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
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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 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 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 This weekend I have been in the Loughborough area, doing the England Talent Assessment weekend, for triathlon. I only found out that I got in to it, at the beginning of the week, and I knew that there was going to be some tough competition, and the best triathletes in my age group in England would be there! My age group was 17-19 and me being 16 but turning 17 later this year meant I was bottom of my age group. We travelled up on Friday as we would have had to wake up seriously early if we were going to travel straight there on the Saturday. We settled into our little hotel for the night after having some tasty dinner and then I got an early night in. Most of Friday night, I was thinking about my swim and if I didn't make my swim in under 12 minutes, I would be sent home, so I was pretty concerned as I had never swam 800m before against the clock... yes, I know it was a bit risky me coming all the way to Loughborough, if I didn't think I could swim the time. When I arrived on the Saturday I was instantly intimidated by everyone in their various different kit. Most of the people had British Triathlon hoodies, with various different academies or regional squads written on the back. I did not want to let this intimidate me though and after a bit of waiting we were soon sent into our first lecture. After a very interesting morning of lectures, and picking up some good knowledge on sleep, nutrition, selection policies and physio, we were finally sent off to do our swim... argggg the moment I had been waiting for. We did our swim in Loughborough university pool, which was amazing! It had been split in half so we had to do 32 laps, which sounds like lots, but I split it into 100s in my head, so it doesn't sound so long. The 30 second warning went, and then we were off. Up and down, up and down, up and down... with 400m done, I felt a sense of relief but I struggled to work out how fast I was going. Finally I came to the finish and the time keeper said '12:03,' my heart probably skipped a beat at this point, and I thought thats it... I'm going home. To add to this I was the last one to finish my swim out of the other 24 people in the pool... To be quite honest I didn't think I would get anywhere near this time, as I only started swimming less than a year ago and I think if I had done the 800m time trial, 6 months ago I would have struggles to even hit a sub 13:30 time. Anyway, onto Sunday. We were all set off from the start according to our swim times. So, lets just say I wasn't in the best of places at this point, I had a lot of catching up to do. The bike course was on an old air field and the course was made up of 4x 5km laps. Each lap had two dead turns, which you can see from this photo above. They meant that you had to slow down, to a snails pace to make sure you didn't go flying off course or end up on your bum. In the end, I got lapped... not ideal but I was close, so so close not to be. This just meant all lapped runners had to start once the last cyclist was back, and then start about a minute later. The run was tough, after having a break between the cycle and the run my legs had started to seize and go all stiff. The sun started powering down on us and I could feel my back burning, but nothing a glass of water chucked over it couldn't sort out. Okay so I might of finished near the end of the field, but I have taken so much from this weekend. I now know so much I can work on, and goals I want to set myself. I have had a great weekend away too, and visiting Loughborough uni. I am currently still on easter holidays which I am loving, although I have lots of work to do.
Love G x Recently before this trip I invested in a go pro and I am hoping to start making more and more videos relating to my blog post and travels, so I have made a youtube account. The link to my video is below, so take a look and let me know what you think, and be sure to subscribe if you want to catch more of my videos in the future. So lots of you may have known about my trip to Lanzarote over new year, if you have been following me on instagram. Because I have been so busy in all of January and beginning of February, I haven't had a chance to get this blog post onto the blog, but now is the time. Over Christmas is a great time to go on a training camp, especially a warm weather one, because it is the time of the year where the weather tends to be pretty rubbish and motivation to get out on those cold, dark long runs is pretty low. We had a very early start of 2:30am, which I definitely would not recommend doing, especially if you are planning on not really pausing your training for a day of travelling, because you are going to be pretty tired, and unsurprisingly when it got to 5pm, when we were doing our first session, I was feeling a little dazed it is fair to say. However once that session was done, we headed for an early dinner. Dinner did not disappoint, the buffet style was perfect for everyone, Whether it was pasta, steak, fish, roasted veg or even ice cream, it had it all! My average day was swimming in the morning, normally a 1.5 hour session of about 4km, then a running session in the evening, which really did vary. One day it was a 7km run, one day 800m reps, or one day a long 12km run. Even though we only had just two base sessions, the resort had many many classes to offer during the day. I found myself doing yoga and ab