Apologies for the lack of a post last week. Various visiting and half term-ery got in the way of me doing a training run (although I did at least manage to fit in a cross-training session to make up for it a little) and I haven't really had much time for writing blogs recently.
As a result, I jumped at the opportunity to go for another run in the forest yesterday afternoon. Especially as Mark was around to come with me :-).
We planned to do the 3.5 K path again, as I've been a bit ill recently and didn't want to push myself too much. However, we ended up being foiled by all the mud everywhere (the 3.5K path takes a lot of detours along little dirt tracks through the trees). After one particularly slow and squelchy trek along one of these paths, we decided that we'd better just stick to the main track for the rest of the run.
And so, instead of a gentle, manageable, getting-back-into-the-swing-of-things 3.5K run, I ended up running for 5.2K instead.
It actually wasn't too bad: my legs were holding up pretty well and I wasn't getting too out of breath. The only real problem I experienced was almost continual stitches.
Now, I know why this is. Mark and I had friends to stay on Saturday night and we had a rather heavy (but totally lush) three-course meal. As I discovered to my cost, your body doesn't much like it when you start running after having eaten a huge amount of rich food (not that I'm complaining too much, you understand: sweet potato soup + roasted pheasant, dauphinois potatoes and veg + homemade apple tart and clotted cream = yum yum yum yum yum!). We also then compounded the problem by having bacon and eggs for breakfast the next morning (and no, having a smoothie with it doesn't automatically make it 'healthy'!). So it's no surprise, really, that my poor body was protesting rather a lot as I forced it to run along such a long (and hilly!) course.
Still, it was nice to get out under the (momentarily!) blue sky and hear the birds singing and suchlike :-).
I'm now looking forward to spring and blossoms and (hopefully!) an absence of mud...
Stats for this run:
Distance: 5.2K
Time: 44 minutes 57 seconds
Average K pace: 8 minutes 38 seconds
Monday 28 February 2011
Sunday 13 February 2011
The Lone Runner
Yesterday I went for my first ever run *all by myself*.
Mark was at the football and I'm going to have to drive to Wales today so I decided to bite the bullet and just take myself out for a run.
I settled on the forest again, same route as last time.
The mud was even worse this time and I actually had to stop twice because I couldn't physically run in the stuff.
Despite this, however, I somehow managed to beat last week's time! Even getting distracted by a falcon at one point didn't slow me up too much (?!).
The final hill really was a killer though. Halfway up, I suddenly decided to take a look at my watch and see how I was doing time-wise. After the muddy-walking-saga, I was fully expecting to be way over 30 mins. Imagine my surprise, then, to find that I was actually making better time than last week.
Immediately I took things up a notch (despite being unbelievably knackered and halfway up an almost vertical slope) and the last few (steep!) yards of the run were like torture.
As soon as I reached the end, I collapsed onto a nearby wall. I felt sick. Really sick. In fact, I was genuinely concerned that I was going to throw up all over a passing family walking their dog.
But a few deep breaths later, the feeling had passed and I just felt my usual post-run-knackered self.
As I was trying to motivate myself to stand up, a woman walked past me and I heard her say to her friend 'Oh my God, she's just run up that hill...!'
For some reason, this made me feel rather proud of myself!
Stats
Distance: 3.4K
Time: 28 minutes 50 seconds
Average K pace: 8 minutes 28 seconds
Mark was at the football and I'm going to have to drive to Wales today so I decided to bite the bullet and just take myself out for a run.
I settled on the forest again, same route as last time.
The mud was even worse this time and I actually had to stop twice because I couldn't physically run in the stuff.
Despite this, however, I somehow managed to beat last week's time! Even getting distracted by a falcon at one point didn't slow me up too much (?!).
The final hill really was a killer though. Halfway up, I suddenly decided to take a look at my watch and see how I was doing time-wise. After the muddy-walking-saga, I was fully expecting to be way over 30 mins. Imagine my surprise, then, to find that I was actually making better time than last week.
Immediately I took things up a notch (despite being unbelievably knackered and halfway up an almost vertical slope) and the last few (steep!) yards of the run were like torture.
As soon as I reached the end, I collapsed onto a nearby wall. I felt sick. Really sick. In fact, I was genuinely concerned that I was going to throw up all over a passing family walking their dog.
But a few deep breaths later, the feeling had passed and I just felt my usual post-run-knackered self.
As I was trying to motivate myself to stand up, a woman walked past me and I heard her say to her friend 'Oh my God, she's just run up that hill...!'
For some reason, this made me feel rather proud of myself!
