Just A Little Bit Further 2013

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  • by eck - hope you are ok. You don't have to be running to post here!! (let's face it I am not doing much running). hugs from me

  • Hi guys!

    I'm keeping up with you all, I think .........

    Ecky - your poor girl.  Hope it turns out to be not as bad as it seems. Well done on your long run yesterday.

    Franny - well done on your 10 miles.

    Chili and Loula - glad to hear you had a nice run.  So lucky to have found your Garmin again Loula.

    MC - Hope you get out for a run to work off the stress.

    Hi everybody else!

    I had an English presentation today which went really well.  Two more tomorrow, little bit stressed.....

    Still waiting for news about the swimming.....

    BFN xx

     

     

  • By'eck - that goes for me too.

  • Afternoon,

    Matt-RE Marathgon time. It is a difficult one as ihave never done one before. I did a 20 mile race a few weeks ago and did it in 2.45. Therfore I believe under 4 hours shouldn't be an issue. However, whene i pro rata my times it would appear that 3.40 is a possibility. I intend to aim however for about 3.50 and see how I feel at mile 20 and then take it from there.  

    MC-Hope you get the chance to have some MC time and go for a run/gym.

    Franny-Well done on your 10 miler. I am resting today,but, will do another 6 or so tomorrow. Want to try out my compressions hshorts,but, it is still so cold at the moment!!!!   

    Chilli/LLB-Pleased that you had a good run yesterday.  

    Speak later...

  • Lou, can we stick the party cannons at mile 23 to make the boss get a move on andgibe US chance to get to mile 24 to escort him in?
  • byeck-Sound idea. I require short skirts and boots and mile 23 to keep me motivated!!!

    Thansk for people asking about Mrs AF yesterday-Her tooache has eased and she has an appointment at a new dentist on Friday. Think she may end up having it taken out.

  • loulabellloulabell ✭✭✭

    woohoooooo.... Boss, we can don skirts n boots n tassles if it speeds you up!!!!

    jude, hope presentation wasnt too stressyimage

    franny sis!! how are u feelin about your race? sounds like you are feeling good!

  • AF - glad Mrs AF is feeling better

    I did get to the gym, tried out the new shoes on the treadmill and don't like themimage they bend in the wrong place - above my toes - and rub my toes in the wrong place. I wasn't even running much, so will be taking them back. I always have lots of trouble with shoes. Shall ask if they have any asics cushioning shoes as asics always seem to fit my feet nicely, I just don't need to motion control bits any more

    also did a turbo session after the gym, so feeling betterimage

    OH is down though so that is making me a bit down

  • Morning imageimage

    Have a good day everyone

    MC..hope you get the shoes sorted outWell done ongym and turbo.

    Jude...hope presentation goes well today..I'd find all that stressful too..don't like doing things like that...

    Aw By'eck..you are not allowed to leave crac towers just cos you ain't running at the moment...we won't let you so there.

    Loula...I am feeling good just now...but not taking anything for granted...fingers crossed that I don't end up injured. My HM race next week is just a training race really..not pushing for a PB at it as want to save all my reserves for Mara but who knows if I feel good on the day you never can tellimage

    Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee of to work for me now

  • morning everyone

    3k swim for me to start the day, but think I shouldn't have had the cornflakes before, either that or I swallowed too much of the poolimage

    beautiful day here, but cold

  • Helloooooooooooooooo

    By Eck, you are our friend and don't have to be running to post. I still post when I have been off training as I like chattering to everyone.

    Boss I'm so excited for you and know you are guna be brilliant. I am glad Mrs AF is feeling a bit better

    Yeeeeey Loula, we can get the flashy tassles back out again.

    Jude I hope your presentation has gone well.

    Hi Franny.

    I managed 35 mins today. Leg felt a little tender but not as bad as I thought they would. I did some big hills as it was a short one. I am so happy to be taking it easier now though.

  • Hello.  Wrote a long race report (it was a long race image)

    Feel free to skip past if your time or attention span is limited...

    Preparing for the Dubai marathon I focused on endurance – with minor injury messing up the schedule a little.  From then to TO I had 8 weeks to sort of hills and more distance, preferably avoiding further injury…so very little speedwork, and lots of incredibly boring ‘onramp intervals’ due to absence of hills in Dubai, topped up with a bit more core / leg strength work at circuits a couple of times a week.

    About a dozen people from my Dubai running club headed off to Cape Town, where it is Autumn, a lovely time of year but very variable weather conditions.  Last year’s TO had rain throughout, this year was predicted to be dry – but windy.  4 of us shared an apartment near the waterfront, pretty convenient for the event and for general access to shops / restaurants etc.

