My favourite downhill run...uphill

After a couple of days of failing at Juneathon (i.e no exercise of any sort) today I reminded myself what I meant to be doing and went for a run in the unexpected sunshine we had this afternoon.

I didn't go too far as I was quite disorganised time-wise today, and managed just over 5 miles, but I did take some inspiration from my last blog post, and achieved something I've never done before.

There's this one hill that joins up some of my regular runs, but which I rarely go to.  It's about half a mile and crazy steep and I go so fast down it, that it I struggle to keep control of my legs so generally don't worry about that and just let gravity take control instead!  I absolutely love it and so occasionally do treat myself to a downhill trip but don't run there too often in case I get used to that feeling of freefall and don't enjoy it as much.

But that's downhill.

Uphill is a different story.  I've lived and run here for 3 years, but have never run up this infamous hill because it just seemed far too steep, and far too hard - I didn't think I could manage it.

Today it was sunny, I was enjoying my run, so I treated myself to a downhill run.  When I got to the bottom, unusually I stopped. I turned around and looked up the hill - you can only see about a quarter of the way up but I considered what I should do next...I remembered my blog, I remembered that I'm meant to be so confident I can take on really hard training sessions, and I knew what I needed to do - I ran straight back up!

It was hard, I had to stop once for a breather, but I made it to the top and you know what, I'm really proud of myself and I'm going to do it again, only next time, I'll do it without stopping!

It's no jedi mind-trick but you need to believe in yourself

After the race on Sunday, and my big mileage week, I was aching yesterday and so took a day off from running, although in the spirit of Juneathon, after work I walked the three miles from my office to the train station - a journey I usually make on the tube. While I was walking, I was pondering an exchange of tweets I'd had earlier in the day, about starting out as a runner and then improving pace, and how you could keep improving.

I remember when I started running in August 2007 I was very unfit, and my first non-stop mile took about 12 minutes. I kept at it though, purely because I desperately wanted to run a marathon, and then, because I'd been given a charity place for the London Marathon, had raised lots of money and it was too late to back out! Eight months after I started, I ran my first ever race, a half marathon, in 2:14 (10.16min/mile) and a month after that, ran the marathon in 5:00 hours, which means my average pace would have been 11.27min/mile.

After achieving my goal of completing a marathon, I was very pleased with myself, but completely stopped exercising, and by the time I decided to come back to running in January 2010, I'd lost all of my fitness, weighed nearly 13 stone (which on my 5'5'' frame was far from ideal & I was heavier than when I started running the first time!) and had inevitably got very slow again.  


With only four months training, I then ran my second marathon in April 2010, for the RNLI, in an agonising 5:41... so that's 13.02min/mile.  I'd gone backwards in the very worst way! Despite looking quite happy in this photo (taken at about 13 miles) it was an awful race, and afterwards, I started to take my running more seriously.  

I went from that 5:41 performance in April 2010 to a 4:55 marathon in April 2011, to running a 1:49 half marathon (at 8:03 min/mile) in April 2012 and a 3:49 marathon at Brighton later the same month, which was at 8:49 min/mile pace.

While I was walking home last night, I decided to write a blog post about how I've improved my pace over the last two years, as an answer to the tweet I'd been sent, and I was going to create a list of the top 10 things I've done that I believe have helped...they included losing weight, doing some speedwork, increasing my mileage, running hills, lots of races, race day prep; you know - all those things that Runner's World and the forums tell us we should be doing!

As I thought about it though, I realised that although these have each been a significant factor in increasing my pace, and that it's only with the right training you'll get fitter and faster, it's impossible to start doing any of them effectively without one thing that you don't really read about in the magazines.

The biggest factor, I think, in improving my marathon time was discovering my confidence as a runner. It's been about believing in myself and in my training. Now, I know that sounds new-age and probably very wishy washy...and obviously there's no jedi mind trick that makes you into a faster runner overnight, but I do think that self-belief makes a difference. I'm convinced that for a long time my pace wasn't as fast as it could have been because I had a mind-set that said I was a slow runner who would try and go faster but I never pushed myself in training - if I'm honest, I was probably scared of the pain in my legs, in my lungs, scared to keep running without stopping, scared of trying too hard in training incase I still failed to achieve what I wanted in my races...

