Tag: training

Spring? Summer? Where are you?!

/ Iona / Leave a comment

Busy, busy, busy. Work is really kicking me up the backside as I try to get yet another block of swimming lessons sorted in a very short period of time. However, after today we trudge on through the last 8 weeks of yet another block….. and then it’ll be the summer holidays?? Nah, that can’t be right. The trees aren’t even green yet! What’s going on this year?

Yet again, time is flying by and I was shocked to look at my calendar in work and see that April had whizzed past and we were into the second week of May already. I seem to have blinked and lost 3 whole weeks, yet in that time I have been unbelievably busy with work, running, family and everything else in between. Life really does seem to be in constant fast forward just now and this year has been the fastest so far. I think one of the main reasons I want time to slow down is because I’m heading for the big 3-0 this summer, but the less said about that the better thank you very much!

One of my big accomplishments in the past week, and something that can now be ticked off my to do list, was finally joining a running club. Something that I have wanted to do for many years but has always been put on the back burner with various excuses of working late, being knackered and mainly just being overly shy. But I did it! I went along on a lovely, if a bit windy, Tuesday night for my first session with The Wee County Harriers. Which just happened to be hill reps – oh joy! But I felt great and the people who I had been in contact with through facebook and email made me feel so welcome there. I really look forward to attending training after a hard day of working with screaming kids and to run off all the stresses of the day, and I can’t wait to go to my first race with them as part of a team. It’s the little things!

Speaking of running off the stresses of a hard day, it’s amazing how running can make you feel. It’s a release and an escape from all things that wind you up, get on your nerves or just make you want to scream. A long run with a beautiful backdrop can make you smile and forget anything that made you want to headbutt a brick wall. Last month marked the anniversary of a year of running ‘properly’ for me and as I look back I feel really proud of what I have achieved. Not only have I brought my 10k time down by near enough 10 minutes but I can now easily bash out a half marathon in a pretty respectable time and I have my sights set on bigger and better things. This time last year if you had asked me if I ever fancied running a marathon I would have laughed and said no chance. I had sworn off half marathons after my first attempt at Alloa in 2011 which killed my knees and made me ache all over and now a couple of years down the line I am happily considering running a marathon and then who knows what after that! A year of commitment and hard training for something I love and am really passionate about is paying off and after every run I feel stronger, and more determined to smash PB’s and set new goals for myself. This time a year ago I was happily entering races, just for the fun of entering them. I wasn’t expecting to beat anyone and was happily plodding along near the back of the pack. I can now happily place myself in the middle of a group of runners and know that I won’t be overtaken by near enough everyone within the first 10 minutes of a race. I don’t ever see myself being an amazing runner as I’m just not built that way, but for now I will do what I can to run to the best of my ability.

Saturday long run in the Scottish wilderness. Yes please!!
Saturday long run in the Scottish wilderness. Yes please!!

Speaking of runs that help you relax and release, I came across the most amazing trail run on Saturday. I went back up to Callander, where we ran the X 10K last month and set off from the woods along a single track road. The road was lovely and quiet and took me right along the shores of Loch Venachar. With very little traffic, I happily plodded along the side of the road one with ear phone in, hoping that no maniacs would fly down this road and have me jumping into a ditch.
It was beautiful and sunny to begin with but typical Scotland, a few miles in the heavens opened and I was drenched within minutes. Not that I was complaining, it was actually really refreshing. It was one of those runs where I had to stop to open and close gates, climb over stiles and hop over cattle grids to run through fields of Highland cows. It was glorious.

Loch Venachar
Loch Venachar
My hilly backdrop. One day I'll tackle hill running.... but not today...
My hilly backdrop. One day I’ll tackle hill running…. but not today…

And a couple of hours later I was back at my car having clocked up just over 15 miles. As I said earlier, once upon a time a marathon was something that not only did I never think I could manage, but never really appealed to me. I thought I’d get bored running for that length of time! But after 15 miles of scenic Scottish countryside, I could have gone further and my opinion of what I am capable of of may be changing….

