Blimey. it's been a while!

What a couple of years it's been! I did my Personal Trainer qualifications, although for one reason and another, I'm still finishing off my specialist course. I've set up business training clients in their own homes and running two exercise classes a week for beginners. My clients are all a lovely bunch of ladies and they say I am an inspiration to them, which is amazing! They've all seen my "before" photo's and know my journey, so they know that I know their struggles.

I've been doing lots of cycling and happily cycle 30 miles at a time now. I've got involved with a British Cycling scheme called Breeze, where I lead short bike rides for beginners, which is very enjoyable and rewarding. I've also qualified as a walk leader, but haven't had the time to lead any walks yet. These ventures led me to meeting a lady called Nadjie who is a Breeze area coordinator. Recently I worked with her on a separate venture leading social bike rides and walks at Fairlop Waters, which was amazing. I hope to work with her on another project next year.

Although my fitness business is growing, it's taking time and so I looked at other ways to bring in income on the side. I knew that I wanted to keep within my goals of staying active, being my own boss and having flexible working hours. I found two similar jobs that suited my requirements; parcel deliveries for Hermes, which involves lots of walking and Just Eat deliveries, which involves lots of cycling. This has kept me very active, along with the Personal Training work, on some days I've burned over 4000 calories according to my Garmin watch!

In the last 12 months I've lost 2 stone, bringing me back down to the lightest weight I've ever been. I'd like to lose another half a stone, but I'm more than happy, right now. Yesterday I was doing a workout and did some step ups on to a high bench. I surprised myself with how easy I found it and remembered back to when I started, when I couldn't step up even half that height without holding on to something for support. It feels great to be able to move my body with speed, power and stability and without pain (most of the time). 

I ran another half marathon a couple of months ago. The last one I did was awful as I was full of injuries and ailments and I wasn't sure I ever wanted to do another one after that. I talked myself into doing another one as I didn't want that to be the lingering memory. I ran a good race and felt great through most of it (well as much as one can in these things). I absolutely smashed it and knocked nearly 15 minutes off my PB!

I've learnt so much about nutrition since starting my PT training, although not from the course itself, but through my quest to broaden my knowledge. My Personal trainer eluded to the fact that I would eventually find out that everything I learned on the course would get tipped on it's head but I didn't really understand what he meant at the time. He was spot on though. Wow, what a can on worms the world of nutrition is! Especially in relation to public health and government guidelines for healthy eating. It led me on quite a journey of discovery, which I'm still on, but it's changed the way I eat a lot. Annoyingly, my qualifications only allow me to give nutrition advice in line with government recommendations, which is incredibly frustrating, so here's my disclaimer: I'm not advising anyone to follow my new diet without first seeking guidance from a medical professional or registered dietitian. Knowing what I now know, I've switched to a low carb, high fat (LCHF) diet. I've stopped snacking between meals. I've recently introduced extended overnight fasts (between 12-20 hours). I feel so much better eating this way! I don't feel hungry every 3-4 hours like I used to, I don't get energy dips, in fact I have more energy, even when I do long bike rides and runs. My pains are much less. My skin is much better too. As I said, I can't and I'm not recommending you try this way of eating, but I would definitely advise you to look into it and see if it might benefit you as it has me. Let me just say that fat is not the demon we were led to believe it was, it does not "clog the arteries" and lead to heart attacks, nor does it turn straight to fat in your body.

New Challenges

Following on from my last post, I suffered a nasty spell of sciatic and femoral nerve pain, which both my Physio and PT believe was brought on by over training. It meant I was unable to do any training for a few weeks. My PT focussed on helping me stretch out my piriformis muscles as well as my hip flexors and glutes. My Physio helped with those too, but also worked on releasing the tension in my back. Thankfully all the nerve pains have gone now, but I still need to work on stretching the muscles. Other health issues meant I had to take the focus away from weight loss for a while, so we have been working on strengthening my glutes and back. Now I am under Doctor's orders to refrain from strenuous exercise, and running for the next 4-6 weeks (this is to do with other health issues and a small operation which are not, in any way exercise related). After 6 weeks, hopefully I will be "back in the game" as they say. I will need to be, because guess what is next?

I am going to start a training course to become a Personal Trainer! It's something I've thought about doing for quite some time and it feels like the time is right now. The nerve and back pains have been a wake up call that sitting in a car all day is not good for me. I want to improve my knowledge about the body and training for my own benefit, but I'd also like to use that knowledge to help others in similar situations to me. I will be specialising in helping clients with obesity and diabetes. I really want to help those who, for whatever reason, don't believe they can do it. I want to be more than the Personal Trainer who turns up once a week to make you sweat a bit. I want to be a constant support and mentor. I'll be looking at ways to be on hand via social media, Skype, FaceTime etc. to help with the day to day challenges of getting and staying healthy.

