Naim NAC 272

I love my Naim nac272 but I always have the urge to try something else musically, so i’m Going to change to a 252  if I can afford it. A few pics of my 272.

Excuse the lint on the last one, just from the dry cloth used to wipe it.

Mavic Air. Don’t repeat my mistake 😂

So. I treated myself to a Mavic Air drone.

I now have one piece of advice for you....... DO NOT FLY IT OVER WATER AND AROU D TREES WHEN YOU DONT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING.

Yes, second day of flying trees, pond....Drone lost underwater in a few feet deep reeds. OHHHHH POOP.

bye bye expensive drone.

Doctor Who - TARDIS Tattoo

Soooo....

What did you get for Xmas. I got lots and lots of books, basically I added loads to my abebooks basket and OH got them for me.

The other treat was........ I got myself a tattoo. Don’t ask about the haircut, I had it seriously short for Xmas party.

So I had it done at Mannequins Loughborough it was done by Adam.This is their Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/mannequinstattoostudio/?fref=ts

So how did it feel having it done, well I cannot lie the first two hours were a breeze, after that it started getting a little ouchy, and I squirmed around a bit in the seat, but hey, it was worth it. I love it. ❤️

Whaddya think?

Part way though.

Getting there....

Just after.

A couple of days later

Plodding along

well.. How is my running going...

The answer is badly. I plodded around London Marathon, and Milton Keynes 8 days later.

I've torn the cartilage in my left knee and just plod along with it so everything is very, very slow but I keep on plodding. I need to get a lot more long runs in. But, hey that's life.

Running so far in 2016

So how has 2016 gone so far.

Well bearing in mind the adage that you should never compare yourself to other runners, as the only person I'm running for or against is myself, I am pretty happy so far.

January 127 Miles
February 138.5 Miles

That's not a bad start to the year.  It's all very flat and very, very slow mileage running to a low heart rate as per MAF base training but it's going ok.

I might not be fast but at least at least speed i can keep running through little niggles and annoyances.

Still looking forward to April / May with:-

London Marathon
Milton Keynes Marathon
Hardcastle 24

All three events are within a two week window!! EEEEEEK.

I'm doing this to raise money for Guide Dogs, to hopefully help out a lot of people.

Guide Dogs Charity Link

Milton Keynes Marathon 2016

Well how is my training going I hear you ask :)

Ok, I don't really hear anything..... The voices aren't really there saying run more!!

So it's however many weeks until the early May bank holiday. My last long training run 8 days before the marathon is The London Marathon :)

How has my training been this year? Well... I had a cold so didn't run over the new year started on about the 4th of Jan, and for the first three weeks this year I managed just over 50km each week. I've done a bit more now and am over 169km for the month. I'm hoping to get over 192km for the month, which is 120 miles. That is actually more than any month in 2015 thanks to my crappy knee. Which whilst it still isn't perfect it's good enough. I need to rest it for a day after long runs, but can do 2 or 3 5 or so miles days in a row without needing to rest it.

My mediate cruciate ligament is what I think is buggered, spent a lot of physio to no avail last year, have an appointment at the Doctors soon, to see if he can refer me to someone else,to take a look at it.

So hopefully a good year of plodding ahead.

Ultra Races in 2016

So far my inglorious ultra running has included 13 hours of a 24hour race, 3 runs over 50m but nothing longer than 92km.

So I now have signed up for 4 ultra races in 2016.

Hardmoors 55 - March 16th
Hardcastle 24hours - May (my second time at this event)
Lakeland100 (105m) - July
Ladybower50 - September (my third time at this event)

I'm currently trying to do my training at low heart rates and will keep this up u till the new year, and then I'll decide if I am going to change up to some different sort of plan. I know I have to start putting some hill training in somewhere. I might combine this with my long weekend runs.

So no idea how it will go, but I'll try my best.

I'm thinking of trying to stick a marathon in each month that I don't have an ultra as just a long training run.

Running.

Well, this year has been bloody hard work not to put to fine a point on it.

Screwing up my knee ligament MCL in January meant the whole year has been a struggle. I would have probably been better off asking 20-12 weeks off completely and then starting again, instead of my ad hoc training which ended up just hurting the knee more I guess.

I've ran around 650 miles this year as a result of my on, off training. I know we still have a couple of months to go, but last year I did 1255 miles in the year.

Oh, I have somehow managed to plod to the end of Leicester marathon last Sunday, very slow, over 5 hours, but hey I got there. I've only done two 10 mile or longer runs in the last four months. But, now I've survived the marathon it's time to get my arse back into gear.

So now it's going to be quite low mileage but keeping healthy and being able to put in consistent miles week in, week out.

