22. The One Where I Finally Went A Really Really Long Way

30 August 2015

A few years ago, my friend Claire and I went on a mini-roadtrip in her car to the Lake District.  We went to 13 places in 36 hours and it was so much fun.  I loved the freedom of being able to just drive to wherever we wanted ... so when I got back, on a whim, I bought a car.  Never mind that I live in Zone 1/2 in London and had lived here perfectly happily for years without one ... I just really really NEEDED a car right then.  I've managed to justify all the cash it's cost me since by using it for all the triathlons I used to do all over the country, plus visiting my one friend who lives out of town (but who works in town, and whom I only ever see in London.  But still.  I could visit her in St Albans now.).

Today I realised a new and excellent use for my car - he morphed into my own personal aid station!  As I keep moaning about, I'm finding nutrition really really hard to manage because I'm not hungry when I'm running or walking but I'm not that keen on bonking.  I know that the aid stations in the run have soup, and I also know that loads of blogs and forums suggest that soup is your best friend on an ultra, but I haven't been able to cart a thermos of soup around with me in my hydration vest.  However, I figured that if I drove to Richmond Park to do the 45km walk that was on the schedule for this week (after my failure to do it last week), I would be able to leave the soup in the car, together with any other food, and then I could stop by and fuel myself up every time I passed the parking lot.  I put together some soup in a flask, some soup bread and some peanut butter sandwiches.  With those and a ChiaCharge bar and some ChiaCharge trail mix I thought I was pretty sorted - and I even had a variety of food to choose from!

With the fact that I had to pass by the parking lot on several occasions throughout the session, I decided to do loops of the perimeter of Richmond Park.  I knew that it was just over eleven kilometres around which meant that four loops would be about 45km all up, and it would give me three aid station stops along the way (and loo stops!).  This is not the most interesting route!  However, it does have some varied terrain - there is a sort of sandy path, some woods, some off-road paths, hills and flats, so it was good training.

Originally, the plan had been to walk 45km in order to get used to the distance without completely screwing myself over for training for the rest of the week.  However, I learned last week that if I start off walking, running half way through is really really hard - my ankles feel like they're going to break.  Therefore, I decided it would be much more sensible to start off run/walking and see how I got on.  I had no idea how much to do, but I thought I'd try running the first 200 metres of every kilometre, no matter what the terrain at the time.  That way I'd be able to have lots of recovery, but I'd have to run uphill, downhill, and on the flat, plus I'd have to run on every type of terrain.

 The other thing that the different types of terrain was good for was testing out my trail shoes.  I have never worn them on a long distance and I wasn't sure how it'd go, so I made sure I brought my Skechers as well so that if the worst came to the worst I could change them over after one of the loops.  However - they were fine!  I did get a few hotspots towards the end, especially around my toes, but let's be fair, it was 45km and I think I would've had those in any shoes.  I didn't have any blisters at all, and my feet were as comfortable as feet can be over 45km.  The only thing was that they kept getting so much dirt in them!  I don't know if this was just the sandy path or the fact that they're a little bit open around the foot, but OMG I must've brushed about two tonnes of dirt out of my shoes and socks over the course of the run.  On any other terrain I think this would be avoided though - I hope!  They're brilliantly grippy and I don't turn my ankles in them as much as in my Skechers, so overall I was really pleased with how they stood up.  Phew!  That is a relief because I don't really feel like investing hundreds in new shoes at the moment!


Getting back to the run itself, the first loop was pretty good - the run/walking was working well, and I hadn't seen the perimeter path before so it was interesting.  I decided that in addition to running the first 200m of every kilometres, I'd do some bonus runs as well, so I ran every downhill as well.  This kept my times down as well so that it didn't feel like I was taking quite so long about the whole thing!  There were a lot of deer out today as well.  Despite the fact that they were looking placid, I was a bit nervous as it's getting very near rutting season.  However, they were beautifully well behaved and even posed for a picture for me when I asked nicely.

After the first loop, I stopped by my car to have some soup and bread.   I'd decided that cream of chicken was the answer to all my problems in life, because I felt like my soul needed as much help as my body on such a long session.  I don't even LIKE soup normally, but it worked perfectly - I started my second loop feeling extremely good about soup!

By the end of the second loop I was starting to get pretty tired though, so I had a nice long rest (about six minutes) sitting in the boot of my Mini, and I had more soup and bread.  I was still feeling very good about soup - the only thing is that it was incredibly salty.  I couldn't decide whether that was good - in order to replace the salts that I was losing, especially as I wasn't drinking any electrolyte drinks - or bad, because it was making me more dehydrated.  I still don't know the answer but it tasted good so I was happy.


