I did a parkrun on Saturday at Tonbridge and it was my first time around this course, so I wasn't sure what to expect from it. Unfortunately I don't have any good photos from it so I thought it would be bit boring to write a blog post on it. Here is a quick review on how it went; I finished in 21:39 so not a pb but I am still happy, of course I wanted to get a pb but I tried my hardest and I finished strong so I was pleased with that. I can't wait to go to Tonbridge parkrun again to try and beat my time there. Now that I have run the course once, I think next time I should be able to get a better time around it... with some more solid training I should anyway. This morning (Sunday Morning) my friend (http://www.teenrunner.co.uk, yes another running blogger, and I would recommend giving her blog a read) and I headed out to the park, it was a 7km cycle there so it didn't take us long to get there. When we arrived we quickly realised it was pretty hot and relitively quiet in the park, so we decided it was definitely sports bra kind of weather, as we were both a bit worried about loosing our holiday tans. We set out for our 8km run around the park, and in the end we did 2 and a bit loops. We ran in Dunorlan park which is where Tunbridge Wells parkrun takes place every Saturday, which is usually the one I go along to. We followed the same loop which they use but just added a bit onto it and also decided to run it backwards, which I'm not going to lie did confuse me slightly. The weather was very muggy but the time went so quickly because I was running with Ellen so the 41 minutes was done in a flash and we had our 8km run done. After getting a quick few snaps, we walked back to our bikes and cycled our 7km home. We were planning to go to brunch afterwards, but annoyingly I didn't have enough time, but we will definitely be doing that in the future! Cycling there and back was great fun because we went early in the morning so there was hardly any traffic and the sun was shining, which is always a bonus. I often get a bit scared cycling on the roads but it was perfect this morning, I even managed to cycle a few roundabouts because normally I'll just go on the pavement and cross over the pedestrian crossing, which I guess is cheating a bit. I will definitely be out on my bike on more Sunday mornings, now I know how quiet the roads are. Also running after having cycled was good practice for me as I have my triathlon next week, which I am super excited for! I have had a great week of running, swimming and cycling but my running I am most pleased with. Next week I have a 1500m track race and a triathlon, so I am very busy and will get some good training in as well! Make sure to keep an eye on my twitter and Instagram to see when my next blog post are! Love G x
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Once again here is another holiday post, I know its been a couple of weeks since I was actually on holiday but I didn't want to spam you with continuous holiday posts, as I thought that could get a bit boring, so instead I have spread them out over a month or so. Even after this post, there is still one more holiday post coming! This is also a bit of a different post to normal because usually my blog is very running based, but I just want to also talk about how important swimming is for your running. Swimming is really good for endurance athletes as it helps you to become fitter in not just your swimming but running too, but what is even better is that it is non impact and therefore prevents injury... what more could you want, this is why so many people who are coming back from injury swim! For me I find that it always really helps my muscles especially if I have just done a tough run and my muscles are feeling sore. Okay, so I might look like a drowned rat in this photo but this was just after I had finished my warm up. These photos are from my swimming session in the hotel pool, which obviously isn't ideal, considering it is a circular pool. One evening I just really didn't fancy traveling up the mountain to get to the 25m pool, so I had to settle with the hotel pool. La Manga Club is spread out over a large area, and to get to the gym and the 25m pool you have to take a mini bus, so this one evening I just did my swimming in the hotel pool, only when most of the people had retreated to their rooms after a long tough day sunbathing.. I didn't fancy having a full on training session when the pool was full of people. I thought I would be really clever and bring my underwater camera for my sister to use when she was taking photos, but we seemed to only end up with one decent photo out of about 100! I definitely don't look as elegant as a fish, but my brain could not think of another name for this post so I guess it will have to stick. Swimming up and down, up and down can get pretty boring for some people, but I love it and I like the fact it gives me lots of time just to think although sometimes I wish I had a iPod which could play music under water. I went swimming on Monday morning bright and early at my local pool, this was the first time I had done this so wasn't sure what to expect. When I arrived I was firstly shocked by the £5.50 charge to get in, this did not make me happy. When I made it to the pool I soon found there were 4 people to a lane and it was already looking a little crowded before I even got in, but I was hoping the people would be a similar pace to me to avoid having to stop and start continuously. I was wrong... but most people politely let me over take them, however this was not the case for one woman, she was determined to make sure I was unable to over take her, which I think there was no need for. After an hour of swimming and after 128 lengths equally 3200m, I was done. After swimming I soon found myself at Juliets munching on scrambled eggs, bacon and toast. YUMMMMMMMY! I hope you have all had a nice week so far and are enjoying the sunshine we are getting, luckily it isn't quite as hot as it was last week... this week is slightly more bearable! I am really trying to get a good solid week of training in this week and I am planning on doing a parkrun this Saturday but not at Tunbridge Wells, so you'll have to wait until I post on Saturday to find out which parkrun I did and of course how it goes. Love G x Shop the look...
