The past few weeks I’ve been listening to the book ‘Born to Run’ by Christopher McDougall, and yesterday morning as I walked to rowing I heard a line which made me stop, rewind, and whip out my phone to write it down.
Word.
Live life by your own expectations, not someone else’s.
Age 14, I am unfit and overweight. My Dad takes me to the gym for the first time, and I walk on the treadmill at an incline. I read on the internet about the Couch to 5k programme, and decide to give it a go. I ran on the treadmill on and off, but never reached the magical number for me, 30 minutes without stopping. In school we do the Race for Life. It takes me 45 minutes of mostly walking. One day, I really wanted to be a runner.
Age 17, I weigh less and am in slightly better shape. I run as a way to burn calories. It is sporadic, and I do not enjoy it, and no one else seems to be out running. I reach the magical 30 minutes and I’m elated. I run the Race for Life again with work, this time in 36 minutes with quite a few walking stops. I don’t keep it up, and mainly just turn to it when I feel like I want to lose a few lbs or get a bit fitter.
Age 19, I moved to Cheshire. It’s FLAT?!? I come from the Valleys, so not having to go up and down massive hills is a huge revelation. I go for a run outside, and it’s fun. There are lots of other joggers about, at all times of the day and in all weathers. After a year, I start to enjoy running and run regularly. I run for fun, I run for time, I run for stress release. I run to be fit, to feel the burn in my legs. I learn to love being outside, just me and my footsteps. For the first time I am not actively dieting. I eat to fuel my workouts. I reach that magical number, 30 minutes without stopping. I double that magical number. I have the confidence in myself and my fitness to take on new things. I join a rowing club, I buy a road bike, I enter races. I run a 24 minute 5k. I am a runner.
For me, becoming a runner was something that I really wanted to do. I’m not sure what the allure was, but I knew that once I started to love it it would stick. I loved the thought of lacing up my shoes, heading out and returning a while later with a few miles under my belt. Learning to run is HARD. I wont sugar coat it, especially if you are unfit like I was, running is hard. It’s hard on the body, and it can be a massive mental game of not quitting. But it is also so rewarding, and gave me a massive confidence boost because it made me realise that I am capable of many things if I put my mind to it.
Running requires a decent pair of trainers and a well fitting sports bra for the ladies. But soon enough you will start to have more questions. How soon should I up my mileage? What should I eat before, during and after?
Enter: AXA PPP healthcare and their be healthy campaign. I think it’s great that a healthcare company is getting involved and actually putting information out there for the general public. Next Thursday, the 26th April they are having a live chat dedicated to running, giving us the opportunity to ask some experts a few questions. You can join in with the live chat on the website, or leave a question on Facebook or Twitter if you can’t make it. The following experts will be available that day -
I’m in an exam that day so unfortunately I won’t be able to join in, but here’s my question that I’ll be asking on Facebook -
I’m running my first half marathon in September, and due to other sports I will only be running 2-3 times a week in the lead up. What types of run are most important for me to reach my goal of completing the race and what kinds can I afford to miss? (e.g I know I will need 1 long run per week, but what else?)
This is something I’ve been trying to plan myself so I’m excited to see what they have to say. I’m thinking 1 long, 1 speed and then an easy 3-5 miler every week but I’ll see what they say!
As well as offering all this information AA PPP healthcare are also sponsors of Race for Life. I have completed a Race for Life three times, and each time it has been special, they have such a fantastic atmosphere. As a sponsor, they are offering the chance to top up one person’s sponsorship money by £100 for individual runners, or £200 for AXA PPP healthcare members every week until the 3rd of August. This is a fab competition that I’ll be passing on to my friends that are running this years Race for Life. You can enter here, and all you need to do is raise £50 sponsorship money and have a JustGiving page to be eligible. Pretty cool!
Anyone temped to take part in this chat, do you have any questions for the experts?
