Category: LSR

Things I saw today on my Long Run

Lovely long run today, all of 10 miles, up to Chippenham, then down to Lacock by the old canal. Haven’t been down here for months, as the last time (back at the start of February) was when I did for my shin. Time to exorcise (exercise?) some ghosts, I thought.

As ever, I spotted lots of interesting things whilst running:-
– A deer on the other side of the river,
– 4 young squirrels on the path who haven’t learnt to be afraid of people yet,
– Lots of tourists in Lacock, many of whom now have photographs of the beautiful village with me in Lycra ruining the view. Sorry about that!

However the only sight I got my phone out to capture, was a road sign. A small path down between what was once a factory and the river, “Lovers Walk” conjures up, for me, gentle images of courting couples strolling hand in hand. The best bit about this sign though, is the graffiti neatly added in blue capitals (just visible in the photo if you look really hard). With this addition, the sign now reads:-

“Lovers Walk BUT NOT IN A GAY WAY”

Torn between speechless and giggling, all I can say is Mary Whitehouse is obviously alive and well, and living in Wiltshire!

The sun has got his hat on

This week, summer arrived. Big time. We’re talking about the temperature shooting up from around 12C to 26C in the space of a week. People are smiling, summer dresses and sandals have been pulled from the wardrobe, the Olympic Torch came though Chippenham this week – and all’s well with the world. Hmmm – all is well unless you are a runner who doesn’t like the heat (that’d be me then). My tempo run and 2 easy runs were okay, although heart rate was higher than normal. However, Friday’s LSR was something I was dreading.

I deliberately planned a route with as much shade as possible, and even decided to run the loop in reverse as it meant the steep but shady hill would then be uphill, and the long, rough field of sheep with no shade would be downhill.

Entrance to the Secret Garden?

Started off okay – out at 9am (which is impressive for me on a Friday morning!), temperature was just right. Warm but not hot, a cool breeze, and gentle sunshine. Ten minutes later, it was as if someone had flicked the thermostat up and it was suddenly HOT! Took it very slowly, sipped my water, and just ploughed on. Mantra for the day “if I keep running in this heat, eventually I’ll acclimatise to it, won’t I?” I felt very sorry for the sheep still with their heavy fleeces on. They were crammed together under the trees seeking the shade, and if I ran too near they just looked at me with their little sheepy eyes as if to say “Please don’t make me have to run away from you!”

The best part of run, was the lovely old wooden door on the edge of the Estate. It always reminds me of the entrance to ‘the Secret Garden’. It only leads onto the road, but it means you can then run through the gates and down through an avenue of tall trees in blissful shade.

Ran out of water on the last stretch back into the village, which tells me its time to start hiding bottles of water en route again. I don’t often go past shops so can’t just pop in and buy some more. How does everyone else manage with water on long runs?

Training Going Well!

After the excitement of last week’s 10 mile run, I finally decided that I could do this darned marathon thing, my leg was strong enough, and I was mentally fit enough!

This week has started with my plan to run for 6 miles and a long run of 13 miles. I will hopefully fit in some aqua plodding, and maybe another short run as well, and/or some cycling. Unfortunately this week is looking being one of ‘those’ weeks.

I am typing this whilst waiting impatiently for the engineer to come and service our boiler. He could arrive any time between 8am – 1pm, and the last time I can aquaplod is 12 noon, as then they rope the pool into highly regimented lanes with speed limits. Unfortunately my aquaplod pace is slower even than the Slow lane, so its not really fair to the rest of the Chippenham lunchtime swimmers if I hold them up! Wednesday they don’t have any sessions I can get to, and Thursday is allocated for my ‘Long Run’. On Friday the first of my children is home as school has finished for Easter. Wonder if she’d like to come swimming whilst I aquaplod???

This week’s Long Run is planned to be 13 miles. Yes, I know its only half the distance of the marathon, but even so its a 3 mile jump up from last week. As long as the weather doesn’t stay this hot I think its achievable. Run – Walk is my new plan!

Yesterday I started of this week’s training with a plan to run (yes RUN – not run-walk!) for 6 miles. I figured I need to toughen my legs up over these shorter distances, and then I can work on my stamina for run-walking over the longer distances. I also realised I’d better try out my race day outfit, as I’m seriously running out of time! It was so cold first thing I actually had to wait until nearly 10am before I could push myself out of the door. There should be a Government regulation about minimum temperatures for wearing vest and shorts! I was freezing for the first mile and a half (seriously – goosebumps and everything!), and after that I was boiling! The weather is beautiful at the moment, but I really hope it breaks before 22nd April,,, sorry everyone!)

Anyway, apart from the heat, run went really well, and I ended up running for 7.21 miles. It felt much harder than last week’s 10 miles, so I think that proves the walk breaks are really going to help over the long distances. Pace wasn’t that much faster either.

So – still no sign of the Engineer. Will now update my Virgin Money Giving page, and I need to write another begging email asking for donations. I haven’t felt I could ask for donations whilst I was unsure if I’d make it to the start line. Shows how much more confident I’m feeling!

What a beautiful place to run. Week 3 Complete!

Well if you have to run a Long Slow Run every week you might as well run it somewhere beautiful, I say!After a frosty start to the week, I am pleased to report I managed all of this week’s scheduled runs, including today’s Long Slow (their words, not mine) Run. Schedule said 1 hour 30 minutes of running, actually ran for 1 hour 54 minutes (but I took the Slow bit to heart!). Covered 9.24 miles, including running through Corsham Court. Camera on my phone is not brilliant, but hopefully you can see what a beautiful place it is. There is a lake you can just see in the distance, with a huge flock of scary Canadian Geese which I gave a very wide berth to. Plenty of mud and hills to slog through, which will all be good practice for next week’s scary race, the Slaughterford 9. More on that next week!Good news is that despite this being the furthest run I think I’ve done since the Chippenham Half back in September, everything felt fine if a little tired. My shins behaved themselves, a combination of a soft surface (positively squelchy in places!) and running with a short stride. Feels like trotting rather than running, but my legs seem to like it which is the main thing.

So this week’s runs went as follows:-
Monday – 3 miles Speedy. I talked about this in my last blog, so won’t again!
Tuesday – 4.9 Miles. Even COLDER this morning! Was supposed to be 50 minutes Steady run, but ended up being 57 minutes as when I got to the big bridge over the by-pass I couldn’t resist running up & over it and then back again just to see the pattern it would make on Garmin Connect
Thursday 2.66 Miles (30 minutes) Hilly – I thought I’d run about a mile to a steep hill, then down & up a few time, then back home. Turned out to be a bit further downhill to the steep bit, and the steep bit was steeper than I’d remembered, so just ran to the bottom and then turned and ran back. Hard work, but hopefully all good practice for the Slaughterford 9 hills next Sunday!
Friday 9.24M Slooooooooow, but beautiful.

Roll on Friday night now, and Week 4’s training next week!