Rosedawn Ramblings

On March 1st, I completed a 20 mile race around Oulton Park motor racing circuit - it's possibly my worst ever race experience for a whole host of reasons which now seen inconsequential, but I did it and that was what mattered at the time. Straight after the race, I took the train up to Manchester to join up with Mr T and meet our friend Sarah. We had cocktails and Caribbean food and then went to celebrate Christmas in March at Tailenders Live. Tailenders is a loosely based cricketing podcast with a Radio 1 DJ (Greg White), a Maccabee (Felix White), England's greatest ever bowler (Jimmy Anderson) and a shoe salesman from Bristol (Matchin Tendulkar). It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever but I love it. I wore my Christmas dress. I did not look out of place. It was ridiculous and made us all laugh out loud. Jimmy Anderson shredded a mango and a mince pie. Standard fare on Tailenders! After that slightly weird start to the month, everything seemed relatively nor...

My big goal for 2020 is the 100km ultramarathon Race to the Castle in June. My training plan is geared around building up my miles over the next five months to be able to complete distance. It's not about time, it's about getting to the finish in however long it takes. But alongside that big, very scary goal, I've got a few more manageable bitesize challenges to help me get there. Some are about long runs or weekly mileage targets. Some relate to races or race strategy. Some relate to how I want to feel mid-run or at the end when it's only over. Today was one of those days, the Essar Four Villages Half Marathon. I wanted it to be more than just a training run. I wanted to test my speed, my endurance, my racing strategy and my mental strength. I've been working hard in training with interval sessions, hill reps and tempo runs. So I set mini goals (just for me) for the time I wanted to reach the half way point, my average mile pace, the consistency of my...

At the start of 2019, I set myself the challenge of publishing a blog post every week during the year - 52 weeks, 52 posts. My motivation was to get back to something I loved doing, something I'd missed, something I'd started several years ago but then lost my way. I thought I'd run out of things to write about. On Sunday, I achieved my goal. I wrote about eating profiteroles for breakfast. It wasn't always easy. Some posts were longer than others. Some were only written right at the last moment. I did it! I crossed the finish line with a smile on my face (mainly thanks to those profiteroles ). But what did I learn? About myself, about running and about life in general? 1. Inspiration can come from anyone and anything ... it can be easy to think that you need something 'big' to get you started. At the start of 2019, I certainly had lots of inspiration to run and blog as I completed an ultramarathon along the River Thames. I've also been inspi...

Christmas Week. Like most people, I've been confused about what day it is, eaten too much, slept too little and not moved too much from my sofa. I did manage a Christmas Day parkrun at Hanley for the first time in several years, but running and training for Race to the Castle has hit a bit of roadblock - perhaps starting a training plan the week before Christmas wasn't the best idea. On Thursday (Boxing Day), I had profiteroles for breakfast... my justification being they were Christmas leftovers that really needed to be eaten up. They were lovely; I had two helpings. I even added extra cream. On Friday, I spent three hours in the M&S café... coffee, toasted teacake, another coffee, a slice of cake. I did blitz lots of emails and other admin... but only moved about 500 steps in the process. I should have been running but my knee was aching slightly - I opted for rest instead but didn't really take much persuading. On Saturday, I was back in Hanley Park...

Week 1 of my training plan for the Race to the Castle has proved to be a hectic one.... mostly involving Christmas trees and Brussels sprouts! I've created a Christmas Tree around Penkhull with the Potters Trotters... And then tried to find as many Christmas Trees as we could on Thursday night's club run... stopping for a photo with every one we found definitely slowed us down but there were plenty of smiles with every mile we completed. On Saturday morning, it should have been time for more Christmas fun with Hanley parkrun's Christmas fancy dress run. But my fancy dress was accidentally forgotten, so I decided to run "serious" and completed my fastest Hanley parkrun since 2013! I love my "game face" photo taken by Mick Hall - thanks Mick! By Saturday night, I was beginning to wilt, especially as a visit from my nieces meant unexpected extra "time on my feet" - also known as the nightmare that is Primark at Christmas...

A few weeks before our travels to New Zealand , I signed up for a race. I filled in all the boxes on the entry form, pressed submit, put the date in my diary, created a rough training plan and then got on with normal life. It's not until June next year... that's ages away! But it's not just any race. It's a race that ticks all my boxes ...  It's going to test me to the limit and be harder than anything I've ever done before. It's 100km or 63 miles and the goal is to complete non-stop.  It's definitely got the wow factor , with a route description promising stretching moorland, winding rivers, ancient woodlands and sandy trails and a finish at the incredibly spectacular Bamburgh Castle. It's going to need dedication in training and I'll need to use every motivational trick I know to get me out of the front door and out running whatever the weather. But it's something I really want to do. And now it's...

It's been a wonderful few weeks; after all the waiting , we got to spend two weeks living the life I love , exploring, relaxing and breathing fresh air in New Zealand. But all too soon, we were homeward bound and dark nights, cold weather and work were looming. It's definitely been a week to be relying on my inner Pollyanna and trying to find a few things to be glad about... it's not been as hard as I thought it might be! Despite sub-zero temperatures when we landed in Manchester, there was a beautiful sunrise as we journeyed home... and our fabulous view (and frozen canal) was waiting for us when we got here and the sun shone most of the day too. On my first day back at work, the sun was still shining, so I took my time on my walk to the office, looking for pretty reflections, watching the sunrise and going with the flow. If you don't look too closely, it could be a castle with a moat rather than a factory being demolished (or that could just be the jetla...