Nah.

You may have gathered I didn't go out on Tuesday evening. I feel rotten. Most of the aches and pains have now left me, but my throat is incredibly sore still and my chest is very tight. Am hacking away in a manner that appears to frighten quite a lot of my colleagues. I'm on the mend, though - I can think straight and walk properly, at least. I'm hopeful I'll be shot of this bloody infection in the very near future and am resolved not to panic about falling behing schedule. I'll definitely not be doing a long run this weekend, but come Saturday I may start combining this week's shorter runs with next week's, so I can attempt next week's long run at the end of next week. I'm worried whether that makes sense. Reading it back, I see that it does. More drugs, please! Ciao.

Bloody ill a-bloody-gain

Had a horrible time running on Sunday (as you will have seenin the entry for that day). When I got home, I started violently shivering, but just thought that was because of all the energy I'd burnt up. That's why they give you those lovely foil capes after marathons, after all. But then I lost all sensation in my fingertips and it took hours to come back. I had a nap after stretching and eating dinner and woke up feeling OK - no soreness, or stiffness. But since yesterday morning I've been feeling dreadful. Every muscle in my body hurts, I'm getting shooting pains in my bones (feels a bit like when you break a bone), I have a dry, sore throat and a cough and I feel all weak and shaky. And my stomach is in a mess. A couple of other people at work have the same thing and so does my aunt. I'll be trying a 30 minute run this evening, but am not convinced I'll get very far. But for the weekend runs to go properly, I need to spread out the shorter ones better through the week.

Hayley's still doing really well, by the way. I'm probably suffering more than she is lately!!!

There's something about race day

I was stunned and thrilled, as you know, with how well last weekend's race went. Back to normal for today's long run, unfortunately. The last 4 miles were agony. And I have my doubts again about the reliability of the pedometer I'm using. At half way, it was showing about 1 hour 11. I wasn't expecting anything great, as I felt quite flatfooted and was making a lot of noise with each footfall, in contrast to last week. But this would mean I ran a negative split and, trust me, that is simply not the case.

I don't know what it is about running with an audience that lifts my performance. Perhaps my ingrained fear of embarrassment.

Sunday 24 February. Run 15 miles. Time taken 2 hours 19 minutes 34 seconds.

Hill run. Aaagh.

2 dry days and nights in a row. 1 day at a time.

Saturday 23 February. 50 minute hill run. 5.71 miles covered. Damn those hills.

Done something

Missed yesterday. You may have noticed. Back out tonight, though.

Friday 22 February. Run 1 hour. 7.2 miles covered.

Crap week

As you might have gathered, I was on a real high after the half marathon. And I recovered really quickly, no aches and pains on Monday. I was planning to run Tuesday evening, but my car was broken into so I had to fiddle about sorting that out. And yesterday morning my remortgage, which I thought was all sorted, went a bit wrong and I just couldn't motivate myself.

I will be out this evening if it kills me and may try another run tomorrow, then the two weekend runs as normal. And now an announcement. I am an alcoholic. I simply cannot drink in moderation. Therefore I can't drink at all. Simple as that.

Official time confirmed

Results posted online this morning. 1 hour 51 minutes 22 seconds. Woohoo! I was the 1914th person across the line, but some of those finishing ahead of me were slower than me - they just started further forward. The reults are in PDF, so I can't sort them on 'chip time' to actually find out where I finished in terms of time, but I'm well chuffed with the time itself. And I seem to be able to walk about like a normal person this morning.

Brighton Half Marathon Completed!!!

A fantastic morning. I was feeling a little dubious about my potential today, given the ridiculous quantity of vodka I consumed yesterday. My stomach was not happy and my legs were very shaky. Beautiful bright sunshine and blue skies promised much, although it was bitterly cold at 9.15 when I arrived in the start area and when I had to remove my warm gear and head to the start I thought I'd die of hypothermia.

But it all went very well once we finally got started. I crossed the start line with 6 minute 50 already showing on the clock - there were about 5000 people running - and started my timer. For the first two or three miles it was actually quite difficult to run at my preferred pace, as we were really packed together through the narrow streets. Once we got onto the seafront, though, I started to stretch my legs. I was 2 minutes behind where I wanted to be at the 4 mile point, but had cut that to 1 minute by the end of the 7th mile. And my finish time (based on my time spent racing, not the official clock) was quite simply shocking in a brilliant way. Bearing in mind my target time was 2 hours and I thought 1 hour 57 might be doable, I'm ecstatic. Especially as, lovely though the course is in general, there was series of utterly bastard hills, both up and down, from 9 miles or so to the end. I even managed a proper push for the final mile.

Sunday 17 February. Half Marathon Race. Time taken 1 hour 51 minutes-ish. I stupidly forgot to press 'stop' on my timer when I crossed the line, but the official clock said 1 hour 57 minutes something, so based on when I crossed the start line this is as close as I can guesstimate.

Another warm up - BIG DAY TOMORROW

I was planning a four-run week, but tomorrow's race day for the Brighton Half Marathon and wise words from people at work who have more experience in these matters made me rethink and switch down to 3 runs including the race. I should really have done this second one either on Thursday or yesterday, but my god it's been cold in the evenings so I went out this morning while the sun was out. Very nice it was, too, and I felt really good.

