How Lazy?

I can't believe that neither myself nor Dave have managed to Blog for a whole 20 days!!! How lazy is that? Sorry faithful reader.
What have we done then? Um.... Dave and I had a brilliant 11 miler that we were really pleased about a couple of weeks ago. Had a few problems with the water/gel situation on that one as the run took us about 2 hours and we def didn't have enough fluid with us on such a hot day. As a result of moaning about that to my Sis (Samantha) she bought me a lovely bright yellow camelbak for my birthday (25th Sep for all those that missed it) The camelbak holds 1.5 litres and seems to be perfect for Dave and I for any run over 2 hours. We had a good run on Sunday there and didn't even finish it, I think there was still about 500ml left in it. Emma and I had a Thursday morning run and tested it too, getting the feel of the straps right. It felt wierd and sloshed a bit once you'd drunk some water out of it, but it's a brilliantly simple peice of work and I'm well chuffed with it. Any bit of gadget will do for me!!! I had a run with the Wed group, and ended up with a slow 4 miler and spurring on an unwilling reasonably new person. It was ok though, was happy just to do the miles. Was fecking slow though lol!!

Um.. Dave's been to Italy. She even managed a run there through the Italian mountains but we won't talk about that because I'm too jealous. Have a look at her FB photos. Try not to be jealous!!

It's only 4 (and a bit) days until the Great North Run, we've decided to drive there, don't know if it'll be a great drive back. Bit scared actually. Thank God for Garmin, for driving, for running = fab!!
So I think we're probably about as ready as we're going to be, no point worrying about it now. Whatever happens now is whatever happens. We're going to have a great day no matter what!!!

Going now, laters xx Roddersxx

Bugger!!!

I just wrote a lovely long blog entry about how Dave and I did 8 x 600 m reps last night on the Fallowfield loop. Then I lost the whole bloody lot, I'm not doing it again.

We had a good run. Dave can write more!!

Rodders x

Great Yorkshire Hell!!

We've enlisted the help of poor old Steve to drive us to Sheffield because I can't be arsed driving there. He woke me at an ungodly hour (6.30am) with porridge and coffee bless him. We're supposed to pick Dave up at 7.15 but as usual I'm running (haha) late. We pick her up at about 25 past which isn't too bad considering how late I can sometimes be!!

Steve's got the sat-nav on to get us there, shame they have to speak. How irritating are they? Ok skip on a bit, we get to the Hallam Arena and park fine, then realise we have to get some shabby tram to the city centre, and unfortunately now Dave and I need a wee (badly - as we've been 'hydrating' all the way there lol) Of course when we finally do get there, the queues for the loos are massive and we end up doing a bit of the warm-up (half-heartedly) while we're waiting - it isn't a good idea to jiggle so much while waiting to wee!!!

So skipping on again. We're at the start. The weather is great, the atmosphere - not so great, bit boring really. Bearing in mind it's quite a small run compared to Manchester though. Anyhow, we start at 9.50am with the realisation that the start is downhill. Hmmmm....

The first 3km takes just over 19 minutes, it felt ok, my legs always feel stiff and tight - especially the right as everyone and thier dog knows by now. The 5km mark is over in 33 Mins (which i'm quite happy about) and the 5 mile mark comes at 54.19 I'm ok with that. In total it takes 1 hour, 7 minutes and 51 seconds!!! The last 400m were 400m's that I'll never ever be able to forget lol, it was like Salford all over again only much worse. After doing the 6 mile part, it was torture to have to do that, what made it worse was the really bad Robbie Williams impersonator that I could still hear when I was half-way up the fecker!!! Didn't help at all!!! Dave and I passed the finish line with just 6 seconds separating us. I know Dave felt she didn't have the best run, I'm sure she'll blog all about it - only she can tell you about her race experience. Personally I felt I did ok, as I said, the last 400m were a killer, and I really felt dizzy after doing the final burst, but felt fine after having my head between my knees lol.

So advice to self - do more hill training. A LOT more.

So that's really about it, nowt much to write home about. After a quick purchase from Nike, we wait in line to get the shabby tram back to the arena - back to the car cafe!! Hurrah for flasks of tea. Dave kindly brought some really lovely cookies and the 3 of us stood around making everyone who didn't have tea and cookies jealous.

Was absolutely knackered on the way home, and I know I didn't mention the dead sheep before, but we never saw it on the way back. Maybe it wasn't dead after all.

um......that's about it really. Hopefully Dave's recollection of experiences is better than mine. I'm sure she'll be a lot more interesting!!!!!

Rodders x