About an hour ago I remembered to look on the photographers website who took photos of the 10K I did and there were the photos all over again of me running like no one else in the whole of the race. My legs just don’t seem to part! I just sort of wobble along the road. I thought I’d sorted it out a bit since then. I felt like I’d straightened out my stride but obviously I haven’t. Right now I don’t know what to do because I just feel self conscious all over again. I obviously can’t stop running but I need to try and do something about this otherwise I’m going to spend the whole of the half marathon more concerned about how I look and not on finishing the race.

If anyone has any tips or suggestions then please comment. I’m feeling pretty miserable about the whole thing now.

Meghan and me before the race

I was nervous as hell. I only ate half my breakfast because I was that nervous and as luck would have it, as soon as I got myself all lined up with the other runners, my stomach started to rumble. I just ignored it and got on with the race, still nervous but also excited.

The happy runner!

It was hot out. I’m not sure of the exact temperature but the sun was shining and I got hot very quickly. I was wishing I had water but knew there would be a water station at the 5K mark so that kept me going. My aim like I said yesterday was to run the whole way without walking and I was keeping it up until I got to just after 7K when I hit a motorway bridge. I was determined to run up it and it was a big mistake. My ankle gave way at some point and my legs were just jelly after ploughing my way up the hill. I think I carried on running for a while longer but when I got to the next bridge about half a kilometer away, I stopped and walked all the way up and only started running again when the incline reversed. I walked one more time, again up a motorway bridge and then ran the rest.

The friend I made in the last 400m

A smile before the sprint to the end

I finished the race in 67:38 minutes. It’s disappointing but considering all the factors – heat, inclines and my ankle – I’m happy. I made myself take the first mile slowly and when RunKeeper told me I was running at 10:16 min per mile I knew that was just too slow but I couldn’t pick my time up at all after that.  My splits got slower and slower, one of them being over 12 minutes but I finished.

I’m running this again next year. With more preperation and I’m hoping to knock five minutes off my time if not more. This race has done the job and made me more focused on running. It’s proved to me that if you are not prepared then you will really struggle. I can’t keep slacking off with this half marathon because today I struggled at 6 miles. 13 miles will kill me if I don’t work hard at it.

My goodies - a bath towel and flowers

]]> http://www.runlittleredrun.com/2010/08/22/birchwood-10k/feed/ 1 http://www.runlittleredrun.com/2010/08/21/racing-into-the-unknown/ http://www.runlittleredrun.com/2010/08/21/racing-into-the-unknown/#comments Sat, 21 Aug 2010 21:31:55 +0000 Katy http://www.runlittleredrun.com/?p=235 Continue reading →]]> Well not quite. I have ran 7 miles (once) but I’m so, so unprepared for this race tomorrow. I’m running the Birchwood 10K at 10.30AM tomorrow morning and my last long race was under 6 miles with lots of walking. I have tried to eat well today to prepare myself but I have definitely done really rubbish since this evening as my evening snacking attacked again. I have eaten a carb high dinner though and I’m eating a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast so I’m hoping that’s enough to keep me going for the whole race. I’m also going to make sure I’m properly hydrated and not drink anything at all half an hour before I run so hopefully I avoid the dreaded stitch. There is a water station at 5K that I will take advantage of and I have a coconut water waiting for me at the end. I’ve been saving it for a long run and since I haven’t done one yet, this is a good opportunity to use it.

My aim is to finish and run the whole way. I would like to keep at a 9.50min per mile pace throughout. That’s about my average pace. If I’m doing well by mile three then I’ll try and boost the final three miles to just over 9.30min per mile and finish at a round 60 minutes. I have my Dad, Alex and Meghan at the finishing line.

I’ll let you know tomorrow evening how it went and I should have photos as my Dad is bringing his camera.

I have this reoccurring complaint that drives me insane and effects probably 75% of my runs. A side stitch. It usually happens I do something slightly different in preparation for a run – running too soon after eating, eating something different, being tired. You’ve probably heard this all before. I’m probably repeating myself. The first time my foot hit the floor this morning, I had a stitch. Instantly. It’s like it was waiting for me to get going and then went “HA! GOT YOU!”

It didn’t go away. It followed me through to mile 1 and then mile 2 and by mile 3 I was so fed up of stopping to walk that I just gave in altogether and decided to just walk the route home even though it wasn’t going to be seven miles. But then I got annoyed. My water bottle was annoying me. My headphones were annoying me. I didn’t want that song on but I couldn’t change it because it would affect my RunKeeper. I felt weighed down. I just wanted to run!

