Race Day is upon us…

The weekend has finally arrived – the moment I have been training for, for the last 16 weeks, is here. OHMAGAWD. Arnie and I are off on our adventure today as we take the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) down to Kobe. This weeks training has been fairly non existence, tapering – your awesome, I have only completed two 6km plods and a 5km race (22mins, PB hell yeah). This week I have also come down with a cold – and Arnie is just getting over one also, yes we are a lovely sickly bunch, so I have been hitting bed around 9pm and banning my man from coming in late with the Ipad – seriously cannot sleep with that blaring light illuminating the room, anybody hear me?

I am so super pumped for this weekend, every time I think about the finish line I get nervy tummy. It’s such an amazing feeling to have worked so hard towards something, and that moment has (almost) arrived. I have a goal time I want to smash, but at the end of the day just finishing the bloody 42.2km is a big enough goal for me.

15 months ago, If somebody said to me that I would be running 2 marathons in a year, I would literally die with laughter, that shit cray – but I guess that just proves that anything is possible.

I know I have said many times before that anybody can be a runner, but I feel like I cannot preach this enough. Set a goal, train hard, and prove to yourself (and to all your haters) you can do it.

There has been many times throughout the past 16 weeks, where I would stop and think “why, oh why did I sign up for this?” but there has been even more times where I would finish a strong run and think “F-yeah, I feel bloody amazing!”. There are always going to be pros and cons to training; early morning starts, not drinking on the weekends, people calling you “obsessed”, buuuut to me, the pros of feeling such achievement and being proud of yourself far outweigh the cons. When was the last time you felt proud of yourself? Honestly, just think. Can you specifically think of a time where you thought you were the bees knees?! No, its not self righteous to feel this way – I am not saying you have to think you are the boss, but to have felt the feeling of really proving you are stronger than you think you are, is pretty awesome.

I’m hoping race day will go a little something like this: Wake up and fuel up, smash an awesome run feeling good the whole way and as a result get a good time, home to relax and refuel, then out for dinner with a great bunch of friends and a few well deserved bevies. That would be the ultimate. But as we all know, things don’t usually run that smoothly – keep an eye out for next weeks blog if you want to see how things went..

The rewards WILL come…

I have been thinking about whether or not I would write another post. When I started writing a couple of months ago, I was really pumped up about running and writing about it got me excited. But, as the months drew on, and the novelty of training wore off, blogging about my experiences seem, well, boring.

But somehow it is now only 3 weeks until the Marathon. Arnie and I have stuck to our training to a tee. Apart from one week I had off due to an injury with my ITB/Knee (still unsure what it is – but rest and stretching seemed to help). For a while there, we were running really slow. And I mean SLOW. We were powering through the Japanese Summer and running in temperatures up to the mid thirties – we didn’t care what pace we were at, just as long as we were ticking off the miles. As the temperature began to drop, we naturally thought we would get faster – but yea well, we didn’t. It was quite worrying when we felt like our lungs were blowing and we were only running a 5:45/km pace.

After introducing some sprint training on the treadmill, along with our trusty HIIT workouts – the longer endurance runs did become faster. It all seemed to click into place a couple of weeks ago when we started out on our 16km run. Neither of us said to one another that we would pick up the pace, but our bodies must have been in sync as before we knew it we felt frickn amazing and like we were gliding along no problems. Same thing happened this week also, and we ended up completing the 16km in 1:20mins which is an average of 5min/km. Yeah, pretty stoked with that improvement.

It just goes to show that you must have faith in your training program – you may go for runs and feel slow, or you may have to walk some of the way, but its the hard yards you put in earlier on that will reward you when the time is right. With only 3 weeks to go, Arnie and I are feeling bloody good about the distance and our speed – and it’s now about looking after our body and tapering down so we are feeling fresh on race day.

Problem is – yesterday I was sprinting on the treadmill (level 18) and I felt my knee pop again. SHIIIIT. So I have been icing it, taking anti inflammatories, strapping it, and although I feel gutted, and guilty, I have decided to stop running for 3 days and hopefully that clears up the issue. I just need to take peace in knowing that I have done the work and trained my butt off – and a few days rest can’t hurt.

