Training on the pre-schedule has been going really well. In the last two weeks I have average 35 miles per week and have done a 14 and a 16 mile run. The great thing about the 16 mile run is that not only did I do it in a reasonablish time but that it didn't hurt like hell like the last time I tried to run that far!
A week or so to go and then its time for the actual marathon schedule. Really looking forward to it now, especially with all my lovely new kit.
I have suprised myself in the last few weeks. Firstly by enjoying training five days a week. As well as the obvious fitness benefits, my weight is beginning to drop and I am getting out more and seeing more people.
It's all fab!
Sunday, 28 December 2008
Friday, 5 December 2008
Schedules and X-Rays and Shorts Full of Holes
This article was first published in the December 2008 issue of Footnotes the magazine of Great Western Runners
Now I’ve always been one of those people that, when it reaches October, ignores the Runners World website and magazine for about six months – just long enough for it to get over its obsession with the London Marathon. However, having managed to reach the end of this issue of Footnotes I can keep it in no longer – I got a place in FLM 2009!! Now I find that I am equally obsessed as the aforementioned publication.
As I predicted in the last issue, when I had already mentally prepared for my guaranteed place in 2010, the immediate feeling of elation was quickly superseded with a terrible sinking feeling of what have I done?! With Runners World like obsession my lunchtimes immediately became filled with trawling websites for uplifting stories of running challenges and hints and tips for the big day. I have booked the hotel, I’ve got a reminder in my Outlook to book cheap train tickets when they come on line – you can only book three months ahead – I do a daily search for bargain prices on my current trainers, I’m going to need several pairs. Oh – hang on a minute...
Thankfully practical reality finally kicked in. If I am going to train four to five days a week one pair of complete shorts, two pairs of shorts which combined cover each other’s embarrassingly placed holes and one ‘I can’t wear this when I run with others ‘cos it smells so bad’ shirt is just not going to be enough, I am going to need more kit – thankfully a well placed birthday has taken care of that.
Then there is the schedule. I see this as my opportunity to get fitter than I have ever been and slimmer than I have ever been (well at least for the last 20 years – ok maybe 15 - I was pretty skinny once!) so a decent schedule is key. As luck would have it I belong to a great running club with several very willing to help qualified coaches (yes it is GWR for those thinking which club is that then – where have you been!). They have not only helped me plan my 16 week schedule but also helped me with my pre-schedule schedule. Fantastic! Now that I have my sensible head on its full steam ahead until.......
Paying a visit to the doctors, with a hand finally ruined by many hours a day clutching a mouse, I casually mention a slight issue I have had with my foot since the Stroud Half. Expecting a nothing to worry about instead the doctor sends me off to Southmead hospital for an x-ray, might be a stress fracture. This was followed by a now some people would keep running until the result comes through – meaning keep running and it will snap! I stop running. I curse my injury prone luck and then wait two weeks whilst the result makes it all the way from Southmead hospital to the Greenway Centre – presumably via mule post and Peru. Thankfully it’s all clear and the obsession can restart – I wonder if I will still be this keen come April?
I will be using my ballot place to run for Asthma UK – so completely abusing my position as Footnotes editor – anyone kind enough to want to donate, my online sponsor form can be found at http://www.justgiving.com/nicoughton - Thanks!
Now I’ve always been one of those people that, when it reaches October, ignores the Runners World website and magazine for about six months – just long enough for it to get over its obsession with the London Marathon. However, having managed to reach the end of this issue of Footnotes I can keep it in no longer – I got a place in FLM 2009!! Now I find that I am equally obsessed as the aforementioned publication.
As I predicted in the last issue, when I had already mentally prepared for my guaranteed place in 2010, the immediate feeling of elation was quickly superseded with a terrible sinking feeling of what have I done?! With Runners World like obsession my lunchtimes immediately became filled with trawling websites for uplifting stories of running challenges and hints and tips for the big day. I have booked the hotel, I’ve got a reminder in my Outlook to book cheap train tickets when they come on line – you can only book three months ahead – I do a daily search for bargain prices on my current trainers, I’m going to need several pairs. Oh – hang on a minute...
