Well, the pasta's been scoffed, the emergency info's been scribbled on the back of the race number, the timing chip's laced on my trainers, the kit's clean. The last lazy 20 min run was turned in this morning.
Nothing to do now but watch a film and turn in early.
10k tomorrow.
- Posted from my iPhone
Saturday, 14 May 2011
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Too Old To Party Hard
OW!!! Ow, ow, ow .... ow.
The curse of the Evil Genius has struck again, at my now regular dose of Wednesday morning Brutal Circuits, and I now have a lot of off odd places that ache. I don't know how that woman comes up with so many inventive ways to torture me, but it's like she has a never-ending source of variations on Exercises I Cannot Do.
This morning's acts of horror included triceps dips and tricep pressups (2 different stations, and I'm sorry, but my triceps were not made to support my body weight!), superman pressups (pressup and then extend diagonally opposite arm and leg away, and repeat on the other side), 2 variations on lunges with weights and arms straight out in front, spidermans on the gym ball (plank position with your elbows up on the ball, then bring each knee up into the body in turn, as if you were crawling forward - bloody impossible to balance), and many more.
That compounds on yesterday's running and Monday's doubled-up Body Balance and Zumba classes. I think we can safely say I'm still hitting my exercise targets. The good news was that now I'm figuring out how to pace my running a bit better, I'm finding I'm hitting a steady pace without killing myself, rather than going out fast and blowing up after 10 mins. I ran my standard 5k round the harbour yesterday, and I realise now that for me the distance is all about the psychological battle. At 2 and a bit km into a run, I'm thinking "but it's so far to go - I'm never going to do it" (add whiny voice here for the correct effect), but by the time I'm running round to 4.5 - 5k and wrapping up for the day, I was thinking "you know what - there's more in the tank - I reckon I could run most of the rest of the way round the harbour without too much effort right now".
This bodes well for Sunday's Run Bristol 10k - I just need to pace myself and not rush, and not think too much about the overall distance. Even at a forcibly relaxed pace, yesterday's run was 32 mins, which would put me bag on time for my best hope for the 10k. I would love to run it in 1hr 5mins - and I think that would be a pretty great improvement on the 1hr 12mins I ran last October.
My eating's been a bit up and down, which is nothing unusual. I had planned a quieter than quiet weekend, but that somehow turned into 2 nights of raucous drinking. Ooops. Friday night, I went for a nice relaxed glass of wine with Hannah after work, which had turned out to a bottle to share when I got to the bar. And then another bottle. And some late dinner. Followed by cocktails. At which point we realised we were pretty tiddly and called time.
But it's ok, because Saturday we were just going for dinner at a Turkish restaurant with her flatmate and boyfriend - just a nice relaxed dinner for the four of us. Errrrr .... apart from their Canoe Club friends from uni days were all meeting for drinks that night, so we popped along for a bit, and suddenly it was 2am in the morning and the bar was closing. And somehow I ended up going along to another bar with some of them for more drinks. Until 4am. And then somehow, it seemed too far to walk home, when some of the guys were staying just round the corner, so I ended up there and nobody got to bed til 6am. I am too damn old to still be awake when the sun's coming back up!
Hangover breakfast followed at the City Park Farm (looking particularly good by now in my full hungover, sleep-deprived, dirty stop-out glory, and I finally trudged home at about 2pm. Sleep on the sofa all afternoon, consume a whole tub of Ben & Jerry's ice-cream, and crash into bed. I still feel tired 3 days later!
The curse of the Evil Genius has struck again, at my now regular dose of Wednesday morning Brutal Circuits, and I now have a lot of off odd places that ache. I don't know how that woman comes up with so many inventive ways to torture me, but it's like she has a never-ending source of variations on Exercises I Cannot Do.
This morning's acts of horror included triceps dips and tricep pressups (2 different stations, and I'm sorry, but my triceps were not made to support my body weight!), superman pressups (pressup and then extend diagonally opposite arm and leg away, and repeat on the other side), 2 variations on lunges with weights and arms straight out in front, spidermans on the gym ball (plank position with your elbows up on the ball, then bring each knee up into the body in turn, as if you were crawling forward - bloody impossible to balance), and many more.
