NDJ's London Marathon - weeks 7 and 8

Week 7 was a designated 'easy' week - 20 minute, 30 minute and 50 minute runs. The 20 minute one didn't happen, I went out for the night instead, the 30 minute one was a bit rubbish (because I'd been out for the night), and the 50 minute one was fine. So that's week 7 in two sentences, on to week 8!

Tuesdays remain jinxed. I only managed 35 minutes of what was supposed to be a 50 minute run. My joints all felt locked up, stiff and inflexible, and I was knackered before I even set out. Thankfully, my brilliant Pilates teacher Angela was able to get my hips working properly again on Wednesday, and Thursday's run was just fine. If anything my main problem, which carried through into my 12 miler on Saturday, is that as I get fitter and therefore faster, I struggle not to start off too quickly and burn out too early. That said, the extra fitness was a bonus when we climbed the O2 on Thursday afternoon, which was brilliant and the sort of cross training I can heartily recommend.

So, we come to the 12 miler (19.3km). Having tackled 10 miles two weeks ago, I at least had a sense of what to expect. This time, though, I came prepared. This is the stage at which the training plan demands you start practising 'H&N' - hydration and nutrition - and the training plan must be obeyed. I decided to factor in two five minute walk breaks for water and sport beans (gels are just too... urgh; it's the texture) at around 8km and 15km.

The first 5km were fine, still a little too fast, though I was consciously trying to slow it down a bit. I had a surprise visitor at 6km, when my husband appeared beside me on his bike and cycled alongside for five minutes before sprinting off to get his own miles in. I couldn't believe how much that unexpected visit made me grin, and what a boost it was - I really hope that's a taste of what spotting friends and family along the marathon route will be like!

I was feeling fine when I got to 8km and the first planned H&N break. I was really tempted to keep going, but had to remind myself that the whole point of having a plan in place is so you don't wait till you feel knackered before taking on water and energy, so I dutifully walked for five minutes while munching a couple of sport beans and drinking some water, now unpleasantly lukewarm from being clutched in my hand for 8km.

Once I started running again, I didn't feel any immediate effect, but I did notice the benefit once I hit the 12km mark that had left me feeling crap on the 10 mile run. I still had a bit of a low, but it didn't come with that total lack of energy, and I was able to power through it. I felt like I needed the 15km H&N though, despite only having one sport bean this time, both because there were only a few km to go, and because having two the first time had created some ominous stomach sensations - even though you're supposed to have up to eight in one go!

Through to 17km then felt fine, but the last 2km were horrible. I didn't feel tired in energy terms, but my feet were hurting and my legs were knackered. When I was finally done it was just a huge relief, both because I couldn't have done more, and because I actually did it! Looking back at my times, I was pretty consistent throughout, but it was indeed those last 2km when my time per km slowed by over 30 seconds.

That said, even with the two H&N walk breaks and a slow last 2km, the run overall was faster than the 10 miler, and that's got to be good. Especially as on marathon day, I've got to do that distance twice plus a bit...


Don't forget, I'm running the London Marathon in support of Crisis. If you're enjoying this diary of my suffering, why not donate a few quid to help end someone else's? http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/nikidjlondon2015

NDJ's London Marathon - week 6

Tuesdays are jinxed, I’ve decided. After last week’s Silly Injury Tuesday, this week I enjoyed If It Ain’t Broke, Mess With It and Suffer the Consequences Tuesday. Yes, I bought new running shoes. No, I shouldn’t have been seduced by the ‘you must buy new shoes for the marathon’ hype. Which was beautifully proven by a 45 minute run in which I felt like I was landing on concrete blocks, got aches and pains in parts of my legs that have never before complained while running, and basically got thoroughly pissed off.

The shoes have been sent back. Normal service has resumed.

So Thursday’s run, by contrast, was of course lovely. Hill running route, all feeling good, no messing. Which was lucky, because I was already nervous enough about Sunday’s 10 miler. I’ve banged on about this at length, I know, but this marked the transition from running a time to running a distance, and it freaked me out.

So not surprising then that I was feeling incredibly jittery when I set out, and had to keep slowing myself down so I wouldn’t burn through all my (nervous) energy in the first half. 10 miles is 16km, and logically enough, once I got into my stride, the first 10k was absolutely fine – it’s my comfort zone after all. The next couple of kilometres, taking me to three quarters of the way through, were slightly slower, but I was still feeling pretty good. Then it seemed to take forever to get from 12km to 13km. It didn’t really, of course - looking back via Nike+, my pace barely changed. But it felt like forever. The voice in my head started saying “I can’t, I can’t”, and it was increasingly difficult to disagree. I just felt drained of energy – my breathing was fine, my legs were tired but fine, I just felt like I was slowing to a crawl and there was nothing I could do about it. All I could do was keep putting one foot in front of the other, and try not to give in. And then suddenly I was at 14km, there were only 2km to go, I knew I could do that, and I had a surge of energy. Not a big, sprint finish type surge, but one that was just enough to speed me back up to normal pace, put a smile on my face, and get me through those last kilometres in fine style.

