2014 Race Plan

I can't believe I have almost all of my races planned out for 2014!

Here's the list:- (so far)

16th March 2014 - Barcelona Marathon

23rd March 2014 - Rome Marathon

4th August 2014 - Rock 'n' Roll Dublin Half Marathon

14th September 2014 - Copenhagen Powerade Half Marathon

12th October 2014 - Royal Parks Ultra Marathon 50km

 As you can see there's a rather large gap between Rome Marathon and Dublin Half Marathon. This is because I am doing another sporty activity in May that I haven't tried before so won't know until afterwards if I want a race before Dublin or not.

21st May 2014 - Climbing Ben Nevis (and yes there will probably be snow on the mountain)

London Royal Parks Foundation Ultra!

I've just done the craziest thing and signed up for my first ultra!

As you may know I was pretty upset about not getting a London marathon place again so have been looking for another way to run London.

As soon as I read about the London Royal Parks Foundation Ultra I knew it was something that I really wanted to do! I tried to get into the London Royal Parks half marathon last year but that was also a lottery. There are only a few public entries open for the Ultra so I've been keeping an eye on the site all month waiting for the entries to open and they did so this evening :-)

The route is fantastic as I will be running through parks, over many bridges crisscrossing the River Thames and then following the Thames many kilometres out of London!

It's a 50k Ultra so I should be able to manage it as it's only 8 kilometres more than a marathon and when I ran Copenhagen Marathon 2013 nice and slowly I could have easily kept on going for a while after I finished so I believe I'm ready for this Ultra!

And if not, I have until October 12th 2014 to get ready :-)

Woohoo London here I come!!!

Can a Gluten-Free Diet Make You a Faster Runner?

After finishing the Powerade Copenhagen half marathon in 2 hours and 2 minutes (PB by the way), I am determined to finish my next half marathon one in under the 2 hours! I have read that many runners have performed much better and knocked up to 15 minutes of their half marathon PB's by following a gluten-free diet.

So, as of 1st October 2013, I decided to do my own experiment into this. I am now gluten and sugar free until I cross the finish line of Romes marathon on 23rd March when I'm allowed to break my diet for some Italian ice cream :-)

Then back on the diet again until after I have run the Powerade Copenhagen half marathon 2014 in which I set a goal for myself to finish in 1 hour and 50 minutes. I also will be running an October/November marathon (I don't know which yet), and hope to get a new marathon PB of 4 hours and 15 minutes.

I look forward to trying out this experiment and keeping you up-to-date on how it all pans out.

If you are interested in finding out more than visit how to go gluten-free for runners and read The Gluten-Free Edge

P.S. I wonder if I'll also get faster at 10k's?

Two Marathons in One Week!

And so I'm out of the running for a London Marathon place again! When I found
out I was pretty sad so I automatically began looking for some other
running goal to cheer myself up.

I am already signed up for Rome on 23rd March 2014 so started considering
running Madrid marathon again as that's in April. Then I realised that if I also
run Copenhagen in May I would have run 3 marathons in 3 months which will
mean I can become a Marathon Maniac!

There were two problems with this idea though; 1: I've already run Madrid and,
even though I loved it, I'd like to run somewhere else, 2: I've run Copenhagen
marathon twice now and really I'm not that interested in running it again! I only
did it the second time because I got a free race number.

So I started thinking about what other marathons I wanted to run. While I'm doing
this my older son is watching TV and sees a Barcelona football advert. He shouts
'Barcelona' at the TV and I type Barcelona marathon into google.
I can see it's on 16th March 2014, only one week before Rome. I really like the idea of
running two marathons one after the other. But it's not just two marathons, it's two
that have been on my bucketlist for a REALLY long time. My husband says it's fine for
me to be away for two weekends in a row and I'll just travel out on the Saturdays and
back on the Mondays.

So I sign up for Barcelona marathon 2014!!!

I am very excited about this challenge and know that I have to prepare and train
properly this time. My plan is to train for a 4:30 Barcelona marathon and then run
it in 5 hours. This way I won't be working myself to the limit and should have a nice
easy time in Barcelona.
My plan for Rome is and always has been to treat it like a tourist run around the city
with my camera so I don't care if this takes me 6 hours to finish :-)

Because I will be running two marathons so close together I can still join the Marathon
Maniacs!!

What have I got myself into this time :-)

I'm Missing my Running Blog :-(

Just a very quick update......
My new blog is going great but I am missing my old blog and my old readers very much :-(

Therefore I have decided to continue just writing my running news on this blog :-) This will mean that some of running travel posts will be repeated on both blogs but it's not like I travel every month so it shouldn't be too bad.

And Ciry well done on predicting that I couldn't just let this blog fall by the wayside. You know me very well :-)

One Very Last Post.....

