THE END OF THE BEGINNING

This week is my LAST WEEK of the walk/run program which is so crazy and exciting but also scary. This is big running for me, I have a 20 minute run this afternoon, followed by a 25 minute and a 30 minute one later in the week. The longest I've ever run so far has been 11 minutes WHICH WAS SO HARD. Positive thinking, I can totally do this.

This was the week of the gym because I just didn't feel super like running that much, so I only did two runs last week instead of the three I was supposed to. Both were short 2 miler things with a mixture of running and walking.

Yesterday I followed up my time at the gym with a family football match. I used to be pretty darn good at football and was excited to play for the first time in like 7 years.


My sisters attempt at taking a picture of me looking threatening in my football kit (which is also just my gym/running/exercise kit)


My sister being ready to thrash everyone at football

It was so much fun to play again and I was way better than I thought I would be after 7 years. Need to work a bit more on hitting volleys again but I can still do keepy uppy and some of the fancy tricks I spent so many hours practising. I'd love to get back into it but I think school and orchestra stuff will mean I might have to wait until uni to get stuck in.

TARGETS

Not much running has been going on at the moment, it's just been too hot and I've been so busy and I haven't run for almost a week. I'M GOING CRAZY. Pretty sure I'll have lost any/all fitness I'd gained over two weeks of hard work but we'll see later when I head out the house.

Anyway today I thought I'd set myself some simple targets for the next academic year because school is looming and I want to make sure I keep FITNESS and RUNNING in focus because I have some seriously tough demands on my work load next year and I need this to keep me sane.

So

• Run a 5k  in under 25 minutes 
• Actually manage to run a 10k
• DO A DUATHLON - I've become kind of obsessed with the fitness demands of a duathlon (i'm an awful swimmer hence duathlon instead of triathlon) so I really want to have a go at one of these at some point in the next year. if anyone fancies it and lives in the South East London area and wants to hit me up for some duathlon training LET ME KNOW. Cycling on roads kind of scares me so it'd be nice to have someone to do with it

I guess maybe these goals aren't crazy, I haven't even put times I want to go for on the 10k and duathlon but seriously if I manage to make them I'll be OVER THE MOON

Hope you're all having a nice summer!

Hard times for dreamers

I've had a tough couple of days recently. Sometimes everything feels really, really hard and the people you love feel far away and it's hard to see how to fix things. Thankfully, my friends are super great and just when things were heading towards the bottom my friend texted me this verse

It was seriously just what I needed and meant the world to me. So I carried on running, yesterday I hit 2w8r for the first time which I was so proud of. I also booked my first serious 5k which means I have to keep going until mid-September at least. I'm not enjoying running per se, but today is my "rest" day and I wish I had a chance to run. It just clears my head so much and gives me a chance to get away from everything. When I'm not running at the moment everything feels a bit mental

On a lighter note I started my RUNSPIRATION board to motivate me a bit more


I LOVE IT

Marathons, Mo and Badminton

This past weekend feels like an utter blur of sport!

My olympic highlight came on Wednesday night where I met this lady at the basketball

For those who don't know her, that's Katarina Johnson Thompson standing between my brother and I, who is Britain's second choice heptathlon lady (after Jess obviously). It looks like she's going to be massive in the future and she was so lovely and nice. TOTALLY A RUNSPIRATION!!! On Friday night, I went to beat my brother at badminton (21-12, 21-16) which was nice because it lowered his levels of cockiness. Afterwards we hit a 5k but it was awful, I felt so exhausted after playing an hour of badminton I could barely run. It's hardly surprising considering I've spent the past 5 years of my life not doing any sport and now I've become a sports maniac. Also as a result so many of my muscles are killing, I can actually run fine but walking is awful as is getting up and sitting down.

How amazing was it watching Mo win the 5000m?! That man is a total runspiration I was so happy for him, the most impressive British long distance runner EVER (apart from Paula mabes). It was so lovely seeing him afterwards with Bolt

After watching all this I decided to head out at about 9pm. In the dark. I learnt several important lessons from this

 1. If you run at a night on a Saturday, you will be heckled (I had a lot of "GO MO'S" and comments on chelsea (i was running in a chelsea shirt))

 2. If you are trying to run with a watch, you won't be able to see it when it's dark

Anyway my main aim was to hit 7 minutes straight of running WHICH I DID!!!! 8 minutes tomorrow is looking increasingly possible. Later I'm going to try and run 2w7r x3 which would be a massive achievement for me if I managed to do it. Cannot wait until I can run 30 minutes straight and from there it feels like the whole of the world is open for me to run on. BRING IT ON!!

