Little Nemo's Marathon Adventure

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  • Hello all, hope you had a good weekend.

    Had up and down runs on Friday and Sunday. Friday I managed to get lost twice while running home so probably ran an extra mile. Thought I’d try out some different routes and ended up almost back where I started. This is because I have the worst sense of direction in the world and still can’t quite grasp that not all roads are straight and at right angles to each other. But I did finish in one piece and it’s all extra time on my feet. Found the start of my long run on Sunday really difficult. Couldn’t work out why my calves were so sore until I remembered I’d laced my shoes up differently and had missed out the top hole. Redid them and suddenly legs were OK! Also tried out the Lucozade Orange drink on the run which seemed OK. Felt surprisingly good by the end of the run and managed a whopping 83 mins!!! My longest run ever :-)

    So this week will be Gym today, 6 miles on Wednesday and some sort of run on Thursday. Then the big one – 10 miles on Sunday. Thankfully I’ve got a day off on Monday for my Orthopaedic appt. where I should find out the results of my MRI scan so I can have a bit of a lie-in. Not sure how to break the news that I’m trying to do the Marathon to the Doctor...

    81 days to go!
    :-)
  • Hey Little N, that's brilliant, well done! sounds like you're going great guns. I did 80mins on Sunday too - doing my 10k route, had a very sore knee afterwards tho. have RICE'd it and it seems ok now. Short run in the gym, and some wieghts tonight so we'll see how that goes. I'm also going to try 10 miles this weekend so let me know how you get on!
  • hkp, hope your knee is better by now. I survived my 6 mile training run so feeling a bit more hopeful about Sunday. Good luck for your run too!

    79 days to go!
    :-)
  • m.ittenm.itten ✭✭✭
    Hi everyone.....

    Would like to join on this thread if no-one minds :-))

    Am wayyyyy too knackered to post anything sensible on here tonight. Will pop back in at the weekend when my weeks training course is over, I've recovered from my last two hard training runs and hopefully had some sleep.

    Mitten zzzzz
  • Hi Mitten! I'll leave it to Little Nemo to welcome you officially as its their thread. but welcome from me too!

    hey little N, glad you survived your 6 miles. My knee is recovered (did some x-training this week just in case tho) so am looking forward to 10 miles... as long as it stops flippin raining!

    I'm off to the Golden Bond Training Seminar tomorrow which I'm, quite looking forward to. A few people have said its not worth it but I think just meeting other people who are running will be really inspirational.

    I'm getting a bit worried about fundraising now. I've put a sponsor form up in the gym and was really touched that someone I don't know has sponsored me £10!! Am going to spend the rest of my lunch hour crafting a begging email to send around work, friends and family. Gotta come up with some other ideas to.

    Hope you all have good weekends...
    Hx
  • Hello mitten, welcome to the thread! I think we're both doing the Fred Hughes race on Sunday so if you want to say hello I'll be wearing No. 352.

    Glad to hear about your knee hkp.

    Have a nice weekend everyone!
    :-)
  • Woooooo hooo! Did 10 miles, loved every minute of it (2 hours!), the sun was shining and knee didn't hurt at all and that was after not wanting to get up this morning!

    Hope you have all had good weekends.
    Hx
  • Hi Little Nemo,

    Not been on the thread for a couple of weeks. How did you get on in the Fred Hughes run yesterday ? I was thinking about doing it but opted for the Gade Valley harriers 12 mile training run in Hemel instead - really good fun. I managed it in 2:02 which I was really pleased with. Wasn't trying to really push it either as I'm entered for the Watford half next week.
    Have a good week everyone !
  • Hello hkp, well done on your run and good news re. your knee.

    Hello shuffler, well done on your 12 mile run - that's a cracking time! I had a great run on the Fred Hughes 10 and I was suprised at un-hard it was. Set off with sub 12-min mile pace in mind and although I slowed a bit in the second half I still came in just under 1:55. Although it wasn't easy I didn't have any real rough patches to get through so I'm feeling a lot more chipper about FLM. It was a lovely run as well, lots of cheerful marshals etc. cheering us on, nice rural course and quite good weather. Also met some nice people at the back of the pack. Good luck for the Watford half!

    71 days to go!
    :-)
  • WOW!

