These last two weeks have flown by and that is no surprise considering I have been on half term and thankfully I didn't have loads of work to do, so I could also rest and relax for a bit. Leading up to this race I was a little nervous of how the course would go as it is known for being very hilly. Last year I was in the u17 age group (last years blog post here) and this year I was running in the seniors race so the course is longer. This week it was 4.9km to deal with but with about a million hills in it too !!! After my usual warm up, I did my last few drills and made my way to the start line. The gun went and I found myself in the mix of the race pretty instantly, the beginning of the course was relatively flat but it didn't last long before we started climbing and then soon after we were descending... up and down, up and down, we went. The course was made up by two laps, one 2km lap and another 3km lap. The second lap was certainly the hillier one, so it was key not to go off too quickly as I had visions of me pretty much crawling up the hills in the end if I did. The last lap of the course was painful, my legs were full of lactic and felt heavy, I was desperately just trying to hang onto my position but this was tough. The final 500m was hard because it was all pretty much down hill but following some killer hills, it was hard to let your legs go and have a final strong finish. There was several of us all close to each other and we kept over taking each other but then the last one hundred metres we all gave our final sprint... and this was painful !! I over took one girl, but then got overtaken by another and I crossed the line in 16th senior women and 8th u20. I crossed the line and my initial feelings were of disappointment however after having some time to reflect and look back, yes it wasn't my best race but it wasn't horrendous. I think my good result in the previous Kent league is what made me feel initially disappointed but I had to look at the bigger picture and there were more people in the race this weekend. It feels great to be solidly into cross country season now and although the conditions haven't exactly been tough yet, I am really enjoying it. I am now back at school, hence the slight delay in post but I hope you all had a good week. I have had some very exciting news in the week because I came an auntie to the beautiful Florence and I can't wait to spend lots of time with her in the future.
Love G x
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This week I have a very exciting workout video to share with you which I filmed with Ellen (teen runner blog, check out her blog as she is a great friend and has a running blog too) the other day. This blog post I'll also give you a bit of an over view of what I've been up to this week, but the main thing I have had this week was school... yes sadly I started school on Friday and its been pretty full on ever since then really. Fortunately I have had a chance to edit this video for you, which I have really enjoyed making and I hope you will all enjoy it. The music to the video is not the best but it's pretty hard finding good youtube legal musi so I hope you don't mind it too much ;) So here is my WORKOUT VIDEO which I'm really pleased with so let me know what you think! Here is also a written plan of the workout in the video: 1 minute plank 20x toe touches 20x alternate elbow knee 12x renegade row 15x half sits 20x single leg extensions 12x commandos And repeat Take 10 seconds rest between exercises and 30 seconds rest between sets! ENJOY!!! Other than filming a this workout video I have also been doing a lot of training this week as I continue to build towards cross country season, which I am really excited for. I have been trying to particularly work on areas which are my weaknesses so hopefully by the time I get to my first proper cross country in October I should have strengthened these weaknesses. This week has been tough I have found, after some solid training which I have enjoyed, I am a bit tired and school on Friday didn't help this much. On Monday though I feel like I will be back into the swing of school and happy to be back into the routine. For me I am a huge routine person and helps me almost stay focused so as much as I am not a fan of going back to school, secretly I quite like it.
I hope you have all had a great week, Love G x This is a blog post that I have been thinking on doing for a few months, as lots of people have asked me about whether I'll be doing any tri's this season. As you know last year I participated in lots of triathlons and was keen to try and improve all three disciplines, although running has always been my favourite and I had always heavily prioritised it training wise, but I was enjoying the diversity of triathlon. After going on the England trial weekend (link to my blog post from it) a lot of things went through my head afterwards. Something that was clear to me, was that my swimming and cycling were far too slow but my running was the only thing that pulled me back into contention in the triathlons. The decision had to be made where I needed to go down one route or the other, because I just wasn't getting the all around training I needed for triathlon or benefits of committing to running fully. After thinking about everything there was a clear path that would be best for me to take... and that was the running one, and I haven't looked back since. As much as I enjoyed swimming and cycling it didn't fill me with joy, half as much as running did. I still swim and cycle now, but as cross training to help me with my running fitness and I really enjoy doing this. Don't get me wrong I still don't enjoy the 5:30am wake up for early morning swimming, but I just like to think about how I feel at 8:00am when I have achieved so much in my day, before most people have got to school. In addition to just preferring running over swimming and cycling, there was also the small... okay maybe not so small, issue of time. I am heading into my last year of school, where time is slightly tight and even writing blog posts is often something which is squeezed into an hour or two of free time, on a Friday or Saturday evening, but I certainly wouldn't change it for the world, because I love it. I was managing to fit in most of my swimming, however cycling I needed another 100km each week and I just had no where to fit this in. Cycling is my least favourite out of the three and there is something about being on a bike which makes me feel vulnerable. I think if there were cycle highways everywhere and if you didn't hurt yourself when you fall off, I would love it, but unfortunately it does not work like that. So, my bike remains in the garage and comes out for a slow cycle at quiet times of day, and I love that. Since making this big move to commit to running more, my love for running has grown and grown. I would now say I am definitely obsessed and striving to be better ever day. Some goals I make are realistic for each season and others seem crazy, so now I feel it is appropriate for some of my favourite quotes.