attack everyday. Then also I did a few one off sessions like ariel yoga (photo shown below), it is fair to say this was rather interesting. All my friends loved it but me on the other hand, lets just say I wanted to walk out after 10 mins. Weirdly it made me feel sick, I think it was the hanging and swinging sensation, which I did't really like. The blue track was great and I found my instagram feed turning very blue based, as it was great to take photos on! The week as a whole was seriously tough and by the last day, my legs were well and truly tired, and if you read my blog post KENT CHAMPS my week of hard training in my legs showed in this race, but I did know this was going to happen and but I knew I had to look to the future and the rest of my races in January. I would like to say that my hard training in this week, benefitted for my future races, especially my INTER-COUNTIES. One of the days I did a triathlon, which was great fun. However the swim was in a pool, and open water is definitely my preferred choice but it was nice it being a 50m pool instead of 25m. The cycle... well this wasn't nice. It was so so windy and I pretty much struggled to stay on my bike, let alone actually go fast on it, so this is where I lost lots of time because I was being a cautious rider and didn't want to fall off. With about a quarter of the cycle section left, a boy fell off his bike, which really scared me and made me even slower. At the end of the day I decided that I didn't really mind where I came and I focused on my swim and my run. My run was good, and the feeling of jelly in my legs disappeared after probably about a km. I have had a bit of a different week this week. I had the physio on Thursday and my foot injury which I had been holding for a couple of weeks was assessed and I am now off for 2 weeks, which wasn't what I wanted to hear. I am off to Boston, USA next week, which will be good fun, so I am really excited and hopefully I can pop into a few sports shops and pic up some new bits! I hope you all have had a good weekend, and if you have broken up for half term on Friday you have a relax week off! PS. Don't forget to watch my youtube video! (I have added the it below too). G x 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 I have been on holiday for the last week in Greece, so I would like to say I have a nice tan, but no... I don't really. I had a week off from running and cycling last week, while I was away but I did a lot of swimming to compensate. During the week, I definitely missed my bike and running, so of course yesterday the first thing I did was got on my bike and went for a 35km cycle (although I did get a bit lost and ended up in the middle of a farm yard...:/). Yes, this is another holiday blog post, but don't worry it is the last one, because this post marks the end of my summer holidays and also marks me going off to boarding school and starting 6th form, which I am really excited about! This does mean I will not be able to post as much and as you may have noticed, I have already started reducing my posts down to once a week and this is how it will be from now on until I am on school holidays again and I have all the time to blog. I will be doing lots of my training at school from now on, except every Thursday I will go down to my club for a session. I have also made a review page, so I will be posting on there at least once a week and please comment on products you would like me to review. Running on holiday is a tough one for me as I don't mix with the heat well. In my last 10km race it was a seriously hot day and it definitely affected my performance. At least when I was on my last holiday I could get some good sessions done to help me get used to running in the heat. I did have to go for my run bright and early as in the day time, it is really just too hot to run and I think I probably would have got dehydrated, so I kept my runs for in the morning. My hair goes a bit crazy when I get hot and sweaty as you can tell from this photo. My outfit choice for running in the heat is always this top. I have this top in lots of different colours because I love it because it is so light and it allows the breeze to flow through it. So after my long summer holidays of getting some great training in and some triathlons, I am happy to be going back to school because I have had 2.5 months off and I just feel ready to go back. This blog post is a bit more of an over view of my whole summer but hopefully you will like a quick catch up. When the Olympics were on, I spent those two weeks of my life either watching the tv or running, swimming and cycling, which was pretty fab to be honest. The Olympics are just so inspiring and I have realised how much I want to make my dream a reality. Tokyo 2020 womens triathlon I am coming for you! I hope you have all had a good summer, and I am sure lots of you reading this will be going back to school soon too, so I wish you luck back at school. Remember to keep checking my blog for blog posts and reviews, also let me know what products you want me to review, I have a few lined up for the next few weeks. Love G x Once again here is another holiday post, I know its been a couple of weeks since I was actually on holiday but I didn't want to spam you with continuous holiday posts, as I thought that could get a bit boring, so instead I have spread them out over a month or so. Even after this post, there is still one more holiday post coming! This is also a bit of a different post to normal because usually my blog is very running based, but I just want to also talk about how important swimming is for your running. Swimming is