Sunday 26 March 2017

Week Twelve

Monday - 5 miles
Saturday - 5 hours (27 miles)
Sunday - 2 hours (11 miles) + 2 hours (10 miles)

This week has been pretty manic.  Work has been insanely hard - both physical tiredness and mental stress, I'm not going to lie, I'm not having a fun time at the moment.

On Monday, Toby and I did a short run together after work.  We did a reduced Midnight Runners loop and I stopped on Westminster Bridge for a photo which now seems more poignant following the terrorist attack two days later.  I run across that bridge every single week :(
On Wednesday I was in Milton Keynes for a funeral and I had planned to do a beautiful daylight run along the river, but due to extreme tiredness after a long day on Tuesday, I managed to leave my suitcase on the train.  It contained all my clothes for the funeral, my washbag, all my expensive running kit and my trainers.  There were tears but after multiple phone calls, the kindness of both family and strangers and two trips to Northampton, I managed to get it back and get to the funeral on time.  Running unfortunately bit the dust.

This weekend was always going to be tough.  I have long known that this was the hardest weekend of my entire training cycle and Toby and I had planned for it meticulously.  However, I felt spectacularly unready for it after the week I've had, and scared that it would destroy me for the undoubtedly difficult week ahead.  When I'm feeling a bit more human, I'll do a post on the motivation behind why I do it anyway...  Suffice to say, I set my alarm for 6am and went to bed early:
On Saturday morning I woke up feeling excited, typical pre-marathon nerves.  It was going to be a beautiful day and I had a stunning route planned. I set out at 7.40am (yes it really does take me that long to get my act together!) and headed off down the river. I went to Battersea, then on to Barnes, then Kew, then finally Richmond with a loop of Richmond Park to finish.  The plan was to run for 5 hours, which inevitably would end up being a marathon because it's pretty much impossible to run for that long and not run a marathon.
 Syon House, as viewed from Kew.  Kew Gardens.
 Richmond Hill.  Richmond Park.

There were lots of photo stops, snack stops, toilet stops, phone calls, looking-at-the-map stops, and the time includes all of these but nevertheless it was slow going.  I didn't feel at my peak.  I was grumpy and tired.  Toby met me at about 37km and ran the last section with me, during which I wailed, "Why am I so slow, do you think it's because I'm FAT?"  ... bloody hell, I'm high maintenance at the moment.  Toby, ever the diplomat, somehow managed to answer this in his typical measured and appropriate fashion!
Here I am at the end - this was my fifth marathon and my first this year.  Even I have to admit I don't look particularly fat, haha.

And here's the breakdown (unfortunately, due to Garmin-related user error on my part, this run is split into two parts) ... they were consecutive I promise!  Total was 27 miles (44 km) which is the furthest I've ever run in one sitting.  It was incredibly slow though.  Considering my marathon PB is 3:59....
For most people, that would be enough running for one weekend, but I'm not most people and the key thing about any race is feeling prepared.  I've always found that if you can run the race distance over two days, you'll be able to run it in one on the day i.e. if you can do 2 half marathons on Saturday/Sunday, you'll be able to get round a full marathon.

So.  Sunday's plan was to do another 4 hour run.  However, as I had the rare luxury of being in London for the weekend, I planned to do an exact replica of race day.  Toby and I were booked into the same hotel we plan to stay in the night before the race.  The lovely Sally, my physio friend, agreed to meet me at 8am and sort out my tired muscles, exactly as she will on the day of the race.  I ate the same dinner, the same breakfast, I wore the same kit.  The only difference was I did 2 x 2 hour runs instead of the full distance....