"Set a goal that makes you want to jump out of bed in the morning" "It always seems impossible until it's done" "It's going to be hard, but hard is not impossible" I am now looking forward to cross country season, having come through summer with lots of pbs on track and I hope to improve my season this year from last year. I hope you have enjoyed this blog post and answered lots of your questions. Also I hope you like my new design of my blog, after trying lots of different themes I have settled with this one. Love G x This week I have been up in London on an internship for economics, to help me get an experience of what it may be like if I pursue my economics route into university and later on in life in my job. I have learnt so much from it, although it was very full on, it was a really great experience. I have been busy with work experience pretty much since I broke up from school (apart from my holiday), so it is certainly nice to have finished it all for my summer and I can move onto my mountain of summer school work. Also I can make the most of my free time and getting some good training in. Whilst back this weekend I have managed to get an core session in for you all. I think there is so much importance in core strength as a endurance runner, and also in many other sports too. Runners are often portrayed as you need to be lean, and yes there is importance in this, however you also need to be strong. Strength is so important for your power in racing, so I thought if you are ever stuck for a routine then you can always give my favourite one a go below! Session is as followed: 1 minute plank 30 toe touches (one of my favourite core exercises) 20 sit ups 50 twists Quick stretch 30 crunches 20 renegade rows 20 hip pushes (okay I never know what this one is called, its when you lie on your back and lift your feet up perpendicular to you and then push them up and down. If anyone knows the correct name of this drill, please do let me know!) Take a 1 minute rest and repeat Once you've repeated it once you are all done! It all in all, will take about 20 minutes, so it is great for a quick core session in the week. It also involves no equipment so you can do it anywhere... no need to have to go to a gym. Anyway after having done my core workout on Friday evening it was time for me to make the most of my easy day of running on Saturday and take to parkrun with my dad. This is honestly one of my favourite things. Ever since I have started running, I have tried my best to get my dad into it, and yes it may have taken some time but I am pleased to say that I think he actually enjoys park runs now and he seems to be impressing the whole family every week by taking chunks off his pbs constantly. It was also great fun for me to get an easy run in. The weather was glorious too, however the rest of the day it has been far from pretty. I don't think I have ever seen it rain quite so hard before I have done yesterday. So, this week has been full on and I have explored many routes of blackheath and greenwich as I continued to train when I was staying away from home. This weekend, has been a lovely finish to my week and I have Sunday to enjoy too now. Sorry for the lack of racing posts lately but it is coming to the end of track season and my racing is starting to ease up. I hope you all have a good weekend, and enjoy your training you are doing or just have a nice relaxing day.
Love G x Last week I was in the lovely and warm La Manga in Spain. Having gone straight from school, it felt like a much needed break. This is my favourite holiday of the year because it is with my whole family, including boyfriends and husbands of my sister which makes it great fun! We had a nice civilised flight time in the afternoon so we made it to the hotel in time for dinner and then went straight to bed after that, because travelling is surprisingly exhausting. What I love about going on holiday is having the best breakfast, the hotel buffet never seems to disappoint me and a highlight is certainly the fruit bar, with all the fruit you can think of. Before I carry on, if you are a long time follow of my blog, you may have noticed that I went to this exact same hotel last year and wrote some blog posts on them, these included: Sunny Running and Run to the Beach! Above is a snap of my first course of my breakfast each day, it involved a mixture of exotic fruit with a nice pile of strawberry yogurt on top. This was especially nice if I had just come back from a run - tasty, refreshing and healthy. The are lots of runs around where I was staying, however all the exciting ones involved some serious hill climbs because they were coastal routes. From my video I have uploaded onto my youtube, I think it is fair to say you can see how large some of the hills are from this. I did most of my sessions on the roads around the complex which wasn't as exciting as the coastal paths but they were still far from flat, just a little more do able than some of the roads on the mountainous coastal routes. Some of my more easy runs, I couldn't avoid the amazing views of the coast. A few times I was joined by some of my family and could get some video footage from the drone, even the go pro came out with me a few times. I thought as I always show you all my running photos, here are a few of the snaps of my more laid back time on holiday. All I can say is I have had a great start to my holidays, it has been very busy so far as for the first week I was in Spain and now I have got work experience for the next two weeks which is always full on, but I'm learning lots from it so far. My