An 80 mile week at last

It was scheduled for weeks ago, but I have finally hit 80 miles in a week. Next week is supposed to be bigger, but with the colonoscopy I can't be sure how much I'll be able to do. Every mile counts.

Monday - I was supposed to get up early for the usual 4 miles before work and 9 miles and Body Pump afterwards. I failed. I just did 10 miles in the evening and no Pump class.

Tuesday - I took my shiny new track spikes off to the track, excited to try them out, only to find that actually we weren't training there, but in Wollaton park. Poop. And it was my most hated session, the 3-2-1-3-2-1-3-2-1. I hate running for time rather than distance. With distance I can see the end and run faster to get there. With time if I run faster it will just hurt more, so I go too slow. And we got locked in so had to go the very long way round for my cool down. I was feeling decidedly light headed by the time I got back to the car.

Wednesday - I had a scare early in the MLR when I realised I wasn't really in control of my limbs and my vision wasn't quite right. It was a bit other-worldly. But after 5 minutes or so it went away and I was fine again. Very strange, but I got the full 16 miles in.

I was hungry on Thursday and ate more than usual, which makes it all the stranger that I had an even bigger scare. About two miles into what was supposed to be a 9 miler I got the same feelings as on Wednesday, but worse. It was as if I was in slow motion and the rest of the world had been slightly speeded up. I figured it would wear off again, but it didn't. At one stage I barely knew where I was. I knew enough to cut the run short and staggered into Tesco after 6.5 miles to buy dark chocolate. I didn't mean to, but I ate the whole 100g. Oops. It wasn't hunger. I think maybe it was iron as I'm not allowed to take iron tablets for the week before the colonoscopy.

On Friday I had beef for lunch!  I had hoped to have a rest day but was short of a few miles from Monday and Thursday, so went to the gym to plod them out on the treadmill before heading to Tesco to buy boring, bland, white food.

Saturday was the mile and 5000m races at Harvey Hadden. I knew I wasn't in 5k pb shape, but thought the mile could be doable. There were 2 faster girls entered in the 5000 so I just jogged around to ensure 3rd place and a cheque for £30, saving my legs for the mile. It didn't work. I asked my legs to go faster and they told me to f*** off. I crossed the line frustrated but not especially out of breath. Grrrr.

Sunday - 23 miles with heavy legs, entertained by one powerboat race, two wedding parties and three dead vermin (rat, floating in canal, pigeon floating in canal, pigeon on canal path - delightful). I have spent the rest of the day eating very colourful food to offset the whiteness that is to come over the next two days of prescribed diet.

So 80 miles for the week. My insides haven't been too bad. I've had the usual alternating D and C and a little bleeding, and of course the terrible light headed episodes, but otherwise I've not felt so ill.

I have a date!

No, not *that* kind of date.

You have to love the NHS, you hear nothing for weeks then they give you only a few days notice. Colonoscopy will be on Wednesday next week.

Could it be magic?

The day after my last post was awful. I couldn't physically get out of bed until after 1pm and then I had such overwhelming fatigue that I was completely unable to do anything all afternoon. Just as I thought I was perking up a bit in the evening I was struck with a bout of explosive and watery D. The whole day was a write off.

I still had major mind fog and lingering fatigue on Sunday, but I was giving a friend a lift to the race so had no choice but to go. I was cold and tired and decided that unless it looked like I could win it, I'd just run within myself and try not to die. This was the Rugby Rover 30k. Another off-road race with lots of ascent, but rather better sign posted than the Dovedale Dipper and rather less extreme.

You have to set off fast to avoid congestion on the gate and single track path, so I did, and found myself in second place behind a bird-like lady with a bouncing back pack. A girl in a Trentham vest I'd seen warming up earlier was behind me somewhere. I'd picked her rather than the bird-like woman as the main competition.

We reached the first big hill and I opted to walk it to save energy. Trentham vest came past me here and birdy got a bit ahead too. On the flat at the top however I easily passed birdy. Trentham was showing no signs of tiredness though. I kept up the pace in the hopes that Trentham might also tire, but by 10k I knew I wasn't going to catch her so I eased off. I was feeling more alive by this point in time but knowing the win wasn't going to happen I wanted to save my legs for training.

