Sand Angels | Shadows | New Year

Beyond the fireworks, celebrations, cork popping and merriment there is but one truth. We have left 2012 behind and have welcomed in a new year.
Personally I had much to enjoy from 2012, the obvious highlights that have been documented time and again such as The Queens Jubilee and the Olympics certainly rubber stamped certain dates in history as well as bringing a much needed cohesion to a society if only for a short while. It also highlighted how social media has reinforced that cohesiveness on many levels. I for one enjoyed the opening ceremony not only with Mr T but with many of you on Twitter, making the experience incredibly inclusive. Sofalising was certainly something to be experienced and I am not ashamed to say I enjoyed it very much!

Personal highlights included birthday celebrations when both Mr T and myself turned 40, we raised many a glass to our inclusion into the 4th decade of our lives. I also became a life long member of the "I have run a marathon club". In May 2012 I ran the North Dorset Village Marathon in 4 hours 7 seconds. I competed in my first triathlon as well as saying hello to the world of adventure racing. All of these events had me being in the best shape ever, not bad for this 40 year old maid!!

40th party celebrations

Roseland Adventure Race

Taking to it like a duck to water!!

Marathon finish line

Most surprising of all I became a mud runner. I was introduced fairly swiftly to the trails and coast paths around this gorgeous part of Cornwall by fellow runners who were training for the Grizzly 2012 run. I was finding my injuries increasing as I started to increase my road running mileage, I took to the trails to enable me to gain strength and miles whilst limiting the injuries and fell in love with the feeling I got from it all. Lots of squeals and laughs as we were slipping and sliding through trails, much chatting as we reconvened at the next stile to take on board the view or a jelly baby or two. I totally and utterly caught the mud running bug.
If you want to read about how it makes you feel, this wonderful blog post by Katie Davis for the Mud Crew Events sums it up perfectly.

Last but not least I can include myself within the Mumpreneur category. This year saw Avril Sainsbury and myself introduce The Wire Digital Marketing & PR agency to the masses!! A venture that has been hugely gratifying in these first few months whilst also being amazingly hard work. I'm not one to shy away from giving myself challenges though and am happy to take the journey forward into 2013.

New Years Day has been a day of enjoying what is around me, my family, my environment and my ability to engage my body in the activity it enjoys the most. It has also been a day to ensure that I take stock of what is good in my life and nurture those who are so very dear to me.
Happy New Year to you all x x

Sand Angels | Shadows | New Year

BACK FOR GOOD?

Who know's. This blog has been very much a measure of my activity with regards my running and training. It has been some time since I have felt I have been able to write anything constructive and fresh about that subject.
After the marathon in May , I really felt the need to pull away from the weekly training runs and spend some more time with my family. Although there was never a time when it felt like i was sacrificing time with them - I would often take myself off early to be back before they noticed- I did want to have Sunday mornings and Saturday evenings not being consumed by my next long run.

I enjoyed the break from running and had entered an adventure race in St Mawes to give a little variety to the training. It was a welcome relief to include kayaking to our usual Wednesday mud runs. I found a new lease of life and started to get out on my bike more as well as getting to know Bude Canal fairly well on kayaking sessions.
I then decided as I had enjoyed the variety of the adventure race so much that I would enter the Bideford Triathlon set for 8th July 2012. I had become stronger on the bike and had kept my running fitness up enough to see me through the sprint distance race, no amount of swimming in the gorgeous Bude Sea Pool had prepared me for the hideous state of the River Torridge swim that we did!! The amount of water that the SW had received in rainfall in the weeks before the Tri was incredible, thus making the river a debris filled brown expanse of water. I have to say I was petrified when waiting to enter the water that morning.
I did it and did it in a time I was proud of 1:36:27 to be precise.

What I hadn't banked on was the swiftness of what was to take up my time and energy for the forthcoming months. My new baby..........

