old lady running

What to wear?   One of the things I have discovered about running is that, if you want to do the hard yards, you have to know what to wear. Not in a ‘do I look good in that?’ sense, because there is no way on God’s earth that old ladies (and even young ones for that matter) will ever look good running. No. What I mean is that that you have to know about the right clothes for the job if you want things to run smoothly. I know what you’re thinking. . . what’s there to know?! Surely it’s all just shorts and T shirts. And more shorts and T shirts. “Just pick a nice colour and get on with it,” you’re thinking.   Well, that’s what I thought too. But this turns out not to be completely so!   For a start -   what sort of shorts and what sort of T-shirt am I looking at. And do I need a jacket? With a hood? What about a thermal?. And socks? And caps. And knickers. . ., and shoes. . . .   Phew! I can feel a shopping expedition coming on. ....

Should I stay or should I go? It’s hosing down outside and I’m still in my PJs wondering if I dare to venture outside. Should I bite the bullet - don running shorts and T shirt and stretch these old lady legs?   Or not?   Would I be better off toeing the party line and joining the rest of the neighbourhood huddling sensibly under their duvets. Should I stay or should I go? It’s a hard one, especially so early on a Saturday morning.. The week, til now, has gone relatively smoothly. Three small runs completed without any major dramas. But today might be different. Hard bits are on their way. I can feel it in my waters, as my old Nan used to say. Hard bits include the ‘long’ run that I need do, without fail, before the day is done. The instructions say the ‘long’ run should be completed on either Saturday or Sunday.   Blimey! The hardest part of the training is definitely the ‘long’ run. The ‘long run’ is always slotted into the end of the week a...

The training schedule Pssst. . .   Would you like to see my training schedule? You can catch a glimpse if you scroll to the bottom of the page. But not before you’re done reading this blog post. Lol. (And I can’t let you see the whole thing because it’s been custom made and paid for) There’s a bit of a story behind my training schedule. I came by it after becoming so bamboozled by the squillions of running schedules available on line that I decided to buy one from a nice young lady called Lydia who looked like she knew what she was doing. If you google her (Lydia O’Donnell) you will be suitably impressed. She looks exactly like a Greek goddess but with abs. And it says on her website that she can run a marathon in 2:39:01. OMG! That is totally beyond comprehension!   But the best thing is that Lydia also looks like a really nice person who might even be interested in ‘old ladies running’.   On her website I selected ‘running programmes’ and set about ...

Today is ‘Day One’ of the training schedule! I have always been a sucker for ‘day one’. ‘Day one’ is like a ‘clean slate’. A new beginning. Fresh! Perfect! The start of something exciting! Nothing bad has happened yet. Because it’s only ‘day one’. The future stretches before you on ‘day one’, unblemished, untainted with any notion of failure.  The marathon training schedule I will follow is 16 weeks long and, it’s good to know that, on day one, I havent yet missed a single day of training. My record, so far, is perfect, on this very perfect day. Today is full of potential. And possibility. The sky is the limit and the world is my oyster. By the time I get to day ‘100’ I will have only 12 days to go. That’s when the shit could possibly hit the fan. I suspect that, by then, all those days I didn’t get out of bed in time will be starting to take their toll. But not yet! It’s only ‘day one’ and all those days I ruined by cheating and making excuses haven’t happened....

Hello sixty! Welcome to my ‘Old lady running’ blog. I don’t know who you are or what you are doing here. Maybe you are an old lady like me. Or someone who likes running. Or someone interested in old ladies who run. Or maybe you are none of the above. Perhaps you just like reading blogs. Or not!   You might just be bored and have stumbled upon me by mistake. Whoever you are and however you got here . . . welcome. This is a blog I have tried to start many times. But I never seemed to get enough traction to get it off the ground. (Or off the couch!) Anyway, 18th time lucky! This time I plan to get myself properly ‘up and running’.   The time is ripe.   Next month, I will officially become an ‘old lady’ . Next month I will turn the grand age of 60!.   Yikes!! In some cultures 60 is it! jTime to cash in your chips. The end of a pretty good innings. These days we would be feeling short changed if we ‘popped our clogs’ at 60.   Whichever way yo...