Run 1 Tuesday 21/4/20
I got up this morning feeling much more motivated than yesterday. Not just running wise but in general. Yesterday had just been one of those un motivated days.
My typical week at the moment plan wise consists of 2 short runs supposedly 30 minutes long however mine tend to be about 3 to 4 mile ish mark lasting up to about an hour with a longer run which I normally run in the latter part of the week Saturday or Sunday. It’s whats always fell better for me around work commitments etc, however I had found my run routines were changing under the current times.
I can’t remember the last time I bounced out of bed at 5.30am to have breakfast so I was off out nice and early before the day had even began. My run days now tent to be getting out the door no earlier than 8.30am and my non run days seem to start mid day. I do feel like I have become lazy however its hard when you’ve no where to go and no normal routine to follow.
I set off just after 10am, a lot later than normal for me but by the time i’d actually got out of bed and let my usual pre run breakfast of porridge followed by a banana settle I was shocked to see the time.
Today should have been run 1 of the week so normally a shorter run but when I left the house and headed down the road something just felt different. I kept my usual 30:30 Jeff going and stuck to my normal pace which felt comfortable.
As I joined the trail from the main road normally I would have gone up, round and along towards Rothervalley but today I felt like venturing out and trying a different route. Maybe it was the change of route that got me excited who knows but I found myself going down the trail in the opposite direction. It didn’t seem to take long before I was hitting the Renishaw entrance to the Sitwell arms, knowing continuing towards Pools Brook would be pushing it too far too soon today and would almost double my long run millage this week I decided to take a detour back home around the road way.
As I turned out of the Sitwell carpark onto the main road a thought occurred to me as I visually mapped out the route home in my mind. Running this way would mean I’d have to face the very large hill between Eckington and Morissons at half way! I’d not thought of that and having not been hill training this could be interesting. I decided if it was that bad it really would not be the end of the world to walk up it.
As I came to the gold club area there was a small bridge bit on a windy bit of road, at first I did wonder how I was going to get round the section with no patch way and surprisingly a lot of traffic out today, I then realised to the right of me just off the road side was a hidden metal foot bridge, I would have looked like a right plonker tackling the road and traffic had I not seen the small path leading tot he bridge section.
It wasn’t much longer before I rounded the corner to face the hill. I looked at it head on and set my self goals like I used to when out with Sharon on Joes Ices hills (Them were the days when I could run and go for a chat) I started slow and steady just having started a 30 seconds stint. It’s times like these 30 seconds really do feel like a life time. I was great full when I felt the vibration on my arm indicate it was walking time. The next indicator from walk to run signalled but going from a walk to a very and it was very slow jog took some getting into and felt awkward to transition between. About half way up and in a walk section I was passed by a road sweeper and I have to be honest when I needed to cross the road as there was no path left and had to try and time it around the sweeper I secretly used it to walk the remaining top part of the hill before getting back into rhythm at the top.
Following a different route really was rather inspiring me and I continued along the road, along the top past Morrisons taking a peek to check out the ques for Stu who was off to do our weekly shop after. As it turns out I was surprised to see no one stood waiting to go inside.
I turned off down the trail route taking me away from the road down the back of the petrol station and industrial units and back onto the track entrance. I decided to use the track to get extra millage in so joined back onto the track and headed back up it to go over the bridge and down along past the horse field.
I was half way up the hill towards out house when the local delivery man collared me to talk to (social distancing of course) as much as I wanted to continue the 200 yards I knew that would be rude so stopped my timer and decided to call it a day.
Just over 6 miles, I was more than happy with that.
I really need to start taking more pictures when out especially on my longer or newer routed runs. I logged a memory note (I have many of these when out on runs) to discuss how the small action camera worked with stu when I got back to save having to take phone in and out of pocket and risk dropping it.
Tonight’s news that Berlin has cancelled their Marathon in October left me feeling emotional.
I really want to keep focused and drive forward with the training plan and miles in hope that I will make that start line in 2020 but part of me is starting to feel deflated and like running a marathon is maybe not meant to be for me. All I can do is hope, I can’t even defer my place to 2021 if the event dose not go ahead as we’re away for a big holiday on the date 
. My crying faces are over the deferral not the holiday no way I would miss this holiday.
I need to think of a back up plan, a Marathon later on in 2021 if really needed to focus on, I am determined nothing is going to stop me crossing a finish line even if it is a different one to my original plan. It will not drag me down to give in on my goals, I will run 26.2 miles in 2020 one way or another!
When I put my Jeffing plan together based on Jeff’s book I was wary over the fact that the training plan takes you to the full 26 miles! Every plan I have ever read up on or seen has always steered clear of completing the full millage. However, Jeff’s plans push to cover the millage during training. I had planned in a 26 mile run on my plan but was going to gauge how I felt on the run up to this week. I have now decided that if it is looking or feeling unlikely the official marathon will be going ahead then I am committing to completing those 26.2 miles in my own un official marathon. Even if I have to do numerous circuits of RotherValley. In fairness by then I should be able to run it blindfolded if the lock down continues.
