Treading water

I woke up this morning and didn't want to go out running at all. I looked at the weather app on my phone to see it was saying 100% chance of heavy rain for 0700hrs, 0800, 0900, 1000, 1100, 1200, 1300, 1400, and a reduced 90% chance of rain at 1500. The wind was above 20mph too. I considered the treadmill and then disregarded it. I wanted to see how I would feel after 6 weeks, doing the same route I did on my very first training run for the 24 hour race. Would I get through it quicker, would I find it easier? I wasn't sure. I had had a few days of annoying pain... piriformis on my right side for an hour, groin pain on my left side for 4 hours, shoulder pain for 24 hours... these taper pains are frustrating!

So, I put together a full weather proof clothing system. I don't usually wear a buff but I borrowed Graemes and I wore a running hat along with a cap to ward off rain in my eyes, waterproof trousers and my Gore jacket with full thermals and a thermal pair of gloves. I put my phone and Gymboss inside a plastic bag to save them from water damage and hoped the weather app was wrong and it would all improve so much quicker than predicted.

I set off from the house and my feet were submersed in water before I'd even got 0.2 miles from the house. Great! It was at about half a mile when I remembered I was supposed to do my "Super compensation" of 3 sets of 50 deep squats prior to running. Damn it. I'd been so consumed with the weather I'd forgotten. If there had been a quiet side street I could have gone down and done them, I would have. I resided myself to the fact that I'd just have to do them when I got home and hope that that wasn't defeating the object!

At 3 miles I tried to console myself with the fact I was almost 1/3 through the run. I talked myself out of turning back and I talked myself out of phoning Graeme for a lift home. I was running through huge puddles that were as deep as my ankles and I was not enjoying it one bit! The rain dripped off the peak of my cap and it also dripped down the back of my neck... maybe I had the buff on wrong!

At 5 miles I considered that the wind had fortunately been on my back the whole way, and then considered it was going to be in my face all the way back. It was. It was irritating. I wondered when the rain was going to slow, and then was very grateful that at least the run wasn't difficult. Nothing ached, nothing hurt, no blisters were forming and to be honest I wasn't really tired at all. I was just wet. Before long I also became very cold. The wind blowing in my face on the way home made my hands freezing and as I now ran through streams (the puddles were now merged into one big river) my feet were also absolutely freezing.

In the last few miles I had to run ankle deep (and occasionally shin deep) in brown muddy rivers where paths used to be. Cars drove past me and some drivers took great delight in sending a cresting wave over me while others tried not to do the same and failed miserably in the soaking wet weather. I hate this sort of weather, it's my most undesirable choice of meteorology!

I got home 3 minutes faster than the last time I ran this route (surprisingly) and stood in the kitchen and peeled each soaked item of clothing off me. I then did my 3 sets of 50 deep bodyweight squats (which didn't ache at all... quite a surprise as the 2 sets of 25 in Grand Cayman hurt like hell) and I had a bath (which STILL didn't warm me up). God, I hope the weather is not like this next weekend, or I'll feel quite miserable!

Sleepy tired

I keep waking up at about 3am and can't get back to sleep again. I dream about running when I'm asleep and I think about it when I'm awake. When it comes to feeling the pain on race day I have no fear at all. I honestly don't think I will ever experience as much pain as I did in Bangalore (and even if I do, I don't think it would get that much worse). No... my fear is not being able to stay awake. I really don't want to go there and sleep loads and waste all of that time. I want to stay awake as much as possible. I don't have a good track record for staying awake though. I've stayed awake all night before only to feel completely and utterly rough the following morning. I have twice gone to a conference in Portugal and stayed awake for about 39 hours. I was a mess both times and felt sick and dizzy. So, as I write this I'm thinking that pain won't be an issue... 'sleepy' tiredness will! Fortunately my worst stint will probably be during the night when Kerry is with me, so hopefully our chattering on will take my mind off it.

Awake and alert

I was like a complete zombie yesterday. My face hurt and I was very tired. Luckily, my body wasn't aching anywhere and the tenderness on the soles of my feet didn't last long either. Graeme and I bought a film off box office and I promptly slept through the whole lot. I only woke up when the dog decided to come and lie on my lap. Have you ever had a massive German Shepherd wake you up by lying on your lap... it's a bit of a shock to the system.

The tiredness didn't stop there either. We ordered a curry and had some red wine and by 8.30pm I was in bed, unable to stay awake any longer. Apparently I woke up and had a conversation with Graeme when he came to bed at 10pm, but I can't remember that at all.