*I got paid to write this post. The live chat information was given, but the rest is my own thoughts. I thought long and hard about whether I wanted to do this but then I thought I’d share my running story with you all at some point so I may as well get paid to do it. I’m a poor student! Posts like this will not be frequent, as I don’t intend on writing about stuff that I don’t love. However, I love to run and I also love opportunities for people to gain sensible nutrition and health information. Please let me know what you think about this. I definitely do not want you to avoid my blog because of a post like this.
Last week marked 12 weeks to go before my first triathlon! Time is flying and I’m sure it was 6 months away a few days ago. From here on I want to record my training and thoughts here. Triathlons are expensive, so I only intend on doing 1 or 2 this summer, plus it’s my first one so I want to give it my best shot.
Training Monday 9th – Sunday 15th April
Monday: Rest day. Went to the Cheshire food festival and ate a lot of cheese and peanut butter cupcakes.
Tuesday: Ran 2 miles with Alix in 18:26 before rowing. We were going to do 3 but it hail stoned so we cut it short. Then went rowing for an hour and a half. The week before I had a rubbish rowing week and so I was a bit worried, but thankfully we are friends again (rowing and I).
Wednesday: Rode 15 miles in 1 hour 10 mins with my friend who just got a new road bike, so it was at a nice leisurely pace. Then I ran 3.1 miles with my housemate in 28 minutes. She just started running 2 weeks ago and she’s already running at that speed. Very jealous and proud! It was fun to having a running buddy.
Thursday: I got a new turbo trainer and so did 25 minutes on that playing about. I was super sweaty, and I also didn’t realise until yesterday that you can change gear on them (yeah I know, what do they teach in uni eh) and was pedalling in a dead hard gear. Then I ran 2 miles while waiting for rowing to start, and then had an outing for an hour and a half.
Friday: Rest day
Saturday: Rowed for 1 hour 30 minutes and then we had our 2k tests. I only took a second off, and as we haven’t had a test for 2 months I was a little disappointed. I’ve gotten over it now though, at least it still came down. Also did 25 sweaty minutes on the turbo whilst watching ultimate force.
Sunday: Rowed for 2 hours, it was a great row and I felt like we worked hard. I’m also chuffed with how I’m coming along and am finally starting to lose some of the bad habits I picked up at the start.
Running: 7 miles
Riding: 2 turbo’s and 1 outside
Swimming: 0
Rowing: 4 times, ~6hours
Core/Strength: 0
Obviously no swims is not ideal but I don’t like swimming during certain times so I need to pick that up again this week. Also need more strength and core work, I have been pretty good at getting one session in a week but last week I just didn’t. More strength training would probably benefit my 2k time. Finally, it looks like a lot of hours rowing but outings aren’t all strenuous and we have been doing a lot of technique work lately. And also consuming a lot of post training cake now lent is over. Anyway…
A few weeks ago I was contacted and asked to review a Belkin armband to put my iPhone in for running. I said yes because I have been looking to buy one as I probably should be taking my phone with me on long runs and rides, so it was perfect timing. They sent it to me for free but this is what I thought of it.
Initially, I was a bit worried that it wouldn’t fit around my biceps.
Hahaha. I kid, I kid. There’s so much I won’t say about that photo, apart from the fact it was very early in the morning and I was very sweaty. And pale apparently. In a fit of complete madness I overlooked the fact that this armband is for iPhone 4’s, and mine is a 3. However, my phone fit in there. It was a bit snug, but it fit. My own fault, and nothing to do with the arm band. I was actually worried that it would either slip around on my arms or feel like a blood pressure cuff, but it was actually really comfortable. No chafing occurred which was also a worry, although I’ll let you know the stance on that as half marathon training progresses and my time wearing it increases.
To put it through the test I wore it during an insanity workout, to see how it’d do. It stayed put the entire time and didn’t jiggle about, after a while I forgot it was there. The material is very soft (it’s neoprene) and comfortable, and there’s also a little pocket that you can put a key in if you need to. It’s water resistant too, which is always useful in this country.
