A 16 mile+ week!

Jantastic week #2 completed.
3/3 runs this week.
Gym visits: 2.

3.1 + 3.1 + 10.7 almost 17 miles, but I'm too honest to round up.

The first two quick evening visits to the gym was a trial on a slow comfortable pace, then running fast at the finish, as mentioned in my previous.

The Sunday run was what really got my legs working. Home to wey navigation and basingstoke canal, a slight detour from the usual.

The waters receded from the floods before, it was quiet, the canal towpath was well paved.

Pleasant relaxing run with feeling relaxed and focused on breathing and my running style.
It is my first time on this route so perhaps, not quite time yet to fine tune the pacing, but next time I shall know better.


Which means less time to stop for photos.










Fast forward to Wednesday, and I'm heading into the City, feeling the guilt of canceling one lunchtime run earlier in the week, and also the inability to bring my gym AND laptop bag for a day of work and evening professional function where there may not be lockers.

I would so much love a daytime dash along the London Thames path....how to maximize my time and activities in town, with less physical & (emotional) baggage?

Too much to do and too little time, looking in to some inspiration from this book I'm reading..




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Treadmill pleasure to Torture

My first visit to the gym in 2014 on a typically busy Monday night.

At least I did it!

I'm trying to learn to breathe deeply and relax to stop myself getting a stitch or running out of breath.

The treadmill is not my best mode of running, for fear of falling off, making a loud noise, or tripping over headphones or being deafened by stupid tv shows on poor audio.

It's the best place to practice slow running.

A slow 9km/h start....1% incline, I look good. In the mirror.
The TV blared away with images of the dismal floods... But soon I lose interest. I managed to keep up to 3kms and then I started driving up the speed....10.5, 11.5...0.5km at a time..to 12.0km/h...starting to struggle, but it's already 25 minutes. No matter how hard I tried, this is what I can only manage





Need another visit soon to try another strategy, and to lower my cost-per-visit 😛

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Familiar places under water

2 weeks into the new year, and i'm getting motivated ...only just.

jantastic.me - signed up and committed to 3 runs per week, and this week I got out Thursday, Friday and Saturday (Saturday being a 7 miler round richmond park).

It has not been easy at all when fitness levels have not been keeping up, especially with long stressful working hours and eating habits (stay off the chocolate!) - but, the times I have been out, especially during daylight hours - it has worked wonders on my mood and the pink glow on my face, the tingling feeling on my skin, is ooh...so lovely.



Most disheartening sight of the week is seeing the Thames Path (for followers of this blog, you will know of the nicknames along some of these all too familiar traing stretches) flooded.



Never like this before - and certainly I feel for the livelihood of those who live around here and use the path everyday for their various activties...it will be a while before all the water is drained and back to normal again.



Some pictures, and memories to share....when I will run here again?

the 'plastic mat' no longer...this was the sprint 7 minute cutoff..

where the cows go home....Dumsey meadow...and road closed.

After Penton Hook - 12 minutes on, the first of the smoother roads..

Chertsey - the bridge and lock - my 35 minute turnaround,

Near Thames Court, Shepparton - that will usually be where I pop a gel before the turnaround to head home, on a 2 hour training run

The road leading home....road closed for a while it seems

Muddy shoes - to be out in the open air...the gym is no better alternative. I must think hard, and train on higher ground.






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Merry Christmas!

Celebrating with a 9am appearance on Richmond Park after stormy weather over the last 2 days.



Boggy but not wet. At least 174 crazy people (big and little, prams and dogs) finished ahead of me...

Time is running out. It's not a PB day and I suffered towards the end. It's been a week since I did my last run of 7 miles.

The inactivity is killing me but there aren't enough hours in the day. The legs need strengthening .... Much of that building offline but slowly.

Am considering quitting my gym membership as I hardly ever go - but what would 2014 hold?

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Wintry reflections….

It's almost the end of November - the days are getting shorter, colder, wetter, and I am getting much, much lazier.



Renovations have finally kicked in….a correction to my wardrobe malfunction, and a chance, to take these down from my curtain rail, so that they don't get dustier..







Only a few weeks more than 17 weeks to go before Virgin (Money!) London Marathon - I nudged the one who got the 'You're  in' magazine to start thinking about it…and time to get fit for the 17 week training plan (which starts before christmas).



and where, where are my goals this year? distracted. the hope of achieving something bigger in life than to skim minutes off a 26.2mile this year has left me a failure to hit the 2 small goals I have set myself for 2013…but hey…theres still 5 saturdays, before the end of the year. so literally, I can, I still can. :)



I need to really learn how to prioritise, and carve out the minutes, the half hours, to put on those shoes and get out there.



"It's too cold, It's too dark, I'm tired"…. I must say, one of the happier moments I have had in the last week was to don those shoes and long sleeves, those shoes…in the mild rain, after a long day cooped up in a function room, only minutes away from "the Happiest Place on Earth" in Europe….and round, and round, and round, and round and round…




Meeting people, seeing smiles, makes the hydration and fun afterwards, worth it.



Jumping on the Velib, when the RER and Metro would take too long, on a Saturday morning, in a dress and boots, around, across the Seine, Jardin Luxembourg….magic moments….




