Portsmouth Race for Life 10k!

I’m back!

Although I haven’t been blogging for a while (OK, OK, 4 months), I have actually been running. As I wasn’t really following any sort of training plan and I was pretty busy doing other things, I didn’t really feel like blogging about my runs.

When the weather got a bit warmer, I finally got out of the gym
and onto the roads. After a chat with one of my sportier neighbours, I switched to running along the embankment on the River Trent. It’s so much more interesting as there’s always canoeists, cyclists and other runners about. I could also add distance more easily by going one bridge further, which was important as I was getting ready for my first 10k, which I did on Sunday.

I hadn’t done the Race for Life since it was only a 5k in 2005, but my mum and sister do it every year and I thought it was high time I got back in the game. The RFL supports Cancer Research UK, which made it particularly important for me as in the past year alone Rob lost his Nan to cancer and my mum has been diagnosed with and subsequently got the all-clear from skin cancer. At the time of writing, we have raised an amazing £406, with collections still ongoing here.

I started off my race day with a cup of tea and a banana slathered with peanut butter before we all (me, Mum, Dad, youngest sister Anna and Rob) packed in the car and headed on down to meet my other sister, Jen and her fiancé Chris. I left my second banana with Rob and me, Mum and Jen headed to the start.

Mum and Jen were going to run the whole way, but I wasn’t at that stage so my aim was just to keep going with them as far as I could before reverting to my run-walk strategy. I was really surprised that I managed to keep running until around the 2km point and then keep them in my sights, occasionally catching up with them, until around 6km.

By that point I was starting to die a bit and my walk breaks were becoming more frequent, but I didn’t stop or slow down to slower than a brisk walk. There was a point between 8 and 9km where the route doubled back on itself along the seafront so I was able to give flying high fives to Mum and Jen as we passed each other. They both complained that their hands were still hurting later.

Just after 9km, I needed a real boost to get me round and luckily the exact song I wanted started playing on my phone:

That got me round most of the rest of the way, through the horrible bubble machines and towards the finishing straight. As did thinking of my blogging friends and the encouragement I had drawn from their posts over recent months. I saw some kids with their hands stuck out and high fived them as I went past (not as hard as earlier) which got me a massive cheer from them to get over the line. Jen and Mum were waiting for me there, having only finished about a minute before. My final time? 1:11:52. I was really pleased as my target was 1:15 and my “would-be-great” time was 1:10.

We then gathered up our race bling, chocolate chip brioche, apples, water and lemonade before meeting up with the others and taking some photos. I’m the one in the middle.

 

During our little sit on Castle Field, I ate/drank all of that stuff and my banana. I didn’t actually stop eating until mid-afternoon, devouring a massive cheese twist pastry, Pringles, a crumpet with Marmite and then a massive buffet-style lunch. Awesome. Not so awesome was having to drive the 3 hours back to Nottingham, but luckily Rob offered to do the honours and we stopped by his parents in Birmingham for a couple of hours on the way.

All in all, I’d definitely recommend the Portsmouth RFL. The route itself was nice and flat, except for a slight hill round the back of Southsea Castle. The grassy sections did throw me more than I though they would, though. It was a double loop of the 5k course so on the second lap you could judge how far was left. I’ll more than likely do it again next year, and might even throw in the Nottingham one as well.

Do Something Amazing

Give blood

Pilates, Pictures and Progress

I think the streak I was on last time I wrote ended after about 12 or 13 days all in all – not too shabby!

I’ve been pretty busy with work lately, leaving me knackered at the end of the day and not really wanting to do much by way of physical activity, but I’m still getting at least 3 or 4 days of exercise per week.

I went to get some new gym gear the day after my last post – with only two of us in the house, we can only justify putting the washing machine on every 4 or 5 days, so I needed an extra set to keep up with the gym and yoga. I also went to Sweaty Betty to get a hairband as my fringe really gets in my face. While I was trying them on, the cashier started to tell me about the free yoga and Pilates classes they run there, all you have to do is sign up for a free membership card, so I did! The only problem was that our chat distracted me so much, I didn’t notice I’d popped out one of my earrings with the hairbands. They’re one of my favourite pairs of studs, the family I lived with in when I was on my year abroad in Germany gave them to me as a leaving present, so I was pretty upset. Luckily, I had the sense to call the store in the morning and the cashier found it while I was still on the phone. Phew!

