9 miles 1hr 10 mins 

10 mins xtrainer level 6 

10.5 miles 1hr 22mins 10 secs 7.45 pace, but honestly some miles were 8 min pace and some faster the last mile being 7.15 min mile.... ha ha got some odd looks at this pace which was great!

 The gym staff thought I was joking when I said I was running in the snow, and when I went to leave they said you really arent kidding are you, I laughed and said no its fun LOL. Theyre mouths really were wide open ha ha ha

When I re-learned my running technique 4 years ago, one of the big tests was running on ice, you pull your legs up more than push off, this causes fore foot landing, any way I did lots of drills and stuff, and since then Ive always been able to run over slippery surfaces straight on of course, I was nearly at a walk on corners or crossing the roads as they were slipperier (is that a word LOL) no its slipier !

snowy dune howard is my knew name LOL

2ft deep in the places were I ran, mostly 6-12" deep though.

 I ran my usual 9 mile route, but I was enjoying running in the snow so much I rang Paul and asked if he could pick dylan up as Im loving it, and I carried on for another 1.5 miles.

When I returned to the gym and got on the xtrainer for a mere 20 mins warm down I kept looking out and considered running again :-)

My hip 1-10 wasnt too bad about a 4, I stretched allot back at the gym. 

I went home and Dylan and Paul were having a snow fight so I joined in although I have saved some snow balls for Walter, Burt, Chris M, oh Allie and Nan ha ha ha......

Dylan and I built a snowman that was cool, then I decided to have a snow bath and just sat down in my lycra's and ice'd my butt :-)

Slippy bridges no problem for MOI ;-) 

I overslept this morning, after all the non sleep nights I have been getting last night I only woke up twice, which is very good for me recently, not sure why I havent been sleeping but I was glad for some sleep last night.

No more snow, but the snow that is still here which is about 2" deep now as most of its been trodden down and iced up over night, so its treacherous to say the least.

I opted to run from home today only due to Paul still isnt back at work its too dangerous to climb trees in this weather, so after work I had some lunch with him and then we walked the dogs 3 miles slowly, as it seems to be harder to walk than run on the paths very weird.

So I ran from home when Paul went to pick Dylan up from school, and now the school is closed for 2 days as they have run out of grit and due to health and safety they cant let the kids back at school, its madness this country I tell you just utter madness.

So off I went allot of smaller routes but just went were I felt like, I ran some icy roads then some pinewoods and then mostly icy roads, for 9 miles 

9 miles 1hr 14 mins, so I kept a decent pace most of the way some slower and some faster depending were I could get a good thing going.

No disasters lots of very odd looks off people which I thinks quite funny and I sang most of the way too, ra ra   ra ra la la ga ga ga ga and some other songs of course, dont stop me now, cos Im having ...........

and this one  "you got mud on ya face, big disgrace........"

Good cardio work singing and running at that pace, and its hard work on your core running on ice an snow, really good workout.   :-)

over and out from snowy ice howard

NONE ZILCH Gonna take it easy huff, urghhhhh not happy 

sore butt, did I tell you that, yeah I fell yesterday Im sure I told you all that too, huh! stupid dog *HDKJHKJ*

oh well, its my birthday today all the 3's hoping I will be better for my long run this Sunday

:-) 

Oh I couldnt resist update as of 3pm, I tried out the spikes idea Chris M gave it to me, and they just so happened to fall out the cupboard when I was looking for my swim suit to go swimming, I went on a run thought maybe half a mile out and back, 

10 Miles later 1hr 28 mins very slow miles, all off road but very icy sand dunes and paths very very icy, it was hard going, and my spikes I wore are really track spikes so hey ho I got a run in on my Birthday so thats why I couldnt resist. hoping its not made it all worse.  Going to bend Pauls arm for a massage. :-)

NOthing to report really, 1hr 49 mins 32 secs for 14 miles  average 7.47 mins

all on the treadmill facing a blank wall oh what joy, its my own treadmill as by the time I thought oh its gonna be dark half way through the run as I left it too late to run and it is so icy out now that I couldnt face doing a long run in it -1 C today.

