28 weeks later

So this one is going to be out of chronilogical order.  I still have the Essex 20 and Colchester half marathon to write about, but with 5.5 days left until the Greater Manchester Marathon, I thought it was time for some reflection.

Regular readers of my blog may recall that I started training for this marathon a lot earlier than many marathon plans would suggest.  This seemed more and more apt as my goal time reduced.  The title of the blog is Long road to Boston.  I had figured out that my autumn 2013 marathon would be my first sub 4, and that whichever marathon I did in spring 2014 would be a London good for age time.  When I planned this all out at the start of 2013, the London good for age standard for a girl in her late 20s was a sub 3:50 marathon.  This changed after last years London Marathon to 3:45.  Having missed my autumn marathon due to family commitments, and not finding a suitable one to replace it, I could have used this years spring one to get the sub 4, or go for 3:50 according to my plan, however, with 29 weeks to go, why not aim for a real stretch?  And get that good for age place which would hopefully give me the chance to run my Boston qualifier on the London marathon course.

I followed an amalgam of plans, but what was different about this time, is a lot more strength work.  In the first few weeks, I did my own kettlebels circuits,  over the November/December period I did gym strength work as I was working toward my gym instructor qualification, in January I did insanity, and since, I have been consolidating my running with tune up races.  I feel much much stronger as a result.  I've lost about 5kg since the start of training, give or take 1kg.  Both the strength training and weightloss, together with real dedication to the quality run sessions has translated into 13 minutes off my half marathon pb in less than a year.  It's where it needs to be for my goal of sub 3:45, and indeed many race calculators suggest that half marathon time translates to a 3:37, the app on my phone even has the illusive 3:35!  I started working on a marathon pace of 8:30 in October last year, and I remember it being tough for 2 miles.  Bear in mind, that was my half marathon pace at the time.

This long build up with a final focus really works well for me.  I like the small gains along the way, but the fact they are all pointing me toward a bigger goal is even more exciting for me.

So, 28 weeks later, I feel ready, but I also feel incredibly nervous.  The reality is that a 3:45 marathon would be 33 minutes faster than my marathon pb... That's over half and hour!!!  There is a real risk, as I've always been better at the shorter distances.  However, the positive is that both in the Essex 20 and the Colchester half marathon. I managed to maintain marathon pace where I wanted to.  These are great indicators, but I can never quiet that realism that 7 miles at the end of a 20 miler is a bit different to the whole 26.2

Anyways, I just have to trust in the training, and hope you'll all send me good luck vibes! 

Losing confidence

I drafted this blog a while ago, but never completed it.  Toward the end of February I was suffering from a lack of confidence in my running, largely because the illness that lead me to missing Great Bentley half marathon and rescheduling to do Dorney meant that I was now scheduled to do 3 back to back 20 milers, something I had never done before.  I decided to spread them out so there were 10 days between the first two, but I ended up not being able to get to 20 on the first run only completing 18.7 as I ran out of time.  Anyway, read on:

I've been having a bit of reduced running confidence recently.  I've started a new job to gain extra experience in fitness whilst I complete my PT training - that's going really well by the way, got 100% on my torso training and core stability exam the other week.

The new schedule has meant fitting in the runs hasn't been as easy, plus getting used to working on someone else's schedule for a while is making me more tired.  I have put in a few extra rest days and I think this is why my confidence is falling despite having hit every planned session in January.  

Because of the low confidence I thought a bit of a race might help me build it up, so I decided to do a parkrun on a weekend I wouldn't be able to fit in my long run anyway- no holding back on the parkrun, just do it and go for a pb.  My previous 400m repeats session back in late January suggested that a sub-22 was within my reach but I thought that would be a stretch on the Colchester course with that energy sapping hill twice!

I tried to convince Ian to run with me- he had previously offered to pace me around to get to 22, but he had his own goals for this day- see his post here:  http://ianelden.blogspot.co.uk 

At the start, Danny offered to go around with me, but I knew he would get too excited and if I tried to stay with him I would blow up by the end of the first mile :)

I started right at the front with all the fast men and by the time we were at the castle my garmin was reading 6:16 pace- there was no way I could keep this up!! 22 min would be 7:04 pace.  I knew from previous pbs on this course that there was a good 20s differential between first and second mile pace due to the hills, so really I needed 6:50 on mile 1 to allow for 7:10 on mile 2, hoping I could speed up again in the last mile.  