Sure enough, I finished in 2nd place. I was looking forward to my bag full of random crap that my friend Katie had won in a previous year for 3rd place, but it turns out there are new organisers and there was no prize for 2nd. Boo, hiss.

I was rather tired on Monday and only made it to the gym in time for 3 miles before work. Doing 10 afterwards meant I missed Body Pump. I felt generally unwell all day and had massive distention in the lower abdomen. Finally at 9pm I was able to 'go' for the first time since Saturday night's D. It was so hard and large it made me bleed.

Tuesday - I woke up bloated and it just got worse and worse. Until I turned into the Endless Poop Machine in the afternoon. I must have gone 8 or more times, and for a large volume each time. By the evening I was feeling much better, and the track session was back on our own track (newly reopened after refurbishment), which made me happy. The downside though is that I have way less time to warm up and cool down due to travelling and them locking up. I completed the full session of 2 x 1000m, 2 x 800m and 1 x 400m but it only came to 5 miles with WU and CD.

Also on Tuesday, my Symprove arrived.

Wednesday - I woke up feeling better than I have done for a while so can't attribute it to Symprove. I took my first dose just before leaving the house for work. Bleurgh. It smells grim and tastes like the taste you have in your mouth after you've been sick. And you can't eat or drink for 10 mins after taking it. I felt fine all day and had no issues during my 15 mile evening run.

Thursday - I had one brief bout of cramp, but otherwise it was another good day. It was also a rest day so involved doing the grocery shopping only.

Friday - I realised that if I take the Symprove immediately on waking then I can brush my teeth 10 mins later to get rid of the taste. And I still get to have my morning Espresso. Win. I felt well again all day. The evening run did involve a couple of cramps, but nothing that involved stopping or hiding in a bush.

Saturday - A waver perhaps? I slept until 1pm again, but maybe I was just sleepy. I watched Mo Farah win the 10000m in Beijing before heading out for a recovery run. It was hot. Where did that come from? It's been cold and rainy for days! I had to stop to buy a bottle of water I was so parched!

Hopefully I'll make it out of bed at a reasonable time tomorrow for a 22 mile long run to bring up 75 miles for the week. If I do it, it will be the first decent mileage week I've run in the whole marathon build up, and time is running away from me so it is much needed.

Throw money at it?

I need my life back. I'm still waiting on a date for the colonscopy, but the GI consultant doesn't think it will show anything anyway. So I need to take matters into my own hands.

I have been reading up and there are two top options, both of which are expensive. Acupuncture supposedly has some great results, and Symprove, which cured 1 in 3 IBS sufferers in the clinical trials (but made no difference whatsoever to 1 in 3 - the other 1 in three saw 'some' improvement).

Any thoughts?

http://www.theibsnetwork.org/the-self-care-plan/therapies/acupuncture/

http://www.symprove.com/

We Are The Champions!

I’m having some internet issues at home, so posting is a little delayed.

Sunday was the UK Women’s League (Division 1) fixture in Wigan. A double header with Division 3, which makes for a very long day but does have the benefit of including Katarina Johnson Thompson who competes for Liverpool I think. Our division has Seren Bundy Davies competing, but our very own GB youngster Charlotte McLennaghan took her down. It’s great to see the GB athletes turning out for club fixtures.

I picked up one of our youngsters an inflicted my music on her for the 2 and a half hour journey cross country. Eating was a nightmare. I wanted to eat my 'safe' packed lunch 3 hours before my event, but there was absolutely nowhere to stop on the A50. I had to wait until the first service station on the M6, by which time it was just over 2 hours before my event, and only an hour and a half before I needed to start warming up. Not surprisingly this did not go well. I was gurgling and churning throughout the warm up and felt nauseous to boot.

I was hoping to run a marginal PB and had the splits written on my hand. I was right on target for the first four laps but I was out in no-mans land and just couldn’t hold the pace with no windbreak and no-one within chasing distance. I faded badly and ended with a very disappointing 11.09 and second to last place.

However, every point counts and I still scored 5 of them as not all clubs had a B string runner, so I did contribute to our team winning the match and also the entire league. Promotion to the Premier Division is ours!

Monday was just an average Monday. I made it out of bed early enough to go to the gym for my 4 mile recovery run, then it was back to the gym in the evening for another 9 miles and Body Pump class.