Thankfully practical reality finally kicked in. If I am going to train four to five days a week one pair of complete shorts, two pairs of shorts which combined cover each other’s embarrassingly placed holes and one ‘I can’t wear this when I run with others ‘cos it smells so bad’ shirt is just not going to be enough, I am going to need more kit – thankfully a well placed birthday has taken care of that.
Then there is the schedule. I see this as my opportunity to get fitter than I have ever been and slimmer than I have ever been (well at least for the last 20 years – ok maybe 15 - I was pretty skinny once!) so a decent schedule is key. As luck would have it I belong to a great running club with several very willing to help qualified coaches (yes it is GWR for those thinking which club is that then – where have you been!). They have not only helped me plan my 16 week schedule but also helped me with my pre-schedule schedule. Fantastic! Now that I have my sensible head on its full steam ahead until.......
Paying a visit to the doctors, with a hand finally ruined by many hours a day clutching a mouse, I casually mention a slight issue I have had with my foot since the Stroud Half. Expecting a nothing to worry about instead the doctor sends me off to Southmead hospital for an x-ray, might be a stress fracture. This was followed by a now some people would keep running until the result comes through – meaning keep running and it will snap! I stop running. I curse my injury prone luck and then wait two weeks whilst the result makes it all the way from Southmead hospital to the Greenway Centre – presumably via mule post and Peru. Thankfully it’s all clear and the obsession can restart – I wonder if I will still be this keen come April?
I will be using my ballot place to run for Asthma UK – so completely abusing my position as Footnotes editor – anyone kind enough to want to donate, my online sponsor form can be found at http://www.justgiving.com/nicoughton - Thanks!
Monday, 1 December 2008
It's Not Broken!
It's not broken and my two week rule has applied yet again. Two weeks away from running and the pain in my foot has completely gone.
Bring on the training.....
Bring on the training.....
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
What's Taking So Long?
The hospital and my doctors are about half a mile apart so what taking so long in getting a picture of the inside of my foot from one place to the other.
Still no news and therefore still not running - if it is broken don't want to have to start the six weeks at the point of getting the news. I'm thinking that I'll be a week or two up - although if it's not broken then it's a week or two lost, but I won't think about that
Still no news and therefore still not running - if it is broken don't want to have to start the six weeks at the point of getting the news. I'm thinking that I'll be a week or two up - although if it's not broken then it's a week or two lost, but I won't think about that
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
Aargghhhh....!
Just when things seemed to be going so well. Inconsistency has always been the issue with my running. Just when I start to gain some fitness or start heading towards a weight I want to be some injury or other seems to strike. Generally it's in my left leg either hamstring or shin area.
Well it's the left leg but this time it's my foot. I was at the doctors for another issue (RSI in my hand - all those hours holding a mouse finally taking a toll) and I mentioned an issue with my foot that started during the Stroud Half - next thing I know I am being sent of to the hospital for an x-ray - suspected fractured toe.
I really hope it isn't - that would be six weeks out. At least with my normal injuries two weeks rest seems to be my repair time.
Bummer.....
Well it's the left leg but this time it's my foot. I was at the doctors for another issue (RSI in my hand - all those hours holding a mouse finally taking a toll) and I mentioned an issue with my foot that started during the Stroud Half - next thing I know I am being sent of to the hospital for an x-ray - suspected fractured toe.
I really hope it isn't - that would be six weeks out. At least with my normal injuries two weeks rest seems to be my repair time.
Bummer.....
Thursday, 23 October 2008
Gotta Get Me a Schedule...
So having sat on the marathon news for a couple of weeks I have decided two things.
1. I need a proper schedule and I probably need a schedule to get me to the schedule.
Excited with the news regarding the marathon place I went and did a 16 mile run. It's the first time I've ever gone over the 13.1 miles of a half marathon. I had intended to do a 14 but messed up by going freestyle on the route! By jimminy did it hurt!
So I got in touch with Lucy Ellis and Andrea Culp both newly qualified UKA coaches and they are really keen to help map out a schedule which is fab!
2. As my first attempt at a marathon I figure that if I can use it as a way of raising a little cash for a charity then that is what I should do. I have decided to hook up with Asthma UK. I promised my daughter many years ago that if I ever did the London Marathon that I would run in aid of Asthma. The irony is that since then, whilst she is still theoretically asthmatic she does seem to have grown out of it whereas I have grown into being diagnosed as asthmatic last year - it being nearly the cause of me giving up running.