Stats
Distance: 3.4K
Time: 28 minutes 50 seconds
Average K pace: 8 minutes 28 seconds
Saturday 12 February 2011
Comments issue
Morning :-)
Have just realised that my blog was only allowing people registered with Google to comment on my posts... so I have now fixed this (go me!) so that anyone can comment.
Obviously, I am now expecting a positive deluge of new comments... ;-)
Have just realised that my blog was only allowing people registered with Google to comment on my posts... so I have now fixed this (go me!) so that anyone can comment.
Obviously, I am now expecting a positive deluge of new comments... ;-)
Wednesday 9 February 2011
If you go down to the woods today
Well, 3 days ago actually (illness has prevented me from writing up this run sooner).
After another lovely (flat!) run along the railway track last Friday, I decided that I should push myself a bit and go for a run in the forest.
Now don't get me wrong, the forest is very beautiful and idyllic and I like it very much. However, it is also extremely hilly, there are muddy patches you could sink a landrover in (ok, slight exaggeration) and many of the paths are so riddled with tree roots that I'm amazed I emerged without, at the very least, a twisted ankle.
It certainly wasn't restful, meditative, I'll-just-switch-off-my-brain-for-next-half-an-hour-so type running. I had to be vigilant.
I was especially worried about the hills, as I've struggled with hills in the past and there are some ultra-steep ones in the forest. However, even though I did find it a struggle to regain a decent pace after I'd dragged myself up the first hill, I didn't at any point feel that I needed to stop and I managed to keep going right until the end.
So yay!
I'm going to aim for the longer forest route next time (just over 5K and scarier hills): wish me luck :-).
Stats
Distance: 3.4K
Time: 29 minutes 56 seconds
Average K pace: 8 minutes 48 seconds
After another lovely (flat!) run along the railway track last Friday, I decided that I should push myself a bit and go for a run in the forest.
Now don't get me wrong, the forest is very beautiful and idyllic and I like it very much. However, it is also extremely hilly, there are muddy patches you could sink a landrover in (ok, slight exaggeration) and many of the paths are so riddled with tree roots that I'm amazed I emerged without, at the very least, a twisted ankle.
It certainly wasn't restful, meditative, I'll-just-switch-off-my-brain-for-next-half-an-hour-so type running. I had to be vigilant.
I was especially worried about the hills, as I've struggled with hills in the past and there are some ultra-steep ones in the forest. However, even though I did find it a struggle to regain a decent pace after I'd dragged myself up the first hill, I didn't at any point feel that I needed to stop and I managed to keep going right until the end.
So yay!
I'm going to aim for the longer forest route next time (just over 5K and scarier hills): wish me luck :-).
Stats
Distance: 3.4K
Time: 29 minutes 56 seconds
Average K pace: 8 minutes 48 seconds
Friday 4 February 2011
On the right track
I've had the day off work today so have taken the opportunity to sneak in another training run (oh yes, I really know how to live ;-) ).
As lovely Mark was off work as well, he obligingly came along with me again and we revisited my first route: the old railway line (just as before: relatively flat... picturesque... lots of people walking dogs).
This time I set myself the challenge of running right to the end of the track before turning back and, despite the usual feeling about 1K in that 'Ugh! This is too hard!', I made it there and back again without too much trouble.
If I'm honest, when I first started out I was expecting this blog to be a bit of a whinge-fest. I was expecting to be constantly complaining about how difficult all this running malarkey is and needing huge amounts of encouragement to keep me on track. Bizarrely, though, this doesn't seem to be the case in reality. I'm actually (and this is the really really surprising thing) quite enjoying myself.
But hey, we're still only three runs in... ;-)
Stats
Distance: 5.9K
Time: 52 minutes 35 seconds
Average K pace: 8 minutes 54 seconds
As lovely Mark was off work as well, he obligingly came along with me again and we revisited my first route: the old railway line (just as before: relatively flat... picturesque... lots of people walking dogs).
This time I set myself the challenge of running right to the end of the track before turning back and, despite the usual feeling about 1K in that 'Ugh! This is too hard!', I made it there and back again without too much trouble.
If I'm honest, when I first started out I was expecting this blog to be a bit of a whinge-fest. I was expecting to be constantly complaining about how difficult all this running malarkey is and needing huge amounts of encouragement to keep me on track. Bizarrely, though, this doesn't seem to be the case in reality. I'm actually (and this is the really really surprising thing) quite enjoying myself.
But hey, we're still only three runs in... ;-)
Stats
Distance: 5.9K
Time: 52 minutes 35 seconds
Average K pace: 8 minutes 54 seconds
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