Saturday 16 February. 50 minute Fartlek 'of your choice'. Well, by choice I wouldn't do a fartlek of any description. But I combined it with a hill run and included 8...well...for the sake of argument, let's call them sprints. 6.05 miles covered.

Really looking forward to tomorrow, especially if the weather's like today. I hope to have a very impressive time to report (am aiming for under 2 hours) tomorrow afternoon.

Week 9, 1st session

I've been meaning for weeks to try to do a run on Tuesday. The back end of the week has been really loaded, which has left me to stiff too manage it previously. Today, though, I got back on the bike to work and back and that seemed to loosen up most things, except my hamstrings.

So I went out for the first run of the week tonight. I definitely still had a lot of Sunday's session still in my legs, but I hope this means I can go out again Thursday, then Saturday and Sunday and establish that as a pattern.

Tuesday 12 February. Run 1 hour. Only 6.94 miles, but as I say, I hope to see steady improvement in these runs now if I can avoid doing Friday, Saturday and Sunday all in a row.

Chuffed or disappointed?

Not really sure, to be honest. Slower than a slow thing on a slow day, but I completed the target distance of 14 miles, which I wasn't sure I'd manage after last week's 12.5 mile blow out. Pain, pain and more pain. Beautiful weather again, although I could have done with a bit more of a breeze. And I lost the lid of my drink bottle, so I ended up wearing more than I drank, which I don't think helped the time either. Also, thanks to the weather, the seafront in Brighton was absolutely packed. Now, I have no problem with that. But for god's sake, you lovey-dovey, self-absorbed couples, if you see someone staggering towards you in agony clearly trying to run (regardless of how fast they're actually moving), can you not let go of each other for two bloody seconds so they don't have to do a hoppy jumpy skippy maneuver to get round you? Seriously.

Sunday 10 February. Run 14 miles. Time taken 2 hours 8 minutes 41 seconds.

2nd run, week 8

There was another session I could have done last night, a 30-minute 'cross training' (i.e. not running) thing. But I couldn't be bothered. It's been a really busy week at work and I was knackered.

Today the weather is gorgeous!!! Running along the seafront was lovely and for the first time in a long time I didn't have to wear a windproof top over my t-shirt. I therefore sweated a lot less (sorry, but these details are important) and got a lot less tired, so my pace was much better than it has been recently. Really pleased with the result.

Saturday 9 February. Run 1 hour. 7.31 miles covered.

14 miles tomorrow! And next Sunday is the Brighton half marathon. If you're in Brighton, come down to the seafront and cheer. If you're not and you're coming into Brighton, for god's sake leave your car at home!!!

1st run week 8

Short blog tonight, dinner's coming.

Wednesday 6 February. Run 40 minutes. 4.66 miles covered.

Bloody hell!

I've finally got round to doing another running total distance check. So far altogether I have covered 163.46 miles!!! (About what Paula Radcliffe does in a week, but for me this really quite a shock.)

This is over 6 marathons!

If I hadn't blagged my way through (i.e. basically missed out totally) about 4 weeks' worth of the programme, god knows what the total would be.

Will be really interesting to find out the final total.

Marvellous weekend

We went to 'Sing-along-a-Sound-of-Music' last night with my sister and my insane cousin and her partner. I'd never seen the film, but as soon as we got to the theatre (after a yummy meal at Al Duomo, the best Italian restaurant in Brighton) and saw the men dressed as nuns, women dressed as kittens and every other combination you can imagine I knew we were in for a good night. Even before the film started, a very funny man spent a while holding fancy dress competitions and telling us all the moves we had to do during each song, who to boo and who to cheer, etc. Within about 30 seconds of the film starting I had a stitch and tears streaming down my face and couldn't see what was going on on screen, so I contented myself with waving my arms in the air shouting 'the hills, the hills' every few minutes and randomly doing actions and making noises, la-la-la-ing my way through songs cos I couldn't read the words. Tawk abaht larf. You must do this at least once. Finally got to bed about 2 o'clock - it took a while to unwind once we got home, and the thing didn't finish until 11:00.

Majorly horrible wind today, but I managed to work out where it was coming from correctly this week, so it was in my face most of the way out on today's run, and pushing me along most of the way back. I didn't manage the full 13 miles, but am nevertheless most chuffed with myself. In much aching an paining right now, though and dreading trying to get out of bed or move about tomorrow!!!

Sunday 3 February. Run 12 to 13 miles. I did 12.5. Time taken 1 hr 51 minutes 8 seconds. Even my arms ache!

I lied

I underestimate myself sometimes, you know. For the past couple of weeks I've been a total wreck thanks to my mortgage lender, Platform, unable to motivate myself to run. I thought that would probably continue till the end of this week at least, but yesterday I suddenly seemed to snap out of it.

I have therefore done one of the runs from week 7 today and will try the long run tomorrow (weather permitting). Given that it's supposed to be 13 miles and the furthest I've been so far is 10 miles, 2 weeks ago, that may prove overambitious, but as long as I get out and do a substantial distance I'll be happy. Today's run gives me hope - it went much better than I could possibly have expected given my recent progress.

Saturday 2 February. Run 50 minutes. 6.06 miles covered.