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Flummoxed by Fauna

by Sarah J.

Firstly, ‘flummoxed’ is an excellent word.

I am fortunate enough to live a stone’s throw from the countryside, and I decided today instead of always following the road routes that usually tie-in with bits I’ve done with Run England or join onto driven bits, I’d try mapping a route over the fields and go for more of a trail route and hopefully find a new short-ish multi-terrain route to train over without having to drive somewhere. Seems a bit of a waste of fuel driving somewhere when you’ve got fields and woods visible from the house and yet I never go there!

I had a look on the Ordnance Survey website – check out all these lovely paths to choose from over the fields!

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I picked a nice circular route, which when I put it on MapMyRun (which doesn’t show the paths on the maps but you can see them in aerial view) was a nice 3 miles from start to finish and had plenty of options for extending it in the future if I wanted to.

I was feeling all prepped for the slightly muggy day – I’d printed my maps out just incase I got a lost in the maze of tiny paths – there’s a few parallel ones etc. (not that it would have really mattered – I was never going to be hugely far from home). My parents got me a breathable fancy waterproof jacket for my birthday which I hadn’t really had opportunity to wear yet, so with risk of showers and not wanting to risk a cold I thought I’d wear that and a hat 🙂 All set and ready to go! Or so we thought…

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Washington Bottoms Up Cup 2016

by Sarah J.

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I was originally down to do the Durham Coastal Half Marathon today, and looking at the photos I am definitely going to be doing this next year as it looks right up my street. This year however I decided I was not fit enough right now to be trying to do a tough terrain half marathon (320 steps and no flat bits!) right now and entered myself in for the Bottoms Up Cup at Washington, which I did in its inaugural year last year and quite enjoyed. It’s a club-run organised by Washington RC, and was well attended this year, with I think 80-ish runners present.

It’s been cold in the mornings all week, and often foggy, so of course today while it started off cloudy it burned off before the race start to a ridiculously sunny day in much the same way it did for the Washington Trail 10k a few weeks ago. I was a little more prepared this morning having actually bothered to check the weather forecast before getting dressed, and determining very rapidly that shorts would be a sensible idea even if I needed a jumper in the morning before the race start.

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I woke up rather earlier than I would have liked this morning dreaming of Dun Niffelem and ice giants (don’t ask) so had my tired head on when I set off with as many trainers in the car as J normally takes when she’s racing! I was wearing my Cascadia trail shoes, having removed all the bits of grit and sand which were stuck in the holes in the insoles and I found last time I wore them for a run with J last week after they gave me a blister from bits of rock rubbing against my feet! I hadn’t completely committed to wearing them so also threw in my other road-running shoes, and a pair of shoes for afterwards. As it happens, I did wear them and they were fine 🙂 Checking my insoles has become a regular part of my pre-run prep…particularly if I’m going more than 10k – I’m always checking for balls of cat hair, cotton buds (presents from said cat) and build-ups of grit and sand which you don’t notice when you first put them on but boy do they start to rub after a mile or two! I don’t normally actually have to check IN the insole though – these were embedded in the little drilled through holes.

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Pondering Wandering

by Sarah J.

I took all my kit with me this morning so that I could go to the gym after work as P’s on dayshift and finishes several hours after me, and the gym always seems to be quieter and therefore cooler on a Friday as most people don’t seem to start their weekend with a workout! I got to the end of the workday and decided I couldn’t be bothered as I will be running both days this weekend, and I would go for a nice gentle walk along the river and kill some time before I had to pick P up. Many things occurred to me on my wander, and I will share a few of them here.

When J and I went to Hadrian’s wall on Monday, I noticed one of the walkers wearing exercise capris, which is probably a very comfortable option but one that never occurs to me. My running has snuck into many aspects of my life, but wearing running bottoms for anything other than exercise sessions just doesn’t fit in my brain for some reason. I took some of my running t-shirts with me to Ireland when I went on a hiking holiday with S hoping they’d help keep me cool, but I took light weight hiking trousers with roll-ups or zip-offs to keep my legs cool. They’re also what I default to for general day-to-day wear if it’s too warm for jeans or I’m feeling too ‘loungy’ for jeans. I see people walking in what I think of as ‘running trousers/capris’ and trainers all the time, but I’ve just never done it myself – I always have hiking boots and loose trousers. Today, I ventured out in my capris…I wasn’t going to wear my heavy-duty work trousers with their weight-laden pockets and steelie boots!

I left the car, started walking off thinking it was nice and cool, then ended up going back to the car to get a jacket – while it probably still would have been just a touch on the warm side for running, it was going to be cool for walking. Dressing for walking requires conscious thought now evidently! I had my GPS watch on, a hand-grip bottle from a race, my retired running trainers which I use for general wear and gym stuff, my bracelet with mini pouch with change incase I wanted to pop into the Boathouse for a lemonade…pretty much the same stuff I wear when out for a run.

