Runners United: the one where we talk about running, life, the universe and everything inbetween

[Pawsnclaws]

New thread everyone!

Rest for me today - just six days to go and I've woken with a sore throat .....

Quick link to say Cambridge Half Marathon places open:

www.onestepbeyond.org.uk/cambridge-half-marathon.php

fanny FOUR HOURS? Yep you're a mentalist.

June what is this water of which you speak? Coffee has water right? Right?

Orange will you be hitting up Lidl tomorrow also? Last time Aldi had some gear on sale it was bedlam. Get there early!

LOL at 'chicking a bloke' and 'bloking a chick'

Have running club tonight. Will probably barely manage 3 as my 'banjacked fanny' is still giving me gip. It's not a groin strain but it's flipping sore whatever it is.

I hate the thought of resting it, feels like I'm undoing all my good work.

Nooooooooooooo. Have chesty wheezy thing going on... Quick what can I do to banish it and be well for Sunday's marathon?

encyclo I think I might camp outside Lidl in the morning - DD and I always like a potter about Lidl :) I wonder whether your strain or whatever it is is because you've ramped up your mileage fairly fast IIRC - you are certainly running more than you were. How is running club? I'm still too wussy to join.

Am delighted to report that other than the big bruise on my shin from the large metal gate I have no aches or pains today. I am quite happy with how things are going - typical as in about 6 weeks I'll probably have to scale back the long runs, but would hope to pick them up again when term starts.

I am not very good at keeping hydrated - although I do tend to drink a good bit of water when I am at work. Speaking of which...

Moshi are you coughing anything up? Get straight down the docs if you are, get down the docs anyway. Could be a bronchial infection? Kill it fast!

Rhet I think you might be right. I got a bit carried away with my own success and built up mileage way too fast. The 6 on Monday hasn't helped eitiher. Running club is great. Very small scale group of local women who badgered a 'proper' athlete to take us on. We go out Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Loving it.

Debi energy gels make me sick too. I've found it easier to eat Powerbars on long runs, they're still a bit sweet but I seem to digest them better. Did someone recommend Hi5 gels on here? I read the reviews and they sound more liquid which would be good.

Moshi I dosed myself up with Sudafed, tonnes of vitamin C, iron (Feroglobin) and ginger tea. Plus steam bowls 4 times a day. Sorry to say though that the wheeziness took a good month to get better. And I still feel glandular even now. Is Abingdon this weekend?

Monday, Wednesday and Friday! wow, that seems a lot!

I need coffee (am mildly hungover), but I am sitting here wondering about going out for a run later on...probably best to rest after my 12 miles, though, I guess. Tomorrow then. Friday off, 10k on Saturday. I haven't really trained for a 10k, so have no idea what will happen.

moshi oh no - lemsip and sleep? it's not surprising as you have been under a lot of stress and 2 long transatlantic flights within a week won't help either. But I hope you feel better before Saturday - I know how hard you've trained for this - I think we are all so in awe of your times and distances that it's hard to remember that training at that level is even tougher than what us plodders do. You make it sound easy, but it isn't. So fingers crossed - and tell those germs to bugger off

Really Rhet am I overdoing it do you think? I'm going tonight, but if it flares up again I'll rest it till Monday.

Wow you're thinking of running again so soon after 12miles? You is NAILS!

futurity will look up the Cambridge half - have just signed up to Milton Keynes.

encyclo well it depends what you are doing in those 3 sessions - if it's easy running then no problem (just replacing what you'd do yourself)...if you don't feel it's too much then it probably isn't!

Paws - I find the Hi5 gels really good.

Am hiding from the weather, it's so wet and cold and dark (and I can stay at home and play with the mac :)) But if it's wet and cold on Sunday I'll have to do it anyway.

Kicks self up arse.

Pull muscle.

Encyclo very impressed by your club going out 3x per week. Do you do different sorts of training each night?

orange on the subject of cheating .... we were talking about it with friends on Saturday night, and saying that because the Chester route went out into open countryside we reckoned it would be reasonably easy to drop out just after the timing mat at half way and reappear at about 20 miles. DH swears he saw a guy appear from the crowd at about 22 miles in the Brighton marathon. I said was it possible he'd just nipped in somewhere private for a wee, and DH said he really didn't think so - he looked really fresh, which would be hard considering it was 25 degrees?

encyclo I find enforced rest so frustrating, always fall into the pattern of going back too soon. I've been antsy yesterday and today, but even I accept there's no way I can run yet.