However, that early burst meant I struggled to get it back- I was going at a good pace to make my target, but in terms of a well paced run for this course, it wasn't - I went out way too fast and struggled up the second hill, although still managed to overtake people!

Ended up getting 21:36 and a shiny new pb, over a minute quicker than my last pb on this course set in December!  Started to get my confidence back ahead of a few planned races that should help give confidence in my marathon pace...

A tale of two halves

Last Sunday, I woke up early excited to do the Great Bentley Half Marathon.  Excited because this was going to be a pb, and excited because it would hopefully give me a time that showed a London Good for age time in my marathon is achievable.  I had been ill the last few days but I just thought my business was what was making me feel worse, so I had had an early night in the hope a long sleep would shift it.  A few minutes after I woke and was getting ready, I started to cough, and then the waves of tiredness swept over me, despite the 11 hour sleep.  I thought I better check my resting heart rate, and not going below 80, it confirmed I just wasn't well enough to race.  I told some friends on Facebook, and their outpouring of love and support overwhelmed me a bit.  I actually had a cry!  I can't believe I cried over not being able to do the race.  I later apologised to David for being such a pansy, and crying over a DNS, but he said you're not a pansy, you're passionate... Smart man, I should marry him.

I went on to Great Bentley to cheer on my friends, and about 30 minutes after the race start, my sinuses started to block up again, and I was at peace with my decision.  An emergency trip to tesco for sudafed allowed me to breath with my mouth closed, waiting to go out and cheer my friends.  I got to the finish at about 1:25, and Danny came whizzing past at 1:28!!!! He said that although the wind was bad, it wasn't as bad as it had been when we ran together on the seafront a few weeks ago.  There were many pbs achieved by my friends.  I had my eye on Lorraine- our Parkrun times are similar, but I suspect she copes better with speed endurance.  She got in in 1:43:46!!! Ahh my goal was going to be 1:45 (8mm) I wasn't sure I could do Lorraine's time of 7:55mm.  After the race, we went back to Somei's who had got a massive pb despite surgery a week ago, for a hot tub party.  This was great for my achy muscles, and was really nice to get to know everyone a bit better.  Inspired by everyone's success, I was determined to find another half marathon I could do to test it as a race.  I'm already signed up to Colchester half, but my plan is to run that at marathon pace.  This half was to tell me my marathon pace is realistic.

I knew @malcsbarbour was doing the Dorney lake race your pace half marathon, and I thought it was the following week.  Some googling when I got home confirmed this, but 10am Saturday morning when David would have to drive, plus £32 race entry seemed a bit steep.  David offered it to me as a Valentines day present, and I was happy again... Really must marry this guy, he knows the way to my heart is through my feet...

Until Friday when I saw what the weather was going to be doing!  I thought I'd escaped a windy run by not doing Great Bentley, but alas, I spent Friday night worrying if we were actually going to make it too the race venue.  It was a hard drive because it was so windy, but I had executed my pre race nutrition plan perfectly, so perfectly that by the time we got to Dorney, I was bursting for the loo.   I was very amused to see this sign in the portaloo....

I did wonder if it was referring to the race, or going to the toilet...

We then got into the shelter of the boat house, giving up on our previous meeting point which would have been outside.  Through twitter, we managed to meet up 

@rachelclarke, @malcsbarbour, @james_e_carroll, @james linney and me, oh and were photo bombed by that tall chap behind!

A bit of chat about goals and expectations before we hustled down to the start.  I did a quick warm up jog and felt a twinge in my hip, I suspect from  sitting down in the car.  Gave it a quick massage and hoped it was just pre-race nerves.  I found the 8mm pacer with James, and had a quick chat to him about his pacing plan, given the windy conditions.  He was intending to stay bang on 8mm.  There were two other 8mm pacers and I didn't hear their chat, and wondered whether they had decided on something else as the race got going.

