Today was the Radcliffe 10k which I had pre-entered a couple of months back. My hip is still sore though so I decided that, whilst I'm still running, racing would be a bit silly. I had initially told myself that I'd just jog around but I knew that I wouldn't do that and would end up trying to race it and causing my injury to worsen so I decided it was best not to do it at all and I gave my pre-entry to Colin Wood instead.
I drove to my mum and dad's house, which is just off the route of the 10k so I wandered down with Ruby to go and watch. It was a lovely day for it. Nice and sunny, but not really hot and there was a nice breeze. I was quite jealous seeing everyone running by, but there's always next year.
I decided to have a bit of a run along some of the course with Ruby and we headed off in the direction of Ringley Road. From there the race goes up onto the road and along it, but we went underneath the road and continued along to the M60 motorway, before turning back and retracing our steps.
On the way back I bumped into some old friends, Dave and Karen, who I haven't seen for a good few years. It was really nice to see them and we had a good chat whilst Ruby played with their Staffie dog. They seemed to be really enjoying themselves which was lovely to watch as Ruby doesn't usually get along with other dogs.
Total distance - 4.65 miles
Week's total distance - 22.4 miles
Sunday, 27 April 2014
Saturday, 26 April 2014
Too Much Information
WARNING - IF YOU ARE A BIT OF A PRUDE, MIGHT BE BEST NOT TO READ THIS
My new food processor arrived yesterday so I spent last night and this morning playing with it and so far have baked date and raisin cookies, a chocolate and banana cake and have made my own peanut butter.
In a bit to work off the calories of all the goodies I have baked I went for a run at about 3pm today (when my banana and chocolate cake had just come out of the oven and was cooking before the chocolate icing went on) on my own as Duncan was out with Ruby.
I set off from home, down to Rivvy School and along to Liverpool Castle. I was feeling really good and going at a pretty reasonable pace, so much so that I started to think about how I regretted passing on my entry for tomorrow's race to somebody else. The regret didn't last long though because I knew that running is one thing when you have a niggle but racing is another thing. I kept up my decent pace as I followed the edge of Rivington Reservoir and headed towards the bowling club. From there I ran along the side of Yarrow Reservoir and up to Lead Mines Clough. I ran though the clough and did a bit of a loop, firstly on the left of the river and then coming back on the right hand side and heading back the way I came.
All was going well and I was zooming along at a good steady pace until I got back to the bowling club. All of a sudden I was getting terrible stomach pains. I stopped for a few minutes to get the pain to pass and then carried on but at a much slower pace. I contemplated heading for the toilets at Rivvy Barn but, as anybody who knows me well will be aware, I can't do number 2's in public toilets. I have no idea why as I'm in no way a prude and will talk about activities to anybody who will listen but, for some reason, when it comes to actually doing it, my body rebels. I carried on along through Rivington, heading home, but when I got almost to Rivvy School the pain got pretty intense. So much so that I sat down on a bench where some passing dog walkers took pity on me. I tried to ring Duncan to see if he was in the vicinity and could pick me up but he didn't answer his phone. I decided that I just had to get home but, even though I wanted to get home quickly, the faster I went, the more intense the pain was. I started to walk but then felt better after a few minutes so started to jog a bit again. Then the pain came back so I just had to clench and mince my way back home.
I'm pleased to say that I did make it home before the inevitable happened but am pretty annoyed that such a great run ended so badly. I was really pleased with my progress until the pain started and it came on so unexpectedly.
I think this must be what the call runner's stomach!
Total distance - 7.5 miles
My new food processor arrived yesterday so I spent last night and this morning playing with it and so far have baked date and raisin cookies, a chocolate and banana cake and have made my own peanut butter.
In a bit to work off the calories of all the goodies I have baked I went for a run at about 3pm today (when my banana and chocolate cake had just come out of the oven and was cooking before the chocolate icing went on) on my own as Duncan was out with Ruby.
I set off from home, down to Rivvy School and along to Liverpool Castle. I was feeling really good and going at a pretty reasonable pace, so much so that I started to think about how I regretted passing on my entry for tomorrow's race to somebody else. The regret didn't last long though because I knew that running is one thing when you have a niggle but racing is another thing. I kept up my decent pace as I followed the edge of Rivington Reservoir and headed towards the bowling club. From there I ran along the side of Yarrow Reservoir and up to Lead Mines Clough. I ran though the clough and did a bit of a loop, firstly on the left of the river and then coming back on the right hand side and heading back the way I came.
