10 miles

I have done it completed 10 miles this morning. My plan was to make it a trial race day without the crowds and sea, so I was up early and had porridge  for breakfast and took Lucozade to drink as that is what is provided on race day. I even stared out at 0900  race time it was cold snow not quite melted from a couple of days ago.

The porridge felt heavy in my stomach at 3 miles in. Not to bad though I still felt quit good overall my pace was almost 14 min mile so I was happy with that.Just after that I received a call from work. Now normally I don't answer my phone on a run but I knew what the call was about and should have called them before stating out. Any way it was not a long call so not bad. I carried on.

About a hour in my legs started to show there presents I ignored them and carried on.Then came the second call from work again I answered it gave me a breather and the hope of a lie in in the morning. A further mile or so a Jehovah Witness tried to stop me, I kid you not, I am in the middle of a run and they want to talk I laughed and carried on.

Once I got to 8 mile my legs were seriously asking what I was doing and refused to go up the tiny incline at anything faster that crawl. By now my pace was 14;40 which I was still quit happy with. I made 10 miles in under 2hours 30 the allocated time for today's run. All my legs now had to do was walk a few meters home which they did very very slowly. Now I ask you how are they supposed to make 13 miles? We will see it is tapper time!

race number

New lap top

I have invested in a new lap top  so hopefully  maintaining this blog will now be a lot easer as I don't have to fight for computer time ect.

To update you all I have not stopped running in fact I am entered in to the Brighton Half Marathon in about two weeks and am training hard. My longest run will be 10 miles in a few days which I will tell you about once I have completed. I have been assured that 10 miles will be enough to get to 13.1, we will just have to see, I am going on faith that plenty of other have done it so it must work.

Race for life 2011

I was worried I would not be able to run this race as I had not been well the few days before but I got up in the morning and felt OK so I ate my porridge. My breakfast seemed to take a long time to settle, I think it was just nerves because by the time I got to the race it had settled. We arrived early so had plenty of time to park in the dedicated  field. During the walk of about ½ mile to the start, I was relieved to see lots of ladies in pink.

walk to the start

warm up

I arrived in time for the hanky man warm up which I did some just not all as I did not want to ware myself out before the race, my normal warm up is a walk before run, none the less  I enjoy it. We all got divided in to Fast Runners, Joggers and Walkers where I joined the Joggers being more my pace. Following a count down we were off.

I went off fast, having not worked out yet how to start slower, excitement seems to kick in and I just go with the flow. It was very crowed at the start, soon it thinned out and I found myself over taking and being over took by the same group of people, throughout the race.

half way

The course was all on grass which was nice.  It was also more undulating than I am used to so I found myself walking a lot more than I hoped, think not wearing my Ipod also contributed to this.  It was a two lap course so at  halfway the winner past at 40min ,a 5k PB for me. I felt much happier with myself and stopped the harsh head talk. The second lap was so much easier and felt a lot shorter until that is the last 1k where we went a different way up a hill and down again before finishing I was worn out and thought I would end up walking across the finish line. However my family cheered for me and energy came from somewhere and I ran across in 1hr 32 min.

Got my medal and swag bag ,which has things like tooth paste and super absorbent wipes. Although I felt exhausted. I did sigh up for next year, got to keep going.

swag

Pre race

Post race

Mr Grump

This is a poem I have written about some who was dear to me

It is hard to say how I feel

This is not 

Not

Not what?

You have taught me how to live

Taught me there is away

Taught me to take the challenge

Embrace it

Use it 

Hold it

Find away

Move forward

And live

What can't be done

Can

Find away

Look around

You have taught me 

Taught me to love

Taught me to laugh

Taught me about me

My dreams

My life

My hope

To push the limits

Find it and use it

I will miss you 

Thanks for showing 

My life 

For what it is

For the gift of your life

The privlege of 

Knowing you

MR GRUMP

Walk run

Some times when out running I find that I need to walk. I had thought of it as cheating a little, after all surely when you say you are running you mean running and walking is not running. I have since found out that is is quite common and beginners often walk some of the way even in races. For me it allows me to recover a little so I can carry on and complete that days miles.

Thoughts on diet

I do not believe in diets the evidence both personal and scientific is that they do not work. In fact they are a good way to actually put weight on. I blame diets for my size. Don't get me wrong I know my size is because I eat more than burn.  I have found though with each diet started the easier it became to put weight back on, plus a little extra. So I am not on a diet the aim of running for me is about fulling my lifetime goal of completing a marathon and in the process getting fitter

All that said however I have noticed a subtle changes in food choices made. I also feel fuller sooner and don't feel the need to continue eating passed that full feeling. Not sure why this is, it could be that I feel better about myself overall. As I am doing something I have set out to do and am closer to that marathon and have much more energy overall. Others have asked if I have lost any weight and some clothes do feel loose. The answer is I don't know, don't weigh myself regularly. Yes I would love to be slim I just don't want to get bigger so won't be dieting in a traditional sense.

Race report Stratford Triathlon relay 2011

Second race completed wow! I arrived early once again, it is what I do. So I had the opportunity to explore how things worked and see what the expo was about. I was reassured and inspired as there were people of every type there who were doing the whole thing. You never know one day I might complete it too. I did not eat before leaving home, stupid I know, I was very nervous, don't think I would have kept it down so I grabbed a coffee and a flap jack whist I waited for the rest of my team to arrive.

Once they did we all registered together and got our numbers marked on our right arm left leg, it is still there. Then it was awaiting game again. We watched the transition area and cheered. Specially the two members of our team that were completing the whole race. Wow amazing. Soon it was Joe's turn to swim and she managed 400m in 10 min then came running out to the transition were Gill and me were waiting. Gill set off once the arm bands were exchanged. We were worried about her as she had fallen from her bike a couple days earlier and injured her shoulder.

Gill was however determined to do it just slower than she first hoped. She was back in the transition area about a  hour later just as our other team mate were finishing. I was watching them and almost missed Gills return but now it was my turn arm band exchanged and I was off. Along a grassy track the ground was very in even unlike the canal I had been training on but I soon got in to it. I had decided to keep to under 15min miles and tried to monitor myself however I found I was going at 13min miles. I was still being over taken but was not worried about it.

It was a two lap course and at half way all my team mates and family were there cheering me on so I had a little boost then. Second time round though I found my self walking my legs just would not move now it was the runners passing me that egged me on saying "go on you can do it" and "dig deep." At one point  I found I was running again with Blues Euro-vision song going though my head. Headphone were not allowed. I was singing "I can, I will" over and over and I kept on going. Suddenly the finish was in sight and I crossed to cheers. I got a PB of 46 min.

Bring on the next race