What a Difference a Week Can Make

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Little Red

I blogged last week about how I found it difficult to get out of the door and then I found myself not running for a full week. I had some pretty bad news on Wednesday morning and I was so full of anxiety that I could barely eat never mind get myself out and run. I escaped to London for less than 24 hours on Friday evenings to spend the day with my good friend, Lisa and it definitely helped me clear my head. Plus I saw lots of runners and wanted to join them which I couldn’t because I didn’t have my running gear. I could have ran my long run on Sunday morning but I decided I needed sleep more so I started over again today which is my first run of the week.

It was supposed to be a 40 minutes easy run but ended up only being 20 minutes. It was too humid, I had no motivation and that little voice in my head had been telling me to stop and go home since before the first five minutes so I just gave it and went home. I’m a bit disappointed with myself but at least I ran and I did manage to do 2.06 miles in the 20 minutes I ran. Tomorrow I have a 50 minute tempo running session which I plan on completing in full. I have a nice cold coconut water waiting for me when I get home if I finish it. I didn’t let myself have it today with my poor efforts.

If you have noticed, I have now added a Just Giving widget to my sidebar to track my fundraising for the half marathon I am running in October. I would appreciate any donations you can give as I am hoping to raise at least £250 by the time race day comes along. Head over to my fundraising page to donate.

Posted in Fundraising, General, Running | Leave a comment

Do I Have To?

Posted on July 14, 2010 by Little Red

Image credit - patrickmberger.com

I hate to admit that every single time I know I’m running whether its the following day or the morning of, I think, “Do I have to? I’d really rather just stay inside and watch day time TV and drink tea.”

I know I’m allowed to think these things and I always run anyway even if I have to force myself to go but I get the feeling that since I am currently training for a half marathon, I should want to get out there and run. Like I keep saying to myself, this half marathon won’t run itself. And it’s not like I’m just running for myself either. I’m running for a cause – a good cause, my local hospice, St Rocco’s. The reason I decided to run for a cause was to give me that extra push that I needed to get out of the door but some mornings, that’s not even enough. Once I’m done with my run I feel fantastic and I’m so glad I did but I just wish it wasn’t so hard to get going initially.

What gets you out there in the mornings/evenings even when you really don’t want to? Do you reward yourself for doing it or is the run itself reward enough?

Posted in Struggles | Leave a comment

7 Miles Down, 6 More To Go

Posted on July 11, 2010 by Little Red

My alarm was set for 7.30AM this morning I was out of the door by 8.10AM. I had my concerns between getting out of bed and getting dressed but by the time I left, I decided that I just had to get out there and run. The quicker I did it, the quicker I could be back home again.

And so I did it! I ran 7 miles and I ran the whole way. Last week I seemed to be having a bit of lack in… something and ended up walking for a minute once or twice during each run I did, even the easy 40 minute run. Today, my goal was to not only finish the whole run but to NOT WALK!

Last week, I actually did some tempo running and I really think that had a big affect on my run this morning. I have been avoiding tempo running from the beginning of my half marathon training because I’m no good with speed and I like my runs to be fairly easy which tempo running is definitely not. On Thursday morning I did 20 minutes of tempo running – 5 minutes easy, 5 minutes hard. According to my running plan, by this stage of my training I should be able to keep the tempo for at least twenty minutes but since I haven’t done any before, I’m starting off slowly. During my tempo pace I was running at 9 minute miles which is a whole minute faster than usual. Today, I was running under 10 minute miles pretty much the whole way and I have been finding it difficult to keep at that pace for few weeks now.

My splits looked like this;

Mile 1: 9:46
Mile 2: 9:33
Mile 3: 9:22
Mile 4: 10:19
Mile 5: 9:36
Mile 6: 10:08
Mile 7: 9:37

Mile 3 to 4 was the hardest, as you can probably see. I hit some sort of mini wall and was ready to stop but literally as soon as I started the fifth mile, I was fine again. Mile 6, I was running against the wind and up hill a little bit. I think overall I did really well. It took me 69 minutes which is well over my initial goal of 75 minutes! I’m doing it again next weekend and I’m aiming to keep at the same timing or even maybe knock another minute off it if I can make sure I don’t hit the wall again.

