The final puzzle piece AKA Who LENT me this Will Power?

Suddenly overcome with a vision of inspiration (can I have one of those?) I realised that each and every year I have my period of resolve and determination, right there in front of me.
It is called LENT!!!
Now don't ask me why I have such resolve and willpower during those 7 weeks but somehow it seems to work, and no I am not a religious person, so the meaning has no real significance for me, apart from the ability to stick with whatever I decide to do/give up etc.
WOW don't know why I didn't think of this before (well obviously it only happens before Easter so kind of precludes doing so at any other time of the year).

Anyway.......Lent fast approaches for 2011 and with a late Easter this year I have from now (28th Feb) until 9th March to PLAN my attack for this year, that gives me just over a week to plan my 7 weeks of determination.

More to follow.....really soon........honest

He who fails to plan, plans to fail

Looking back to my earlier posts I seem to have been frequently ignoring my own advice, in spite of my desire to start being my own best friend, this best friend has not been good in the support department.
My wisdom to other runners seems to be helpful in many ways. How to increase training gradually, hints and tips for getting the best from their workouts, motivational spiel for training sessions, and recommendations for massage help when needed. I have numbers for Sports Massage, Physios, Personal Trainers that I happily pass on to others, so now tell me why I am so reluctant to use them myself to get my knee problem fixed, why I avoid visiting the doctor to get my breathing sorted once and for all, and why i won't allow myself to improve?

I feel my biggest problem at the moment, is not that I don’t have a goal, as I most certainly do, but that having a goal in itself is not enough. I need to plan how to get to that goal, I need to set out the steps I will take to get me there, otherwise as I read somewhere recently that without a plan it isn’t a goal at all, it is just a wish.

April 2012 and the London Marathon for that year is fast approaching and I am not yet off the starting blocks, so it will make a tough 26.2 miles, I know how tough, I have been there before and this time I wanted to be better than I was previously. Maybe I have a fear of not being better that causes me to hold back so I have an excuse when I do not achieve it. This of course would be much easier than putting in the hard work required to make me improve so that I can be better and fulfil my goal potential. The easy option then!!! So what is so difficult about achieving success?

Maybe it isn't really that difficult, maybe it is because I am unprepared and unplanned to achieve that it seems so difficult.

OK so maybe trying to think about 2012 is not helping, it is a while away and I am currently not fit to run at all let alone 26.2 miles, but I don’t need to run it now I need to run it in 16 months time. Plenty of time to implement a new plan with small steps to achieve along the way, but still there is definitely a plan required, and once that is in place, then I do actually need to work towards it in order to achieve it in the end.

So to inspire me further my first interim goal is now set to help focus me along the way, I have entered a half marathon at the end of May, which I need to be my starting focus for fitness. I need a plan NOW to bring it into focus and the longer I leave it, the more difficult it becomes.

I know I am not alone with this problem, and I know that others overcome the feelings of malaise, so I need to plan and then execute the plan with determination and in small chunks or steps. Fitness will not come by itself it does require some input to achieve, this is my first start point. In one of my favourite quotes at the moment
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit” – Aristotle.
So today I am getting my required training habits down onto paper and making each step to fitness a goal in itself.
Give me those training habits again, and just watch me go.

The Flaw in my Grand Plan

OK Folks, this post was heading in a slightly different direction before the London Marathon Magazines started arriving on doormats.
As anticipated the blow to my plan to run in 2012 has arrived. I have an acceptance for 2011. After I had picked myself up off the floor after laughing so hard, because that, as they might say, is typical. When you want to get in you can't, when you want a rejection it seems you can't get that either :-)

Now, many people would be very pleased with this outcome, after all, that is what you enter the ballot for isn't it? But I have a plan.......albeit a very vague plan....and that is to be running the 2012 London marathon. After all how can I tell people I am taking part in London 2012 otherwise?

The next step........well do I pay for my entry to secure the place? Then in time defer it to the following year at which time I pay again the following year when I go to take up my place.
Is it worth double the cost to get in?

