Had a tough 4 miles last night, ended thinking 'I'm kidding myself with this'. Ventured out tonight and was going much better, until 3 miles in when I tripped, fell and smashed my face on the concrete. Got up, saw blood pouring everywhere and immediately thought I'd broken my nose. Was vaguely aware of a woman who'd pulled over shouting 'are you ok?' Ran up to her car and shouted at her 'I'm bleeding, is it my face? IS IT MY FACE??' She said 'yes but it's just your eye. But the blood is pouring down your face' She kindly gave me a pack of tissues and I then had to walk 2 miles home whilst trying to stem the gushing flow of blood from my head. It's hard to say what was my injured- my face or my pride. By this point my head was banging and passers by were looking at me as if I was mental. Can't really blame them, I unfortunately had a while top on, which now had blood all down the front. Eventually got home to survey the damage. One side of my face resembles Gordon Ramsay post hair transplant. Dreading waking up tomorrow morning to a bruised cheek and elephant man black eye. Ended the evening with a bag of frozen oven chips clamped to my face.
Not sure this is what I signed up for
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
Thursday, 20 January 2011
The adventure starts here
Almost at the end of week 3 of training. Currently veering between 'I can do this, nothing's gonna stop me now!' and 'Dear god what the hell am I thinking'.
Thankfully the snow has stayed away throughout January, although this does mean I have no excuse to speak any mileage. For the first couple of weeks of January you couldn't move for runners on the pavement, we were tripping over each other. Now the new years resolution gang are starting to fade away again.
I have also come to the conclusion that running clothes are just not made to be attractive. Cold weather= running tights which in turn= HOT.
Not.
No pain, no gain.
Thankfully the snow has stayed away throughout January, although this does mean I have no excuse to speak any mileage. For the first couple of weeks of January you couldn't move for runners on the pavement, we were tripping over each other. Now the new years resolution gang are starting to fade away again.
I have also come to the conclusion that running clothes are just not made to be attractive. Cold weather= running tights which in turn= HOT.
Not.
No pain, no gain.
Thursday, 11 November 2010
Winter sucks
After the Portsmouth exploits I decided to give myself a well earned rest. One whole week of no training. I've been easing myself back in the last week or two, but am only doing short runs. Come January I will basically have no life so from now until then I am taking it easy! It's no fun running 8, 9 or 10 miles in the dark, wind and rain after work so as I'm not in training at the moment- whyon earth would I bother?
It really is most liberating to decide on the way home 'nah it's raining, I'm not going out in this' and not have to feel guilty about it!
It really is most liberating to decide on the way home 'nah it's raining, I'm not going out in this' and not have to feel guilty about it!
Monday, 25 October 2010
Great South Run, Portsmouth. 24th October 2010
I signed up for this race back in March, as I was very keen to compete in a Great Run. What I didn't fully consider at the time was that this would be in Portsmouth. In October. But wait....who knew the sun could shine on the coast of England? We were truly blessed with perfect running conditions- most importantly no rain. Plus, with a race start time of 11am, we didn't have to set off at what usually feels like the middle of the night. Indeed, not encountering Saturday night stop-outs on their way home who look at you like you're mental for being in running shoes at 7am on a Sunday morning made a pleasant change.
One of the best things about these big city races is getting to the start line. Stepping off the train and not having a clue which way to go is always made fun by playing a game of 'follow that runner' and with 23,000 people running this race, we were never going to get lost.
Waiting on the start line, I was nervous as training had been a bit, well -thin the last couple of weeks. I was also thanking the lord I was able to feel my fingers and toes- the sun really did have his hat on by now.
And off we went! The first couple of miles of these big races never feel that tough because you're too busy concentrating on not getting knocked flying.
Usually at this point I start to settle into my steady race pace of about 5.30mins p/km. However, every time I checked my pace was hitting at least 5mins p/km- my 5km or 10km (on a good day) pace. I was flying! Every time I tried to slow myself down I started to feel more tired so decided to keep pushing on. Before I knew it, I was at 5 miles in about 43 minutes. I was easily going to make my target of 1.5hours.