I picked it up on the Tuesday when I went to my first Pilates class. I hadn’t done Pilates before, but I enjoyed it. It’s fairly similar in some ways to what I’ve done at yoga, just focusing more on strengthening the core and other muscle groups. I went this week too and ended up having the instructor pulling on my leg to demonstrate how we should be stretching! She also showed me how to roll onto the outside of my feet to stop my knees coming together when I bend them, always good to know!

Now on to the pictures and progress!

I did my first 5K run since September this week! Rob was out all day Saturday, so I headed to the gym and battled along on the treadmill. I ran a lot more than I walked, trying to do 800m – 1km at a time running with 100 – 200 m walking gaps in between. I ended up finishing in 37 minutes or so. Not too bad considering I’m pretty much on 2 weeks of training at the moment. After that, I headed to the pool and jacuzzi for a nice relaxing cool down. I had the entire place to myself most of the time I was there!

My other achievement of the week was this:

I did my first headstand at yoga! I haven’t done one since I was a kid! I was so pleased with myself, I came home and made Rob take pictures of me doing it so I could show off on Facebook.

Where I also showed off this:

My Nan sent me this pole dancing sloth T-shirt. I love it!

That’s all for now, planning on possibly doing another 5K tonight for Kirsten’s challenge!

 

 

Streaking (No, Not Like That)

I’m not sure what’s come over me.

A week ago, I was doing one yoga session a week and barely getting out of the house.

Today will now be my eighth day of an activity streak! Here’s what it’s looked like:

Friday: Gym – treadmill, bike and cross-trainer for a total of about 40 minutes

Saturday: Gym – treadmill, bike and cross-trainer for a total of about 45 minutes

Sunday: Yoga video at home (about an hour)

Monday: Yoga class (an hour)

Tuesday: Gym – cross-trainer and treadmill for a total of about 40 minutes

Wednesday: Yoga video at home (about an hour)

Thursday: Gym – all treadmill, 40 minutes in total but with much more running

Today: Planning on another hour long yoga video.

I’ve also got gym/yoga plans going up to Monday – this ish is bananas.

I’m really surprised with how well my lungs are coping with starting to run again. I thought I’d be coughing and spluttering all over the show, but it’s more my stamina in general that’s the problem. It’ll come back though. I’m trying to do different kinds of  runs to get me back up to speeds and distances I used to be capable of. I started off with trying to start at 8 km/h and running for a minute before adding 0.1 km/h until I got to 9 km/h or thereabouts and then coming back down, but couldn’t manage it and ended up doing some really haphazard speeds, running fast and walking slow whenever I felt I needed it.

I then figured that the problem with that was also partially mental: I was trying to run faster every minute and didn’t think I could do it. So yesterday I tried running two minutes at 9, then took off 0.1 every two minutes – same thing overall, just in a more mind-friendly order. It worked! Yeah, I had to walk for between 1 and 3 minutes every now and again because I had stitch (and am pretty unfit at the moment), but I did every rep I set out to do. I even got the Runner’s High at the end and wanted to keep going!

So I think I’ll be sticking with a routine like that for a bit, switching it up when I’m starting to master it. Probably the best part is that in that 40 minutes (which also included a 5 minute warm up walk and a 5 minute cool down walk), I got to nearly 5K, so I’m pretty hopeful that I can put in a respectable time for the Virtual Run coming up next month.

Any bets on how long I can keep this streak going?

New Gym Member Right Here!

Yep, I’m officially a gym member once again!

We live between two gyms here, so as I had a bit of free time at the beginning of the week (work was still pretty slow coming in – assuming nobody wrote anything over Christmas that needed translating), I decided to look into them.

The nearest one is literally over the road, but it’s a national chain that’s notorious for being expensive. They don’t even put a price on their website, kind of like the old “If you have to ask, you can’t afford it” saying, but I decided to ask anyway. A very enthusiastic sales guy tried to sell me on all their facilities, but all we wanted are the basics. Eventually I got the price out of him, and it was of course stupidly high!

So I checked in with the gym at the hotel down the road my parents sometimes stay at when they come to visit. I called up on Wednesday and the instructor invited me in for a look on Thursday. I’d had a look on the website and it seemed quite little (it’s only a small hotel), but it turns out it’s just what we need. There are treadmills and bikes, crosstrainers, rowing machines and all sorts of weight stuff, and a pool. OK, so the pool is tiny, but I can see myself going for a cool-down dip after a workout. Rob and I went back in last night to have a free trial and decided to sign up on the spot. This gym also has the benefit of paying month to month instead of by direct debit so we can have some time off if *touch wood* we injure ourselves or get sick.

