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Running and Triathlon Photo Album
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Well, marathon training has officially started. It was supposed to start on Monday but that's beside the point! I made up for lost time today and did the hill session that was scheduled for yesterday. It was my first ever hill session. Of course, I've run lots of hills before, and my run to university last year was uphill all the way, but I've never gone out of my way to look for hills to run up before!! It was pretty tiring but it felt good. I ran 10 mins warmup, then up and down for 30 mins and then a slow 15 min run home. The run home was very tiring but then these crazy sessions are supposed to get you used to running on tired legs, right? I'm going to keep doing the same hill session every time and see how my time improves. Today's exact time 55:07.
Tomorrow I'm planning an 84km bike ride.... I'm going house hunting in Guilford and rather than waste time and money on train tickets I'm going to ride out there and back. If I get too tired I can always throw the bike on a train!! Then on Saturday I'll be recovering from a debauched New Year and Sunday is a long run with the running club. So, I'm gearing up for a fit and healthy New Year, and I hope to be lean mean running machine (with emphasis on the LEAN) by April!!
Oh dear Christmas is a terrible time of year! OK, you get presents, which is cool, and spend time with the family, which may or may not be a good thing depending on your family!! But there's far too much fooooooood! I had planned to go ahead and pig out on 24, 25 and 26 Dec, but it ended up including 23, 27 and 28 Dec as well. Oops! And official marathon training was supposed to start on 27th, and I ran for the first time since the 24th today. Still, all that festive nonsense is behind us now (except for New Year, groan!!) and it's time to get serious.
So, what have I achieved over the festive season? Well, Christmas Eve I got up early and ran random circles around Oxford before we all got into the car and headed up North. It was a nice run... not too cold and a lovely clear day. And of course exploring a new route is always fun. All told, my randon circles took just over an hour, which is not too shabby.
I was planning to run with my cousin (who is also running FLM... but she ran NY last year in 3:45 or something crazy, so she's way out of my league - we're not worthy, we're not worthy!) while we were uo North since we had a fantastic run together last Christmas, but it didn't work out. Far too icy and snowy. We had an amazing white Christmas which looked like this...
...and on Boxing Day we all went out for a vigorous stomp across snowy fields, which was fun, so at least I got some exercise.
Two days of laziness and too much food followed, until this morning, when I went for an hour's trot around Wimbledon Common. It was pretty cold and very frosty and icy this morning, but the sky was clear blue and it was a great sunny run. My training schedule told me I should be doing 25 mins of hills but I can do that any time... I'm not going to waste these 3 days I have off work and can use to run in the park in daylight!
I suspect I may have trouble getting my runs in over the next few of weeks. Come next Tuesday I start my new job out in Surrey, but we haven't found a house out there so I'm in for a monster commute. We're housesitting for friends until the 20-something-th of Jan, which is even closer into London than we are now. So, not sure when I'll manage to run. Either obscenely early or obscenely late. Not keen on either prospect. Oh well, got a marathon to run so I guess I'll have to make a plan. All suggestions welome!
On the good side, all this food has got me not wanting any more. I threw away the Christmas pud I had left in the fridge (after eating a large lump, she guiltily admitted!) and had absoutely no urge to buy bad stuff in the supermarket today. I think I've actually OD'd on food! So hopefully the healthy eating starts tomorrow!
Whether or not to run to work was decided by the fates this morning... it's pouring rain!! No exercise at all for me. A last-minute shopping session meant a very late night last night and I needed my sleep. I should have got up and done some toning, I know. But it was nice and warm in bed!! I'm a slob! But I refuse to beat myself up over it because a) it's Christmas and b) I'm determined to enjoy being able to just bag runs and stay in bed while I can!! Once the serious training starts I'll have to get up.
I don't expect to be doing much of either exercising or posting until after the holidays, and official marathon training starts on 27 Dec - right after all the mince pies.
I ran 8km at a good pace this morning, finished in 46:01. Now that's more like it!! My knee seems better, and it felt really good to run the longer route at a reasonable pace. It was cold again today but not as bad as yesterday and there wasn't any sparkly frost to distract me. So, hopefully today's successful run means that I'm ready to start the serious marathon training after Christmas.
Now there's just the question of whether or not I should run to work tomorrow. It's a 9 mile run, and I do need to get in a long run since I missed my long run over the past weekend and can't see myself doing much running over the Christmas weekend. But, I don't want to suddenly demand too much of my recently-recovered knee, especially since the run to work is entirely on very hard concrete pavements. I will consult with my internet running guru buddies and I'm sure they will have sage advice. I'm really keen to do the run though cos this is my last week at work and apart from the marathon in April, who know when I'll have another chance to run through the centre of London.