No, no my baby making days are well and truly over, my 2 boys give me much to be grateful for but I also know how much I can give to them and another one thrown into the mix would be messy to say the least!!! No, my new baby is my new business. It feels very much like a newborn has entered the house though. The time I spend with my business does take me away from enjoying sofa time with Mr T, it does make me have to say No to friend's invitations and it does make me make use of the grandparent's more, but I LOVE it.
I will introduce you to my amazing distraction -

My great friend, Avril @ei8htdesign and myself have gone into business together and have created a fun and vibrant digital marketing and PR company. Come and connect with us on Twitter @TheWireCornwall, like our Facebook page The Wire, N Cornwall or check out our blog at http://thewiredigitalmarketing.tumblr.com/ if you so choose!!
It has been an amazing couple of months with much interest around the business as well as many late nights and early mornings getting our business set up. There are many more of these to follow, we are a new business and I intend to give it all my care and attention. I also intend to keep a balance between my passion for my work and reviving my passion for the sport that gives me some quality time and peace, running. The connections I have made through the sports I do have also helped to engage our business in the accounts it already has, a wide network of friends and connections are made when you partake in a sport with like minded people. Just another great reason for me to continue.
Only last week, I was on the regular Wednesday mud run, when a member was asking about what we did. I proceeded to tell them about what The Wire offered and was told to expect an email in the next couple of days detailing the services they required!!! And boom, another proposal to get out.

I do enjoy all aspects of my work but know that for the health and sometimes wealth of my business, it is essential for me to keep on running and enjoying the social side as well as the time I have with my own thoughts when I take myself off on a solo run.

I hope to be back more often than of late to detail more of the running side of this maid's weekly activities, so see you very soon............

DAY 5 - RELAY RACING

I attended my club's Thursday night session this evening as I intend to work on my technique in the months leading up to the marathon and this is precisely what the club do on a Thursday - technical sessions.
You never know what you are going to get, could be tempo run, fartlek training, intervals or hill reps. The only consistent here is that you know you will be working outside your comfort zone and you will feel it!!!
That said I am very much up for increasing my strength and am looking at increasing my pace through these sessions. The proof is in the pudding really, since I started with the club I have managed to get a PB in a 10K race with an average 8.16 min per mile pace which I was very happy with. If I can see results why wouldn't I keep on going back for more? According to my bible Garmin my max pace was 5.21, yes, really feels like it as well!!

Tonight was an interval session in relay pairs. We paired up with similar paced runners and took to the streets around Flexbury. The session consisted of us doing 5 laps of just over 800m in distance to then tag our team mate, who would in turn then run their leg of the same route. Laps 1-3 were intended to be moderate to hard with laps 4 -5 to be an all out push.

Well as I learnt tonight, if you go out too fast on laps 1-3 you crash and almost burn on laps 4-5. Yeah I know the hare and the tortoise fable, but I'm certainly no hare and I can't be accused of being a tortoise either. But yes, I should have paced myself a little better perhaps for sure. All lessons to take with me for next time.

After having a little chat with myself I know where I went wrong and how I can improve next time, I believe this is what it is all about at the end of the day. Learning how my body will cope and how I can best set it up for success is half the battle I think. So lessons learnt from tonight and I expect some sore calves in the morning but then I do have a wonderful sports massage booked so all is going to be good in the world as of lunchtime tomorrow.

Hope you fellow Janathoners are enjoying your experiences, so good to read all the tweets and comments. We can do it!! Jog, blogged and logged. That's me for today, I'm pooped!!

DAY 3 JANATHON - ADDED RESISTANCE

Well as I struggled to sleep last night due to the swirling winds around the house, I took comfort in the fact that I was not planning an early morning run and that I would be going to the club (Bude RATS) later this evening for a Tuesday night social run. There was I, smug, thinking the weather would change and it did this afternoon. It became fairly pleasant in comparison and I was looking forward to getting out there with the usual bunch.
The problem being was that 3 hours ensued and the winds decided to pick back up. The meeting point for the club is only a few hundred metres from Crooklets Beach and the wind was coming straight off the Atlantic. Just walking to the hut was effort enough.
Had a good 5.49 mile run taking in some hills, can't really get around here without them and ensuring I came back home with a whole new hairstyle. I personally think the La Roux look could be the way forward for me. Need to lose the head torch but I'm pretty much there tonight with the look.


