training

Why I’ve not been racing
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Why I’ve not been racing

THREE months ago I decided to stop training as much, and instead focus on my writing projects. I set myself the challenge of completing the first draft of my book. I knew my fitness would suffer, but in order to achieve my writing ambitions it had to be done.

That was back in December. Since then, I’ve cobbled together 80,000 words of my book, completed a short story course, and had two pieces of writing accepted for publication in magazines and anthologies.

I have written during my lunch hour at work, in the evenings after work, at weekends, and even used my daily commute to think about scenes. It has been a slow and frustrating process where I regularly doubted myself. But I have done it, and I can’t help but feel a little bit proud. The book is a long way from being published, but I have material that can be re-written, edited, and whipped into shape.

The only problem now is that I am Continue reading →

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Positive thinking
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Positive thinking

JANUARY seemed to drag, but February is flying by. I’ve been busy with our house renovations and finishing some writing submissions, but the good thing is that I’ve still been running.

In fact, I’m feeling much more positive about training. My fitness isn’t great, but there are sixteen weeks until the Edinburgh Half Marathon. I keep telling myself not to panic because I have time.

I’ve found it difficult to Continue reading →

Training update week one
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Training update week one

WITH the arrival of the new year I was excited and looking forward to getting stuck into some serious training so that I could achieve all my running ambitions. Everything was going well, until I fell over, injured my foot, and then developed a severe case of man flu.

Here’s my training week:

I got off to a good start with Continue reading →

Training update
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Training update

I’M very excited because last week I managed to complete a full week of training! This is very exciting stuff indeed because for a while I’ve not been doing much in the way of consistent training. Last week I got my act together, which means I now have something to write about. So without further ado, here is my training week.

Monday

I was late home from work so it was 8pm before I headed out into the cold and dark night for a run. I did three miles, which were more to clear my head after a hectic day than for any training benefit. It would have been too easy to stay in the warm with a hot chocolate so I was proud of myself for getting out. I had the hot chocolate when I returned from the run.

Tuesday

I’d arranged to meet a friend so finding the motivation to actually get out of the door wasn’t a problem. The plan was Continue reading →

Back into training and blogging
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Back into training and blogging

NORMAL blogging service can now resume, because yesterday I handed in the final assignment for my English literature degree.

There was an awful moment late yesterday morning when I uploaded the essay, pressed send and then got a note to say it had been rejected.

‘Do NOT do this to me!’ I screamed at the computer. ‘Please.’

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In all my six years of studying for this degree, I have never had a problem uploading assignments. I needed to get the assignment in by midday and the clock was ticking. Frantically, I tried again.

When I got the same message, I almost broke down. I was going to fail my degree because of an IT disaster.

I had to stay calm. Continue reading →

Parkrun, planning and procrastination
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Parkrun, planning and procrastination

MY plan at Parkrun yesterday was to break 21 minutes. It seemed realistic. A few weeks ago I ran 21.07, so I was convinced it might be possible to dip under 21. The only problem really was my lack of consistent training.

I’ve had a few university assignment deadlines which have played havoc with my training. I’ve missed a few days here and a few days there, and when you add them all together they add up to quite a lot of missed training.

At the moment I seem to be bombarded with deadlines and work, so that I’m constantly firefighting. I clear one thing and immediately have to start on the next. It’s become a bit stressful and hasn’t done my fitness much good at all.

So on my way to Pontefract Parkrun yesterday I decided that Continue reading →

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Hoping the plan comes together

IN all my years of running I’ve never had a training schedule. I’ve always made it up as I go: hills one night, speed the next, a bit of tempo here, a threshold there. I’ve tagged onto other people’s training, joined in with club runs, but never had a plan telling me what I should be doing and when.

For a long time, my slap dash approach has worked. This is mainly because my friend Fiona is an amazing runner, so I trained with her as often as I could. Whatever she did. I did. This was great. I improved so much I even started picking up a few prizes, something I never thought would be possible. When Fiona had a good run, so did I. When Fiona was ill or injured, my fitness suffered. This didn’t bother me too much. I just carried on enjoying it all, amazed to be dong so well. With Fiona’s help, I got my 10k PB down to 40 minutes and won all of this and more.

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I was even hopeful of breaking 40 minutes for 10k. I didn’t have a plan as to when and how this would happen. I just believed it would. I was really relaxed about it. I’d just continue training with my friend and it would come, no problem.

But it hasn’t come. I Continue reading →