It's all come to a sudden halt, but there is a deadline looming

Sorry for the lack of interaction on the fitness front, it turns out that I am actually quite unwell. Although I am starting to feel a little better, I still have a weazey chest and am coughing up a lot of horribleness... nice! There is a possibility that a visit to the doctors is a must as I may have a chest infection.

I did attempt the gym the other morning, but only managed half hour and now my body is aching more than ever... which just is not normal for me, I am certainly struggling to repair. The problem is that my first event for the People Like Me charity is less than 2 weeks away!

In addition to this the temperature has dropped. I woke up this morning to temperatures of -2 and the first thing that came to mind was the icy water of the Grim Challenge. 

That in all honesty is the thing which I am looking forward to the least. I have ran further than 8 miles in the past so the distance does not bother me. I have had to crawl through mud in the past, this again does not bother me. Plunging into ice cold water on a December morning... bhah! 

I suppose that if I can take on the challenge of the dreaded Arctic Enema of Tough Mudder fame, then this should be a doddle?! 

Either way it is the thing that I am currently not raving about and have my fingers crossed that I do not end up in hospital with both a severe chest infection and hyperthermia!

In my attempt to shrug this off, I have purchased Guardians of the Galaxy to cheer myself up and I will be wrapped in the comforting, healing arms of my boy, whilst eating my favourite snack of Marmite on bagels.

Lots of things are happening today... but I am full of a cold!!

First of all I would like to share some exciting news, which has absolutely nothing to do with me running, but has cheered me up no end today! We (that's me and the boy) are going to Download! The line up is by no means as good as Sonisphere last year, and I have to admit that I do not really get KISS so not really too bothered about the Sunday headliner, and I'm not a Manson fan... but I have festival fever! Yes, it's probably stupid. Yes, I don't think I can really afford our tickets... but Download here we come!!

Anyway... on to some real stuff! The People Like Me charity, the charity for which all of this running is in aid of, are having another fundraiser today. It is a Christmas Fair at the Green Room in Brackley and Pete's mum Lucy and his Aunty Rose have a lot of handmade Christmas cards to sell! It starts at 7pm I believe, so if you want some Christmas ideas then get yourselves down to help a good cause!

There has been more of the running this week, just a short run on Tuesday evening, following the long run we did on Sun. Yes, that's right, I did say 'we'. I think that Pete may very well have caught the running bug!

There was meant to be running last night too, but disaster struck! Pete has been over doing it at work, pushing himself too far like he usually does and his shoulder is playing up again. I cannot wait for him to have his operation so he can be back to his usual self. 

In addition to this I am full of a bloody cold! I hate having colds, I refer to mine as a rare strain of man flu, which has mutated to attack women! This gets argued against by the men who want to hold on to their man flu crown, but I tell you, I am a nightmare when I have a cold.

I am a little annoyed too as I am meant to be swimming again tonight, I have missed the last 2 weeks because of the trains and I don't want to miss another. I have brought my swimming things to work, just in case I have a miraculous recovery this evening... here's hoping eh?

All set for the Grim Challenge!

As we are only 20 sleeps away from the Grim Challenge, I gave out a personal challenge to Pete yesterday to get his 8 miles under his belt.

I have to say that I wasn't expecting him to complete, I had told him he could drop off at any point, but... the boy has bloody done good! I am so proud of him for pushing though and achieving the 8 miles!

At the half way point the battery on his phone died, I know how difficult it is to push on without music to give you motivation. So... after a couple of minutes of arguing whilst running, with me thrusting my phone in his hand, he finally agreed to take it. It seems like it did the trick, he even managed a sprint finish, leaving me behind (very unsportsmanlike, but I'll let him off as he is massively competitive and I don't really mind)

Anyway... this post is for my gorgeous boy Pete, keep it up, you're doing me proud!

Back in the swing of things!

Following the disappointment of last week, with my knee flaring up, I am back on track!

The main aim of this week was to do strengthening excercises at the gym, as this is something which I have been neglecting, no wonder I ended up injured! The gym isn't much fun, but it is essential to build up strength to become a better runner.

What makes it harder is that I miss my old gym in Manchester and the friends I made there. I have found it hard to settle into a new gym down here. I did find one that I liked in Oxford, but since moving to Banbury it's slim pickings! There is Banatines (or whatever it is called) but in my opinion, any gym that has somewhere to 'lunch', you are able to 'sit' by the pool and has actual spa staff, is not a gym at all! I like a sweaty gym, with circuit training. If I want to do a Zumba class I'll get myself to a community centre!

I have opted, for the time being, for the leisure centre, due to my swimming lessons, it's still not what I am looking for in a gym, but it will do.

There is an alternative, there is a boxing gym and I am looking to join there in the new year so I can take boxing classes, but that will come later.