La Roux - I was working this look!

Another day of running accomplished, tomorrow I'm back in the pool for a little cross training. Swim lessons start again on Monday so best get my swimming head on.
I don't know about anyone else but I am enjoying this Janathon idea, this is the time of year when it is oh so easy to duck out of club runs, early morning runs, etc. With motivation and support from all the Janathoners & Running Tweeps it helps to know that others are working just as hard as you with a common goal in sight.

Here's to all you Janathoners.

Day 3 Janathon - club run by lara37 at Garmin Connect - Details

JANATHON DAY 2 - REGRESSION SESSION

The magnificent Cornish coastline

An earlier start this morning (7.30am pick up) enabled me to make sure I focused on my run the night before. Getting my kit ready so as not to have to fumble around for various pieces in the darkness. Head torch, gloves (to ensure minimal freaky fingers!),carry pack (jelly babies, iTouch, etc) then the basics - L/S top, capris, Skins calf support socks. I was ready for the next instalment.
Mrs D, she becomes a regular feature here me thinks, had text me with a route the night before. Needless to say it was a muddy affair!!! The route took in the most wonderful part of our coast line as well as some wooded trails which we did in semi darkness - a little spooky but we are big girls now so we were cool.

I must just explain the freaky fingers reference. I suffer with raynaud's syndrome, finding an extreme in temperatures especially warm to cold, renders my fingers numb, tingly and "freakishly" white - enhance the freaky fingers reference. I digressed.
At more than a few points on our initial 2.5 miles we were unable to run in places due to the sheer lack of grip we were having on the ground, this enabled many chances for me to use my new gadget ( my iTouch) to capture some of the snapshots from the run.

Once we hit Woodford we became slightly more unsure of our route, even though I had actually run this section in our club's relay run in the autumn, I had clearly not taken enough notice of stiles and exits within fields to help us navigate to an exact location. Hence we made up a few extra miles by detouring ever so slightly in places!!! Adds to the fun.
At one point Mrs D commented on the fact that she would never have done anything like this in her 20's, I agreed. This is still a fairly new pursuit for me ( 3 years of consistent weekly running) with off road running being an even more recent acquisition to my running repertoire, I am still a novice when it comes to downhill running on slippy, muddy paths.
I am sure at points I am regressing! It may be something in my subconscious to do with a big birthday ahead or it may just mean that running and doing so with a like minded group of individuals helps you to shake off some inhibitions and let's you enjoy the activity to it's fullest.

Mrs www.thedaytodavis.co.uk

Another fantastic run, no mud fights but plenty of mud. Sunshine and beautiful skies alongside bleakness and a short, sharp hailstorm. The best part as always is the company and the friendship I share with Mrs D and the ability to feel so much excitement from such a primeval activity.
Definition of psychological regression: Reversion to an earlier or less mature pattern of feeling or behaviour.
For those who may have witnessed us on our recent mud runs, they would not hesitate to agree with the above statement from the dictionary.

And so it goes on............

JOLLY START TO JANATHON

DrDoo - Google images

Well here we are, the beginning of a new year and the beginning of Janathon. Jog & blog each day in January, day 1, done.
What a wonderfully, exhilarating, muddy, hilarious run I had. For starters I had the best running buddy next to me www.thedaytodavis.co.uk who takes to mud like a pig in... well you know what! Only 400m into the run she jumped straight into a puddle of oozy (love that word) mud in order to plaster me in the stuff. The bar was raised and I knew I would take my revenge.
We weaved our way through wooded paths, streams and took on particularly slippy, muddy hills. Many stiles and gates later we came upon an area of path that was covered in the brown stuff with numerous puddles - well, as detailed previously Mrs D can't resist it, so again I am plastered but this time I failed to close my mouth in time for the soaking. Yes, mud straight in my moosh, I'm ashamed to say, inevitably a mud fight ensued. We were in stitches and managed to run the remaining mile and half looking less than desirable.

