Re-united at last!

Hello again everyone!

Sorry its been so long since my last post, been busy finishing my university life! But now June has arrived I can now relax a bit and enjoy some of this sunny weather we have been having by training for the Race for Life and to get rid of my wobbly bits for my holiday!

With the beautiful English weather peaking at up to 27 degrees this week, a running session was definitely out of the question. I wanted to spend my time eating ice-creams not being stretchered off to A & E after collapsing after trying to run just 100 yards.

But instead of lazying around sunbathing all day every day, me and my family went to Clumber Park for a lovely walk around and a picnic.

The warm weather has sent me on many a long walk this last past week. I hate sitting still in hot weather so I grab the dogs and a ice pop and head out on a lovely walk to get my daily exercise.

Since I have moved back home and student loans no longer exist (I am so not ready for the 'real world!') I can no longer afford the gyms prices so I've been using my mothers stepper that was gathering dust in the corner of the room. I managed to do 100 steps in 3 minutes before I felt like I was going to collapse.

I have let my fitness get to dire levels again. Damn comfort eating when I had exam/deadline stress! I'm trying to cut way back on chocolate and crisps - all the baddies in the food world! And to eat as much fruit/veg as I can to detox myself a bit as well! I don't want to be the lump people mistake for a beached whale on my jollies!

Anyway I am definitely going to fit a run in this week (since I have all this free time now University is over!) and I promise I will try and run at least a few miles. Or I'll end up walking on my own at Race for Life whilst my friends zoom past me and I won't be able to see them for dust! I don't want to let the side down!

Trainers are ready to be slipped on, sports bra is washed and ready to be stretched on again. Me and my old friend running are about to meet again. Lets hope we can run forward and brush my dodgy running past aside!

10 top running tips for going from zero to 10k!

Here are my own top tips that I tried to follow to take me from being extremely unfit to completing a 10k! Give them a go and try something new!


Number 1

Get a training partner! Whether it is a relative, your dog or a friend make sure you get somebody else to run with! It really helps to spur you on to keep going!

Number 2

Eat well! Putting the right fuel in your tank matters! As my training fell during the Lent period I gave up eating chocolate and crisps and I was 4 pounds lighter for it and it helped me feel more alert instead of the usual sluggish feeling!
Eat plenty of carbs, fruit and veg and drink energy drinks whilst out running!


Number 3

Don’ t push too hard too soon! Ease yourself into the training schedule, don’t run 5 miles in the first week, make a training timetable by running every other day alternating speeds and distances!

Number 4

If you’re doing a big run then run for charity! There’s nothing like the feeling of helping others out, so get your friends, family, neighbours, uni housemates to sponsor you a couple of quid! It helps to keep you going on the day knowing that you’ve raised some cash! Running in fancy-dress gives you a buzz, and who cares how daft you look, laugh along with people and it will certainly get you noticed! You may even be lucky enough to get on TV/in the newspaper!
Me in fancy dress!

Number 5

Buy correct clothes/trainers. I made this fatal mistake to begin training in my manky old gym trainers in the back of my wardrobe. Go to a Sports shop, ask the staff to advise you on correct gear. Invest in a decent pair of running trainers your feet will thank you later!
My Puma Trainers!


Number 6

Positive thinking. It will get you far. Even when you feel like your muscles are bursting and your legs about to give way tell yourself ‘Go on I can do this, not far to go keep going!!’ Yes you will look crazy talking to yourself but who cares if it gets you across that finish line!

Number 7

Do speed training. Run as fast as you can for half a mile and continue doing this over your next few training sessions then when it comes to running at your normal pace again it will seem slower and your distance will increase!


Number 8

Look after number 1!
Injuries strike at any moment. Don’t push yourself too far that you cannot come back from, your body or sports therapist wont appreciate it! Listen to your body and take care of any injuries you are prone to getting!

Number 9

Warm up and cool down!
Before and after every race ensure that you stretch out your muscles or you’re at risk at not being able to walk the next day! Cooling down is slightly more important to remember, as it will stop the acid build up in your muscles after exercise
Doing cool down stretches after the 10k!

Number 10

Finally just ENJOY YOURSELF!
Enjoy running outside in the fresh air and feeling fitter and healthier.
Enjoy every moment of the race, honestly the crowds will inspire you to keep your feet going one in front of the other! Relax, talk to other people who are running too and imagine the satisfied feeling of crossing the finish line and getting a well deserved medal!
And don’t forget to smile at all the cameras!

So take my top tips, have fun and get running!

Race schedule - Training our way to a mere 5k!

With 9 short weeks to go before the second race of my life (I'm not counting the one I did when I was 10 - far too traumatising to include!) I've devised a training schedule for me and my friends to try to stick too!


I've started it from the 8 weeks before race day so that gives just one last week before I become like the scary American guy off Celebrity Fit Club and try to train myself and bully my friends into running the whole 5k!


TERMINOLOGY IN THE LIST!


