38. The One After PigGate

25 September 2015

Today's run is barely worth mentioning except to say that it was unmemorable!  An hour on the treadmill, sub-130 zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.  My heart rate was well behaved, but not even that's worth mentioning as frankly I've come to expect that of it now!

However, what an hour of treadmill time did give me was ... MOCK THE WEEK, PIGGATE EDITION.  Okay, it wasn't actually probably intended to be PigGate edition, but when an opportunity like that presents itself, what can you do?  It'd be rude not to take full advantage of it right?  It's been what a week now, and I still can't stop laughing every time it comes up.  America elected the most charismatic man ever to walk the earth as it's president - he can give brilliant public speeches, he's got morals and he's not afraid to fight for what he thinks is right (like far tighter gun laws), he's hilariously funny, he can even sing and dance.  We've elected a man who fucked a dead pig.  We might as well ring the most humor we can out of it!

Some of my favorite moments have been #PigGateSongs (in particular, "I Like Pig Butts And I Cannot Lie"), the classic Prosciutto Affair and this truly amazing sign at a tube station (which I really wish was real).

Mock the Week rung the full benefit out of the whole situation and it definitely made my run far more amusing.  I would definitely recommend it on a boring run!  I will write more about actual running tomorrow but I promise, PigGate is far more interesting than today's run ...

37. The One With the Cheesy Scuffin

23 September 2015

So I was back on the treadmill today for a repeat of Monday - 90 minutes with my heart-rate under 130.  That was the easy bit, especially as my heart was being exceptionally co-operative this morning.  My heart rate hung out at about 121 throughout apart from a couple of spikes up to 125.

The more tricky part was that I'm still working on nutrition.  I just don't think I can do peanut butter in a wrap or sandwich again, and I'm running out of time to test new things.  I was giving this some thought earlier in the week, and my goals are:

1. to get to the end of the run without feeling like I'm weighed down by all the crap that I've been eating;
2. to find something I actually fancy eating in the run; and 
3. to find something that that's not hugely dissimilar to bread-type products like wraps or bread, but isn't either of those things.  

Given those parameters, I thought that savory muffins (the American kind) might be the answer to my problems in life.  I thought if I could do some vegetable ones I might even get to the end of the run with some real nutrients in me rather than empty carbs!  However, in order to ease myself gently into this, I thought I'd try this nice easy recipe for cheese muffins, not least because they only had a few ingredients and I could get them at my local store rather than having to schlep ALL the way to the big store (700m away.  The horror).  I also picked them because cheese.  CHEESE.

I baked them up last night and quality tested one out last night.  I would give it a 7/10 for the muffin itself as a food product ... I said to some friends that it didn't know whether it was a muffin or a scone because it was fully of cheddary paprika (I subbed out the sultanas in the recipe for more paprika and a few chilli flakes because I really wanted it to be savory and not have any hint of sweetness).  Romy then hit upon the brilliant idea of calling it a scuffin - SCUFFIN!  Love that.  So I present to you my scuffins:

I managed to smuggle one onto the treadmill with me today, and I thought I'd test it out after an hour of my 90 minute run.  I have never felt more like a) an idiot; and b) the secret eater in the corner as I tried to eat it unobtrusively (you're not allowed food in the gym, oh well, sorry Virgin).  It definitely worked for energy - I felt great after it!  The only thing was that it was super-dry and when I think about the ingredients, there's nothing there to give it any moisture.  That didn't make it the easiest to eat on the go, so I think I might try something else for my run on Friday morning.  However, since I felt so good after it I'm going to try something similar; maybe a zucchini and cheese muffin or something.  I will decide tomorrow when I'm baking them!

In addition to my muffin investigations, My friend Rosh suggested that we speak to his friend Ludovica, who's a sports nutritionist, and she recommended Feed Zone Portables.

I have actually had this book for ages and never cooked a single thing out of it!  Ha - I think I bought it on a whim at a tri show one year.  I looked through it yesterday and it's got things like sticky rice cakes (but nice ones, not those bits of cardboard you buy in the store), sausage and potato cakes, french toast cakes and scallion pancakes.  Can I just say sausage and potato cakes one more time?!  I want to try some of these to take on my run on Saturday so I think Thursday's going to be full of baking!  I'll report back.

36. The One Where Russell Howard Kept Me Entertained

21 September 2015

With only eleven days to go (gasp) it's time to start thinking properly about tapering.  This weekend was the start of the taper, doing two shorter runs, and this week it's all about doing longer but low-effort runs.  Therefore, my first run of the week was a 90-minute sub-130 heart-rate run, as opposed to the 45 minute versions I normally do.

