I am sticking to shock hair colours at the moment and didn't want to make swimming pools funny coloured so I went and bought myself an egg head! Also bought a short sleeved running top and slightly shorter running pants because the weather seemed to be getting warmer. It did not. It's freezing again.
So I am fully back on track with running. Yesterday I finally did a LONG run as well after a long break from those. I decided to test drive these Marathon socks and either it was the magic of the socks or I am just a natural long distance runner but I ran 24Km with no problems what so ever! That is 3Km more than half a Marathon and only took me 2 hours and 15 minutes. I'm fucking proud of myself.
Because of all this positive feeling I decided to run for a charity after all. I've been hesitant earlier because all the charities available seemed to be about us humans. I am sure that they are all good charities but I do feel that it is the nature that needs taken care of before us western people! But then there was WWF with their cute cuddly panda image and I knew what I had to do. The person I love most in this world is Kiira my sister and she has always been obsessed with pandas. Supporting silly clumsy bamboo eaters would be the one and only right thing to do. So I set up a fundraising page: http://www.justgiving.com/superheroninjawarrior
I can not believe that I got donations pretty much straight away! It really gave me a super boost and I feel even more determined to train hard now!
One last thing. Running 24Km has given me mega munchies. Yesterday I ate massive portion of noodles in Wagamama in record breaking time and continued with a dessert straight after. Back home I munched away a good big dinner again and shared a whole box of After Eights. Tonight I cooked mash for 2 people and ate it all but still wasn't happy. I had to visit the corner shop and found my all time favourite biscuits: chocolate topped ship biscuits! The correct way to eat them is to munch the excess chocolate away from the edges first (see the demonstrative picture below). I ate the whole box.
Oh and currently my hair is purple.
After the last post I'v spent a week not running and panicking about my weird numb leg. On Wednesday I went to Karate but struggled to stay in a fighting stance because of this weird leg problem. Luckily on Thursday my friend Jason,the sports massage guy, agreed to try to help me. He didn't know the cause of the problem either but gave a good massage. Him and my other friend Meikku gave me a bunch of tips on how to stretch better. I was also given few bizarre massage toys. The blue roll(see above) is the most painful mother fucking thing on earth! It says '66 fit' on it but I'm sure it should say '666'. I make such noises in my room, whilst rolling on it, that my housemates must think that I'm getting tortured. The explanation: 'It's just my new massage toy' doesn't seem to help either.
The other painful torture device is this spiky ball. It should help with my tight arches so I keep on rolling with that one too.
Friday morning I went swimming before work even though we had discovered a David Bowie pub the night before. So proud of myself. I managed half an hour swimming backwards and forwards in the medium speed lane. The lanes still confuse and annoy me. I'm confident that I'm the only one in the medium lane who belongs there because there's always some other idiots who go slower or faster. Grown up lane swimming is quite boring in any case. I prefer lakes and the sea during the summer!
Yesterday on Sunday I went wall climbing and my leg seem to behave. Today morning I decided it was time to put the running shoes on again. When I woke up there was snow everywhere. It was lovely to run in the white landscape. I only did a careful half an hour jog. My leg still seems sort of normal so I will try to get back to the training plan tomorrow!
The snow is long gone. Week ago my long run proved that it is much trickier to run right after the snow than in the snow. Melting parks are nearly an impossibility. Keeping balance in slush and mud mixture is not fun and defiantly not clean business. My feet were soaked and I was covered in mud. My pretty yellow running watch have proved very useful though. Threshold training goes pretty easily now. What I also started doing is run in the MORNINGS rather than evenings after work. Why I hadn't thought about it before, I really don't know. It's genius. I start work relatively late and don't even have to wake up ridiculously early to do my runs. It's so much easier in the mornings and gives you a super boost for the whole day. The best bit is that my social life is saved now. I can actually do stuff after work!!!!
Late on Thursday I finally got a new head by my personal headmaster Hannu. Need to redraw the logo for this blog I suppose...
