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Getting my March On!

17/3/2015

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I think it was pretty clear from my last post (about 3 weeks ago) just how relieved I was to be feeling a lot better and able to participate in my first two (cross country) races of 2015. I imagine it also came across that I was being in no way complacent about my recovery and was resolved to keep things gentle in the hope that they would then remain steady. Well that worked then. I am very pleased to report, to those who follow such things, that I finally feel  I am approaching the level of fitness, both physical and mental, that I had been lucky enough to enjoy prior to my ‘mini melt down’. I call it that, though of course that’s with the perspective of distance as it rapidly diminishes onto the horizon behind me. It didn’t feel ‘mini’ at the time. Thankfully though, through a bit of digging deep into the reserves of grit and determination, along with the support, understanding and encouragement of some very fine friends (and even a colleague or two) the ‘faith’ (for want of a better word) that kept me going through the darker moments feels as though it is now paying off and there may even be one or two fruits ripening, having been thoroughly fertilised by all that compost (aka ‘life shit’). Anyway. Feeling fit again is blooming awesome and here are a couple of things that seem worth sharing from the depths of my little running universe!
The weekend before last, I enjoyed my first road race of 2015; Altrincham Athletic’s Trafford 10k. It was a bit gloomy, slightly drizzly, but no biggy in terms of weather. I’ve heard tell it’s a very flat course and ideal for Pea Bees. There were certainly a few very grimly determined looking faces that supported that assertion! I wasn’t interested in a Pea Bee myself as my main concern was that I wanted to ‘top up’ my mileage to match the equivalent 18 mile Long Slow Run that would be an appropriate thing to do round about that point in the marathon training non-plan (no I still haven’t reinstated The Plan. More here on why I deleted it in case you missed that nugget of joy). In fact, I had even considered running to the race; about 12 miles from my place, 6.2 mile course, bam, 18 in the bag and a bus home. I saw sense when I was offered a lift however, which is possibly just as well. None the less, the closest I got to a Pea Bee was the surprisingly large invertebrate that decided to seek its maker at the back of my throat about ¾ of a mile in. I’m vegan dammit, get out of my gob! Cough. Cough, cough. Cough cough COUGH. OK. I’ll just swallow you. Oh. You’re stuck to the back of my throat. cough. Great.  Couldn’t you have decided to kill yourself in my eye instead? There’s really nothing like picking fly legs out of your peepers whilst attempting 7.5 minute miles. Eventually, the irritation became so intense and my breathing so disrupted that Mr Diaphragm decided to wade into the tragic struggle of life and death. Cue pit stop whilst I semi chuck my guts up at two miles, freak out the marshals who are hastily recalling their rusty First Aid at Work skills and convince the runners gleefully overtaking me that I’m the twunt who went off too fast. Well, following the unceremonious dispatch of the dearly departed, I managed to pick the pace up considerably and really rather enjoyed the rest of the race (if you discount the bit where I had to stop and fertilise an oak tree. It looked hungry.).
According to some in my running club, you’re not supposed to enjoy racing and if you’re able to wave and smile at people who cheer you on round the course then you’re clearly not trying hard enough to bring home the silverware. Sorry Salford Harriers. Stuff THAT. This is my weekend and I’m here to have fun. It think that’s fairly well illustrated in this pic; no race face ‘oh god I’m dying!’ gurning for me! I was so disinterested in the event as a race I didn’t even check my official results until a couple of days later, content enough to simply make it into town in time to participate in the first ten miles of the Up & Running Manchester community marathon training run. I knew I was sub 50 something but was pretty surprised to find my official time was 4 minutes quicker than that.
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Trafford 10k. Yes, I can smile and run at the same time..!
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Ah, what glory could have been mine if I’d not collided with nature (in more ways than one)!? Anyway… I did 17 miles in the end that day, not 18 (I did one as warm up). I’m such a slacker. Incidentally, I’m not one to plug kit and products unless I genuinely find them noteworthy but I’ve been a fairly staunch proponent of SiS energy gels since encountering the delights of mid-run fuelling. However, on this run I discovered Torq, courtesy of Up & Running. The Raspberry Ripple gel is actually like eating melted ice cream. Mmmmm. Ice cream. And it’s vegan, unless you supplement it with flies. Try it out if you get the chance. Nom nom nom.