Don’t get discouraged if your times aren’t improving, or if you can’t extend your distance like you thought you could – just keep chugging along, and when you least expect it, your body will kick it up a notch and you will feel awesome. Too many times people start running, and then let the habit die out before really seeing what their body can do. ANYBODY can run. YOU can run a MARATHON. Sign up NOW – go online, and find a race in your area in 2014, make sure you have 4-5 months up your sleeve, and just COMMIT. If I can do it, so can YOU.

Pushing through the tough times

I’m sure at some point, you have all experienced the amazing feeling of loving your workouts. You wake up excited to hit the road and pound the pavement, or get into the gym and smash out the weights. When you have this momentum and motivation – nothing can stop you. That is, until you find yourself slipping into a dark hole where the thought of sweating makes you feel sick.

I am currently at week 10 of a 16 week Marathon training program, and it is about now where the excitement has finally worn off, the runs are getting longer, and my motivation is at an all time low. This probably isn’t helped by my constant niggley knee that gives me grief after ever run, followed by a day or so of limping around.

My parents came over to visit last week, so while I was being the ultimate tour guide (If I do say so myself), my training did slack off – I decided I would have a bit of a “rest week”. No, it wasn’t in my program, but mentally (and physically) I knew I needed a break. It’s important in times like these to listen to your body. I could have pushed on and kept running, but the state of my ITB was already in pieces, and I probably would have done some serious damage.

This week I felt more ‘fresh’. I was excited to pump out 29km with Arnie on Monday. We ran and yarned the whole way as we do, but the last 5km home was still a bit of a struggle. On Thursday we had 18km scheduled. I woke up with a gut feeling of “I cannot do this”. For some reason, although 18km should have been a breeze being 11km less than my previous run – it felt so scary and I was confronted with one hell of a mental block. I pulled pin on Arnie, and the trooper she is, she went out and smashed it anyway. I went to the gym and managed to run 11km on the treadmill (never again, boring as F!) followed by some weight training.

On Friday, we did an awesome HIIT session in then gym. Check out what we did on A Teaspoon Of Honeys Page. This got my blood pumping and my lungs burning. It was refreshing – it was exactly what I needed.

This Monday we face our longest training run, 32km, and I am pumped for it. Sometimes you need to go through the lows to come out even stronger. I am now determined to crush the next 6 weeks training in order to give myself the best shot of a great Marathon time.

If you feel you are lacking motivation, and not giving it your all – don’t beat yourself up. Take a few days out, give your mind and your body a break, and you’ll come back even more fizzed up than when you started. Its easy to lose sight of the the end goal, especially if it is months away – but remember, slow progress is still progress – so keep going, push through the tough times and you will reap the rewards at the other end.

Look in the Mirror… That is Your Competition

Setting a goal of running 5, 10 or 20km and achieving it, is a bloody good effort, and you should be stoked – but did you take any notice of how long it took? 

No matter what your fitness level, your “goal distance” is always going to feel like a huge feat – but don’t use that as an excuse not to push hard.

When setting off on your 10km run, you know it will be testing times. Most people will tend to “conserve energy” by running at a safe pace until they know they are in the clear and only have a couple of Kms left – then they speed up and finish strong. Why not have this attitude and go out hard from the start? If that seems too much, then at least push yourself by going hard in the middle of your run.

A few days ago, Arnie (a teaspoon of honey) and I had 16km to run. As we are currently training for a Marathon, and completed 27km this morning – 16km is more of a “fun run” for us, yes that makes us very weird. Usually, we plod along talking the whole way, but at about 7km in, I felt the need for speed – must of been that brown sugar on my breaky kicking in. Without saying anything to Arnie (as I had the power.. or wearing the Garmin Watch should I say), I decided to up the ante from around 5.40min/km to 5.05min/km. We managed to hold this for a solid 5kms before easing back on the last 4km to take us home (although we still finished stronger than when we started). Total time for 16km was 1hr 25min.

