Try to Tri

My poor neglected blog was gradually heading to the place where blogs go to die but I have returned and as usual it is all change. As you all know I'm constantly up for a new challenge and challenges are what I do best.

So after a fantastic year of running (just under a 1,000 miles) I wanted to start the year with a bang. With big plans to run a marathon in Spring and a handful of half marathons the first half of the year and a triathlon in Summer I set about training. Then a few weeks into the new year i had a fabulous 9 miler on a new route and felt great but my run a few days later was agony, my shin splints were coming back. Having learnt from past lessons I knew I had to stop running completely for a few weeks and focus on cross training.

Over the past 3 weeks I have focussed my attention on working on triathlon training and it has now become apparent that triathlon training is not going to be a part time training challenge. The marathon I was going to do booked up so that was possibly a blessing in diguise and although half marathons are an option, I'm not going to dedicate my training to them. So what am I doing?

Well I joined a gym to start working on my swimming and cycling, after a few initial test runs it became apparent I have an awful lot to do to to get my swimming and cycling up to triathlon standard. I have been doing alot of tough workouts on the bike and building up a high average cadence as well as upping the resistance to build up strength and stamina. I've also been doing a fair amount of weights and generally using the rower and crosstrainer to get my body stronger and started to build up the distances slowly on the treadmill.

In the pool i'm trying to reteach myself to swim, swimming with poor breathing and your head above water is ok to get by but in a race it will probably finish me off so I am swimming between 300 and 500m but purely focussing on bilateral breathing so I can get my breathing accomplished before really focussing on technique. That is going well but I have a long way to go but I'm already excited about my improvement.

So my race is in early July and it is a sprint triathlon 400m swim/23km ride/5km run and I have a feeling it will just be the beginning. I am loving the new challenge of a triathlon and teaching myself things I had resigned myself to being rubbish at, for me the triathlon challenge is not about distance but about proving to myself what I can do with a bit of focus. I have always been a poor swimmer and not the fastest or most confident cyclist so I have a lot to be working on. The best part is that I'm training and racing with my husband and he too is starting to see the addictive...ness of a triathlon! Running will always be my favorite and my strength but trying to perfect 3 disciplines is so exciting. We are also racing in the Lincoln 10k in April which will keep me running between all the other workouts.

I had my first brick session yesterday and although it was a killer, it has made me blissfully excited about getting better at all the disciplines and proving myself and others wrong (yes PE teachers I refer to you)! I'm doing a better job of making myself a better athlete than all my PE teachers put together...

As usual my fellow athletes on Daily mile are brilliant with their motivation and advice! And now more than ever I want to get my instructors qualification and start bringing the excited that sport can bring to others... one day :)

Running, It's the future

So in the past month things haven't been too great (again) for my lil running legs! I was struck down with a chest infection and a cold for 2 weeks and I am now recovering from a torn intercostal muscle (rib muscles) and infection on the lungs. It is utterly excrutiating and I am once again supplementing my diet with Ibuprofen!

All is not lost though. When I am poorly or not able to get in the fast or long runs I tend to focus a lot more on the future and finer details of running.

So I've not been running an awful lot but the runs I have been doing have been slow and I've been really working on my gait. In the past few months I have felt my gait has been getting sloppy and I was getting a few twinges but I have been tidying things up there.

As a result of these shorter runs I have felt like i'm not running enough but my rib injury can't cope with much more than 5 miles so I have been introduced to the world of 'doubles'. For those not down with the lingo this basically means running 2 shorter runs a day as opposed to 1 longer run. The way I have been doing it is running with the dog in the morning (up to 3 miles) and then a slightly longer and faster one in the evening on my own. This way the dog gets his joggies and I get a quality run and still get to eat dinner at a reasonable hour. At the moment it's working well for me and it's apparently excellent for burning fat so hopefully I'll shed the few inches of winter padding I've acquired!