Of course, I need to get my body into good shape, so that I can be a positive role model for my clients, but I want them to know that this has been a long and hard journey for me too. I hope that they will appreciate and be inspired by my successes. I don't care if I never have a 6 pack, but I will be fit and healthy and have a body which allows me to do the things I want to do to be happy. That's what I want for my clients too. Personal Trainers are not just for people who want to look like The Rock or The Kardashians, I'm here for the people who just want to be able to get up a flight of stairs without being out of breath, who want to play with the kids in the garden, without having to sit down for a rest.

So I've signed up for the course and I start in a few weeks. I have received some of the training books in the post and My God I've got a lot of reading to do! It's funny because I considered going into the fitness industry when I was at school but I was scared of having to learn all about the body and muscles and stuff. Now here I am 25 years later, doing what I should have done in the first place! Maybe the journey was for a reason? Maybe I've built up a history of personal experience which will help me better empathise with my clients? I think so.

New phase: rebuilding the body!

Ok I've reached critical point!

I'm somewhere around half way between my lightest weight and my heaviest. I don't want to get any bigger! My pains are getting worse again and I have a lot of pain in my hip. I've been to the doctors about my hip and they referred me to physio. In the mean time, I have found a good sports therapist who has also been giving me physio. He does therapy, massage, stretching and acupuncture. He's also a personal trainer although he doesn't train me as he only does it in the city. I've given him the full low down on all my pains and asked him to help me bring my body back into alignment, as I'm sure many of the problems are synergistic. He has helped a bit and has given me some acupuncture , which I've never tried before. I have not been doing much exercise or stretching between visits though.

The NHS physio, tried a couple of exercises and put an insert in my shoe as he said I was pronating on one side. After three visits, he said he was all out of ideas and didn't understand what the root cause of the pain was. He said he couldn't really help me and that I should just carry on with exercises and stretching. (He didn't know I was seeing a private physio).

I have now decided to get a personal trainer on board. I was hoping the physio would be able to do that too, but as I said he does physio in Brentwood, but only does PT in London. I did a little bit of research and found someone who specifically has good  knowledge/qualifications in biomechanics. That's the study of how the body moves and how one part affects others etc. All PT's claim to be able to help you with imbalances, but I'm looking for more detail than that. The guy I have found, got into his profession due to his own pains and trying to resolve his own issues, so I feel he's walked a similar path of discovery to me. He is also in to using foods rich in anti-inflammatory properties, which is something I was hot on in the past. He is looking forward to the challenge of trying to "fix" me. He has sat and done a very comprehensive questionnaire with me and I've had to send him photos of everything I've eaten this week (food diary). The next step is that he will do a full body survey, checking movement and range of motion through a series of tests and exercises. He will then give me a nutrition plan and an exercise plan. I'll see him once a week.

This week, my hip pain has got really bad and turned into severe back pains. The pains were so bad on Saturday that I was almost in tears and nearly throwing up with the pain. My physio thinks it might be Piriformis syndrome and having looked it up on the internet, it seems to fit. So at the moment, I'm just trying to get the inflammation down and sort that out.

I'm supposed to be doing Race For Life Muddy this weekend, but at the moment it is looking highly unlikely.

I'm really looking forward to starting my new plan with my PT. I feel like I'm really ready to knuckle down and do it right again. The pain I've been in this week has also served as a timely reminder of what happens when I don't look after myself.

Watch this space!

Onwards and upwards. Keep on keeping on. #FasterHigherStronger

New year, new me?

Well, as you can tell, I've been neglecting my blog for quite some time. As we entered into 2017 I did a bit of  self assessment, as I'm sure many of us do. I logged on here to see what I'd been up to last time we spoke. As it turned out, my last post was around this time exactly a year ago and reading through it, I was struck immediately by how similar it was to what I was planning to write this year. In fact I'd go so far as to say it was almost word for word what I was going to write! Had I not moved forward at all in the last twelve months? I certainly had some note worthy achievements, as always, there were plenty of races and I did really well with my cycling, increasing my mileage from around 15/20 miles up to 30 miles. All that aside though, I did not improve my running times significantly, I did not improve my upper body strength and I most definitely did not lose any weight! For all of that, I cant help but be disappointed with myself.