But no.....wait.....there is an option outlined in the congratulations magazine. I can withdraw from the 2011 race, and I will then receive an email next May asking me if i wish to take up the 2012 place, at which time I assume I will need to pay.

Well there you go. So the decision, do I train like mad and run in a year I really don't want, do I pay and then defer, or do I withdraw and hope they don't forget me next year, because if they do by then I will have missed the ballot?

Decisions, decisions.

But really not much of one. With my knee still not working fully, and my training at present limited to two very short sessions a week, I know I have a long way to go to be marathon fit.
So.....the withdraw button was pressed and I now have 18 months to get fit, trained up and be ready to run the 26.2 miles around London in 2012.

Why did I want to do this again?

Ah yes.....because I am MAD!!!

The dangers of planning ahead

Well exercise planning starting to get going, new ideas buzzing, running slow but steady ish, weight management still requiring serious thought and effort, so all ticking along, maybe not nicely but definitely ticking. Then a weekend away ruins the lot....

A wet windy weekend and a walk along a stony beach, where a great amount of fossils lie in wait for discovery. wet rocks and unsteady scambling are no great combination for successful exercise and...... unable to control the slipping sensation underfoot... crash, down I went, slamming into my knee and causing several seriously foul expletives to rain continuously for a few minutes. (no change there then) (Bonus fossil found while on the down bit so some redemption allowed)

Hobbling continued for at least another hour, interspersed with wailing and howling (that's me not the wind and rain) when faced with wall ladders and climbing up and down things (not good with those as anyone who has heard of my exploits trying to recover things from my parent's attic will have noted - and that's another story)so... full panic mode and childish petulant metaphorical footstamping ensues, followed by getting feet seriously soggy having to walk in the water and eventual arrival back on soggy dry land (??) soaked to the skin (love leaving the waterproofs in the car) and ready to head home immediately please, well after a spot of lunch to aid recovery.

Investigation of said knee showed swelling and discolouration setting in..Oh Bum!!! Luckily icepack to hand and travel home with knee being iced was next.

More swelling to follow with hobbling pain and cut off cirulation as the ankle and foot are also the size of a small barrage balloon.

Running is, I think, not an option for a while......a short while I hope, but definitely not this week and will not hold my breath re next either.

So hey ho, back to beginner status again. Oh deep joy, well at least I can start from scratch and try and co-ordinate everything together....ooooh look....another pink piggy flying overhead.

Mining for gold

Every now and again we stumble upon a gem of an idea, sparked by something very simple that could really develop into something much bigger with a little bit of spark and enthusiasm, a bit of knowledge and the ooomph to make things happen.

I attribute my newly found enthusiasm for exercise and fitness (as opposed to the one I know I should have) partly to a chance conversation with another running club member, who like me, suffers from post marathon injury and demotivation and reduced levels of fitness, but also like me has previous exercise qualifications and also coach training.

So we started discussing various aspects of fitness and how we know that we don't do enough to strengthen our running muscles other than by trying to go out and run, and reminiscing back to the days when we both taught various aerobic classes and how fit we were at the time.

This sparked an idea which we are currently working on to get some decent running specific add ons for those who do nothing but go out and run. Things that will help runners specifially to strengthen the running and in the end hopefully to reduce the high injury rates we all seem to suffer from.

Suddenly my brain is in the zone of planning and motivating to get things done....ah but again this relates to others, so.....

PLAN A.......information gathering
What bits of me hurt when I run?
What exercises work to help strengthen those bits?
What stretches do I need to do to help?

Next step..... try them out, do they make any difference.
If No - then ditch that particular exercise
If YES - well get it on paper quick, if it works for me it'll work for others.

I am constantly being told I am a mine of information, so time to start digging it out and flogging it off rather than burying it for future generations. Theres gold in them there training hills eh?

Will Power, my new best friend

Forgive me father for I have sinned, it has been 2 months since my last confession, and..... to be fair I'm not actually much further on than I was 2 months ago. Oh Dear! The idea of getting back to fitness and the combination of the food, exercise etc. is nice in theory, so why oh why is it so hard in practice.

