Category: Running

Hey everyone!

So on Sunday I remembered that I needed to do my Magic Mile this week. Thankfully, participation counts for more than the age graded time, as I know I am not a speedy runner. The last time I did the Magic Mile was back in 2011, when I somehow managed to run 7.53! Back then there was a perfect loop opposite my house- pavement (and a cycle path, so nice and wide) with no roads or entrances on it. I had to measure it on the internet, as back then I didn’t have a Garmin either, and so it was a bit less scientific- I had to run the loop one and a third I think (the mile was as accurate as I could get it). Anyway, since then the land in the middle of the loop has been turned into a distribution centre, so there are now two big entrances busy with lorries- not ideal for “sprinting” past.

In the end I settled on a route about half a mile away- it was an out and back route, which is not perfect, but better than having to cross roads and driveways etc. After work on Monday I jogged/ walked up there, to warm up, and then went for it. I decided to aim for 8 minute miles, and see if I could manage to hang on. Surprisingly, I nearly managed it. I was gasping at the end (and I found it a bit strange as I was sprinting until my Garmin beeped, instead of heading towards a finish line- hard to know exactly when to push)- my final time was 8.12. I was very glad I had chosen a shady route, and then walked over to the allotment to do some watering (yes with a watering can and not just with my sweat).

I also picked a handful of raspberries which I had on my breakfast this morning- delicious!

Alongside breakfast I had some blueberry iced tea. I was sent some BlueberryActive from the lovely folks and CherryActive, and I had tried it as you are meant to have it (diluted with water)- it was good but I fancied a fruity iced tea, so I made up some black tea with cherry (yes, it would probably taste better with CherryActive!) and then left it to cool, and in the morning poured it into the glass along with the blueberry juice and some ice cubes. I am looking forward to trying it in a smoothie too, before I do a “proper” review.

So, my magic mile time this year was slower than my time two years ago. I thought I might be disappointed, but I am not really. Partly I think last time I did it the mile I measured might not have been accurate, but also because last time I had been training regularly. I could take it that I have slowed down, but I know that is not true either. Since then my half marathon time has come down a lot, my 10K time has improved, and Parkruns are showing me that I can be at least consistent with a faster 5K time. I think the proper idea of the magic mile is to do some proper speed training, but as it fell right after a holiday that was never going to happen. My best 5K time at Parkrun is 27.12 (a time I have managed twice to the second!), and for that I have to run 8.45 minute miles, so I knew I could go quicker than that as it is a shorter distance. I managed it 30 seconds quicker, which I have decided is not too bad.

Today I was going to have a run after work, but I was shattered! I would normally have a rest day after a long run, and although my run on Sunday was not that long, it was further than I had been for a few weeks. As I have had stiff legs getting back into it I didn’t want to make it worse, and I want to be able to manage the Sweatshop run tomorrow.

I feel like I have not got into a proper routine yet- I like to know I am doing Pump on this day, long run on that day, and at the moment I keep changing things up, which can be good but it also means I get confused about how many runs I have been on (I was planning on running Mon, Tues, Wed, Sat and Sun, and when I worked that out I realised I would probably get too tired as I normally do 3 or 4 runs per week). I like things to be neat!

Do you like a routine or do you change things up each week?

I can’t believe the weekend is over!

Saturday was great though. Luckily we left a lot of time to drive to Norwich as the traffic was awful so took us ages. We were going to have lunch somewhere but didn’t have much time so we headed to M&S (I had that lovely salad with sweet potato and roasted carrot dip, although I was very tempted by the avocado sandwich) and sat outside in the sunshine.

After Andy headed to the football I was on a mission to track down some Epsom bath salts. My legs were stiff after a few hours in the car, but there are lots of shops in Norwich and lots of walking helped.

Finally I tracked some down (none in Boots, none in the first Holland & Barrett) – it was buy one get one half price so I got some coconut butter, then as I was thirsty some Cocofina coconut water (so tasty), and got some Beyond Dark chocolate drops for half price (I think it would have been rude not to).

After a couple of hours of successful shopping (some birthday presents and other bits to get) I fancied some tea- I couldn’t find the tea shop I went to last time, so went for an Earl Grey in Starbucks- I had packed my Kindle so read for a bit, had my tea and some of the chocolate drops- bliss.

