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September 14, 2015September 14, 2015

Back in the game

Morning, morning. I am pleased to say that I am back in the marathon running game!

OK to be fair (and I imagine you’re used to this now if you’re a long-time reader) I was probably being my usual paranoid runner self about my shin…which actually worked in my favour as I was very cautious and didn’t do my 16 miler long run, nor my Tuesday run. So by Thursday my shin had calmed down hugely and felt absolutely fine. I think the moral of the story for me is not to go crazy with calf raises and tighten up my calf. Oh, and rest is best!

This meant I could join in with a club-organised long run at the weekend, happy days! A few of us decided to make things interesting by doing 17 miles and then doing a parkrun to top it up to 20 miles. The appeal was a faster finish long run, a nice way to break up an otherwise laborious load of miles and also to get in some parkrun tourism. Most of us had never been to Winchester parkrun (which is about 30 minutes away) so it was quite nice to do something different.

The downside, however, was realising that to get the miles in before parkrun meant a very early start. 5.15am alarm for Saturday morning… ooof. This meant Friday night was technically a school night with sensible food and an early night. I made sure to lay my things out the night before ready to make it easy in the morning.

Decided to wear my Steve Way “Don’t Be Sh*T” top to get me in the zone 😉

I slept so badly as I kept panicking about my alarm and just generally feeling nervous about the run. I woke up at 4.30am and was pleased that I had another 45 minutes to sleep. But then a while later I jolted awake thinking I’d missed my alarm. Well, my alarm was going off all right but it was on silent!! I was so lucky that it was only 5.20am. All thoughts of how tired I felt were gone as I leapt out of bed and got ready in a panic thinking I’d be late. I ate a Trek (Original Oat) protein bar as I walked Alfiea fter I got dressed. Probably not a great idea as it was so crumbly and it was so dark outside I was getting it everywhere. I had the world’s smallest coffee and was good to go! Despite my late getting up, I arrived at the local train station before everyone else. The plan was to leave our cars there, run to Winchester, eat something, then get the train back to our cars.

The beginning crew ready to run

We were going to meet another friend, Matt, half way there as he thought it best to not run the entire 20 miles as he was recovering from the dreaded plantar fasciitis, and then we’d meet another friend, Kate, at the parkrun as she was running a half marathon the next day. The route was lovely! All along Itchen River and a fair bit off the main road – which is such a relief when running so many miles. Though it did rain on and off, it was a lovely temperature. I really enjoyed chatting away to the guys as we ran – the time flew by. I do like doing long runs on my own when I zone out and listen to podcasts, but there is something truly enjoyable about running with others, especially for such a long way. Long runs can get very lonely. We made it to Winchester parkrun with about five minutes to spare which was cutting it close. I didn’t want to have to run again after the parkrun and was about 0.5 away from 17 miles so did a lap around the course just before we started. This helped minimise the break between the two runs as well.

Winchester parkrun is very flat and is basically three laps around a field – though apparently we did a slight variation of the usual course doing a weird diagonal run across a field. My first mile was a bit panicked and rushed because after they finished the briefing I thought we’d be starting somewhere else but the guy just said “get ready, go!” and I realised I was quite far at the back and had to do a lot of over-taking and dodging around people. I did have a chuckle though when I saw a man who was running with a dog get yanked back as the dog decided to do his business there and then come what may. The guy had to stop and pick up the poo…a parkrun poo, tee hee.

The second lap was tough. My legs felt very heavy and it just felt hard. My pace dropped and I felt myself flagging. The third mile was easier because I knew it was the last, but my legs (understandably) still felt tired. I got 23:29 which I was over the moon with though. But it did make me think long and hard about what I could achieve at Bournemouth. I just don’t feel mentally ready to push the pace at that marathon and I don’t think my training as been as good as Liverpool had been. I also don’t feel the hunger to get a faster time like I did with Liverpool and I really don’t want to put pressure on myself and potentially have a horrible experience.

We all agreed that it was a tough parkrun because of the miles beforehand but were really proud of ourselves. And though Kate didn’t run the 20 miles, she still smashed out a great parkrun and got first lady! So we all felt pretty chuffed.

(Ave. pace 8:37min/miles)

Then it was off to Whetherspoons for breakfast. We all sort of stumbled there slowly and collapsed at a table. Most of us had a fry-up. I went for the large fry-up but subbed my hash browns for more bacon (a superior swap I think).