Where did it go wrong and what am I going to do different then? I did a few sessions with a personal trainer but its a paradoxical situation; either work is so busy that I'm not able to fit sessions in or work is quiet and so I cant afford the luxury of personal training. Looking forward, money will be tight as we need to save for a mortgage, so personal training is off the menu for a while. I have everything I need at home anyway, I just need to keep myself motivated. Last year I tended to skip the weights sessions in favour of running or cycling, so this year I must make sure I'm not taking the easy option every time.

I've decided not to enter a half marathon in 2018, so March 2017 will be the last one for a while at least. I've come to this decision because training for it takes up so much time and effort that I cant do the other things I want, like the weights workouts. Its difficult to schedule a heavy legs session when you need to be fresh for a 10 mile run a few days later! It also hurts my joints quite a lot, which is no fun. Therefore I have decided to focus on 5 and 10km runs for the next year at least and really work on beating some PB's. On the subject of joint pains, I've been referred to a muscoskeletal clinic with particular reference to my hip, which is giving me so much pain lately.

This year we are doing two Nuclear races (mud obstacle), one in May and one in September. I'm doing two Race For Life's, the 10k and the 5k muddy. I'm also doing the winter run, hopefully the Tough 10k and the Rudolph Run again as well as the Brentwood half marathon of course. Besides all those official events, I'll be challenging myself at cycling again. Last year the goal was to cycle to Southend (30 miles), this year I want to double it, there and back. As a side show for motivation, I am doing a virtual race throughout the year; Lands End to John O Groats. I log my weekly mileage from running and cycling with the race organisers until it totals the distance (605 miles) they post on Facebook and send me postcards from where I would be so far.   

Diet wise, its pretty much everything I said I was going to do last year. I'm feeling pretty good about it this time. One of the lifestyle changes I want to make is to not spend as long in the evenings watching telly and drinking cider. There are so many little things on my to do list that I never quite have time for, the silly little things, from tidying the sock drawer to putting up new pics in the gym. I don't have time because I come home from work, eat, then watch telly (even when there's nothing worth watching). So now, if there's nothing worth watching, I'll go and find something to do. Hopefully this will result in me drinking a bit less and make me a bit more active. If nothing else,  I'll be ticking off all those little jobs!

Hopefully I'll speak to you a little sooner than last time!

Breaking out of the rut.

Let me first start by making an amendment to the last post; it turns out I didn't reach a PB and finally break the 30 minute 5k. My app was off as the new phone case I had was disrupting the GPS signal. Bit of a bummer but it didn't come as a surprise.

So this post is about 'breaking out of the rut'. For a while now I feel like I've been talking about various goals and not really achieving them for one reason or another. One of my very own motto's is "If you are sick of starting over, stop quitting". I need to take my own advice. There have been too many 'treats' and 'cheats' and all too often they have outnumbered the good stuff. I have been fairly active but not pushing myself the way I should in order to get the results I want. I don't really do New Years resolutions because I think resolutions should be made whenever necessary, not just once a year, but I have taken this time to re-assess what I am doing and get focussed again.

For me, at least for now, there will be no cheats, no treats. I'm an all or nothing kind of girl and one thing leads to another so I'm best just saying no, full stop. That includes my meals too, I tend to excuse a little sauce or a little bit of cheese or an extra spoonful of something and it all adds up. I have long since given up eating any kinds of 'diet' food or 'low fat' options, for me it's all about eating good 'clean' food. That means whole fresh foods rather than processed packaged stuff. I will get back to basics with that and keep a check on portion control. I have in the past tried to cut down on bread with limited success (back to the all or nothing problem) and so, for now, it is off the menu. Simple carbs (potatoes, pasta, rice) are limited and larger portions are reserved for heavy workout days. I am also trying to cut down on drinking indoors and laying off the cider. Since reading about the possible link between Aspartame (artificial sweetener) and cancer, and also its negative affect on weight loss I have tried to avoid Diet Coke and therefore my alcoholic drink of choice at the moment is vodka and soda water. I am going to see if I can make it through January without drinking indoors (and since we don't have any nights out planned, possibly not drinking at all).