I stuck with the one who said he was running 8mm evens for the first couple of miles, but the grouping of the people around him was starting to get to me, especially the big men with their pointy elbows, and meanness not letting me in the crowd.  Shortly after 2 miles, we crossed over the bridge and with that small shelter firm the wind I caught up with the 8mm pacer group who were just ahead.  I kept with them but could feel the gear was switching up a bit, and we did the 3rd mile in 7:45, dramatically pulling away from the other 8mm pacer behind.  All I had read on pacing groups suggested that sticking with a group will allow you to go a little bit faster than you are capable of, so I decided to stick with them,  but too many pointy elbowed men meant I kept getting dropped off the back.  When they started another mile going at 7:30 and didn't seem to be slowing, I decided I better get back into my own pace, as I wasn't able to gain the benefits from the group.  The time in hand would hopefully help me later in the race in case this earlier running too fast would cause me to blow up.

I took my first gel at 5miles and not wanting to lose time, I ran with it- I don't usually practise this, and I was thinking of @mia79gbr's report of this race last year and how she squirted gel in her eye.  I took small sips of the gel so that I wasn't running too long without breathing.  I was on my own now, but could see the fast pacer group ahead of me.  I was contemplating when to start my final push, 8 miles, 9 miles? 10 miles?  I didn't think 8 miles would work as I still needed to take on another gel, and the wind was affecting me, since I didn't have a group around to shield me from the wind.  I took the first gel that came out of my pouch- luckily it was a caffeine gel, and started sipping on it, after I stopped at the water station.  This was half way thru the third lap, with one more lap to go.  Really I could push at any point from here, especially as the wind was slightly favourable as you run toward the boathouse.  I passed the slowest runner here as the front runner passed me, and it made me think that despite the pacer going off fast, it was a really good way to avoid congestion on a multi-lap course.

I was trying to do some calculations now,  would I be able to beat my sub 1:45 target, would I be able to beat Lorraine's time?  Both were dependent on keeping going at my pace and beating Lorraine's was dependent on being able to pick it up.  The wind had dropped a bit on my last run away from the boathouse, but I still struggled to stay under 8mm, maybe it was psychological now.  I had to have a bit of a talking to myself to get it done.  Less than a Parkrun left to run.  I did start to smile that I had my pb now, and as mile 10 clicked to mile 11 I smiled that I had achieved my 1:45 target.  Now it was about how far under that I could go.  Could I do sub 1:44??  Could I do sub 1:43?  I thought I could but as always there was a bit of a mental struggle.  As mile 11 clicked to 12, I picked up the pace and was doing 7:30, which seemed incredible to me as it's faster than my best 10k pace- another sign that the training is paying off.  I very soon passed the pacer group that had gone off too fast, and there wasn't much of a group left, perhaps proving that they were too fast.  12 miles into the race, and I was starting to get hot, perhaps because the wind had dropped.  So I rolled down my arm warmers and took off my gloves, with about 800m to go.  I really started pushing and could tell I was going up a gear as I managed to pass people, and even the girl who had started running with me around 11 miles seemed to vanish.  Instead of doing another lap, I could turn left into the finish chute. I thought it was going to be longer but only about 20m to the mats, David and elephant were there to cheer me across the line and I could see the clock on 1:43:xx I was determined It wouldn't get to 1:44 but didn't dare look at my garmin as I was focusing on my stride.

I stopped the garmin on 1:43:05!!! Wowsers a 7 minute pb, and last year in march I did 1:56 so 13 minutes improvement in less than a year.

I was a very happy bunny

 Great medal too!  It has a tortoise and a hare... I guess I was the tortoise since I overtook the hares pacer group at 12 miles 

And here are my paces:

I managed to catch up with Rachel and Malcs at the end.  Both had had brilliant races!  Malcs achieving sub 1:30, and Rachel also achieving a 7 minute pb and a perfectly executed race, despite losing her glasses in the wind at around 4 miles!

It was expensive for a half marathon, but you did get a decent medal and technical tee out of it.. I would mention the pacers too- I think they were great in that they allowed people to start largely in the right places, whilst I passed people at the end, I wasn't passing swathes of people who had started too fast, as I usually do.  I would only suggest that perhaps the pacers should have more frequency, as a minute per mile is quite a big gap between, especially at the sharp end.   I'm sure that if they had set up groups that were going for a time, it may have been a bit more successful.  Especially as with conditions like that, running a dead even pace isn't the best strategy. 

