/walked to the top in 1h 30m. John turned back then and went to get the car so that I could continue and he'd meet me at the finish. I felt strong so decided to try and continue all the way to Rowardennan which meant I would have done the whole leg, as when we'd gone to run the Balmaha to Rowardennan route a in February and I had not had a good time, my leg was really sore that day. It is an awesome run down off the hill, took me less than 30minutes to get down to Balmaha and by the time I got there the sun was shining :-)
Balmaha to Rowardennan was a much better experience than last time, still extremely hard work, with lots of climbing! I was still tired at the end and a bit sore, but not injured sore, just worked-hard sore... All in all it was a good day out, finished it tired, muddy but happy :-)

total distance was 14.29 miles, total elevation climber was 529m

And now the end is near...

It is hard to believe it's now 31st December! It's been a pretty good year all round, the last couple of posts were a bit gloomy but in the grand scheme of things I guess they were fairly minor setbacks.
I managed my 5km on hug a runner day in November and then it was a case of gently breaking myself back in in preparation for Marcothon 2011. There are some who doubt the sanity of folk who do "streaks" (does not involve removal of clothing) and there were times when I doubted my own, but I am so so pleased that I managed to run every day in December - 31 days giving me just over 100 miles.
Some days were better than others, some were hellish if truth be told, we ran early in the morning in the rain and the dark, we beat "Hurricane Bawbag" by running at 6am before the gales hit - this was a particularly ferocious storm on Thursday 8 December with winds of almost 100mph! It was affectionately named by some wag, as only a Scots wag would...
Other runs were in the middle of the day in glorious sunshine and crisp white snow, others involved negotiating large icy areas - this is a particular phobia of mine :-(
Some were treadmill runs squeezed in at lunchtimes or after meetings but at the end of it all there was one run every day for the month. During this adventure we have made new friends through the facebook group, all at various stages of madness and we had runners from "a' the airts" taking part.
A particular mention must go to all the parkrun friends who took part as their encouragement and support was invaluable as well as humorous and amusing - each day's highlight was looking forward to the various posts and Alan Lindsay's photos of Islay who looks like one of the best trained dogs ever!
This morning was the finale of Marcothon, runners came along to Falkirk parkrun wearing something red and joined by Marco and Debbie Consani who are the Marcothon parents :-) It was great to see the smiles on so many faces and the sense of achievement was tangible. As always with running it changes your perspective on so many things, I never thought I was capable of running 31 days in a row, I stressed a bit at first about the logistics, but as it became a habit it just worked, it was possible to fit a run in at some point of the day, even setting the alarm clock 15minutes earlier was no hardship...
I also managed to get back to bootcamp twice a week which I am still really enjoying and which is undoubtedly helping with strength and conditioning work.
Now as the new year approaches, it's traditionally a time to reflect and at the risk of getting maudlin, it's been a great running year with loads of new friends, loads of new experiences, a PB at 5k, 10k and marathon distance and my first ultra race all under my belt, lots of new runners are joining our merry band, some more willingly than others and there are already new adventures planned for 2012.
So all things being equal and my wonderful physio earning his money, and with the support and encouragement of my wonderful husband and friends I'm looking forward to whatever it brings!
Happy, healthy injury-free year to everyone xxx

p.s. might change the title to 2012 and come back and do some more, it's been fun reminiscing and writing it all down :-)

Back from holidays...

It was a fabulous holiday, saw lots of places & people, met up with lots of old (longtime) friends and made some new ones, ran a fair bit, went whitewater rafting, was privileged to attend the best wedding I've ever been to - apart from when John & I got married of course :-)

We had 2 wonderful, hot, sunny weeks in Canada, split between Toronto, Ottawa, Toronto and I really did not want to come home...

Back to reality - rain, low temperatures and jet-lag with a bump! Arrived home on Wednesday morning and didn't run until Saturday when I volunteered to be Tail-runner at Falkirk Parkrun. I had a great time, a nice gentle 5km taken slowly which my legs needed, and chatting with Karen along the way and managed to get her a full minute off her PB so I felt good! I had planned a longish run for Sunday, went to bed Saturday evening just after 10 and slept until the alarm went off at 7 on Sunday morning. When I got up and visited loo, I could hear the gales blowing outside and decided to go back to bed, we eventually surfaced at 9.30!! We NEVER lie-in but I guess the jet-lag was catching up! Anyway, weather was foul and I couldn't get motivated to go for a run, I caught up with a mountain of ironing, baked some banana bread, tidied up a bit and then started back at pilates last night - an hour of stretching should sound like gentle exercise but NO! It's a good workout :-) (ok secretly we enjoy it and it does make you feel good)
I went to the gym at lunchtime today to do a few Kms and I had a great wee 5k run, it was really good, everything felt smooth and relaxed and I didn't have any of the leg pains which I've been plagued with since I did the Clyde Stride. Hopefully that's me recovered and can get a couple of long runs in in the next 2 weeks as we're off to Berlin on 22 Sept.

