Lack of Instagramming and even fewer blog posts... what's going on. The Christmas period I always find super busy and mixed into this I had revision which I needed to do as well, in preparation for my January exams. I was also doing lots of shifts at the pub, to earn some much needed money to get me through uni ;). Joking aside... I went through a time where I just didn't know what to talk about to you guys. My running has been up and down. In summer I managed to build up to a few 5km and then two weeks into uni, I went back to square 1 with zero running. However a few weeks ago, I started to build up again and everything seemed to be going relatively smoothly, as I was taking things very slow. Then this all changed... I woke up one day and my shin was sore to touch. I felt seriously sorry for myself, because this was following missing BUCs XC, scrolling through social media and just being so jealous of seeing everyone running. Over the last week it has sunk in that my body isn't ready to run. It's allowed me to focus on other areas... such as rowing. Looking at this in a positive light, it has allowed me to commit properly to rowing and this actually makes me really happy, because I love it! BUCs head is coming up in a few weeks and that will be really exciting, as our first big race! Spin classes have also been a new found love of mine... finding myself going to a handful each week and loving them. Spinning is also really good for my rowing as they both use your legs a lot, so I know this different type of training is helping my rowing. It just makes me feel so good; serious endorphin release! I could not recommend spin classes more. Over the last two weeks I have really worked on my overall fitness. Doing lots of different classes for full body weight workouts and eating good food. I actually feel so much better for it! Following this, I also had a rowing test on Tuesday morning... at 7am. I was really scared... as we've had 1km tests before but this was more important as BUCs crews were also in the balance. If you didn't read my instagram, it went as well as I could have hoped and if not better. I pushed myself beyond my limits and this resulted in me being a bit of a mess straight afterwards! Even though I went through a lot of pain in this test, I felt great to really push my body again... it was sort of a nice kind of pain. My lectures for the first two weeks of term, have been great. I love my new modules, but I have had a lot of spare time this week. I've been able to fill my time with sport to keep me happy and just general chilling. I know in the next few weeks, my work load is going to get larger, which I actually don't mind. I'm definitely embracing and enjoying uni much more this term. Especially with my rowing really coming on and having more structured training and targets to aim for. I'm hoping to just be able to perhaps run once a week, but just whatever my body can handle. I hope you've all had a great week and for those doing nationals xc next weekend, you are super excited. That will be another tough one for me to swallow, seeing all the photos of people there.
G x
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As Christmas seems to be very quickly approaching us, I thought it would be a good idea to show you some gifts that are great for runners. Here is a photo from our very festive circuits last year, I hope we all plan to wear out jumpers again this year! 1. Magazine Subscription
There are loads of magazines out there, for whatever you love. Here are some of my favourites. - athletics weekly - runners world - women health - 220 triathlon 2. Water Bottle Always an essential item for every athlete. A great water bottle encourages hydration which will help keep you fit and healthy. For me, I drink so much water, so I am always seen with a water bottle. However at uni, I have already seemed to lose two water bottles, which I am pretty sad about to be honest. Here are my favourites out there at the moment ion8(every colour and size you can dream of), Nike and Swell (marble and pink). 3. Sports Watch This would clearly be a big present as sports watches often don't come in too cheap, but you can now get some great and pretty affordable ones now. Watches are fab, whether you enjoy looking at your step count, your sleep or how far you ran... you can pretty much always find one which does what you want. My one even has a stand up paddle board setting... I have used it once, but still. Here are some which start with the cheapest FitBit Alta - £99 (more of a fitness tracker and less to track runs, etc.) TomTom Runner 3 - from £119.99-£189.99 Garmin Vivomove HR - £169.99 (I love this one as doesn't look like a sports watch) Garmin Forerunner 235 - £249.99 (very popular watch) 4. Wireless earphones These are a pretty fun item... they are certainly not essential to an athlete but make their lives easier. Whether its avoiding catching your arm in the lead on a run or just being able to look cool in the gym. Personally I have never had a pair of wireless headphones until I started to rowing, because as it turns out its pretty impossible to listen to music through normal head phones on an indoor rower. Wireless headphones come in a very wide price range but here are three which look good (from low to high in price). Amazon (currently the pair I have, cheap and do the job but I'm looking now for a better quality pair), Sony, Beats (not cheap... but really great). 