    We started off the final hours (Friday) with an early dinner where most people had carb-rich meals.  I tend to do better on good quality protein so it was fish and rice for me, and envious looks at the bottle of wine being consumed by family of one of the competitors (surely that is against the rules?).  Early to bed so as to be up by 03h45; all gear ready the night before.  A lot of thought had to go into this – there are lots of water stops, and Powerade  / Coke provided, but I was expecting to be out a good 7 hours and knew I’d need a bit more than that.  I took along 2 Gu gels (1 of them a 2x caffeine, especially for the last stretch), and a couple of Powerbars.  That was easy enough; my challenge was fitting in sunglasses / spectacles so that I could swap them as needed, plus a peaked cap in case the weather was treacherous and it rained after all (rain on specs is demoralising after an hour or so).  I bought a brilliant very light running jacket (Cape Storm) that I wore for the start, which allowed me to avoid the whole throw-away shirt / binbag thing – and I ended up keeping it on for about 3 hours, because the day didn’t really warm up until late.  The organisers had helpfully provided pacing wristbands that were pretty accurate at factoring in the terrain, so I wore the sub-seven hour band and planned to hang around the seven hour bus, hoping to pull away in the late stages if I still had anything left.

    Since I was unseeded I was in the last start pen (actually I would have been there anyway even if seeded since I am slow…).  In the region of 10 thousand runners in the cool dark morning, a few tears shed at the singing of Nkosi Sikele (it really is a lovely anthem, not a dry eye in the house).  By tradition the fish horn is blown and the gun fired, and we’re off – to a five minute / 500m walk to the start.  The race starts from the University of Cape Town, runs South to Muizenberg and then along the ‘1st’ ocean, False Bay.  Down to Fish Hoek and then back inland across to the 2nd ocean and up to Hout Bay then back to the university – but this is via 1st mountain, starting at 29k - Chapman’s Peak, and 2nd mountain at about 40k, Constantia.

  • So – cool, breezy, still dark, slow trot for the first couple of kilometres followed by a slow trot for the next 20 kilometres J.  I was working to a run / walk of 28 / 2 minutes, and this worked pretty well for the 1st half, as expected.  For the hills the idea was to run where I could and walk where it was too steep, and that’s what I did. 

    The route is absolutely spectacular, once the sun came up we could really appreciate the views.  Crowd support pretty good with people playing music and shouting encouragement (go Dubai…).  No headphones allowed which made me a bit nervous, but in the end I didn’t really notice their absence.  Loads of refreshment stations, no danger of a shortage of hydration.  I ate most of one of my Powerbars and had the first Gu, and up to around 35k felt pretty good and confident.  Managed to run much more of Chapman’s peak than I had anticipated.  By 42k I was feeling pretty rough – it’s interesting what a difference an hour can make!  Queasy, tired, sore.  I stopped completely, had a Coke (which I usually loath), waited a minute until it went down – and off I went again, restored.  Amazing.  By this stage I was pretty much in earshot / eyeshot of the 7 hour bus, but didn’t run with them because I find I can’t run to anyone else’s rhythm – it puts me off L and I get more tired.  But every now and then I’d hang out with them for a few minutes to get a sense of how we were doing.  It was disconcerting to see the actual busses that were picking up the casualties just a few minutes behind us – people that were not making the time cuts being swept off the course.  Ambulances trawling for the injured or weary.  Quite a few people fell hard after tripping over cats’ eyes in the road (I caught a couple myself but didn’t go over, luckily) and one guy I saw fall with his calf muscle in a huge knot.  Must have been really painful.  A couple of people staggering along looking completely spaced out – the medics were pretty good at spotting them before they actually collapsed though.  Most of this at 5 – 6 hours, so 40 – 50k mark.

  • The biggest hazard of the race was the wind.  It was gusting at gale force, so at times we ran into a really strong head wind, but actually that was fine – much worse was the wind behind us on a steep downhill, where I was being pushed along much faster than my body could cope with running, and on a stretch of road where the camber was really severe.  I confess to grunting, whimpering, swearing, and having to stop and walk a couple of times just to reset my pace / gait.  Also, unexpected irritation – stupid! – my hair band broke.  I have long hair that I keep tied back when I run, so in the wind having my hair all over the place was driving me nutty.  Luckily the cap I brought for rain purposes helped keep it out of my face before I bit someone.  Never occurred to me to carry a spare rubber band before.

    I have to admit I do not remember much of the last 8k section (I mentally did it all in 8k cuts).  I know from my Garmin I walked and ran (!) but I think I had my eyes glued to the road.  Certainly in the last couple of k my mantra was ‘don’t trip, don’t trip’ – not sure I’d get back up.  Into the rugby field at the end, a little sprint J a few tears…especially when I realised I had to walk over a bridge to the tent where I was meeting my friends.  My pace band was designed to get me in 2 minutes ahead of the cut off (yes, tight fit) and I ended up being just 12 seconds over that, so completely delighted.   Not bad for someone hose longest run a year ago was 12k.  All my friends made it too, which was excellent for celebration purposes.  The strongest of us went and fetched the car, for which we were staggeringly grateful, then back to the flat for showers, Brufen and Champagne, followed by a very slow stroll for an early pub dinner.  Walked a little bit funny for a day or so, caught a slight head-cold, which I believe is quite common due to the immune system impact of a loooong run, but overall, feeling pretty fine and ready for my London move next week.

     

  • Wow Louise, that was a brilliant report. Sounds like you had a tough race. I enjoyed reading every bit and really cant wait to meet you in London.

