Rosedawn Ramblings

How are you?  It's now almost two months since I've been living this strange #stayathome life. Races have been postponed, holidays cancelled, concerts rearranged for later in the year. parkrun is still paused. Like most people I'm sure, there have been some tough moments especially from a well-being point of view. There have been a few tears of frustration and some moments of grumpiness. Work has been challenging and some days life has just felt tough. I've needed lots of words of encouragement and I'm extremely grateful for friends who have been in touch. But amidst all that, there have been some special moments too.  I've been able to get on with living, catch up with friends and family (virtually at least), make plans for the future and work towards my abridged summer challenge - cycling 100k on my exercise bike in June instead of Racing to the Castle. I'm loving my weekly quiz night with my sister and nieces in particular - last week,...

An early start this week for a very significant Sunday run with the Potters Trotters... a few weeks ago, one of our club members sadly passed away. We decided as a club to dedicate April 7th as our day to run for Kate; to celebrate her life and inspire us as runners to keep on running.  There were little groups of runners from the club out and about everywhere; I joined a group meeting early to run their last long training run before the London Marathon.  Ready to Run Our plan was to run for an about an hour then join up with another group of runners training for their first half marathon... and the plan worked. We followed the Caldon Canal for a while then looped around Etruria before meeting the second group and heading out on the Trent and Mersey Canal towards Barlaston. Getting Together Everyone had their own personal challenges for the day; some were hoping to run further than ever before; I was hoping to continue my training momentum of the last ...

I t's been a while and I'm not sure why. I've been running a lot until this last week, got a new job, visited lots of new and interesting places and had lots going on. I've just got out of the habit of writing and I feel a bit sad about it... it's like I lost my voice (which is a pretty desperate state of affairs for a chatterbox like me). Two things have shaken me from my silence... Last week, I went along to a reception hosted my Peter Hooper from Cox Bank Publishing, the man behind the Sporting Stories initiative. It was a gathering of authors - it was great fun and I particularly enjoyed chatting with paralympian swimmer Jenny Booth and finding out what motivates her to get up at 4.30am for training sessions at the pool. But I felt a bit of a fraud... my blog has been without an update for so long, did I still count as a writer? Photo Credit: Cox Bank Publishing And then at the weekend, I received this message via Twitter: And that got me thinkin...

I'm feeling a little bit lost. After all those weeks of travelling and running in different, interesting and sometimes exotic locations, we're home again now. The last place we ran before coming home was Victor Harbour... It looked like this: Whilst away, I ran regularly but never more than 3 or 4 miles at a time, so home again, I set myself the goal of gradually increasing my longest runs each week. I was even quietly contemplating an autumn marathon. I built up over 3 or 4 weeks to a long run of 10 miles and was feeling positive. And then came  back down to earth with a bump after an unexpected visit to my GP resulted in surgery under general anaesthetic less than 24 hours later. Wounds are healing and pain is receding but I'm not allowed to run. It's been 3 weeks and counting... Grumpy to say the least.  So what to do? How to keep myself occupied and not just sit and eat chocolate all day?  I've been doing as much walking as pain levels and gener...

"It's all gone quiet" said Rhubarb. "Too quiet" said Custard. Three months have gone by since my last blog post and it feels like it might be almost that long since I went for a run. I've dragged myself round cross country courses at Winsford, Stafford Common and Leek without too much enthusiasm, completed a few more parkruns, and been out with my running club much less frequently than usual. It's been a struggle - a combination of work trips, ill health and apathy have seen my trainers abandoned in the hall way and achieving my mileage target for 2014 looking less and less likely. Is this the end? Have I actually lost my running mojo? I wrote a post on the Potters Trotters blog trying to motivate myself as well as my club mates. I concluded the post by deciding I need to get back back to my running roots: I 'm not sure I've quite found the answer yet for getting my mojo back.... But I'm sure that it will come back and I'm hoping it ...

It has been a while since my last blog. There's been a lot going on. Sometimes life gets in the way of running and writing about running. I'd like to say I'm sorry but this post is all about being not sorry, hopefully not in a selfish "I don't care if I upset you" kind of way but instead with a spirit of "I've got my motivation and priorities back on track and that's a good thing". I'm not sorry that I've decided to taken a step back from local road racing. Last year, I raced so often between May and September, that races were almost the only running I was doing. I forgot to rest properly and my body took a hit. There was a reason for racing so often: I was chasing points and placings in the NSRRA. Winning my group was a real possibility and points in every race mattered. It would be wrong to say I didn't enjoy it... I loved the competition and the challenge and of course I enjoyed winning... but I realised I wanted this summ...

When I started running, I didn't really know quite where my running would take me, other than up and down the canal towpath where all those early runs took place. Over time, as my runs got longer and sense of my local geography improved, my running took me further afield and to more and more varied locations. I've run in the Olympic Stadium and of course the streets of London for the marathon back in April. Last week, my running, and specifically my involvement in Hanley parkrun , took me to a Black Tie Awards Dinner, complete with red carpet, champagne and a celebrity photo-op with Colin Jackson. We'd been nominated for a Sport in the Community Award and it was a brilliant night celebrating a wonderful event that I love being part of (even if we weren't the first finisher). On Sunday, my running took me back around my local area for my 10th half marathon, the Potters Arf. I had a brilliant day, seeing some interesting sights on the course, cheering o...

Life including my running has slowly returned to "normal" after the extraordinary experiences of the London Marathon in April. Learning from last year's mistakes, I didn't launch straight back into training and racing and devoted more time to resting and recovering. I made another batch of cards, which were sold at the Ribble Valley Jazz Festival - a weekend in Clitheore with funky music, fun times with my family and lots of washing up at the Atrium Cafe . But the running and racing buzz doesn't go away for long. I've got a new goal - the London Enduro challenge in June. It's a 12 hour through the night team challenge - 10k laps round Wimbledon Common. I'm part of a team selected by Write this Run and I'm looking forward to it. It's a new location; some new running companions; a team event rather than a solo run; and a totally different endurance challenge, as I'll need to run 3 or 4 10k laps in a 12hr period on trails and in the dar...

Two years ago, I lined up on the startline of the Stafford Half Marathon for my first ever half marathon. I'd followed a 12 week training programme, gradually building up my running distance and increasing my speed. I nervously joined the other runners in the starting pen and set out on a sunny Sunday in Stafford to achieve my 2 hour goal. The race itself was a bit of a blur - I remember dropping my jelly babies and having a struggle in mile 12. But I did it, my first half marathon. A quick look back at my blog post from that day reminds me of my achievement but also how far I've come with my running (even if my hair looks remarkably similar). After the Stafford Half in 2012 - warm but proud of my achievement This weekend, I lined up for the Stafford Half for the second time, having been offered the chance of a last minute place (thanks to Kate's uncle). My marathon training plan for this weekend suggested a half marathon race so it all seemed like a good plan, ev...

This weekend was the peak of my training for the London Marathon... racing the Ashby 20 and testing out whether I can run that distance at marathon pace. After my Eureka moment last month about cumulative fatigue, I made sure I ran a couple of tough sessions in the week (including some km splits on Friday) so I would start with the right mindset... I was testing myself over the last 20 miles of the marathon and not the first. Last year, the race took place in  snow, rain and cold , but completing it convinced me I could run the Greater Manchester Marathon. This year, the sun was out and despite a chilly start, by the time we started running it was warm, really warm. Another challenge to add to the mix. The race in a paragraph... the route was the same as last year, an undulating course in the shape of a lollipop, and my race experience was very similar (apart from the weather). I started off strong, possibly going a little bit too fast on the encouraging downhills in the first c...