15 miles and still more in my legs?? Nice one....
15 miles and still more in my legs?? Nice one….

We’ll see…. we will see….

Running on empty…

/ Iona / Leave a comment

I have been meaning to update for a over a week now but things just keep getting in the way. The Easter holidays flew by and I was snowed under at work, stressing and worrying about the organising and planning of the new block of lessons, and now here we are, 2 weeks into the new block and time is just going too damn fast! My working days usually fly by from the minute I clock in to the minute I clock back out and by the time I get home and have my dinner I am already planning on going to bed! I am really appreciating the lighter evenings and they are really giving me the boost I need to get back out and clock up some miles but I have recently felt like it’s a real struggle to find the motivation and energy I need to get out there. Since the Edinburgh half two weeks ago I haven’t managed a run longer than 8 miles. By the time I finish teaching at 6pm I can’t describe how hungry I am, so dinner is always a priority as soon as I get in. I wait for a bit for dinner to digest and by the time I’m ready to head out for my run it’s pushing 8pm and I don’t want to head too far from home with the light fading…

Whining aside, it has been a great month for racing. The Edinburgh race really made me up my game and made me realise I was tougher than I thought when it comes to running in horrific weather conditions. And I think horizontal rain and 37mph winds count as slightly horrific!! Last weekend brought us the Callander X 10K and it was fabulous. Easily one of the most scenic races I have completed and a good challenging run too. It started at the bottom of a hill and after a minute or so of road running we turned sharply and started our ascent up a rather steep trail. It wasn’t a busy race but the trail was very narrow to begin with, so there was a bit of darting about through people trying to find a comfortable position in the pack. The race was described as 40% tarmac and 60% trails, and the first 2.5 kilometres were all off road, quite muddy and rather steep. I was glad I had swayed towards trail shoes for this particular race! I pushed really hard for the first section to try and get past people that by the time the second section of hills came I just felt useless. My run became a bit of a shuffle as the hills got steeper but before I knew it I could hear the piper at the summit of the hill and I was fast approaching 5km. The descent was amazing, I suddenly had the wind in my sails and I used the downwards slopes to make up for lost time on the way up. The trails were absolutely wonderful and with a snow capped Ben Ledi as a back drop I couldn’t help but smile as I speedily made my way back downhill and onto the roads. The road took us back up some serious hills and I could see the fast runners in the distance at the top of the hill and sighed as I realised I had to dig deep and push once more to get up to the top of this one. I was running low on energy by now as I’d really pushed to get my splits back down into single numbers after the last lot of hills so this next lot of hills wasn’t a welcome feature! By now we were about 7.5km in and I could see the trail leading back down into Callander so I just let my legs go and flew down the last lot of hills. I kept glancing back and could see Jemma in her bright Alloa half t shirt not far behind me and she is FAST coming down hills, so that also gave me the final push I needed to speed up. The last 2km were lovely and flat, following an old railway path back in Callander, crossing and old metal bridge and down a final slope back to the finish line. Done. The race wasn’t chip timed so going with my garmin I got 52:40 but my official race time was 53:04. However my garmin only registered 6.09miles, so not quite sure what happened there. But under 55 minutes for a tricky hill race will do me just fine!

Sunny 10k hill run, bbq and mugs. I'm happy!
Sunny 10k hill run, bbq and mugs. I’m happy!

My little brother had come along with Jemma so it was nice to have some support at the finish line and then once Jemma finished we all trotted off for a lovely burger from the BBQ the event organisers had put on for us. The weather was gorgeous throughout and I would highly recommend this race to anyone who loves trail running or just wants to give it a go! We got a goodie bag filled with tasty treats and also an amazing mug – as much as I love a medal, a mug is just as good as you  get to use it daily and with the amount of coffee I drink, this is definitely useful.

An awesome race memento.
An awesome race memento.