All was going well and I was zooming along at a good steady pace until I got back to the bowling club. All of a sudden I was getting terrible stomach pains. I stopped for a few minutes to get the pain to pass and then carried on but at a much slower pace. I contemplated heading for the toilets at Rivvy Barn but, as anybody who knows me well will be aware, I can't do number 2's in public toilets. I have no idea why as I'm in no way a prude and will talk about activities to anybody who will listen but, for some reason, when it comes to actually doing it, my body rebels. I carried on along through Rivington, heading home, but when I got almost to Rivvy School the pain got pretty intense. So much so that I sat down on a bench where some passing dog walkers took pity on me. I tried to ring Duncan to see if he was in the vicinity and could pick me up but he didn't answer his phone. I decided that I just had to get home but, even though I wanted to get home quickly, the faster I went, the more intense the pain was. I started to walk but then felt better after a few minutes so started to jog a bit again. Then the pain came back so I just had to clench and mince my way back home.
I'm pleased to say that I did make it home before the inevitable happened but am pretty annoyed that such a great run ended so badly. I was really pleased with my progress until the pain started and it came on so unexpectedly.
I think this must be what the call runner's stomach!
Total distance - 7.5 miles
Thursday, 24 April 2014
Not Very Nice to See Ewe
On tonight's run, we got attacked by sheep. Yes, you read that right - attacked by sheep!
I drove out to Knowsley Lane and Ruby and I set off for a run around Angkezarke. As usual, Ruby did her 'business' not long after we started running. I know from past experience that, despite there being a sign up on the entrance to the Anglezarke trails telling you to put litter/dog poo in the 'bins provided', there are in fact no bins. I therefore bagged up the poo and left it in a safe place. I hear you getting angry now as I do when I see poo bags all over the place but - I PICKED IT UP ON MY WAY BACK!!!! I ran over 6 miles and didn't pass a single bin so I'm glad I made the decision to store it safely as it would not have been at all fun to run with.
Anyway, back to the run... and the sheep! We ran around the Anglezarke woodland trails and then on to Waterman's Cottage, where we crossed the road and ran to White Coppice on the track which runs along the left hand side of the goit with a fenced off farm field on the left. All was well and good. It wasn't until we crossed the goit and got onto the path which runs parallel back to Waterman's Cottage when things started to get a bit scary.
There was a sheep, with horns, and it's lamb on our right hand side. Usually sheep just run away but this one wasn't for moving. It turned on us. It went to butt Ruby but I dragged her back. We couldn't get past it and it kept trotting along at the side of us and then turning on us and going to butt Ruby, who wasn't at all bothered by the way and still wanted to chase it. For me, on the other hand, it was quite frightening and I didn't really know what to do. I am told with cows you should let your dog off the lead so the cow goes after them not you (don't worry, the dog will escape fine) but I wasn't so sure with sheep as I knew that if I let Ruby off she would start terrorising them and probably end up getting shot by the farmer. I just stopped running and tried to get the sheep to go away, which eventually it did. We then carried on along the path and there was a huge group of sheep and lambs ahead of us. They started to run off as we approached. Well, all but one of them did. The hardy one, again with horns, turned round and started running towards us. I stopped and started walking backwards and then the sheep stopped. Every time I tried to move forward though, it turned back on us. I ended up hauling ass over a wall and throwing Ruby over it too. It must have been a hilarious thing for any passerby to see, although I think I'm in the clear there as I didn't see anyone else around. I ended up covered in mud from picking up Ruby, which somehow managed to get all over my face and hair too.
We eventually came back out at Watermans Cottage and headed back for Anglezarke. There is a short stretch of field you have to go through which always has sheep in it so I was a bit nervous about running through after what had just happened. We went through and as we got half way, about 9 or 10 lambs came running towards us really happily. They didn't seem afraid of Ruby at all who was dragging out on the lead to get to them. Their parents, however, did seem concerned. They started running over to get their lambs away from us. Luckily none of them got violent and concentrated more on getting the lambs away from us rather than us away from the lambs.
I've never had a problem with sheep before, even when running amongst them and their lambs, but this is the first time I have done it with Ruby and I won't be doing it again any time soon!
We headed back to the car but of course not without picking the poo bag back up on the way!
Total distance - 6.2 miles
I drove out to Knowsley Lane and Ruby and I set off for a run around Angkezarke. As usual, Ruby did her 'business' not long after we started running. I know from past experience that, despite there being a sign up on the entrance to the Anglezarke trails telling you to put litter/dog poo in the 'bins provided', there are in fact no bins. I therefore bagged up the poo and left it in a safe place. I hear you getting angry now as I do when I see poo bags all over the place but - I PICKED IT UP ON MY WAY BACK!!!! I ran over 6 miles and didn't pass a single bin so I'm glad I made the decision to store it safely as it would not have been at all fun to run with.
