Another rest week, another mini panic attack about how long I’ve got before the race…

This week I rediscovered the importance of training beyond just “running”. Ending week 11 with a 10km milestone was fantastic but ultimately I can’t ignore the fact that my speed is not great plus I’m not yet able to run the entire distance with no walking breaks.

Having had some time to reassess; the next four week cycle will be one where I just focus on distance and stamina/endurance and ignore speed altogether. As a secondary goal I’d also love to be able to resume my gym schedule now that the cough has faded enough for me not to be “that guy” at the gym!

Short but sweet – see you next week!

How am I coming into another rest week already?! So much (training) to do… So little time.

So I’m finally well enough to resume training. The cough still lingers but it’s fading and I can manage running without wheezing or collapsing even if I’m not at my best. However as you can imagine, my training plan is now seriously behind schedule. According to my (admittedly optimistic) plan, I should have been running about 6km twice a week and 10km on my long run by week 11….

…..andddd I am extremely excited to say that whilst pace and consistency leaves a lot to be desired, I did actually manage to hit a 6.5km distance during the week and TODAY – my next milestone! I finished a 10km distance for the first time in years AND faster than I ever remember!

Besides being a fantastic motivator it has also reassured me that despite poor training over the past couple of weeks, there’s definitely still time for me to get there (which is great news for my pride!)

Here’s hoping I can repeat the feat and keep it going strong, plus try to get it down to a respectable time… But first: my third rest week!

I have to say – these weeks are really flying by and I can gradually feel my anxiety building… I guess there’s only one solution for that – train harder!

As expected, week 10 was rough given the lingering chest infection/smokers cough/ death rattle that I’ve been fighting since week 8. I did however manage to fit in some running (once in the gym and once outside) just to keep me going. Not ideal for sure but it’s certainly an improvement over the past two weeks.

Instead of my ongoing failure/disappointment, I thought this would be a good time to talk about the classic mantra – “Mind over matter”. Most people are familiar with this statement and it can invoke a variety of emotions from inspiration to exasperation. It’s a slightly cliche statement that can be applied to most situations but I think for running it definitely rings true – as long as you qualify that statement.

Let me elaborate – I don’t believe that “with the right mindset you can achieve anything”. It’s a great thought and very inspirational but it is too generic and much too broad to enable anyone to actually achieve success. Case in point: “the right mindset” doesn’t tell you how to train for a marathon! “Believing that you can” and “trying as hard as you can” could in fact lead to injury… It takes planning, it takes an extraordinary amount of work and it takes an ongoing honest assessment of your ability and performance. Once you have all of the above; that’s when it becomes a simple matter of “mind over matter”, it’s about:

• Committing to the training plan even when you really don’t want to/can’t be bothered
• Learning to run at the speeds in your training plan even when it feels slower and counter intuitive – you set the pace for a reason!
• Learning your limits and how your body works and more importantly – the difference between a perceived limit and a “real” limit.

For me this was driven home just as I hit my 5 k milestone. At the 1.5k mark, my legs felt tired and I thought that there was no way I could continue much further – I’d completed less than a third of the distance! But I recalled what my friend Dharmesh (remember him?) said to me right at the beginning of my journey as we went for a quick run:

“Do you need to stop because you can’t breathe/ you can’t move so you HAVE to stop? Or do you just FEEL like you should stop?”

That’s an extremely important distinction. I did a quick assessment:

• my heart rate was a little high but not uncomfortably so
• my breathing was a little heavier but not ragged
• my legs felt fatigued but not to the point of collapse

and so I continued running just to see how far I could go and until one of the above was no longer true. Lo and behold, I discovered that whilst your body may complain a bit as you warm up and start ramping up the distance – it’s actually quite content to stay at that higher stress level for a much longer period than you think! At 1.5k I was considering stopping but didn’t. At 2k I felt the same – but not worse! It wasn’t until I got to 4km that my heart rate started ramping up and my breathing got much heavier but by then I was so close to 5km that I just pushed straight through to the end.