Although I feel like I have been running on empty, I have been working hard in the gym during my lunch break. When you finish work for the day, the last thing you want to do (well, me personally) is return to said place until the following day. I work in a sports centre and get the gym and classes for free, but I find myself unable to go back after I finish as 9 hours a day there is long enough!! I go to classes at weekends and I’m desperate to try out Metafit which has just been introduced to our timetable, so we’ll see how I get on with that along with my circuits on a Tuesday. During my lunch break I’m completing a weights circuit 2 days a week and a cardio/abs set on the other 2 days. I wish I could fit in a swim as well (seeing as I’m already in the pool for about 6 hours a day!) but there just aren’t enough hours in a day. Where does time go?! I’m also looking into joining my local running club, The Wee County Harriers. They train 2 evenings a week, starting from my workplace and also at the weekends so I just need a little confidence boost to go along and join them. That’s my one of my goals for this year, along with a 46:xx 10k time and a 1:45:xx half time. I think that’s just about feasible.

I ran another 2 races this weekend which were both awesome. Race reports will follow later this week!

Edinburgh Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon – RACE REPORT!

/ Iona / 2 Comments

Official time: 1:53:49

Overall: 1181 out of 4361

Division: 51 out of 393

Gender: 273 out of 2269

It's glittery!!
It’s glittery!!

I had been looking forward to this event for months for a few reasons. I cannot lie, the main reason being the awesome medal, but also because it’s a much bigger and more structured event compared to the others I have taken part in this year. However from the minute I woke up and heard the wind howling outside I knew I was going to be in for a hard slog. I awoke before my alarm at 5am and after a bit of tossing and turning, trying to get back to sleep I eventually gave in and got up. Clearly it was even too early for my dog to as she was snoring away merrily and I had to prod her to get her up!! We went out for a short walk and by the time we got home we were both drenched. Not a good outlook for the upcoming race. Hoping it would clear by the time I got through to Edinburgh, I set about making my usual pre-race breakfast of porridge with banana and a few cups of strong coffee and I was ready to go.

I left slightly earlier than was necessary as I was worried about parking in Edinburgh due to all the road closures. However as I was so early I easily found a space in back road with time to spare for a quick trip to Tesco to stock up on bananas and Lucozade. Sitting in the car as I waited to head down to the start area, I started to worry a little about the race. The car physically shook with the strong winds and the rain was battering off the windscreen. I have had much more pleasant runs this year so far and I have always chosen to wear either long sleeves or a t-shirt, but idiot Iona chooses this one to debut her vest wearing for the year. Eeeek, this could have been a bad choice! But it was too late to worry now, so I packed what I needed in my backpack, braved the cold and took off my tracksuit bottoms, put my hood up and joined the hundreds of other runners making their way down to the starting area at Holyrood Park. I had plenty of layers on for now, but it was only a matter of time before I had to ditch them at the bag drop and make my way to the start line. The wind was fierce and the rain was driving into our faces but I was trying  not to let it get to me – I still had a good few hours of this by the looks of things! A few portaloos had already been blown over by this point which added to the already huge queues of people waiting to go one last time before the race and I needed to join them, not looking forward to the long wait, but luckily I found a short queue. It was then time to brave the cold and get ready so I dropped off my stuff at the bag drop and went to meet Jemma who had got the bus through from Glasgow. As we stood shivering at the starting area we once again wished we had remembered bin bags to wear up until we started – next time for sure! The race was delayed a few minutes at the start due to the weather causing problems on the course that had to be sorted, but not long after 9.15am the first wave were off! We were at the back of the third wave and soon as we were over the line we began to dodge people and try and get a good fast start. The road is pretty narrow for the first mile or so and we found ourselves dodging in and out of people to try and get through the crowds and set a sensible pace. By the time we rounded a corner and came up to 2 miles people had spaced out a bit and we were finally moving!