Anyway, back to the run... and the sheep! We ran around the Anglezarke woodland trails and then on to Waterman's Cottage, where we crossed the road and ran to White Coppice on the track which runs along the left hand side of the goit with a fenced off farm field on the left. All was well and good. It wasn't until we crossed the goit and got onto the path which runs parallel back to Waterman's Cottage when things started to get a bit scary.
There was a sheep, with horns, and it's lamb on our right hand side. Usually sheep just run away but this one wasn't for moving. It turned on us. It went to butt Ruby but I dragged her back. We couldn't get past it and it kept trotting along at the side of us and then turning on us and going to butt Ruby, who wasn't at all bothered by the way and still wanted to chase it. For me, on the other hand, it was quite frightening and I didn't really know what to do. I am told with cows you should let your dog off the lead so the cow goes after them not you (don't worry, the dog will escape fine) but I wasn't so sure with sheep as I knew that if I let Ruby off she would start terrorising them and probably end up getting shot by the farmer. I just stopped running and tried to get the sheep to go away, which eventually it did. We then carried on along the path and there was a huge group of sheep and lambs ahead of us. They started to run off as we approached. Well, all but one of them did. The hardy one, again with horns, turned round and started running towards us. I stopped and started walking backwards and then the sheep stopped. Every time I tried to move forward though, it turned back on us. I ended up hauling ass over a wall and throwing Ruby over it too. It must have been a hilarious thing for any passerby to see, although I think I'm in the clear there as I didn't see anyone else around. I ended up covered in mud from picking up Ruby, which somehow managed to get all over my face and hair too.
We eventually came back out at Watermans Cottage and headed back for Anglezarke. There is a short stretch of field you have to go through which always has sheep in it so I was a bit nervous about running through after what had just happened. We went through and as we got half way, about 9 or 10 lambs came running towards us really happily. They didn't seem afraid of Ruby at all who was dragging out on the lead to get to them. Their parents, however, did seem concerned. They started running over to get their lambs away from us. Luckily none of them got violent and concentrated more on getting the lambs away from us rather than us away from the lambs.
I've never had a problem with sheep before, even when running amongst them and their lambs, but this is the first time I have done it with Ruby and I won't be doing it again any time soon!
We headed back to the car but of course not without picking the poo bag back up on the way!
Total distance - 6.2 miles
Tuesday, 22 April 2014
Food for Thought
I made a last minute decision tonight to go for a run even though I was planning on another rest day due to my hip having been sore again. Weird as usually my last minute decisions are to not go for a run, not the other way around.
It was yet another easy one though as I don’t want to make my hip any worse so I took Ruby with me on this one. We just had a nice trot around Rivington as it was a lovely sunny evening. It started well with a half decent pace but then Ruby got quite tired and we ended up just plodding along and admiring the scenery.
I actually spent the vast majority of the run pondering over food processors. Mine has broken and I want to replace it with a pretty one which will look nice on my worktop (in place of my microwave – good advice Stuart Stokes!) so I won’t have to keep putting it away. Who knew this would be such a tough challenge? Nice looking food processors, which do everything I want them to and get good reviews, are shockingly expensive. All together it took me three days and two nights of broken sleep to finally settle on one. I decided to go for a Kenwood machine, but not one of the really pricey ones. I went for the Prospero which is a mixer, food processor, liquidiser, etc all in one. The thing I’m looking forward to the most is making my own 100% peanut butter as buying this in the shops is extortionate!
I’m so excited for my food processor to arrive. I really do lead a sad life.
Total distance – 4.05 miles
Sunday, 20 April 2014
Technicolour Running
For reasons I won't bore you with, my running attire today was quite a mishmash of colours. To paint a picture, this is a description of my outfit from the feet upwards:
Bright orange trail shoes
Black full length leggings with electric blue piping.
Salmon coloured long sleeved (with thumb loops!) top
Sky blue gilet
Flourescent pink gloves (imagine these with the salmon thumb loops over them - nice!)
Purple/dark pink buff
Truth be told, I looked ridiculous.
I went out early in the hope that I wouldn't see anyone I knew whilst wearing my colourful ensemble.
Duncan dropped me off at Watermans Cottage for an easy run as I wanted to stay off the hills because I still have this cold and am finding hills quite difficult at the minute.
