Halloween Fundraiser!

Morning readers! 

Today has given me another chance to discuss the People Like Me charity. For Halloween there will be a themed coffee morning... well, I say morning, it's actually 2-5, but then I suppose that would be morning for some... who knows?! 

Anyway... there will be cakes, face painting and other activities. If you are looking for Halloween fun with the wee ones today, then get yourselves to The Green Room in Brackley. 

I'd be there but I gots to work... rubbish!!

https://www.facebook.com/events/643417042439934/

I went for a run last night with Pete, trying to get ourselves ready for the Grim Challenge on the 7th December

http://www.grimchallenge.co.uk/grim-8/

It was a good run, think Pete felt more comfortable with it, he now has a support for his shoulder, I think it helps. Next week I am going to push him to run further as there is only approximately 5 weeks until the race.

When we got back, Pete got on the phone to Steph (from People Like Me) to discuss promotional t-shirts for raising awareness and sponsor forms, in addition to discussing a sofa bed... but that's a different story. 

I feel that this weekend may be a little chaotic! We have mini Pete this evening for Halloween fun, I'm in Uni tomorrow and we move house on Sunday... it just never stops! At least I am off work on Monday and Tuesday... result!

A change of plan is needed!

After my training last week, I have come to the realisation that I need a slight alteration. Historically I have done my big run on a Saturday, this is mainly due to the fact that, like most people, I do not want to do anything on a Sunday. As mentioned earlier, I am at University every Saturday until 13th December, this means that for the moment I have absolutely no choice but to run on a Sunday... whah!

I was, up until this week, doing my big run on a Sunday and then doing a 5k on a Monday morning, followed by a session in the gym Monday evening... I now see that this is absolutely ridiculous! 

This week the plan has changed. I did my big run on Sunday as usual (see previous post) then took Monday off to rest. I then went for my short run yesterday...

Much better! I was feeling very sluggish on Monday mornings, my legs were tired and achy, and it had a knock on effect on my energy for the rest of the week. I will continue with this pattern until I finish Uni and can start training on a Saturday again.

I went to the gym yesterday, so I best share that with you too! First of all, here is me at the gym... just for evidence sake, it's a gym selfie.

It was upper body yesterday so I started off on a cardio machine that I have absolutely no idea what it is called... I shall call it 'the rotatey army thingy-me-bob!'

From this I went on to the rower, for extra arm cardio...

I did 5 minutes on each, so 10 minutes arm cardio in total; as I had ran in the morning I didn't need to do much cardio at all.

After my stretch out I decided that, rather than using the resistance machines, I would use free weights to do a mixture of chest, back, shoulder, bicep and tricep excercises. 

I then followed this with some core, as I always finish with core. There were; weighted sit ups...

crunches, Russian twists, planks, leg raises and side planks, all mixed together!

To end the evening, I met my boy and off we went round to Mike and Allies house for a beautiful meal and time spent with friends. There should have been desert, but Pete left this at home... doh! It's probably a good thing though, I know I am burning more at the moment, but that is no excuse to eat rubbish!

Aaaarrrggh! The dreaded stitch!

Todays run was good in terms of feeling full of energy.

 However, what made it difficult was that throughout the run I got about 5 separate stitches. It's strange because I have not had a stitch in a long time and I had believed that I had left enough time following my breakfast... maybe not eh?

All I remember about stitches, from my Physical Education teacher at school, was that you inhale a deep breath slowly through your nose and then exhale slowly out of your mouth.

With little knowledge I decided to have a look online and it would seem that there is no definitive answer when it comes to what stitches are or why we get them. I did find, through all the variations of advice, that a breathing technique is key. The advice is that you are to exhale as the opposite foot to the side your stitch is on land on the floor. So... if your stitch is on your right side, exhale as you left foot lands.

The other bit of advice that seems to pop up on most sites is to do with food. Because most days I run very early in the morning, I generally don't eat before I run, but weekends are different, I do my distance run so make sure I eat before hand. I do however, feel that having scrambled egg on toast, then timing it with 3 episodes of Adventure Time is probably not the best way to do it 😊.

