marathonmummy

How lovely, on a horrible rainy day, to receive a Sunshine Award for my blog. It’s from my friend Paula and it’s just what I needed on a day like today. Bring Me Sunshine is a song that Dad used to sing to us when we were little, so it’s brought back some lovely memories after a difficult day yesterday.

In other news, well, there isn’t much really. It’s half term, the treadmill is my only option, and on Tuesday night I did a horrible interval training session, which was one of those runs. I ended up thinking I’d be better off taking up knitting instead (and anyone who has seen the only jumper I ever made knows that’s a bad idea).

Talking of music, I’ve been creating the ultimate running playlist, which is only really suitable for the plodders of this world. I think proper runners like music at about 160bpm. Mine is, er, not.

Zoe and I had a theory that lots of songs with meaning to us would get us round the marathon. Some people might think training would be more helpful, but we’ll gloss over that little detail.

Rod Stewart – Baby Jane and Do Ya Think I’m Sexy? (my dad used to sing these with the windows down in the car, usually in the middle of town, and we would die of embarrassment)
Placebo – Every You, Every Me (reminds me of being pregnant, hence reminds me of birth, which will make running seem like a walk in the park. That’s a bad metaphor. My running speed already IS a walk in the park.)
Pretenders – Back on the Chain Gang
Dirty Pretty Things – Bang Bang You’re Dead
Toni Basil – Mickey (I have no shame)
Come Dancing – Ray Davies (you’ve got it in your head now, haven’t you?)
Killers – Mr Brightside
Kings of Leon – Sex on Fire (aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, my legs are on fire)
Scissor Sisters – Take Your Mama Out
Supergrass – Richard III
Monkey Wrench – Foo Fighters
Idlewild – American English
The Automatic – Monster (what’s that coming over the hill? is it a monster…oh no, it’s Rachael, running)
Snow Patrol – Run (haha!)
Foo Fighters – This is a Call
Marilyn Manson – Rock is Dead (and so will I be after 26.2 miles)
Longpigs – She Said
My Chemical Romance – Welcome to the Black Parade
Radiohead – Street Spirit
The Stranglers – No More Heroes
The Go-Gos – We Got the Beat
Marilyn Manson – The Beautiful People (not me after running, I look like a beetroot)
The Knack – My Sharona (RIP Doug Fieger)
The House of Love – Shine On (reminds me of school)
The Fray – How to Save a Life (will make me cry, but that’s okay)

Any suggestions, anyone? I’ve already had a few: how I could I forget Don’t Stop Me Now and Keep On Running, as well as the Glee soundtrack? Thanks C and G!

I started this post this afternoon in a half term grump, but I’m finishing it on an endorphin high after 50 minutes on the treadmill. It was just a plod, but every mile counts. Every boring mile on the treadmill, and every boring mile on my own on featureless country roads will be worth it.

2 months, 6 days, 14 hours, 8 minutes, and counting. London, here I come.

50 fun filled minutes on the treadmill watching 80s music. Run 4 walk two works quite well to music, because it doesn’t matter how horrible it feels, you know it’ll be over by the end of the song. Good news is I don’t feel out of breath at all when I’m doing it. I think the core fitness exercises are helping too – I’m much more aware of how I’m holding myself whilst I run, and it seems to be working. Maybe I will have abs of steel by April after all.

In other news, the fabulous MumsRock site features an article written by me. Go and have a look! Must go, have to do the school run in the (hooray, it’s melting) snow. But before I do, one more thing.

Dear 15 year old self,

Your taste in music, and men, was a little bit dodgy.

Oh, how I wanted a pair of spray painted Doc Martens.

I’m torn between wanting it to snow (pretty, no packed lunches to make tomorrow) and wanting it to thaw (slid down the steps in the garden today when I was out feeding the chickens, need to train outside because the treadmill is no substitute). This is the longest time I can remember that we’ve had snow on the ground and freezing temperatures, and whilst the children are loving it I’m going a bit bonkers. I left the village for the first time in five days yesterday. The supermarket was full of people in woolly hats, panic buying bread and milk. Depending on which forecast you read, tonight we’re either due a thaw, or another four inches of snow.

I’m really hoping the children will get back to school this week so I can head out into the frozen wasteland with my lovely Garmin. Meanwhile, as the roads are still covered in slush and ice, tonight I’ll be on the treadmill for 80 – yes, you read that right – minutes. Run 3, walk 1, run 3, walk 1, run 3, walk 1…it’s exciting stuff.

I guess for every good run there’s a crappy one.

run run
oh help need to wrap presents and my shin hurts
run run
haven’t made pastry for mince pies yet
run run
must get the other part of Zoe’s present
walk walk
help I have no energy
run run
must do some work to earn money for skiing holiday
walk walk
I hate running, why am I running a marathon?
run run
I hate this song
run run
I hate treadmills
walk walk
I want to stop and lie down
run run
urgh, this is hopeless
stop

at least I ran though; I guess that’s something. But sometimes it’s really hard, running when you just want to lie down on the couch and watch television.

If this the runner’s high, I think it should probably be a class A drug! Just done the BEST run ever on the treadmill.

Started with a five minute gentle jog, then I did run 2 minutes, walk 1 minute for almost an hour on 1% incline, finishing with a couple of minutes run on a 5% incline. It was amazing. I’ve been reading about running styles and I had a feeling that if I could get out of the heelstriking habit I’d be able to solve the whole pain in the shins, legs giving up before I ran out of breath problem.

I ran the whole thing landing on my forefoot, and I felt a million times lighter, which isn’t bad going for someone who is about as far from a runner in physique as it’s possible to be. I’ve noticed before when Jessica runs she sort of floats along (Jessica is now going to comment and say something disparaging about herself, I predict) and I think that’s partly down to the fact that she is a forefoot runner. Oh, and partly down to the fact that she probably weighs about half what I do.
This is all a bit inarticulate because I’m so excited about how easy it was tonight compared to any other run, and because it was so good I want to bounce up and down squeaking with glee. That doesn’t translate very well to the written word though, so just imagine it.