It’s now February and there’s just over ten weeks to go before the marathon. Things are going well, I’m still keeping to my schedule and enjoying my running but I haven’t made a lot of progress with my fundraising campaign. I keep putting things off but time is running out so I need to be focused and get things sorted out. I need to confirm the date for an Extendathon and get some publicity material printed and put up in the local area. I plan to remind everyone I’ve sent a sponsor form to and to basically ask everyone I know to sponsor or support me in some way. So if you are reading this please make sure you have got a sponsor form and have pledged to make a donation or else I’ll be nagging you to do it soon!
Tig and I have met up at our local Park Run event which is held at Tredegar House every Saturday morning and organised by my running club Lliswerry Runners. One week we did the 5k run then met afterwards and ran around the course again….just to get the miles in! This week we went for a steady run after the event and I discovered a part of Newport I’d never been to before and so did Tig. It was a cold and frosty morning but the sun was shining and it was great to have some company for a change as most of my training is done on my own. The mileage needs to be increased gradually each week and the schedule also mentions lots of hills and intervals. Park Run is a good place to chat with other runners and get some advice and compare training and mileages, the problem is you can be left with a feeling of panic ………am I doing enough?.........my schedule seems wrong should I change it? The Brighton marathon starts at 9 am so I am using Park Run as a race simulation as that also starts at 9am, it’s important to get your body and its functions used to that routine. I have a long way to go with this though as I had an unplanned toilet stop on the way this week that made me late for the start! Running does some strange things to your body but as the saying goes…when you’ve got to go you have to go!
I tried a bit of cross country last month on another cold
morning, it was great fun sloshing through the mud….but it wasn’t so great
trying to get rid of the mud it seemed to get everywhere and my shoes haven’t
been the same since. One member of our team tried to wash her shoes in the
shower! This is seriously not to be recommended and I don’t know what she was
thinking of! I’m trying another one this weekend, my hope is that it will help
with my strength and endurance and make running along the sea front at Brighton
seem a piece of cake. The photo above
shows myself and the rest of the club
posing before the start, as usual I can’t resist the opportunity for jazz hands
and extra quadriceps strength training! I’m trying another one this week but
this time I’m wearing my special black socks that hopefully won’t get ruined by
the mud. (Didn’t get the chance as it was cancelled due to the snow and ice!)
Had my first hill training session this week, where I live
there’s no shortage of suitable hills and I was soon panting away while doing
the first part of the training session-running for 20 minutes uphill at an easy
pace, then came the difficult bit –hill repeats where you run up a hill for one
minute then jog back down and do it again, and again and again etc etc. I
enjoyed it in a masochistic way although my legs were burning by the end! The
scenery made it worthwhile the wintery sun, the snow covered hills and the
bemused looking sheep watching some mad runner go up and down the road without
seemingly getting anywhere!
I am getting to the stage where everything seems to be about
running, I’m either doing it, thinking about it, talking about it, dreaming
about it, reading about it, I even included running in a painting I did in my Art class! I’m not even doing large mileages yet
that’s still to come! Even though its hard getting out to train in the cold
it’s great when I actually get out, after only a few minutes you feel lovely
and warm and you can really feel close to nature, I saw a fox in the distance
last weekend on my long run, its’ red fur really stood out against the frosty
landscape. Mileages need to increase
next week and I will need to try to run for two hours. I will keep an eye on
the weather forecast and hope it’s not too icy it can get dangerous as well as
really hard going on the frozen ground not ideal for the joints!
Our vests and shirts
have arrived. Wore one to class and everyone wanted one!
