2014 TdF Grand Départ Stage 2

As the majority of avid cyclists and UK residents know this past weekend was the beginning of the Tour de France and the Grand Départ started in Yorkshire. While we didn't make it up north to view the first stage we were able to travel to Sheffield to watch near the finish line on the 2nd day.  Another thing ticked off my bucket list!!! While it wasn't France, it still was such an awesome thing to be a part of and according to a lady in my Tuesday Nordic Walking class whose son lives in Paris, even the French media was impressed with the record turnout and enthusiasm from England ;-)

Because we had a late start we decided to park just off the city centre and take the tram to Meadowhall. This served two purposes, we wouldn't have to deal with car traffic and it gave my partner a chance to show me the area.

Check out the Tour Maker shirt to the right, wish I'd thought to have volunteered

People watching

People watching II

The yarn bombed bikes of The Woolly Bike Trail at Sheffield Cathedral

Pub lunch and tram ticket

Waiting for the cyclists.  Yes I wore very impractical shoes to traipse about in but you gotta admit they are cute

McCain Chips publicity caravan vehicle

Yorkshire Tea

Carrefour polka-dot jersey themed caravan

Lead racer at this point, he zoomed by to quick for us to get a good pic

Jens Voigt in the Polka-Dot jersey

Yellow Jersey

The Team Sky kit looks GOOD.

Media helicopter

Zoomed in on the other side just before the 1 km banner

Stormtrooper cyclists

Stormtrooper cyclists II, as you can see they created quite a stir

Ummm, I don't think he is an official part of the TdF! Still got lots of cheers though and good on him

Go home, it's all over! A few of us stayed to the end

That didn't go well

Last night was the Carsington BDL race with the club and it didn't quite go as well as I would have liked.  Not sure what the deal was with my legs but they were HEAVY and I was having severe abdominal issues of the sort that had me wondering if I was going to make it to the finish line.  At least I have figured out the issue that is causing the current problems--bad news is that peanut butter is now a no-no for me so I have to figure out what a good protein will be on run and race days.  Since most are now in the evenings not eating isn't an option like it is for morning workouts and I have to watch the carbs because of my hypoglycemia.  Oh well, the race is done and dusted and I think everyone in the club did quite well. My performance is just frustrating because the Saturday and Sunday runs had been so great.

As you can see from the elevation chart this course is quite undulating, something I normally would enjoy on a short race. It's too bad this is such a distance from where I live, I would love to be able to run here more because those short hills make for great training.  There were flashbacks to the Valentine's Day 5k RRCA Grand Prix race I used to run in Arkansas before they split it up into different heats with how packed the start line was though. It was so cramped in that my garmin temporarily lost satellite signal!

Events and injuries

I've let too many races slip by without recording the times or even doing a random race recap, bad blogging form!!!  One of the many perks of joining a running club here is that we get several races per year for free in the BDL leagues and there is almost always a discount of at least £2 on other types of races.  Of course there is the bigger picture of having like minded people to hang out and train with at least twice a week, that camaraderie is priceless. So that brings me back to the first sentence of this post, there are too many races for me to recall! I've done several BDL races, one of which I managed to get a top 3 age category place in--something I didn't think I was ever going to see here in the UK, the competition is FIERCE--, a couple of parkruns, a half marathon, a fell race, a 5k I Nordic walked and I also got to tag along on an Orienteering event.

Along the way I also managed to sprain my  right ankle near the end of May right when my training was starting to fall into place and the times were falling again.  The sprain was actually the 2nd incident of the run, at around 1.5 miles in I caught some jagged shrub branches from where the canal trail had just been groomed that sent me sprawling (haze and sun combined made it difficult to see and I may have been watching a hot air balloon instead of paying attention to the trail).  Got up, looked around to make sure no one was around to see my mishap, assessed the damage and decided to keep on trucking........big mistake, another couple of miles in I took a detour to avoid ankle deep water and slipped into a hole and there was the all too familiar sound and feel of things popping.

Damages from the first fall

Sprained foot

This time around I took a proactive approach to rehabbing the sprain because I didn't want to be out several months like I was a few years ago when I did the traditional method of rest. I also knew it wasn't broken because I was able to stand on it with full weight with no pain three days after, if there had continued to be pain I would have gone for an x-ray at that point.  Lots of stretching, flexing, calf raises, and balance board work started just as soon as I could handle load bearing and I also utilized ice far less because research I had done indicated that it would prolong the healing process rather than help it.  Not saying anyone else should do what I've done but this time my strategy towards rehabbing the ankle worked.  