So I did. I threw my water bottle to the side of the road (sorry planet, I recycle everything else) and took my headphones out of my ears and wrapped them around my hand and I just ran. All I could hear was my breathing, the sound of my feet on the road and the birds singing. My stitch was forgotten and didn’t reappear throughout the rest of the run. I ran just over two miles like this and it was definitely one of my better runs. Overall I ran 5.68 miles which considering how awful the run was, I’m happy with.

From now on, I’m going to be a non-headphone wearing runner. I’m also going to try my best not to take water on a run. Just get myself hydrated enough before I head out there so I don’t have to carry a water bottle around with me. If that doesn’t work then I’ll look into getting some form of running belt or maybe a Camelbak. If I didn’t love RunKeeper as much as I do, I would even run without having that on my arm but I do need it for tracking my distance.

My next run will be in a different town as I’m going to my friend’s house from Tuesday until Friday and I’m looking forward to a change of scenery.

I found myself a couple of nights ago looking at other half marathon’s I could participate in. I was thinking of the Great North Run but as I imagined, entry been closed for weeks so there’s no chance of me doing that. I did a little more hunting around and found the Yorkshireman Marathon and Half Marathon. This got me rather excited because of the fact that you run through Haworth. I love Haworth. I grew up going there almost every year and for any literture loving woman (and maybe man!) you’ll know that the Bronte sister’s lived in Haworth. This half marathon is actually more than a half as its 14.8 miles and it’s also in five weeks. I really wanted to do it this year. I probably would have ran as far as I could and then walked the rest. I wouldn’t have done it as a race, I would have just done it for the enjoyment of running through the moors! You also need a full pack with a compass, whistle and supplies since the track isn’t marked out fully and there’s a good chance of getting lost. The race itself isn’t too expensive to run but I’d have to pay for a B&B the night before and also buy all my kit supplies so it would work out quite an expensive day. I’m definitely going to do it next year and I might even do the full marathon.

I’ve not just been looking at running races either. I’ve also been researching cycling races. I have wanted a road bike for a while now but they are so expensive. Most races can be done on a mountain bike though so I can still participate in one. The one that has caught my eye is the Manchester 100K which is a ride through Cheshire starting at Manchester and back again. This is something Alex could do with me too since he loves riding his bike and it would definitely make a change training for a cycle race instead of a running race. I do love running but sometimes I wish I could change things up a little.

I have years and years to do these races. I think I need to remember that. Just because I want to run/cycle it RIGHT NOW that doesn’t mean I have to. Training takes time and I can only do so much at once.

There is one thing I have decided though – I really want to run my way around the world. By that I mean I want to run marathons and/or half marathons in different cities all over the world. We could plan family holiday’s around races and see the world while we’re at it!

]]> http://www.runlittleredrun.com/2010/08/05/ambition-or-just-plain-crazy/feed/ 0 http://www.runlittleredrun.com/2010/08/05/slowing-down-and-going-backwards/ http://www.runlittleredrun.com/2010/08/05/slowing-down-and-going-backwards/#comments Thu, 05 Aug 2010 16:22:23 +0000 Katy http://www.runlittleredrun.com/?p=225 Continue reading →]]> Today’s run was supposed to be a 50 minute tempo run but once again I struggled. This time it wasn’t a stitch – I ate breakfast at 10AM after a lie in and ran just after 12PM – it was just me. When I first started out on my run I knew it wasn’t going to be a good one. My legs felt very heavy and not like they were up for a 5 mile run at all. With it being a tempo run I decided I would run the first five minutes slow (around 10 minute mile) and then the next five minutes fast (around 9.15 minute mile) and repeat until the end. I don’t even think I ran the second five minute the whole way at that speed. My throat was hurting, I was too hot (no more long sleeved t-shirts for me!) and my legs weren’t cooperating at all. I ended up walking for about 1 minute and then starting again. I didn’t even get to 20 minutes today. I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind and I just wanted to go home. Not even my new playlist did it for me.

I really think me running at 12PM has a big factor on it today. I left the house after getting slightly stressed out with Meghan over her not wanting to get dressed and also left knowing that I was going back to a big pile of dishes. I actually came home to find the dishes had been done for me but I went out the door not in the best of moods at all. Morning running is the only time I run best and I do my very best on my before 7AM runs.

