Wow, finally I have found the time to get back to what I love... blogging. Ever since starting school on the 1st September, I have been overwhelmed by work. I currently have about five course works on the go and it has just been a little bit stressful these last few weeks. So with the finish line in sight with all my course work and having raced on Sunday, I have at last made it to my laptop to get a blog post out. Last Sunday, I had southern road relays. This was my first experience of road relays and also racing as a senior so there were lots of new things for me to experience this weekend. But I have to admit my lead up to this race was far from ideal, after getting a pretty rough cold on Wednesday, I spent the rest of the week desperately trying to get rid of it and drinking my own body weight in lemon and honey tea, to try and help with the recovery. It came to Sunday and the cold was on its way out but I still wasn't feeling quite 100%. This really annoyed me because I haven't raced in over two months and so I was pretty keen to get racing again after such a long break and especially because I knew I couldn't let my team down. I was the second leg of the relay, which I was happy with because I just needed to go out there and give it my best shot. As Phoebe was running in, to finish the first leg of the relay, the excitement started to kick in and I was eager and ready to go off and race. The course was said to be 4.5k so I knew it would be essential not to go off too quickly, especially because I knew I was around some strong senior women, compared to me as a first year u20. The race started off fast, and the first km was all uphill. Struggling to hang onto the person in front, I settled into racing my own race. The pace stayed fast and I was worrying perhaps I had gone off too quickly but at about halfway I formed a small group of three, and this dragged me around for about a km. When the finish line was insight, with about 500m to go, by legs started to go and so did my breathing. It felt like my wind pipe was really tight. I was determined just to push it and give it my all and get to the line. The last 300m was around the track and this was my hardest part of the race and I really really struggled. I crossed the line and was happy with how I had done, but I was not feeling good. The course turned out to in fact be only 3.6km though. After sitting on the floor for quite a while, I finally got myself up and felt pretty dizzy. I think this was down to a mixture of my cold and just giving it my all. I had such a fun day and our seriously young senior women team came away with 11th. It was a great day out and a great way to kick off my racing for the season. I hope to be a bit more active on my blog in the coming months, especially as I have half term coming up in two weeks. Even though I will have lots of work, I should have some free time too.
Have a good weekend, G x
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Wow, what a fun first track season I have had, even though I have only clocked 6 races, 3 in each event 1500 and 3000, I'm happy with how my first track season went. Previously before this season I had raced one 1500m before and that was about a year ago, and wrote a blog post on it, and my previous 3000m was from over two years ago so not much to go from. Every race I managed to squeeze a pb (minus kent 3km champs when it was the hottest day in 40 years...). In this blog post I am going to look back at each race and evaluate what I thought of it, and I'll also put the link to my blog posts on each race too, so you can look back for more detail if you fancy. TONBRIDGE 1500M OPEN MEETING This was my first race of the season and I didn't have huge expectation and just wanted to kick my track season off well. I got a huge pb from my one and only other 1500m I did... however more importantly it made me realise that the sub 5 minute 1500m was definitely something on the cards this season. LUTON 3000M YDL This was certainly not my most enjoyable race, with such a tiny field and windy conditions, it wasn't in my favour. In addition the long day of hanging around and long bus journey didn't do my legs any favours either. Lap after lap my legs felt just as rubbish as the previous lap, however miraculously I came across the line with a half decent time and a pb of over 1 minute form my previous 3000m two years ago, so I was actually really happy with the outcome and was just keen to see what more I could bring to the 3000m in the rest of the season. KENT CHAMPS 1500M This was an exciting race for me and I had been looking forward to it for a long time. However timing of it wasn't in my favour. It sat right in the middle of my exam week and also a couple of days after my birthday. I stood on the start line worried about what the outcome will be considering I recognised everyone to have beaten me all through xc season, but I pushed that out of my head and raced with everything I could. After pushing myself to my limits on my final lap I just missed out on a podium finish and a sub 5 minute 1500m, although I was still pleased to come away with a pb and definitely come higher up the field than anticipationg. MILTON KEYNES BMC 3000M This time it was off up to Milton Keynes for me to race my first BMC and a good quality 3000m and I was keen to improve my time from before. After the race being brought forward ten minutes than expected, it didn't have the ideal start for me. With not the best warm up, I was still feeling a bit tight before we started. After staying on my target for the first 1km I was soon loosing seconds on each lap and falling away from my target time, but my legs just couldn't give it anymore. I crossed the line with a new pb, which I couldn't complain about but I was hoping for more. KENT 3KM CHAMPS After holding a slight injury for a week or two, I had to miss the south of England track champs unfortunately, so I was hoping to make up for it at the Kent 3km champs. However again there was a slight issue. It was the hottest day in 40 years with temperatures exceeding 30 degrees and peaking at 5pm with my race start at 7pm... Anyway after chasing down second place for the entirety of the race I just lost her in the last 800m and had to settle with third. Surprisingly I was actually only about 5 seconds away from my pb in the heat... and my first Kent medal! WATFORD 1500M Watford was a new experience for me, having heard so much about their open meetings I was keen to try this one out and make use of their large competitive fields in search of a pb and to get the big sub 5, which I had set out most season to get. The field was large and I was anxious having put a fairly low target time down to chase. The first 2 laps I felt if I was just clinging onto the pack for dear life, being right at the back, this continued throughout however what happened on the last lap I was not expecting. My legs felt fresh still and I gave the last 400m one last push and I went from the back to the front of the pack on a painful sprint for the line. I'm not sure how quick my last lap was, but it certainly felt painfully fast. At the finish line my legs had nothing in them and all I could do was just sit down for a bit. I was chuffed though to have seen my time and taken 11 seconds off my pb from just 4 weeks ago and to finish the season on a time of 4:50, way below my sub 5 target. My season finished earlier than expected but with a holiday and school finishing, I became pretty tired quickly so just needed a rest. I felt I wouldn't perform to my best if I continued my season on any longer so it was appropriate to ease down. Now I am looking forward to xc season, which still seems far off but an exciting prospect for me as I head into this season with more experience under my belt, from my first xc season last year. I am really excited for what this season has to bring and I am hoping to improve on last season and I have a couple of clear targets I am hoping to meet. I hope you have enjoyed my season summary and I would also like to say I have some exciting blog posts to be sharing with you in the next few weeks.
