After a difficult 2011, me being me, I needed a focus. Something to distract me from my over active imagination and thoughts; something for me to look forward to; something that will challenge me at a level that I haven't tackled before and something for me. What to do? What to do? Well, I guess the reality is that all I can do is run.
Let's also be clear that in addition to being a runner, I'm also a bl**dy busy woman! I'm first and foremost a mother and a single mother at that. Two wonderful girls, aged 5 and 10. Old enough to be able to dress themselves and young enough to demand (sap?) my attention and energy. I am also a full time teacher and head of department at a large and successful high school (I love my job!). I have a large (massive in fact) family with lots of brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces who all, in their own lovely ways, also manage to take up my thoughts and attention from time to time... as families should do! SO, in between mothering, teaching, the seemingly endless list of clubs that my children throw themselves into and actually keeping my home looking lovely in the anal-fashion that I'm used to, there's very little time left over.
Anyway, back to the plan! Amongst all of the above, I need a running plan... which is.... lots and lots of running, all ultimately aiming at an ultra-race at the end of November. This year I plan on running 5-6 full marathons throughout Europe and the UK and finishing with the Hereward Relays (Cambridgeshire) although I won't be taking part in the relay, merely running the entire 40-odd mile distance on my tod.
The first of the Marathons take place on 15th April: the Milano City Marathon, Milan, Italy. Now that I've entered, I'm too excited for words! (Although slighly cr*pping myself too!). I only entered this last week which gave me 10 weeks of training (this is ok, I've been running like a nutter throughout January!) just to get me through the first Marathon hurdle.
My schedule for this week:
I ran 14.5 miles on Sunday (VERY slowly, 9 minute miles, a good minute or so slower than my usual pace) with the wonderful help from my sister-in-law who kept my company by riding her bike next to me. The girls stayed with their gran for a couple of hours and drew me pictures! After a lazy afternoon with a DVD (thank goodness that the girls were tired after a busy half-term, I didn't have much in me to run around with them), I had recovered reasonably well. They stayed at their dad's last night but I had to collect them at 8am as he's a farmer and needed to tend to the pigs... so I ran TWO (I'm so rock and roll) slow miles at 7am this morning - my legs liked it less than my tired head did!
It's also half-term this week so I have a couple of hours in the morning where the girls are at a club, I plan on trying to run on the treadmill a good 7-8 miles tomorrow... I'll see how my legs go! I'm also quite lucky that this is an easy week in terms of the farm so the girls get a few evenings with their dad... I'll milk this in terms of running at every opportunity. Always so much harder during my working week and/or their dad's busy farming weeks. In addition to Tuesday's longer run, I'll also try to run for 30 minutes on Weds morning before collecting the girls again, 30-35 slow minutes on Saturday followed by a 15/16 miler on Sunday. I've recently started running with a local team but can only really make it once every 3 or so weeks as I have the children at home with me but it's SO much easier when in the company of others. It's lonely being a long distance runner sometimes.
Anyway, so my plan for the week will probably amount to approximately 35-40 miles between Monday and Sunday. This is, as is everything in my world, subject to change at the very last minute but it's my goal and my short term aim - as part of my longer term (which is, in turn, part of my VERY long term) plan.
If you're interested... Wish me luck!
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