Half marathon training just got so much harder...

How is everyone? I've had this post in draft for almost a week now! Dear me!

I ran intervals last Sunday, they ended up being a bit rushed as I had to do them and fit in a shower and a food shop before work! I was supposed to be doing 800m intervals but decided to do 1600m intervals to lessen the rest time! I also kept the warm up and cool down short to save time. It's better than not doing anything right?

400m warm up
1600m - 6.59 (7.47)
1600m - 7.13 (7.47)
800m - 3.28 (3.44)
400m cool down

1.30 RI

3.5 miles in total

Now, pretty much same thing happened with my tempo run.. It was supposed to be 2M warm up, 3M short tempo and 1M cool down. Well I totally ran out of time before work to fit all of that in and get a shower... Much as I'd love to skip the shower it would be unkind to my colleagues so I decided to do a 5k time trial instead. I was feeling stressed out and I knew a good fast run would make me feel a bit better!

0.5 mile warm-up (a little fast at 9.03 pace!)

5k time trial
Mile 1 - 7.18
Mile 2 - 7.39
Mile 3 - 7.28
0.1 - 0.42 (7.13 pace)
=5k in 23.08!! 7.28 pace :D
Also 2 miles along the way came in 14.57 so that's another goal ticked off! woop woop!

Funnily one of my colleagues said to me the day after 'I think I saw you running near my daughter's school' which was right near the end of my run.. I said did I look like I was dying and she said yes! Haha I always think I must look awful at the end of a really tough run and now I've been spotted!

Now, whilst I'm ecstatic to have shaved 1.43 off my previous 5k time I am now dreading the rest of my half training plan. The times of my long runs, tempo runs and intervals are based on my 5k time and I'm not sure I can acheive them anymore. I'll try though :-) And if it gives me a super speedy half it will be so worth it!

New interval paces
400m - 1.42
600m - 2.35
800m - 3.28
1000m - 4.22
1200m - 5.18
1600m - 7.11
2000m - 9.04

ok, they're probably just doable....

Tempo paces
Short tempo - 7.44
Mid tempo - 7.59
Long tempo - 8.14
Easy - 9.19

ummmm.... help?! Even my easy pace is scary haha! Time will tell, I'll give it a good go! Maybe I'm faster than I realise... I suspect that's wishful thinking, I think I'm just faster over shorter distances..

This plan puts my MP at 8.36.... My HMP which is what I'll be using for long runs as it stands and plus 20-30s per mile depending on the week is 8.16. I would love to run a half at that pace but I don't feel like it's possible at the moment. We'll see. I'd still be ecstatic to break 2hrs and that remains my main goal I doubt whether that's possible on the course I'm doing!

After all that speed work recently intervals x 2 and my fastest yet 5k being my last three runs I was somewhat relieved that my next run was 10 miles, easy, at no specific pace. I did my best to include hills, ignore the pace on the watch and run slowly. I even stopped a few times to pet some horses. I wish I'd had my camera there was a very cute black foal and a really loving black and white horse who snuggled her nose right into me ahhhhh very happy pit stops!

I structured my run in a way to include a long hill twice - basically I ran up and down one side then I ran up and down the other side to try and make it slightly more interesting!! This took me almost 5 miles. Then I ran another 5 mile loop which was flat. Surprisingly it felt ten times harder but I think this was due to the wind becoming strong towards the end of my run.

10 miles in 1:36:09 average pace 9.37
Mile 1 - 9.17
Mile 2 - 9.38
Mile 3 - 9.17
Mile 4 - 9.53
Mile 5 - 9.22
Mile 6 - 9.51
Mile 7 - 9.56
Mile 8 - 9.27
Mile 9 - 9.53
Mile 10 - 9.35

All in all this slow run felt so much harder than my 9.7 mile run of last week where my average pace was 8.57.. It wasn't my lungs as it usually is that lets me down it was my body. I just felt achey the whole way, my shoulder was stiff and sore every time I moved it and my lower back begun to ache in the latter half. I'm guessing those few recent speedy sessions have caught up with me. I almost waited until today to run but I changed my mind. I was feeling low yesterday and I thought a run would boost my spirits a bit. I'm still glad I did it yesterday. The weather is grey and drizzly today! I also might have been a bit overdressed for the run as it was lovely and sunny yesterday. I wore a jumper which was quite obviously a mistake from 0.5 miles in! Oh well, I told myself it would be good practice for coping with the almost inevitible heat of the half I'm doing!