Swimsuit- Speedo After a few very hot days on holiday of 30 degree plus where I had't managed to get out for a run, to my family sadness we had a very gloomy rainy day, however I definitely saw the bright side in this and got to get out for a run with my sisters boyfriend. Company on a run is a rare thing for me, because I am not part of a running club, so all my sessions are done on my own, which can often be hard but when I have company it makes those runs even better. Our plan was to run to the beach by following google maps, as we weren't sure of the way to go and weren't sure on what the gradient would be like... I think it would have been a good idea to check it first, especially as we had already learnt our lesson while cycling to the beach, that the way back was severely up hill. Again just like when we were cycling we found ourselves on a dirt track path only after 5 minutes of running on the roads. When we got onto the tracks we weren't expecting the great views over the sea and this made the run feel so much easier because we were in such a great location. It felt like the sea wass all around us as the path went circling down the hills. Of course, I wasn't going to miss a few photo opportunities on the way down to the beach, and I think the combination of my shorts and sports bra meant that I stood out from the gloomy grey sky. After we realised we had just been running down hill for the last kilometre or so, we thought we better look back to where we came from, so here is a photo of me pointing to part of the hill which we came from and we hadn't even reached the beach yet. The journey back was um... painful it is fair to say. An elevation gain of 204m was not going to go unnoticed and by the time we reached the top, we soon realised we had the 1.5km run back to the hotel still. In total the run was only 6km but that hill has made me think that normal hills are basically flat and hopefully I will fly up them now I have experienced that killer of a hill. Whilst I was running up that hill, I was pretty pleased that I had done a few hill rep sessions before I had gone on holiday, otherwise I think I would have not made it back to the top in a reasonable time. The weather back in England this week has been amazing but I haven't been able to make the most of it because I have been commuting up to London everyday for work experience. This has also interfered with my training and I really haven't got all my sessions I have wanted to do this week. Next week is a lot more free for me so I can get some solid sessions in! Love G x I haven't had the chance to do a parkrun for a while after having a streak of doing 5 in a row. Last week I obviously had my aquathlon and then I had a tough session on Thursday, where my legs were feeling a bit heavy. Anyway I tried to prepare the best I can for my parkrun. I wasn't going out for a pb but I wanted to put a good solid time down, around sub 22. You are probably reading this because you want to know why this parkrun didn't go quite to plan, and you are probably wondering why I'm blogging about it, if it didn't go well. I think as a blogger, you can't just blog about all the good things which happen, because thats just not realistic, I want to write about the things which go wrong as well, because thats life. At 7:00 my alarm rang and I was quickly downstair munching my porridge, to make sure I had maximum time for my porridge to digest. After a bit of time in the morning to catch up on some social media, I found myself at Dunorlan Park warming up. After a bit of light jogging and some drills, I was ready to start, however I was feeling a little weary as I hadn't had the best night sleep the night before. It wasn't that I had had a late night, I just woke up several times in the night. I soon found myself on the start line, ready to run. 3, 2, 1... we were off. I knew what sort of pace I wanted to go at and I wanted to keep an eye out to were the other women are, because I'm not going to lie but I wanted to be first woman. The start was all very busy but quickly it all spaced out and there was a bit more space. The sun was shining and it was starting to get pretty hot, which is ideal conditions for me because this is the sort of whether I need to practice in, because I seem to loose my energy extremely quickly when its hot. Here are some snaps of me coming up to the end of my first lap. At this point of the run I wasn't feeling very strong and I felt a bit sick but I was still trying to push for good time but only about 300m in to my next lap it all started to go down hill. My legs felt extremely drained of energy and I was still feeling bit sick. I decided at this point that I wasn't going to get in around 22 minutes but I just wanted to stay steady although my pace just gradually got