Alison Angier Diary

Oh my how time flies!! It was eleven weeks ago that I injured my groin. I have not been able to run as the injury was quite severe. I have been getting more tired due to lack of exercise. I have done a bit of power walking to try to get some cardio exercise with my running buddy Jenni. It was really refreshing and made me feel so much better.

My groin was pulling and I did end up with a bit of a dead leg afterwards but it soon recovered. I admit that I have been quite scared to even attempt running in case I tore the muscle again. If I do too much, it kindly reminds me that it is still not fully healed by giving me a stab.

But!! I add, today Jenni and I started out walking for about a mile and a half and I told her as it had been eleven weeks I would like to try a jog to see how it feels. She was really good and told me not to push it too hard so we did a gentle jog. At first, my legs felt like they were burning as they had forgotten how it felt to run.

I was very nervous and could feel myself being really tense in my right hip. I tried to relax and go with it but I was very aware that I was not fully recovered. My groin was pulling but was not painful. It felt very tight so I am glad we did the walk first. We did one mile, which is a milestone for me. I was very pleased as I could still walk afterwards. We walked for a bit more to cool down and relax the muscles and did some gentle stretches afterwards.

Even as I write this, I am aware that I have the injury still as it slightly aching and feeling a little tight. All the scar tissue needs stretching and mobilising before I can even think about running further than a mile. I will take things very slowly over the coming weeks and hopefully I will be able to return to the running club soon.

My physio could not fit me in for a few weeks so I have not had any treatment for about four weeks now. I know that is not very good but sometimes they are so busy. I am going to see how things go without it but if it doesn’t improve with gentle jogs and walks, then I will have to book in where they can fit me in regularly.

I have missed out on a lot of races which I had wanted to do, but it can’t be helped. Peter, who is 79 and still running and exercising six days a week, is an inspiration and I think he is an amazing man to be able to be so committed and to still help others like me. Good luck in Billericay next weekend!!

Next year I am determined to enter races along side Jenni and Peter and have no injuries all season. fingers crossed!!

Thank you to Jenni and Peter for your on going support!

The time had come for ROO and I to part company (sniff), but with David working away and needing his car for the long journey every Monday to Manchester, two seats in ROO was not really appropriate any more.

I have had three fantastic fun years driving ROO and caring for him, but realistically he was no longer the right car. With two children I needed four seats. The summer holidays were hard as we had to go to town by bus which cost more than petrol and parking. We didn’t travel any distance as the further you go, the more expensive it got. The bus and trains were certainly ridiculous prices.

So last weekend, after much thought, I went looking for a replacement. I was not disappointed in my choice in any way shape or form!! I am now the proud owner of a MINI COOPER SPORTS!! Oh Yes!!

I am still going to leave my blog heading with my MGF as it will be a small comfort to me. Bye Bye ROO and I hope you will be happy with your new owner.

Well as you know I still have not been able to run. I managed to get in to see a Physio for treatment to my groin injury.

The injury was quite severe as I had done a lot of damage to my groin, adducter muscle and yet again my ham string. My first Physio session was extremely painful and brought tears to my eyes. I was sweating as it was so painful. She told me I would be out for quite a few weeks to come. I had to book two sessions for this week and I was absolutely petrified to go, but had to.

It was not as bad as I thought it would be, but still very sore. Fridays session was more painful as I had overstretched whilst doing my exercises that Fiona had given me. I have learned from that and am now being very gentle.

I have no idea how many sessions I will have to have to aid recovery, or how long it will be before I can start running again. I see so many people and feel a bit fed up because I am missing out. I know I will have to take much more care when I do start again. I also know that I will have to take running slowly and not go too far too soon. I have decided not to return to the club until I am fully fit as advised by my Physio. I feel a long slow slog coming just in time for those cold long winter nights. OH JOY!!

I am not a very happy runner at the moment. Three weeks ago, I sustained a groin injury which was aggravated tripping over a tree root in some woods I was running through with some club members. By the end of that run I could barely walk let alone run.

I thought that resting up on holiday would be enough to make it better and to be able to resume running when I got back. I was wrong of course and I was disappointed in having to pull out of a race this weekend.

I have itchy feet and want to run. I have tried a couple of times this week but it pulls before I get very far down the road. I am angry as I want to get going and I can’t. It is very frustrating!! I was doing so well and was enjoying my running. I was keeping up with some of the fastest members of our group and now I know when I get back, I will be behind again. It takes so long to build up your fitness and speed and only such a short time to lose it again.