The third loop was a little bit of a bust - I had to stop and have a long phone call (like 15 minutes!) in the middle of it, and I also had to stop and brush a bunch of dirt out of my shoes which meant it was my slowest loop overall.  I almost thought I'd stop after that loop as it would've been nice to salvage part of my day, but it seemed silly to fail to do the full distance again.  Therefore, after another long break and a peanut butter sandwich (which are my other new favorites!) I set off for the final loop.  This was not fun!!!  I was basically just in pain the whole way round this one.  My dodgy foot had started to hurt in loop 2, but I'd ignored it and carried on, and that was really not happy about that and let me know it!  In addition my left hip flexor was tightening the whole time and the irritating trapped nerve at the top of my left leg was reminding me that it's not a massive fan of running.  I was so so proud that I still managed to run the first 200m of every kilometre, and I even still managed to run all the down hills as well.  I feel good about that because it makes me think I will be able to do it in the challenge (on the first day at least haha).  I've never been so happy to see my car though!  I got back there at 44.93km, which was obviously a totally unacceptable number, so I walked around the car park until I got to 45km - hurrah!!  I scarfed the rest of my soup bread (I sacked off the final bit of soup because I knew I was going to have supper pretty soon after I got home), put the radio up and drove home SO HAPPY TO BE DONE!

As soon as I got home I hit the bath - it was AMAZING.  I got myself sorted with Live at the Apollo on iPlayer, a nice bottle of banana milk and a big bottle of water and just relaxed for 45 minutes.  I finally hauled myself out to scarf a spag bol (left over from the night before, which was ideal as I only had to shove the spaghetti in a pot and heat up the meat in the microwave, which was about all I could handle!).  My legs were extremely grumpy, so I massaged in some Antiflamme (aka Nature's Kiss) and got my compression socks on - so sexy, such a fashion statement.

They bloody well do the trick though - I woke up this morning seriously worried about how I was going to feel, but I feel fine!  The only thing that is stiff is my back - I can feel every single erector spinae muscle, which tells me I need to do some work on them (and also get the Antiflamme involved in my back as well as my legs).  Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying I want to do it all again today and tomorrow - but I am relieved to think that I could do it again today if I needed to.  That gives me a bit more confidence at least, especially as this was the second back to back run.  Over the last two days I've put 67km into my legs and they've survived, so that is definitely a good confidence booster!

Today is however a rest day, and it's raining, and it's bank holiday, so I intend to walk no further than from my sofa to my kitchen.  Perfect day!

21. The One With All the Surprises

29 August 2015

I woke up feeling a bit weird this morning - I went out for supper last night for my lovely friend Flora's birthday and I think I ate too much pasta.  It was really good pasta though ... but I felt so FULL!  The last thing I wanted to do was eat before I ran, but with the memories of bonking a couple of weeks back sharply in my mind, I knew I had to choke it down.  I got the usual Pret porridge with mango and seeds, my traintime favorite!  

I'd wanted to head back to the South Coast and do my favorite run, which is also the first one I ever did - Seaford to Eastbourne.  However, I also wanted to add a bit to it because I wanted to do about 25K, so I decided to start from Peacehaven.  My friend Debbie and I walked from Peacehaven to Newhaven at Christmas and it was sooo lovely!  Luckily the trains and buses were working fine today so I managed to get down there in a reasonable time, and I could set off over the cliff top path pretty much on time at 09:30.  

  

My first surprise of the day arrived when it was beautiful weather - it's bank holiday weekend, so obviously the weather should have been awful, and that was what had been predicted.  However, it was lovely!  This was good, but I'd only brought a sweater to change into and I'd left my sunglasses behind which was a bit of a rookie error - let's face it, when has the weather forecast ever been right?! - but in the grand scheme of things my sunglasses were an okay thing to forget and I thought I'd be cold after the run anyway as my body cooled.  Since I was heading east though, I spent a lot of time looking at my eyelashes due to excessive squinting!  

My second surprise was much better!  More blackberries!  I've only been over that path in winter but I tell ya what, it is FULL of natural goodness.  I'm never sure if you can eat the berries that look like blackcurrants here, so I avoided them, but I got totally stuck into the blackberries (all thoughts of feeling a sick faded into insignificance beside the blackberries - I love wild blackberries!).  