  • Louise...That is a fantastic race report and sums up your race beautifully..felt i was with you along the way...lol....it sounds a tough one but I bet you are chuffed to bits with yourself that you have achieved something wonderful.A BIG WELL DONE FROM ME..what an inspiration.image

    Ecky..well done on your short hilly run today...you will be grand for your marathon with TREV....image

    No running for me today...rest day but it is so beautiful and sunny outside...almost spring like again..hope it keeps up for my long run on Friday

  • Louise what a great report. Epic for a n epic race. You should be so proud of yourself. Good luck for your move to London. I guess you will miss the nice weathger. Still cold outhere.

    Ecky-Well done on naothre 35 minutes. I am excited BUT really panicking now as I haven't had my number through form the organisers of the Brighton Marathon and have phoned them up..but just an answerphone message. Have had e amils from them recently...but always think the worse.

    Jude-Good luck with your presentation.

    Hi franny,byeck,Chilli,Matt,MC etc etc .....   

    Did a nice steady 6.7 miles this morning..  

  • wow, Louise, that is fantastic, brilliant report loved reading every bit of it

    ecky - well done, guess you are into taper mode now?

     

  • Great report Louise. Well done again! Sounds amazing!

    Piano lesson - gotta dash!

  • Louise, fab race report. It sounds like a really tough, challenging race.

    I am hoping for a run on Friday but moo and miss by eck need to take priority.

    I had a massive bake sale with some kids from a group I've set up at Church. We sold everything we had baked, and I thought of all my cracers friends
  • well done on the bake sale by eck, hope you and the family are ok

  • Morning All

    AF..don't worry your race pack will arrive...have thay got a website or facebook page..that way you can see if anyone else has theirs. My rock and roll race pack arrived a few days ago...I reckon you will get it htis week.

    By'eck...well done on the bake sale..how on earth do you mabage to fit it all in ?

    Day off for me today..did my running session already...5 min warm up slow run..followed by 6 x 1/2 mile repeats with 1/4 mile recovery...followed by 10 min slow run...6.2 miles in total...time for Chico walk now image

    Hope everyone has a good day.

  • MOOOOOORNING

    Hi Franny, well done on your run. Have a lovely walk with Chico.

    By Eck, well done on your bake sale. You are one amazing Mummy.

    Boss, don't worry you should get your number this week.

    Work for me today and then off to get some creative stuff so the girls can make me some sparkly letters for my shirt for London. I am going to have Ecky on my shirt and Trev will have his name on his image. Running later with club and have been very norty this week and organised the session to fit in with my training image

    Hope everyone has a lovely day.

  • The numbers are meant to be picked up from the Expo on Friday or Saturday of next week. My worry is that I haven't been notified of my number whereas other people have!!! Will phone them again later. Can't believe that there was no one to talk to & no one has replied to my e mail sent yesterday at 1.30pm !!

    Ecky-you have every right to organise thes ession to suit your training. 

    Franny-Well done on your run yesterday.

    byeck-Well done on your bake and sell.

    4.7 mile run this morning.Still not sure how much I should be running the week before hand.    

  • Oooooooooooo Ecky..sparkly letters...super stuff and no reason why you shouldn't organise training around your schedule...guys at my running club do it all the time and nobody minds as its usually something a different to what normally goes on...ENJOY

    AF...that is very norty of them not to have answered you..that really annoys me and is just bad manners..after all they are happy to take your money in the 1st place. AS for how much you should be running the week before : my schedule says : 1 run of 5 miles with 3miles of it at your 10k pace  2nd run 5 miles at easy pace and a wee short easy run of 3miles but its entirely up to you..just make sure your well rested and raring to go come mara day where you will be itching to get going on your epic journey image Erm it was today i ran not yesterday...LOL

    Nice and sunny today but still a tad cold..hope its like this for tomorrow when I have a 20 miler planned.

  • Got my number got my number destressed now.S till had to phone them mind you!!!

    Franny-think I will do 2 x 5 miles next week. probably Tuesday and Wednesday. 

  • this wind is really cold and I am fed up with it now!

    so, yesterday swapped the shoes for some brooks ghost, used them on the treadmill this morning and they feel good. Only time will tell, but comfy at least. When I was doing all my core/stability stuff really noticed the lack of 'motion control' in them - I was wobbling all over the placeimage better for developing stability...

    ecky - nothing wrong with your run session being organised around your training plan

    AF - hope you get sorted, there is nothing worse than worrying over organisational things...

  • MC..great you got your shoes changed.Hope they work out for you.

    AF...yayyyyyyyyyyyy you got your number...relaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaax now. Sounds a good plan but don't do them too speedy..just nice and steady..leave your speediness for race day image

  • Franny-What I don't understand is say your plan mentioning 3 miles at 10k pace the week beforehand. That means I would have to run a 10k in 22.30- certianly don't want to do that just before the Marathon. I will be doing slow and stready runs.

    MC-Good that you have found another pair of trainers. I only waer Asics 1100 or 2100 series now as they suit me and are comfortable. I do an annual gait test at Sweatshop in Brighton.Will then buy a pair from them and order the rest for the year over the internet.

  • We have snow forecast for this afternoon. Not enticing me outside (not that I could run this afternoon anyway)
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