I’d wanted to do it in under 2 hours. It took me 1 hour, 59 minutes and 8 seconds. Next time, it’ll be faster.

 

Don’t forget, I’m running the London Marathon in support of Crisis. If you’re enjoying this diary of my suffering, why not donate a few quid to help end someone else’s? http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/nikidjlondon2015

NDJ's London Marathon - Tin rattling

Quite apart from injury, and snow, and hill running, and the desperate search for a public clock, something else happened this week: I chose my charity. It was a long time coming, with a lot of overthinking, but in the end last week's snow and freezing weather, while making running difficult, made the choice of charity much easier.

Like most people who work in central London, my journey to work makes homelessness impossible to ignore. And in a week where my colleagues and I bemoaned our frozen hands and feet every day after a ten minute walk from the tube station, contemplating what it must be like to sleep out in that kind of weather, as I see people doing every morning, is terrifying.

And so I have decided to run for Crisis, a brilliant charity whose work in supporting the homeless and campaigning to end homelessness you can read more about here: Crisis website

I'm well aware that people are always asking for sponsorship, for everything from growing a moustache, to giving up booze, to running a marathon, so please don't feel obliged in any way. But if you do have a few pounds going spare and would like to put it towards the worthy cause of my suffering over 26.2 miles, you can donate here: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/nikidjlondon2015

NDJ's London Marathon - week 5

Tuesday was a very bad day. I was walking to the tube station after work when I came across an enormous group of spatially unaware German tourists, who were not only blocking the pavement, but the entrance to the tube as well. I stepped into the road to get around them, and as I stepped back onto the pavement, my hip socket screamed. I have no idea how stepping could do such a thing, but there it is. I limped to the tube, hoping that I could walk it off, but no. By the time I got home it was still complaining loudly.

Cue total meltdown.

I think after having a cold last week, and that really messing with training, this just felt like the final straw. I adopted an immediate policy of extreme RICEWSP: rest, ice, compression, elevation, wine, self pity. It was ugly.

But thankfully, it worked. Waking up on Wednesday I had slight stiffness, but no pain (other than a white wine headache), and ventured out for the missed run, which ended up being my best training run so far. It was hill training, which I can do by running up and down five avenues that run parallel to each other on a hill not far from home. Up First Avenue, down Second, up Third, down Fourth, up Fifth, and repeat in reverse. The nicest thing about hill running is that once you're then back on the flat, which I was for the final twenty minutes, it feels so easy that you just fly through it.

Shifting that first run to Wednesday, though, meant having to do my second standard distance run on Friday, which was a problem for two reasons: firstly, I never workout on a Friday night, and my brain and body both know it; secondly, it had bloody snowed. But nonetheless, I ventured out, keeping to a very very boring circuit along the three paths that had been gritted, managing four times round, about 35 minutes, before the surfaces started to freeze and my feet started to slip, and I had to call it a day.

And so we come to Sunday, this week’s long run, notable for being the last long run based on time rather than distance, a milestone I’ve been dreading. As I was supposed to be out for 90 minutes, I decided to do 2 laps of a 45 minute loop I’ve used before, and to be honest, I was so nervous that the first 40 minutes were mainly jittery, and trying not to run too fast – which may have actually happened, as that’s when I completed the first loop. But then somehow I seemed to calm down, any niggly aches and pains vanished, and I started to feel like I could keep running like this for a very very long time. And then, with fifteen minutes to go, my phone died – the phone that tracks my run and gives me updates. And I wasn’t wearing a bloody watch.

So I finished the loop for the second time, but knowing that I’d done the first loop in 40 minutes and that my pace was faster on the second, I knew I wouldn’t have hit the magic 90 minutes. So I ran through the university campus behind the park, hoping there might be a clock on a building, or that I could see through a window. Yes, really. And believe me, I’ve never been so happy to see an LED ‘IT Services welcomes you’ screen, complete with date and time, in my life. As it turned out, I’d not only run the required time, but 5 minutes over, and when I got home and plugged my phone in and did some sums, it turns out I’d run at least 13km, which means next week’s 10 mile requirement (16km) should be easily within reach.

NDJ's London Marathon - week 4

This week was a bit of a mess, to be honest. I had a two day 'retreat' with work midweek, which meant in theory I should have run on Monday, but on Monday I had a killer sore throat and so decided to rest to stave off a full on cold, then went off on retreat and found myself so exhausted and sneezy by the time I was heading back home that I cancelled my pilates class for the first time ever (and I LOVE my pilates class) to head to bed early, only to wake up with a full on streaming cold.

I did drag myself out on a miserable 45 minute run, and consoled myself with the thought that maybe this process is more about pushing through the runs you don't want to do, the ones that are hard, than it is about the lovely ones that you glide through... but mostly I just grumped in my head and tried not to become irrationally angry about having a stupid cold and a stupid retreat in the same stupid week.