Overall, it’s a great arm band and when I (eventually) upgrade to an iPhone 4 it’ll be even better. However, I do worry about advertising the fact that I have an iPhone when I’m out running. What do you all think, do you feel comfortable using things that have your gadgets on show? I think I am a bit OTT about personal safety sometimes, but you never know!
One of my new years resolutions was “Have a better relationship with alcohol. As in, not stop drinking, but sort out a few issues that I do have. This is a story for another day.” Well, today is another day and after having various drafts of this post for months I decided to hit publish.
Before Christmas I said that I wanted a few weeks off the booze, and my housemate said “why? you have to have one vice”.”
Which is very true, and I do agree. I workout, I eat pretty well 90% of the time, and I drank maybe once a fortnight. However, when I did drink I didn’t just have a few. I drank until I don’t remember coming home.
I would easily drink that fortnights recommended unit allowance in 1 night. Recently I’ve become increasingly worried about the damage that this binge drinking will have on my long term health. I’m becoming increasingly worried about a lot of things actually, lectures on food and health all day every day will do that to you, but that’s a story for a different day. Alcoholism runs in my family. I have watched people that I love and care for hurt themselves with alcohol. Liver cirrhosis runs in my family. My grandma had liver cancer. So why do I take my health for granted and drink like this?
Confidence? Not really, I don’t do too badly without a drink. Not boredom, or any reason really, other than I don’t know my limits. I don’t know when to stop drinking.
The day after drinking to blackout point I feel embarrassed. Ashamed. Apologetic. I lose the entire day, I miss lectures, I can’t concentrate on uni work, and I feel like absolute crap for the entire day. You always see pictures of young girls in the paper sitting on the pavement looking an absolute mess, and to be quite honest, sometimes that could be me.
So, on January 1st I decided that I wasn’t going to drink anything until we raced at Henley, which was supposed to be the 11th Feb (got cancelled). The first thing that I noticed was people get really offended when you say you’re not drinking. For example, going on a night out -
“Why aren’t you drinking?”
“I don’t want to, I’m not drinking until Henley”
“WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT? WHY? Go on, just have one. Go on. You’re not drinking? Well I am. Have a drink. Well I’m going to put vodka in your drink when you aren’t looking.”
I also noticed that people try to justify their own drinking habits to you, or try and force you to drink. You wouldn’t force me to drink a class of cola if I said I didn’t want one, so why force someone to drink a glass of wine?
Anyway, I learnt a lesson from those six weeks. It is possible to have a fun night out, and remain sober. It’s also cheaper, and I don’t lose days of my life where I lie on the sofa moaning. Well, I still do that, but it’s more by choice now. After the six weeks ended, you bet I had a glass of wine. But that’s what it was. It was a few glasses of wine, I stopped after a point, had a fun night and woke up the next day feeling fine. It gave me the confidence to be okay with not drinking, and to stop worrying about what other people will think.
Am I never going to get drunk again? Absolutely not. I love trying new beers, going out with the girls, and spending summer evenings in beer gardens drinking cider. What I am never going to do is drink until I don’t know who I am, until I can’t remember what happened or how I got home.
Another crazy term has finished, hooray! I’m very ready for a few days of chilling out and then hitting revision hard. I had a bit of an end of term disaster last week, my computer got a virus on Thursday, the day before a deadline and the end of term. Sods law or what! Luckily my housemate lent me hers and I managed to get myself sorted in time.
Anyway, one thing that I have noticed this term is that I let how other people are feeling affect me. My course is pretty full on – like all degrees, and dare I say it…..a little competitive. Everyone is battling for top grades, battling for good work experience, and will one day be battling for jobs. A lot of people get really stressed out, but by nature I am not a stressed person. I’m pretty chilled out, I have my own system, I know that I will get my work done and I know that I will most likely do my very best on it. However, when I’m in uni and people are talking about what they have or haven’t done I get stressed. I start to panic “how will I finish this work by Friday when X says they’ve been working on it for a month?” and I often feel bad that I’m not doing as much work as someone, wasn’t up until late the night before, or god forbid I took a break to get out for a sunny bike ride. It’s a bit like food and exercise, you get stuck in a bad comparison trap.