I had my first proper session today and decided to see just how unfit I am. Surprisingly enough, not running for four months has really affected my stamina, but I did around 35 or so minutes on the treadmill, changing up the speeds to what I used to do at my old gym (pre C25K) and what I managed during C25K, with a fair amount of fast walking. I wouldn’t say it’s comfortable by any stretch, but I don’t think it’ll take me too long to get right back into it. I then had a wander around doing 5 minutes or so each on the bike and crosstrainer. We’ve also booked in for an induction on the weight stuff for next week as I’ve never done that before. I’m figuring at the moment that multiple shorter bursts in the gym are better for me than a couple of big ones a week – I don’t have the attention span or the stamina!

Atmosphere-wise, it’s so much nicer than my old gym back in Birmingham. It’s properly quiet, over the three times I’ve been there (mid-morning Thursday, mid-evening Friday and early Saturday afternoon), I’ve never seen more than three people in at once. You don’t have the big hulking guys showing off or instructors buzzing around trying to get you to come to classes, the music is quiet so you can just stick your headphones in and go. The only thing I miss is being able to plug my headphones into the machines and get the feed from the TV – I’ll tell ya, watching Embarrassing Fat Bodies really gets you going on the treadmill!

So there you go, my first gym wrap-up! I’ve also got another goal to add to my ones from last week! I’m going to take part in Kirsten’s Virtual Run Fundraiser. I’ve been following Kirsten as she’s gone through the C25K programme and now she’s going for her first 10K. She’s asking people to sponsor her while completing a 5K or 10K of their own, and she’s giving out medals! I’ll probably go for a 5K as the event is next month, but who knows!

This has gone on a bit now, so I’ll just say that yoga was great this week! My instructor has managed to start the Yoga Flow class, which I really enjoyed! I’m still going to try and do yoga at home tomorrow too to make up my 2 a week goal.

Happy running!

Christmas and New Year Round-Up and 2014 Targets!

So the festive season is over for another year and it’s time to get back to work and normality.

I had a fantastic time over Christmas. We were aiming to travel down to stay with my family in Portsmouth on the evening of the 23rd, but unfortunately the weather put paid to that. It just wasn’t safe to be driving and everyone agreed we made the right decision to get up early on Christmas Eve and drive the 3 and a half hours then. Our little Corsa was stuffed to the brim with our presents, with a bit of space for 2 small suitcases and our slightly carsick gerbil, Skippy.

We got to Portsmouth in time to go out for lunch with my parents and then spent most of the rest of the day watching Friday Night Dinner. My Dad always reads us ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas just before bed on Christmas Eve, and despite me and my sisters all being in our mid-20s, we still gathered round! My middle sister, Jen was round at my best friend’s flat with their boyfriends, so we had them all on Skype too 🙂

Christmas Day came and went in aflurry of wrapping paper and non-stop noms. We were still eating turkey and gammon way for days! Here’s a pic of me with my two favourite presents.

My youngest sister, Anna, made me a Christmas dinosaur jumper which I absolutely love! I’d sent a picture to my family of a similar one I’d seen online with a shark on, but didn’t think any more of it! And hiding under the tree (yes, our tree topper is Darth Vader), you can just make out Alistair – Rob bought me a Kindle Paperwhite but decided to wrap it up like a penguin! Trying to unwrap it with Anna doing a non-stop commentary of pain from Alistair’s point of view was awful, but what a great idea!

We spent the rest of the week seeing friends and my side of the family and after spending New Year’s Eve being soundly beaten by my parents at Cards Against Humanity, we travelled back on New Year’s Day. We stopped off at Rob’s parents in Birmingham as we hadn’t had a chance to see them over the holidays, and to pick up Rob’s birthday presents as his birthday’s on the 2nd! We spent that day having a nice walk along the Trent before heading into a pub for a massive burger for lunch, then another pub on the way back.

Rob’s parents came up to see us on Saturday and we took them to Homemade in Nottingham city centre, where they do absolutely delicious sandwiches and cakes! I thought I was going for a light option with a goats’ cheese and roasted pepper sandwich, but it was absolutely huge!