The run itself was only 4.3 miles but felt a whole heap longer, at points we were unable to run sections as they were too slippy to gain any footing on. My average pace per mile took a drastic tumble but my spirits were sky high.
If you ever need to ask me why I love running, just read this post, come for a mud run with me and then you will have your answer.

Running has been part of my life for the last 3 years and runs like these help to keep it fresh and exciting. Thank you Mrs D, thank you janathon and thank you to my body for enabling me to do this.

I'll see you tomorrow........

The mud runner Mrs D.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

In my opinion, Christmas seemed to take slightly too long to show up in this neck of the woods this year. The children broke up exceptionally early this year, hence I had mad, excited boys thinking each day they would wake up to "Christmas".

Right so thinking caps on - lots of activities to get organised to keep them busy.

Didn't do too badly as we had a party on the Monday with friends and their children, lots of crafty bits for the children to do/make as well as a village hall to run around in. Yep that worked.

Another activity we returned to this holiday was Geocaching. Thanks to www.helemill.com I am now the proud owner of a Geomate Jnr, a robust, colourful GPS device with geocaches pre-loaded onto it. You literally turn it on once outside and it locates your nearest cache. If you have never tried it you must, it is great fun, although I have to say that finding the cache is the ultimate goal as was our failure on several occasions previously. Now, that has all changed thanks to my new gadget.

Myself, 2 friends and the children all went to try out my new toy. We have a cache located only 1/2 a mile away, this was our destination that afternoon. We took ourselves down the country lane, over the fields and up a hill to locate it to the very metre. There it was, my PRECIOUS!! I have failed on each of the 4 attempts I have taken previously with geocaching so this was not only a major triumph for me but it helped to instill confidence in the children that we could indeed find our treasure and not endure another fruitless trek across fields and such like. Hoorah!!

The Chalk House and the bouldering wall was another fantastic choice. Both boys have been once before and really enjoyed it. JT gets so much out of it, it is very much a drop in gym where you can come and go in that day once you have paid your initial entrance fee. There is always someone there who can navigate the boys through some new moves to challenge their climbing hence JT comes away feeling his self esteem particularly inflated. You can almost see his puffed out chest, bless him!

The cinema was also another destination of choice on a particularly wet and windy day, Alvin & the Chipmunks - Chipwrecked was the film. Not the most high brow of movies but I have to say it meant I could sit down, eat popcorn and not endure 90 mins of my kids teasing each other. I regard this then as a mission accomplished.

Another feat with which I struggle is getting my running in when Mr T is still at work and I have the children home. It either means an early start or an evening run. Luckily I managed both this week, one great, wet 6 mile run with the running club and an early morning one with Mrs D www.thedaytodavis.co.uk. In our morning run we ran over the fields in order to locate the geocache again as Mrs D loves her mud runs and our usual route only takes us on roads, I was able to impart my precise knowledge of the location of the cache for Mrs D - I could see she was impressed!!!

All in all not bad really for a week where the boys were intolerably excited, had that time to let it bubble and manifest and unleash it on their mother!!

I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas break and in the words of Jerry Springer take care of yourself and each other :)

JANATHON 2012

Well I've only gone and done it now haven't I? I have registered for my first ever Janathon! www.janathon.com. Run every day, blog every day is what greets you on the home page. It looks like 2012 is going to be the year of new challenges for me. First a daily blogging and tracking of a run EACH day ( or some other form of exercise) then a marathon in May. Being 40 next year is not looking at all bad from where I am sitting.

I am addicted to a fan of twitter and through this vast vessel of social media I have come into contact with an enormous running community. Through this I have heard about Janathon via @jogblog aka Cathy on twitter and as it is becoming ever more difficult to haul my sorry state out of bed in the mornings to complete what used to be a regular early morning run, I have given myself a challenge of running each day as well as blogging and tracking those miles.

