Yoga Trial

This is a new concept for me. I always thought that maybe i should give it a go and now it's reality.

Sunday was the end of my phase 1 training for London and phase 2 starts with a recovery/set back week to let my body adjust. Also on Friday night I won a raffle prize of 10 days unlimited pass at 'Eden Hot Yoga in Lichfield'.

I figured it's perfect timing and decided to give it a go.

It started with some gentle stretches and moved on to some harder yoga poses. The room was heated to around 28℃. I only know this because the instructor told me.

It was so good and i felt completely revitalized. My mind and body felt cleansed.

I would deffinattly advise yoga and especially the 'EDEN HOT YOGA" in Lichfield for anybody!

Helping Others

I'm always striving to help others in anyway possible, I put myself out and go that extra mile to ensure I help anybody no matter what the circumstances.

It was back in October when somebody who is going to rename nameless contacted me and asked for help.

This person 'unknown' had disabilitys and wanted to run the London Marathon for charity. I asked her how much running she had done and it was then I realized it was probably minimal. I thought then that this  was going to be a hard task for her to embark upon. Never the less I told her I wasn't trained and could only help and advise from my experiences.

She was just grateful of any help together we used the official London beginner's forum and the https://my.asics.com/uk/en-gb. Website's and together we got a plan sorted. She is now working through this and had so far ran 10miles. 0-10 miles from October to end of Jan is incredible on my eyes.

Unknown, texts, phones and contacts me regularly and I help and give the praise that is deserved! I sometimes think that she is not going to accomplish and that it could be dangerous and I have expressed my concerns with her but she is determined to continue.

When she is texting me I constantly remind myself what it feels like to be achieving personal bests everytime you run l, you just want to tell the world and that's great, I'm here to listen.

The fact is she is achieving what she though was impossible, and is extremely well, she is happy and enjoying herself and whilst I think it's dangerous for her to be running London Marathon in her months of running  I also happy to be appart of it, it makes me feel worthy and keeps me plodding on with my own training plan through the good and bad! 

London Marathon

The day I finished Chester Marathon (October 2016) I said to myself "I'd never run another Marathon"

Thats untill I was given a Lichfield Running Cub, ballot place!

My London journey started in November 2016 when I rlwas Sat at the club AGM and my name was pulled out for the ballot of London Marathon. London has always been something that I have wanted to do but never have I been given the chance unroll know so I decided I was going to make this my "one chance, one moment"

With this I began by reading a few books and scouring Google to find a training plan, I found that there was loads of advice, a good website is;

https://my.asics.com/uk/en-gb

Whilst this is a superb website and has become my go-to site for details I wanted some clarity so I spoke to Matt Adcock (coach) who wrote a plan to help me achieve my goal. Although, I'm not telling what this is untill after the marathon sorry :) all you need to know is I want to either match or beat my Chester marathon time of 3:32:15.

Before starting my plan on January 1st I wanted to obtain a good base so went back joining the club for saturday morning hopwas sessions with some added miles. I slowly built back up and by the time Christmas came I was running 17 miles, no problems.

I am now just finishing my phase 1 training (building a base) with my longest run being 19.6 miles and I'm still feeling good.

I'm writing this whilst sat on the train, like most of these posts but today is the first run of phase 2 but this starts with a set back week to let my body adapt.

Thanks all, check back for more updates.

2 Mo Miles

Sat on the train one day, on my way to work i was scrolling through Facebook when i saw an advert with British Athletics to run with Mo Farah!

I had a quick read an noticed that all you had to do was write a paragraph of why you wanted to run with mo i the comments so i quickly commented my true thoughts as below;

I had completely forgot all about this and then much to my amazement i randomly received the following private message from them;

I had won the chance to run with Mo Farah!

I was talking to the organizers before and they decided that they wanted me to be apart of there media team also. I undertook 2 radio interviews about running and how i felt about the run with Mo and then on the day i underwent press interviews for the local news and local papers.

