A pleasant trip out

Well that was a pleasant trip out.

We ended up going to Alnwick castle gardens - I have been wanting to go there ever since they opened and despite visiting Alnwick on a number of occasions I have never managed to get a visit to the gardens.

We took a wonderful picnic with us - Brie and cranberry sandwiches, prawn salad and fruit.
The weather was pretty good - warm but not hot, good enough to enjoy walking around in.

I was a little disappointed with the gardens as I had imagined they would be bigger than they were but there were some pretty cool water features in the serpentine garden that caught our imagination for a good while.

Afterwards we went to Barter Books in Alnwick - I love this place, it's one of the biggest second hand bookshops in Britain and I love mooching around in there. As usual I cam away with a couple of gems - a book on Origami, a James Herbert omnibus and the final book in the Hitchhikers Guide series "Mostly Harmless" which was very topical as they have just released the movie of "The hitchhikers Guide" I can't decide whether or not I want to see it as those that have either love or loathe it and I wouldn't want it ruined for me.

Fingers crossed for a good weekend

Well I had a quickie lunchtime run of 4 miles today.

Got a rest day tomorrow and if the weather forecast is to be believed it is meant to be pleasant weather tomorrow so I plan to make the most of it and head out for the day. Not decided yet on where to go but I am looking forward to something out doorsy.

It's my Birthday and I'll run if I want to

Well I'm 29 today and I celebrated with a 14 mile run.

Mad?

Yes, probably.

That was the hardest run I have ever had, it's certainly the longest time I've ever run for before but I felt suprisingly energetic afterwards.

I had a lovely birthday tea thrown by the other half's parents - complete with cake. However I was so dehydrated from the run as the weather was REALLY sunny that I could only drink water - it took 2 pints before I felt right again!

Next week sees a wee dip in the mileage as I run anything between 5 miles and a half marathon at race pace. Unfortuantely there are no real races on locally so I will have to pick a course and run as fast as I can, I favour a 10K course as this gives me a comparable achivement as I've completed 5 10k races over the past 2 years with times from 59 mins to 1 hour 4mins.

6 miles down and no incidents

I managed an incident free 6 miles last night with the other half following behind on the bike.

I plan to have another shot at Yoga tonight - it's been a while since I had a go and it is very relaxing.

My Knights in a shining panda car

Last night was a truly embarassing event and has seen me forever enshrined as a true penguin.

I was quite literally criminally embarrassed last night.

I jogged out about 1 mile to a hilly side street with a dead end - a good spot as I figured I wouldn't be bothered by traffic or people seeing me run up and down.

I'd had the MP3 player on while jogging out and just as I got to the bottom of the hill to start the run up the MP3 player started to play Queen "We are the Champions" a true rock anthem for runners. I was totally psyched up to blast the hill with the music pumping in my ears and the adrenalin pumping in my blood.

Boom - off I went like a bullet, 100 metres later and I thought my lungs were ready to burst, another 10 metres and I was completely purple and struggling to breathe but I was going to get up this hill. As I approached the last 10 metres I was gasping for breath and almost on my knees, as I approached the brow of the hill a local Polilce patrol car was turning out of the side street directly opposite me, they pulled over to my side of the road and one of the officers jumped out and ran over to me, "are you ok hen?" he says. Obviously I was a teensy bit short on breath having rather foolishly attempted to sprint up a 400m hill so I waved my arms around in a reassuring manner to say "hey, I'm good" and tried to speak. Instead I looked like a very distressed purple person, the poor Officer could only assume the worst - that some not so nice person had been chasing me and I was running for my life or somethiing to that effect. He began to question me as to what the "bother was", I tried in vain to regain my breath and explain myself but I was goosed.

Eventually after a good few minutes I recovered the power of speech and explained to them that I was in fact in the process of training for a marathon and that I had knackered myself trying to run up hill too fast for my own good.

After much laughter from the Officers they asked me about road safety - I pointed out I had my mobile phone and a road ID bracelet - which they were very impressed with. They then wished me well and carried on their merry way.

I went back to the bottom of the hill and ran back up at a 10K race pace rather than an all out sprint and managed another 7 reps before jogging home in shame.

A night on the Hills

I had a fairly good day at work today, the weather was good, people showed up and the day went swimmingly well.