All in all, a brilliant race, and the best Valentines day present EVER!!  Good job I am marrying that guy really ;)

Pitsford water with Sarah

It was stupid o'clock in the morning.  I had set the alarm for 6:30, but worried about not getting up in time, I was wide awake by 5:30, so I used the extra time to prepare my packed food for the day.  Porridge in its own Tupperware. Hopefully I would be able to find some milk and a microwave to prepare it.  A turkey bagel, some dates, a banana and a clementine and a drink of electrolyte water.

I set off at 7:15 for the drive to Oxford, knowing that I would still have to wait a long time for my run, and thus plenty of time to fuel. 

I have a termly meeting in Oxford, and as @mia79gbr was training for her Thames Trot 50 mile ultra marathon we figured we would use the opportunity of my being in the area to do a Riverside run.  Unfortunately recent flooding had put paid to that plan, and we decided instead to meet an hour north of Oxford to run around Pitsford water.

Christ Church meadow in Oxford, under a lot of water

After a busy morning of committee meeting minute taking whilst eating, and catching up with some old Uni friends, I jumped in the car for another hour of driving... So 3.5 hours of driving in total by this point.

We met in the carpark and it was a beautiful spring like day.  We didn't get going until after 2pm and it was mid-Janurary, so we didn't have a lot of daylight.  We had decided an easy first lap (7 miles) and then we could play with pace in the second lap... However, Sarah's easy, and my easy are quite different, so we ended up somewhere in between, plus I wasn't feeling great from not enough sleep and all that driving.  We seemed to do every mile in about 9:10 when my long run pace had been more like 9:50.... Very soon from starting I realised I was wearing too many clothses, so we decided we would have a pitstop to put my jacket in the car.  Sarah was using her super swanky ultra vest, so seemed to have storage for everything, but we completed the first 7 in

9:53 / 9:32 / 9:21 / 9:04 / 9:10 / 9:08 / 8:57

I was convinced I was going to bonk on the second half, but I also wanted to test my marathon and half marathon race paces when tired.  Perhaps this wasn't the best run to do this on, as it was only a few days after my 12x 400m session, which had been my first piece of speedwork in ages.  We were going to set off at marathon pace, but having forgotten to tighten my bumbag after removing a layer, I had to stop and faff, so we had a mile easy before going into MP then HMP.

9:50 / 8:31 (MP) / 8:03 (HMP). I found the HMP particularly impossible on that day, the wind had started to pick up a little, my tummy wasn't very happy, and Sarah was chatting away whilst I was struggling to breath... At the end of this faster section, I really did feel as if all the energy was sapped from my legs, so I didn't think that there would be much use in doing more increased pace work. Once I caught my breath I had to apologise to Sarah for not being able to talk during my marathon or half marathon paced efforts! We continued on for another couple of miles

9:13 / 9:27. And I took a gel to see me through.  As we were crossing the causeway, we finally stopped to take some pictorial evidence of us being there:

Sarah is BEHIND the camera... She's not a ghost!

We plodded through the final couple of miles, the photographic breather meant I could pick up again so we were at 9:18/8:50

In summary, a fast flat route, and excellent prep for Manchester, - Sarah had planned an awesome run, and what's more even though I mentally didn't think I could do that pace, I could, and as a result my long runs and medium long runs since have been completed at a faster pace - still conversational, but not annoyingly slow!

Next. We went to dinner, and I ate everything!!!

 

Yup, EVERYTHING

Did you know I'm running 5 marathons this year?

What was a slight over-reaction to not being able to do my autumn marathon last year, meant I entered a few marathons... Within the space of about 10 days, when I should have been going through taper-madness, I went through taper-madness withdrawal and entered a few marathons, and then I got a ballot place for London.
When you're doing 4 in a year, you may as well do 5, so when www.stourvalleymarathon.co.uk organisers contacted me, of course I decided to enter that too.  And I might do another if I can get the timing right.  I bumped into an old friend when I only had 2 on the cards, Manchester and London a week apart, and she said with the craziness of that challenge, I ought to raise some money.  I've found it really difficult to consider raising money for a charity so closely connected with my dad's illness until now, and even when I was writing my plea for my virginmoney giving page, I had to stop a few time in tears.  So here it is, please if you feel inclined to give money, then please do, but if not, then spend some time learning about the charity's work on their website.