I was too hot too even with the heating off and the window open, I hate treadmills, but I got it done on just water too no gels, as I ate that much last night well it was enough for a marathon really LOL ;-)

ON the sweatmill, I was wanting to do 10 miles, but did 5 miles, I was interrupted too many times, as I was training at home, how many times do I need to be interrupted in 40 mins, well as I hit 5 miles I had had more than enough.... I just think I am tired.....as I had a proper Mad monday morning today  in work.

I didnt make it to the gym this afternoon, I had an appointment for something with my husbands work and then I saw my physio, not sure but I didnt exactly get a great massage, I came out the room not feeling much different from when I went in ? sore and tight....

I am not feeling too happy bunny tonight, but I am sure it will pass, it just feels like a long road on the 1st week of marathon training and I dont feel full of energy for it mentally or physically.   I know I should be just happy to be running but I have such a need for competitiveness with myself nobody else just myself.

11 miles on the roads, nearly got run over about 5 times, people just dont seem to see you??   anyway the paths are still really icy, and improssible to run on, not deep enough for spikes but still extreme slippyness.... so I ran against the traffic on minor roads.

1hr 23 mins 11 miles, last mile 6.28 mins, I did a progression run as Tuesday is session day I am trying to get slowly get back to being able to do a tempo run, I found the whole run hard today I find the roads boring too, I dont mind half and half but the pinewoods is so icy as well, I just dont want to aggrevate my hip or fall over.

stretch and hot bath, couldnt face an ice bath today :( or a snow dunk :)

update miles ;

7.46-7.35-7.37

7.50-8.01-7.51

7.35-7.49-7.35-6.41

6.28 mins   as you can see I slowed at mile 4 & 5, so I could pick the pace up for more of a progression run in the last 3 miles, just to see how my hip would hold out  all in all a good workout :-)   

10 at snail pace, its still icy but cant run on the roads as the snow has returned so it was a run on the snowy icy stuff, SNAIL Pace urghhhhh ! 

I shall put up a piccy of trainers later as I researched you Americans and Canadians and you all seem to like to put very small screws in the bottom of your shoes, well it works as spikes are useless the snow isnt deep enough and the ice is patchy so every now and again you jar your legs with spikes hitting tarmac ?? so the screws are not as grippy as spikes but a good compromise.....here is one of the places on the internet I found out about them;

http://www.competitiverunner.com/screwshoes.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcaR6yfzdQM

and my trainers

13 on the mill 1hr 42 mins and yes the mill zero'd the time at 99mins well 100 mins, so I actually did 13 miles in 2mins 15 secs LOL

S/rate  hmmm off the blooming scale no air con on at all it was broke apparently urghhh but it still felt pretty warm :)  hey ho it got done

Update; okay I didnt have the energy to blog earlier so it was a limited blog for MOI! 

ha ha........ I get so board on the MILL so I play games with my self ?  Yes really, after a few miles at 7.41 pace to warm up, I go into  a rhythm and then every minute I up the mileage kph by 0.1 so I start to see the time going faster if you get my meaning, then hold it at 13.5kph for a further 5 mins so I have progressed from 12.5 to 13.5kph over 10 mins then hold at 7.10 pace, then I take a breather until I feel okay, so right down to 12kph /7.58min pace for about 10 mins.  then I repeat, its sort of a progression run, then I cant remember 100% as I was just trying to see how I go, sometimes I was hitting 14kph=6.55 pace so Marathon pace'ish....... all in all it was an overall average pace of 7.50 pace sounds slow eh! but I know I put some good paces in :-)

Now I have done quite a few more miles than previous weeks but I am trying to increase as much as possible as I am only doing easy'ish paces, no structured training sessions......so it's a fat burning week and to get the most out of it, I have pretty much a small milk drink for breaky no lunch as I start training lunch time and that would be silly to eat then but on normal weeks I would eat at 10.30am to fuel my run, but I wanna run on empty and get the most out of the week...... then its a decent sized meal for an early tea, not long after I have run.... I know what ya thinking but I have done this before as long as I am not doing sessions I can cope, but I get really tired of an evening.