Tonight I have hill work - first time I've ever done this. The other half is tasked with trying to find a 200m long hill that is about 1 mile away as the program states;

1 mile jog
8x200m hill
1 mile jog

Being that we live in a very hilly town it really shouldn't be too hard, the only caveat I have is that it's a quiet hill as I dont want to be stared at all night by motorists and pedestrians as I struggle up hill over and over.

Feeling the glory through the pain

As always I am a little stiff and sore today - less than the last time though so I am getting stronger.

Through the pain I can feel a little proud as I beat all 3 of my previous 10 mile times yesterday - I was 1 hour 48 mins at the 10 mile point yesterday. Unfortunately the whole 12 miles took me 2 hours 21mins which was not so good, but that mother of a hill near the end, in the pouring rain was a right killer.

12 miles of wind and rain

Last weeks 10 miler saw me battle against the horrific wind, this time I had wind AND rain.

This was quite a break through distance for me as I have never actually run more than 10 miles before, I have completed a half marathon but that was a run/walk affair which went heavy on the walking after the 8 mile point.

The other half picked a fairly flat course - I'll come back to that later.

I started off with a circuit of the town before heading of on a linear route out of town to the next town before turning back and returning to home.

It was a pleasant enough day to start - pretty dull and overcast which are excellent running conditions. I made a good pace out to the next town and made the turn to return home when the rain started, a little drizzly at first so I decided to put the waterproof on to shelter me.

After a few minutes of drizzle it started to heave with rain and I realised I had caught a stone in the back of my shoe, as I had at least another 2 miles to go I had to stop and get it out. Stopping when you are "in the zone" is a very dangerous affair, when you are running you have a nice rhythm going and all you need to do is carry on regardless. When you stop though it's akin to getting off a merry-go-round after a long spin, you feel very dizzy and disoriented not to mention stiff as a board. With some help from the other half I managed to get the stone evicted and started off again and regained the rhythm of the zone.

Unfortunately at the last half mile there was the mother of all hills, on the way out I failed to notice it as I was running down the way, on the way back I noticed it alright!! I failed to run up it, in fact I nearly failed to walk up it. In the end I had to let the other half go home without me to get dry while I hobbled the remaining distance to the stop point and then hobbled up the hill to the house - very wet and very sore.

A long soak in the tub recovered me fairly well and I sat down to a lovely dinner prepared by the other half and started to watch the countdown of the top 100 albums.

Resting (LOTS)

We watched Wigan RL play and lose (again) last night.

Both of us were far too knackered to face the idea of going to Asda after watching the match so we are lumbered with the task of going today.

Usually I would find this a very stressful affair, but having been struck by lightning at 6,000ft in the air I think I can take a few screaming wains and annoying parents.

Bring it on.

On a lighter note we have a relaxing evening planned at the Other half's sister's pad - a small soiree of food and music. Sounds good.

Terror Thursday - Lightning strike at 6,000ft

What a day, what a horrible, horrible day.

You may well wonder why there was no post yesterday – here is why.

I struggled out of bed yesterday morning feeling ten times worse and giving serious thought to just crying off sick (after all I was genuinely sick) but started to feel guilty about the wasted airfare (hmmm all of £60) and of course the fact that I would spend the day wondering what was being said (I do so hate being out of the loop).

I felt a little better after a quick shower and managed to make some porridge before heading off to the airport.

The journey down was pretty straightforward and it has to be said that there was some interesting stuff mentioned during the meeting, I unfortunately continued to sniffle and weep throughout so was hardly the most stimulating or active contributor.
I had some curry for lunch from the staff canteen which gave me a bit of a boost although by that time I was ravenous for food but then it had been a whole 8 hours since breakfast, a fact I tried not to think about too much as it made my head hurt – I was only half way through the day yet I had been up for the length of a normal working day – another 4 hours and I would be ready to go to bed!!

In an amazing turn of events we finished bang to time (this never usually happens – so I should have realised something wasn’t quite right) and I got to the airport with plenty of time to join the mass gathering of cattle (I mean passengers) for the Easyjet flight home. Despite turning up with over an hour spare an spending only 20 minutes in the queue (as opposed to the usual 45 minutes) I got a boarding number in the late 90’s – obviously this was a pretty packed flight.
As I had an unusually long time before boarding (generally it’s a mad dash to the gate after getting the boarding pass as the queue was so long) I decided to go window shopping and of course ended up buying an amazingly large bar of chocolate to console myself with the next day. Little did I know how much I was going to need it!!