I deliberately timed it so that I would finish the first run at 7.30am, which is the time I anticipate finishing the first marathon.  This meant I needed to start from the red start line at 5.30am.  This meant leaving the hotel at 5am (I wanted to walk so I could check how long it would take to get there on the day of the race).  This meant getting up at 4am.  Sigh....
 Here I am heading for the red start, using the freebie map the hotel gave me.
 This is the road up to Greenwich Park and the gate leading to the red marathon start - unfortunately locked at 5.30am, but it gives an idea.  I ran the actual route of the marathon, to familiarise myself with the route, and it was really strange because I ran the backwards marathon last year so parts of it were quite familiar.  In particular I remembered this - where we stopped to take a photo at Mile 1, this feels like such a long time ago, hard to believe I will be doing it again in just four weeks!

Because the clocks had changed, it was still dark when I set off.  I ran for an hour and managed a pathetic 8.5km before turning round and heading back the same way.  As I ran back I saw this beautiful sunrise over Woolwich...
 ... before eventually arriving back at Greenwich Park which was now open.  I ran up to the bandstand where the backwards marathon finishes, then headed out of the park to meet Toby who was waiting in the car.  Total distance: 11 miles.  Not great in 2 hours, but I had run a marathon the day before....
We went back to the hotel and executed the plan.  I hopped in the shower, Toby ordered an epic room service breakfast, then I popped downstairs to meet Sally.  Came back up to the room to this extremely welcome sight and proceeded to scoff as much as I could manage!
Then Sally massaged my legs for an hour and tried to sort out all the damage while we had a good catch up!  At one point I was so tired I was drinking coffee during the massage to stay awake! Forgot to take a picture during so this was taken just before I headed out again, this time with Toby.
 Toby and I ran together from Greenwich to Bermondsey.  This was also part of the marathon route, but starting about 6.5 miles in, just a little bit further on from where I'd finished earlier this morning. We headed down to the Cutty Sark, which I imagine will be an entirely different experience on race day, then followed the route to Bermondsey where Toby hopped on the tube back to the hotel to avoid over-stressing his knee injury.
Meanwhile, I added on a bit of extra distance with a loop of Southwark Park, which was looking particularly beautiful today (you can just see the Shard in the distance)
Then I headed back the way I'd come, but a bit faster, so when I got back to Greenwich I needed some extra mileage and did a loop down by the river to add on another 20 minutes or so.  By this point I was very, very tired and struggling, but I kept on until I completed the two hours:
This time is frankly appalling - 10 miles in TWO hours, it's actually a record in terms of how bad it is.  On a good day I could do that distance in 1 hour 24 minutes!

Then again, I just ran 21 miles the day after a marathon.  Not many runners - even good, fast runners - could manage that, so I feel quite proud of myself really.  I'm also feeling surprisingly fine - I can even manage to get down the stairs of my flat, amazing!  From this point onwards I'm tapering so it all feels a bit more manageable.

Donations will be particularly appreciated this week: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/marathonmadness - thanks in advance xx




Monday 20 March 2017

Kidney scans - update

I recently had some extra tests to make sure my kidneys were in tip top condition for donation (a DMSA scan and a renal ultrasound).  The specialist nurse looking after me told me that the results would be discussed in their Friday multidisciplinary team meeting, but I hadn't heard anything and was starting to get a bit antsy.  So I emailed her last week to see if I could get an update.

Today I heard back from her (name removed for privacy):


YAY!!!  This is great news as the psychiatrist pretty much told me he would consent to letting my donation proceed, so I don't think there are any further issues which could stop me.  Roll on August!

Sunday 19 March 2017

Week Eleven

Monday - 8 miles
Tuesday - 8 miles
Saturday - 4 hours (22 miles)
Sunday - 1 hour 30 minutes (8.5 miles)

It's been a busy week!  On Monday I went out for a quick run after work - the aim was to get all my mileage done early in the week so I could have a rest before the weekend.  It worked quite well - I ran it at marathon pace, doing an extended Thames loop.   I'm running out of interesting views to take photos of on that loop - I feel like I've taken all of them - then I spotted this rather lovely view of Tower Bridge from Old Billingsgate.