I have also been on two runs this week. The first one I did with Pete and kept the pace slow through fear of injury...

The second run was this morning and although I did not feel that I was running any different than my usual pace, I was seemingly on fire...

There will be swimming tonight after work and hopefully another run in the morning, but for now it's time to get myself together, get on the train and spend a day in the office!

Feeling lost and lazy!

This weekend as been a tough weekend of no scheduled excercise. This has been in order to rest my leg so that a minor injury to my LT Band does not become something more chronic.

The funny thing is that because I fill my weeks with so much running and excercise, when it comes to a time of rest I generally don't know what to do with myself?! 

As I have no excercise schedule, no running mishaps to report, I will fill you in on what I did do this weekend...

Luckily for me some friends were off out in London on Saturday night so we joined them for a night at Hydra. 

It turns out that it was a tough old day! I was up at 5am to get ready for and get to University. I spent 8 Hours at University, which for me currently is in Coventry. I then had to get the train home, do a quick change, then figure out how to get to the capital.

Interestingly my friends, in true Northern style, felt that because I am living south of Manchester, that I must be close to London. This could not be further from the truth!

The cheapest option for us was to get the train to Oxford (this takes 20mins) then jump on the 24 hour Oxford tube bus to London (this takes almost 2hrs) but is only £15 each for a return ticket. We made it into the capital for 10pm, then had to figure out where on earth we were and what line on the tube we needed, to get wherever it was we need to be?! 

It's a good job I had the boy with me, he knows his way round better than me. If I am honest I try to avoid having to go to London, I have only ever had negative experiences of rude, pushy people. Pete reckons that he will change my mind about the place and keeps promising to show me the sights.

After meeting friends at a place called the Somerstown Coffee House close to Camden, we all jumped in a cab to the Tobacco Docks.

It was a great night! I have to be honest, I have been really missing my friends from up North so it was really lovely to see them. I have not done a club night in a long time either, think I might be getting too old to be out all night these days (haha!)

We spent 5hrs dancing!! I suppose that kind of means that my weekend of no exercise became a dance-a-thon! It didn't end there either! As we had chosen to take the tube bus, we needed to get back to Victoria Station in order to get home. This was over an hours walk because the underground was closed at 5:30am!

It was a nice thing however, this Sunday morning just so happened to be Rememberance Sunday and we had to walk past the Tower of London; we got to see a beautiful site, so early in the morning and with hardly any tourists around.

This is 888,246 ceramic poppies,that have been placed in the ground, all around the tower to remember our fallen heroes... it was breath taking!

Also along our route we saw Nelsons Column, the memorial for the great fire of London and Buckingham Palace. Now, considering that I have never seen Buckingham Palace before, you would expect that I would have stopped and had a tourist moment... no! At that point I had been walking for an hour, after dancing for 5 hours... I could not have cared less, I wanted to go home!

My feelings around this made me a little sad, so the boy and I have decided to go back and do it properly next time and because the thing that puts me off going into the capital is tourists and being pushed about, we are going to do it in the early hours, on bikes, with a packed supper and a flask of hot tea! Might even hire some 'Boris' bikes eh? Be proper tourists like!

Iliotibial Band Syndrome and it's wicked ways!

On Tuesday I posted about my reoccurring knee pain. It turns out that the most likely diagnosis is that I have ITBS, Iliotibial Band Syndrome. On a positive note, I started my training early and this extra time in my training schedule means that I can make allowances for injury. I want to train hard, but I also want to train right.

So... what is ITBS?

The iliotibial band is the ligament that runs down the outside of the thigh, from the hip to the shin. ITBS occurs when this becomes inflamed, the symptoms being pain from the side and back of the knee as opposed to the front... front knee pain would indicate a very different problem.

It would seem that I was right in my judgement on Tuesday to stop running and rest immediately... it's not like me to be right, but every blue moon a miracle takes place!

I have rested completely for the remainder of this week and as any runner will tell you, from a wellbeing perspective, this is not an easy thing! All I want to do is reach for my runners and get pavement pounding... but I am grounded!

I only have myself to blame, I will admit that at the gym I have been concentrating more on upperbody and core, as opposed to strengthening my legs and all the guidance I have seen on ITBS states that it is about strengthening, not stretching! Therefore, next week I will be taking it easy, lower pace and shorter distance runs, combined with leg strengthening at the gym.

Apparently swimming will also do it some good and I was meant to be swimming last night, but the person who drove their vehicle into a bridge had alternative ideas! My train was delayed and the local train takes far too long, meaning that I did not get home in time and missed my swimming lesson... rubbish!

There are other suggestions for things that I can be doing. A big issue is my runners! I am well aware that I need new trainers, I have over pronation because of my flat feet, they are like camel feet, they just spread when I put them on the floor, no doubt I belong in the desert! I know that I need trainers that support me in the right way, but to be honest, with everything that has been going on, it's an expense that I can do without. Papa Hamer said that he would get me some for Crimble, but it looks like they may have to come sooner rather than later and well... that's just the way things are!

