The Running Renaissance

My running renaissance... term stolen from Abradypus because I loved it so much... has been mildly successful. I say mildly because I have been running - yay! However, only on Monday - boo!

I am being sensible (of course) that's why there has not been so much running in the running renaissance (honestly); however you'll be pleased to know that what running there has been has gone quite well... much better than expected actually... in fact, I might  even be bold and go so far as to say it was quite magnificent! OK... too far with the adjective 'magnificent' but it was certainly slightly successful and very enjoyable!

Thankfully, I wasn't the only one to be returning from injury on Monday - although I was the only one who hadn't run in a VERY long time - and so with others recovering from races on the Sunday and / or preparing for marathons in the near future, we set off on an 'easy' run. I have to say ' ' around the easy because it is an inaccurate use of the term, to say the least. But... and a big BUT here...  it wasn't half so bad as I thought it would be; yes, my fitness levels are much lower than they previously were, BUT they're not zero like I'd anticipated. And I managed to run 4.5 miles. And I managed to push the pace faster than I'd run the rest of the route in the last mile. And I felt like I'd finally recovered from all the little niggles I'd picked up in my marathon training. So, to surmise, I think it's fair to say that the Magathon's Running Renaissance is now fully switched to go and so long as I don't stay in work until 7.15pm again next week, I'll manage to run on at least Monday AND Thursday as well.

In other news...

I had a fantastic time on Wednesday night at a cupcake course in Manchester. Run by 'Hey Little Cupcake', in Spinningfields, I was booked onto a cupcake decorating class- bought for me by my lovely friends for my birthday - but ended up on their first ever jam and baking class instead due to a mix-up with booking. The class was fab! It involved a cupcake baking demonstration, followed by a tutorial on how to make jam. Then, we had a go at making mini-scones, followed by learning how to decorate 6 of the freshly baked cupcakes made in the demonstration at the start of the night. With only 6 people to a class as well, it felt really friendly and personal; if you live in Manchester, and you like baking, I would seriously recommend it. Of course, the only downside to this class was that I returned home with a pile of freshly baked, yummy scones, cupcakes and a jar of jam! Best get that running renaissance into the next gear!

Look at my pretty cupcake - should I admit
that was my 4th attempt at a rose?!
The first 3 were rather less rose-like!

And Finally, I can't write about this week, without saying a big WELL DONE and CONGRATULATIONS to my mum, who completed the Shine walk, in London, last night. Mum, and her friend, successfully completed the whole 26.2 miles of the marathon walk through the night; and in doing so she now has a whole new respect for the idea of running it, and will from this day forward have complete empathy with the inability to walk downstairs for 3 days! Well done, Mum!

So, this week's challenge is to make it to running club on Monday AND Thursday. If this goes well, I might even stick another cheeky day in there as well... Leeds Abbey Dash, watch out... here I come!

Hello Strangers!

Hello strangers!

I'm back... back like a thing that's come back!

Well, almost...

I've still only been running once in the past 9 weeks and that was really a run / walk if truth be told; but it felt OK and I thought it might be time to get back into things again. However, I also started a new job three weeks ago which has caused spare time and any excessive energy to take a holiday for a while so despite all good intentions, 12 hours plus in work and an ongoing battle?... stand-off?... cold war maybe?... with teenagers, who currently despise the new 'prison officer' on the block, has meant that those pre-mentioned good intentions are falling asleep before I do... and that is early!

I have not given up though... no, in fact I have a new plan which involves a short 1-2 mile run tomorrow, followed by a swift kick up the backside into running club on Monday night.

And despite the lack of running, all has been good; although difficult, the new job is fantastic: challenging, different and thoroughly enjoyable. Even better, less than four weeks ago, I was in holidaying in the big NYC where we experienced an earthquake AND a hurricane... both of which were disappointingly uneventful; particularly if one was to compare the News coverage with the actual experiences! I do LOVE American news, they really know how to hype a situation! Of course, from a tourist perspective the hurricane was brilliant (or tropical storm as it was downgraded to by the time it did hit the city)... just take a look at our photo of Times Square; I can pretty much guarantee that you've only got a picture like that if you were in New York City on the weekend of 29th August 2011!

Times Square, NYC and Hurricane Irene!

At the Rocky statue,
Philadelphia

To look at things from a fitness perspective, the bonus of the hurricane was the consequential closure of the whole New York transit system which meant we had no choice but to walk EVERYWHERE, which turns out to be further than you first think and causes bruised heels... seriously - big black bruises on my heels for at least a week afterwards... lesson learned: Don't walk 4-5 miles in flimsy, cheap-skate ballet pumps by George!  As an added extra on our hols, whilst over the waters, we also hired a car and took in the sights of Washington and Philadelphia... running (well, as close to it as I could manage at the time) the 'Rocky' Steps, Sylvester Stallone stylee!

Seriously one of the best holidays I have ever had!

A MASSIVE Reuben!!

Of course, in addition to all the walking, there was also A LOT of eating and, since returning to England, I seemed to have taken on board the American sized portions... and free breakfast at work on a Friday doesn't help when I'm incapable of avoiding the bacon sandwiches!... so getting back into running is definitely in order. 

