Training For The Marathon: The Journey So Far

It has been a very eventful last few months in marathon training – the pace has picked up fast and it’s now hard to believe that I only took up jogging again last October. The runner in me is thrilled to be given this opportunity to show what she’s made of. Well, actually, today the runner in me is feeling a bit sorry for herself, as bending down and even walking are proving to be quite difficult since running the Grove Half-Marathon on Sunday! But, aside from the current soreness – which will soon heal and is all just part and parcel of training for a marathon – things are going good. My journey so far…

I started off at Uni running once or twice a week with my running buddy Ros. We’ve been great motivation for each other from the go and have managed to keep our running schedule fresh by adding lots of variety. We’ve ran around the football field, through the Woodlands, to the other Uni campus, up to ASDA, as well as staying close to home and lapping the Uni halls – I enjoyed this, challenging myself to go an extra lap or two! On University days, we’d run mornings and during school placement, the evenings, as we’d be getting up even earlier and didn’t fancy running at 5am! Typically, we’d aim for three runs a week, and although we weren’t too rigid with ourselves on the exact time or day, we seemed to stick to this well. On seeing our fitness and strength increase, we progressively upped the pace, and in our prime we were running one 30 minute and two 40 minute runs a week.

Last month I was on placement in Paris, and keen to continue with my training, I packed my running gear and a copy of Runner’s World – which I have totally gotten into! Lucky for me, a few others on the course had the same idea too and soon enough I had myself a running crew, or as we liked to call ourselves ‘ladies who run’. We ran together all around La Defense, looking up at the skyscraper buildings and with the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower in view – amazing! Our calf muscles certainly felt the impact of all the steps we were running up and down, but nevertheless our motivation remained strong to the end. We kept the runs consistent, going for 30 minutes every other evening – and this felt just right.

On returning to England, and with just a week to go before my half-marathon, I knew it was time to rest. Perfect time too, being away from Uni and on Easter holidays in Dorset. I wanted to get to Sunday feeling well-rested and in top spirits. Five days before the marathon, I went for one last run. Knowing that I hadn’t yet had a ‘big run’, or anything more than 50 minutes, I planned on making this one an hour. Perhaps I could have made it to the 60 minutes, or longer, but on that day I didn’t. I ran for 45 minutes, and felt exhausted after that. So, I never made my big run beforehand, but there was no time to worry – marathon day was fast approaching…

I didn’t feel particularly fit at the start of the race, or particularly anything, apart from cold! My arms were bare and I just couldn’t wait to get going to warm up! I’d had my usual morning porridge and a banana closer to the run, which felt good. I didn’t see the worth of ‘loading the carbs’ too much just before running, but had had plenty more carbohydrates than usual leading up to the day and the night before, supplying me with lots of energy. And before I had a chance to rethink my new running trousers decision, fiddle around with the safety pins fastening my running number to my top or wish I’d made more of a logical plan to get me through the run, I was off… and very quickly being overtaken by a lot of runners, including my brother Joe and Ros’s boyfriend Liam. That was the last I saw of those two!

Me and Ros stayed together at the start and seemed to be laughing a lot – I put this down to nerves. Here we were, actually running a half-marathon, surrounded by the White Horse Harriers running club, wow! The laughing didn’t last long, as the mileage and breathwork increased. For every mile, I decided to run for someone I knew; I ran for my family members, for my friends, and then finally for the last mile I ran for everyone and the world! Perhaps a choice fuelled by endorphins, but it just felt right! and worked as a great focus and source of inspiration – anything to take my mind off my increasingly heavy legs and the distance to the finish. Where was it, the end?

Well I can gladly say, I did find the end. And I didn’t make a bad time either: 2:10. I had kept to my aim too – the one I made around mile four, working out that I was making each mile just within ten minutes. I saw my Mum’s smiling face, cheering me on as I ran the last 400m, and as I like to do in my training, I mustered together all my remaining energy and flew into a sprint to the finish line and I really was flying high! Although immediately collapsing to the ground afterwards, clutching my White Horse Harriers mug I had just been handed, I stayed high for quite a while – the endorphins really had got me.

I can say I’ve never experienced anything like it. What a rush and a real sense of achievement the half-marathon has given me. I’ve learnt such a lot already through my training, and I’m feeling strong and determined as ever for the full marathon this October in Amsterdam. Bring on the rest of the training and the very next run! Now, where’s my copy of Runner’s World?…

Why I’m Running the Marathon in 2010

New Year is at our doorstep, and this means one great thing among many: New Year’s Resolutions. Yes, it’s time to start carving out those top resolutions that are going to make this an extraordinary year.

So, what are we going to commit to? To take up? To launch ourselves into? To get the ball rolling for 2010!…

The thing about New Year’s Resolutions is that they’ve got to be big AND they’ve got to be exciting. It’s no use making the same-old list of resolutions year in year out, that either fail to motivate us or offer us little scope of going anywhere good. No, we need resolutions that are so big and so exciting that they make us want to leap out of bed in the morning. They need to inspire us, motivate us and bring us alive, all year round.

We must discard any preconceptions that we may already have about New Year’s Resolutions. Perhaps we didn’t see the worth in them or couldn’t keep to them in previous years, but that really doesn’t matter here. We need to start afresh, start where we are, and with a brand new lease of optimism. The thing is: we are all every bit capable of making some cracking resolutions that we can not only keep to, but that will do wonder.

