Miles this week: 0
Still
to go: £1,143.00
Well,
happy 2014 to you all!! So how many New Year’s resolutions did you guys set? More
importantly, how many have you already broken?! And to think we’re only five
days in...
So
I think 2014 will be a pretty physically draining year for me, what with two
marathons confirmed (London and Edinburgh) and one waiting to hear back on (New
York). I am also looking to take part in the London Duathlon. A Duathlon is a
run-bike-run event, and this particular one has five different categories you
can enter (Classic, Classic relay, Sprint, Super sprint and Ultra). I still
haven’t decided which one I want to enter yet, but I’m toying with the idea of
doing either Classic or Ultra. The Classic would see me run for 10km, then
cycle for 44km, with a final run of 5km. The Ultra would have me start with a
20km run, followed by a 77km cycle and end with a 10km run. Both will pose a
challenge to me, but I think I will get greater satisfaction from the Ultra.
Either way, I hope to book my
place by the end of the coming week!
This
week I went back to the Doctors regarding my foot/ankle. It turns out there’s
pretty much nothing more that can be done, other than to send me for some physical
therapy. At this stage I’m willing to try anything, and I’m waiting to be
contacted for an appointment. All is not bad as my injury is actually feeling slightly
better (touch wood) this week, though I’ve been getting my road bike ready to
take out so that I can make up the miles by cycling, for now. I know it’s
obviously not as beneficial for marathon training as running, but surely gaining
miles any way that I can is a plus?!
I
have also spent time working out how many pots I will need for my aloe vera
plants. I will shortly be potting these up and will be selling them in order to
raise some much needed sponsorship money. Aloe vera plants are really useful to
have sitting around in the kitchen, especially if you’re a little accident
prone! They provide excellent relief for burns…! They’re also really simple to
look after; in fact I couldn’t even kill the first plant we had… And believe me,
I couldn’t have tried any harder. Last year I had four or five plants from the
original, and was able to then pot up over twenty five! I kept five of the
bigger ones and gave the rest away. Now I’ve got around thirty seven of the
plants to pot up, not including the original five. So I decided I would pot
these up, make sure they have rooted out, and then sell them at work/car boot
for £2.00 each! Hopefully that’ll make a cool £74.00 for Sense! If you would
like one, let me know now and I’ll keep one aside.
So
week two of the book talks more about mental preparation and the importance of
a positive attitude. It says that to maintain a positive attitude about
training and running, it is necessary to develop a positive attitude about life
in general. It goes into more depth, saying it is impossible to be positive
about training while being negative about most other aspects of your life.
Now nothing is impossible!
See what I did there, PMA (positive mental attitude)
To
develop this kind of attitude (if you don’t have it already), it’s important to
begin using a particular phrase whenever you catch yourself saying or thinking something
negative… The phrase is (as if you clever guys can’t work it out from the title
of this blog) “but it doesn’t matter”. Maybe if you’ve failed a New Year’s
resolution already this kind of thinking may help you get back on track!
In
terms of the training, my schedule has been upped by one mile on the long run,
giving me a total of 16 miles this week.
Day
1 = 3 miles
Day
2 = 4 miles
Day
3 = 3 miles
Day
4 = 6 miles.
The
book also discussed running form, which was split up into two sections, ‘lower
body’ and upper body’. Starting to get technical now, hay! But in summary, things
important to remember for the lower body are footstrikes (marathon runners
should be heel-first or at least flat-foot), and the amount of vertical bounce (bounce
is bad as it wastes energy). Factors to consider with upper body are body
position (you should have a slight forward lean) and what your arms should be
doing (they should swing slightly across the body as opposed to directly forward
and back like Forrest Gump. They should also be relaxed at a 90 -120 degree bend
at the elbow. This is all to help the muscles in the shoulder and neck stay
relaxed, as too much tension increases fatigue during long runs).
Another
topic it covers in this chapter is breathing. Yer, sounds pretty stupid doesn’t
it, seeing as its pretty much an automatic thing. However it goes on to say
that most runners prefer to breathe with a 2:2 breathing pattern. A 2:2 means
to breathe in for two strides, then out for two strides - it’s been so long
since I last ran that I have no idea if I use this technic at all! But if I
don’t, I will be sure to give it a whirl when I’m next out, come rain or shine.
Please be sure to sponsor me, even if
it’s just £1. Everything helps!
Here’s to a
fantastic 2014
Leigh
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