Ups & Downs

After having a good day on Tuesday where I got in my run and my 2 cycle rides, I was really tired again on Wednesday and my poor old legs felt like lead :-(
My training programme had a 7 mile run scheduled and I just couldn't face it when I got home...
It was hot - well hot by Scottish standards! Sunny and still warm at 6pm and the way I was feeling it was too warm to run so I ducked out and decided I'd burn some calories by washing the cars. They were both in great need of a wash so it was a good job well done, but it ended up taking me about an hour and a half and because it's quite a stretch up to do the roof of mine, my calves got a really good workout!
So much so that I had a dreadful night's sleep, kept wakening up with shooting pains going through the big muscles of my thighs and calves so woke up on Thursday morning in a terrible mood :-(
Tears and tantrums ensued as I had a real moan about how unfair it was that I was tired and didn't feel like running even though my head wanted to and so on and so on...
I was gently reminded that I have run 3 marathons this year and it was only 12 days since my Ultra, didn't make me feel any better though!
However, I had a massage booked for Thursday evening and although it was quite painful in parts, it did the trick and my legs felt much better afterwards and I slept better last night - probably as a result of legs being bit less tight.
I haven't run today although I have done a fair bit of walking, and I am marshalling again tomorrow at Falkirk parkrun, but I intend to run round the course before I start so hopefully I will manage that and then get a longer run on Sunday morning.
Will let you know :-)

First post -race run (jog)

I have been taking it easy this week so although I went to the gym on Tuesday at lunchtime I haven't run since last Saturday. I cycled 3miles in gym and walked 1mile on treadmill with a couple of 1minute jogs for the last 10minutes.
It's been beautiful here this weekend - at last! Probably this will be our summer, if we're lucky it will last another couple of days...
Yesterday John ran the new Falkirk Parkrun and I marshalled on the course, it was great to see all the runners twice from my marshalling spot and I'd definitely volunteer to do it again.

We've had some downtime this weekend and it's been lovely, went to Edinburgh to the Jazz Festival yesterday and Glasgow today for the Merchant City Festival, so sunshine and culture!

I had it in my head I was going to get back out again this weekend, but the motivation hasn't been great, I jogged half a mile back from marshalling yesterday with the tailrunner, and it felt pretty good, but it didn't really count as a run so I really wanted to get out today, eventually about 5.30pm the wee voice in my head said "come on then shoes on!" So off we went. We've a new path been finished nearby so that's given me another nice 5km route with only a couple of stops to cross the road and a couple of cattle grids on the path, a nice steady trot in the warm sunshine complete, I feel much better :-)
So that's it, back into training programme again now, although I might be a little behind I'm sure I'll catch up in plenty of time for Berlin, I keep reminding myself
1.. You've plenty miles in your legs and
2.. it IS OK to be tired! :-)

Interesting run or epic adventure?

It was both :-) it was an interesting run which turned into an epic adventure!

My long run for Saturday was 18miles from Strathclyde Park to New Lanark visitor centre, this route runs alongside the River Clyde for nearly the whole journey with only a couple of departures where it climbs away from the water for a couple of miles before dropping back down again - this is actually a nice description of what a friend commenting on my run called "Killer Hills" she wasn't wrong! Worse, I wasn't expecting them :-)
The run is mainly on trail with a few miles on country lanes/farm roads a mixture of tarmac and concrete, with the worst parts for me being the very narrow trail through the fields of long wild grasses which meant that due to the rain my shoes quickly got soaked!

OK to try and give you the proper chronology...

We set off early as usual to parkrun although only John was running, I was spectating and setting off to run after he'd finished.

It was unusually, a beautiful morning, the sun was shining and even more unusual there was no gale blowing across the loch, nor were there any "beasties"!


John ran the first mile with me on a lovely wooded trail with the sun dappling through the leaves and river running along on my right hand side, he turned back to go and get the car so that he could drive on ahead and meet me along the way, so I was off on my on on a totally new trail :-)
I met a few fellow joggers and a couple of dog walkers along the first couple of mile, then at around the 5mile mark I met my first obstacle:

Should I go over it or under it? In the end I had to go under and over it as I was approaching it from the other side to this photo - it was about 4ft off the ground at the point where I'd to climb over! Once safely on my way the next obstacle was a sign which said that the riverbank was prone to flooding and an alternative route was available which rejoined the river 2miles on... John's parting advice was "keep the river on your right hand side" needful of this I started off down the "path" through a field of cows until I got to a point where I couldn't pass as the cows were grazing right across the path - the path was in truth only where the grass had been worn by the cattle and sheep. Now I should explain that I grew up in dairy farming country so have no fear of cattle, in fact I find cows really friendly gentle animals - most of the time - these ones however were nursing very young calves and this meant I was giving them a wide berth! I met a man walking the path and asked if he knew where the alternative route went but it was his first outing too so I headed back the way I'd come to look for the route mentioned above... Long story short I couldn't find it - an extra km or so back and fro over really lumpy terrain and I decided to give it one more shot. Fortunately by this time the cows had moved away from the path so I headed onwards. Another couple of miles along the way and by this time I'm on a farm road, when...
Fortunately I could walk around the edge of the root stump so managed to get on my way again - oh and by this time it was raining!
Only about another mile further on there was yet another tree across the path but again I was able to walk around it.
By this time I had still only covered about 8 miles - it seemed much further :-) I wasn't tired, I'd just had to contend with so many obstacles along the way! About half a mile later I met John who ran a mile or so with me until we came to Rosebank, he went back to the car and I carried on along the river. The track here was more like gravel which I didn't particularly like but it was flat so I made good time, soon I headed into the woods, again a really lovely place to run, it was still raining but in the trees it was mainly dry, and the trail underfoot was much more enjoyable to run on. It started to get hilly here with a few sets of wooden steps and boardwalks over burns etc - these are fun to run on as you get a wee "bounce" and the changing terrains while challenging add welcome variety.
Then I met my first hill, and it was probably the worst! It was a really steep 87m ascent and an almost immediate descent! The next 4 or 5 miles were hilly and wooded, but I was listening to a podcast where a guy was retelling his experiences on a German trail run, and it was really funny so took my mind off the pain :-) I do believe in the "psychic ipod" theory...
John caught up with me again as I reached the next flat section and he had a banana with him which we shared and chatted as we ran along, I really like doing my long runs on my own, but I really really enjoy when I meet him like this for a mile or so and then I can look forward to catching up with him again later - especially when like on this route, I don't know where. It's a lovely surprise :-)
I had my fuel drink in my backpack and a bagel to nibble on as well as a couple of gels so I was feeling comfortable in terms of my nutrition etc.
This is becoming an epic post so I will move swiftly on, another few miles - I think it was probably about 16miles in but by this time my Garmin had thrown a wobbly and was somehow displaying in Lithuanian or Romanian or similar, and it had already stopped and I'd had to restart it - I think it was the heavily wooded sections to blame - if it loses a signal for too long it will think it's stopped and do a reset and I didn't hear the warning beep... as for the language change? Who knows I must have managed to press some combination of keys with my jacket cuff or something!

Then... the final injustice!
I came to a sign which said the bridge ahead was closed, it also mentioned the construction of a temporary footbridge, so as I had no need to cross the bridge until a mile or so further downriver, I thought ok will keep on going... WRONG! Not only was the bridge closed - the temp footbridge wasn't opening until Mon 13th June - remember this was Sat 11th! But worse, the whole path was closed off by the repair works. I retraced my steps to the sign which also had a detour map on it - unfortunately it didn't have that little red dot with "You are here" so I hadn't a clue where I actually was on that map! My iphone mapping wouldn't work as I couldn't get a reliable phone signal in the woods... I rang John and left a message saying the bridge was closed and I was going to try to find the diversion but if I couldn't I would retrace my steps back to Crossford which was the last place we'd met.
I then met two young men who were hiking, but it was also their first time on this path so they had no clue either, however one of them had his OS maps for the hike on his phone and they were able to confirm my suspicions that the detour was indeed through some long grass and up a big hill across some fields... This was indeed the way, and I climbed up until I came to the village of Nemphlar, village is a loose description, I think there were about 5 houses... I decided then to stay on the roads and not try to get back to the trail as I knew that if I stayed on the roads and headed back downhill towards the river I would end up close to my intended destination. I was trying to call John reasonably frequently at this point to let him know that I was safe but wouldn't finish where he expected me to, but by this time he'd headed along to look for me and he had no phone signal!
I made it out onto the main road and headed in to the town of Lanark from the far end by which time I managed to get in touch with John, poor thing he'd all sorts of messages on his phone including a funny one where I had called without realising it on the redial function and the message I left was the sound of my shoes squelching as I ran down the road :-)
It all ended well, he met me in the car in Lanark and we set off for home, I didn't quite make it to the visitor's centre, but I did add another 4 miles on to my run so it was indeed an epic adventure! It has taken me almost an hour to type this up so if you manage to last to the end I am Well Impressed!!

Hmmm wonder where my long run will take me this Saturday?
:-)

Incredible(s)!

