dislike the dark weather :(

well i was just about to go out for a run. was all hyped up and going to put my kit on when i thought id better check what the weather was doing to decide what to wear. I couldn't see a thing! okay so i could see a few street lights but that's about it!! Gutted but I really don't want to run through a few parks when it's this dark. oh well, there's always tomorrow morning :)

back to it

Legs have calmed down today so went out for a lil jog. Did 40mins running but have absolutely no idea how far it was. Felt pretty good on the legs to be back out and running again. Seems amazing to think it was over 150days since I signed up and now it's all over, starting again for another event.

Going to do it in fancy dress next year and once again raising money for Sands :)

Better get to it and get us both out running, don't stand a chance of doing it with that massive thing on without training :)

I've done it!!!

Wow! that was THE most amazing experience EVER!!! Totally feeling the pain now, my legs and shoulders are really achy. My legs especially when I go down stairs. It was well worth it though.

Well I think you lose all your dignity when doing an event like this. traffic was quite bad coming down to the bay so didn't have time to wait in the queue for the loos. Heard some people saying they were going to find some bushes and thought it was a good idea. Ended up peeing in a pretty public bush with ryan standing in front of me.

The first 5miles were really good, didn't feel it tbh and did it in just under 1hour. Had to stop for a pee, twice!! Once in the bushes and once in the mens loos cos couldn't be bothered waiting in the queue for womans.

After I got past the 6mile mark I start feeling really sick and faint. Really didn't know if i'd be able to carry on running. Got some powerade not long after that and it was amazing. Totally had a power boost then, I love that stuff.

Needed to stop for a pee again just past the 8mile mark, not suprising considering how much powerade I just drank :) The view around the bay in the last few miles was pretty amazing but my legs were seriously aching. Every time I tried stopping to stretch them they just felt even worse. I kept telling myself it was only another 2.5 miles to go (a distance i've easily done before) but my legs just couldn't take it and the only thing keeping me going was remembering what (and who) I was doing this for. It's amazing how long you can keep going when you think about who you're doing it for.

The final mile was the longest mile of my life!!! Got back to the bay and to the start line at just over 12miles. Then we had to run past the finish line, up to what felt like back to the city centre!!! then head back into the bay for the finish line. Had to stop and walk for last part of the straight past the finish line then made a run for it when we came back down again.

Finished in a chip time of 2:31:27

It was an amazing experience and would definitely do it again. There were some really good costumes around, a few people carrying a thomas the tank engine, two people dressed up as bananas and loads of other stuff, it was pretty cool to look at and the enthusiasm from the crowd when they saw them was pretty immense. Definitely going to do it next year.

Less than 100 days to go!!!

Okay so I've been told to keep this blog up to date. Sorry!

Didn't do much last month because my leg has been hurting and layed off quite a bit.
Ran up the mountain on the 15th june and oh my gosh it was amazing! So hard trying to run up and got bloody knackered but at the top it was so good. And coming down again was really good, felt like i was going to fall flat on my face :P

There are some lush runs out Usk too. Did two runs the week before last and it was good to be running across the trails instead of the road.

Having noticed the countdown timer on my homepage has gone to less than 100 days, (considering i signed up around 150days, it seems like so little time) I decided I best get off my bum and get out there and I'm bloody glad I did :)

Actually managed a full week of running last week. Two runs of three miles, one run of 1mile (supposed to be 2miles but epic fail, started running too quickly and just general bad day). Did 4miles yesterday which is further than I've done in a long time. Took me quite a while, average pace of 12mins/mile but that's still okay. Even had to do a Paula Radcliffe on this run (i needed a pee mid route :P) My leg was killing me when i got back last night but froze it in the bath and it felt a lot better and it's okay today after I did some stretching.
Felt really good to be out there and running this week :) Only did a total of 11.4M but that's still 11.4M further than a two months ago.

Erm yeah, not much more to say to be honest. Spoke to someone in work about my legs and they said to try changing my work footwear as that was their problem so let's hope that works :) Will try and update this every week now as can't be bothered doing it after every run but should probably write more than just once a month.

monthly round up

Went for a 2 mile recovery jog on sunday. Considering it was a recovery jog and I was going incredibly slow, my min/mile time was quicker than before. Weird. But still, it shows i'm improving a lot :)

With riding and running, this month I did 33.83miles. It's not much but that's 33.83miles further than last month and i'll get there eventually. 1847 calories burned :) 17.18 running miles, just over a half marathon. Kind of a scary thought that the running I did over say two weeks has got to be done in one run! Oh well, 139 days until race day :)

My pace has gone from a low of 13:52 when I had walking breaks for 11:00 full running. 12:03 when running the park run with someone else. That's pretty good in just three weeks. I hope I can keep up a pace of 11:00. That would be amazing, a half marathon time of 2h24m. Would be well impressed if I could do that by october considering my original aim was finish before the roads open again, i.e. 3hours.

wow! just realised how long it's been since i've run. I haven't run since last sunday! two bike rides but no running, seriously slacking here :/

got an mp3 player for my birthday, yay! :D

Did the park run, run free event today :)despite the pouring rain. And when I say pouring, I really do mean pouring. I actually couldn't see properly at certain points of the course. Got absolutely soaked and covered in mud but it's all good fun. Managed to jog all of it, even if some of the jogging was on the spot :P. Can't believe that to be fair, didn't think I managed to jog all of it. A time of 37:22 isn't that good but to be fair neither of us have had much training so to jog for that length of time isn't bad going.

bloody stop watches!

not much to say this evening but i want to keep a log of how everything's going.

after the other days hill work, my legs didn't want to play ball so I had to take two days off instead of just the one :/ but still, my legs were refreshed for this evening :)

was still really warm this evening, even at like 20:30 but it was kinda nice, better than thursday's temperature at least. slowed down and upped the running to 7/2 splits. Still not much but I'm getting there, quicker than I thought to be honest :) I hate my stopwatch though. I can't adjust my radio at all with it on and it bloody stopped on me on the last set. I don't even know how long for either! I'm thinking it was only a minute, which would've made my pace 11:18 but it could've been anything from 1-3minutes I think. three minutes would've been a pace of 12:10ish. Aah well, not that I'm too bothered by pace at the moment.

Also, miss my mp3 player, it's okay running along to the radio but I miss my mindless crap :) roll on payday when I can buy another one and put my running tracks on it :)

overall was a good run and i can definitely see improvement, roll on next run day :)