2013: A truly great year in Running

******caution, long post alert perhaps make a cup of tea first******

I’ve been thinking of writing this post for some time now.  A review of my 2013 and the goals I set for the year.  Its 5:27 am, and although I had planned to go for a run this morning, I hadn’t planned on being up quite so early.  I’ll need to wait at least an hour for some light, so am getting on with writing this instead.

January

Inspired by the winners of the Asics 26.2 competition, and one in particular, @mia79gbr, I properly set a goal that had been in the back of my mind for some time, which was to qualify for the Boston Marathon and I started this blog.  2012 had not been a good year running wise for me, and my times were a long way off what is needed to predict a 3:35 marathon.  At the start of the year, my pbs were: (5k: 24:01, 10k: 52:50, Half: 1:59:03, Marathon: 4:33:57) and most of these were set in 2011 or 2010, so I was even further away from the apparent goal.  The times I need to get to are in this post: http://longroadtoboston2016.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/past-races-and-what-ive-learned.html

February

Last winter was a long cold winter with snow on the ground a lot.  Marathon training last winter was certainly character building, and I’m sure had I not had this goal to focus on, I wouldn’t have gone out to run so much.  What I remember now is that I was still rehabilitating an injury I had sustained in 2012, which was a torn calf muscle.  One of my first long runs shows the struggles I faced with my ankle seizing up after the run from compensatory muscle use: http://longroadtoboston2016.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/my-bodys-trying-to-tell-me-something.html

March

This month saw my first races of the year, and a check on whether the new training regime was working.  http://longroadtoboston2016.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/colchester-half-marathon-new-pb-and.html - Colchester Half marathon saw me a 3 minute pb, and a nasty blister.  What I can tell the difference from that race and now is how much better I recover after a hard effort.  I could barely walk after this one and certainly couldn’t jog, and had to be driven home, despite the finish only 1.5 miles from home.  I also did my first cross country race.  Typically cross country races are around 3-5 miles... this one was 15, and is generally known as one of the toughest cross country races there are, so while despondant about my position on the day, I probably should be proud that I managed to make the cut off and wasn’t the last runner: http://longroadtoboston2016.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/orion-15.html

April

Parkrun and a trip to France.  Many of my new found friends on the runner’s world forums had their target marathons in April – Paris, London and The Great Welsh.  They all did incredibly well with both @Malcbarbour and @mia79gbr achieving huge pbs.  Their success served to inspire me and I did my final 20 mile training run on the same day as the London  and Great Welsh marathons, but I was in the foothills of the Pyrenees staying with family, who lovingly planned a running route for me with some incredible views, and even joined me in the latter stages as a support crew: http://longroadtoboston2016.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/faux-training-camp.html  April was also the month we started parkrun in Colchester.  Something I’m very proud of and another source of friendships.

May

This was the month of my marathon, the Halstead and Essex marathon.  Some lessons learnt and a 15 minute pb.  It was nice to do a marathon that was local and not in the big city, and I certainly think the focus on local racing this year has helped with my achieving my goals: http://longroadtoboston2016.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/halstead-and-essex-marathon.html

June

I’d done road running, I’d done a tough cross country, so of course the next challenge was a bit of fell running... well true fell runners wouldn’t call this a fell race I’m sure, but to a humble essex girl, running up and down Latrigg fell in Keswick was pretty tough.  http://longroadtoboston2016.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/karrimor-great-trail-challenge-22km.html But it did give me a chance to visit the Lake District, which is my favourite spot on the planet!

July

In July I achieved 2 new 5k pbs on consecutive weekends at parkrun, and a 10k pb, but what stands out for me is meeting all those folk from the Runner’s World forums who had become great friends:  @mia79gbr, @malcbarbour, @Tiggeradcock and @clivekelty amongst others.  We met at TR24, an even in which I ran in near tropical sunshine, a thunderstorm and a boggy mess all in the space of 24 hours.  We’re signed up to do it again in 2014, and I truly hope it becomes a permanent feature of my race calendar as a chance to meet up with these fine people each and every year: http://longroadtoboston2016.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/tr24-great-weekend-with-amazing-people.html

August

In August, I did a 100 mile bikeride, which although a nice enough event, the training for it and the faff of doing the race made me pretty sure I’ll be best sticking to running (although I still can’t quiet that voice in my head suggesting I do an ironman).  I had a less regimented approach to run training, focussing on sessions specific to the 10k, and I did a few double workout days as well.  However, I think the runs along the Essex Way in the humid heat of this summer are what define my August.  Its an 82 mile route from Epping to Harwich, and I have run on just over half of it.

