Run 85 - Exhausted...

Wow, I forgot (is that the right word, or am I just 25 years or so older and therefore it is much tougher!) what hard work a 2 year old is! It's not exactly a child-friendly house either, so can't take our eyes off him! Hope we/he survives until Friday when mum and dad come back for him!

Didn't get out until late this afternoon and it was very warm and still when I did get out. Lots of noisy whales today. They must like the weather! Jelly legs today, too - exhausted after a day with Finn! Taz and Nick went back to Cape Town this morning and they fly back to the UK tomorrow, so it was just Steve and Me! Oh, and the two dogs and two cats, of course! They are totally confused! What is this mini person that makes a noise, and lots of mess!

I did 5km around the village, slowly! Hopefully, I'll manage another run tomorrow.

Run 84 - Finn is with us...

Well, had a nice rest yesterday and today we have 2 year old grandson, Finn, staying with us!

Mum and Dad have gone off up the Garden Route until Friday with their friends for a few days after their wedding.

Aunty Taz and Uncle Nick brought Finn across from the wedding venue this morning, whilst I was out for my run. Grandad was here, so let them all in.

Run went a lot better than yesterday's run. I did 12km and ran down from up the B'bos Road, and around Pearly Beach. Very windy but didn't really notice it until I came around Rotunda and it hit me!! Woosh! Head down, keep running!

Well worth going for a run though, as Taz and Nick took us out for lunch today at Baardies. Very nice!

Run 83: The Day After...

It is the day after the wedding. It was a great day and I think everyone enjoyed it, especially the Bride and the Groom, which is the most important thing. Sam had surprised me by announcing, when I dropped her off at the hairdressers in the morning, that she had booked me a hair appointment too. So I had a really nice hairstyle done for me. Thank you, Sam, that was a lovely surprise.

But the day after - mmm, I didn't crawl into bed until 1.30am this morning. That, and so much to eat and a different routine for the last couple of weeks, doesn't bode well for a very successful run.

It was s-s-o-o hard! Real hard work. All 8km of it. Struggled round with very heavy legs and body in a strong wind. But that is 95km done this month now. Only 5km more to do to meet my target!!!

Run 82 - 5km with Richeldis and Taz

I actually had people to run with today - Richeldis (Sam's Chief Bridesmaid) and Tamsin (Sam's sister and my daughter)!

Steve took us up the B'bos Road this morning and we all ran 5km down it. Richeldis would have liked to go a lot faster and Taz would have liked to stay in bed, oops, meant, run slower. We tried to run so that everyone could run together. It was a lovely morning and I think we all enjoyed it. It did make a nice change to have others to run with. Thanks, guys!

Run 81 - 8km Trail Run in Stellenbosch mountains

Well, this run was a bit different! I had entered the Mr Price Winelands 8km trail run - a new event that runs into the Stellenbosch mountains. There was an 8km and a 16km event - I chose the 8km as I have never done this type of running before. We were already staying in Cape Town as Sam and Co had arrived from the UK and I had intended running something that weekend anyway. Sam's friend, Richeldis, asked if she could run as well, so we set off with Steve at 5.30 in the morning from Cape Town to Stellenbosch! I'm glad it's light at that time of day now!

We sorted ourselves out when we got there and saw that it was only a small event, not like the marathon and half marathon held the day before. First time ever I have been to a running event and there hasn't been a queue for the loos!

Just before 7am, we all gathered at the start line and were informed of the route we would be taking. We didn't have a number but had a chip so had to ensure we ran over the mats. Off we set around the track and straight up into the woods. Hard start! Most of the run seemed to have uphill sections, in fact it wasn't until we got to nearly 5.5kms that the track was downhill for the rest of the way!

Water station was half-way, very welcome. It had been raining earlier, but didn't rain whilst we were in Stellenbosch, and it was very humid. We climbed quite high into the hills where the views were absolutely fantastic. There was just about every surface you could think of to run over and I did slow down considerably when we had to run down a very stony gulley. I did not intend tripping or ending up on my bum not being able to run for the next few weeks.

Great run, thoroughly enjoyed it, and would do it again. I do, however, now have a serious case of DOMS! Not used to that sort of running!

Edit: Official results are out now: 1hr 06min 57 sec. AND, after thinking I was just about last - I was 1st lady over 50! OK, so there were only 5 of us ladies over 50, I was still 1st lady over 50!

Run 80 A Difficult One!

I attempted the same run as I did last time, but it was about a minute slower! My legs just didn't want to run this morning. OK, it was about 6am, and we did go out for a well-earned meal last night (before the onslaught next week of my daughter and her friends from the UK for her wedding) and I did eat fish and chips, oh, and crumbed mushrooms. BUT, I did get up early and go for the run!

It was warm out there even though it was overcast - it is supposed to rain today - and it was very windy, which I didn't really notice until I was on the way back and it hit me full on! That really slowed me down a lot! But I knew that if I didn't go out for the run, I would feel incredibly guilty about not doing it, and it would worry me all day. Easier to go, really!

8km - about 58 minutes! Not wonderful, but it all helps to my monthly total - 73/100kms.

Trail run on Sunday in Stellenbosch. Looking forward to that, but not the early start!

Run 79 - A 'build up' run

Today the plan told me I was starting to do some 'build up' runs and getting faster over the next few weeks.

I ran 8km around the village (backwards - I know what I mean. OK, anti-clockwise!) starting off with a slow jog to warm up and building up to, really, quite fast for the last 2.5km. The run started off being quite hard and I felt quite 'heavy' and slow even though the wind was behind me. It was very warm, overcast and humid. However, the second half, with the wind in front of me, wasn't too strong to affect my running and was quite cooling. I ran much better the second half.