Tuesday should have been a nice easy 8 miler, but I was struck down. Stupid, stupid IBS. I’d ‘been’ before I left the house, and it had been rather a lengthy stay. Needless to say it was therefore a surprise to find myself cramping up. I had to stop and walk/shuffle with my cheeks clenched until I made it to the local leisure centre, where there such ludicrous volume of cow-pat style explosion that I fear I actually blocked their loo! Just imagine if there hadn’t been a handy leisure centre. What on earth would I have done????

Not entirely surprisingly I had cramps all morning on Wednesday and had to take Buscopan. Then just after 5pm I had more loose and urgent movements, so I popped some Loperamide. Bad plan. I had a race that evening and was trying to avoid a repeat of the first Summer League Fixture where I near ground to a halt mid race for fear of explosion. There could be no explosion of course, but instead I had horrendous cramps and such stabbing pain under my sternum that I could barely breathe. I went from hoping to finish first to accepting 4^th place, until the only girl who could possibly overtake me in the overall standings came up on my shoulder with maybe half a mile to go. Fight or flight kicked in and I pushed on, leaving her behind and also passing the two Worksop girls I’d allowed to pass me earlier. I crossed the line in agony and had to go and hide behind a little outbuilding for a while. So I finished second in the race and maintained my second place over all. The disaster of a first race meant I needed some sort of miracle to win the league this year. I did win my age category, but that’s small consolation when the over all winner is actually in an OLDER category. Ah well. We also failed to get a strong team out and only finished second team, having gone into this final race with a decent margin.

I was up multiple times during the night with cramps and so on. So I was desperately tired on Thursday and had to take a rest day. 

Today marks the 50 day countdown to the marathon and involved a 15 mile MLR in near darkness. At 6pm in August. Got to love the British 'Summer'. 

Falling well short of target

More Saturday bloggage as I'll be back late tomorrow night.

This week has been pretty much a write off as far as training goes. Not so great on the 'other' side either. Except for Monday, when I randomly felt healthy for the first time in months. I wasn't fatigued, my stomach didn't cramp, no dizziness, no light headedness, no nausea, no running to the loo and very little distention. Despite running 27 very hilly miles the day before. My legs were in agony though!

Back to normal on Tuesday, and with 'Tuesday Legs' to boot.

Wednesday - I meant to do some proper running, I really did. But I got home to my delivery from Musclefood and had to spend an age filling the freezer with lovely lean meat, and cooking a load of it too. So I only ran 4 miles on my home treadmill.

Thursday - A bit of a disaster of a day. Life intervened. I did get 5 miles done though.

Friday - My long awaited appointment with the consultant. I felt rubbish all day and when he told me my results had all come back 'normal' I nearly cried. That means there's still no solution to this. I made him read last week's blog. He didn't seem too bothered. He did refer me for a colonscopy though, and sent me home with a set of instructions for the laxative. It all sounds a bit grim. I have to take this laxative drink starting from 4pm the day before, and from that moment on I can basically expect to be sitting on the loo for the next twelve hours. For two days before the procedure I can only eat boiled chicken, boiled or steamed white fish and potatoes with no skin. Supposedly I can also have white bread, butter, eggs and rich tea biscuits, but I already know I have major intolerance to dairy and eggs and the GI doc told me not to eat wheat, so I really don't know what to do there. I'm supposed to be escorted home (that'll be by a taxi driver) and have someone with me at home for 24 hours afterwards (right, cos no-one has jobs to go to. That'll be the cat, then.). And I can't drive for 24 hours either. I will go insane! Just waiting on the date to come through.

Saturday - Paced parkrun again and this time I made it in on time with no Garmin error! 24.50 and at least one very happy fella with a shiny new PB.

Tomorrow I have to drive all the way to Wigan to run for (hopefully) less than 11 minutes, hang around for a team photo then drive all the way back again. If we get promoted it will be worth it! I'm just praying I don't get roped into the steeplechase again.

Mileage for the week was scheduled to be 50, but will actually be about 20.

Dovedale Dipper

I'm really not quite sure why I thought it would be a good idea to enter a very, very hilly, offroad marathon. Perhaps just the general lack of longer distance races in summer for variety of training. Who knows?!