It was wired because i had never done anything like this before, and had never met any pro athletes. In meeting Mo it made me realize that the professional athletes are the same as every single one of us, they love running and just want to do there best, and reach there highest potential!

There were 25 people and i tried to speak to everyone, i was trying to get to know everyone's background and to understand why they were runners, some were just starting out and some were experienced but everybody had a story to tell about why they were there on that day. it was truley inspiring to hear!

 Meeting Mo, really gave me the drive and edge to want to train harder and preform better, after all "You only get, one chance, one moment" but the experience over the entire day has given me the memories to never forget that whilst we are chasing our moment, everybody has their story and regardless of age, gender, sex, religion, race, disability we are all one community, one running family.

Ever since this day, i have pledged myself to make every effort to help and inspire anybody willing to give any sport or running a chance, striving to become an ambassador for the sport and local club which i enjoy, with the hope of inspiring other to enjoy aswell!

Running in Singapore 2

PARK RUN SINGAPORE 

CASUAL EVENING RUN 

OSIM SUNDOWN MARATHON & 10K 2016

Running in Singapore

The Journey to Singapore started 4 days before my flight, by this I mean my company asked me if I could do a 2 month secondment and 4 days later I was on a flight to a country I had never been to before leaving my fiancé and new house back at home in the UK.

When I arrived in Singapore I firstly noticed the extreme heat and how tired lonely and hungry I was. I checked into my apartment and found something to eat and headed to bed. I woke up early the next day 6am and headed out to my first day at work, on my way I found somewhere to grab breakfast and a coffee before heading into work.

That evening I left work and started to wonder what I would do with myself, so I headed out for my first run! It was hot and humid and after 3 miles I couldn’t run any further so I retreated back home, had a beer and went to bed. I was only at work 2 days before the weekend so on the Friday at work I looked at what I could fill my weekend with and I found that there was a park run! The website stated that there was coffee at the end so I figured I had nothing to lose, running, meeting new people, cake and coffee ‘sounds perfect’.

I joined the park run at 7am and absolutely loved it, it was down by the sea (east coast park) so there was a nice cool breeze and it was very scenic (pictures to follow). At the end, exactly as the website had stated everyone headed to Costa for a coffee and a chat and i got talking to a guy called Dominic. Dominic was the leader of a running group in Singapore (Singapore shufflers) and he invited me to join them on a Tuesday and Thursday for their training.

Tuesday came and I went along to my first running group meet, I soon found my stride and started to enjoy running like I had back in the UK and the rest just happened.

Whilst I was here I figured it would be a good change to undertake my first ever overseas race so I registered for the sundown 10k race which was held on a Saturday at 12pm (midnight). This was a good chance for me to see where my fitness was and I finished the race in a time of 41:02 which considering the heat and humidity I was extremely pleased with.

The run started at the F1 Pitts building, yes this is where the F1 pit lanes are. The run then headed out of Singapore up the river and back down past marina bay sands (the boat shaped hotel) and then through marina bay gardens before turning round and heading back. The run was very scenic but I did find myself gasping for air the entire way. There were a few points which seemed to be cooler than the rest so I took the opportunity’s to slow down and take a quick cool-off before heading off again. The run was very good with both the start and finish lines being a phenomenal experience, just like a party. I would defiantly recommend anyone wanting to do an overseas run, to do this 1!

Whilst in Singapore the other memorable experience I had was running around Macritchie Reservoir. I started out at 8am and embarked on a 7 mile loop of the reservoir where I headed through the woods and found a variety for wildlife I hadn’t encountered before including wild monkeys. On finishing this run I got talking to some people who told me to try the coconut from the mushroom café  so I did, again very recommended.

All in all, I enjoyed my experiences in Singapore, daughting but exciting. If it wasn’t for the Singapore shufflers I do not know what I would have done (probably sat watching films most of the time). They all welcomed me with open arms and I met a lot of good people from all around the world if it wasn’t for these guys I probably wouldn’t have stayed in Singapore for the entire 2 month period. It was at this point that i realized running is not just a mere hobby it’s a way of life and wherever you are in the world you will always have friends/other running collages that will welcome you to their groups. 