Ah, and while I’m on kit… it may be worth mentioning (if you’ve bothered to read this far, chances are you’re already a seasoned run geek and don’t need telling but hey…) that if you’re training for a spring marathon, you probably need to be thinking about your shoes now. Any that you’ve already been building the miles in are likely to be knackered by the time your race rolls round and you need to allow time to break your new ones in. As such, I am now the proud owner of some Mizuno Wave Rider 17s. Yes, the 18s just came out but time was when the 17s were the new shiny bestest ones and I’m a cheap skate. Hmm.  Skates. Now there’s an idea!

Right, I’m going to wrap it up in a sec before I bore even myself but a couple of little digestifs before I sign off. Firstly, I’m super-excited to be officially registered now as a 4:45 pacer for the Liverpool Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon on June 14th. I’m hoping to complete London a tickle quicker than that, but it’ll bring its own challenges and I’m really looking forward to helping support others in achieving their targets in what is a significant goal, no matter your pace!
And finally finally, I was also rather touched last week, to be awarded a virtual honour by none other than the impressively wonderful Tiny Runner in her own version of the Running Awards. There’s really nothing more I can say beyond the comment I left her and her response was equally cockle-warming. Ahhh. Feeling the run-love anyone?
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So to summarise (OK, now it’s really finally finally) I’m back in the game, I’ve found my mojo, I’m pushing on up and I’m running on out the door (as this morning’s 6.30am happy 8 miler proves) down the road to London, Liverpool and my first (two) Ultra(s)! Oh, did I tell you about that yet? Well, it’ll have to wait!

Fin.
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Coming Through

3/2/2015

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Scott Jurek quotes a favourite poet of mine, Robert Frost in chapter 1 of Eat & Run;

    The best way out is always through.


This has certainly been an underlying philosophy of mine in recent weeks as I have struggled to regain balance during my experiences of some physical and mental ill health. Of course, one could argue that you don’t really have much choice sometimes and you have to just keep going regardless but there are different ways of approaching that, some more or less healthy than others.
LAST POST
In my last post, I spoke of reviewing the value in the self imposed rigours of a strict training plan, something that had clearly become a stick to beat myself with as opposed to a tool for achieving a desired outcome. As a result, I had derived a new intended method of getting myself, and we hope triumphantly so, to the finish line of the 2015 London Marathon. My new training plan can be summarised as: A speed session, some hill work, a couple of medium/recovery runs and a slow long run in most weeks aiming to be at a point about a month pre marathon where I’m doing up to 50 miles a week, 20 of those in one go about 6 weeks before marathon day with a gentle 2 week taper.

Bam. And that’s all there is to it.

As a teacher who is used to living according to timetables, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed targets, that are incessantly assessed, this vagueness allows room for serious uncertainties and as a perfectionist who needs to know she’s doing all the right things, I had opened up a potential cornucopia of anxieties. This lack of plan would be a significant challenge in its own right. Have you really ever thought about how hard it can be to not do something!? Still, despite the ebbs and flows of up and down moods, energy levels and hormone spikes I have been surfing not just the angst but also the training. And do you know what? It’s been good enough. Not perfect perhaps, there may have been days where I swam instead of ran, there may have been days where I walked instead of swam and I can even recall at least one day where I pulled the blinds, wrapped myself in a blanket and ate an obscene amount of cake instead of even leaving the house but heck, I felt better eventually! I’ve also been learning to recognise achievements even in small quantities, especially when returning to a speeds and distances that I had feared I’d never get back to; ‘OK, I may only have done it for 600m bursts but I still hit 9 mph 6 times…’

As I have been finding it hard to leave the house, I’ve also been doing a lot of, no, OK, be honest, all my running for 2015 on the treadmill in the womblike sanctuary of my gym, the one place I’ve felt able to consistently go on a regular basis. I know this isn’t great in the long term but I’m a self confessed weather-wuss at the best of times and it’s been cold! Anyway, it’s scary out there. It was a great example then of one such minor achievement when I managed my first outdoor run of the year on the 1st of February thanks to Up & Running Manchester’s Marathon Training Run. Ten miles, slow. Just what I needed and a real confidence boost. I’m getting there. I’m getting through. Sometimes, that’s the best you can be doing.

