Day 56: and yet another longest run ever!!!

Today we run a staggering 90 min, with lots of uphills, and covered a total of 10.49 miles, 16.8 Km!!! I am so, so proud of us, so chuffed, and oh-so sore... It's very enjoyable to run in a new setting, with lots of fresh air, dead-quiet country roads, woodland on each side, little hamlets, and fairly good weather (good for a run at least: cool, and dry up until the last third, when rain was refreshing and thus welcome).

To top it all up, we were greeted at home by a wonderful slap-up meal (including home-made foie gras and a lovely bottle of Loupiac) and some gifts for a very early holiday celebration. And we've been dozing since then... Niiiice.

I would write lots more but the 'azerty' keboard is a bloody nightmare to use now, so I will just say this: it was a very hard run, and for the last 20 min I had no thoughts left (except 5 min of a nasty little internal voice repeating the word 'walk' in a seductive and sultry tone); I also went through a time when I wasn't sure my legs were still there...

On holiday

So we're off in France. GPS seems functional here, but I can't really post our routes until we return.

Instead, here's Karen stretching.

Day 53: 75 minutes!!!

75 min run: our longest since we started the programme -- done. Phew! Today coach Stephen set the bar very high by managing to get out of bed and run the whole thing with a hangover and less than 5 hours of sleep: there's no me canceling a run for a headache or a runny nose for sure!!! :) How's that for determination.

Admittedly though, we were slower than usual -- if the map is to be trusted, we run a little over 6 miles (a little less than 10K, which I managed in 53 min just three weeks ago). But, we did it, and that's what counts: who else was up at 5:20 this morning to run that long?? :)

We had also never run the South Bank that far: we actually run pass the blue-lit trees, the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament... Nice!

Day 52: the dark age

Days have shortened, big style: today we jogged (45 min) and by the time we had reached the Millenium Bridge, the day was not even dawning yet. It was dark. It was also cold, and I was glad to wear three layers of clothing...

I (virtually) unashamedly skipped the personal training session yesterday, and also made the decision to stop these sessions until I've secured my next job, as my contract with Amex is ending soon. It's been six months already!

Day 51: don't start thinking about it or you won't do it

Whoosh, I am feeling rather run down this week, most probably a consequence of the cold-then-hot-then-freezing intervals of Sunday's jog. This morning I just felt like a dumb machine, jogging with that vacuous look on my face for the first 15 minutes, just moving my legs and not uttering a word until I sort-of started to wake up to the world. Still, it's better (by the programme's standards, anyway!) than staying in bed and skipping a session, which was on my mind almost until the minute we left the house... I am also obsessed with food this morning, and desperate to crawl back in my warm bed and soothe my runny nose :o(

Day 50: sniffles...

We did so well yesterday! We sported some brand new (waterproof!) gear for a 1.5 hour jog all the way from Wapping to Islington -- almost 9 miles... I thought we would run under the snow but that turned into frank rain by the time we left the house. We did get really cold on our way back though, what with waiting for buses on their less frequent Sunday schedules... My legs were blue by the time we got home!

Today I am a little sniffly, and I had to go back to bed for a little while after our jog as I felt shivery too.

Slightly dreading Thursday as we are scheduled to run for a full 75 min, which is the first time we will run for so long in one go...

Today, We Jog

A long Sunday jog at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

Day 47: no more :)

This morning's supposedly-easy 25-min jog was actually rather dire. My legs have had enough! As coach Stephen pointed out, we've been exercising intensely for 6 days straight, 3 of them being either running, interval or extensive Fartlek sessions. So this morning, it was just a struggle to put one foot in front of the other! But no more, no more! Today comes the satisfaction of being done with it, and tomorrow the pleasure of some well-deserved rest. Have a good weekend y'all! K x

Day 46: the toughest bit is done!

That's it: the hardest training session of the week is now behind us -- phew. 75 min of Fartleking takes pretty much everything out of you. This time we did find the access to the Regent's Canal (not massively well signposted: it looked like a case of somebody having rotated the signs for a laugh). The route is very nice, with lots of bridges and locks to set goals for sprints, and quiet -- at that early time of day the swans were still asleep, beak under wing on the water. The one not-so-good thing about it is that it isn't very well lit up, so I wouldn't run there on my own at such times (running under the tunnels is borderline spooky).