That compounds on yesterday's running and Monday's doubled-up Body Balance and Zumba classes. I think we can safely say I'm still hitting my exercise targets. The good news was that now I'm figuring out how to pace my running a bit better, I'm finding I'm hitting a steady pace without killing myself, rather than going out fast and blowing up after 10 mins. I ran my standard 5k round the harbour yesterday, and I realise now that for me the distance is all about the psychological battle. At 2 and a bit km into a run, I'm thinking "but it's so far to go - I'm never going to do it" (add whiny voice here for the correct effect), but by the time I'm running round to 4.5 - 5k and wrapping up for the day, I was thinking "you know what - there's more in the tank - I reckon I could run most of the rest of the way round the harbour without too much effort right now".
This bodes well for Sunday's Run Bristol 10k - I just need to pace myself and not rush, and not think too much about the overall distance. Even at a forcibly relaxed pace, yesterday's run was 32 mins, which would put me bag on time for my best hope for the 10k. I would love to run it in 1hr 5mins - and I think that would be a pretty great improvement on the 1hr 12mins I ran last October.
My eating's been a bit up and down, which is nothing unusual. I had planned a quieter than quiet weekend, but that somehow turned into 2 nights of raucous drinking. Ooops. Friday night, I went for a nice relaxed glass of wine with Hannah after work, which had turned out to a bottle to share when I got to the bar. And then another bottle. And some late dinner. Followed by cocktails. At which point we realised we were pretty tiddly and called time.
But it's ok, because Saturday we were just going for dinner at a Turkish restaurant with her flatmate and boyfriend - just a nice relaxed dinner for the four of us. Errrrr .... apart from their Canoe Club friends from uni days were all meeting for drinks that night, so we popped along for a bit, and suddenly it was 2am in the morning and the bar was closing. And somehow I ended up going along to another bar with some of them for more drinks. Until 4am. And then somehow, it seemed too far to walk home, when some of the guys were staying just round the corner, so I ended up there and nobody got to bed til 6am. I am too damn old to still be awake when the sun's coming back up!
Hangover breakfast followed at the City Park Farm (looking particularly good by now in my full hungover, sleep-deprived, dirty stop-out glory, and I finally trudged home at about 2pm. Sleep on the sofa all afternoon, consume a whole tub of Ben & Jerry's ice-cream, and crash into bed. I still feel tired 3 days later!
Thursday, 5 May 2011
Running It Out
I kind of feel like I'm operating on auto-pilot at the moment - food just sort of happens, and it's pretty much where it needs to be daily, and I just track it near the end of the day and see what's left for dinner, which is pretty much pre-planned anyway. Exercise happens because I'm in a routine of sorts at the moment - circuits and Body Balance during the week, and runs slotted in round it according to the training plan (mostly).
Tonight was yet more proof that sometimes the runs you really don't want to do, work out the best. I woke up this morning (and at points during the night) with my calves on the verge of cramp after circuits yesterday - told you they were brutal! Understandably, with muscles feeling that tight, I didn't feel much like running today at lunch, so I ducked it. I had half a thought that I'd run after work. After work arrived and I didn't feel hugely like running. Not massively anti it either, just not really in the mood.
When I'm not in the mood, procrastination is my watch-word. I got home, thought about it, and then went on one last hunt for my long-lost iPod Shuffle, instead of just getting changed. I must have looked for the damn thing 5 times before, but I remained convinced that it had to be in the flat somewhere. I must have sub-consciously struck a deal with myself that if I found the Shuffle, I'd run, because the minute I found it (lurking in a bag I must have used to go to the gym once, ages ago), I knew I was out of excuses and the time had come to stick my trainers on.
Today's run, according to The Almighty (And Very Much Despised By Now) Plan, should have been 10 mins slow running, 10 mins faster, 3 mins recovery, 10 mins faster and 5 mins cool down. Somehow, that translated into 55 mins of steady-ish, with sort of speedier sections, running. I didn't push myself and I tried not to think too much about pace apart from picking it up a little when I knew I could (conveniently roughly at the 10 and 23 min markers) and taking a slower speed in the same way.