My third surprise came when I got to Newhaven and realised that you can't just keep going over the path, because there's an inconvenient harbor in the way.  I consulted GoogleMaps, and it diverted me up and over a bridge, which was cool, and then back down on the other side of the inlet.  I was a bit confused because instead of the perfectly normal residential street I'd been on on the other side, I was in some kind of industrial estate, but I figured GoogleMaps knew what it was doing.  However, when it started to take me down what looked like a locked off alley I began to lose a bit of faith ... but then it diverted me onto a path along the railway lines.  At first that was fine, but just when I got too far along to turn back, the path turned into ... well, not a path.  More like a faint trail between brambles and thistles and cutty grass!!!!  I couldn't see what on earth I was stepping on, but I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.  Eventually the brambles and grasses faded down a bit, but I still wouldn't call this a path!

Even though I was watching the path like a hawk and I was running incredibly slowly, I did take a comedy fall at one point - there was a hidden hole which of course I stood on with my bad foot and literally simply fell straight forward like a cartoon.  If anyone else had been there to see, obviously I would've bounced straight back up like I was on a trampoline, but since I was entirely hidden by the long grass I lay there for a bit to assess.  No damage was done - which was lucky, since how I'd have gotten out of there if there had been any damage is a mystery!  I set myself back on my feet and kept going but walking this time, because it was seriously sketchy out there!  Finally I hit Seaford and I've never been so glad to see it!

  

I hadn't eaten anything at that point, and I remember my friend Debbie telling me the other day that if she needed fuel (she's a serious cyclist) she would start to feel really down, rather than hungry.  I noticed as I came into Seaford that I was feeling what I can only describe as sour!  I hated everything at that point, so I tried out eating some ChiaCharge trail mix.  It was actually really nice, although it took me ages to eat because I was sooooooo not hungry.  It was good though because the next thing to tackle was Cuckold Mere and that is not for the faint hearted - it's enormous!  I do really love it though, it's my favorite of the hills down there, so I was happy to have gotten back to it.  I walked up and ran down the other side, which is pretty much perfect because it's a crazy steep ascent but a much nicer, gentler descent on the other side.  I knew from the first time that that would bring me to Cuckmere Beach, the ankle-breaking beach which takes you to the Seven Sisters which are right in front of you as you're coming down the descent off Cuckold Mere. 

 

The first time I'd gotten to Cuckmere Beach, there had been this little stream part way down the beach, but it was totally easy to get across - I just took my shoes off and wandered over, same like loads of people.  Obviously, I was expecting to do the same this time.  Uh-uhhhhhhh!  This is what greeted me for my next surprise:

That ain't no navigable stream!!!!!!!!  I did give some serious thought to just swimming it - it was boiling hot anyway and I knew I'd dry off pretty quick.  However, I had my phone and all my food with me and it didn't seem that worth paying £600 or so for a new iPhone just to get over to the Seven Sisters.  By that time I'd already gone 16K and I knew it was 5K back to Seaford, so I figured I might as well go back over Cuckold Mere and get the train back from Seaford since there was no way I was going down that stupid path again!  It was still a 21K run which was fine, that was all I needed to do today, especially as my sketchy foot was protesting against being run on after having been fallen on (fair enough) and I have plans this evening so it was actually quite a relief to head back to London in time to have a bit more of a rest.  

The sea was ALL KIND OF AMAZING today - from silvery green to a deeper green to a crazy Mediterranean blue.  It definitely made my toil back over Cuckold Mere more enjoyable because believe me, that is not the direction to go in - the trek up takes forever and running down is so steep that you think you're going to kill yourself with every step, so you can't burn it down like you can the other way.  Good to know for the future in case I ever want to do Eastbourne to Seaford (having checked the tides next time!).  

Once I got onto the train, it was totally treat time!  Of course, as soon as I stopped running  I was hungry again, so I tucked into my peanut butter sandwich and ... ta dah ... banana milk!!  The second I got into Seaford, something in my brain lit up like a lightbulb with the word "BANANA MILK" in bright flashing letters.  I found some in the local newsagent and I have literally never been happier.  That and a sparkling water (with my Whole Earth peanut butter sandwich that I'd brought with me) and I was all set for the journey home.  I was also all set to be five years old again, but that is all good!

20. The One Where I Didn't Go Quite Fast Enough

27 August 2015

Holy snickerdoodles I was knackered this morning!  I had sprints on the schedule, but I figured last night that if my DOMS wasn't any better (given that it was being incorporated into my dreams it was so bad) I should do a recovery run instead.  Sadly, it was in fact better, although I can definitely feel every single muscle between my knees and my hips!