Great support round the course kept me going at this super hero (for me) pace. 7 miles and still going strong- where was this coming from?! However, at this point I knew what was coming- the last two miles straight back along the coast. I was fearing the worst so forced myself to slow down. But rather than the expected sea breeze, I was greeted by simmering heat, which did start to wipe me out. The Bupa energy station (i.e jelly babies) perked me up slightly. But where oh where was the 9 mile marker? It must be coming up soon? After what felt like 3 days it finally appeared. By this point I was almost conked out. But nothing has ever, ever looked so good as that '400 metres to go' sign. I was almost on the verge of tears, and a quick check at the time almost tipped me over the edge. I wasn't just going to make 1.5 hours- I was going to blitz it! In fact, if I could pull out a sprint finish I was going to smash through 1 hour 25 minutes. So some how I forced my jelly legs to move as fast as they possibly could and practically fell over the finish line in 1 hour, 24 minutes and 30 seconds! (The official time later said 1 hour 24 minutes and 44 seconds but my Ipod is usually spot on for time, and other people have said the timing was off so I'm sticking with mine. Up yours Bupa chip timing)
This is the first race when I've genuinely felt in danger of throwing up on the finish line, which I took as a good sign that I'd given it everything I had! I felt slightly delirious for a good 15 minutes after.
Overall, a great race. Fast, super flat course and luckily great weather. Really chuffed with my time and surprisingly my legs felt pretty normal after. I finished in 3660th place which is not too shabby.
All topped off with fish and chips on the pebble beach and a trip round the arcade. Couldn't ask for anything more. Thank you Portsmouth!
One of the best things about these big city races is getting to the start line. Stepping off the train and not having a clue which way to go is always made fun by playing a game of 'follow that runner' and with 23,000 people running this race, we were never going to get lost.
Waiting on the start line, I was nervous as training had been a bit, well -thin the last couple of weeks. I was also thanking the lord I was able to feel my fingers and toes- the sun really did have his hat on by now.
And off we went! The first couple of miles of these big races never feel that tough because you're too busy concentrating on not getting knocked flying.
Usually at this point I start to settle into my steady race pace of about 5.30mins p/km. However, every time I checked my pace was hitting at least 5mins p/km- my 5km or 10km (on a good day) pace. I was flying! Every time I tried to slow myself down I started to feel more tired so decided to keep pushing on. Before I knew it, I was at 5 miles in about 43 minutes. I was easily going to make my target of 1.5hours.
Great support round the course kept me going at this super hero (for me) pace. 7 miles and still going strong- where was this coming from?! However, at this point I knew what was coming- the last two miles straight back along the coast. I was fearing the worst so forced myself to slow down. But rather than the expected sea breeze, I was greeted by simmering heat, which did start to wipe me out. The Bupa energy station (i.e jelly babies) perked me up slightly. But where oh where was the 9 mile marker? It must be coming up soon? After what felt like 3 days it finally appeared. By this point I was almost conked out. But nothing has ever, ever looked so good as that '400 metres to go' sign. I was almost on the verge of tears, and a quick check at the time almost tipped me over the edge. I wasn't just going to make 1.5 hours- I was going to blitz it! In fact, if I could pull out a sprint finish I was going to smash through 1 hour 25 minutes. So some how I forced my jelly legs to move as fast as they possibly could and practically fell over the finish line in 1 hour, 24 minutes and 30 seconds! (The official time later said 1 hour 24 minutes and 44 seconds but my Ipod is usually spot on for time, and other people have said the timing was off so I'm sticking with mine. Up yours Bupa chip timing)
This is the first race when I've genuinely felt in danger of throwing up on the finish line, which I took as a good sign that I'd given it everything I had! I felt slightly delirious for a good 15 minutes after.
Overall, a great race. Fast, super flat course and luckily great weather. Really chuffed with my time and surprisingly my legs felt pretty normal after. I finished in 3660th place which is not too shabby.
All topped off with fish and chips on the pebble beach and a trip round the arcade. Couldn't ask for anything more. Thank you Portsmouth!
Monday, 18 October 2010
Wimbledon 10k -17th October 2010
I've done this race a couple of times and enjoyed it so thought I'd give it another go. Nice fast, flat course ... until you get to 5k and the mount everest of Wimbledon appears from nowhere. Good god. It's like the travelator on Gladiators. Once over that, it wasn't too bad. Lost a good few seconds when a guy tripped over and smacked his face on the road. Chipped his tooth. I was the only person who stopped to help. I think I deserve a humanitarian handicap for that. Finished in 51.10- ten seconds faster than my course record but 10 seconds slowly than PB.
Maybe next time.
Maybe next time.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)