Events pre-injury

Derby 10k 

runNTU 5k group pic

runNTU 5k near the finish

Wirksworth Wiggle 10k

Best splits ever. May club handicap race

Favorite bib number

World Nordic Walking Day

Events after injury

Ramathon Half Marathon at start

Ramathon finish line

Ramathon medal

Ilkeston Running Club at the Hairy Helmet Real Ale Relays 

Best race swag!

First orienteering event (where I sprained my thumb!)

Funny face after the Derwent River Relays

Quick note, the Ramathon half marathon was my personal worst at the distance but I knew going doing it 3 weeks after the sprain that it wasn't going to be a speedy race.  I simply ran what I could and walked when I needed to, I stopped and stretched several times, talked to volunteers and other participants and generally made the best of the situation, I was going to get a finisher's medal regardless of my time :-).  One of the best conversations came towards the end when I started chatting with a girl for whom this was her first ever half and I loved being able to share in the joy at her achievement.  

An April Day Out

So much has happened this spring and I've let it all slip past me without writing about it, tis a shame because every so often I enjoy going back through the archives and reading my "diary" as a reminder of what has occurred.  

We visited Creswell Crags in mid-April where I donned this oh so attractive bump cap/hard hat so that we could take one of the cave tours. Gorgeous place that reminded me of where I grew up and made me a wee bit homesick.

Creswell Crags

Bouquet in a heart shaped tree

After exploring there and re-fueling with tea at the visitor's centre we drove over to visit the Mattersey Priory ruins, an English Heritage site that is well off the beaten path and is almost literally in someone's back garden. 

The approach in 

Old meets new

It never ceases to amaze me that so many ruins exist and are so well preserved.  Yes, quite a lot has been lost and destroyed but the fact that you have this sort of thing nearly everywhere you go kind of blows my mind at times.  I'm shite with remembering dates and chronologies but this makes history much more accessible to me.  

Happy Independence Day

Hello Fourth of July from the United Kingdom! As a surprise my partner arranged to buy a proper American flag and at midnight British time hung it out and snapped a photo of it.  Needless to say it created quite a stir amongst the neighbours!

Of course he's also been playing the opening chords of "Born in the USA" every few minutes just to drive me nuts.  While I am a fan of Bruce Springsteen, I think Tom Petty and The Hearbreakers "American Girl" is more appropriate today.

Blooms a'blooming and swans a'nesting

My first spring in England and it's been a glorious year for it.  Apparently it is slightly milder than usual and the sun the past few days has been blissful even though it fakes you out and makes you think it is much warmer than what it really is.  The back garden patio has been getting some use both as a place to sip our tea and coffee while basking in the aforementioned sunshine and as a workout area--the latter has greatly relieved my partner because he has been having visions of me losing grip on a kettlebell mid-swing and it flying through the French doors or front window, lol.

Another thing I'm enjoying about here are the endless blooms. I'm sure I'm driving people crazy on facebook with my constant pictures of various flora and asking them to identify it for me.  Spring in the US midsouth is gorgeous but there has always seemed to be a two week time limit on the life of jonquil and daffodil season (I might be exaggerating a little) and here they are still going strong a month after I first noticed them blooming.  Since these are my favorite flowers this makes me a very happy woman every time I'm outside.

The mutts and I also discovered that it is swan nesting season on a walk along the nearby canal trail. The one closest to us is disused as a waterway and that means the swans are able to build their nests in the middle of the canals.  Expect lots of pics in the coming weeks of the progress since there are two nesting within a mile of our walk.  The 2 photos I have are from my phone but we will be venturing out with the good camera soon in order to get better quality ones.

I haven't mentioned it here but I became a certified Nordic Walk Leader through the British Nordic Walking/INWA course at the end of March.  To borrow another fb quote from right after I got my certification, "I can't teach you but I can get you lost!" I was told quite firmly though that getting people lost during sessions is kind of frowned upon, lol!!!!  I am very much enjoying the nordic walking and looking forward to learning how to run with them soon, best yet I'm meeting people that I wouldn't ordinarily get a chance to chat with during our Tuesday morning classes.

All in all, life has been quite good lately. I have had several adventures that need to be blogged about and just as soon as I find the memory card reader so I can transfer images from the camera to the computer then hopefully I can get some posts up soonish. 

Craving

Is it weird to be craving a run? To be specific, a lung-bursting, quad-burning, heart pounding trail run. The kind where you are dancing around the rocks and praying for the climb to end yet you are feeling so fully alive and in the moment. A run where you are not concerned about speed, simply taking in what's around and in front of you. Best of all, a run where once you reach the top of a hill it's not just the effort that has taken your breath away but the spectacular view laid out in front of you.