The other day I was a bit upset because a friend said “I wish I could go outside and enjoy the sunshine with all this work we have to do” after I’d said that I had gone out for a sunny bike ride the previous day. I don’t know if it was meant how I took it but it made me feel a bit shit to be honest. Am I not working hard enough? Am I going to fail? But then I realised that doing something like that makes me HAPPY. That happiness makes me focused, and that focus means that I may not be putting in 16 hour days in the library, but the hours that I do put in are productive and worthwhile..and my grades this year have reflected that.
What I’m trying to get to with this point is that I’ve realised that I no longer want to surround myself with people that drain the positive energy out of me and cause me stress that I don’t want or need. I hope this sounds how I’m trying to say it. I’m fed up of sitting and complaining about assignments and deadlines because everyone else is, and instead I am going to do the Leigh thing of embracing them. I chose to do this course, so I’m going to choose to be happy when I’m doing it, these are meant to be the best years of my life after all.
Does anyone have any similar experiences with this? I kind of feel like an outsider sometimes.
In happier news, a few weeks ago I received my foodie blog swap package organised by the lovely Jemma, from the equally lovely Alicia and what a package she sent!
The three cheese pretzels were gone in a matter of days, and I’ve also tried the Clif Z bar which was amazing, very sweet and chewy – a perfect afternoon pick me up. The cinnamon almonds smell and taste like christmas and the coffee is a nice dark roast. I haven’t tried the chocolate, peanut butter or chocolate-coffee grinder (!!!) yet as it’s still lent, but I can’t wait to tuck in afterwards. Thank you so much Alicia, and Jemma for organising!
Hope everyone is enjoying the sunshine, I am at home and am going to tackle a Welsh mountain today with the help of my two border collie side-kicks 
First of all, I LOVED the comments on my last post. Who’d of thought a rucksack could stir up so many feelings and memories. Your replies were wonderful to read, and made me even more comfortable with the fact that I really am very cool. Or not. Either way, that’s fine.
Remember a few weeks ago I posted this picture, saying that last time I ran a 10km I looked, and felt like I was going to die? Well, I was secretly hoping that this time I was going to look a little better at the finishing line…..
Hahaha. Literally, every time I look at this picture I laugh. If she had snapped the picture a second earlier I would have been sprinting and possibly would have looked a little athletic, instead I just look like I am about to keel over. In all fairness, I was about to. But I finished in 51.02 minutes! That’s 12 minutes off my last 10k time. I was over the moon with that time as I was aiming for <55 minutes. You can tell I’m new to racing though – in everyone else’s finishing pictures they are stopping their watches but it took me about five minutes to realise mine was still going.
That’s a slightly better before picture!
I ran the High Legh 10km in Cheshire and I will definitely run it again next year. It was so well organised, well marshalled, and good value for money. I paid £14 I think and we got finishing t-shirts, gels, bars, water and fruit. There were 300ish runners, the course was mostly flat and not congested. The only downsides were you weren’t allowed to listen to music so I did get a bit bored, and they ran out of small t-shirts at the finish line and the medium is pretty huge.
The day before that I had a rowing race, which was quite a long race (6km). I was rowing with the seniors who are much more hard core than me, so I was quite pleased that I kept up with them in the boat. We ended up coming in second in our division, which is quite good but in rowing you win or you lose, so everyone was a bit meh.
The race pictures are absolutely hilarious, but here’s a quite nice (in comparison) one. I’m at the back in bow seat.