Soaked through and not even started. :(
Soaked through and not even started. 🙁

The first few miles flew by. The weather had eased up a bit but it was still pretty windy however this wasn’t dampening anyone’s spirits! There were live bands dotted about the course and despite the weather they carried on and boosted morale. The course was flat and fast until we got down to Portobello where side winds hit us hard for a shirt period of time. As we rounded a corner and progressed down to the promenade we had a sudden boost with tail winds and it was greatly appreciated! Miles 4, 5 & 6 saw us running through residential areas and back up towards the other side of Holyrood Park. The rain was still horrific and my feet were absolutely soaking but I wasn’t going to let this weather beat me.

Mile 1 – 8:16

Mile 2 – 7.48

Mile 3 – 8:06

Mile 4 – 8:20

Mile 5 – 8:45

Mile 6 – 9:01

At mile 6 we met the first of the hills. Not too steep, but it was a long one and my legs screamed at me. I took a gel about 6 miles in and instantly felt it in my legs – just the boost I needed. This is the first race in a long time I have completed without listening to music at all and it was really nice to have a chat with Jemma on the way around as well as listen to the bands and cheer on other runners! Miles 7 and 8 saw us coming into Holyrood Park and hitting another hill. With side winds. And rain that felt like it was stabbing me. Ouch. However what goes up must come down and we absolutely flew back down the other side! A combination of a descent and tail winds took our split down to a pace time of 7:06 at one point and we had to laugh – that was slower than some runners pace for the entire race!! As we headed out of Holyrood Park and back into the centre of Edinburgh I could hear the P.A on the other side of the park congratulating the runners who were just coming in to finish – Uhhh, I still had 4 and a bit miles to go!! Those people are crazy fast!! The next few miles were an uphill slog through the Cannongate and looping round past the Meadows and back past the University of Edinburgh. This was the toughest part of the race for me where my legs just wanted to give up on me. My breathing felt good, I felt strong on top and in my head I was desperate to push up that hill, but my legs were aching and my foot was giving me grief again. For a while the arch on my left foot has started to get sore after long road runs, (which is probably due to my crazy flat feet!) so I’m guessing it’s time to go and see someone about it. I’m pretty stubborn when it comes to things like that but if it’s going to affect my running, I’ll get to it pronto!

At the top of the hill we took a sharp right where a sudden gust of wind caught me and nearly took my feet out from under me. This seriously was the toughest race I have ever taken part in. I knew I wasn’t getting a pb from about 5 miles in, but I could probably get back in about 1:55 if I kept up my pace, which I’d still be really happy with! At mile 10 we were on a long flat road going through the Meadows and an American man on the pavement suddenly shouted loudly “3 miles to go, you’re 3 miles away from that pint!”. Unfortunately I had the car with me, so I couldn’t indulge after the race, but this comment really spurred me on again and I caught back up with Jemma, who had got away from me a little. I took another gel at 11 miles to get me up to the top of the last hill and then I was finish line bound! The course took another well appreciated down hill route and I used this as my launch pad to speed up for the last few miles. Through Princes Street Gardens, past Waverly station and plenty of cheering tourists and back down the Royal Mile towards the finish line. There were a couple of guys on microphones shouting everyone on at 12.4 miles and them reminding me I had less than a mile to go made me dig deep. Another amazing downhill stretch gave me another boost right to the final 0.1 of a mile where I pulled everything I had left together and tried for a sprint finish. It wasn’t the fastest but I did manage to get past a few people right up the line where I put on my biggest smile for my finishers photo.

Mile 7 –  9:23

Mile 8 – 8:44

Mile 9 – 9:06

Mile 10 – 9:23 (where my legs just said no!)

Mile 11 – 9:05

Mile 12 – 8:42

Mile 13 – 8:07

0.1 – .49.1

As I shuffled through the finishers area to collect my medal I suddenly felt elated. It wasn’t a pb and it wasn’t a comfortable run by any means, but I felt brilliant and it was another half marathon in the bag!

