it's freezing in Luxembourg...

...I went for an hour run on Sunday instead of a long run because the weather was awful...I don't mind rain or snow. I went for a 25 km run in the snow the first Sunday I was at home (that was a week ago) and I loved it! but I HATE THE COLD, last Sunday it was  -12 degrees...and it was horrible!The scarf I had in front of my face even froze...brrr...

I hope the weather gets nicer, I'll be frustrated if this goes on for another week!

27.88 km!

Holidays just started and I am going back to Luxembourg next Friday...I am well excited! I am looking forward to train around my home town:)!!

I really hope to get 30 km done during the month I am home! Last week, on Friday I managed to do 27.88 km without feeling too bad the next day:)! I was sooo happy...:)! Distances become less and less scarier over the last few weeks!

I noticed that this is already my 7th week of "training", so still 17 more weeks to go...!!

I'll keep you updated!

Runners, yeah we are different.

Some days ago, a friend of mine send me a picture of an old adidas running campaign which was made in 1999 or 2000 I think.

I tried to find all the pictures and I really think that this, for once, is a campaign that shows what you sometimes need to experience being a runner. How running can change you or make you do things you would not do otherwise. Things non-runners will always fail to understand, things that happen that can be really private but still funny to experience.

Especially the picture with the girl peeing behind the tree, what can I say...this is just me! Thinking about the half-marathon in Germany, I see myself sitting in a field, with thousands of runners passing me and watching me while peeing. I couldn't care less then I still do not care today.

Have fun looking at the adverts!!

 

 

HELL YEAH.

Just a quick post:

FINALLY, the weather was nice enough on friday to go on a 25 km run!!! I could have gone further but leave it for next week:)!

so happy!

on saturday I went for another 18 km run along with Jemma, who is also doing the marathon and it is so nice to have someone to run with who also aims towards the 42 km!!

hear from you soon!!

brooks brighton 10 k run!

Hello!

Just a quick word on the race on Sunday...I did achieve a personal best of 45.55 minutes. But I am nevertheless disappointed, I thought I'd easily manage under 45 minutes. Well, next time then!

The weather was weird as well, the wind was blowing hard and it always looked as if it would start to rain every second. At around 5 k into the race I started to slow down and no matter how hard I pushed myself to keep the pace, I failed. I lost my precious 55 seconds there I think...Well, fortunately I managed to get faster again at the 7 km marker!

I do wanna thank my supporter team here:). thanks for cheering and just being there guys, it helped me to stay focused;)! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Here are some pictures from the race, the expression on my face is pretty intense...!But then again, this was not a beauty contest but competition!

visitors and second week of training!

The training this week went down nicely and on Sunday I did go on a nice 20 km (turned out to be 23 km) run together with the Running Club and Jerry.

Jerry and I ran down to Brighton Pier to meet up with the group and we ran up to Rottingdean and had a look at the nice windmill that is up there! There it is:

'

To get there we ran along the Brighton Marina along the cliffs and you had a splendid view over the open sea. You had to be careful about the waves tough!;) After running back to the Pier again we had done around 18 k, so there were 2 left to go. Jerry and I decided to run back home to the house together and the run turned out to be 23 km long. I noticed that I do no longer have any difficulty with these distances. I do feel sorry for Jerry tough and I officially apologize that he has to participate in my running madness! And a big thank you for not letting me down and actually staying with me during the whole distance!

This is all I can think of right now. At the moment I am thinking about the race I entered which will take place in two days. It is a 10 k run along the Brighton seafront and I do hope to get a personal best out of it! I hope I can participate because I twisted my ankle this morning, only slightly but no wonder this happens to me!

I rest till Sunday and let myself be surprised by what the race brings!

Week 1 of 24

FINALLY

training has officially started and I kicked it off with a 21 km run. Yes I know it planned on doing 30...but no disappointment here because the schedule said: Monday: resting day. So, this is me again respecting the rule of resting. 

No, I do not believe in resting even tough I should. I try to convince myself to respect my 3 resting days per week. (But 3 days...come on!)

On Wednesday I did approximately 10 km with the Running Club and I took over the faster group which was fun because I could go on my full speed and talk with other non English people about Halloween crazyness in England, I mean...come on? What's up with all the fake blood anyways?

Yesterday (Thursday) I did some Interval training which consisted in 10 minutes running-in and then 5 x 800 meters in a time of 4:10 per km. Interval training is definitely not as easy as you think, you constantly need to force yourself to keep going at such a full speed. And even in btw the intervals you are not allowed to stop but just told to run slower.It is a good way of improving your stamina and your respiration, so I hope I'll manage to convince myself to do this every time it is on the schedule. 