What is next.... Well amazingly I won a place as an ambassador to the Milton Keynes marathon. So I have an insane three weeks at the end of April.

My last long training run for MK will be the London Marathon, then MK Marsthon and then 4 days later, Hardcastle 24, where I really want to just keep walking/running for the whole 24 hours, it's a bitch of a 5km looped course :)

So I'll be posting at least a monthly update on my training for MK and these other events.

I'm putting in this insane effort, to try to raise money for Guide Dogs. Because they have always struck me as suck a sensible helping charity, that are trying to make life easier for lots of people.

https://www.justgiving.com/stephaniegelder/

Good luck with your own training and don't hesitate to shout if you have any questions about Milton Keynes.

I'm on Twitter as @booktrunk and on Facebook

Steph

Running injuries

so how well or badly do you cope with running injuries.

I quite often have little niggles, but plod on with them. But, this year has been pretty much a running disaster.

I picked up a knee injury a whole 2 miles into the Spine Challenger in January, and limped another 10 miles and that was that, I managed to plod out a short ultra in May Hardcadtle 24, but my knee wasn't great, and since then it's got worse, I've even resorted to a physio, that was good, but also broke my only good knee when he went to see how flexible I am :) oops!'

Anyway, at the end of July I took a big decision, and I'm not running at all in August, I already feel fat, bloated, and lazy :) like taper madness but worse :) I did purchase a turbo trainer, and I'm using that 3 or 4 times a week between 30 and 70 minutes at a time. Trying not to use it any more because the knee doesn't hurt doing it, but don't want to overdo it.

I have no idea how my knee will be it's certainly a lot happier, can walk or even run up a coup,e of flights of stairs pain free, but walking up and down them all day at work and it still begins to slightly ache at the end of the day, so I might actually need to take longer off, which is a really scary idea.

Have all sorts of thoughts going through my head, including getting a treadmill as that should be gentler on the knees and do some training on that when back, but I don't really know what I'm going to do. I need a plan so that I can come back sensibly.

I was hoping to run 1500 miles this year, and due to this damn knee I've barely managed 500 miles so far. Oh well,ci guess I need to be patient and see how it goes.

Still not even 100% sure what it is, MCL tear, or Pes anserinus tendonitis. I think it started as a tear, and now just constantly irritated.

So nothing exciting to report. 

I have a nice shiny new pair of trainers, Asics Gel Nimbus to slip into when I start back, and I also have a real urge to buy a pair of Inov-8 Ultra 290s 

Hardcastle 24

http://www.hardcastle24.co.uk/

WOW!

I entered this a few months ago as it sounded fun, I didn't really know what to expect, but for my £70 I got free camping from Friday afternoon if I wanted it (for myself, my OH, and our dog) until we finished on Sunday, a barbecue on the Friday evening and of course my entrance to the 24 hour race.

It was my first 24 hour race, and will not be my last. In fact I've already decided I have to go back next year to do more laps.

I was a bit lazy when it came to course prep, and did zero prep on what the 5km (ish) lap involved, I just knew it was not flat and so a bit more fun than running around a dull flat loop.... Well it certainly wasn't dull. It had a couple of very easy runnable sections, and a couple of hills that were fun, ok, one of them was a complete and utter bitch! I need to go back there to take some pics of the course. (Facebook Group for the race) Anyway (after a crap few months with barely any training due to an annoying knee) I managed to plod around 12 laps before my left calf just became a lump and didn't want to know about hills anymore.

I have to say it was one of the most pleasurable runs I've ever done. The organisers were really friendly, and everyone was so cheerful, also, the fact there were teams competing as well as individuals meant there was always someone hanging around at the start of each lap to say hi to as you plodded around. I just had such a great time and loved it.

Timing was via a chip, so no having to mess around marking how many laps you had done. Oh, I forgot,  in the evening they had a barbecue, and so had hot burgers, n bits of chicken breast for you to grab at the end of your lap. The food on offer was all tasty and in plentiful supply, nearly all of us had our own box full of bits we could nibble on at the end of our laps.

I struggle to review races, I went, I ran, and that's it, but seriously it just felt so friendly and relaxed, I loved it. I am so looking forward to going back next year to do a few more laps.

Running - what do you wear?

It's funny because I was thinking I don't really care what I wear when running, but then I had a think and realised I was telling myself a lie. I do have favourites and they change over time, and I guess depending on my mood and sometimes I think on how confident I am feeling.

OK easy ones first. 

Running Bra:   Shock Absorber Ultimate Run Bra. Job done :-)

Trainers:           Road/Light Trail - ASICS Gel-Nimbus. 