It was delicious! I also ordered a diet coke, a glass of water and a coffee. Hitting all bases.

We got a lift back with Kate which was great as well. I’m so pleased how well the run went. It was definitely the confident boost I needed for the marathon. Though I ran Cheddar Gorge marathon recently, it was still a good few weeks past now and having missed last week’s long run I was feeling a little worried. But during the 20 miles I felt strong and like I could have gone on and on. The pace was slower than my usual long run which is probably a good thing as 20 miles at my usual pace would probably make the next few weeks hard in terms of recovering and being fresh. Though I’m happy I got to pick the pace up at the end to push through.

After getting back I had this mad surge of energy. Instead of usually feeling exhausted I was on fire with housework, walking Alfie and getting stuff done. Though I didn’t feel hungry again until 4pm! (To be fair, that breakfast was HUGE so I’m not surprised).

The next day I decided to have a rest day. My legs felt good, no niggles or twinges, but I felt a general sense of tiredness. Remembering how injury-prone I am and that I’m not the fastest at recovering, I thought it best to forgo any exercise other than some lovely long walks with Alfie. <– Can we just marvel out how sensible that sentence is for me. I’ve come a long way!

Later on I saw Ben’s mum again this weekend for afternoon tea. We were meant to do afternoon tea last weekend but we left it too late so we decided to try again. We headed to a place I’ve been before but not for a while, Lilly’s in Wickham.

We both went for a slice of red velvet cake, a fruit scone with jam and cream and I had ham and onion marmalade sandwiches.

It was divine. Though I do prefer to have crusts on my sandwiches they were very dainty!

So all in all, a pretty good weekend. Cake and running – things are back to my kind of normal 😉 And now time to taper!

How was your weekend?

What’s your ideal long run? A training run at a race, running solo, running with others?

Crust or no crusts on your sandwiches?

August 27, 2015

Putting it into practice

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m trying to up the calories and fuel myself better for running (and life). This is important obviously not only to my overall health but also because I’m still marathon training and want to continue to run healthily.

** Just to add: if putting on weight fails to do anything, then I’m heading to the doctor again and making my case fully heard, and to check there isn’t anything else wrong. I also know stopping running might be the easiest way to get things going again but I really hope it doesn’t come to that 🙁 **

The thoughts from my previous post haven’t just happened, I’ve been thinking about it for a while and have already been upping my nutrition. This was really important after my latest marathon as refuelling and recovering effectively would hopefully mean I could ~~jump~~ ease back into marathon training for Bournemouth (October 4th) without major tiredness, issues or injuries. So far so good, finger’s crossed.

Straight after a marathon is a really tricky time because, like most people I’ve spoken to, I really don’t fancy anything to eat. You’ve just run for a ridiculously long time and your body is in a bit of shock and probably feeling a bit dodgy. But this is a critical time to refuel and maximise your recovery, and if you leave it too long you can end up doing your body no favours.

To combat not fancying food I bought a recovery shake from Tesco to drink straight afterwards. Drinking something is far easier than eating something. It’s also easier to put in your bag and carry with you.

I’d planned to take just regular chocolate milk but I liked the sound of this one with it’s added nutrients (vitamins, calcium, magnesium, etc.) and high protein (40g). Plus it was on offer in Tesco. It’s fairly low in carbs (10g) which was a bit annoying but I knew I’d get that sorted soon so I wasn’t concerned (looking at their website I probably should have chosen the Recovery version but this one wasn’t on offer…). And it tasted nice.

I’d drunk a bit more water immediately after finishing and actually wasn’t thirsty at all when my dad and me were back in the car. And I needed to pee about an hour later. Usually after a marathon it takes a fair few hours to need the loo (sorry, here I go again with my bathroom habits!). I think this is a great sign that I hydrated well, despite it being a very warm day.

We knew that we’d have trouble finding a place to eat driving back home because it would be late afternoon on a Sunday and most places would be closed. The day before when we were planning I suggested to my dad something I have never suggested before to him. How about a KFC? They’re always open!

I’m not a big fast food eater. I don’t like McDonalds or Burger Kings (why have a teeny plastic burger when you can have a delicious proper burger from a pub?) and fast food in general isn’t really my scene. However, you all know my love for a cheeky Nando’s and chicken in general and the thought of a dirty KFC after a hard run just sounded dreamy to me.