5. Underwater Headphones If you do a lot of swimming in public pools, then underwater headphones may be for you... I certainly am desperate for a pair, to make my lonely swims go by just a little bit quicker. I don't have a pair, so I can't tell you for sure what my personal opinion are on these pairs, but I have done some research into them to find the best pairs. Wiggle (high end) and Amazon (cheaper) 6. Trainer Socks Personally these are a highly essential part of my wardrobe and you can certainly never have too many pairs. Some of my favourite sock brands are Stance (my favourite brand!), Balega (link is to my favourite of their style) and More Mile (would happily own these socks in all their colours and really inexpensive). The chance you will spot me wearing one of these three brands is pretty high! 7. Gloves For me, running in the winter means gloves are essential as my hands get pretty cold, very easily. Also for rowing, carrying the boats around you hands can get really really chilly. So gloves are a great idea for xmas, always very useful especially on those cold XC races. Some great brands are Inov8 mitts (these are the best and warmest gloves I have ever owned), Inov8 gloves (perfect for running in, when the temperatures drop) and nike (perfect for if you want a warm but slightly more colourful pair of gloves). 8. Yoga mat Who doesn't need a yoga mat... okay unless you have one already. Getting a yoga mat is a great way to encourage you to look up some classes on youtube and get that all important stretching into your workout routine each week. Some of my favourites are Lulu Lemon (slightly upmarket yoga mat, but seriously good quality, so worth the investment if you know you'll be using it lots), ... personally I got one from Homesense (you could try TKMax too), it was cheap but a good brand, so if you have a store near you, have a search and you might find a good quality one there for half the usual price. 9. Headbands These are great little stocking filler and some people are against headbands, but I'm a huge fan. Any cardio workout in the gym, is always sweaty for me so a headband is essential to avoid the horrible feeling of your hair sticking to your neck from sweat... ew gross! Here are some of my favourite Nike chunky, Nike thin and Adidas. 10. Gym Trainers I have specifically said 'gym' in this one because I know lots of people have to run in specific trainers because of their gait etc. like myself. That doesn't leave much room to explore but at the gym, I love it because I can wear a much funkier trainers. My favourite are ON, Nike and New Balance. Many of you may in fact be lucky enough to be able to run in these trainers too. I am writing this post on a Sunday evening, which also marks the first night of proper uni...aka no longer freshers week. This week has been so exhausting with so much going on. But let me first start with the build up to uni. Last Friday, the nerves of getting to uni were peaking and I was worrying about whether I would have a good time or not. However by the time Saturday came, I was so ready to move into my accommodation and I had felt like the last week went by so slowly, just waiting for move in day to arrive. With my car absolutely packed to the max, we finally made it to Bath and started to move everything into my room... I definitely over packed (like I did not need 5 fake plants). I did successfully get everything into my room, thanks to some very smart storage methods in my room! The first night was weird because we kind of went out as a flat (my flat shown above), but not everyone had arrived yet. It wasn't a hugely late night either, so it gave me a chance to settle into my new bedroom and get a decent nights sleep. Freshers week gives you the chance to try out so many new things; sports and societies. I have given lacrosse ago this week and what can I say, its actually pretty fun. Having never picked up a lacrosse stick in my life, I wasn't exactly a natural but I was successfully throwing and catching the ball, by the end. I have also been playing some netball and I managed to get selected into the development team after 4 hours of trials this morning... including playing centre for 8 different mini matches of 8 mins. I was pretty tired afterwards! Development netball is great because it isn't a huge commitment as training is 3 times a week but still get the social side of doing a team sport... it also doesn't interfere with any running training and will just supplement my fitness too. Most importantly onto running... well there isn't much to say because the running hasn't started yet, that all kicks off next week. I'm really excited for that. My running this week has been easy, as I really did not want to get ill, because I knew that would set me back for a lot longer. It is also great, because I have managed to find a good flat 6km run route, when I went out exploring on Monday. I am also only a 5 minute jog away from the local parkrun! The facilities here are insane and I am so grateful for them, the outdoor 400m and indoor straights track are amazing and can't wait to get on them for training! Anyway back to the events of freshers week. Each night was a different theme, which included things like glitter, neon, 70s, etc. and they were all good nights. I must admit, I was not out for all of them as I was just so tired and had trials some mornings and wanted to be okay for them. I will also be honest that I have not found uni the easiest thing, its scary and hard. I came into Bath not really knowing anyone that well and its tough, making new friends is hard, because you want to find people you will get along with for a long time. I never imagined getting the slightest bit homesick, but I have.