5 Marathons for Mesothelioma Research

Are you insane? Insanity Review

This post isn't really about running, but instead about the new workout craze by Beachbody: Insanity  A 60 day programme (well 63) that promises to turn you into a beach goddess.  Or the more official product description:

"Shaun T's Insanity workout is the best of its kind. No other workout can get you these types of results in just 60 days? Guaranteed! Shaun T's Max Interval Training techniques are a step ahead of every other fitness program ever designed. You get you a lean, muscular body in a short amount of time. The Insanity Workout is a difficult workout, but the results are phenomenal.

Brand New, Factory Sealed Box Set. Complete set includes a nutrition guide, calender to track your progress, and 10 intense DVDs that all contain a GREAT workout. You don't need exercise equipment. All you need is just a little space and a big heart!"

I was memorised by the adverts when I was at home in December, and through my studying have been learning why its so important to incorporate more strength and resistance work into my marathon training, to help me be a better runner, but the truth is, I can't think of any thing more boring than standing around in a gym and moving a weight through whatever range I'm supposed to.  I know it works, I know its good for me, but its just not my favourite thing to do.  I like more dynamic stuff, like kettlebells, so I have some of these at home to work with, however, I thought for a bit of research, I would see what this Insanity thing was all about, and I would start it in the new year, alongside my marathon training.

Nutrition Guide

As you can see from above, it comes with a nutrition guide - If I wasn't happy with this, I would send it back.  The nutrition guide modifies the macronutrient balance somewhat compared to what I would recommend to someone in marathon training.  They recommend a 40/40/20% ratio of carbs/protein/fat.  I would recommend something more like 60/15/25, or more accurately, make sure the carbs and protein were at a particular level according to my client's body weight.

If you follow the rules in the Nutrition guide, you get to eat 5 small meals a day, and to be honest, I haven't felt at any time like I was underfed - by doing the calcs I was still recommended over 2000 calories a day even for weightloss!  The only problem has come when alongside the long runs at the weekend.  The first month of the nutrition plan almost completely cuts out the complex carbs that are the mainstay of a marathon runner's diet - there are some meals that include brown pasta and brown rice, but the quantities were not sufficient for me when it came to running 14 miles + at the weekends, so I have been less stringent with the diet plan since the second week.

What is brilliant is in the plan, it has a table that categorises a wide range of foods into tables and recommends that if your diet consists solely of food from tables 1 and 2, you're doing really well.  Butter is in table 2, and with a caveat that if its unsalted and from grass-fed cows, it could be table 1! 

What appears in table 5?  Alcohol- spirits, cakes, cream cheese, pastries, frenchfries, coffees that are milky and come from those chain stores, bacon, and baked beans surprisingly - I guess because of the added sugar and salt, especially in the American brands (this is very clearly an american product).  

I have to admit, I've not been 100% pious, and have sneaked in a glass of wine or a creme egg from time to time, but what has significantly changed is that my consumption of fruit and vegetables is even higher, as is my consumption of eggs, and we now always have low fat cottage cheese, yoghurt and feta cheese in the fridge.  I'm not missing the cheeses I'm used to eating like camembert, brie, cheddar etc.

The workouts

The programme comes with a calendar which tells you which workouts to do on which day, as well as the DVDs which are the videos to take you through the workouts.  You do 6 days a week.  Sunday is your rest day.  So, to fit this in with running 5 days a week is pretty tough.  Its only the end of January, so I have done 4 weeks, and am in the sandwich rest and recovery week at the moment.  I will review month 2 workouts at a later date.

The fit test

The first disc you do is the fit test.  There are a number of moves that you see how many you can do in 1 minute, and record the number.  Shaun T emphasises form over number of reps, but you can't help getting competitive and wanting to beat the students on the DVD.  I did this for the first time shortly after Christmas and my sister's wedding festivities, so I wasn't in my most energetic of states.  To say I was dripping was an understatement, but even from this relatively short (25 mins) workout, I got a great big endorphine hit after.  

Plyometric Cardio Circuit

I love and I hate this workout.  The first time I did it, I couldn't keep up when it moves to Level 1 drills, which I think is a basketball thing, involving multiple pushups, then floor sprints, then jumping in stretching up then coming back down to pushups.  My spaghetti arms gave way, and I just couldn't keep up.  However, the first part has many variations of squat jumps.  I believe this particular workout has been to thank for my ability to complete 150 miles of running this January without injury, as well as increased speed when it comes to the quality run sessions.  What's more, it engages the abs and upper body, and so my form doesn't suffer as much in the later part of long runs, as I am overall stronger.