Run 2 Thursday 23/4/20
Last night I had this bright spark that I needed to get back into some sort of routine again so I set my alarm! It’s not been set for nearly 5 weeks but I decided tomorrow was going to be warm one and I wanted to get up, out and done before the heat hit. I also remember how I really enjoyed by early morning runs to start the day off last year.
Who was I fooling, the alarm did go off at 6am but I turned it off and turned over back to sleep. In fairness I felt wheezy so decided I would go out a bit later. When I did stir an hour later I decided to i’d already decided I was going to have a change and run in the evening today. It had been ages since i had done a teatime run so i’d wait for the temperature to drop then go out before tea for a change. Pleased I decided to wait as the post woman brought me my Gymboss I’d ordered a belated birthday gift.
You may be asking what is a Gymboss? I had to ask myself the same question a few weeks back. well if I am honest I didn’t ask it myself I asked it on the girlsthejeff Facebook page.
A Gymboss it this little beauty
Looks a little bit like a pager. It has settings to allow you to set interval timers, so for example I set mine at 30:30 so every 30 seconds it vibrates and beeps. you can choose big beep or little beep, I set mine on big beep, lets just say they will certainly here me along the trail.
Just before 5pm I got changed, decided it was a cookie monster evening with he matching feed me cookie monster vest top. Although if I am completely honest I certainly didn’t need feeding anymore! confinement was doing nothing for my sweet tooth and this week I had decided I need to step back on the scales and start taking more note of what was going in especially since I wasn’t being as active as I normally was. I set up the gym boss attaching it to my vest strap and went off down the track for a short one.
I have to say highly impressed with the Gymboss, certainly no chance of not hearing it. Only issue I did have is I could feel it rubbing slightly and knew the longer distances wouldn’t survive it positioned where it was so I moved it mid route into the middle of the neck line on my vest which is where it felt better. Think it will be trail and error till I find where it works best without rubbing.
I knew tonight was just a short one so paced at what I felt comfy with. About a mile in I could feel a twingy buttock and a niggle on the inside of my right knee. I had felt the twinge before in the past training but the niggle was normally on the out side of my knee not inside. I knew the signs were all there in tonight’s run that I needed to start bringing back in those strengthening exercises, something that should never have left my routine (tut tut). I also needed to find some sort of strengthening class such as body balance etc online to follow once a week. I just needed to find a space and time that was suitable to do it.
Just under 2.5 miles done this evening, short but sweet.
Friday 24/4/20 Saturday 25/4/20 –
No walk day this week, no particular reason just didn’t fit it in to my week, will promise to do better next week.
Sunday Run 3 – 26/4/20
Long run day today although technically I’ve already covered my long run on Tuesday.
Earlier on in the week I had decided to see what I felt like today before deciding if to make this a smaller run or if to still run the planned 7 miles on my plan.
So as I woke and fuelled with usual porridge and a cuppa tea I decided to give the 7 miles ago. I made up some Tailwind in my water bottle (something I’d not done in awhile due to shorter runs)
It felt like a cookie monster day today so on went the latest cookie monster Capris followed by the matching vest top (first time worn). I did take a selfie, not that I am very good at doing that but it also turns out the picture was too big to post on here and i’m also not that technical either. 🤣🤣.
I decided to give the same route as Tuesday ago again but reverse it to try and avoid that massive hill section. What I didn’t take into account was the longer but more gradual hill sections up to the big downward hill section their was 
. I’d obviously not taken much notice of those stretches when going down them the other day. Oh well at least those bits were done early on in the run and the rest was fairly flat apart from the small hill up to the Sitwell Arms.
It was a nice day again and just being out in the fresh air was good for me. As I turned just past the Sitwell onto the track home my legs felt strong and comfortable at the pace I’d slipped into and I knew I was homeward bound along this stretch. I’d stuck to my 30:30 Jeff all way finding it the most comfortable, although I do think I need to work on speeding up some of my walking sections as I sometimes feel like I’m going for a stroll on my 30 second walk sections and could benefits pace wise from stepping it up a little, however equally I need to remember 26.2 miles is a long way and so far my pace feels comfortable and I’m around the 5 mile an hour mark which I’d be more than happy with on the big day.
As I came towards the track exit I checked my millage to see it just turn 6 miles and knew if I wanted to hit 7 I’d need to add a loop in, so instead of getting off I carried on down past the industrial works entering the trail again at the roadside entrance and running back up to the bridge section before exiting down past the horse field.
As I reached the brow of the hill just before our car park I checked in again on the mileage to see it was still short of 7 miles. So did a loop of the nearby street Dobbs Close and then several rounds of the small car park before I hit that lucky 7! If the neighbours ever see me when I’m car park running they’ll wonder what I’m doing .
Week 3 down 23 to go 
.
The more photo promise is a working progress it would appear the posh camera bag Stu got out of the loft contains everything except the camera 
since its been ages since it was used the mission of trying to find it is now underway. With the loft being transformed into our new working office it could be in one of many box’s that’s been moved out of there 
.