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Washington Trail 10k 2016

by Sarah J.

I must admit 2016 is not sticking in my mind as being the best for races, but it must also be said that none of it has been down to the races and their organisers themselves! With the exception of the Cragside 10k, not a single one this year has gone to plan for me!

The plan for the Washington Trail, which J and I did last year so I did have some inclining as to what the route and terrain was going to be like, was the same as for Cragside – slow and steady and pootle round going steady regardless of terrain. The WT10k is a moderately hilly course. The problem with this came with the weather – a foggy morning which burnt off around about start time to give 20 degrees of baking sunshine. Heat. I hate heat. I hate doing anything in the heat. You could seriously bake a full English breakfast on my face after about a mile of trying to run in the summer. Ok, I may be exaggerating very slightly. Only slightly though. Point is, me + running + summer do not get along!

J may or may not have noticed, when we were prepping for the GNR last September, I didn’t really do many sociable runs leading up to and pretty much kept to myself. I didn’t go into it at the time but I was really struggling – 5k was a fight which was incredibly demoralising for someone who a few months before was getting comfortable with doing 10M on a weekend. I really worried about getting round. This summer, I’m a bit more prepared in knowing what to expect – I found it a lot harder going out in the summer, but actually was matching my previous Spring pace (even if it didn’t feel like it), and it meant I reaped the benefits when the temperature dropped again. Just gotta get through it to autumn again! A slightly sad countdown when it’s only May and summer’s just beginning…

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GO TRI

by Sarah J.

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I like to occasionally try new sporting activities, but I also like to try them in ‘taster mode’ so I don’t have to spend a fortune on kit or dedicate three months of my life to a different type of training in order to finish it – this is why I’ve never done more than a 5k mud/obstacle/paint run – 5k is enough for me to experience them without the full on tiring slog or insane amount of ingested paint of the bigger 10k and even 10 mile events, and I can decide what I think of them without risking ending up passing out in a heap too badly by the end of the day. It’s also cheaper doing the smaller ones than forking out for a 50 gazillion obstacle race and finding out by obstacle 10 that it’s not your cup of tea and you’ve got another 3 hours to go but you can’t pull out because you sold three kidneys to get in. And hey, if you do like it, you can escalate from the tiny tapas plate to the full whack next time!

When I saw that one of the local triathlon groups (Castle Tri in Prudhoe) was doing a beginner triathlon at the town where I used to live, I saw an opportunity: I would get to try doing a triathlon without actually doing anything that would result in me drowning in a lake, ending up in a ditch across a mountain side with my wheels in the air, or falling flat on my face in a field with a broken ankle (well, less chance of this than usual!). So, knowing nothing more about triathlons than that swimming, cycling and running were involved, N and I booked onto it, and then promptly forgot about it for the next however many months as something to be thought about once I’d got Kielder out the way.

As the event got closer, I started getting a bit apprehensive; I’d been in a pool once in the last few years, and had been more tired than I’d cared to admit after what I rather wish was a longer number of lengths; I am a haphazard flat-route cyclist at best; and I had no idea how triathlons worked. Do you really go straight from the pool/lake/sea to your bike and just throw your trainers on and go?! (YES) Even if you’re doing like a million mile cycle ride and the wind is blowing a gale?! (YES) Doesn’t everyone get pneumonia and turn into icepeople?! (MAYBE?!) What am I supposed to do about my lady-holsters?! I’m not doing a run with just my swimsuit! Apparently one wears one’s necessities under one’s swimming garb and just has it soggy but hopefully supportive all day!

This was starting to look a bit bigger than a quick dip in the pool, a gentle cycle in the country and a pootle in the park. The mysterious ‘Transition’, the fourth event of the triathlon obviously needed more thinking than I had previously considered! I felt a bit better when the pre-race info came out; some more detail on the routes and a kit list, and some info on transition, backed up and elaborated on nearer the time by some helpful posts on the Running Ninjas facebook page by others who would also be attempting this feat!

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A Week Too Far

by Sarah J.

My marathon attempt at Kielder last week did not go quite according to plan due to my poor clothing choices in rather wet, windy and cold weather, but I genuinely felt as I made my way round the lake that I had it in me to finish. Even when I decided to pull out, it wasn’t because my legs couldn’t keep going.

I’ve spent three months ‘training’ for the marathon distance, and to be honest haven’t really enjoyed the latter half of it, so having determined that I probably wouldn’t be putting myself through it again anytime soon I decided I wanted to make one more try at the distance, and try going from Prudhoe to Newcastle Quayside and back – a flat route where realistically the distance was the only challenge.