Keeping an eye on your speed is a great way to motivate yourself. My Sister has recently started running, and had set herself a goal to run 5km nonstop. Within 3 weeks she had achieved this, and only a few days later she had knocked 4minutes off her original time. Its one thing to be able to run the distance, but its another to be able to zip through it.

Next time you go out for a run, time yourself and write it down. A few days later, run the same course but go harder, even just for 1km; really exert yourself and get those lungs pumping. You will feel so proud when you compare your times and realize how easy it is to go faster. Don’t get caught up in “conserving energy”, as long you had a good pre run meal, you will have enough substance to carry you through.

Theres nothing like that feeling of being proud of yourself. It doesn’t matter if your 5km is faster or slower than anyone else’s – as long as you are making improvements!!

HIIT It… HIIT It goood…

Ahh nothing like a good old HIIT session to end the week. For those of you who don’t know what HIIT is – have you been hiding under a rock?! Heeellllooo? No, I am not trying to make you feel stupid – but HIIT aka High Intensity Interval Training is THE best training method (in my opinion). HIIT workouts, as its name suggest, are fast, and furious. HIIT gets you so sweaty and your lungs pumping in such a short time, like no other exercise out there.

This weekend, Arnie and I did 30 minutes freestyling on the treadmill. As our road runs usually consist of long distances on fairly flat and mundane roads, one treadmill work out per week is just what the Doctor ordered.

I started with a 1km warm up Level 10 (always on incline 1 as this mimics the road), then I moved into a fast 1km at Level 14, onto hill work for 1km at Level 9.5 Incline 8, next up was sprints – Level 16, back to Incline 1 30secs on 30 secs off (by using hand rails and hoping onto side of treadmill, then back on again). I continued to do this for 7 or 8 minutes, which then I finished with 1km at my standard pace on Level 12.

These speeds work for ME. I don’t suggest you follow them as they may be too fast, OR too slow for you. Just hop on the treadmill and play around with the levels until you get a feel for them. Your warm up should be relatively easy, but not a walk in the park. Your fast km should make you out of breath and unable to talk, hill run should be at a slower pace as it is difficult to run up hill (my hardest km), your sprints should be faster than your fast run, you should be sprinting your heart out (while still able to jump on and off), and then finish with your comfortable pace or a warm down.

Looking like we had both just taken a shower fully clothed, we proceeded to do a mini CrossFit HIIT workout we made up a while back. 10x Thrusters @ 20kg, 10x CrossFit Burpees and 25x Lunge/Squat/Lunge Combo – x 4 sets.

We did this simultaneously without any rest; as soon as you finish Thrusters, bar down and straight into Burpees, then straight into Combo. No set time for resting before beginning all over again, although we allowed ourself to wipe our face with sweat towels and have a sip of water. This is a bloody intense workout, but only took 20minutes.

50minutes later, we walked out of the gym having smashed it on the treadmill, and with the weights, and now feeling a million bucks. Nothing compares to that feeling. Remember: Wake up with Determination, Go to bed with Satisfaction.

Run all you like.. but don’t forget about your Diet

As hard as I train, I am a self confessed shocker with what I eat. Ok, Im not that bad, but I have one hell of a sweet tooth. For majority of the day, I eat pretty healthy; Oats & Fruit for Breakfast, Chicken, Veges and brown Rice for Lunch, and an Omelette for Dinner (along with snacks ie. yoghurt, nuts, protein shake) – but it’s those late night cravings that bring all my hard work crashing down.

I can easily smash back a pack of biscuits followed by a chocolate bar in 20 minutes, and still want more! I am slowly getting better, and may only slip up 1-2 times per week now – but I know that as hard as I train, I won’t see results unless I eat clean.

It can be really disheartening if you get your sweat on 4 times per week, but still aren’t seeing results. Ask yourself this; are you really eating clean? You can’t get away with eating well during the week and blowing out with alcohol and fast food in the weekends – unfortunately it just doesn’t work like that. Not to say you can’t still enjoy a bevvy after a tough week, but the key is everything in moderation.