http://longroadtoboston2016.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/an-accidental-20-mile-run-kissing-gates.html

September

As I had to cancel my October marathon for family commitments, @mia79gbr took my place, September was my final month of road races.  The local race calendar turns to cross country after the autumn marathon season, and I turn to having a bit of a rest and some base building.    I did Bacchus Half this September and It really was a treat.  That and meeting Colin Jackson at the Ipswich half http://longroadtoboston2016.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/ipswich-half-marathon.html

October

This is the month I felt the lack of autumn marathon the most as my friends did their own.  @mia79gbr in Bournemouth, and @malcbarbour and @tinyrunner85 amongst others in York.  So of course I went on a marathon entering spree, and received one of those congratulations magazines:

http://longroadtoboston2016.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/marathon-withdrawal-madness.html

November

Whilst losing my running mojo a bit in November, what with the lack of daylight and stresses of the year, I did actually complete some pretty tough workouts in my long buildup to the Manchester marathon.  I’m quite proud of this one in which I did 2 mile repeats: http://longroadtoboston2016.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/quite-possibly-hardest-workout-i-ever.html

December

Well, its the end of the year and despite December being such a busy month what with Christmas, I have actually achieved my highest mileage month to date.  Garmin connect has me on 108 miles for December, and I’m currently sitting around waiting for daylight to take that upto 118, and putting me bang on 1000 miles for 2013 J At parkrun, I have met a group of runners called the Commando Runners, which is much more my type of running club, and pretty much involves lots of banter on facebook alongside runchat, which is great.  I look forward to connecting with them more in 2014.

And,  I’m giving back.  I’m a mentor for one of the Runner’s World forum threads for a lady hoping to achieve a sub 4:30 London marathon.

2013 has been a great year for my running achievements, as measured by my new pbs: (5k: 22:33, 10k: 48:05, Half: 1:50:20, Marathon: 4:18:42) but the best outcome has been the new friends I’ve made.  You know who you are and I love you!  Here’s to 2014 and beyond being even better than 2013.

Happy New Year

x

Everyone is stupid once in a while

So, I like to think of myself as fairly sensible when it comes to training.  Always erring on the side of caution if I fear illness or injury.  But, this cough that came in a few days when I'm so close to my 1000 miles in 2013 goal is just plain inconvenient.  Plus, surely my flu vaccination would see it off before it interfered with my training.

On the day I started to feel a bit sick, I decided that an easy 3 miles wouldn't hurt.  And they didn't I did them and all was fine.  The next day, I went to the gym and did a couple of miles on the treadmill before  resistance training - this illness wasn't going to take hold!  The next day I felt like staying in bed all day, and pretty much did that, although with a blanket in front of the tv.  I missed choir practise for the concert the next day in hope that it would save my voice, but I felt pretty bad on Saturday too, and singing in the concert meant a very very sore throat.  On Sunday, I'd had enough.  any hint of fever had gone, so I got on my trainers and went for a run, an easy 6 miles.  I told myself that the fact I had to stop every 1.5 miles to walk to catch my breath wasn't a problem, and it was just because  it had been so long (2 days) since I last run!  I got through the 6 miles, in reasonable time, then got home and shut down for a bit... due to not feeling well I hadn't eaten all that much in the last few days, so cue a bout of RUNger.

Now, a sensible person would have written off the 8 mile run for maybe an easy 3 or 4, to give myself some extra time to recover.  But I really wanted to fit this session in called the magic mile.  It's from Jeff Galloway's book Boston Marathon: How to Qualify! , and involves running a mile as fast as you can after a warm up.  This should serve to predict the best marathon pace you can hope for.  I had a quick re-read of the instructions before I set off and noted the part where he says the magic mile should not be run with an injury, well it didn't say not to run it if you have had a cough for days and have asthma... I set off on my merry way.. The plan was a 2 mile warm up, do the magic mile, then make up the other 5 miles.  I should have modified this plan when I had to stop to walk through the warm up.  But then I often need to modify pace during the warm up as my body gets used to running instead of sitting around.  I did a large part of this warm up walking, stopping to do dynamic stretches from time to time (didn't want to risk injury after all).