That’s why I think this phrase is powerful – just misunderstood. It doesn’t suggest that the mind is all you need (if I try and run a marathon today, no amount of “belief” will get me through in a decent time) and it’s not just a general “feel good” inspirational statement. It’s about strengthening your will and learning to truly interpret the signals that your body is sending you rather than making assumptions and giving up early. Maybe this was always obvious to everyone else but for me it’s been a revelation and I’ve really enjoyed reexamining my beliefs.

Week 9 has come and gone and unfortunately I’m sicker than ever…

Training this week has (as predicted) been a bit of a disaster. The GP insists everything sounds ok but the cough has continued to get worse with back pain and bouts of dizziness accompanying fits of coughing and it’s really put a dampener on my running – with each attempt ending prematurely in another coughing fit and shortness of breath.

Instead – this week I’ve been focusing on rest, relaxation, meditation and yoga! Despite the unfortunate setback this week has been unexpectedly rewarding in that I’ve consciously taken some time out to centre myself and try and focus on my mental health instead – often referred to as “Mindfulness”. I won’t turn this into a giant advert for mental wellbeing but I’d referenced this previously in an earlier post (where I had my other setback – mental more than physical) and increasingly it becomes obvious that despite all the advantages available to us in the modern world – people are still neglecting their own mental health and hence failing to find their own happiness and contentment.

Week 10 approaches and I fear that my training still won’t resume in the manner it should as I’m STILL fighting this cough but if nothing else I will try to up the mileage and continue focusing on my wellbeing. See you next week!

The second rest week flew by in the blink of an eye and the only real development has been that that “cold” I picked up at the end of week 7 has evolved into a full blown chest infection with accompanying old man smokers cough.

I’m expecting this will put a real dampener on the upcoming training weeks but we’ll see how that pans out…

Having taken a bit of time out to reevaluate the schedule I’ve decided to move a few sessions around and also introduce some yoga sessions to help improve flexibility and recovery.

Short and sweet whilst I focus on recovery…. More to come next week!

First an apology – it’s a bank holiday in the UK and with it came SW4 (EDM is king) and my mother’s birthday so technically this post is a day late…maybe my next post will be about one of those!

The final week before my second rest week (and the chance to re-evaluate the program) has come around quickly and whilst I’ve had many ups and downs over the course of the last 7 weeks, I finally feel like I’m making some progress.

First the bad news:

1. My distances have not exceeded 7km
2. My time per km remains at 6 minutes or slower
3. I’ve also picked up a bit of a cold which will make training really uncomfortable for a while…

All that being said, there have been a lot of positives too:

1. I’ve managed to regularly get out and run three times a week and also keep a semi constant gym schedule
2. Any running is better than no running and I’ve still got some time to improve
3. With rest week approaching I can try and maximise my recovery and hit the next 4 week stretch.

And saving the best for last….

Possibly the least flattering photo of me ever but this is the moment that I finally managed to run a full 5km at a steady pace (no sprinting and no walking). I’m definitely counting it as a win and I’m deliriously happy at seeing some progress!

Focus for the next week will be on recovery and working out what the next 4 week stage looks like (with potentially a couple of posts about SW4 and birthday celebrations in between!)

This week I finally managed to book myself in for a program consultation with one of the trainers down at my local Nuffield Health gym.

After a quick discussion on goals (run a marathon, lose some weight but with an effort to retain muscle) we then took a look at the program. To recap, my current program includes:

• 3 runs a week
• 1 Pilates session
• 2 resistance sessions (arms/shoulders, legs/back)
• 1 cycle session
• 1 core session

There was one glaring omission that my trainer (Rob) picked up on straight away. No leg day.

