Exciting news...the magic number 10

Well, as you'll notice, my Juneathon blogging has gone out of the window...my excuse is that we've been really busy since my last post - had more going on last week than we usually do in a month ;) As well as the cricket, we had a trip to the Royal Institution for a lecture/book launch with the legend that is Sir Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, a day out at Knebworth Park for an awesome Red Hot Chili Peppers concert, and then yesterday was the grand prix and we watched England's exit from Euro 2012....but the running has been going well and that's the important thing ;) 

I clocked up 50 miles last week, including 27 miles for the Longest Day Run over the weekend.  It's not quite as many as I was hoping for, but I'm struggling with what I think is tendinitis in my ankle and so cut a few runs short.  Obviously, what I should actually be doing is not running on my ankle at all, and to this end, I'm taking today and tomorrow as rest days in the hope that gives it enough time to feel better. 

Anyway, more importantly, I have had the most exciting, incredible, and terrifying news....

I've been offered a place to run the 2013 Brathay 10in10!  If you haven't heard of it before, this is an awesome multi-day charity event, held at England's largest natural lake, Lake Windermere, up in the Lake District. Essentially, 16 of us will be running a marathon a day, for ten consecutive days, with each marathon being a lap of the lake.

On the 10th day, the main Windermere Marathon is held, and our small group of 10in10ers will be joined by 1000 other runners, and we will complete the final 26.2 miles of our adventure.

I just can't believe that they've offered me a place and I'm so happy.  Overwhelmed, a little apprehensive perhaps, but mainly just happy, especially as when I told Francis he was really supportive about me accepting the place.

I've followed the event for a few years, and have been totally impressed and inspired by the commitment of the other people that have completed it and am struggling to get my head around the fact that I'm going to become one of them! It really is just amazing.

262 miles in 10 days.  It's going to be a massive challenge to complete, but it's a charity event and that will help me through - I'm going to aim to raise at least £3,000 for the Brathay Trust who organise the 10in10 and the Windermere Marathon.  Brathay are a charity that inspires and supports disadvantaged young people across Britain, helping to improve and transform their lives - they do amazing things for these children, creating a tangible difference to their lives now, and their lives as adults, and raising money for them will make a massive difference to keeping me going not only through training but through that event itself.

So - here goes... I've got 10 months to train, to fundraise and to get in shape to complete the hardest endurance event I've ever faced, 10 months until 10 marathons in 10 days.  I can't wait :D

Running at midnight

Yesterday went like this:

5:30am: alarm rang - I turned it off.
7:30am: got up, 2 hours late
9.30am - 5.30pm: at work.
6pm: train to Chelmsford with a sandwich for dinner
7pm: watched the T20 cricket game between Essex and Kent.  Amazing match, great atmosphere, and very exciting towards the end...came down to the last ball! Kent needed a 4, Essex got a wicket, so Essex won.  Fantastic!
10.10pm: wandered back to the station from the cricket ground.  Realised the train was in 2 minutes.  Sprinted & got to the platform at 10.13pm, missed the train.
11.10pm: Finally got home.
11.30pm - midnight: Went out for a run!

That's very late, even for me, a seasoned night runner, to be heading out of the door and so I didn't go far, but am pleased I went.  I barely saw anyone out on the roads, but there was a group of teenagers coming up the street, I assume from the pub, in the opposite direction to me.  As I got closer I could hear them asking each other "Is she really running? At this time of night?" and then they started applauding and cheering me as I passed them, as though I was running a marathon.  It raised a smile and was all well intentioned ;)

Despite getting to bed so late, I actually tried to get up at 5.30pm this morning in another attempt to get my run in before work.  Needless to say, I slept through! Unfortunately, we're going out again tonight so I'll be running late again, although this time I'll hopefully be home a bit earlier, which is a good job as I need to do about 8 miles.  Fingers crossed it doesn't turn into another midnight run, not sure how long I can keep this up! ;)

A return to Juneathon - day 20

After yesterday morning's gym session, there was a tiny part of me that wondered whether I would actually make it out for my run last night, but very pleased to be able to say that I did and my Juneathon exercise has restarted and my training is back on track.

