A non-runner’s marathon journey – MD-7 weeks

Only just over 7 weeks to go until MD and this week I’ve had a shocker! Things started out OK but went a bit downhill (actually downhill is quite a good thing in running land so maybe it went uphill) then got back on track.

First for the good part. Last Saturday I did a 14.5km run in about 1.5hrs, average pace 6:21 and I felt OK, so not bad. As I was running, I was listening to my Marathon Talk podcast all about the importance of hydration.

Bubbler - Water Fountain

I’m pretty good at drinking my 8 glasses of water a day, although in this cold weather I’ve been a bit slack. When I run, I don’t carry water but I do stop along the way at bubblers, water fountains, taps – whatever you want to call them! As I was listening to the podcast, I realised that I was really really thirsty. I think the thought was planted in my head (maybe an Inception moment – for those who’ve seen the movie) and then I just got thirstier. I finally found a bubbler but just my luck, the water pressure was so low that it wouldn’t bubble up above the metal guard and I couldn’t get my tongue down into it so!! I tried scooping the water into my mouth but only managed a few drops. Suffice to say, I was even thirstier and more obsessed about being dehydrated. So lesson for me:

1. make sure I’m well hydrated before, during and after runs
2. don’t listen to podcasts about hydration while running dehydrated

After my run, I joined a group of people for a Chi Running clinic, kindly organised by one of my pals from Michelle Bridges’ 12 week body transformation. So what is Chi Running I hear you ask? Well, according to Vortex Performance Sports, “the base of ChiRunning comes from one of the corner stones of T’ai Chi, the principle of ‘needle in cotton’. ChiRunning offers the chance to advance into a running method that is pain free, prevents injuries, is energy efficient and allows an efficient, economical running form that gets results. Running becomes a relaxing, enjoyable, safe and healthy sport.” So you can see why I was interested in learning more!

Our ChiRunning coach JR, is a real enthusiast for what he does. He looks like a runner and is fit. I am a bit skeptical about trying to alter the body’s natural biomechanics ,considering, perhaps wrongly, that we just run in a style that works for us. However, anything that promises to make running relaxing, enjoyable and injury free is worth a look. JR set up his video camera and filmed us jogging around the soccer pitch in our normal running style. He then demonstrated the ChiRunning techniques in incremental steps. I can’t explain them to you here, because I’m not an expert and JR does that much better.

Amazingly, when I put the techniques into practice, and went for a quick jog, it did feel easier and more relaxed. Voila! So, after a 2 hour session, JR filmed us again so that we could see the changes. Here’s the before and after video – click the link to see for yourself. After the session I tried to put all that I’d learned into practice and did a 3km jog up to where Adonis was waiting to pick me up and he said that he could see the difference. I think I’ll need lots of practice to perfect the technique but it was a well spent couple of hours.

On Sunday morning I did another 12km run, trying to remember everything I’d learned but I have to say, I felt very fatigued in my legs and only managed my usual 6:30min pace.

Now, this is where it all goes downhill / uphill fast. Adonis is a Scot so we celebrate Christmas in July each year. This means full-on Christmas dinner with turkey, ham, all the trimmings and pudding plus this year we had raspberry pavlova and a delightful 7 layer jelly petit fours contributed by our guests. Oh, and lots and lots of very outstanding wine also contributed by our guests. It was a lovely lunch / dinner at the end of which, my tummy was looking and feeling very round!

Monday, I was still too full to contemplate running so did…..nothing except finish off the leftovers :-S

Tuesday is usually my strength training day with my PT but on Tuesday and Wednesday we had an all day (8am – 4pm) power outage as our electrical switchboard had to be replaced. I had a meeting in the afternoon so needed to be showered with hair and makeup done, breakfast done and child ready for school by 8am! Hence….no exercise. BTW, the meeting was at Boon and boy did I indulge – groooooooan.

So, to make up for my over-eating and lack of exercise on Wednesday…..I bought a block of Cadbury Clinkers chocolate and ate that. Did I feel better? No! The chocolate was lovely but I swear it was infused with guilt juice as I felt awful and very annoyed with myself.

I couldn’t believe I was self-sabbotaging with only 7 weeks to go. I am very concerned about whether or not I can actually make the distance so I need to train and be consistent if I am going to actually run these 42.2kms.