We both went back to work on Friday and it’s been relatively quiet for me so far, which is good in that it’s a slow introduction back into work, and bad because with freelancing if you’re not working, you’re not getting paid!

I started back up with yoga on Monday, then did a yoga video as recommended by Ashley on Tuesday.

It was a bit tougher than I’m used to, but that’s got to be a good thing. I’m currently doing Hatha yoga, but my teacher’s planning on starting a Yoga Flow class which I really want to do! Which leads me on to my 2014 fitness targets:

• Re-join a gym – Rob and I are planning on doing this as soon as I get rid of a cough I’ve been carrying around for weeks which makes it difficult for me to breathe (damn you, asthma!). I’m too much of a wuss to run outdoors in the cold, and I really need to get my fitness back up. I feel like I’ve been ill or injured since September, but I hope that if I can find a gap where I’m well, starting to exercise more will improve my immune system. As will being around other people and their germs more frequently – the perils of working from home!
• Increase yoga practice – Try to do two sessions per week, either as a class or by following a YouTube video.
• Run a 10k – Hopefully this will be in the summer at the Portsmouth Race for Life.
• Get a FitBit – or something of that ilk! I love looking up stats, and if they help me get fitter then that can only be a good thing.
• Blog more – This will be directly influenced by the other targets – the more I do, the more I’ll have to say! I also want to write posts on stuff other than fitness, it’s just about getting the time and motivation!

I think that’s enough for now, hopefully I can post a “Back to the Gym” blog before too long! What are your goals for 2014?

Fighting Bugs

I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather for the past week or so, but I think I’ve found the perfect outfit for fighting off the germs.

T-Rex jumper, leopard print top and the infamous shark leggings.

On The Mend / Toesox Review

Hi everyone!

My back is feeling loads better than it was last time I wrote. I still get the odd bit of sciatic pain though. Last week my left foot kept going numb or tingly if I sat at the wrong angle, but that seems to have gone for the most part and I can move around a lot better without anywhere near as much pain.

I was still pretty sore last Monday, but I figured going to yoga could only really help. Weirdly, the only poses that hurt were just lying flat on my back rather than any backbends. I even managed to do a full camel pose, which our instructor said to be careful in if you’ve got back issues. Definitely looking forward to going back tonight with pretty much 100% movement back.

I got to try out my new yoga socks too! (Image taken from the Amazon page)

 

Although I did still get cramp (it’s in a church hall, it’s cold), it was a lot easier to deal with than before because my toes were spread and the socks are so much grippier, which makes it easier to flex my foot while maintaining the pose. They’re also surprisingly comfortable. I went through a toe socks phase about 8 years ago and used to wear them all the time, but never with cut-off toes like this. I’ve read some reviews that said they can rub between your toes, but I haven’t experienced that yet. We’ll see how it goes tonight, I guess!

September/October Update

It’s been nearly a month now since my last post. The main reason for this is that I haven’t run since I did the 5k, and running has been the main focus of my blog for a while. As I mentioned at the end of my last post, I’d pulled some muscles in my chest and had been advised against running until it was healed. I think it’s better now, but as you’ll see below, a few other things have got in the way. Good news though, most of them are nice reasons!

Here’s what I’ve been up to for the past month or so:

• Working – my work’s picked up quite a lot lately and I’ve been getting longer translations to do (currently working on an app for a tourist board in Germany) as well as a few little ones to keep me entertained. I’m still really glad I gave up my regular income, but soul-destroying customer service job to join the more insecure freelancing world. I’m making more money over fewer hours in the comfort of my own home, doing something I really enjoy.
• Holidaying – Rob and I spent the better part of a week in Berlin last month. We did so much stuff! We saw the Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate, the Holocaust Memorial, the TV tower, the world’s largest dinosaur skeleton (I love dinosaurs), the Zoo, toured an former airport, rented bikes and rode down said airport’s runways, went to lots of museums, saw The Wall all over the place, ate Currywurst and Burgermeister burgers, drank beer…. Here are a few of my favourite pictures:

Me at the Brandenburg Gate

I just can’t get enough of the TV Tower

There was a petting zoo area at Berlin Zoo where you could get animal food by using this sweet machine type thingies. This goat clearly knew what was going on and headbutted me out of the way.