Then came the downside to the race. During the race the staff had to move all the bags due to high winds and the tents where we were meant to pick up our t-shirts had been taken down through fear of them blowing away. This meant instead of a very quick bag pick up and t-shirt grab we had to queue for our bags as very few staff ran in and out of the tents to get them. The queue was massive, no one quite knew where they should be standing and this lead to many people skipping the queue and others just being left baffled while trying their hardest not to blow away in their amazing silver space capes. I think if it hadn’t been for these capes my hands might have fallen off as after half an hour or so of waiting and shivering my finger tips turned completely white and lost all feeling. Not good! I had somehow come away with 2 space blankets, so I used the spare one to make a snazzy silver hand warmer and kept myself amused by jumping up and down and talking to people around me. EVENTUALLY (over an hour later!) we got our bags back, headed for the t-shirt queue and went to find somewhere to get a hot drink. I think that was the best cup of tea I have ever had.

The feeling has finally come back to my fingers.
The feeling has finally come back to my fingers.
Jemma and her fly away space cape!!! I was so thankful for these.
Jemma and her fly away space cape!!! I was so thankful for these.

All in all, I did enjoy this race. The weather put a bit of a downer on the event but you can’t help these things and I’m sure I’ll run other races in similar conditions – I do live in Scotland after all!

Forward planning…

/ Iona / 4 Comments

With 2 days to go until the Edinburgh Rock ‘n’ Roll half marathon, my 5th half, I couldn’t be any more excited. The thought of running with 5000 or so other people is really appealing to my competitive side, seeing as the majority of the races I have taken part in over the past few months have only had a couple of hundred people taking part. Most of these people have been club runners and hell they are fast! Although my times are improving (I have taken 10 minutes off my half marathon time and 7 minutes of my 10k time since I started racing), I’m still placing quite far back overall. The last big race I ran was the Great Scottish Run where I placed 1460th out of 7770 runners so this weekend I would definitely like to place top 2000. I think that’s possible….

All week I have visualised the race in my head. When I entered the race earlier this year I put down my finishing time at around 1:50:00, but since then I have smashed my pb by a whole 5 minutes taking my time down to 1:48:11 and I know I have more in me. I haven’t raced this route before but I’m aiming for a pb and I think if I can sneak forward into the 1:45:00 corral I’ll be more determined to keep up with those around me. I finally splashed out on a Garmin Forerunner 410 last week and I can’t wait to try it out properly in a race. A while back I said I didn’t want one as I quite liked using Endomondo on my phone, but as my phone gets a bit older my battery can’t take the stress of gps, music and Endomondo all running for any great length of time. I think I would be heartbroken if it gave up the ghost in the middle of a race and seeing as it has already totally drained my battery while out on long runs the chances of this happening any time soon are quite high. Also being away somewhere on a long run and my phone dying scares me in case I fall and break something and can’t drive home. I’m known for being super clumsy, so this is bound to happen some day!
So, welcome into my life my lovely new Garmin!!!

Ahhh, a new toy...
Ahhh, a new toy…

I did sway with getting the 110 as it’s a bit more girly, but I liked the added features of this one. It’s a bit chunky but, again, seeing as I’m so clumsy I’m pretty sure this will be indestructible for me. I just need to remember to take it off when I’m in the pool teaching!! For some unknown reason I received the instructions in every language except English, so my poor husband Craig had to deal with me footering about with it, beeping every possible button and getting frustrated with the bezel, until he informed me I could download the instructions and didn’t have to guess how it worked. Yep, slight blonde moment there!

So off my shiny new Garmin and I go to add another medal to my collection. I’m aiming for 1:45:00 – 1:50:00, seeing as I don’t know the course. I’m hoping if I can stick to around 8 minute miles I’ll come in under my expected time. Now that I’m a serious (ha!) runner, I’ll actually be a bit gutted if I don’t bring home a PB. Time to rest up until Sunday…
Good luck to everyone running it and hopefully I’ll catch some of you there!