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 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 What can I say, the weekend finally came where I was off to Slovakia to race in the European Aquathlon Championships. After leaving school in the afternoon of Thursday, we arrived in Bratislava late into the evening, so we pretty much found ourselves going straight into bed and left the exploring to the Friday. On Friday we had a chance to explore the city and to our delight, the weather was very sunny with a slight breeze. About 10,000 steps later we had seen lots of the city, the old and the new parts and were pleasantly surprised by it all. Although at midday, we jumped into a taxi and travelled 15 mins out of the centre, to a lake where the aquathlon was taking place. My swim familiarisation was at 4 and when I arrived with all of my kit at the lake for the first time, I was amazed by the water. It was nothing like any other triathlon I had done, where you couldn't see more than 10cm infront of you, but the water looked as clear as anything. The swim familiarisation went well and I just did one lap of the 500m, which was good to get to know the course, and I also learnt that I needed to make sure I didn't go too wide on the return from the second inflatable buoy. My Zone3 wetsuit and Zealous 2 piece swimsuit were great to test out too. Once the swim familiarisation was complete and the pre race briefing, we headed back to the hotel to get an early supper. After struggling to find somewhere to buy pasta, I finally found some, although I would have definitely have preferred my home made pasta by this point. After an early night, I found myself waking up at 7am, in order to get to the lake on time. The lake was pretty much next to the hotel, but I had to go with the strict timings of transition set up. It wasn't long before the time quickly went by and my race was starting shortly. I had a good running warm up and then jumped into the lake for a suitable swimming warm up too. The water was cold, but you quickly warmed up and luckily my wetsuit fits me really well, which helps to reduce any unnecessary cold water getting in. Once we were all brought into the holding pen, we were released and made our way to the start line. This was the first time I had done a run into the water start and I wasn't too amused because it was so so stony on the ground just at the edge of the water, so it was painful to run on. When the gun went, you didn't have much of a choice, either waddle into the water, don't hurt your feet and be slow, or just suck the pain up and run quickly in, and with the adrenaline going, that is what I found myself doing. I'll be honest, after coming out of the swim having been dunked, dragged and kicked, I staggered into transition over a minute behind the second last U20 athlete and I struggled to stay on two feet, as my head started to spin. I gave myself ten seconds in transition just to feel normal than I just ran off, with all the determination to do some catching up. Luckily the run did go much more in my favour, and I managed to finish in 5th catching several other U20s. The 5km run was done in 5x 1km laps, which made it easy to see how I was closing the gaps on people. When I crossed the line, I was relieved and very tired. The sun had been very strong and the temperature was over 25 degrees, which I am definitely not complaining about, but it did make it that little bit more tricky.
We then headed back to central Bratislava and spent the rest of the day sight seeing again and also picking up a bit of a tan (... maybe burn in some places), as it was super hot and sunny. I have really enjoyed my trip to Slovakia, and it has been an amazing experience. I am heading off home soon, and will return back to training, to prepare for a track race next weekend. Now I think I will be sticking with predominantly running in the future, as I hope to advance in that and come into the next cross country and track season strong. Love 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 On Sunday at 6:30 my alarm rings... its fair to say this isn't my favourite thing for a Sunday morning, but this was because I was heading off to a UKYDL race, with my club, and the coach was leaving my pick up at 7:30, unfortunately my pick up was the first one of four, so there was a lot of stop and starting for the first hour, but soon we were off. It wasn't long until we arrived... okay thats a lie, it was about an hour and a half, and I tried my best to get some of my work done on the coach, but that proved rather difficult. When we arrived we set up our base on the top of the bank and I got my blanket out and got comfy. It was 10:30 and my race wasn't until 2:45. I had my lunch rather early, because I wanted to make sure it was completely digested before I raced, so that occupied me for a bit and then the rest of the time I watched people race. The wind had started to pick up and when I was looking at the track, I could see it had been built into a dip, I thought I didn't need to worry about the wind. As the wind wouldn't be able to get you in the little dip... oh but how wrong could I have been. The time finally came for me to go off on my warm up, which I was actually quite excited about, after watching lots of people race. My warm up felt a bit like hard work to be honest, and my legs were struggling to get round the football fields a few times, at a very easy pace. I got to the start line, to only see another 6 other people, and I quickly realised I was in fact the only u20, and the rest were u17, so all I had to do was get around and I would win... simple. However I wasn't just out there to win, but I wanted to get a good solid 3000m time down for this season and see what I had in me. After 7.5 laps, of pushing through wind and running alone I came to the finish, and it certainly didn't feel like an easy race, my legs felt like bricks and I was battling through the wind most of the time, and not to mention running on my own, but to cross the line with a huge pb made me pretty excited, for hopefully more to come! Although I had a very full on day, and was out the house for 12 hours, it was good to get the 3000m under my belt, and made me even more excited for the rest of my track season, and to hopefully break some more of my goals.
