I was awake at 2.30 this  morning, wide awake. As soon as I stirred my mind went into overdrive and I ended up getting out of bed and writing some lists in an attempt to clear my head. This all took about two hours. Needless to say I was a bit low on energy this morning, but there was so much to do! My morning was spent sewing up beanbags for our Jubilympics tomorrow, trying to find stuff in the spare room (never an easy task since it’s a pile of boxes randomly labelled with the wrong information), and then I decided I should run while the going was good. In my search of ‘the box room’ I found my tripod, something Hector used to enjoy playing with when he was little(r), but now he really put it to its intended use and set off to the adventure playground where he took some great photos including these:

A running me, pausing

An action shot of Edward

While they entertained themselves, I ran a few miles with my list still ever-present in my mind: in my Fleetfoot ll bag were some carefully placed scissors and a plastic bag and, when I had run enough, I stopped at one of the many heavily laden elderflower bushes and snipped away busily, I had promised local elderflower cordial for our Big Lunch after all.

Cordial in the making

On my return the post was delivered and I was delighted to receive an unexpected present and card from Edward: the card featured a lovely picture of a medal, and the message was wishing me well in my fitness endeavours at the gym and ‘See attached for recovery aid’…

I am going to share it you know, honest.

He knows me well.

Distance run: 3.41 miles

Time: 32 minutes 01 seconds

Average Pace: 9.24

Best Pace: 6.10

Calories: 413

I’ve been doing this Juneathon (and now Janathon) thing a while now. I gave 2007 a miss as I was about to give birth on June 29th, so running every day just seemed daft, but I watched from the sidelines. In 2008 I was slightly distracted by a small boy, but managed a bit of running (with the running buggy) but not a full quota of blogs. In 2009 I was back in action, feeling strong after my first post-baby marathon and enjoying the challenge once more. 2010 was my winning year, though I find it odd to think that I ‘won’ Juneathon when we now have people who regularly run in a week what I did in a month! Last year I made the difficult decision not to join in Juneathon – our June is now like an additional December, with lots of family gatherings and celebrations around Hector’s birthday and I just couldn’t see how I could fit it all in. This June is just as busy, with our Big Lunch street party this Sunday, our best friends’ wedding in a few weeks then the biggest and best dinosaur party Ladywell has ever seen at the end of the month but I am not letting this stop me fulfilling my running/blogging commitments this time, JogBlog wouldn’t like that.

When you’ve been ticking off the June miles this long, it’s hard to make it fresh, give it new meaning, so some runners set themselves additional challenges (as if running and blogging every day wasn’t enough!). We have Fairweather Runner who includes a lovely little Lego scene in each post, there’s Cake of Good Hope, who delights us with chocolate bar charts and cake graphs and, this year, Cassie over at Travelling Hopefully is embarking on a treasure hunt. I can’t promise anything as entertaining and exciting as that, but I will promise to do my best (once a Brownie, always a Brownie). What I’ve decided to do this month is make a difference. This could be something as simple as helping a neighbour, lending a hand/skill, or something a little more challenging such as the street party, something that brings people together. I will do my best at home too: being a bit more patient with the 5-going-on-fifteen-year-old and stepping back when I get wound up by this particular challenge. As for my running, this is going to be bigger and better too. The other evening I joined the local leisure centre. I am lucky enough to have a running track and gym right at the end of my road and now I can go there as much as I like Today I am taking some measurements, I thought about putting them on here, but that’s way too public for my liking, so they’re going in my diary and any changes at the end of the month will be revealed here.

About this time of year, I like to make miles and miles of bunting

This morning I did the school run: I ran hard up Blythe Hill and paused briefly at the top to turn and look at the incredible view of London. I then did a few circuits of Ladywell Fields, popped home to grab a towel and a drink and did a session at the gym: stepper for 20 minutes then 40 minutes or so of weights/abs. Feeling good!