As I have a ballot place the great thing is that all the money I raise goes directly to Asthma UK whether that be 30 or 30,000 pounds plus in wearing their vest it does a little bit towards raising their profile.
Getting excited about all this now!
1. I need a proper schedule and I probably need a schedule to get me to the schedule.
Excited with the news regarding the marathon place I went and did a 16 mile run. It's the first time I've ever gone over the 13.1 miles of a half marathon. I had intended to do a 14 but messed up by going freestyle on the route! By jimminy did it hurt!
So I got in touch with Lucy Ellis and Andrea Culp both newly qualified UKA coaches and they are really keen to help map out a schedule which is fab!
2. As my first attempt at a marathon I figure that if I can use it as a way of raising a little cash for a charity then that is what I should do. I have decided to hook up with Asthma UK. I promised my daughter many years ago that if I ever did the London Marathon that I would run in aid of Asthma. The irony is that since then, whilst she is still theoretically asthmatic she does seem to have grown out of it whereas I have grown into being diagnosed as asthmatic last year - it being nearly the cause of me giving up running.
As I have a ballot place the great thing is that all the money I raise goes directly to Asthma UK whether that be 30 or 30,000 pounds plus in wearing their vest it does a little bit towards raising their profile.
Getting excited about all this now!
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
London Marathon Here We Come...!
Almost unable to believe it but London Marathon Here We Come!!
I have been applying for a place in the London Marathon for as long as I have been running. For those that don't know the London Marathon is massively oversubscribed. I don't know the exact figures but I am pretty sure they get about 100,000 applicants per year for around 20,000 places. How it then works is that if you are rejected for five consecutive years then you are guaranteed a place for the sixth year.
I had assumed I would be rejected and thus get a guaranteed place in the 2010 running of the London Marathon only to be suprised by the 'Congratulations You Are In' magazine. OMG panic sets in....!
This is my chance to finally lose some weight and get really fit! I going to need a schedule and a pre-schedule. Wow - I'm in !
I have been applying for a place in the London Marathon for as long as I have been running. For those that don't know the London Marathon is massively oversubscribed. I don't know the exact figures but I am pretty sure they get about 100,000 applicants per year for around 20,000 places. How it then works is that if you are rejected for five consecutive years then you are guaranteed a place for the sixth year.
I had assumed I would be rejected and thus get a guaranteed place in the 2010 running of the London Marathon only to be suprised by the 'Congratulations You Are In' magazine. OMG panic sets in....!
This is my chance to finally lose some weight and get really fit! I going to need a schedule and a pre-schedule. Wow - I'm in !
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
London Calling
This was originally published in the October 2008 edition of Footnotes - the magazine of Great Western Runners
Bereft of runner’s profiles for this issue I did for about thirty seconds considered publishing mine. I started to read through the questions and it was then that I realised I had something much more pressing on my mind – yes it’s that time of year again. Well actually it’s a slightly different time of year but yet again I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my You’re In magazine. The one that for the past four years has failed to arrive, instead I get pictures of grown men, dressed as Batman, Robin or some other super hero weeping openly in the street.Yes it’s FLM ballot time again. I don’t fully understand why a totally online entry system means that we only find out that we’ve been rejected again only slightly before the posted version – but nevertheless I find myself religiously checking the website every lunch time for snippets of information, visiting chat rooms I would never normally visit and then panicking because I haven’t received the various emails that others claim to have had. I convince myself they ended up in my spam folders and plan to keep a special eye out for the postman as he skips excitedly to my letter box with the news I’ve waited so long to hear.
The irony is when the day finally comes and it’s a You’re In smiley Floella I will be totally terrified. I have long wanted to do the London marathon, long before I ran myself even back to the times where I would watch saying I could do that before popping out for a student grant funded fag and pint. The thing is if I get rejected this time then I know it’s me (just like winning the lottery!) for 2010 and then I’m actually going to have to do it.
You see I love everything about the marathon. I love the crowds, the anticipation, the expo, the fact that QPR always have a home game the day before, the crush on the tube, the getting up early and feeling sick – but that’s always been as an enthusiastic supporter. I even tried to feel a little guilty the time I leapt up and off the tube, having just realised we were heading the wrong way out of West Kensington, leaving Em, with 26.2 miles in her legs, stranded on the seat like a puppy left in the back of a car. I love everything about it but the thought of actually doing it terrifies me – so why do I feel so compelled?
