Running Away

Once again its been a whilst since I visited my little corner of the internet, but in the spirit of promising myself that I would keep up this blog post London Marathon...here I am back again. Quality over quantity and all that jazz ;)

Its now been 4 months since the marathon and theres have been a lot of rocky miles since the big 26.2. I'm pretty sure I mentioned previously that I have really struggled to get back into running since then, with it all coming to a head at the Hitchin Hard Half Marathon back in June (see previous post). The disappearance of my seemingly sound running ability prompted me to shy away from the running shoes and get on my bike. I knew that wasn't the end of running but I really appriciated the break and cycling has definately improved my running (more on that when I'm not typing away late at night on a sleep in at work when I have to be up at 6am). The long and short of it...I took the plunge and bought a bike.

So whats in store for running:

• My next event is the Standalone 10k in October. I absolutely love this race as its the one that got me into running and inspired me to do the London Marathon. I first did this local event in 2012 and have decided to make it my annual event. I'm going to be taking it on this year with a couple of friends and hope to (maybe) get a PB. I'm looking forward to giving this event the review it deserves.
• More cycling...my boyfriend and I are going to take on the London to Brighton next year which will hopefully not only improve my cycling ability and stamina but also have an effect on my running too.
• I'm hoping to get back into pilates with the Pilates Pod soon as I really enjoyed discovering what pilates is all about and really think it could help with my running and sort out my core (which is terrible)
• Last but not least, I'm hopefully going to be doing a run club with my friend Jade and Herbalife who are going to start some run clubs in the local area.
• How could I forget....PARKRUN IS COMING TO HITCHIN! One of the lovely ladies on UKRunChat is bringing ParkRun to Hitchin around about September time and I can't wait. I've heard so many good things about it and I'm looking forward to being able to try it out in my little town.

Heres to an Autumn and beyond of running and its little helpers...

Happy Running

Holly

xx

First Saturday 5k

Initially I thought this post might only be relevant to local people, but I actually think it might be useful to people who have only ever been running on their own and are perhaps thinking about joining a running club or just want to do an organised event without having to raise money.

I started going to the First Saturday 5k, run by North Herts Road Runners in March 2012 after I'd been running by myself for about 5 months. I wanted to do an organised run that wasn't a scary distance, didn't involve raising any money, no big entry fee and was within a reasonable distance. I didn't think such a thing existed until Google proved me wrong and I stumbled across the NHRR website advertising this race.

I only intended to go once really, just to see how fast I could go (I nearly always run faster with other people) and to feel more like a 'real runner'. I thought it would be teeming with my (totally unjustified) idea of 'running club' type people, e.g tall skinny athletic types with PBs of 15 minutes and looking down their noses at people who didn't fit this description. How wrong my short, size 14 (forward slash 16 at the time if I'm being honest) amateur runner self was.

As an obvious new face people were coming over to introduce themselves, ask me about my running story and chatting about the course. I also got chatting to my running rival (in a totally friendly way) Matt that day who is always a nice friendly face to see. It was the first time we'd both been to a First Saturday 5k and we worked out that we both run about the same pace so we've always had a little happy rivalry going since then. I'm not a competitive person at all but I've found it's been good for me to have someone who's at the same level as me to set my pace but also push myself a bit.

So I worked out that I hadn't been down for 7 months and decided to show my face a couple of weekends a go. It takes me about 10/15 minutes to get there, registration shuts at 8:45 and the run starts at 9, so it's pretty early to be up and about and contemplating a 5k at that time of morning on a Saturday. Needless to say I wasn't keen but I dragged myself out of bed. I was really glad I did as I felt great afterwards. I've lost a bit of weight since I last went so it was much easier to get round the course and I beat my previous time by nearly 2 minutes. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to go the following weekend (the Saturday just gone) as they were running an extra race weekend for the Letchworth Festival. 

I was even less eager to go this time as I was a little worse for the wine from the previous evening. I was definitely not expecting much from myself due to said wine, however not only did I sweat out my hangover but I also managed to beat Matt by a couple of minutes (sorry Matt) and also my PB. 28 minutes, 20 seconds...very happy Holly!

So...what has this got to do with marathon training? 

1) Unfortunately the first reason is not music to my ears...I've been reading that its just as important to do speed training and run on different terrain as it is running the actual distance itself. Unfortunately I don't really get on with terrain running or running quickly, I find it much easier doing my 10k runs on the road than I do running 5k at the First Saturday. Norton Common is grassy, muddy, uneven and very up and down...but I know it's good for me and will benefit my training in the long run. Running with other people occasionally also makes me pick up the pace.

2) I'm toying with the idea of joining a running club...this is something I'm still not sure about doing. However I think having experienced people to chat to and understand what it's like to train for a marathon might be helpful. Plus you normally get a few quid off events if you're affiliated with a club...something for me to think about.

Whatever stage of running you're at, if you've never done an organised run before I would thoroughly recommend it. You never know who you'll get chatting to and you can pick up some great tips. Running Diary is a good place to find runs local to you and even though I've not tried it yet I've heard great things about Parkrun (one being that its completely free). Just incase you're local, the First Saturday 5k is every first Saturday of the month and is £2 to enter as a non member.

Just to finish, here's a couple of photos from my first ever First Saturday 5k and a particularly muddy one.

I hope you found this post helpful and might think about giving an organised run a go.

Thanks for reading!

Holly

xx