Love a Long Weekend!

3 Training Runs
3 Great Days Out
31.5 Miles covered
2134 Metres of Climbing!
We are heading off to Rotterdam this weekend for the marathon, another training run(!)  As I said before Berlin and Rotterdam were entered before I was one of the lucky few who got a place in the WHW Race.  Subsequently my training focus has definitely not been on road racing but this mileage is double that of 2 weeks ago in Berlin and half the distance I need to complete the Fling 2 weeks later... so in theory it's a good training run and in 'just the right place'...
Bearing all of the above in mind, John decided that I should 'take it a little bit easier' and do 30miles but over 3 days - as he said to someone the other night 'talk about altered reality'  I had had a really sore leg since Berlin, it's an ongoing issue with my hamstring but dry-needling seems to ease it and I was really lucky to get a last minute appointment at Life Fit on Thursday at lunchtime and the needles started to work their magic while I was still on the treatment table!
We were off for the Easter weekend which gave us plenty of scope and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.

Friday: alarm off at 6am, porridge eaten, bag packed and off to Milngavie - I was running Milngavie to Drymen and I had a time target - I had done this section a month ago and it was awful, freezing cold, crampy legs, and lots of ice!  This time it was damp and dull but still and not too cold, with no ice!  However i was ready to chuck it after 2km as I got horrendous cramp again in my calves :-(  I don't know if I was starting off 'too fast' it didn't feel fast to me, but it's all relative I guess and although I felt I was going really slowly, maybe I wasn't - hence the excruciating pain!  I walked for a full 5 minutes til I left Mugdock and once I got onto the trail proper, things started to thankfully ease off.  In the end, I did ok, I got to Drymen 40 minutes quicker than last time and a full 15minutes under my target!  #jobdone Day1
Nice lunch at the Drymen Inn, a wee afternoon nap and kit washed and sorted for tomorrow.

Saturday: alarm off at 6am, just some toast and coffee this time as a second breakfast was planned.  We picked Amanda up in Bridge of Allan at 0720 and headed off to Glencoe where she was meeting up with some others for a Glee Club run.  There were runners doing various distances, Minty, Sean, James and Spiderman (AKA Ross) were heading down from Tyndrum & Bridge of Orchy and Amanda was joining them to run to Fort William.  After our second breakfast at the ski centre, John and I headed to Kinlochleven where I got changed, bade him farewell and headed off on my own, he was going to run back to meet me from Braveheart car park.  It's a long climb up from Kinlochleven but I enjoyed it this time, I am feeling much stronger than ever before and although I'll never be an uphill runner like John, I climbed up 'strong and steady'.  Once I got to the top, I really enjoyed the trip across the Lairig Mhor, I ran much more of it than ever before, even managing to run some of the Ups!  There weren't many folk out on the Lairig but the few walkers I passed all said hello and then I had a wee blether with Derek Cassels (superspeedy) who passed me on his way out and then slowed down to chat with me for a few minutes on his way back. 
This picture of my favourite place on the Lairig is included because I love it so much. 
I was super chuffed to get to Lundavra and John wasn't there - not because I didn't want to see him, but because I'd beaten him there - he was surprised to meet me a little bit further towards him than he'd expected and silly though it might seem it's a wee lift that he's pleasantly surprised :)  heading back to Braveheart I had a real slump on the 'elephant's graveyard' I don't know what it's really called but it's a pretty desolate de-forested uphill slog before you get to the fire road and it's one of those places that gets me every time.  Once on the fire road however I picked up again and really enjoyed the 2mile downhill run that comes next.  By this time, he'd flown off ahead of me and I concentrated on running properly not just letting myself go and losing control and trashing my quads.  Back safely to Braveheart - 5minutes under my target time this time :-) and we waited for Amanda and Minty who we were taking back with us.
Great runs had by all and chips and cheese at the Real Food Cafe to top off another grand day out on the hills. #jobdone Day2