That meant that I decided to do the sprints, but not absolutely kill myself over them - I didn't want to risk an injury, so I thought I'd be sensible about it.  Well that was the plan anyway ... What I'd forgotten is that ALL my competitive side comes out with this particular work out, so when I realised I was at a similar level to last week (my current PB) I nearly killed myself trying to beat it.  Oops.  I didn't quite manage to beat it but I did match it with another 1.97km which I was soooooo proud of!  Even if I did almost fall off the treadmill at the end, and I couldn't put my makeup on for an hour after I was done because I was still sweating so much.

This DOMS has definitely been one of the worst I've had - I don't know WHAT I was doing to my quads on Tuesday!  However it's been a good kick up the arse to work out how best to manage recovery.  Even though I've more or less managed to run over it, I can't help feeling somehow that that is not really my best strategy ... As I was lying prone on the sofa last night, one of my WhatsApp groups started chatting about Ride Across Britain, which two of my friends are going to be doing next week.  Since that's the cycling version of a multi-stage ultra, I immediately started quizzing them on recovery each night throughout the event, especially as on of the other girls in the group is a doctor of sports medicine (sneaky!).  Our strategies are all pretty aligned - here's a basic summary

• Keep fuelled throughout with good quality nutrition
• Take an electrolyte drink throughout which contains magnesium and sodium 
• Eat good quality protein immediately after the day is finished
• Drink a good recovery drink immediately after the day is finished (does Mars Refuel count?!  Bwahahahaha)
• Stretch fully at night
• Put compression tights on as soon as possible after the day is finished, and sleep in them overnight
• Sleep as much as possible
• Drink a milky drink before bed so that the casein aids recovery throughout the night. 

As you can see, having a sports doctor providing advice is definitely a winner!  Thanks Jess ;).  With all that in mind I've been shopping on Wiggle for compression tights, I've lined up a playlist on YouTube of a bunch of good stretch videos, and I'm going to roadtest some recovery drinks this weekend.  I am feeling totally efficient right now!

Just for the record, today's splits are here:

1.       0.12

2.       0.25 (+13)

3.       0.38 (+13)

4.       0.52 (+14)

5.       0.66 (+14)

6.       0.79 (+13)

7.       0.92 (+13)

8.       1.06 (+14)

9.       1.19 (+13)

10.   1.31 (+12)

11.   1.44 (+13)

12.   1.58 (+14)

13.   1.71 (+13)

14.   1.84 (+13)

15.   1.97 (+14)

19. The One With The Hills

26 August 2015

Aw man my legs hurt!  Haha I was actually aware of them even in my sleep ... my quads and glutes are KILLING me!  This is good in a way for two reasons - 1. It definitely means I was hitting the right muscles in my strength set yesterday; and 2. I can continue on my research into running on tired legs.

This morning, instead of doing my usual 800m track reps, I decided to do hill reps.  Believe it or not, the best place for this work out for me is Battersea Park ... I know, I know!  But it does have a hill - and one that's incredibly short and sharp (even if it doesn't look like it here) which was exactly what I needed today.

Since I didn't want to kill myself today, the plan was to go up and down the hill every 90 seconds for 30 minutes (ie, 20 repeats).  Therefore, the quicker I did it the more rest I got.  I've done this before and my times were pretty similar to what they've been before - about 45 seconds up and down, giving me 45 seconds rest each set.  Usually I would do this twice with a five minute rest between sets, but I knew my legs were super tired and I didn't want to risk an injury, so one set was fine!

The other thing I wanted to do today was test out my trail shoes!

The recommended footwear for the challenge is "well-worn-in trail shoes".  I've had my Saloman trail shoes for ages, but I definitely wouldn't say they're well worn in - I've worn them about three times!  They've been known to give me terrible blisters, so I have been reluctant to wear them on my longer runs, even though I know I need to get used to them.  I thought this morning's short set would be the perfect opportunity!  I made sure I wore my AMAZING Zer0D socks - they're not as comfortable as my Balega ones for shorter distance running, but when you need additional support they are fantastic!  They're also great for stopping blisters because they come up over the ankle (totally 80s chic).  Surprisingly, my trail shoes were actually really comfortable, at least for that short set, and they gripped the earth brilliantly.  We've had the most appalling weather the last two days so the ground was MUDDY and super-slippery, but I only skidded once in the entire set which is pretty good going.  I'm impressed!

I finished up the set still sore - sadly I didn't manage to run off the DOMS like I did on Monday - so I'm glad I did the shorter set; it was exactly what I needed.  I also learned that I'm not sure what I do to my legs when I run up hill, but I appear to kick myself in both calves judging by the mud marks on both legs!  I have no idea how that happened but at least I'm definitely picking up my legs when I run bwahahahahahahaha!