I start to feel like this on the mill all the time LOL  

ha ha and the mill outside LOL 

Oh and as for sleeping well I dont get much as we have a kitten and the kitten has made our 9month old cat very noisy 

Warm up xtrainer level 6 10 mins. 

10 miles 1hr 19 minsaverage pace 7.56mins. 1106 cals 

8.06.....8.09....8.14.....8.39 very icy this patch as it was a track off road

8.12.....7.51.....7.53....7.38.....7.25.....6.55 

Roads a clear so are the paths, except for a few patches on my route HUH! the rain had been and the wind had blown the rain away so by the time I ran it was damp but quite windy.

Head wind out, so I stuck to 8.00/8.30 pace, as this is the biggest week I have done in a long long time, so its just junk miles so to speak.   on the way back well sort of as I did an out and loop then back route.

So on the way back I did another progression run of sorts....

All in all a good run and great last run for the end of the week.

10 mins xtrainer level 4 warm down. 

Active recovery day, so I walked 4 miles brisk...I am putting it down as 2 miles oooh naughty haha.

Okay like I say active recovery I ate proper today to get my stores ready for tomorrow I havent carb loaded just eaten breaky, very very light bite at lunch and proper meal out, well fish and some rice.

Today was a nice lazy family day, slept in till 9.30am wowsers, did a good hours cleaning house work then sat and watched a film together nice lazy feet up cuddle time :)  .... watched the Liverpool match omg that was controversial isnt it always though LOL.... then did a good walk with a nice Neros coffee in the middle he he :)

Long conversation with my Coach tonight, next week I can do some sort of sessions on Tuesday and Thursday wehay Im happy now, but I may drop the mileage abit but not hugely, then if my hip is okay and everything else the following week again is sessions and 65 miles, maybe to get to the 65 I will double run, so twice a day.....

so that means early mornings urgghhh, but hey ho 2.59 is my aim and whatever it takes Im gonna do it. 

 Happy Dayz :)

Summary 01:56:50 15.55 601 569 07:30 05:47 1,718

slowest fastest calories

split distnace elevations pace pace

1 00:07:47 1.00 0 25 07:47 05:47 108

2 00:07:02 1.00 24 41 07:02 05:57 111

3 00:07:36 1.00 128 128 07:36 06:31 109

4 00:07:31 1.00 80 3 07:31 06:46 112

5 00:07:30 1.00 52 16 07:30 06:58 112

6 00:07:27 1.00 0 50 07:27 06:52 112

7 00:07:08 1.00 0 3 07:08 06:37 110

8 00:07:20 1.00 0 17 07:20 06:23 111

9 00:07:21 1.00 76 41 07:21 06:22 111

10 00:07:19 1.00 91 28 07:19 06:31 111

11 00:07:28 1.00 54 79 07:28 06:05 112

12 00:07:21 1.00 0 39 07:21 06:29 111

13 00:07:27 1.00 44 22 07:27 06:57 111

14 00:07:18 1.00 0 30 07:18 06:24 112

15 00:06:44 1.00 30 11 06:44 05:59 110

16 00:06:23 0.55 22 35 11:42 07:27 55

Picked the pace up from mile 14 progressive to marathon pace for the 15th mile, then jogged in for half a mile, I went out for a small jog about 15 mins later just to make up that half a mile LOL.

All in all a great run, I am fitter than I thought so I am a very happy bunny......hitting near 7 mins miles a few times, and I had to stop dead in my tracks on about mile 6 due to running up the water front of Crosby and it was busy pedestrian wise and everybody was moving out my way and my husbands way he was cycling, but this one women with a dog stepped right into my line of running I had nowhere to go dang!

Anyways thats all I can add, I just kept my head down and ran a good pace and Paul really helped cycling with me it makes a huge difference...... I didnt take on any water or gels, I just kept hammering those miles out.