Walk: A nice fast walking pace!
Jog: Gentle running pace (should still able to chat easily throughout so don't go too fast!)
Walk/Jog: Walk for a bit then Jog for a bit! Alternate the cycle - shake things up a bit!
Run: Faster pace than jogging but still able to chat to friends (not all the time though ladies!)
Rest: Take a day off exercise or better still keep up the fitness and go swimming or to the gym!

I've had to set the training schedule out as a list instead as a table so it would fit into the blog - me and technology have a love/hate relationship!

Over each week there is a slightly different training plan which I hope is clear in the list below!

Weeks until run - 8 (Week commencing 2nd May)

Mon - REST

Tues - 1 mile walk/jog

Wed - REST

Thurs - 1 mile walk/jog

Fri - REST

Sat - 30 minute walk

Sun - 1 mile walk/jog

Weeks until run - 7 (Week commencing 9th May)

Mon - REST

Tues - 1 mile walk/jog

Weds - REST

Thurs - 1 mile walk/jog

Fri - REST

Sat - 30 minute walk

Sun - 1 mile walk/jog

Weeks until run - 6 (Week commencing 16th May)

Mon - REST

Tues - 1 mile walk/jog

Weds - REST

Thurs - 1 mile jog/run

Fri - REST

Sat - 40 minute walk

Sun - 1 mile jog/run

Weeks until run - 5 (Week commencing 23rd May)

Mon - REST

Tues - 1 1/2 mile walk/jog

Weds - REST

Thurs - 1 mile jog/run

Fri - REST

Sat - 40 minute walk

Sun - 1 mile jog/run

Weeks until run - 4 (Week commencing 30th May)

Mon - REST

Tues - 1 1/2 mile walk/jog

Weds - REST

Thurs - 1 1/2 mile jog/run

Fri - REST

Sat - 50 minute walk

Sun - 2 mile jog/run

Weeks until run - 3 (Week commencing 6th June)

Mon - REST

Tues - 1 1/2 mile walk/jog

Weds - REST

Thurs - 1 1/2 mile jog/run

Fri - REST

Sat - 50 minute walk

Sun - 2 mile run

Weeks until run - 2 (Week commencing 13th June)

Mon - REST

Tues - 2 mile walk/jog

Weds - REST

Thurs - 2 mile jog/run

Fri - REST

Sat - 60 minute walk

Sun - 2 1/2 mile run

Last week before the run! (Week commencing 20th June)

Mon - REST

Tues - 2 mile walk/jog

Weds - REST

Thurs - 1 1/2 mile walk/jog

Fri - REST

Sat - REST

SUNDAY 27th JUNE- RACE FOR LIFE 5K WISH US LUCK!

Hopefully by the time we do Race For Life we will be very fit and run it in an superb time! Fingers crossed!

Race for my life?

I have finally entered another race you will be pleased to know. Bowt bloody time I hear you say!

Well I'm all signed up to do the annual Race For Life in Doncaster on the 27th June with two of my friends to get me through this one!

This is only a 5k so I should be okay right?

I aimed high in my first race now I'm building up slowly again after having plenty of recuperating time! I know I really should have began at a 5k and worked up to a 10k, but what can I say I don't do things textbook or make life easy for myself! God loves a trier!

I'm again planning to run this in my tutu (it's become my thing now to run around in my hand made tutu I think it likes the limelight!) but this time I may add some silly face-paint and a wig - might as well go the whole hog!

With the London Marathon happening this coming weekend, I'm going to be avidly watching it on TV (not even attempting to run it don't worry! Can you imagine?!) like I do every year and think of how amazing it would be to run it.

It's definitely on my to do list before I'm 30, that gives me a good 8 and a bit years to train. I don't know if that's long enough to be honest after my poor display at running the 10k!

I am ambitious I know but I really really want to do the Marathon one year! From my dad telling me all about how exciting it is and how amazing the crowd are it makes me almost want to sign up right now (alright I know I can't till later this year if my body was actually prepared to take part next year!)

Swimming tomorrow and maybe even a cheeky run snuck in there too. My trainers are beginning to gather dust. Whilst we have this nice patch of beautiful weather might as well take advantage of it and go and see my good old friend Westport Lake again. How I have missed thee...

...Flashback of the pain/geese/strange people fishing

I may have just changed my mind...

The Professional Photos

I've found some of the professional photos that I had no idea were being taken of me on that Sunday morning.


Some snaps of me and my Dad running

Surprisingly most are not too horrendous, I have a smile plastered on my face and I seem to be enjoying myself. I was definitely within a few metres of the finish line to my relief.

Enjoy looking at them - I think I may even buy a few myself to remind me of my 1st ever 10k!

Also I've just come across a not so attractive picture on BBC Lincolnshire

Scroll along the slide show until you find me and my Dad you can't miss us.

Stop laughing now please.

I clearly didn't know the camera was there and I have no clue as to why my hands are in a half clap motion or why I'm shooting somebody a dirty look. Definitely not one I'll be getting printed anytime soon. At least my Dad looks happy!