I ran from Watermans Cottage to White Coppice and then back again along a different path. I then ran around Anglezarke Woodland Trail and out onto Knowsley Lane, which I ran along past the waterfall and then up the hill which takes you up to Yarrow Reservoir. From there I ran down into Rivington and then along Rivington Reservoir, towards the castle, then home past the side of the school.
I still wasn't feeling myself today and must admit I was really struggling towards the end of my run. Even the slightest incline was getting the better of me. My legs just seemed to have no go in them and felt really heavy.
As for my outfit, I had nearly made it home undetected when I passed half of Horwich Harriers running through Rivington. Just my luck!
Total distance - 6.6 miles
Week's total distance - (a pitiful) 17.6 miles
Bright orange trail shoes
Black full length leggings with electric blue piping.
Salmon coloured long sleeved (with thumb loops!) top
Sky blue gilet
Flourescent pink gloves (imagine these with the salmon thumb loops over them - nice!)
Purple/dark pink buff
Truth be told, I looked ridiculous.
I went out early in the hope that I wouldn't see anyone I knew whilst wearing my colourful ensemble.
Duncan dropped me off at Watermans Cottage for an easy run as I wanted to stay off the hills because I still have this cold and am finding hills quite difficult at the minute.
I ran from Watermans Cottage to White Coppice and then back again along a different path. I then ran around Anglezarke Woodland Trail and out onto Knowsley Lane, which I ran along past the waterfall and then up the hill which takes you up to Yarrow Reservoir. From there I ran down into Rivington and then along Rivington Reservoir, towards the castle, then home past the side of the school.
I still wasn't feeling myself today and must admit I was really struggling towards the end of my run. Even the slightest incline was getting the better of me. My legs just seemed to have no go in them and felt really heavy.
As for my outfit, I had nearly made it home undetected when I passed half of Horwich Harriers running through Rivington. Just my luck!
Total distance - 6.6 miles
Week's total distance - (a pitiful) 17.6 miles
Still Poorly Sick
Having had YET ANOTHER cold all week and still my niggling hip, I haven't run since Tuesday. If you read my Tuesday blog, you'll see that I mentioned the strange things which happened but these now make sense as they appear to have been the beginning of my cold. My running has not been very consistent recently but hopefully once I shift this cold, I'll be able to get back into some decent training. My hip is definitely feeling better, although it did play up a bit on today's easy run.
I met Ed Swift at the barn at 8.30 this morning and we set off up to Two Lads. I could tell straight away that I wasn't over my cold as I was struggling to talk and run right from the start. Still, luckily for me, Ed was holding back as he was doing Pike Race in the afternoon, so we ran/walked up the hills which suited me just fine. It wasn't until leaving Two Lads and heading up the mast road that I decided I'd had enough. I was getting quite wheezy and, despite wanting to get a decent distance in to burn off my Easter eggs in advance, I knew it was best to turn back and head home and try another run tomorrow. I turned round just before the mast, leaving Ed to head to the trig point and then across the newly flagged route to the Pike as he hadn't checked this out properly since it had been done.
I headed back down the mast road, back up to Two Lads and then home via the side of Wilderswood.
Total distance - 5.3 miles
Later on today I helped out with the Pike Race. Yet again I found myself not running it, despite wanting to every year. I have decided to make it my main focus of training for the next year. I'm determined to do it next year and to do it well. Having looked at other people's times, I want to aim for under 27 minutes.
I had a job which required a lot of responsibility today - timing! I'm not going to lie, I was pretty nervous about doing it. We have a new device now which makes it much easier though, so all I had to do was press start when the race began and then every time a runner crossed the finish line I just had to press a big red button and this then printed out their time on a roll of paper which was then tallied up with the numbers taken by Suzanne at the other end of the finish funnel. Ali and Martyn did manual timing too just in case there was a problem with the new device and Martyn and I kept trying to palm the responsibility off onto each other, 'arguing' which method was the main one and which was the back up. It was all in high spirits though and it was a good job we had both methods as it got pretty hectic at one point with the finish funnel backing up so much that the runners coming in thick and fast couldn't cross the finish line.
After the race it was off to the pub for a few beers. It's funny because I thought when I saw everyone doing the race I would feel jealous that I wasn't doing it but I didn't and I really enjoyed doing the timing instead, which will make it difficult next year as I'll probably want to do the timing again instead of running it!