Having watched the first 10 minutes of the England v Ukraine game, I headed out of the door, and ran a hilly 8 miles at what felt like a decent pace.  I didn't take my Garmin, but had one of those runs where I felt strong, my legs were moving well, the sun was shining (although by the time I got back it was setting & the skies were red) and pretty much every song that came on my ipod was one I love. I was home in time to watch the last 10 minutes of the football so I was able to enjoy the England win too - yesterday was a very good day :)

Unfortunately, I did have a bit of pain in my right ankle during the run and it's still hurting this morning...to go with the DOMS that I've developed from the gym session.  My arms, back and abs are all really aching, but the DOMS is a good thing - it means the gym workout was effective!  The ankle pain is less positive though - I can't identify what the cause is, but I've got a support on it this morning, which has definitely helped.

I meant to get up early and get today's run done before work, but when my alarm rang, I must have turned if off and fallen straight back into a deep sleep, as I didn't wake up until 2 hours later!! It wasn't a consious decision - yesterday's exercise obviously tired me out - but it has caused me a bit of a problem. We're off to watch the cricket (Essex v Kent Twenty20) tonight, and probably wont get home until about 10.30pm, so today's run is just going to have to be a very late one. I need to get it done, as this week is a really big week in my training - last week was an easy rest week, but this week is high mileage - I'm aiming to hit 57 miles, and I'm not going to do that unless I run tonight!

A wedding, some walking & a work-out

No blog for 5 days.  No run for 4 days. So what have I been doing?! Well, although I didn't manage to blog about it, on Thursday I did get up early for a 5.5 mile run before work, which was lovely - I need to start running more often in the morning and take advantage of the early sunshine!

Unfortunately though, I haven't run since, but I do have my Juneathon excuses lined up:

On Friday, we were on holiday! We drove 3 hours up to Derbyshire, to go to a friend's wedding.  Although there was no exercise, the wedding was absolutely wonderful - I shed more than a couple of tears during the ceremony and we slipped away from the reception for a couple of hours to watch the England v Sweden match in the Best Man's hotel room! A great day :)

Saturday - No running again, but we went for a 8 mile hike around the village of Grindleford, where we were staying.  Definitely counts for Juneathon, as going up and down the hills in the Peak District was hard work at times, but I absolutely loved the walk despite the frequent and heavy rain storms! The walk took us through different types of landscape, from fairytale ancient forest, to dales dotted with flocks of sheep, to standing high on the heather moorland looking over the view down the valley, to the Grindleford Summer Festival from which, for 20 minutes before we arrived, we could hear the sound of bagpipers, and along muddy paths by the river.  The countryside in this part of the world is absolutely beautiful and we'll definitely go back...there are even loads of runners to make me feel at home - I saw more runners on Saturday than I usually see in Essex or London in a week, and they were all running on trails and more often than not, up some very steep slopes!

Me in the pouring rain

Sunday - we carried on with our Derbyshire site-seeing tour and drove back home, getting back at about 9pm and although I'd planned to, I didn't go out for an evening run - we'd walked quite a lot during the day but I know that's a poor excuse! We also ate ice-cream, chips from the chippy, chocolate, pastries, scones....a terrible day's eating, although it was all very tasty ;)  Sunday though seems to be the day for bikers as opposed to runners in Derbyshire - we saw more cyclists attacking the hills than we saw when we were in Tuscany a couple of years ago (when we drove along what is apparently the world's best cycling road) - and I've never seen so many bikers as we did at Matlock Bath where they all park up along the street and have a pint! 

Monday - back to work, but still in holiday mode - total Juneathon fail as I sat on the sofa after dinner and decided I couldn't be bothered to run, again!

Tuesday - hurray....and I'm back....healthy eating today, exercise and blogging.

This morning I went for a free trial session with a personal trainer at my gym.  I was very nervous about it and worried about feeling self-conscious, but the trainer was excellent, and and I really enjoyed myself.  We did intervals on the rower, mat exercises with swiss balls and medicine balls, and then some work with the weight machines and I was astonished at how much I felt it in my muscles...and how weak I was in some areas! The difference having the trainer there was incredible and he also explained which muscles the different exercises were working, and how they would all help with my running which was really interesting. I did things I've never tried before, and now have aches in places I haven't felt before ;) I've already signed up for another session next week!

I was originally going to run long tonight (a 20odd miler) but as I'm already aching from this morning, I'm not sure I'll make it that far, so think I'll do the long one at the weekend instead, and try and do about 8 miles tonight, back from the train station home with a rucksack :)

My 30 mile run is now just 2 and half weeks away and my 50 miler is in just 4 and a half weeks!!

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!