Distance run: 3.01 miles

Time: 29 minutes 39 seconds

Average Pace: 9.51

Best Pace: 6.50

Calories: 365

Well, I am one very lucky lady! I simply clicked ‘Like’ on the Holiday Inn Facebook page and won the chance to run with Paula Radcliffe and Shelly Woods. The strangest thing about all of this for me, other than running alongside my heroine, was peeling myself quietly away from the boys as they slept and venturing out into the commuter world in the early hours. I watched as a steady stream of regulars took up their everyday spot on the platform and headed to the doors as the train sneaked up silently in the dark. I was amazed to see that the train was full, at 6am! Emerging from Charing Cross I noticed sleepers huddled in doorways, something I don’t usually see in my sheltered south London world, and I wondered if these commuters still notice them as they pass the same shop doorways every day.

As I arrived at the Holiday Inn Bloomsbury I was greeted by other eager-looking runners who were milling about expectantly, awaiting the arrival of our Olympic stars. I was slightly disappointed that Shanaze wasn’t riding her BMX around the foyer…then Paula strolled in. She’s tiny, really, you could blow her over, and so elegant, oh how I wish I could roll up at the end of a marathon looking as fresh as she does!

We were walked over to Russell Square where we tried our best to keep warm while Paula was interviewed by ITV Daybreak (I have had a scan through on the Player, but can’t see anything, maybe it’s going to be on tomorrow’s show) while we did some ‘stretching’ and jumping up and down in the background.

Paula being prepared for interview. And yes, that's her body guard!

The event was all very well organised, with security people and even St John’s Ambulance on bikes!

Thankfully, his services were not needed!

Before we set off we did some – much-needed – warming-up with Paula and Shelly.

Warming up

We then set off around Russell Square for a mile run. Here I was, next to the woman who has been my heroine for such a very long time, and actually keeping up!

Race ya Paula!

Suddenly I found myself next to Paula and simply didn’t know what to say, but she really is as lovely as she seems and we chatted easily for a while. I was interested in what happens next and she told me she is off to the Pyrenees to train with the other athletes. I asked her when she gets to see her family in this busy schedule and she said they will be with her. I told her about how I used to run with Hector in the running buggy and we chatted about how odd it is to run with a buggy. Just like talking to any other running mum really! On our last lap of the square we took a turn down a tree-lined path and broke the tape of the finish line, arms in the air, cheers all round.

Back at the hotel we were warmed up with hot drinks and a lovely breakfast (not porridge!) and Paula and Shelly very kindly signed things for us and posed for photos (in which I look a right gormless duh) then held a quick Q&A session. I talked to other runners, all with different goals and experiences, some running London this weekend, some with 100 marathons in their sight.

Paula and me

Shelly and me!

Shelly is competing in this Sunday’s London Marathon (which she has previously won) and seemed calm and relaxed in the run up to the Olympic Games. When asked who inspired her, she said ‘This lady here’ and pointed at Paula Radcliffe.

Right now I am buzzing from this experience. I got to run alongside a world record holder, and two London Marathon winners both heading towards London 2012. What a start to a drizzly Thursday morning!

Best wishes

Distance run: 1.01 miles

Time: 9 minutes 39 seconds

Average Pace: 9.34

Best Pace: 7.22

Calories: 69

(and Shelly and Paula didn’t even break a sweat!)

 

In case you were wondering, I’m still hard at it for the Viceathon cause, well the eating baked goods bit anyway. I had visions of running every day while Edward had a week off work, but bugger me, didn’t we just go out and do fun things every day instead?! I have managed a handful of runs this week, one of which took place on a running track on Good Friday at 8am. You read right. I was delighted to see that our local leisure centre have started a series of outdoor classes for the summer: bootcamp, Nordic walking and – woohoo! – running club. So, I ran over on Friday morning to find it was just me and the instructor. This could have been slightly awkward, but I sort of know him a bit anyway because his family live across the road from us, and he was very kind and gave me my very own tailored one-to-one session. It was superb. I pushed myself running the five 400m repeats and managed to maintain my pace throughout, with only one moment where I very nearly threw up. This session actually made my legs ache, which is always a good measure of how hard I’ve worked (this doesn’t happen very often!).