We did have to make a detour off our route home but we found one eventually. My dad was pleased to be allowed to legitimately have a KFC without me moaning at him. To be fair he hadn’t had lunch and had walked a fair distance, plus it seemed only fair considering how much of a help he was to me in supporting me.

Not my finest look I must admit

I haven’t actually had a KFC since I was about 12 so I stood gawping at the menu for a bit having no idea what to choose. Eventually I went for a Mighty Bucket for One. Normally I might have been a bit dissuaded by the 1,200 calories listed next to this meal (which probably doesn’t include the fries) but hell I’d just run for 4.5 hours and needed it! I will just add, there are far better and more nutritionally sound ways to refuel after a marathon or workout – but for convenience, high calories and sheer god damn tastiness this was the ticket.

It took me a while though to actually eat the damn thing though. My stomach was cramping and I felt sick. After taking a breather I dove straight in though. I couldn’t eat it all (pretty much all the chicken disappeared but the chips were just too much for my delicate stomach – I prioritised with what I love of course!).

After arriving home and having the best shower of my life (I think I always say this after a race), I was a bit hungry again but the thought of cooking something was beyond me as I was so tired. Instead I went for the easy and tasty option of a lemon and blueberry slice of cake (thank you, Freezer Stock).

I also had some fruit and called it a night. Not a sound day of nutrition I grant you, but easy calories into the system nonetheless. The days after the marathon I made sure to keep my calories up (and of better quality). My favourite current meal is a monster salad of tinned salmon with avocado, butternut squash roasted in lots of coconut oil (heaven), and lots of veg. That might not sound that good but I made sure to have a lot of avocado in there and use a big blob of coconut oil.

And on the Tuesday after the marathon, a Nando’s before seeing Inside Out at the cinema after work worked wonders.I think I did pretty well last week on refuelling and I’ve continued this going forward. Some days I do feel stuffed though and that I’ve eaten loads, but at the same time I know it’s doing my body good. My mindset is that this is part of running well. It’s like my strength training. Most of the time I find it quite hard to feel the same enjoyment as I get from running when I go to the gym, but at the same time I know it’s important to do so I can run. The same goes with increasing my weight. I might not enjoy my clothes feeling tighter going forward, but I’d hate to not be able to run a whole lot more.

Going forward I’ll be posting about how things are going, what I’m eating and the changes I’m making alongside my usual mumbo jumbo!

How do you recover after a marathon/hard workout?

What do you eat immediately after you work out/race?

What’s your favourite fast food if you had to pick one?

August 13, 2015September 18, 2020

One Year to Go – Fitness First #EverydayWinners

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to an event in London to celebrate that August 4th was one year until the start of the 2016 Rio Olympics. The event last week was hosted by Fitness First, the official fitness partner of Team GB.

The event was at a Fitness First gym in Bishopsgate in London with workshops run by Team GB coaches.

This sounded amazing and I was keen to get involved. The workshops including Strength and Conditioning, Nutrition, and Psychology. And there would be Olympians just casually strolling about as well, such as Jason Kenny and Keri-Anne Payne.

I was also pleased that someone else I knew had been invited too, Mary (the ultra running superwoman – she’s just smashed a 70 mile trail race. Yep.). Going to London for me is always a bit of a faff so it was nice knowing Mary was going too.

Anyway the morning started quite badly when, as per standard procedure in my life, I only gave myself just enough time to get to the station within minutes of the train arriving. No contingency time for a) paying for parking and b) getting my ticket from the machine. I didn’t think I had any change for the parking machine so I automatically rang the number on the side of the machine to pay that way (I’ve done this before, it’s very handy). Like the genius I am not, I decided it would be quicker to multi-task and do the train ticket at the same time. This involved me managing somehow to crash the ticket machine and mess up my parking on the phone. So I had to go into the station and get my ticket that way. Then run like a mad person to get onto the train, while still trying to sort my parking out.

In the end it took about five phone calls (let’s not forget how intermittent signal is on the train – another genius Anna move) and two car parking payments as I got the registration number of my own car wrong the first time. I was sweating with nerves and stress by the time I finally sat down on the train. As I put my payment card away I noticed I did indeed have the three sodding pounds to pay for the parking. GARGHH.

Thankfully I got to London and successfully met Mary at Liverpool Street station. There ensued a rather comical amount of time for us attempting to find the gym. We walked up and down one road about four times trying to follow Mary’s printed map (very organised, you can tell she’s a teacher) and Google Maps on my phone. We asked random passerby’s as we started to get desperate and each person told us a completely different direction. Finally we found where we were meant to go. Only about a five minute walk from the station we started at. *Sighs* Mary and me are clearly not natural Londoners!