I am pleased to report that on Thursday I got my lazy butt out of bed and not only did my strength training with my PT but then followed up with 15x200m hill repeats on 8 gradient! Oh yeah! It just about killed me but I was determined not to quit. I felt so pleased with myself for doing it and the adrenaline rush is so much better than the chocolate rush. OK that last bit was a lie 🙂

My lessons for week MD-7:

• Be open to new techniques. As long as they don’t do harm, they might do some good.
• Enjoy indulging every now and then but overdoing it will just make me feel ill
• A blip is not the beginning of the end but just a blip. Get back on track ASAP

This weekend I had my first 30km run planned with Marathon Man but he’s pulled his hamstring so out of action for a few weeks. Still planning a big run but you’ll have to wait until next week’s installment to hear about that one.

I love your comments and we had a great little tete a tete last week between Adonis and Amanda – hehehe. Has anyone else experienced self-sabbotage? Have you stopped exercising, eating well and then let yourself continue on the slippery slide rather than getting back on track?

Until next week…..

A non-runner’s marathon journey – MD – 8 weeks

8 weeks and a bit until MD and so far so good.

Last Sunday I went for a run with my running partner, who I will from now on refer to as Marathon Man (MM). It was nice to have his company again. Those long Sunday runs can get pretty lonely – especially since they take me 2.5-3hours. Sometimes I don’t mind running by myself because I can get into a zone and listen to my latest podcasts. I love listening to Marathon Talk because I pick up tips and it’s a real education for a non-runner like me plus the podcasts usually last for at least 1 hour. I was listening to an episode the other week as I was plodding along feeling quite pleased with myself for running 20+kms and I learned that there is a thing called an ultra marathon! There is some debate about what is classed as an ultra marathon – officially any run extending beyond 42.2km – but apparently those serious about it consider it starts at 100km. Can you imagine running 100km? There’s an ultramarathon known as Badwater “the world’s toughest foot race” – why? Well it’s a 215km course, starting in Death Valley, ending 2500m higher at Mount Whitney and it takes place mid-July when the temperatures get to around 50C!! Can you imagine? Why would anyone want to do that? But they do!

So, back to my puny little 23km run last Sunday. MM, who you may recall has just been on holidays in Europe and was jetlagged, decided that a nice hilly run was in order. Our course took us through some of Sydney’s finest suburbs – Neutral Bay, Cremorne, Mosman, Balmoral, Beauty Point, Cammeray, North Sydney, Wollstencraft, Waverton, McMahons Point, Kirribilli. Some gorgeous scenery, huge houses and lots of bloody hills. I told MM that instead of a European tour where there’s another bloody cathedral around every corner this run had another bloody hill around every corner. But, I survived. I ran up every hill apart from about 20m of one that was just too much for me. My husband (AKA Adonis) always says that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger so I’m sure my heart is now that little bit stronger since I survived the run. My iPhone app – Runmeter failed to record the whole run but MM had on his trusty Garmin GPS and said that we did the course in 2.5hrs, avg of 6:40min pace on a 4.5/5 hill run. So pretty happy with that.

In other runs this week….I conquered 30x100m hill runs at 8 gradient. Yippee! Remember I told you last week that when confronted with this challenge two weeks ago, I couldn’t face it and ended up doing x10. Well this week, I just got my head in the right place and despite the cold and rainy morning that was last Wednesday, I JFDI! It wasn’t so bad actually. I felt quite strong. My average time was 35.5 secs and my fastest was 30.1secs. I can’t believe how much easier it was compared to 2 weeks ago. Is it all mental? Could I actually be getting fitter and stronger?

Today was a short 7.3km run which took me 45:37min with an average pace of 6:15 and fastest of 4:58 – woohoo under 5mins. Earlier in the week I did 3kms at 6:00 pace and 1km at 5:15min pace on the treadmill and that felt a lot easier than today’s run. I think treadmill running is a totally different ballgame to “the real thing”. Although I’m still relatively slow, I do feel that my pace is improving albeit slowly.

So, all up quite a pleasing week – especially surviving long hill run and then hill sprints. Yay for me!

I really love your comments. Makes me feel like you’re on my cheer squad and it does motivate me to keep it up, knowing that I have a fan club awaiting my next installment ;-D

I can’t exercise…it’s raining

You go to bed with the good intentions of getting up early and getting your exercise done but when the alarm buzzes and you stare out of the window bleary eyed, you see that yes *It’s raining again*. Do you jump back into bed thinking that you’ll fit it in later (but you don’t) or just get out there and do it anyway?

Winter can be a challenging time of year for even the most disciplined exercisers. So here’s 5 tips to make sure you keep your shape under those winter woollies!

1. Take the opportunity to try something different – like pole dancing class, bikram (hot) yoga or Zumba dancing. A new indoor class will keep you warm and motivated to exercise.