It has come to my attention that some people think that I will only be writing about travelling on my new blog. This is not true!

The blog is called Run Travels and I will be writing about all my running adventures in different countries and also some of the other experiences I stubble across while there :-)

So please come over and join me on my new blog at http://runtravels.blogspot.com/ . Just click on the 'join my site' button. I look forward to continue to share my adventures with you :-)

My New Blog called Run Travels

I have a new blog now at www.runtravels.blogspot.com

I have been very bad at keeping this blog up to date lately :-(

This is mostly because I haven't been running too many races and the small 5k races just don't seem so interesting anymore.

I am, however, still very much into running and travelling at the same time! In January I will finish my IATA/UFTAA education and receive my diploma as an International Travel and Tourism Consultant :-)

My plan for next year is to then set up my own business selling and guiding some running holidays for small groups mostly in Scotland. Therefore I thought it would be a good idea to start up a new blog that also concentrates on the travelling side of things. This will also be combined with running as much as possible.

I really hope you will still want to follow my running (and also my travelling) at my new blog at www.runtravels.blogspot.com

Nordic Race - The Sprint!

Just before we start

Yesterday I ran a very cool race called Nordic Race - The Sprint :-)

I had two great team mates called Sofia and Kim. We ran round together and helped each other around the course (or rather Kim helped us)!

Deeper than I thought

Looks like I enjoyed that one!

More water. I'm glad the sun was shining!

I'm making this look a little too easy......

...what was actually happening behind 'The Walls'

Sliding down an oiled slide was fun :-)

This water was boggy and disgusting!

I loved the climbing wall

Reaching for the bell at the end

Up the hill with a sandbag on my shoulder

This was hard!

Crawling as a team

Barbed wire, dried mud, and wet clothes

Still smiling while wet and muddy

The balance beams were easy thanks to my son Theo training me on them at playgrounds

Oh my god!

Men were shoveling ice into this!

Getting ready to jump into the cold water

So cold! Please help me out Kim!

Meeting the last obstacle together

Fighting these two big guys

HELP!

Sofia, Kim, and I as proud finishers!

See you next year :-)

My Marathon Maniac Goal!

The time is now right to become a MARATHON MANIAC!.

After having a Fun Run for Copenhagen marathon I know that if I take my time and enjoy myself I can run more marathons. I have been looking for either one more marathon to run within 16 days of Copenhagen or 2 more marathons to run within 90 days of Copenhagen. This is the criteria needed to go in as a Marathon Maniac at bronze level. The only marathons that I have found in Denmark (can't afford to travel further right now) are small ones with only 100 or less people. They are on beaches or in forests. My knees don't like that terrain and prefer road surfaces.

I have therefore decided on my own criteria for a marathon as well. These are as follows:-

1: It must be a marathon where I can enjoy myself
2: It must have a good sightseeing route so I have something to look at if the going gets tough
3: It must be on the road surface for at least three quarters of the time
4: The less repeaters the course has the better
5: If I can run them all in different countries that would be great
6: FUN FUN FUN!

It looks like I have some planning to do :-)

To become a Marathon Maniac I am either going for 2 marathons in 16 days, 3 marathons in 90 days or even 8 marathons in one year!

Adistar Boosts after Copenhagen Marathon Review!

On Sunday I ran Copenhagen Marathon in my Adidas Boosts! I admit I was very nervous about running a marathon in them as they sit very snug on the feet so I was thinking that I may lose more toenails than ever before.
The weather was rainy like in Edinburgh so I knew that I would get wet feet again...

As far as I am concerned the Adidas Boost trainers are THE BEST TRAINERS EVER! Why do I say this?

All 4 of my other marathons that I have run have two things in common:-
1: LOTS of blisters!
2: BIG loss of toenails!

I have been searching for some trainers that would help with the blister situation and would stop me losing toenails. I had already tried taping my toes, different socks, different trainers, trainers too big, vaseline, bodyglide stuff, vitamins, and any other remedies I could find on running sites. Nothing has made any difference :-(

But now I seem to have found the answer: Adistar Boosts!!

After the marathon I had one little blister on the side of my big toe and one little blister in between two toes. And that was it (other than having very wrinkled feet from the wetness). As of now, three days after the marathon, it looks like all my toenails will stay attached this time :-) If I don't lose a toenail then, as far as I'm concerned, these trainers are like GOLD to me! I'll keep you updated.

There also seems to definately be a return of energy when running in these shoes as my legs didn't seem very tired at all during the marathon and could have carried on going for ??? amount of kilometres more!

One last thing, the trainers are not very water resistant so when my Boosts are dead and I buy some more from kaisersport, I am going to spray them with a water resistant spray to help my feet stay maybe a little dryer :-)