My legs are sore, not from the running, but from the walking, cycling….and lack of quality sleep.



to learn to switch off, to relax, to pick up, and go, and run again. It seems to have only happened, in the recent month or so, when I am out of the comfort zone of my home….a gym in Taipei, a gym in Hong Kong, a gym in Hammersmith, a gym in Staines….rarely on the street where I live, or in the park…





These mags say it all - Don't feel Blue, Sorry! You're In!

The winter will be here for a while…and its time to have the clock ticking again….to energise, to try for a record time :)

"Hey, Road Runner, are you afraid of the woods?"

it's October, it's Autumn....when the leaves Fall, the temparture drops, and time to slow down and enjoy successes of the gardening year , as well as calling a conclusion to the 'running season' for 2013??

Well...with no registered races in the pipeline - here's a long overdue update of another year of Farnham Pilgrim Half Marathon - and the 2nd medal in a week in the distant past of September.



The fun of the trails, and being in nature, faster than a hike, and those cakes! The lovely calendar sitting on my wall in 2013 - showing every month, the lovely scenery of the north downs way...where the pilgrims have been...and this is my 2nd time, so it's starting to feel like Wokingham Half, where the familiarity takes over, but this one never, is an attempt to slash one's 13.1 mile PB. My only target, with a truthful non-existent training (apart from the EMC run on the Wednesday before - still glowing in that '3rd fastest woman in the firm' glory :))- was to beat last year's time.

and I did. by around 2 minutes!

The half marathon itself felt easier than I remembered, the queues to pass the stiles (one here to illustrate) was shorter



the cakes smaller - to motivate myself to the finish I had imagined piles of really really big cakes - but the ones at the finishing line was marvellous as usual..
 

yes- I have learnt not to take big chunks of mars bars from grubby hands in front of the pub (after the 3 mile climb). I headed for a small piece at the 'authorised' nutrition station and ensure they melted on my molars for that slow release of sugar....

 the views were rewarding, and this year with all the hill runs (wimbledon, chobham, richmond and around my neighbourhood) some parts of this were not new to me at all....its watching where my feet were going and not slip...and enjoy the scenery - a faster way than a long hike through the English countryside! and there were a few pilgrims that we spotted - 'There's no discouragement.....I'll labour night and day, to be a Pilgrim'...I sang :)



This year - we have new mugs to bring home, and a 'scary' black t-shirt with the words -
"Hey Road Runner, are you afraid of the woods"?

 

after my 2nd Farnham Pilgrim - I'd say, NOPE :)
 
 now onto my other pursuits...while i work on the next opportunity to hit the road/trails again...

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The micro-marathon experience - and one of the top 5!

As a pledge to help the million makers team in EMC raise funds for the Prince's Trust, I signed up to this fun run at Gunnersbury park, just behind the office.
Having felt like I've done ultras this year at work - I didn't do much publicity for the fundraising , and it was a big drop in distance from last year's for the same charity. The organizers were great in helping out with the info to send out, and Thanks to some of my new and regular supporters (I will need to Thank you all personally too!) I exceeded my target easily.
The run itself - 3 time slots on a Wednesday from lunchtime. I picked the one at 6pm and was only making it in time if it weren't for a visiting colleague waiting downstairs!
It turns out to be 8 of us at the start, drizzling and wet, the starter horn went off pretty quickly after we assembled.
No trampling over each other , 3 of them went ahead in the distance , with me keeping my own company, and a few behind.
I'm familiar with the park but not the course charted as it meanders through buildings and focuses on the less open parts if the park where I tend to get lost. The cones marking the route had been slightly moved around by youths earlier, so it almost felt like an adventure race!
A mile in, I ran into some steps, and was promptly overtaken. In the near distance behind there were a few more running together. When it is such a small race one becomes conscious of where one lands - although this is just a much needed training run for Farnham Pilgrim tomorrow.
The rain continued, and I just love the organizers - cheered on at the one lap mark. Not long after that I passed the one who overtook me, who started walking. It is very easy to be distracted, but I pressed on - turning on my internal soundtrack , to the tune of 'in the mood', after a few encounters of such types recently ;) the riffs kept me focused - and the final downhill, past the pond, hearing the horn go off in the distance..

Job done. My watch said 37 minutes with 2secs to spare...I can't believe it! Then my runkeeper confirmed my doubts - it could've been a 3.7 mile instead of a 4 mile - but not UKA certified course, so ok!
But which run would there be when one runs through a finishing ribbon, has a full goody bag , and medal And a printed certificate all at the same time! I can only feel so loved.

We all stayed and cheered for the final finisher at 51 mins , and went home.
The day after, the times for the 3 slots of the fun run was published and I was the 3rd fastest female !
Never imagined a placing in any race at all...it is surely a record for record's sake!
It was fun all right, although I wasn't able to line up future running partners on the spot like some others that day, it was good to be out there again in the presence of active people outside the confines of the desk and laptop and the four walls.
Not too late to sponsor! Please click this link :)
http://www.justgiving.com/Bonnie-Wong1
Now less than 24 hours to go before the next race. A hilly and hopefully not too wet one! I look forward to the finishing table of good cakes :)
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