Cardio Power and Resistance

I would rank this #2 in the helpfulness to my key sport.  This one almost seems as if its more about sculpting, but again, its variation of moves across key body segments has lead to overall stength gains for me.  The toughie in this is a V-push-up, where you are basically doing a yoga downward dog, and then you do push-ups in that position, so its all shoulders, barely any chest.  There are a lot of tricep moves in here too, which I've always been quite weak on, so its good to have those in there.

Pure Cardio 

This is tough, and gets you sweaty if you're doing it indoors, but in terms of the goals of the workout, and its effect on my heartrate, I decided to scrap it from my personal programme after the first time.  The reason being, I get a far better cardio workout from my interval or tempo training I do in running, so for me, the risk/recovery balance of keeping this in my program didn't weigh up (for now).

Cardio Abs

An abs workout that promises no sit ups or crunches.  You spend a large portion of this workout in a position called a C-sit - you are bascially halfway up if you were doing a sit-up, and from here, you do various movements with your arms and legs to work various portions of your abdominals, all the while working the deep abdominals as you hold that position.  What's great is the focus on obliques, which is often missed.  I can see results in my physical appearance from the work on the obliques.

Cardio Recovery

I LOVE that this programme incorporates a recovery day.  Active recovery is so important and often people miss this out.  And not every PT is around telling people to do it too!  By doing some exercise that gets the blood flowing but doesn't tax you, you are sending the agents of repair in your blood around the body to do the work quicker, plus its really important in helping you get stronger.  This recovery day involves a few yoga and pilates type moves, which when I first did it, I would really struggle with balance, but again, I've stuck with it, and find it an incredibly uplifting workout, and I do it on my rest day from running.  Before I do it, I feel quite groggy, but after I'm restored.

Review

All of the above workouts are less than 40 minutes total, and that includes the warm-up, stretch and cool-down, so in terms of WORK, its not actually that much.  The cardio abs one is only about 15 minutes, although you usually do that after another workout.

Despite my modifications to the programme to encorporate marathon training, I have seen great results already.  I have lost 3kg in weight since the start of the year, and at my last weigh in, I was 200g off my target weight.  Whilst weightloss wasn't my #1 goal as I'm marathon training, I am pleased to see this has happened in the right way.  My body fat percentage has gone down from 30% to 25% according to my Omron fat analyser 

For me this is great, because being lighter because I'm not carrying excess fat means faster running times.  When I checked this calculator with my previous half marathon personal best, and the weight I was at the time, it told me that at my current weight, I could expect a time that's 6 minutes faster!  Not surprising as carrying an extra 3kg for 13.1 miles is sure to slow you down.

Based on my results whilst not following the plan 100% and only half way through, I am quite confident that if you do follow it 100% it will have impressive results.  

However, there is a big risk with doing a programme like this at home, in that there is noone to give you feedback and correct your form if you could cause yourself an injury.  This is lower risk, because it is bodyweight, but make sure you LISTEN to Shaun T's cues so you don't hurt yourself.

Recommendations

If following whist marathon training, like me, I would recommend the following modifications.

- Cut Insanity workouts from 6x/week to 4x/week

- Do plyo and resistance workouts on easy run days

- No insanity on long run days

- Do recovery workout on running rest day

- Do cardio abs after interval/tempo runs

- Modify eating plan to include more carbs, although follow the recommendation of sticking to wholegrain varieties with this.

Ultra Curious

So my running friends will know that I've been getting rather ultra curious this year.... I saw this event last year but it was the same weekend as my planned autumn marathon and by the time I had to cancel that it was way too late to train for such an event, but this year.... I have time

http://www.saltmarsh75.co.uk/2014/01/27/398/

I was looking for an event for October anyway, and would quite like to do the Chelmsford marathon when entires open, but this would be quite different to that, and provide a break from trying to hit speeds and paces.  Plus it's exactly the kind of thing my dad would have loved, although probably not in such an organised race environment.

One of my goals for running is to sea the world, and although this is in the county I live in, Essex is BiG, and I've only been to Maldon a few times, and certainly not the wilderness that surrounds it.... Already booked in me training races too with #tr24 and stourvalleymarathon.co.uk

Sooooo, should I do it.?