Another tweep @Rob_Herron has been kind enough to send me some free samples of High 5 Zero Electrolyte tablets, a fantastic chance for me to try out some new forms of nutrition especially as I am now going to be upping the mileage with my long runs. So thank you Rob, check out this link for a selection of supplements available http://www.musclefinesse.com/shop/category/Women-Supplements/78/browse



Looks like that is January all sewn up for me then, should also schedule some time in for the husband and kids or you might just find them running around with me!!!

WINTER TRANING

My winter training is looking somewhat different than last year, mainly due to the addition of 2 new elements: cycling and swimming.

This time last year, I was unable to swim front crawl for toffee, seriously!! I had NEVER mastered the breathing technique needed to successfully get myself from one end of the pool to another without a) taking in way too much pool water than is healthy b) breathing like I am taking my last breath.

Needless to say if I was to master this freestyle swimming malarkey I needed some help.
This help came in the form of my lovely niece who I hasten to add is an amazingly competent swimmer, swimming in county championships but most importantly a patient and very thorough teacher. She went through the basic techniques with me, breathing, position of body, arm stroke, etc over a period of 2 sessions. Before long I felt much more confident and was able to manage around 50m without stopping before a short break. Phew, I was getting there!! Thanks Amber x
As if by magic, around the same time as my first achievements in the pool, my local running and triathlon club, www.buderats.co.uk were sorting out their winter swimming training sessions again. BONUS! I put myself down as being interested in taking an 11 week course of swimming sessions through the club, starting in September this would give another discipline to work towards over the winter months.
All I can say is that I AM LOVING IT. We are certainly not being given an easy ride, we are ramping up to 2000m a session at the moment, but I feel I am getting stronger and ever so slightly faster as I go through the weeks
.
Last nights session looked a little something like this:
Warm up: 400m F/C ( 16 lengths)
Main session: 6 x 100m F/C with 20 secs rest between reps
200m kicking
7 x 50m F/C all done within a minute
Warm down: 200m pull and 200m drill
I come away feeling shattered - in a very good way!

This fits into my week perfectly:
Monday: Swim for 1 hour with RATS
Tuesday: Run for an hour with RATS
Wednesday: Turbo train on bike for an hour or an hour in the pool
Thursday: Technical / speedwork session with RATS (1 hour)
Friday: Early morning swim then Pilates (1 hour)
Saturday/Sunday: Long run or bike ride outside

Am loving the variety this gives me and am feeling stronger for it, winter training never looked so good.

I PUT SOME NEW SHOES ON....

and suddenly everything is right!! Or so Paolo Nutini seems to believe.

It starts with achy feet, now my shins are starting to feel uncomfortable, these are signs for me that my running shoes are in need of an update. Hastily ( basically, the only day for the last 3 weeks that I have been childless for more than a couple of hours) I went a knocking on the door of Gary at Launceston Sports to acquire said “new shoes”.

Now this is certainly not a hasty process as Gary is remarkably thorough when advising on new running shoes and I believe today I had tried on about 6 different pairs before coming across the CHOSEN ONE, or two actually, don’t tell Mr T!!! Each pair that feels good on gets tested on the treadmill to see how the running feels and to be perfectly honest I am as excited as a kid in a sweet shop about my new purchases J I even managed to come away with a swag of freebies as the SIS (Science In Sport) rep was in at the time of my purchase, as I was purchasing his competitor’s ( highfive) nutritional tablets he felt the need to offer his gels and sports drinks to entice me to the other side. It may well work I will wait and see when I next use them!!

My running has changed within the last year and my aim at the moment with regards to training is to start upping the pace and taking times of my PB’s. This cannot be done without the help of my very reliable friend my Garmin and a Runners World Garmin ready training schedule. Within my training I have a speed work session and a tempo run to endure enjoy, which in turn has helped to make my natural running pace one that I am pleased with, which I now hope to build upon over the next few months.

The beauty of running is that you do really only need a couple of things to get you going and that is a good sports bra and a pair of trainers that work with your natural running gait et voila you are set and ready to go. I now have a race pair – Mizuno Precision and a cushioned pair – Mizuno Wave Rider. It is not goodbye to my tried and tested Brooks Ghost 3’s, just farewell my friends, may see you for a coast walk or a stint in the garden some time soon!



