In training...

At last I feel I am back. Ran saturday and promised myself I'd get out every second day now - trying to get a bit of an addiction while on holiday! SO today I decided to do a hilly 10k [8 hills - undulating comprising of just under 5k in ups and similar for down in total]. Have been tempted to try some hill running after reading Rachel's adventures on the hills on facebook. Sounds like fun! I used to hill run when I was much younger [say about 20 years ago] when Andrew [hubby] and I were into hillwalking but that fell by the wayside when Andrew did his knees - as he always does everything in excess - and now his max distance is 7 miles! There is nothing I'd love more than going on a long 15 or 16 miler with Andrew! One for the wishlist! Coped fine today with a steady 56 mins. Wasn't pushing it - just wanted to enjoy the hills!

Aiming for a fast session with Andrew on Wednesday [it is never anything but fast with Andrew - I don't have the choice! Although it is slow for him]! So that will be my speed session for the week!

After all the raving about my new shoes I fell over on my ankle today on my left foot! Shocking the living daylights out of a dog walker with my expletives I fell onto the ground moaning! I must have really frightened off the dog walker because he looked over at me the decided to move off in the other direction. What if I'd really been hurt?? I don't look scary! Anyway after some deep breaths and rubbing I stood up expecting to be limping home but it was good! Although sore i was running again in a few seconds. And pain was gone by end of run! However my right foot and leg was sore today while and after run! Think I'll just have to accept something is niggling and just get on with it!

New shoes!

well my new shoes came last week and guess what?? WRONG SIZE! i must have rolled the mouse after i'd clicked before i moved out box. i remember my size showing for definite in the box but i never rechecked the final order sheet as i thought all was fine! having made the decision to go down a half size smaller than normal - i was fed up of my feet feeling like they were floating about in clown shoes when they stretched in wet conditions [let's face it it is always wet in scotland] and tripping over them! but because of my mouse blunder the shoes i ended up with were a whole size smaller! so normally a 5 in a running shoe i ordered what i thought was a 4.5 and ended up with a 4!

now i hate sending stuff back and ready to go on the phone and demand my postage back and an exchange convinced it was their fault i checked the order and it was my fault so i would have had to have forked out for return postage and reorder postage! my usually cheaper on the internet shoes were becoming dearer than in the shop shoes!

i decided to give them a try round the house first. no problem there. a wee few miles on the tread next [i'd do anything to get out of returning them!] and still feeling good! in fact my feet were better than they have ever been! maybe because they were a snug fit width ways too! normally going a size bigger and even lacing them tight [and as per geddi [david geddes - experienced and wise garscube harrier] guidelines!!] i always still managed to slip about in them. my feet didn't budge and my long toes [the second and third toes are longer than my big toe - which i have read indicates intelligence!] survived without the usual bruising and nail damage or loss! So i took the risk on a six miler outside [no going back now!] and result!! feet felt great and toes still damage free. the next test will be a long run over 10 miles so keeping fingers and toes crossed this may be the best shoe buy yet!

as for the change from an overpronating prevention model to a preventing supination model i have noted that i have no or little sciatica!! looks like i have the answer there too!

nothing to report on the running itself. been pretty lazy and slow. small runs or slow runs. will need to get a routine going again. aiming for starting back to 4 times a week min with one speed session and one long session after october school break.

flu away!

well it has been a week and a half since i last ran!! this flu/ cold/ bug WE has been lingering but i feel needs a good run to shake the last remnants away!! so the plan is a wee 4 miler with andrew and the dog up in mugdock just to chase those cobwebs away!! plus i really, really need to go out there as my muffin tops are back with a vengance overflowing from the top of my hipsters like a well formed souffle! and my post mara 4 pack [i don't think i have those other 2 abs!] is lost under the bubblewrap of cellulite! What do you mean don't eat as much then?? lol!

and what about the disruption the postal strike is causing! i am still waiting on my nice new shoes! where are they?? i thought i'd definitely have them by now. really didn't want to run in old ones again as i haven't felt sciatica for a week or so, which really helps confirm for me it is the shoes.

on a happier note, a running buddy robert cuthbertson ran the great north half mara at the weekend and raised a whopping £2800 for breast cancer research. he ran through an injury too! his effort will certainly have saved lives. every bit counts! all so much appreciated. Please, please do contribute to this worthy cause...

http://www.justgiving.com/Robert-Cuthbertson/

so will check in tomorrow after the run and let you know what my body thought about it!!

need a goal...