I have realised that I have not been pushing myself out of my comfort zone when it comes to exercise. I am also struggling to workout effectively to work towards all of the different goals I have. I want to work on strength and power (especially upper body) in order to perform better in the Nuclear Rush (6km mud obstacle race) but I also need to train for the Half Marathon which I am doing again this year. I also have a 10km race at the end of January. I have used a personal trainer (Ben) twice, who I met through the bootcamps I used to go to. The training is exactly what I am looking for, lots of squats, lunges etc. to work those big muscles and burn fat as well as strength and endurance work. He works me so hard that I want to puke, which is what I need but it leaves my legs too knackered to do long runs if I don't get a few days recovery. Also it is difficult to fit in the sessions around work and not to mention expensive. I think I would like to do a session once a fortnight. I need to do a long run at least once a week at the moment. I would also like to do a bootcamp style session. I could either do that with my personal trainer who now runs his own fitness camp or with Mike who used to do the bootcamps and now has an indoor venue called Hurtlocker which offers a similar style of training but without the mud and rain. Darren also bought me the Insanity Workout DVD's for Christmas which I want to do, but same problem occurs with legs being too tired to run. For now the running needs to take priority and I will try to do at least one strength session per week.

The main things for now are to eat right, drink less alcohol, and to train effectively and with a purpose. I want to lose around two and a half stone by holiday in August. I'd like as much of the weight gone as possible by the Half Marathon in March, as excess weight will only make it harder. I say two and a half stone as a goal but that is simplified. I am more concerned with what I look and feel like so body composition is a bigger factor for me than weight loss (fat loss vs muscle gain). I feel like I'm back in the zone, which I haven't been for a while, so I've just got to stay there.

Personal Best

If you've been reading this blog, you'll know that for a few years I've been talking about getting my 5km time under 30 minutes. My PB stood at 31 minutes, so near and yet so far! Today I beat it. Not only did a beat it, I smashed it! New PB stands at 29.44

I haven't been doing a lot of running lately, throughout the summer I've been spending most of my workout time on my bike. I'm trying to build up my distance again as I'm finding 5km a chore at the moment and I have committed to the Rudolph run and Half Marathon again. My aim today was to increase my distance a little. I was going for around 6km, maybe a little more. I wasn't really concerned about the time and figured on recent performances it would be a bit of a plod.

I set off surprisingly well and felt comfortable at a good pace. A couple of km in and the app in my ear told me I was still holding a good pace but then came a km of steady uphill, which has been a challenge in the past. I expected to slow but was determined not to stop. As I turned the corner into the uphill road, I was greeted by an unwelcome headwind. Though unwelcome, it served to increase my determination and I started to pump my arms a little more. As I turned the corner back on to a flat road at around the 4km mark, the app told me I was still doing well and I started to think about the PB. At 4.5km I knew I was on and that spurred me on to pick up the pace a little bit more. Ironically, in the back of my mind I was thinking that the objective of today's run was to increase my distance and it would be a shame if I ran so hard that having hit the PB I would then want to rest and recover rather than keep running. At 5km the app told me I'd done it in 29.44 and a smile spread across my face. I wanted to do a fist pump but in fear of looking like a poor shadow of Rocky, I held it in. I resisted the urge to walk and revel in my glory, and kept running. At the risk of sounding like Forrest Gump, I just kept on running. At this point I was still a couple of km from home so if I stopped to walk it would just be a long walk home. When I run for distance, I do this deliberately so that even if I quit early, I still have to walk home. I made it to 7km leaving a short cool down walk to finish. On checking my stats I discovered that my fastest pace was the sixth km, the one straight after I hit the PB. Perhaps I flew it (or more likely it was the tailwind)?

I'm feeling so good at the moment, if a little perplexed that of all the times I ran with the PB in mind, the time I wasn't aiming to challenge it was the one that did the business. I'd also like to give a little shout out to the new trainers I got for my birthday, Some top quality Asics. I'm sure they helped.

So now the 30 min 5km is no longer the challenge, so what now? For me, it feels like Roger Bannister cracking the four minute mile. Of course, I will continue to try and better the PB, but shall I set 25 mins as a new goal? Could I do that? Or do I focus on maintaining the pace over a longer distance to better my 10km PB? Well that's one for me to ponder for a while, I think. For now I'm just happy with today. That's one in the bag for "Faster" #FasterHigherStronger

I am officially a "runner"!

I did it! I completed the Rudolph run and even more impressively the Half Marathon.

Both were blighted by ill health annoyingly. I have only had two colds all winter, the first was a week or so before the Rudolph run. I made a good recovery but was still struggling a little with a blocked up nose. It was a bitterly cold day down by Southend sea front, about 5 degrees, as I recall. I was nice and warm once I started running even though I only had a vest top on. Darren on the other hand was nigh on frozen standing waiting for me to finish. I completed the 5 miles in 50:47 which I was quite pleased with considering the breathing issues.