Seen better days!




My visions of Beauty!



CONTROL(LED) CRISIS!

Last  week saw me having a crisis of my self control. I felt like things were running away with me and I couldn’t  seem to reel them back in but I found a solution – phew I hear you say! I have to be less strict with myself and need to take things back to what is the priority and what I can lose control of until another time in my life.

The highlight of this so say crisis was completing the Exeter Half and realising that I could do a marathon (this had been a mental barrier all along) and actually wanted to do one for the first time in the 2 years that I have been running.  I feverishly logged on to Runners World and trawled through the list of all the marathons coming up in the Spring. As my training has been going so well I would have been half way to getting the training accomplished for a marathon so felt it was well within my sights. Unfortunately as I had left it so late to let my mind decide I could do a marathon, I found the ideal first races were all full. Stress then took over and I felt that I needed to get into a marathon no matter what and was still researching possible races until midnight one evening, until I finally resorted to getting some shut eye and leaving it until tomorrow.

Thank goodness I did, some sense of normality possessed me the following day and I realised that it was not a race to get into any marathon and that this year would not be the best year to try for one. That put to bed the feeling of desperation to find the best race and also helped me realise what I want to get out of my running. I also felt I could nurture friendships more as I wasn’t fighting training time with friends time. I have some wonderful friends, some going through some painful, stressful times at the moment and I really want to be there for them as and when they need me, without the feeling of needing to do something else instead and compromising the time I can give to them.

I love running because I can and it makes me realise how very lucky I am just to be able to get up and out and reinforces all that is good in my life, I have my health, happiness and (sometimes) sanity alongside a great family life and I should just relish this.

When the running becomes stressful or makes me anxious then I have to reel myself back in and take stock of the purpose of it in my life. Needless to say marathon applications are scheduled for 2012 and this year is about enjoying the challenge of increasing my pace within a half marathon or 10K race and taking part in Bude triathlon with my husband and brother in law.

Stress lifted and some great things to look forward to = a happier, less anxious Mrs T

GIVE AND TAKE, TAKE, TAKE!!

Running is a huge part of my life now and with various races planned throughout this year I am always “in training” for a race. Mr T has likened himself to a Runners Widow on many an occasion and weekends seem to throw up all sorts of opportunity for us to master the art of compromise.

Mr T is a keen cyclist and he too is “in training” for some races this year. Bristol bike fest in June and Plymouth 24 hour in July, he is also looking at participating in the Cornwall Tor. Needless to say weekends can become somewhat similar to NATO discussions, whereby we need to decide on what needs doing at home versus both our training needs. Recently I have lucked out on being very much the taker when it comes to training but now that Mr T has his goals in sight and on the calendar, a whole new art of give and take come into play.

I am very much a social runner, I enjoy the company of others, especially Claire and Katie, who make the miles fly by and do everything in my power to ensure I can get the long runs in with either one of them, preferably both, at the weekend. As Katie’s husband is a chef at http://www.thecastlerestaurantbude.co.uk/ means her long runs take place when Kit is home, namely Sunday mornings.

This weekend proved to be a time when I had to look at the training programme and realise that I had to do my 13 mile run ALONE on a SATURDAY morning, instead of a Sunday. First, palpitations, then the hot flushes and then I got over my selfishness and started planning my route www.mapometer.com. Mr T had put his foot down and insisted it was HIS turn to cycle on Sunday whilst it was my turn to take the boys swimming, he was right of course and I did the “right thing” and got out of my comfort zone and ran alone, I say alone but my iPod was a very welcome companion on a 2 hour wind swept affair!!

This song sums up my run this morning, the words: we are always running for the thrill of it: were very much needed when I battled up Hobbacott Lane in a 29mph wind that almost made me run backwards! I actually chuckled to myself as I must have looked hysterical, glad no one was there to witness it!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eimgRedLkkU

The plus side of giving over of taking , is that I am now at liberty to sample many Prosecco’s and G&T’s at the party tonight, knowing that my long run has been completed and I may be able to suffer a headache in bed instead of on a run.