Finally, this morning Emma and I headed up to London to watch the men's marathon, after catching the women's one last week. It was amazing watching those athletes and INSPIRATIONAL. The Olympics motto has been 'inspire a generation' and goodness me, it has certainly inspired me.

PUNCH UP

Today's run was seriously tough. Like I wanted to stop and cry about half way through. It was that bad.

It was my first day of doing 4 rounds of 2 walk 5 run and I thought it would be ok because I was only lowering my walk time by a minute and upping my run time by a minute. I'd been hitting 3 walk 5 run's last week, and like I said before next week's the tough one where I have to go for 2 walk 8 RUN!!!!

I knew as soon as I'd finished warming up that this was going to be a hard one. I hadn't really eaten properly in the day and felt shaky earlier on, like I was going to faint. But i was determined to run anyway. I immediately realised I wasn't properly hydrated at all. From then on it was stitches, generally dying, and my stomach felt awful. Then this happened

Just had the twin joys of being hit in the face by a man at a bus stop and almost being run over during a 5k of the lee high road...

— Jessy PH (@suitsandties) August 6, 2012

NOT COOL AT ALL. I was running along casually and then this guy put out his hand to get the bus and hit me in the face. Seriously starting to wonder if runners are actually invisible??


I was scheduled to run up this massive hill but I couldn't face it so I just did two laps of the high road to get to around 3 miles I think it was just under. I feel like a total WIMP now jheeze my favourite running mantra is the Peter Maher quote

"Running is a question mark that's there each and every day. It asks you 'Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today?'"

Today I was definitely a wimp but tomorrow I am seriously going to smash the 2 walk 5 run AND that hill YEAH

05/08/12

Today's run felt kind of tough. I've been trying to push myself in order to get ready to hit 5 minutes straight next week and I've been struggling which is worrying because next weeks jump is the easy one! The week after that I have to go from 5 minutes to EIGHT!

So using my NEW MAP MY RUN BLACKBERRY APP TO PROPERLY RECORD MY TIME i did

3 mins walking ( warm up)
5 mins running
3 mins walking
5 mins running
3 mins walking
4 mins running
3 mins walking
4 mins running
3 mins walking (warm down)

over the entire distance i felt better than normal but in the individual running bits i still felt awful. There's something about running across The Heath which makes me feel terrible.

On a side note

HOW WONDERFUL WAS JESSICA ENNIS TONIGHT. Needless to say I am 100% in love and in awe of her. What an inspiration!

NEW SHORTS

NEW SHORTS!! got myself some sexy proper running shorts today so no longer will I be jogging around in chelsea shorts that i bought when i was 8. I literally cannot describe how much I’m enjoying running at the moment. Today I smashed the 5 minute running barrier which probably sounds pathetic but for me it was WOW it felt good! and i reckon i could have stretched to 6 mins if I’d wanted to. I’ve seen the same boy who I used to go to primary school with on my past 3 runs, he must think I’m crazy. Currently Map My Run is my favourite thing ever I am planning all my routes for the next three months

Running in the rain

Guess who went running in the only half an hour it poured with rain today? THIS GIRL. it was really nice though because it was a super good cool down and it inspired me to actually run loads faster than normal. Rain always please.

Decided I’m going to try and do my first “serious” 5k on 8th September possibly, just to give me something to aim for and to work out where I am. However that is seriously going to push me to be able to run that distance non stop in just over a month. Uh without challenge, there is no fun etc

I was looking at the Serpentine 5k results today and people in that run it in 15 MINUTES i don’t know what olympic times and stuff are but jheez if I do mine in 40 I’d be pretty massively chuffed. Jheez if i complete mine I’ll be pleased

First and Second ever serious runs!

Went out for my second run today in these sexy shoes. i’m currently doing 4 rounds of walking 3 mins jogging 4 mins and its actually a killer!! yesterday my legs really felt the pain but today i thought i was going to cough up my lungs and now i can actually barely walk. today’s run was so much harder because i foolishly ran from 12:30 - 1 and it was sunny oops whereas yesterday i ran at 6 in the rain (much easier) i actually really enjoy not having to think and just focussing on actually running and the world of pain i’m in. yet to discover all these endorphins everyone talks about

i’ve set myself the target of running 30 mins straight by the time we go back to school. then if everythings going good still i think i’ll join the gym and enter some 5 k’s seriously this time. NEXT PAULA RADCLIFFE HERE I AM