Well, you live and learn I suppose! Now for Sunday bumming about day!

Fundraiser.

The People Like Me charity, the reason I am raising awareness, and hopefully when the charity reaches it's target to become registered, I will be able to raise some funds myself, is having it's first fundraiser this Friday evening.

It's a fashion event! I know very little about fashion, I got stuck in the 90's grunge era and I am still rocking my hightops, at the 'sensible' age of 31; I am not sure this will ever change. However... for all you dedicated followers of fashion (Ooo... might be a song somewhere there) here is the poster for Friday evenings activities, if you live in the Oxfordshire/Northamptonshire area you should check it out!

Anyway... last night I... broke my training plan! I was doing so well, I had been for a 7.5k run in the morning and was meant to go to the gym in the evening, I was very proud of following it to the letter so far this week and do feel an element of guilt, but it was worth it. 

I have mentioned before that Pete has damaged his shoulder, his job is physically demanding so he is now struggling at work. He has been a little down and not feeling great so spending some time with him will always come first!

Instead we had a bite to eat and then went for a drink...

...but at least he has given in to all the 'nagging' and is now wearing his sling for some support...

Back on it tonight though, as tonight is Thursday nights swimming lesson and then we have been invited for dinner with two beautiful friends; Mike and Allie! Today should see a return to the busy, action packed craziness that is the norm!

It's all in the music!

Following my week of reduced motivation I went for a run yesterday... and this morning!

As I have explained earlier, I don't really have settled accommodation at the moment. In fact, I have moved home 4 times since January and this has led to disorganisation, which just does not work for me. I got a new iPhone a couple of months ago, but I had yet to put any music onto it, so Sunday, before my run, I sorted this out. I added the playlist which I put together for the Silverstone half marathon, I thought memories might spur me on. Turns out that it wasn't the memories of running, but actually the memories of being at the Sonisphere festival this year that got me bouncing along.

I did just under 10k, I'm not that impressed with the time, I have completed a 10k in 45 minutes before today, but I was running through town and there were a few points where I was having to run on the spot due to waiting for the lights to change... this is my excuse and I am sticking to it!

I do feel that there are some songs which may need deleting from my playlist. Alice in Chains slowed me down a little, and strangly enough I had a stitch the whole way through that one! Then ACDC came on and miraculously the stitch vanished! When Iron Maiden came on next there was no stopping me, mentally I was bouncing as I was pounding the pavement, being thrown back to festival memories of quite possibly one of the best performances I have ever seen!

and an amazing weekend spent with the boy, celebrating his 30th birthday!

This mornings run was a tough one, considering the run I did yesterday, but I am glad that I muddled through the 04:00 get up! Here are this mornings results...

Best pace myself for the rest of the day, I have the gym and an upper body workout planned for this evening... cannot wait!

Motivation... I will go for a run, I will go!

I have to be honest, this week has not been a good one, my motivation to train has taken a battering and I have been left feeling annoyed with myself.

Life is currently a juggling act, but at the same time I am dealing with disorganisation and a lack of personal space.

I am a full time manager for an undisclosed charity, which can at times be hard work and emotionally draining. I am currently at University studying at the weekends, which sometimes brings with it assignments to complete and tests to revise for mid week. My partner has his daughter at the weekends, and although I have weekend commitments, it is still important that I spend some time with her in order to maintain our friendship. We are currently living in a spareroom in my partners parents house, whilst we wait for our new flat to be ready.

It sounds like I am complaining... I'm not, life is good! I love my partner, I have a good job and my University course will hopefully bring about a massive career change, BUT... all this gets in the way of training... and training keeps me 'sane', it helps me, in a strange way, to manage all of the chaos.

So today I have been thinking about how to maintain motivation when life gets in the way...

