I'm not sure how to start this blog post but it seems reasonable to talk about my night before preparations. On Friday night, I had already enjoyed my day off and making the most of resting my legs. Of course my dinner was the usual large bowl of carbonara followed by a glass of strawberry milk and banana, whilst the rest of my family were eating magnum ice creams. Although once I had finished all of my food, I was way too full to even think about an ice cream. After walking the course I was worried I was tired already. I had been told that the course was hilly, which I tried to just put aside in my head but when I was walking the course, I soon realised that I was going to have to face them head on and give them my best shot. This time the course was 4km, 400m longer than last time, but when I was walking the course it felt a whole lot longer... this was probably due to how much it went up and down. The course finished with a very short and sharp hill which I knew I needed to save some energy for, otherwise I wouldn't make it up it very quickly or at all. In the warm up I felt sluggish and was worried about how I would race with my legs feeling like this. Thankful when I put my spikes on, it seemed to give my legs a new lease of life, or maybe it was just my clif bar kicking in. The race started off quick but my legs just didn't feel ready for that yet, so I let myself settle into it and take each hill as it comes and to just concentrate on my own race. At the top of every hill, there was always a down hill. I know this might be stating the obvious, but you knew when you reached the top because you would suddenly go downhill, instead of flat... if you get where I am coming from. I realised that on the down hills, I was just going to have to go for it, because I felt I couldn't really attack on the up hills. This came with the problem of trying to control both my legs and arms, and as you can see from the photos, I didn't do a very good job at that... even though I was trying extra hard to maintain my form. The last 400m was the hardest 400m I've ever run, I was side by side with someone and after last week I decided that I was going to win the sprint finish this time, and I am pleased to say I did. However I did have to pay for it, because afterwards I was so out of breath, that I couldn't speak for the next 4 minutes. Once I had recovered, of course there was time for some group photos, and this one above of Clara and I, I absolutely love... perhaps its because our yellow sheets of paper match her shorts ;). I am really keen to do the next Kent XC League, however there is a school fixture which may take priority over it. Overall I am really pleased with 9th in this race as two weeks ago I was 13th, so it is nice to see an improvement! I am back to school tonight, which will be a bit of a shock to the system, after two weeks off. I have the National XC Relays to look forward to next weekend. I am so excited for them, as I haven't done them before! I hope you have all had a nice weekend.
G x
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This week I have been away in Abu Dhabi, catching some rays and topping up my tan, as well as getting some good warm weather training in. When I stepped out of Abu Dhabi airport the wall of heat hit me very quickly and the first thing which I thought was well, running in this is going to be tough and of course how lovely this weather is for sunbathing. On my first day I hit the beach and decided to practice my open water swimming in the creek. One of the problems with this was that the water was so warm and after working hard for a bit, all I wanted was an ice bath to cool down, because getting out of the water into 32 degree heat didn't exactly cool me down. My first attempt at a run came on Tuesday and well it wasn't very successful because I only made it half way through my reps before the heat just got too much and I had to venture inside to the nicely air conned gym. Also inside the complex of the hotel there wasn't a whole lot of running room, I had about a 400m stretch to just repeatedly run along. Just thought I would pop in some of my casual, chilling photos. We got given free ice lollies one day, which was well and truly needed as it was 36 degrees that day. Also the view from the hotel was pretty cool as it was over the creek and the grand mosque, which is absolutely huge. Anyway focusing more on my title of this blog post, even though I was supposedly on holiday, for me I get easily bored sitting on a sun bed all day, so for staying active makes it more enjoyable. Even though I did do a lot whilst in Abu Dhabi, I did chill for a lot of the time, which was lovely and relaxing, and perfect to top up my tan as it was rapidly fading after summer. A few days into the holiday, I hit the creek again to do some more swimming but I also mixed into it some running, I wore my recently purchased zealous swimsuit which is super bright. I did a bit of swimming then I jumped out and did some running. I did get quite a few odd looks as I was running up and down the beach and I also had to run around someone who was reading a book, I hope she didn't find me too distracting. Beach running is always quite tough as the sand sinks, which makes it tougher and you will feel your