The past few weeks...

... The past few weeks seem to have flown by.

Its now just 9 weeks to the Marathon!

 After hurting my knee and walking like a pirate for a few days I laid off the training for a week or so, gradually starting back up with a 4 mile jog then a 10 mile run the weekend before last.  By this weekend just gone it was feeling much better so I decided to try another 16 mile run in Sheffield.  Its really started to hurt again but not as bad as it did before, I think this time, as I felt it coming on I started to walk and stretch it out, this worked quite well and every few miles I'd walk for a couple of hundred meters and stretch it out, still needed to ice it when I got home though, I think this is definitely one for the physio.

In light of this I think I'm not quite recovering from my longer runs over the period of a week so I'm altering my training plan to only do one really long run per fornight, I'll alternate that with maybe 9/10 miles on the other Sundays as thats quite an easy distance now.
It is annoying though, now that I've finally reached the state of fitness that I dont feel out of breath and my muscles dont really ache my crumbly joints start letting me down, theres not much you can do, I don't think, to improve them...

Anyway my big shocker of the week is that I've bought a bum bag, an actual BUM BAG or fanny pack if you like, never thought I'd ever go into a shop with the sole intention of buying one of those, but seriously where else can I put my brick of a phone and my wine gums?

One Year on

Not posted for a while as I've been up in Scotland on holiday.  I had planned for it to be a training holiday and to get lots of runs in but the first night there in the cottage with Pauls family I managed to fall down the stairs and turn my arse the deepest shade of purple.  As you can imagine that hurt quite a lot, so I had a few days of not doing to much moving never mind running!
On the Thursday though I'd had enough and went out for what I'd planned to be a mid length run, aiming for around 10 miles.  The roads on Mull where we were staying are amazing, single track with passing places, stunning scenery and plenty of hills and oh so quiet, PERFECT, that is until you come upon a massive scary Bull standing by the side of the road.  I stopped and pondered going round it for a while but when it put its head down and grunted (it had quite a few calves around it that its was probably being a touch protective of) I turned around the other way and literall legged it, I was absolutely crapping myself!

Here is the beast, its blurry because I was already walking away! (looked much scarier in real life though...)

 I got in a couple more mini runs just down the track from the cottage which were lovely, down by the sea loch, but in the end didnt get anywhere near as much done as I'd wanted to.

The second week of our trip saw the 1 year anniversary of our day spent out in Durness with the whale rescue team and me and Paul hopped over on the ferry to the mainland to explore the peninsula of Ardnamurchin (that was after one lovely last night at my favourite resteraunt and beach where Paul proposed to me!)
We spent the next week exploring the area and as we were staying in the van with no shower I didnt do any training at all (unless larking about in a kyak counts?)

All in all we had a brilliant trip, didn't see any whales this time, but we did catch sight of some bottlenose dolphins leaping and loads of seals chillin on the beach.

The day after we got home I went for a propper run and covered 16 miles but now my knee has flared up and feels like the joint has been replaced by a bag of broken glass so I'll have to see how it goes this weekend.  Cant believe its only 12 weeks until the marathon... terrifying!

Also I just finished a new piece for the BDMLR T shirt design range this morning, not shown them yet, but what do you think?

furthest I've ever run...ever

Last Sunday I set out on an attempt to run a half marathon distance, because of all the rain I decided to stick to the roads and keep away from the forge dam area and the woods to avoid getting covered up to my eyebrows in mud.  As per, I got lost, and confused, and by the time I'd figured out where I was and how far off route I'd gone, quite a lot of time had passed.  I usually go out for 2 to 2 and a half hours tops, but by the time I made it home it had been over 3 hours so I was feeling a bit crap about it but when I checked where I'd been I realised I'd covered nearly 16 miles, which if you factor in the slowness up the massive hills, the time standing staring at a cross road trying to decide which way to go and the fact that I stopped at Tescos to buy wine gums.... I think I did alright.  This is where I ended up going:

 This Sunday I've got another long run in Sheffield planned, I might try to follow this same route again, though I probably wont be able to because my sense of direction is so very broken.

This week Paul and I are heading back up to Scotland again for a holiday for a couple of weeks and I'm hoping for a less traumatic time than the last time we were there!
This year we're going back over to Mull and I planning on going whale watching as well as doing lots of other lovely stuff.
It'll soon be a year since the day we were involved in the rescue and to mark it I'm planning to do my longest run to date, 18 miles around loch Scridain (well not around it as its a sea loch, but 9 miles out then 9 miles back.  Wish me luck!!
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New shooooooooooes

Finally got round to trying out these bad ass new shoes that I was bought for my Birthday...

 Went to Up and Running in Sheffield which I would like to highly reccomend, the guy there is brilliant, I spent over an hour testing shoes out on the treadmill, they film you running, which is rather hillarious, then look at how wonky your ankles are, mine were quite wonky...

So on Sunday I took them out for a test run, just 6 miles and stuck to the roads and they felt great, really so much better than my £10 decathlon specials that I've been lumping it with.  I hope they will help my slight hip problem now that my wonkyness is stabilised!

So now I have my new shoes I'm stepping up my training a bit, my life from now until October theh 21st looks like this:

Wednesday = 30 min quick run before work

Friday = 1 hour run with hills before hitting the studio

Sunday = half marathon distance +

I would like to get up to doing a few 20 mile runs before the event, which if I'm going to propperly taper before the marathon will have to happen at the end of September which gives me 3 months, or 12 weeks, in which time I have to move house, prepare for my 1st big solo exhibition, establish my new business and keep up the 9-5.... goodbye social life see you at Christmas?

snotty orange goo

Well well I've just got back from my own little half marathon to poached eggs on toast MMMMmmmm much more tasty than the enery gel I was lured into trying today, this stuff is rank don't bother it has the consitency of snot and the delightful flavour of smart price concentrated orange juice, I'll stick to my jelly babies ta.
 Been meaning to up my mileage for a while now but... excuses... excuses... anyway NO MORE DRINKING ON A SATURDAY NIGHT this mornings run was hard for a variety of reasons: so much rain the hilly off road bits became more like gorge walking than running; last nights dinner of wine and a chip butty didn't do me any favours (I think I may have to change my lifestyle a litlle to survive this); finding a dying baby bird just as I got going caused a massive moral dilema; multipe nettle stings after tripping into a patch because I have 'balance issues' and finally a mental labrador trying to sabotage my downhill speed by leaping in my face.  Anyway I'm home now, time for a bath, heres the route....

string vests....

Finished my first T shirt design for the BDMLR!

What do you think?

 

 In other news this weekend I'll be running a half marathon...

pip pip!

kitted out

Ooh not posted for a while, so a quick update.... been off away on holidays to Ibiza so no running there, but plenty of dancing...does that count?  Then a lovely wedding got in the way so I missed 2 long runs, I've made it out a few times before work and I have a lovely new route through the woods for a morning jog before work, my dog is totally lame and will not run with me, he is such a fat lazy lump of a hound.
Last weekend, even after a night on the merlot I managed about 10 miles, got totally lost though accidentally ran all the way from town to forge dam and when I popped out of the woods there were no houses, just sheep and fields!  Eventually found my way back home without giving up and doubling back.

Got a BDMLR running vest through the post the other day, {Thanks guys!} I shall wear it with pride on the day!
Also I've been asked to design a series of T shirts for them to raise awarness of the problems marine mammals face and to raise funds for the charity, I can't wait to get started on some designs, got some great ideas already and will post them on here when I get them out of my head and down on paper...

ttfn
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