It was obvious the flight was pretty crowded so when I boarded I just dumped my bag in the overhead locker and took the nearest available seat which was a window seat (I usually prefer the aisle seat then you don’t get trapped in). We took off exactly to time but it was an awfully bumpy ride up so I took a peek out of the window to see what was happening as it had looked pretty calm when we boarded. Just at that moment I saw a huge flash of light like an explosion right on the starboard engine pod and heard and almighty bang and felt the plane drop about 2,000ft.

I immediately thought my number was up, I started to picture myself alongside 180 other photographs on the front page of the newspapers with the word "Tragedy" written all over them. After a few moments of blind panic the plane leveled off and the flight attendant came on the PA to say the Captain would be addressing us shortly.

A few minutes of sweating later the Captain came over the intercom to confirm we had been struck by lightning and we would be returning to Luton to be checked for damage when the storm had cleared. We circled over Luton at 6,000ft – we obviously didn’t get all that far before we were struck.

20 minutes later we landed safely at Luton and sat waiting for the technicians to inspect the plan, meanwhile the Captain came out to have a word with myself and the passenger behind me who was a bit shaken by it all. The Captain was really lovely and reassuring that everything was ok – aircraft were designed to take lightning strikes and the systems were safe etc etc. The Captain remarked that I looked pretty shaken, I pointed out it had been a long day, I had a rotten cold and had just been faced with the real possibility of death, or at least convinced myself I was about to die anyway so I had every right to look a little off colour.

A number of passengers decided they couldn’t face the fear again and requested to leave the plane and make alternative arrangements to travel, I really couldn’t blame them either but it did mean we had to wait for their luggage to be removed from the hold and a car to take them to the main terminal.

After all that the journey to Edinburgh (second attempt) was pretty uneventful, we had a long wait for a gate on arrival and by the time I got to my car it was 11pm. Goodness knows how I managed to drive home last night – I had considered a cab as I was in such bad nick but the logistics of getting my car back again were too awkward to contemplate.

When I finally arrived home I found a letter from my solicitor with a draft copy of my last will and testament - what evil irony. This was the last straw and I totally lost it, the other half managed to calm me down with the offer of going to pick up a carry out for me as I was pretty hungry and it was obvious I wasn't going to sleep at all. So I had a curry and went to bed at about 1am.

I woke up pretty late this morning and have been shaking all day; I also keep seeing white flashes of light out of the corner of my eye. Luckily I didn’t have to go anywhere, as I really was not fit to drive. I managed to get some work done but not as much as I needed to – I kept needing to take a lie down every hour as I couldn’t concentrate properly and was making massive errors.

I’m looking forward to a quiet night tonight and an early one at that!

Snot very impressive

The meeting went ok but not much thanks are due to me for that. I spent most of the time blowing my nose, wheezing away and trying to focus through weeping eyes. It's a wonder I managed to drive the car today. I just hope I didn't shoot down in flames any promotion chances, or drown them in snot as is likely the case.

I need to take an early night tonight as I have a 3:30am start in the morning to fly to London for a meeting. The irony is that I could have stayed in London tonight but I declined in favour of getting my training done which I am now missing due to the cold. Having said that however I never sleep well the first night away from home and I doubt very much I would sleep away from home with a horrible cold so I guess I will arrive at the meeting in the same state whichever option I chose, at least this way I know where the shower is in the morning.

My bad Darth Vader impression

I feel absolutely awful today.

I started with the cold yesterday - it came on slowly during the day and put paid to any plans for speed reps last night as no matter what you cannot run with the cold as there is a real danger of the virus migrating to the lymph nodes and causing cardiac fever which is very, very bad.
Instead I put my feet up and hoped it would leave me quickly.

Unfortunately this morning it's worse than ever and I have to meet up with two really senior people from my work for a meeting looking like a zombie.

I have lost the ability to breathe through my nose and when I do breathe I sound like I'm trying to do a very bad impression of darth vader, my nose is producing snot at an alarming pace and now all the skin around my nose is bright red as are my eyes which are so bloodshot they look like a road atlas.

The work-out feel good high

It was a pretty dark day all round yesterday and as the evening drew in I felt pretty low.

I didn't get the chance to go for a walk in the end - too much work to be done, besides which the weather was diabolical.

