How do I do this blogging thing?

So here we are! My challenge this year was to complete the 95 mile West Highland Way Race in June… however it would appear that my real challenge is to work out how this whole blogging thing works!

I have been running for a number of years and am a member of Kilbarchan AAC. In 2007 I completed 3 Marathons (London, Edinburgh and New York), however after watching a fellow club member (known to many as ‘John the Blog’) in last years West Highland Way Race, I realised that there was a strange desire that just would not go away. It ingrained itself deep in my inner conscience, and whispered to me every now and again… ‘just do it, it’s a great idea’. So I sent off my entry form (making as many mistakes as possible to try and avoid getting a place) and they gave me a race number (no.94 for the stato’s out there). And now here I am, faced with the task of training for, and running the flipping thing myself.

So what is the West Highland Way Race? Well according to the organisers, ‘Runners have 35 hours to run, jog, walk, or crawl from Milngavie, following the West Highland Way, to Fort William Leisure Centre’. It’s as easy as that!?!? Each runner has a support crew of at least two people that basically look after them for the day, point them in the right direction, keep them upright, that kind of thing. Mrs pacepusher will be leading my crew and I look forward to her changing my socks for me on the day!

 So what have I done in preparation so far… 

Before I applied, I did a loop of about 12 miles from Drymen, over Conic Hill and back along the roads to Drymen. I did this claiming it was to see how much I enjoyed it before applying. Secretly I thought that it might put me off the idea, or result in a horrific injury meaning I would have to pull out! Alas there was nothing worse than a superman dive at the bottom of Conic Hill resulting in much blood and a ripped new Mizuno running top! Secretly, despite this, I enjoyed it and went back and did it again the next week.

On 22nd December 2007, a group of about 22 of us WHW (Do I need to explain what that stands for? you’ve got it by now yeh?) entrants, met at Milngavie Train Station for a run. We ran the 12.75 miles (GPS is great!) to Drymen, had a very pleasant ‘coffee and scones’, and then ran back again. Tough though it was, it was a great run in the wintry weather, and suddenly the race was starting to seem like a good idea. (see attached photo hopefully… I told you, I’m new to this!)

Since the New Year I’ve been trying to build up my mileage, and last week managed to hit 60 miles. This included my first run on the Brae’s in Paisley which was very wet and muddy (see below) and despite having to run through a scary herd of Highland Cattle 4 times, great fun.

 New trail shoes before the run…

                                       

…and after the run…

…not so new!

My week has been as follows:

• Monday: 0 miles (should have been the club speed night)
• Tuesday: 5.5 miles (Steady run)
• Wednesday: 5.5 miles (Tempo run)
• Thursday: 9 miles (on the Braes)
• Friday: 17 miles (marathon pace training)
• Saturday: 12 miles (WHW pace training)
• Sunday: 11 miles (whatever pace I could manage training)

…and so we have it, 60 miles. Which brings me right up to today, and yes after too much running at the end of the week, I am again missing my club speed session as my legs feel as though they have fallen off!

The runs at WHW pace I am able to do with Mrs pacepusher. This means that we both have some company and whilst she keeps me at the right pace early on, I can encourage her to push the pace a bit later in the run. It also means that we see each other for a coupe of hours at least once a week! I am aiming for a little more than 60 miles this week so stay tuned.

Well that’s the end of a rather long first entry… although if this doesn’t save and appear where it should it will be considerably shorter!