Recently, I’ve got back into running. I’m out there two or three mornings a week for around 20 to 30 minutes. Lucky for me, I have a couple of running buddies at uni, who make it more fun and keep me motivated on dark, cold mornings when I don’t just feel like springing out of bed.
Keen to give my running a little more focus and seeing the New Year coming, I decided I’d enter a 5k run in May. A perfect goal to aim towards I thought. But, on speaking to my cousin at a Christmas get-together, it seemed greater things were in store for me. “5k is well within your means Rosanna, go for 10k instead” she started, “which really isn’t that far off a half marathon” she spurred me on. Ok, I was persuaded. “A half marathon it is!”, or was…

Back at home in Cambridge, my sister was busy arranging a running buddy for me when I came to stay. “Sure, I’d love to run the morning after your Christmas party,… in the snow,… with someone I don’t know. Sounds right up my street!” I chirped. What had I let myself in for? Unknown to me, that by the end of this run, I’d be upping my New Year’s Resolution to something much greater than ever anticipated…

When it was proposed to me that I enter the Amsterdam Marathon, I felt a shield come straight to my defence. “No, I couldn’t do that. I’m really not a long distance runner, I do yoga and I have small ankles”. There were my reasons, and behind which I could have stayed shielded and protected. But, the straightforward positivity and encouragement coming from my new running buddy soon enticed me to surrender. “I’ll do it” I cried, and knew I had just commited myself to the biggest New Year’s Resolution of my life to date.

Why am I doing it? Because it’s bigger than me and because it really excites me. The sheer magnitude of the challenge fills me with determination to see it through, to discover who I am along the journey, to make me stronger, to raise my fitness levels, to push myself and to give me something so great to aim for. Sure, it’d be amazing to cross the finish line, I can only imagine that, but what I am most interested in is the journey getting there, the impact training for the marathon will have on me both psychologically and physically – this I just can’t wait for.

I am also privilieged to be running it with not only my new running buddy, but also my two brothers and my best friend. On hearing the news of my epic resolution, they decided to join me rather than dissuade me. This makes me feel entirely supported, and a little less crazy.

So, in asking you to support me in achieving my New Year’s Resolution, I ask you to make one of your own. See what you come up with. Be prepared to astound yourself. And once decided on something that is so big and so exciting, that you just can’t wait to get started, commit to it today, and let the fruits grow tomorrow…

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Do you want a new year resolution that actually works?

Are you excited by the idea of some great new year resolutions but fearful of them falling by the wayside?
Have you made the same resolution year after year and experienced repeated failure?

The good news is that this is very normal and very understandable. A resolution involves significant behavioural change – which won’t happen just by writing a resolution down.

You want to understand your resolution, identify what’s been blocking you in the past and find the right language to use for it. You’ll then feel satisfied as you create a great change in your life.

I’m delighted to let you know that my sister, a certified coach, offers an 8-part e-course to help anyone who wants to create a resolution that really works. Every few days for 30 days you’ll receive an email which guides you through each step of an effective resolution-making process.

You can find more details at:
http://youinspireme.co.uk/products-and-classes/new-way-resolutions-e-course/
and you can get started straight away via that page.

Wishing you a wonderful start to 2010.

Who Do We Think We Are?

TR

We’re walking down the road of our life when suddenly we hit a junction and freeze “who do we think we are?” are the words crying out from inside of us.

From the surface, things may look ordinary to anyone who sees us – we are the same old person we always were, right? The same we were yesterday, five, even ten years back and the same we’ll be tomorrow. All fine and dandy. Well, no, not necessarily.

We can carry on walking the same path, replicating the same existence day in, day out and carrying around with us the same belief system and state of health OR we can start to be receptive to the cries yelling out from within us, pleading and longing to be heard. I urge you to listen intently, right now.

Our identities that we’ve created, mastered and set in stone, that we’ve handed out to and convinced our loved ones, strangers and even ourselves of, may very well be masking who we truly are. And we’re going to have to chip away at this protection layer if we want to discover our inner gems.

I woke up to health a few years back. By letting my inner voice be heard, accepted and not resisted to any longer, I was able to end the conflict between my lifestyle as it was at the time – centering around fleeting highs, low lows alcohol, feelings of weakness, helplessness and a lack of direction – and my inner yearning for a more meaningful life. When I really listened to what my heart, my inner guidance was telling me, I knew instinctively I had to make some changes.

Did it rock my identity? Sure. Was it easy? Far from it. But you know what, once I got over the fear, the frustration and uncertainty of not knowing who I was or where I was going, I was then able to start a very special journey and align with my true self.

I spent a while wandering around in ‘no man’s land’. Sick of the old me, unclear of the new. I noticed my friendship circle changing, my sense of security loosening and my sensitivity to life heightening. What was I supposed to be doing? What was my life’s purpose? How could I break free from the old me? With time I could see that this was a necessary step and part of my journey which led me to the answers I longed for.

We need time, quiet space to reflect on what’s important in life to us. Who we think we are. It became clear to me I didn’t want to be carried along by the world, that I wanted to have dreams that I could realise. I wanted to help people feel happier and healthier than they had before. Wake up to health and my vision to own a Retreat House came into existence whilst I was searching for answers – and has stayed my guiding force, my motivation.

It can be frightening to leave our identity behind in setting sail to create a new one. There are risks we take as we leave one version of ourselves behind and put our feet into unknown waters – not knowing where the tide will bring us to. But the thing is, unless we try, we’ll never know. If we cling to our lives, our identities as we know them, we may never experience the greatness we can become.

We need to challenge our identity. Look ourselves in the mirror and ask ‘who do we think we are?’ In presenting the question, we can begin the search to fulfilling our dreams.

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