Karma Chameleon

Last Thursday as i sat in my office with it's big windows, gazing out into St Andrew's Square i thought. Wow, what a beautiful day. Yes it was a bit baltic but it was a beautiful winters day, sun shining in the bluest sky. Lovely. In fact in was a lovely day for a run, a long run. I'd already ran to work but kept it at a short 4.5miles because i'd been lured along to club run by a Gav on Wednesday night with the promise of Intervals and *around8miles* in total.

8 miles in total turned into 10.8 miles, with 3xmile intervals. Was great run though, but meant we didn't get home til 9.30, and still had to eat. Late for school night.

So thats why i only did 4 miles. And it was dark, pitch black dark. As it is every morning of course. Hence my longing for blue skies and sunshine. So i pushed my luck a little and mailed my Ops Manager to see if any chance of Friday off. Luckily my luck didn't need pushed  too far and i secured Friday off. Bonza.  Plan formed in my head to get train to Linlithgow on Friday then run back, in the glorious winter sunshine.

Had worked a bit late so took staff out for couple drinks then met Ian for dinner and few more drinks. Well i was off next day after all!  No lie in for me, holiday or not/ Up in morning and opened curtains expecting my glorious sunshiny winters day to find the trees swaying erratically and rain battering window.  Best Laid plans and all that.

Oh well, i'm no fair weather runner lets face it. Ian was being lazy and taking car in so i got lift into town then headed to train station for my wee  train trip to Linlithgow. 20mins later i was at canal, buffed up , gloved up and jacketed up. Half a mile later i was down to my vest. Obviously not *just* my vest, i had shorts on too.

Typical Scottish weather gave me, drizzles, wind and sunshine. But it was altogether quite pleasant weatherwise that is. I'd forgotten how tough a flat long run is.  Flat canal runs just start to do your head in after a while. It was fairly muddy and wet right up til i escaped West Lothian then the paths become dry and easy to run on. Not that i'm  prejudiced towards Edinburgh oh no.

Ian called me as i was approaching Ratho to find out where i was, his plan was to run out and surprise me but i spoiled it by asking if he was free for lunch. Was good to see him when he appeared though as i was starting to struggle a bit. Thank goodness we canned any ideas of running Marathons this year, i think i'd find them a real struggle right now.

I thought run would be around 23miles but turned out to be 20.5. Finished in 3.06 and was happy to get to house as i started to feel sick. Wasn't til i was in house that it occurred to me i hadn't eaten. i don't normally eat before i run in morning so i just completely forgot. No wonder i was running out of energy, all I'd had was bottle of lucozade. When i said to Ian i was going to stop at shop for drink he told me * i only had 1/2mile to go and to keep going*  He's all heart, really.

Took my total to 59 miles for week which is most i've done for ages.

So i vegged out for rest of day, so much so that when Ian got home i was still horizontal on sofa and he announced we had 1/2 hour to get ready. Luckily I'm low maintenance  and i was indeed ready in 1/2hour and ready for night on town with some friends.

Saturday Ian was heading down to Newcastle for footy and picking his boy up at station, I'd  offered to come along and pick up his boys bag so they didn't have the schlep all way to the Toon and back with it. So at 11am we were standing in station waiting. I spotted a wee old man with a beret and some medals on collecting for something so i went over to give him some money. He was very sweet to me and I'm glad i did.I even got a sticker Ian's boy arrived and they headed off for supplies for train and i headed off to Burger King for a kids meal after getting the munchies. Ate that then headed off for my bus. Waited about 2 yrs for bus (slight exaggeration perhaps) and was happy once on and heading home to chill. Got 3/4 way home and decided to get my keys out my bag and put in pocket. One problem. I had no bag fuck, fuckity fuck. After scurrying around floor on bus the sinking feeling in my stomach confirmed it must still be sitting in burger king. That'll teach me for sitting colouring in instead of looking after my bag ( that was the toy in kids meal)

I panicked then got off bus planning on jumping on anther back down to Waverly Station. One problem there. No money, of course you've no money you dipstick, it's in your bag ffs. Which is in the station. Well at least you'd better hope so. Panicked call to Ian to see if he was on train yet so he could go check. He was. Panic a bit more and go on Internet to find out station number. 3 calls later and not only is my phone about to die, I'm in minor state of panicdom. Relief as i speak to person in BK who said they'd found my bag and it was now safe in lost property. Phew. Now only problem i had was getting back there with my big fuck off heels on.