Sunday: alarm off at 6am, scrambled eggs for breakfast.  Today is John's long run as to hit my 30miles I only needed to do 4.3 miles :)  He wanted to recce a bit of the Cateran that he will be running in the dark come race day, so I dropped him off at Glen Isla.  Sunday was a beautiful day once the fog burned off, so we took the wee car and it was great to drive around with the roof down getting the sun on my face :-)
I drove to Spittal of Glenshee, where he'd finish, parked the car and headed up the hill for my 'run'.  It's a steep climb and for the first time ever I climbed all the way to the Lairig Gate without stopping - yeehah!  I love the run back down and was looking forward to it, but it was really really muddy and quite slippy for the first third, however I did enjoy the next 2/3rds and the sun was roasting on my shoulders and legs and it was just fine :-)  I was only 3.5miles at the bottom so tootled about a wee bit on the other side of the main road on the start of the race route until i had 5.5miles in the end - a mile more than I needed but who's counting ;-)
John finished his run (grumbling) and we had a wee paddle in the river to clean off our mucky shoes before heading to Blairgowrie for something to eat.  #jobdone Day3.

Monday:  alarm off at 7.30am (rest day and still a holiday!) Trip to Edinburgh to Run & Become, John wanted to change his recently purchased shoes for a bigger size, and I bought a new pair too.  Lovely lunch and wander in the sunshine then home. #jobdone Day4.


I do Love a Long Weekend!

One more off the bucket list!

The 35th Vatenfall Berliner Halbmarathon, Sunday 29 March 2015.
In 2008 when John had progressed to half marathon distance, we went to Berlin for him to take part in the Half Marathon.  I remember the excitement of the event - it was about 20000 runners that year - a lot for a Half!  There were crowds out supporting along the route and the start and finish area was great with stalls selling bier, bratwurst, brezels etc.  He thoroughly enjoyed this race and I remember the excitement and emotion of watching him power down the finishing strait.  I said then that I'd like to come back and run this myself one day.  In 2011 we planned to go back and both entered, but I was ill with 3 chest infections at the start of this year so we didn't make it... Last Autumn, the race opened and we decided to try again, both getting places in what is now a Huge Half! 35000 places!
This was before I knew I'd got a place in the West Highland Way race.  As a result, my training has been focused on the WHW race, not on racing (?) Half Marathon or even Marathon distance.  My taper consisted of a 34.7 mile race on the WHW, a 4 miler midweek, and 3 hard circuit sessions, not the most conventional :)  We arrived Saturday evening to our first 'mishap' arrived at our hotel to be told that they'd had a problem with their booking system and had overbooked so we didn't have a room.  Before I had a chance to draw breathe to complain, the charming receptionist told us he had already booked us a room in a sister hotel and they would pay for a taxi to take us there.  True to his word, the taxi arrived and took us across the city to our new abode, ironically a lot closer to the race start than the one we'd chosen.  We spent the next three nights in the Park Plaza Wall Street and it was very nice.  Being closer to the start meant we'd time for breakfast before we left, bonus!  There were a few other runners and an Italian gentleman met John at the buffet and asked if he was ready :)
It was raining as we jogged the mile to the start, got heavier as we picked up our numbers, however there was plenty of shelter and the rain went off after about half an hour.  Like a big city marathon, there were baggage trucks, and an abundance of porta loos.  Half an hour to go, we dropped off the bags with our clothes for after, said our cheerios and went to our start corrals.  Second 'mishap' there was a problem with the chip timing system which meant the start was delayed.  John was 10mins late but I had to wait 40mins until I started and my left leg started seizing up and getting quite crampy and sore :-(  Eventually and after a quick exit from the corral to the porta loo, a fast jog up the pavement and hop back into the start corrals and it was time to go.
Off we went out to Charlottenburg and back, I enjoyed the route as I'm familiar with the city landmarks and having done the Marathon the second half of the route was well known.  We'd a bit of a headwind on the way out and a couple of large puddles to contend with if following the race line - yes there was a racing line in a Half!! On the way back it was cool to see the green lines for the race alongside the blue ones from last year's Marathon.  There were crowds most of the way and at least 7 bands to keep us going.  I am used to being in a fair bit of open space as I'm often near the back, I'd to run with elbows out a fair bit, this time there were 10,000 people who finished after me!
Ticking off the landmarks in my peripheral vision I was concentrating on trying to keep my pace consistent and to keep the work rate up, at the same time telling myself that I could keep going even though my left leg was killing me - nothing that can't be fixed when I go to physio on Tuesday, but really sore all the same.  300m from the finish I heard John shout my name and I waved as I kept on going and worked hard to overtake as many people as I could in the last 250m, I honestly think I managed to overtake about 20 people just by keeping going.  Job done, ticked off the list!  Medal, space blanket, water, banana, beer, met John, picked up bag from luggage truck, passed the showers and changing rooms (yep seriously!!) then walked back to the hotel (the long way...)
We spent the next two days being tourists, cocktails, cake & wine in KaDeWe, La Boheme at the Deutsche Oper, running in the snow to the East Side Gallery, pizza at 12 Apostel then the third 'mishap' our train to the airport was delayed!  (it didn't matter as we'd plenty of time) they say that things happen in threes :-)