The second cold was actually Flu and kept me in bed for two days. It struck around 6 weeks before the Half Marathon. I had got up to 18km in training (the race would be just over 21k - I train in km even though this race is measured in miles, a bi-product of doing 5k's for so long). I didn't do any running for about 3 weeks as breathing was tough. I tried a couple of bike rides just to get something in but it was a struggle. By the time I felt well enough it was getting close to the race and I didn't want to over do things or risk injury so I just got in a couple of 5k runs. I was really hoping to have gotten in a couple of 18-20k runs before race day but it wasn't to be. I would just have to hope that adrenaline and pure determination would be enough to get me to the finish line.

Race day was very favourable with the weather. It was colder and wetter than it had been the weekend before but thankfully the rain stopped and the sun came out shortly before I started and didn't change until we were in the car and well on our way home. For that, I am eternally grateful. I don't know how I would have faired in worse weather, especially if it were windy.

We had a ten minute walk from the stadium to the start line (which I was not impressed with). Olympic medal winner Mo Farrah sounded the horn at the start line and we all set off. It felt like literally every single runner was passing me, but I had my tracker app feeding information through my ears and I was very conscious of my pace. I knew I must not get tempted in trying to keep up with them. I saw some official race pacers who were labelled as "2:15 pacers". I knew I would be 2:30 or over so I was happy to keep them in my sights for a while. I know that my pace slows towards the back end of the race (which is something I'm working on). Before too long I could see the soaring arch of Wembley and we weaved our way towards it. As we came into the underground car parks of the stadium there was a thunderous roar dwarfing any sounds coming through my headphones. Just as I wondered what it could be, I turned a corner and there were a whole bank of drummers and I imagined that I was a player getting ready to run onto the pitch to the roar of the crowd. And then, there it was, the pitch in front of me, the seating surrounding me like an all encompassing hug. I was smiling, which the race photographers managed to miss it seems. Within seconds it was over and it was all about the homeward slog. The trouble now was that I had made a note of a couple of the hills I had enjoyed running down, knowing full well that I would now have to run up them. As I approached the worst one I tried to clear my thoughts, get my head down and power on up. As I did so one of my very favourite songs "Mr Brightside" came through my ears giving me just the boost I needed. I started to think about the 2:15 pacers, who were now long gone into the distance. That was not an issue but it occurred to me that I had seen faster pacers but I had not seen any slower pacers. Were there any slower pacers? Perhaps they didn't bother with anyone slower than 2:15? As I passed the 10 mile marker my question was answered and I watched 2:30 pacers pass me. I was ok with that. I had 3.1 miles to go and I wasn't too far off the pace. I knew though that I was only going to get slower and hoped I would not grind to a halt. By the time I got to 12 miles all I wanted to do was walk. I knew if I walked though that it would just be longer until the pain was over and it would only get tougher and tougher. I tried to walk for a few seconds once or twice but my muscles were so tight I actually couldn't straighten my legs enough to walk properly. I stopped to stretch a couple of times then cracked on with it. As I came back round into the Saracen's stadium towards the finish line the course took us across some grass which was a little muddy and uneven. Within seconds of setting foot on it my left foot went into a painful cramp, unable to deal with contouring to the bumps. Thankfully I managed to shake it off. What bad luck it would have been to have to limp over the finish line now! As I came towards the finish line I looked up to the clock which was reading 2:45. I knew my chip time would be a little under that. Then I looked for Darren and found him. I found a little energy for a wave and a smile as he filmed me then over the finish line with my hands in the air. I was aware that there was a rubber bump across the finish line hiding wires and it was an effort to lift my feet over it. Having readjusted my stride, I found myself slightly off skew for a second rubber strip. I nearly tripped over it and as I corrected myself I could feel another cramp shooting up my calf muscle. I managed to walk and keep it at bay, again fearful of an unglamorous ending to my race!

And that was it! Done! The official chip time was 2:43:20.

When I was younger, and going for job interviews, I would always struggle if asked "what is your greatest achievement" or "tell me about something you are proud of". Now I can answer easily. Despite Doctors telling me not to run if it hurts, I took control of my life and my destiny. I didn't need gym memberships, personal trainers or anyone else to motivate me. I got off my butt and done it by myself, for myself. Now I am a "runner" and this runner ran a Half Marathon!

Remember: its not a "Half" of anything, its a "Whole" 13.1 mile race.