When Graemes' alarm went off at 5am I could easily have got up, but chose not to. Shaun had said in an email that any extra sleep I can get now will all be good and I seem to have took those words very seriously indeed. :-) So, I got up at 6am and felt really wide awake. By the time I was on my way to work, I considered that if this was the weekend, I would probably be out for a run by now. I feel really wide awake and alert, which has surprised me quite a bit.

I'm working on my own today as my branch co-ordinator is off for a couple of days, so we shall see if I still feel this bouncy at the end of the day.

I've discussed targets for the race with Shaun too. I finally admitted my 'dream target' (one that I'd have to be in super hero mode on the day to complete... but hey, you've got to have a dream target, after all) and we have discussed two other targets. I actually think the other two are quite achievable. I don't want to talk about them on here just yet... I feel like I need to really think about them/mull them over/plan and get my head on board with it all. I will say what they are when I do my race report afterwards... these things start with accountability after all!

So, this morning all of the planning is going into action. I have ordered another Vegan runners vest, I've started working out calorie intake of different foods/drinks I'll have on the day and I've ordered some more Super Eight Shake. That stuff is great, and along with coconut chocolate milk and hemp protein (which I've been using for a recovery drink) it packs a massive 333 calories in. I'm really hating Compeed blister plasters at the moment, so am off later to buy the Scholl ones that have a much nicer edge to them when you're placing them on an awkward bendy surface (like a heel!).

Blistering wind

I got up at the crack of dawn yesterday, and by 6am I was eating breakfast. I had everything ready for my day of training and I was setting off at 7am exactly, ready to meet Kerry between 9 and 9.30. I was really tired. I felt like my body had pretty much had enough now and I just wanted the next few hours to be over and done with. The forecast was very blustery with heavy downpours so I dressed for the occasion. I wore my windproof trousers and jacket, hat, gloves and thermal top and tights. It was weird dressing like that because outside the sun was shining and it looked glorious. The bad weather was on it's way though, and because I was doing the run/walk on the beach banks I knew that the wind and rain would feel even worse.

The first hour of the run was okay but I already felt tired. Had Kerry not been coming to meet me, I'd have felt very down. I kept looking at the time and counting down sections of trail until she would be there. When we met up, her and Terry said I looked like a ninja all in black. I'd have seriously frozen to death if I'd worn the same as her... capri pants and a t-shirt underneath a jacket. I'm a proper wimp in the cold though... I freely admit it.

We set off and did a loop of the beach banks. There were a few parts where the wind didn't even seem to be around and other sections where it blew in our faces. More than once I felt quite chilly. Kerrys' legs were quite red but she said she wasn't feeling the cold in them at all. After a loop of about 4 miles, we carried on down the road and ran through Crimdon and along the beach promenade to the caravans. Kerry said it was nice to run somewhere new. Coming back towards the beach banks I totally misjudged the route and ended up taking us to a climb over a few rocks to get back onto the path. It didn't feel good on my legs at all. I have to say though, having Kerry there didn't half take my mind off any aches and pains. I even mentioned that I didn't really feel any aches at all, I just felt tired. I told her that I'd totally had enough of running now and was looking forward to tapering. It seems all I've done every Saturday is run and walk, and walk. Mentally, I'm ready for a break.

The last half an hour I found it really tough and I felt like I was running like a snail. Apparently I wasn't, but it felt that way. So, finishing my run/walk on 22 miles (I think Kerry had done about 11ish), we went into the house and had a cup of coffee. I had some potatoes with a big chunk of pease pudding (which tasted gorgeous) and I think Kerry had a banana as she doesn't like to eat too much so close to running. While out on the run she had given me a Trek bar. It tasted lovely but I had a stitch that bothered me for ages afterwards. I also found it difficult to swallow, but I'm like that with a lot of stuff while I'm running.

We got a change of clothes and then we went off for our walk. Kerry did the first 6 miles with me (when she stopped at her hotel) and I carried on. The rain had been teeming down but it got better fot the next two miles. The wind seemed to have stopped too, so I walked along the beach front at Seaton Carew. It was only when I turned around that I realised it hadn't stopped at all, but had been on my back the whole time. Now that it was in my face it made walking fast a bit harder, but not impossible.

By the time I'd got to 12 miles I was sick as a chip! The wind was very annoying and it was relentless. It was as bad as the worst parts on the beach banks I'd endured on the morning and I felt quite demoralised. I ran down a bank at about 13 miles and would have ran further but my feet were very sore and felt a little bit swollen. I rang Graeme when I was half a mile away and he ran a bath for me. As I walked through the house barefoot, even the carpet hurt my feet (although there were no blisters and no puffiness that I could see). After the bath I noticed a rash on the top of each foot, but with a dab of Sudocreme and an anti-inflammatory tablet that went within the hour.