18. The One Where I Had To Listen To My Body

24 August 2015

I woke up stiff and sore around my hips after yesterday's walk, which was actually, in a very weird way, perfect!  I've been wanting to test out how it felt to run on a really stiff body, because that is most definitely what I'll be doing on days 2 and 3 of the challenge.  I'd planned to do a sub-130 run either today or tomorrow, so I thought it would be perfect to do it as it's not stressful on any part of my body, so it shouldn't affect any recovery, but it's still making myself run on tired legs.

So I hobbled out of bed and tottered off to the gym.  Once I'd climbed on the treadmill and set it to my usual speedy 7.5km per hour, I actually felt amazing!  As soon as I was running all my hip stiffness melted away and I almost immediately got into a nice rhythm which lasted for the first ten minutes or so.  However, my heart rate suddenly climbed up to 138bpm so I had to slow to a walk to get it down again.  As soon as I was walking rather than running I felt like a crunchy creaky old-timer again, with my hips shrieking in protest and my glutes getting in on the action for good measure!  To make it worse, even when I slowed to 4.5kph my heart rate was still up at 134!!  It took me a good couple of minutes to work out that actually there was no way my heart rate was that high, and measure it manually.  As soon as I took a manual reading I realised my Garmin wasn't reading right, so instead I was forced to go by feel with the occasional check either manually or using the treadmill's heart rate monitor (which, to be fair, only required me to clamp my hands onto the cross bar for a few seconds).

Obviously that isn't ideal for a training session that is heart-rate linked, but in a way it was really good for me because it forced me to listen to my body rather than relying on my Garmin.  I knew I could do it to some degree just from experience doing heart-rate linked workouts, but I was slightly impressed with myself because I managed it perfectly!  I made a little prediction in my head every time I checked my heart rate, and I was within a couple of beats every time.  That is fantastic news for me because if it means that if my Garmin does give up the ghost during the run, I'll be able to tell what my heart rate is likely to be regardless (not that it massively matters, but I'd quite like to know if I'm suddenly up at 178 bpm or something equally horrid!).  I can also monitor my cadence by feel, so I feel like now I'm really getting to grips with being in tune with my body - ooooh I might even be one of these runner types some time hahaha.

Other than the little blip at the start when my Garmin was reading strangely (it didn't right itself throughout the workout, but I ignored it after the first time!), I stayed within 130bpm throughout the entire workout!  This is the best I've ever done, and I felt really good after it.

Now I'm off to do some Yin Yoga from YouTube to try and stretch out my tin man body before I hit bed.  I've got a day off running tomorrow and I can't wait - it's going to be a fun plyo workout in the morning and some strength in the afternoon if all goes according to plan (ie, if my boss doesn't load me up with too much work like he did today; honestly, you'd almost think he paid me to be there or something).  I can't wait!

17. The One Where I Didn't Go A Really Long Way

23 August 2015

Since today was a recovery day after the triathlon yesterday, and since I've never gone further than 30km (and that was last week haha) I wanted to get a feel for the full 50km distance this weekend.  Officially it's actually 42km per day for the actual challenge, but on all the blogs I've read (and on tracking the course on MapMyRun) it's definitely more like 50km.

I didn't want to stress my body massively unduly and put myself out of training for any length of time, so I decided to walk the distance.  I planned a route that took me from my house to Richmond Park, around Richmond Park a few times, and home again.

All my planning was going really well until I realised I had to be in Hampstead at 16:00, which meant leaving home at 15:00 ... which meant that at 5km per hour (and thus a total of ten hours for 50km) I'd have to leave home at 04:00 to get home by 14:00 to get showered, fed, and out the door again.  Ummmm ....!!!!!!!!!!  04:00 was not a viable option when I'd raced the day before and then driven back down to London, so I thought I'd leave at 07:00 and get as much in as I could by 13:00, still being six hours.  That would leave me time to have a little nap as well as having a shower and lunch and also left me slippage time since my sense of time is TERRIBLE and cutting it fine just meant I'd be twenty minutes late.

So that was the plan!  With last week's bonking vividly lodged in my mind, I got up at 05:30, made a HUMUNGOUS plate of oaty, proteiny, Bodyism pancakes for fuel and scarfed the lot with blueberries, Fage yoghurt and maple syrup.

I also baked more two-ingredient cookies but with berries (LOVE THEM) to take with me, and picked up some ChiaCharge fuel to take along as well.  I love ChiaCharge because it's all natural and has no preservatives or anything ghastly like that, just oats, butter, sugar, golden syrup, chia seeds and sea salt.  There are also cafe's in Richmond Park, so I figured that that would do, because I could always stop and pick up soup or something from the cafe.