    Made it into treble-figure posts!!!
    ;-)
  • Hi Nemo,

    Well done for Sunday - I had a really, really long lie in, until about 10.30 I think!! I had set my alarm but somehow managed to turn it off ;-)

    I'm in for Watford this Sunday and have promised all (including my club) that I will make it.

    Will let you Monday know how I got on......
  • Hello mitten! I did something similar, forgot to set my alarm at all on Sunday and woke up half an hour after I was supposed to have left. Just managed to make it on time with taxis at either end but it was touch and go!

    Best of luck for Watford, make sure you tell us all about it on Monday.

    Have a great weekend everybody!
    :-)
  • Hi everyone,

    I got a PB at the Watford 1/2 marathon!!!
    Ok it was a mere 2:13:57 but it was 3:30 quicker than my only previous half so I am dead chuffed ! A hilly course but one that I know as i'm local. A really great day, perfect weather etc.
    How was everyone else's weekend run ?
  • Well done shuffler, that's a brilliant result!

    :-)
  • Well done on the PB Shuffler!

    It sounds like everyone's doing really well too which is brilliant!

    I did 12 miles on Sunday in 2h20, was aching all over by the end (but that could have been down to celebrating Wales' rugby victory a little too much on Saturday night!!!!)

    Have got a 20k on 20th Feb to look forward to. Its got a time limit of 2h30 so I have a real target to try to speed up a bit!

    Hope everyone has a good week.

  • Hello hkp, well done on managing 12 miles already! It's great to hear everyone doing so well, I'm sure we're all going to make it now.

    Had a hectic week last week. Good news on my knee as there's not a problem with the cartilage, ligaments etc. Seems the problem is now that I have a stiff kneecap. Physio did some manipulation and more stretching and it actually felt a lot better for a few days. So I'll have some more physio over the next few months and hopefully this will fix it - finally! Told her I was doing the marathon and she was v. encouraging so I'm feeling a lot more hopeful about the whole thing.

    Unfortunately I then got food poisoning so not much running and no gym last week. Did manage 90 mins. on Sunday though. I'm doing a new route now as running round the scrubs several times was getting a bit boring. Now I can run to Hyde Park, run round a bit of it and run home.

    Went to the gym last night and tonight will be a 4 mile run with the Adidas people. Then on Friday I'll be attempting to run the whole way home! It can take over an hour on public transport and I think it won't be much longer on foot, provided I don’t get lost again. Then on Sunday I’ll be aiming for 1:45 min. run to get ready for my first half marathon the week after.

    Phew – no rest for the plodders!

    66 days to go!
    :-)
  • hi little n,

    Sorry to hear you've been ill. Food poisoning is horrible so I hope you're feeling better.

    Good news about your knee though, hope it holds out for you.

    I know what you mean about getting bored of the routes you run. Where I live, its really dark country lanes mainly so during the week I have to stick to a one mile circuit around my village. I keep changing the directin in which I run it just for some variety, its v v tedious! I'm loving the runs at the weekend tho, been using them to explore the local countryside!

    Good luck with your run home on Friday, have a good week.

    :)
  • Hi Little Nemo,

    Good luck with your run home tonight !
    I'm doing this weekend's long run on Saturday for a change - 12 miles.
    Good luck everyone for the long runs this weekend.....only nine more weeks to go !
  • Just a quick post before I set off. Feeling a bit sore after my Adirun on Wednesday. The woman looking after the back of the training group (ie. me!) decided it was time to do some interval work so she had me working really hard for some stretches of the course. Felt horrible doing it (so out of breath) and my legs were killing me yesterday. Still I'm sure it's doing me good in the long run. I suppose it's easy to get into a bit of a rut with your pace and just bimble along taking it easy. So I will try and up the pace a bit for some of my run home.

    Good luck for Saturday Shuffler! And have fun exploring the countryside hkp!

    64 days to go!
    :-)

    PS: How did you get on at Watford Mitten?

  • Hi all,
    Managed 14 miles on Saturday (had mis-remembered my schedule when I last posted !)It was very slow and quite hard work, taking me half an hour longer than last week's Watford half. At first I felt a bit despondent, wondering how on earth I'd manage another 12 miles but then cheered myself up with these thoughts :

    - It WAS my longest run ever - and although a bit stiff I was OK after it
    - It was at about 12 min/mile pace, which is what I should be doing long runs at.
    - It was a day earlier than my normal long run, so I'd had a day's less rest etc.
    - It was very windy with horizontal drizzle !

