Yume No Chikara

Well not quiet but I have done some proper exercise today! Now I can't confirm this means I am back exercising even if I am doing a long walk Sunday but I have been playing with drugs!!! Well Ok not drugs as such! Fat Budda recommened soem electrolyte tablets called Nuun. So I bought some and as hubby was not at work today I went swimming before work. I have on occasion whilst both swimming and running notices a "sticky mouth" thing going on, even on short runs which is why I almost always run with water! I thought this was just the way I breathed! and with swimming I put it down to the fact I use a nose clip. Never considered dehydration or anything like that. Today I get that same sticky/clammy mouth thing yet after a couple of drinks of nuun and it goes! Could it be related or just a conincidence! Nuun tablets are just electrolytes, no calories or carbs. FB said one forumite used them at FLM. You add 1tab to 250ml of water and after about 1-2mins it's disolved. Th...

The great William Shakespeare wrote: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose. By any other word would smell as sweet." So by that logic .... yesterday I trained! I hoovered, cleaned and shopped! Today's training will be shopping and bed making. Tuesday's training was lawn mowing Monday I did however rest! Then Friday I will be off to the cavern to see some lovely friends whilst Sunday Duck and I will be doing a 20-25m walk for the Trailwalker! All I can say is I am so glad we can talk for Britain as that means we won't notice the time or the aches and pains!! LOL!!

That leads to your door .... Will never disappear .... I’ve seen that road before So said the Beetles all those years ago .... they could so easily have been referring to marathons and not a lady love! Yes I've been drawn towards the dark side! It's calling my name and however much I try to resist I can't! See this Pixie has goals and aims like so many of us but like so many I have fallen for the charm, the warmth and the love of that siren that is The London Marathon! Many have heard her call and been drawn towards her. Many have fallen on the rocky path. Many have answered her call and tried to leave but once again get sucked in and fall victim to her charms! Like so many I ran London last year and loved every moment of it! (Ok my legs and feet didn’t but you so know what I mean!). Unlike many I didn’t finish and say never again I said “YES! I WILL do this again! I will get a GFA! I will be here again!” and so my future in running was planned! I didn’t enter FLM2006 as I ...

Quote by Coach Spans yesterday when I bounced up to her asking permission to enter FLM07! Yesterday ... I felt the electricity from the event and the runners, and I wanted to be there in the heart of the action. I saw the fast ladies with total awe and wanted to be them, so slender and toned and fit and fast. I saw the elites who had "Had accidences" and thought how sad to be so fixed on a goal to do that and carry on regardless. Then I could see (and feel) the pain and suffering from the slower runners, leaning against rails stretching and trying to take drugs. I saw huge smiles and tears and pride. Then part of me said BOLLOX I am entering next year regardless whilst part of me said that I still wanted to be with the faster people whilst recognising that they looked alone and that they were running alone That is a huge question ... I want the happiness of achieving my goal whilst wanting to do FLM or another marafun again ASAP yet I know that marafun training at my current ...

Life is just so wrong! Take some lard arse who spends all day on their butts, give them a better diet and advise them to move and they lose weight easy like. A few weeks ago I was doing a "normal" amouont of exercise and swimming 3-4times a week and losing weight nicely. Then I did Reading and yes granted it was also my birthday so I ate slightly more but I gained weight. This week I trained throughout the week as normal and then did a walk of almost 6hrs and again I gain weight! To me this makes NO sense and I did start a thread on the RW forums to try and work out what the body is doing post run. It seems most people saw me mention weight and thought that was my issue. Well yes it does annoy the hell out of me and yes I am trying to lose weight but that is NOT why I asked! When I run I listen to my body and work with it, knowing when to push and when to give up etc! You learn to work with what you have got to maximise the workout and train to the best of your ability. I fi...

Things I am being tempted with: A pair of Nike Free shoes! Given that they help strengthen the foot and are comfy I am seriously tempted to get some of these for work! May help my tender heel too! Audio Books Given I am doing long walks for TW practice this looks good ... free I-Pod too! I love the classics like "Pride and Prejudice" and "War and Peace" and "Les Misserables" ... hours of fun!

