On Thursday everyone at club decided to run the new Bushy 10K route. 14th July. You can enter here. I set off with quite a few people as Charlene was unwell and hadn't made it, but thankfully Gary was there for support. 

We started off fairly quickly, well for me anyway, and as always by mile 2 I was flagging and falling behind. Gary stayed with me which I really appreciated and I pushed through. In hindsight I probably shouldn't have gone running as I was battling the beginnings of a chesty cough and to be honest I probably made it worse but oh well, I wanted to run. We actually ended up getting slightly lost on the new route, damn you cross roads, but we still managed to do just over 10k. 

I also did this in 1 hour 16 minutes (see told you I was slow). I have a race coming up in 2 weeks and my goal for this is 1 hour 15 minutes. On Thursday I struggled & took a few walking breaks so fingers crossed I can actually achieve this on the day as long as I don't walk. 

As there was a new gym opening up which was offering a special price of £10.99 per month inc classes, open 24 hours a day with no contract I knew I would be silly not to sign up.

On Friday I popped along for my induction. This was awful as expected, group inductions are useless and really not helpful when you have a million questions to ask about running and how you can use the gym to enhance this and some people in your group have never set foot on a treadmill. Anyway I've decided I will book myself in for a PT session, that way they can help me set up a programme.

Anyway here is what I've done so far.

Fri:

Induction

2000 metre row - 10 minutes 4 seconds

20 min spin session 

Monday morning (Who would of thought I would ever be hitting the gym before work):

Cross trainer - 15 minutes (Interval Training)

20 reps of 10kg barbel squats x 3

10 reps of forward lunges (3kg) x 3

20 reps of 4kg chest presses x 3

20 reps of 4 kg tricep stretches x 3

20 crunches x 2

And a good old stretch.

Wednesday morning:

Bike - Level 4 - 9 miles - 43 minutes

Treadmill - Varied levels - 1 mile - 11 minutes 45 seconds.

And a good old stretch

Saturday morning: 

Treadmill - Varied levels - 1 miles - 11 minutes 55 seconds. 

Cross Trainer - Interval training - 15 minutes

I actually decided to take myself home after this. I've been feeling run down & I shouldn't of gone really as I just couldn't put any effort into it. I really hope I can make up for it this week. Come on body don't let me down now!!

I was in two minds about joining the gym, but I'm really glad I have no. It's really nice to be able to break up running, I'm still running three times & week and intend on keeping this up (except for this week - as I said I'm full of a chesty cough so only managed 2 this week) but I really feel like the extra cross training will really benefit my running. 

1. I'm trying to make a concious effort to use my bike more. I bought myself a bike back in Sept to use for getting too and from work. Now the weather is behaving itself I have no excuse not to get out on it. At the gym on Wednesday morning I had a great session on the bike covering 9 miles. Maybe there's a triathlon in me yet. 

 

 

2. From all the running and now introducing gym sessions my legs have been feeling unsurprisingly sore this week. I treated them to a nice long warm bath and some ice packs. You'll be glad to know they are feeling back to normal.

 

3. As I'm sure you've already read I marshalled at the London marathon on Sunday. It was such an inspirational day and has really spurred me on to keep up the running. Shame my medal is the first running medal I have recieved and I didn't even have to run. I have hung this over my bed post as a constant reminder to get out there and earn my own.

4. In May I am heading to London for the weekend to stay with my Uncle. We have both entered the Clapham Common 10K race on the Sunday. He is so much faster than I am, and will probably finish in half the time I will. I'm still paranoid about coming last but do you know what I don't care. As long as I turn up and give it my best I'll be happy with myself.

Tuesday rolled around again and I dragged my heavy legs down to Bushfield. My legs have only just got used to running 3 x a week and now I've added in gym sessions they are seriously crying. Come on little legs I'm only trying to make you strong.

Anyway, I headed out with Charlene & Roz to do a pretty standard 5 mile route. Thankfully after .5 of a mile my legs had stretched out and were feeling ok (thanks legs) and I was feeling strong. Unfortunately Charlene wasn't, a mile in she was ready to throw in the towel and walk back. After a bit of a pep talk (not sure when I became qualified in giving people pep talks on not giving up), a good old stretch, a quick massage and reassurance that if she needed to stop and walk we could do, we headed off.

I was so proud that she didn't give up and made it round despite her body telling her to stop. This is what I find the most difficult with running, my mind is so strong in trying to get me to stop. You would think 3 runs a week for 4 months it would of gotten used to it by now, but apparently not.

Miles: 5.19

Time: 1 hour 9 minutes (including stopping time for massaging etc)

All in all not to bad considering the stopping time etc, another good run and another 5 miles in the bank.

On Sunday I went to marshal at the biggest running event in the UK, the Virgin London Marathon. For as long as I can remember I have watched the marathon on the Tv and watched in awe as thousands of people manage to take on the gruelling 26.2 mile course. Hats off to the them.

Marshalling was so much fun, it was great to be that close to some amazing athletes, seriously the speed these guys come past you at is phenomonal, especially considering we were station just past mile 23.

I only had one heroic moment when a young man collapsed at my feet due to cramp, I gave him some water, rubbed down his legs & attempted to carry him nearly half a mile down the road to the first aid station. He got to us in just over 2 hours, so I really hope he was able to finish.

The atmosphere on the day was electric, seeing thousands of people come out and cheer on complete strangers is incredible. Seeing the look of pain on peoples faces should be enough to put me off but I've already decided I want to run. Maybe 2014, maybe 2015 who knows.

Nike "Music Runs Ellie" from Paul Minor on Vimeo.

There is something about this video which just makes me want to lace up and get running.

Miles: 7.62

Time: 1 hour 40 minutes & 1 second

Saturday mornings are by far my favourite time to run. I much prefer to run or gym in the morning and start my day off properly. I joined Charlene at Bushfield today and after a night out drinking on Friday I was feeling a little delicate and was unsure as to how this run would go. Turns out it was exactly what we needed. I took us down the same route Sarah & Mandy had taken me on Tuesday but added on an extra 2 miles, as we were still feeling good.

It was so warm, I even had to strip down to just a vest top. N.B must invest in some summer kit pronto.

Right now I've got my head (and lungs) and a longer distance I really need to get some speed training in.