Tomorrow’s run is only 5K which I can do in just under 30 minutes and although this won’t be a morning run as I won’t be able to get out of the house on my own until at least 4.30PM, my mind is focused on this one. I have been trying to do this 5K Friday thing for four weeks now and it’s about time I just did it! Saturday I have a 60 minute run and I will most definitely be out of the door before 6.30AM to run this. I will probably hate myself later on in the day as I have a big night out on Saturday night and probably won’t be home until 2AM but I might try to sneak in a nap early Saturday afternoon. I’m not the most morning person but I am definitely a morning runner. I’m just going to have to get out there early as often as I possibly can. Once Alex is back at home with us then that won’t be a problem but we have no idea when that will be.

I think the lesson I learnt from that is that I need to leave it AT LEAST an hour before I run after eating. That’s only for things like toast and fruit but if I eat oatmeal then it needs to be at least two hours otherwise its just too heavy on my stomach. I guess these are the things you need to go through in your training so you are fully prepared on the day of the race.

The reason for my blog title is that around 18 minutes in I found myself really struggling – the stitch was driving me mad and I was hot and tired and wet (it was raining) and I was doing everything in my power to keep my brain focused so I wasn’t stop. When I run, I don’t have a specific playlist that I use. I just tend to pick a band I want to listen to and shuffle all of their songs. Sometimes it works but to be honest, most of the time I spend the run not even listening to the music. At 18 minutes today a song came on that has a lot of meaning to me and Alex and it seriously picked me up off my feet and brought me back to where I needed to be in my run. It definitely got me running that extra 11 minutes I ran. Its got me thinking that I really need to make a proper playlist of music that will keep me positive throughout the whole run, especially on the half marathon day.

I’m a rock and metal chick at heart but I do like a little bit of hip hop and pop; do any of you have any recommendations?

Like I said, I’m sort of starting over with my running plan. I’m currently using the Bupa Half Marathon training plan and its really done me well. Since I had around 22 weeks to train when I first started training, I doubled quite a lot of the weeks. I’ve missed quite a few weeks now because of one reason or another so I decided to pretty much start again. I have nine week now until my half marathon so I’m starting from week four on their plan and I’ve made a few changes.

Friday’s are supposed to be speed training but I’ve replaced with Weight In Vain’s 5K Fridays. With the distances I’m running now, 5K is a pretty easy run but I plan on making it my fastest run of the week. My plan is to run it as fast as I can (without burning out immediately) and get my time down to around 28 minutes over the weeks. My last 5K was ran at 29.42 minutes which was in June. I’ve also made an adjustment to the long run on week four. Week three is supposed to be 8 miles but I have my 10K race so instead of doing a 60 minute run on week four, I’m doing an 8 mile since I didn’t do it the previous week. I’m really looking forward to starting this over. This half marathon will be here before I know it!

I asked Meghan what she wanted to make and she said muffins so I went on a hunt for a muffin recipe that was a little healthier than my usual batches and also included ingredients I actually had in the house. I found these Banana Blueberry muffin’s at Dragon’s Kitchen and decided these were a good starting point. I’m always trying to use as little sugar as possible in recipes because I like to control my sugar in take so I redduced the sugar down even more to only 1/3 cup.  I never thought of using bananas in the batter but it worked and they are definitely sweet enough. I did want to make some muffin’s with oats in so I decided to change a cup of the flour for a cup of oats. I do think they could do with more oats but that’s because I love oats and more is definitely better. Anyway, here’s the adapted recipe. If you make them let me know what you think! They work well for breakfast and a snack.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cup plain flour
1 cup oats
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 small ripe bananas, mashed
2 eggs
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup blueberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line or grease a muffin tin.
2. Combine flour, oats, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl. Beat together bananas, eggs, brown sugar, butter, lemon juice and vanilla in a seperate bowl until combined together.
3. Stir dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until mixed together well. Stir in blueberries until just combined and spoon batter into prepared muffin tray until 3/4 full.
4. Bake for 20 minutes until golden. Makes around 11.

Oh, and the nutritional information if you’re interested!

Calories     217.8
Total Fat     9.8 g
Saturated Fat     3.3 g
Sodium     219.7 mg
Total Carbohydrate     35.2 g
Dietary Fiber     2.8 g
Sugars     11.9 g
Protein     3.8 g

]]> http://www.runlittleredrun.com/2010/07/30/recipe-banana-blueberry-oatmeal-muffins/feed/ 1 http://www.runlittleredrun.com/2010/07/20/what-a-difference-a-week-can-make/ http://www.runlittleredrun.com/2010/07/20/what-a-difference-a-week-can-make/#comments Tue, 20 Jul 2010 09:53:30 +0000 Katy http://www.runlittleredrun.com/?p=209 Continue reading →]]> 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.