Category: Running

But first up, my last week of running:

Last Tuesday (after decorating all morning and having friends over in the afternoon) I headed off for our club run. We were due to do the 8 mile hilly loop- it’s a really pretty loop after the first couple of miles, but it’s hilly. There were only 5 of us on the run, and two of them wanted to run with us for the first two miles, and the run back, so for the most part it was three of us. It was very enjoyable, but it was so muggy, and drizzling, which just made it feel more sticky instead of being refreshing.

On Wednesday I was seeing friends in the morning for brunch- I walked into town to meet them, we had brunch (good old pancakes at Bill’s).

Then we walked back home, and then when they left I walked back into town with them before they caught the train. I did consider a run, but we went shed shopping instead and after walking close to 5 miles I decided that it was a good idea to have a rest day.

On Thursday I had been decorating all morning, until around 1.30. Some friends were due to pop by, but could not make it in the end, so I had some cereal, pottered about for a bit while it went down, and then headed out on a run. I got into a good routine a while back of having some hill repeats in my training each week, but since moving I need to find a good hill.

I did around a mile of warm up, then found a small-ish hill, and went up and down it about 12 times I think. I like the Strava screenshot as it looks like someone just scribbled on the road! After that I had a gentle run home, to total 3.1 miles.

On Friday I ran to the lakes, around the lakes and back home. It was lovely.

6.6 miles covered before breakfast- perfect.

Then on Saturday it was time for parkrun! For the last month I have either been a tail runner or a marshal, but as this was my last one before going on holiday I fancied running all out. I looked at my pb for that particular course, which was on the inaugural event- I ran 27.52, and when I used a pace calculator to see what a 27.40 time would be (for a bit of breathing room) it was 8-something per mile, so I thought I would just see how close I could get to it.

My dad and brother were both running, and my dad didn’t want to go too fast (his pb is around 22 minutes I think) so he ran with me. We started off more cautiously, and were enjoying saying thanks to all of the marshals- I knew nearly all of them! The Ellenbrook Fields course has a small loop of around a mile, and then a large loop, all around fields and through woods,  and we were really enjoying the scenery.  Dad does not run with a watch, but he guessed after 2 miles that we were running around 26 minute pace- I was not sure but I knew I was close to the pace I had looked at. As you get closer to the finish you run along a flat, straight concrete path (and old taxi-way from when it was an airfield) and we saw my brother up ahead. Dad suggested that we try to catch him up, and finish in a row, as we have not managed a 1,2,3 before. We gained on him for a bit, but then he started speeding up and overtook a couple of runners. Dad mentioned that we could still go for it, so I told him to overtake and that I would try to keep up with him.  At this time all I could really do was gasp an answer to Dad, but we managed to pick up and overtake the two runners, and then got closer to my brother. Dad ended up running behind me and cheering me along, which was lovely. As I went through the finish funnel, I did actually gag- I was very close to actually being sick and have never felt quite like that before- I have felt nauseous before, but never actually felt my throat go. It was not nice and I felt very sorry for the person handing out the tokens! I got my breath back quickly though, and we were very pleased to finish as numbers 51, 52 and 53! My watch said 27.17, so I was pretty sure that I had achieved a pb!

We had a few stretches in the shade, before walking back to the car and taking a photo to commemorate- we tried to do podium order (my brother in the centre as he finished first out of all of us) but could not remember which was bronze and silver are meant to be.

When the results came through I was really pleased to have achieved an official course pb of 27.16! My brother was 5 seconds ahead, and my dad one second behind. I was chatting to Dad on the way back and he mentioned he thought I was using my arms more, which I was really pleased with, as we practised this at the track session last week, and as we were coming down the runway I tried to really think about my movements.

As the result came in, I was looking on the Did You Run Today facebook group (a really welcoming and supportive running group) and someone had posted about being really disappointed because they did their first parkrun last week, and this week were a minute slower- not the right time to jump on there and post my pb! I think if you follow other runners, and read blogs, then there will always be someone getting a pb, but if you look at individuals they aren’t all getting them all of the time.