Besides I think it's time my Dirty Girl bombshell gaiters came out to play in the UK, I don't think I've worn them since the Sylamore 25k back in 2012. And folks, that is entirely too long.

Obviously pre-race

Race Report-Newton's Fraction

It's been a while since I've done one of these, eh? Not sure I remember how.......

Flashing my Brooks Fanatics tee

Last year I ran the Stafford Half Marathon and I started to sign up for it again but stumbled upon the Newton's Fraction Half Marathon which was one of the top 10 as voted on by Runner's World readers in 2012 so thought I would give it a go instead.  Unlike last year where the weather was so cold that runners were coming in to pick up their t-shirts and medal (I've never ran a race where you had the option to pick up the medal before it started until Stafford) and immediately going back home, Sunday was absolutely gorgeous--slightly too warm for a spring race in my opinion but I loved the sunshine.  The winds, predicted to be up to 33 mph, I could have done without though.

The sideways ponytail? That's not from me tossing my head playfully

Miles 1-4 went well leading me to think I might be able to keep the 8:40 something pace I wanted to ensure a sub 2 hour. I'd skipped the first water stop at 3.5 because of a queasy stomach and drinking when I feel that way already leads to me needing to find a Porta Loo or some trees very quickly. Gross but true. Oh, I did have a garmin malfunction just past mile 1, it did the lost satellite reception thing then tried to freeze up. Fortunately I was able to shut it down and get it restarted with only losing .2 of a mile. 

The tummy did do what I feared and started rumbling towards the end of mile 4 so between that and the first big hill at mile 5.5ish my pace dropped to a low of 10:33 for mile 6. I did find someone to chat with for 3 miles which got me back under a 9 minute pace but then around mile 9.5 I started feeling like the nail on my left big toe was being ripped away.  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Going up the other big hill at mile 10.25 made it throb even worse and I was vowing to never enter another half marathon. It was such a relief to be told finally that the finish line was within half a mile but I couldn't even manage to pick up the pace once I got on the track. Actually I got slower, lol.  

The end is in sight! After a lap around the track that is

Despite the toe and tummy issues I did enjoy most of the course. I love running canal trails and back roads plus the view of Belvoir Castle was amazing.   The area of Denton that we ran through was quite pretty as well. The only complaint I would have was that the final 1.5 miles wasn't quite as nice as the rest of the course but you have to get back somehow on an out and back.  This isn't a personal best course in my opinion and if you are a bling collector you will be disappointed because there were no medals, only finishers shirts which were a bit plain (no logo on back, small logo on corner of the chest).  The goodie bag was also a bit sparse especially when compared to the one from the Rushcliffe 10k. The only extra besides food was a trial size tube of toothpaste--hmmm, wonder what they were trying to say, lol.  A big thank you to all the course marshals and volunteers, everyone seemed to be pleased to be out there--that probably had a lot to do with the beautiful sunshine though :-) 

Not happy about the 32 seconds over 2 hours but happy to be done!

So back to the toe. I was dreading pulling off my shoe because I was expecting a bloody mess but fortunately I (and everyone else on facebook because I would have taken pics) was spared that.  Turns out that the Compeed callous plaster I'd placed on the side of my foot had started to come loose and when it did it was catching on my sock which then was catching the side of the nail and pulling it up with each step I was taking. Extremely painful yes but no permanent harm done this time, whew.  

Click to enlarge

Mileage and time is off because of the Garmin issue

  

feeding the mutts

Who knew searching for a good quality dog food that will suit both the mutts would be such a time-consuming task.......back in the states I fed them Hills Science Diet which is a good basic food that is readily available most anywhere--a must if you are (or in my case, were) a truck driver and got caught out for longer than normal. However Elsie suffers from Schnauzer bumps (kind of like blackheads but hers develop into giant nasty cysts) that is exacerbated by cereals and grains and Ben has a sensitive stomach so I've decided to find a better quality food here in the UK.  

The only one I've tried so far is Applaws Chicken small and medium breed and I'm nearing the end of it. The problem with it is that my partner absolutely despises the smell of the food itself and  Ben has the rankest gas ever on it.  On the other hand, Elsie hasn't had a single Schnauzer bump since the changeover and her scent is just better--she has always had whatever the doggie version of BO is, poor girl. 

So I need a dog food that is as natural as possible, grain-free, and has at the very least Glucosamine Chondroitin added. I would prefer cranberry as well due to Elsie's history of urinary infections and bladder stones and because of the partner, something that doesn't have fish as the main ingredient.  Back to the research grindstone for me, any suggestions would also be very welcome.