Finally, last weekend I went to London for the Women’s Head of the River Race. 300 female crews entered, and you race the Oxford/Cambridge Boat Race route backwards. It’s 4.25miles and it was TOUGH! My legs were on fire after 5 minutes, and it took around 24 in the end. Your start number is based on where you finished the previous year. We started at 178 and finished at 142nd place, which means we bean 36 crews that should have been faster than us. It was awesome to row on the Thames! But the River Dee is much prettier in my (non-biased) opinion 
Now that the 10km is over my attention has turned to triathlon training, which I really want to start documenting as I literally have no clue what I’m doing. Anyone got any tips for tri training? Fitting it in with rowing will be a challenge, but I’m looking forward to it!
At some point in my life, a lot of things became uncool. You plod through school with your Disney pencil case and Sketchers trainers and then one day, usually at the start of secondary school – you can’t bring your Disney pencil case anymore, and you spend weeks persuading your mum that you need new trainers, even though yours are quite new and still fit.
At around 14 years old someone decided that rucksacks weren’t cool anymore, so you had to squeeze everything you owned in to a 1-shoulder cloth bag and carry your folders in your arms. If you absolutely had to have a rucksack you work it as low as possible. Healthy eating became uncool…… then eating became uncool. If you ate breakfast everyone looked at you like you had 5 heads. Doing your homework became uncool, and then putting any sort of effort in to your education became uncool. Who stayed up later was a competition. How many friends you had on MySpace became a competition. You have a pencil case?! Gasp. No, you had a pen in the bottom of your bag, and it was cooler if it didn’t work.
After secondary school I sort of realised these rules were a bit silly, and started doing as I pleased, but it wasn’t until I came to University that I realised that cool and uncool doesn’t really exist, because there are other people like you too. In my house, it is encouraged to eat breakfast, and eat healthily. Working hard towards your degree is admired, and having a hobby, whatever it is, is envied. My pencil case is filled to the brim – and they all work. I wear whatever I want (unfortunately for my housemates it’s usually lycra in horrendous colours), I want to get rid of ‘friends’ from social networking sites and I go to sleep at 8pm if I need to.
In spite of this, there was one rule from school that I really couldn’t get over. The rucksack.
I remember last summer I borrowed my boyfriend’s to walk somewhere, and the entire walk I was thinking ‘Is everyone staring at me?’ Then, I started to get a bit jealous. An entire weekends worth of clothes in a rucksack made travelling easy for him. A weekend’s worth of stuff in a shoulder bag made travelling a right mission for me. Walking to the library with a laptop bag, a handbag, and usually another bag of books/food was a nightmare, I’d get there lop sided and in a right mood. Taking kit to the gym in a canvas bag was a pain and nothing ever fit.
I decided to buy one, and it literally took me months to find one that I liked. It took me longer to buy it, and longer still to actually use it. And when I finally did work up the courage to take it outside, the world didn’t end. No one even looked at me. But it felt quite good, a big ‘F you’ to everyone in school that dictated what I’d do for years.
This story isn’t about a rucksack. It’s about being true to yourself, and doing what you want to do in life – regardless of whether it’s ‘cool’ or not.
When I started my blog I had visions of me posting daily, witty stories about my life, and my path to becoming a dietitian. I’d tell a funny story, and then hit you all with an amazing life changing nutrition fact.
Truth be told, university isn’t very fun and I’m yet to be hit with an amazing, life changing nutrition fact myself. And no matter how often I post, I’ll never be funny. Or witty.
I keep getting post ideas in my head, but they are weird, or not quite a full post, or don’t have any accompanying pictures so I don’t end up posting them. But from now on I am going to post them, because I suppose it’s my blog and there are no rules or expectations. And also because my boyfriend says he enjoys reading them, and it’s probably better that he reads my craziness and doesn’t have to listen to me winge that Nutella is on offer and that my life will soon be over.
I tell you, don’t buy them. I’ve had to triple tape them up and put them in my housemates bedroom, alongside other things I can’t be trusted to keep in my bedroom (mini daim bars I’m looking at you). They are so deliciously barbeque-y. I’ve got some wasabi and soy sauce ones to try out next. They are on offer in Tesco at the moment, I think they were 97pence a bag. Cheap for almonds!
