Yume No Chikara

Now I am sure this is just a fluke and the sizes are all wrong but I just bought a pair of size 10 capri tights!! {Beams from ear to ear} Oh and tonight I will be running! Target Race! Yep I have master plan! April 2007 Lochaber Marafun V-Rap, Nessie and I! V-Rap and I are up for a GFA which means I need a sub 1:45 half by the end of 2006! gulp Later that day ... (8:20PM) Drove home pondering what to do - speedwork or 45 mins outside. Car thermometer read 24 yet the sky was dark and a storm approaching. The rain started. By the time I got home the thunder was cracking and I decided to use the tready! Hot but safer! So todays session was the bastard one! Yep 400m,600m,800m,600m,400m all at 8.9km and a 2 mins recovery walk. Horrid hard work, damn hot and heavy breathing but done! Average HR was 165 (includes 5 mins warm up and cool down walk) and max was 193. I did have 1 problem and that was in the 800m .... I was watching the distance and the time then suddenly a huge crack of thunder ...

Today I planned a 50 mins run of 5:1 so approx 4m. My head said that a steady run is faster than a long run so under 12.30min miles was a good aim. The sun is out and hot. I have most of my kit in the wash so it was capri legs (thicker than lycra), old technical tee (thicker than those you get now) and Enell bra (thicker than normal sports bra but hey nothing moves!). I went out feeling great and loving it! It was hot and I was bouncing along and enjoying myself. First mile came and went in 12:03 and boy was it hot! It was then that I started to notice how fast I was running. My runs where are 11-11.30mm pace and not the 12mm min that I had planned. I then started to notice how hard I was breathing (no HRM on due to heat rash exactly where bra goes!). I then realised that the heat and the fact that there were a couple of bonfires where making my breathing harder and I was feeling sick. Mile 2 was 13:01. Running was 12:30-13mm pace and very very hard. I tried to be stubborn and tried to...

First of all Friday! I really enjoyed Friday's long run and was delighted with the overall distance and pace! It felt good and even though it was still walk run it felt like I was actually running! Here are the stats: As you can see I managed a good pace and consistently which is very rare for me so delighted! Anyway what happened next ... After my run Friday I had a shower, soup and 1 glass of wine then bed. We got up at 5:30AM the next morning and set off to Berkshire! The rest of the weekend until this morning was spent at the in-laws and apart from a 2m brisk walk with mum yesterday it was all spent slouching on the sofa! I even feel asleep for 2hrs Saturday and that was without any lunchtime drinking!! hehe!! So we get home at lunchtime today, ate lunch and then the wonderful Tesco run. At this point I thought Why not make today's run this week's long run so I can do some gardening etc at the weekend! So off I went! Today's long run was 30min 3:1, 30 mins solid run...

Today is long run day due to a trip down to the inlaws so 21 x 3:1! I discovered last night that my GPS will take splits by time too so this has been set up for every 4mins which will allow me to see easily how my pacing is coming along as this is something I am very bad at! Will report back later!! LATER THAT DAY No time to blog properly due to hungry belly. 6.7m in 85mins so very very happy pixie can now go have her tea and a glass of red before packing for a weekend at the in-laws!! stats will follow later but apart from hills it was a lovely even pace!! yippeee I'm learning!!

Speedwork! Last night was speedwork night and the "easiest" of the 3 sets of speedwork I do. Started off with a warm up - 4mins walking 1 min jogging. then the hard work: 2mins @ 9KM 1mins walk recovery @5km 3mins @ 9KM 1mins walk recovery @5km 4mins @ 9KM 1mins walk recovery @5km 3mins @ 9KM 1mins walk recovery @5km 2mins @ 9KM 1mins walk recovery @5km Finish off with a walk jog finish to give a total of 3.4km in 30mins. Slow but steady so to speak. The hard bits are hard and I noticed that the 1min recovery seemed a lot shorter than the 1mins during the warm up and cool down! Head was working as hard as the legs too with watching the time and working out when to change pace. This is a long enough session to work up a sweat and know you have worked hard but not too long to kill you, which is good as it was my 4th run in 4 days! Today I rest! Tomorrow I may do my long run depending on when we go back down south! Otherwise it will be rest tomorrow and run at the in-laws Satur...

Today I did my 3rd run in 3 days! It was a shorter run than yesterday but less walking - in fact there was a chunk of 20mins running in the middle! AND I did 75% on the road! The stats look pleasing and I felt good - no niggles from the hard surface either which is brilliant news! The pace was fairly consistent and the HR wasn't bad only raising with the longer run (which makes sense!) Much easier than last week - no stitch and even though it was still hot I wasn't floundering today! So I'm a happy pixie!