It mostly felt manageable and comfortable, and I even managed to find a bit of energy to try and actively power up the few small inclines I hit. But the proof of the pudding is in the map afterwards. I may hate these intervals, and the prescriptive feeling of having to run 3 times a week or so, but there is no doubt that my speed has increased a bit. 55 mins, I'm pretty sure, is my longest continuous run to date. And checking the map (trusty GMap Pedometer - the runner's friend - well, the runner that can't afford a fancy Garmin) put the run at just shy of 8.5km. That would mean (quick bit of maths) that I would have completed a full 10km in just another 10 mins - 1hr 5mins. Which I definitely felt I could have done. If I can run like that on the day, I've already hit my fast race target! But we'll see ... you never know how these things go.
Other than that, I seem to have spoken to quite a few friends in the last 24 hours, all trying to cheer me up a bit. And I do feel a little less crazy now. I think I needed the wallow. For one thing, to remember how crap you feel when you wallow - a good reminder that it's ultimately less painful to keep trying to be positive and cheerful.
And finally, the dent I mentioned the other day? It's got bigger. But only really on the right side - I must be lopsided. Awesome. Ah well .... a dent's a dent!
Tonight was yet more proof that sometimes the runs you really don't want to do, work out the best. I woke up this morning (and at points during the night) with my calves on the verge of cramp after circuits yesterday - told you they were brutal! Understandably, with muscles feeling that tight, I didn't feel much like running today at lunch, so I ducked it. I had half a thought that I'd run after work. After work arrived and I didn't feel hugely like running. Not massively anti it either, just not really in the mood.
When I'm not in the mood, procrastination is my watch-word. I got home, thought about it, and then went on one last hunt for my long-lost iPod Shuffle, instead of just getting changed. I must have looked for the damn thing 5 times before, but I remained convinced that it had to be in the flat somewhere. I must have sub-consciously struck a deal with myself that if I found the Shuffle, I'd run, because the minute I found it (lurking in a bag I must have used to go to the gym once, ages ago), I knew I was out of excuses and the time had come to stick my trainers on.
Today's run, according to The Almighty (And Very Much Despised By Now) Plan, should have been 10 mins slow running, 10 mins faster, 3 mins recovery, 10 mins faster and 5 mins cool down. Somehow, that translated into 55 mins of steady-ish, with sort of speedier sections, running. I didn't push myself and I tried not to think too much about pace apart from picking it up a little when I knew I could (conveniently roughly at the 10 and 23 min markers) and taking a slower speed in the same way.
It mostly felt manageable and comfortable, and I even managed to find a bit of energy to try and actively power up the few small inclines I hit. But the proof of the pudding is in the map afterwards. I may hate these intervals, and the prescriptive feeling of having to run 3 times a week or so, but there is no doubt that my speed has increased a bit. 55 mins, I'm pretty sure, is my longest continuous run to date. And checking the map (trusty GMap Pedometer - the runner's friend - well, the runner that can't afford a fancy Garmin) put the run at just shy of 8.5km. That would mean (quick bit of maths) that I would have completed a full 10km in just another 10 mins - 1hr 5mins. Which I definitely felt I could have done. If I can run like that on the day, I've already hit my fast race target! But we'll see ... you never know how these things go.
Other than that, I seem to have spoken to quite a few friends in the last 24 hours, all trying to cheer me up a bit. And I do feel a little less crazy now. I think I needed the wallow. For one thing, to remember how crap you feel when you wallow - a good reminder that it's ultimately less painful to keep trying to be positive and cheerful.
And finally, the dent I mentioned the other day? It's got bigger. But only really on the right side - I must be lopsided. Awesome. Ah well .... a dent's a dent!
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
Meh ...
Hey,
A very lacklustre check-in from me I'm afraid. I'm eating fine, and I'm exercising (ran 4.9km (I have to be honest, it's not quite 5km) yesterday in a new low time of 30 mins 12 secs - yay, and circuits this morning, which were deadly), but I'm feeling prettymiserable self-pitying.