When we arrived we met up with other fellow bloggers, Helen, Emma and Christine, and a few others I didn’t know.

Our first workshop was run by Dr. Duncan French, a leading strength and conditioning expert with 11 year’s experience as a coach. He’s looked after Olympic, World Championship and Commonwealth Games medal holding athletes and a current world record holder.

This session involved Duncan going through several fairly complicated strength moves using a light bar. It wasn’t about the weight of the bar nor our personal strength. It was about our coordination and form.

We started with a fairly simple move of a squat, which then progressed further and further into a jump, snatch, squat routine which really did involve my head more than my body as you had to get the order of it all correct as well as the form perfect.

It was like I was back at school because I found myself glowing with pride when Duncan complimented my “hip mobility”. Though he did point out an improvement I could make and then made me repeat it with everyone watching. Oh the pressure… 😉

The next session was led by James Collins, a leading expert sports and exercise nutritionist, who was heavily involved in advising Team GB Olympic teams and individuals in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic Games, and now towards Rio 2016.

This was probably the weakest of the workshops. Understandably nutrition is such a vast area and the amount of time he was given to go talk to us was short and I think he tried to cover too many areas as it was a bit vague and textbook.

It was interesting though. He talked about how different athletes need different and specific diets because they have very different needs. And that this also changed throughout the year as their individual training peaks and declines depending on what they have going on. He also mentioned how he helps coach athletes with regards to living in the Olympic Village because the sheer amount of food available to them is vast. They need strategies to ‘cope’ and to make the sensible options for their bodies in order to perform at their best. This is especially true for those athletes that need to carefully monitor their weight, such as judo players and boxers.

The third workshop was led by Sarah Cecil, a technical lead sport psychologist at the English Institute of Sport. She has over 10 years of experience working with a vast variety of different athletes and worked with Team GB athletes across both the Olympic and Paralympic Programmes in London 2012.

Her session was by far the most interesting and enlightening. She talked about how she helps athletes cope with the pressures of the ‘big day’ and facing crowds of thousands of spectators. She went through a psychological theory (which I believe is the Triune Brain Theory though she never said – but I’ve since Googled) that our brains are broken into three areas: one being very primal focused purely on survival, the second area more emotional and to do with innate motivations, and the third is where reason, knowledge and rationalisation comes into play.

I’ll probably do a poor job of explaining it here, apologies, but the theory is that if we we overload our more rational side, then the less rational and more emotional side with take over and see a situation in terms of it being a threat rather than an opportunity. This can easily be extrapolated to Olympians just about to compete. They over-think the situation and then panic. She works with them to make sure that they see the situation in terms of an opportunity, and that nothing has changed from when they were training. Basically it’s a choice you can make to take a sep back, breathe, and then take charge of your emotions and perform better.

It’s funny because when preparing for smaller events she says she always tells her athletes she hopes everything will go wrong, so then they can deal with it and then for the more important events they know they can cope.

I found this so interesting! And Sarah was very personable, friendly and knowledgeable. All three workshops were interesting, but they could have been longer to be honest, but I think this was more the style of the event.

The Fitness First gym was fantastic and we were allowed to use it after the event. As I wasn’t really in the mood and I had intervals planned for the evening I declined. But there was a cool running strip, loads of amazing looking machines, weights and other cross-fit style equipment. There was also a huge TV screen on the wall demonstrating loads of different exercises (I got distracted by this several times).

After the event, Mary, Helen and I headed to find some lunch. Thankfully Helen is more London-savvy and took us to a great little spot called O-Food, a Nordic sandwich bar.

The menu was really good and I could have had anything to be honest. I went for a smoked mackerel salad with a side of roasted potato wedges with a sour cream dip. Oh it was divine!

They also served water with cucumber slices in it for free which was fantastic too.

It was lovely chatting to Mary and Helen, discussing racing (Helen was a fellow Cakeathonner!), bogging and what we’ve reviewed on our blogs in the past. Perhaps the event wasn’t as long as it could have been (and the goodie bag could have been better!!) but I did enjoy the day, especially the lunch and chatting 😉

How do you find getting to and being in London?

What great little food places have you found in London?

And just for fun, Team GB have created a questionnaire you can fill in to see what sport your most suited to HERE. I’m a footballer apparently!