Try and allow yourself one “cheat meal” per week, whether that is dessert one night a week, Chocolate for the movies, or a very indulgent Pizza/Pasta. Treat this meal as your reward for all your hard work – as you should only have one a week, you will really start to appreciate it and look forward to your treat, rather eating junk out of habit. I should really listen to my own advice.

Working out is the easy part. But it takes real motivation and self-discipline to say no to that piece of Cake at work, or to that extra glass of red Wine. We have all heard it before; but weight loss and change in physique comes down to 30% exercise and 70% diet. Just 3 days eating clean, and you will start to notice your tummy is flatter, your skin looks better and you will have more energy than ever.

Quick tip; if you think you are hungry and craving something ‘naughty’ have a BIG drink of Water, usually we mistake hunger for thirst – if after 15 minutes you are still hungry, then make a healthy choice. This is my favourite quote below, I always think of this when the thought of Chocolate takes control.

Fail to Prepare – Prepare to Fail

Its always good to prepare for your run the day before – getting lots of water on board and making good food decisions. This is especially important if you are running for longer than an hour.

There are always those times where you don’t prepare – maybe its a spur of the moment run, or a Sunday afternoon run to cure a hangover. If you run for less than an hour your body can adjust and handle it, but if you plan to tackle a long distance without any thought then you might end up on the Highway to Hell a’la me last week. After trial and error, now I really understand the importance of the following tips. Follow them next time you go out, and see if they make a difference to your performance;

• Water

The day before your run, make sure you drink 2-3 Litres of water, and the morning of, consume at least a further litre. This is crucial if you are facing high temperatures.

• Food

Fuel your body the day before with healthy nourishing foods like protein, vegetables and carbohydrates. Stay away from high processed sugary foods that will only leave you feeling dehydrated and sluggish. A high calorie breakfast is also a must, to ensure you have enough energy to carry you throughout. A favourite pre run breakfast of mine is ½ cup of oats, milk, yoghurt, berries and a banana.

• Clothing

Make sure you wear comfortable clothing as the last thing you need is chafing or ‘pants up crack’ driving you insane. Shorts may be OK for 5km, but opt for spandex, a comfortable sports bra and proper running socks. Always make sure you wear a cap to protect your face from the Sun as well, no body likes premature aging. Its also a good idea to have a pocket handy to keep some money in there to buy water, and also a sports gel or a few lollies for energy.

• Motivation

Before you head out on your run, try and get into a good mindset. There is nothing worse than dreading the inevitable and feeling negative about it. Try watching a few of these youtube clips below and talk yourself into feeling good. Mind Over Matter. All these videos give me goosebumps – so if there is anything you take away from reading this, you must watch the below!!

Welcome to the Grind

My Redeemer Lives – Dick & Rick Hoyt

No Excuses 

I’m on the Hiiiighwaaaay to Helllll…

As we approached week 4 of our training schedule, we found ourselves facing a 24km run –you can already see where this is going right?! Unlike most weeks before our long run, we decided to get ourselves pumped up and excited, instead of dreading it. We met at our usual spot at 8am ready to go with the gorgeous sun out in full force. Arnie and I hadn’t run together in 3 weeks due to her visiting New Zealand, so It was great to get back into our old routine. We had actually both taken pre-workouts, which is basically a powder you mix with water to “pump” you up and give you that extra motivation and desire to go 100%.

We began winding our way through unknown roads, we didn’t really care where we were running as long as we were ticking up the kms. After 5km, sweat was pouring off us, so we stripped down to our sports bras and tucked our singlets into our shorts. We chugged along, talking away and although it was painfully hot, it didn’t seem too bad – that is until we hit the 15km mark. I had a really unsettled tummy (from the pre workout no doubt), and my mouth was getting dryer by the second, so when we were running under a bridge, I took the opportunity for shade and told Arnie to carry on as I needed a moments rest. I threw my Ipod in and started up again with Arnie about 200m in the distance, there wasn’t a hope in hell I would catch her, so at this stage we were on our own.