summer starts to chill out a lot more in august and getting some good training in for the conclusion of the track season and the build towards cross country. I know you are probably all wondering where the video is, well I have had some uploading problems with is but it should be up on youtube in the next week for sure but I'll let everyone know through social media so you can go check it out. Also please let me know what you think of my video blogging as well as blogging on here as I've quite enjoyed adding the video aspect to it. Love G x Again I found myself on a Wednesday racing, however this week was about 15 degrees cooler, to my liking. I would definitely say it was some of the nicest racing conditions! I spent the build up to my race at school, but it is my last week of school this week, and I break up today (Saturday) and jet set off on holiday very soon. Also some more positive news was that I passed my driving test yesterday, which honestly is such a huge deal for me because I can now get myself to training easily without having to rely heavily on my parents... anyway, sorry I'm rambling on now back to my race on Wednesday. As you can see from the photo, I look absolutely thrilled to be racing... I don't look my best before a race, as I'm often getting into the zone and I just like to prepare for my race. Maybe I need to start looking happier when I am on the start line! I was doing a 1500m on this day because I have done lots of 3000m lately so it was a good test, to see how my speed is getting along. After a nice good warm up and drills, we had estimated our race would be at about 8pm and it was near enough to that time as it was the 6th 1500m race. When the race started I found myself hanging onto the group for dear life. As you can see from the photo above I am right at the back just clinging on. I was worried at this point but as I was looking at the clock for my splits, it was less concerning as I initially thought, as I was coming in at about 5 minute pace. During the race there was lots of occasional changes of pace, one moment I would feel like I was losing the group, but sometimes I was nearly tripping over peoples feet. The laps went by quickly and I definitely enjoyed just hanging on and being pulled along with the group. Going into the last 100m of the second to last lap, my legs felt some what fresh and I made the decisive move to put on a final sprint. I gave my last and final kick and charged around the outside of the group on the and with 300m left I was just about coming into second. I tried to push as much as possible and really just wanted to get as close as possible to my aim of the sub 5, which has been a goal for a while. I felt really strong in my last 400m, which was really good because I often don't have that kick at the end, but I'm pleased to see that some of my speed work, in training is paying off. This was my first Watford Wednesday and what a great experience I had, and I definitely will be wanting to do them again! I loved how the race had lots of people in and because there was lots of people it meant the races were really good for whatever your pace, because you had lots of people to work with, which I find really helpful. Anyway after my finally push to the line, I came across in 4:50 and I was chuffed (and also pretty tired) especially to get an 11 second pb and get under the big 5 minute pb - a big goal for me. I've had a pretty fab week, which is not usual for me to say as many would say I am quite a negative person, but this week has just gone my way. It started with Wednesday when I got my 11 second pb, then today I passed my driving test and broke up for school for summer and then finally tomorrow I go on holiday... I couldn't really ask for a better week. I hope you have all had a good week too!
Love G x On Wednesday I found myself on the hottest and longest day of the year heading up to Dartford, for the Kent 3km champs. When I looked at the weather forecast in the morning I was not amused to see that the days temperature peaked at 5pm and was still at 29 degrees at 7:30 (the time of my race), I knew at this point it was going to be a very hot race! After a not so long warm up, because I really didn't want to over heat before I had even started racing. I made my way to the start line, and also I chucked a bottle of water over me to cool myself down in the process. The track at Dartford was bright blue which was very cool because it reminded me of being in Lanzarote and the weather did too. When the gun went, the pace went off fast but nothing too quick to deal with. I tried to hang onto the girl in front, to have someone to drag me around the lots of the laps at the beginning. The first 5 laps or so went by surprisingly quickly as I just sat on this girls shoulder, for about two of the laps I lead the run but settled back behind her by the fifth lap, because I wasn't able to gain any distance on her. On the 800m mark left, she kicked and picked up the pace greatly. I struggled to keep up with her and I just couldn't keep with her. I crossed the line about ten seconds behind her in the end with a time of 10:50, 4 seconds off my pb, which I was really happy with considering the weather conditions were pretty tough. I was really chuffed to cross the line in 3rd place, my first kent medal. I have been happy with my last few 3000m but now its time to move onto some more 1500m. Yesterday I had a school 1500m race which went really well with a surprising pb, not quite sure how that happened but it has made me hungry for even more now, before the end of the track season.