Posted in Running, Training | Leave a comment

Promises I’ll Keep

Posted on July 9, 2010 by Little Red

I, Katy, promise that from next week – Monday 12th July 2010 – that I will be dedicated to this blog as I am to my running.

Honestly, I keep thinking about blogging here and just never find the right time to actually sit down and write something or I get distracted by a game or another website and by the time I realise it, it’s time to go to bed.

My running is going very well though. I haven’t missed a run in two weeks and I have a 7 miler on Sunday which I’m half dreading, half can’t wait for. I’ll let you know how it goes either Sunday night or Monday afternoon.

Posted in General | Leave a comment

Inspiration: Hilary Swank

Posted on June 1, 2010 by Little Red

If this photo doesn’t make you want to get in shape so you can run and look like this, I don’t know what will. She looks amazing.

Posted in Inspiration | Leave a comment

Website Changes & Running Plans

Posted on May 31, 2010 by Little Red

As you may have noticed, there have been some changed to RLRR over the last couple of days, mainly the banner. I have deleted almost all of my entries too, just leaving the running related ones. This website was originally purchased for me to track my progress in running and has ended up as a place for me to complain on how badly I am eating and I’m just not enjoying being here any more. I have also changed the names back to everyone’s real name. So from now on, I’ll be known as Katy, not Little Red. It worked at the time of opening but I don’t need it any more.

I have several running updates that I should have mentioned a while ago. I have three races coming up this year all of which I am very excited about.

Sunday, 6th June – Alexandra Park, 5K
This is the one I did back in February. When I last did it, I was running on average, 11-minute miles. I am now running 10-minute miles and I want to do it again to see if I can knock a few minutes off my time and make a new PB (Personal Best). I may do this again in early autumn but we’ll see how things go.

Sunday, 22nd August – Birchwood 10K
I have been looking at this one for about three months now and finally decided to just sign up last week. Its very local so I don’t have to worry about how I’m going to get there. I also needed something a little longer before I do the next race in my list.

Sunday, 3rd October – English Half
When I first started running in early October, this half marathon was taking place. I made a subtle decision to run this in 2010 if it was on again. I have been checking every month or so to see if it was on again and nothing was coming up but when I looked at the beginning of the month, it was confirmed again. I’m running for St. Rocco’s Hospice. I sent my entry form off on Friday so I’m hoping that by the middle of June, I have my place. I have been having a lot of doubts over the last few weeks about whether I can actually run for this length of time but I ran my first 40 minutes yesterday and it felt so much better than all the thirty minute runs I’ve been doing and my confidence has come back.

I have been training for the half for four weeks now and I feel like I’m finally making some progress. I have a five mile run this week and I think once I get to five miles then it’ll be a lot easier – mentally – for me. Five miles has always been a big goal of mine and to think I’m going to do it next week is exciting!

Like I said, this place will just be a running blog from now on. Not just my training but also things and/or people I find inspiring and running related topics. If you have anything you would like to see then please leave me a comment and let me know.

Posted in Races, Training, Website | 1 Comment

Just Be Happy You Finished

Posted on April 27, 2010 by Little Red

Yeah, I didn’t run this morning. It mostly wasn’t my fault to be honest. I didn’t get to sleep until 10.30PM because I got stuck in my book and then Meghan was awake at midnight and 1.30AM with a cough that just wouldn’t go away. It was past 2AM before I got to sleep and there was no way I was getting up at 6AM after a night like that. I woke up around 8AM and decided to keep Meghan off pre-school so she could get a decent sleep but she woke up at 8.45AM so we got ready and I took her in around 9.40AM.