I looked at my full parkrun results to see how that time compared. It is faster than my tourism to flatter courses (including Hove Prom and Crissy Field), but I have beaten that time at the very flat St Albans back in 2013 five times, and matched it once.  Since mainly running Panshanger (off road and not at all flat) I have only run 27 minutes a handful of times. Anyway, I wondered how many pb’s I had achieved. That was my 75th parkrun, and I have a total of 8 pb’s- this does not include the first event at new courses, as that is always an automatic personal best. I didn’t think that was too bad a ratio, and I think it shows that you can’t be getting faster times every single week. My dad has run 66, and achieved 13 pb’s, so he is a bit ahead there. My brother has run 53 and achieved seven pb’s, again a bit ahead of me. Hopefully when the cooler weather comes around I can do a few more flat out parkruns and maybe chip a few seconds off- it would be good to get another one beginning with a 26, but we shall see! Of course the beauty of parkrun is that you can run it for any reason you want, and now I am half way to the next milestone (as my dad pointed out to me) I shall be working steadily towards 100.

How often do you think you achieve a pb? If you do run parkruns, how many in total have you run, and how many of those have been pb’s? 

Last week I got home from a run, went to plug in my Garmin and realised that the clip had been knocked onto the floor and was broken!

It’s hard to see in the photo but the clip no longer meets as the spring is gone. I managed to hold it together over my watch so my run was uploaded, and then had a look on the internet for a replacement.

Luckily amazon had a replacement, and although it wasn’t an official Garmin one, it had good reviews, so I gave it a go. It seems to clip on better, but sometimes I have trouble downloading the runs- it will begin to charge so I know it is attached properly, but Garmin express will say there is nothing connected. But after a bit of fiddling it downloads the runs so that was a relief!

After my parkrun pb on Saturday, I realised I had run for 3 days in a row so I had Sunday as a rest day. We made an acai bowl for breakfast, and topped it with a mango and some granola- so summery.

 I made a cake to take over to Andy’s parents (here if you are interested- caramel chocolate bars although I used macadamia nuts instead of hazelnuts), although it was very warm and so it hadn’t set by the time we left to take it over. We had a nice walk in the sunshine- probably around 3 miles (trying to match it against some of my running routes), had dinner in the garden and then watched some of the Olympics.  A lovely relaxing Sunday.

On Monday it was long run time. I am doing the Disneyland Paris half marathon at the end of September (so excited!) and we are off on holiday for a couple of weeks, and I don’t think I will manage many (if any) runs. I am taking my running things with me but with a view to wear them if we do some long walks as the shoes grip better. So I wanted to do about 10 miles to keep the long runs fairly long, and then when I get back I’ll have 3 or 4 weekends to get back up to that distance. I’d signed up to a virtual race as it raised money for GOSH, plus it had a very pretty unicorn medal. Before I left, my medal for 100 miles in July came in the post. Of course I had to wear it for a bit. The company that do this seem to do a 100 mile challenge each month. I’ve not signed up for August as I know I won’t do it, but it is a very cool Olympic themed one. However, the September one just popped up and it’s really pretty, with autumn leaves surrounding it. Seeing as I’ll need to be getting my miles up again for the half, I could be tempted….

I had a look on Strava as I had not planned a route. I saw my 9 mile route from a few weeks ago, and knew that if I carried on at the end instead of going through the little alleyway, I could make it up to 10.

It was good running weather- sunny but with a strong breeze, which kept it cool but also made it hard work when I was running into the wind. This field still had a lot of poppies in it, although it’s hard to see from the photo.

I ran into the park and up the little hill, so treated myself to a little walk at the top while I took a few pictures.

I ran around both lakes, seeing lots of geese and a few rabbits, before heading uphill back towards town. Here my legs just felt really tired so I had a bit of a walk and a stretch before carrying on.

I took a photo when I finished, as recently Strava seems to take off a bit of the distance, so if my watch says 10 miles, sometimes when I download it, it says 9.8 miles. Not sure how, but as it was a virtual race and it was meant to be 10 miles, I wanted to have some proof! This one was fine though, so I have sent off my Strava screenshot and shall await the medal.

After this I had some jobs to do at home, and then we walked into town to see Finding Dory (which I really enjoyed)- the local cinema has gone up even more in my estimation because it is no longer a new release, tickets were less than £5 each! I didn’t have a big lunch because I had eaten breakfast so late, so in the cinema I suddenly felt very hungry indeed, so we bought some peanut M&M’s- we never normally buy food in the cinema and hardly ever eat during a film, but we figured seeing as the tickets were so cheap it wasn’t too expensive overall.

Today I headed out on a run first thing before we finished our packing- I explored a new road and have found a new loop of just over 4 miles. All the runs seem to end up going uphill though- our house seems fairly high up- good for when it floods, not so good for running! I was having a look on my phone when I got back and on facebook I am in a “New parkrun” group- and literally as I was on there, they posted the brand new page for parkrun Canada! This is so exciting, as that is where we are going! There are two about to start- one in August and one in September, and this one is actually a place we are visiting. But sadly we won’t be there on a Saturday, so I can’t add another country to my tourism list just yet.

