progress tracker

Saturday 31 May 2014

100miles!! my first parkrun, and Natalie's first 5k

Sooo.... since that 10k race a few weeks ago I've been getting stuck in with the training, getting out 3-4 times a week, and managing 8 mile then 10 mile long runs in preparation for the Malvern half marathon (3wks tomorrow- eek!!). My shins aren't loving me for it.... but some new shoes have helped and I'm loving getting out and running regularly again.

Yesterday morning I spotted my ticker stood at 99 miles. I wasn't due to run yesterday, but I couldn't leave it like that.... so after we got back from Mark's birthday dinner and the kids were in bed I headed out for a 1 mile run. Up until this week I'd been using an app on my phone to track my distance, but the GPS was never very accurate so I'd have to come home and re-route my run on the computer which took ages. Since I'm doing a distance challenge this isn't a good thing, so I sold a few old baby bits and got myself a new toy. Trying it out for the second time, I headed out with the intention of running half a mile down the road, then turning around and coming straight back. A nice glass of wine and some Pizza Express tiramisu was waiting for me, so I made it a quick one :)





1 mile on the dot and I'm at 100 miles!! For those of you who think in kilometers, that's 169, so still a long way to go, but I've done a lot this month and will keep the miles coming in!!! I enjoyed that wine and pudding to celebrate :)


This morning we didn't have our usual football and ballet so I decided to try out the local parkrun. For those who don't know what that is, look it up! A free, timed 5k every Saturday morning at 9am in parks around the world. I've been wanting to go for ages!! Natalie, who is 6, decided she wanted to run too, so off we went. It was so much fun and she did brilliantly, running the first half completely then only walking a little bit for the last half. We finished in 41minutes. It was muddy, and she was tired in this pic (and I look awful!!) but here we are :)

I wore my fundraising top, and while we were waiting in the queue for coffee afterwards a lady asked me what Hemiplegia was. I told her, and explained that Ryan (who was with me) had it and expained about HemiChat and all the great things it does. About 20min later she came and found me, and gave me £20 for the charity pot. Was the loveliest thing, and really made my day. I doubt she'll ever see this or I'll see her again, but a huge heartfelt thank you to that wonderful lady and what she did today. It also took the total raised so far to £100!! :)

I'm planning something to help raise funds that you can all join in with, so watch this space in the next week or so while I get things organised!! :)   x x


Wednesday 14 May 2014

Race report and 10% of my goal complete!

I survived the race -yay! :) I had my doubts because of the training (or lack of) but made a point of going slower than I felt I needed to for the first lap and planned to go from there for the second. I'm glad I did, as there was a long gradual incline for most of the first lap so on the second one I kept it steady for that and when I hit the downhill then I knew I was going to make it.

I loved the race atmosphere. Encouraging stewards, lovely runners to chat with to keep me going for parts of the race, and that fantastic feeling when you cross the line and know you are done!! My time was 1:11:40, which isn't brilliant but is much better than I thought it was going to be and it gives me room for improvement. Here's a photo of me with my medal after the finish.





Since I was running with a friend, there wasn't anyone there to get action shots (what a shame...) but will try for those in my half next month.

In other news, with my recovery run on Monday (ouch!) I hit 62 miles, which is 100k and 10% of my goal distance.  900k to go!! :)  I've made a training plan for the next 6 weeks to get me ready for the Malvern half marathon, and counting up the miles (estimating a bit for tempo/interval days) I'll be adding over 100 more miles to that total by the end of June.

Tonight's run was a bit of interval work. I'm trying to get some quality training in but still recovering a bit from Saturday's race so it was a shorter one at 2.31 miles, but it was a bit faster and with more hills than normal.

Ryan has his 6 monthly paediatrican appointment tomorrow morning, this should be fairly straightforward but and we have a great consultant but Ryan said to me tonight "mummy, why do I have to keep seeing him?" which was too complicated to explain at bedtime!

Thanks to those who have sponsored me so far, can't wait until the end of the year to pass the money on to HemiChat.  Last night I've booked us in for a meet up in June at Cadbury World. Ryan's excited to see some of his friends again, and this wouldn't be possible without the funding that goes into HemiChat.

More soon!
Emily x 

Friday 9 May 2014

First race tomorrow!!



Not had a lot of sleep this week due to a poorly little one but will get an early night tonight ready for my 10k in the morning. Please pray for sunshine! And pop over and sponsor me on my year long challenge if you haven't already. :) 

Ryan won't be coming to watch this one, it's a long way and he's had a rough week thanks to a piece of cake that turned out to NOT be gluten free as we thought.... but he's excited to see my medal when I get home. :)

I need to fix my counter above as it's cheating me out of 4 miles that I have done, but it'll start jumping up rapidly now while I get in the longer runs ready for my half at the end of next month. Eeek!