Completing the Set

My run streak started on Thursday 27^th April. It was the first day of my holiday to Turkey with Manesha and we ran 5 miles… that seems like a lifetime ago now and I’ve got a fair few miles under my belt since then. We ran every day that week and I came home feeling inspired to actually apply myself to something for the first time in what felt like forever.

Where it all started!

Since Ben died I would have told you that I was coping and that I was okay. Looking back, I can now see (of course) that I wasn’t. I am currently in a really positive place and so can fully appreciate the toll that the years of trauma had on our lives. I’m feeling thankful to have come out the other side and, not to have moved on, but definitely to have moved forwards.

I’m not sure why I decided to run streak, I’m not even sure it was a definite decision. I think that Manesha and I were both surprised that we had run every day (especially as it was SO hot) and I figured I may as well just keep on doing it!

Before the run streak started Farhad convinced me to sign up for the HPH trip to Cologne so I entered the half-marathon (I’d not done any running besides plodding parkrun for the previous 5 months with the IVF, losing the baby and then travelling to Australia and New Zealand alone with Poppy for 2 months, so it was incomprehensible that I would run the marathon) and entering the half gave me something to train for. I had around 6 months so figured I could get some decent training in and might even manage a half-marathon PB! Farhad might also have mentioned that Liverpool Half was coming up… I entered it. Even if there wasn’t long enough to train for it properly at least I would enjoy a weekend with my lovely friend Krystal who lives in Liverpool. THIS is when I should have spotted the warning signs. If I was training for Liverpool Half then why not run the Leeds Half as a training run for Liverpool (nice logic Nicola…)?! That, in theory, is fine but I’ve always wanted to run a sub 2 half-marathon and as lots of you know I’m not the most patient person… 

Cue the holiday with Manesha and the sudden transition that needed to be made from parkrunner to half-marathon runner. The run streak was underway!

I enlisted the help of Eleanor Gallon (one of my running friends I most aspire to be - EVEN THOUGH she’s a Kirkstall Harrier 😉) and asked her to pace me to sub 2. I don’t think either of us really thought it was possible so we set multiple goals (Leeds Half blog). After we smashed the A goal I was starting to think that maybe there was something to this run streaking business (I can see Steve Darby rolling his eyes because he told me about 7 years ago that to get better at running you just have to run more, it really is as simple as that. The speed work and hill sessions can come later, first you have to be doing the miles).

I’m not sure when my intensity or training stepped up a gear, it’s all blurred into one exciting running journey! Several elements, additional to running, have been an integral part of my running journey:

•       My friend Donna was training to be an Ashtanga yoga teacher and asked if I’d mind being her guinea pig (she’s now qualified and an amazing teacher - well done Donna!). What I heard was ‘Nicola, can I come and give you one-to-one Ashtanga lessons once a week for free?’… um yes Donna that would be fine ;) I also put a 20 minute daily (or at worst every other day) core workout in to compliment my run streak. This soon became a 40 minute strength session and after I finished every session I did some of the amazing Ashtanga I was learning. It all went together beautifully and I was REALLY enjoying it! More importantly core strength is absolutely key to not getting injured if you’re doing stupid things like slamming up your mileage as well as increasing your pace.

• ·        Several members of Hyde Park Harriers had started going out cycling and I was pretty keen to get myself a road bike. As luck would have it I found Ben’s receipt for his road bike… I wouldn’t have cared how much Ben spent on his road bike - we’ve always been savers and savings are to spend on travelling the world and on things you love. Ben loved bikes, but I’m sure he told me his bike cost around £2000-£3000 so I was surprised to find a receipt for a certain Cannondale for £5000! Oh good – my bike budget just increased! After 3 months of research and searching I bought an extremely beautiful Liv Avail and feeling brave I clipped straight in!

The first photo I took of my beautiful new bike!

I surprised myself by just how much I loved the bike, especially as when I’d last tried a road bike I had HATED it. Being on the drop bars had terrified me so it’s come as a massive shock just how much I love it now. I think riding makes me feel close to Ben (especially as the red kites seem to follow me when I’m riding although maybe I’m just romanticising or imagining it). I feel like it helps me understand Ben and I feel like when I’m riding that perhaps he’s not gone because it’s like I’ve channelled my inner Ben and we’re riding together (totally soppy I realise!).

The main point about the yoga, the bike and the core workout are that my running has been so insane that I have been VERY, no, EXTREMELY lucky not to get injured. I’ve done just about every single thing that people say will get you injured, and amazingly, I appear to be getting away with it… for now (touches wood, crosses fingers, looks for a four-leaf clover and a rabbits foot!).

My weekly mileage quickly got up to 40-50 miles a week and running the minimum of a mile soon seemed like cheating and left me feeling disappointed! In the first few weeks I had been proud of myself for learning to just run a mile and accept that I should stop there… how quickly I forgot that lesson/discipline/self-control! After I ran Liverpool Half (on my own without being paced, and PBing comfortably) I decided that to run the half in Cologne was madness! Surely if I could smash two half marathons with just a little training then I should be running the full marathon in Cologne. I enquired, and before I knew it had paid my 10 euro admin fee, on the 1^st October I had a marathon to run. 