I can't wait to start lectures tomorrow and really get into a routine of what my weeks will consist of. I love being busy which is why this last week has also been tough, because you actually have so much free time and then thats when I just start to over think and worry about things unecessarily. Love G x DAY 1 This weekend, I did something I have never done before. I packed my bags and headed on a hiking weekend, knowing absolutely no one. It was organised by the blogger Challenge Sophie and was done in partnership with Land Rover, so all routes and camping set up was organised for you. We were also putting Land Rover's new phone to the test and checking out all their adventure settings. My morning didn't start great, because my alarm didn't go off... so I was in a bit of a frenzy, but luckily I had given myself 45mins time to spare, so I made it to the cafe just in time. After arriving at the cafe (our meeting point), I made some slightly awkward conversation with some people, but soon got to know them pretty well. Soon enough we set off and headed from Seaford to the Seven Sisters. The group was about 30 of us, all with the same love for the outdoors and escaping from our normal lives for a weekend. I have walked the Seven Sisters for my bronze DofE before, so I knew the hills were going to be tough. However the heat and humidity, made it very hard work. The views at the top though, were 100% worth it! Over the first couple of hills there was a bit of cloud cover, but by about the 5th, the sky was so blue (first photo) and the sea was the most crazy colour... you could have been in Hawaii. We stopped at Beachy Head to have lunch. They had organised our lunch and we got meals in what looked like ration packs... however they were the tastiest ration packs I have ever had. I had pasta bolognese, which was just what I needed after 12km of hiking. After munching this down, we then headed off to Eastbourne pier. At Eastbourne we all enjoyed a pimms and an ice cream, to mark the end of our hike. Our Land Rover phone had navigated us successfully to where we needed to be and still had pretty much full battery! I was very hot and my feet were tired, but when we sat down on the beach, it made it all worth it. The heat combined with the tough climbs, really took it out of all of us. But when we got back to the campsite, we had the amazing yurts (big tent like things) already set up for us, so we dumped our stuff in them and headed for a shower, before all our evening activities. My initial thoughts, when we were told we were doing painting in the evening were sceptical. However once we were given our little wooden boxes and paint, the next hour flew by. It was so nice to actually do something like painting, as its just so calming. We then all gathered and watched our dinner cooking and also got to join in and help make it. We had a mushroom salad to start, a vegetable and coconut dal for main and some scrummy crumble to finish. It was such a lovely evening, finished off by all chatting around the fire! DAY 2 After a good nights sleep, we all got up bleary eyed and headed to the big tent to sit and have our breakfast. It was porridge and fruit, which was perfect to set us up for the day ahead. Today was much hotter, after just the first huge hill we were already pretty hot and sweaty. Our walk was in lots of open fields and because of the sun, it was hard to find the comfort of shade. However 2 hours later we made it back to the cafe, which we started at and all said our good byes. This was actually really sad, because over the weekend, I had made some great friends with similar interests to me. I am proud of what I did this weekend, by going out my comfort zone. I had so much fun and would recommend, just giving things a go to so many people. I loved all the walking and will definitely be planning more adventures soon... as soon as my blisters go away! I hope you have all enjoyed this super sunny weekend!
G x This blog post is continuing on from last weeks (4 month injury update part 2), as there was so much to talk about I had to put it in two posts. After this, I had made it to the end of cross country season, but to be honest it should have come to an end a lot sooner. Here I was, with my body in a mess and low positivity at having a horrific end to a season, following the best opening season ever. In the end my hip flexor issue meant I was unable to do pretty much anything for about 6 weeks. Everything I did seemed to hurt it... cycling hurt, swimming hurt, running hurt, gym work hurt... even walking hurt. This was during easter, so I guess it gave me more time to revise, but it did not help me mentally... I felt pretty lost to be honest. Stress levels were pretty high from work and I had no sport to turn to. This was hard. After these hard six weeks, I could slowly start doing some cross training. However if you are wondering about my foot and shin, this was still going on. During the six weeks off I also had my foot scanned because I was pretty sure it was a stress fracture. It turned out to be 'nothing' apparently, however there was certainly something very wrong with my foot at one point... because I couldn't walk on it. At this point I was happy because I could see progress because my shin, foot and hip flexor pain had gone. The next step was returning to running. Running was going great, until on my third run in, my shin started to hurt. At this point, I was pretty fed up. I was about to start my exams so as you can imagine, I probably wasn't the happiest I've ever been. I tried on and off running through exams, having several days between each run and not running for long, but still the pain in my shin wasn't going anywhere. Finally after exams, I sought more help for my shin. This time, I feel like I really got an answer. My physio said, I almost definitely had a stress fracture in my shin back in March... and I really wasn't surprised to hear this. Luckily, my shin in June was not still a stress fracture and the verdict was, it probably just needs a few more weeks rest. I was very happy with this and rested up. A month on, and I'm progressing on my walk/ run programme and I can see hope. I can see a future. Its going to be a slow process, but every step I'm thankful for. The excitement I get before every run is pretty great! My fitness is clearly lacking, but I expected this and I'm hoping when I get back to more structured training, it shouldn't take too long to return.