I ran 6km this morning. Didn't think I was taking it so easy but my time was very slow.... 42:08 I've done that route in 36 mins before!! Gguess I was spending too much time gawping at the frost and frozen puddles! Yes, it was COOOOOOOOOOOLD this morning, probably the coldest I have ever run in. I know I've been spoiled until now with the mild weather in Israel. The whole park was white with frost this morning and the muddle puddles were crunching with ice as I went over them. It was such fun!! I've never run in sub-zero temps before, and never with so much ice around. I realise that it will get much colder over the winter and I'll probably be cursing ice, frost and snow by the end of it, but for today it was still a novelty and really lovely to run in. Knee is OK... no better or worse for this morning's run and I got some glucosamide today so hopefully that will sort me out.
Been a few days since I last blogged, naughty me! Well, Thursday morning I was still trying to rest my knee, so I did The Firm's Upper Body DVD. I'd forgotten how tough those Firm videos are, and it certainly did work my upper body. My chest and tricep muscles were complaining f or the next couple of days.
Thursday evening was a girl's night out for all the director's PAs, and drinks were sponsored so it got very messy! I was doing well until one of the girls with issues deccided to share them with me over a bottle of wine. Ugh, I was soooo unwell that evening and the next day! Reminded me why I hardly ever drink and wonder why everyone else here drinks so much!! Yikes! So, no training on Friday!
Saturday I was planning to run an easy 5km in the park to see how my knee is doing, but Christmas shopping ended up taking many more hours than we'd planned and we didn't get home until well after dark, and absolutely exhausated. Still, I'll bet I burned a lot of calories with a full day of walking! All that walking had my knee aching by the end, just as it was feeling better. Very annoying.
Today I decided to get in some fun exercise before the serious training starts after Christmas, so I took the Tank (my mountain bike) out to play on Wimbledon common for an hour and a half. It's been raining a bit the last couple of days so it was very wet and muddy in the park. I had a fabulous time! The Tank doesn't have mudguards (will be getting some for Christmas) so I got covered in mud from head to toe, but loved every minute of it! Got some interesting looks from people in the park who obviouly aren't used to girls looking like the abominable mud-woman!! As usual, spent a lot of time wishing the dogs were here cos they would have loved it too. Oh well, once they get here in Feb there will be lots of time for stuff like that.
Here is a pic of my muddly self and bike, taken by self.
Knee is feeling good today, so I'm planning an easy 6km tomorrow morning. I've hardly run at all since I started this log, which is very sad. Hope I'll be back up to full speed soon.
Much annoyance, knee still hurts despite bunging a bag of frozen veg on it last night and more Bengay at bedtime. So no exercise today, just toning tomorrow and then maybe an easy run on Friday.
So since I don't have any training to report on today, I'll talk about food instead!! As you may or may not know I struggle with binge eating disorder, which is like bullemia but without the purging. Lots of calories in, no calories out. You do the maths!! Not healthy for the metabolism (insulin spikes are terrible things for metabolisms) and not good for the size of hips or butt!! Intake of bad foods (ie things with sugar in) seems to be under control at the moment. This is my food calendar for December:
So far it's 8 days smiling (no bingeing) and 6 days frowny (bingeing). So the good guys are winning. I'm so tired of not having control over my eating and really want to get over it once and for all. Having a smaller rump would also be nice but it's about the control, really, and not the weight.
Gonna see if I can make it all the way to Christmas with nothing but smiley faces. You'll notice that the 3 days of Christmas are pre-smiley'd... I do plan to enjoy the festive season!!
This log is supposed to be about running and other healthy pastimes, but please forgive me if I occasionally branch off into food, as it's also health related and if I can get the eating under control, I would be a happier, lighter, faster and more efficient runner. See... it's all relevant!
After a liberal dosage of Bengay last night, knee was feeling good this morning so I after dragging my hide out of bed (but it's so waaaaaaaaarm in bed and so coooooooooooold outside!!), hunting around for my earphones for a ridiculously long period of time, giving up and taking Uri's (gotta have my tunes!) I headed out for an easy 6km trot. Made a point of keeping it slow and easy (for my knee's sake, you understand!) and stopped to take a photo of the lovely shiny Christmas tree next to the Wimbledon war memorial. I love that tree... it's all shiny and pretty and brightens up my otherwise dark and dull morning runs. And it smells lovely when I run past. I will post said photo when I get home, but didn't have time before work this morning (see point about heading out late for run due to lost earphones, which is turns out that Uri had pinched, cheeky boy!).
Knee felt fine, so hopefully the rest day and the bengay yesterday did the trick. It is hard as a runner with a potential injury brewing to know when you're being cautious and when you're just using a niggle as an excuse to be lazy! So, while being cautious (and not at all lazy) this morning I achieved a personal worst for my morning 6km route of 44:21. Shameful!
