Not a PB but an MB

Well. What was I scared of?

Like I said in my previous post, I would approach the Wokingham Half as a "see what happens". Well what happened turned out to be the second fastest time I've ever run.

My strategy was to try and run just at the point where I was not quite out of breath, then to let myself get past that point and actually out of breath on any hilly bits and then try and use my new-found ability to quickly recover on the subsequent downhill bits.

Maybe it was the adrenaline but I seemed to be going a bit quickly in the early stages. So quickly that I kept trying to slow down but then I'd go through another KM and my time was even faster than the previous one. Eventually I figured that I just shouldn't stress about it and it was probably the gale force following wind.

At 6 miles I was feeling pretty good and I seemed to be overtaking people - despite the fact that I started in the right place in the start queue. I had the feeling that my "base pace" was just pretty good, so I relaxed and just kept running.

At 8 miles last year was where the rot set in. (last year I went out really really fast and blew up at about 8 miles and managed to stagger home from there. It was fast overall, but it wasn't pretty and I was so traumatised afterwards that I didn't run for another month or so). This time ... I just kept on going. I was running into the gale force wind at this point, but my pace only slowed by the amount that I would expect because of the wind, not the tiredness.

At 9, 10 and 11 miles I even felt able to try and take a photo for the Runkeeper followers - despite the fact that this meant hobbling hunchback while doing so because of interference between the iphone headphones and the ron hill bright yellow running jacket tied round my waist.

At 12 miles it was raining so hard I didn't want to get the phone out to take a picture, but by that point (well, with 3km to go precisely) I had realised that it was possible to get sub-1.50, and I'd started "going for it" a bit - but not too much, to keep in with my philosophy of not trying too hard on this one.

I was even able to explain to Mrs Badger + Fatipuff, who were thoughtfully placed at the 13 mile marker, that I "Might just get under 1:50" as I huffed past. "SHUT UP and GOOOOO!!!" screamed Mrs Badger lovingly.

And there you have it. I overtook 3 more people in the sprint for the line. Stopped the clock on my various watches and felt very proud of myself. Then we went for a pub lunch and stuffed ourselves stupid! ("You didn't have far to go on that score" was CakeOfGoodHope's comment). Then I was even more smug when I got home and checked the results and my official "chip time" (Bib number 1566, came 1134th) was 30 seconds faster than I'd timed it myself (not sure what's going on there, but I'm NOT complaining) which makes it the second fastest time I've EVER run. YAY! Go BADGER! 1hr 49min 17seconds!!!!!

Thanks for the support, and the texts (even during the race!).

** Oh, and MB? Moral Best! Because I didn't try so hard.

Bracing myself for the inevitable

Tomorrow at 10am, me & CakeOfGoodHope shall be "performing" in the Wokingham half marathon.  You can watch me LIVE by going to runkeeper.com. This is the venue where last year I got my PB of 1hr 47 minutes (ish) so the pressure is on.

I'm not going to overtly try for a PB though because I'm hoping this is just the first of many events this spring, so I just want to find out what sort of a state I'm in after Janathon.  Sadly it looks like the weather is not going to be all that wonderful with strong winds and rain forecast. I can probably cope with the rain but the last 4 miles or so will be directly into a strong headwind, so that'll be fun!

If you are watching, please leave me a comment on here to give me some encouragement - I'll have my iphone with me and I'll try and take some photos as I go around to make it a kind of "live training blog" like a step up from the one I did in the gym.

Wish us luck (both tomorrow and tonight as I try and get some sleep despite the best efforts of the Lumpy).

Getting Scared

Weirdly I'm getting scared.

It's Wokingham Half Marathon on Sunday. The first big test of the year. Last year I got a PB so I'm actually feeling a little bit scared about what will happen.

Oh well - it will all be over by midday. The start is at 10 and given that i've managed sub 2 hours before on MUCH less training I should be ok. I suppose the fact that I'm reasonably fit after Janathon is why I'm scared. I *might* be fit enough for a PB, but I won't find out until probably too late.

Best thing will probably be to just take it fairly steadily and then enter another HM soon, once I know my performance level. Maybe Berkhamsted again?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A new dawn

Well I have to do a post today, just to prove that I can carry on if I want to.

Not much to rant about today - all I did was cycle the long way home again. My god, I cycled nearly 200km in January, that seems ridiculous.  The real reason I cycled the long way home today though is that it has been weeks since I cycled up the c***ing hill, because the "long way round" route comes in at the top of the hill not the bottom. So I cycled a whole 4 extra km just to avoid the hill at the end. Logically I've actually done more hill, but it didn't seem so scary.

I'm freeeeeeeee from silly letter titles to blogs too. Which means I won't do one every day, I'll only do it when I've got something interesting to say. BUT here is where you can help.  If you are reading this blog, and enjoying it - WRITE ME A COMMENT - even if it's just "Ha ha - LOLZ" or "stop ranting".

I'm really not kidding. The last couple of days I've found out some people I never realised were reading it. Some even claimed to be enjoying it (mental patients, probably), but I only thought about 3 people were reading it, and one of those probably had to for Janathon Judging reasons.  One was Mrs Badger and the other one I think is just lost or something.

So if you are lying there at night trying to listen through the wall to see if our baby is crying more than your baby and reading this on your Blackberry, then WRITE ME A COMMENT - you KNOW who you ARE Mrs Lion Tamer!!

And to all those Janathoner's who made it through, and posted and exercised every day - My GOD you've got my respect. And those who know me well know that is given out extremely sparingly.

All you Janathoners are GREAT!