11 Weeks To Go

For the past week rather than cross training I have been trying to incorporate core work into my routine. The core is so important and often gets overlooked. So every time I have been running this week I have done at least 10 mins of core work afterwards.

The weeks running didn't get off to the best start - Tuesday I was up dressed and out the door at 6am only to discover there was zero visibility due to the heavy fog which had crept in overnight. After a few mins on the doorstep debating how safe it is to run in the dark and in such heavy fog I found myself back in bed having an extra hours sleep. So my morning run turned into an evening run. The plan called for 5 miles, consisting of one mile warm up, 3 miles fartlek and a mile cool down.

I mixed up the fartlek training the whole 3 miles; alternating between markers - traffic lights, lampposts, street signs etc. I've not tried fartlek training before but I found the 3 miles flew past and I felt like I'd had a really good workout by the end. I was expecting my average pace to be slightly higher but it was still a good run.

Wednesday I was in a spinning class at 7am and then running club in the evening. I parked at my parents and ran to the mile to where we meet. We then had a casual 3.5 mile run which incorporated one of the toughest hills in the area. Last time we ran up this hill I thought I might die - slight exaggeration but it was hard. I was surprised not to find it so hard this time - it was still tough just not as bad as before. Then I ran the mile back to my parents to collect my car so got in 5.5 miles.

Thursday I didn't want to end up in the same situation as Tuesday with the fog so did my scheduled run in the gym. I find getting to the gym a 6.30am so rewarding - there is great satisfaction in arriving at work at 9am having already done your daily workout. The plan called for 5 steady miles but I changed this to an interval workout as I felt Tuesday's run wasn't the speed workout I was hoping for.

I put the treadmill on a 1.5 include and did 2 mins on 6km per hour followed by 3 mins on 12/12.5km per hour. I did this for 3 miles then I paused my watch and did some core work. For the final 2 miles I only had 1 min at 6km per hour and stayed with 3 mins at around 12km per hour.

Friday I had a black tie event to attend and although had every intention of still doing Parkrun at 9am, this did not happen. But I did force myself to the gym later that morning for a Body Pump class. This was the first time I have tried the new release and I really enjoyed it. Feeling a little worse for wear I took it easy on the weights but still went into the gym after to do some core work.

Sunday I woke up in pain. Apparently I hadn't taken it as easy with the weights in Body Pump as I thought I had. To make matters worse the weather was horrendous - pouring with rain, windy, grey and miserable. I thought about postponing my long to Monday but the weather could have been just has bad and I'd have to do it after work so I sucked it up and kept to the plan. With my trusty baseball cap in place to keep the rain out of my face I set off and was drenched in minutes.

I wanted to do 12-15 miles. The plan called for a slow 12 miles but I have a 20 mile race on Feb 16th so want to be increasing each week until then. I ran a 6 mile loop twice. The loop incorporated some pretty big hills but they didn't feel too bad despite my sore legs. I also only took one energy gel but I didn't like I need it. I took it more because I'd took myself I would take it at mile 7 to break up the run. But all in all I felt pretty good and told myself I would do 14 miles. However at mile 12.5 as I was running past the end of my road, with the wind and rain (sideways rain at this point) it was too tempting to just head home to the warmth so I finished on 12.57miles.

I'm running the London Marathon to raise money for Breakthrough Breast Cancer and this week I received confirmation from my local Tesco Extra superstore that I can rattle a tin at the entrance for the 4 dates I requested between now and April. I lost my grandmother to breast cancer in 2008 so this is a charity really close to my heart and I'm really pleased my fundraising plan is also going to target.

Parkrun PB and A Successful Long Run

Following last weeks PB at Parkrun I wasn't so sure I could it again. But I managed to shave a whole 32 second off finishing in 24.08. I am so pleased with this result, it gives me confidence in my marathon training and it's so nice to see your hard work paying off. The previous week when I got a PB I had included spinning and swimming into that week's training but this week I didn't have the time so was very surprised.  I don't know if I mentioned on here or not but by the marathon I would like to be able to finish in sub 23 and I can feel myself inching closer (and much faster than expected) to this. Next week I am hoping for sub 24. Fingers crossed!

Today was also my long run for the week and the plan called for 8 miles. A few people in my running club are also training for the marathon so we did this run together; the 4 of us doing the marathon plus two others. I can't quite put my finger on exactly why but this was one of the best run's I've ever had. We started out at our gym, ran through the City Centre (it was Sunday and just before 9am so very little people about) followed the road for a while before switching to a muddy (but fun) track and headed back to the gym via one of the biggest parks in the city. Everything was perfect, it was lovely sunny winters day, it was broken up with different terrain and scenery, wonderful company and as we were coming back through the park the sunlight was streaming through the trees creating the most amazing light show.

