One More Week of Rest to go

As some of you may know, I have a tear in my mensicus of my right knee! It happened 2 weeks ago on our long Sunday run! Alison had to find a taxi to get us home!!!

So I have been instructed to take 3 weeks off - so this is my last week!! I can then try running and see how it goes. Please send healing vibes and fingers crossed that it won't bother me again so I can get on with the training. 26 days to go!!!

Mary
xxx

The Walking Wounded

Well - yesterday was our long run (Sunday's always are). We met up nice and early - had a cup of coffee and set off. All was going well until suddenly after 10k I got a terrible pain in my right knee! I tried stretching it etc. but nothing was helping. So Alison ran off to find a taxi and we headed back home, where Alison worked on my knee and did a bit of reflexology!
Oh DEAR!!!! It has really shaken me! It will be such a shame if after all this hard work, it's an injury that lets me down.

I am going to take a few days off and rest it - and hopefully I will be back on form in a few days so I can continue my training.

Mary
xxx

7 Weeks to Go!!!

I cannot believe we have 7 weeks until we run 42km!!!! Will we be ready??? I have no idea!!! I'm just putting my faith in the programme we are following.

Very happy the my partner is back :) This weekend we have a 2hr 30min run - so we need to plan our route for that.

I am feeling fitter and my legs stronger, but, I just don't know if they can hold for 42km!! I must stop saying that and just think positive :)

Talk later.

Maryxxxx

M.I.A

Sorry I have been missing in action!!! Let me try and fill you in on what we have been up to - running wise!!!

Well last week we did a 21km run - HALF A MARATHON - just for training!!! We ran from James Guchuru - down Riverside Drive - Arboretum - State House - Dennis Prit - Argwings Kodek - back to James GIchuru - Covent Drive and home!!!! 2 and a bit hours later! Quite grueling towards the end!!! But we did it - and had to get straight up the next day and do another run!

Today was another long run which we did around Runda - lovely to do a new route - but it poured with rain for the last half an hour - so we were running in the pouring rain (brought back happy childhood memories of running around in the rain!).

Home for a long hot bath and Carey had got delicious hot croissants for a late breakfast and I spent the rest of the day on the couch :)

Alison and I are as committed as ever and are still loving this challenge, but it is getting really tough now. The runs are more frequent and getting really long!! So we need your encouragement more than ever now.

8 Weeks to go til D Day!

Look forward to hearing from you all.

Mary
xxxx

April 22nd, 2010

My my my.... time is flying! Literally one month to go... ahhhhhhhhhhh :-)

We have been a bit absent from our blog, no other reason other then busy with work, and/or travel but we have been keeping up the training as best as we can.

The big run on Sunday 21 KM, not sure of our route just yet but will keep you posted.

Have a good week.
Alison xxxx

Wow! minus 10 degrees Training!!!

Hallo, Mary and Alison!

Dearest Mary and Alison just logged in and read your blog!

......Mary...running in Morzine .... And I thought I was mad!!!! : )

Trust me I know and feel what you’re going through! spent the last two weeks oh holiday whilst training in Bangkok, Singapore and Malaysia ...... Two more weeks to go before I do the London Marathon! Think have been through the hardest part!.....i hope

Enjoy your training it is quite a painfully yet thoroughly rewarding, enjoyable experience!!!!

The French Alps

I am in a ski resort called Morzine :) Having the most wonderful time.
I have done 2 runs so far!!! Just to set the scene for you:

It is -10 degrees!!!
We are in the mountains - so hills everywhere

That said - it is stunning to run surrounded by mountains, and once I have warmed up (which takes about 15mins in to the run), it is wonderfully refreshing and invigorating.

The hills are brilliant training for me - I hate hills and find them extremely difficult, but after 2 weeks of this I should have improved on hill running.

Today is a rest day and I can tell you it is much needed. I am trying out snowboarding - decided to give the ski's a rest....snowboarding is tough tough tough. So lovely to have a rest today!

Talk later
Mary
xxx

London!!!