We'd a great wee break, a decent run and more training miles in the bank.  I thought about including photos of some traditional landmarks, but decided to share these instead as they made me smile

4 weeks is a long time when you're injured :-(

It's funny how life deals you the cards...
the last time I posted on here I was just starting out on my most recent training program and looking forward to gearing up for some Summer races.  I have done hardly any running or exercise in the past 4 weeks and certainly none of the workouts on my "Devil" program :-(  When I can't do those things, I don't come here either as I don't feel I've anything to recount and would end up just moaning so better not to start writing :-)
The sore achilles I mentioned in my last post turned out to be a suspected tear in my posterior tibial tendon which got sorer as time went on, however I have had some pretty excruciating physio sessions and am pleased to report that it feels like it is on the mend.
I have run in the interim, but not much, we had signed up for the Kilt Run in Perth as part of the Queen's Jubilee celebrations, it was a good day out, a fun event and I managed to run albeit slowly, all the way round the 8km course - wearing one of John's kilts!!!
Last weekend I ran/walked 9.6km on Saturday and then on Sunday John - who also has an injured calf, suggested that we go for a longer run so we drove to Falkirk then walked/ran along the Union Canal to Linlithgow where we had a nice lunch and got a train back to Falkirk.  It was a fine day out and we both survived with no ill-effects of the exercise.
Today was the MHFS 10K in Glasgow, this is the race that our friends from work trained for last year when team Runtime Error was formed, a number of them did it again today and John, while still injured managed to hobble round in a respectable 44minutes!!
I am hoping to get back on track tomorrow with my running and with my Pinpoint-Fitness program as well, that's not been great over the last couple of weeks either due to injury and illness, though hopefully everything is looking up again and I will be back on track.
Keep your fingers crossed for me and send healing vibes :-)

P.S.  Just checked and there are only 9 people in front of me on the "Devil" waiting list now...

Ups and Downs :-(

And not a hill session in sight :-(
I had a good week last week, managed to do all my training sessions and was feeling quite pleased with myself... however on Saturday I was feeling a bit of an ache in my right achilles which didn't stop me running on either Saturday or Sunday, but by Sunday afternoon the ache was officially sore!
Sunday night it was very painful so I rang the physio on Monday morning and was fortunate to get an appointment for this morning.  Some work on my calves, some ultrasound on the achilles itself and some fabby pink and blue tape and it seemed much better so I decided to try tonight's training session.  I jogged for about 10 minutes on the way to meet our friend George, and we jogged for about another 15minutes before the session proper - it should have been 4 * 1km with 200m recovery reps, but as soon as I started to up the pace on the first rep the achilles said NO!!! I hobbled and walked for about another 10-15mins but there wasn't much point.  Fortunately, John came by on the way home from his run and he continued home and came back to get me in the car, this saved me a half hour hobble home.

On a happier note, I went to an early morning fitcamp with the PinPoint-Fitness crew, they are launching a new set of fatloss camps and the Guinea Pigs were invited along.  It was great, I really enjoy working out early in the morning, and it was great to catch up with all the guys again, however I think I'll have to give it a miss tomorrow and Friday is a wait and see at the moment. 

So, keep sending me healing vibes and I promise to try really hard not to moan too much :-)

Like the Parson's nose

- it had good bits and bad bits...