Right, I am off to finish packing.

Are you enjoying the Olympics? I really enjoy seeing sports I would not normally see (like the kayaking, or gymnastics), but the time difference has made it not quite so easy to watch.  I keep getting reminders on my facebook feed from London 2012. The other day I watched a documentary on i-player about the London opening ceremony, which was just so interesting. I had no idea that all of the dancers and performers were volunteers (it was a bit of the parkrun spirit I think) and as well as being interesting it was just brilliant as it brought back all of those fantastic memories.

This popped up today! That is my excited face as we were watching the 200m qualifiers so got to see Bolt and all the other sprinters square up to the cameras.

I was very excited when I got home on Tuesday and saw a parcel from Wiggle- it could only mean one thing!

Or perhaps 3 things.

My purple volunteer t-shirt! In case you are not a parkrun obsessive (as my dad, who runs parkruns with me, didn’t know about it until I showed him)- once you have volunteered on 25 separate occasions, you become a member of the 25 club, and can claim your (very high quality technical) free purple Tribesports t-shirt. Wiggle distribute them (so you have a link on your profile, and when there are some in stock, it allows you to click through to the Wiggle site and add it to your basket)- they will either charge £1.99 for postage, or if you spend over a certain amount (I think £20) the delivery is free. I had a little browse and added some socks, and also some SIS electrolyte tabs as I need to find a nuun replacement as no-where seems to stock it any more. Those things didn’t add up, and then I came across these fab capris! They are Asics (in the sale of course)- I normally like Nike ones but these ones had a nice wide waistband, a big zipped pocket, and I liked the colours. They are very comfy too- I shall be looking at Asics again when I next need/want new capris.

I tried to take a picture, and I have since worked out how to turn off the flash, but not at that point! It shows how bad the walls were in my office too after we stripped the wallpaper- many shades of paint, blobs of plaster and no idea what all the white bits were.

After completing the 100 miles on Tuesday, I was really stiff on Wednesday- I had to get some paint from B&Q and I ended up leaning on the trolley as I pushed it around as I was having real trouble. Once I got home I iced my back for a long time and that really helped, and then I had a very slow walk around the two mile loop, which helped a bit more.

On Thursday my parents were coming over to help paint the ceilings in the bedroom and my office – they came armed with poles, rollers, a tool box, dust sheets… It was a good team effort and we powered through until mid-afternoon, giving the walls in my office a bit of white paint, as we were worried that the walls were so bumpy we would need to put up lining paper before painting.

Behind you can see the yellow/brown wall, and then the white coat going over the tester pots and the rest of the wall.

I shall save the decorating posts for another day, but they left around 2pm so I headed out for a run then, for a nice 4.5 mile loop. I got home just in time to have a quick shower as we were going to see the new Jason Bourne film at our local cinema- we power walked there and just made it in time!

On Friday my dad had said he would come over and help with some more decorating- we did a bit of painting and then a lot of sanding down the walls, cleaning with sugar soap, and then painting the walls white to give them a base coat. We didn’t stop until around 4pm, so I had a snack and then headed out just after 5. This was not such an enjoyable run as I think I was a bit thirsty, probably still hungry, and had eaten too close to the run. But I wasn’t going to parkrun on Saturday so did 3 miles there instead.

Saturday was a rest day, as much as walking around London all day is resting, and then on Sunday we had a track session. Our club are trying to do one a month (followed by brunch), and now we have moved I can run there- it’s just under 2 miles away.

We did some warm ups and balance exercises, and then some drills including running through these ladders- we have them at school but normally it’s the kids that use them! We then did some intervals- 100m then rest x4, 200m then rest, x3, 300m, then rest, x2, and then a final 400m (trying to do a negative split, but it was hot!).

There were even a few photos with both feet off the ground! Very exciting! I could not go to brunch as my auntie and uncle were coming over for a look around our house, so after it finished I ran the mile or so into town, and picked up a cold drink and breakfast in Starbucks, and then briskly walked home- all in all 5 miles run and one mile walked- not bad for a Sunday morning.

A cinnamon roll! Good compensation for missing out in brunch.

My auntie brought over these lovely sunflowers, so they have been brightening up our living room. After a little tour of our home and a catch up, they were off and we had to be heading back into London again.