Ok i haven't been blogging 'cause i haven't been jogging!! been extremely lazy!! ran saturday but not sunday. keep hoping sciatica will go away but it hasn't. and no i still haven't got new shoes yet! will go online right now and order them. to be honest not having a goal to train for is detrimental to my psyche! i think i'll have to look for something end of year to aim for. can't really wait till balloch clydebank half - this is just too far away!

i will go a run today! i will! i will! i will!....

and to be honest the weather is conducive for a good run! ducks and runners eh?

on a healthy intake note - gave up juicing meantime - too time consuming! don't panic donna... i am making soup instead. i just made my second batch that i freeze and will feed me daily for a week!! this week all the veggies i had in the fridge went in. all organic too!

Ingredients for anyone who wants to try it! i call it supersoup!

carrots,

celery [yay donna i can't taste it!]. to be honest it smelt like sweaty armpits chopping it up and i was baulking at putting it in but donna's sensible nagging - it is a good cleanser! persuaded me to get it in there. don't know if you eat the leafy bits so i left those out meantime. and like the juice no sweaty pit taste or smell from the soup!

broccoli and cauliflower in there for their anti carcinogenic qualities [got that yearly check up coming up and everything helps sooth that annual paranoia]. just have to put up with the fact that house smells like a sewer while it's cooking!

onion

garlic [keep the colds -or swine flu - away!]

sweet potatoes

normal tatties

courgettes [what purpose do courgettes have? they seem tasteless and dissolve into a sickly gel but hey if it is good it goes in!]

half a bag of spinach

recipe

chop everything small. saute onions and garlic in butter add sea salt and pepper to taste. throw in everything else add some tumeric. steam for a wee while then add water to cover. bring to boil and simmer for 20 mins. i then blend it and add double cream. and voila - yummy!

so had that for lunch with some of my own garden's plums in prep for run!! i will run! i will! i will!

multi tasking - i bought these on the other screen! after a confusing time on the runners world new look website i came up with "no shoe match" from every search! maybe the site isn't functioning well yet. certainly the new videos on what type of shoe to get are really informative. i was guided by this to a neutral and cushioned shoe!! so searching my favourite brand i was attracted to the nike lovely shade of blue vomero [what a name - the vom model!] but since that was the spring summer colour i am always worried that these have sat around in the warehouse losing some of their durability as air or gel slowly permeates through the membranes - this could be complete tosh but i can't be bothered searching for research to evidence this theory so i decided to play safe and go for the new autumn winter cerise version! should match some of my clothes! might get the blue ones another time as a spare if i feel they are the model i want to stick to. can't wait till they come!!

oh dear what can the matter be?

i was on such a downer after my friend mark texted me to say he had already run 87 miles this week AND IT IS ONLY TUESDAY!! and how was i doing!!! well i am ashamed to say i ran 14 on sunday and only 6 on the friday before for that week, and haven't done anything since sunday!! so not doing too well on the running front!

i was happy with the distance we did on sunday tho! had only planned for a nice easy pace 13 but mo had miscalculated her miles and we ended up with the extra mile. now don't ask me to take anyone the route as i would never find it myself but we headed down from milngavie to lock 27, along the canal to the path that goes to bishopbriggs, along that to balmore and headed back via the allander way.

the last 3 miles i must say were tortuous. my legs ached [probably from lack of use during the week] and i had that nagging sciatica in my right bum cheek! oh and the annoying psychobabble - this was worse than the marathon's last 4 miles [no it wasn't but you get a bit irrational when you start tiring!], i feels like it is never going to end [duh you can see milngavie in the distance!], etc.

mo had brought michael [her son] with her and he was bouncing about at the back of us like he was just warming up. when he knew where he was going on the homeward bound he took off like a greyhound and faded fast into the distance. mo also gets that i am on the homeward bound push she always gets and urged ahead. i just watched while my wee legs did their own pace and like the week before i just kept her in my sights. i didn't want to let her go out of shouting distance as there were a couple of weird specimens in the bushes fishing [really fishing] in the water.

so glad it was over but so glad we did it. we averaged 9m30s which i thought was tanking it for what was supposed to be easy! but that will be mo's dead easy and michael's going backwards pace!! a nice change from our usual milngavie bearsden mugdock routes. and with the weather forecast for rain we did okay with it dry all the way and no drunks lying about the canal. if the sun's out it is usually like a scene from rab c nesbit on the canal route.

so i desperately need a run now but too tired and bagged up to get out tonight. hopefully will aim for a short run tomorrow before dinner! that's the plan and maybe if i write it here it might give me incentive to do it!

sunday-not my funday- my i'm gonna have to runday!