I have been keeping in touch with friends at the club to see how they are doing and which races they are doing. I want to be fit for a race in two weeks time. It is only a 10k so not too far. I am going to contact a Physiotherapist on Wednesday if I can’t get further down the road tomorrow. GRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS TIFF ON YOUR OUTSTANDING GCSE RESULTS!!!!
We are so proud!! All the hard work that Tiff has put into her school work has paid off and she was rewarded with 10 GCSE’s.

All her grades were C and above. She is so pleased with herself and the fact that it cost her dad loads of money. He set a price on every grade C and above and when Tiff opened her envelope yesterday she was overwhelmed by her efforts. After it had sunk in, she quickly worked out what her dad owed her and emailed him an invoice. I thought it was so funny. David phoned and said he had received it and said she was cheeky. He did honour her the invoice so she is a very happy bunny now.

She is off to 6th form next week to enroll on to the courses she wants to take. She wants to take Psychology, Tudor History, English Literature and Drama.

We really hope that all her dreams come true. She knows how proud all of our family and friends are of her, especially us parents and grandparents.

So WELL DONE TIFF!! We are so very proud of you!! xx

I have been really pleased with my progress regarding running lately. I knocked two minutes off my time for the 10k a couple of weeks ago and this Sunday I knocked two minutes off my fastest 7 mile run.

My running buddy, Jenni, Is doing the Dartford half marathon in a few weeks time, so we decided to do a reasonably long run together yesterday. It was raining very hard so we put off going out for as long as possible. We decided to go for it and found that it was actually quite nice to run in the rain while it was heavy. We both had rain jackets on so we didn’t get too wet.

Our pace was comfortable and we chatted from time to time to make sure we were both ok. The rain did ease off after a while so we dried out a bit. The hills were a bit challenging as we were trying to maintain a fast pace from what we normally do. We did recover on the flats quite quickly so we were able to keep going.

We were both feeling it as we approached home and were desperate to keep going at a fast pace right to the end. Once we reached our target mileage, we slowed down to a fast walk to cool down. We did all of our stretches to prevent muscle pulls and then checked our time. We completed 7.02 miles in 1 hour 2 minutes. We were both so pleased with that.

My thoughts were thinking about Jenni having to do almost the whole route again in her half marathon. The thought was actually quite scary. I know we both did the 10 miles at Great Baddow a few weeks ago, and I think it is less daunting when you don’t know the actual route you are doing. When you know the route, you know how far it is to go when you get to certain points and I think it makes you more tired because you can picture it in your mind.

Well all I can say is, GOOD LUCK JENNI, YOU CAN DO IT!!

So far so good. The bunnies have been sharing the same hutch for a couple of weeks now and seem to be getting on well. They had their moments in the beginning but now cuddle up to each other and clean each other, so that’s a good sign.

Barney is still adorable and loves to be stroked and cuddled and Bubbles is starting to let us near her to stroke her. If you sit on the ground, she will let you near her, but if you are standing, she runs away. We came to the conclusion that she feels threatened by tall or large objects, so making yourself smaller makes her more trusting.

Hopefully one day soon, she will be a friendly as Barney.

Hi it’s me again. It’s been a couple of busy weeks since I last wrote. But here I am again with the latest update.

Well I don’t know if I ever mentioned that we bought a companion for Barney the bunny. Her name is bubbles and she is still a very young bunny. She is the same breed of bunny as Barney.

Bubbles is a crazy bunny and she darts around the garden and Barney, who is so laid back, just watches and lets her get on with it. It is quite funny to watch. They do go up to each other and play when they are loose in the garden.

When we first got her, we put her in the run so that they could see each other but not meet. Barney had had a visit to the vets at Easter, so we had to keep them apart for at least eight weeks. Now they can play freely without us having to worry about additions to the family.

They were a little nervous of each other in the beginning when we finally let Bubbles out of the run, but it didn’t take long for bunnies to be bunnies…….. Now, they just run around. There was a bit of fighting going on in the beginning, but we guessed it was territorial. We think Barney won, because when he goes near her now, she cowers down. She does not seem frightened at all, just submissive I think.

