Back to reality

Hello! I’m back from my holiday to Orlando. I do love going on holiday but eeeeesh is it a bitch getting over jet lag!

Luckily Orlando is only (only!) a five hour time difference so things could be a lot worse but it still significantly messes with your system. I flew back Monday evening, watched one film on the flight (Hell or High Water – very good) and then promptly fell asleep but was woken up regularly due to turbulence and the fact you’re in no way comfortable. I’m a very light sleeper so it was pretty much hourly I woke up. I think I got four hours sleep so that’s not too bad but you land Orlando time at 2am and suddenly have to acclimatise to reality rather sharply.

My parkrun friend, Geoff, is a taxi driver so he picked me up and he was lovely in bearing with my sleep deprived crazy chatter. Though I fell asleep for the last stretch of the journey which definitely helped pep me up a bit.

Then it was a case of just focus on the big jobs needing doing: washing, food shop and showering. I cooked a large chicken so that’s sorted out a lot of meals for this week. My parents still have Alfie as they’re on holiday in Wales and took their dogs and him with them so although it was sad to not see my furry little friend, I was glad to just have to sort me out.

I enjoyed a very large salad for lunch. My system is definitely crying out for some more ‘natural’ food after an onslaught of processed food, sugar and fatty meats. I’ll obviously do a holiday recap post soon (all the food…ommmmm so good).But I definitely appreciated something more simple on my return!

And then I was back at work the next day. The night before I went to bed and fell asleep very quickly at 8pm and though my alarm woke me at 7am (quite a lie-in for me on a work day) I still felt like I was spaced out and exhausted. At work I felt hot and cold, sick and shattered. I wish I’d have taken another day off but with my next holiday approaching very quickly (two weeks until I go to Tokyo!) I couldn’t really take the mic’. Plus I reckon I’d have just slept and delayed the jet lag another day…

Speaking of Tokyo, my race information has come. A nice little bit of post on my return. I won’t lie, it has made me very nervous. Only two weeks left. I fly on the Wednesday night and arrive Thursday, and then the race is Sunday 26th. Hopefully that’s enough time to get over the jet lag – which will feel the same as the jet lag I’ve felt post-Orlando (as it’s going the same direction across the world). Finger’s crossed, eh!

I really have planned things very badly as I also have the MarathonTalk Run Camp this weekend. I must be mad. MAD I tell you. It’s not like I needed the weekend to recover properly from Orlando and sort myself out for Tokyo. But hey, you only live once! I love the Run Camp and this will be my third time 🙂 I might not stay for the whole thing as I really do need some time. I might leave Saturday night, I haven’t decided yet. It’ll be a shame to miss the “informal” 10 mile race on the Sunday but we’ll see.

How do you recover from a holiday?

What’s the worst jet lag you’ve had?

What holidays do you have coming up?

The madness of a looming marathon

There’s nothing like an impending marathon to get you going. Even when it’s chucking it down with snow…

I must have been the only person in the UK who was unaware it was supposed to snow on Thursday evening. Sure I’d heard about the “thundersnow storm” but I hadn’t really connected it with reality – I mean surely that’s just in Scotland, right? So when I packed my gym bag in the morning to take to work I merrily threw in my usual pair of shorts and didn’t think twice. I normally wear shorts, I normally warm up. Totally fine.

Then I got to work and everyone was talking about how at 4pm snow was going to start. Er, what? And lo and behold, as 4pm hit so did buckets of snow. But when you have a marathon very soon (February) and you’re hugely under-trained (longest run 6 miles at this point) and you need adequate spacing of runs to not re-niggle the injury you’re only just getting over…well, you have little choice but to put those tiny shorts on and get out there and run.

It was fully throwing it down as I headed out, to the point I couldn’t really see as I had to blink so much due to the big fluffy snowflakes hitting my eyes. And the floor was already coated in a a thick dusting of snow. So foot placing was precarious, as were corners. I was soaked and cold very quickly and this encouraged me to run a bit faster, but not too fast to risk falling over.

I got several odd looks from people sheltering under bus stops waiting for their bus and commuters in their cars. But I strangely quite enjoyed it. I felt like a warrior. My legs were freezing, which is never happens to me, but it wasn’t terrible. I was only going three miles so I knew it would be over soon.When I finished and walked the last bit to get to my office, a guy sheltering near the door stared at me incredulously and said, “you’re absolutely mental”. I pretty much agreed.
People left in the office laughed at me when I said it was a bit nippy out. My legs were so pink and I was drenched! It took pretty much my entire commute home (an hour’s journey) to warm up again. I stood in my shower on full blast and full heat basically searing off a layer of my skin to get warm again. But I’m glad I went out. It was a good run. I felt strong, my shin felt good and it’s all miles towards Tokyo (albeit only three but hey it’s all relative here for me!).