It was with some trepidation that I lined up at 10am outside a village hall in a little village by the name of Hartington. The journey there had involved twists and turns and some almighty hills, so I had an idea of what was coming. I was armed with tissues, Imodium, Gaviscon and Buscopan, oh, and a few gels and a print out of the directions.

The first few miles were easy, just follow that chap in the brown vest ahead, he clearly knows where he's going. Sadly he got away after checkpoint 2, and that was the first 'navigational error'. I was not alone, but Mr Heanor Vest didn't know the route either. We soon found it though, and soon found the promised gorse plantation. I really thought there'd be a path, or at least a track, but no, you had to just fight your way through thigh deep gorse bushes. And then there was a mighty mighty hill. I think this was where I lost Mr Heanor Vest.

The next navigational issue came where the instructions read 'go diagonally across field' without specifying *which* field. Luckily by then I was running with Mr Ultra Runner who had a GPS thingie on his phone. This also came in handy two more times when it really wasn't clear where we were supposed to be going.

Then there was the descent from hell. Note to self - road racing flats are not ideal shoes for rocky, muddy, slippery, near vertical drops. I swore a bit. OK, a lot.

I'd lost Mr Ultra Runner on that as I was so slow, but once I'd asked for directions at a junction in the road (go North - er OK, which way is that?) I caught him again on the flat. After the last checkpoint there was a nice long flat stretch and I left Mr Ultra Runner and navigated the rest on my own. The directions were bobbins but I finally got to the finish (inside the village hall!) after 27.3 miles and 4 hours 27 minutes. I was first lady and I (eventually) received a cut crystal glass on a plinth for my efforts. Novel. Makes a change from the naff trophies!

My insides didn't trouble me all day, nor did they on Monday. I was so overjoyed to feel so well and normal that I'd have done a little dance, if only my legs would cooperate. Sadly today normal service in the ill health department was resumed. Perhaps because I didn't go out for a crazy long run ;)

A miserable and self pitying blog

I'm writing this now (Saturday evening) because I have big plans for tomorrow that I expect to leave me rather too tired to write.

This has not been a good week at all.

On Monday I just could not get out of bed for my morning workout. This is not laziness, sleepiness or CNBA, this is genuine, cannot move, fatigue. Despite only running about 7 miles the day before. I was groggy and full of mind fog all day at work too. Once I got going on the treadmill I felt more like myself and decided to add the missed morning miles to my evening run, sacrificing Body Pump class.

Tuesday seemed better on the whole, until about five to five pm when I was struck with a bout of cramps. I got to the gym (where I get changed for my track session) and barely made it through the door. I took Buscopan and Imodium. I got through my track session with only another three emergency visits.

On Wednesday I felt awful. I was nauseous for most of the day. It comes in waves, but they were frequent and horrible. I got home and went straight to bed, not waking until the alarm went off on Thursday.

The grogginess may have been down to the excess sleep, but there was cramping too. I forced myself out of the door for my planned tempo run, but it did not go to plan. I couldn't hit HMP and within 2 miles of the faster section I was in pain. I made it to three miles before having to stop and reduce to a shuffle until I found a secluded bush to hide in. Nothing actually doing though, just air. By now I haven't 'been' since the D on Tuesday. One more mile and I hit my previous HMP for that one, but cut the cooldown short because I was in pain.

Friday was more of the same really. Waves of nausea, cramp, fatigue. I got home and relief came in the form of a massive amount of poop. The fluffy, cow pat type. Oh the relief, but I wasn't quite done, apparently. I had to dive into a bush on my run and the whole run was slow and a massive effort. Again the mileage was lower than it was supposed to be as I blew up like a balloon and it was too painful to carry on.

Today I awoke feeling really poorly. I couldn't get up for parkrun. In fact it was nearly 10 am when I finally surfaced. I ate breakfast then felt even worse. Eventually I made it out for a run and within 4 minutes I was in pain. I arrived at the vets to pick up my cat's medication feeling shaky, sweaty and like I really needed the loo. But I had to get home again. So once again, the mileage was short. I have seriously had enough of this. I'm not enjoying the one thing that usually gives me the most satisfaction in life, and I'm hating work. Resenting being there when I'm in pain and feeling like I might throw up, poop myself, pass out or all three at once.