calves working hard too. Personally I like it as I feel it makes my running form better. On Thursday, I gave a running session another go and this time to a lot more success! I completed my whole session which I was pretty pleased about but I did have to keep a water bottle with me, so after each rep I could quickly hydrate as the heat does dehydrate you pretty quickly. I did struggle with not taking in too much water, that it made me feel sick on my run, but after the third recovery I had mastered my water strategy. Whilst I was running up and down, mum and dad were on the beach watching the sun come down over the mosque, which makes for a pretty good photo. After my run I was just too hot and I had to jump into the nicely cooled pool. Luckily it was the evening and most people had left the pool, so I didn't get many funny looks at why I was jumping into the pool in sports bra and shorts. I haven't really mentioned the food that much at the hotel but this is an important part (for me anyway). It was a buffet breakfast and dinner, which was fab because I could choose the bits which I like. Most mornings I would have a mixture of fruit, followed by smoked salmon and a fried egg, which was super tasty. For lunch there was lots to choose from at the pool bar like, pizza, chicken wrap, salads, fish, etc. most of the time I had a chicken wrap as it was normally just what I fancied after a tough day sunbathing or after a session. Buffet dinner was also great and this for me varied daily but all of the time my main course consisted of lots of chicken, as they had the most delicious chicken on one of the bars and it seemed a waste not to have some. There was also lots of sushi, pasta, salad, veg etc. which I usually had a mix of in my meal. On the last day I got out for a pool session in my funkita swimsuit and got a good session in the pool, once most people had gone up for the evening. On the first day I tried to figure out how long the pool was and I came to the conclusion that is was 45m long, but on the last day my mum suddenly read out from a brochure that the pool was in fact 50m long, which made my swimming session a lot easier to calculate. I am now back in England and it is always nice to be back home after being away. We had a night flight on Friday night and somehow 3 hours after landing, I joined my club for a cross country session made up of reps of about 500m, which proved very tough at the beginning but after a few my legs woke up and then they were good fun but tough still! Today I went on my long cycle with my club, which was 75km however it was a seriously hilly ride and at the end my quads were just about to give up. Afterwards we hit the cafe and I had a yummy banana milkshake and also had to hitch a lift home, because once I had sat down, I couldn't get myself up to cycle 5km home. Oh I forgot to say I also managed to fall off whilst stationary, because we had just stopped and I didn't get my cleat out in time and I just toppled over... very embarassing.
I hope everyone has had a nice weekend. I have another week of half term this week so I need to get some work done and I'm also going aqua jogging with Ellen tomorrow, which should be fun! I have my second Kent league next Saturday too, which I am really looking forward to and to hopefully improve my result from last time! G x After breaking up for half term on Friday I was in a good mood and I was super excited for my first Kent XC League. On Friday night I was at home with my feet up watching some Netflix, which is a very rare occasion for me but I thought, I might as well, because I have the whole of half term to do my work. After having my usual bowl of carbonara pasta, followed by my usual strawberry milk, I was very full and ready for my bed. After being a boarding school for 6 weeks, I have learnt to love my double bed more than normal. After a late start compared to a triathlon, we arrived at Stanhill farm at 11:00 ready for a 1:20 start. I am always keen to get there with lots of time, because I don't like to be stressing out and rushing. Anyway after walking the course and soon realising it was a pretty flat course, I was rather happy. I had my cliff bar 2 hours before my race and had my last sip of water and lucozade. I went off on my warm up with Holly and we cheered some of the other TAC U15 runners in. Then after a few strides with Clara, I made my way to the start line, and by this point I wasn't really nervous, just excited. I was however worried my legs were tired as in the warm up they felt a bit sluggish, but I tried to ignore this because my legs often feel like this in a warm up. This was my first cross country race in a long time however I hadn't forgotten that the start is always pretty rough and pushy, this time it wasn't too bad, however I didn't get into a good position going into the first narrow bit of the course. I started near the back which I was fine about because I knew I didn't want to go off too fast and die at the end, so I gradually started picking people off and working my way up. The course was 3.5km so relatively short, which is almost like a long sprint, it was made up of three fields and we did loops of each of them. Before the race I had contemplated wearing trainers not spikes because the ground was