I could have ran. I did have the time but I’d already showered, I had a huge pile of dishes waiting for me and I needed to walk to dog because it was the only time I had during the whole day to do it. My original plan was to run early morning so I could walk the dog and do the housework while Meghan was at pre-school and the dog and housework had to come first.

I had a very busy day though and I was really tired when it got to 4PM so I definitely would have been a lot worse had I actually got up to run. I have no excuses tomorrow. I’m running. And I’m looking forward to it. And, I WILL RUN TOMORROW!

Anyway, the reason for me being here is I wanted to blog about an article I saw in the local Metro newspaper yesterday. It was about the London Marathon which was on Sunday and about the celebrities than ran the race. They commented how one of them was the fastest celebrity coming in at 3 hours 15 minutes. They said he was an experienced runner, which he’s have to be to finish in that time! They commented on how another celebrity finished at a “pedestrian” 5 hours 41 minutes and how another “plodded home” in 6 hours 13 minutes.

I’m sorry but these people just ran 26 MILES! Does it actually matter how long it took them? I’m not a fast runner. I run 11 mile miles. Yes, I’m that slow. And even though I would really love to be running 9 minute miles, I’m just happy to be still running. If I really, really pushed myself I could run for a full 40 minutes without walking. If I have to run slow to do that then so be it. When I was younger, I couldn’t run at all. With me being overweight and unfit, I gave up so quickly and hated PE lessons with a passion. It was the only lesson where I would actually argue with the teacher and not care about the consequences. For me, being able to run at all is fantastic and I’ll get to those 9 minute miles when I do, if I ever do.

I guess what I’m saying is that you should be proud of yourself no matter how long it takes you. Running is very focused on finishing in a good time. I ran my first 5K race in just over 31 minutes but the last finisher was closer to 40 minutes. To me, as long as you run the whole way then you’re doing it right. I have this thing about it not being a proper run if I take a walking break but if you need one then take it! There’s no good killing yourself. You know your own limits so don’t bypass them just because you feel you won’t be a real runner if you don’t do it “right”.

Posted in Daily Life, Running | 2 Comments

The Title of My Blog is Needed Today!

Posted on April 10, 2010 by Little Red

Ouch! My thighs are sore today. I forgot how much hard work running is! It felt great to be out there yesterday afternoon though but I didn’t do as well as I would have liked to.

Like I said yesterday morning, my aim was three miles but when I got to mile one, I knew that I would never make it another two miles. To be honest, I was struggling before I even got to mile one. At 1.33 miles, I had to stop and walk because my throat was killing me from breathing too heavily and I needed to just catch my breathe. I let myself walk for 2.5 minutes and then I ran the rest of the way stopping as soon as Run Keeper announced I was at two miles.

I’m a bit disappointed in myself really. Considering I had managed to get myself up to four miles only a few months ago and now I’ve halved it. I do realise that even though I have been exercising, running uses muscles I haven’t been using for the last month. There are two factors that probably made me not perform at my best too. The first being that I ate breakfast at 9.30AM and didn’t go out running until 12.40PM. As I left the house, I had the shakes because I was getting hungry – NOT the best timing to be running. The reason it took me so long to go out was because I was waiting for Alex to get up and ready so he could watch the kids while I went out. He stayed the night and hadn’t had a good night at all. He suffers with airborne allergies – dust mites, hay fever, cat and dog hair, both of which I have – and he hadn’t been taking his antihistamines for about a week and a half and so his asthma was really bad. He had a horrible cough and was up quite a lot with it through the night so I wasn’t about to storm up there and tell him to get out of bed so I could go running. I didn’t want to snack though as I didn’t know when he was getting up and didn’t want to have to wait any longer to let my food go down if he did decide to get up. The second factor was that I definitely wasn’t hydrated enough. I realised just before I left that I hadn’t drank any water all morning so I had a couple of mouthfuls of water and then left. Pretty much most of the day then I had a dehydrated headache. This was my own fault and I know it can affect my performance so it won’t happen again.

