Bristol Half Marathon

This weekend I completed my second-ever half marathon, completely by accident.

Well, I say by accident but I don’t think even I could absent-mindedly stumble into a race of 14,000 people completely by surprise. No, I mean it was very last-minute and totally unplanned. You see, a friend has persuaded me to join her in the Great South Run later this month, a 10 mile flat (I’m assured) course around Portsmouth’s historic docks.

I am by no means a serious runner and often need a steady push out of the door to encourage me to embark on the longer runs but I’ve been trying out some new mechanisms to help my mind switch off from the task at hand and get me enjoying the runs.

It must have worked, as the mileage has been steadily increasing – perhaps a little too much as my runners’ knee will testify – and as the Bristol Half Marathon approached I felt 2012, the year of the London Olympics and all it’s inspiration and glory, could be my year for completing a run I’ve wanted to do for well over 5 years but not had the time/inclination/motivation (delete as appropriate) until now.

Thanks to one of our clients, the charity One25 offered me the chance to run for them. The application pack lurked incongruously for a week or so, as I debated whether or not I could take on the challenge. I agreed with myself that if I could run 10 miles a week before the run, the application would be signed, sealed and delivered.

Thankfully(?) my feet didn’t fail me and carried me through a hilly, drizzly, steady jog. The sense of achievement at the end was overwhelming so before the endorphins wore off and I came to my senses I scribbled a hasty signature on the dotted line and hobbled walked to the post box to wave it goodbye.

 

Needless to say, race day was amazing. Granted, I’ve only done one half marathon before but the atmosphere was incredible (people of Bristol, you never disappoint), the race well organised – I swear the energy gels single-handedly carried me though the last 3 miles – and the course spectacular. As a born and bred Bristolian I couldn’t help but swell with pride running under the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

  I finished in the grand time of 2:10, knocking 5 minutes off of my Bath Half time and feeling utterly thrilled at my achievement with only 6 weeks or so of serious running. The less we say about my knees and hips at this point, probably the better but let’s just say I’m awfully glad I’m married to a sports therapist and am spending more time than is healthy with my foam roller.

 

For me, the real challenge of the longer distances is psychological. My body is willing but my mind resists every step of the way. Using distraction techniques, I managed to overcome this massive barrier and am once again enjoying the runs. If you too find yourself battling with your mind the whole way through, stay posted and I’ll be sharing my tips with you over the coming weeks. In the meantime, I have no time to relax.

Gotta keep this momentum up now for so I can fly (ha!) around that course and bag myself another medal to add to my growing collection.

Getting my sweat on

For the first time in a long time (since having babies?) I'm feeling properly fit. Not quite looking it yet but these things take time y'know?

Since running a half marathon last year and it pretty much killing any enjoyment I had for running (not that much actually, to be fair) the old exercise has been a bit sporadic, limited to cycling into work and the odd token jog or gym session when I could fit it in.

At the start of the summer though, Andy and I went to a fitness convention for work and something just kind of clicked, I went to a ton of lectures on nutrition and listened to the latest research, got tips on training and was just immersed in everything fitness for 2 days. I returned full of motivation and thankfully, it's still hanging around.

Rather than use time as an excuse, I'm actively making time for exercise, a novel concept. Luckily the gym I go to has a great creche so I'll go maybe once a week with the boys and for a longer session on a weekend when Andy's home. I cycle a 15 mile round trip to work twice a week and the rest of the time is either running if Andy's not on a 7am start or doing the 30-day shred.

And the running....finally I'm enjoying it. I'm doing the Great South Run in October and am back up to running for an hour, way more than I could have dreamed off 6 months ago. I love the flexibility and portability of it and am coming up with new ways to keep my mind off the whole 'God this is hard, when will it be over' thing which I've battled with in the past.

Rather than bore on about it, I'll do another post soon with the things I find help me on the longer runs. In the meantime, if any of you have any tips, tricks or advice on how to stay motivated, do share. I'm sure I'll need it soon as the training ramps up!

A round-up

I regulary read 'round up' posts on other blogs (I particularly like Abigail's) and until now thought my life was too uneventful to fill an entire post with our goings-on Chez Sherlock.

