Tuesday rolled around again and I joined another club session. My collegue Sofia is over from Sweden and staying with me for the week and she decided to come along. She does run but fairly inconsistantly, however last weekend she watched her Dad run the Prague marathon and it has spurred her on to keep it up.

 

There was also 2 new women at club, Ally & Emma who Mandy asked if they could pair up with me and all 4 of us go out. We set out at a slow pace as I really didn't want to burn the two girls out too quickly. I had planned a fairly easy 5k route and told them if they really needed to walk that it wasn't a problem. We came to a turn in the road and I gave them the option as to whether they wanted to go further or shorter. Surprisingly they both said further so off we went.

 

We did 4.26 miles, which for a first run in years for both of them was amazing and I felt really proud that they stuck with it. Fingers crossed I didn't scare them off and they come back next week.

 

After Thursdays pub run, Grumps scared the living day lights out of me by letting me know it's only 4 months until the Great Eastern Run, meaning I really need to get my distance back up. I've found myself becoming comfortable with running on average 5 miles per session. Which is great as before I could barely run more, but I really need to be comfortable with between 8-10 miles if I want to do well in the half.

 

On Saturday morning I dragged Charlene out with me at the crack of dawn (8am) to run round Ferry Meadows. I had a route planned in my head as we wanted to do 8 miles. I wanted to head out to Castor and back down the hill into Ferry Meadows, unfortunately I couldn't find the path I needed for this and we ended up changing the route. On the way back round I was worried we wouldn't make it to 8 and I knew we would be dissappointed so I added in a lap of the rowing lake (much to Charlene's disgust) and managed to get back to Bushfield clocking up 9.48 miles. 

 

 

I accidently stopped Map my Run & had to do it in two parts

 

I felt really good on this run and really enjoyed it, not sure the same can be said for Charlene! We took a few walking breaks as she was having trouble with her hips. Judging by this time, if we ran/walked the GER we would complete it in just under 3 hours. So now I need to work on getting this down to 2 hours 30. 

On Thursday we took part in the Yaxley pub run. This is put on by Yaxley joggers and is an event where they invite clubs from around Peterborough to all take part in a run together. We all met at the pub before hand where everyone had a little chat and got to know each other. The initial route was planned for 6.5 miles ish (this normally means more I have come to realise). So I set out with Val, Paula & Sarah (It was really nice to run with some different people) and we headed out on the route, we did just over 2 miles before turning around and heading back. This is not my favourite thing to do but as none of us knew the area we knew it was for the best.

The pub run was a great idea but I think most people ended up sticking to running with members of their own club as they then knew who they were matched with pace wise. Once everyone had returned those who were eating ventured inside for a cavery. Unfortunately due to my tight purse strings and trying to eat healthily I headed straight home. All in all it was a nice change.

Distance: 4.08

Time: 49 minutes 30 seconds

Average Pace: 12:08 (slowly going down)

Monday

Squats x 140

Sit ups x 140

Swimming - 40 lengths - 35 mins

Tuesday

4.74 mile run

Wednesday

Cross trainer - 30 mins - Level 7 - Interval training

Squats - 10kg barbell - 20 reps x 3

Leg press - 25kg - 20 reps x 4

Leg Curl - 25kg - 20 reps x 4

Leg Extensions - 25kg - 20 reps x 2

Abductors - 25kg - 20 reps x 4

Adductors - 25kg - 20 reps x 4

Squats x 150

Sit ups x 150

Thursday

4.08 mile run

Squats x 155

Sit ups x 155

Friday

Cross trainer - 30 mins - Level 7 - Interval training

Bike - 15 mins - Level 7 - 3.4 miles

Lat pull - 20 reps x 4 - 18kg

Seated Row - 20 reps x 4 - 18kg

Chest Press - 20 reps x 4 - 18kg

Rear Delt fly - 20 reps x 4 - 18kg

Squats x 160

Sit ups x 160

Saturday

9.48 mile run  - 2 hours 13 mins

Sunday

Squats x 180

Sit ups x 180

Bike - 6.30 miles

Still on a high from my first race I popped along to club on Tuesday. Charlene was there, which put a smile on my face as it felt like forever since I had seen her. I must admit I enjoyed basking in my glory when results were called out from the weekend's races. Alot of people had their first races this weekend and everyone did so well.