Hopefully, if all goes to plan, I'll be running in the Leeds Abbey Dash on November 22nd; I'm also hoping that the time off running has ensured that Marathon recovery is now fully behind me, so I can simply concentrate on bringing my fitness back up to speed and my speed back up to PB level!

Fingers crossed anyway... I'll let you know how it goes!

Fame again... kinda!

Mik has described me as a 'Media Whore' - his words entirely (obviously!), not mine - I think he's probably right, but I'll let you decide...

I bobbed into Manchester City Centre, at about lunchtime today, with the intention of returning some leggings from Primarni that were sadly lacking in adequate waist-band elastication (new word) so that I was unable to get them any further up my legs than my knees, unfortunately I have a terrible habit of telling complete strangers far too much information so that when the nice man at the desk asked me why I wanted to return them, I told him this; I also told him that I didn't think I was so obese (yet) that it was my chunky, chubster legs that were the problem, but rather there was a fault with the leggings. 'So, to put it simply' he suggested, 'it's not you, it's them?'.
'Precisely'.
After a quick reunion at the till next door with two former students - how bizarre! - I tootled off down Market Street to continue my shopping. Sidetracked by Zara - all too easily done - I nipped in for a quick browse, just in case, only to reappear on the main shopping concourse to now find it full of people clutching 'I Love MCR' Posters.

For those of you not 'in the know', these posters have absolutely nothing to do with My Chemical Romance (Gosh, how trendy am I to make that connection!) but rather MCR is short for Manchester. Following the riots, there's been a whole campaign of civic pride throughout the city from this wall:

to what I walked into this afternoon; apparently a big, warm, Manc show of love for our great northern city. To cut to the short of it, it turns out that the politicians were (naturally) a little disappointed with the recent marketing images of Manchester and wanted to 'set the record straight' so they'd organised a little get together of people and posters which looked something like this:

So, naturally, I took a few pictures and listened to what was being said and was about to toddle on my way when 'It Must be Love' by 'Madness' began blaring out the speakers.
'Come on Manchester...' Councillor Pat Karney (a little concerned I actually did recognise that 'local celebrity'!) shouted to the crowd 'Let's dance to Madness in Market Street...'.
Thinking how lovely and strange that was all at the same time, I turned to go when I made the mistake of catching the eye of the teeny tiny little lady stood next to me (honestly, she was really tiny... you'll see in a minute, there is no hyperbole here!) who promptly grasped hold of me and began dancing.
Well, what was I to do... her little smiley face beamed up at me, she was loving it. Could I let this lady down? No, I couldn't. So really there was nothing I could do when the TV camera came up and started shooting us; and equally, I couldn't ignore the question put to me by the nice lady, who accompanied the camera man with her over-sized fluffy microphone, and so as it turns out, I inadvertently became a part of the crowd of happy, proud, prancing people and have been imortalised in Granada TV's VT history as a consequence.

So, 'media whore' - Mik's words - or simply a willing participant of circumstance? You decide...

Click here for Maggie's Grand Granada TV moment!! (For those of you that don't know me by sight... I'm the one dancing with the teeny tiny lady, and then the second one vox-popping (can you verb that noun? hmmm... you can now!) with lazy sunday make-up and I'm going on holiday tomorrow - so all my best items are in the wash - clothing... best to get the excuses in, especially when I'm currently incapable of wearing leggings because I can't get them any higher than my knees!)

The REAL Manchester

If you have been watching the television for the last few nights, you may be mistaken in thinking that Britain has gone mad. That we've descended into riots, looting and anarchy and there are no decent people left. But that's not true.

Miss Selfridge on Market Street

Watching idiots (that's the politest term I could find for them) caught on camera ransacking my home city last night was heartbreaking; it also made me exceptionally angry. What gives them the right? I know many felt the same way.

The Manchester 'Wombles' gathered at 9am

Today, those many were out in force in Manchester city centre and it was a scene to behold. One young girl (only 15yrs herself) commented that it's something like this that shows the very worst and the very best in people; and she was right. Last night, the very worst people were out in Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool, today I saw the very best of Manchester gather in Picadilly Gardens; people who voluntarily turned up because they were available to do so and they wanted to clean up their city. Thanks to the work of the Manchester City Council night team, the city already looked much improved from the 'bomb site' we'd all seen on TV last night and so, after just an hour, we were heading back to base to find out what else we could do to help. by 10am there were 500 people helping with the clean up and the organisers reckon that all in all around 1,000 people turned out to clean, support and brew tea!

If you're looking for good news in the midst of everything that's happened over the last few days, that's it right there: The spirit of the people.

I can't run at the moment (my back's still out) but I felt very satisfied with today's exercise - conducted with broom and bag in hand! - More than anything, I was glad I could give something back to my community and stand up there with the good guys. As for what will happen tonight? Well, the city council have invited us back tomorrow in case of further trouble but it's raining outside so finger's crossed it'll be all quiet on the western northern front!

Ed Miliband even stopped by to say hello!

My words (of wisdom?!) in Running Fitness!!!!

Excitement... excitement... excitement...