Anyway, that run meant that my final total for July was 116 miles! That is my second highest mileage ever, beaten only by my final month of marathon training last year! Not too shabby! My medal has been dispatched so I can enjoy it soon!

If you volunteer at parkrun, which role is your favourite? I think the only role I didn’t like as much was token sorting, mainly because it was a freezing cold day and I ran first, and so needed a few more layers than I had with me. I love cheering people on as a marshal, and I like token scanning as you get to see all of the runners come in. But things like tail running or new runners briefings are good “two for one” roles as you get to run at the same time.

Are you a decorating fan? I don’t mind the actual painting, but all of the moving furniture and preparing seems to take a lot longer, and it’s a while before you can see any difference.

Last Monday was a rest day (after the 9 miles the day before), and then if anyone can think back that long, the Tuesday was an absolute scorcher. Being at work all day in the heat was not fun (the classrooms get way above 30C) and I was not particularly looking forward to a run. Any other week I would put it back a day, but I had a race on the Thursday and wanted a rest the day before, so I had to suck it up.

I’d been out for lunch as I knew Starbucks had air conditioning- I needed to cool down in the middle of the day to help me get through the afternoon.

Thankfully a few of my OH buddies were just as crazy as me, and there were four of us that ended up going out. We chose to run along the old railway line as it is mainly shaded, and we could do an out and back route (so keep it to a short 3 miles). I felt totally boiling the whole time, with heavy legs. We stopped fairly frequently to catch our breath, and before turning back we sheltered in an underpass for a little bit to cool down. I didn’t actually look at my Garmin at all, but I was guessing we were running around 11 minute miles as I didn’t expect much in the heat. Imagine my surprise when I got home and looked on Strava- the mile splits were 9.24, 9.03, 8.58, and 8.31 for the 0.3 at the end. Royal flush negative split here we come! No wonder it felt hard! I even managed a segment PR!

Andy had put a nuun tab in some water, added ice and left it in the fridge for me, so I had it in the garden in an attempt to cool down.

Wednesday was a rest day, and I was very glad of that as it was another hot one (not quite as bad as Tuesday, but once was enough for me!).

Then on Thursday I was off to Panshanger park for the final 5 mile midsummer race (which I shall do in a separate post), and so I had Friday as a rest day (and the first of the holidays, hooray!).

I went to sleep with wet hair on Thursday as I was so tired, and I woke up with a really stiff neck (and it is still bothering me a week later). Running is fine, but I have to turn my whole body around to look when crossing roads as my neck won’t turn.

On Saturday I was marshalling at Panshanger parkrun (alas my purple t-shirt didn’t arrive in time) so I got there early for a run before it started- it was strange being in the car park at 7.45am with no cars at all- normally it is full of volunteer cars and runners milling about. I ran a bit of the parkrun route, and a bit of the race route, and so had run 4 miles before I got back to the car park, picked up my vest and found out where I would be stationed.

This is the start of the route (I walked a bit as my Garmin was taking ages to pick up the signal and every step counts in the 100 mile challenge!)- it is narrow so can be a bit congested, but I love running through the woods in the shade. I heard lots of birds, and saw these mushrooms that looked like coconuts.

No flash, they were just a bright white colour.

Along the top of the park there were lovely wildflowers growing at the edge of the field.

I then ran along a field towards the old oak (part of the 5 mile race route)- I kept passing the same dog walker but no-one else was around. I felt so lucky to be able to run somewhere so pretty.

It struck me how brown the grass is looking now- it only takes a couple of weeks of hot weather and suddenly everywhere looks so bare. Although it will only take a few rain showers for the green to come back.

I was told I was marshalling near the end, so I collected my water from my car and set off, but when I got there the big gate was still locked (with a combination lock). I waited a bit, but it was nearly five to nine, and I thought they would be starting their briefing soon. Luckily each marshal is given a laminated lanyard with all the RD numbers, so I rang him and he told me the code over the phone. Just as I was fiddling with the padlock, the lady who was doing the pre-event set up turned up. I explained I had just phoned, so she knew what I was doing. I did feel a bit bad, but I didn’t want to leave phoning any later and we have some very speedy runners.

Ready to cheer! (Note the purple ribbon for the lanyard- will match the purple t-shirt perfectly).

I had great fun (as usual) cheering on all the runners- I was just past the 4km mark so I could tell them all “less than a kilometre to go”, plus they were coming up to a lovely bit of shade, so I could vary my cheers a bit. My dad and brother ran past me and I managed to get a photo of them this time (at Ellenbrook last week I was too slow!).