I'm not entirely sure where my new found confidence came from. I think the amazing running community on Twitter probably had something to do with it, and the relentless optimism & encouragement that flows from them ;)  Seeing what seemingly ordinary people can achieve has been so inspiring - particularly in ultra running - and also the realisation that sometimes everyone fails, but it's not a DNF or a bad performance that defines us, it's how we carry on afterwards - there's a confidence to be found in realising it's ok to crash sometimes!  Writing this blog has probably also helped as it really focuses my mind on my goals, and has been a true record of just how far I've come...

Becoming a more confident and positive runner has made me train harder, and race harder.  I've still got a long way to go to be the best runner I can be - I am convinced that somewhere inside me is a sub 3:30 marathon - but whereas once I didn't believe that I'd ever break 4:30 in the marathon, now I have the confidence to know that if I really put my heart and soul into it, train hard and run races with the most effort I can muster, eventually I'll achieve my goals even if I have some setbacks along the way, rather than training and racing within that safe zone, where you're not risking anything, and nothing hurts that much.

Southend Half Marathon

Photo from Valerie Bloomfield
(@romfordrunner) with her dog Max

Yesterday was not only day 10 of Juneathon, it was also the Southend Half Marathon. I've run it once before, in 2010, and although I couldn't remember much about it from the first outing, a general impression remains that I'd really enjoyed myself, and so I was looking forward to a decent race.

Despite being really tired after getting in late from a friend's house party on Saturday night, I still managed to crawl out of bed at 6am on Sunday, and was rewarded by the sun shining brightly and a bright blue sky.  It was even quite warm - a complete contrast from recent days and it made me a bit nervous about how the race would go as I'm not good in the heat, but so nice to have a summery morning for once ;) 

It was a pleasure driving down to Shoeburyness to the race start, as I love driving in the sunshine with my music blaring, and as I left really early to avoid the traffic build-up to get into the race car park, the roads were quiet and I was relaxed. By the time I got there and had parked up, I had more than enough time to wander up and down the coast path as the start is just by the beach, and it was lovely.

However, the race itself wasn't as pretty....

For some reason, by the time we were due to start, my relaxed mood had disappeared, and I was finding everything annoying.  The girl leading the group warm-up had a voice and an overly-enthusiastic attitude that really grated on me, then they delayed the start (only by a few minutes) because people were late which also wound me up (as I'd got there so early) and while waiting for the off, I realised I was being eaten alive by mostiquoes (and this morning's lumps and bumps on my legs prove how much those mosquitoes hated me!)  So, I certainly wasn't feeling in the best frame of mind, but just eager to be off. 

Unfortunately, half a mile into the race, I was wishing I was back in the mosquito field...I realised this race was going to be hard work. My legs felt tired and my pace wasn't where I'd hoped it would be.  In the run up to the race, I kept telling myself that I wouldn't be trying for a PB...that I'd plod round...but as soon as a race starts, I always find myself going for it...except yesterday it seems that my legs had been listening ;)

Had I set out planning for a 8:30 paced race, I may well have been ok, but I set out trying for 8.15, which after half a mile I revised to 8.20 but that was still just too fast when I had already run 57 miles in the previous 8 days!  My average pace kept creeping up, I got a stitch at about 4 miles, I was too hot, and taking a drink was becoming more of a hindrance than a help because it really interrupted my heavy breathing.  I spent the whole course battling to keep going and I missed out on admiring the sea views and appreciating the crowds, who were really enthusiastic, and I'm sure on a different day it would have been a fabulous race I would have enjoyed. 

Anyway, somehow I managed to convince my legs to carry me onwards and I finished in 1:51:20, with an average pace of 8:29. If you'd told me 6 months ago I would run a half marathon in 1:51 I'd have been absolutely over the moon, but having run a half marathon in April in an average pace of 8:06, I'm disappointed to have gone backwards (although the sensible part of mind is telling me that in April I tapered for that race so no wonder I ran faster, and that recently I've been focused on endurance, haven't done any speedwork training, and so it's no wonder I've got a bit slower!).