Since I'm aiming for an 8:30 marathon pace, my magic mile pace should be around 6:32.  I set off as fast as I could, just going for it and not looking at the garmin.  by the time I was really tired, I looked down... I'd only done 0.22 of the mile and I was going at 6:48 pace... That was a bit demoralising.  I dug deep and told myself my body was just getting used to the faster pace, and would adjust soon.  I pushed harder, and the next time I looked at the watch I was at 6:38 and then 6:32 pace, but I was utterly exhausted. and could barely breath.  My lungs were BURNING!!!  AT 0.6 of a mile I stopped the garmin, and stopped running.  There was no way I was in shape to finish of the 8 miles, and I certainly should not have done this session.  Afterall, its a session to test where you are, not speedwork.  There is not really a relevant training benefit from running 1 mile at a fast pace.

I really should have known better.

So, that was me being stupid.  I completed a 4.38 mile run, and now I'm looking forward to repeating the session successfully when I don't still have a cold!!!

Christmas Gift for me

Yesterday I gave you some book related stocking fillers for your runner friends, all low cost, so that you had enough money left to get something for meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
This:

Garmin Forerunner 620 GPS Running Watch with Colour Touchscreen Display - White/Orange

Can't wait until Christmas day ;-)
xx

Christmas Gifts for the Runner in your life

Hello people!

I'm getting rather excited about my first proper session with the Colchester Harriers tonight.  Even more excited than I get about Christmas!  But for those of you who read this blog, and don't know what to get your running friend for Christmas, I've put some hints and tips below.  As a note, I already own all of these, which is why I'm happy to recommend them, so they are not a Santa's list for me!

Running with the Kenyans  This tracks Guardian Journalist Adharanand Finn on his anthropological journey in Kenya.  A place where the top runners are as revered as football players here in the UK.  Its a great read, and if I learnt anything from it, it was the importance of recovering thoroughly from your runs.


Born to Run  Another classic and study of a tribe in Mexico who are amazing ultra runners.  This book made me want to run barefoot, and run ultras!  I tried the barefoot thing with some minimalist shoes and had a whole host of lower leg problems, but that's another story.  This is a great read, and I'm sure it will get some of you trying more scenic runs to try and capture the beauty of the outside world!


Advanced Marathoning This is a must for anyone going for the marathon!  I didn't read it until I was training for my third marathon, but it has the best scientific description of all the energy systems you are trying to train with each type of training session.  It also has some handy strength training and core training exercises that you can easily do at home with a swiss ball and a pair of dumbells.  I use this one Reebok Gym Ball .


Marathon by Hal Higdon.  This book is full of training plans from the complete beginner to the advanced marathoner.  I personally follow these plans, as the relatively low mid-week mileage suits me.  I am following Intermediate II this time, in preparation for Manchester Marathon.  I followed Intermediate I for Halstead in May this year and got a 15 minute pb, but more importantly, felt physically much better and stronger during the race.

I will post some more about other gadgetry in the next few days, but for some stocking fillers, you can't go wrong with these books!

Happy Christmas

Colchester Harriers here I come

Well I've had a lovely Few days of reeping the benefits of being a runner. I now have 73 miles to go of my 1000 mile challenge.

Those that follow me on Facebook and Twitter will know that I was First Lady in Colchester castle Parkrun on Saturday.  This was quite surprising.  I hadn't decided to race it until about 20 minutes before.  I had 5 miles at marathon pace in my plan and i figured I would be able to do that from home, incorporating the Parkrun as part of it.  For those overseas who don't know, parkrun is a free timed 5km run every Saturday morning in your local park.  I'm very involved in the Colchester Castle one, as one of the run directors there, however, I haven't run it as many times as I would like to, as I've had so much going on this year.  There are events in Australia, South Africa and Norway amongst others.  It really is a fantastic opportunity for all types of runners.  Usually many of the Colcheter Harriers run the parkrun, and so my best finish position has been about 7th lady.  I've noticed when volunteering that not so many of them have been around, so that I might be able to sneak in a top 3 finish.  

So, on Saturday morning, when I got out to run, I was just jogging a warm up before I would ramp up to 8:30 pace, but I saw a woman up ahead running dressed in bright pink and guessed she was going to Parkrun also.  She stopped to stretch and I caught up to her and we decided to run together.  We had a chat, running in at a very easy pace, so of course I was going to race the Parkrun now.  Smaller numbers for Colchester this week, and again I made the mistake of staring a bit too far back in the field which meant I was slowed down at the start.  I was running at what I thought was controlled pace, but I was actually at a 7min mile and feeling very strong.  If I kept this pace up, I was on track for a really big 5k pb, which given no speedwork since the summer was probably unlikely, however, a pb on the Colchester course should be within my reach.  The previous time was 23:08, so I wanted under 23.