very hard, which is unusual for a cross country race. I guess I can't complain because usually there is wind, rain and lots and lots of mud! In the end I went for very short spikes and this worked perfectly. Back to the race, I started near the back and had to pick off people, even though this worked very well, before I knew it I was in the last 1km of the race. I kept on pushing until I got to a girl (Carlotta), whose at my school but racing for Blackheath & Bromley. This very quickly turned into a rather long sprint finish and as hard as I tried in the last 50m, I couldn't get back in front of her. I just couldn't push my legs any further and I had to accept defeat over her. In that last 20m I did look back to just check no one was near me, which I do regret as I lost my momentum and you never know I might have just caught her, but we learn. The look in my face says a lot, I had just pushed myself to my absolute limit and I was exhausted. Once I crossed the line I was pretty happy because I had done a lot better than I had expected, but then again I was annoyed because I had lost my sprint finish. This was the first cross country race of the season and I was really pleased with it, and it was great to get some experience. I am so excited for the cross country season now and I am pleased with how I started it. My overall position was 13th out of 31 as the U17 age group, which I was happy with but I definitely wish to improve on this as the season progresses. have my next Kent XC League in two weeks time but between then and now I am off on holiday and I will get the chance to do some warm weather training. I hope you have all had a good weekend!
G x I want to start this post off with why this is a training update post. Firstly it was meant to be on a race I was supposed to do on Saturday, but unfortunately I had to come home early from school on Saturday and miss the race :/ so I didn't want to let you down without posting this week, so I decided just to do one on my week overall. Also I know we have now crept into this week but I have had an overwhelmingly busy time recently and I just haven't had the chance to get this post up. I had several swimming sessions last week, which have all been fab apart from my finger hurting in all of the sessions. If you didn't already know, I was kicked in the finger two weeks ago and I think I might have broken it because I had broken that same finger only about 8 months previously. After a week off swimming I decided I couldn't keep myself out the water any longer so I got back into my sessions. I think it is slowly getting better, I just need to keep an eye on it for now... is there such thing as finger physiotherapy because I think I might need it. Anyway Thursdays club training was good mainly because I was fuelled up by this delicious wholemeal bagel with pip and nut peanut butter, a banana and chia seeds to top it off. My legs were a bit tired from a heavy swimming day the day before. The run session was good not a too long one because lots of people were racing on Saturday, we finished our fast longish run off with 200m strides, which I always struggle with as my legs are usually pretty tired by this point. It is also starting to get pretty chilly in the evenings now, and it was the first time I wore leggings at training in a long time. On Friday I had my rest day although I ended up walking pretty far because I had a geography trip to London, which was better than expected, purely because we went to spittle fields market, which was a personal highlight for me because of all the food stalls. There was so much choice and I soon found my hardest decision of the day was what to have for lunch, and not whether the quality of a building should be graded a 1 or a 2... sorry Mr Lilley. After a pretty exhausting day on Saturday but no race and no run in the end, I was very ready for my Sunday run. So I was up bright and early to have my porridge so I could get out as early as possible. In the end I found myself being dropped off in town and running home as it made my run a bit more interesting because it wasn't my usual path. However my last km was all up hill so in the end, I realised the only way I could get myself up it was if I was going to do intervals. So off I went with my 30 sec sprint, 45 sec recovery and surprisingly I got to my house before I was mentally beaten by the hill.... HAPPY DAYS! I got to take my new Sweaty Betty shorts out too for their first spin and they were fab! Also for all you students out there, Sweaty Betty do 20% student discount, which I never before knew about and now I am obsessed with. It makes Sweaty Betty prices now more affordable and appealing over other brands like Nike and Adidas. I hope you all had a nice weekend and if you were racing it went well. Next week I have my first Kent League race of the season, which I am pretty excited for and I break up for half term on Friday, so hopefully the rest of my week will go quickly. Oh and also I know have yoga every Wednesday in my boarding house and I love it, it is slightly different (or should I say harder) than any classes I have done before but it is great none the less. I thought I was good at downward dog, until she asked me to hold it for over a minute and start lifting my leg up...
