If you go down to the woods today

Yes you'll be sure of a big surprise alright.  Especially for two of the four of us who took a nosedive in the muddy conditions.  Mud is exceptionally soft and supportive of the knees I find.  Especially when you get up close and personal with it.  Any further forward and I'd have had a mudpack. It was a beautiful running route though and wonderful company of my three running friends.  Afterwards a slap up feast of cakes and tea courtesy of S.  So kind, S! I was in very high spirits till I checked my phone expecting a taxi request from the errant son, only to find I had missed my appointment with Mick the Marmaliser.  I was so mad with myself it nearly put me off my pecan pastry.  But not quite. Rescheduled for next Wednesday now so he will probably wrap my legs round my neck in a knot as punishment.  Sports massages are not for the faint hearted.

Monday's long run went better than last week.  17 miles consisting of a loop and a half with a bit of there and back in the middle when I met up with F for a 3 mile run in the next village.  I was trying a new fueling strategy which I'd read about.  ie take a Shot Blok after 30 mins and then every 30 mins after.  Plus I decided to drink twice as much fluid ie 1 bottle of Powerade and 1 bottle of water.  I definitely felt a little more settled and didn't have the slightly sick/ lightheaded feeling I sometimes get.  It's still bloomin' hard towards the end though and I had the additional horror of having to run past my house in order to finish the last mile.  The temptation to just go in was almost overwhelming.  Through the last half mile I actually ended up talking to myself to urge myself on.  This is how it starts I suppose. Next thing I'll be a muttering catlady at the bus stop.

Last night I entered uncharted waters - the double day run.  Yes despite doing 5 and a half miles in the woods I decided to run with the club too.  Let me explain my thinking.  I needed to do two more runs this week and yet Sat/Sun are out due to the much better reason of seeing my lovely girl. Plus I really like to run with the club.  I didn't feel too bad and the planned run was local so I knew that if I started off with them and soon realised that it wasn't a good idea I could cut it short.  Running in the dark is not my favourite I have to say.  Anyway everything felt good so I only cut the last bit.  Resting up today though, don't want to jeopardise anything.

Front crawl, back crawl, Croxby Crawl

How I love to swim and even more so now my poor legs are being subjected to so much mileage.  It is definitely the closest thing to flying for me. Gliding through the water is bliss.  However back stroke is proving a bit of a problem at the moment due to this nose gubbins I've still got going on after all that illness at Christmas.  One drop of water down the back of the nose and I'm rearing up like a squid-on-fire.  That gets the lifeguards going I can tell you. Went to see the doc about it and also to get this medical certificate signed.  To race in France you need a special form signed and stamped by a doctor - no form, no race it's as simple as that.  If you think I'm going to do all this training only to get to Paris and be turned away.... Anyway fortunately all is well and I've also got this spray to use so fingers crossed I might see the back of it at last.

On Saturday with the club we did the Croxby Crawl.  I have mentioned this before but basically it is 4.4 miles of hilly hell. As one person pointed out 'It never gets any easier'.  Too right.  Anyway it was a lovely day, cold but sunny.  I ran it all and didn't walk any of the hills though the temptation was high.

And so on to yesterday. The long run.  16 miles was required but it's best not to think about that when you set off.  It goes something like this.  First 3-4 miles ... oh this is ok... what a nice day ... morning! morning!...(leaping like a gazelle)... next 4 miles ... hmmmm think I'll have a jelly baby at mile 6 ... glug ...hello!... looking around at the scenery... is my leg playing up again? ... (scampering like a curious terrier) ... next 4 miles ... stop thinking about the leg ... stop and have a stretch ... glug gluggetty glug ... hi! ... scoff a few jelly babies ... (trotting like someone trying to catch a bus but not wanting anyone to see them running) ... next 2 miles ... silence ... grimacing face ... extend hand occasionally to thank cars for giving me a wide berth ... (autopilot-type commando yomping mode) ... next mile ... maybe I'll cut it a bit short today ... don't you dare! ... feeble grin at passer-by ... glug ... silent screams of agony ... final mile ... barking 'come on! come on!' at yourself while no-one is around ... glance at the watch every 0.1 of a mile... try not to trip over your own feet ... will yourself to get there ... 16 miles! Hooray! Drop at the side of the road and lie there like a dead badger in the kerb.    Oh it's just like reading Mo Farah's biography isn't it?

All in all feeling pretty good.  Thank heaven for compression tights, no aches and pain today unbelievably.

Keep right on to the end of the road...

Oh the horror of the long slow run.  It has to be done.  There's no getting out of it and there's no arguing with it.  15 miles today.  I have to admit I really didn't want to go out.  It's hard enough to clock up the miles but when the wind is blasting away it is so much harder.  Actually it was very sunny and still to start with and it was quite pleasant to be trotting along in the fresh air.  I'd decided to do a circuit from our village to the next via another small town.  Plenty of folks walking dogs and everyone was very sociable.  I'd decided to wear my Stroke Association http://www.justgiving.com/Katy-Hewis vest in the hope that people might cut me a bit of slack by realising I was doing this for a reason. Not sure it worked!

However, it did help me to keep remembering why I'm doing this.  Especially during the times when it gets really tough and I had to do a Mister T on myself - "Cut yo' jibber-jabber.  Don't you think any one of those folks suffering a stroke wouldn't swap places with you in a heartbeat?  Get on with it!"

The hip thingy is still there. And yes it did make a reappearance on the Saturday run.  In fact it was so painful at one point I was beginning to wonder if I was going to have to take it seriously.  Next thing I knew it had disappeared completely.  How weird! And then after the run we all stuffed ourselves with sausage buns and cake.  That helped immensely.  Although I did feel a complete gut afterwards.  There's got to be some perks to this running lark.

So I had to do 15 miles today in order to be on track for this 20 mile race on 9 March.  Not that I will be racing it you understand but it's still 20 miles whichever way you look at it! Unbelievable. 

http://www.deviantart.com/art/Tired-Runner-177729096