We were (separately) making our way towards a Sports ground, which we new had toilets and water fountains – there is a god. I was only 5 minutes away but that felt like a lifetime, so I ran into a Combini (Convenience Store) and did my trick from last week; cupping my hands and drinking from the toilet basin, you stay classy San Diego. By now, I was a good kilometer behind Arnie, but my goal was just to make it home alive! I approached the toilets and after washing the sweat off my face in the basin and after another drink, I actually started gagging and could not hold back a good old chuck. At this point, I figured I was about 5km from home, and although I wanted to slink down on the bathroom floor and give up, I had to get home somehow. I started running again and giving myself points in the distance to run too “If I can run to the traffic lights, then I can walk for 2 minutes” etc. Any water I had previously taken on had gone, and once again my mouth was like the Saraha Desert, my calves were also tightening and my muscles felt dehydrated. I could no longer run. I was walking across a 200m bridge and at one point I sat on the sidewalk and created a story in my head about how Ash was going to drive past me and pick me up– yeah, that never happened, cheers Ash. I kept on walking, surely only about 2km to go I thought. Every time somebody biked past me, I found myself trying to use my X-ray vision to look inside their bag for a bottle of water. I swear, at this point I was delusional, and have I mentioned it was 36 degrees and “felt” like 41??

I found myself slumped over at the traffic lights, when I made eye contact with a girl on a bike who smiled at me – ahh this was my chance! “Sumimasen. 100yen ga keshimasu ka?” – blank stare – Shit, this isn’t working, points to mouth with tongue out “Mizu, Mizu” (water, water). Ahh universal sign/body language, I love you. She bikes along side me leading me to water (yet we bike past 8 vending machines, c’mon I’m dying here!!) and takes me down into a supermarket where she buys me a water and says to me “prezento”. I thank her 100 times, before making my way only a mere 500m home. I walk inside and literally collapse onto the floor and ask Ash to bring me water, “how was it? You alright?” he said, stare of death “Do I look alright???”.

After a good amount of time, and a verrrry long shower, Arnie gives me a call and a run down on how things went for her. I was imagining she just went trotting off like a pony with no issues at all – which is why when she told me her version of events, I felt a whole lot better.

Arnie was going OK until about 4km to go, thats when her knees started giving her grief and it was a real grind to keep putting one foot in front of another. With less than 1km, she felt the sudden urge to go to the toilet, luckily there are Combini’s on every corner round here. I’ll set the scene by mentioning Arnie has had a tummy bug for the last week, which is why its hard to control those sudden oncomings, TMI wasn’t it? So she burst into the cubicle, dropped her shorts, and felt relieved to be on the loo – now remember earlier I told you we had tucked our tops into the back of our shorts.? As she went to flush, the toilet bowl was bright pink/red and she thought “Shizer I’ve really blown my boiler here”, only to take a closer look to see it was her singlet covered in.. yup.. you guessed it. So my old mate had to fish her top out, give it a rinse and then run home with it. At this stage she was on the brink of tears, but thought “I have to find Em”. She got a bottle of water, and off she went on her bike looking for me – If thats not a great mate I don’t know what is?! Later I get a text saying “to really rub it in, I washed my Ipod with my shitty top and now it doesn’t turn on”.

I think its safe to say, there was fun had by everyone! Bring on next weeks 25km! Naaaaaht. Oh yeah, and what I thought I was asking in Japanese was “can I please borrow 100yen” turns out I said “excuse me, 100 yen erase?”, god loves a trier. 

Do It For You

There are always going to be times in your life when you get super busy – It may only be for one week, it may be for one month – but why is it that exercise always seems to be the first thing to drop off the to-do list, even though its one of the most important things we can do for ourselves?