There’s my dad in the red top (I did get a few of them both). They shouted that they would wait for me at the end, so once the tail runner came through I ran up through a different field (I thought it would be a bit off putting to run along the same path and overtake the tail runner) and we had a catch up in the car park. 5 miles done for the morning too!

For the rest of Saturday we finished the wallpaper stripping (we had a little bit left in my office, behind the heated towel rail and around the window) and then did some vigorous pruning in the garden.

On Sunday we were meeting friends for breakfast, and as I didn’t want to get up stupidly early, I postponed my run until the Monday morning (the luxury of the holidays).

For the 100 mile challenge, I worked it out roughly as 4 runs a week, 3 being 5 miles in length, and one being 10 miles, which seemed manageable, and as July is longer than 28 days, I could have some shorter runs in there too. So I thought I would do 10 miles, but then when I was thinking about routes, I realised that I had signed up to a Strava half marathon challenge (you can do these each month, all you do is click on the challenge- race a 10K/ see how far you can run in a month…- and once completed you get a badge on your profile). Now of course I know that I could have signed up and not done it- nothing bad will happen I am sure. But once I have got the idea in my mind, it’s hard to let it go.  I think my original thinking was that we are doing the Disneyland Paris half in September, and I won’t have a great deal of opportunities to run on holiday, so if I did a long run in July, perhaps working back up to that distance in September won’t be so hard.

So I mapped out a longer route and ran 13.1 miles. I took my time as it was warm, but I had a lovely time listening to podcasts. I ran through the fields near our old house, and that was good to go back to where I used to run.

This was about 11 miles in I think- still smiling! That distance took me up to 97 miles for the month, and still with 6 days to go!

Then I enjoyed my French toast in the garden before heading into work. Afterwards I went to the shopping centre in Watford as I had a voucher to spend there. Annoyingly the pain in my neck had moved to the back of my shoulder blade, so carrying a blind (for my office) back to my car was not the most comfortable thing ever.

On Tuesday I was in work again, and didn’t really think the day through- I was not sure how long I would be there, and didn’t take anything in for lunch with me. My classroom is out of bounds for the next week due to some electrical work, so at around 2.30 I packed up my car with things I can do at home, and stopped off at the shops. I realised it was getting late in the day, and I had a run with the club later, so I went into Starbucks. None  of the sandwiches appealed (there was only one veggie one and it sounded too spicy to have before a run) so I went for the fruit toast and a black iced tea (although it was not that warm and immediately wished I had bought a hot tea).

After getting some bits in the supermarket, and browsing the furniture, it was time to head home and change for our club run. Once a month we meet at a different place, and I had basically forgotten that it takes longer for me to get there now we have moved, so I ended up having to run very fast from where I had parked to where we meet (and at that point I remembered why I normally have a rest day after a long run). We ended up running 6 miles, so at the end myself and another one of my club mates had completed our 100 miles (two of them finished it several days before us) so we took some celebratory photos. Now we did walk back to the car as a cool down, and we stretched for a bit as we waited for everyone to come back, and I was fine in the car, but as I got out of the car my lower back was really sore. I did (half) joke to Andy that perhaps I had a worm, as the pain and stiffness was moving around from my neck, to my shoulders and then to my back. At least Wednesday was a rest day.

And this was my photo to celebrate my 100 miles in July! Hooray!

I’ve really enjoyed the challenge. I have run some 100+ mile months before (104 in February 2015, and 132 in March 2015) when I was training for the Brighton marathon, but more typically I do maybe 70-80 miles. My furthest month this year was 87 miles in February (half marathon training). I did the Poppy challenge last October for the virtual runner website, and that was similar as you just tried to do as many miles as possible. I much prefer this sort of challenge to a streak, as I know I am no good without rest days. Plus those sorts of challenges are a bit more “all of nothing”, as if you miss one day you have mucked it up, whereas with a mileage challenge at least if you are short on one day, you can make it up another day. It has also been good as usually if I was marshalling or tail running at parkrun, that is all I would do, but because of this I have been getting there early to do a run beforehand, so that is something I could carry on with in the autumn.

I’ve emailed my screenshot off, so I just have to wait for the medal now. And if I wasn’t going on holiday I would be very tempted to sign up for the August 100 mile challenge as the medal is Olympic themed and pretty awesome.

What sort of challenges do you like to do? Have you ever tried to run every day for a certain length of time?