I hope you have all had a good weekend, and are enjoying the slightly cooler weather. G x This weekend I haven't found myself racing which is a bit of a relief considering how hot it is, but I am racing midweek next week. This weekend in particular has been so so hot, which I am not complaining about but yesterday when I prepared for my track session, I was dripping with sweat before I had even got from my car to the track... thankfully I got through the session, however my back is now very burnt now! I have been very busy with school this week too but coming back to running after a short break for a slight injury has been great. In between though, I have had a chance to review and video the new 'Brooks Revel' trainers in action which I have also posted a review for this weekend. I have attached the video at the bottom of the blog post, if you fancy a watch. Sorry this hasn't been a hugely interesting blog post, but I have spent most of my week working on my brooks video, so I hope you enjoy and make sure you do give my review of them a read, because they are really great trainers. Use this link to find them over on the Brooks website and you can get your hands on them for just £90! Love G x This weekend I found myself up in Milton Keynes on Saturday afternoon, for my first BMC race. I was down to do the 3000m, my second one of the season, and I was hoping to get another pb in it. After arriving after a 2 hour journey, it was nice to stretch out my legs. It was also a bonus, that we were one of the first races at 4:41, as it can be a long evening at BMC races, and I think the last race was being set off later than 9:30pm, I would definitely struggle with a late one like that. After watching the first steeplechase race set off, Phoebe, Nicole and I headed off on our warm up. We did a nice easy warm up and then headed to get our spikes, to take up to the start. Once we had put them on, we began to do some of our drills, but before we knew it we were being called up to the line. I was confused, we still had ten minutes left and I was worrying because I hadn't done many drills at all and only one stride, (and this stride was from one side of the back straight to the other, when I suddenly saw my race lining up). What had in fact happened was that they had printed off the paper timetable and brought the race forwards ten minutes, but hadn't changed it on the digital timetable, and we had only looked at the online version. I will admit my first km was probably a little bit too fast, but the pace of the race set off fast and I found myself being pulled along with the faster pace. With the sun shining down on me and the lake of warm up, my second and third km definitely payed for that. However on the last two laps, I found myself working with a little welsh girl, and I feel we definitely pushed each other around those last two laps. Luckily I managed to stay on the inside of the bends each time and kicked away from her in the last 200m, but when I crossed the line my legs were pretty dead, and I just had to sit on the floor for a bit... I crossed the line in 10:46, yes I was a little disappointed with that as I was aiming for sub 10:45 but I guess I can't complain with a pb of 7 seconds. Back to training to get some good sessions in before another 3000m next weekend, where I hope to improve on this time again. After the race, Phoebe and I went on a nice cool down on the paths around the track, making sure we never went off the main route. 8km later we finally got back to the track, and we had got very lost. We were even about to resort to knocking on someones door to ask for help. I don't think we are going to get trusted again now going for a warm down on our own, without a phone.
I hope you have all had a nice weekend, G x Lets scroll back to last weekend when I did the 1500m at the Kent Champs, although a lot has happened between then and now... a geography, chemistry and maths exam, but I am finally happy to say that, I'm DONE... (and got instagram, twitter and snapchat back). Back to last weekend. On the Friday is was my birthday, although the latin and economics exam, took most of the enjoyment out of the day. On Saturday, my English exam followed, but once I finished english, I got to go home early and relax for the rest of day... well I say relax it was mainly revision. After my usual pre race routine (pasta, banana, etc.) On Saturday morning my alarm goes off, and with tired eyes I turn it off... 30 mins later I wake up and realise, I had fallen back asleep, and was now running considerably late...oops, I think the stress of exams had got to me a bit. Finally I made it into the car, and after mum and I battled with her new cars satnav, we finally got it to take us a quick way to Ashford, however it took us along some ridiculously narrow lanes... we were not a fan! After actually getting in a good warm up, even though in my head we were running late, but I like to leave about an hour lee way, because I get a little bit anxious about being later, so I still had factored in time for problems. Soon enough I found myself on the start line and I was second from the end, and to me is was quite apparent we were in pb order... so I thought I would be right at the back of the field. And BANG... we were off and straight away the pack was running away from me, and I was like, um... arg this isn't the plan. I stayed patient and the laps went by and I was catching others up and with one lap to go, I was in fourth, further up the field than I had expected. I had the girl in third in my sights, there was a significant gap between us with one lap to go, but I wanted to give it my best shot, to catch up as much as possible, and I crossed the line 2 seconds behind 3rd, and I think the photos show that I gave it everything. After the race, I crossed the line with a 5 second pb, so I was really pleased with that! However I am now definitely hungry for a sub 5 1500m now, after getting 5:01. After saying well done to everyone, which is always nice, because through the xc season I got to know all the girls, even from the other clubs, so a team photo only seemed appropriate. This weekend, I have been enjoying life far too much, with having no revision, which is just great! I was in London yesterday and walking around all day is surprisingly exhausting and yesterday evening I definitely crashed on the sofa, and I just loved to have some time to watch tv, which I felt like I haven't done in ages. Next week is very exciting for me, I'm off to Slovakia for the European Aquathlon Championships, so next weeks blog post will be an exciting one, and keep track of my instagram too!
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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