The year 2012 and 12 marathons by Jenny1961

Second week of January and so far so good!

2012 miles in 2012 challenge:  This week my stats are:

a) 48.8 miles in total for the week     b) Mileage since Jan 1st = 108 miles and c) 1903 miles to go.

At least that's what my spreadsheet tells me

My long run of 16.67 miles today completed a week of the usual mixed bag of runs to and from work, of varying distances and paces. I'm intrigued by the 'heavy legged' feeling of a run home from work. It in no way resembles the tiredness and aching muscles that can feature at  the end of a long run so I'm interested in what it is that actually causes this 'heaviness'. I'm sure most runners can relate to what I'm saying. Is it the food? the salt? the fluids that we imbibe during the work-day?  And yet no matter how heavy my legs can feel- the next morning I feel fine and can push the tempo quite easily in an 8 mile run to work!

Mental training

Today for my long run I deliberately chose one of my routes that has many undulations- some of them quite steep- and not too far from home. The reason was really for mental training as well as for physical training. At many points I could have 'deviated' and instead of turning round and repeating the loop I could so easily have slunk off home! I like to see how I face those mini-challenges....

My iphone and the 'woman wot witters'

Still getting used to the features on the MapMyrun app on my shiny new iphone. I discovered there was the facility to receive 'verbal feedback' on my pacing during the run so today decided to test it out. Well what do you know- whilst seconds into my run whilst I was still faffing around with my bum-bag and putting on my gloves this female voice informed me that my pace was shockingly slow. Well she didn't say that exactly but immediately I felt guilty about my tardiness. Never mind, I thought- I'm sure I won't hear from her again for another 10 minutes or so. But no. One minute later up she pipes insinuating that although my pace had inproved it still wasn't good enough. And yes, anotther bleeding minute later up she pipes again!  Now considering this was going to be a 16 mile run, I could see that this was going to be one Very Long Run Indeed.  So I stopped and silenced her for good.  Peace. How do runners cope with this??

Jantastic score- Target of 7 runs per week and 7 runs achieved. 100% again. Watching my 'rivals' like a hawk!

Spring into Action Calisthenics etc- and blissful night's sleep

Still at it with the encouragement of my facebook group.  The daily session includes  press-ups ( 2 x 15 today as today is the 15th). Not sure how long I can sustain 2 equal sets though. The seccond 'set' will likely be split into 2 smaller sets due to feebleness. Also daily squats, lunges and planks. Up to 2 x 45 second planks now as well. There is one fantastic spin-off from all this extra stuff. For months and months now I have had niggling pains in shoulders and upper arms. Miserable really, especially when trying to put my sleeve through my coat and actions like that. I also have not had an uninterrupted nights sleep for months. And yet, this last couple of days I have slept pain free!  Yes really. I do believe that my shoulders and arms are getting stronger and if this is the result of my exercises then it is a real motivation  to continue with them. This weekend I even incorporated a home-made circuit of the exercises including exercises with the resistance band for my arms and shoulders. I was inspired by another blogger on here who said she had done a circuit of 10 reps, 9 reps, 8 reps etc- so thought I would use that plan.  55 reps of each exercise in total

The coming week:  Exciting!

Usual runs to and from work but this Friday I have my interview at the Excel Centre in London for my Olympic Volunteer application. And then on Sunday I'm off to London again for a training day with the Children with Cancer Uk charity team.  So not sure what my long run will be- may just have a cut back weekend and pick up the following weekend as I'm bang on schedule......

Enjoying watching good TV this evening- Call the Midwife and then Sherlock. It is so rare to find quality stuff on TV now despite the 3 trillion channels we have.

Have a good week everyone! Enjoy the dry ( if cold) weather. On a real positive note- the evenings are not drawing in so early!