For pictures visit my Running in Singapore 2 post 

National 3 Peaks Challenge

The 3 peaks challenge, i am not going to talk about this, im just going to say what an experience! 

We did this with a group of us to raise money for the Birmingham Children's Hospital. We had 2 dedicated drives and a team of 13 walkers including, experienced fell runners to complete novices. 

The minibus was restricted to 55 mph and my dad (one of the divers) got lost following the sat nav so we lost alot of time. However, we still managed the following times; 

Ben Nevis - 4.5 hours

Scafell Pike 3.5 hours 

Snowdon - 2.5 hours 

But unfortunately finished in 24 hours and 30 mins. 

Running 2016 Endeavors

This is not the first blog I have done, I have done many others typically about university work but this is the first ever running blog I have created. Ok I won’t be rude and ill introduce myself, im 25 years old and I live in the midlands, im a running enthusiast which basically means im not particularly fast im just an ordinary runner who likes to get out clear my head and stay fit.

Alongside running I like all things outdoors, from camping and hiking to canoeing and rock climbing. But, less about me and more about my running.

I started out during august 2014, basically I just decided I wanted to get fit so I decided to run the Lichfield 10K (which is a nice course by the way). I basically did 3 months of training and beat my target time of 55 mins. After telling some of the lads in the office were I was working at the time (some of them being runners) the banter started about my time as they were all older but faster. It was at this point that I decided to make a conscious effort to join a running club to improve these times. Lichfield was my chosen club as it was close to home. At first I only ran with them on a Wednesday for intervals but this quickly migrated to joining them for Monday and Sunday’s as well. I started off during 2014 by running in the C group but my fitness soon came back and I was soon with the B’s.

My friends are not particularly sporty people, so joining a club helped me to join a new friendship group with likeminded people. I soon progressed and the club helped me in running Fradley 10k in 50 mins and Lichfield half marathon in 1hr 50. During this year I also did race the train which was 14 miles through the valleys in mid wales.

Towards the end of 2015 I became injured with a bad knee and I immediately went to see a physio. The physio diagnosed me with runner’s knee, preformed some acupuncture and gave me some stretches which helped strengthen the muscles. I did exactly as I was old and just before Christmas I got back into running.

2016 started and I was more motivated than ever, I had had some time out of running and with Fradley 10k approaching I wanted to get a new PB. I started training smarter and harder than I had before and I was soon able to run faster times. I joined the A group on a couple of occasions but I was always at the back. However, it was enjoyable and what more would you want on a cold, wet and dark Wednesday night?

Fradley came and I managed to get myself a new personal best of 40:29 which I was extremely happy with, the week after I ran Stafford half marathon where I got 1 hr 29, again I was ecstatic with. From here I started to think about what I wanted to do next!

Towards the end of April my work asked me if I wanted to work in Singapore for 2 months or not and I took the opportunity whilst I could. To hear about these adventures visit the posts on Singaporean running.

I returned from Singapore at the end of June and I had to quickly begin training for Man Vs Mountain which was a 22 mile obstacle race up Snowdon. I will post a separate blog on my page about this which will enlighten you to the thrills and details of the event.

4 weeks later (after man vs mountain) I found myself running Chester Marathon. With no specific marathon training and off the back of the hilliest run I had ever done I managed to get a time of 3 hr 32 mins which I thought was brilliant! During this run I learnt a lot about myself, I learnt that I cannot just go out and run a 7:30mm for 18 miles, I soon dropped down to 8 and even 9mm pace for the remaining miles. The 20 mile marker was the hardest mental battle I have encouted during running I have never had to push myself as much as I did on this race. I came away telling myself “I will never run another marathon in my life”

Well that’s until I got a LRC club place for London 2017.

To follow my progress on the build up to London 2017 keep an eye on this page.