Whilst I’ve had moments of madness (like doing 4.5 hours of exercise on a rest day or accidentally running a 19 mile ‘recovery’ run the day after Thunder Run etc.) I have actually tried pretty hard to be ‘sensible’ while embracing the enjoyment of my new obsession. The consistency of running every day, doing my core workout, Ashtanga and cycling soon paid off and within a few months I was setting a PB at every race I entered (I’ve detailed my PB’s in a table at the bottom of this post). I started to think that maybe I could even consider myself a ‘proper’ runner! You know, one who enters races to do well, not just to have fun.

With 6 weeks to go until Cologne Marathon I’d PBed at every distance I’d run (1 mile, 5km, 10km, 10 miles & half marathon) but I knew the set wouldn’t be complete without a marathon PB. The problem was that I am impatient, I just couldn’t wait 6 weeks. I had gotten flu 6 weeks before the 2016 VMLM and didn’t recover (doing almost zero running in the 6 week lead-up to race day). I couldn’t risk that happening again and losing my fitness, I NEEDED a marathon PB. So in a moment of madness I grabbed a bag of dried fruit and nuts, a snickers and a bottle of Lucozade and turned my 20 mile training run into a 26.2 marathon PB. I had satisfied my need to run the distance although I realised I was peaking WAY too soon for Cologne.

I tried to maintain my momentum but the lack of childcare in the summer holidays was suffocating. I spent several weeks in Norwich in order to get in a decent training block (thanks Mum) but when I returned to Leeds I really struggled to maintain what I saw as my necessary mileage. Luckily Poppy loves our buggy runs and I did some incredibly hard buggy running to keep myself ticking over – the one that sticks in my mind is the 15 mile return trip to Tong Garden Centre because of the horrendous hills, my back hurt for 3 days after that buggy run!

Urgh! This is NOT a good route for a buggy run!

Before I knew it there were 2 weeks to go and we were doing the HPH Addingham run (after parkrun of course). It was taper time! My taper was not the most traditional… I just have no self-control! I think I’ve become addicted to racing… so the weekend before Cologne I ran parkrun in the morning, raced the Golden Mile in the afternoon and on the Sunday ran the Stainland Trail Race. Stainland Trail probably needs its own blog (for those of you I haven’t told about it a million times I finished THIRD FEMALE! I was absolutely floored… as if I won a prize for running?! A podium finish?! I literally couldn’t believe it, I’m still not sure I believe it despite having the beautiful etched glass to prove it). However, that race absolutely ruined me. I couldn’t run more than a mile a day after that and it was a really, slow, painful mile. I had raced WAY too hard, especially considering I was 7 days away from Cologne. The fast, steep and technical descents had taken their toll and I wasn’t in any shape to run a marathon. I saw Chris ‘magic hands’ Corcoran on the Thursday and he reassured me that: 1) it wasn’t shin splints; and 2) I wasn’t going to break myself by running the marathon. What more did I need to know? 😉

So off we went to Cologne! Even though my shins and calves still hurt when I walked to the start, I got in my pen knowing that I was still going for my race goals (which I’d told everyone was sub 4 but which I’d actually changed to sub 3.45. Go hard or go home right?).

A Goal: 8.30 min/miles for a 3.42.52 finish
(8.35s were too slow and I'd miss my goal by 3 seconds)
B Goal: Sub 3.50 so 8.45 min/miles for a 3.49.25 finish
C Goal: Stay under 9 minute miles for a 3.55.32 finish
D Goal: If all else fails GET A PB (4.38.01)

I ended up chasing a Good for Age time for the London Marathon to the wire, and missed out by just 54 seconds (3.45.54). Whilst being bitterly disappointed at the time I have now come around to being pretty proud of what I have achieved in the past 5 or 6 months. I’ve gone from running once every Saturday morning to running a very respectable marathon time and even finishing third in a really tough off-road race (and I know I’ve said it a million times but if that race had ruined my chances in Cologne it was TOTALLY worth it for the podium finish). My average comfortable pace has gone from around 10.30 minute miles to around 8.30 minute miles and I’m still getting faster?!

It’s been an absolute whirlwind: I’ve run almost 1000 miles (and as I recently got a road bike you can add another 500 miles on the bike too… not to mention the turbo that now sits in my living room). I’m not surprised it feels like I’ve been on a journey!

And JUST when you think a set is complete… you go and enter an ultra. 😉 My wise (and very fast) running friend Matthew Crehan once said ‘the trouble with runners is that we’re never satisfied’. You’re right Matt, we’re not, and hooray to that, because that’s what keeps me going. Next up is a sub 22 minute 5 km by Christmas. When my friend Tom, from run club, suggested this goal (after he paced me to my comeback PB at parkrun) I thought he was INSANE! I now think he’s a genius and I can’t wait to give it a try! Thanks for setting me an ace goal Tom.

My running to-do list now includes:

• Some serious track sessions (I’m on it);
• Experiencing blowing up (I just need to pick a race to sacrifice…);
• An ultra (which is coming soon, beautifully named the Short Circuit - ha ha!);
• Actually achieving running a negative split (I’m still not sure I believe in these); 
• Running a good for age marathon time for London (3.45) and Boston (3.40);
• And of course, ultimately, Comrades.

Long live the craziness - life is for living and I am hoping there is no end in sight for my run streak!

Oh, and rest... my running to-do list should have included learning to rest. 😉

Every PB, at every distance was from 2011, I've literally been plodding since then! Until now... now I have shiny new PBs!