G x It all started back on the 13th July, when I decided to take part in a fun aquathlon down in Lewes. This was one big learning curve, but the bug of the idea of triathlon really started then. 3 triathlons later, I am here where I am now, it is fair to say I have had a roller coaster ride with triathlons, from my bike breaking to cutting the course short but something has kept pulling me back to them, and maybe it is just because I love it. Sometimes (okay very rarely) I have doubts about why I'm doing this, normally when I am in the middle of a tough session or when I am 35km into a cycle ride and my toes are numb and I have 35km left. Even though these moments are hard I am always happy at the end and really I do love the feeling of numb toes and being exhausted. I thought it would be an appropriate time to look back at these 4 races and briefly look at how each one went and if I have improved over the season. After buying my new trisuit for this event, I had already sort of told myself that I was going to stick at this. The aquathlon went well but I knew there was lots to improve on and from there my triathlon training started. Swim:3/10 - Got caught up in the start, and basically didn't know how to swim in a girl in a lengths pool... it is a difficult concept I promise. Run:6/10 - my legs felt like jelly after swimming, this was a new feeling. The excitement of the day before Bewl Tri is still with me but the emotion of afterwards is too. I wouldn't say I am a particularly emotional person but `I will admit I had a fair few sobs over (and during...) this event. Firstly taking my hybrid bike to an adults tri was probably not my brightest moment, but that was my bike I had at the time, so I had to deal with it. Then it breaking after 5km and having to run 5km back to the start was also not in the plan. The run, I then had to hold myself back from crying for the whole thing, because all I was doing was feeling sorry for myself. Not ideal, and not very mature either! I learnt the most from this event and that I needed to grow up and get on with it. If triathlons were easy, everyone would be doing them! Swim: 7/10 - I surprised myself coming out the water 4th Bike: 1/10 - I think I've probably already summed this bit up Run: 4/10 - bad run as I was too caught up in all my emotions Edenbridge was the week after Bewl and I was certain to set things straight after my mishaps. I had got a new road bike at the beginning of the week and I had been practicing with my cleats every day. The swim was in the pool so not my personal favourite, then the cycle was out on the roads on a sort of flatish course, then the run was around the park. After having second place taken away from me this day, because I accidentally cut the cycle route short as there were no marshals or signs to guide me on a round about, it was getting to the point were I should have been thinking of giving up. But no... for some reason this didn't even cross my mind, to be perfectly honest it made me more determined than ever. Swim: 6/10 - pretty average, nothing special Bike: 7/10 - the bike actually went well apart from the fact I cut the course Run: 7/10 - it was my best run so far, and I felt like my brick had helped this. After over a month of no tri because of missing Bodium castle Tri because of illness, I was ready a raring to go. At this point I will admit all I wanted to do was complete a tri, but when I was standing (or should I say bobbing) on the start line in the water, I knew I wasn't just going to take it easy, I wanted to give it my best shot. 1:17:22 later I cross the line in 8th place out of 350 women and I was pretty happy! This was just the way I wanted to finish the season and it has given me even more motivation and confidence for winter training now.
Swim: 8/10 - surprised myself with the 2nd quickest swim time overall Bike: 7/10 - best bike so far, but still room for lots of improvement, especially on the downhills. Run: 7/10 - apart from the slow start because of a steep hill, I was pleased with a strong run. Don't get me wrong these scores out of 10 got to the 8s by Hever Tri but by next season I will be expecting more from myself and I won't be wanting to settle with 8th place, however pleased I was with it this time. I have now got my winter training ahead and cross-country season to look forward too. I also had my first club ride this morning and even though my toes and fingers got pretty numb and I could barely get up to walk to the fridge afterwards it was all worth it, as I had so much fun... yes every 75km of it was fun (minus one very long hill, where my gears on the back wheel stopped working so I was down to about 8 gears for the rest of the ride). I have been writing down some goals for the 2017 tri season which I will share with you later on, but for now its all about getting some good solid winter training in. 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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