Life is a rollercoaster

According to Ronan Keaton.

This week has been just that. Started off on Sunday with Stirling 10k. It's funny i never see Sunday as the start of the week but it is, isn't it? Anyway, having not a run a 10k for 2 full years i was feeling less than hopeful of a PB but thought I'd give it my best shot.

And i did. PB, and give it my best shot that is. Only by one second mind you but hey, a PB is indeed a PB right? You'd think. I was very down on myself and couldn't figure out why i couldn't/cant run faster.I guess i just need to try harder is the hard answer.
Got home in time for the football though, cracking game.  Felt completely wiped out after dinner and was in bed by 9pm. Got up at usually time and ran to work but decided to give gym miss as felt really tired. By end of day i was feeling rubbish, throat was on fire and i ached all over, tried to call docs but it was closed for Sept Holiday. Damnation. Came home and went slept from 6.30 til 5 next morning.

Couldn't take day off as we had the assessors in for this award I've been working on. Staff were all nervous as i was. But it was all fine, the assessor was great and put everyone at ease. He said he was impressed by my staff and by everything he'd seen. Phew, all that hard work seemed to have paid off!

I left not long after he did and went home to bed again after failing to get Doctors appointment again. I thought self medicating on paracetamol etc would be way forward, I'd probably get told it was virus anyway. By Thursday morning i got up and nearly fainted, not that surprising consider I'd barely eaten since Monday Lunchtime. I went back to bed until doctors opened then when asked if it was an emergency i said yes, it is. So i have tonsillitis, got penicillin and the doctor told me that best thing i could do was not to talk. My friends thought this was hilarious when i posted it on FB/Twitter. Unfortunately had to go back to work Friday as i was short staffed. Wasn't best day ever except to get Email from MD to say we'd got official confirmation that we passed and have now been accredited! We think we also got highest score the company has had but have to wait for official report to come in. Hurrah.

Left work feeling rather sorry for myself. I felt dreadful, and completely washed out. And i was upset by plans for weekend for shot down in dust. I was meant to be in Glasgow for dinner Friday. Saturday had been planned for months. Chris had emigrated to Canada yrs ago and was back in town, plan was for bunch of us to go visit Museum (where we all worked together) then dinner, then drinks.
So my plans for dinner through in Glasgow were scuppered. No point going for dinner when you cant eat. Ian went off on his own, he's done a grand job looking after a poorly me this week, trying to get me to eat half a cupasoup when he could.
 Have to say as the evening progressed i felt better and better though and by time Ian was home i was almost perky. It helped getting the updates from the 24hr race in Wales, thanks to JohnK. Was very exciting watching it unfold.

Woke up this morning feeling 80% better, penicillin really is like a miracle drug for me. First thing we did was check up on Team Scotland's progress and been doing that entire morning.
So i'm not going to miss out after all. I'll go along and meet everyone as promised, doubt i'll be able to stomach much food or drink but i'll give it a shot. I've lost 6lbs since Tuesday, ironic how i've been moaning about losing a bit of weight and that happens!

24hr race not long finished. Amazing performance from Debs, she has inspired something in me and i have a strange desire to dip toe in water of 24hr racing now....I might change my mind when i read her blog though. Her words at he end of the Perth100k were "never again, cant wait for WHW race for a rest"  lol Nails. Go Team Scotland!

Time we cant get back

My Uncle died 3 years ago. He was fairly old and hadn't been too well so wasn't too much of a shock. At his funeral we met up with some long lost family. My Auntie Anne & Uncle Alec emigrated to America 44 years ago, not that thry has been away for all that time though.

They actually kept a house here which they've still got and still visit every year. My cousin Tracy is around my age and yet i didn't know her. Now i blame my Dad for this, and I'm quite angry with him about it. If they were over here every year he should've taken us to visit them. I recall when i was very young meeting Tracy and have vague memories of it but other than that i don't think we met again. It's bloody ridiculous. It's funny how it seems to be that it's always the Mum's family we end up spending more time with, from the families i know its that way anyway. I guess my Mum could've also made more of an effort but it was my Dad's sister so i think the ball was in his court so to speak.