Hope everyone's enjoying the weekend I'm doing as little as possible today after tidying the whole house, sorting out a mountain of washing and running 10 miles yesterday, what are Sundays for!

10 Miles Before 10am

I did something I've never done before, a long distance run before breakfast. It was hard going for 10 miles on a banana haha I definately prefer going mid morning but somedays there isn't time so I now know it's possible to go before! It was a tough run though, my legs felt horrible the whole time! Thank-you Sundays workout! It's a hilly route and it was windy again, all of those combined made me miss my target time of 8.47 by a longshot but I'm not too worried. I'd been having a good streak, it was bound to come to an end sooner or later!

10 miles in 1:33:45 average pace 9.23

Mile 1 - 9.16
Mile 2 - 10.04
Mile 3 - 9.36
Mile 4 - 9.19
Mile 5 - 9.18
Mile 6 - 10.01
Mile 7 - 9.19
Mile 8 - 9.16
Mile 9 - 9.09
Mile 10 - 8.27

Spot the hilliest miles!!

I've told Mike I think he jinxes me since I always run slower with him.. I think he just picks hard hilly routes though really and every run I've done with him recently has been really windy.. Not sure I can blame that one on him though ;-)

I was so glad to get home at the end of this run, it's odd how different runs can feel, sometimes I feel like I could go forever and sometimes every mile is a struggle. I really considered cutting it short to 8 miles but I made myself run the 5 miles out so if I had wimped out I would have had 2 miles to walk at the end of the run.. Not an attractive prospect when you can't wait to get home for a nice big glass of water and hot bath.. No ice baths for me, I'm far too wimpy with cold things!!

I had a major grump on this afternoon after the run. We'd done it early as I was at a meeting early in the afternoon with the charity I mentor for. So I'd rushed around like mad trying to get everything I needed to do in the morning done and I got to the place to find it had been cancelled. No-one else had shown up so it seemed to be just me who had not been phoned about it. I was really fuming, it takes me an hour to get there and that's all I was going for and I've lost my weekend off work to get today off to go to this meeting and nobody bothered to tell me it had been cancelled. So frustrating.

I'll try not to get too grumpy again now! Sometimes I think I might have one of the grumpiest blogs out there 'cause if I'm usually complaining about missing my times on a run!

Hope everyone else has had a grump free Monday!

The Run of Every Weather

Hope everyone's enjoying the weekend! I packed more than enough food yesterday.. I think I must have had eyes bigger than my belly when packing my pasta portion cause I only managed to eat half. I think partly I only managed half cause I was a teeny bit upset.. One of the residents clocked me right on the nose and reduced me to tears. How embarrassing. The boxer who can't be hit haha, I've been hit much harder but it totally caught me off guard. I hope I react better next time it happens! She did get me hard though it still hurts today lol!

I had a 10 mile long tempo run planned for today. Even though my headphones did eventually arrive just before I was about to head out for my run I'd spent the best part of the morning trying to pursuade Mike to come with me. He finally gave in and said he'd run with me on the condition that we go to the river trail. I said ok and waved goodbye to my pace goals, which I'd ever so carefully plotted out here and scrawled on my hand..

10 mile plan: Goal pace 8.47!!!!!
Miles 1-3 9.17
Mile 4 - 8.57
Mile 5-6 - 8.47
Mile 7 8.37
Miles 8-10 8.17

They will have to wait for my next 10 miler, which I think is scheduled fairly soon and even then I'm not sure this pace is remotely possible.. I knew I would not hit these goals as the trail route is hilly and rough terrain. We ran on concrete, gravel, mud and grass during todays run. Miles 1-2 were on concrete, miles 3-8 were a mix of gravel, mud and grass, mainly gravel and miles 9-10 back on concrete.

We also had the wierdest, and most annoying weather. Strong wind was going against us constantly for the first 5 miles. It's an out and back run almost all in the same direction. Mike kept saying don't worry the wind will help you on the way home... Almost exactly as we finished mile 5 and turned around the wind completely disappeared. It was totally still... wth?? I guess at least it wasn't that magical wind that somehow seems to be against you regardless of direction.. That would have made me so sad!