I had seen a fab dress in Fat Face (this one)- in the shop it looked grey, but when I tried it on it looked brown, which I don’t tend to wear, so I didn’t buy it. I popped back in and saw that they had it in navy with a different pattern, so I treated myself. I think it looks autumnal with the falling leaves pattern- I feel it needs to be worn on a walk with plenty of layers, and then back home for pumpkin soup or something. When I was looking for those links I saw it has a web exclusive design too– they are such pretty dresses so I can see I will be tempted over the next few weeks!

I met up with Andy again and we headed to The Waffle House for an early dinner. They do savoury ones, and I realised too late that the Norwich one does small and large, so I could have had a small savoury and then a dessert, but I had seen one of the specials and could not resist!

Pistachios, strawberries and chocolate sauce on a freshly cooked waffle. This was amazing. Plus a big pot of mint tea, all to myself! Andy had a bolognaise waffle so we couldn’t share, ah well, I was happy with mine!

The drive home was much quicker as all the traffic had gone, so we watched Made In Dagenham, and then I had a bath with the Epsom salts (thanks to Lara and Lauren for the recommendation)- this morning my legs felt like new!!! Amazing!

I was quite hungry when I woke up so had a few dates before heading out. I did my usual short/ medium loop- 6.8 miles. I was quite pleased to see that I got to the 10K mark in 63 minutes, and when I got home I felt really good, full of energy and very optimistic about half marathon training (the Blenheim Palace half at the start of October). Although it was warm today, it was not too hot at all- the air feels fresher so running is going to be easier. Although I remembered I need to do my Magic Mile this week- need to choose the route!

Acai bowl for breakfast- need to make the most of this before it gets too cold to have them! I did a little more foam rolling just to be on the safe side!

Anyone else doing the Magic Mile? It’s girls v boys this time so come on ladies! (And luckily for me, participation counts more than the age grading- don’t think I will be that fast!)

So, I have only had a break of about two and a half weeks, and in that time I have done a lot of walking. Most of the time we were at high elevations, so the walking was tougher, and although some walks were nice strolls along board walks, others were hikes in the mountains (including an amazing 10 miler). I knew I was not going to take my running things with me, and knew we would be keeping active so would just start back when I got home.

Well, it has been tougher than I thought!

We got back Monday lunch time, and on Tuesday morning I went out for a gentle run before breakfast. I went faster than I expected, and didn’t have to walk (I thought I might have to)- I did 3 miles and was fine, and when I get home I did a lot of stretching and some foam rolling. But my legs have been very stiff since.

I had some lovely coconut water as soon as I got back, and then saved my breakfast until after my shower – muesli, chia seeds and soya milk with some berries.

I knew that sitting around would make me stiffer, so I tried to keep busy with unpacking, washing and so on, and popped to see my parents (although that did involve mainly sitting in the garden, and looking at their newly hatched bantam chicks!).

While I was tidying I found the tropical black tea I bought last summer!  Lovely hot although I must try it iced too.

On Wednesday I popped to work, and was so tempted to pop to Starbucks on the way home (it was very hot in the car by that point).

I made a home-made chai latte instead- just as refreshing as shop bought (and probably a lot less syrup!).

I had a tea and a larabar for some pre-run energy, as I was heading out with Sweatshop later on. We bought these bars to eat on holiday but never did- they are basically whole nuts and dried fruits bound with syrup and honey. For some reason I thought they would be blended (? processed up?) but everything was left whole so it was a satisfying chunky bar. Although sadly not vegan as they use honey.

I left extra time to get up to Sweatshop as I didn’t want to use all my energy running up there. It was good to have extra time to chat, and then they needed a volunteer to be the back marker as we had a couple of new runners. I was more than happy to offer my services as I knew I would not be running my normal pace. We tackled the dreaded “hill” route, but the guy from the shop ran with the speedy front runners and at several points along the course they had to double back until they reaches us- I prefer it when we do that as then the group does not spread out too much.

I didn’t look at my watch at all but I think from seeing my time at the end it was slower than usual- I found the hill tough, but for the rest of it I felt OK. We had to stop and walk for a few strides a couple of times, but I didn’t mind and knew I might have to as I had offered to be at the back. After we finished I ended up chatting to another girl for ages (probably a good 25 minutes) and by the time we finished and I had to jog back home my legs were feeling so stiff. I am hoping that my legs will remember how to run (or how to recover from running) within the next week as my half marathon training needs to start ramping up again soon.