really good for endurance athletes as it helps you to become fitter in not just your swimming but running too, but what is even better is that it is non impact and therefore prevents injury... what more could you want, this is why so many people who are coming back from injury swim! For me I find that it always really helps my muscles especially if I have just done a tough run and my muscles are feeling sore. Okay, so I might look like a drowned rat in this photo but this was just after I had finished my warm up. These photos are from my swimming session in the hotel pool, which obviously isn't ideal, considering it is a circular pool. One evening I just really didn't fancy traveling up the mountain to get to the 25m pool, so I had to settle with the hotel pool. La Manga Club is spread out over a large area, and to get to the gym and the 25m pool you have to take a mini bus, so this one evening I just did my swimming in the hotel pool, only when most of the people had retreated to their rooms after a long tough day sunbathing.. I didn't fancy having a full on training session when the pool was full of people. I thought I would be really clever and bring my underwater camera for my sister to use when she was taking photos, but we seemed to only end up with one decent photo out of about 100! I definitely don't look as elegant as a fish, but my brain could not think of another name for this post so I guess it will have to stick. Swimming up and down, up and down can get pretty boring for some people, but I love it and I like the fact it gives me lots of time just to think although sometimes I wish I had a iPod which could play music under water. I went swimming on Monday morning bright and early at my local pool, this was the first time I had done this so wasn't sure what to expect. When I arrived I was firstly shocked by the £5.50 charge to get in, this did not make me happy. When I made it to the pool I soon found there were 4 people to a lane and it was already looking a little crowded before I even got in, but I was hoping the people would be a similar pace to me to avoid having to stop and start continuously. I was wrong... but most people politely let me over take them, however this was not the case for one woman, she was determined to make sure I was unable to over take her, which I think there was no need for. After an hour of swimming and after 128 lengths equally 3200m, I was done. After swimming I soon found myself at Juliets munching on scrambled eggs, bacon and toast. YUMMMMMMMY! I hope you have all had a nice week so far and are enjoying the sunshine we are getting, luckily it isn't quite as hot as it was last week... this week is slightly more bearable! I am really trying to get a good solid week of training in this week and I am planning on doing a parkrun this Saturday but not at Tunbridge Wells, so you'll have to wait until I post on Saturday to find out which parkrun I did and of course how it goes. Love G x Shop the look...
Swimsuit- Speedo After a few very hot days on holiday of 30 degree plus where I had't managed to get out for a run, to my family sadness we had a very gloomy rainy day, however I definitely saw the bright side in this and got to get out for a run with my sisters boyfriend. Company on a run is a rare thing for me, because I am not part of a running club, so all my sessions are done on my own, which can often be hard but when I have company it makes those runs even better. Our plan was to run to the beach by following google maps, as we weren't sure of the way to go and weren't sure on what the gradient would be like... I think it would have been a good idea to check it first, especially as we had already learnt our lesson while cycling to the beach, that the way back was severely up hill. Again just like when we were cycling we found ourselves on a dirt track path only after 5 minutes of running on the roads. When we got onto the tracks we weren't expecting the great views over the sea and this made the run feel so much easier because we were in such a great location. It felt like the sea wass all around us as the path went circling down the hills. Of course, I wasn't going to miss a few photo opportunities on the way down to the beach, and I think the combination of my shorts and sports bra meant that I stood out from the gloomy grey sky. After we realised we had just been running down hill for the last kilometre or so, we thought we better look back to where we came from, so here is a photo of me pointing to part of the hill which we came from and we hadn't even reached the beach yet. The journey back was um... painful it is fair to say. An elevation gain of 204m was not going to go unnoticed and by the time we reached the top, we soon realised we had the 1.5km run back to the hotel still. In total the run was only 6km but that hill has made me think that normal hills are basically flat and hopefully I will fly up them now I have experienced that killer of a hill. Whilst I was running up that hill, I was pretty pleased that I had done a few hill rep sessions before I had gone on holiday, otherwise I think I would have not made it back to the top in a reasonable time. The weather back in England this week has been amazing but I haven't been able to make the most of it because I have been commuting up to London everyday for work experience. This has also interfered with my training and I really haven't got all my sessions I have wanted to do this week. Next week is a lot more free for me so I can get some solid sessions in! Love G x |
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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