Anyway, water under bridge now i guess, no point looking back and having regrets it's all about making most of what we have now. My Uncle Alec died in April, they had a big funeral over there for him and had him cremated. Plan was always to bring him back to Scotland though. So last week that's exactly what they did.Anne, Tracy, Dick and their 2 young boys arrived last week. We arranged to meet them for a family dinner on Friday night. Turned into a pretty late night and didn't get to bed til around 2am. These pics were taken 3 years ago, it's safe to say Alec was a funny guy, all the pics of us I'm laughing my head off.


 His burial took place at  Penicuik Cemetery with an incredible outlook over the Pentland Hills. The service was kept short and sweet due to torrential rain which stopped as soon as it was over and made us all laugh.  At the service afterwards there were pictures of the family dotted all over place, big blown up ones. It's probably a very American thing to do but it was truly lovely. We had a lovely time celebrating a wonderful mans life, i just wish i'd known him that bit longer. RIP Uncle Alec.

My Big brother and his family went over to LA to visit them last year and had an amazing time. Tracy & Dick live in Hermosa Beach and Auntie Anne is just outside Beverely Hills. After much talk and not really that much persuasion it's been decided that we shall visit them next year. So now it's down to the running world out there to tell us the must do races in California! We are open as to what time of year we go so if anyone has ran or heard of any great races then please let me know.


After the funeral i headed back to Auntie Anne's so i could get changed for wedding reception of Kim & Ian, I'd not met them before and was wondering if we'd know any other runners.  Ian arrived with my dress, quick change and i was ready to go. Bent down to pick up and bag and my zip burst! Thank god I'd got Ian to bring 2 dresses with him.Lol, at least it happened before we left house too, small mercies and all that. Arrived at Barony Castle and got told wedding was running bit late so we got drink and settled down, it turns out i knew one the bridesmaids and her hubby, crikey it's such a small world. Pretty Sure we spotted Lucy C not long after we arrived but she seemed to disappear rather like Cinderella. Table we got was great, we had Ian's (groom) dragon boat pals and they were great laugh. We were up dancing pretty much from first dance and managed to persuade Debs who'd never Ceilidh danced in her life she should give it a go, she loved every minute of course.

Another late night and pretty full on day. Up on Sunday earlyish as plan was to head to Cumbrae to run the round Cumbrae 10miler. I duly got into my Lycra and strapped on my garmin but inside i was screaming no. After breakfast we set off from a windy but dry Edinburgh towards an even windier, wet and cold west coast.

Arrived in Largs and got cup of tea from cafe which was packed full of runners. Ian was stopped every 2 mins, does everyone in world know him or what? So off we went to the ferry, and get this, it was my first ever time on a Ferry. I'd been on boats on holiday, and done Hovercraft once but never been on a ferry before! So it was sadly quite exciting for me. Yes, sad i know. I decided on the Ferry that i wasn't running. Not only was i shattered after 2 full on days, i realised that i hadn't eaten a proper meal all day Saturday. All i had was buffet food at funeral then same again at wedding. Not the best fuelling strategy for a 10mile race.I So i decided to be the dutiful supporter instead.

Yes, it was bloody freezing, i didn't envy the runners at all. Once they set off i set off for the cafe to keep warm and dry and have a lovely bowl of soup and read the Sunday papers, bliss. Time passed pretty quickly and i was soon seeing the front runners go flying past window so i set off for finish line. Ian came in looking bedraggled but quickly announced he'd loved every minute. Loony.

Check out the guy on the left,not a fisherman but a race official....



To be honest i was glad to get back to work on Monday for a rest. It really is pitch dark in morning now but i am rewarded with lovely sunrises with lovely coloured skies which usually disappear by time rest of world wakes up and asks me where the sun I've just posted pic of has gone!