On a more positive note, Valerie (@romfordrunner), a friend from Twitter, was also running the race, and once I'd got my all-important medal, I walked a few meters back up the course, to watch for her to finish.  We're very similar in our goals and our running, and Valerie has really inspired me to increase my commitment to running over the last year, and I've been hoping we'd meet at an event for ages.  

It's not often I stay to clap in the other runners...I'm usually too busy collapsing on the floor...but seeing everyone come through was an absolute highlight for me. Surprisingly, I found I felt really emotional about it, and I kept tearing up: there was the the man, welcomed into the final straight by his family, who caught the hand of his little boy as he passed them, and then they ran through the finish arch together...and the people who were obviously very close to getting a PB and so absolutely sprinted to the end with such determination on their faces...and the man who collapsed with literally yards to go with cramp, but who was helped to stretch it out by a stranger from the crowd who went to his aid so he could finish. It was all really moving, and reminded me just how proud I am to be a part of the running community. 

Soon after, I was pleased to see Valerie come through, and she finished really strongly - I cheered and clapped - and then, typically, lost her in the crowd as she got her medal and her chip timer removed.  So, we didn't end up meeting, but hopefully it will happen soon :) 
--
I ran an extra 4 miles after I got home - they were hard work and I really didn't want to go, but it's good practise running on tired legs, and I'm pleased I made it because with those extra, I've run my most miles in a week ever....54 of them!  I stayed awake for a few hours afterwards, but soon fell asleep on the sofa - running so much appears to have given me narcolepsy ;)

Not every run is worth blogging about

Not sure what happened to my run last night...up to about 9.30pm I fully intended to go out but the next time I looked at the clock it was an hour later, I was still sat on the sofa, mid-way through Unforgettable (my current trashy American police drama of choice), eating jaffa cakes and didn't make it out of the door.  I am sometimes a very bad runner!! This also means that I will now have to run a few miles tomorrow after the Southend Half Marathon to bring me up to my week's target.

I did make it out today though, but for a very non-eventful 6 miler along the pavement by a main road.  I take that route sometimes because although it's not pretty, there are some decent hills which make for some hard work, which is so often missing when I take a flatter, easier option.

So, no run yesterday, a dull run today - at least tomorrow I have the race which will hopefully give me something more interesting to blog about, so I don't end up losing all my readers before the end of Juneathon ;)

Running in the monsoon

My day off work yesterday was as welcome as ever and the weather in the morning, as I lounged on the sofa having a leisurely breakfast and watching TV, wasn't too bad.  No rain, a bit of wind, a bit cloudy, but ok...pretty much ideal running conditions.  Needless to say it didn't last. Below is my entry from my dailymile.com site about yesterday's run....

21.41 mi in 03hrs 16mins 09:08 pace and 2540 calories
This was a run in absolutely torrential rain from about four miles. I was relatively happy to start with but by about 14 miles I was pretty fed up with the driving rain & with my absolutely soaked through top sticking to me like cling-film. At about mile 18 a large truck drove past me, and , just like you see in the films, it splashed an enormous wave of water all over me. I'm sure the other drivers must have thought it was hilarious...I didn't, but by that time I was so wet it didn't make me any wetter and so I just carried on running. Good distance for mid-week though :)

So, despite getting absolutely drenched, I was really pleased to have got out, and to have carried on in such awful weather, even if I did spend quite a lot of the latter part of my run regretting that I hadn't worn a coat!  I think I'm quite lucky I was running a circular route as once I'd gone so far, I just had to keep going to get home!  I'm also quite relieved to have got a long run done yesterday, as in my original schedule for this week I was due to have to run for a second time on Sunday, after the Southend Half Marathon. Most of the times when I've planned to run after a race, to add some additional miles for the day, I haven't managed it! At least now, I look well on my way to clocking up my highest mileage in a week ever, of 54 miles.  I can't believe that I'm going to have to run that far all in one go, in just 6 weeks!