On Tuesday night I went to Midnight Runners for the first time in weeks - it's been really tough to get there because of work, but I had a late start on Wednesday so I thought I'd take advantage.  It was a lovely evening and nice to see some familiar faces!  If you click on the photo and look closely I'm standing slightly right of centre....
Photo credit: Máté Fülöp
It was the usual circuit with plenty of body weight exercises and a quite ridiculous number of squats!  I took this photo on the way home, halfway across Millenium Bridge as it was looking really beautiful with the full moon.  
For the next two days my legs ached and I couldn't understand why as I felt I hadn't really run all that far.   I was even struggling to get up stairs... I started to wonder whether I had somehow picked up some sort of weird delayed injury.... The penny finally dropped on Thursday that it was probably all the squats. Oh yeah... that'd do it.  Needless to say they have probably strengthened some muscle that needed a bit of work so I'm glad I did it!

I had the rest of the week off then went back to Horsham on Friday night.  I went into my room to collect my kit to find this awaiting me:
My mum had stayed in my room during the week and laid out all my kit like this, I burst out laughing and called the assembled company for a good giggle.  Being bonkers obviously runs in the family!

Friday was World Sleep Day - I know this because there was an event at work with lots of info about getting a good night's sleep.  This amused me greatly!   I'd been advised by George back when we set up my training programme that I should try to replicate the conditions of the actual ultra as closely as possible during training, and that included one run where I had to get up and run at 3am....
The lovely Toby had volunteered to come and accompany me as I was a bit nervous about roaming the country lanes of Sussex on my own at 3am, and to take the sting out of it he had booked us into a rather lovely hotel.  It was quite sad having to go to bed early but we did and after 4 hours sleep, the alarm went off at 2am.  When I picked up my phone to turn it off, I found this text:
 
which really made me smile!  Thanks Giulia!  We got up and I went through the motions - preparing electrolytes, eating porridge, putting my kit on.  I called room service and they brought me coffee at 2.45am - they must've thought I'd lost my marbles.  Toby had brought his folding bike and was busily getting ready also.  I'd planned a route and we were ready to set off.  Toby had bought special mega-watt lights for the bike and I was all kitted out in head torch and flashing back light.  It was actually kind of spooky running at that time.  We ran the first 5km listening to the sounds of the countryside... we saw bunnies, heard owls and saw deer run across the road ahead of us.  Later an enormous rat scurried alongside us for 100m or so.  It was pretty amazing.
A couple of hours passed.  I'd downloaded a cheesy 80's playlist for when the going got tough so we put that on and stormed along blasting out Kylie, Abba and Rick Astley.  Music always helps get through my marathons and it cheered us both up.  We got into Horsham proper by the time it was getting light.  Toby was completely amazing - keeping me company, putting up with my rambling, and not objecting to going on a four hour cycle ride at 2 o'clock in the morning.  What a star.
We were at the 30k mark when I realised that the route I'd planned was about to start featuring some pretty beastly hills.  I failed to take any photos that actually capture that in any way but trust me it was pretty rough.  There was a lot of walking involved...  I discovered later there had been 269m of ascent - almost all of it in the last 5k.  Go me and my amazing route planning skills!
After four hours we were back at the hotel and we had a lovely bath, an amazing breakfast and an hour's nap.  I had another hour's sleep that afternoon, but was still feeling pretty knackered by the evening.  That night I looked at my Garmin and I had done almost 50,000 steps.  I'd normally go and walk round a bit to get a nice round number but I was so exhausted that I just couldn't be bothered!  Instead I went to bed early and had an epic 10-hour kip!

Sunday morning I just needed to do 1.5 hours so a nice trail run was in order.  I set off on my usual route into the forest but as I headed into the normally deserted part, I could see a load of vans parked in the field.  As I got closer I discovered there was a motocross event happening.  It was busier than I could ever imagine somewhere so isolated being and incredibly LOUD!
Even once I got into the normal bit of the forest I could still hear the revving of engines!  It has dried out a lot since I last ran this route and was as pretty as ever - thoroughly enjoyed myself today.  Lots more hills but because it was so short it only added up to 121 metres of ascent this time.