Well this sunday mo and i did the same run we did last week but with the aim of going faster than last week's miserable time! just let me reiterate that this route incorporates the ten hills milngavie bearsden highland games 10k route!

this week it poured down so hard i could taste the sunblock as it was washed off my head and into my eyes pouring down the back of my throat via my tearducts. still at least it was cool and gave me the incentive to run fast to get it over with. the plan this week was to test if i could run any faster now i was superjuicing. however i had sabotaged coming to this run in great shape by drinking a wee bit too much the night before. i even considered calling it off and sleeping in. my gut felt dodgy and my heid was pure pounding man! but after breakfast my gut had settled and the sare heid became a mild throb behind one eye! and i knew i'd regret not running, so i went! [psychobabble - you can always run slow if you feel crap better than not running at all! and you can't let mo down!]

mo ran ahead to set the pace and it also had the added advantage i wouldn't be tempted to talk all the way! mo likes to get "in the zone" and she can't do that with my incessant chatter! i got into my own zone listening to britney's "in the zone!" as i trundled behind her. unfortunately it ran out of battery halfway so had to content myself imagining i could hear the beat!

mo settled into a steady pace about 50 metres in front of me. i kept her in my sights and kept the pace. how i ended up that far behind was probably because of fannying with my shuffle to get the right song and listening to my own psychobabble again! you know the type?? - why did i agree to this, god i wish i hadn't drank so much last night, oh my leg/ foot/ass is sore, etc. i did feel like throwing only one mile in but we had set off too fast and i could read mo's lips to decipher that she was going to slow for a bit then build! the hassle of switching the shuffle off or trying to take the earphones out my ear was more trouble than it was worth. the rubber bits always get detached and stuck in my ear then i have to stop and fish them out to fix then and at the same time being careful not to drop them and lose them. so i nodded that i agreed and understood and was secretly thankful as that eased the vom rising in my throat!

i never looked at the garmin during the run tho i could hear it beeping at each mile marker. having done a rubbish average of 9m45s last week for the 7 miles i was hoping that a below 9 would be achievable - hangover permitting! admittedly the nagging post vino throb behind my right eye was lessening or maybe it was just the pain in my right leg was worse that it masked the head ache but there is nothing like a run for a hangover cure!!

by the end of the run i had lost mo. the last wee bit running back through milngavie had too many turns for me to keep sight of her but i never gave in i kept the pace till the end when the final beep of the garmen told me i had reached 7 miles i stopped to see mo pop out of a bush! i am sure she was afraid if i saw her i'd slow down before i got there and she'd have been right!! mo was disappointed with her time so i wasn't holding any great expectations when i looked at mine! so imagine my surprise when i saw my average was 8m35s!! Ace! mo had 8m31s but wants to get it down to 7m30s - i told her she'll be letting me start ahead of her then when it gets to that stage. although mo insists she'll get me there too [my psychobabble is saying otherwise!] and after the difference in time for the exact same route was surprising to me, maybe, just maybe anything's possible!

so can we contribute some of that improvement to diet? let's hope so! but there is only so much beetroot juice a gal can take! donna you may have started something!

testing, testing...

pH testing

decided to at least do some additional baseline measurements. if i am to do all the juicing i thought i'd best get some pH baselines to go by. i know i have already been doing it for a week and a half so i should expect the reading to be better than before i started. my saliva registered 6 and my wee 6.5, so although still acid not as bad as it would have been 2 weeks ago!!

my son eats vegetables sparingly and usually once i have pureed them or disguised them as a sauce, but he does take lots of smoothies. his pH was 8.5! so he is doing something right!

so will carry on juicing [now making my own!] and eating 5 a day wherever possible and see if i can improve my levels. i will also try and find some evidence based research that gives validity to the acid alkaline diet.

On the other foot...

Since the marathon i have been having pain that started in my right foot and has gradually crept all the way up my leg to my hip! At first i put it down to the marathon after effects, but i rested well and started back by the book building slowly again. The pain hasn't subsided but it hasn't stopped me running although it is getting uncomfortable afterwards and sometimes during a run. Lately i have also noticed that my running shoe was feeling too flappy and i was having to tighten them up. my shoe size [4] in any other shoe was now too big! i was having to buy size 3 again. many moons ago before pregnancy ballooned me from 7 to 11 stone [all water of course!] i had a high foot arch and was a neat 3 in a normal shoe and 4 in a running shoe. after pregnancy i was left very much flat footed and up a whole size in all shoes! i had to change from an asics which were great for high arches to a nike for over pronators and that is what i have run in for the last 13 years! however recently i have noticed if i am standing for a long time i am rotating my foot outwards - supination! in fact i was even walking like that in bare feet! so i decided to do the wet foot test!

http://www.runnersworld.ltd.uk/foottype.htm

My result

My result confirmed what i had now suspected - i was back to having a high arch and supinating and not over pronating - which means i am wearing the wrong type of shoe!! so is this the reason i am getting sciatica and shooting pains in my foot, calf and inner thigh? Possible!

So now i will have to get new shoes and see if this helps my sore leg and hopefully improves my running!