The other night, we tried them in Barney’s hutch and we were really surprised that they were both so comfortable that they just sat together. We left them for a couple of hours to see how they went. I didn’t want to risk leaving them all night just in case they started fighting. This weekend, we are going to see how they go for a night and if they are ok, Bubbles will move in permanently. We will keep her hutch for a bit until we know they will be fine together.

I can not believe I let myself be talked into doing a 10 mile race! I had no idea what the course would be like apart from it was advertised as undulating. Well I can assure you it was blooming hard work!!

The furthest I had run before was 9 miles, but that was quite flat really. Well today was far from flat!! In fact I can not even remember if there was much flat at all!

It was a very hilly course going through three villages and was on roads and paths. There was quite a bit of traffic on the roads but they were very considerate. Some of the paths were hard to run on so we tried to keep to the roads as much as possible. Jenni my friend from the running club came with me and we stuck together the whole time. I knew she was quite capable of going much faster but she loyally stayed with me.

Once we got to the 6 mile mark, we were actually quite comfortable and had had some water on route from the water stations. There had been some quite steep hills and it was a relief to actually have a little down hill run. That of course didn’t last long as the hills were there yet again.

At 7 miles, I started to feel a bit tired and my legs started to ache. I was beginning to think it was an impossible task. It seemed ages to reach the 8 mile marker but we were relieved to see it.

The last 2 miles were the hardest!! I was certainly feeling it in my legs and my fingers were starting to feel like bananas. And what did we see as we ran past the 8 mile marker?? Yet another hill!! We were stunned as it was quite steep and sweeping. I couldn’t wait to get to the top. Jenni seemed much fresher than I did and to me, didn’t seem to be struggling. I know I was.

The 9 mile marker came and went and it felt like a very long way. We were on the home straight and I was so tired. Jenni kept me motivated to keep going and it was so hard. When I saw the 400 metre mark I was so relieved, then the 200 and suddenly we could see the finish line. We made the last effort to sprint for the line and were very relieved to cross it. The time was 1 hour, 40 minutes and 50 seconds.

What an achievement!! At the moment I don’t feel like I want to do anything like it again, but you never know.

Wow I just couldn’t believe it when I found out!!

Yes today was The Race for Life in Castle Park. The weather was reasonable even though it was wet. Not too much rain was falling. The atmosphere was amazing as always and everyone was so hyped up. The local radio station was there playing music and supporting everyone taking part. It is such a fantastic event to take part in and it is an amazing feeling.

I managed to get in the front line this time and it was thrilling to see all the people lined up alongside the fences clapping and cheering. The count down was intense and everyone was fidgeting. When the horn blew I just went for it as fast as I could as I didn’t want to get caught up in the throng as we approached the gates. It was weird not seeing loads in front of me on the first lap. I had my ipod on but was not really paying attention to the music. I just wanted to set my breathing right with my pace. I only actually had one ear piece in so I was aware of what was going on around me.

When I got through the gates by the bridge to go towards the pond, there was hundreds of people lining the path. I was so happy to see my friend and work colleague Jacqui there waving at me and spurring me on. I was so pleased to see David and the kids calling me and spurring me on with praise. It gave me a real boost.

Running up past the Roman wall was very hard as I had gone quite fast on the first lap and did the first mile in only 8 minutes and 20 seconds. The second mile was slightly slower but not by much. I started catching up with the walkers when I was half way round on my second lap. I only could say excuse me as I didn’t have enough breath to say thank you. They did move out of the way but it was very difficult to get round some of them.

I was determined to find a sprint finish so tried to speed up once I was on the path round by the pond. I really went for it when I got clear of walkers and made a sprint for the finish line. I could hear Tiff and James shouting to me and I could hear the cheers from the crowd. I looked at the clock as I crossed the finish line and stopped my ipod too.

My time was 26 minutes and 22 seconds. I was so pleased and when David told me he counted as people crossed the line and I was 18th I was stunned! The distance was 3.15 miles so just over 5k. I picked up my medal and bottle of water and waited for David and the kids to come over. I waited for some of my friends from the running club to finish so that I could congratulate them. They all did really well and I was so pleased for them all.

When we got home, I updated my ipod to my computer where I track my runs and times. I was so amazed as I actually completed the 5k in 25 minutes and 57 seconds. I set a new personal best for myself so I am so thrilled with that.

I want to thank everyone who has supported me in my training and those who have sponsored me for such a worthy cause. so Thank you so much!. I will post the amount I have raised this year when I have a final total.