I finally set off on time and headed over to Richmond Park, which is 7km from my house.  The walk there was soooo uncomfortable!  I had filled up my water reservoir to its full capacity of 2 litres, which meant that everything was sitting in my pack a bit weirdly, bouncing around on top of the water.  In addition, I'd also packed my warm sweater into a snaplock bag in case it rained, but that meant that it couldn't drape across my bag and sort of lurked there, pulling me down.  Everything felt tight and horrendous and uncomfortable and I'm sure I spent the whole 7km pulling at various tabs and straps to try and readjust.  Luckily I had a lovely view over the Thames for part of the way which kept me vaguely distracted.

It took me an hour and a quarter to get there, and my first stop was the loo.  I took my pack off (obviously!) to use the bathroom and fortunately, when I put it back on, something had shifted somewhere and it was soooooooo much better.  It was a real lesson to me to take it off next time and shake it about and put it back on, as it was such a simple fix and made me feel 100x better.  From the loo, I set off round the park.  Someone once pointed out to me that if you go clockwise round the park, you look at men's faces, and if you go counter-clock around it, you look at men's bums, because all the bike wankers cyclists tend to cycle round in a counter-clock direction.  Obviously, that was no contest, so I set off counter-clock round the perimeter.

Richmond Park is such a strange place - it's got forests, bush, flat plains, a deer sanctuary, lakes, and what look like wheat fields (but are actually fields of long grass) and - unless you stick to the perimeter road - you sort of get flung from one to the other without much warning.  You also run the risk of running face first into a pack of deer, as they roam around the entire park.



I got a bit bored of the perimeter quite quickly (hard to believe with all those bums flashing past) so I headed up through the bush (which turned out to be entirely made of ferns, which was a bit weird, I thought I was back in New Zealand for a moment!) and towards the forest.  Over the following three hours I basically just headed around the park in a squiggle shape to try and take in as much as I could of the terrain.  I'd been expecting it to be quite hilly but it wasn't really - a few gentle slopes and that was it.  I'm sure I remember cycling around it and thinking the hills were killer, perhaps I'm just more hench than I used to be after all my encounters with cliffs!



 

In the end, I had to leave Richmond Park with an hour and a quarter left on my time to make sure I got home in time to eat and rest a little bit before I went out.  The best thing about my trip home was that on my way over I'd noticed wild blackberries growing on Rocks Lane and I'd promised myself I'd get some on the way back.  Wild blackberries fresh off the bush are AMAZING - nothing like the tasteless garbage (even the organic ones) you get in the supermarket.  They're tiny little explosions of juice and sweetness and flavor - I was so so excited to grab a handful on the way back!

It was good that I had them to look forward to because what had been a bit of a drizzle when I left Richmond Park was a miserable downpour by the time I got home.  At least I could test my waterproofing of my sweater (yup, my Waitrose snaplock bag was totally up to the job) and as the walk finished at home, I could just throw myself under the shower.  I could also eat within about 15 minutes of getting home!  Best ever lunch!

I learned A LOT on this walk, even though it was only 34km in the end.  My new knowledge includes:

• Running is obviously harder on your body in some ways, but I was in a lot more pain walking!  My feet, hips, lower back and glutes were basically screaming at me after about 20km, they were not happy.  That doesn't seem to happen when I am run/walking and I think it's because a lot of running uses elasticity whereas walking is solid effort.  
• I don't get hungry when I'm going long distance.  I'd noticed this last week when I was reflecting on my bonking episode, so I was hyper-aware of watching for it and I didn't feel hungry at all throughout.  I did stop twice within the park for two-ingredient cookie breaks and I did feel far better after them.  Therefore, I just have to make sure I stop every hour or so and eat something without waiting to feel hungry.
• Speaking of two-ingredient cookies, apart from being a bit melty, they are PERFECT on-the-go fuel.  The banana is sugary enough to give me instant energy, and the oats give me more medium energy.  I might experiment with adding some coconut - I think with coconut they would be even better as that would give me some fats to add to the carbs.  
• It's really hard to start running half way through a walk - I tested a couple of mid-walk runs on downhills, and my ankles nearly staged a revolt.  They simply would not have it.  That doesn't happen when I start off with a run or a run/walk alternating, so I'm much better off run/walk alternating so that I have the choice to run if I want!
• If you don't like a song a LOT before you take it on a six-hour walk, you will really really really hate it by the end of it.  I just put my iPhone on shuffle for all my songs but it seemed to get stuck on repeating about twenty 80s and 90s rock (hello Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams and the Goo Goo Dolls ...).  I'm definitely making a better playlist for next week; if I never hear Bryan Adams' 18 Til I Die ever again it will be too soon.