My 'Guru Maggie' words have made it to the September issue of Running Fitness Magazine!! Woop Woop... My name in print... 15 minutes and all of that!

To take you back to the beginning of the story, a couple of months ago Midgie Thompson, mental performance coach and writer, interviewed me for an article she was writing for Running Fitness Magazine; she was writing a piece on the power of positive thinking and when asked to try and include a little more on the experiences of the 'ordinary runner', she very strangely thought of me. The reason for this isn't completely random, but instead links back to Janathon when I was running and blogging everyday in the name of a mental breakdown running competition whilst also being in the early throws of my marathon training. What I discovered is neither rocket science, nor new, but for me made such a difference, particularly to my early training, that I coined a new phase and called it Positive Running Belief, or PRB for short.


PRB got me up a set of 8 hill repeats; to those of you that regularly run up 8 hills and then add on another 8 for fun, this won't sound like much, but for me this was massive. I had never, ever, ever managed 8 in the regular session that we do at running club, and to add to the difficulty, I was half way through a month of running every single day - something else I had never, ever, ever done before (or since, as Juneathon was a massive month of made up exercises used as excuses on my part) and it was bloody knackering! I won't repeat how it all happened as Midgie has talked about my 'epiphany' in her article, and I also wrote about it once before HERE. 

 It's actually Maggie of  'The Magathon Blog', but I'll let them off! :-)

In the end, it was PRB that got me through my marathon training; shifting my thoughts from I can't to I can. Sometimes this shift in attitude would happen before I left the house like when I planned to run 16 miles for the first time HERE; sometimes it would happen whilst running; and sometimes it would be instigated by a well-timed, magnificent piece of music blaring through the headphones of my I-pod which would cause me to run like an idiot and achieve PRB LEVEL 2 as happened HERE.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a completely changed woman and I still often lack confidence and feel as though I can't do things; but from my marathon training, I've become more aware of the thought processes I go through and the way I approach things. Recovering from the marathon has perhaps been even harder than training for it as I've been slow and sluggish, achieving far slower times than a comparable level of exertion would get me pre-marathon training. Also, I've been a little unlucky with injuries (I'm suffering from torn muscles in my lower back at the moment - and for a change, not achieved through running!). Not being able to run is incredibly frustrating however I am applying some of what I've learnt from my PRB epiphany to this and I am finding alternative ways to exercise and keep moving; consequently, the Kinnect Dance game is getting a lot of attention at the moment, and I have a dog that hides under the sofa when she sees the lead... again!


I learnt how to apply PRB from my own experiences in running, but also from those of others. It was reading everyone's blogs in Janathon, that helped me realise that there is so much we can achieve, if we put our minds to it and we're passionate about it. If you want a little bit of PRB inspiration yourself, check out these people who are all currently completing amazing challenges for charity:


- @RunGeordieRun, otherwise known as Mark Allison. In order to raise funds for St Benedict's Hospice and The Children's Foundation, he has run from California to New York in 100 days! As I write he's on his last 30 miles!


- @Runningthetube, aka Stephen Wright who is running 400 miles across London to 'get people talking about stillbirth and pre-birth trauma'.


- @100maras100weeks, Simon Buckdon, an Ex-Soldier with PTSD who is running 100 marathons in 100 weeks (a marathon a week over 2 years!) in order to raise funds for Help For Heroes as well as awareness of PTSD.


- @running_dan_w, Dan Wymer, who is now half way through his 800k, in 12 months, running challenge in aid of Maggie's Centres. 


...and they're all on Twitter, so why not go and find them and pass on some positivity their way!

Running Manifesto?... Go on then!

Where bandwagons are concerned, I'm like a Lemming off a cliff, so here is my Running Manifesto to join the ranks of K, Lazy girl Running, Nosomuchofarunner, Fortnightflo after the idea was initiated by Run Dem Crew.

Running is… an addiction

Running is not… just exercise

I run… because I'm incapable of controlling what I eat!

I run for… enjoyment

I run because… I love it so much

I run when… I feel like it

I run with… Oldham and Royton Harriers and on my own

I have always run… wearing a bra!

I run in spite of… being incredibly slow and an appalling runner!

I don’t run… when I'm injured (like now)

I should run… another marathon - but I won't

I might run… Until I die!

I will run… Until it's physically impossible

Why not jump on board the ever-growing bandwagon... it's fun... What's your running  manifesto?

Happy Birthday...

To me!!!!

Yes, I'm not shy to tell you, it's my birthday today!

Original plans had been to go for a birthday run this morning, however the 'old' back is still playing up, so I went shopping instead!! Oh well, how awful!

And this afternoon I'll just have to go to the pub I suppose! Dammit, life is tough!

Ah well,  it will give me time to recover from the £25.50 tariff I had to pay for the car park in Manchester because I lost my ticket... £25.50... seriously?! Thankfully, I'm taking painkillers for my back, otherwise that would have hurt!!

Oh well, only way forward is to get drunk and forget about it!

Thanks to all of you who have wished me happy birthday on Facebook and Twitter... I am having a lovely day and I intend for it to get even more lovely! Happy Tuesday everyone... and happy birthday to me!!! :-)