We went out for a lovely meal with Terry and Kerry and I seemed to get more alive as the night wore on. I felt quite celebratory in the fact I'd done 38 miles that day and including the half hour or so break, I'd still completed it all in under 9 hours. My face was quite red from the wind, but I have woke up today to find it very red and sore, quite puffy and I have four blisters across my nose and cheeks. I think I need to invest in a good face cream!

So, it's done and I'm now tapering. THANK GOD! I'm so tired.

Weird

It's weird that a Saturday has me absolutely knackered and feeling like I can't run another step, then I wake up on Sunday and feel almost like I'd had a rest day and done nothing. I don't know why that's happening, but I'm grateful for it all the same.
Last week I decided to try and lose 6lb before Kent so it would be like I had done all of my training in my XL vest, which meant I needed to lose 1.5lb per week. William said, "Well, that's one way of looking at it!". I've had a high fat craving recently (which apparently is due to the fat burning I'm doing during training), so it was simply a case of cutting something that is high in fat and eating more or less of what I do now (as I'm pretty healthy anyway!). I found out half a tin of baked beans have more sugar in them than a sugared dougnut, so this is what I cut out. I also reduced my potato intake and swapped potato in my curries for cauliflower. The rest, I pretty much left the same. I got up this morning to find I've lost 2.4lbs in a week, and I can tell as I feel much better about myself. Sometimes, small changes are all you need to make a big difference.

It's bank holiday today, so I drank red wine last night and made myself ill. I drank about a bottle of it and ended up feeling very poorly and had to go to bed. Maybe because I don't drink much I'm becoming more susceptible to its effects? I'll have to drink slower and with less verocity next time! I had a cooked breakfast today, but because I knew the baked bean facts and was so pleased with last weeks fat loss, I didn't enjoy it at all. Smoothies for me from now on I think. I always feel great when I have one of them anyway.

Graeme and I are off to the cinema today, so I'm going to do my recovery run later this afternoon. That way last nights alcohol will have left the system and I'll enjoy it much more than I would if it went out now. The blister that was on my heel after Saturdays long walk got zapped yesterday (in accordance with my foot bible, "How to fix your feet" by John Vonhof) and today it looks amazingly good. Everybody should own that book... seriously!

I'm really looking forward to the weekend too. It will be so lovely to run with company. Kerry will be doing half of my run/walk and some of my walk with me and I'm looking forward to it immensely. If you'd asked me on Saturday evening was I looking forward to the prospect of about 39 miles I would have groaned and turned away, but I'm over that now. Bring it on!

Training for the last 1/3 of a race

Well, I left for my run just before 9am. The weather wasn't any better and I eventually just thought, sod it! I wore a t-shirt and shorts and dressed for the promising weather that was forecast. The first mile was freezing and bloody windy. I couldn't help but think the wind has been there for every run lately, and then I thought about how useful it was from a training point of view. It's probably going to be very windy across farmers fields in Kent, so I may as well get used to it.

I was on my way up a massive hill in the second mile when I started to feel sick. I remembered that in my anxiousness to try and miss the crappy weather, I had forgotten my nutrition. I hadn't eaten for 3 hours (I normally eat and am out within half an hour). I took a gel and hoped for the best. I realised this was probably going to be a day when I needed to take both emergency gels!

The first 4 miles were shit. I actually thought I was feeling too rough to complete the 20ish miler today and considered turning around... then I remembered that I always feel like this when I run this route! I put my sensible head on and carried on. All of a sudden, I felt great. I ran uphills, I sauntered down downhills and I was enjoying the run. This is not usual for this route, so I embraced the feeling. I felt like this until I got to 12 miles and then suddenly everything felt tough. I normally get the beginnings of cramp around this point on this route, but today I just felt very very tired. I congratulated myself on the fact I have discovered the way to stop cramp (for me it's 72 hours without caffeine or alcohol before a long run or race) and thought about how good I felt compared to how I normally do. I was tired though. I considered having a negative walk break more than once, but my new found determination wouldn't allow it. In fact, I felt a bit of a wimp wanting more of a walk, but to be fair though... that's never stopped me before!