So, this is it up until now. I feel good and happy that the first week is on!

I'm off to my Friday morning run:) (again, not on the schedule...I can't just NOT go)

long time, no post...

Hey...

I feel a bit guilty about first starting this blog but then neglecting it again..hmm it is probably because training doesn't start until the first of November...which will be Monday...!!

Looking forward to it...only 24 weeks to go:). I feel less anxious about it now than I did a few weeks ago, but I do have some things that bother me now. As my training will fall into the cold winter season, getting colds is something I have to live with I guess. I always try to wear nice warm clothes but last weekend I nevertheless got a cold and a slight fever. I had to give up running for a few days and I felt horrible. I know that running with a cold just makes things worse and I knew that if I'd go out and run, my fever would of course not go down. So I treated myself with chocolate and cookies over the weekend:). I was happy I could go running again on monday, so happy that I ran 25 km without any problems and my fever hasn't returned.

 I guess for someone who is reading this and is not running it is easy to see that if you are sick you should not just go out running. But I on the other hand get aggitated and nervous and I can't wait to go out there again. I really have to force myself to not go out there.

I usually get sick once every winter, so I hope that this now I am fine for this year because having to give up again and again on my long runs and training will drive me crazy, especially as the marathon will draw nearer...

Next Monday I try to go on a 30 km run...I've never been that far...I'll let you guys know how I managed:)!

Paule

anxieties, anxieties!...

Remember the DVD I told you about? The one following 6 individuals in their preparation for the big race. Well, it arrived this week!! I really felt like watching it straight away but somehow I felt that I could not watch it alone. Finally I decided to watch it together with a friend on Friday evening and in the end I was so glad that I choose not to watch it by myself.

I felt that the movie would be really emotional and dramatic and it managed to change my point of view on the marathon. Feeling secure and really prepared when I tought about my training schedule, the movie really blew me away.

Following these 6 individuals preparing for the big race and their different reasons for doing it made me clear why I choose to run this race. Watching their training and progression on different levels showed me that the preparation is can be different for each and every person but, in the end you'll always run the race alone.

The two professional runners approached the race in such a different way as they did it for a living. I understood how hard running as a job can be, at some point, you do get to your personal limit and you will never be able to get over it. Being a very good runner, but never being the best, always finishing second or third place must be hard to cope with...!I could never run with such pressure on my back.

Seeing the amateur runners I saw that no matter how hard you train, whether alone or in a group, you nevertheless hit the wall during the race. And while running it, you do it alone without anyone that is really able to help you. Seeing them struggle made me realize how hard it will be for me and how I really need to concentrate and talk myself into not giving up.

After the movie was finished I had these mixed feelings... seeing those succeed and cry tears of joy made me really want to go out there and run the marathon. But seeing them struggle during the race made me clearer than ever that this was about total mental control. I am not the person to talk myself into things and I do not see myself as a strong person, but for the last kilometers of the race, this will be exactly what I need to do.

I mean, I can run and I never had to force myself to go running but this will be more than just telling myself to put the trainers on and go out there.

It might be hard to understand for those of you who do not know what the marathon is all about, but being confronted with this documentary just made me anxious and I felt like screaming out loud.

I'll try to stay as focused as ever. No matter what happens, I' ll take my training serious because I know that after crossing the finish line I can achieve everything and really proof something to myself.

Another thing we looked at after the movie, was the course from the Brighton Marathon. Yeah, probably not the best idea...if you wanna have a look, here's the link: http://brightonmarathon.co.uk/course.html.

Yes! It's a looooong way to run...!

Hmm...I don't know whether anything I said makes any sense. I am tired but felt like writing this down as a way to share my anxiety but I feel that I'll not be able to really express it to anyone. Also I did go on a 17 km fast run through the English rain today and it felt like a relief as it was the first time after the movie that I actually went for a really long run...

Oh and a BIG thank you to Pol who watched the movie with me! Thank you so much for doing this and thank you for the support after I started getting really nervous afterwards...! It means a lot to me!

Running Club, the Jog Shop Jog and my new DVD!

Hey there!

Today I wrote down all my training sessions onto a piece of paper and pinned them to the wall, so now I face them everyday as soon as I get up. I hope it helps me to stay focused! I guess I need to keep in mind what I am doing it for. At the moment I do like to get up and go for the runs. Especially on Sundays I love my long runs but I guess as soon as it gets colder and darker, I'll get more and more tired of running and I'll need to remember every day why I am doing it for.