As Charlene had been feeling rough the past two weeks and I was a little stiff from Sunday and the swimming session I had done on Monday we set off a few gentle miles. I knew Charlene had more to give then she was letting on so I took us on a route which ended up being 4.74 miles. We stuck to a really gentle pace and even stopped for a few walking breaks.

It absolutely chucked it down the whole run, but it was still warm so the rain was actually pretty refreshing (not so much after, it felt like it took hours for me to warm up again).

Mile splits:

Mile 1 - 11:53
Mile 2 - 14:15
Mile 3: 12:32
Mile 4: 15:08
Mile 5: 13:14

Can you tell which miles we walked on. Not my best run by a long shot but it felt nice to be out there and enjoying myself.

Hello. Just a quick little update from me. Yesterday I popped to the doctors to have a check up for a repeat prescription. The nurse did the usual blood pressure check & weight check.

Since I started this journey in January I have lose 34ls!!! I still have a long way to go but it's nice to be on track! Although I did reward myself with a Freddo (must stop rewarding weightloss with chocolate!!)

Clapham Common 10K - Race Report

The past weekend I spent in London visiting my Uncle, my Uncle is quite an avid runner and suggested we both sign up for the Clapham Common 10K. My Uncle has run this race quite a few times and thought it would be nice for us to both run together now that I'm a runner. 

This was my first proper organised race. The one I did before was part of the Frostbite league, meaning only club runners could take part. I was looking forward to this being a mixed bag of abilities. There were 3 distances to choose from, 5K, 10K & 15K. 

My training hasn't been great leading up to the race, my horrible cough still hadn't quite shifted and I hadn't run a 10K distance in about 2 and a half weeks. But nether the less I went out there and gave it my all. 

Pre race - Actually looking fairly calm 

As we were staying only a 5 minute walk from the race head quarters we walked over about 9:45am to pick up our race numbers and timing chips. This was really well organised and hardly any queues. I obviously had pre race nerves and headed off to use the toilet. Not many, but the the queue went down quickly and there seemed to be enough for everybody. 

The race started promptly, 5K went off at 10.04am, 10K at 10.06am and 15K at 10.08am. To be honest I didn't really know what to expect, I felt a little underwhelmed if I'm honest, everyone just started moving forward so I followed. I stuck to the back of the 10K pack as I really didn't want to set off to fast. My Uncle's next door neighbour was also running and I knew she was a similar pace to me so we stuck together for the first Km before I pushed off a little faster. It was really lovely to have my parents there cheering me on - This is the first event they have been to and I think they actually enjoyed cheering everyone on. 

The first 5K past fairly quickly, it was nice being around more runners, there was enough space for everyone and the race didn't feel too congested. There was a lot to look at on the course from football games, bootcamps and dog walkers. For the first 5K I felt really good and was keeping an eye on my pace (in hindsight I was probably going a little to quickly), it was really starting to warm up and I was starting to feel a little dehydrated, thankfully a water station was up ahead so I powered through. I walked through the water station to have a drink as these were in plastic cups which I hate. 

The next 3K felt really hard, I was struggling to keep my pace and had to take a few walking breaks. I made sure I only let myself walk for a minute before pushing on. From the start I had been locked on one woman in front of me, we were a similar pace and I knew if I stuck with her I would do fine. She kept pushing on ahead, then I would catch up and vice versa. She dropped back around 8K and I powered through trying to keep my pace up. Around 9K I felt exhausted and started to slow to a walk. Out of no where the woman I had been following gave me a big pat on the back and gave me some encouraging words to push through. We ran the last 1K together, without realising I picked up the pace in the last 200m but she came through the finish line less then a minute after me. 

The post race organisation was great, straight through to have my timing chip cut off, a goody bag handed to me along with a medal and a bottle of water. I am so proud to have my first medal for running. I haven't received a medal since I was about 7 years old, so it felt really good. The marshals at the race were also really good, offering encouragement and showing you where to go to make sure you stayed on track. Support from spectators was lacking apart from near the finish line, but it gave you the boost of encouragement you needed in the last 200m. 

Race entry was £18 which seemed expensive to me (as a non Londoner) but I really enjoyed the race, the organisation was great & as I said I got a medal. What more could you want?!

I ended up finished in 1 hour 13 minutes and 45 seconds, painfully slow for some but my aim was 1 hour 15 minutes so I was pleased to beat my own target and it was nice to get a PB. At least I have something to aim for now. Next time I want to get sub 1 hour 10 minutes.

Look how chuffed I am.