Run Keeper is fantastic. It really helped me keep on track to mile two and it was great just being able to run wherever I wanted rather than having to track where I’m going before hand so that I know how far I’m going. The audio cues every mile are great and will help me more once I start to do longer runs – I’m hoping to be able to run ten miles by the end of the year. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who has an iPhone.

The weather yesterday was lovely. I actually went out there in just a tank top which is amazing considering I haven’t done that since September. It felt great not to be freezing for the five minutes of being outside. When I got home, I went straight out into the back garden with a pint of water and my protein bar to cool down a bit. Its a lovely day today too but I don’t have the time to run today so I’m going out tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it and I will get that three miles by this time next week!

Posted in Running | Leave a comment

Can We Do That Again!?

Posted on February 7, 2010 by Little Red

I loved the race this morning. Absolutely loved it. We arrived at the park at 10.45am and my parents stayed in the car while my sister came with me to register. I was actually surprised how many people were running considering it said that it never fills up and then I started to get nervous! I got my number and went back to the car to sit there for ten minutes before it was time for me to get ready. When I got my number I realised that I was actually going to run a race. There were a lot of people there who were long time runners. The ones with those runners legs that I crave for! It was a really friendly race too, not intimidating at all and thankfully even though it was cold, it wasn’t freezing like it has been for the past month. My sister came with me for a brisk walk around the park to warm-up and there were several people running past me. I don’t know how anyone can warm up before a race with a run!

5K February 2010

The race started at 11.30am and since I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing, when I saw everyone making their way to the starting line, I just followed behind. I started towards the back because I knew I would be one of the slower ones but I passed a good number of people within the first 3-4 minutes. The first two laps were pretty easy but I started to struggle on the final lap. I had my dad taking photos of me on each lap so you can probably see my struggles as I got further and further into it!

5K February 2010

I had quite a few people passing me who were a lap in front of me but I knew this would happen. It didn’t put me off, it just made me want to keep going! The winner of the race ran it in just over 16 minutes which I think is crazy! I could never imagine being able to run that fast.

Half way through the final lap I picked my speed up a little bit to create a smaller gap between me and the group in front of me. I had to slow down again but I sprinted through the finish line and had my time told to me as I ran through. I couldn’t actually believe it when she told me the time.

5K February 2010

31.48 minutes!

On Friday when I ran 5K it took me over thirty-five minutes and to cut four minutes off my time is just fantastic! I was definitely in a more positive mood today though and the atmosphere definitely kept me running. I’m so pleased with my time. Before I started training for this race, I really wanted to do it in under thirty minutes but it became clear that I wasn’t going to do that and this time has definitely made me happy. This time put me at 114th place out of 125 people. Considering I thought I only had four other people behind me, I think I did rather well!

Here’s to my next race which will hopefully be a month today at the same place. All the effort  I put in each week is worth the end result of running a race.

5K February 2010

Posted in Races | 1 Comment

Race Day Nerves?

Posted on February 6, 2010 by Little Red

Race day is upon me and I’m not nervous at all really. I’m slightly worried about my pace since my run on Friday was really terrible and I was quite slow. I was having a bad day and throwing negative thoughts at myself for the first 3K and when I finally turned my thoughts around, my pace picked back up again to what it normally is and I managed to finish the full 5K.

The race I’m running isn’t really a huge event which is why I’m not too nervous about it. Its just going to be like running through the park which is always will be a nice change from all the roads and streets I run on every week. The race starts at 11.30AM but I’m getting there for around 10.30AM to register and get myself warmed up. I have my parents and my little sister coming along with me to be some support. Alex and Meghan wanted to come with me but there won’t be enough room in the car so they can come along to my next one, whenever that will be.

I’ll blog tomorrow afternoon and let you know how I got on!

Posted in Races, Running | Leave a comment