Another thing that might help is that my long runs are on the same day that our Running Club at Sussex does their long runs, so I won't be alone for most of my distance.Having other people around me, especially as the distances get longer will push me I hope. I'll probably start off alone and then join them, so that I have company on my last kilometers. (The longest distance I'll need to run is around 35 km...!). My longest distance is 26 at the moment, so there is a long way ahead of me. But training will start only at the 1st of November and at the moment I just train myself to run slower. I tend to run fast and I do get tired as I go. But, for the Marathon, speed is no longer what I am intrested in and I do need to change on what I focus my training. For halfs or 10 k's I was able to train on speed as I did not need to go as far. So, this is what I am basically doing until November, run slowly.

Something else I am quite happy about is that so many people were actually intrested in joining our Running Society! So many people came up to us at the stall and seemed to be really intrested in joining! Kate took a picture of our stall! There it is:

Yes, so, this helped me as I do want to share my enthusiasm with other runners!! Actually there was a woman telling me about some races around the area here in Sussex. And she told me about the Jog Shop Jog. The Shop is a running shop in Brighton and they do organise a race in the Sussex Downs. So, I did come home and googled it and found out that it seems to be pretty intense...

It is next Sunday, on the 11th of October and will be 20 miles long (which is approx.32km). This is a pretty long distance to go and the Downs are anything like a flat race track...I am constantly thinking about joining and just trying out whether I'll get through. But I guess I might leave it for another year and just wait at the Brighton Marina to cheer for those who cross the finish line. I am still to scared of the distance. I mean, i can run for about 26 km, but 32 would be 6 more to go...with all the ups and downs of the landscapes included.

If anyone is intrested here is the website: http://www.jogshop.co.uk/html/jogshopjog/index.htm And just to give you an idea why I feel not ready to join, here is the course elevation:

Yeah, exactly. It says "Death Valley".

Next year then...!

Finally, my package arrived today with the DVD I really want to see in preparing myself for the marathon! It follows 6 people on their way to the Chicago Marathon...I might tell you more about it once I watched and how I felt about it as I am a bit scared to watch it. Meanwhile here is the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8XSit8XyeM

Hear from you guys!

Paule

Why doing a marathon?

Not even two years ago I started running. I guess you couldn't call it running then, it looked more like a desperate chicken trying to do so. I started while I was in the gym and I it was no more then ten exhausting minutes on the threadmill. When my gym membership did run out, I decided to do something different to put my energy in. For weeks, I did not go further than two blocks from my house and was actually afraid to go any further.

That year I started university in England, so I had to leave my home and friends behind and start a new life in a diffrent country. At first, I was desperately homesick but as I went for some slow runs in the Sussex landscapes, I noticed that running helped me to stay focused and deal with all my frustrations. It became more than just a way to stay in shape.

I suddenly managed to run for half an hour and more without noticing  and it became an addiction.I decided to join a 10 k non competitive race in Brighton. Soon, this wasn't enough and decided to do the ING half-marathon in Luxembourg. I was afraid I would never manage to get trough the finish line but  I did! I even managed to be the 119st out of approximately 1500 women runners with a time of 1 hour 53 minutes. I was happy because my main goal had only been to cross the finish line. This was the motivation I needed and I joined other races, 10 k's and another half-marathon in Germany.

But, there still was this myth about the marathon. I did read some articles about marathons and was quite impressed and fascinated by the distance. When I found out about the first Brighton Marathon I decided to join. So now, there is no going back. I am afraid and really nervous when I think about running the actual race and facing the long training period. I don't know if I can cope with all the training and I do need to keep on going for half a year.

 Well, enough for now, might post more later today.

First of all, why start this blog?

Well, as you probably guessed I am going to participate in the first Brighton Marathon. It will be on the 18th of April 2010 which is not any time soon but in half a year.
But, why torture readers with a blog now? Well, as it is quite a long distance to run, I do need to start my training soon:s!!
As I talked to other people who already participated in marathons about training methods, they told me that to write down my training sessions, along with how long, how fast and where I did run would be most helpful. But, what would be most  important is that I should write down my feelings and sensations I had while training. Rereading the records helps understanding progress or stagnation and helps avoiding mistakes.


I choose to have a fixed training schedule in order to feel confident in my preparation and as a marathon is pretty serious I choose a long 24 weeks based program. (If anyone is intrested, this is the book http://www.amazon.de/Runners-World-Marathon-unter-Monaten/dp/3898993035/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254422440&sr=8-3)It is German but as it is a Runnersworld one, I guess it does exist in English as well! 



I hope you do enjoy my blog and how I feel about confronting  the training! If there is anyone out out there with hints and tricks for training, please let me know!

Paule