I was a bit worried I'd be bored on this run rather than anything else.  Fortunately, however, BBC iPlayer has not 1, not 2, but nineteen back episodes of Russell Howard's Good News, going back as far as 2011.  I absolutely love Russell Howard's Good News, so three episodes of that on iPlayer were perfect as I pounded out the miles on the treadmill.

The run itself was pretty uneventful; not much to report!  My heart rate did very well (as did my Garmin which was actually working for once) and stayed about 128/129 throughout.  I was watching it carefully and a couple of times (maybe three times in the whole run) it tipped up to 131 but a couple of deep slow breaths and it was back down at 128.  I was pretty happy with it actually, especially as yesterday i can't say my nutrition was exactly good ... My friend Romy booked the brunch deal for four of us at Flesh and Buns and it was A.MAZ.ING.  Unlimited starters, which I thought would be piddly lil things and not really substantial, plus one flesh and bun which in my head was like a char sui bun, plus s'mores for pudding.  How wrong could I have been ... the starters were enormous and so delicious that I was full before the mains even came out.  Then this happened ...

Far from a char sui bun, an entire PLATE of crispy piglet!  Just for me!  That's Harri's aubergine on the left, Romy's duck on the righ, and Tom's Wagyu beef at the back ... nomnomnomnomnomnomnom!  Plus unlimited prosecco or wine ... let's just say that supper was a non-event haha!  It was worth it - DE.LIC.IOUS!

33. The One Where I Was Back on the Treadmill

17 September 2015

I've been taking it easy this week in an effort to let my knee heal up a bit ... oh and cos IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY!  YUPS!  That wasn't the reason I didn't run on Tuesday, but it was sure the reason yesterday!  I had a fabulous day full of food (by which I mean a four hour lunch, followed by popping into work for an hour or so - I wasn't on a day off - and then drinks and supper at my club, the House of St Barnabas).  I hadn't actually intended to do anything for it because I'm celebrating properly after the ACC, but since people insisted ...!  And I'm so so glad I did go out, I had such a lovely time.  And also cocktails.  Lots of cocktails.  Mmm cocktails ...!

I can't say that the cocktails, the heavy food and the late night did wonders for my running today, however ... more like almost finished me off!  I was doing a nice sub-130 work out to try and get back into the groove and test out my knee.  It was at least the perfect work out because I can guarantee you that if I'd done sprints, it would have been unpleasant for everyone.  My heart rate generally behaved itself though, although it did pop over 130 twice and I had to slow to a walk to get it down again, so it wasn't my best effort.  Never mind.  Maybe next time.

In better news, my knee felt loads better!  I put this down to kinesio tape - I've been taped up all week and it's done wonders (together with the rest).  I'd definitely recommend learning how to use and apply kinesio tape if you do distance training!  Or any heavy training really; I had the benefit of three hours' tuition in it in 2012 and it has come in handy so many times.  I wouldn't recommend just doing it if you don't know what you're doing, but if you do it can save a lot of physio's fees (and a lot of pain).  Obviously I was training on the flat today on the treadmill, but there wasn't a shred of pain which is a massive relief!

24. The One Where My Heartrate Behaved Beautifully

3 September 2015

Normally I'd do sprints on a Thursday, but a few things conspired against me today, mostly:

1. I ate two lunches yesterday so I haven't been feeling that great since**; 
2. I'm all out of sync with the bank holiday we had on Monday; and 
3. I  woke up to find that I had an unexpected Battersea coached session tomorrow, and I learned a few weeks ago that sprints before Battersea is a no-go.  

Therefore, I decided that it would be sensible to do a sub-130 work-out, which I normally do on Friday.  Therefore, I toiled off to the gym and climbed onto the treadmill.  I like this work-out because it's really easy, so it's not like I have the pre-work-out slump, but I do find it kinda boring!  Today's TV choice was the BBC's new Tommy and Tuppence series - but it's a load of bollocks!!  It's nothing like the books at all, and they've made the new characters into idiots!  So even that didn't engage me too much.

So that was the bad news .. but the GOOD news was that my heart rate was soooooooo well behaved!  I managed to do the full 45 minutes sub-130 which is fantastic as it's the first time I've been able to do that (I think - my Garmin ceased working last week so a little hard to tell, but I think I did go over 130 near the start of the session last week).  I was so pleased, especially because this is an inclusion in my schedule which I've always been really skeptical about.  I was persuaded to do it by one of the coaches at my Greek tri camp (the lovely and amazing Mary Twitchett) who swore blind that it really would do me good, even if I felt like it was too easy to be doing anything at all.  Since Mary is one of the most successful athletes I know (across all sports, in disciplines as diverse as duathlon and rowing), I could hardly just dismiss her advice and I'm so pleased I listened for once.