Rhet and sticky we do easy running one night, we do one mile intervals another night and on the third night we try to build distance.

Paws exactly! I'm so scared that if I stop to rest I won't be able to start again. Stupid I know.

Hi everyone. we are all fast and not-furious, on and off thread.

I was fast the other day - I braved it across a field of cows, and one came running over. It started kicking in the air so I faced it and shouted at it to stop. all well and good - it stopped and stared. but his mate obviously didn;t like this and came running over to back him up - so the original one got brave again and started running at us (me and big dog) so I decided the best option was to PEG IT. and peg it I did. Once safely over the stile, I kept smiling to myself on the rest of the run thinking, (juvenile humour warning) there's nothing like a pair of bullocks to make you go fast...

I forgot - on the subject of dodgy tummies - I too have never been able to work out rhyme or reason - but I know that twice recently when I felt pretty awful I'd had a glass of wine the night before - so I'm conducting a no-alcohol experiment.

rhet glad your doing the hills. You find you fly on your next run. Oof at the bruise. Bloody geese but suppose better than having to run away from mad man with axe though.

encyclo you can shove your ironing where the sun don't shine! I hate it - mine was around 5 days worth of clothes but two weeks of bedding. I'd make a great housekeeper, preferably in San Francisco... That seems a good training plan with your running group. Similar to what I do but I also add hill session in.

Moshi oh no, you're going to have to visit GP I think. You'd be crazy to do marathon (at your speed) with chesty cough. If it went to your heart under stress you'd be in trouble. My tennis coach cousin had to have an emergency heart transplant after carrying on exercising with a cold and cough. The virus attacked his heart. He was hours from death, when a lady's heart came through who had died in a crash. I would never run, especially a race, unless I'm 100%. You look after yourself.

orange how's DS today? Hope you get appointment sorted at hospital very soon.

Yet again, I am ill . Not long after going to bed last night, my body started aching with that poisoned feeling you get when you have a bug. Next thing, vomiting in toilet. I'm currently in bed and haven't even stepped outside bedroom, DH had to take day off. I am actually worried that my body isn't strong enough for running long distance. Or am I just having an unlucky couple of months? Just when I get into good training mode, I'm ill. DH and I were going away Saturday night sans kids and we've had to cancel. Our first night away in 9 years. . Oh well, not the end of the world.

Glad you're doing the hills not your.... .

hatwoman I'm off the booze at the moment, and quite liking it. I love waking up with a clear head. And I definitely pay if I drink the night before a run.

poor fanny, you need to build yourself up, girl. Sounds like a bug rather than being under the weather generally, but you do need to be careful if you've been pushing speed and/or distance. I've decided to take a break from the marathons for now and try and do some more cross-training/ train only for a half as I always seem to get ill if I push myself too hard. I prescribe a day in bed mumsnetting relaxing, lots of fluid and when you can face it some dry food. And yes your advice to moshi about looking after your heart is dead right - remember the story I put on here a couple of weeks ago about my friend who died aged just 39? It's just not worth taking silly risks no matter how hard you've trained.

fanny you poor soul. I hope it's a quickie. We have a hill run planned next week. Ugh, shoot me. It's a 3 mile incline. Why? Why?

Lots of the girls are planning to run the Dublin City Marathon, so they kind of start running with us and then just keeping running. So impressed. I dunno if I'm built for distance either. If I am, I need to build it slowly.

Paws have you signed for the Milton Keynes marathon or for a half marathon?
I can't face a marathon yet...need to make sure I can complete a half without being ill afterwards!

fanny I didn't like to be all pedantic; I'm sorry you aren't well - it may just be that you are slightly over-training and you are sensitive to it. Maybe cut either volume or intensity back by about 10% and see if that helps. We all have a level at which our activity outstrips the body's capacity to heal and regenerate - perhaps a focus on diet would help? Get one of those runner's recipe books and focus on good recovery foods?