Another suggestion is to run on the flat Tarmac of the road as opposed to the concrete, uneven pavement. Hmmm... I may have a chance of this on my early morning runs, wearing hi-vis gear, but I live in a busy town, running in the road my not be the best option all the time, but I will give it a go.

As always I will keep updating on my progress. If anyone has any advice, experience, etc... please share, I could do with the running support.

Until then I hope dancing helps, as I am off to the big smoke (London) tomorrow night to do exactly that!

Injuries and the worry of being injured!

As I had spent the entire weekend moving house, I decided that yesterday, with me being off work to unpack, I would go for a run and attempt to increase my distance run.

It started off well, I was full of energy, bounding along the pavement. I had looked on Google maps before I set off, to see where I could extend to... all was well.

It got a little weird at the half way point. We have moved into the centre of town, the location used to mark the start of my return home. Now however, our new home is the start and finish, with our old home marking my half way point. When I got to the point that would usually indicate that I had about 5 minutes left to go, I started to feel tired. The only thing I can put this down to is that psychologically my brain decided I had finished, without actually discussing this with me... how rude!

I continued nonetheless, my aim was to do 12k, but by the time I got to 7k I started to feel some discomfort In my knee. This really concerned me because of a previous injury, which flared up during the Silverstone half marathon and meant that I could not walk properly, let alone run, for around 2 months!

I continued on my route, the discomfort appearing and disappearing, whilst my worry increased. I was getting close to a point in my run where I could either take one path which took me directly home, or take the path I was originally planning to, adding another 4k. 

All the time I was having an arguent with my inner voice. You know, that voice that tells you to skip the gym, the same voice that talks you into eating a full packet of biscuits and not just one! It was just as I reached the point of no return that I realised that just this once, the inner voice that normally gives me bad advice, was actually being the voice of reason.

I broke off and ran home. I completed 8.50k in total...

...and I think I made the right choice, my knee has not been great today so maybe I will spend the rest of this week doing low impact at the gym.

To much to do, not enough time to do it!

This weekend has been chaotic, but we have survived it! It has meant that there has been no training though so today is all about the things that get in the way of training... well, I say 'get in the way', it was ALL worth it. 

As Friday was Halloween, I think I should start there. The local folk had gone all out this year and there seemed to be some kind of Pumpkin-off going on. Here are just a few of what we saw...

My boy has a daughter called Cali, I'm not quite sure if I have made reference to her before?! She has not long since turned 3 and is so much like her father it is frightening! In addition to being very much like him, she also absolutely adores him and never wants to be far from him, she is very much about Daddy.

We decided to take Cali Trick or Treating as this is probably the first year that she has any idea what's going on. She was dressed as a tiny witch and all the houses we went to thought she was that cute they gave her extra sweeties. This of course meant more to share with me and Daddy... she's 3yrs old, she is most certainly not allowed all those sweeties!

We were teaching her all the rights and wrongs about Trick or Treating. Unlike the other children, who were knocking on every door, we taught Cali that you should only knock on doors that are advertising Halloween. This turned into a game itself, where it was who could spot the pumpkin in the window. She had an awesome time and was very well behaved. She came out with the best comment of the night which was, 'Daddy you are so big! You are bigger than all of the houses and the sky!' I suppose from her perspective, being low down, this was probably true!

The next day I had to be up early for my 9 hour stretch at University. It was a good day in all, we were learning about providing support to witnesses and victims and I got 100% on my resit... I'd actually found time to revise this time! I was however on edge all day as I knew that Pete had gone to pick up the keys to our new flat... I was far too excited to concentrate!

I did feel a bit guilty, as the boy was having to load up all our things ready to deliver to the new place in the morning and I was unable to help. Cali managed to find a little friend of mine, who I thought I had lost when everything went into storage last time!

Luckily for me it wasn't a heavy day at University and we got through the material quick, which meant I got to get away early. Unfortunately Pete was taking Cali home by the time my train got in, but it was all good, it meant I got to sit and have a coffee whilst I waited.

This brings me to yesterday... the big move! As we have moved right into the town centre, we had to make sure we got up early so we could park the van in the pedestrianised zone, before the pedestrians actually turned up to go shopping!

We were 4 strong, Me, the boy, his dad (Jon) and brother (Nicolas) and as it was a 'workmans' day, I got them all McDonalds for breakfast. Shhh... I know this is bad! As you can see, Jon was not happy about having his photo taken for the blog...

At least we are in though, finally a space of our own, where there can be quite time and organisation. Well, there will be organisation, as soon as we sort this lot out!

...but is ok as I have today and tomorrow off work to sort my life out and get running, with a run scheduled in for today!