2. Clear your head with the cool air – go and buy some long sleeved running gear, funky compression tights, put on a stylish scarf and get outdoors for a run. If you’ve never run in the rain, you’re missing out on an exhilarating experience! Don’t be someone who drives past people running in the rain thinking “wow, they’re dedicated” instead be the person others are saying that about.

3. Set yourself a challenge – train for the City2Surf, a Marathon or other fun run. It’s a good way to keep motivation up knowing that you are training for a specific event that will take place after the winter months.

4. Create your own indoor workout – try out one of the many new game based programs such as Nintendo Your Shape, hijack your kids skipping rope or hoola hoop or go and buy a new exercise DVD. Make exercise fun and something the whole family can join in on.

5. Watch out for winter comfort food – cook up healthy batches of soup – chicken and lentil, minestrone – just don’t add cream! Get creative with your cooking and see if you can make the old winter warmers healthier by using lots of vegetables and whole foods, wholemeal pasta etc.

Click the link below to download our recipe for Chicken Lentil Soup – yum!

Winter Warmer Chicken and Lentil Soup

We’d love to hear how you beat the winter blues so please take our poll or leave a comment!

A non-runner’s marathon journey – MD + 9 weeks

With 9 weeks and 3 days to go before Marathon Day (MD) on September 19, I’ve started to wonder…..can I really do this?

I’ve been exercising fairly consistently for about 25 years now – WOW that’s a long time! When I say consistently, I’ve been a member of gym or done a bit of slow jogging, a little cycling, some strength work but nothing major. I’ve tried to exercise at least 3x per week and apart from when I was pregnant when I really let things go, I’ve been consistent.

So, why am I now, at the age of 40 something, training to run a marathon? Good question.

It’s not like I’ve ever been a “runner”. In fact, I was the one at school sports day, hiding behind the bushes smoking cigarettes! As a friend recently pointed out – the irony of me now training for a marathon is not lost. When my trainer suggested I train for the 1/2 marathon in 2007, I thought she was crazy but that was the beginning of it. Once I’d completed that I thought to myself “well, maybe one day I’ll do a full marathon.” I mentioned in my previous blog that I’m a high achiever so to have done a 1/2 marathon felt to me like I’d only 1/2 achieved. So I suppose that’s the head answer.

There’s also the body / physical reason. I want to maintain my current weight and for me running is a good way to do that. I LOVE food and wine and could get quite unhealthy if I let myself. Luckily for me, vanity gets in the way and keeps me in check. As I’ve said before, if only I could have the life of a food critic but the body of a personal trainer. Setting myself the goal of running a marathon, meant that I would have to train hard to reach that goal. On my long run days, I burn around 1700 calories. That’s more than 1 days worth of food before I’ve even eaten. So that’s the other reason.

I’ve been quite happy plodding along at my slow old 7min/km pace. To give you an idea, a lot of “real runners” trot along a 10km distance at about 4-5min/km with many aiming for a sub 40 time (10km under 40 minutes). Last year’s winner of the Sydney marathon did it in 2hrs 17mins – that’s about 3.5mins/km!!! So I’m slow. So in order to make sure that I finish the marathon and don’t get eliminated for missing any of the designated cut-offs, I need to learn to run a bit quicker as well as building endurance. 42kms is a long way.

So, my running coach has me doing shorter, faster runs – which I don’t mind and hill runs which I detest! Today I had to do 12x200m hill runs on an 1 in 8 gradient. Gradient refers to the percentage of rise that a roadway has over a predetermined distance – oftentimes referred to as “rise-to-run”. For example, if you were to climb 8 metres in elevation (rise) over a distance of 100 meters (run), than you’ve run up an incline of 8%. I know 8% doesn’t seem like much but believe me – running it 12×200 is tough for me.

Last week, I had to run 20x100metres on 8%. It was the first time I’d been faced with hill runs and I was scared so I didn’t do it. I felt bad though so the next day, with encouragement from my PT, I hit the hill. I only managed to do it x10 but at least I gave it a go. On average it took me 35 seconds each go. At least I did it.

So today, knowing I’d only managed 10x over 100m last week, I was again dreading 12x200m today. I was just determined to give it a go. So I did a quick couple of kms warm up then hit the hill. The first one I did in 1 minute 11.7 seconds (1:11.7) which is faster than my 100m runs last week! However, after just two of these I felt sick and the voice in my head started telling me to stop. I just ignored the negative voice and listened to the positive voice saying, just keep at it, slow the pace a bit but keep doing it. I then said to myself, it’s not that I can’t do it (nothing physically stopping me) it’s that I’m choosing to quit. An epiphany! Of course I could do it. Maybe it was going to hurt and maybe it was going to take time but I was going to do. And I did! At the halfway mark, I tried to liken it to running the marathon, thinking that at 21kms I am probably going to be thinking “I can’t do it” but I’m going to try to remember today’s lesson. Unless I’m physically unable due to injury or pure exhaustion, then I can do it and I will not choose to quit.