I learnt this leason today! Lunchtime plod as I have a lecture on Stres Managment tonight! It stopped raining as I changed and I went out smiley happy and looking forward to a nice cool run! I planned 4 sets out and 4 back. Off I went and things were good until the rain returned and then my head went walkies. I turned round too soon and didn't realise until I was almost back! The rain carried on and I got wet and misserable and my head dropped and I got slower and slower. It took a while to notice this and when I did I had the "well you are gonna be out for the same length of time if you run crawl or walk so might as well run properly - now head up and use them legs!" conversation and the stats show where this happened without me really noting it! So anyway ... the run is done and I am a bit annoyed for letting my "it's raining why am I out here?" head get in the way and ruin my stats. So today's leason is - ATTITUDE Makes a run!

I like long runs! It's when you can get out early, get the warm smug feeling at being out in the fresh air when others are snoring. The satisfying feeling of slaughtering some calories before the day has begun. Take in the world, the fresh air, the silence and just be! You can have mad conversations in your head, dream wild dreams, listen to music, the birds or just be! Today I was up at 7 - spent 5 mins panicing that I had left my HRM watch at work (only to realise it was in my hand!! Hmm maybe I wasn't quiet awake!) had some watered down juice, faffed about and then out the door at 7:30. The mist was about covering the fields and there was a warm haze in the air. So off I trotted - plan was 80 mins (20 sets!) of 3R:1W. GPS was put on auto split (no I was not going to spend all my run hitting the button!) and then changed to the time with HR showing so I wasn't tempted to run harder than I should. It was a good run, I enjoyed it!HR was below 180 apart from twice at the en...

Yesterday I rested and also noted a slightly tender right hamstring. Resting meant doing a few squats whilst bored. Today when I woke up my right quad was stiff - I ignored it. Then at lunch I ran (see above!) and didn't notice it. This afternoon my legs ('specially the right quad!) are tired and that quad is stiff :-( The run was very hard work - my legs were saying "Where is my walk break!" as I did 20 mins of running in the middle. A part of the problem was that I am now used to running at 11-12 mm pace so did my normal 5:1 at this pace then started the 20R at this pace only to die in the second half! Also had a horrid stitch that would not go away. After about 7-8 mins of trying to run through it I walked for a couple (hence the figure are a bit out 'cos I hit the wrong button on my watch!) but it stayed (was a bit better) so I carried on. Resting tomorrow (hope to go to the cinema) then hopefully the legs will be up to a long run Sunday!

Nothing! Yep nothing to report for today! Today has been a rest day due to slightly niggly hamstring that is there but not painful so hopefully gone for tomorrow! In other news though I have sent a long e-mail to the ladies captain of my club about starting a beginners course (or ladies course) as one of the reasons why I have not returned to club is because I am too slow and I am still doing a structured walk/run schedule. I think that this would be a brilliant thing for the club and bring some fresh and young blood in (I am almost the youngest!) I've also suggested that they get a proper web site (domain name included!) and look to populate it with information about course dates and details and information, training plans etc. I was feeling a bit of a fraud being on the committe and considered resigning but the captain has picked up on this idea and they liked my web idea so I don't feel so bad now! Anyway - let the rest continue! Tomorrow I hope to run!

Today is Wednesday which means ..... [drum roll please]...... speedwork !! Oh Joy! Plan: 8 sets of 3mins hard @ 10K pace (which I will do at 9kmph) followed by 2mins walk/jog recovery (which will be done at a minimum of 5kmph {walk}) So 40 mins running - may add a 5mins walk before and or after as a proper warm up/cool down too! The plan is to get home, change and run! Will update later if this works!! Evening Update Mantra for Speed Work This is not meant to be easy ... it will make you stronger Planned 8 sets ended up as 5 sets but all at 9km then walking. Very hot again and i finished looking like a beetroot and my heart pounding like mad (no HRM which I think is good or I may have quit earlier!) and a sore tight right hamstring :-( Felt crap stopping early and sent a sulky SMS to coach Spans who replied and made me feel tonnes better (Thanks Spans!) Have to admit that 9km was hard, very hard and I was clock watching! Not sure how much of that was yesterday's run, the heat or th...