I used to be somewhat larger than what I currenltly am, only by 2 stone, but 2 stone on someone who is only 5ft3 shows a bit. One of the best ways in which I lost the weight was to record everything, so in addition to this blog, which is certainly helping me to get my thoughts about my training out there, I am also going to start keeping a planner to record my fitness and food.

I have just purchased this one... 

There are so many on the market! I did look at one just for running, but I would like to record the other things that I do. I would also like to start recording what I am eating, because in the last couple of months I have slipped back into old habits! 

After an hour trawling the internet I found this, it's simple and flexible for different types of excercise... and it makes me record the water I am drinking, which I have to admit that I am not always on top of my hydration. I realise that it says 2014 on the cover, but the inside does not have dates and so far into the year, with a distance to go yet until 2015, I think this will have to do.

When looking through pages on the internet regarding 'fitness motivation tips', I came across a tip that stated, 'Do not beat yourself up!' The general jist of it was that life is hard, you are busy, other responsibilities get in the way. If every blue moon you feel like you need a break then have one, don't rip yourself apart over it, it's ok. I liked this, it made me feel slightly better about this week and I am now looking forward to getting back on top next week.

...and I cannot wait for my new fitness friend to arrive in the post!!

Go team! Or solo?

I am a lone wolf, there is nobody in my wolf pack... last night there was another wolf!

Running for me is not just about excercise, losing weight, keeping toned. In fact, for me these things come secondary to something much more. My boy describes his thinking time perfectly, he says that he spends this time putting things in boxes... this is what I do when I run.

Yesterday was quite a stressful day in the world of me, I would go into detail, but like most places of work I have a social media policy I must adhere to. I was meant to be training with my rounders team, but I just wanted to go home and I just felt like running. I wanted to pick the day apart and put it away in boxes.

I got home and my boy was waiting at the station... which is always nice. I never expect him to be there, I never place any expectations on him, he is free to be his own independant being. It is important to me that he knows this, I often tell him that he does not have to be there, it's my choice to use public transport, why should he have to collect me and be affected by my choices... but he does and that's nice.

Now, I have mentioned Pete (my boy) in an earlier post. Pete 'should' also be in training as he is entered into the Grim Challenge, with me and his friend Felix on 7th December. So far Pete has not been running, but in fairness to him, he is suffering with a shoulder injury which may need operating on, so we shall not judge.

Anyway... I got home last night, got into my usual Lycra nonsense and decided to ask Pete if he would like to come, as it was only a short run. I was not expecting him to say yes, but he did... the lone wolf had the makings of a pack!

Off we went and at a pace that I am not used to.

The problem with being a lone runner is that it becomes very obvious to others when you join a team. When I did Tough Mudder, Darren (an ex marine) informed me of this. I would often sit at the back, running about 2 metres behind the pack and not pushing myself to pick up pace. As a lone runner I have found a pace and I stick to it, I can go for miles at that pace, but the pace does not faulter, it does not increase, I do not challenge myself.

This all became blindingly obvious last night, although Pete has not built up his distance yet, as a boy of 6ft3 he has a longer stride than me and is faster than me. During the run, that was less than half the distance of my usual run, I started to struggle.

This has made me think...

In order to keep up with the boys during the Grim Challenge, I will need to train with the boys! Building up distance has always been easy for me, but picking up pace is another matter. Hopefully by adding a couple of evening runs 'man style', I might be able to change this.

It's all for a good cause

It would seem like people are getting very busy in the People Like Me camp. 

Just to reiterate, I am not just doing these challenges because I enjoy them, although I have to admit that this is a large part of it, I am doing it to raise awareness of the People Like Me charity.