Didn't run much during last week, felt a bit under the weather, and my leg was incredibly sore. I had a physio session on Thurs evening and it was the toughest I've ever had to endure, I almost swore and almost cried :-( Then came the DOMS!!! It was awful! Saturday morning I really had to haul myself out of the door for a run, I so did NOT want to go! Ironically I had a really pleasant and reassuring 15km run, once I was warmed up it all kinda fell into place and I was able to toddle along quite comfortably and in control. This gave me a huge confidence boost - thank goodness! On Sunday I ran the GSR 10k race in Glasgow and whilst I would have liked to have gone faster than I did, I still knocked 1minute off my previous time so I'm pleased, especially as I had tired and stiff sore legs. Congratulations to the guys from Runtime Error who also all ran well, and special mention to Janette who ran her first race :-) Commiserations go to John who has pulled a soleus and couldn't run this time :-(
So if that was the good bits, the bad bits are that I haven't run again since Sunday until today at lunch, I have been incredibly tired all week and also struggling to walk never mind contemplate running...
I nearly gave up at lunchtime the first mile hurt like hell, but eventually things stretched out and warmed up and I had a reasonable session. This Saturday coming I MUST do a long run I hope to do about 20miles, it's only 2 weeks to Berlin, and although I've done lots of running this past few months, I don't feel as if I've trained properly for this and I do want to go and give it my best shot.

Busy but productive day :-)

Woke up just before 5 this morning and it was a beautiful morning. I tried to lie still a while longer and was trying to decide whether to run at lunchtime or in the evening or now? I realised I wasn't going to get back to sleep so I got up, got organised and was out the door about half past 5.
It was a still, peaceful and fabulously clear morning with the ground mist rising along the valley. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and by the time I was heading home into the sun, it was promising to be a hot day - Yay!! Only about the second or third one this year!!

I ran the same route as Sunday in reverse, and with an extra half mile added on at start and finish so I got the full 4miles which was on my program for today. I took it steady, my legs are still tired deep down inside, there's not much spring in them even though they're willing and my head is trying hard to spur me on, they just don't have it...

I know it will come back though and I am actually really really pleased at how well I have recovered from my ultra, I have to remind myself it was only 10 days ago!

As it was such a beautiful morning we cycled to work which was lovely - we are very fortunate that we have a great network of cycle paths around where we live which all link into the National Cycle Network and which are increasingly being used by locals to run/jog, cycle, walk their children/dogs etc.
The route to work is great, it's all downhill! It's not such a pleasing prospect at home time :-) I did however manage to cycle all the way up to our house which is a really gratifying measure of my increased strength and fitness as it is a hard hill to cycle up - I was reminiscing a week or so ago about how when we moved in here, fat, couchloving and unfit we never gave a thought to buying the house at the top of the hill, I couldn't in those days walk up the hill without needing to stop to catch my breath, and now we run and cycle up it without any great stress... I like these little measures, they help you take stock.

I lit the fire bowl this evening so it was BBQ for dinner which was nice and great to be able to sit in the warm sunshine and enjoy it. I then spent the next 2 hours scarifying our "lawns" an extremely satisfying if mucky and dusty job - we now have a brown bin full of moss and clover!

Tomorrow's run is scheduled to be 7 miles, I'm not overly looking forward to it as my calves/achilles are both a bit sore and stiff but I'll give it a go, I'm sure I'll warm up and get into it and it is true you do always feel better afterwards.

I chose this photo to put on my post, because tonight we had a frog in the pond - he hopped up the waterfall and under the big green frog :-)