I hope you have enjoyed this post and I am hoping that others can learn from it. Pushing through my injury, got me nothing. I broke my body more and was rewarded with some shocking race results. G x Many of you who have been following my Instagram, will have seen I was recently in Spain on a lovely relaxing holiday in the sun. This was my first holiday since finishing my exams and I feel like my body so needed it! Training while on holiday can sometimes be super easy or can actually prove quite challenging. The fortunate thing with running is you can really do it wherever... maybe the exception if you are on a sailing boat or something. I have put together some of my top tips onto how to enjoy your holiday and training. TOP TIPS: - Firstly don't stress if one day you can't squeeze a workout in; a holiday is for enjoying and one extra rest day, isn't going to do much harm, your body might actually even appreciate it. - Personally for me when I am on holiday with my family, the best time for me to workout is in the morning, because they all wake up pretty late. I try and get my workouts done before breakfast, as I don't like missing time with them when they are awake. In addition to this, I also often workout in the midday or afternoon, this is because we usually go on holiday to the middle east which can get pretty flippin' hot at the peak temperatures of the day (I have this to look forwards to in a few weeks time). - Often when you are on a summer holiday, you will have access to the sea or a pool. Make the post of this cross training benefit. If the pool is small, then perhaps swimming lengths isn't the most exciting prospect, but instead maybe try some aqua jogging. A really simple aqua jog session could be; 5 mins warm up 10x 2 minutes hard with 30 seconds rest 5 mins cool down - Open water swimming is also a great solution and this is something I made the most of while in Spain. If you are nervous then you can stick really close to the shore line and can basically never swim in water deeper than you can stand. In Spain the water was so so cold, so I could never go longer than 30 minutes, but I just tried to do little and often. - When it comes to access to gyms, this is when it can become slightly more challenging. In Spain I had no access to a gym which I thought previously was going to be a bit of a disaster, however outdoor gyms are popping up more and more, which are free to use and thankfully we had one right next to our apartment. Also there are lots of exercises which you can do without equipment, heres a circuit session I made which uses no equipment. 10x press ups 10x sit ups 1 minute plank 10x burpees 10x comandos 10x mountain climbers 10x squats This can be repeated 3 or 4 times, depending how much of a workout you want. I have also previously blogged another non equipment workout in CORE WORKOUT which is a non equipment core workout. - If you are staying in an appartment, sometimes there are bikes and fortunately there was one where I was staying, so could ride it around a bit. If you are on a city break and don't have access to the pool or sea, you can often find places to hire a bike, which can be great for sightseeing but also allows you to fit some cross training in. - Last of all, ENJOY. Your on holiday make sure you have fun and you don't worry about training all the time. Have an ice cream and remember to relax! I hope you enjoy this little fitness guide and gives you some ideas of what you can do on holiday. I struggled in Spain because I couldn’t run, but managed to make the most of swimming and cycling fortunately to keep my exercise up!
G x Over a month ago at Kent Champs (blog post here), where I qualified for the Inter Counties for the first time after missing out on selection last year. This meant I was very excited for this race and well worth the long travel up to Loughborough. On Friday, I did my usual routine with pasta and had my bags all packed for the early morning. I had an early night to prepare myself for the 6:30am start, where my mum and I were travelling up together. On arrival, the realisation of the mud hit me hard. Firstly I had just come in my trail shoes... a big mistake, wellies were a necessity! I was sliding all over the place, there wasn't an inch of grass on the field where the tents were. I arrived slightly late to Loughborough after sitting at stand still on the m25 for about an hour after an accident. I had a quick walk of the course but it didn't take long because you could see most of the course from one spot on the course. Soon enough I had finished my warm up and was making my way to the start line. On the start line we were placed in pens and I was near the back, following my not so great run at Nationals. When the gun went the mass of people was quite overwhelming and I found myself squeezed right in the middle of the crowd and didn't have many directions in which I could go. The course was muddy all over and I struggled to pick up a rhythm because of the tough conditions and felt I couldn't pick up much speed over the course. The mud seemed to suck the energy from my legs along with the hills, this is clearly something I need to improve on next season. I crossed the line in about 120th... so not a great run and was definitely wanting better. I was also disappointed to come in as last Kent, I just wanted a better run and prove to myself I am capable on a tough course. It was great though being part of such a fab team and it was a amazing experience and one I won't forget for a while. I look forward to hopefully being selected again next year to return stronger to this course. I have English schools this weekend, which I am so so excited for. I am travelling up on the Friday and back on Saturday evening after the race so it will be a busy weekend!