**Full Disclaimer: I was invited to the event for free but paid for all my own transport and food. All opinions are my own honest ones.**

July 27, 2015

Lee-On-Solent parkrun, Beefy’s and YOLO

How’s everyone this morning? If you’re from the UK, then hopefully you’re not still damp from our rather soggy Sunday! Feels all rather autumnal to me. Winter is coming…

Friday night I stayed over at my parent’s house. I wanted to try out the new Lee-On-Solent parkrun that had started a few weeks ago and it’s about three miles from my parent’s house. It runs alongside the beach on the promenade and is really flat. It’s actually part of my long run route when I stay at my parents.

I hadn’t run since Ultra12 last Sunday as I was concerned about my shin/calf (I say shin/calf as I’m actually not sure where the ‘issue’ is – it’s just a general discomfort and tightness of my calf that then aggravates closer to my shin, if that makes sense). In the week it was feeling grumpy and niggly and the last thing I wanted to do was annoy it further. I ran 20 miles over 12 hours (and a parkrun a few hours earlier) so I’d definitely pushed it out of its comfort zone and I needed to give it time. Check me out being all sensible.

My plan then on Saturday was to drive down to the beach car park about a mile away from the start and run down. This meant that I could judge my leg before I got caught up in any parkrun buzz and adrenaline and could walk back to my car if it felt rubbish. At Netley my warm-ups tend to be very quick and I knew if I went I wouldn’t bail on the run as there were so many people I know there and I’d have been embarrassed to have dropped out last minute (stupid, I know).

Annnnyway, I did some dynamic stretches and then began running down. Everything felt fine. I literally had the biggest smile on my face running to parkrun. Thank god.

Beautiful blue skies and the parkrun start ahead

I got to the start in more than enough time and chatted with a fellow Hedge End Running Club member. It was nice to see a friendly face, though to be honest everyone was very friendly and lovely. But then all parkruns are welcoming! 🙂

This parkrun is very flat and with few turns (it’s an out and back twice…you run along one way, then turn to go back, then run past the start/finish area, turn and run back) so it’s ideal for those wanting a PB, if the wind isn’t too bad. Because of my recent niggle I wasn’t looking to go crazy. I just wanted a quickish run to get the legs turning.

As I started I felt good and my legs felt nice and fresh. I was listening to music but not my usual “GO GO GO” music on my Running Playlist that encourages me to go faster. Instead I just put on music that was in the charts that I was liking lately as I didn’t want to get lost in the moment and push myself too hard. Basically I was looking to enjoy myself 🙂

Photo credit: AmandaLou Hall and Ethan Gee

The first mile was great. Despite not setting out with the ambition to smash the pace I felt very comfortable at sub-7min/miles. I just went with it. I noticed there weren’t any other females around me and felt quite content.

At the turnaround I checked to see if there were any ladies in front of me (I say I wasn’t racing, but it’s always nice to know your placing!). There was a young girl storming ahead and that was all. As I turned to go the other way the full force of the wind smacked me in the face. Ah so that’s why my first mile was so lovely. I was being pushed along nicely! The second mile was therefore a lot harder and a bit of a grind. My pace dropped but I didn’t mind (a completely different story to last week’s parkrun – what a difference a change in mindset makes).

At the next turn around point, where we would then head back to the finish, I passed the girl. She was really struggling. Again the wind was now behind me and it was suddenly easier again. I sailed nicely to the finish.

I finished in 21:37 as first female and I was chuffed. A hard but enjoyable run.

Sadly I’m an absolutely idiot (this might not be that much of a surprise). I sat down and caught my breath. I went over to the young girl who finished second I think and said well done. I chatted to a few people. Then headed over to the barcode scanner. Oh wait, where’s my finisher’s token?

Cue panic.

Arghhh, I’d put it down somewhere! Despite spending a good amount of time searching the area with the help of a few kind people, I couldn’t find it. It was very windy so I was worried it’d blown away. I spoke to the marshal in charge who took my name, my Garmin time and my barcode number and promised to sort it. I felt terrible though as I know they’ve had a few problems lately with tokens going missing. Long story short, after a few emails they managed to get me on the results on Sunday. I was mortified to have caused such a faff and felt suitably guilty. I donated £5 because I felt so bad. It costs them £70 to buy 100 new tokens (they can’t buy them individually).

