This Wednesday I had a mid week race; the King Henry VIII relays. It is a relay taking place in Coventry, with girls teams of 4 and boys teams of 6. To start off with Coventry is about 2.5 hours away from my school, so I was not looking forward to the travelling, but it is always a fun and exciting race. My journey up consisted of a bit of chatting but also a lot of latin revising for my test the following day (and I am pleased to say that the test went well)! After having driven for a good 2.5 hours we were able to get off the coach and stretch our legs. We quickly registered at the school and then made our way over to the park. The course is an odd one because you spend about 80% on a path but then the other 20% is in a muddy woods... not really ideal when it comes to choosing footwear. I eventually went for my cushioned trainers as I am dealing with a bit of a shin splint problem at the moment, so I wanted something which would cause the least bit of aggravation. I was the third leg which I actually quite liked in the end. When I was handed over the baton we had a big lead, so I set out to keep this gap as big as possible. The course isn't hilly at all, just the odd slight slope, so I was thrilled with this. I felt strong over the first 800m and then I was off into the woods... thankfully because it was pretty chilly the mud was slightly frozen, however there were too patches which were so so muddy. When I got to these points I was so concentrated I just ran straight through the horrible mud. I was very relieved when I finally got out of the woods back onto the path. The boys set off 5 minutes before the girls so by the time my leg came around we had just caught up some of the slower boys and I found this really helpful because it meant I could use someone as a target to chase down. I found the last 200m the hardest as my legs were tired and my shins were sore but I was pleased to hand the baton over, still with a big lead. We finished in 1st place at the end with over a one minute lead, which I was thrilled about and so was the rest of the team! It was a great day out and coming home with the win made it even better. However my shins have been getting sore over the last week so I've decided to just give cross training a go until next week to help this problem settle, I can already feel that they have recovered and I know I'll be back running very shortly.
Grace :)
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In mid December I went on holiday to Miami to get some much needed vitamin D and it was my first trip away with just my sister, which I was super excited about! I have saved this post until now because as the evenings are starting to get lighter and the small prospect of warm weather is in sight... sort of, okay not really. Anyway I thought I'd do a blog of what I got up to whilst on holiday and some helpful tips for staying motivated when away. America is always hard with jet lag and Miami was a four hour change, my sister and I found ourselves getting pretty exhausted early in the evening and I would be lying if I said we didn't go to bed at like 6pm on the first night. Personally I actually quite enjoyed going to bed early because it meant we woke up super early. When it comes to running whilst away I found it easiest to get my run done in the morning for many reasons. Firstly because it was the coolest part of the day and I am not a fan of running in the peak of the heat as I basically die. Secondly because if I left it until the afternoon then I was exhausted after having lied on a sun bed or walked about 10km around Miami. What I can say for sure about running on holiday is that it great because you can go and explore where you are staying a pass places that you might not have seen otherwise. In Miami it was great because there was a path along the beach for 7km and running along this made for some amazing views. It was great that the hotel I was staying at had a great gym and I was able to give some exercises a go which... well, I had never tried before. Like climbing up a rope. After seeing on Mo Farah's story his young twins doing this with ease, I naively thought it would be easy... however this was not the case. I failed miserable, lets just say I was better at the monkey bars. Even if where you are staying doesn't have a gym, this doesn't need to stop you from still hitting some great workouts which you can do with no equipment. In America I also had the chance to try some new foods and I discovered America have so much more choice. After hunting down a whole foods (my favourite place ever) we came back with some very exciting new goodies... I thought so anyway. I got some cliff bars (flavours you can't get in the UK) and lots of fresh fruit to keep in our room. But, my food discovery which I am still loving now was an acai bowl. I have heard plenty about these but only when I was at a cafe which was selling them, did I branch out and try one. If you haven't had one, I would describe it as a sort of frozen/ smoothie sorbet like thing and then I had lots of blueberries, granola, coconut and almond butter on top. This breakfast was like a dream and I need to find a recipe for it, to make at home! Looking back on photos now makes me seriously crave some sun, especially now as I am back to my usual paleness. There is hope though as we are edging further and further out of winter. The daffodils have started to come out on my road which is always nice to see! I know it has been a busy weekend of racing with BUCs and schools inter counties going on, so I hope everyones went well.
Love 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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