Another long run

Yesterday was another long slow run, I had hoped that I might be able to manage about 50km and had mapped out a route that I thought would do - an extensions of a 32km route that we do regularly on the Friday evening. When we woke early Sat morning it was quite blowy and raining - no change there then - when are we going to get a Summer????
I was also cold, which is unusual in that I am by nature a warm person and only feel the cold when I'm tired, I should have taken heed of this, however I had a think about the weather/route etc and decided to run the opposite direction to my original plan to avoid as much of the wind as possible. I set off ok, then a mile or so in, realised that I should have added a couple of miles to the start of the route to extend it so decided to take a previously un-run path to try to make up for the mistake. It was a really nice path to run, but, it was very hilly and not exactly the best way to start a long run! It was tree lined though so offered some shelter from the wind & rain. It was hard going when I left the shelter behind and had to run the 2miles from Alva to Tillicoultry straight into a strong headwind. Fortunately I turned at Tilli and the wind was at my back for a while, I decided to take the Devonway bridlepath to Sauchie to avoid the steep climb out of Tillicoultry, it's an old railway line so the gradients are much gentler than the road's. Huh! about 1km onto the path "Mixed Leisure Route Close" for upgrading! This is definitely a matter for some debate, upgrading means tarmacadam on top of what was a great trail, yes I appreciate that this makes it more accessible for wheelchair users, parents with buggies, cyclists etc but spare a thought for us poor runners who really appreciate a break from the road under our feet and leave us some trails!
The closure meant that I had to run up the roadside, steep hill! Hey ho, rain wasn't too bad at this point and wind was at my back, so it was a case of "suck it up!" Through Sauchie to Clackmannan by which time it was raining properly, wind however had almost completely gone, so ever onwards... Nice run in the rain down on the Kennet Pans, this is reclaimed farmland along the river Forth, and although it's still a tarred road it's a nice run downhill from Clackmannan on to the flat lands of the valley bottom or the Kerse as it's called in these parts.
Quick stop for a bit of bagel to nibble on and over the new Clackmannanshire bridge, then into Kincardine over the old bridge. I usually run Kincardine Bridge first when I do this route but I was really struggling with the tedium of familiar territory - quite a contrast to last week! so decided to change the order. John met me as I left Kincardine with a welcome Coke and a change of top, was about 25k by this point so half way through my hoped for distance. I was feeling good mentally but was struggling with a tightness in my left leg which just wouldn't ease off so this was slowing me down a bit. I left Kincardine, headed back along the Kerse it was only light drizzle by now, and when I got to Clackmannan I followed a new path back to Alloa. This was the best bit of the run in terms of underfoot as it soon left the tarmac and headed onto a track between fields, this came to the BlackDevon Wetlands and the path became a path through a grassy meadow, it was a joy to run on but by this time my leg was so tight and I was wet & tired that I didn't get as much of a lift from it as I should have. I was also by this time, conscious of the clock and worrying about getting home to cook dinner for some guests we were having over for a pre-race pasta dinner so I gave in at 35km and John picked me up back in Alloa.
Mixed feelings about the day, did I set my goals too high? Not sure, a positive though was that I was able to do 35km for the second week in a row and this one was on tired, sore legs.
Home, quick epsom salts bath then dinner organised, who for and why is for the next post :-)

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.

Funny old day...

Yesterday morning's 5 miles was really quite pleasant, I left the house just before 8 and before sun up. I like the early mornings in the summer - 0530 time but this was pretty close, not too much traffic or noise. I wasn't sure where I was going or how my leg would feel so headed off and it eased off quickly and I had soon settled in to a reasonable rythm, something I've been struggling with this year so I went round the farm roads and back up the lovely hill near our home. It's mile 11 in our local half marathon and loved (dreaded) by many, but I managed to trot up it quite comfortably which really pleased me.
I got organised and set off to Annan just over 2hours South of here to go to my friend's funeral, the journey although mainly motorway was pleasant as the sun was shining most of the way and the hills were looking green instead of white. It was as you'd expect a very sad affair, it is so unfair when a person who loves life and brightens up everyone elses is taken from us. The priest mentioned how she touched the lives of so many people but that she didn't come into their lives so much as charge in head first :-) I think that summed her up beautifully.
Although it was very sad I met 3 wonderful friends there and it was great to be able to share with them the sorrow of the occasion and share our loss.
So, today I was supposed to run 15-16miles or 25km. I set off about 10am after a slow start to the morning - I woke at 6! I was really stiff in my shoulder/back which I blame on the 2hour drive, sitting hunched in a freezing cold church then a 2 hour drive home, with not much other movement in between to balance it out. Even when I stopped for a coffee I was so cold I was still huddled over... Anyway, excuses huh? I went out to do my run and it was awful! It was much colder out than I was expecting although I was dressed warmly enough and my legs felt like lead, I couldn't get them eased off at all and the elusive rythm which I had tasted so briefly yesterday was once again, just a dream, I had absolutely no energy to call on...
I stuck it out for 17km just over 10miles and gave up. I have spent the rest of today moaning and grumping about feeling tired and having no energy, poor John :-(
I don't feel quite so negative now and am off to have dinner, bootcamp tomorrow so will see how I hold up :-)