Right, so for the next 2 weeks I am going to be doing my training in Europe :)
I ran in Hyde Park - London this morning. Sooooo lovely, and also very encouraging as I ran a lot faster than I do in Nairobi due to the altitude - felt great. It was 5 degrees celcius, but the sun was shining so perfect (apart from a rather strong wind in some places).
Met lots of joggers (which is not often the case when Alison and I are running in Nairobi) - and watched people walking their gorgeous doggies which cheered me on my way.
I missed you Alison!!!

If we ever want to do another marathon - let's go for the London one: Nice and flat and lower altitude than Nairobi, so we can shave some minutes off our time :)

Talk later

Maryxxx

No Turning Back Now!!!

Registration for the Marathon opened on the 15th of February and Alison and I were among the 1st to register :) So it's official - no turning back now. We are fully signed up to do this :)

Mary

xxx

Busy Busy

It has been a busy week so we have not had time to post any news - but I can assure you we are still on track with our training and have done our 3 sessions for the week and today we are doing a long road run. Thankfully it is a cloudy day , as usually we do our runs in the early morning to avoid the heat, but Alison was away over the weekend and gets back at lunchtime so we will do our run this afternoon.

Just for your information, all the training manuals say you should always run at the same time as the event will be - in our case this is 7am - hence why we run early mornings. Its gets your body used to running at that time - just a bit of interesting running info for you all :)

On another note - I am hoping to see more posts from our friends in the next few weeks as the training goes up a gear this week and in the weeks to follow, so some encouragement will be much appreciated.

Love for now.

Mary

xxx

Week 6

OK.. it's been some days since we updated! Hopefully the steam is not running out ;-)

Training schedule went a little disarray due to not being in Nairobi (Mary) but we tried to make up for it in advance!

Once again, travel this weekend for me, but will do my best to catch up! I had 3 days rest and did a 25min run on Tuesday and it felt like an hour run, so needless to say the trick is do not rest for too long - once momentum has kicked in, just keep going!!

Rest day today, although I'll cross train, going to try out the gym facility at Muthaiga Club this afternoon.

Have a fab rest of the week. Alison xxx

8th February

Woke up feeling not much like doing anything, but leaped on the treadmill and thank goodness I did, the feeling after is so much better!

I think it helped that Jimi was working out with me. Makes a difference to have company.

Rest day tomorrow YAAAAAYYYYYY ;-)

Alison xx

Sunday 7th February

What an amazing run.... feeling much stronger for some reason :-) but have been all the wine at Anne-maries on the saturday before!! :-)

Anyway, ran over our time and felt great!

Thank you Mary, would not be doing this without your solid commitment and support!

Alison xx

Week 5: Session 15 of our Training Programme

I can't believe we are already in to our 5th week of training - "time flies when you're having fun"!

Good session today - it was an easy run after yesterdays slightly longer one.

I think I am actually beginning to feel stronger and fitter :)

I had a major attack of nerves last night as Carey and I were chatting about the marathon and remembering the times I have done it before (the half marathon)! Gosh it was exhausting - and now we need to double that!

I didn't train properly for those ones, and I have complete faith in the programme we are following now, so whenever I get the nerve attacks, I just need to remember that we have a great programme which we are completely dedicated to and all will be fine!!!! Aghhhhhhh!!!!

Talk Later.

Mary

xxx

Week 4: Session 14 of our Training Programme

We had a wonderful road run around Lavington this morning - it was cloudy so it was lovely and cool!

We enjoyed it so much we went over the set running time.

There were a few killer hills but I believe we are getting stronger so they weren't too horrific.

Running 1st thing in the morning is such a wonderful way to start the day :)

Talk Later

Mary

xxx

P.S

Wandia we promise to sign off from now on ;)

Yaaaay rest day! Thank goodness, after all those vodka tonic's last evening!! ;-)

Week 3: Session 13 of our Training Programme

A lovely 25min run - very easy pace. I took it extra easy as I have 18 holes of golf to play this afternoon.

Maryxxx

Hello!!! I'm alive!!! Sorry Mary... the lonely blogger :-)

Yes indeed what a grand few weeks it has been! Tons of fun tho' and enjoying every second!