On Easter Monday I kept on looking out of the window and saying ‘urgh!’ until I eventually decided it wasn’t going to stop raining, and took myself out anyway. It was quite lovely actually – there was hardly anyone around, apart from a few grumpy runners and two scallies who I was delighted to see were carrying a large potted plant through the park: ‘Ah’ I thought ‘how nice that they are taking an interest in horticulture’ and I smiled appreciatively at them. As I ran on it dawned on me that the big bushy plant was in fact marijuana and they were taking advantage of the deserted park to take it for a walk.

Today’s run was rubbish. I made the mistake earlier of saying on Twitter that I had ‘run a crappy six miles’ which, when I read it back, seemed very dismissive and wrongly worded. What I meant was that the experience itself was awful, I was pleased to have run over six miles, but hadn’t particularly enjoyed it. I really wanted to get my Viceathon debt down, so aimed to run a bit further than usual, but as soon as I set out I could tell things weren’t right. I felt heavy, tired and wheezy and ended up resorting to popping into McDonald’s to use their loo (this is a place I only ever venture into in running gear, head down, eyes on the little lady sign). I enjoyed taking  in the madness of Greenwich as film set, seeing the ‘Les Miserables’ scenery, complete with gigantic elephant. I then crossed over into the park where preparations are underway for the Olympic equestrian events. All this distraction didn’t help get me up The Hill, and I had to pause halfway and pretend to admire the view as I found enough breath to make it up to the top.

Greenwich, France

So, the Vice part of Viceathon has taken over somewhat this week, with home-made bread picnics and Easter Panatone given by visiting friends and Edward’s lovely little simnel cakes…and not much running. I did, however do a bit of cycling, and up hill at that, so will take advantage of this to shave off some miles (using a version of JogBlog’s 1 unit=2 cycled miles).

Edward's Simnel Cupcakes

I’ve done some workings out in my diary and have arrived at a figure of 10.94 miles in debt. I can get out tomorrow morning and work that down a bit further, but Edward is back to work on Monday and Hector is not back at school until Thursday…excuses, excuses.

Beach-comber

A year ago today we were in Brighton, stuffing ourselves with pasta and getting all excited about the Brighton Marathon. On Tuesday we went for a day trip there, and it all came happily back to me. Good luck to all those running tomorrow, it’s a fantastic place and a fantastic race.

This three-week Easter holiday lark is proving challenging in the think-of-something-to-get-you-out-of-the-house-for-free department. I was in danger if being lured under yet another pile of Lego this morning, but was enthused and rescued by the idea – out of the blue – to try geocaching. I registered on the geocaching website and discovered that there are lots of caches in our local area so, not being in possession of the right kind of Garmin or an iPhone, I went all old-school and wrote down the details and clues and off we went. The idea (in my head at least) was that I would run and Hector would cycle, but he soon started to get distracted and I was pulling his bike along within the first mile while he hunted for sticks to poke around in the locations where the caches were hidden. Thankfully we found our very first cache quite close to home and quite quickly, so our enthusiasm was maintained and not dampened at the first spot.

Happy Geocacher

The next one involved us rummaging around at the wrong tree whilst avoiding nasty piles of dog poo for while before I suggested another tree. When I had described it all to Hector, with my limited knowledge, I had said that the caches might be like a sandwich box and could contain treasure, so we were surprised at just how small some of them were, but not disappointed, there is a real sense of delight when you eventually find your little capsule.

Tiny cache

For some reason, my normally bike-loving boy decided he would now spend the rest of the outward journey on foot, so I gradually acquired a bike, a jacket, a helmet, a rucksack and a particularly ‘important’ stick. This meant my idea of sneaking in a run was now in danger of being dashed completely. A few of our searches were unsuccessful, though we will go back because one was just off-putting due to being the favourite haunt of the local winos and therefore strewn with discarded beer cans (and worse) and not especially child-friendly. We made a team decision to head towards the last one on our list then take a refreshment break at the Big Sainsburys cafe.

