Malawi link

I have finally started writing a bit about my visit back to Gwengwe village in Malawi – read it here if you are interested.  There will be a few more to follow since I have only managed to write up my first day there so far!

Enjoying club running

It’s still coming back, albeit slowly but have had good runs at the club Mon and Wed and that was one of the things I really wanted as I want to be well back into regularly going to the club before pacepusher goes to the navy so it is not so hard to drag myself out once he is gone.  Of course I was the one to drag him out to the club almost two weeks and consequently he didn’t leave the house for almost ten days I think except to walk the dog so I felt a bit bad – especially if he does turn out to have Lyme’s disease!

Sunday 23rd August

1 1/4 hrs badminton

1 hr mountain biking

2 mile run on trail when I could not handle the mountain biking anymore!  The other twin, Kevin, came with me this time and egged me round as I was finding the hills hard.  He was very encouraging and it was nice to have different company.  Thirteen years old and so much faster than me though!

Monday 24th August

Club speed session – 8 miles, 1hr 23mins

Almost 3 mile warm up as I ran to the club.

1 1/4 mins on, 2 1/2 mins on and 3 3/4 mins on x 3 with half recoveries.

Messed up the first couple of splits as I could not hear the ‘on’.

1.15 mins – 8.04 pace, 3.45 mins – 8.38 pace

1.15 mins – 7.11 pace, 2.30 mins – 8.14 pace, 3.45 mins – 7.43 pace

1.15 mins – 6.48 pace, 2.30 mins – 7.31 pace, 3.45 mins – 7.46 pace

Tuesday 25th August

4.18 miles, 42 mins, ave pace 10.09 m/m pace

I was staying at the Stirling Management Centre and had a bit of an adventure – basically due to my poor navigation skills!  Not only did I not really have time to do over 4 miles but I had not planned on it either.  Nor did I expect to be traipsing through woods, trail and fields to find my way so it ended up as a bit of a hill training session!

Wednesday 26th August

Club run, 5.75 miles, 51.56 mins, 9.02 m/m ave pace

10.06, 9.25, 8.23, 8.16, 8.38, 9.27

There was a massive hill in the first mile and I wanted to turn around and go back as I was trailing behind but thankfully I persevered as it was a lovely run after that and with lots of downhill I managed to get my time down a bit. 

Saturday 27th August

2 miles

It was supposed to be longer but after losing the dog twice (imagine me going home to say I had lost the dog!) I kind of lost the will to carry on with so much walking around and shouting on him and panicking!

Total mileage for the week – 22 miles

5 times out

Maybe I’ve stolen Mrs Mac’s mojo!

More mileage than last week – still low – and one more run this week so I am happy with that.  I am so motivated right now and have definitely got some mojo from somewhere but I just wish that would follow through to my legs!  Two really good runs at the club this week but the rest have been rubbish but at just pleased I am going out.  (Debs was very impressed to see her name in a title last week so thought I would give Mrs Mac a turn too!)

Sunday 18th Aug – 2 miles

Rubbish after yesterday!

Body Pump express

Body Attack express

Monday 17th Aug – 6 mile speed session at the club

3 mins, 1 min off, 1 min on, 2 mins off x 6

My GPS died as soon as we started running which I am really disappointed about as I know it was a much better session than last week and I got stronger the whole way through – instead of wanting to be sick like last week!  Weirunner really helped me on a couple of the 3 mins which I much appreciated, I would have loved to know what pace I was going at!

Wednesday 19th Aug – 6 mile at the club, 56.02mins, 9.20m/m ave pace

9.17, 9.26, 9.31, 8.56, 8.48, 10.00

Really enjoyed this run, mostly on the cycle path, with a few others and loved feeling in the middle like I was getting a slight bit of pace back (well faster than the last few months anyway).  Last mile really hard as so uphill.  I was on a real high afterwards.

Thursday 20th Aug – 5 mile run/walk

Untimed as it ended up so bad but I could only expect that after last night, I am really not running well two days in row again yet.