Now my watch tells me we did just under 9 miles but I do pause my run when we stop or walk. We don't walk a lot but we do stop every so often to regroup and we might walk for a couple of hundred yards as we get so engrossed in chatting we forget to start running. I also paused my watch to cross the road and forgot to restart it. A few others recorded closer to 12 miles so I would say they were more accurate. But either way it didn't feel like a long run, it felt like a comfortable run with friends.

I am also reading (for the 4th time) 'A Life without Limits' by Chrissie Wellington. I came across this book almost by accident has I had never heard of her. But the cover kept appearing on my Instagram - it turned out a lot of people were reading it so I brought myself a copy. At first I was skeptical - not about her accomplishments which include 13 Ironman wins out of 13 - but because I am into running not triathlons, so wasn't sure I would be able to get into it. But I was quickly addicted. This woman is amazing. As I said she won 13 of the 13 Ironman races that she entered but she also won her first within a few months of turning pro. And the best bit is a few years previously she ran a 14km race ( 8.7miles) in 1 hour 19 mins averaging just over 9 min miles. Even she was impressed with her time. But then a few years later she is running sub 3 hour marathons having already completed a 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike ride. Inspirational is the only way to describe this woman.

As a result of reading her book (the first time round) my boyfriend and I brought road bikes and are hoping to enter a triathlon this summer. Ironman is now very much on my bucket list - I might start with a half first tho. But I seriously recommend you reading this book, Chrissie is an excellent example of how hard work and dedication really do pay off.

On Saturday I also entered the London to Brighton bike ride organised by the British Heart Foundation. I have wanted to do this for a few years and finally have a decent bike to enter with so in June I will be cycling 54 miles from Clapham Common to Brighton. It's only 8 weeks after the London marathon which doesn't leave much time for recovery before training picks up again but I am very excited about this.

All in all the perfect running weekend. The rest of Sunday was spent reading, watching films and having an afternoon nap. What better way to spend the day.  


Has anyone completed London to Brighton before? What are your thoughts/tips?

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Post Hellrunner Training

So post Hellrunner, marathon training was back in action.

The weekend of Hellrunner my training plan called or 3 miles on the Saturday and 10 on the Sunday. As Hellrunner was somewhere between 11-13 miles and I had a few niggles in my knees and ankles afterwards - no doubt due to proper footwear - I gave myself the Sunday off. Technically I had covered the weekends miles in one day and also didn't want to risk those niggles turning into injuries.

Monday is a scheduled rest day anyway so full training resumed on Tuesday. I took things up a gear this week due to late starts at work and did a 7am spin class followed by 20-30 mins in the pool in the mornings and my scheduled run in the evening.

This worked really well for me. I found I had loads more energy during the day and felt a lot more focused. My boyfriend was slightly concerned that I might be overdoing but the running mileage is fairly low at the moment and I am training for an endurance event so hopefully this will pay off later during the long runs. Sadly I work to a 6 week schedule so next time I'm on lates I will be doing more mileage during the week so I doubt I will get this chance again in my training plan but it was fun whilst it lasted.

I did learn a good lesson this week and that was not fake tan the night before when you literally roll out of bed and to the gym with no shower. Took a while to work out why I was sweating brown - not attractive.

Tuesdays run was a one mile warm up followed by mile sprints. This was were I learnt my second lesson - fuel properly! Having launched into the first mile sprint managing a 7.36 mile there was nothing left in the tank for any more sprints. It was now about 7pm and I hadn't eaten since lunchtime. I ran a steady mile home and cut the run short - lesson learnt for next time.

Wednesday called for a steady 6 miles on the treadmill at 10min/mile pace. I thought it wouldn't be too bad as that's slower that my normal slow pace but I found it really hard work mentally to stay on the treadmill and essentially do nothing but run for an hour. Normally I will do intervals on the treadmill to break it up but running solidly for an hour was hard. I actually got off at 3 miles ready to quit but instead I stretched, did some ab work and then got back on. I found the second half much easier and was really proud of myself for carrying on. There will be points in the marathon that will be mentally hard and this is good practice.

