Hey all,

I can’t believe it’s been nearly a month since I last wrote anything, where does the time go!!

Training for the marathon is going really well, a couple of weeks ago we did our longest run in a while, which was a half marathon we did a great pace and felt really positive after.  It’s mad though how one week you feel great and the next when doing a drop down week of 10 miles we just wasn’t feeling it.  Not sure what it was, I just struggled with tired legs and couldn’t get in to it. I was a bit nervous this Saturday just gone when we jumped up to 16 miles, because of how I’d felt on the 10 miles, but again it couldn’t have been different I had one of the best long runs I have had in a long time, I felt really strong and that I’d got my nutrition right I just hope it wasn’t a fluke ha ha.

The injury in my foot has got loads better, I have done lots of stretching and went to see a physio who gave me some more stretches to do and massaged my foot and achilles as that was causing a problem as well. She sorted it out in one session, fingers crossed it doesn’t come back!

I really wanted to start doing something a bit different that would make my running stronger, work on my core and tone me up, so I signed up to the 90 day Body Coach plan a month ago and I can’t believe how different I feel in a month, especially with my running.  At first the HIIT sessions were tough, I thought I’d be ok being a runner but god I felt so unfit ha ha.  Towards the middle of the first month I started to feel stronger both on the HIIT sessions and when I was running.  The food is a bit different to what I have been eating over the last year as well, it has more carbs in the plan, I think that’s what I was missing because I also feel like I have more energy.  If your a bit like me and want to do something different other than your running, I would definitely recommend the plan!

I really hope changing my eating habits along with the HIIT sessions helps me have a better marathon experience.

This Saturday we are doing 18 miles, I just hope the snow stays away for us to do the run.

I’ll let you know how we get on, fingers crossed it goes as well as last week!

Have a great week x

 

 

I’ve done it, I’ve gone and entered another marathon arghhhh!!

Training has gone quite well over the last couple of weeks, last Saturday I lowered my mileage to 6 miles and then went back up this week and did 11 yesterday.

It was a good run yesterday, me and Michelle started off and then met some of the running girls after we’d done 4 miles and they did the extra 7 with us.  It was really nice as it broke the run up and took our minds off our legs feeling very heavy towards the end.  I usually don’t get hungry when I’m running, it usually takes me an hour or so after to even feel hungry.  But yesterday I felt hungry most of the way round, so I obviously hadn’t eaten enough for breakfast in the morning but I definitely made up for it after ha ha!  After all these years of running I still struggle to know what is the best breakfast to have before a long run.  Any suggestions would be helpful!

My legs and glutes are really throbbing today and my feet were swollen this morning, so it’s feet up high with my compression bottoms on being waited on ha ha, I could get used to this.

So after our 11 mile run, over coffee we had a chat with some of our running friends about doing the 20 mile race and wondering whether to go on and do a full marathon after it.  One of the girls said it would be a waste to just do the training, then the 20 mile race and not go on to do a marathon, that really got us thinking and we both decided to just do it and booked the Manchester marathon on 8th April!! I am feeling really nervous as been as I had a bad time on my last marathon, but I’m hoping it will be a lot different this time, one being Michelle will be there this time so I won’t be running on my own and I won’t have a really long taper this time.

Our plan is to do the 20 mile race, do a 10 mile run for the 2 weekends after then on to the marathon, fingers crossed it all goes better this time for me!

Think I need to get some new trainers again, its been six months but I find the balls of my feet start to hurt when I need to change them and that was the case yesterday when I ran.  I’m going to need to get them soon, as I will need to break them in before the really long miles start.  I have really high arches in my feet, so I do get problems with my feet sometimes.  Has anyone got any suggestions for trainers that are good for high arches?

Have a great week x

Hey all,

Hope your having a nice weekend so far.

What a difference a week can make of healthy eating and no alcohol, I did my first training run of 7 miles last Saturday in preparation for the 20 mile run.  I felt brilliant, it was the first run in a long time I have really enjoyed.  I could have done more and probably should have if I felt like that, but I knew we’d got 9 miles this week and didn’t want to push it too much on my first long run back.