I intend doing this run again in a couple of days, so I shall have to compare them!

Run 78 - Beautiful!

The weather has been beautiful so far today. Woke up to bright sunshine and it is still with us - unlike the last few days or so!

Breakfast (in bed, thank you Hubs) and got ready to go out for my run. Just 5km today, but a very nice 5km, around the village.

Monthly total: 57km out of the 100km I am aiming for.

Run 77 - Up and Out Early

Woke up to a lovely morning and I know that tomorrow is due to be really awful, with wind, rain and thunderstorms. So, I decided to run today instead. Dragged Steve out of bed too, as he had been complaining that he hadn't done a cycle ride for ages, so we left the dogs at home and he set off in one direction, and I went in the other. We knew we would meet in the middle somewhere.

I ran around the village, quicker than I was supposed to according to my plan but it felt ok to do that, and met S at about 6kms as I was on the main road out of the village. Chatted on progress for about a minute and he turned back to finish his circuit, and I carried on to the end of the road. When I turned back, I decided to speed up a bit and finished the last 2kms fast (for me!) so I was 'well impressed' with my finish!

10kms overall. :)

Run 76: Beautiful morning!

It was Run 3 of the week today, and I got up (fairly) early to do it. It was a beautiful morning - sunny and windless (practically anyway!) so off I went!

It was another slow jog for 5kms today and I warmed up with a walk then started jogging. A few steps into it and I saw a shadow and heard footsteps coming up behind me - another jogger! Unheard of in Pearly Beach, especially out of season!! She overtook me and carried on in a medium plod sort of way, very much like I do when I am running faster than the jog I am supposed to be doing this week. Well! I couldn't let her get away with that, could I?! And I speeded up a bit, following her up the road until she followed the tarmac road to the right, and I turned left on to the gravel road. Then I allowed myself to slow down again to the pace I was supposed to be doing!

It was a nice, uneventful run, sorry, jog, and as I turned back into Charlie at the end of my run I met a jogger with a small dog going the other way - so had to finish on a "high" or "faster"!

Enjoyed the jog anyway. Could do all that again. I had been listening to an old episode of Marathontalk on the way round and I really hadn't noticed the time passing. The 5kms was u before I realised it!

So, then I was back home and stretching in my studio. Chilli, the cat, came and stretched with me - in a little patch of sunshine!

Run 75 - Before it gets even windier and it rains!

Week 1 Day 2: 8km at 8:43/km:

What horrible weather - heavy winds and rain too! Where's summer? Hope it's not far away!

I had another run scheduled for today (because yesterday's was so easy!) so dragged myself out of bed before 7am to go and do it. I thought I should at least try and stay on track for the first week or two!

So, off I went after half a cup of tea and a banana, and I jogged anti-clockwise round the village for 8kms (@ 8:43/km again ), which was quite a nice, easy pace in the strong winds! It's almost a shame I shall have to speed up a bit soon!

Certainly glad I got out early and didn't wait as the wind has been howling since I got back, and we have had quite a bit of rain!

Run 74 - Start of Marathon Training

Week 1 Day 1: 5km @ 8.43km/h. Start of my 'personalised' running plan!

Gosh, it's hard to run, sorry, jog, that slowly, but trying to do it certainly gets you to S-L-O-W down and think about your running! I had to concentrate hard to be consistent and get the pacing right.

Very enjoyable run though, as not huffing and puffing all the way through it. Did my usual circuit of Pearly Beach - Charlie, Esplanade, Central, Arcadia, and back to Charlie.

Wanted to get out early because wind is getting up very HIGH today and, because I wasn't struggling and running fast today, I didn't notice the wind so much!

Overcast but not too warm. Overall, an enjoyable run! Could do more of these! :)

Run 73 - Managed to get back up to 10km at last!

It was my last run today before I start my marathon training plan - all 24 weeks of it! Ow!

So, I finished off my current plan with a 10km run up towards Carruther's Hill. Not that I got very far up it as I only ran 5km before turning back to do another 10km, but I've got to start somewhere! Steve came with me on his cycle, which was good. We have had very, very strong winds, and some rain, over the last couple of days so I didn't know what time of day would be good to get out and run in, but we have a bit of a respite from it for a day or so, so I decided to get out when I could, hence the 8 o'clock start! Not too early!

Ended up doing 11.42km in all, including my warm up and cool down, and was out for 1hr 26 min. the 10km part took about 68 minutes with a slower second half because of the headwind. Happy with that as I haven't run 10km since my 10km race at the end of July. :)

Run 72 - Up the hill instead of into the wind!

I was going to run early this morning - at about 6am! However, in order to do that, I have to get out of bed before 6am! And I didn't! The reason I wanted to run early is that the water was going to be turned off whilst they replaced a valve in the pumping station, and I wouldn't be able to have a shower afterwards. Also, it is expected to get very windy this afternoon. Oh well...

Well, I had just had lunch and thought, "Oh, (something)! I'll go out for a run now." The water had been on and off for a bit, so I might even be lucky and get my shower this afternoon. Steve was taking the dogs up the B'bos track so I could run up there and get a lift back!

So, that's what I did! About 6.5kms in all, including warm up and cool down, and (I think) about 48 minutes. Now, when Ronnelle has finished cleaning the bathroom, I can have a shower... ! :)

Run 71 - If I can remember it from this morning.

We have had no internet or e-mails today (again) which has been very frustrating as it means we may be losing business and we can't get on and do useful things (like posting here!)

I ran early this morning and did approximately 6.25kms around the village. It was lovely sunshine and not too windy and a nice run. I am hoping to run at least 100kms this month, having managed over 90 last month. So, 6 down, 94 to go! :)