At 15 miles (as promised to myself) I had my second gel. It didn't do a thing though. I was starving and I wanted proper solid food. I thought this was probably a good thing, and a sign that I can actually take on solid food, unlike quite a few runners! The last few miles were Hell. I REALLY wanted to walk the whole way home, I REALLY wanted to call for a lift... Hell, I REALLY just wanted to get home! The running sections were horrible but I'd seen a post by William that he'd retweeted about putting pain aside and having other 'life situations' in a box that you can call upon. I called upon them all. For me, when I'm in agony, I think of all the people in my earlier life who thought I would amount to nothing. I think about my family, my job, my car, my friends, my running, and I think about how even I didn't think I'd get as far in life as I have. If only you could have told me that at school eh? I also think about earlier on in the run and how easy it felt. I think about how running like that does you absolutley no good whatsoever. It's when you have to push past pain barriers and through a heaving chest when you finally are training to be fitter. I thought about how William and Shaun tell you to train for the last third of a race. I've sort of wimped out of this in the past. I've done a marathon and had a full week off. I've done a 30 mile training run and then did practically nothing for a few weeks. This time I've done the following on a Saturday... 16.6 miles, 21 miles, 25.8 miles, 30.48 miles, 30.4 miles and today I was hoping for somewhere between 34 and 35 miles. That's a tough few weeks. And next week is my last long run/walk and long walk which should get me to around 38 miles!

I got home after 20.4 miles and I have to admit I felt totally broken! I shuffled through the house feeling sick with hunger and absolutely exhausted. The prospect of another 14 miles made me just want to go to bed. Instead, I got my potato salad that I'd made the night before and poured over the dressing I'd made (Delia Smiths' recipe). I had substituted the sea rock salt for pink Himalayan salt which is quite good for electrolytes and I did the thing I've tried to move away from during a break... I had a bath! I laid in the bath eating my gorgeous potato salad and soaked my aching muscles. The potatoes were lush, and I realised I'm pretty good eating straight after running. I could never do that before. It might not feel so good once I started walking again though!

I still felt like I wanted to do a 14 mile walk as little as I wanted my toe nails pulling off with pliers, so I decided to go up on the treadmill instead. This way I could control my speed very well, and I could bail if I continued to feel rough. I set the treadmill to 4.2mph and got going! The first 3 miles were awful but the next two were amazing and I felt so so good. I felt rough for the next few miles and had to put a compeed plaster on my heel which had developed a blister. At 10 miles I decided to do 1 minute run and one minute walk and it felt brilliant... it was actually easier than walking, but unfortunately my blister was agony and my foot (which had been injured last year) felt very achy and tired. Probably not surprising after all of the hills today! So, I carried on and all went well until the last mile where I thought I was going to die with tiredness. At the end of the 14 miles, I actually lay down on the treadmill and was shocked that it was very very warm indeed.

So... it's done. 34.4 miles. I feel like a haggered old woman and I don't (genuinely) know how I got through today. I think the accumulative effects of running so many miles every Saturday is really taking its toll. Roll on next week. This time next week I'll be sat in a restaurant with my friends and I'll be celebrating the start of my taper... oh how I'm wishing the next week away! I'm tired, but I've trained for the last third of the race this time!

Waiting

Apologies... apologies... I see I've had loads of hits here since my last post. I haven't blogged because my "dork" of a husband cut the phone line while decorating a bedroom. He thought the wire was an unused one... if only he'd asked... I have lived in this house for 16 years and could have told him it was the phone line... the big giveaway was the BT box he cut the wire from...

So, I'm sat here, still in my "comfies" waiting to get ready for a run/walk. Today is 4 hours followed by a 14 mile walk. Last week the run/walk for 3.5 hours was great. If it hadn't been for the wind it would have been amazing but the last 8-9 miles was headlong into the wind and it was tougher than I'd hoped. The 12 mile walk that followed also went well. I found the last 2 miles I was curious to see how I would feel if I started running again (after around 6ish hours on my feet) and it was fine. The first bit felt very ungainly and awkward but it improved the more I did it. I only ran about 50 metres at a time but it felt good. It gave me a bit of confidence that after a lot of walking I can actually make myself start running again!

So, today is my 'Nemisis' route... it's the one with the huge hills. Last time I did this however, it showed on my Garmin as nowhere near the elevation I thought it was (I have seen a Garmin tell me it is around 5000ft before but last time it only showed up half of that)... well, whatever it is, I'll find out today... and whatever it is, it's still a really tough route.

And the reason I'm waiting to go out running and am blogging instead is because it's raining quite badly. I know that's quite wimpish, but apparently the sun is going to get out and it's going to be a glorious 13 degrees (if you're reading this from abroad, I understand that will sound quite a conrtradiction in terms... in the UK however, 13 degrees is, like... PROPER summer weather) :-) So, that changes the attire and the accessories needed. I'm hoping to ditch the waterproof jacket and wear sunnies and suncream instead. I'll let you know how I get on...