HAPPY DAYS :-)))))

Not a nice weather day, but another fat burning week; apparently the latest diet saying is very controversial "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" ha ha well we will see about that one as I like my food allot ;-)

"it was spitting I tell you it was spitting"         

10 mins xtrainer warm up level 6

Okay 8 miles of sandy dunes and trails..... and about the last 1.5miles on road were I could pick the pace upto 7.15 pace, otherwise mostly 8-9.00min pace, over sand dunes.

 xtrainer level 6 warm down.

stretch and foam roller.  My legs are very achey after yesterdays run so I may get a hot bath and stretch again, as tomorrow should be session day, fingers crossed it is !

;-)

10 mins xtrainer level 3 warm up 

2 miles warm up running to start point for my tempo run 8 min pace.

Aiming at 3 maybe 4 miles at sub 6.30 pace.  Now I get excited when I am going to do a session lol don't ask why I just do, and as I hadn't done any sessions for 3 weeks I was raring to go and set off much too fast 6.05 pace so I settled down the pace after the first half mile.

1. 6.18

2. 6.24

3. 6.27

I was lung bursting at this point I think the 1st half mile took it out of me so I took 3 mins recovery jog.  Although I had not gone over 3 miles tempo run before I had my niggle, so I think I am slightly fitter than I was 3 weeks ago without sessions :-)

4. 6.02  nice I was flying at this stage 

6 miles warm down average 8 min pace 

 10 mins xtrainer level 4 warm down

5 mins step ups

stretch and foam rollered. 

Cross wind and sometimes a wind behind on the tempo run, but all in all I was very happy bunny today a start to my trek to the marathon. 

Just to add this session was not fuelled I am still doing my crazy no fuel runs and I only realised as I was doing those last 5 miles of jogging; "Ha I thought I haven't fuelled".

10mins xtrainer level 6

10 miles 1hr 20 mins it was quite windy!  & I was somewhat stiff ;-)

20 mins xtrainer level 5

hanging leg raises/crunches/side crunches....

stretches and foam roller.....my left ITB is sore and tight, foam rollering is ouchie sore on the itb but it feels better for it so heres to the good old foam roller ooooh ouch!

still on the no fuel, but eating afterwards for recovery and avoiding injury gotta eat something he he ;-)

20 mins xtrainer level 6 warm up 

10.5 miles 1hr 25mins, good run, did 4.5 miles on road then hit the trails and sanddunes

I was going to do 9 miles but I felt okay so kept on going for a futher 1.5 :)

20 mins xtrainer level 5.

some core work again

stretches foam roller

Massage at the physio, I got about 30 mins as the physio was running late but hey I got a great massage so I am pretty pleased, although it was thoroughly OUCHIE :-D

Great night sleep last night too :-)

Work was really busy today... so I didnt find time to fuel for this session, although I had a huge meal last night, full english double helpings LOL, but its mainly protein as I like to have a good amount of protein the night after a good massage, although I dont usually have double helpings I was just too hungry to resist he he

8 rasher of english bacon, 3 eggs, 2 lean sausages and a piece of toats.

Okay, so unfuelled I start with

5 mins xtrainer warm up.

2.5 miles easy pace warm up. 8.23 8.17  4.05 mins(8min pace)  garmin took a while to register with satellites so the 1st half mile wasnt on, but I ran to my usual point to start the tempo run and thats 2.5 miles.

so its 1mile tempo pace then 3mins easy pace then 2miles 6-6.15 pace then 1mile hard as possible! here are the results

3 6.32 mins  

jogged for 3 mins approx 400ms 0.25mile.

4 6.06

5 6.14

jogged for 3 mins approx 400ms, 0.25 mile 

6 6.26 mins  

jogged out on to next miles and made up some mileage to 12.5 miles

7 8.25

8 8.25

9 7.00   hmmm I saw two young men running ahead of me good pace about 7.30 ish well two old men walkers laughed and said you gonna catch them then, so I set off caught, overtook, and kept going 

10 7.56   this was really hilly so I am actually quite impressed with this mile of sandy hilly terrain :) gotta keep ahead of the those young men cant let them unchick themselves LOL

11 7.43  hit the roads easy pace

12 7.30  picked up abit towards the end felt really good.

