Winner!

I won my first race on Saturday! I came in as first lady in HPTT and a new pb of 22:03 to end the year. First lady sounds strange and I can't help thinking that this means I got married to the president without realising it... I am very pleased as I never thought I would be good enough to win anything and little madam was pleased too (she can't understand why I enter races when I have no chance of winning).

It has been a good week's training. Tuesday run club was a 5 miler along Armley Road. Pushed it a bit at the end, but my legs were still aching from the long run on Sunday. Wednesday was a gym session and I did a 25 minute hill session on the treadmill before attempting a pilates class. It is a while since I have done pilates and I had forgotten how awful my balance is!

Christmas Day there was no time to run!

On Boxing Day little madam and I went to support our clubmates in the Chevin Chase. This is a hilly muddy 7 miler. I was more than a little envious when we watched everyone setting off and we were standing there cheering. I wanted to be out there! Then we went up to Otley Chevin and I saw the hills and the mud and was glad I was just cheering and taking photos! Still, I think next year I would like to do it if I can. Little madam fell in love with Suki the dog and spent a long time running after her and stroking her ears. (I did manage a 5 mile run on Boxing Day evening, but it wasn't muddy and only a little bit hilly!) VARR members did brilliantly - Dave came in 19th(!), Tom and H were jetlagged, but still did great and Khara's cross country training is doing her loads of good judging her her time. Kay and Debra also did brilliantly and it was great to see them all doing so well.

HPTT was fun on Saturday. We had to be there early to help set up. I had lectures from Dave and Rick about setting off faster and warming up and making good use of the flats. It worked though. I raced my training partner on my Garmin and having set him up for 7 min miles, I didn't get behind until the final lap. The cheers and encouragement from the people there really helped and I was amazed when I ran past and someone shouted "first lady". I finished and forgot to stop my watch (it's having to collect the tokens - does it to me every time!), but I realised it was a pb and was amazed to have won. I know it wasn't a strong field and my time would not have been anything on a 'normal' week, but I still did it!

Sunday I went out for a long run on my own. I was planning 15 or 16 miles. I forgot to take any water and my gels and really struggled at one point when I got pins and needles in my hand and went really dizzy. I walked for a couple of minutes until I felt a bit better and then headed for home as fast as I could. I did the same route as last week with a couple more hills and extra distance added in to make a total of 16 miles in 2:15. I was really pleased with my time until I worked out that this confused me as to what long runs I should be doing as training - 20 milers or time on feet (3:35-3:45ish). It is not going to take me an hour and a half to do another 4 miles. I will try and get some advice from more experienced people. I wonder if I am doing my long runs too fast or whether I have set myself too slow a target (probably the former lol).

Something that I have noticed this week is how much easier the hills have been. Just a little bit of extra training (and some positive thinking) and I am finding that the slopes that used to tire me out just don't seem like anything and the steeper hills, although still tough, are more doable than they used to be a couple of weeks ago. Very strange...