    So all in all, I suppose I am getting there - slowly !

    How did everyone else get on at the weekend ?


  • Hi all,

    Well done on the 14 miles Shuffler. You're 2 ahead of me! I think you're absolutely right to keep telling yourself how well you're doing. Each week is getting us one step further on the way to London... I don't know about you but part of me is really really scared but the rest of me is just really really excited to be doing it!!

    I was on an 'easy' week this week so only had to do an hour and a half on Sunday. Did 7 miles in that time, which is a little slow for me too but the second half of the run was into a very strong and very very cold wind which I'm sure slowed me down (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!). Took ages for the feeling to come back into my hands afterwards!!! Got the Bungay 20k this weekend to look forward to.

    Hope you all have a good week!
    H
  • Hello all!

    Well done on both your weekend runs! 14 miles is a fantastic distance and running in the gale force winds at the weekend shows real commitment. I keep telling myself that the training is the hardest part as you have to run even if you feel tired and the weather is awful.

    I managed my run home in just under an hour and 15 minutes – v. pleased! It isn’t as hard as I thought as quite a lot of it is downhill. I may vary the route and add a bit of distance so I can take in some hills in the coming weeks. I’ve got a couple of killer hills that I can try – what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger…

    Sunday wasn’t such a good day. Had to work on Saturday and getting up before 8am after a 6-day week was hard. The first 15 mins. or so of my run felt dreadful. Legs were sore and heavy and breathing was hard. Persevered and did start to feel better. However running across Hyde Park into the wind nearly finished me. At one point I felt like I was running to stand still! By the time I got home my whole head hurt from the cold and even when I warmed up I had a bad headache, thank god for Nurofen and Mars Bars! Feel a bit tired today (might have to resort to another Mars Bars!) and a bit achy but not too bad.

    Got a busy week coming up as we’re starting a big project at work. And then it’s going to be 4 weeks of 6 day weeks and late nights. Not the ideal time to be training for FLM but at least I’ll be used to running tired!

    Good luck for the Bungay 20k this weekend, hkp!

    61 days to go!
    :-)
  • Hello all, how has your week been?

    I’ve got a half-marathon race on Sunday and feeling a bit daunted. I’m tired, I have blisters and I’m scheduled for a 13 hour day today and 10 hour day tomorrow at work :-(

    So I thought I’d think positive and post my goals on here to try and motivate myself. I’m setting myself 3 targets: an easy, medium and hard one. Easy target is just to finish, medium is to stick to 12-min. mile pace so around 2:37 and the hard target will be my predicted time from my last 10 miler which is 2:33:06. The better I do the nicer treat I’ll get myself! Plus we’ve been promised a nice man in a red fleece top handing out Jelly Babies just after 10 miles – what more could I ask for?!?

    Have a good weekend everyone and let’s hope we all have better weather than last week!

    57 days to go!
    :-)
  • Good luck for Sunday Little N, i hope your blisters clear up in time. Shame you have to work so hard beforehand though. I think your targets are a good idea - something to aimm for however you feel on the day (and the man in the red fleece sounds good!!) you can use the time on the course to plot what nice treats you're going to get!

    I've had a severe case of the half-way through training blues this week. The long weekend runs I look forward to but the shorter weekday runs, I just can't seem to get excited about. I think its because I'm stuck plodding around the village or on the treadmill in the gym (yawn!). Tonight was better though and I'm feeling better about the 20k this weekend. My aim for sunday is to get around before the cut-off time of 2.5 hours... anything better than that and I'll be well chuffed!!

    Hope you all have good weekends.
    H
  • Hi everyone

    I know just what hkp means about the half way training blues, good to hear it's not just me. I can cope with the short mid-week runs, but I'm getting bored silly on the Sunday long runs and have you SEEN the forecast for tomorrow????? I took a mobile phone on the last one. Bad idea, I used it to phone hubby after 10 miles as I'd had enough. I think this week I'd better make sure I can't wimp out early. Also I keep reading all that holier-than-though stuff in Runners' World like "what do to if you miss a training run". Ha! Are they just talking about missing the odd one then? Oh dear....

    I did get a bit of motivation from wangling a week's free membership of a very posh gym, and discovered that it wasn't all it's cracked up to be and how much nicer it is to run outside than flogging myself to death on a treadmill! Yeah you get to be warm (too warm), and watch TV, but I only managed half an hour before I felt like I was going to collapse in a heap.