Lightbulb moment made me realise i close to Natalia's house so quick call to her and she saved my life (or my feet at least)with £1.30 Got to station to find my bag intact. Didn't have much money in it anyway but house keys and cards would've been major hassle as would not getting back into house til Ian got back from Newcastle. I popped in M&S and bought box of chocolates and handed them in to BK to show my gratitude.

So there it takes me back to title of blog. Maybe if i hadn't given money to that wee man, maybe i wouldn't have got my bag back. Who knows. Karma.

On way home from lunch yesterday we stopped off at shops for few supplies, quick decision was made for Ian to go in alone as it would be quicker. So i sat in car playing with phone.
This is what climbed back in car.

Vice Chair of Sports Scotland. Race director of WHW. Still a big kid at heart.

Rules for some...

I love running really early in the morning, but why oh why do car drivers/bike users etc seem to think it gives them the right to choose thier own rules when it comes to the highway code just because it's dark and before 6am?

This morning i had to grind to a halt twice when a car going along road suddenly decided to turn into road i was crossing without indicating. Happened last week with a bloody wee smart car who almost knocked me down too.

Thank goodness most of run was along canal where there were no unlit scary people were this morning.

Weather is better though, chilly but dry. Tshirt, shorts and gloves. And Headtorch of course...

Normalisation

I think I've actually started a blog before with same title but hey ho, i can do that, it's my blog and I'll do what i want, do what i want to..... (showing my age here) I blame Hendo, many moons ago on Fetch he blogged about same thing and never a truer word was said. I remember reading it and thinking crikey, yes you are spot on. Telling you all this is pointless because you cant see his blog, but basically it was about bringing people back down to earth. To remember we all had humble beginnings and to not shrug off a run/race and let people shrug it off and say "oh that'll be easy for you"

Too many people are doing things that are out of the ordinary, this doesn't make it normal however. It's not normal to run the crazy distances we see everyday, not everyone can and more to the point, not everyone wants to.

Hendo's original point was borne out of alarm i think, due to the amount of people he saw who suddenly all wanted to do Ultra's, i had the same sense of alarm after blogging about supporting Jen during WHW race few years back. Maybe when we blogged about it we made it sound sugar and light and fun and games. It Wasn't, and isn't. From either side of the coin.

Everyday now we read about people doing "inspirational" things. I say inspirational in inverted comma's as it's a personal thing whether you find it inspirational or not. Personally I'm not inspired by someone for instance running 100marathons in 100days,or someone who is a marathon/Ultra *bagger*
Probably because i feel i could do it too and I'm far from inspiring. I'm far more impressed by the ones who are out there giving it there all after putting in some bloody good training and getting the results.
I'm inspired by my friend Susan who has just ran a bloody good time in Abingdon after working damn hard for it despite the world throwing crap at her, this is the same Susan who I've dragged round training runs and tried to make her believe in herself.   I'm inspired by Debs, who when she first started doing Ultra's was doing same times as me and is now a record breaker, she is amazing.

There are of course many more but i could go on and then upset someone by not mentioning them so i'll stop there.

We all have people who inspire us for different reasons of course, and I'm certainly not going to tell anyone who they should or shouldn't be inspired by. I guess it's a bit like the word Hero, its bandied around far too easily these days.

In other news, i have new shoes.

Hello again

Yes i'm still alive, I've just lost my blogging mojo at mo. It's funny because i have all these thoughts going round in my head like a washing machine when I'm running, and i think, oh i must blog about that. Then of course i forget all about it, it's a bit like a dream i guess. You wake up from vivid dream, angry that it got spoilt by the alarm then you cant recall a damn thing about it!

Ever tried to go back to sleep to finish off a dream? i have. Tip- it doesn't work.

So what have i been up to i hear you ask? Or maybe you dont actually give a flying fig. I'm going to tell you anyway, cause you here aren't you, and i'd hate to think i was wasting anyone's precious time by reading my blog, getting to end and thinking, well that was a bloody waste of 31.3 seconds of my life that i'll never get back.

Hmm, i had to go look at my last blog to actually see what i'd been up to, and when. After looking at my training log I've come to the conclusion that I've turned into a bit of a lazy cow. factoid. Now i did 180miles in Aug and a paltry 135 in Sept due the tonsillitis wiping me out rendering me useless. But looking at those miles there's barely anything over 6 miles. I'm running to and from work and i just go into automode. So I've shook it up a little, stopped taking the easy canal route every day and running my *old* route but backwards. Well not backwards, that would be silly, and I'd probably fall over. Maybe I'd make it into some silly world record though and get in paper...