I ran back to my car as a cool down, which was also a great way to check how my niggle felt post-run. Things felt fine! Hurrah. I still think I need to be careful and I’m now including calf raises into my strength training because clearly this is a weakness I have that keeps cropping up. I regularly change my trainers so I really can’t think what else I can do (apart from not go crazy with jumping up my mileage).

Later in the day I went shopping with my mum and decided to do something I’d been considering for a while. I’ve always liked the thought of having a tattoo but can never really make my mind up on what or where I’d have it. I also know I’d probably regret it later. And I’d just look stupid. Years ago I used to have my belly button pierced but I let it heal over. My belly button, I think, is really quite ugly so I thought what better way of improving things and doing something a little bit (for me) crazy.

You can see where the plaster had been on my tummy

It didn’t hurt as it was numbed beforehand and it was very quick. I’m very pleased. You only live once!

I also splashed out on a new outfit that I could then wear to the meal my parents and me were going to that evening. I bought this beautiful long skirt from Monsoon, and then paired it with a very simple strappy top, a white cardigan and a necklace in the sale all from New Look.

How pretty is that pattern and those colours? The skirt is of really good quality – there is a lot of material there and it fits beautifully.

The restaurant we went to was called Beefy’s in Southampton. It’s located in the Hilton hotel at the cricket grounds, The Ageas Bowl. It’s rather posh and very lovely.

The service was impeccable. They were so attentive, pleasant and friendly. And the food was gorgeous. Yes it is expensive (relatively so – mains are around £12-15 but can go up depending on what you choose, obviously. My dad had a steak for £30!).

You choose a type of bread to start (I went for olive bread) and then I had a sharing platter with my dad of hummus, feta, olives, bread, roasted vegetables and local watercress. For main I had a char-grilled sweet chilli chicken salad. My dad and me joked that we’d both expanded our culinary choices by me choosing that salad and not the Caesar salad and him having a Porterhouse steak rather than a rump steak. Small steps. For pudding I had sticky toffee pudding with ice cream. It all tasted amazing. Definitely worth a visit!

And then the weather turned and I woke up to stupid amounts of rain the next morning. Originally I’d planned to go for a long run with some guys from the club but I didn’t know if I was going to stay at my parent’s again or not (I did) and I was still being cautious about my niggle. The last thing I wanted to do was go for a long run and ignore any discomfort. I wanted the option of just cutting things short without feeling the need to explain things to people (I know everyone would have been lovely about it but I would feel awkward). So I went solo.

It was absolutely tipping it down and I only had shorts and a sleeveless top. It wasn’t cold per se but it was miserable out there. My run felt fine. There was an awareness of my niggle at the start but nothing to hinder me or make me feel I was “pushing through” discomfort or pain. Then for the rest of the run it felt fine. I actually felt really good and fresh (despite being soaked to my skin).

I did get yelled at by a driver though. I was running along a relatively short road where there were no pavements and he pulled up next to me and yelled that it was a stupid place to run. There was more than enough room for the both of us (and cars the other way) and I had made sure I was in full view of any oncoming cars. *Sighs*

The run felt good but I still don’t know where my head is at for the Cheddar Gorge marathon in a few weeks time. I’m 90% certain I’ll do it. The only thing that will halt me will be if that weekend is really rainy (because it will just be a mud bath and I want to enjoy it) or if my niggle becomes anything bigger.

Decisions, decisions.

And I’ll leave you with the joys of running in the rain with long hair.

I’m sure it’s so much easier being a man…

How was your weekend?

Have you got any piercings?

Have you done anything stupid at a race before? My life is full of stupid moments…

July 1, 2015October 28, 2016

Lordshill 10k

I think I’ve said this about a zillion times on this blog (and in person) but I truly hate 10ks. I’ve come to be OK with 5ks because mentally you can deal with that level of pain (because it is painful for me in terms of effort) for around 20* or so minutes.

(*relative time, depends on my fitness!)

But for 10ks? That’s a long time. Yes you’re going slower than you are for the 5k but you’re still working at a level that is hard effort, heavy breathing, focused attention and lactic acid.

I’d signed up to Lordshill 10k before the marathon. To be honest anything after the marathon was dream-world; I couldn’t see past it. But I needed a good 10k for our running club pentathlon (basically our league table, based on a points system for people’s performances for 5k, 5 mile, 10k, 10 miles, half marathon and marathon). I had all distances done apart from the 10k and 10 miles. Plus I hadn’t had a good 10k race where I really felt in shape and not coming back from injury since before last year.