The other half wasn't all that keen on going to the gym but with a little persuasion (ok nagging) I got him to change his mind.

I think we both benefited from it too, I certainly came out with a much more cheery disposition than I had entered, mainly because I hit the work out high.

The work out high is a funny phenomenon, it's hard to imagine that something that reuquires great physical effort can bring about a sense of being high (in an emotional sense) yet it does, if you can get past those first few minutes of feeling like death you suddenly achieve a nirvana-like state where everything seems to be wonderful - no matter how bad it may have seemed seconds ago. The thing about the work out high is that it lasts for quite a while and isn't followed by a crash back down again.

I was very pleased I made it to the gym last night as was the other half, hope the weather improves for today though as I have a speed rep work out to perform.

Sharing the pain

It is lovely to have someone to share things with but pain is probably not one of them unless you have unusual personal preferences.

I suffered with very painful knees after the run yesterday which cleared up overnight but I still have a major strain at the top of my hamstring muscle and the other half is extremely saddle sore hence both of us were hobbling about this morning.

I was particularly grumpy to boot as the pain last night meant I could only sleep comfortably flat on my back rather than on my side as I prefer, needless to say I didn't sleep much and when I did I had nightmares about Zombies and Ghosts after watching a pretty dark episode of the New Doctor Who series I recorded from the night before.

It hasn't been the best of days at work so far either - one of our best customers is closing down their Scottish site in the summer with the loss of 95 high-quality jobs (the type of jobs that require PHD's). It's always sad to hear of a company closure (The Rover Longbridge plant closure is also in the news at the moment) but it's harder when you know and like the employees effected.

Hoping to go for a walk for lunch to clear the cob webs and loosen me up for a trip to the gym tonight.

A battle against the deadly elements

Well I did the 10 miler - the first long run since I got ill last month.

Unfortunately I didn't break any records - 1hr 59 mins - the worst time for a 10 miler yet. (My best was 1 hr 51mins).

I was joined on this run by the other half on his bicylce, we managed to get everything he needed from Asda on Friday night (and cheaper than most other well-known sports stores to boot). It was good to have company on the run for a change, it certainly put paid to any ideas of stopping as the shame would be a killer.

We took a massive circular route designed by the other half, it followed some nice quiet farm roads to begin with and then came out on the main road through the next town to us and then back home. There was a fair smattering of up and down hills so it was fairly well balanced but the killer element was the wind!

It was pretty pleasant for the first 6 miles as the wind was at the back of me so it had quite a cooling effect on me, however that all changed after the 6 mile mark - the wind came head-on at me at about 20mph. Trying to run through it was exhausting and had pretty negative effects on my mentality as it felt like I was using loads of energy and getting nowhere.

Unfortunately the only relief I got was when I hit the 9 mile Mark by which point I was shattered and had already missed my target time of 1 hr 45mins by a long way.

Next Sunday it's 12 miles - lets hope the weather is better - I'd rather have rain all the way than that wind!

Party night and a 10 miler ahead

Well this will be interesting - we are off to a party this afternoon which will probably go on until the wee small hours and I have a 10 miler the next day. Alcohol is obviously off the menu but how on earth can I get an early night in without being a party-pooper?

I only have a limited window for the 10 miler as we have a sunday dinner at the other-half's parents house too.

Sounds like it will be interesting.

A lunchtime run

In order to save myself from the hecklers I went for a run at lunchtime today.

It worked out pretty good too - I only needed 2 very short breaks, shorter than last time. Again I covered 4.5 miles so the breaks were covered.

This now leaves the evening free for the other half and I to watch the rugby and get the groceries in from Asda leaving the way clear for a lie in tomorrow. WOO HOO

Alone with my thoughts

As the other half was due to go to the gym last night I ran alone again, this time I broke the rules a little and went with my MP3 player.

Now I know most people would frown on this practice but I read an article, written by an elite athlete, in the April edition of runners world about running with music and figured I should go back to the practice.

I used to run all the time on the treadmill with a personal stereo and I always found it useful however the whole safety aspect of running with music on the road has always put me off continuing the practice outdoors.

However I found that as long as I kept the volume to a reasonable level I could still hear the traffic around me, I wouldn't have been able to have a conversation with anyone but I could hear oncoming traffic ok, besides which I always run on the pavement so it only became important when I was crossing the roads.