I mean i ran it from my old house which is a further 5 miles away, up the hill to be precise. So when i do this route the first 2 miles are uphill, which tbh isn't easy at 5.30am trust me. But it's shaking my training up a bit and when i do that route which is pretty much undulating most of way then i clock up 8 +miles before work. So by running home (the easy way) i can do 12miles and still be home before 4pm. That's the kind of thing i used to do regularly, I've just got lazy since living in city centre.

For some reason i find it difficult to add in miles, where i used to live it was 5 miles direct, 6 if i went down another road and 7 if i took longer hillier route, but none of these routes had me going back on myself, they were all direct routes to work.Maybe I'm a bit mental, or maybe i need to move further away from City centre.

So, on the back of all these massive 6 milers we decided to take ourselves off to the Fabulous Oak Tree Inn for a couple of days and run from Balamha to Inversnaid and back, as you do. It was the week of glorious weather, BBQ's and tropical temperatures. Everywhere except Scotland that is. We arrived on a dark and very very wet and windy Friday night, and awoke to a dark and very very wet Saturday.  Hey ho, anyone who heads to WHW isn't going for the weather, unless of course it's Highland Fling day. on that day you're guaranteed to get fry for 53 glorious miles, chaffing is least of your worries if you've forgotten the 8 hour suncream.

So off we went, within about 1/4 of mile we were supermuddy and very wet. I still stuck to my vest though as it wasn't cold, just wet. We didn't see any other runners for the 30miles and only saw about 4 walkers altogether. I guess most people looked at the weather and thought, hmmm, maybe not. We ran out to Inversnaid, stopped for quick cup tea then back out again. I felt like it was a hard slog on way back and thought i was much slower but looking at last time we did that run (feb) it wasn't far off same times.




Ian loved it, he has bouncing along happily whilst i moaned for last mile asking if we could cut out that last hill, you can guess the answer i got! I don't know if i was still suffering aftereffects of tonsillitis or if I've just turned into a whiny lazy boot. Was still on antibiotics so not sure if they've had any effect on how i felt.
I was actually caked in mud and had to scrape it off back at room, trying to not get it on the lovely cream carpet. My bright pink adidas socks have never quite recovered, they had 3 washes and still look dirty. It was most definitely a day for my trusty sealkins methinks. Meanwhile my lovely friend Nick who lives South of border whom I'd txt Happy Birthday to, txt back to say he was having a fabulous day at the beach!  Global warming needs to remember that we are also destroying the earth's atmosphere. *stocks up on old lightbulbs and aerosols*

Had rest on Sunday and recovery run to work on Monday (easy route lol) but by Tuesday i could barely move with DOMS. It was worse than I've had after ANY Ultra I've done, in fact i rarely get it. Thought i might after the devil having done bugger all for months but i was fine. It was Thursday before i felt normal again. Not entirely sure why i got it so bad, Ian was fine which was very annoying. I kicked him when was asleep so he would feel my pain a little.

Last weekend i managed to get a great deal on Hotel for 2 nights up in Morayshire.this one  We left straight from work on Thursday and after longest drive on the world with endless "are we there yet?" from me we arrived around 8ish to a wonderful sight in room
It was quickly opened and i had 2 glasses very quickly i can tell you. Then we headed off for a fabulous and much needed dinner.

We had made no plans really deciding just  to go with flow and do what we felt like. So we got up in morning and did short run out to Forres and back before breakfast then headed off to Inverness for day. We are planning on returning sometime though and checking out the Dava Way which looks like a great route and exploring bit more round the area which is just stunning.

Today on the bus there was a woman who looked like a witchywoo with a a big hat and mac, she kept staring at me, perhaps because i was in vest and shorts having ran to shops, or perhaps she was putting a spell on me.

This morning i nearly had a heart attack when some complete knobber nearly ran right into me on the canal (easy route i know, but i ran uphill first ok) He had NO headtorch on and no hi vis, he was in fact invisible, or might as well have been ffs. Idiot. It was pitch black. I took a picture of how dark it was, but for two reasons i cant show you it. First one is that stupid Backberry still havent fixed the network or whatever the hell it is they have to do, i've been Facebook and twitterless on my phone all week, very bloody annoying. Secondly it would be pointless, it is in fact just a pic of a black space of nothingness.


That's all folks.

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.