Article
'Cater for'. Heh. See what I did there??
Response
It appears I squeak not just for myself...
And a last bit of running related ‘news’, still linked in part to health. Having been struggling with weight over the last couple of years, I finally got annoyed enough to write to Runner’s World about the tendency for all running related motivational articles to be focused on weight loss from a ‘please help me shed some’ angle. You may even recall my ranting post from October in which I discussed body image in the media from the angle of one who needs to gain some. I wasn’t exactly surprised but pretty chuffed nonetheless, despite being ‘on the rocks’ in my relationship with the sport, to note that my thoughts to this effect had actually been summarised in the February edition. It was only this morning though, as I idly flicked through the March edition whilst reluctantly cross training on the gym bike (yes I am still being good with my strength work!), that I realised I must’ve made a pertinent point… Apparently a third of those who responded to the February letters page did so in order to agree with me. I cycled the next fake kilometre a little bit faster and with a broad grin on my face, feeling more part of some kind of virtual running community than I have done since I discovered UK Run Chat. 31% of those who read that letter agreed with me strongly enough to actually bother writing in to say so. And it took me at least 6 months to be arsed enough to write it! I’m looking forward to that article then, maybe it’ll help me where the GP hasn’t!

So maybe I’m not just coming through. Maybe I’m doing better than that. Maybe I’m coming back up too. Just as well really, cos I hear tell that you gotta get up to get down!

And speaking of Robert Frost in the context of endurance, it seems appropriate to end on a favourite (last) verse from his poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

    The woods are lovely, dark and deep,  
    But I have promises to keep,  
    And miles to go before I sleep,  
    And miles to go before I sleep.”
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The 8th Royton Trail!

9/7/2014

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This evening I went to the 8th Royton Trail Race in Tandle Hill Country Park. Sponsored by Up and Running Manchester, where I work the odd shift on Saturdays. I had initially thought I'd not be able to make it as it looked very difficult to get to on public transport. Luckily, Martin and Steve, managers at Up and Running were both racing and Martin had space in the car. Cinderella, therefore, went to the ball!
On arrival, I could tell it was a well established and popular event; there were an awful lot of club shirts... Certainly no easy winnings for me tonight, especially not as I needed to keep some in the tank for the second Todmorden  5k tomorrow and of course my 'A' race of the week; the We Love MCR 10k on Sunday! We were incredibly lucky with the weather and it was a glorious evening. Exactly the sort of night you want to be out in the rolling English hills, which is just as well really as there were certainly a good few of those on what is described as an 'undulating multi-terrain' trail. This may sound strange to some but though I did enjoy the course very much, there was a little too much down hill for my liking. I never enjoy running down a steep incline; I always feel a step to close to going bum-over-noggin and find it difficult to control what my legs are doing. I think I'm getting better but on a rough trail path as well, there were a few hairy moments where if I had wanted to stop, I'm not sure I could have! I don't know if it was just me but there seemed to be an awful lot more down than up on this course... maybe I should have run it backwards!
Steve and Me Pre Race
Just before the warm up with Steve...
Stolen from Twitter!
Hope the photographer doesn't mind me using this from Twitter!
Still, 5.5 (approximate) miles of sunny countryside was exactly what I needed to blow away the academic cobwebs and get ready for the summer break! Though I found I had to watch the path ahead of me a lot more carefully than I would on the road and so couldn't absorb quite as much of the surroundings visually as I might have liked, I did still enjoy some stunning views.
It was also my first race proudly sporting the Salford Harriers shirt and it was useful to be able to spot a couple more of my club mates who I had not yet met. In fact, early conversation on Twitter suggests two of the guys came first and second! My favourite thing about the race I think was just how much more support I got from wearing the club kit; so many people recognised it and I was cheered on with shouts of 'come on Salford!' all along the way which was a real boost. One chap even called out 'You shouldn't be racing, you had a track session last night!'; I'm not sure if I was personally recognised or that was an assumption based on a knowledge of the club but I'd like to think my response of 'I know! and I'm racing tomorrow!' mentally broke at least a couple of people struggling near by! I doubt it did really, but it certainly made me run stronger for a bit, it's funny what a lift a bit of supporter interaction can give you. About a mile from the end I had another nice surprise  when I ran past Simon, a member of Royton Road Runners who I first met at the Southport Sandgrounder. We have now bumped into each other at various running related events and it was good to catch up after the race.
The results don't appear to be online yet as I write this so I'm not sure what my 'official' time was but I'll find out no doubt, soon enough! According to Mr Garmin I completed in 39.47. I'm not sure if that bodes well for Sunday or not; t's a shorter course by 0.7 of a mile but certainly slower than the road with a lot more hill work. We shall just have to  wait and see!