We also had a random rainstorm which lasted about half a mile but mostly it was hot sunshine.. After seeing AnneMarie's post the other day I decided to forget feeling insecure and stripped down to my sports bra (it's quite big and looks like a crop top)... As I did I swear some prissy bitch laughed at me. Instead of feeling fat and putting it back on I thought I'd like to see her run 10 miles, or go one round with me in the ring... her choice! I would put money on her not surviving either ;-)

The particular route we ran I have only run once before and had my worst run ever - recapped here! I went at it with a much better attitude today and even though I totally missed my time I feel ok, I don't think I could have done much better and the wind and hills will make me stronger!

10 miles in 1.32.18 = 9.14 pace

Mile 1 - 9.13
Mile 2 - 9.54 (hill+wind)
Mile 3 - 9.02
Mile 4 - 9.03
Mile 5 - 9.28
Mile 6 - 9.01
Mile 7 - 9.05
Mile 8 - 10.12 (killer steps - they made me cry last time haha)
Mile 9 - 8.48
Mile 10 - 8.34

I'm glad I got a negative split and finished strong. That was my main goal of the run, if only the wind had stuck around and helped me out it might have been stronger haha..

I'm sure most of you have probably seen the OIAJ (oats in a jar) creations floating around the blog world.. I finally got round to trying it, I had mine in a peanut butter jar with some set honey... It's really nice, Mike quickly got in on the action and I had to make some more (I'd been saving two jars).. I'll definately be making this again!



Yum! - What's your favourite OIAJ creation?

10 Sunny Miles and 12 Rainy Miles

I had a good run last Sunday, it was soo hot though! I can't believe how much the weather has turned, my run today was rainy and cool! I was glad to get some hot weather running in as it's often hot for the half marathon I've signed up for. My water rucksack has been soo good, my long runs have been far better since I got it as I'm not spending the last few miles thinking about nothing but water! I ran over the bridge and did some of the half marathon route for this run... The hills really affect my speed, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to hit my goal of under 2 hours!

10 miles in 1:33:28 9.21 per mile
Mile 1 - 8.47
Mile 2 - 9.40
Mile 3 - 9.19
Mile 4 - 9.01
Mile 5 - 8.10
Mile 6 - 10.26
Mile 7 - 9.42
Mile 8 - 10.30
Mile 9 - 8.41
Mile 10 - 9.13

Work update!
The regional manager came to speak to me on Thursday. As I'd written a letter to her it is being classed as a formal complaint so I was interviewed about it and so was my manager and the area manager will be too. I got my points accross and I'm hoping they will come back to me with the answer I want but I'm looking for another job and not worried about going back on the dole if they don't sort things out. I told her afterwards I would not return to work until the issue was resolved so hopefully that will speed things up. I feel bad about letting my manager down but I felt I needed to make it clear I was serious. And as I said to her, it has been going on long enough. If I stick around they could just keep me at a lower wage and fire me as soon as they find someone who will work for that wage, at least I force a quick answer this way, at least I hope I do! I hope they sort it out though as I still want to work there, I just won't if they don't pay me what they initially offered!

Yesterday I ran some awesome intervals! What better way to begin an impromptu day off! I started my intervals off by testing my mile time, I was hoping to get it under 7 minutes... 6.53 Hell yeahhhhhhh! There was a time not very long ago when I thought my body was just not capable of getting a mile under 7 minutes cause I could only just get it under 8.. I was so happy to get it under 7... Next goal, under 6.30? I hope so! After that I did 400m repeats, I thought I had done 4 but when I checked the garmin I did 5! Yay!

1 mile warm up 9.30
1600m - 6.53
400m - 1.45 (1.53)
400m - 1.42 (1.53)
400m - 1.39 (1.53)
400m - 1.41 (1.53)
400m - 1.34 (1.53)

400m RI between 400m, 4 minute rest after 1 mile. Total of 4.25 miles. I love interval days!

Today since work still haven't rung me I had another day off so I decided to make the most of it and do my long run since tomorrow I'm going to a BBQ at Mike's sister's house. It was totally different to last Sundays sweltering run it was raining the whole time! Come back sunshine!