I met Ed Swift at the barn at 8.30 this morning and we set off up to Two Lads. I could tell straight away that I wasn't over my cold as I was struggling to talk and run right from the start. Still, luckily for me, Ed was holding back as he was doing Pike Race in the afternoon, so we ran/walked up the hills which suited me just fine. It wasn't until leaving Two Lads and heading up the mast road that I decided I'd had enough. I was getting quite wheezy and, despite wanting to get a decent distance in to burn off my Easter eggs in advance, I knew it was best to turn back and head home and try another run tomorrow. I turned round just before the mast, leaving Ed to head to the trig point and then across the newly flagged route to the Pike as he hadn't checked this out properly since it had been done.
I headed back down the mast road, back up to Two Lads and then home via the side of Wilderswood.
Total distance - 5.3 miles
Later on today I helped out with the Pike Race. Yet again I found myself not running it, despite wanting to every year. I have decided to make it my main focus of training for the next year. I'm determined to do it next year and to do it well. Having looked at other people's times, I want to aim for under 27 minutes.
I had a job which required a lot of responsibility today - timing! I'm not going to lie, I was pretty nervous about doing it. We have a new device now which makes it much easier though, so all I had to do was press start when the race began and then every time a runner crossed the finish line I just had to press a big red button and this then printed out their time on a roll of paper which was then tallied up with the numbers taken by Suzanne at the other end of the finish funnel. Ali and Martyn did manual timing too just in case there was a problem with the new device and Martyn and I kept trying to palm the responsibility off onto each other, 'arguing' which method was the main one and which was the back up. It was all in high spirits though and it was a good job we had both methods as it got pretty hectic at one point with the finish funnel backing up so much that the runners coming in thick and fast couldn't cross the finish line.
After the race it was off to the pub for a few beers. It's funny because I thought when I saw everyone doing the race I would feel jealous that I wasn't doing it but I didn't and I really enjoyed doing the timing instead, which will make it difficult next year as I'll probably want to do the timing again instead of running it!
Tuesday, 15 April 2014
A Trio of Oddities
I went out for another short easy run this morning. Duncan dropped me off at the Pigeon Tower car park on his way to work and I ran out towards Sheephouse Lane, down Sheephouse Lane into Rivington Green, along past the lower barn and down the side of the road to the school then up past the llamas and home.
It wasn't a great run - but not because of my hip...
At first it was fine, albeit freezing cold (note to self, Duncan is a LIAR, do not believe him when he tells you it is warm outside - my hands were numb for the entire run!). As I got about a mile from home though, I came over really funny. My legs felt a bit tingly. It's hard to describe really, they weren't heavy and tired, but felt a bit numb. Maybe it was the cold, although I only actually felt cold in my hands? I don't know, but it wasn't a very nice feeling.
Further along, another weird thing happened, this time in my ears. Again, it's really hard to describe but the only way I can try to describe it is that my hearing was like a strobe light, on, off, on, off, on, off... This lasted for about two minutes and then was fine.
The third bizarre thing happened when I got home. I bent down to take off my shoes and nearly passed out. I went all hot and sicky and had to sit completely down on the hall floor, where Ruby started licking my face! Nice.
Feel fine now though so I'm not sure what that was all about. I wasn't doing a hard effort, much the opposite really, I was just taking it easy. I ate before I went out too, albeit just a stick of soft eating liquorice, and was well hydrated.
Ah well, I don't think it was anything to worry about so onwards and upwards!
Despite recent events, I'm actually feeling pretty optimistic and can't wait to get my nice strong glutes and really get stuck into some decent training!
Total distance - 3 miles
It wasn't a great run - but not because of my hip...
At first it was fine, albeit freezing cold (note to self, Duncan is a LIAR, do not believe him when he tells you it is warm outside - my hands were numb for the entire run!). As I got about a mile from home though, I came over really funny. My legs felt a bit tingly. It's hard to describe really, they weren't heavy and tired, but felt a bit numb. Maybe it was the cold, although I only actually felt cold in my hands? I don't know, but it wasn't a very nice feeling.
Further along, another weird thing happened, this time in my ears. Again, it's really hard to describe but the only way I can try to describe it is that my hearing was like a strobe light, on, off, on, off, on, off... This lasted for about two minutes and then was fine.
The third bizarre thing happened when I got home. I bent down to take off my shoes and nearly passed out. I went all hot and sicky and had to sit completely down on the hall floor, where Ruby started licking my face! Nice.
Feel fine now though so I'm not sure what that was all about. I wasn't doing a hard effort, much the opposite really, I was just taking it easy. I ate before I went out too, albeit just a stick of soft eating liquorice, and was well hydrated.
Ah well, I don't think it was anything to worry about so onwards and upwards!
Despite recent events, I'm actually feeling pretty optimistic and can't wait to get my nice strong glutes and really get stuck into some decent training!
Total distance - 3 miles
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