Saturday 21st Aug – 3 mile run, 31.19mins, 10.27m/m ave pace

10.48, 10.04, 10.26

Hard work this morning but entirely my fault as I drove up to Aberdeen last night, exhausted, but then managed to stay up to read an entire book (albeit a teenage boy’s book) and then woke up at 6am this morning and read almost an entire other book in an attempt to doze off again but it failed!  I am exhausted today and in my defence it is very hilly!  Had good company on my run from Jamie who cycled with me and kept up a steady stream of chat the whole way to keep my distracted.

Hope to get a longer one in tomorrow but will need to get some sleep tonight!  We are all looking forward to wathching the relays tonight!

Weekly mileage – 22 miles

5 times out

Debs was right!

Debs warned me that Kili would stay in our legs for ages, and I did listen and I did believe her but I did not realise how hard running would be even 3 weeks later – at least I hope this is the reason and not just complete loss of all running fitness!  Anway it’s mortifying the splits I have written below but just pleased with myself that I have gone out running four times this week even though it has been a real struggle and hopefully I will stay motivated to get out more and get those times back down.

I was meant to do more than 4 miles with Louise on Tues but my legs were absolute jelly and I felt sick and horrible (Debs did also say that after effects were like a very long hangover, I certainly felt like that).  I also got my throat thing really badly, really quickly and it was horrid.  I felt like I was on the top of Kili again and it felt very much like I imagine asthma might feel like.  Had a better run on Thurs and at least I got faster with every mile even though it was still slow.  Body Pump was really hard after though!

Sun 9th Aug

Body Attack express

Mon 10th Aug

Club speed session – 5.32 miles, 55 mins

0.9 mile warm up, 8.57 m/m pace

1 min – 7.37m/m, 1.30 mins – 8.01m/m, 2 mins – 8.22m/m

2.30 mins – 8.43m/m, 3 mins – 8.06m/m, 3 mins – 8.36m/m

2.30 mins – 7.51m/m, 2 mins – 8.39m/m, 1.30 mins – 7.39m/m

1 min – 7.43m/m

0.64 mile cool down

Tues 11th Aug

4 miles with Louise, ave 9.47m/m, 39.10

10.03, 9.22, 10.19, 9.24

2 miles with sis-in-law

Thurs 13 Aug

5 miles, 9.51m/m ave pace, 49.12mins

10.35, 10.07, 9.50, 9.36, 9.04

Body Pump

Sat 15th Aug

4 miles, 10.15m/m ave pace, 41.09mins

10.02, 9.45, 10.49, 10.24

Total weekly mileage – 20 miles

Interrupted week!

Mon 3rd Aug – 3 mile run with Harvey, untimed.

Nothing all week with that stomach bug!

Sat 8th August – 7 miles, Devil’s Staircase to Kinlochleven.

Having made the decision to pull out of the Devil’s I know it was the right one by the fact that my stomach was sore and I was exhausted just doing the section from DS to K.  I did enjoy it though and got a bit of motivation back.  It was good fun going to watch and not having to worry about being back-up for anyone, although the 4am start does seem excessive.

Well done to Debs and Silke specifically for great runs, it was a pleasure to be there to see them through the race and finishing!  (And well done to John and Ian and everyone else as well!)

Total weekly mileage w/b 2nd Aug – 10 miles!

Photos of Kili and Malawi on Flickr

Running in Malawi, trekking in Tanzania and the gym in Kenya!

That was a busy July again!

Spent the first two weeks in Malawi, surprisingly finding it quite different to last time in terms of how I felt while there.  I found it much harder than last year, at least for the first few days as I was getting easily upset by the poverty.  I think it was because it was cold and again, as towards the end of last year, I did not think they had enough clothes on – well actually I know they didn’t, they would stand there shivering with their teeth chattering!

No health and safety killjoys operating here!