HTodays run was a 5R:1W trot down the canal path at work. Very hot today and I came back looking like a beetroot! If you look for some reason the GPS seems to have had a slight err glitch! However it did get the total distance of 3.8m correct because if you add up the distances shown you get over 4! Really pleased actually as the pace is much more consistent despite the heat (that made me feel quiet ill by the end!) mind you the legs know I've run now! I also had my own mini race with a canal boat and I won! OK so that sounds daft but this is what happened ... just started my 4th set of running and passed a canal boat going the oposite direction. I finish my run:walk set and about turn. Then as I walk after my 5th run I see the boat isn't that far off and just like in a race I "picked him off" which was great! he was going a consistent speed and I passed him and stayed ahead!! Ok I'm mad but I enjoyed it! Oh and the Paula reference relates to the 5 min mile I did!...

I'm not self centered enough to be a good runner: Could I drag my butt out of bed to go for a run this morning? No! Why? Late night Friday (midnight) 'cos hubby had an early start saturday and I wanted him to sleep. He's alarm goes off at 4:30, then he leaves at 5:30 so much disruption to sleep. So I was tired and this morning I just CBA and wanted to stay in a warm bed thinking that leaving it would look like I didn't want to be with hubby seeing as he is at work all day! (well it sounded an excellent excuse at the time when the wind was howling) I like reading books: As a kid if I wasn't with the horses I was reading. I often stayed up all night to read. My best reading achievments were reading Pride and Prejudice 18 times in 2 months, War and Peace in my GCSE classes (teacher was not impressed!) and all when only not yet 15! Why is this a problem now? Well I've recently started reading more again - I mean more than just magazines (I have a bad magazine probl...

Today I am tired. My legs are tired (so obviously not totally over Monday) and my belly thinks it is a volcano! I can here and feel it bubbling away - has been doing this for hours! Hubby is working this weekend, the weather will be crap and I have loads of gardening to do :-( As I have Gnome I don't know what exercise I will get in so will have to do some "house work" and DIY (loads that I can do ... finally try o get bathroom cabinet up, paint bathrooms, wash floors, do washing, tidy garage, sort out clothes/books/videos to take to charity etc) So no promises this weekend. Also need to update club website with the last 2-3 newletters and do some Access DB work as I am trying to do some self-training incase I get the offer of a fantastic wonderfully paid job that I can't refuse! Night folks!

Each night that I go out to the garage to play on the tready I don't have to worry about being alone - I have my very own guardsmen. OK they aren't very good at their job because they are always asleep but they are always there. One to my left and one to my right. Always in the same place. Always looking so peaceful and calm. No matter how loud my music is, how noisey I huff and puff they sit there. Two beautiful butterflies! Oh and 3.36km done on the tready tonight, 5R (3@7.7 and 1@7.9):2W (all @5kmph). Didn't wear my HRM but felt good. Off for a bath and bed now! Night!

In 2006 I WILL COMPLETE THE TRAILWALKER!!! There I've said it! I am not doing FLM (I will support) but I WILL do the TW and I will finish it! So Goals for next 12mths: -> Train for and complete TW06. -> Lose weight (1st minimum to get to 10st ish) -> Sub 2:15 Half. -> Improve swimming. That'll do for now! 2pm EDIT FOR BEAR!!! Trailwalker - to complete as a team in under 30 hours. Lose Weight - to lose get to 10.5st for Christmas and 10st for Reading (March) and 9.5st for the TW. Sub 2:15 Half - at Reading Half Marathon in March Improve Swimming - Be able to swim a proper length of front crawl by the end of 2005! Happy now Bear!!

Within a few hours of writing yesterday's figures I was almost doubled over in pain. Benz has diagnosed bowel spasms. I left work at 4:15 drove home (slowly) and went straight to bed where I litteraly hugged my knees as that was the most comfortable. I was in agony. To confirm how bad I felt I didn't eat for 24hrs and I didn't feel hungry. I have eaten now but not much. I didn't go to work today due to a rough night and tender belly. Husband thinks I should go to work tomorrow but belly is still "not right" and my legs are a tad wobbley due to the lack of energy being consummed. Needless to say the run was cancelled today.

Right so wine and in-laws prevented me from completing last weeks training (but I did get 2 swims in so not a complete write off!) so this week will be better! This week: Monday - 40mins run (at work) Tuesday - 30mins run (either work or Tready) Wednesday - rest Thursday - speedwork (tready) Friday - rest Saturday - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! Sunday - 75mins run + swim with Gnome Today I am going to try something slightly different as I am on the road. After Thursday's run I am interested to see if I have gained speed or if the faster runs were due to the fact that they were short! So I will take splits today! 6 Sets of 5 run 2 walk (with auto 1m split taken off)Will be interesting to see if there is more speed there in which case next week's steady runs on the tready and the speedwork will need to see the pace increased! Will report back later! Later that day Phew that was hot! Right then lets have a look ... 1stly I forgot my water bottle and 2ndly it was hot and boy ...

