I’ve not blogged for a while and my training feels like it’s taken a bit of a nose-dive.
It’s been over 3 weeks since the 10Km race and although I have run a half marathon since then, the rest of my training has been a bit bleak. To round off January things looked like this:
- 28th – 50 minute walk
- 29th – Arms and Abs workout at home
- 30th – 90 minute Bikram class
- 31st – 4.85Km run in 30.18
This means that for January I completed 5 XT sessions, 9 home circuit workouts, 12 yoga classes and 8 runs totalling 75.63Km which is a great effort. I feel really pleased with that.
I went with my friend Lucy to the yoga class on 30th over at the Bikram studio in London Bridge. We took the class of a wonderful teacher whose retreat we will both be going on in July. I am very excited to be returning to this particular retreat. I went for a few years in a row and then had a couple of years off as I experimented with other retreats and non-yoga holidays. Just 5 months to go!
Then on February 1st I went to a Bikram class at another studio to see another one of my favourite teachers and to test out the studio she teaches at as I am thinking of moving my practice to somewhere that is fresh, clean, positive and has a more yogic ethos than the studio I currently practice at.
I have felt for a while that my studio is going into disrepair and no longer meets my needs so I am studio shopping! To do so I picked up a free 4 week Class Pass account that allows me to use a range of studios to test them out. It’s a great way to get a chance to have a look around at what is available.
When I got back from that class though I was utterly shattered. Like utterly and completely. I think this was the start of me getting unwell, I got a terrible cold.
I didn’t work out on 2nd or 3rd as I was travelling to France on 3rd for work and had stuff to get done before I travelled, but I did plan on squeezing some exercise in while I was away. This trip in particular always turns out to be quite boozy and exercise gets written off, so I would really need to tap into some willpower to make health and fitness my priority.
On the morning of 4th I was planning on running along the promenade in Nice but when we got to the hotel on the evening of 3rd the kitchen was shut and so I went to bed hungry and still feeling a little poorly. The next morning I had breakfast first thing and decided to do an arm and cardio workout in my room afterwards; before travelling to our next venue.
I managed to avoid heavy drinking over the next few days which meant I was able to get myself to the gym for a run on the Tuesday evening. I only went and got a 5Km PB for the last 12 months or so!
29 minutes and 1 second. Whoop!
The training I did throughout the month of January has clearly helped and it made me realise I could do with getting to the gym for some interval training to slice a few more minutes off this time. I actually could have done this quicker if I had given it a bit of thought.
On the morning of 10th I drove down to Worthing, a 90 minute drive, for a 9am half marathon start time. I ran with Steve and the course was flat, along the seafront. I think the first 8Km were pretty easy and I had thought I’d definitely cut quite a bit of time off races of that distance last year or the year before as I had trained pretty well this time. But, I really struggled. Around the 13Km point I had to insist on some walking and over the next 5Km we would run a few hundred metres the walk a little bit, over and over.
We completed the race in 2 hours 27 minutes and 39 seconds.
This is 3 minutes 16 seconds faster than the fastest half marathon since I started this blog in January 2017. That one was in September 2017. So a definite improvement, but I really thought I would come in nearer to the 2 hour 20 mark. I guess it’s just something to keep aiming for.
Since the half though I have done almost NOTHING. I have lost all my motivation and felt poorly on and off with headaches and fatigue and the day I was going to workout staying at a hotel with work, I forgot my trainers.
So in the last 10 days I have done some sun salutations on two occasions and that is it. I just have been super lazy and I haven’t drawn myself up a plan and you know how I need one of those!
Yesterday I listened to the Deliciously Ella podcast and they had a psychotherapist called Shahroo Izadi on the show who said many brilliant things, so I very much recommend listening to it.
There was one particular statement she made that I really liked in which she was talking about relapses in addiction, she said a relapse is when the behaviour resorts to how it was before or worse. Lapses however, are just little short periods where things aren’t going to plan and it is how you respond to the lapse that either leads turning things back around or relapsing completely. So this is just a lapse, 10 days without hot yoga or running isn’t too long to not turn it around.
So, I booked myself into a restorative yoga class in my lunch break yesterday and in the hour class we did 4 postures, so it was super chilled out. I know it is hardly getting back into intensive workouts but I think that just to start is the best thing, and this felt very self-caring and gentle way to begin.
Last night I planned my exercise for the rest of the week and next week too, so I can feel more in touch with my objectives and how I will meet them.
Taking action to turn this lapse around feels good.
I have just taken a moment to read back over what I have written and as I did I thought of something else Shahroo said on this podcast, about being your own biggest supporter. To encourage and support yourself like you would if you talking to your best friend.
I realise that when I wrote about the half marathon I didn’t say that this was a distance PB since starting this blog. I said the time, that it was 3 minutes 19 seconds faster than my best in the last few years, but importantly I then dismissed it as not as good as I wanted it to be and that I could do better. I took no time to celebrate my success or that I ran a PB. So, I am just taking this moment to edit myself and say; I did good!
It is amazing how our thoughts and the words we use have such an impact an so I am going to really try and follow the guidance from this podcast. As I said, well worth a listen!
This morning I managed to run 5Km. It felt a bit tough and I walked a bit in the middle so it took 32:40, but it feels great that I did it. I’ve also booked a 60 minute prana flow yoga class tonight. Getting into the weekend with the right mindset feels good.