slower and slower and more and more people over took me. When the finish line finally came into my sight, I was pretty happy as I felt exhausted and normally I can finish strong but this time there was no strong finish. I gritted my teeth to make sure I would get in under 24 minutes, but this still was nothing to be happy about. Even though this wasn't my best race, I am still pleased I did it and it has been a learning experience too, because running doesn't alway go well. Onwards and upwards. This week I just want to make sure my legs aren't getting overworked but also I want to keep up my training, but balance it key. Love G x Finally the day of my aquathlon came, after lots of excitement leading up to it. My dad had come home early to come and watch me and by 5:30 we were in the car on our way to Lewes. After a not too long drive and then some navigating we found Pells Pool, which wasn't what I was expecting but I loved it! It was a huge outdoor pool, and I am definitely keen to go back there to do some more swimming. After registering and having a wonder around looking at where the transition area is and where I'll be running, and at the same time passing a beautiful lake, as shown in the photo above. I soon found myself on a light jog around the park warming up. When I was warming up there was a light bit of rain, but fortunately my leggings are waterproof, even though they don't feel it... fortunately the rain stopped just before my race. As my wave came closer I did a few last minute warm up exercises, including swinging my arms around... and looking like a nutter. After a few warm up lengths in the very cold water, I wasn't sure whether to wear a wetsuit but in the end I decided against it, although some people still wore them. I soon found myself on the start line... 3, 2, 1, *whistle*. Luckily all the waves were pretty small, which avoid everyone swimming on top of each other. However annoyingly I was in the last wave, which was definitely the strongest... not sure how I ended up in that wave but hey, it was fine. The fact that this was my first aquathlon, I didn't have much experience in swimming in a big group and in circles, instead of having my own lane and just going up and down. When I was swimming I just didn't expect it to be so argy bargy and several times I found myself push out onto the edge of the pool, having to swim the long way around the buoy. Hopefully with experience I can improve this aspect of my swim. After my 3 laps of the pool, which was 300m, the transition came and this bit I was most worried about, but when you are in the zone of your race, I just seemed to do everything automatically, although I forgot to tighten my elastic laces and had to do them just as I left the swimming pool. My new tri suit helped my transition too because I didn't have to worry about putting on shorts or a top, all I had to put on was my trainers. I charged out the pool, like I was on a mission and I quickly got to the big park and here I was to do 3 laps again, each time collecting a purple band... just to make sure everyone has done their 3 laps. Running is definitely my stronger part of the aquathlon and I was hoping to make up some places in this section and I am very pleased to say I over took 4 people in the 3.5km run. I was worried before the aquathlon whether my legs were going to feel that responsive, as on my runs the few days before they were feeling a bit heavy. Luckily they felt almost normal by the time it came to the run and although I gave the run my best shot, I think I left myself a bit too much to do after the swim. By the time I reached the finish, we were all quite far away from each other, but I am pleased to say I finished strong and I couldn't stop smiling afterwards and can't wait to do more aquathlons and triathlons in the future! The results still haven't been published and I couldn't even roughly tell you were I came because there were so many waves, so I can publish my results on twitter and Instagram when I get them. My plan for training now is to get some solid swimming sessions and introduce more cycle rides into my training plan along with my runs. I have a triathlon in August which I am working towards, so hopefully everything will come together then. Hope you all have a great weekend, and good luck to anyone racing. Love G x I am sad to now be back in the UK but however it does mean that I now have enough wifi to write a blog post, as all of last week I have been struggling with the almost non existent wifi in La Manga. I was so excited to have our family holiday in La Manga this year because it is perfect for my whole family, I can go off and do sports all day long and also have some chill time to sunbath. Normally my holidays are just sunbathing, which I do find a little dull as I