                         Gnarlier Trail - Salamon speedcross3 and Salomon hiking boots / shoes.

Socks:              Short Runs - karrimor dirt cheap socks.

                         Long Runs - injinji 5 toe liner socks with merino wool socks over top.

Tops:                Inov8 short and long sleeved tops.

Shorts:             Salomon Skorts or Ronhill Cargo Shorts.

Leggings:        OMM Leggings or Asics plain leggings.

Waterproofs:   Paramo, OMM, Haglofs.
Watch:             Garmin Fenix 3. (I'm a geek, I work in IT and love gadgets).

Packs:             OMM 6l waist bag, Salomon 12l s-lab, Nathan Vaporcloud 11l, Raidlight 20l, OMM 32l

Yes I have lots of other stuff lying around including Ronhill tops that I liked, until I found the inov8 ones were just a more comfortable cut, and some technical shirts from races, they are quite fun to wear in training as they bring back good memories.

So as of May 2015 this is my list of my favourite running gear. Do you have any special favourites?

Winter 100 - 2014

well......

The centurion Winter 100. My first crack at 100 miles, wih the best training.... Ok hang on back up a bit... I have actually had a really shite cold including a few days fever that I've mentioned in my last blog post.

So ok, I felt like crap, and decided to just plod along and see how it went. I'd spent my money on the entrance fee so decided to give it a go.

So at 10 am I started off with everyone else plodding along near the back, and. Well.... I survived a whole 20km (around 12.5m) before dropping out at the first checkpoint. Three hours to stagger that far, coughing up loads of phlegm, I just had no energy and couldn't have gone much further. Whilst I sat down waiting for my OH to pick me up I started shivering uncontrollably and it took me half an hour to be able to relax.

So all in all, an incredibly piss poor first attempt at 100 miles, I would say I've learnt lots of lessons, but in reality, i've learnt just the one thing. When stuffed with a chest cold don't be bloody stupid and try to run 100 miles. I could have. Maybe plodded out a marathon, but frankly I was stupid and would have been better off curled up in bed for the day.

Centurion themselves were fantastic, and I look forward to going back to another of their events in the next year or so.

Colds suck

I hate having a cold, it's been dragging on for over 20 days, so no running and I'm going to be running my first 100m race, with 0 runs in the last two weeks.

At least I was going well up to then, a marathon the last Sunday in September, and a ultra 51m the Sunday before.

I need to not think about speed, that's irrelevant if I get timed out so be it, I just need to keep on plodding. Well I'll be back on here next week to say how it went. What worked and what didn't.

Trainers

Whilst I am actually in the right mood and doing some posts, I have been asked what trainers I wear.
It's not a very exciting question.

For roads and dry summery trails I wear  Asics Gel-Nimbus 16
For long trail and road in good conditions I sometimes wear Hoka Stinson Trail
For muddy and rough off road conditions I wear Salomon Speedcross 3

Out of the three trainers that I wear the least convincing of them are the Hoka's some swear blind by them for distance runs, but personally I struggle with them and seem to get a lot of rubbing around my big toe when wearing them. So I'm thinking of still taking them in my drop bag for my first attempt at a 100 mile race, but ensuring I have a lot of tape on my big toes before I wear them.

The Nimbus are a bit heavy and big, but they just do the job, they work, I can plod along happily in them and don't seem to pick up many injuries what more do you want :-)

The Speedcross 3 are great for tougher off road conditions and in mud. Not cheap but good.

Those that are after a cheap pair of trail shoes to chew up mud look at More Mile - Cheviot 2 these are way cheaper, and are great in mud, but personally I find them a bit uncomfy when running on a flat road, but they are so cheap they are worth a punt on as your first pair of trail shoes if you need a pair.

Well that's about it for trainers, yeah I'm crap at giving detailed explanations so I'll never get any freebies :-)

EDIT: So as I'm unlikely to buy another pair of Hokas when they fall apart if I buy another pair of padded Ultra trail what would I go for? The answer is I am not sure the three main contenders at the moment are:- Inov8 290 , New Balance Leadville 1210 , Skechers GoRun Ultra with I think the inov8 being the favourite at the moment, but this is only based on other reviews and what I've read not tried any of the 3.

Montane Ultra events in 2015

Montane Ultra Events

Ok, so my plans for 2015 revolve around two events.

In January I am running The Spine Ultra
In July I am running Lakeland 100

I didn't really spot until today that these are the two big UK events in the Montane UK Ultra events list. The other events are the 5 Trail 26 races, that take place throughout the year, so I'm tempted to sign up for them to just get the full house of the Montane events.Although it's not really the full house if I do complete them, because I'm doing the 'baby' Spine Challenger not the full Pennine Way.