13 the added additional of the half mile and the two quarter mile jog recoveries 

 warm down 10 mins xtrainer level 5 h/r 120bpm. stretch and foam rollered OUCHIE.

:-P 

all in all a good no great session ! :-) 

Jogged 2.5 miles just for fun! 

I didnt cycle these miles, or xtrain all my miles are running miles as I could add allot more for my xtrainer I use every day and the walking I do but hey ho     ;-D    

16 miles in the rain urghhhh! typical British weather hey :-}

 1hr 53 15 miles

okay so I was really tired after my higher mileage week for a long long time.....

I wasnt sure how this run would play, I got up late as I was so tired, and even bumped my car on Friday night due to over-tiredness and low sugar not a good combination for sure :(

 Yeah I hadnt eaten Friday Night, and ordered a take out, but we had to pick it up, so I went out for it, very tired and low sugar with huge hunger pangs, it was really misty, and damp dark weather, our neighbours across the road keep parking the car opposite our drive which has been causing a few problems due to having a large vehicle and trying to back out of the drive causes quite few point turns.... anyway my rear window was fogged up too, Iknow its my fault so stupid but I backed straight into their car, and crushed it quite bad ooops, my car is quite large and heavy so it was only scratched and a lense broke but their car is quite badly damaged.... they have been okay about it and our insurance covers it so thats good but still more hassle of sorting it all out. :(

Okay I fuelled for my run today, I ate a good meal last night and some supper, then ate a decent breakfast this morning but in hope that the rain would go away I held off the run till later on in the in the afternoon 3pm I set off.

I was bad horrid rain !  

I went of at a surprisingly good pace and didnt actually feel too bad :-)

9miles 1hr 8mins 51 secs

Okay at mile 15.5 I stopped and puked yellow bile oh what joy!   I had not taken on any gu gel or water so this run would have been on fat burning over the last 30 mins which is good and I kept the pace up, also I am thinking I am getting used to the conversion when it happens :)

I am tired, I am sore, but I still managed 8 junk miles and they were mostly off road, to help my legs recover but the sand on the beach was really soft, so it was  a very slow recovery run.

Oh and as it was a recovery run I had some fun, by making words with the gps garmin, I will try this again another day 1st time wasnt bad LOL

8 miles 1hr 8 mins very slow but hey its recovery so I have to go as slow as the legs want me to :-)

 better this way up eh! 

Dang that .2 is doing me ed in oooooohhhhhhhh..... but hey I am knackered so gonna leave it on there :-O

Okay spoke to Coach and its another recovery day, although I didnt feel too bad, but this is not the time to take chances, I did the same route as yesterday now, I did run Burts name in the sand on the beach so I think his larger letters and extra letter did the .2 but I am not going to blame Burt, as his little girl is in ER, and I wished I had known cos I would have ran EMILY instead but hey I did Burt cos he wrote about bunnies and cats and such like in his blog for me :-)

Oh and Get Missy's new picture, it has a knob in it....anyway she looks good in the picture, and made me think hey why dont I actually take a picture of me rather than just use pictures I have already mainly of me and my son, etc.......(oldish pictures)

anyways...... 5 mins xtrainer warm up, 5 mins xtrainer warm down and stretches. 

I was a bit fed up today and the roads were dry so I hit the motorbike for some adrenaline and hey ho it was fun with a capital F he he :-D  dang that was fun today:-D can I grin anymore did I say it was FUN on the motorbike yeah I think I did, and you know what I didnt realised how much I missed it over the last month of dreadful wweather.

I shall upload the picture of the run for Burt anyways later

Happy Bunny.... waiting for the session tomorrow I believe its gonna be hard :-P

I felt fresh this morning must have been that 2 hour nap I had early evening LOL....

Okay I fuelled today just to get through a 9 mile easy run.

Treadmill aka sweatmill level was 8 as I am so sure the air con was off again.

I was doing a 9 mile or 15km easy run on the treadmill as I just needed to get it done huh!