• Seeing family – Rob’s parents live about an hour away and mine live about two and a half to three hours away, so we don’t see them a lot. Rob’s sister is going out to Australia for a year soon though, so we met up with them for a meal and gin-based fun back in Birmingham a couple of weekends ago. And last weekend, my parents came up to stay with us. I think the point you realise you’re a grown up is when your parents come to stay in your house! We met up with my uncle and my two little cousins on Saturday to feed ducks and have a walk around at Attenborough Nature Reserve. We had a great time, and it coincided with mine and Rob’s eight year anniversary so we got to celebrate it with lots of people.
• Starting yoga – I recently joined a yoga class in a nearby church hall. The woman who runs it is really nice and I really enjoy it. It’s a strange feeling coming out of there totally relaxed but buzzing. The only problem is that I keep getting foot cramp and although this is normally solved by wearing socks, they don’t give you a lot of grip on the old yoga mat (I’ve named my mat Bella, is that weird?). I’ve bought some toe socks with grippy bottoms though, so hopefully next time will be better. I couldn’t try them out this week though because:
• I hurt my back – Lift with the knees, Leah! One day I will learn. I went to pick up our bedding and air mattress from the living room floor after my parents left and ended up severely spraining my lower back. I’ve done it before which, although making me even more stupid, means I know it shouldn’t last too long. I’ve been sitting up nice and straight at my desk and trying to keep moving, hopefully I’ll be recovered in time for yoga on Monday.
• Had my flu jab – I’m asthmatic so I’m entitled to a free flu jab and got it this morning. Make sure you get it if you’re in one of the at-risk groups!
• Got my new phone – My new iPhone 5S arrive yesterday! I was still using an iPhone 4 I’d had since it launched, so I figured now would be a good time to upgrade. I’m really liking the fingerprint sensor and the better camera, as well as the bigger screen size! It feels a little too big in my tiny hands at the moment, but I’m sure that will fade.

I’m hoping to get back to running at some point. I just keep hitting hurdle after hurdle at the moment, and the weather’s only going to get worse from here, giving me more of an excuse to stay inside. A hotel down the road from us has monthly memberships so we’re thinking about doing that to get access to their treadmills on rainy, cold days!

I’ll try not to leave it so long next time!

Run with Richard 5K Completed!

My first race has been and gone!

After a couple more training runs, we headed over to Victoria Embankment for 9am, with the race due to start at 10. At that point, I looked like this (apols for the squinting, it was proper bright out!):

We wandered around the event village for a while, surprised how many people were there. We got interviewed and photographed by a few journalists, and we’re at the front of this group shot on the Nottingham Post’s website (that’s Rob in the green in front of me)!

We got a little bit caught up in the all the excitement, so when RunKeeper told me we were on 6 min/km pace after 5 minutes when we normally run just over 7, I started to slow down a bit.  I don’t think I would have been able to keep that up much longer! My aim was to finish in around 35 minutes with anything under being a bonus.

It was just after the 2km point I slowed down to a brisk walk. I’d simply taken it too hard and wasn’t coping well with it being so warm. I gestured to Rob to carry on without me. I was gutted that I’d had to walk but I realised later on in the day that I DIDN’T STOP. I kept going, I didn’t collapse in a ball and give up. I had a quick chat with a lady who told me to pour some water over my head. I kept the guy dressed as Mike from Monsters Inc firmly in my sights. I got waved on by Becky Adlington the former GB swimmer who’d come down to support the race, and the mayor, and Robin Hood (this is Nottingham after all).

When the finish line finally came into view, I got another wind and practically sprinted home. My time? 32:30. I was so impressed with myself that I’d managed to keep some semblance of that early pace up to the finish. Rob finished in 28:49. Jammy git.

Just as we left, I saw a couple of the other Olympic champions who’d come down to support Richard Whitehead – Tim Baillie and Etienne Stott, the slalom canoists. Couldn’t resist grabbing a picture, and Etienne’s medal And apols again for the massively red face, I don’t think my Flickr filters helped much!

 

The one downside of the day is that I’ve pulled some muscles in my chest that are going to put me out of running for a couple of weeks or more. It was hurting before the race but I was determined to take part. Getting my first injury is tough, especially when I was planning to start taking part in our local parkrun this week, but I’ll get over it. Rob’s gutted too as he hasn’t run without me before and says he needs the motivation of me going with him to actually get him out.

Oh well, best to let it heal now than making it worse and being out for longer. I’ll let you know how it goes.