Recently before this trip I invested in a go pro and I am hoping to start making more and more videos relating to my blog post and travels, so I have made a youtube account. The link to my video is below, so take a look and let me know what you think, and be sure to subscribe if you want to catch more of my videos in the future. So lots of you may have known about my trip to Lanzarote over new year, if you have been following me on instagram. Because I have been so busy in all of January and beginning of February, I haven't had a chance to get this blog post onto the blog, but now is the time. Over Christmas is a great time to go on a training camp, especially a warm weather one, because it is the time of the year where the weather tends to be pretty rubbish and motivation to get out on those cold, dark long runs is pretty low. We had a very early start of 2:30am, which I definitely would not recommend doing, especially if you are planning on not really pausing your training for a day of travelling, because you are going to be pretty tired, and unsurprisingly when it got to 5pm, when we were doing our first session, I was feeling a little dazed it is fair to say. However once that session was done, we headed for an early dinner. Dinner did not disappoint, the buffet style was perfect for everyone, Whether it was pasta, steak, fish, roasted veg or even ice cream, it had it all! My average day was swimming in the morning, normally a 1.5 hour session of about 4km, then a running session in the evening, which really did vary. One day it was a 7km run, one day 800m reps, or one day a long 12km run. Even though we only had just two base sessions, the resort had many many classes to offer during the day. I found myself doing yoga and ab attack everyday. Then also I did a few one off sessions like ariel yoga (photo shown below), it is fair to say this was rather interesting. All my friends loved it but me on the other hand, lets just say I wanted to walk out after 10 mins. Weirdly it made me feel sick, I think it was the hanging and swinging sensation, which I did't really like. The blue track was great and I found my instagram feed turning very blue based, as it was great to take photos on! The week as a whole was seriously tough and by the last day, my legs were well and truly tired, and if you read my blog post KENT CHAMPS my week of hard training in my legs showed in this race, but I did know this was going to happen and but I knew I had to look to the future and the rest of my races in January. I would like to say that my hard training in this week, benefitted for my future races, especially my INTER-COUNTIES. One of the days I did a triathlon, which was great fun. However the swim was in a pool, and open water is definitely my preferred choice but it was nice it being a 50m pool instead of 25m. The cycle... well this wasn't nice. It was so so windy and I pretty much struggled to stay on my bike, let alone actually go fast on it, so this is where I lost lots of time because I was being a cautious rider and didn't want to fall off. With about a quarter of the cycle section left, a boy fell off his bike, which really scared me and made me even slower. At the end of the day I decided that I didn't really mind where I came and I focused on my swim and my run. My run was good, and the feeling of jelly in my legs disappeared after probably about a km. I have had a bit of a different week this week. I had the physio on Thursday and my foot injury which I had been holding for a couple of weeks was assessed and I am now off for 2 weeks, which wasn't what I wanted to hear. I am off to Boston, USA next week, which will be good fun, so I am really excited and hopefully I can pop into a few sports shops and pic up some new bits! I hope you all have had a good weekend, and if you have broken up for half term on Friday you have a relax week off! PS. Don't forget to watch my youtube video! (I have added the it below too). G x
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This weekend was my 5th consecutive race and I was hoping that my racing experience was starting to pile up. These inter-counties were pretty much selections for english schools and they had already selected the top 4 from two weeks ago, so all I had to do was get into the top 4 in Kent, simples... okay not quite that simple, considering I came 10th in the race two weeks ago. I made my pasta as normal, however I definitely did something wrong while cooking it this time, as it just wasn't as good as normal. After finishing all my little snacks and additions to my meal, I went to the relaxation of my bed, and got an early night in. When we arrived, I was pretty quick to get to the sweatshirt and vest shop because this was my first time representing Kent and it is fair to say I was pretty excited about getting the sweatshirt with KENT on. We were racing at Brands Hatch, which for once I had already raced at (last month for Kent XC Champs, which hadn't gone quite so well, so I was keen to improve on that). The one bonus I had in this race was, that I didn't have any pressure on me. As in I wasn't expected to get in the top 4 of Kent, but I did have the pressure of myself on me, just wanting to give it my best shot and to be honest I wanted to get into that top 4, a lot. The gun went, and I charged out of Kent's pen quickly, however I was clumsy enough to catch my finger on my number, then it started bleeding, which was a bit of a nightmare as I had to concentrate on my hand which now had blood all over it and trying to race. I quickly pushed my thoughts of my finger to the side and concentrated on my game plan. I found myself hanging onto a string of Kent runners and I felt like I was struggling to keep up, so I just pushed and tried my best to stick with them. We got to the bottom of the long hill to the finish and I could still see lots of girls in front of me, so I decided I was just going to give it my best shot up the hill. I managed to actually run up the hill, what seemed at a reasonable pace and I came across the finish line pretty tired, but more importantly in 18th place and 5th Kent girl, and I was happy with this, because I have had a few not so great races recently and it was nice to finish my 5 weekend streak of races with a good one. We were sure to take lots of photos after the race (not to mention the other 100 which I missed because I was on my cool down... oops). Overall I had a great day and now I am sitting at home and am still wearing my new sweatshirt, which I am very happy with! I have the next weekend off racing and the week after I am in Boston, USA on a science trip, but I will be sure to be running around touring the parks of the area. I also just need to wait for the confirmation of the teams for english schools and fingers crossed I should be the 1st reserve. I hope all you who were racing this weekend, whether it was inter-counties, BUCs or anything else, that they all went well for you. I now have a relaxed weekend planned, as I have managed to get all my homework down for the weekend!
G x |
HelloI'm Grace, a 18 year old runner, and fitness fanatic. Join me on my crazy journey through life, squeezing in an adventure in every second of spare time I have. Archives
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