As I went out along the river stretch, the pace began to settle around 7:06- there was no need to push it here as I didn't want to blow up on the hill.  My strategy was to keep it steady on the flat, but overtake both on the up and downhills.  I had my eyes on John, our event director, most of the way around.  He's usually about a minute faster than me, so I didn't want to go past him too quickly, but I passed him on the second long down hill and he gave me an encouraging "Well done Angela".  I could see a girl up ahead, but I didn't want to pass her too soon, as I didn't want a tiring fight on the hill.  I quite enjoyed the last uphill on this day as I had paced the course well, and I managed to overtake her, but I had that fear that she'd fight on the uphill and tire me out.  I overtook a couple of guys too.  I really struggle at the top of this hill the second time around as with half a mile to go, it's where I want to wind up the pace, but the effort of the uphill always means I'm a bit stifled for getting extra speed at this point. However, I seemed to recover it better than I usually do, and managed a really strong sprint (for me) finish.  That chap behind me has kicked me on the finish before, so really happy to stay ahead this time:

I thank the excellent race conditions and the extra resistance work I've been doing lately :). 22:41, a pb for the Colchester course by 27 seconds.

After the run, the lady I overtook congratulated me, and encouraged me to come along and train with the Colchester harriers.

On Sunday, I helped out at the Santa run in The park.  Very festive, but very cold standing around outside waiting for everyone to finish.  As such, I couldn't face staying outside any longer to do my run.  I did it on Monday instead.

10 miles LSR- this was to be uneventful as I took my usual route on the Wivenhoe trail.  I couldn't mange to keep the pace as slow as I was supposed to.  Since I'm going for an 8:30 marathon pace, I really should be doing my long runs at 10-10:30mm, or even slower, but my legs wanted to run at 9:30 today.  Maybe because I was listening to music?  I only saw 1 other runner going in the other direction, and he was flying!  Once I was sure he wouldn't see me, I stopped to walk for a bit as I was experiencing stomach cramps.  But shortly after he caught up to me!  He must have turned around!!  We had some run chat.. Turned out he was a sub 3 marathoner and that he used to run with the Harriers... Encouraged me to join and said based on my running he reckons my GFA goal in Manchester should be achievable.., but what is it with these Harriers?? Are they sending stalkers out to find me now ;). Haha.  The mile or so I ran with that chap was sub 9mm I did manage to keep the conversation going, but this is certainly faster than I would usually run on a LSR.  

I do believe the universe is trying to tell me something, so I'm going to go along to their training session tomorrow evening and give it a go!  Wish me luck! :-D

92 miles to go

Those of you who know me well, will know I firmly believe in the power of writing things down.  In fact it was when I was living in Australia a few years ago and working for a company called APS growth that I wrote on my professional profile that I wanted to run a marathon by the time I turned 25.  I was 23 at the time and had no idea about all these local races, so essentially I was betting the farm on getting a place in London or New York, but hang on, I lived in Australia!  Well I wrote it down, and what happened? I ended up moving back to England.  I ran my first sub 2 hour half marathon but failed to get a ballot place for the London marathon... By this time i was 24, and with a July birthday, I didn't have much time...  I gave up on the goal and entered Berlin in the autumn.  At that time, you could just pay for a race entry.  About 3 days later, the charity who I had done a lot of running for in the past contacted me to say that for the first time they had 10 golden bond places, and would I like one?  With that, I completed my first marathon at the age of 24, 3 months before my 25th birthday.

This year, I wrote down I would run 1000 miles.  With 25 days of the year left, I have 92 miles left to run to reach that goal, and within that timeframe, I don't think I'm going to exceed it by much.  In fact, because I wrote down 'I will run 1000 miles' rather than 'I will run over 1000 miles', I think the chances of it going beyond that are slim, so:

Write down your dreams and goals, but be careful how you write them :)

Another dally on the Essex Way: energy gels? Or mulled wine?

On Sunday, the lovely @mia79gbr drove all the way to Essex to join me on a 17 mile run on the Essex Way.

I promised her 17 miles of running, mulled wine, pubs, and navigation.  I delivered on 2 of those promises.

She promised good chat, entertaining mishaps and expert lighting with her head torch!  She delivered on 2 of these too.  You'll have to read to the end to find out what.