12 Miles - 1.53.45 9.29 per mile
Mile 1 - 8.33
Mile 2 - 9.30
Mile 3 - 9.09
Mile 4 - 9.25
Mile 5 - 8.39
Mile 6 - 9.53
Mile 7 - 9.37
Mile 8 - 9.42
Mile 9 - 10.00
Mile 10 - 10.18
Mile 11 - 9.58
Mile 12 - 9.04

It ended up being a pretty good run, I had to change my planned route half way through though as I got on to the bridge and there was a sponsored walk going on! There were masses of people in pink hats so I quickly turned around and ran a different route. At least I got some hills in before the route changed.

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend! Lets hope for some sun in England tomorrow. I'm looking forward to catching up on all my favourite blogs tomorrow before the BBQ, for now Mike and I are watching Prizefighter, there have been some great fights so far!!

Double Digits

Yesterday was such a busy day! I had a job interview in the morning, it lasted 1hr 20 and I think it went well. The job is really cool, I hope I get it!! I'm not sure when I'll find out, the lady had a lot of people to interview and said there might be a second round... I feel quietly confident, I know I could do the job, I just hope someone with lots more experience didn't turn up after me!

EDIT! I just got a phonecall.... I got the job!! I will be an assistant manager at Holland And Barrett, I'm going to get lots of training about all the natural supplements and sports products they do which is really interesting to me :-) So excited! I've been unemployed way too long, it will be great to get into work! The only downside is it will probably take a little while for me to find my fitness rhythm again and figure out when I find it best to train when I'm working but that will come with time! :D yay!

After my interview I got home, ate lunch and we went straight to a course, Coaching and Mentoring. The course was just awful... and I have two more 4 hr sessions!! From the syllabus I expected something like sports coaching and the type of mentoring I'm going to be doing with Mind. It was all corporate mentoring and coaching. And it was done in such a school classroom style, it felt really oppressive and the information just didn't seem useful. I didn't agree with a lot of the things he was teaching and on several occaisions he had really obvious grammatical errors on the slide show... I'm not saying I'm grammatically perfect, especially in my blog posts because I don't always check them thoroughly but come on - if you're leading a course you should have checked your course material! I'm dreading the next two weeks, seriously considering not going back... It could get better though, maybe? Who knows, I hope so!! They need a better description in the prospectus haha

When we got home from the course we were soo tired! We ate tea and sat down for a bit before getting some push-ups and chin-ups done. I was really concentrating on the chin-ups from dead hang so Mike was giving me a little support so I could get the full range of movement, I think I'm improving, I wish I'd started from dead hang in the beginning though, I have so much catch up to do now! I got 10 Chin-ups and 35 push-ups done, some of the push-ups on the dreaded handles!

Today I ran 10 miles!! My first double digit run, it was tough! A lot tougher than 8 was, I got pretty dehydrated too, I need to start taking water on my longer runs I can't get enough in me now! The run was a relaxed run at no specific pace according to my plan so I just went on how I felt, I was going to go on HR and keep it in a comfortable zone but something went wrong with the heart rate readings, think it needs a new battery... it was telling me my HR was in the low 90s for a lot of the run... I know that's not right! So I'll just give you the mile times!

10 miles in 1:35:43 average pace 9.35

Mile 1 9.36
Mile 2 9.37
Mile 3 9.32
Mile 4 8.54
Mile 5 8.58
Mile 6 10.11
Mile 7 10.12
Mile 8 9.41
Mile 9 9.33
Mile 10 9.25

The wierd time differences between miles 4-5 and 6-7 were down to wind on the bridge, it was clearly helping me in miles 4-5 but it was pushing me back in miles 6-7... they were tough miles, I just wasn't close enough to the end to not be bothered by the wind, 3-4 miles seemed so far at that point!

I felt so poorly after the run, I had the worst stomach cramps and for the first time after running had no appetite what so ever. I felt really sick and I thought I was going to be sick several times! I had to force down a bowl of cereal cause we had to go out as soon as I'd showered... Not nice! Anyone have any tips or ideas for how to avoid the tummy troubles after running? I hope it was just a bad day and not to do with the distance increase because that will make the half marathon training pretty grim!

Well I'm off now to refuel with a takeaway at Mike's Mums, it's her birthday tomorrow so we're off to celebrate!

By the way, head over to Marcia and Karyn's blogs and wish them luck for Boston on Monday!! They are going to be awesome :D