Following advice

Thanks everyone for the advice after my last post – I kind of followed it, and it did help!

I took an easier week 2 weeks ago and just did 23 miles – 3 miles Tuesday, 2.5 miles Thursday, 5 miles Friday, 9 miles Saturday and 3.5 miles Sunday, plus weight training. They were all run at a very easy pace and I did feel a lot better for it.

Monday 12th March

8 mile speed session at the club. This was my best Monday night session in a long time, although I still had to start miles in front of everyone else not to be miles behind. And I’m sure that was due to the advice and consequent easy week. My splits are still poor compared to what I used to be able to do but are going in the right direction now.

9.19 m/m warm up pace 1.55 miles
2 mins – 7.38m/m
1.45 mins – 7.41 m/m
1.30 mins – 8.10m/m
1.15 mins – 8.11m/m
1 min – 8.06m/m
45 secs – 7.53m/m
30 secs – 7.16m/m
2 mins – 8.14m/m
1.45 mins – 7.40m/m
1.30 mins – 7.38m/m
1.16 mins – 7.30m/m
1 min – 7.41m/m
45 secs – 8.07m/m
30 secs – 7.36m/m
2mins – 7.38m/m
1.45mins – 7.41m/m
1.30 mins – 7.24m/m
1.15 mins – 7.16m/m
1min – 7.26m/m
45secs – 8.50m/m
30 secs – 6.42m/m

Shows how poor the times have been for the last few months if this is a major improvement!

Tuesday 13th March

2 miles and weight training am
5 miles pm with Susan

Wednesday 14th March

3 miles am

I had Thursday and Friday off in preparation for Saturday’s outing apart from some upper body weight training and core work.

Saturday 17th March

Devil of the Highlands route, 42.09 miles, 9.51, 14.03m/m pace.

I was really looking forward to this run, never having done the full route in one go. I know it’s obsessing over times and I shouldn’t be doing that but I had a target time of sub 9 hrs which I did fully believe I was capable of if I had a good day. I had it all worked out timings and pace wise!

However I had had a dodgy stomach for a couple of days previously and am still not sure whether it is the stomach bug that has been rife through the school or whether it was the new tablets I had been given for my throat problem. I will need to try them out again next weekend to see. I hadn’t really thought about it though for running – apart from to have plenty of toilet roll in my waist pack just in case!

Tyndrum to Bridge of Orchy
6.63 miles, 1.21, 12.13m/m pace

I enjoyed this section and felt strong. However I lost about 10 mins plodding behind a bunch of highland cows that were slowly making their way along the path. They were looking rather suspicious of me and there was a baby and a pregnant one that kept getting freaked out by me so I really didn’t want to squeeze past them and it was ages before they walked away from the path!

Bridge of Orchy – Victoria Bridge
2.80 miles, 37 mins, 13.25m/m

I still felt good on this section and although it was a slower pace I know that is due to the hill.

Victoria Bridge to Glencoe ski centre
8 miles, 1.48, 13.33m/m

This is when I started to feel rotten – sore stomach, sickness and needing to go the toilet. This was to continue the rest of way and let’s just say I had to have several very unpleasant toilet stops. I was running on less than empty as I was keeping no fuel or fluid in and as the run progressed I was feeling worse and worse, the hills being the worst, far worse than even I usually find them.

Glencoe to Devils
4.13miles, 53 mins, 13m/m

Held it together not too badly here, with my dad walking out with me a little from Kingshouse so I could try and eat something.

Devils to Kinlochleven
6.15miles, 1.41, 16.34m/m

Really struggled with energy and sickness along this section. Wanted to give up but also really wanted to complete the 42 miles so was determined to do so even if I had to walk the whole way. Thankfully the feelings of faintness and dizziness that I felt on this section disappeared after a while!

Kinlohleven to Lundavra
7.44miles, 2.02, 16.27m/m

Really struggled up this hill and was barely running across Larig Mor, had totally spat the dummy but was still determined to finish. Yet another toilet stop…thankfully before John Kennedy and 2 other guys Craig and David, caught me about 3miles before Lundavra and encouraged me to stick with them which I am extremely grateful for as I would have been a lot longer otherwise! I managed to pick it up and stay with them till then.

Lundavra to Fort William
6.92 miles, 1.25, 12.25m/m

The other guys carried on a bit faster and John stayed with me encouraging me to run whenever possible and giving me lots of advice. He has very quickly noticed my strength running downhill but lack of it going uphill and suggested hill training but also not worrying about it in the race but instead using my energy on the downhills.

He stayed with me till the top of the last hill and then went on to join the others, shouting back at me that I had guts! That to me was another example of the west highland way race family and folk helping each other out, they certainly helped me enormously yesterday, especially John.