Anyway you can read more about the work I did there on my other blog when I eventually write it.  I did some exercise every day while out there but it was mostly very short.  Twice, Lameck (the boy who ran with last year) did not turn up so I could only run with the small kids around the pitches and I also got a dodgy tummy a couple of days which resulted in a very quick stop one day!  It was also hard as I felt the kids should not be running too far as a lot of them were very young (the youngest was about 3 that ran with me) and they pushed and shoved so much to be near me that it’s lucky there were not more serious accidents!

Everyone happy to be running again!

When I first turned up I was, unsurprisingly, in tears as so many kids chased me in the taxi when they realised I had arrived - that was the £100 + taxi from the capital to get to our villages!  70-100 kids followed me into the compound and just sat there watching me.  Lameck tried to get them to ask questions/comment of which the most  memorable two were I was much fatter than last year (more than a stone in fact although I am pretty sure they meant it as a compliment) and when was I going to take them running!!!  After virtually 48 hours of travelling and it already being about 4pm my answer was tomorrow!  It was not the only time there were comments made about me being fatter and the kids asked to run every day by saying jogging, jogging and doing it on the spot.  Hard to explain when I would be going each day through the language barriers and when the kids certainly don’t own watches!

Hugging while running - the boy in the middle was a total favourite of mine!

Another thing that was hard this year, although I would not have changed it for anything was the attention from the kids.  Last year they were shy at first and even at the end they took their cue from me about when I would play with them etc as I did a lot of work in the afternoons.  This year they were relentless!  I would be at school with them from 7am to 1pm, go home for lunch and maybe get about 20 mins to do some work before the first children would start to filter into the compound.  They must have had some secret messaging system as once one was in they all started coming!  I got in the habit of getting out crayons and paper every day as I was often making resources for the school and then going running with them and then getting the balloons, bubbles, tennis balls, camera etc out until 6pm by which time it would be dark and I would go in and bathe in the dark then have dinner and play with the kids in my family until bed at 7pm!  I did feel I was chasing my tail the whole time with trying to do work for the school and no time to do it in but I would never have ignored or stayed away from the kids!

Just some of the kids who came to draw each day!

Sat 4th July – 3 hour walk (about 20km, very undulating) and 1 mile run with kids

Sun 5th July – 40 min walk and 1.6 mile run with kids

Mon 6th July – 3 1/2 hour walk (about 24km, very undulating)

Tues 7th July – 1 mile run with kids around pitches

Wed 8th July – 1 mile run stopped short!

Thurs 9th July – 40min walk

Fri 9th July - 40 min walk

Sat 10th July – 3 hr walk (same as previous Sat)

Sun 11th July – 5 mile run with Lameck

Mon 12th July – 1 mile run with kids

Tues 13th July – 2 mile run (1 mile uphill) with kids

Wed 14th July – 4 1/2 mile run (1 mile uphill) with kids

So worse than last year in that I did less running overall but I managed a 5 miler which I did not get up to last year.  How pathetic does that sound?!

Again it was a joy to run with the kids as they were so happy to do be doing something with me.  The last two days I was running to use my phone up the hill. On the Tues, 16 kids, ranging in age from 6 – 13, insisted they could come too. Then on the Wed I was going to visit a village up the hill and as it was my last full day, there was no way nearly 30 of them were not coming with me!  They did really well although some did things like run ahead and then lie down to have breaks to recover.

I managed to get the female teachers to wear trousers for sports day!

I did a full Sports day on my last day with potted sports for the infants, juniors and then seniors with skipping, football pentalties, dribbling, skittles, etc and then races.  Like last year though once they saw someone was winning the rest just stopped.  To encourage them to finish next time I would have to do something like stickers for 2nd and 3rd as well as the medals for 1st to encourage them to keep going.  The range of ages in each class does mean it is usually pretty obvious who will win though as there are big boys and girls in even the lower classes and they always won!

Me with my namesake - she was born just as I arrived and so has been named after me!