How satisfying to be done with the dreaded session of the week! I am exhausted, however I am very much looking forward to Sunday's session, which is longer (90 min) but promises to be more leasurely as we will only be jogging, and hopefully the weather will be dry enough that we can stay wherever we end up and enjoy a lunch somewhere afterwards.

On the general side of things, my legs (and, I believe, coach Stephen's) are dead, and I am really starting to think that signing up for a 9-class yoga course was not a clever idea. In the first phase of the programme I felt it was beneficial to have one day a week where I work on stretches and better breathing, but now with the longer running sessions it is starting to feel like a chore to stay in town until 18:15 for yoga, then be home no earlier than 21:00. I've skipped 2-3 sessions already and I am dangerously close to not attending tonight's, either. It's rather tough to 'surrender into Shavasnah' when all you're thinking is "damn, I'll have to go to bed pretty much as soon as I get home again tonight".

I'll end this post with a very positive note though: one new donation on Just Giving! Thank you Stephen, for this and also for the way you calculated the amount you would give -- it suits your beautifully mathematical mind and my oh-so-slightly-competitive nature.

This morning's Fartlek

As will happen when you run around tall buildings, along canals and under bridges, the GPS is a bit spotty, but hey:

A Big Fartlek at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

Day 45: dreading tomorrow a bit!

Good interval training session yesterday for about half an hour, and this morning we jogged for one hour, to St Paul's Cathedral, across the Millenium Bridge, and along the South Bank back to Tower Bridge -- which, incidentally, was just being open to let a boat come through, which is quite a grand thing to see when the sun is rising.

I am dreading tomorrow though, as it will most definitely be the hardest day of the week. For a start, we have to wake up much earlier than usual. The plan is for a 75 min Fartlek session -- even longer than the one we had on Sunday... At least I hope that the weather will be more enjoyable (and the view). And to top it all up, I have a yoga session in the evening too, which I don't really want to miss as I've already skipped 2 or 3 in the series. With this, the usual work in the office, preparations for the COP exam, and my now-intensified search for the next job, it all adds up to a fairly hectic day ahead...

Day 43: tough week ahead

This morning the alarm rang that little bit earlier, as the duration of our weekday training sessions have increased (and we still have to go to the office afterwards, right?). So, we managed our 25 min jog - 10 min run (nice and fast towards the end) - 25 min jog. But oh my, we were still rather worn from yesterday's workout!!!

London has got significantly colder than yesterday, yet it is so much more enjoyable to run in today's crisp cold than in yesterday's grim drizzle...

I am somewhat dreading Thursday's 70 min early-morning Fartlek......

Holy Fantastic Fartlek, Batman!

Week Six, Sunday at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

Day 42: we are rock-hard.

Today coach Stephen and I did a 70 min Fartlek session which was *tough*. The weather was not great -- we had quite a bit of drizzle, at times full-on rain, which made the terrain wet and in places slippery. To top it all up, we actually got lost! We had intended to run along the Regent's Canal to Victoria Park (nice), but managed to take a wrong turn and ended in Limehouse Cut, somewhere between an industrial estate and a Tesco (not nice)... Not the most inspiring of landscape. I also paid dearly for the amount of creamy cake and cheesy pizza I ate last night at Laura's party: I felt so heavy the whole time!

Anyway, what counts is that we made it, and we even jogged a lot longer than planned in the end. We definitely deserved our Sunday roast at the local pub!

And now it should be fun to see how stiff our legs will be tomorrow :) I for one had some rather painful knees towards the end, and Stephen's ankles seem to be playing up a bit.

We are so hard core :)

Day 40, otherwise known as *Friday*

Tough one this morning as the weather was very muggy and we were both tired, stiff and heavy after yesterday's run as well. But, we did manage our planned 30-min run, even though poor Stephen was gasping for air because of his cold. Tomorrow, we lie in!

Week 6, Days 4 & 5

It appears as though the Tower of London has some kind of anti-GPS forcefield.