This week I have done a couple of HIIT sessions at the gym, they are done on a Watt bike and really get your heart racing and a sweat on ha ha.  What I do is 40 seconds of just turning the legs over and then push the gear up to max and do 20 seconds as fast as I can and keep repeating that for 20 minutes, I literally felt sick at the end of the sessions ha ha, but also felt like I’d done a brilliant work out!  I did a 5 mile run on Wednesday, I just took it easy though as I knew I had another long run today, although I felt a little niggle in my hamstring, which I have been rolling out ever since.  I could feel it on the run today, so I’m hoping a bit of ice and rolling it out will make it better.

On the run today I felt quite tired, not so much my legs just my body in general, not sure whether it’s the HIIT sessions in the week or just another off day.  I still enjoyed it though and it went really quick with us having a good old chin wag ha ha!  I’m glad I had a sports drink with me, felt like I needed a boost today!  We’re dropping down to about 5/6 miles next week, which will be nice and then up again the week after, it will soon be here and then time to decided whether to carry on and do a marathon again arghhhh!!

Like I say I’m back on the healthy eating now and feel so much better for it, I don’t feel as heavy going up the hills anymore ha ha!! I can’t do dry January though, that would be way too hard to stop eating naughty things as well as give up my prosecco ha ha!!  I hope whatever you have decided your goal is in January it’s going well!

I’ve decided I’m going to keep a track of how many miles I do this year, I wanted to do it last year and forgot to start writing them down at the start of the year.  Just thought it would be interesting to see how many miles I actually do in a year.

That’s me for this week.

Have a nice rest of your weekend x

 

Hey all,

Happy New Year, hope you all had a great Christmas.

I didn’t post anything over Christmas as I honestly didn’t do that much and would probably have bored you anyway ha ha!!

I have really struggled to motivate myself through December and not really enjoyed any run I have been on, I was literally forcing myself to go out just to feel like I was doing something, and then couldn’t wait to get back!  I don’t think the weather helps, but I also felt like I was falling out of love with running and enjoying going to the gym instead.  I know I’ve said previously I have had to run through spells when not enjoying it, but this time it felt different and couldn’t put my finger on why.  I suppose it might be to do with having such a big year and everything was based around running!

My first run of the year wasn’t the best either, my legs were really heavy and I felt the weight I had put on over Christmas was definitely slowing me down on the hills ha ha!  I ran with Michelle and we discussed how we’re both feeling and came to realise we actually deserved to have a bit of a chill month in December.  We worked really hard last year up to the marathon and we shouldn’t be so tough on ourselves, we should just take each run as it comes and not put any pressure on ourselves.  It made me feel better that someone else was feeling the same, I know I do put a bit of pressure on myself when it comes to my runs so that needs to stop this year!

Oh my god me and Michelle only have 10 weeks to get ready for our next event, which is 20 miles arghhhh!  So as of tomorrow training is back on and we’re going straight in at 7 miles, I’m looking forward to the long runs again and I’m hoping it will get me back into the routine of running again.

Not sure about another marathon yet, i’m going to see how the 20 mile run goes first then make a decision.  It’s hard to know which one to do as well, I’d really like to do one of the main ones, so I have Manchester in mind but we’ll see.

I would also love to work towards my sub 2 hour half marathon this year, which is possible if I did a full marathon early in the year.  I know my training would have to change a bit if I wanted to do the sub 2, I’d have to start doing some speed work for one.  But I would love to do it just once, as I’ve been chasing that for a long time now and I have come close once or twice so I know with a bit of hard work I can get there!

That’s me for now, I’ll let you know how the 7 miles went next week in my blog.

Have a lovely weekend x

 

Hey all sorry for not writing in a while, it hasn’t been that great running wise since the marathon and I didn’t just want to write negative stuff.

