New Running Buddy!

I went running last night with my new running partner. Louise couldn't make it yesterday as she fell over at the weekend and grazed her knee (she claimed it wasn't drunkenly related...), so instead Tom offered to come with me.

'Excellent' I thought - payback for the Itchen Bridge Debacle. I am now obviously a seasoned, professional athlete, and little old Thomas hasn't done any exercise (apart from dragging me over the Itchen Bridge) for two whole years. So I was expecting to run circles round him and run him into the ground, crying like a little girl!!!

However.... the boy did annoyingly well. He kept up with me, for the whole 4 mile run, and even made me sprint the last 100 meters. And he really quite enjoyed it! So he'll be coming with us in the future. We'll be running round the common again on Thursday (he has a small-ish beer belly and moobs to get rid of!).

And, in keeping with the advice of the lady at Up & Running, I'll be attending a lesson of 'Yogalates' tonight - a cunning mixture of yoga and pilates! My hip is a little bit sore after yesterday's run, but not as bad as it normally would be after a run like that, so I think my trainers are helping. And my knee was starting get stiff after previous runs and it's absolutely fine now. So the pink mega trainers are earning their keep!

How much!?!?!

Thanks to my bro's mate Jez who suggested I go and purchase myself some fancy running trainers - that's exactly what I did this weekend. They were £70, but actually I was pretty much willing to spend up to £100. But still, that's way more than I've ever spent on a pair of shoes ever!! I know I'm probably not a normal girl in saying that, but I'm really more of a hand bag girl than a shoe girl...

Anyway, so little sis Anna and I trotted off to Up And Running in Chandlers Ford on Saturday (took us about an hour to find it - and that was with a sat nav!), armed with my old rubbish Reeboks. They made me run on the treadmill and told me that I run like a dainty little woman (in the way that it looks like I'm running along a straight line). They said I need to start running with my legs spread a bit wider (ooh-er missus!). And I need to build up my hip/thigh/bum muscles a bit more - she said pilates would be good for that. Plus my left foot is about half a size bigger than my right (considering my right foot is pretty big in the first place, you can imagine how huge the left one is!), which caused a few problems in getting a good fit. AND my left foot is a bit flat too (it's not holding up well under the weight of being such a large foot!!). So I got some trainers that have a bit more support in the arch of the sole.

And they're pink which is nice too!!

I went for a test run with them on Sunday, and so far so good. Although I say 'so far', I didn't actually go too far!! The carnival was in Southampton Common, so it was full of kids, people with dogs, roller bladers etc.. all rather annoying, so I ran for a couple of miles, and went back home. Back to being busy sitting on the sofa playing my Nintendo DS, which frankly, even with my new snazzy pink trainers, is a lot more enjoyable than running.

That's another problem I'm coming up against now. Now that I can run for more than 10 minutes without wanting to die due to the sheer pain of running, it's now the threat of boredom that's trying to slowly kill me. Seriously - running for 40 + minutes is just dull!! I downloaded a Russell Brand podcast to run with when I was in the gym, which helped a bit, but not much really. I think a nice three mile run for 30 minutes is more than anyone needs to do. It's long enough to be getting a good dose of exercise, but not long enough to make your brain start to shut down! But unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to squish ten miles into 30 minutes....

Aerodynamic Cankles Pushing Me On!!!

Louise and I went running yesterday and we did GOOD!!

We ran one lap, then the mini lap round the Cowheards pub, then a second lap (but missing out the pond bit) and managed to run all the second lap and back to the beginning. A massive 4.52 miles!!! And we did it all in 42 minutes, which is an extremely good time!!!

The middle bit was hard, getting up the top of the hilly bit, but the last section was mostly downhill, which helped us get through it to the end. It was WAY more than we both thought we could do, so we were extremely proud of ourselves!!

However, recently when I've been running quite far, my left hip joint has been hurting quite badly. Not the muscles - but the actual joint. And this morning it's really painful and weak - I can't really lift my leg up. And as well as that, my left knee is now quite stiff and sore. So I'm a bit worried about that actually. I'm going to go any buy myself some proper running trainers, as at the moment all I have are normal gym type ones. But I don't know what else to do about it really. It's not the muscles that are hurting - we always make sure we do proper stretches before and after. It's the actual joints. But I don't want to rest them and not run, because I only have 11 weeks to get up to 10 miles!! (I'm trying quite hard to not panic!!!). I might ask someone at the gym for some advice maybe. Does anyone reading this have any ideas? Please leave me a comment if you have.

Other than the general aches and pains (and blisters) things are good.

And in reference to the title of my new fabulous aerodynamic cankles (I don't have ankles, my calf's and ankles have merges to form a chunky, unattractive pair of cankles!)... so anyway, I went out and treated myself to some 'Ladies Elite Running Nike Socks', and one of the features of these fabulous socks is that they make your (c)ankles all aerodynamic. Which was obviously the main factor in Louise and I being able to run for so far yesterday!! They're my new lucky socks!!

Oh, we're doing so well....

Righto, no major news to update you on. Other than the fact that myself and Louise are doing very well with our running.

We amended our Common lap this Tuesday - where it used to resemble a figure of 8, with the bottom loop being quite small, we have now cut that out and just do the big main loop at the top (if you see what I mean...).

Anyway, so on Tuesday we did TWO laps of the Common. It was, as usual, very hard. The first half is uphill, so when we came round to doing the second lap, running uphill was very tough. We actually had to stop and walk for a bit, but then carried on running for the second half (which was downhill). We did both laps in just under 40 minutes.

So I got home and measured the lap using that running map thing (link on my link list) and found out that one lap is 2.02 miles!! Which means that two laps are...yep - 4.04 miles!! So I'm really chufffed about how well we did. Taking into account the bit that we walked, I think we probably ran a good 3.5miles. Looking at the map the first mile is the uphill bit and the second mile has a bit of a hill and all the downhill bit. So if you imagine us running two laps - the first and third miles are uphill. So it's really tough - the first mile is always hard because your body is adjusting to the running, and the having the third mile as uphill is really tough too. But hopefully we can keep on at it and do the whole two laps non stop.

In order to be ready for the Great South Run, I really need to be able to run at least 4 laps comfortably. So I'm halfway, and we do push ourselves and progress quite far with each training session. So I'm confident that I'll do well.

We're still running at an average of 6mph which is good. If I ran the whole Great South Run at that point then I'd do it in 1hr 40 minutes!

And my blister is still here!! It heals, then I run and it flares up again, then it heals, run, flare up... evil cycle!!

But apart from that it's all good. I'm quite enjoying it. And now, I don't feel guilty for eating chocolate/wine/various other naughty foods, because I know I'm being all healthy and running lots!