Yesterday, we started running from Wapping, but the GPS signal did not kick in until well beyond the tower:

Week 6, Day 4 (second half) at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

This morning, we ended by running around the Tower of London:

Week 6, Day 5 (first half) at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

I'm going to half to play with the settings to see if I can get something better

Country jogs and runs soon to come

This week my dad sent me a couple of pictures (well actually he sent about 10, but for some reason only 2 made it through) of the countryside surrounding my parents' house, to give me a taste of the landscape we'll be enjoying when Stephen and I spend a few days there soon, jogging around. This one pic isn't the most beautiful, but it shows a nice bed of autumn leaves at the edge of some woodland... something to look forward to!

Day 39: good run

This morning, 45 min run in the City, all the way to Temple, across the river at Blackfriars, and then back along the Thames. It went rather well, except for the fumes (at their worst around Blackfriars), and the few interruptions at crossroads with heavy traffic. We did however enjoy a great view of the sun rising from Tower Bridge, and felt energised by the end of it all.

Coach Stephen seems to be coming down with that nasty cold again, and I am getting a bit of a tickly throat too...

Also tried on some knee supports to relieve a bit of the strain I am still feeling since Sunday, and they seem to help a lot. Last weekday of training tomorrow before the big Saturday sleep. Can't wait!

Oh, and I am also investigating possible races for the end of the year / very beginning of January. I am looking for a good 10-mile race and so far have narrowed down to two interesting options. More soon...

Day 38: tough to get up...

Today's 6 o'clock wake-up call was tough, especially after a hard gym workout last night (I dread to think what my poor shoulders will feel like tomorrow). That being said, it's now back to training, and this morning the 20 min jog followed by 10 min run and another 10 min jog went well, and ended in an energising sprint. Tomorrow though, it's on to the serious stuff again, with a 45 min run on the schedule -- our first long run on a weekday... This week promises to be a tough one indeed.

My knees still feel a bit stiff after Sunday's race, so it may be that I buy some knee supports to aid recovery and minimise the strain of the coming couple of runs.

Day 37: on to "phase 2"

It was a treat to have a day of rest yesterday.

This morning, back to the training programme, with a gentle 30-min jog. After much deliberation we have decided to engage into the second part of the sub-4 hours marathon programme (as opposed to part one of the sub-3 hours one). Our plan is to do the first 12 weeks of the sub-4 first, so that I am actually ready to run a half-marathon in 6 weeks from now, then use our remaining 12 weeks to do parts 1 and 2 of the sub-3 one, so that I step up one gear and become simply better at it (hopefully that means faster :).

The next six weeks will therefore be a bit harder, with runs being lengthened to 90 min on Sundays instead of 60. Wish me luck!

Also, the final results of the Leatherhead 10K have been released -- I actually finished 374th (no idea why I dropped one place since they first published the results), and beat about 160 people in total. Still not sure how well I did against the women only, but I'll try to take some time to calculate this in the next few days.

Leatherhead Photos

Photos are up!

First race -- done!!! I've got the Leatherhead 10K under my belt.

Hurraayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!! :D I made it to my first race (up at 5:30 AM), completed it (1oK), did not finish last, and beat about 200 people at it!!! I arrived after 53 minutes, in 373rd position out of about 520 participants -- I'll know soon out of how many female participants.

This race was a treat! After the initial stampede and the first 3-4 Kms, I powered through those hills and started to overtake people, nice and smooth. Thank you Stephen for teaching me how to manage a steap hill, and Joao for making my thighs rock-hard with all that weight lifting! On top of this, even though yesterday's weather was dire, today there was not a drop of rain for the whole race.

I think a good third of the race was up hill, yet I was honestly smiling when I got to the 5th kilometre where the race's photographer was, and I was smiling even more towards the end of the race as I managed to overtake a few of the people who had been running close to me for a large portion of the route. Actually the down-hill bits were fast but slightly scary as the floor was slippery with lots of wet leaves lying around.

I managed a slick sprint as well at the very end, running faster than I ever had (even in training). I did think that I had left one of my late competitors well behind, but unfortnately she managed to beat me in the last 100 metres or so. Still, what an amaizing feeling to run your heart out as people are cheering you into the finish line...