I'm off to bed early tonight after not getting any sleep last night (the effects of the two lunches) so hopefully I'll be all ready for my Battersea session tomorrow.  It's always a slightly scary session because I can never predict it, so fingers crossed!

** I am actually super-greedy so I would happily eat two lunches for no reason any day, but on this occasion I had a 12:00 - 16:00 meeting, so, not wishing to waste away in the middle of it, I ate before I went.  When we arrived, we were told that a table had been booked for lunch - A.MAZ.ING!

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)

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!

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 ...!).

13. The One Where I Was Tired

18 August 2015

It was back to the treadmill and the sub-130 HR run today for 45 minutes - just as well it was an easy session because I am tired today!  Proper bone-achingly, eye-closingly, brain-numbingly tired ... I'm sure it's just a reaction from the weekend but I can't wait to hit bed tonight!  One of my goals for this week was to go to bed at 21:00 at least four times to try and rebuild and recover from both the lack of sleep over my holiday and the extra strain I'm throwing at my body by increasing my running volume with these longer runs.  Worryingly, I did go to bed at 21:00 both last night and Monday, so I have no idea what I'd have been like otherwise!

The good news is that this morning's run was brilliant - I only had to slow to a walk twice to lower my heart rate and one of those was right at the end.  Otherwise my heart rate behaved itself beautifully, staying down at between about 125 and about 129 bpm.  I'm pleased about this because I'm hoping it means that my training is actually doing some good!

That's it for today - tomorrow is back to Battersea and 800m reps.  I'm hoping I've recovered much better by then and can really give it some welly, because it's my last Battersea session for a couple of weeks, and when I go back it'll be to do some technique work.  Therefore I'd really like to smash it tomorrow but we'll see!

11. The One On The Treadmill

13 August 2015

Today it was back to the gym for a 45-minute run (it was meant to be an hour, but I ran out of time) on the treadmill with my heart-rate kept below 130 throughout to train my aerobic system.  This is the easiest workout on my schedule from the perspective of actual running, but the hardest mentally in a way!  It's soooooooooooo dulllllllllllllll ...

I like to do it on a treadmill for two reasons:  first, it's much easier to keep an eye on my heart rate there, because I can take my Garmin off and have it in front of me so that I don't need to bring my arm up to eye level.  Secondly, I can watch TV or have a little nose at what's going on around me in the gym to keep me occupied!

The good news about today's run was that I was finally feeling more like myself after a good night's sleep last night (AT LAST!) and that it was much easier to keep my heart rate under 130 than it's ever been before.  To keep it that low, I have to run at 7.5kph(!) but even then it creeps up about so that about every six or seven minutes I have to slow to a 6.5kph walk to bring it back down.  Today I only had to stop every 10-12 minutes, so hopefully that means I'm getting a little fitter with all this running!

The other good news was that it meant that I could catch up on Mr & Mrs Murder on 5oD.  I love that show - definitely one of my favorites!  It was the last of the series so it was even more of a treat to watch it.  Can't wait for next season!

9. The One Where I Didn't Run Very Fast

11 August 2015

One of my regular sets is to do 15x 30 seconds sprint as hard as possible, then rest for 90 seconds (at a full stop), doing it on the Woodway Curve machine at the gym.  This sounds like a perfectly do-able workout.  It isn't.  It's the hardest one on my schedule, and I've been neglecting it for a couple of weeks while I focus on long distance.

However, after a chat with my PT, who is the ultra-marathon man (he's doing the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc in a couple of weeks time), and after some shocking 800m rep results, I've come to the conclusion that doing the speed work is as important as doing the long distance work, not least because I don't want to lose everything I've been working towards!  In addition, the Curve is the best training tool around - it's a manual treadmill and the belt is incredibly heavy to push around, so you're adding the weight of the belt to your own weight while you run.  Obviously the heavier you are the easier that is, so for a midget like me it's seriously horrible!

Therefore, I hauled myself back onto the curve and completed my sprints.  My ultimate aim is to get to 2km in half an hour doing these (seriously) and the best I've ever done is 1.96km.

I was a little nervous about getting on the Curve again, not least because it is HORRIBLE and because I expected to have lost some real speed on it.  The set felt appalling, but in terms of overall distance it wasn't too bad - a total of 1.92km which isn't great, but could be worse in the circumstances.  Here is the breakdown of my splits:

1.       0.13

2.       0.27 (+14)

3.       0.40 (+13)

4.       0.53 (+13)

5.       0.66 (+13)

6.       0.78 (+12)

7.       0.91 (+13)

8.       1.04 (+13)

9.       1.17 (+13)

10.   1.29 (+12)

11.   1.42 (+13)

12.   1.54 (+12)

13.   1.67 (+13)

14.   1.79 (+12)

15.   1.92 (+13)

I am looking forward to getting faster again soon ... please!!!!