I suppose, like for so many, the marathon is the ultimate challenge. Can I drag my slightly chubby body around those 26 miles, more importantly can my mind cope with dragging my slightly chubby body around 26 miles? How bad will the chaffing be – and believe me I chafe bad! Will Em get her own back and leave me heading for Ealing when I really wanted Earls Court? Will this be the year that QPR get back in the Premiership – oops sorry really slipped into fantasy land there! I’ve never even run more than 13.1 miles before – what if my body doesn’t work beyond the half marathon distance?! Will I hit the wall? Will I get in before the guy in the diving suit? Will I ever walk again afterwards?
So how did we get on to this subject, oh yes runners profiles you see my current favourite race is the Santa Cruz Half Marathon which I did last year. Favourite because as we hit the coast road along the Pacific Ocean a whale rolled over in the bay (you don’t get that in the Bristol or Bath half – although I believe I paid enough for a performing whale in the Bath 2009 fee so here’s hoping) and simply because I’ll probably never get to do it again. However what I really want is a new favourite race and distance, again I may only do it the once, I may even hate it but I can’t wait to say Wait for me Floella - I’m In!
Bereft of runner’s profiles for this issue I did for about thirty seconds considered publishing mine. I started to read through the questions and it was then that I realised I had something much more pressing on my mind – yes it’s that time of year again. Well actually it’s a slightly different time of year but yet again I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my You’re In magazine. The one that for the past four years has failed to arrive, instead I get pictures of grown men, dressed as Batman, Robin or some other super hero weeping openly in the street.Yes it’s FLM ballot time again. I don’t fully understand why a totally online entry system means that we only find out that we’ve been rejected again only slightly before the posted version – but nevertheless I find myself religiously checking the website every lunch time for snippets of information, visiting chat rooms I would never normally visit and then panicking because I haven’t received the various emails that others claim to have had. I convince myself they ended up in my spam folders and plan to keep a special eye out for the postman as he skips excitedly to my letter box with the news I’ve waited so long to hear.
The irony is when the day finally comes and it’s a You’re In smiley Floella I will be totally terrified. I have long wanted to do the London marathon, long before I ran myself even back to the times where I would watch saying I could do that before popping out for a student grant funded fag and pint. The thing is if I get rejected this time then I know it’s me (just like winning the lottery!) for 2010 and then I’m actually going to have to do it.
You see I love everything about the marathon. I love the crowds, the anticipation, the expo, the fact that QPR always have a home game the day before, the crush on the tube, the getting up early and feeling sick – but that’s always been as an enthusiastic supporter. I even tried to feel a little guilty the time I leapt up and off the tube, having just realised we were heading the wrong way out of West Kensington, leaving Em, with 26.2 miles in her legs, stranded on the seat like a puppy left in the back of a car. I love everything about it but the thought of actually doing it terrifies me – so why do I feel so compelled?
I suppose, like for so many, the marathon is the ultimate challenge. Can I drag my slightly chubby body around those 26 miles, more importantly can my mind cope with dragging my slightly chubby body around 26 miles? How bad will the chaffing be – and believe me I chafe bad! Will Em get her own back and leave me heading for Ealing when I really wanted Earls Court? Will this be the year that QPR get back in the Premiership – oops sorry really slipped into fantasy land there! I’ve never even run more than 13.1 miles before – what if my body doesn’t work beyond the half marathon distance?! Will I hit the wall? Will I get in before the guy in the diving suit? Will I ever walk again afterwards?
So how did we get on to this subject, oh yes runners profiles you see my current favourite race is the Santa Cruz Half Marathon which I did last year. Favourite because as we hit the coast road along the Pacific Ocean a whale rolled over in the bay (you don’t get that in the Bristol or Bath half – although I believe I paid enough for a performing whale in the Bath 2009 fee so here’s hoping) and simply because I’ll probably never get to do it again. However what I really want is a new favourite race and distance, again I may only do it the once, I may even hate it but I can’t wait to say Wait for me Floella - I’m In!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