That being said, my last thought on approaching and passing that line at full speed were "oh my god I'm gonna throw up"... It took me a little while to get my breath back and to believe that I wasn't going to pass out, but guys, I made it, and I've got my participatory medal to prove it :D

The rest of the day was spent eating the home-made cake they were selling there, browsing sofas in a rather good furniture shop, enjoying a roast at the local pub, and sleeping like a log in the train with my head on Ubercoach Stephen.

People, my legs are sooo tired right now, I cannot wait to simmer in a bath for the best part of an hour, gobble down pizza like there's no tomorrow, and sleep like a wee bairn.

Wooo-hoo-hoo!!!!! Bring on the Bath Half then!

53 minutes, 48 seconds

Karen crosses the finish line, beating her goal by more than four minutes!

45 mins

K passes the 8.5 k mark

30mins

First woman runs by

28 minutes

Runners passing by now ...

20 minutes

No, she's not at 9k yet. But I am on the course!

Argh!

Ten minutes in, and I have no idea where the race is at. The webpage that shows the route is not accessible by iPhone, due to a lack of a plug-in.

Back to the finish line, I guess.

And they're off!

Karen is right in the middle of the pack, so no decent photo.

T-10 minutes

T-45 minutes

We're here with plenty of time

We're on our way!

To Leatherhead!

It's early. It's cold. We're at a bus stop, to go to a train station, to go to Leatherhead.

I will attempt to blog during today's race, between my other roles as phtotgrapher and cheerleader.

We'll see if this works.

Day 33 (cont.): yay!!!!!

And one more donation!!! Lorraine just got me to reach the £200 mark!!! Hurray!!!!! Thank you Lorraine -- you have completely deserved the delivery of that pair of boots...

Day 33: new donation!

Not much to declare on the running side today (easy jog of 20 min), however I did want to post my warm thanks to John for his donation today on Just Giving. Thanks John, this is much appreciated. And in response to your question, the only things chasing me are lonely meowing cats...! :)

Day 32: last run of the week before the 10K

This morning, 25 min run and everything went well. It was rather quiet, and mild enough to run in a t-shirt.

I'm still hoping for no rain on Sunday... I've also booked the train/coach tickets and unfortunately we have to get up at 5:30 to get to Leatherhead on time :( At least we'll be back in London early enough to enjoy the rest of our Sunday.

I'm happy that my knees are feeling fine -- all that's left of the training programme this week is a really short jog tomorrow and on Saturday: eaaaasy!

Day 31: knees OK.

45 min jog and my knees seem to be handling it fine again. Nothing else to declare today: I'm just glad I managed to get up at 6 even though I got home late after the gig...

Day 30: one month and still running...

Well, almost :) This morning I actually just went for a general workout at the gym to rest my knees completely for the Leatherhead 10K on Sunday. All's well -- last night's frozen peas did wonders to soothe the strains of last Sunday's run.

I got a new donation on the Just Giving site today :) Thank you Kourosh!!! It's great to get some support from people at the BMJ, I'm so chuffed!

Day 29: nice and easy

Not much to declare today -- easy-peasy jog for 30 min on the Wapping High St and around Shadwell Basin. My knees are feeling the strain of yesterday's run a little, so I'm thinking of taking it easy tomorrow and go to the gym for a workout and light treadmill jog, or something like that -- no need to overdo it and miss my race on Sunday! No personal training session tomorrow as I'm going to a gig with Maria :)

Day 28: one-hour run number 3

Well, I didn't do too badly even after yesterday's Halloween party, the delicious fruity punch Arnaud kept refilling my glass with, and this morning's early awakening... I attempted to map my run here: http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/gb/london/972894756457, and the site measured roughly 9.97km, which is great in one hour. I feel really good too today: because I'm not in pain at all, because the weather ended up being perfect, because London was as beautiful as ever, and because now it's over and I can relax for the rest of my Sunday!!!

A couple of things though, and good advice (I think) for any of you runners out there:
1/ don't run Tower Bridge on a sunny Sunday afternoon; it is just impossible and totally jam-packed with tourists (who, by definition, are slow).
2/ mind your head when you run by a park where guys play football -- some bloke scored a goal straight into my temple. I was not pleased...