I guess with no control over the photographs I couldn't win them all!

Video of race day (finally!)

Sorry for the delay everyone, again technology got the better of me and my brother had to save me from punching my laptop into oblivion...

Here is a video collective of footage my mum took of race day so there's a bit at the beginning, a bit of me running, then a bit of me telling the world how knackered I am at the end (apologies for the blunt answer I give my mum when she asks me how I'm feeling - at least I didn't swear!)

Enjoy these highlights of my day! Doesn't seem like 2 weeks ago! About time I put my trainers back on and went for a light jog, now Lent's over I don't want to gorge on chocolate and crisps and revert back to my old unfit ways.

So my sensible/healthy head is firmly screwed on and is staying strong (I want that bikini body for my Summer holiday!)

Running with Asthma!

I HAVE BEEN an Asthma sufferer for 18 out of my 21 years, varying from it being quite serious when I was young girl to it being mild and controllable since I reached my mid-teens. Taking my inhalers everyday since I was 3 years old is the norm for me and I can’t remember life before Asthma. This doesn’t make me sad or angry, Asthma is a part of me and I’d like to think it makes me ‘special.’

My younger brother also had Asthma when he was a child but he ‘grew out’ of it and is now Asthma free. I do feel extremely fortunate that my Asthma is now manageable and that I’m one of the lucky few who haven’t been hospitalised due to an Asthma attack, but it is still annoying when I’m trying to exercise (and when I have to pay to get them from the chemist!)

During a crazy moment I decided that I wanted to run a 10k road race in Lincoln (on Sunday 21st March), something I had never done before and I was very wary that my Asthma could hold me back.

It has never stopped me in other sports before like when I’m swimming it hardly affects me but I knew from going to the gym and trying to run longer than 34 seconds on the treadmill that my lungs were not going to make training for the race easy.
I also knew that my general fitness was poor as well so I couldn’t blame my Asthma forever so I began my training for the 10k in January this year.

I can hear the Asthma Nurse now in my head telling me that if I’m out in cold weather (especially when it’s windy) to try and wear a scarf over my mouth to prevent me becoming as breathless as I do when walking through the cold.

Yet here I was, running round a cold miserable park on some of the coldest days of the year. I knew I had to keep it up or be at risk from getting frostbite in some very unpleasant places.

In the beginning I could run about ½ mile before becoming breathless and having to take a puff off my reliever inhaler (Ventalin). I tried to put off taking my Inhaler for as long as possible whilst running but when I was suffering from an extremely tight chest I had to reach for the Inhaler.

My friend (who is also Asthmatic) told me to take several puffs off my daily inhaler about 15 minutes before I began running so that it would open up my lungs before I even began running. To be honest I couldn’t feel any difference as I still needed a puff of my Ventalin after running a very small distance but I was willing to try anything.

Me taking a puff of my Ventalin inhaler



BEST BIT OF ADVICE

The best bit of advice I found for when I was out running was to not hunch over when running, to lean back and stick your chest out and always breathe through your mouth. Sounds simple enough doesn’t it? Believe me it’s like rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time!

Another good tip I came across is to make a pattern whilst breathing. One that I used was breath in in then out out (2 breaths at a time to maximise the oxygen getting into your lungs) , also trying to time your breathing in to music when you’re running can be good as well, just as long as your music isn’t ‘Pendulum’ as you may cause yourself to hyperventilate!

Just as I was gearing myself up for the big day, Sod’s Law struck me down with a head cold a week before my race. Usually when I get a cold it goes straight onto my chest due to my rubbish lungs, and then I’m suffering for weeks with a nasty chesty cough. But someone was on my side that week (sort of, they still gave me a horrible cold) as after 5 days I was just about snot free and still up to running on Sunday!

RACE DAY

On the actual day of the race, my Asthma didn’t actually cause me too many problems, I only had to stop once to get my Ventilin out of my legwarmer ( I was running in fancy dress, I don’t always run wearing bright yellow leg warmers honest!) and take a few puffs of Ventalin.

I was panicking that I would have to be picked up by the St. John’s Ambulance and be put straight on the Oxygen after collapsing after the first mile, but in fact it was my legs and feet that caused most problems whilst I was running not my Asthma at all.
I proved to myself that I can run and not let my Asthma make me doubt whether or not I can do something.
Yes I only have mild Asthma but it has definitely held me back in the past when it comes to sport (I’m still blaming it for me never winning, or coming in the top 10, during the 100 metre race in School Sport’s days!) but on Sunday I tried to relax, remember my breathing and it really helped me!

I also managed to raise over £100 for Asthma UK, who sent me a lovely green vest to run in on Sunday. I’m glad that at least a charity, who works closely with people like me, benefited from my pain and un-fitness!

I think I have proved that I’m the controller of my Asthma, it doesn’t control me! Actually looking forward to my next big run now!