Will be updating as we go along!

Nimu thank you for the great poem ;-) I've not stopped having hope that you will join us!!

Week 4: Session 12 of our Training Programme

I kept finding a million other things to do other than run this morning - but I did it and it was great. Feel like I am getting fitter and stronger every day which is so encouraging :)

Talk later.

Mary

xxx

1st Feburary 2010

Week 4 Session 10 of the programme:

An easy 20 min run - went well. I wasn't feeling too well so took it easy.

31st January 2010

Today was Week 3 Session 10 of our training. We did a road run - found a great route - lots of hills so great practice for the main event. We did the same route last week, but the other way round. We improved on our time so we very chuffed :)

Yesterday: Week 3 Training Session 9

Yesterday's training was a 30min run - sounds easy enough! For some reason neither of us were up for it yesterday! I was up at 5.45am and I faffed around until 7am before getting on with the run! I was feeling rather lazy! But we must stick to the programme :) So in I went and it was excellent. That's the thing - nothing beats the feeling afterwards :) So I just need to remember the after feeling when I am having my lazy days.

We have 2 days of rest from running, so I will fill it with some swimming and cross training.

Talk later

xxx

Go Brucey and Alice!!!!

A quick cheer for the girls
with diamonds and pearls
as they take on Lewa
not asking for any favours!

Just our love and support
to keep them going when they're bored
or tired or sad
so let's keep them glad!

Go Brucey and Alice, go, go, go
not to slow
not too fast
take care of your hearts
and don't worry if you, er, fart!!!

Thank you to Julia Doig and Anne-Marie Burugu

Anne-Marie has offered her farm in Limuru for us to do some high altitude training - Asante Sana :)

Julia has also offered to help us map out some routes in Tigoni - again excellent high altititude running - and she will arrange water stops for the longer runs.

This will be invaluable training for us - so thank you both sooo much.

xxx

Week 3: Session 8 of our Training Programme

Today was a 25min run - so I did a hill run!! Need to do lots of Hill training as Lewa is a very hilly marathon - long long never ending hills!! I struggle with hills so need to work on this...A LOT!

Week 2: Session 7 of our Training Programme

Today was a 25min run - chose a very hilly route! Went well and such a great feeling at the end - now we can enjoy the rest of our Sunday :)

Week 2: Session 6 of our Training Programme

Todays session was great and I had a quick swim after - so feeling hugely energised and pleased with myself.
Whenever I think of the actual day I have a small panic attack - what have we got ourselves in to??? But need to take it 1 day and 1 training session at a time!!!

Rest Day

Today is a rest day! Which is a good thing as I am really sore from my run yesterday - I did a slow hill run! Obviously I need to do more hill work!!

Playing golf this afternoon, so a nice long walk will stretch me out :)

Talk later.
Mary

Week 2: Session 5 of our Training Programme

Not a good day for me :( Feeling lousy, so didn't do my session this morning as planned!!!
Will do it this evening though without fail :) It is the last 15min session for a while - from now on it is all 25min plus! Gulp!

Talk later.
Mary

Running for Charity

We are both hoping to get sponsorship for our run, to raise money for 2 causes very close to our hearts.
We will let you know more about this shortly.

Day of rest :)

Today is a rest day :)

And we begin week 2 tomorrow. 1 week down - 25 to go!!!!

WEEK 1: Session 4 of our Training Programme

We are off to do our first road run!!! About to give our new Garmin Forerunner it's first outing :)
Back in 20 minutes...


We did it - brilliant :) The watch was amazing and beeped us at every kilometer - we love it :)
We are trying to find away to share the routes we are doing from the garmin website - I will work it out so you can see where we run each time and a few other statistics from our runs.

Until now, we have been doing our training in the gym and on a treadmill, so it was great to do a road run today.

Talk soon.

Week 1: Session 3 of our Training Programme

Today we had to do a 20 minute run at an easy pace!

It went well and I felt ok, although the time ticked by very slowly - what's it going to be like when we need to do a 200 minute run!!!

Tomorrow is a rest day :)