Race report will follow 🙂

BEST.MEDAL.EVER!!!
BEST.MEDAL.EVER!!!

Hello Spring!

/ Iona / Leave a comment

What an amazing change in the weather we have had in the past week. Back in February when Jemma and I ran our first race of the year we thought that the winter was behind us as we ran along in the (rather chilly!) sunshine with clear blue skies above our heads. But no. Just a week later the snow began and it just didn’t want to stop. It was the kind of snow that you just get really bored with – always there but never on the ground for more than 5 minutes and just bitterly cold and annoying. At least it stopped for the majority of our race days, apart from a little flurry just before the beginning of our Loch Katrine races. The day after the Alloa Half Marathon the snow hit us pretty badly for a day or two – that was a very lucky miss! But here we are, 5 days in to April and we’ve had sunshine every day. I tried an evening run in shorts on Monday – maybe that was a little premature, but it won’t be long!

My training this week has consisted of the following:

Saturday – 11 miles of trail running with Jemma
Sunday – Rest day
Monday – 6 miles road running
Tuesday – Circuits
Wednesday – Rest day
Thursday – 12.5 miles, mixed road and trail
Friday – 5.5 miles cross country.

I won’t lie, this week has been a struggle. On Saturday I felt maybe it was too soon after my breakfast and that’s why I didn’t feel great, but when I went out on Monday I felt slow. I put it down to having had a busy day at work and still being a bit sore from Saturday but if I’m honest, I wasn’t. I spent most of the day on the phone speaking to parents and organising the next block of swimming lessons when I’m usually in the pool teaching all day, so I can hardly say I had a strenuous day! On Tuesday I went to circuits and I felt great. Towards the end we completed a “nightmare set”, which consists of pad work, body kicks and lots and lots of squats. Oh how I needed my rest day on Wednesday! Long run day was on Thursday this week and again I felt slow. I haven’t quite recovered from Tuesdays set even now, so maybe I should have taken an extra day before my long run! But on I plodded down the old railway line from my house all the way round to Alva where I found a bench to sit on and eat my banana. I have started running with a Camelbak on my longer runs and even though it probably slows me down quite a bit I am really thankful for it. Not only does it carry my fluid but I can stick my keys, tissues, phone and even my banana in there. And the longer I run, the lighter my bag gets, so the last few miles are never that bad. However I needed a bath when I got in and a very good stretch. Tiger balm has become my new best friend this week.
My run today was glorious. It was just beautiful! Shorts were back on, buff was left at home and my sunglasses even made an appearance! When I run cross country I have many gates to go through and cattle grids to hop over, so I’m never expecting a fast time, I just enjoy the scenery. And when it looks like this, you can look past the pain!

Snow topped hills, blue skies and the Wallace monument in the back ground!
Snow topped hills, blue skies and the Wallace monument in the back ground!

Reading other blogs and Twitter is starting to make me insanely jealous with all the marathons everybody is running. At the beginning of the year I didn’t think I’d ever want to run a marathon, never mind be ready to run one. But in the past few months I have really upped my game and with Jemma and my little brother training for marathons this year, I’m starting to wish I had entered one too! I’ll wait and see how they get on in theirs first… Maybe next year will be my year!

I have had 2 weekends without races and I’m starting to crave my next one. And what an amazing one it’s going to be – The Edinburgh Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon! I’ve seen quite a few people going on about it on Twitter and their blogs so it would be amazing to meet some new people on the day. Let me know if you’re doing it too – Jemma and I will see you there. After that I have the Callander 10k, the Balmoral 10k and the Balfron 10k, all in April and then the Loch Leven Half Marathon in May. After that my race calendar is actually empty. Give me ideas for more please!!!

Look out for me!!
Look out for me!!

This weekend I may have no races but I do have a lot on and maybe a wee wine or two with good friends. So for now I am hanging up my trainers and with all those running the Paris marathon in mind, I bid you Adieu!