Having said that, since I didn't make the full distance, I'm going to repeat it all again next week to try and understand the distance and get to grips with it.  I'd rather do some more hills running, but Richmond works out well for me because of the loos and the cafes (I also want to test out running after eating soup as part of my nutrition, because I know that soup is on offer at the feed stations on the challenge and it seems like something that I'd be able to wrap myself around even if I wasn't that hungry).  Luckily it's a bank holiday weekend so I have lots of lovely time to spend walking and/or running, although I've got to fit in a few social plans as well.  Hopefully I will get to improve my squiggly map!

16. The One With The Triathlon

22 August 2015

Well it's not strictly running (or rather, not only running) but I signed up for the Nottingham Tri Relays aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages ago, and they took place today!

The format of the tri relays is totally different to a normal tri or a normal relay.  Basically, you have four team members and each swims 500, then each cycles 15km, and finally each runs 5km.  My last triathlon was the European Qualifiers on 13 September 2014 in Milton Keynes (a race in which I famously managed to cycle 32km on a 20km course, this is HOW BAD I am at directions.  Needless to say, I didn't qualify ...).  Since then, I have swum once in the Serpentine, without a wetsuit, and once in a pool for a good 20 minutes.  I have also managed to ride my bike once - to work and back during the last tube strike.  That's a whole 15K altogether ... Hmm.  Luckily the idea was to have fun, rather than be competitive ... which was just as well in the end!  First off, our B (each of the four team members is assigned a number A-D) came down with tonsillitis earlier in the week and had to pull out.  Fortunately, our D had already been poached to race twice - once with us in the morning and once in the afternoon for another of our club's teams.  One of the girls in that team was happy to return the favor and replace our B (which was particularly kind of her because she was also racing Sunday morning!).

We all managed to get up on time, I managed to register us, and we thought all was well, albeit we couldn't quite work out how transition worked etc ... but we figured it would all become clear in due course.  I was A, which was terrifying.  I am soooo bad at directions (see above) plus I am amazing at getting things hopelessly wrong (remind me to tell you about the time I rode my bike into a 9-metre deep canal some time ...), plus the lack of training made me super-stressed.  Luckily I didn't have much time to think because setting up transition took about six times longer than I thought it would, so I was on the swim before I knew it!  I could genuinely hardly remember what to do - I'm an absolutely terrible swimmer at the best of times, so it was all slightly bewildering.  Muscle memory finally kicked in and the swim wasn't tooooo bad (for me, that is) - I managed not to be last out and everything!  I did manage to hand the baton to the wrong team member (I saw C and assumed she was B) but luckily C handed it to B and we straightened ourselves out.  B had a cracking swim, as did C and D, and then I was out on the bike.  I hate the bike.  Really really really hate it - quite apart from the serious risk of going the wrong way, I find it soooooooo boring.  I groused myself round the course (which was around a lake; even I couldn't get lost) and managed to hand over to B this time rather than C, D, or a complete random.

I then had a nice hour and a half to enjoy before my next stage.  However .... disaster struck!  Our B is the fastest ever - she represents GB in her age group (as does our D) and she is speeeeeeeedy!  She loves the bike, so she was pelting round at full tilt all the way to the dismount.  Unfortunately she (like many many others) mistook the timing mat which was located three metres behind the thin, almost invisible dismount line for the dismount line itself and didn't realise she had to dismount until she was on the line itself.  She panicked and slammed on the brakes and ... went headfirst over the handlebars and ended up with a broken arm for her pains.  I was out in the holding pen on the run by the time I heard what had happened, but my fabulous team mates sorted it out between them with our C running twice (bless her).  Luckily B is super-hench and she was okay, but it was a shame to ruin her day, especially as she has the world championships in three weeks.  Poor B.

My run wasn't too bad - it felt horrific, mainly because it was fast and flat, not my normal wander over the hills!  I managed 23:52 for 4.89KM (the course was slightly short) which is about a minute slower than my PB for 5K but I was quite pleased with it given that I hadn't trained that distance for ages.  So all good really!  The official results say 24:07 but that includes D's transition off the bike - my Garmin told me it was 23:52 so I'm gonna go with that natch ;)

Once the relays were over it was straight back to London to get some rest in before a mahoosive walk tomorrow.  Sleep is key!