Training has been really good this week: Monday 30 mins run Tuesday 40 mins swim Wednesday 40 mins run Thursday 70 mins run Friday 40 mins swim Then I drove to mum's Friday night. Saturday morning up and into town for 9 - brisk 15mins walk (each way) to get my new shoes from the Sweat shop (still Suacony 3D Grid Hurricans but in the sale so only £60 and even though I don't need any for a couple of months at least I couldn't say no to a bargain!). Drove home (3hrs due to excessive amounts of slow traffic like tractors, trailers and caravans!). Got home and wanted a cuppa - no milk. Walked to the village (10mins each way). Did Tesco run. Then in the evening we went out, walked there 15mins each way. So today was supposed to be speedwork whilst the in-laws and hubby where at cricket. They aren't going though due to the fact it is all but finished and isn't worth the petrol and time to drive there for 30mins cricket! So it looks like I won't get the speedwork in as ...

I don't know if I have told you before but I have an evil inner self ... it's the one that says "oh this is fun" to things that you shouldn't be doing. Well Trixie came out to play today on my long slow run. Yesterdays run was 5K in under 45mins ... ave pace 14:29mm I believe doing 5R:2W. Today I do 70 mins of 3R:2W and do 5.1m which is an ave pace of 13:43mm in fact my 1st mile was the slowest at almost 15mm and my last mile was the fastest at 12:36! Whoops! Sunday I tried to keep all my runs to 12-12:30mm today they were all between 11-12mm unless a hill was involved and sometimes there were chunks or running under 11mm. Infact Trixie was happily doing a similar pace throught the run with the 1st mile being the slowest. Also when Trixie looked at her watch in the last run set she saw she was running at sub 11mm pace then saw only 90secs to go and thought "Oh what the hell I have a 15mins cool down walk ahead I'll go play". At which point Trixie the...

Guess The Heart Rate!! Yes this is an exciting game and one recommended to all those tready users out there! 6 X 5:2 planned for tonight and indeed done! I'm getting fed up with staring at the wall so thought I would invent a game... each split I tried to guess the Max HR for the run then the min for the walk! Very sad I know! I even worked out that huge deep breaths increase my HR by 2 beats for about 2 seconds! Running with my arms still at my side feels damn stupid and does not lower my HR! Oh and adjusting my Enell whilst walking prevents HR from lowering! After the fine set for some daft reason I wanted to get to 5K and had about 300meters to go so I jacked up the speed and went for it! Did it in about 110seconds getting to 11.5kmph for the final 20secs!! Wow didn't realise I could run that pace! At which time my HR went up to 196 (surprised it wasn't more) and I stopped! Stopped as in stood still as I thought I would also take the opportunity to watch my recovery rate...

Ok so if you remember (assuming you were listening!) yesterday I mentioned that today would be swimming! Fraggle had given me some advice on how to improve my front crawl so off I went full of enthusiasm ready to master front crawl! 40 mins later I sulked out of the pool annoyed and frustrating and failing to master the front crawl! See like a lot of casual swimmers I "thrash about making a lot of splashes!" when doing crawl and this means my HR sores and I die at the end of 1 length needing 3-4mins recovering at the side of the pool before I attempt to swim another length in any stroke! Fraggle pointed out that if I place my head in the water properly (like look at the bottom of the pool rather than half under) then slow down, breathe out when in the water the breath in as your head leaves the water (I know what I mean even if you don't!) then it will be easier! Sounded good and practice breathing in the house went well!! I get in the pool - this is it. I can do this! Oh...

Having slobbed for the last couple of weeks due to exhaustion and holiday today I picked up my Spans Plan and uncovered the tready! As suggested I am doing week 2 the week 3 before going back to week 7 (which is where I fell over last time!) So 4X 5:2 - runs started at 7.5kmph, then crept to 7.7 for a minute or two, then 7.9 and finally a 30 second burst at 8.1 just to remind myself what tired felt like!! I didn't use my HRM so can't tell you any stats but I felt fine! Tomorrow I am off swimming after work as hubby is on a long shift and will be gone before I get home. (trying out the Fraggle tips!) Wednesday is 7 sets of 5:2. Thursday sees hubby working a 12hr shift again so I will do my long run (70 mins 3:2 I think!)and Friday I am off to collect Gnome so may have a swim before work. Saturday nowt apart from driving home. Sunday will be speedwork on the tready as Gnome and I will be dog sitting as hubby and his parents go to watch (or not as the case may be!) the Cricket (y...