If you live in the Oxfordshire area and would like to get involved in the cause, here is a link to see what upcoming events there are in the local area -

http://www.plikem.com/page3.html

Currently the charity is not registered, the aim for the moment is getting it to a point where it can be. Now is about raising awareness and throwing fundraisers, if you want to get involved then please do, every little helps

Training Plan

Woke at 04:00 ready for my run, but the elements had alternate ideas, the weather is horrendous! Now, I don't mind running in the rain, I have even ran in hail, but wind is a different matter. Combine the two with the cold and an early morning get up... and... well, I'm still in bed! It's a good job we got to go on a long trek yesterday - 

It has given me chance to sit and think about my marathon training plan though. I have been looking online and it would seem that I am doing too much mid week (running 6 miles 3 x per week, mid week), which has an affect on my abilities for my long distance run at the weekend. Most plans are for 16 weeks, so starting in January, but as I run already I will be stretching mine out, making smaller increases to weekend distances. Here is what I have come up with for each week;

Typical Week

Day 1 - 5k run

Day 2 - Rest

Day 3 - 10k run

Day 4 - Rest

Day 5 - 5k run 1 week, hill training the next.

Day 6 - Rest

Day 7 - 6miles to start, then increase by 1 mile each week until a target of 22 miles is reached

Day 6 is a Saturday and I actually wanted day 6 to be day 7 however, at the moment I am in University every Saturday until December 13th, I will just have to deal with running on the most sacred day of sleeping for now.

This is not it though, I also need to build strength so in addition to the running I will also have this plan;

Typical Week

Day 1 - upper body and core at the gym (got to have upper body strength for balance and core strength for stability)

Day 2 - Circuits and bleep test in the park with my Rounders team (weather dependant of course, South Park gets very water logged)

Day 3 - lower body and core in the gym (building muscle strength in legs will help to run longer and faster)

Day 4 - I have swimming lessons this day, I am not a great swimmer! (Helps to stretch out tired muscles)

Day 5-7 - Friends, University, spending time with my boy!

As you can see training is not to be taken lightly and eats up a lot of time. People often ask why I run so early in the morning. Aside from the advantages to fitness with a morning run, it means that I can add other activities after work and still have time for a life. Don't forget that around all of this I have a full time job, university commitments, my boyfriend and most importantly my own time and space to think about... it's a crazy juggling act but someone has to do it.

Some people just don't get it.

It has become a bit of a tradition that after swimming we get chips on the way home. The problem is with habit is it's difficult to break, but part of me does not care because I have a belief that you need to be naughty sometimes, otherwise you may go crazy!

(This is not last nights chips, but chips in a cone, as my southern fairy boy had never before heard of chips in a cone, so I took this photo for him)

Thinking about this brought back a memory of a time when I received a verbal attack in regards to my eating habits.

I would just like to point out before I begin that I am by no means a saint when it comes to my diet, I used to be a lot stricter when in training and I know I need to be now, but at the moment I am between accommodation and when you don't have your own kitchen, or your own space, it is difficult to keep on top of things.

Anyway... back to my story.

I was off to a friends house for wine, takeout and girly chats. Knowing what I know about food, I recognise that there is never a true healthy option when it comes to takeaway, but there are some choices which are healthier than others.

I had opted for prawns in oyster sauce, knowing this was a lesser of all the other evils presented to me and another friend had gone for crispy chilli beef; probably the most unhealthy thing on the menu.

I was, at that time, supposed to be training hard for the Silverstone half, so that fact that I was even having takeaway and wine made me a big cheater indeed, but a good time with old friends is sometimes worth missing a days training for... you gots to have a life you know.

My friend wanted me to have half of the crispy chilli beef so that she could have half of mine, I said that I did not want any, but she was welcome to some of mine... the attack began. I'm not just talking about a few words, this went on for about 15 minutes, with me partly wondering what on earth was going on and why all of a sudden I was being shouted at, and my other friend sat looking unbelievably uncomfortable.

To put it in some sort of context, so that you understand my confusion, I was being made out to be a sufferer of anorexia, who was far too obsessed with fitness and needed an intervention from mental health services... as I was sat eating a takeaway, drinking wine and had decided to cancel my run the following day so that I could have an evening with the girls.

As I was eating my chips last night, this memory came back and it made me smile. I have not spoken to the girl in question since so maybe I will drop her a text today.