I managed pretty quick down the hill but then felt overwhelmingly sick when it started to level out and my stomach was cramping really badly. It was an almost teary final part to the leisure centre practically doubled over and having too stop frequently as I was feeling so sick. The guys were at the leisure centre as well as Neal (let’s see if he manages to blog about his run!) and my dad, who had been great all day and I’m not even sure I managed to say thank you enough to them!

The only thing that went to plan all day really was that I didn’t stop – I either went straight through or my dad walked with me for a few mins while I tried to eat. I still prefer that strategy. I’m really glad I got it done – the thought alone of having to tell John Kynaston or write on here that I had given up early was enough to keep me going but massively disappointed in how I ended up having to do it! I just really wanted a strong run to build my confidence and do think I was capable of a lot better than I did if I had actually had any fuel in my system from the last couple of days or able to keep down what I had yesterday!

Having now just looked up the side effects of the tablets; they are stomach upset, diarrhoea, headache and nausea. I had all of these! I may just have to take my chances with my throat instead!

Easy day today now, going to go to the gym for a cycle and power plate and then easy week too.

Total week 2 – 23 miles
Total week 3 – 60 miles

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!

Exhausted – in more ways than one!

 

What a busy weekend!  Our alarms went off at 5.30am on Saturday – how cruel is that – and we managed to get up less than ten minutes later.  I was ready to go at 6.00am, which is what we had decided but of course pacepusher wasn’t – he never is and we were a bit late to pick up John.

We were making our way to Tyndrum for the crazy folk who are doing the West Highland Way race to do a 42 mile run from there to Fort William.  I was going along as support for the first time and it was really interesting and great preparation for the actual race day.  I don’t really know why I am calling them crazy as those same crazy thoughts do keep running through my head and there are only two reasons why I am holding off – I do not think my knees would hold out and there is no way I could train for it while teaching full time.  I might manage the Highland Fling and/or the Devil of the Highlands though!

 They set off just before 8am and I was so glad I had asked my dad to come and drive (he is going to do that on the actual day) as I have never driven on single track roads and there were a couple of them.  The one to Lundavra in particular was pretty hairy!  I am glad I will be running that bit on the day and will not have to be in car.

We went to Bridge of Orchy first, after getting coffees of course, and met with Silke who is absolutely lovely.  It’s really interesting meeting new people and hearing different things, I loved hearing about her in-line skating.  We then went to Victoria Bridge, Kingshouses (plenty of time for photo’s and coffee there) the bottom of the Devil’s staircase, Kinlochleven (more coffee!), Lundavra and Fort William. 

I had books and school work with me and my dad bought a newspaper but we just had a brief look at the newspaper in Lundavra and that was it, as when you are spending time talking to other people the time flies by.  We did also keep up with the football scores and I think my dad took a bit of pleasure in telling Marco at Lundavra that it was still 1-0 to Rangers!

I had been out the night before (although only till 9.30pm on a staff night out because of the early start - my colleagues think we are totally loony)  and so I did not know which of the many, many bags of Neal’s food and clothes had what in it.  I will need to know that for the day.  Timings for driving between places etc seem to be fine.  The other thing we tried out was mobile phone reception and that was quite rubbish most places so my dad is trying to work out something for that.  I think he is getting quite into it as he was talking about getting a bigger zoom for their camera for it, driving the rest of the route to practice and driving me back up to the bits I will run to have a go.  He does think everyone is mad though.

Everyone did really well and I was really impressed with how fresh everyone looked throughout (till Lundavra anyway) and how quickly they recovered afterwards.  We had to rush off afterwards and I drove back from Tyndrum.  It was my first time driving the Loch Lomond road and it was not anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be – although I did not meet any buses coming the opposite way!

We were going for dinner with friends and when we got there I got a belated birthday present and card from them (thanks for the Gore top Crazyboy, Mrs Crazyboy and baby Crazyboy!).  The card was written by Crazyboy and I immediately thought that I had to post it on my blog.

A recent study commissioned by the Stefani (aka Crazyboy) institute revealed that 30 year olds ran faster marathons than any other age group, and are also allowed to eat unlimited cake and biscuits.  The scientific community have met this claim with scepticism citing some nonsense about a lack of objectivity in the study.  Chris Stefani, 30 year old cake and biscuit lover and head of the Institute responded angrily to the scientists criticisms:

“30 year olds rule, FACT! Now leave me alone while I eat my biscuit.!”

There was also a picture but I cannot be bothered to recreate that.

 How ironic that my longest post so far has nothing to do with me running!