 Finally a bit of stats geekery...  My Garmin keeps track of how many times I use my trainers so that I know when they're coming to the end of their useful life.  Astonishingly, this is the record for my new black ultra trainers, which I've had less than a month.  180km in six runs - wow!  They're earning their keep!
 
I also found this which shows how many steps and km I've done over the past 4 weeks.  500km a month, 21,800 steps a day on average.  I feel like I will never see numbers like this ever again!  I only have one more week of really hardcore training coming up before I start tapering off so I thought I would share!
People have continued to donate very generously to my cause - thank you all so much.  I'm delighted to report that I'm only £270 away from reaching my target with five weeks to go before the ultra.  Every donation counts and so please do consider donating if you can, the page is here: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/marathonmadness.  Much appreciated! xxx

Sunday 12 March 2017

Week Ten

Tuesday - 3 miles
Wednesday - 15 miles
Saturday - 3.5 hours (20 miles)

My first run this week was with Toby, who has not run properly since his knee problems started but since having physio has been much improved.  I suggested we run 5k together, but after 3k he was struggling and suggested he walk back while I continue.  In typical unreasonable fashion, I declined, and insisted we keep running as, "it's all in your head" and "if it's not a stabbing pain, you don't need to stop".  He suggested we stop at Millenium Bridge and walk from there.  I declined again: "You've almost done it now, it'll be worth it afterwards".  To my delight, he did me proud and finished the job.  His knee was OK afterwards, his physio is pleased and he did another 5k today (Sunday).  Which is good because we have signed up to do a marathon together!  We are off to Tromsø in Norway in June to do the Midnight Sun marathon - one of the ones I've always wanted to do, yippee!

Because I did such a short distance on Tuesday, I knew I'd have to do extra later in the week to make up the mileage.  On Wednesday I did an 8-4 shift on placement so I was home early enough that it was still light.  This was too much of a gift to miss so I headed out on an evening 15-miler incorporating quite a few major landmarks!


Top row: Battersea Park lake, view towards Albert bridge
Middle row: Albert memorial (Hyde Park), Speaker's Corner (Hyde Park)
Bottom row:  Big Ben, South Bank

This has been another exhausting week at placement and the last thing I felt like doing was getting up at 7am on Saturday morning for another long run,  but obviously I did it anyway.
It was a slow route, pootling round lots of familiar bits of Horsham.  Midway through, I found myself running in the wrong direction through the local Parkrun (not recommended!)

When I got home I was eating a Clif bar and Iz asked me what it was.  I explained that it was a snack with lots of carbohydrates in it and that this one (oatmeal/raisin/walnut) is my favourite.  Unfortunately it is really difficult to get hold of and most running shops don't stock it, so I have to sneak into the most hostile and unpleasant environments to source them..... (cycling shops!  Hiss!!!)

That reminded me that my favourite gels (High5 banana) are also impossible to find so I have to buy them by the box from the internet.  Literally nowhere stocks these bad boys.  They taste like foam bananas and I love them more than any other gel.  Iz thought I was being a bit of a princess because all my favourites are obscure and nowhere sells them... I don't know what to say to that!  Maybe I just have exclusive tastes!!!

On Sunday, my training plan said I needed to do some other cross-training.  I'd already planned that I was going to take my new rollerblades out for a spin with Iz but as it was forecast to rain we made an early start.  It was great fun and I took to them quite quickly and we rolled around the South Bank for a couple of hours.  It was all going really well until I went over a bump in the pavement and landed pretty heavily on my arse - I expect I'm going to have a pretty major bruise as it's still sore 10 hours later.  I have to say rollerblading is amazingly good fun though....


...even if the fun police are trying to stop us!

Hope you're all having a lovely week, the next couple of weekends feature interesting runs so do come back next week to read about the latest insanity.  Sponsor the madness here:  http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/marathonmadness Thank you so much to everyone who already has, you are all wonderful people xx