I get bored on the treadmill and ended up ramping the pace up for 3 miles at 7.03min pace it felt surprisingly comfortable, I then slotted in a 6min pace mile for the 8th mile then dropped the pace for last kilometre to a jog, as the machine is km's.

I did 15km/9.37 miles in 1hr 9 mins not bad for an easy run eh all on 1% incline.

Now I tried to run FRB in the sand on the mill but it didnt work I kept nearly falling off LOL ...... then When I was running the 8th mile fast I remembered Walter telling me about how he got injured last the mill stopped suddenly on its own.... I kept thinking how Id go right over the front of the mill A of T** LOL    

Massage hey hey hey I got a good deep painful ouchie massage for a whole hour ouchie !

I had a good conversation with my coach today, which I will have to have again sometime next week I am meeting him for a coffee!

Basically we both feel I am struggling to recover in my legs from the 3 sessions a week.....

Now the main race is the Marathon, I have natural speed, as I was an 800m runner originally, hence the struggle of getting my weight down for the marathon too, really I am a middle distance runner as the way I am built I hold muscle :-O

Okay, so the basics is a two session week,  my long run being a session and mile reps the other oh the joy! I have a love hate relationship with mile reps, I love them when I am fit and hate them when I am not LOL they hurt even when your fit they hurt, but on the run up to the Dublin marathon I did a monster 8 x 1 mile with 2 mins recovery all under 5.50pace now I was really fit then, and should have gone allot ALLOT quicker in my 10k race and Marathon but what will be will be, I had personal issues then and it didnt help one bit.

So Its two big sessions a week, Wednesday's and Sundays, this is to stop me getting injured, the aim on the wednesday is the Mile reps getting up to at least 8 and under 6 min pace wooohooo! and the long run on a Sunday getting upto and maybe over 23 miles with a tempo in it somewere but only a marathon pace tempo.

Other days easy run days, to recover but also and maybe doing doubles getting over 12 miles a day in...... so it will be higher mileage with 2 big sessions I like the sound of it, but I am hoping I dont get tooo frisky on the easy recovery runs and ruin it for the sessions I have a tendancy to do that :-O  Naughty girl ha ha.

So its not a session day today its a middle length run 10 miles me thinks then off to get my hair done FINALLY I am getting my hair sorted I havent had it cut and sorted since Nov 09 how bad is that.... I hate having my hair done its like sitting there for 2 hours not doing anything drives me crazy just CRAZY I tell ya :-D)

UPDATE

 10 mins xtrainer warm up and 5 mins warm down (cut the warm down short as foam rollering is more important and I was running out of time for my hair Yeeehaaa)

12 miles 8 min average, some fast some slower, the weather was odd today, snow showers, and very windy so the slower miles were the windy ones, and the faster well the not windy ones LOL  

16.5 miles.

Fueled successfully  for this run, and I did it later on the afternoon, as we had a bit of a snow flurry last night but by the afternoon most places had been melted and it was clear to run. 

:-)

Map and splits, I decided to complete the tempo run mid way through as there would be a strong cross wind going back down the by-pass! so I hit marathon pace, on mile 6, then picked the pace up a bit too much and hit 6.30 pace which is closer to half marathon pace for the 2nd of the four Marathon pace miles, but I did it, 4miles at mp or faster, I then slowed the pace back down to the similar as before, 7.30/7.45 and picking the pace up for mile 15 back down to marathon pace, leaving 1.5 miles for a nice easy warm down!   

I am made up with this run, I did half a mile more than last week and felt as though I could go on to do 18 but thought better not, I was tempted although I was good and didnt to be on the safe side gotta stay injury free :-)     Along the tempo pace part it is a water front at Crosby and not too many people out, but some I had to shout "coming through" because there was no way I was going to stop at this pace I would never get it going again, I even had to jump over a small dog as some silly woman had 3 small dogs off the lead all over the place I even gave her plenty of time to move herself out the way but she didnt huh! hubby nearly ran one of them over on his bike! LOL     Paul really helped on this run, as I did shield my self a bit on the way back with that cross wind to keep the pace going so wooohoooo HAPPY BUNNY  :-)