My first race of the cross country season

Valentine's Day saw me return to XC action. I love cross country, it is definitely my favourite part of the year and I've really missed taking part in this year's XC league. Luckily, my fellow NHRR member Rachel was kind enough to offer to Hannah-sit (she's training for the Brighton Marathon and had done a long run the day before). Even more luckily, Hannah is generally well behaved so as long as she has been fed and watered she is usually fine in her pram.
The race was 2 hilly laps round Ampthill Park so if the worst came to the worst I could always drop out halfway round. As it happened Hannah was absolutely fine and every time I ran past her I sighed a huge sigh of relief as all was silent.
Sadly, I am not in great shape (understatement of the year) and I did find it very hard indeed and looking at the pictures it's clear to see why...too much coffee and cake makes Lindsay a heavy girl...

Intelligent running shoes for women?

I read this article with interest. Essentially, Asics use Soft Top Duomax in the midsole of this shoe to apparently accommodate for fluctuations in women's hormonal levels which cause the foot arches to be lowered, creating more pressure on the plantar fascia. Personally, I am a Nike Air Pegasus girl and I have been for over 10 years now. However, I had no idea that running shoes could be so clever!

Running with a pram

Last night I went for a run with some fellow North Herts Road Runners. A year ago that wouldn't have been anything noteworthy, after all it was what I did twice a week and have done for 10 years now. However, post Hannah this isn't as straight forwards as it used to be. Here is how last night went:

Discuss with Mr C about our running plans for the evening. Decide on a plan which is for Mr C to do the mile reps and for me to go for a run (too cold to leave Hannah hanging around in between mile reps if we both do them)

Feed Hannah to ensure she doesn't get hungry en route

Change Hannah into her pjs so she can go straight to bed when she gets home

Change Hannah's nappy as she likes to wait for the most inconvenient moment before needing a clean nappy

Pack my running bag while Mr C entertains child

Mr C packs running bag while I entertain child, prepare her milk for later and ensure we have a supply of nappies to take with us

Put Hannah in her car seat, gather up our belongings (looks like we are going away for the weekend!) and off we go!

Arrive at tennis club and put Hannah in her pram

Do notices and finally set off for run...stop 2 seconds after leaving front door to put rain cover on pram

Finally go for a run!

Mr C returns from mile reps at 8:30, I go for a shower and he feeds Hannah

Mr C goes for a shower

Phew, we both have dinner!!!!

Put Hannah back in her car seat, gather up our belongings and go home

Arrive home and put all of us to bed

I managed 2 and a half miles through Letchworth town centre and it was pretty succesful, running with the pram makes your arms tired though!

Buggyfit

I mentioned in a recent post that I was going to try out a buggyfit class in an attempt to regain some fitness. So on Tuesday morning I dusted off my trainers, packaged Hannah up in her pram and with some trepidation power walked (because as usual I was late) off to Butts Close, Hitchin.

There were 8 of in the class, all of us new as none of the usuals were there which meant at least the class could be tailored to us a little bit better. We started by strolling round the park, did some stretching and then power walked around the park. We then did some reps of lunges (with the pram, an interesting test in co-ordination), some pelvic floor exercises and some cardio work (running or power walking) around part of the park and finished off with some exercises for triceps and abs.

I really enjoyed it and felt I was able to be quite energetic which was a nice surprise. That said, it was harder than I expected and I know that even at my most fit, that number of lunges would have made my legs hurt. Anyway, I paid for 10 classes up front so I will have to keep going now. Even better, Hannah loved being jostled around in her Nipper 360 and slept through the whole class, well worth it!

And now? Well, 2 days later I am suffering from the lunges and my legs are sore...but I am sure I will recover!

I'm watching you!

For those of you that don't know, I work for (when I am not on maternity leave) a well known online travel company. One of things that is important to the team I work in is knowing how people find your site. given this professional interest, I thought it would be interesting to have a look at who was landing on my blog and how they were getting there.
First of all, don't worry, I can't tell who anyone is! But I can see what words they entered into google to find this blog.
Unsurprisingly, the most popular words in google which bring up my blog are "half marathon" and "half marathon training blog", I suppose that makes sense. But imagine my mortification when I discovered that someone recently typed "very unfit marathon training" into Google and ended up reading my blog as a result! Ouch!

From marathon to Buggyfit in 15 months!

Regular readers to this blog will remember that in November 2008 I ran the New York Marathon. When I look back on the run up to New York, I realise how fit I was then with plenty of runs along with circuit training. Things are a little different now as I can count the number of runs I've done in the last 6 months on one hand!

I'll blog at a late date about my plan to get fit again (I do have one) but I thought I'd let you know about my newest fitness adventure, Buggyfit! I'm going to my first class tomorrow (my cold permitting) and I am not entirely sure about what to expect. According to their blurb, it's the "ultimate fitness class for mums and babies" although I don't think the babies really get a work out as they lie back and watch from their prams and snuggly and warm in their footmuffs! The class is an hour long and apparently will involve a 3-5 mile route in total...that's about my current speed so fingers crossed I should be ok!

I'll report back once I have been...

Racing again...but not training

I've not blogged (or trained really!) in a while but I did a couple of races in December.
My post-Hannah debut was the third of the Stevenage 5k series on December 10th. I think my training for that race consisted of the run described below and one other (about 40 minutes in very wet conditions!) so I was slightly concerned about how I would get on. But, 5k is only 3 and a bit miles and I survived unscathed! I ran all the way round, even feeling comparatively strong in the last kilometre and finished in an unimpressive time of 31:19. How times have changed, I was very happy indeed with my unimpressive time!

My next race was the Pirton Boxing Day Run, a very friendly, relaxed local off road 3 and a bit mile race. I have to admit I didn't run at all between these 2 races (although in my defence I do a lot of walking with the pram). And yes, no training and a muddy slushy course is hard work. However, I did really enjoy it (but I did have to go to bed at 8:30 that night as I was so tired).