15. The One Where I Ran Quite Fast

20 August 2015

Got me a lil PB today!  Yep!!  Uh-huh!

It was back to sprint sets on the Curve (those ones where I do 30 seconds hard out, with 90 seconds full stop rest - totally killer).  I never thought I would manage a PB because I started off my sprint set so badly - usually on the first rep I manage at least .13km but I only managed 0.12 today and I thought that was it for me.  All the way up to the 9th rep I was only at the same level as I managed last week, and although I was happy with last week given that it was my first set back in ages, it was nowhere near my previous PB of 1.96KM overall.  I managed to really kick it up for the last few reps though - and just tip it over the line to get to 1.97KM overall ... woop woop!  It's only a 0.01KM PB, but honestly, you don't understand what that ten metres means to me ... that set is so so hard!

1.       0.12

2.       0.25 (+13)

3.       0.39 (+14)

4.       0.52 (+13)

5.       0.65 (+13)

6.       0.77 (+12)

7.       0.90 (+13)

8.       1.04 (+14)

9.       1.17 (+13)

10.   1.30 (+13)

11.   1.44 (+14)

12.   1.57 (+13)

13.   1.70 (+13)

14.   1.83 (+13)

15.   1.97 (+14)

I also obsessively checked my body stats on the Boditrax (I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon, but for now I am still in love with it) and despite the fact that I've increased my carbs over the last few days, my body fat has taken a nosedive by 0.8KG and my overall body fat percentage has gone down to 17.7%.  I think it's partly because the carbs I'm eating are so clean - we're talking berries, oatcakes, and pearlised spelt for the most part, plus those lovely little two-ingredient bites of heaven - and partly because my body obviously needs that extra fuel at the moment.  My performance has shot up since I increased the carbs (and, as I said yesterday, increased the sleep) so it's something I'm going to be keeping a sharp eye on to make sure I'm managing it right (oooh managing.  I almost sound like a real runner ...!).

14. The One Where I Got Sleep

19 August 2015

I have discovered the answer to all my problems in life - SLEEP!

That's right people, it's all about the sleep.  I have never been so tired as I have been since Sunday - all that lack of sleep in Ibiza catching up with me, plus so much to DO in the last ten days since I've been back, plus all the running has meant that I have not been functioning at all for the last few days.  On Sunday, therefore, I made a new week's resolution to go to bed at 21:00 on at least four days this week.  So far I've done Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and today I feel like a whole new person!

The other thing I changed up yesterday was adding a few more carbs into my diet.  Although I love love love Bodyism (the idea behind which is basically eat whole foods, don't eat unprocessed foods, and don't eat sugars or fake foods) I think it's been a little too low-carb for me so far with all the running I'm doing.  Therefore, yesterday I added some extra fruit, some oatcakes with grassfed butter and a little honey and ... wait for it ... COOKIES!

But not cookies as we know them, no no, these are two-ingredient cookies.  All they have in them on the basic recipe is 1 cup oats and 1 cup mashed banana - mix it together, shape into cookie-shapes, throw in the oven for 15 minutes at 175*C / 350*F and you are good to go!  I also added in cinnamon, vanilla essence, ginger and nutmeg, plus a handful of raisins.  At about 50 kcal a pop (44 kcal without the raisins), no-added-sugar, vegan, wheat-free, low-fat and gluten-free (if you use gluten-free oats of course) they're just about good for any kind of diet you could ever imagine (except Paleo I suppose).  They even tasted nice (I was skeptical, I have to admit, but honestly they were good - I've already scarfed half the batch so I will be making more before my long run at the weekend as I'd like to take some with me then too - I think they'd be great on-the-go nutrition).

The net result of these two changes - a few more carbs and a lot more sleep - has meant that I feel much more like a human being today (I even might be able to squeeze in a little work if my boss is lucky).  It also meant that my track reps this morning were a whole lot better than last week!  They weren't easy, and they weren't back to my best, but it was a LOT better than last week.

Here's a comparison, for the record!

	BEST WEEK (16 JULY 2015)	LAST WEEK (12 AUGUST 2015)	THIS WEEK (19 AUGUST 2015)
1.	03.12	03:24	03:15
2.	03:24	03:29	03:32
3.	03:26	03:40	03:33
4.	03:46	03:43	03:35
5.	03:39	03:47	03:36
6.	03:34	-	03:31

I was really happy with that - overall my times are actually quicker this week on the last three reps than they were my best week, but the first three were slower.  I feel like my strategies are working though and that is a massive bonus - I was beginning to worry that I'd only get slower and slower!!