The weather was once again rather soggy; drizzle forecast for the whole afternoon but fortunately not as wet and windy as Kielder had been.

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I’d decided to try something slightly different to what I normally do for this one – I normally get as far as I can in one go, then interval at no particular time or distance after that depending on legs and terrain. This time I decided I’d try for steady; intervals from the start of 5 mins jogging and 2 mins walking in the hope that as I got more miles in, my jog speed would be maintained rather than slowing down as it normally does.

My personal trainer and faithful companion J was braving the ikky weather to accompany me and time-keep and generally chatter me round, for which I was very grateful!

We set off steady enough, heading down to Wylam and past Newburn without incidence or really notice, which was good as last time I did the run past Wylam and towards Newburn on an 8 mile run 2-3 weeks ago, I had to really fight to get that far. We followed the Hadrian’s Wall walk from Newburn towards the Quayside, coming down through an industrial estate including a Warburton’s factory neither of us knew was there (I can at least be excused not being a local by birth, but J seemed most put out at not having known in advance all the things there were to know!).

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Dark Skies Kielder

by Sarah J.

Having seen all the photos from last year’s race, where the runners set off in blue skies and sunshine, and were treated to some fantastic night skies when the sun had set, it honestly never occurred to me when I booked this race that it might rain. Cue Storm Katie. Normally I don’t watch the weather forecast before, well, anything; looking out the window is good enough for me! The week preceding the race I was watching on a daily basis, praying it would improve – it actually got worse every time I checked it. This was the forecast the morning before race day:

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Looks like it might clear up for the majority of the run time (approx. 17:00-23:00), but it was basically mostly drizzle and light rain the entire time on the hourly forecast as the race got closer. Those wind figures never budged either <_< lovely; just the type of evening everyone looks forwards to!

P & I set off up to Kielder mid-afternoon (1 hr nap squeezed in!), my parents and midgets having kindly come to visit for the weekend and cheer me on were to follow a bit later for the offset. We picked up my race number and t-shirt – not everyone did; there were 42 who didn’t bother to turn up for registration – I can’t believe they all had personal circumstances come up at short notice so suspect the weather to have been the primary detractor!

It was drizzling when we set off, here we have some of my lovely family looking rather soggy at the start-line! (Yes guys, Hippie caught you too! There’s no escape!)

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To me, once we set off, it didn’t feel as wet as it looks in this picture – more of a misty drizzle and I was more concerned with how warm I was getting wearing a fully sealed waterproof top and hat, so I stashed my waterproof on my backpack elastics and put my gloves on – my hands at least were rather chilly! I’ve run in drizzle before, and stayed warm as long as I keep moving so I didn’t really think anything of it, but this is the start of the whole race going downhill for me (unlike the route which I swear managed to be uphill 90% of the time!).

I was feeling pretty calm and steady as we headed off to the Northern most tip of the reservoir; I didn’t get dragged along with the speedies and just concentrated on a steady jog off to “the hilly bits”. All was well.

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I only look slightly ridiculous with my hat under my headtorch and over my headphones!

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Run Nation – Cragside 10k

by Sarah J.

I know the detour around Rothbury is probably a massive pain to the locals, but personally I love heading up the A697 and hitting the open moors when the view just opens out and you can see the Cheviots and the heather – red and brown and somewhat stark at this time of year but it won’t be long before it’s glowing with purple and the yellow flowers are already coming out on the gorse bushes. Cragside seems oddly planted in comparison to its surroundings – there’s not a tree visible on the drive in until you drop into the valley.

Based on a couple of afternoon runs along Prudhoe riverside I was afraid I was going to have to break out the shorts with the weather warming up already, but it’s still been cold at night and in the mornings and this morning was no exception – still a little muggy and cool, but winter’s definitely easing its grasp. Not a day for shorts.

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I’ve not been having a good year for racing so far this year – I had to miss the Gibside Night Run due to illness and over-did it before the CTS at Bamburgh and didn’t enjoy it as much as I was anticipating (entirely self-inflicted!). I was really hoping I’d break that streak before Kielder, and didn’t really have any pre-conceptions for this one having not done it before. I’ve seen elevation profiles before and knew there’s a teeny weeny short hill about 2 miles long in the second half but that was about it really.

With Kielder only a week away, this was a taper-chill run, no ambitions for pace I just wanted to enjoy the setting and hopefully get my pace settled – something I’ve been struggling to find on my last couple of longer runs which has been a bit frustrating. This was also my first run of the year in my Bounders vest, and it was nice to spot a few familiar faces at the start and finish; I’ve been missing the social side of the running world while I’ve been doing my distance runs and hiding and it was good to feel part of something again.

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A Wander Week – Week 11

by Sarah J.

