3 weeks left!!!!

This weekend I'll be coming to to final distance in my training, 20 miles, so I decided to read back where I started, can't quite believe how chuffed I was to have run 3 whole miles... non stop...
I am actually amazed at how I have improved with perseverance, I'm no faster than when I started but now I can just run and run and run for hours at a steady pace without even getting out of breath at all.

I really did not believe it when all those running types (you know who you are) said you CAN do it you just need to get past that initial pain, I though BOLLOCKS, some people just CAN'T run and I am one of them, now I find myself being one of those people encouraging others.

I remember thinking that it felt as if my lungs were on fire when I first started this training and being certain that the feeling would never go away, well it actually does, I mean really, propperly, so if you're using that as an excuse then get a better one!

I'll be running my 20 miles around Castle Howard/ Malton/ Terring so if you see me give me a wave!

This is where I'll be heading....

5 weeks!

Actually starting to get a bit scared now.  Had to do a shorter run this morning because I had to work, on a Sunday, seriously!
Finally though I have been reunited with my ipod and bum bag (never thought I'd miss it so much).  I think I've done permanant damage to my phone shoving it down my bra and using it to listen to the radio while I was ipodless - 4 hours down a sports bra doesn't really do well for my crappy old nokia!

So it really isn't long now until the marathon and as I was running it dawned on me that I only have 3 long runs left as you're supposed to do your last long run 2 weeks before the race and taper down to about 5 a few days before it.
So thats an 18 mile next weekend, then 2 x 20 mile runs then taper time, then off to the airport!

I'm up to 52% of my target for sponsorship, people who I don't even know have been sponsoring me which is just so lovely.

I'll be going to the BDMLR confrence soon which I'm really looking forward to, its at the Hancock Museum in Newcastle on October the 6th, hopefully Paul will come too and we will get to meet some of the brilliant volunteer Marine Mammal Medics, there are also some great speakers lined up including people from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and the Born Free Foundation.
Hopefully I might be able to sell some of my prints!

x

6 weeks to go

Not posted for a while so heres a catch up...
Over the past couple of weeks I've been getting physio on my knee which has improved but is still really painfull and then we moved house so its been really busy.
I ran 18 miles yesterday all the same and although there was a lot of walking and jogging I got around a very hilly route in 3 hours 50 minutes which is pretty slow but if I can keep up that pace for the extra 8 miles I should get round by the course time limit!
I really can't wait for this to be over now, I want my Sunday mornings back!

Keeping motivated though by reading about the mass stranding in Scotland again last weekend, really sad that so may of the same species of whale that we helped died, but once again the BDMLR were there doing their best to save them, and a grand job they did too, read all about it here...
http://www.bdmlr.org.uk/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=908&cntnt01origid=15&cntnt01returnid=54

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!!
x

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?