So today was a TW training walk and it all seemed very similar!! Last night I had sorted my bag, this morning I removed wet weather stuff and applied sun block as the sky was blue without a single cloud and the weather man said 0% chance of rain! The idea was to stick to about 20mm pace and all in all I did that less lunch stop/loo stop etc. I decided to sling my GPS in my bag in case I got lost so I could track the miles and also to review pace once home to help with planning on the day. Started off well and within 30mins my last minute addition of a shower jacket was removed. Less than an hour later it was back on. Then off. Then on. At 11m I was crossing a lovely field ... undulating and recently plowed so lots of lose mud. Ideal time for a down pour! Jacket on! As with TW03 I was in capri legs, running tee and the same shower not rain proof jacket! The mud on the field just clung to my boots and I kept on having to stop to remove it as it was so heavy once about 2" thick! Onc...

Yep now Reading is out of the way it's time to pull on the boots and get walking! The TW03 mud has now been removed (I kid you not!) and the map is ready!! Below is my plan for tomorrow - about 15-16m of potter round the Leicestershire footpaths! Hubby is in work early so I am planning to get up and have some fodder then hopefully be out the door by about 8. Gulp!

Well not done much since yesterday's potter and will not be doing anything today! The weekend won't be so quiet mind! Good Friday: Hopefully a long swim in the morning, followed by a potter in the garden, a bath and an afternoon/evening/night at the Cavern! I shall be spending some wonderful time with Bear, Leon, V-Rap, Mava and whoever else may invade!! Saturday: Home! Gardening (apple tree to plant!) Wine/food Bed! Sunday: Anniversary meal out (12yrs!) at lunchtime so I doubt if anything will get done!! later! Easter Monday: Hubby starts work at 6AM so I have a 15-16m TW training walk planned!! Oh and yes Bear the weight does seem to have increased (it is in line with the WW measurements) and I have no idea as to why, well I do but not as much as it has done! Hopefully it will plummet next week! hmmmm..... well as the afternoon wore on something made me start thinking about running. So when I got home, I changed and off I went! Felt great! Legs were back! Happy pixie! Then I...

Well I had this planned before I read your comments is all I can say in my defence!! VERY Gentle trot at lunch today as in 2.5m in 37mins! Lots of walking too. Legs were tired but I think they should benefit from it! I hope!! I had planned another attempt at a swim today but have cancelled that in favour of a quick emrgancy visit to JJB! Spans assures me that is your swimwear gets to the knackered elastic see through look then it is indeed very see through! So 1 for the bin and birthday money to the fore! In fact as I have some money I will have a sports bra and swimwear spending spree. Shoes only have 200m in them so can get more later in the year depending on how much money I spend now!!! LOL! Oh and I have a 10K or 2 lined up between now and the TW!! Oh and 1 final thing ... Loch Ness Challenge ... where I swim has an outdoor pool (heated!). The challenge is to swim 25miles whilst it is open between the end of May and September ... so I'll give that a go! An excuse to keep the s...

It's now 7PM I should still be in the pool. In reality I went to the pool looking forward to my swim and found that today the pool was filled with treacle, wobbling and of varying lengths. Either that or it's the blood zapping from yesterday or Reading and I have no energy. I stopped after 600m for my own health. Even the pool attendant asked why I was getting out so soon (she's used to be doing 50+ lengths now) then sent me packing with the instructions of "drink lots, eat and go to bed". Not a happy pixie :-( but I will try again tomorrow

Having consulted those who have gadgets (yes I was gadget free yesterday!) it seems that the mile markers at Reading were a bit wrong! Mile 5 was short and mile 6 long (the 6m marker was 6.25m according to Speedy G!) for example. Anyway regardless of this I knew I did better yesterday! Looking at the stats it seems the wheels feel off at the same place despite this time training to 4m and training to 8m for BM! You can see where my stomach was cramping (think it was lack of fitness as I have used SIS and lucozade before now like at FLM). Interestingly Reading is more undulating than BM with a long hill at 2m and 7m and I walked for 2.5mins after the 6m marker as there was a hillock there too. Yet still I was doing good times! I'm amazed! I can now say with 100% conviction that the swimming and pool running has made me fitter! It's improved my CV fitness no end! Just look at those stats! Yes I am slow but hey I had hardly run and still I managed a PB! I am so pleased!! Unfortu...

2:20 ... no not my time but the reduction in PB!! Woke up to glorious sunshine and ice on the cars. Breakfast and a few cards/pressies dealt with and off I went. The start was only 1.5m away so I walked. I walked drinking luco. sport and worrying as to why I was passing loads of people walking ... I'm not a fast walker! I felt good though and strangely confident and very happy! It was my birthday and loads of friends to see and whatever happened it would be great! I meet Fraggle and we joined Bear, Mava, Speedy G and Benz in her hotel room then off to the start. Seeing as this was a fun birthday run there was no GPS or HRM just me a few friends and a watch. I started off and remained conscious of staying at a steady trot. Ran 1m then walked 1min, with walks up hills and after about 8m walks when I wanted! The weather was perfect, the start bang on time and the crowd support amazing! I kept on looking at my splits and thinking something was well wrong! 10k PB was had because I passe...