In terms of increasing my Viceathon mileage stash, this outing only brought me even (I ran the return journey). The half a bread roll and a scone I consumed in Big Sainsburys didn’t really help the cause, but I did find myself walking away from a particularly lovely-looking hot cross bun (baked by Edward’s Mum and brought all the way from Manchester) this afternoon, in favour of an avocado, how very odd.

Today’s Viceathon totals

Baked goods eaten:

1/2 a bread roll

1 scone

Fruit eaten:

1 avocado

1 apple

Distance run: 2.54 miles

Time: 26 minutes 30 seconds

Average Pace: 10.26

Best Pace: 6.39

Calories: 268

Baked goods total for April 2:

2 slices of bread

Fruit eaten:

1 avocado

1 apple

1 orange

some dried apricots

Miles left in the Viceathon bank:

0

…my true love gave to me a lovely lemony loaf. It would be plain rude to turn down a slice. Wouldn’t it?

Before I indulged in such citrus delights I went for a run in the sun (I was very happy about this because the weather forecasters have been promising cold, cold, cold all week). As I ran I thought about what might pass my lips today and decided five miles should do it, hopefully leaving me with a bit of extra fuel in the Viceathon tank – I didn’t want to start panic buying too soon and end up with burnt fingers. Though, with this being the school holidays I have swiftly gone from being a six-days-a-week runner to just three this week, so I can’t sit back and let the miles take care of themselves as I have been recently on the school run.

My Viceathon vice, as I revealed in my last post is baked goods. I have decided that:

1 baked item=1 mile run

(a baked item could be a slice of bread, a piece of cake/a muffin, a hot cross bun – my vice of choice right now -, a biscuit or an oatcake.)

I am also going for a mega price-match and having a piece of fruit for every baked good eaten. In our house I compete with the miniature fruit monster and allow him to eat all the fruit, neglecting my own needs, imagining that ‘he needs it more than I do’. Given that Hector can consume his five-a-day in one sitting, I don’t get much of a look in.

Today’s Viceathon totals

Baked goods eaten:

1 slice of lemon cake

3 slices of bread

Fruit eaten:

2 bananas (0ne of which had gone past the stage of brownness I find acceptable)

1 pear

1 apple

Miles left in the Viceathon bank:

1

Distance: 5.15 miles

Time: 48 minutes 26 seconds

Average Pace: 9.24

Best Pace: 4.31

Calories: 548

It’s been a good week for running. Odd really, when I spent over an hour waiting at the doctor’s on Monday (I had an appointment!) to have my knee checked out. It has been ‘giving me gyp’ for months and months now, mostly when I go up and downstairs but not – thankfully – when I am running. Last week this changed and it all started to feel a bit unstable as I ran and my knee looked a bit swollen, enough to prompt me to see the doctor. It seems I have patellofemoral pain syndrome, which is apparently common amongst runners (I hadn’t told him I was a runner, he must have clocked my athletic physique as I hobbled into the room). He is referring me to a physio which he admitted might take sixteen weeks to happen. In the meantime I am doing various exercises after running to strengthen my quads and hips and waiting patiently to consult an expert. I had thought the problem arose from my constant kneeling when I play with Hector and also moving to a house with stairs having lived on the ground floor for years and, as it hadn’t given me any trouble whilst running, I had been quite dismissive. Anyway, things have improved and I am going to just carry on as normal for now.

I have been continuing my lovely school run but had the sad realisation this week that it will soon be over: the Easter holidays begin in a week and a half and, after the holidays, the children will move into a lovely new building just a short walk from our house and our routine will change again. It does mean Hector will be able to cycle to and from school, which he will no doubt enjoy, but I might have to give myself a bit more motivation to get a run in after dropping him off. I think I might have found a motivation on my run the other morning. I decided to pop over the ‘spirally footbridge’ into the other section of park and noticed a ‘Run England’ sign on the notice board, I stopped to have a nosey and saw that there is a free course taking place in a couple of weeks. The deadline for applications was Wednesday so I quickly got on the case. It seems I have got a place on the ‘Leadership in Running Fitness‘ course at the end of the month, and this will allow me to start my own running group. In return for the council/mayor-funded place, I will commit to 20 hours of voluntary work, which I am really looking forward to. I have wanted to do something like this for a while so I’m glad I added that extra mile to my run last week and spotted the sign!