I still needed a couple of breaks - but only 2 really short ones for a change, I also ran 4.5 miles instead of 4miles so I guess the breaks were negated in the end.

I plan to go to the gym tomorrow to give me a break from the "three in a row" running and then run again on Friday - possibly during my lunch break if I can get a quiet spell.

An unorthodox running partner

Well the other half did me proud last night - I got a new route drawn up which was way better than previous routes and the run started really well.

Ok so I didn't run the entire way but I did get a good mile in before I needed the first break and that was only 1 minute at that, the next break was at a turn off that I wasn't sure of the location of so I slowed down to ensure I didn't miss it, the last break was up a big hill but I had managed to run up part of it.

I also gained a very unusual running partner at about half way round - the other half came by in the car and followed alongside me offering support and I must say it worked as I got a lot further than I would have on my own. I guess all that nagging I did about him not getting a helmet for the bike he owns so he could accompany me must have hit the guilt spot( Due to the injury sustained on that fateful day in Glen Coe he has been unable to run on hard surfaces hence I have badgered him like crazy to get on his bike and join me but he is missing a pump, a helmet and a light).

I was incredibly tired when I got back and was very grateful for the bath that the other half ran for me while I tried to peel off my sweaty garments. I had a lovely soak in the bath and then slept like a log.

Unfortunately it hurt quite a bit this morning - nothing injured though just a general feeling of "argh I worked hard last night" feeling. Thankfully I took the train out today so I didn't suffer much - well at least not until I got there and was told that after all our efforts they were going to buy from our competitors instead BOO HOO! So now I am on the hunt for a new opportunity.

A change of running order

The gym went well last night and tonight I plan to run again.

It's been a while and it could be a potential killer as it's 5 miles tonight but I have nagged the other half into submission and he is going to sit down and find me a new 5 mile route that willl avoid a particularly open and windy stretch that I usually struggle on. I also hope to spread the hills out a little more so they are short and frequent.

I have also decided to change the running order of my training plan so that instead of
Mon - Rest
Tues - Run
Wed - Run
Thurs - Run
Fri - Rest
Sat - Rest
Sun Run (Long run)

I will instead break up the three days of solid running as I thin it could be contributing to the crappy Thursday syndrome that has occured a few times so now the schedule goes like this;
Mon - Rest
Tues - Run
Wed - Run
Thurs - Rest
Fri - Run
Sat - Rest
Sun - Run (Long run)

Hopefully this will help me recover better, the only draw back is that every numpty in town is out and about on a Friday night and I am guarunteed to be heckled. Funnily enough it's usually the guys that heckle - girls generally ignore me but get a couple of males together and they seem to think I need to be commented on. Usually I just ignore them and run on but it's very irritating all the same.

Back to the Gym

Starting to feel a little stronger today and am quite motivated to get to the gym tonight to do some weights.

Hopefully tomorrow I will be fit enough for a run by tomorrow.

RAIN? What Rain?

Ok so the weather report is totally out this time.

It forecast rain for the entire weekend - yesterday was fabulously sunny and warm! ALL DAY!

I did enjoy my "trip" on Concorde but it was a shame we were indoors so much as the weather was beautiful. I'm hoping it stays as good today (it's already started well) as I would like a trip to the Zoo to check up on my Penguin and the rest of the colony.

A weekend of fun!

I had a reasonably relaxing evening, apart from being dragged out of my cosy, warm and oh so comfortable bed to play taxi for the other half it was a good evening.

I'm now looking forward to a weekend of fun, according to the weather report it is to rain all weekend so I have planned accordingly and booked us 2 boarding passes on Concorde at the Museum of Flight (http://www.nms.ac.uk/flight). It sounds great - they spent 18 months building an exhibition around this concorde and are allowing people to go on board for an extra £3 on top of the museum fee.

Hard to get going again

Last night was a disaster.

I set off for a 3 mile slow trot and nearly keeled over and died after 1 mile. I walked for a bit - this is nothing new, sometimes I need a walking break, however when I started to run again on a downhill stretch I had nothing left, the tank was empty.

I limped home feeling very sorry for myself.

Today is a scheduled rest day and I plan to kick back with a glass of wine, some chocolate and a good DVD (the other half is on a works night so I get to watch what I like tonight!!). I plan to totally unwind and pick it up again next week.