Sorry this post is a bit late, but I have had an important english presentation I needed to get done, and now it is all done, so I can relax for a bit before my exams start on the 12th May (which also happens to be my birthday... not ideal!) Love G x Yesterday, I was sent off on my first school athletics match at Hurstpierpoint college and lets just say I wasn't expecting the track to be grass, but it was a bit of a surprise when someone told me the night before. I knew that it wouldn't exactly make much of a difference, I still had 7.5 laps to get my head around, whether I was running on grass or track. After getting off the coach with 30 mins to my race, I rushed off straight away to go and warm up. With there being not many fields near, my warm up was on the track round the outside, which isn't the most interesting, however it did the job well. Soon we were called over to register, and split into two. The juniors ran first and then the inters and seniors ran together, after. However I hadn't factored in that the juniors were going to run first, so I found myself ready, when I still had another 15 mins before my race... not ideal. I shuffled up and down and did some strides to kill the time and before I knew it I was on the start line. The gun went and off we flew, in my new spikes to be exact (only worn for a few training sessions to wear them in). The race started very quickly and I found myself at the back of the pack of about 15. At this point it worried me a little, I could see the leaders already making a lead and I felt like I was just chasing everyone down. I soon got into my stride, and began to pick people off slowly and with 3 laps to go I was with the top two and I decided to make the move and go for the lead. I knew this was a little risky as there was still a good 1km left to race, but I felt I was ready. I held this lead and it just grew as the race went on and I crossed the line in first place, I was pretty happy. Although it was a low key race, that was the first race I had won, and the feeling was great. Afterwards I got to see Emma ( fruitsandroutes.wordpress.com ) another fellow blogger, and also an old school friend, which was lovely! After a long afternoon, when I finally got home I was pretty tired and just wanted my dinner and then to go to bed. So, as I am in school this weekend, I ordered Bills on deliveroo, which was super tasty and just what I fancied. I haven't had this meal before, but I'll definitely be going for it again soon. I hope you all have a good weekend and if you are running the mini marathon, good luck! Love G x P.S. My GB trust arrived last week, already for Slovakia in May. Although I am going to take a backseat in triathlon this season and focus more on running, as managing all the training with school is becoming pretty tough. However my race in Slovakia I am still very much looking forward too!
I couldn’t think of anything better than doing a 1500m on Easter Monday. Secretly I had been going through the whole weekend looking forward to this race, it was my first track race of the season and actually my third proper track race. It was Tonbridge AC open meet, so nothing very important but an ideal season opener! After arriving promptly with at least an hour spare, I picked up my number and sat and chilled for a bit. Soon we all realised that there was a bit of a delay and I didn’t start my race until about 11:30 in the end, but I still went on my warm up and stayed warm and ready until the start of my race. The race was split into 3 heats, and I found myself in the third heat, which was a bit worrying initially as this was the quickest one, and I was slightly sceptical that I was going to be at the back. Standing on the line, I was tucked on the inside of the bend, which didn’t end up being too bad. The gun went and we were off, after narrowly avoiding a pile up and trip over in the first 100m. The laps went by quicker than I could think, I didn’t want to make the mistake of going off too quickly so only once I was settled did I try picking off people. On the last two laps, I managed to pick the back group off and then work my way through the next group that had separated by this point. After giving the lap everything I had left in me, I crossed the line with about a 15 second pb, so you could say I was pretty pleased with this, but still I have aims, and I haven’t got them yet, so back to work I’ll go! After the race, my legs didn’t feel too bad and not too much lactic, and any that was left was shaken out on my nice chilled cool down with Phoebe, Nicole and Richard! Once I had finished my cool down, I was quickly ushered off into the car, as my parents were waiting for me patiently ;) I am back to school on Wednesday night sadly, and I do not want to go back. Even though I have had to work most of my Easter I would rather be at home, but oh well, hopefully this term will go quickly, even with exams. Soon I’ll be on summer holidays, and then I won’t have to do half as much work, which will be much more fun!
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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