With my foot feeling better 2 and a half weeks after the marathon I went out and started running again, but my fitness had gone! It was tough being positive about getting out again and really wasn’t feeling it.  So I decided to hit the gym a bit more to get my fitness back up.

I realised I just had to keep running through this phase and I will soon enjoy it again.  I’ve been through a similar phase before and I knew it would soon go away, well I was hoping it would!

Around 4 weeks after the marathon I went out to do a 5 mile run and felt brilliant, I really enjoyed it and managed to do a pace that I haven’t done in a long time.  That was when I realised that I actually think my confidence had been knocked after the marathon, it was my own fault I just had it in my mind I’d get back to my pace and running how I used to run straight after the marathon.  How wrong I was!

Since then I’ve started to go back to my running club, which I’d stopped going to due to the training and I am really enjoying it and just doing what I want to do for a bit with no pressure of training for anything.

I do miss the long runs sometimes though and am planning on getting back up to the long mileage after Christmas, but for now I’m just glad I’m enjoying my passion again.

Have a nice rest of the weekend x

 

What a few weeks its been since the marathon, emotions all over the place and to top it off I had an injury!!

The day I wrote my last blog I wasn’t in a great place I felt really low, I actually think it was that I couldn’t accept the time I’d done and felt really let down, but I am over that now and have accepted what I did was a major thing and am very proud of myself!!

I thought a couple of days rest would be fine and I’d be back to my normal routine, but the niggle in my foot that started after the marathon just got worse, which meant absolutely no running!  It’s such a big part of my life it took me a couple of days to get used to the fact that I couldn’t run, but knew I just needed to enjoy the rest.  After a week and a half’s rest I thought that was enough and went and joined my running club for my first run back, I was really looking forward to it, the niggle in my foot felt loads better, but as soon as I started I could feel the niggle.  I tried to put it to the back of my mind but it just got worse and I had to cut the run short.  I was gutted and the feet were up again with ice on and popping Ibuprofen to get the swelling down.  After a couple of  days rest I needed to do something so I started doing some cardio at the gym, which I really enjoyed and filled the gap of not being able to run.

Yesterday I managed a 10 minute run on the treadmill at the gym and there was no sign of the niggle, so I decided to go out for a run this morning and see how it felt on the road.  Thankfully it was all good, no niggles and managed 4 miles, it felt great to be out again and really loved the run yeahhhhh!

So what’s next……… well I have booked a 20 mile run in March ha ha, now I have got over the trauma of the marathon I can’t wait to start booking races again and maybe another marathon who knows ha ha?????

Have a fab weekend x

Oh my god I did a marathon, it still hasn’t sunk in!

What a marathon it was, I think I went through every emotion possible through those 26.2 miles.

When I turned up at the start I was really nervous as I was on my own and just wandered around not really knowing what to do with myself for an hour until it started, I rang my husband and he told me to just sit down and take it all in.  It was great to watch everyone getting ready in there own way, it took my mind off the run.

Before I knew it it was time to get in the pens and start the run, I made sure I stuck to a decent pace as I have made the mistake many times before to get carried along with the crowd and go to fast and then suffer later on in the run.

The support around the course was brilliant, people handing out sweets and water and really cheering you on calling your name and telling you your doing well.  The first half went well I managed to keep a steady pace and was consistent every mile, I felt good and was really positive.

Then at 17 miles the legs started to hurt and the negative thoughts started to enter my head that I’d still got 9 miles to go and I was starting to suffer.  I decided to walk for a bit and phone my husband to get my spirits up, but as soon as my husband answered I burst into tears, he was really positive and told me to just take the time to walk for a bit compose myself and I would start to feel better.  I did what he said and he was right I started to feel better mind wise but my legs just kept hurting especially my gluts (bum cheeks ha ha) and my IT bands.  I kept stopping and stretching them off and that did help, then the next emotion crept in and I started to feel angry about my body hurting and the fact that in training everything had felt so different in training, I put that anger to use and kept running.