I’m not usually one to skip a leg day as it’s one of the few areas that I think I do well in. In addition to that, all the research I’ve done suggests some leg work boosts power and endurance for distance runners. So why drop my favourite exercises? Simple. Delayed onset muscle soreness also known as DOMS. 48 hours after a good resistance session, my body throws the towel in and my muscles are out for the count which throws a major spanner in the works when I’m trying to hit three running sessions a week.

Speaking to Rob, he acknowledged that this would certainly be the case for the first two weeks but after that; given that strength training wasn’t a primary goal of mine, I could simply reduce the weight increments (e.g rather than 10kg increases, maybe just look at 5!)

A simple solution but some of the best answers usually are! Rob then ran me through a series of leg exercises (goblet squats, walking lunges, dumbbell deadlifts and Bulgarian split squats) that left me a little unsteady on my feet!

So, although you shouldn’t really change your program too frequently (outside of the 4 week reviews), I will be incorporating this from week 7 and then reworking my program entirely in week 8 (rest week)

Fingers crossed!

After all the excitement of the past two weeks I’ve finally settled back into the program and shockingly I haven’t completely undone all the good work from weeks before – although running in this unprecedented heatwave has not been fun…

First the good news: I managed to squeeze in three runs, 2 resistance sessions, one HIIT circuit session and even a 20 minute bike session!

The not so good news: my pace and endurance have predictably suffered a little from my set back but at least I’m not back to square one!

In the upcoming week I’m hoping to hit all the sessions I’d intended and I’ve also booked myself in to meet with one of the trainers at my local Nuffield gym for a program review. This should give me a better idea of how my program is structured and any changes I can make.

More on that next week (and hopefully more interesting posts to come!)

As much as I wish I could have just skipped this week; I committed to weekly updates so unfortunately here I am.

Week 4 was a rest week in the program and after TML2018 (don’t worry, I won’t go back over it even though it’s all I’ve been able to talk about all week!) I certainly needed it!

The pros: lots of walking and dancing (average 40k steps a day!)

The cons: my feet have been obliterated, my back hurts and my knees have seen better days.

Long story short, I rested the hell out of this week! Week 5 should be a challenge, stay tuned….

I started this week in a bad way – I think that was pretty evident from the slightly melodramatic post – but somehow found myself approaching my usual weekend deadline sat in a tent in the middle of the night with a completely different attitude.

A few months back I had agreed to go to Tomorrowland 2018 after my friend Ron managed to get 4 of those oh so precious and desperately sought after tickets and had a spare one going. The idea was to fully embrace my appreciation for edm and have a great experience camping with close friends. I’d also realised that I would probably need a distraction from my upcoming anniversary of course.

The festival was all that I expected and much much more. Tomorrowland was like an edm paradise mixed with a street food market and an amusement park all rolled into one – all my favourite things essentially and every interaction was positive and full of love. Citizens of the world came proudly bearing the flags of their home countries – but not as a tool to divide or segregate based on location but to unite as one.

I came expecting a 4 day breather, music and a bit of a distraction. Instead I rediscovered my happiness.

Find something you love, do it with people you love and if you can surround yourself with as much positivity from strangers as I saw these past few days you’ll find there is no better salve to sooth the soul.

I learnt to express myself more freely, not self conscious of singing out loud or how I looked when I was dancing.

I learnt to treat myself to small things to get that little bit of happiness because life is short.

I learnt that kindness, unity and joy really is inherent in everyone – you just need to bring it to the surface.

I learnt that I can be happy by myself as I forged my way into the front of the crowds of hundreds of thousands and raved with complete strangers; some who welcomed me with open arms to share in their joy, others struggling with their own pain and so happy to see someone offer the slightest bit of compassion and in turn rediscovering their own happiness.

Normal service resumes next week but for now;thank you Ron, Sam, Jon and Stan for being part of an unforgettable and life changing 4 days and for helping me recentre myself.

Thank you Tomorrowland for bringing all this joy, optimism, positivity and unity through music.

Live today. Love tomorrow. Unite forever.