am a very active person and like to be doing something most of the time. On the first full day in La Manga, I was quick to persuade my sister and her boyfriend to come on a mountain bike ride with me and to my delight they said yes. This also gave be the perfect opportunity to test out my new Garmin 735xt, which I have had my eye on for ages and I finally gave in and bought it. We went to the bike hire shop and quickly found ourselves some bikes and the man took us through our route. We weren't anticipating the route to be quite so complicated so me and my sister gave Kurt the job of directing us. After starting off our cycle on the roads around La Manga Club we quickly found ourselves on the dirt track in the National Park and although we didn't expect it to be quite so rocky in some places, we all quickly got used to it and soon enough the path turned into a wide dirt track. Our planned route was to take us to the beach and back which would be 20km, 10km there and 10km back, but as you can guess the way back was significantly harder because we had to ride back up from the beach. After 3 water breaks and 10km of cycling we made it to the beach and some of the views were amazing. We cycled down the little wooded path to the beach and when we got to the beach we had a water break, and had a few minutes to top up our tan up and take in the lovely surroundings. I was very keen to go and jump in the sea to cool off, but I knew that the way back would then be very uncomfortable because there would inevitably end up being sand in my trainers, which is one of my worst nightmares. I was pretty happy to have reached the beach and a quick protein bar gave me the energy I needed for my journey back. The journey back was really not that bad and the seriously steep hill went quite quickly. We then followed the same route back through the national park and the sections which before felt really rocky and impossible to cycle over, felt considerably easier. I think is was the fact that we had got used to the rocky track by then. I had a very busy week of sports whilst I was away and I will be posting some running and swimming blog posts soon. Tonight I have my first aquathlon, which I am a bit nervous for, because it will also be my first open water swim. I will write a blog post on it and I am doing a parkrun this week so there will also be a blog post on that, so the blog will be pretty busy this week and next week as I have lots going on, so make sure you keep up to date with it. Love G x Okay so I have a complete porridge obsession... I have it every morning without fail. The same brand, the same weight, the same flavour, everything about it is the same, except the toppings. So my topping do really vary but there are a few, which I can't live without. Firstly flaxseed; flaxseed is high-fibre superfood... yep superfood you heard me, but it also has a rich source of micronutrients, manganese, vitamin B1 and omega-3. Wow yep that is quite a list! Most of the time I mix it straight into my porridge to thicken it up so you can't actually see it in many of the photo's below except two, where I forgot to mix it in before I started placing on all my toppings, so it is in a pile in one and sprinkled on in another. Banana; I think most people who eat porridge tend to have a banana on their porridge and I am certainly one of them! Although the other day we did't have any banana's and this really upset me, so I had to quickly find a substitute for it... in the end I decided with grapes. However my toppings which change about daily are: Strawberries, blueberries, chia seeds, (high-protein) muesli and raisons... okay and occasionally there is a big dollop of peanut butter, because who doesn't love peanut butter! Recently I have been adding a cube of chocolate on from Ombar, which is a super food chocolate bar... who would have ever thought that could exist, but it does! My personal favourite is the coco mylk, and I am now obsessed! The way I arrange all my toppings too varies a lot, as you can probably see from my photos. If I am in a rush and am running late for school, I normally have to just chuck all of my toppings, on with little skill. However if it is the weekend or now that I am on my summer holidays, I can spend as much time as I like arranging all my toppings in nice straight lines or pretty circles. I'm not sure what breakfast you all have, but you can always let me know if you comment on this post and if you have any suggestions on what toppings I should try please tell me, as I am constantly looking for new things to put on my porridge. Love G x If you liked this post, you might like:
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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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