Thursday was a nice steady 3 miles which felt great. But the real reward came on Saturday at Parkrun, when I got a new PB. I had avoided looking at my watch the whole way round as this was my first Parkrun since November and I was planning to take it steady. As I approached the last corner I glanced down and saw my watch was on 23mins. I knew my PB was 24 something but wasn't sure what so I dug my heels in and gave it my all to the finish. As I approached I looked down at my watch and it was fast approaching 25 mins so I thought no PB. But when I stopped my watch it turns out I had ran 3.15 miles in 25mins dead on which gave me a 5k PB 24.40 :-) (turns out my previous PB was 24.57 so a whole 17 seconds improvement). The Parkrun official time is always a little off unless you are on the starting line when the horn goes off but I still got a new Parkrun PB of 25.01.

I was probably still on a high from Parkrun during Sundays 10 miles. The training plan called for 10 steady miles in 95 mins and I did 10.1 in 94 so almost perfect :-) This week has gone equally as well I even managed speed intervals outside and with no fueling issues.

I'm finding training this time round so much easier and almost relaxing. Following a training plan definitely helps with that one. I love knowing in advance what I have to do on each day and working out how to fit it in - rather than before fit it in around everything else which sometimes meant cutting runs short to do something else.

Looking back on my Nike Plus app I can see that last January I ran a total of 37.6miles in training for the Paris Marathon. So far this January (it's the 15th today) I have ran 39.3 miles already (not including Hellrunner). I'm including speed work, intervals, steady and slow runs so I feel really good about how it's going.

Fingers crossed for more good training weeks ahead.

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The HellRunner Experience

So Saturday was the first race of the year. If you can even call it a race. It was Hellrunner…10-12 miles of mud, hills, bogs and more mud!

I thought this looked fun and signed up ages ago. I also decided to sign my boyfriend up as a Christmas present so we could do it together (he admitted it wasn't one of his best presents!). I've never done anything like this before – not Tough Mudder, Spartan or even a cross country or trail race so it was a complete culture shock to me.

The Hellrunner website describes it as "trail running at its toughest and most enjoyable. 10 -12 miles of challenging off-road running… tough, twisting trails… including the famed Hills of Hell and the Bog of Doom! The Finish will bring redemption… but only to successful HellRunners.”

The day before the race I checked the weather forecast it was constant rain which did make me think twice. Even the morning of the race I said to my boyfriend are you sure you want to go  - secretly looking for a way out – and he did think about it for a while before deciding we should go along.

I was slightly under-prepared in that I wore trainers rather than spikes. I noticed a lot of people had spikes on so scrambling down a muddy embankment was a piece of cake for them. I did think about it before the race but decided spending £40-60 on a pair of trainers for once race wasn't worth it for me. My boyfriend felt the same way so we both agreed that this would be about having fun, getting round and, as we knew we were at a disadvantage with the footwear, we were going to take it slow to avoid injury.

The race had no map or mile marks and is just described as 10-12 miles so I can’t even tell you exactly how far it was. I’m not going to lie it was tough both mentally and physically. There were a lot of hills and really steep hills too. We have also had A LOT of rain recently so it was very muddy. Due to trainers some of the hills were harder for us than others but I only resorted to going down on my bum once but I did slip up twice though!

You start of on a track but it quickly lead us off into the heath-land. And before we had even completed the first mile (it felt like under a mile anyway) we went lead through a river with freezing water up to our knees.

Every 10-15 mins if not less we were in water up to at least ankle height if not higher to keeping dry was not an option.

The mental challenge would be running along a path and having to scramble down an embankment and then scramble back up and continue along the path more or less from where you went down the embankment. At the beginning this was fun but after a couple of miles of the same thing it became mentally tough as you felt like you weren't getting very far.

A lot of the off road hills were only suitable for one or two people to go down at a time so it would often bottleneck and you would be waiting around for a bit. I personally didn't mind as wasn't after a specific time and got to chat to the other runners but some people were trying to get round as quickly as possible and were getting frustrated.

The main thing I can remember is just going up hill, down hill, through rivers, water and mud. As well as zig zagging off the path to scramble up and down embankments only to end up where you started.

I knew there was something called the ‘Bog of Doom’ near the end and was looking forward to this. When we got there there was a structure over the entrance with a ‘Bog of Doom’ sign and fireworks which was a pretty impressive entrance.  This was also the main viewing area for spectators so after about 9-10 miles of no one cheering you on it was great to see so many people shouting words of encouragement. This is the one and only point we saw my mum along the route too.  

When you enter the water is up to your knees and then suddenly drops to your neck – not gradually you literally take a step and go from your knees up to your neck. I cannot describe the feeling – the water was FREEZING and my entire body contracted! They also have a smoke machine aimed at you at soon as the water depth dropped so it feels like someone is setting off a fire extinguisher near you. I quickly realised swimming was going to be my best bet here to keep warm. I could just about see the end but everyone in front of me was walking and I couldn't get past so it took ages. I think the water must have gotten deeper because after a while everyone was swimming.