Talking of work, it's pretty damn good at the moment. I've had surprise visits from MD and Training Director of late and they were both delighted with everything. It's so good to be back in control of my own place. Oh, and i got a 10% pay rise :o)

Last night we set off to do a club run. Gavin had organised an intervals session and after missing out last week we decided to head along. We met at balerno High school then a ran uphill for 2.5miles. Then Gav marked out the 600m we were to run and gave us instructions. Ie- run fast back and forth 5 times then we'll run back down the hill.

One thing I've never done in my life is speed work, let alone a structured one.And surprisingly i loved it. I hope it's a regular thing. I was glad I'd made a pot of soup before we left as we went for quick drink with Gav & Norma after and didn't get home til 9.30

Crikey this is a long rambly blog, i should blog bit more so i dont bore you all to death, if anyone is still awake that is...

On a wing and a prayer

We entered Glasgow Half Marathon waaay back in April or something, it wasn't too long after Inverness half where i'd ran 1.42 and i felt fairly confident of dipping under 1.40, i mean it was 5 months away, easy peasy right?

Wrong.

Thing is, I'd done little or no training for it. Now some may scoff at that suggestion. I run most days dont i? I recently ran the Devil, that's 42 miles. Surely a half is a "walk in the park"  " just wee dawdle" "phffff, easy" 

Just some of the comments i got when i said i was running it. And to some extent i believed it myself. But only to some extent. I knew from the previous weeks race in Melrose that it was going to be tough. OK, i run to and from work a lot. I'm averaging around 40miles a week at mo (44 last week, 46 week before to be precise) but, and it's a big but. I am not doing the distance.

Luckily i have the tools to analyse and boy does it analyse for you. I'm talking about www.Fetcheveryone.com.  After having a quick look today at how many long runs I'd done recently it took me months of scrolling back. Yes I've ran the Devil, WHW race, training runs across there etc etc. But my last long run on road was way back in April. APRIL! And although it was 7 hills of Edinburgh I'm counting it as there is fair bit of road running in middle of the hills. Other than that I'm looking back to March. Crazy. Every other run has been less than 6 miles, how on earth can i expect to run a fast half on the back of that?

Some people say that running in trails and hills means you'll get faster on road. Perhaps it does for some but for me i think it make me a bit lazy. In fact i know it does.

Look at this girl's training,she is an inspiration to me  , if there is anyone who can prove that specific training works it's her. She really does inspire me to get out there, if i can achieve a fraction of what she has I'll be a happy girl.

So yesterday i ran as hard as i felt i could and got round in 1.45.16   Not a bad time at all perhaps, but i should be doing better i reckon.  I'm carrying about 7lbs extra which i managed to put on after getting injured and still haven't managed to shift but that's just another excuse really. It's down to training and if i want to do any kind of decent Marathon this yr, which i do then i need to get off my lazy bum and get out and do the training for it.

Loch Ness has now been kicked into touch, i could get round and i could probably get sub 4 but i dont want to go to a Marathon, or any other race for that matter just to "get round" I want to give it my best shot. I've got my GFA for London next year but i know i can do better than that, so with a little bit (or perhaps a lot) of training and plenty kicking up bum from Ian I'm sure i can give my next race some justice.

Hmm look at that, a whole blog about running, and being serious.

I hope I've not made it sound like i hated it, because i didn't. It's actually my favourite Half Marathon, the organisation is top notch, the crowds are fab and the route although tough is great too. I love it. And we had a great day out, picking up Kate on way,meeting Debs soon as we arrived and bumping into many friends throughout the day.
 Just great. All finished off with drinks in wee brewery place up from Glasgow Green then back home for a takeaway before heading back out to trek  to top of Craiglockheart Hill to watch the fireworks. The festival really is truly over now.


Let Autumn commence. And the hard work begin.