In short, my training build up went well. I'm never sure how it will go, but my easy runs were feeling easy, and my HR monitor readings backed this up. Since the pre-xmas low iron fiasco I made a concerted effort to eat more greens and a regular bit of steak. It seems to be working.
By the time the Stamford 30K came it was apparent I was on track, and I had a good run with some marathon paced effort at the Wymondham 20. I had an absolutely lovely weekend doing the Rhayader 20 on a Saturday - the Dudley Ladies girlies had a road trip - we got to Rhayader early, had a look around and set off in the sunshine; it was a lovely run and much different to the blizzards of 2013. I was pleased to be an inadvertent pacemaker for a friends sub 3.30, and after everyone was in ate lovely cake. Stopping off in Ludlow on the way back, I inhaled some sausage and mash and upon getting home went to bed.
The next day I had the SRC road trip to Ashby 20 with Super-Dave and Errol. Another very warm one, I started conservatively and wound up the pace in the 2nd 10 miles, it felt good. I don't chase 20 mile PBs, in my eyes 20 miles isn't really a racing distance but I did sneak one having run the first half of the race very slow so I was pleased. Still loving the hoodies and the packed lunch parcels at this race, not to mention the support and marshaling.
My XC pace from January onward seemed to get better and better, and in the last few races of the season I was 2 mins or so ahead of the rivals that I am usually around. I had a stormer at Cheltenham, the last ladies Birmingham League fixture, up with people who I never really thought I'd be running among. I was well up for the National XC at Nottingham as my grand finale to the season. However disaster struck, coming up to a busy roundabout 5 miles from Woolaton park, a lady in a large jeep stopped dead in front of me and I had no time to brake.... I wasn't going very fast, but I smacked in to the back of her. I instantly felt sick to the stomach. Firstly we were all ok which is the main thing; thankfully she was a nice person, very much the "well these things happen" type and it turned out she was also going to the national XC. We took photos, swapped numbers and she actually offered to give me a lift to the venue(!) I declined on the basis I ought to get my car sorted. It was a somewhat comical scene; her car with a scratch on the bumper, my car fairly mangled pissing out water from the radiator. Amazingly my car still drove, and I limped it a few hundred yards up the road to a petrol station where I was guaranteed food, drinks and a loo whilst waiting - I had no idea how long I'd be stuck there.
I am with Sheilas Wheels for my insurance, and I have to say I am impressed with their handling of the accident. It happened at midday, I was home by 3, had a car on the Tuesday and a week after I had a call to say they were writing off my car as the cost to repair was too great. But I got a good deal for a 9 year old Tigra with getting on for 130,000 miles on the clock.
Still gutted though. The previous year I'd not been able to travel to Sunderland having had some Norovirus type symptoms so am I ever destined to get to a National XC without incident again?!
Around the same time in mid Feb I gave up Diet Coke. I don't like the full sugar version (thank god, or I'd be the size of a house with rotten teeth) but I was drinking a stupid amount of Diet; I'm not going to say how much but it was TOO much. I am and have always been quite good at drinking water, but after a particularly bad day at work I realized I had really had a lot and that it couldn't be healthy, in terms of caffeine, artificial sweetener and whatever else is in there. So I stopped. Cold turkey. Monday I felt fine, the Tuesday I had such a bad headache it woke me up, and almost threw up in my work colleague Timmy's car on the way to Lytham. I declined an evening meal that night and went to bed. Come Wednesday I felt a lot better and haven't touched the stuff since, I drink purely water, with the odd can of Lemonade or Lime / Soda thrown in. Yes it's not scientific, I've no proof I'm in better health but I feel much better for it, and I've won against my conscience in a "giving things up competition".
 |
| Addicted? Me? |
My parkrun tourism total has been upped to include Northampton, Redditch and Cuerden Valley. I went to Northampton the week after my 50th as I'd got a massive course PB at Leamington and wanted to see what I could do on the flat. It was quite windy, but I was pleased to clock 24.34 bearing in mind circuits had hurt me on the Friday - on the Saturday morning when I got up I was contemplating calling through to be helped off the toilet, not a good look. Redditch was also a nice run, and on a less windy day with less sore quads I managed 24.24, pleased but felt I should be faster. The weekend of my Birthday recently we went to Cuerden Valley. Beautiful but a bit brutal; felt a little dejected with 28:xx but as the first lady only did 24:xx I took some comfort!
My trip to Rotterdam was pretty smooth, and it's a nice city. It has all the good bits of Amsterdam but not the tackiness and naff-ness that you get there. I got a good hotel deal, BA screwed me over on flights and I ended up getting a 7am take off from Heathrow which meant having to stay in a London hotel. I was exceedingly pleased when the boy announced he was coming to see me off; an unexpected surprise, very heartwarming.
 |
| Nothing crude or tacky in Rotterdam.... |
That whole weekend in Rotterdam was warm, and Sunday as I waited for the start I could feel the sun slightly burning my arms. I'd have preferred a 9am start really but 10.30 it was. In the lead up to the big off we were subjected to a very enthusiastic announcer speaking (in Dutch) followed by a rendition of "you'll never walk alone" by a ropey sounding strong accented Elvis impersonator. They fired a cannon and we were on the move. I was conservative with pace from the start and was on target, I was in the zone, not too fast, not too slow but by 5 miles it was hot and as I got to 8 and it was roasting. At 10 miles I made a decision - I pulled back. I could foresee the wheels coming off due to the heat at 21 miles and me doing 4:01 or something. I decided to minimize the damage and help my recovery by slowing down. By this I mean I ran about 10:00mm, and in the last 16 miles was still passing a fair amount of people. It's something I still feel quite annoyed / down / in two minds about, I have a niggling doubt and "what if" I'd have carried on at target pace? I was certainly in the form of my life to do a sub 4. But in my heart of hearts I knew it wasn't going to happen. I'm not a bottler just a realist.
I came in at 4.14 feeling OK. I walked back to the hotel - ironically it had got a lot cooler and I was actually freezing - the irony - and the next day my legs felt OK. It's taken the standard amount of time to get my HR back to normal, for the first 2 weeks after the marathon I felt permanently on the edge of a cold. I managed to run a mid 25:xx parkrun 2 weeks after, so hopefully with a bit more speed work I'll be back to form but at the moment psychologically I feel pretty rubbish and slow if I'm honest. I know it will come back, I'm just impatient.
Finally in more recent times I had an absolutely great Birthday week and weekend, the boy's knee is better so we've been out on some bike rides. I should give myself some credit having mostly gone out with him on days when I've already done circuits and a run, I feel like I am holding him back if I'm honest. However really if he's happy then I'm quite happy as long as I know where I'm supposed to go, I like the fact you can see more stuff in the same amount of time, and I'm glad to be getting more use of my bike again. We visited the area where I work to do some touristy stuff towards the end of the week and it was really fun. My Birthday treat included being taken to Go Ape! at Rivington which I was both terrified and excited about, but it was amazing wobbling and flying through the trees and I'm still alive so all good! I mostly like my job but I really did not want to go back to work, sometimes being on holiday can equal major angst, fed-upness and boredom but this was quite simply perfect and re-iterated everything I had previously thought about the good things in my life at the moment.
 |
| Don't look down! |
No comments:
Post a Comment