Fiona: This Week

Hope everyones gearing themselves up- only a few weeks to go!

This week I ran a 6 miler on monday. It was quite toasty here in Ggow so afterwards I looked a lot like this: 

Gosh, my boyfriend is a lucky man. Do you like my neon extreme Grangemouth finishers tee shirt?

On Tuesday I did some extreme abs work from the Runners World Olympic Abs page. OUCH. 

On Wednesday I headed for the gym and made my peace with the dreaded cross trainer. I used to use the X-C in 10 minute bursts on a casual gym day. Then when I caught the running bug, X-Cs now felt boring, you just go on and on and on. But on Wed I ended up doing 30 minutes.Actually felt pretty good.

Now, if I could just bring myself to love the treadmill...

Thursday was another speedy 6 miler crammed into a study day:

Friday I took a rest (was dead stiff) and Saturday I ran for the athletics team in the 3K and 400m relay. Was a great laugh- ended up doing the  3K in 14.39 which is a 7.51 mile pace and I don't yet know my 400m time. I was so nervous before because track/athletics runners are a lot more serious and I had never run at a track event. Sarah and I, however, devised a mantra. That mantra was, 'We are distance runners. For us this is a TRAINING RUN.'. It really helped. To be honest I was really glad to be part of Glasgow Uni at that point because we were the ONLY team who cheered on anyone in any team. A lot of teams seemed to lack the camaderie you see in cross country.

There was a massive headwind on the 300m corner of each lap but my race seemed really well paced to me and the spectators told me the form was spot on. Overall GUAC came 2nd and could hold their heads high another day. Also I had fun! And I reckon I'd like to try a little more sprinting- I wore Sarah's track spikes for the 400m and I really liked running in them.

PB or not PB

I've been in a right cream puff today.

I'd gone along to the 5k parkrun at Pollok Park again this morning, (following last Saturday which was the first I'd run it since December), fully pumped up, psyched, stoked, or whatever else is the latest americanism all the kids are using these days. Anyway, to cut to the chase, I was aiming to beat my time of last week (34:52), or even better, to beat my parkrun Personal Best of 34:27.

It was another beautiful morning, and even though the pavements were still glistening wet the sun was well and truly out. By the time I'd met my friend at the entrance to the park I was even, drum roll, pleasantly warm. Warm enough to run without my jacket, another first this year.

Having Nessa there was a great boost to my spirits, and being able to keep pace with her for the first km or so would get me off to a good start (one thing I thought let me down last week was starting too slow and never really breaking out of that pace). Conditions were perfect, and it was time to get down to business.

Although Nessa and I parted ways before the first km was reached, it was okay as I found a friendly spot in a pack of half a dozen or so women near the back of the race who were all about the same pace as me. There was the usual overtaking/being overtaken as various of us would stop to walk, then start up running again when we'd caught our breath. I was just grateful to be amongst company than to be running on my own with 30 seconds between me and the next person in front.

I must admit to tiring a few times during the run but overall I was pleased with my efforts as my legs felt stronger going up the inclines and steep hills than last week and I was convinced that my pace while not cheetah-like was at least one species up from a sloth.

But alas, my hopes for a good race time were dashed upon seeing that my nikeplus showed 35 mins as I crossed the finish line. Unable to reconcile such a disappointing time with how good I had felt during the run, I fantasised that perhaps I had gained extra time somehow, and that the parkrun timer would record my run as a personal record breaking -34 mins.

But unless the regenerated Doctor Who, tiring of his new assistant already, had swung the TARDIS by Pollok today to pick me up and help him fight the evil forces of the galaxy, I couldn't think of any other circumstance whereby the space-time continuum would show the parkrun timer to be 2 minutes out from my nikeplus. (Though even as I write this I suspect that the Daleks were somehow behind my poor performance today, all part of their despicable plan to destroy the human race one parkrunner at a time...)

Meanwhile back in the real world, I know I'm never going to come first at parkrun, or any race I enter where there is more than one participant, so if I can't beat anyone else I would at least like to beat myself! Talk about scunnered. But somehow even though I still can't run faster than I did last August, I just can't entertain the idea of giving up on running. Cos each time I tie up my trainers and head out for another run, I cling to the hope that this will be the day I achieve a personal best. And I suppose to keep on trying and not give up is the best I can do.

Who am I trying to kid, coming over all philosophical...I still want to see that darn 'PB' alongside my name at next week's parkrun! And if I don't, i'll scweam and scweam and scweam and scweam!