Thursday Morning Update!

Elevation
I wasn't exaggerating when I said it was hilly!
The results are now out and I was pleased to discover that as well as confirming first and second places to Salford Harriers courtesy of Ian McBride and Joe Bailey, I was 4th Lady (in 62nd place overall). In an official time of 39:43, it looks like it took me about 4 seconds to remember to stop the watch! Congrats to a Royton Road Running Jen Hanson, who brought third place home 22 seconds ahead of me, and of course to the first and second ladies Kirsty White and Rachel Chatwin. 
Unfortunately, this means that I am again left wondering what could have been if I had pushed harder, but I must remind myself that the A race of the week is on Sunday when I hope to achieve my first sub 40 10k. Eek! Fortunately, It does mean I have at least circumnavigated the theoretical question posed to my mangers on the journey in; 'what would happen if a member of Up and Running staff won an Up and Running sponsored prize!?' Well, I wasn't given an answer but then I don't think we realised how close we might come to finding out! Of course Steve; 15th in 35:33 and  Martin; 25th in 36:37 (A PB for that course) also did well and much faster than me but then I do have a gender advantage in coming closer to prizes in a smaller field of competitors! Well, I am still buzzing from a great run last night and now looking forward to the second in the Todmorden 5k series! I'd like to say I won't be racing it but I don't think anyone would believe me if I did and I'm starting to disbelieve even myself when I make such assertions. The game plan however, will simply be what it always is; settle in, see how I feel and then just enjoy the ride!
Results
No prizes for 4th place! #musttryharder!
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Salomon CityTrail at Up & Running

1/6/2014

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One of my main aspirations for this new blog is to keep it simple. I have variously been described as ‘detailed’ and ‘verbose’, but as this blog is purely for fun I’m going to try and eliminate unnecessary chatter and keep updates regular rather than lengthy. I’ve probably already written too much. So here goes. June begins!
PictureOutside the store... Where are those satellites!?
Today, Salomon came to Up & Running in Manchester (A specialist running workshop where I’m lucky enough to get a few weekend hours here and there) on their CityTrail tour! We got to try out various shoes on a 2.5k jaunt round the Castlefield/canal/Deansgate area in Manchester. My favourite were the Sense Mantra; really comfy yet still light weight! I also spoke to a super physio about a ‘probably nothing not even a niggle really’ who informed me that I am infact a pronator, not a neutral runner, but as I am a forefoot striker this wouldn’t be picked up in conventional gait analysis. She explained how this has caused tightness in my IT band and some aches in my 1st metatarsal! Ah ha! Following this advice, I spoke to Matt at SuperFeet who was also at the event and he helped me find some insoles to keep me going until I can get along to a podiatrist for a proper assessment. Thank goodness I have managed to identify the issue before I get myself a proper injury!

A great event, a really enjoyable day, sunny, and I managed to catch up with loads of people, some of whom I know would be attending and some of whom made a lovely surprise! It was especially good to bump into a couple who I had spoken with last Monday at the Southport Sandgrounder, where I unexpectedly finished as first female (second overall)! Apparently I’ve become something of a Z-list celebrity in Southport and have featured in more than one conversation! Blimey!

In the interests of keeping it brief, that’s June 1st done and dusted. Only 29 more to go!

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    Glittermouse is a visual artist, educator and practising Buddhist who also likes a bit of a run from time to time.  In 2014, she realised others could benefit quite a lot from her reflections on running trials, tribulations, triumphs and trip-ups… so she added another volume to her package of blogging adventures.
     
    You can find out more and source links to other projects on the 'home' page of this site.

    Mandala

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