In other news there has been some lively chatter over on Twitter. Cathy Jogblog was asking if people wanted a challenge for April, which involved running a mile for every alcoholic drink you consume. As I don’t really drink that much (actually, I do drink more than I used to, but not enough to warrant a challenge) it was decided that I could substitute drink for cake, but really, I know I like cake, but I don’t eat that much! I seem to have settled on baked goods – there’s a lot of bread being baked here at the moment and check out these little chaps I made yesterday:

Cathy suggested the name ‘Viceathon’ for this particular challenge, so participants can tailor it to their own particular over-undulgences. I am sure she will be writing up a blog post with lots of information soon, so check out Jogblog to find out what’s in store. If you haven’t joined in any of the ‘athons’ before, you should, its’ a great way to motivate yourself to run and you get lots and lots of support.

This morning I could have lounged around the house reading the paper and eating baked goods, but I decided to go for run number six while Edward and Hector went for a swim (H is swimming proper now: head under water, breast-stroke arms, no floats and everything, I’m ever so proud!). I popped in my headphones and did a warm-up circuit of Ladywell Fields then headed upwards towards Hilly Fields. It felt like hard work going up that hill but, for some reason, I took this as a signal to tackle it head on and ran up and down four times. As I plodded down, puffing and panting for the fourth time, I thought ‘Go for it, do another!’ so I did.

Distance: 4 miles

Time: 40 minutes 37 seconds

Average Pace: 10.09

Best Pace: 7.21

Calories: 489

 

This morning I gave blood for the first time. I had intended to do so during Janathon, prompted by Cassie, who is a regular donor, but I couldn’t go due to the lurgy and then I couldn’t go in February because I was STILL full of lurgy so today it was: Give Blood Tuesday. I found myself in a big lorry on Lewisham Market, squished in with all the other eager blood-givers, answering questions in a cupboard then lying on a bed listening to golden oldies on the radio and pumping my hand in and out (and trying to remember to squeeze my thighs and buttocks – I must have looked like a very obvious first-timer!). I think it’s a good idea to make an appointment (they were seeing over 100 people today!) but I managed to get one within the hour and was then in and out within 45 minutes. And you get to drink squash and eat biscuits (or crisps) though I felt rude taking the biscuits without being offered, so just sipped my squash quietly. I’m booked in for July now and will try to give blood whenever I can. If you would like to know more visit the website here.

The school run is going well, though the runs are not that eventful, hence the lack of blog. I did do a sort of double last Friday: our neighbour happened to be taking her daughter by car and offered us a lift as we were stepping out of the house but, as they weren’t leaving for a while, Hector took off his coat. Of course, when we got to school in the nice warm car, I realised we’d left the coat at home. To avert a meltdown I promised to run to school with it as quickly as I could. So I got a lift home, grabbed the coat, ran to school with it under my arm and then ran home again at a more leisurely pace! This morning I felt good and offered a friendly smile and a jolly ‘Hi!’ to a woman I saw stretching in the park. I wasn’t expecting such a contemptuous look in return. I know other runners sometimes like to keep to themselves, but I do like to call out ‘Morning!’ to dog-walkers, runners and anyone I see regularly on my route, and I am often met with a blank expression or completely ignored, but this was downright rude! I always think of this greeting as being an offer of support, like saying ‘well done on getting out’ or ‘keep going’ to a fellow exerciser so I will continue to be a friendly runner and, if I see her again, I will make the smile even bigger. How annoying!

