This week has vaguely followed a theme around the number ten. I did my first ten miler yesterday, it's ten weeks today until the half marathon and down in London there's been all sorts happening at a house which happens to be the tenth on a particular road. I've had this weekend earmarked for doing 10 miles for a while, my life is so busy that all my weekend runs up until the Half are already planned, I know what distances I'll be doing and what day I'll be doing them each weekend so that there's no opportunity to think "I'll do it tomorrow" "I'll get that distance in next weekend" etc. And to be honest, after the disappointment of my run last weekend I was quite looking forward to getting back in the saddle so to speak and tackling a distance rather than pace run. Something I've learned since I've been upping the distance is how important route planning is. It's alright going for an out and back or a few familiar laps when it's a couple of miles, but I've found this is tedious and repetitive on my longer runs. Plus, I like to be able to sort of visualise where I've got left to go as I'm on my way around. Over the past few years, I've lived in eight different places in Nottingham, which has been extremely beneficial to my route planning. I know several different pockets of the city, what roads link them together and where any nasty hills are. With all this in mind, I set about planning my route for this weekend and spent the rest of the week really looking forward to getting out and running it. Saturday morning came around and while I was quite looking forward to it, it did seem slightly daunting too. I'm part of a running club and while it is nice to run with others, I just felt like going on my own this weekend, and I'm really glad I did. As I made my way around the perimeter of the city I started thinking about all the memories I've got at the various places I passed. The beer gardens I've spent hours laughing and drinking in, the houses I've been to mad parties at, where I crashed my car, the site where the tower block I once abseiled down used to stand, a couple of places I've lived and all the memories they held, another place I crashed my car (whoops). The list is huge and I could be typing all night! Importantly though, running round the city with a smile on my face thinking about all these things really made the 10 miles fly by! I'm not saying it was easy, but I really really enjoyed it! I'm also especially proud of myself for actually remembering my whole route, I think it's the first time I've not ended up making a bit of it up because I've forgot my plan. So any of my lacking confidence feelings following last week are at the back of my mind for now. I managed to run ten whole actual miles and I've lived to tell the tale. It's now ten weeks until the race and I've only got another 3.1 miles to pull out of the bag which doesn't seem like a huge amount. I've got three busy/boozy/birthday weekends coming up now so fitting in my runs is going to be a bit tricky. I'm planned and ready though and I know I can fit in at least 10k at some point each week with the next long run (eleven miles) planned in for Saturday 13th August. I'll be 25 then, flipping heck! In case you're interested, here's the route...
First things first, a very
quick update following my previous post... I did it! The prohibition that is,
more about the sub 60 later. I managed 27 whole days without alcohol and I
think I'm more surprised about this than anyone.
Also under ‘the good’ is
how hard I’ve trained, but again more about that below.
The bad Now, onto that sub 60. I've
trained really hard over the last few weeks. Followed an actual training plan,
not skipped any sessions and even did a few short runs after staying out
dancing until the early hours in Benidorm last week.
Cobble all this together
and, this time yesterday, I was feeling confident and excited today’s Women’s
Running 10k race. I could do it.
Well, turns out I couldn't.
I managed to stick tight to
the pacer for around the first 5k. This isn't surprising because I've trained
really hard for that bit. Endless 5k interval sessions, Parkrun, the lot. I
thought I'd scrape together the rest based on the amount of long runs and
the distance I'd been covering in them.
What actually happened was
that after the 5k mark, my legs began to remind me that they don't naturally go
that fast. Also, I've not mentioned yet, but it was flipping hot. I was
very hot and very bothered and the second 5k was awful. A real struggle.
Things turned slightly for
the last 800m or so when a lovely lady who's part of the same running club as
me started chatting to me. I always love chatting and talking to her spurred me
on until eventually the finish line was upon us. I didn't have it in me for my
normal Usain Bolt sprint finish, but a quick glance at the clock told me I'd
ran a PB. But I still wasn't happy, not one bit. There were even a couple
of tears.
Since then, I've spent most
of today in a strop. But I've just given myself a bloody good talking to while
bobbing up and down the pool (decided to go for a swim so I didn't spend ALL
day eating).
In the last year I've
completed seven 10k races, loads of parkruns and countless miles pounding on
the pavements and treadmills. So, I might not have done it today, but I'm
sure that I will do. Even if it takes me another year, I'll be frustrated as
hell but I'll get there.
It's now the 11 week
countdown stage until the half marathon. I'll be doing regular updates again to
motivate me through my training and attempting to generate sponsors for my
chosen charity, the Royal British Legion who I'll be starting my fundraising
for in the very near future. Again, this time last night I was feeling
confident and excited for the half, however, this evening it's more nervous yet
still excited. I think.
So that's where the name
change of my blog comes from. I've been trying to think of something for months
since I knew I'd be passing the 10k mark and today it hit me (with the help of
a t-shirt I saw someone wearing.) I'm an okay runner, and I think I'm okay
with that.
Apologies for the waffle,
once again I didn't think I had much to say! Thanks for reading.
The ugly If you've got this far down
and you're wondering how I'm going to fit in talking about the final part of my
title, you've clearly never seen any photos of me while running...