Neutral shoes

Well in my last post around 8 weeks ago I said that I had gait analysis for the first time, and amazingly it came out saying I'm neutral, so I switched to Neutral shoes, I tried Brooks expensive neutral shoes but jus didn't get on with them a bit tight across the top of the foot.

So I went back to my old faithful brand Asics, so I went for Nimbus 26, and no aches and pains so far in my legs so it seems to have worked going neutral, amazingly I've got over 250 miles on the new shoes already. Including Ladybower 50 and Loch Ness Marathon the week after.

So good to go at the moment.

Gait Analysis

Haha so been running nearly 2.5 years,and have been getting trainers for over pronation, and getting ones for more pronation each time. 

So first times had my gait analysed today.... The results.

Perfectly neutral on left foot, and very, very small over pronation not worth worrying about on the right foot. So the recommendation, neutral shoes, ooops, when compared to what I've been doing. 

The Spine Challenger 2015 - Starting to feel it....

I should be asleep, instead I'm buzzing and all excited after re-reading another article about The Spine Challenger.  It's 2 A.M. on the 15th of August, and I am wide awake and buzzing with excitement about something that will not be happening until the 10th of January next year.

This article on last years Spine mentioned a top 10 list of runners to look out for in the build up to the 2014 race. I'm thinking this year with 200 of us starting out, with 125 doing the full spine and 75 of us doing the challenger, that if there was a bookie taking odds I'd be in the 'top 10 most likely to be the first DNF'. I can assure everyone that I'm out to prove these fictional bookies wrong

I have a desk job, my scary moments come when I have to press a button and hope that nothing goes bang my scariest decisions are down to choices where I don't want to cost my company money. Frankly some of these are quite fun adrenaline filled minutes, but, doing The Spine Challenger is just so different to my normal life, that's what makes it so special, and exciting.

I am going to be out of my comfort zone from the start to the finish, reading about how Nick Mead felt when faced with having to slog up pen-y-ghent in the dark when exhausted (I'm also probably going to take 12 hours longer to get there). It's scary but also liberating, it's almost the inner cave woman wanting to come out and roar. To scream back against all our modern comforts that I really love

I'm honestly sh****g myself about this race! but in a good way! that will help me to hopefully prepare correctly.

There are all sorts of reasons not to challenge yourself, not to take yourself out of your comfort zone. But, when you do it's bloody awesome knowing what you can do.

I was talking this month to someone who doesn't see me often and he still remembers large me, and he wasn't sure if I was me, or someone else, (that makes sense to me), anyway... Back to my ramble....

Why am I doing The Spine? Because it's there and I want to do something that when I'm a boring old fart I can look back on and say I gave that my best shot, irrespective of how it turns out. Completely and utterly selfish reasons

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/the-running-blog/2014/feb/25/spine-race-ultra-dnf-did-not-finish-how-cope#start-of-comments

Ultra Running

I guess I have sort of developed into the beginnings of a very slow ultra runner.

Yes I've only done one, but hey one 50 mile run is more than quite a lot of people.

I'm now 30 days away from my second Ultra.  The Wall, a 69 mile jaunt with a few yards going along the side of Hardians Wall.

I've somehow, ok I now how!! Signed up for The Ridgeway Challenge 86 miles in August, Ladybower 50 mile, and Loch Ness marathon in September, The Winter100 in October, my first 100 miler, i'm crapping myself with nerves already.

Then in January my biggest challenge to date, and possibly my biggest challenge ever.  The Spine Challenger even the first 108 miles of the Pennine Way in January... It's going to be a little bit of a challenge.

Training, well i always feel that i've never done enough.  In 2012 I lost 6 stone, and started running for the first time since school.  Now i've run a total of around 1850/1900 miles.  I've done 580 or so miles so far this year.

I'm not very quick and seem to be getting slower that's because i'm upping my total milage so I hope that after a few months of this a bit of speed, not a lot but a little bit will creep back in when i'm more used to running the distance.

Well we shall see.

Hello 2014

Well I got a little carried away with this running lark.
I completed 1 marathon in 2012, 2 marathons and 1 50 mile ultra in 2013.
For 2014 so far I have signed up for 3 marathons ( Milton Keynes, Loch Ness and Snowdonia) and 3 Ultra marathons (The Wall 69 Miles, The Ridgeway Challenge 86 Miles, and LadyBower 50 Miles).

I've also had a fun Xmas holiday reading 7 Agatha Christie Poirot novels.

So reading, and running are pretty much my plans up to the end of October. What are you up to?

Steph x