G x I am writing this post nearly a week later after my race, tucked up in the warm on my final snow day off school. It hasn't all been fun and games with the snow because I was in the middle of mock exams when the Beast from the East paid a visit. Instead school gave us to the exams to do at home... not much fun when I could be out in the snow. Anyway more back to the topic of my race, I had the national xc champs last weekend at Parliament Hill, it was a tough one for me and I certainly didn't come out of the race with the result I was hoping for. As you might know over the last few weeks I had been struggling with some shin problems and had to take some time off running just before nationals, which wasn't ideal and was upsetting for me because I felt like I was in good shape. By the time Nationals came around, luckily I was back running and had a couple of sessions under my belt going into the race. I knew what the course was like and had prepared myself mentally, for the challenging hills and soft ground. Following a walk of the course I had checked out every single hill I was ready to face the race. I soon found myself on the start line, looking up a the huge hill which faced me in my first 500m of the race. This hill is huge and really challenging... it certainly didn't disappoint and I made it to the top, somewhat tired! The course was 6km and made of two laps of about 2km and 4km, however the marshals sent us the wrong way on the first lap which added 800m. To start with a 6km race was one of my longest race distances, but to have it being nearly 7km on such a tough course was a recipe for disaster. Luckily I only realised the first loop was longer when I had finished so mentally I didn't really notice. I felt I started the race strong, not too quick but was in a good position. However about halfway in, I started to struggle and my legs felt exhausted. Mentally I was ready to hit these hills, but my body couldn't. The last 2km was certainly a mental test as people started to pass me and I knew I was much further back in the field than I should have been. At this point I wanted to just give it my everything and get around the course. I finally crossed the line in 89th place... far, far away from my target, but I had made it around the course. This course seriously challenged me mentally and physically. So, I may not have come out of this race with the result I wanted and it means I have had another bad nationals race, following last years bad race too. I do feel like I learnt a lot from it too, because the more experience I get with the larger fields of athletes the better. This will all help to building me to be a stronger athlete. Looking back now I can take positives from this race, whereas in the initial few days I was only seeing the bad. I have two races coming up in the following weeks English schools and Inter Counties. These are two races I have been looking forward to all season and I am ready to go into them and finish my season with two exciting races.
G x 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 As I am writing this title, the idea that I have just written 2018 does scare me a little... anyway on to the more important aspect of this blog post, the actual race. Firstly if you want to check out my blog post from this same race last year - Kent Champs 2017 you can read it here. I had been excited and nervous for Kent champs for a long time now, however I have never felt the way I did on Friday night... I was nervous. First of all, this is a very new experience for me, but I tried switching this anxious energy into something more positive. So, as I settle down for the night on Friday I decide to start reading Kelly Holmes autobiography and this worked a treat, as soon as I stopped reading I was off asleep. In the morning, I was struggling through my porridge I just felt a bit sick eating it... again I think a bit nervous. Soon enough we were in the car and on our way to Brands Hatch. On arrival all my nerves disappeared and I felt actually full of energy and excited to race. After a quick walk of the course which was quick because it was the same course as the year before. The temperatures were pretty low as I was warming up, honestly I could not move my toes... I am not joking!!! Putting my spikes on was quite the mission but once they were on I was ready for business. The gun went and I was off. The course was two small laps and one large lap. The first two laps went by quickly and I was glad to get them over with. The last lap was more challenging, my legs started to hurt but I felt concentrated and was happy with my position in the field currently so didn't want to let it drop. When I got to the bottom of the final hill, I knew I just had to get up this hill quick enough not to get caught up... this was tough (shown by my expression in the photos below). I crossed the line as 4th u20 and I was thrilled, this is possibly my best race to date. I was chuffed to also have got automatic selection for the inter-counties in March, which last year I had missed out on and this was a big goal for me in 2018. I hope everyone who had county champs or any other races or training, that it went well! This is only the first race of the New Year so it has been a nice confidence to get a good start to it, but there is still a lot of work to be done and many more races to come.
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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