My first three 13.1 miles runs done and dusted and only 1270 miles to go 😃

Felt so good starting my challenge on the 1st of January in the Quarry at Shrewsbury parkrun, my favourite running event. 

I joined 222 parkrunners and the support was overwhelming . It was nice to get a mention by the race director at the start.

It was tough not to race during parkrun, the words of Paul Bowes repeating in my head ‘it’s a run not a race’, and it was very tempting to up the pace and overtake a few runners but didn’t. 

I carried on after scanning my barcode at the finish funnel, getting plenty of encouragement and good luck shouts and the remaining 10 miles of the run flew by. 

Got a toot at the Nando roundabout (Josy Whittingham claims it) I didn’t see who it was but waved to them and it gave me extra energy to carry on. 

It was a route I’ve ran so many times, slightly undulating course, hard to find a flat 13 miles in Shrewsbury! 

As soon as I got home I did some stretching on tight quads, calves, hip flexors and gluteus. 

Hamstrings are best left alone, they are commonly weak muscles and over stretching them can cause them to weaken even more.

I have a giant wall planner on my studio wall and I was dying to write a big number 1 on the 1st of January and 1:43′, my finishing time 🙂

   

   

Tuesday the 5th : run #2 

Was dying to get going after my first run and couldn’t wait for the second one.

I had an extra recovery day, could afford to because I still had a full 52 weeks left in 2016, so Tuesday and Sunday were going to be my running days in first week giving me 4 days rest in between runs. After that I would regularly run Wednesday/Sunday one week and Thursday/Sunday the next week and so on. 

I had a route planned in my head, very few climbs and my intention was to take it easy, because after the first one I ran another parkrun and a couple of times I took clients for training runs and there were more to come in the following days! 

I set off from home at 10am after my customary pre-run espresso and oats with honey.

Kept it steady throughout at a 7.45″/mile pace and registered 1:43′ finishing time again!

Got a good luck shout from Lee Riding who was running the other way on km 13 and a toot on km 10 from Ian Richards, giving extra boost for the remainder of the run.

A big number 2 was added on my planner!

  

Sunday the 10th : run #3 

Beautiful sunny winter morning, 11 am and I’m off again.

This time I planned a tough route, will run up Porthill , to Hilly Bayston Hill and back! 

It’s almost like a training run for the next one, I make difficult today and by next one I should be stronger and it will feel easier 🙂

After 9 miles I realised that my planned route was a mile short 😦 so I had to improvise and I ran the whole of Monkmoor Rd as well , another long climb!

On mile 11 John Biffo gave me a toot 🙂

1:42′ finish this time, pushed hard at the end, was determined to better my last time.

Won’t be doing that often though, I should be thinking of the bigger picture and not risk getting injured. 

As a rule of thumb the muscles that ache after a long run are the ones that need strengthening, this time definitely hamstrings and lower abs. Also low back, but that could be caused by over tight quads, so plenty of stretching on those.

Another number proudly added to my planner, 97 to go! 
  

Time to say my thankyous : 

1. to all who encourage me and wish me good luck, like and share my social media posts

2. to all who sponsored me so far : £154 plus gift aid raised in first 10 days!

3. to Gareth from Purity Lifestyle Studio in Wellington for free massage on my calves

4. Joe Williams from UKRunChat for free entry at Shrewsbury Half Marathon 

5. Up& Running shop in Shrewsbury for big discount on new Running Shoes

6. Susan Bowes for selling her extra M.Drayton 10k entry and donating the money to Cancer Research uk

7. My Family for patience and support and for listening all day to my numbers and stats 😀

RRR (beep beep)

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