I was extremely upset to leave, especially as there were a lot of upset children as well.  It took about 30 – 40 mins to get out of the village as the kids just surrounded the taxi and danced and sang to me in front of it and were trying to help push from the sides and the back.  Luckily the taxi driver was very patient!

Attempting to leave the village!

And so after many hours of hanging about and travelling again I was in Nairobi and waiting for pacepusher at the airport. It was sheer luck that our flights arrived within an hour of each other.  We had a day in Nairobi before travelling to Moshi in Tanzania which was our base for climbing Kiliminjaro, although we were too tired to do very much except go for a wander and sort out Tanzanian visas at the embassy.  (I was worried about waiting until the border even though it is supposed to be fine, turns out we were virtually the only ones on the bus who had them.  I had been seriously panicking from the end of June for nothing!)

I have been on bumpier and dustier bus journeys (Malawi and Cambodia) but after 9 hours was still glad it was over!  I had booked an independent trip to do Kili, more chance of which company (Gap Adventures) we ended up with but turns out they work with another company (Zara) and we were actually climbing with them so we found out we were with 2 other people – Sophie, a drama teacher in Oxford, and Matt a student from London (at uni in Leeds, as Neal had also been).  This turned out, as I thought, to be much better.  Can you imagine pacepusher and I spending 6 days only with each other doing something like that!!!!  Having other people around would keep our squabbling at bay!

Awake and clean looking at the start of the trek!

The first four days (Machame Route) were very pleasant trekking, in good company and with amazing views, well after we got out of the clouds on the second day!  After that we had amazing weather during the day although the nights were bitterly cold and I was silently thanking Debs every night for lending me her mini hot water bottle.  I got little enough sleep as it was camping, it would have been a lot worse without that and the many layers!

End of day 1

Our guide had me leading the group most of the time on these four days, saying I did a good pace.  It was really hard to go slowly enough but I must have done alright!  I know I speeded up on the steeper bits as I would want them done and was slightly happier to stroll along on the flat.  We also passed people all the time and took far less time than it was suggested for each day but our guide seemed happy enough with our pace.  It was hard to go slowly though as for most of those four days I felt no affects of the altitude and wanted to walk at my usual pace.  Indeed the most challenging aspect of the trip for me for the first four days was the toilet facilities!  I am not known for my ability to rough it, and they were beyond useable for me after the second day.  It is unfortunate that it was also about this time that trees, bushes and rocks in suitable sizes or places became sparser and  finding somewhere to go (where no-one could see you) was almost as hard as keeping warm at night!

Getting above the clouds on Day 2

Anyone who saw the Comic Relief programme and Cheryl Cole squealing as she climbed the Barranco Wall on the fourth day can now just put me in her place.  Actually I was not as bad as that but I was not looking forward to that part as it looked really steep with sheer drops on the programme but in actual fact there was only one bit where I had a squeal of I don’t like this (probably the same place as on the programme), otherwise I was quite proud of myself for that bit and enjoyed the challenge, as I am not known for enjoying scary things like that either!  It was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be!

Almost at the top of the Barranco wall

Summit night though was the hardest thing, physically and mentally that I have ever done and it shows how hard it was that pacepusher said the same thing.  We started about 12.30am I think and after nearly 6 hours of straight uphill we had made it to the crater.  That was after some stops for pacepusher to vomit and for me to eat although I was pretty much in tears the second time as my hands were so cold I could not get them to move to get to my food.  I was really conscious of trying to drink enough, especially as my platypus would freeze up at some points, although it lasted quite well. This meant that I got my throat problem again and I was really struggling to breathe after halfway up and so this obviously made it much worse.

On the rim of the crator.

Once we got to the crater it was a very short break before walking on the hour or so to Uhuru Peak.  This was when I realised how exhausted I was and how different it was to any other type of exhaustion.  It was not that my legs were sore or I was particularly sick from altitude, it was just total body exhaustion.  I tried counting steps on the way round to Uhuru and managed a couple of hundred each time before stopping to get my breath back and then managed consistent walking for the last five minutes or so when I could actually see the peak, with tears streaming down my face!  It was so cold though that we did not even stay up there that long and we were just desperate to get down and recover, which is a shame as it would have been nice to have felt comfortable enough to stay up there longer as it was amazing.