Mind you, I run a lot of miles and pay absolutely no attention to my diet (disclaimer: I mostly eat fairly healthily, mostly home cooking), so what do I know. I think I used to think that once I started being picky about food then I might be a bit obsessed...but I think I might be going there now.

We are clearly beset by wildlife - hat it's good to know that you can leg it out of there if required. Geese are big, and quite scary en masse. I like running there because you see lots of seabirds (nerd alert); even poor DD is adept at identifying species of birds, little poppet (less poppety at 3 in the morning when wailing for a drink...)

Thanks for the link to Cambridge futurity, I've signed up on the dotted line and updated the list below. I've assumed you'll be doing it so added you too. Hope that's right? Is £27 normal for an entry fee, I thought it sounded a bit steep, but its only my second race so I don't know what the average is.

15/10/11 - Donadea Forest Trail 10k - rhetorician
16/10/11 - Abingdon Marathon: MoshiMoshi
16/10/11 - Aviemore 10K: Piffpaffpoff
16/10/11 - Richmond Castle 10k: Stickylittlefingers
22/10/11 - Shockabsorber 10K Richmond Park - sfx
23/10/11 - Thruxton Mass Attack Duathlon- DebitheScot
23/10/11 - Big Fun Run 5k Edinburgh Holyrood Park - Bumply
23/10/11 - East Coast Run 10k - Ibbydibby
30/10/11 - Great South Run: Wheely, squix
30/10/11 - Nairobi Standard Chartered Half Marathon - M&M
05/11/11 - Glendalough Trail Run - rhetorician
06/11/11 - Lancaster Half Marathon - Fannybanjo
13/11/11 - Stebbing 10 Mile - bonkers20
19/11/11 - Maasai Mara Half Marathon - M&M
20/11/11 - Leeds Abbey Dash (10k) - DrNortherner
27/11/11 - City of Norwich half marathon: ibbydibby, MoshiMoshi
22/01/12 - Four Villages Half Marathon (Helsby) - Fannybanjo
19/02/12 - Brighton Half marathon - Wheely
11/03/12 - Cambridge Half Marathon - Futurity, Runnerstipple
25/03/12 - Edale Skyline - (21 miles. 4,500 ft climb) Hatwoman
10/03/12 - Blackpool Half Marathon - DrNortherner, Fannybanjo
22/04/12 - VLM: ibbydibby
29/04/12 - Shakespeare Half Marathon - FairyBasslet
27/05/12 - London Bupa 10K - Futurity

Moshi and Fanny, sorry I don't have any advice but wanted to send hope you feel 100% pdq vibes to you both.

Hat, PMSL at your 'pair of bullocks'!

futurity the half - I'm taking a break from marathons for now, I think one a year maximum is probably realistic for me. I just literally signed up for MK yesterday, otherwise I would have done the Cambridge half as it looks fun. There is a new MK full marathon for the first time next year (29th April?), I might look to do that in the future. I'd prefer a very early spring marathon I think, as I tend to wither and die in any form of heat.

encyclo I just looked at Dublin yesterday (for next year obviously!) again, I think it looks like a fun one.

Thanks paws and encyclo - to be fair, I don't think it's my training as I've done the distance and more miles per week at quicker paces before. I think I'm just picking up bugs as DD2 and DD3 in preschool and it's part and parcel.

However I do worry, as my dad had massive heart attack age 42 and I don't want to push myself too much. I'm building up distance properly and feel very strong whilst doing them so it's probably just coincidental. I'll just make sure I'm fully recovered before going out again.

encyclo surely it's treachery from the rebel county to be running marathons in, gasp, Dublin? (I realise that no-one else will have a clue what I'm on about!); was at Croke Park last night for book launch on GAA book - it has great pics - you might enjoy? it's here Mike is a friend of mine :)

I kind of hope that dd likes gaelic games, as it's such an important thing in Ireland - and her great-uncle was a pretty handy player in his time, so it should be in the blood (mind you, all DP's family have had a complete sport by-pass, so maybe not)

sorry - I digress