It just made me think though, some people just don't get it. Just because I train hard for events and try to pick healthier options from time to time, this does not make me crazy, it does not mean I have an eating disorder. What it does mean is that I have found something in life that I enjoy, running makes me happier that I have ever been, it fills me up and gives me a sense of feeling free.

I suppose however, that if fitness is not something which you enjoy, not something which makes you happy, then you will never get it.

Time to relax!

No early rising for me!

Today is a rest day... of sorts. It's a rest from running anyway, with 19.5miles in the bag so far this week. However, I will be going swimming this evening, which may go some way to help stretch out those muscles... yesterday mornings run was hard work indeed!

As swimming is today's excercise of choice, I thought I should share how swimming can help;

- Swimming can help you develop your breathing technique (unless you're like me and have a tendency to breath in the water...  not good!)
- It helps to build upper body strength, which will assist in balance when running
- It increases flexibility in your ankles through kicking and helps to stretch your tendons and ligaments.

So, all in all, swimming is a win!

Hello! Is it a crazy runner you're looking for?

Hi all and welcome to the My Marathon My Way blog.

First of all I thought I best give a little back story as to why I have decided to do a blog in the run up to the Manchester Marathon, which I have entered... eeek!

There are a couple of reasons, so here is the first;
My beautiful boy (Pete) who is also entered in the Grim Challenge (as am I, but we will come to his training efforts later) has a big brother (Nicolas). Nick has a lady too, she be named Steph (with me so far).

When I first met Pete, he told me all about Steph, as she was very poorly at the time. Steph had Lymphoma, which is a group of blood cell tumours that develop from lymphocytes. I am not even going to attempt to make out like I understand it all, so here is a link...

http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/type/lymphoma/

Through stem cell replacement Steph is now in remission and following her experience has decided to set up a charity to help people like her, here is another link...

https://www.facebook.com/pages/People-Like-Me/349222608579046?fref=ts

Anyway... she needs to raise money in order to get the charity registered, I cannot set up a just giving page until the charity does become registered. So instead I will raise awareness by completing this blog, hopefully someone reading this may decide that they want to help the cause and help to get the charity registered. If that is you then please make contact, everything helps.

On to my second reason;
I have been running for many years, I may not be the fastest runner, but I get there in the end. In October 2013 I injured my left knee during Tough Mudder by dropping down from a 12ft wall, without pushing myself away, which meant that when I hit the ground, my knees naturally bent. The full force of my weight dropping from such a height, caused my knees to smash into the wall... grim right? This happened 6 miles in and me being me, I continued and finished the full 13 mile obstacle course. I went to see the nurse and she said it seemed to be ok and the fact that my knee had swelled to twice its size was just fluid build up.

Fast forward to March 2014, I was entered into the Silverstone half marathon, but I had a lot going on at this point in time, Pete was away in Sweden, I had started a new job and I had moved south. Needless to say that my motivation to train was fading and I did not put the effort in that I needed to; thinking that if I had done it before, I could do it again.
9 miles in I started to get a searing pain in my left knee, but that's right me being me I completed the race (are you starting to see a pattern in my behaviour?) I was running for Macmillan Cancer Research, there was no way that I was not completing. Following the Silverstone half, I could not walk properly, or without pain for almost 3 months, I certainly was not running anywhere!

I am now running again, no signs of any injuries at the moment and this time I will be doing it the right way.

I want to do this blog as a example of the differences that can be made if you train right and you train hard, and also to highlight to those making donations that its not just a race you are sponsoring, its the hours of training that goes into it too.

So...

I am entered into the Grim Challenge, here is a link...

http://www.grimchallenge.co.uk/grim-8/

and the Manchester Marathon, here is yet another link...

http://www.greatermanchestermarathon.com/

and there is the possibility of climbing Mt Kilimanjaro later in the year, but this is to be confirmed.

I will update regular on my progress, on Pete's (yet to get started) progress and on Steph's progress in setting up the charity.

Thank you for taking the time to get involved and read/follow my blog.