Yep the time is almost here for pain and glory! So yesterday was a rest day and I just pottered about the shops doing nothing much. Today is my last run! A short one (haha like I have done any long runs in the last 2mths!) it will be between 3.5 and 4m depending on how I feel and if I feel like continuing! Tomorrow I have a half day at work so I can collect Gnome and drive home, I may have a swim but suspect not, we'll see. Yippee I have now done 1/3 of race distance and I have to say my legs know it! Sunday will be fun!! Mind you it was very windy too which made it a lot harder. I know I am fitter than I was as my breathing is better etc so in that respect Sunday will be fine, as long as my legs play ball!! Now down to the serious business of carbo loading!! LOL!

Back in the pool this morning - very tired and running on low due to no tea (belly not happy). Just wanted my 50 lengths and out. I did 2 lengths of breast stroke and then for some reason started on the crawl. I usually stop for a drink every 10 lengths but today I stopped at 40! Having carried on with the crawl too! Total distance was 1250m with 1200m being crawl. Overall time 43mins. So slow but happy! Now all I need to do is maintain the endurance and increase the speed and I'll be doing the 5K at next year's swimathon! Cool!! Munchtime potter planned too! Good News ... My body seems to have accepted that some days I will be stupid and swim as well as run! Another steady run today, a little slower than yesterday but no walking and I enjoyed it! Fetch says that from my last 2 runs I should be about 2:50ish for Sunday with 3:10 from last Sunday's run. So all I need to do now is remind my legs that 13.1m is possible (CV fitness is fine!) and work out a stratergy! 5:1 like l...

Morning all! So today I had a swim first thing before work. I got up a little earlier than normal and planned to do 50 lengths. I had a "moment" on the scales this morning too ... they read a figure I wasn't expecting and I knew it was dehydration but it made me beam with joy. I can't remember the last time I saw 10st 8lb, it will be pre-Gnome though! Anyway the scales moment inspired me in the pool. I decided to do as many lengths of front crawl in one go as I could and also to do more crawl than normal. This inturn lead to me swimming 1m (64 lengths). OK it was slower than normal (55:29) but I did manage 10 whole lengths of crawl in one go! Very happy! bounces back in from munchtime run... Well that went well! Fastest 5K this year, fastest 1m this year too! Longest run for almost 2mths too!! I didn't plan to do it! I started off feeling really good and positive (the power of the scales stricks again!) and after the 1st mile I just thought, wonder how fast I can...

Well today I ran! As I am using 5:1 at Reading I did 5:1 today. It was only 5K and took 40mins which means if I can maintain that pace Reading will be about 3hrs .... I'm expecting a PW (over 3:14!) which wasn't my original plan (that was sub 2:30!) but a lot has happened this year and none of it running!! hehe! The good news is that the heel was fine whilst running and barely noticeable after. Not so good news is I had a twinge in my right leg which I think is my IT band. So I hope the massage peeps are still working by the time I finish next Sunday so I can have a rub down! Kit (swimming and running) packed and ready for tomorrow ... 50 lengths in the morning then 5K at lunch - both days. Other than running I have been working with Gnome on his Concorde (airfix) which was abandoned as I broke the blade of the knife I used to cut the pieces! Oh and Gnome spilt most of the paint! So I started some painting ... Gnome's paint by numbers, but got bored of that! So I'm goin...

Right so next Sunday (yes week tomorrow!) is the Reading Half Marathon. I know I won't get a PB (unless there is a minor miracle!) so we are looking at damage limitation and enjoyment! With this in mind my plans between now and then are: Today - swim with Gnome (1hr +) Tomorrow - hopefully a short trot but hubby is working all day so we will see! Monday and Tuesday - Swim AM and run at lunchtime Wednesday - Rest Thursday - lunchtime trot Friday - rest or swim before I drive to mum's (half day at work) Saturday - see Fraggle and chill Sunday - RACE DAY!! From experience I know my heel will hurt post race so I will be taking brufen before and after the race! The journey home Sunday night will be long and stiff muscles will be with me but hey that's what's running is all about ... isn't it?????!!!!