There’s nothing like a big goal or deadline to get you motivated and focused. And I’m being really sensible (I think!). I’m only running three times a week, and two of those runs are three miles. I might bump one of those up to four (ooh go crazy, eh!). And then I have a longer run at the weekend, and no consecutive running days. It seems to be working.

I go to Florida with friends in two weeks and I really have no idea how the running will go but I’m going to aim to do two big runs out there. I say “big” runs but we’re talking 13-16 miles, though it could all change. Basically I’m fully winging it. I hope to do the parkrun in Orlando again as well. The two friends I’m going with are the friends who have just got into running and parkrun. And incidentally they are the friends that laughed at me for doing the Orlando parkrun the last time we went. Ha! How the tables have turned now 😉

But I’m still feeling positive – if not maybe in denial? Either way it’s all good. At least when I’m running Tokyo I can look back fondly on this 3 mile snowy run and remember what I warrior I am 😉

Have you ever run in snow?

What’s the worst weather you’ve ever run in?

What do you wear during winter exercise?

Post Marathon: time off and what’s next

I’m still riding the happy wave of Chester Marathon. I’m so pleased with how it went and it’s given me a bit of a boost with what I could achieve going forward, which is of course onwards to another marathon.img_3207I’m not massively eager to bash out a ridiculously fast time or try and beat my PB (which was still around 4 minutes faster than Chester) but I’d quite like to do another really focused training segment where I include some actual workouts, like tempos, intervals and hill sessions, rather than the very relaxed running I was doing this time around. Though mentally it was nice to run without any real pace aims or targets, I really enjoy the process of seeing my paces get faster and just feeling more confident in my running.

My next marathon is Tokyo at the end of February [insert scared emoji]. I signed up with a tour company a while ago as I knew I wanted to do it at some point and I really have nothing stopping me doing it. Of course it’s ridiculously expensive to do it this way but I get a guaranteed entry (which is good because Tokyo is very, very hard to get into through the ballot, like London), flights, accommodation near the marathon start, transfer to and from the airport, some meals and I’m with other runners and a guide to help us get about. Seen as how I can get lost pretty much anywhere, I think this is probably the wisest approach in such a culturally different foreign country!

I think my parents (and my friends) are quite concerned about me getting lost there. Me too, me too. My dad jokingly said he’d put a tracker on my phone to make sure he knew where I was…though actually I don’t think he was joking. So being in a group of people and basically handheld through the process is perfect for me! Originally I was going to go with a fellow Marathon Major enthusiast but he selfishly bailed on me – apparently Boston is more important *cough cough* 😉

So Tokyo is the aim and, as ever, not a given because of my injury proneness. And unlike Boston, if I did get injured I wouldn’t still go as the trip is purely for the marathon with a bunch of other marathoners so how fun would that be if I couldn’t run? But anyway that’s a long way away at the moment.

For now I’m enjoying a bit of time off of running and gym-work. I don’t think I’ve had a week off from the gym for a long, long time so it was a nice reset for me during my week away. But don’t get me wrong though, I was looking forward to getting back into it! I do love going to the gym and having my normal routine.

In terms of running, I have no races in the plan apart from the Gosport Half Marathon (I sign up every year as it’s literally around where my parents live and the past three times I’ve been unable to do it due to injury. I almost didn’t sign up for fear of cursing myself), 10k near Christmas just for fun (I say “fun”, 10ks are never fun for me) and an obstacle course race thing with my friends in a few weeks but that’s not really running. I might take another week off of running or do the odd plodding about. I haven’t really made my mind up. My calf needed a bit of time post-marathon to feel happy again and it’s basically fine now but I don’t want to jump back into anything too soon. I’m also keen to address why I keep having this calf/shin issue. I’ve managed to get rid of all other issues (*touch wood*) but can never fully stop this when my mileage gets higher so I might have a gait analysis done.

But basically October is a chill month for me. November will ideally be when I’ll gradually build the mileage up again for Tokyo. Then it’ll be all go again! I also have a place at the London Marathon next year (Good For Age) but it’ll depend on Tokyo whether I do it or whether I defer.img_5915It’s all a bit fuzzy right now and nothing is ever set in stone for me.
But I feel very content and happy right now just bumbling along without a plan. This will change soon I’m sure as I start getting itchy feet…

What are your racing plans?

Do you like to follow a training plan or go off piste from time to time?

Have you had a gait analysis done before?