It’s now only 1.5 weeks until the marathon start line, and we are officially on the lowdown doing light exercise in an attempt to build up the steam reserves for race day; unlike week 10 where I was resting because I was ran said steam reserves to the dregs in week 9…

I was intending to have one week off, but this last week’s been pretty low key too, though I have actually had my trainers on a few times. After the race at Bamburgh, I decided to take a week off of no exercise at all – and it took until the following Saturday afternoon to be starting to feel more like myself, and the Monday week to be back in my own headspace again. I was very grumpy in my post-race week; short-tempered and much more sensitive to things I usually take more in stride and don’t let bother me so much. I had to make a real effort to bite my tongue and not say anything I might regret just because I was having a tired and grumpy few days! This must be what adulting is about…I don’t like it.

I’ve been like the supplement queen the last fortnight. I don’t think I’m in danger of becoming an addict. Iron supplements, multi-vitamin and protein shakes, and they get old really fast. The novelty of downing a water-based protein supplement every morning for breakfast for the first week lost its appeal pretty quick – I’ve gone back to just after exercise for the last week. I really think taking protein shakes after my long runs and gym sessions has been a contributor to me not having sore muscles the next day, even if I’ve been pushing my distances and doing so for consecutive weekends, but particularly when you’re making them with water so you can take them with you and leave them in the car, they’re no McDonald’s thick shake!

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I went out on Monday for a short run with Mr Speedy, who is getting very into running now! We only did the 2 mile loop again, and where we came close to my best pace on the previous try, we did beat it this time – by about 8 seconds a mile which I’m pretty happy with unsurprisingly! Unsurprisingly, we were both very out of puff by the end! C was starting to waver a bit by 1.6 mile but I yelled ahead at him to keep going – I’d told him if he was comfortable to just go on ahead and I would slog along behind. We did make it to 2 miles but he really didn’t have much left in the tank and I had to count down the last few 0.01 intervals until we hit the 2 mile. I don’t think I could have gone much further at that pace, but I will one day! Well on track for a sub-30 5k pace with that 🙂 I’ve spent so long mastering my 10-11 min/mile pace for distance as it’s very comfortable for my breathing, that I have to really push to sustain anything faster than 10min/miles for any length of time. I hope one day for this to become my comfort distance pace!

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Marathon Training – Week 9

by Sarah J.

I don’t really know what to write for this week to be honest, so I’m going to just ramble…may have my moaning minnie hat on a little bit!

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I’ve had a bit of a mixed bag of runs this week; I went out with one of the work peoples who wanted to try running (something about getting a “beach bod” before he goes to the US) on Tuesday, turns out he’s a bit quicker than me so I’m booking him in as my speed trainer on Mondays once I get this monster run out the way! If my base-level fitness hadn’t improved so much lately I don’t think I’d have maintained the pace over the 2 miles (and 2 miles at that pace was more and faster than I was intending after Sunday’s 20! I just wanted a leg-loosener!). It’s actually within 5 seconds of my fastest pace, which I think was set on a 5k around the village so pretty happy with that.. I enjoyed it but I think I’ll leave the speed training for a few weeks! Then I shall learn how to become a speed ninja…

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I’ve really missed just doing my ‘junk runs’ and just getting out when I feel like it to clear my head and pound the trails. I went out for one on Thursday on the hill route round Leadgate. I’ve only tried this twice before but it’s a nice little 4 mile loop local to me and I’ve enjoyed it before, so I was looking forward to heading out on this one. N came with me and we left at a pretty normal pace for me, but I wasn’t really feeling it – I actually felt slightly sick part-way round and had slowed riiiight down coming up the last hill (to be fair, it’s a pretty big hill). Being tired after four miles on anything but a cross-country course has been becoming pretty unusual for me as my fitness improves, and the warning alarms should really have been going off at this point. I took Friday off work with how long the week felt, and actually slept 3 hours Friday afternoon I was that tired.

For some reason I didn’t connect my need to sleep all hours and heavy legs while running with the fact I was doing a long run on Saturday, and just assumed I would pootle off as I normally do for the half marathon at Bamburgh Castle by Endurance Life. I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while, and was expecting to cope with it easily having run 4 runs longer than the half marathon distance (2 x 14M, 1 x 15.5M, 1 x 20M) and one only two miles short (11M) this year already. That’s in 9 weeks. I’ll just let that sink in a minute. For someone who hadn’t done much more than a 10k for 3 months before Christmas that’s huge, and for some reason I just decided I would be absolutely fine doing another one. Body says otherwise. This is the toughest race I’ve ever done – which considering it’s flattish and not an unfamiliar distance is not something I was expecting to say. Rather than repeat everything here, I’m going to direct you to my dedicated Bamburgh race report if you want to read all the minutiae. However long it took me to get there, and however hard I found it, I crossed that finish line and I’m taking that as a win.

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