Run.From.Hell.

Hello! It's been a while, I've been in Munich this week, which was beautiful but also, due to the snow and the position of our hotel, unfortunately run-free. I was looking longingly at the joggers in the Englische Garten, knowing that the next run of my own would be a toughy.

Which brings me nicely to today's run. Unfortunately, when I returned from my holiday, after looking at my training plan, I should have been a little further ahead than I thought, so I decided to remedy that by doing a 10 miler today. BAD IDEA!

I will list all the things that contributed to my hellish run:

• It was too far (or rather I jumped ahead too far in my mileage)
• It was absolutely tipping it down for the first 3 miles, which resulted in me looking like a drowned rat when it stopped raining (I became paranoid that people thought it was just sweat)
• My back started playing up again
• I went the wrong way and had to double back on myself
• I had no sports drink or anything of the sort
• I got cramp in my toe- twice!
• It hailed, yes hailed, for the last mile
• I'd had a glass or two of wine last night
• I saw a dead frog :-(

I keep telling myself that it will build mental strength for the marathon, and actually, despite all of the above, I did have a few lovely moments, mostly due to the awesome playlist I'd put together which included the amazing Jurassic 5. I reminded myself that I was running for the British Heart Foundation in honour of my wonderful Father-in-law as well, which spurred me on to complete the proposed route that I'd set out, instead of throwing in the towel.

Tuesday's little run will seem easy in comparison!

A post-birthday update!

Hello! It was my birthday on the 15th, so, while I did run for the bus to get to town, that's about all I did exercise-wise (unless shopping counts?). Had a lovely day and ate far too much cake!
Yesterday I went for a tempo run (10 minutes easy, 10 minutes tempo, 10 minutes easy) which felt odd. I was feeling a little under par anyway as I had a migraine all day, which thankfully has gone today! The easy bits were fine, but the tempo bit felt...wobbly, as if I wasn't completely in control. I'm glad I did it though, and felt happy afterwards.

Today I got up early and did 11 minutes on my exercise bike. Because this uses different muscles, I realised that I need to do more cross training, as I can run for a long time but find it tricky to do other exercises for any length of time. So that's my resolution for my next year- more cross-training!

Finally, and I know this is a long post, but thank you to the lovely Sarah, who is my first sponsor, and a fellow fundraiser+runner! I'll definitely be returning the favour :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I went out for a lovely, easy 2 mile run this morning. My legs felt heavy after last night, but it was great to be out in the beautiful sunshine!

That's it from me today- I have to get ready for work now, and then this evening I have a lovely meal to look forward to- cooked by my delicious hubby :)

Long, Wet, Run

I did it! after all of my procrastination, I finally went for a run today in the rain and the wind. I managed to do 5.5 miles and my god it was depressing leaving the house, but actually once I got going it was good fun. I got plenty of funny looks from people driving past and pedestrians firmly clutching their umbrellas, but if you live in England and you want to run, you've got to be prepared to do it in the rain!
I do like Sunday evenings, because they mean that I don't have to do another long run for a week! I'm having a night off from studying tonight, so I'm going to settle down with my lovely hubby and watch the baftas.

First Post!

I'm completely rubbish at keeping up blogs...I don't know what it is. Maybe I'm not interesting enough! No that can't be it...
Anyway, this blog will be a record of my training towards the Edinburgh Marathon on the 22nd May 2011.
My training has been going fairly well so far, I'm building up my miles nicely, and my lovely run-specific mp3 player that was bought for me for Christmas has definitely helped.
I'm just loading it up now with some new running choons (that's right, 'choons') to accompany me on my hour long run, and then hopefully I'll have run out of distractions and will actually go for said run!
I have to remind myself why I'm doing it on days like today...money for the British Heart Foundation, getting to take part in an amazing race that very few people get to experience, and all the health benefits and all that.

Right no more stalling, I'm getting my trainers on and getting going!