A tiny weeny update...

Hello Blogisphere!

How are you?

I haven’t blogged in a while; so I thought I would give my lovely readers a bit of an update.

My knee still hurts…a lot, so I didn’t end up taken part in the Oxford Half Marathon; because walking up the stairs at work is painful on the knee, 13.1 miles may have killed it. As Sunday came around I felt a bit of a failure, I had my heart, soul and blog poured into that one race that I couldn’t take part in. I felt I had disappointed so many people, including myself, but most importantly my Dad – who I knew was my biggest running fan. But don’t worry Dad, we’re going to get this knee fixed and then look for the next physical challenge.

So what have I been doing instead of running? Mainly eating…it’s getting colder, so naturally we’re more inclined to build up the extra layers of fat to protect us for the winter; and doesn’t my body love doing that (& I don’t even realise I’m doing it). However, as I’m an avid My Fitness Pal-er I log everything that passes my lips, so as I tell it that I’ve stuffed in four oreo’s and a chocolate bar, it works out that I need to run an do 60 minutes on the cross trainer, to work it off and carry on losing.

As well as eating, I’ve been spending a lot more time in the gym (to fight the winter fat); 5 days a week in fact, for 90 minutes +  at a time. I’ve become the ‘gym girl’ I hate, I hog the cardio machine for 90 minutes, then I play about with some weight machines, till I realise that the cardio session has tired my out too much to lift anything.  

It’s dark now, so there is not much to do at home except for 101 things that are boring, paper work or cleaning related. However I’d rather be fit and trim, spending evenings at the gym than and live in a mess, than fat and live in a tidy organised home (partly due to the fact, that if it wasn’t the gym, there would be 101 others excuses I would use to not clean the house). It's funny; as I just read this sentence back to me and I realised the old me would much rather have a cleaner house, and big bum! 

Mum – if you are reading this I’m not going to get a cleaner, as then I’d be trim, fit, and broke!

So what to blog about now?

My  knee rehabilitation programme (that I’ve not really started because of work being crazy and NHS GP’s having a waiting list as long as the Ganges for appointments that don’t clash with my working day (though I do <3 the NHS), I’ve not seen the physio yet. I’m also kind of putting it off till I come back from holiday, so I can go hiking through the Greek mountains blissfully unaware of the damage it’s doing to my knee).

About my views on the new Aussie Immigration (or lack of) policy.

The new Tina Fey Audio book that’s providing my gym soundtrack

New Walking Dead

My awesome Halloween Outfit (that I hope arrives on time)

Or the fact that the four main broadcasters in UK are thinking of getting that awful Nigel Farage to partake in the Live TV Debates next year?

And that’s exactly what is going to happen (maybe not those exact topics) – I’m joining forces with another blogger to create a joint lifestyle blog, more to come on that soon;  so watch this space!

XXX

Moving the goal post…

The last seven days have been an emotional roller coaster and not just in regards to running…but for today we’ll focus on running.

Because I’m a good little runner, after work on Friday I donned my trainers and running gear and headed off to the gym. Friday evenings at the gym are awesome as it’s fairly quiet, plus being a Friday I have that smug (and slightly sad) feeling of being at the gym instead of the pub and earning my gin and tonics before I’ve drunk them. However this Friday didn’t go so well; I got on the treadmill and started running, trying out some new ‘running’ songs to see how they transfer from solo car karaoke, to motivational move my feet soundtrack. 

Friday Nights have changed...#icedknee

I think I may have got into the music too much, and I had a little stumble on the treadmill, which kind of shook me up a little, so I lowered the speed and just started brisk walking to compose myself for 30 seconds or so. As I started to increase the speed and running again I felt a twinge in my knee, almost like the bones were rubbing against each other – I’ve spent enough time on running blogs to know that as soon as you feel a pain like that you stop. So I stopped and went off to talk to the trainer at the gym, who made me stretch it out and move it in all kind of funny motions, then told me to go home, ice it and stay off running, the treadmill and any high impact sports. So I headed home, put me feet up, iced my knee, held back the tears and felt like my world had fallen apart.

So now I’m one of those stupid crazy people who cry about exercising (or lack off). I feel like I’ve worked so hard to reach my half marathon goal and just as that goal is becoming reachable I’m hit by a massive road block. On Friday I felt determined that I’ll rest it on Saturday and that by Sunday I’ll be back to running,  but when I woke up on Sunday it still hurt, so instead of running I stuck to the low impact machine that is the cross trainer. It’s Thursday today and it does not feel much better….I’ve missed out on 3 runs now and my average weekly mileage is decreasing dramatically. The finish line of the Oxford Half is looking the furthest away it’s ever been.

HOWEVER…because I’m not giving up, I am becoming a runner, and I have not let all these months of training go to waste, I have made myself a contingency plan. Half Marathons happen all the time, so if I’m not able to make Oxford, I’ll just run the Reading Half Marathon instead, which is in March. It means these months of falling in and out of running have not gone to waste, I’ll still run 13.1 miles, I’ll carry on training, I’ll be able to run off Christmas Pudding and I’ll still get a shiny medal at the end of it. So it looks like the goal post is going to be moved from October 12^th to March 22^nd, with some knee rehabilitation and extra training thrown in.

So as this blog url is thejourneyisme – my running journey has hit a little block in the road, but that doesn’t mean the road stops there. As the saying goes ‘the road goes on forever and the party never ends’.

This also means I’m now going to keep blogging (ranting / complaining / moaning) till March at least, you lucky readers!

Pre-Race Stress has started already....

This week’s runs have been hard (and I’m only 2 runs in), I’ve had a dramatic turn in events and now hate running again….so I’m giving up, not doing the half marathon and never running again!

Just kidding… I've invested too much time to give up now, plus I can’t give up this easily, and my running trainers are so damn cute I can't not wear them.

I need to carry on plodding (also known as ‘running’) along and get as close to 13.1 miles ready as I can in this time. But I’m absolutely stressing out about it, and it’s pretty much all I think off at the moment, it’s become my new unhealthy obsession. I’m spending more time on the runners world website than I am on BBC news (apparently something is going on in Scotland – or should I say not going on?). I’m going through, writing and re-writing training plans for the next 3 weeks. I’m working out all my potential times (which is complete guess work as who knows what I’ll be like on the day?) and the worse thing about all this stressing is that its interfering with my sleep. I keep dreaming that I can’t make the first mile – wake up at 4:00am, and then can’t get back to sleep. 

ARGHHHHHHHHH – who knew it would be this stressful? I’m a crumbling, sweaty mess – I’m not very good with stress.

So for the moment, I’m going to stop thinking about the end goal – and just focus on training for me, because I want to be able to run these lovely long distances, without the pressure of anyone timing me or watching me; just me in the park with my trainers and ipod, enjoying the fresh air, greenery and thinking off all the calories I’m burning off, so I can eat cheesecake.

This weekend’s runs are looking like this (there has been a slight change due to bad runs this week):

Friday – 10K

Saturday – Gym session; some cross-trainer and treadmill time (90 mins in total)

Sunday – the plan was to get to the pool, but it’s closed for a gala – so I’m going to enjoy the last of the warm weather and head out trekking around Oxford, in order to stretch my legs for a nice long run on Monday.