Too much stuff going on in real life, and it's just one of those low days when it all seems far too much to handle. Too much time spent mopping up other people's problems, stressing about money, cursing the sod who vandalised my shiny new car on the weekend (thankfully just the windscreen wiper, but still) and having a bit of a 'mare at work. And whilst I do that, other people get pregnant and start shiny new relationships and plan their perfect weddings. When's my good stuff coming, huh?
*Sigh* - I hate self-pitying mode - it sucks.
For better news, head this way and congratulate Linz on something much nicer .....
A very lacklustre check-in from me I'm afraid. I'm eating fine, and I'm exercising (ran 4.9km (I have to be honest, it's not quite 5km) yesterday in a new low time of 30 mins 12 secs - yay, and circuits this morning, which were deadly), but I'm feeling pretty
Too much stuff going on in real life, and it's just one of those low days when it all seems far too much to handle. Too much time spent mopping up other people's problems, stressing about money, cursing the sod who vandalised my shiny new car on the weekend (thankfully just the windscreen wiper, but still) and having a bit of a 'mare at work. And whilst I do that, other people get pregnant and start shiny new relationships and plan their perfect weddings. When's my good stuff coming, huh?
*Sigh* - I hate self-pitying mode - it sucks.
For better news, head this way and congratulate Linz on something much nicer .....
Monday, 2 May 2011
Old and New Friends
Another balmy, long spring-like weekend come and gone – don’t they fly past so quickly??
It’s been a busy ol’ weekend, and as always, I pick up the ball in one court and promptly fumble it in another. Not too drastically though.
I spent Friday with new friends, when Sarah who-I-work-with very kindly invited me along to her Royal Wedding shindig up in the lovely Clifton village. At her request, I baked a cake as my contribution to the lunch buffet (ginger cake – a new recipe and totally yum!), and mooched on up on Friday morning. New, and very nice people, and a fun couple of hours watching the Royal Proceedings, and mostly providing our own alternative commentary, followed by a very tasty buffet lunch.
Please be rather proud of me – I kept my head and didn’t blow everything at the buffet table – there were loads of yummy items on offer, but I just picked what I absolutely wanted and then stayed away. I was very restrained, comfortably full, and rather pleased with myself when I left :o)
Now all I need to work on, is toning down my behaviour in front of new people and just being a bit more myself! I come across as very confident as I tend to act the fool / make everyone laugh / provide the running commentary and banter when I’m in a group of new people. And that’s fine, but even I’m conscious that I can be a little too much sometimes. Confidence, Sue! Confidence! And then I can just turn the volume down on myself a little.
Friday evening, I headed up to Kidderminster to see Jo for a couple of nights. She sprang on me at the last minute over the phone that another friend Hayley would also be there for the weekend. Fine, as I’ve met Hayley before and we get on pretty well. Jo then sprang on me, once I’d actually arrived, that another friend, Ellie, would be there on Saturday. Not fine. Ellie is very definitely Jo’s friend, and not mine.
We were friends, close ones in fact for around 15 years, but the long story short is she burnt a lot of bridges and our relationship will never be what it was again. I know it’s difficult for our mutual friends, as we’re still a close-knit group from school, and for there sake I’m polite to her, but I know that they all secretly still hope for a magic reunion. Which is never going to happen. Once lost, my friendship is lost for good. But I honestly could have killed Jo for pulling that stunt. She knows we don’t get on, and although I tolerate her for the sake of manners, I don’t enjoy spending time around her. So to force an entire day on me was definitely not funny. I did say as much to Jo, and she countered that she hadn’t told me before because she didn’t want me not to come, but it was the only day Ellie had been able to see her. I put a smiling face on it and made the best, but don’t you hate it when that sort of occasion comes up??
In fact, the day went off without a hitch – Ellie was in one of her good moods when she can pretty much charm the pants off people, and I could almost believe that we were still friends, except that I know she cannot be trusted and that this is just one side of her. Anyhoo, the four of us went for a lovely sunny walk along the canal to Stourport, had a picnic, went to the fair and had icecreams before returning home. I tracked all my food as I went, via my iPhone, which was great, but the funfair rides literally left me wanting to hurl, and you have never seen a greener face on the bus-ride back to Jo’s. I was worried I might actually hurl before we got off the bus – such a relief when it stopped!!