Too many times, I hear my friends and family vow to get in shape, and I get really excited and encourage them to go hard – yet weeks later when I check in with them, the same old excuse comes out “work is so busy at the moment” “I have an assignment due” “Its soooo cold outside”. I get it. Life is tough. But not only is exercise crucial for our physical health, our mental health will hugely benefit too, along with our confidence and our sense of self achievement.

So come on people! Its time to suck it up and realize exercise is not something you can just do for a couple of weeks and then be done with it. Its about creating lifetime habits. I can honestly vouch for the 21 day make/break a habit theory. If you promise yourself to start running – make sure you stick with it longer than 3 weeks, the struggle should lessen and it wont seem like such a feat to get your sweat on.

Learn to treat exercise as “me time”. After a hard day at the office, I know the couch and TV are tempting – but putting your Ipod on with some pumping music is a great way to lift your mood, and if you head to the gym or out for a run, you can really smash your daily frustrations out and use that time to think about whatever you want – with no interruptions.

I had a super busy week this week – which is why you haven’t heard from me. But I refused to let my running take the brunt of it. I still managed to do a 20km, a 6km and 2 CrossFit gym workouts. So why don’t you make a goal right now, go on, get out a pen and paper (because if you write it down, it is that much more achievable). Be specific with what you want to do, 3 x runs a week, 4 x gym sessions, 2 x swims etc and then COMMIT to it. Do it for you. So next Sunday you can look back on your week, and think F*#K yeah, I did it.

WARNING: Do not eat a jar of Nutella for dinner the night before you run a Half Marathon..

Fact: You will have no energy and it will be the worse run of you life. I am living proof. As Ash is away for the week with work, my alto ego kicks in and I live life on the wild side. I felt like being a badass yesterday, so my diet consisted of French toast with maple syrup, followed by a chocolate donut, a peach for good measure, aannnnd an entire jar of Nutella. Yes, I was feeling sick about ¾ of the way through the jar – but I’ve said it before, I am not a quitter! So I kept spooning it back until it was all gone. Mission complete. I actually worked my way into a Nutella Coma and crashed out on the couch for a solid 2 hours. But it was oh, so worth it.

Now I didn’t decide to run 21.2km to punish myself, and I didn’t do it for fun, are you crazy? I ran the equivalent of a Half Marathon because my training programme told me to. I felt pretty good this morning, and after eating my porridge and banana for breakfast, I was pumped to go, kidding – bloody dreading it actually. I always run the long runs on Mondays to get it out of the way, and fortunately for Arnie and I, we have had a good run (excuse the pun) with the weather – usually cloudy and raining at some point – perfect to cool the body down. Now since Arnie has returned back to New Zealand for a holiday for 3 weeks, I have to really dig deep for motivation to ensure I don’t skip any trainings.

Do you think I had good weather today for my lonesome run? Hell yes I did – that’s if you want to lie by the pool and bake. Thats right. 32Degrees (celcius)!!! That is hot people!! After about 13km down, my mind started playing tricks on me “just stop, go home, you have done well to get this far, know one will no”. My knee was playing up, my mouth was like the Saraha Desert, and there was not a cloud in the sky. To say I was tempted to stop in an understatement – I thought about it every 3 seconds. But I had to live by my mantra, “It doesn’t matter how slow you go, never stop running”. So I chugged along, make that shuffled along, hallucinating about water and with 3 km to go, I almost stopped and sat on the footpath. Then I saw a convenience store – ahh my savour! As I was only meters from the bathroom, a sneaky Japanese lady popped out from nowhere and snuck in. Thank F*#K there was a wee hand basin outside the toilet, so I cupped my hands and drank, no doubt, contaminated radioactive water – but shit it was the goods.

With that wee surge of energy I made my way home, skulled back a 2 litre bottle of water and collapsed on the floor. Moral of the storey? I know it is ridiculous to be running that far in the heat, but I am actually quite used to the heat now – the issue was, my energy stores were completely depleted, I had not eaten well the day before and I paid for it. It really is important to be fuelling your body with the right food – how can you expect it to perform for you when you feed it junk. I vow to never make that same mistake again, and as of today, chicken, veggies and brown rice for me!