So, 12x200m at 8% achieved today at average of 1:22.2. I did it and I will run that marathon.

A non-runner’s marathon journey – The Backstory

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine commented on my Facebook page, saying that she hopes to be a runner like me one day. Well that got me thinking because although I’m training to run my first marathon in September this year, I don’t consider myself to be a runner. To me, a runner is someone who runs easily, loves running, is built like a runner (long-limbed and lean) and thinks nothing of running 50-100km per week. That’s not me!

My running started back in 2006 when I joined a personal training studio carrying 16kgs more than I wanted – and I’m not talking about dumbbells! No that 20kg was spread all over my body. One of the goals I set with my PT was to be able to run – just put on my trainers and run 5km. So that’s where it began. in 2007, I participated in my first fun run in May – the Mother’s Day Classic (MDC) 8km, followed by the City to Surf in August and the Sydney Running Festival 1/2 marathon in September. I also lost the 16kgs.

During 2008/9, continued to run as part of my regular training sessions but only one or two slow jogs of under 10kms each week. By 2010, I’d managed to gain 10kgs so decided to get serious again about losing it. In March, I joined Michelle Bridges 12 Week Body Transformation (12WBT) because I liked the idea of training with “Australia’s favourite personal trainer”. As part of the 12 week program, I set myself some short and long terms goals, to run the MDC and City to Surf again, and to complete a marathon. So here I am with another MDC under my belt, City to Surf coming up in 3 weeks and my first marathon in only 9 weeks – aaggghhh! I’ve also lost the 10kgs again – forever this time 🙂 Read about this journey in my other blogs.

That’s the back story done, now I’m going to share my non-runner’s marathon journey with you over the next 9 weeks until Marathon Day (MD) on September 19th. I will write about my training, including stats for those interested, how I’m feeling physically, mentally and emotionally and of course the final outcome! I’m writing this blog for a few reasons:

1. As a record of my journey for me to look back on once it’s over
2. As a kind of journal to get my thoughts down in writing
3. To maybe inspire other non-runners to have a go
4. To hopefully build a community – marathon training can be a lonely past time

I need to give you a bit of history about my training to bring you up to date. Throughout April and May, I’d been averaging about 25kms per week made up of x3 8-10 km runs at a pace of around 7min /km – pretty slow. I did the MDC in 47:46 with an average pace of 6:01 so not bad. On 6th June, I did my first serious long run with a man I know through my gym who at 65, has run about 30 marathons and is still running them! He is inspirational and a great running partner – he’s away in Europe right now & I’m looking forward to having his company again soon. Anyway, I digress, my long run was 22km and took 2:45:33 with an average pace of 7:51 – again slow but hey I did 22kms! Since that run in June, I’ve continued with my x3 8-10km runs but have added one long run of around 20km each week. My average pace is now about 6:40min/km so better but still slow.

When I set myself the goal of running the marathon, I intentionally didn’t set a time goal. I just wanted to complete the distance. A lot of people say that’s a good thing to do for your first marathon because really you have no idea how you’re going to go. In fact, right now I have no idea how I’m even going to finish it, never mind worrying about a time. I’m a high achieving, goal oriented person so it’s a big thing for me not to set a time goal because I’ve looked at the times people do, I follow marathon runners and I know what a good time looks like. But, I’m going to try hard to focus on just completing it and not setting myself a time goal because if I miss it, I’ll feel I’ve failed, even if I finish the run which is crazy because it’s just setting an unnecessary target for myself.

All that said, there are cut-off times in marathons and if you miss these cut-offs then you are eliminated. Imagine how awful it would be to complete say 35kms and then miss the cut-off and be disqualified – NOOOOOOO! The overall cut-off time is 5hrs 30mins which means maintaining an average of 7:49 or better over the entire course. So, with that in mind and my desire to complete the marathon in a way that helps me to do in as little pain as possible, I decided to get a running coach. He’s developed an online program for me and I’m now into my 2nd week.

The first two weeks of my program look like this:

Mon – short run – 4km
Tue – strength work at gym
Wed – hills (YUK!)
Thu – strength work at gym
Fri – short pace run – 4x5min @ 6:00
Sat – medium run with some short sprints
Sun – long run

In my next blog, I’m going to share more about how I’m coping with the program and where my head is at.

I’d love to hear from anyone who has run a marathon, would like to run a marathon or who just wants to give me some support and encouragement.

Until next time…