We started at around 3pm... Yes, we are fast approaching the shortest day of the year.  And even though Sarah is speedy, she couldn't get me running at 17 miles an hour, so, we needed head torches.  They're at the ready- hers is much bigger than mine.  I have head torch envy!

Those of you who know @mia79gbr will know she has the trademark on luminous pink running kit, but not this time!!! Mwah hahahaha!  I posed like a gameshow host in front of the sign marking the start of our run, and instructed @mia79gbr of the way marks we were looking out for.  The poppies marking out the Essex way.

We got on with our running, and the light was fast leaving us.  Within half a mile I already took a wrong turn, but we found the path again easily enough.  We continued along the path and were noticing lots of twigs and branches underfoot that were down from storm St Jude a few weeks ago.  Then we came across this tree.  A chilling reminder of quite how strong those winds were

We we're happily chatting away and as usual when I'm running in the countryside, my head was rolling around like one of those nodding dogs.  I looked behind me, and caught a glimpse of this beautiful sunset.  iPhone photos don't do it justice, but I think this was the best image I got

For the next couple of hours as darkness continued to descend, we kept on talking about how long the sunset was taking, not realising that the red glow we could see in the distance was probably light pollution form Colchester, rather than the sun setting!

In the darkness, some of the ploughed fields were particularly tough to run, I was negotiating a tricky section, when I heard this whooshing sound.  It seems we had disturbed a flock of birds... @mia79gbr was nattering about what kind of birds they were whilst I was recovering from my mini heart attack.  I knew exactly what would help, and I'm pretty sure the vineyard was not very far away.  Dedham vale vineyard: http://www.dedhamvalevineyard.com was having a mulled wine day.  It would be rude not to stop really, wouldn't it?  David and I had been there on Saturday and we regularly buy wine from there. The Bacchus and Rose are particularly good.  Sarah and I stopped for a mulled wine each and we had a good chat about various running events with the owners.  Who did recognise me as that crazy girl who sometimes runs thru their vineyard :)

Here's a giraffe

 It was properly pitch black when we left the vinyard, and I realised at this point we didn't have enough miles left to make 17 miles, in addition the navigation from this point on was less familiar to me.  There were a few sections when we had to run through the woods.  Now I think about it, I can't believe how crazy we were, 2 girls of small size running about in woods.  As runners, our spaghetti arms wouldn't help defend us, but hopefully the head torches made us intimidating!

More darkness, and I was starting to fantasise about the pub dinner waiting for us.  This part of the run went passed some lovely churches.  Unfortunately you couldn't picture them very well in the dark, but we did see the cat guarding the church :)

Only about a mile and a half to go from here, and we were mostly on road, I stopped reading the route instructions so thoroughly and took a wrong turn.  So, we ended up in Sufolk! Plus, no so much short changing on miles.  By the time we got to our finishing point, my garmin read 14.78 miles.  Wasn't a good idea to stop now, was it!  We proceeded to run around the war memorial a few times, and then back the way we came.  David thinks we're both crazy.  I think he's right.

It was so great to have such an adventure of a night time run with a great friend :). So often on my jaunts on the Essex way, I'm on my lonesome.  It was great to be able to share the experience with Sarah, and can't wait to join her running some of the Thames Path in the new year :)

Sorry I've been neglecting the blog....

I apologise to regular readers for my lack of posts recently.  As I mentioned before quite a lot is changing at the moment, so before I post anymore about my running, I'll tell you about that.

For most of this year, I have been part time gaining qualifications in nutrition and fitness with the aim of becoming a personal trainer with specialisms in pre- and post-natal exercise and nutrition.  Yesterday I passed my pre and post-natal nutrition qualification with 100%. In addition, I already have the qualifications for nutrition for weight management and for sports and exercise, and have decided to start my own business now.

It's called Angela Isherwood Healthy Living.   I will be running weight management classes in Colchester and surrounding areas, and linking up with a local gym to start a beginners running club.  We will also be hosting a 'Preparing for your Spring Marathon' seminar on the 4th of January.  I can also offer 1:1 consultation on nutrition for weight management or endurance sports, in Colchester and in London.

This is all very exciting for me, and I'm sure you will support me in this.  I have a business twitter account which is @AngelaHealth and you can find and like me on Facebook.

This blog will remain my general experiences of having fun whilst I'm out running, or any other crazy sporting challenges I take on, as I get closer to my goal of a Boston qualifier.

Of course I will be starting a blog in connection with my business as well, and when that and the website is up, I'll tell you all about it.

Wish me luck!

Angela x