Monday... blugh!
Had a good run yesterday with the Windmilers, although it was *%"£$*ing cold!! The first part of the run (social group) was longer and harder than usual, and took a different route. Hope it didn't put off the new people! Then the usual split into Richmond Park for the more determined. I didn't find quite as many people to chat to as usual but I did spend most of the run talking to Kevin, who is a pleasant young man with a dog. Marty (the dog) comes on the runs too and so I live a doggie running life vicariously through them!! At the zebra crossing on the way into the park we got held up for ages by a very inconsiderate traffic light. So when the time came for the extra loop up the hill, I found that everyone who was going had already gone and it would have taken a superhuman effort on my part to catch them. Since I wasn't feel particularly superhuman, I stayed with the group who were just going round the pond and back again. Glad I did really cos I was very tired by the end of the run.
I had remembered to bring a jacket and some money for tea afterwards, but no-one who I was chatting with was staying, and the queue was awful, so I just headed back home afterwards.
I seen to have developed a slight niggle in my left knee this week, which is a worry, along with various other muscle and tendon aches and pains in my lower legs. Hope nothing serious is going on and that it's all just a protest against the cold and the longer runs. I'll make sure to take it very easy for the rest of the week.
This morning was toning day, so it was me and the gymball and the dumbells in the early hours. Need to get all my muscles as strong as possible before the serious marathon training starts if I want to avoid injury. I've been neglcting my toning for too long, so it feel really good to get back into it. I'll have those washboard abs back in no time (falls on floor laughing)! Hey, laughter is good for your abs, isn't it?
I wasn't expecting to get any exercise in today cos we were planning on going house hunting. But some late-night investigations into Uri's travel time from where we were looking to his new job revealed a 2-hour commute, so all house hunting was cancelled. A bit annoying to have wasted a whole weekend of house hunting time, but what can you do? We'll have to re-think potential new areas to live in and try again next weekend.
The upside of course was that I had time to get some training in after all. Since tomorrow is long run day with the Windmilers, and since poor Claire (my road bike)has been sadly neglected lately, I decided to take her for a couple of laps (3) around Richmond Park. Can't fall too far behind with my biking, marathon or no, if I want to do any triathlons this summer. It was a lovely day for it... all sunny without a cloud in the sky. I had a really good session, and could feel the extra running I've been doing paying off, even on the bike. Those nasty hills which usually have me puffing like a steam train and collapsing near the top were no trouble today... I fairly breezed up them and had plenty of energy to keep pushing right to thhe top and over the other side. Cross training works, it seems! According to my newly reset computer (I've had it set to the wrong wheel size for the past 6 months!! I am a moron), I did 46.6km. I expected it to be closer to 50km, but there you go, and still not a bad distance.
In the park there were deer all over the place just after Roehampton Gate, and very close to the road. Very sweet and a fine thing to be looking at while out on a bike ride in the big city. Gotta love that about London! I stopped to take some pictures with my trusty phone, and here are two of them.
 
Looking forward to my run with the Windmilers tomorrow. They're a great group and it's a lovely run too... all cross-country and hilly. Just a shame the doggies aren't here to enjoy it with me. Oh well, only 2 months to go...
So here I go... blogging for the first time ever!
This blog site needs some work... I've managed to add links to my charity fundraising site (I'm running FML05 for the MS Trust - got a ballot place but feel I should do my bit anyway), plus my photo album. But more work needs to be done. What a shame I don't have FrontPage here at work! I'm not clever enough with HTML to hand code the whole lot.
It's still 2 weeks before Christmas, and my marathon training doesn't officially start until the new year. But I'm certainly running! I worked out my training schedule last week, and got all enthusiastic and added training for these weeks before Christmas too. Then I realised that there really isn't any need to get myself all bogged down with schedules just yet and I should enjoy "free" running while I can.
I had a great run this morning. It's getting darker and darker in the mornings (as tends to happen in winter) but this morning the sky was a clear deep navy blue, with stars ("What!?!", I hear you say, "Stars in London?!!?!" - but it's true... there were stars!) and a gorgeous thin sliver of moon with the rest of the moon circle showing too. I tried to take a pic with my trusty phone/mp3 player/camera/radio, but it didn't come out too well.
So after all this lovely moon view, I got to the park and started running under the trees, which is somewhat of an adventure in the dark. You never can be quite sure when you'll sink into some well-hidden mud! But it was all quite dry today, and "Come What May" from Moulin Rouge was playing (current favourite song) and I just flew along under those trees. I'm not sure if it's true or just my imagination, but I'm convinced that I run faster in the dark!
All very surreal and very wonderful... one of those runs that reminds me why I love running.
And then I got home and reality gave me a fat slap as I took a huge chunk out of my thumb with the potato peeler. D'OH!
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