Well, after having a quick flick through my photos (turns out I'm pretty snap-happy since getting my new iPhone) it looks like our actually-quite-busy-after-all life is enough to fill a post. So, according to my phone, here was our week...

Got me some new specs (I can seeee!)

I met with a very lovely friend last week for her birthday and we shared an amazing (and very posh) afternoon tea at Harvey Nichols. It's rare that I get the chance to go out without the kids and be, you know, me again so as her birthday coincided with a work day I decided it'd be rude not to accompany her whilst the kids were in nursery. We had a selection of mini-rolls, fresh (and warm) scones with clotted cream and jam and various treat-sized cakes. If I was rich, I'd do this every week.

Friday was a snow-day. So, the amount of the white stuff was pretty pathetic here but we used it as an excuse to have a duvet day. For the first time EVER, we stayed in our jammies til lunchtime and crawled back into bed after breakfast armed with blankets and DVDs. The kiddos were both feverish so we snoozed and lazed the morning away. So cosy.

Saturday night was a homemade-pizza-and-wine kinda evening. Since attempting a homemade pizza a few years back I can never enjoy a shop-bought one again. It's so easy to make and I literally just chuck whatever I have to hand on top of it. This night it was chorizo, mushrooms, olives and peppers. Amaze.

Sunday, I got my running Mojo back. Since running the Bath Half Marathon last year I've completely lost all enthusiasm for running and have been trying (and failing) to get back into it since the summer. I hit the treadmill, just to test the waters, expecting to do 15-20 minutes but found myself carrying on for 4 miles. 4 MILES! It took 41 minutes and I was chuffed to bits since I'd not run for 3 months or so. I could barely walk for 2 days afterwards but that's besides the point, right?

The lovey Kimberlee invited us to celebrate her gorgeous son Henry's first birthday over the weekend. It was at a soft play centre and was manic to say the least with crazed kids, eyes glazed over shooting around the place but the boys loved it. Little Henry seemed to enjoy himself too with a huge pile of prezzies to work his way through at the end.

There are a few people I regularly talk to on Twitter and Kimberlee is one of them. Abigail and Jo were there too and it's lovely to put faces to Tweeters. I'm still quite new to Twitter but love how it's bringing me together with such great people and starting you give me (and the boys) a busier social life. Oh, and I can't mention the party without giving credit to the cake. Kimberlee runs a baking business and that lady has serious talent. Henry celebrated with an amazing chocolatey triple-decker creation and thanks to the run I enjoyed it guilt-free. The best way.

I would walk 500 miles

I read today that 60% of us make a resolution to lose weight in the new year. I'm not usually one of those, I try to keep active throughout the year and am lucky that my shape remains pretty constant.

This year however, I have a goal. My brother is getting married in Barcelona this summer and it will involve an (eek!) pool party. I've not squished myself into a bikini since my honeymoon. 7 Years older and 2 children later I'm not exactly confident about prancing around in a two-piece without a bit of, um, sculpting going on.

I listed my aims for the year earlier this week and included a goal to be more active with this in mind. Joanna had a fabulous idea of setting herself a set mileage each day to run, or walk if that's not possible.

I love this idea and it would be brilliant if I could run each day but, with a husband who is away from 6am-10pm each day and no childcare (bar an expensive creche at the gym which is rationed to once a week) I don't think I'd manage.

Getting into running in the last year and long walks with this guy...

...have made me appreciate how rewarding exercising outdoors can be. If 8 years previously working as a personal trainer taught me anything it's that the most successful people in terms of inch-loss and exercise adherence are those who do something they enjoy.

I walk roughly 4 miles a day at the moment to let off the endless labrador-energy harnessed by the above hound. It's easy, cheap and I can take the kids along too. This is fine to keep things ticking over but the time has come to up the ante and shift the last stubborn inches clinging on for dear life.

So, I've set myself a (rather ambitious) challenge of covering 50 miles a week which I can walk, run, cycle or swim to achieve.  It sounds alot now as I'm typing it but with the walks, cycling to work and some runs and swims thrown in, I think I can do it. It'll be a challenge but that's the point, right?

So, picturing myself lounging around the pool in the Spanish sunshine, sipping chilled champagne, I embark on this challenge. 16 Miles covered so far this week I have some catching up to do but am confident I can do it. Anyone want to have a go too?