The four of us made it!

I did feel it was quite an anti-climax as well and am still struggling to take it in.  I have yet to sound excited or pleased about having done it. It only started to sink in on the plane home when it took 12 mins to get up to the altitude we had been at on the summit, and when I could see Mount Kenya sticking up above the clouds!

The descent to base camp was made a lot easier for me by our guide taking me by the arm and skiing me down the mountain basically with the boys close behind doing their exaggerated ski moves!  We had a rest and then 3 further hours down that day and less than 2 hours the next day.

All in all we did 32 hours of walking , taking 25 hours to get up and just 7 to get down!

Looking rather less clean when we finish!

I managed an hour of cardio in the gym each day in our hotel in Nairobi before sunbathing and shopping each day, including a lot of haggling for the oil paintings below, just need to get them properly mounted now! 

Unlike usual I was glad when it was time to come home this time, Malawi and Kili were exhausting and although the safari was good and we were in beds it was still camping and even in our very nice hotel in Nairobi I still was not sleeping well or recovering really.  I had also left a lot of clothes behind in Malawi and used 99% of the rest on Kili so was struggling to look presentable enough. Although we tried, and pacepusher did managed to get 2 new t-shirts, I could find nothing to buy in terms of clothes!

I really want to go trekking again soon as I really enjoyed that, although pacepusher is not so sure about going to altitude again!

Mrs Indecisive!

Changed my mind!  Helped my sis-in-law set up her classroom today and I am exhausted, really sick feeling and totally lacking in energy and so I think I would be really stupid to run as 98% sure I would not finish.  We will be coming to watch and I will probably do a shorter run at some point in the day.  Harvey needs a run as between me having a stomach bug and Neal having the flu I think he would rather have stayed with WeirRunner than come back home after our holiday!

Giving it a go!

Well I seem to be okay now so I am going to give it a go.  I have my doubts over whether I will make it to the end though as even after a decent amount of bread and some gnocchi last night I still woke up this morning feeling really weak and lacking in energy.  I am not sure I can eat enough today to make up for the lack of a proper days food since Monday but I would like to start anyway.

If I don’t complete it then I will be looking for something else to do of a similar mileage before the end of the year as part of the reason I really want to do this is because it is the last thing I was doing in my fundraising so maybe the RAW would be a possibility Dave although I was more thinking of a trip to France in December!

Thanks for all of the advice guys and good luck Silke, Debs and John.  Text my dad and asked what they thought (they are on holiday) and they said as long as I was eating and drinking now and in capital letters – if Silke says its okay!

Devils on no food for 2 days?

I was already pushing my luck attempting to do the Devil’s a week after returning from Africa and two weeks after climbing Kiliminjaro but now I have also had a stomach bug for the last couple of days and have not eaten anything, losing 5 pounds in 48 hours!   

I might be okay now, I have had some bread and have not had to rush to the bathroom since but should I really do it when I only then have tomorrow to eat enough?  Thats  assuming I stay okay, and I am worried that I am probably quite dehydrated as well although I have tried my best to keep drinking.

Any advice welcome, I really don’t know what to do!

Training with sis-in-law

23/6/09 – 3.71 miles

26/6/09 – 2.5 miles with a speed session wiht 5 mins speed total

27/6/09  – 11.69 miles with weir runner in Muirshiel Park – it took almost 3 hrs but good fun!

28/6/09 – 3 miles with 3 x hill reps

30/6/09 – 6.23 miles

All those runs were with my sis-in-law except for Muirshiel Park.  She is doing really well and I have left her a plan for when I am away.  Hoping to run a reasonable number of times while in Malawi as my running partner is back from university!