So those were the good news. Last week was crap. After that long run I attended a birthday party and drank too much which probably spoiled my week a bit. Then I have been the biggest mother fucking idiot wanker in the universe. This is my personal life, but well, being a big fuck idiot affects ones running mood as well. On Wednesday I was so emotionally drained and physically exhausted that I skipped the karate class. This obviously annoyed me as well. But now to the biggest problem of them all: I think I have a sports injury! This morning I woke up with a numb left leg. It stayed numb. I went running in any case. Running was ok but now the leg is numb, my ankle feels bruised and the bottom of the foot feels weird as well. I'v tried to google what's wrong with me but it just makes me mega paranoid. I'm not exactly hurting but worried that if I don't fix this weird problem it will get worse and my foot needs to be amputated or turns into jelly or.... PANIC!!!!!! What do I do?????
My pretty yellow running watch arrived in post much faster than anticipated. It took me all Sunday morning to figure out how to use the thing but at 13.21.37 precisely I took off for my first ever run monitored from the space by satellites! So cool. It's actually winter in here. It snowed all day. I ran all around Hampstead Heath free from trying to memorise where I went. Loving the GPS already. Running in snow wasn't that bad at all. Beats the usual mud defiantly!
After 1h 46min and 18.25km I was back. This is where I failed with my new toy. I didn't manage to save my run. What an idiot indeed.
My dear workmate Bill is determined to design me an outfit for the marathon. So far I'v found something wrong with each idea. He doesn't seem to understand that practicality is the number one concern when it comes to running gear. I will NOT run wearing a helmet with antennas. We have some work to do with this....
This week I'v tried to stick to my training plan bit better. On Monday I did silly cross training in my room and on Tuesday I tried to time my run with a stop watch on my phone. That was stupid. My fingers were freezing and could hardly operate the phone. It's a miracle that I didn't drop it and break it. So I did some internet shopping and ordered a real super technical running watch. It arrived already today and tomorrow I will put it to the test. Just need to figure out how to use it first. Then I'v been climbing lots too(well twice this week). Today I did some multitasking athletic style. I ran to the climbing centre and back. I'm so sporty it scares me.
Hmm...somehow my corrected training plan looks, well, really corrected. The only thing I'v managed to do properly are the days of rest. But I have to say that the first week doesn't really count since it was the New Year and shit. This week my biggest failure was today as I didn't do anything. Luckily I swapped the days a little bit on the plan and did the long run already yesterday. It says 90 minutes on the schedule and that's precisely what I ran. I still don't have a watch to take with me but clearly my inner clock and distance estimating skills are perfect! I am a machine! I managed to cover 16.2Km which means not that fast speed but apparently you'r not meant to do the long runs too fast in any case.
I like this picture! I like brave little girls. Too often are girls sold the lie that they are fragile and dainty. No they are not! Girls are brave little human beings who love adventure! This also reminds me of my little sister who is the bestest person in the Universe. When I was probably around 9 and she was only 6, we were on a family holiday to Greece or Turkey(I really can't remember). We visited a crocodile sanctuary and you could have your photo taken with a small alligator. I freaked out but my brave little sister held the alligator and just smiled happily to the camera. She has always been the natural cool girl meanwhile I had struggled with all sorts of nonsense fears and insecurities. Now when I try to be this tough woman, she will be by my side cheering me on and that is all that matters. Kiira, you ARE the superhero and I love you super duper lots!
From emotional sister talk to the business of today..or better yesterday since it's past midnight already. Oups. My official training plan said threshold training but I went for some serious hill training instead. The main dude at the Marathon training day was a big supporter of hill training so I reasoned that I could do that. I don't have a watch which makes timing my running difficult but I am surrounded by big hills. I ran up 5 steep hill roads which felt HORRIBLE! I tried to run up fast and on the top of each one I felt like fainting and I could taste blood in my mouth. That's real training, isn't it?