Distance: 3.01 miles

Time: 30 minutes 25 seconds

Average Pace: 10.06

Best Pace: 5.59

Calories: 312

 

This morning’s run was the first in over a month where I have felt fit, strong and healthy. My breathing was good and I felt able to push myself up hill and still have enough breath in my lungs to turn and go up another hill. It felt good. I was out running again last week, fulfilling my school run duties, but each run was accompanied by a soundtrack of coughing and spluttering, so much so that it prompted a man with a very strong Sarf Lahndon accent to comment: ‘Come on love, cough it up, it sounds like you need another fag!’ That’s not the impression I aim to give whilst running!

Once I’d got home and had a shower, I was off out on my bike, running errands. On my ride I noticed two women running on the pavement and also noticed they were wearing ‘barefoot shoes’, one was in Vibrams and one in what looked like some really rather fetching green NBs (I think they must have been these). I was struck by how comfortably they both ran, chatting and moving smoothly along. I am guessing they have been barefoot running for a while because they seemed to be running along the Waterlink Way and not just a quick ‘test run’. I found it inspiring to see how easily they ran and thought about my own Vibram Five Fingers, gathering dust in my wardrobe (I won the Vibrams when I ‘won’ Juneathon a few years ago). I do like the idea of running ‘barefoot’, but have never committed myself to really going for it, unlike Eating Trees, who has even run races in his. I have been running in a lighter shoe and have found it really comfortable and far less cumbersome than my usual Asics. I was sent these lovely pink Puma Faas shoes months ago now, and have had so many comments about how lovely they look, they have become a favourite footwear of choice.

When they were bright and new!

Mine are the Faas 500 shoes, lightweight and good for shorter runs and races of around 5k. The Faas range does have a lighter racing shoe, the Faas 200 and at the other end of the scale, for longer distances, is the Faas 800. I’ve never really thought about the weight of my shoe much, I just go to a running shop and take advice from the assistant there. I am usually training for fairly long distances, so I end up with quite a hefty shoe with lots of cushioning, but I am beginning to wonder if this is what I really need. My runs in the lovely pink Faas 500s have been nippier and I feel far more sprightly and springy of heel. Maybe I should keep going with these for a while then try some short runs in the Vibrams…we’ll see!

Distance: 3.05 miles

Time: 30 minutes 14 seconds

Average Pace: 9.55

Best Pace: 4.44

Calories: 339

It’s been a busy week, but not for running. It has been Hector’s half-term holiday, so mostly spent playing with Lego, being bossed about by someone very small and queueing up for an hour and a half at the South Bank Centre for a children’s super-hero workshop (really, they need to rethink how they run these events, you can’t make children queue up for ANY length of time!). I did go for a run last Sunday and have been mostly recovering from this bloody chest infection thingie that is just not going away – we have both been ill for weeks now but will hopefully be back to full health soon.

I have to cast my mind back a week now. It was cold, I even put on a hat for the first time this winter. It didn’t look snowy or icy but, as soon as I stepped out of our front door, I realised it was incredibly icy. The whole run was a sheet of black ice ahead of me, not great for speed, but I wasn’t looking for speed. I wanted to run further than the school run three miles I’ve been doing recently, but also wanted to spot trolleys and take photos (during Janathon, Travelling Hopefully featured a trolley photo in my honour, so I needed to return the photographic favour).

I was treading very carefully as I headed out towards Greenwich, taking in the Waterlink Way that snakes alongside the DLR line out of Lewisham, a prime Trolley Spotting stretch. Every so often my feet would slip from under me and I was reminded to take it easy and, as I turned around in Greenwich and ran alongside the water, I had to hold onto the railings to stop myself from falling! I thought I might struggle to extend my distance after sticking to short runs for so long (and with a chesty cough still restricting all attempts to breathe deeply), but I found it pleasantly easy and returned feeling refreshed and happy as I saw what the boys had been up to in my absence.

Check out the concentration

Distance: 6.17 miles

Time: 1 hour 3 minutes 39 seconds

Average Pace: 10.19

Best Pace: 8.03

Calories: 703

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