    So, on on for a long, gruelling hoof tomorrow in the teeth of a howling north wind, or at least that's the intention. I've signed up for the Bury 20 next weekend, so I'd better do somthing like a hefty mileage. Anyone done it before? Apparently there's a sod of a hill after 18 miles. Ugh.....
  • Hi all,
    Hope you all survived the weekend's weather during those long runs. I managed 15.5 miles yesterday. I drove to a different part of the canal and did an out and back run. The good thing about this was the change of scenery, the bad thing was it was into a headwind all the way home. Funny I don't remember feeling the wind on my back in the first half....

    Still, I did it and feel OK today. It took me 3 hours though ! Some people seem to say keep your long runs to 20 miles or 3 hours, whichever comes first - but if you're as slow as me.... ? I'm hoping to do 17 next week. I'd best set aside most of the weekend !

    How did everyone else do ?
    Have a good week.
  • Hi All,

    Sinewaif - can you persuade your other half to come out with you? Mine doesn't run but cycles with me (well mostly freewheels cos I'm so slow!!) which means I can go on routes I probably wouldn't run on my own. This helps the boredom although he always manages to make me laugh as I'm trying to run up hills... not the best of help!!

    Shuffler - well done on your 15.5, I'm following the get you round schedule which goes up to 4 hours for the longest training run. so I guess it depends which schedule you're looking at.

    I had a rubbish day yesterday. I was supposed to eb doing the Gt Eastern 20k in Bungay norfolk.Because of the severe weather warnings on the radio I checked the race website to see if it was cancelled (as told to in the race pack) and there was a message saying that they hadn't yet made a decision but would do so after 8am. Kept checking and trying to phone them as we had to leave at the latest 8.15 to get there on time. By 8.30 still hadn't heard so had to decide not to go. Went out instead for a very very cold and painful 12 miles in 2hours and 40 mins run through 2 snowstorms, some hail and lots of wind and got back to find that they had run the race after all and it was really fun. I've therefore signed up for the Silverstone 1/2 marathon on March 13th instead but I'd really psyched myself up for this one as I wanted to do something this weekend to mark the half-way through training point.

    Aah well, I suppose at least I went out and ran - I could have gone back to bed!

    Have a good week everyone!
  • Hi hkp,

    Well done for getting out there anyway, especially in that weather! Hopefully the FLM will be on a beautiful cool crisp windless spring day......
  • HKP

    I did the Bunngay run, which was also in mad condiditions and managed a PB of 1.57. I looked like a mad woman afterwards and I'm really impressed that you did much the same on your own. Well done!
  • Hello sinewaif, welcome to the thread!

    Did you all survive the cold? It was a bit chilly down in Brighton so I’m glad I wore my Helly Hansen under my T-Shirt! Although having read hkp’s report I realise I got away lightly as there was no snow or hail – thank God! Race went pretty well in the end and I was able to keep running strongly right until the end. Only had one bad patch at 10-11 miles. This was when we were running back into the wind – brrrr!. Had some horrible problems with the backs of my heels early on in the race. Wore some 1000 Mile trainer liners which stopped me getting blisters on the soles of my feet. Unfortunately they disappeared inside my trainers after a few miles so the top of my trainers rubbed raw patches on the backs of my heels. Lost a couple of minutes while I yanked my socks back up and laced my shoes up really tightly. I was able to carry on running but my left foot was in a bit of a mess and I ended up with blood-stained trainers – yuk! Did a pretty good time in the end, 2:30:11 but there is now some debate on whether the course was short. Still even if it was short I now have a PB for 12.9 miles! This puts a 5 and a half hour marathon well within my grasp.

    Sorry to hear about your missed race hkp but well done for still getting out and doing 12 miles. If it had been me and I’d seen the weather I’d have seen it as a sign to have a day off!

    Well done on 15.5 miles Shuffler – that’s awesome! Being a really slow runner I know that a 3 hour run is not going to be enough for me. I’m aiming to do one 20 mile run just to get the experience. Also thinking of doing another long run on the Easter weekend. Even if I half kill myself on a 4 hour run I’ve got an extra day to recover and I’m sure easter eggs count as carbo-loading?!?

    54 days to go!
    :-)
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