So Sunday I woke up naturally quite early and got myself together. I had a black coffee and porridge and waited for my dad to pick Alfie and me up to go. Quite a few of my running club were doing the race too so it was going to be nice and social.

Our club has new running crop tops so I felt nice and cool in the muggy temperatures. This race is very local to me (about 15 minute drive) and is chip-timed. It was also advertised as “fast and flat”. I wanted a PB and so this seemed the ideal race.

I heard mixed reviews about the course from people though. Some saying it was lovely and flat and others saying no way was it flat. Hmm OK!

I got a nice pre-race loo visit in a proper toilet in the Ordnance Survey office that was used as the race HQ until they cordoned it off and directed people to the loos outside, of which I peed twice more (I’m not entirely sure why I feel the need to share this information with you, but I like to think of it as “setting the scene” and keeping it real!)

My dad checked the course map out and worked out where he and Alfie would stand and then we were good to go.

My goal was to keep under or around 7 minute miles all the way. I had a PB of 43:15 to beat. But I also knew how tired my legs felt in the week so I thought if I felt that pace was too hard at the beginning I’d abort it and just aim for a tempo run and hope to be somewhere close to my PB.

We set off and I felt good. Yes it was warm but not overly so and I felt comfortable in my pace.

Photo credit: Paul Hammond

The course was an out and back (thereabouts) so I just kept thinking “get to three miles and you’re going back home again”. My dad was stood at one side probably after mile one and cheered me on. Alfie was oblivious; probably watching out for squirrels.

The course was a little dull but nothing terrible; a few houses, some nice greenery, under the motorway through an underpass. All nice enough but nothing to write home about (but let’s be honest, this is Southampton we’re talking about).

Photo credit: Gary Trendell

I knew I wouldn’t achieve any significant female positioning in this race because of the high number of amazingly talented ladies who had entered so I didn’t concern myself with any near or in front of me. I just kept my pace to 7ish min/miles. With no music allowed I kept my mind focused on the task at hand. On the turn around point it got more interesting as you started passing other runners coming the other way so it was nice to wave and cheer on other people that I knew.My dad saw me again coming back under the underpass and gave me a nice cheer. He also informed me of my female positioning, bless him. I had told him there was no chance of me coming anywhere high up but, like a good coach, he wanted to keep me informed 😉 I was apparently 7th at that point (and I remained there).

Miles 4-5 were the pain train. I wished I was doing a five mile race. And near mile five there was a significant incline in comparison to the rest of the course. It made it tough work.

But a nice downhill at the end!

By mile six I was singing the Imagine Dragons ‘Warrior’ song in my head to keep me pushing. I kept thinking as well “less than eight minutes” – I’m not sure why it was eight as my miles were seven minutes and I still had the nubbin as well but it seemed like a good number to me (better than 10!).

Photo credit: Paul Hammond

Then the marshals started telling us it was 400m to go, then 300m and I knew I’d be OK. It was going to be close but I was just happy to be stopping soon.

Crossing the line in 42:50 (new PB!) and 7th female. Happy days!

We didn’t get a medal but a trophy glass thing, a bottle of water and a banana. Not too shabby for a cheap local race! Alfie thought the glass and water were excellent.

We also won the female team trophy for our club. This meant a £20 voucher for each of the three of us for a local running shop. How cool!

As 10ks go this was actually pretty good. The pain train was there but not for the entire race, just towards the end (that incline). It’s made me feel a bit more kindly towards 10ks, but not enough to want to do one again anytime soon! One a year I think 😉

After saying goodbye to my dad I got ready to head out for lunch with Ben’s mum, Di. Yes Ben and I aren’t together anymore but I’m still good friends with Di and enjoy spending time with her and will continue to spend time with her going forward (like I’ve said previously, things are amicable).

We went to a local pub and I enjoyed a chicken and avocado burger with mango relish and sweet potato fries for my main, followed by an OMG-AMAZING millionaire cheesecake.

I’m not a fan of cream (unless it’s thickly spread on a scone with jam?) so that got side-lined, but honestly it didn’t need it. The cheesecake was perfection on its own. Cookie dough pieces throughout and a delicious chocolate topping.

So a pretty good weekend all in all!

Bit of fancy pants photo-editing there 😉 (Photo credit: Gary Trendell)

How do you feel about 10ks?

What’s your favourite cheesecake flavour?

Medals or mementos?