I was not that hungry after my shower, but knew I would need something so went for a bean burger, a few sweet potato fries (they are on offer in Waitrose at the moment- so exciting!), plus a salad with spinach, cucumber and tomatoes. It took me ages to eat but I knew that I had to otherwise the runger (love that phrase from Claire!) would hit later.

I followed it with some painful foam rolling (once dinner had gone down of course) and then we went to see a late showing of the Alan Partridge film, which I giggled all the way through- some classic moments in there. Although not sure a late night film viewing was the best way to help with the jet lag as I took ages to get to sleep and have been super tired today- I decided some fresh air would help so spent ages at the allotment weeding and chopping.

My legs have still been super achy (although I may be a little impatient seeing as my first run back was only 2 days ago…). It has reminded me of when I first started running- I shall just keep on with stretching and foam rolling. I have booked on to pump this evening so hopefully that will help and not make them worse!

Do you find it hard to get back into a routine after a holiday? I was really looking forward to running again; I think a break does you good, and the actual runs were fine but I wasn’t expecting this much soreness.

Of headphones, that is.

When I first started running, it was to train for a race for life. I had not run since school (and even then I didn’t enjoy it) so I found a run/walk plan and followed it to the letter. I managed to run the whole race for life, and then realised I enjoyed it, so carried on. Anyway, I found the sound of my loud breathing very alarming, so I started listening to music while I was running to help me focus on something else.

After getting annoyed so many times as the headphones yet again fell out of my ears, I bought some with a solid band, and these are perfect. I have a tiny mp3 player which can fit in any small pocket.

I started doing other races (local 10K’s and a half marathon) but took my mp3 player with me. I was always sensible and had the music down very low, so I could hear people around me, the marshalls and so on.

At some point I discovered marathon talk, and began to listen to talking podcasts more and more. I had found that I was tending to run to the beat of the music, so if I was listening to something slow I would slow right down, or I would get annoyed if it was faster music and I couldn’t keep up. By then marathon talk planted the seed and I then signed up for the Stockholm marathon. In the run up to it we did a 20 mile training race/ run, and as it was run on the roads you could not have headphones for safety reasons, but I ended up chatting to the back marker for the first hour, and it was not too bad. Headphones were also banned for the marathon! So I had to run it with nothing to distract me from my breathing. In fact, I could have worn them as I saw other people with them. There was one point in a park, a little over half way I think, and it was very lonely as there were no spectators and not many runners around me. I really could have done with a little boost then, but hey, I managed it still. Andy also did the marathon and in his training he started out listening to podcasts (I think he would download some football ones) but soon he stopped and even on long runs he would not listen to anything and I could not understand how he managed it.

Since then I have not used my mp3 player in a race- I have actually found it enjoyable to look at the spectators, and take in the surrounding views and listen to what other people are saying.

Last year I had to have a break from running as I was awaiting (and then recovering) from an operation, and so to help me get back into it in May last year I started going on runs with the local Sweatshop running community group, and although some people listen to their headphones I never have. Sometimes I run with someone and we chat, sometimes I am on my own and I just think. I run there and back, and I suppose I could listen to something for that part, but I have never fancied it. I quite like just thinking and running.

I have also started running longer runs with Andy, and during those we would chat (or on the hills he would ask me if I was OK and I would try to answer through my gasping!)- I ran faster on those runs than any on my own.

Finally, I have started going to Parkruns. I love these- seriously check them out! Again, I see people with their headphones but I see it as more of a social run, even though I tend to run around alone.

Last summer I did a few runs while we were on holiday in Hawaii (as I had only just started running again and was doing the Great North Run soon after we got home) and it was wonderful to run by the sea (plus I had to remember the route back to the hotel…)- I didn’t want anything distracting me or taking my mind off it then!

I still enjoy listening to podcasts when I run on my own, but I do think running with nothing to listen to has benefits too. I like to zone out and enjoy a gentle run, and podcasts are perfect for those sorts of runs. But I still want to speed up, and I find that I run faster when I focus my mind on running a bit more and don’t have something taking my mind off my running. I still really enjoy running and I am glad that I can go out without the need for my headphones.

Do you listen to music/ podcasts when you work out? I couldn’t imagine a body pump class without the music, but then people lift weights in the gym with just their thoughts for company.