Because it was a warm day I ran out of my energy drink quicker than I thought and couldn’t get an energy gel from the water stations for a while so I asked a man if he could spare me one as I felt like I was running out of all energy, he was so kind and gave me one and it helped for a bit.  But I think it had got to the point where nothing would help anymore and it was about digging deep and getting to the end.

At mile 22 my body just hurt that much and I didn’t have anything else left, I ended up walking which really got my down and I felt really deflated.  I ended up ringing my husband again and bursting into tears and just couldn’t wait to get to the end to see them.  I ended up running and walking the rest of the run, finally there was light at the end of the tunnel and I could see the finish it was such a relief!

At the end of the finishing tunnel was my husband and two children and every emotion came flooding out and the tears started flowing once again.

It was such a hard run and I am still suffering today, my feet are still swollen, my legs still hurt and I have the post run blues.  Which I think is the worst thing about afterwards, as you can’t really enjoy being proud of yourself and the fact of what you have just done doesn’t sink in, I’m sure this will pass as the days go by and it will finally sink in.

Everyone keeps asking me if I will do another one, the truth is I don’t know, I’ve learnt a lot from this one and would definitely change some things about the training and nutrition.  I feel like my body doesn’t actually need to taper and I would be better to train up to the day, because when I did 20 miles then the week after 10 miles then the week after 22 miles I felt great on that 22 miles and I think if I had carried on for the whole 26.2 I would have enjoyed the mileage.  But that 22 miles was my last run and it was 4 weeks before the marathon.  I think if I did do another one I would try the training up to the day and not taper and see how different it would be, as Sunday felt like I hadn’t trained properly.

I have really enjoyed writing this blog and I really hope I have inspired some people out there!  The plan was to just write my blog up to my marathon, but I have decided to carry on writing about my experiences and my highs and lows of running, dieting and exercise as it really helps writing it all down.

Thank you for all your support x

 

Nerves are really kicking in now, can’t stop going over the run in my mind but I don’t suppose that’s a bad thing as at least I’m thinking of a plan for each step.  Think I’m going to take each 10k as it comes and not think ahead of that, so I don’t get to over whelmed.

I have ran twice this week, a 20 minute run Tuesday which felt great again but really had to try hard not to go fast and force myself to slow right down ha ha, then Friday with my running club which was really nice as I haven’t been with them for a while, I ended up cutting it short at 4 miles though as I don’t want to do more than that at the moment.  I did feel tired towards the end and also had a niggle in the bottom of my foot by my arch, which I haven’t had before.  My husband who trains a lot for Ironman has told me you can get phantom niggles whilst tapering, I haven’t heard of this before so I have just looked in to it and it’s true!  The article I read says it’s the body’s rejuvenation process, I feel better now and have stopped panicking about every little niggle ha ha!

I am really craving sweet stuff and carbs this week, which apparently is also normal, at least it’s guilt free eating as I’ll probably burn over 3000 calories next week ha ha!

This is probably the last time I’ll write now before the big day, wish me luck and can’t wait to tell you all about it!

Have a great weekend and week x

OH MY GOD!!! I only have 2 weeks to go, I can’t believe how quickly it’s coming round.

When I first started the training at the beginning of July, it felt like it was ages away but I feel ready for it and am getting a little excited and also nervous especially because i’ll be at the start line on my own!

I managed to get 2 runs in and a gym session last week, the first run was great I felt like I could run for miles I wish the marathon had been on that day ha ha.  I felt very tired when I did my gym session and ended up cutting it short, as I know I have to listen to my body at the moment.  The next run was a 5 mile run and it was pants ha ha, I felt tired and like my legs weren’t my own again and also had a few mental battles, but I have been told this is all normal when tapering.

It’s time to start cutting my runs to really short ones now, so going to do 2 runs this week a maximum of 20-30 minutes long to just keep the legs ticking over and then next week it’s guilt free eating all week yeahhhhh!!!

If anyone has any tips on what foods would be good for me to eat in preparation next week, I’d love to hear them.

Have a great week x