So to say I wasn't in the best frame of mind for yesterday's long run would be an understatement. Especially as I was about to attempt the longest run I have ever done, i.e. breaking past my 10k comfort zone. And did I mention I have a cold? So before I even had my trainers on, I was priming my husband to deal with the fallout from my inevitable failure. There was no way I was going to be able to run for 75 minutes, more than 10k. It wasn't going to happen.

Except, of course, that in the end it did. It happened more slowly, and with a lot more snotting and coughing than usual, but I still covered 10.5 and a bit km, which is a quarter of a marathon. And while in the immediate aftermath the thought of doing that three more times in succession made me want to cry, in the light of day, and with 13 weeks of training still to go, it feels alright.

NDJ's London Marathon - week 3

I worked out that at a conservative estimate, I spent about 8 hours walking around Dublin (and airports) last weekend, including 3 hours in one go on Saturday morning, so I'm not feeling too bad about having sacrificed a week 2 training run for the trip. Also, Guinness is full of iron and other nutrients, so it was really quite a healthy weekend...

Anyway, on to week 3! This was the week where the overall mileage started to feel a bit more challenging. The individual runs are still within my comfort zone (just!), but before I started this training plan I wouldn't have done two 45 minute runs and a 1 hour run in the same week. But then that's the challenge of moving from being a 5k/10k runner to doing a marathon, and it's not like I didn't know this was going to happen!

I'm starting to settle into a good pattern with my two standard runs - one on Tuesday evening when I get home from work, one late Thursday afternoon because it's my working from home day. Just like last week, the Tuesday night run turned out slower than normal, and I'm becoming increasingly convinced that it's something to do with running in the dark. Thursday's run was faster and easier, getting home just as the sun was going down. 

Today's long run was an hour, and it felt pretty good. In fact, I was really tempted to push on a bit further when I was coming to the end, as I knew my legs had more in them, but I made myself a promise that I would stick faithfully to the training plan, so I did. I think I'm feeling the pressure of knowing that the long runs go from minutes to miles in week 6, and I'm worried given my mileage at the moment that it's going to be a really huge leap from running 80 minutes to running 10 miles. Then again, as soon as I stop thinking 10 miles and start thinking 16km I feel a bit better. It's weird, the miles versus km thing - 26.2 miles sounds terrifying, but 42km sounds like, well, four and a bit 10k's. Which for some reason is better. 

I've got to start thinking properly about cross-training now. I do one to one pilates with my awesome teacher Angela on a Wednesday night, but otherwise at the moment I haven't been doing anything. I'm well aware I need to get back to strength work, especially upper body, so I'm going to sort out a plan for that this week. Also, I'm very close to fixing the two charities I'm going to run for, so I'll be sorted before we hit three months to go on 26th... 

Oh god, three months really doesn't sound like a very long time, does it? I have moments when I really waver about whether I can do this. But I really want to do it, so hopefully that's what will carry me through. 

NDJ's London Marathon - week 2

I had my first diary challenge this week, because I was spending the weekend in Dublin, and quite apart from not being able to take my kit without paying Ryanair's extortionate baggage fees, I knew perfectly well that I wouldn't get a run in.

So thanks to the wisdom of the internet (Runner's World), I decided to cut one of my shorter runs and bring my long run forward. This meant that after doing my long run last Sunday, I did a standard run on Tuesday and my next long run on Thursday. Luckily because it's still early in the programme, this didn't create too much of a problem, though my legs were feeling tired after the last run.

Tuesday's run was the best kind of night run - cold and clear, with such a good view of the stars that I practically got a crick in my neck looking up while running (slowly!) at the highest point of my route. Running at night always feels like a secret little world to me, as I run past lighted windows and spot people going about their business inside, then run up the hill and into the proper darkness and the view of the stars. But then when I got home and checked my Nike+, I found out my speed, which had felt no different to last week's runs, was considerably slower. It felt like ending the run on a bad note, which I hated. I don't think it would have bothered me if I'd been running for fun rather than training, and this is something that does worry me a bit. I don't want to lose the pleasure of it.

Thursday's long run was fine, sunshine and drizzle as I ran late afternoon - having just agreed to work from home one day a week - although my legs tired a little sooner than normal. It was a good run, my speed was back to normal, and it felt like I was getting the miles under my belt, in the best sense.

So what else is happening... well, there are two dilemmas I'm chewing on.

Firstly, whether to buy new running shoes. I have very basic Nikes, which I love and have done almost all of my running in, but I'm well aware that they don't do anything fancy, and I worry that I'm missing out on potential benefits, or making things harder than they need to be. On the other hand, if it ain't broke...?

Secondly, I have to choose a charity, or charities, to run for. While I'm really pleased to have a ballot place and therefore a free choice, the sheer range of options is dizzying, and all of them deserving. There are definitely areas that I feel more affinity with than others: mental health, supporting people through sport, women in the developing world, and education, but that barely narrows it down. I know it's in many ways a nice problem to have - and maybe I'm being arrogant to assume anyone will want to give me any money anyway - but I'm really scared of getting it wrong. Though can you get it wrong, if it's giving money to charity?  I don't have an answer yet, but I'll need one soon, or there won't be time to raise any cash!