Lycra – like or lump? I had some running leggings that I got cheap and thought fitted, but I bought some proper fitting, soft Asics ones today and they are a million times better. Not saggy in the crotch or at the knees. I think lycra is very flattering when it fits! Also, I own some lime green lycra shorts which I wear in public, much to my housemates despair 
Pinch, punch, first of the month! Where did January go? What did I do?
I am going to try and document more of February, and I pinky promise myself that I will actually take some photographs this month – especially as there are a couple of fun things happening in between essay hell. Yep, it’s that time of year – I’m jacked up on coffee and everything is an excuse to not do work. Today I took to the shower with a toothbrush and gave it a good scrub. Then I needed cake to recover from the gruesomeness. Four girls, one shower…
Next weekend I am going to Henley to race, and I’m super excited. We are doing two races on the same day which will be challenging but I’m sure the adrenaline will carry us through. Plus the banana loaf that my mum is bring for me to scoff in between. This will be the first time my parents have ever been to watch me do something sporty, and I think they are really excited too.
At the end of the month I’m signed up for a 10km with my boyfriend. In October 2010 we ran one in 1 hour 3 minutes and I thought I was going to die. I looked it too –
Yesterday I ran 5 miles in 44:23 and felt pretty good so I’m hoping for a <55 minute 10km. Not sure if that’s a bit of a long shot but I’ll give it a go. I’ve only been running one day a week and just been focusing on going further every week. I do a warm up mile twice a week then in circuits which I have been caning (I’m counting them as my speed work haha), and general rowing and other things have been keeping my fitness up.
In a moment of essay induced boredom/madness I signed up for a triathlon! Now, I have been absolutely obsessed with triathlons, and people who do triathlons for a long time. It’s kind of embarrassing to be honest. I read so many tri blogs and have read books and things, but never actually bitten the bullet.
Well, now I’ve got my road bike I’ve really not got much excuse, so I signed up for a sprint tri on June 30th. This is plenty of time to train and do myself justice, except rowing is four days a week. This realistically leaves me 2 days to train because I need a rest day. Hopefully my fitness will carry over, so really I just need to work on my swim technique and my biking.
Exercise definitely counts as homework for me, so it’s all good. So does watching the Biggest Loser. Have you all been watching? I’ve been disappointed with it this year so far, and no one is really standing out to me that I really want to win.
Does anyone have any races this month, are you looking forward to it?
My boyfriend is a BMXer and all his friends are too, and when they all get together I can’t help but laugh at them speaking. It’s all bmx terms and words like ‘gnarly’ ‘sweet’ and ‘rad.’ It always end up with me and whoever else is a non bmxer trying to imitate them. “Yeah just did a 360 on the half pipe it was gnarly dude.”
No one else finds it funny. One time I even learnt some names of some big bmxers so I could drop them in to conversation and look like a cool girlfriend, but I forgot the names before I had a chance to use them haha.
So when my Daily Mile report came in last week, I laughed for far too long.
Monday – off
Tuesday – Rowing circuits 1hr
Wednesday – 55mins yoga for athletes video
Thursday – 1hr rowing circuits, Gillian Michaels yoga meltdown 30min
Friday – 50 mins swimming
Saturday – 2 hour rowing outing.
Sunday – 2 hour rowing outing
Monday – 4.05mi run, 38 min
Tuesday – Rowing circuits
Wednesday – off
Thursday – Rowing circuits
Friday – 4 mile run, 36 mins
Saturday – 2 hour rowing
Sunday – 2 hour rowing
I am pretty impressed with myself too! I love getting the daily mile reports at the end of the week, for some reason they really motivate me. I think it’s because one week it just said “here’s your training from last week” and I was like “where is my word?!” So now every Tuesday morning I check my e-mails excited to see my word of the week. Please tell me I’m not the only one?