We had a BBQ on Sat night, without total gluttony, I might add! Food is great at the moment, and I can feel the recent bloat fading away (literally). The bit where I’ve dropped the ball a bit this weekend has been the running. I was too sore, and out of time, to run on Friday, so I didn’t. And I hadn’t packed my running gear, so there was no running for me yesterday. Obviously, the walk was good exercise (a nice 6 miles), but I refuse to feel guilty about deviating from plan. Tomorrow, I simply pick up where I left off and carry on. We do the best we can, and occasionally life gets in the way – we don’t let it get us down though, we work around it.
And on that note – I’m off to Hannah’s for a veg heavy tea and some silly movies now – ta ta!!
Friday, 29 April 2011
Weekends Past and Present
I have a lovely ginger cake (well, I hope it’s lovely anyway) cooling on the top of the oven at the moment. That’s going to be my contribution to the lunch buffet for tomorrow’s wedding celebrations. I’m heading round to the house of one of the girls I work with (yay – a new friend!) to watch over there, with a few others (I assume), and I was requested to bring cake. So cake I have made!
This weekend’s looking set to be a car-crash of “oh crap, I have too many things to do and not quite enough time to do them”On the agenda:
- training run with intervals;
- get to Sarah’s house in Clifton Village by 10 – 10.30 am for wedding watching (with cake);
- buy Lissa’s 30 birthday present;
- meet friends for a drink / catch up in Malvern;
- get to Kiddiminster to see Jo for walking / talking / films;
- have Sunday tea with my Dad;
- get back to Bristol and arrange to do something with Liz (another friend from work – wooohooo – two new friends!)
And I also need to squeeze in a second run around Sunday time, and of course, some sleeping. So, if you’re feeling tired just thinking about it, here’s some idyllic pictures from last weekend’s awesomeness.
They are, in order, the gang sat in the central square in St Davids, St Davids’ Cathedral with Bec having fun on the steps, the evening sun through some dandelions, sunset over the campsite, proof that big boys are never too old to play on little boy’s bikes, and my lovely (still new) little car next to my tent ….. which lead to much speculation over whether the car would fit in the tent … we suspect yes, but it’s probably a good job we didn’t try and actually find out!
Ass-Ache
The problem with doing as much exercise as I am right now, is that I have reached a point when there are not many days in the week where I don’t ache like an absolute bitch.
I thought I’d got away with it after circuits yesterday, but it turns out …. not so much.
In fact, today’s run as a whole, was a bit of a trial. First, I set the alarm for 6.30 this morning, so I could get up an hour earlier and get it done before work. Except I then remembered that I was absolutely rammed at work and had a morning deadline, and actually needed the time in the office instead. Rubbish. So I packed my kit into my rucksack and lugged it to work so I could run on my lunchbreak instead. Come lunchtime, I shimmied along to the changing room and discovered that I hadn’t packed my running trousers. Fail. So no lunchtime run either.
At that point, I could either have given up and accepted that today’s run was doomed, or suck it up and vow to run as soon as I got home from work. Option number 2 it was then. And at about 4pm I got up from my office chair to go and collect some printing, and realised that my legs had stopped working, or close enough. My ass ached, my quads ached, my ITB’s feel tight. Circuits had caught up with me finally (that will be all the squats, lunges and box jumps yesterday then). Ouch.
But I went for my run anyway. I dragged my sorry, aching butt out that door again when I got home, because I figured it was no time to give up. If it came to the worst, I could stop running and walk back home, and I already knew it wouldn’t be a fast run – more of a steady plod, so I just I ran for my required 35 mins straight, as called for by the plan, and then I rolled back home again. There might not have been much variation in speed between my “steady” and “faster” paces, but it’s done.
On the other hand … I have no earthly idea how I’m going to totter round tomorrow’s required run which is more short interval sprints. Hey ho.
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