I was so happy to see the end and be able to scramble out. Although I was equally as cold when I got out the water and I was now soaking, and my clothes were really heavy. And first thing we had to go was run up was a hill! Lots of people took this opportunity to speak to their loved ones – other than a “Hi Mum” we plodded up the hill immediately.  I literally couldn't feel my body though and weighed about 2 stone more in water weight so I think I jogged up the hill but I didn't feel like I was moving very fast at all!

Next up more hills and embankments. We could hear music up ahead and about 10 mins later reached a clearing and there were cheerleaders, an inflatable arch and people handing stuff out to runners. I can’t tell you how happy I was to reach the finish! Only to discover it wasn’t the finish it was just a water and jelly baby station. And I had to keep going!

Next stop straight up an embankment, only to go straight back down again and into another river crossing. This one was much longer than some of the previous one and the water was up to chest/shoulder height. We got all the way to the other other, scrambled up the embankment only to come back down again and back in the water. Although this time only up to our knees.

The last and final part was the sand dunes, up, over, round and down mountains of compressed sand for about 1 km before coming back out onto the road and back towards the start that was now the finish. I was so happy to be on the final stretch – I checked with a few runners around me who had done it the previous year to make sure I wasn't getting my hopes up again. But no we were finally on the home stretch.

My lovely boyfriend held my hand for the first part and then we sprinted to the finish – well my competitive side kicked in and I started sprinting so he followed suit! But I was very happy to finish. We got a great goody bag, a nice technical t shirt and a medal which I had been looking forward to the whole way round!

After a quick change in the car and a flask of tea we made our way home. My lips stopped being blue once we got home which was about an hour later! A hot bubble bath, nap and Domino's Pizza quickly followed!!

My lovely boyfriend could have completed it a lot faster than me but stuck with me the entire way round which I am really grateful for. Our official finish time was 2 hours 37 mins. Which although is a long time (for me) to run that kind of distance the hills, mud, and queuing definitely contribute to that.

At times I really didn't enjoy it but I would definitely do it again next year. More than anything else it’s a great hill workout and was good fun and not like anything I have ever done before. When marathon training I can take myself off and run a half marathon or further and not think too much about it. But I wouldn't take myself off through mud, this many hills or cross county. And compared to some other similar style events the £30 entry fee is very reasonable. I would look to invest in better trainers next year though.

Have you ever done a race like this before? What are you thoughts? Good or bad?

2013 Review & 2014 Goals

I’ve seen a few people do this so thought I would jump on the bandwagon.

It’s actually a great way to reflect as I wasn’t aware quiet how much I had achieved in 2013. It’s also a great way for you guys to get to know me and my running history.

In total I ran 632.2 miles, set 4 PB’s and ran my first marathon in 2013! I also encouraged my boyfriend to take up running and he will also be doing the London Marathon next year. I made lots of new running friends. I ran along the beach most days whilst on holiday in Mexico and for the first time ran through the streets of London.

I’d say 2013 was pretty good running year for me. It was the year I cranked it up and started entering races and achieving my goals.

I also discovered and fell in love with Parkrun – which if you haven’t heard of it is a free 5k timed run every Saturday at 9am. They take place all over the country and are free adults and children of all abilities. They text/email you your results the same day and keep track of your PB’s. For further info and to sign up visit their website here

Here’s the breakdown –

January	37.6
February	113
March	56.7
April	26.2
May	33.8
June	31.9
July	19.3
August	44.8
September	92.7
October	77.4
November	53.8
December	45
Total	632.2
1km	4.2
1 mile	7.4
5km	24.57
Marathon	4.4

Although a massive achievement I am disappointed with my marathon time. I was hit with a knee injury just before the race which meant I couldn’t even run a mile for the 3 weeks leading up to the race and gave me some issues on the day. This year I hope to get closer to the 4 hour mark **Fingers crossed**

Goals for 2014 other than get closer to the 4 hour mark in the marathon I don’t really have any to be honest.

I would like to get my half marathon PB below 1.50 (currently 1.53) and complete Parkrun in 22mins. But for the start of the year the marathon is my main goal so I’m not going to get too hung up on reaching these goals until after April. Not because I think I can’t do them whilst training for a marathon but because I don’t want to be at the starting line of the marathon having doubts about my ability because I haven’t reached these goals.


What were your biggest achievements in 2013? What are your goals for 2014? What do you use to record your mileage?



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