To be fair, my running is starting to improve, I am now getting to the point of being able to run for much more than a 2 minute stint without collapsing in a heap, well on most of the sessions anyway, and to be fair the heat of the past few weeks hasn’t helped.

So far I have managed to kick-start my training regime back onto a track of sorts. I seem perfectly able to motivate myself to take out my beginner groups and encourage them to achieve in their sessions, and have even managed to be so motivational that many of them have joined in the local free 5k park runs and amazed themselves with their ability to run 5k when they never thought they could.
So great seem to be the motivational skills that one lady who was adamant she was never going to run again after she had completed her 5k race for life, has spent money on decent running shoes, shorts and tops, has entered the park run on several occasions so far and having been encouraged to run all of it one week with a companion, now runs the entire distance on her own, and has asked to carry on with the training once our 10 weeks is up and maybe build up to a longer distance. Next target 5-mile race in September, which I really need to enter myself, just to prove I too can do it.
So......motivating others - Tick done.....Motivating self....needs more work, a lot more work, in short I think I need a new best friend. One that isn't afraid to tell me what they think I should be doing and keep me motivated along the way while doing it.

I, however it seems, am not the person to be my best friend.

So hey best friend, just a bit of advice.......I know all the rules and what I should do, I just have a major willpower issue when it comes to doing it.

I know that planning has to be the key, along with lots of tick charts to keep me on the straight and narrow as all my good work with the calf stretching and water intake seems also to be slipping fast. Though I must admit, with the increase in the running the calves seem to have eased nicely now and my fluid intake seems to be much higher than previously, so maybe, just maybe, the habits have started to reap benefits.
Well OK then in that case lets get onto some nice new ones.

Logically I know what I need to do, the basic premise of eating fewer calories than you burn off is really quite simple to grasp. The difficulty comes with putting that into practice.
I speak to others and they seem to have that magic little thing called willpower.

Ha...if only it were so simple as that.

So Will if you are out there, please come and be my best friend, it seems you are the only one who can help.

to (park)run or not to (park)run

Week two of the Parkrun started badly. The weather was great, perfect conditions, I arrived a little later than planned, I never warm up anyway, so is that a problem?
Two of my new beginner group were there....hoping to beat them but hey who knows.

Start.....breathing rubbish, legs tighten, suddenly the tingle of pins and needles, the calf cramps and running on feet that I don't think belong to me. Still..... got to keep going, have a time to beat from the previous week, just a few seconds will do. Run, walk, run, walk, all have gone past me except one that I know of, try hard to keep running, think my feet are still there, end of first lap, oh boy lapped by 6 this week. (2 lap courses are so much fun...sometimes - encouragement and despondency in equal measure)

Finish......eventually, finally remember to stop watch, still under 5k (more corners cut)and watch shows 41.55, but I did let it run, so slower, but....hey ho room for improvement at least.

Wait for results to go up on web...wait.....wait....results up.....where am I.....there is a gap and an "Unknown" in the position where my name should be.

I realise my running was rubbish, but even the results didn't want to recognise me.

Email sent to the "race crew"......frustration follows....re-read emails sent.....read as very angry and unforgiving....ooops, not the intention, send apologetic email and plead for result.
It took a while but hey I exist once more and according to their figures, not that much slower.
Avoid next weeks run due to perceived tiredness and aches and pains, but trundle along to support my beginners, who manage to run the whole 5k, well done them.

Week 4 managed to shave another 23 seconds off the first week (according to my watch anyway) and the time on the results near enough matches mine, and still my beginners are running the whole 5k while I am still struggling to run/walk.

I think it all seems to be coming together slowly, but feels painfully slow at times.

Parkruns rule....fabulous way to test out your 5k times if you have no other way to measure. And so much less pressured than a race you pay for. I think I shall be doing a fair few of these, and maybe (to make up for my outburst of frustration and anger) I need to also volunteer at a few.

Meanwhile....keep on training and maintain the pint of water first thing in the morning, with a 5 min calf stretch routine, I'm sure that is helping.