Aren't we just :-)
This was us at Strathclyde parkrun taking part in the Lucozade Runfree event on Sat 4 June. There weren't many people who turned up in fancy dress, but to those who did Well Done! I like to enter into the spirit of these sort of events, and as we had been given the costumes as Christmas gifts year before last it was nice to be able to put them to good use!
I wouldn't like to run more than 5k in them though - I found the mask quite claustrophobic and wasn't happy in it - it spent half the time being used as a hair band. It was nice to be warm though as the wind was blowing a gale again - surprise! I don't know what's going on with the weather at the moment, on Friday it was beautiful, sidewalk splitting sunshine and temperatures in the high 20Cs but Saturday morning was back to 11C and cold with the wind! Thankfully the rain stayed away.
Sunday was long run day, it was dry and not so windy but the ENE wind made our minds up for us as to where we'd run, 14miles along the Forth & Clyde canal from the Falkirk Wheel to Kirkintilloch, it was a lovely day but my very, very tired legs didn't enjoy the experience!
Need to get up to 15-20miles next weekend as it's only 4 weeks until our next marathon - the Lakeland Trails Marathon around Coniston Water on 3 July.
Hmmmmm we have a friend who also runs who said the other night that we're all mad, I think I am starting to agree with him!

Update

you can tell I've not had much to say... it's been 2 weeks since I posted anything :-/
Catching up from my last post, John did smash his PB at Parkrun, 19mins!!! Wow he was flying down the finish and got into a little bit of a sprint for the line with a young guy who took the win by about 1 sec! I don't know if he had intended to sprint for the line, but I was marshalling and when I saw him flying towards us I was screaming encouragement and he responded :-) I think he also got a personal best for the number of insects stuck to his face and neck - Yuck!!
We went for a drive on the Sunday and did a wee recce of the marathon course, I was allowed to jog/walk 100m at a time, I did about 2 miles like that and was reasonably happy that the healing was progressing well. Monday at lunchtime I went to the gym and did a couple of miles on the bike and then a mile on the treadmill, again jog walking intervals and feeling ok.
Tues evening I decided not to go to Bootcamp as we'd had a day of very heavy rain and the grass was slippy and I thought the risk of slipping and maybe tweaking my leg was too great - also I was late finishing work and very tired. I allowed John to convince me to go to they gym, even though I was really tired, and settled down on the treadmill and yes he was right, I did start to enjoy it and feel better for the exercise. Then, PING!!!! Something went pop in my calf... it was a quick hop along on the treadmill as I hit the emergency stop button!
Fortunately there was no great pain, some numbness but I could walk and stretch reasonably easily. Following morning was very tender and a gentle exploration and treatment from physio reassured me that nothing seemed to have torn, it was most probably scar tissue releasing. Needless to say more taping took place and a lot of hobbling ensued - as well as a fair degree of worry and stress :-(
Further treatment on Friday and instructions to repeat the rehabbing I'd been doing and take it easy, lots of rest ice etc etc.
Managed back on the treadmill on Monday although I was petrified! I couldn't relax and was just waiting for the Ping! Physio made me laugh on Tues, she assures me that that is the mindset of an elite athlete - I asked for his legs!!
I am conscious that this is becoming lengthy and boring so will stop soon... We picked up our friend at Edinburgh Airport yesterday afternoon, he has come over from Canada to run on Sunday with us. It is great to see him again, and hopefully today we are going to take him up to Aberdeen and show him where his ancestors live - we have managed to research his family for him back to the late 1700s.
Weather for marathon is not great, it's been really stormy here all week with gale force winds and rain and still meant to be same on Sunday...
I woke early this morning and decided to try to jog a little this morning so I went out and managed 3km slow jogging with walk breaks at start, and whilst it wasn't exactly the greatest run I've ever had, it was the best I've had for 3 weeks!!
OK going to stop here it's just a bit of a ramble today :-)

Rest is training...

so they say!
Enforced rest this week - back to physio Monday morning and new tape applied, same groovy colours, different pattern :-) So, this week has been resting and trying to do heel raises - it took me til yesterday to be able to do singles on the left leg but getting there now and managed to do 7 this afternoon followed by another 3 later on... how sad when your achievements are measured in single figures :-(
No 10k race for me on Sunday now though. I will go with John to parkrun at Strathclyde park on Saturday and will marshall while he hopefully gets a new P.B. and gives his snazzy new shoes an outing! They're too orange for me but they are pretty cool :-)

In order to ease the taper madness which is exacerbated by the lack of running, I've just baked a big batch of rhubarb and custard buns, will send some to work for the Runtime Error guys, that's a whole new post :-) and will take some in for my colleagues. Roll on the weekend I might get a wee jog!

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 :-)