With being ill for almost a month now my long runs have been neglected and whilst I could still run a half marathon the pain in my ribs is not yet fading and with the race getting ever closer I have made the (hopefully) wise decision to pull out of the Norwich Half Marathon at the end of the month. It does mean that I will not crack one of my targets for the year but I will now focus on getting my sub 50mins 10k for now. I'll see how I feel once my ribs are better but half marathon's are few and far between in December so I will be focussing my energy on the Grantham half in March to really smas that PB, it's a LOVELY race and close to my heart being my first half!

So future planning is underway and I have now decided to run a marathon in Spring (as well as Istanbul in October 2011). Despite being offered a place in the London Marathon I have opted for the Edinburgh Marathon. I've not yet registered. Waiting to get better first. Other than that, I am yet to sort out my race diary for next year but I am aiming for 4 half marathons, 2 marathons and perhaps 4 or 5 10kms (maybe 11 for '11). Also hoping to do a triatlon (sprint) with the Husband in June. Busy busy but it's good to have these targets to keep me going, especially when training isn't going your way!

Now I can't wait to get better and go out and do some proper running and hopefully come back stronger. Despite my short distances and slow paces I have still clocked up 24 miles this week so the doubles certainly get the miles in :)

New 10k PB

So after this weekends race I thought it was about time I updated my blog.

So for this race I travelled down south to Surrey for this race. I felt like a change to the normal Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire scenery and fancied a visit to the family so in true slightly obsessed runners style I thought I'd squeeze in a race whilst I was there.

So after 2 races where the temperatures were soaring I was slightly lacking in confidence for this race. I have really put in the training but I still prayed for a cool day. And so the morning was overcast and crisp and perfect running conditions but I still felt anxious about this race. I didn't know if I could handle another disappointing race!

So the target was sub 53 and on a perfect day 50 mins (optimistic) and I was determined to get at least a PB! So the we set out, as usual I took the first mile easier and despite it being a little congested at the start myself and my Brother in law weaved our way past the slower runners and settled for 5 minutes or so. At this point I subconsciously took it up a gear and realised 2 minutes later I had lost my running buddy (I am useless running with others, sorry Dean..lol). So what next? I wanted to get at least a 9 min first mile which I did.

At this point I had found my groove, I had the bounce in my knees and I was raring to go. I started to overtake people, one at a time. As I worked my way through the field, my anxiousness returned, was I doing too much? On reflection I was running well and comfortably but at the time I eased of a bit. Even then I was still overtaking people and not being overtaken, this has never happened to me in a race, usually finishing in the bottom half of the field.

By the time i reached mile 3 I was brimming with confidence, I had overtaken loads of people, this is when they usually over take back!! So we hit the canal path which was fairly traily, muddy and rocky... thank god for training I put into running trails in barefoot shoes. I noticed that people had started to slow down at this point and once I had a feel for the ground I was manoeuvring over the stones and whilst people were slipping on the wet stones I was gripping the stones with my feet and bouncing all over the place, barefoot+trails= good fun! By mile 4 I had overtaken another chunk of people as I ran straight through the mud and right across the stones instead of dodging them!

By now I was so glad I was running 'barefoot', this is what it was designed for, OK it was a clear path but a slightly unlevel one and it suited me just fine. I saw my sisters and niece at about 4 miles and as they cheered me on (asking the whereabouts of my brother in law...oops) I got a new lease of life just when my legs were starting to tire. I started to enjoy the scenery and pin point the next person to overtake. By 4.5 I seemed to have settled behind similar paced runners so I decided to stay there until the final mile when I would speed up a little and then really kick in the final km. I overtook (with greater difficulty, these people were far more competitive...damn!) a few more people and spotted my target for the final KM.

At the final KM, as I promised myself, I overtook this woman who seemed to take it as a personal insult that I dared do such a think when I wasn't even wearing running shoes! 30 seconds later she shoved me out her way (complete with her nail digging into the back of my arm) and overtook me, BITCH! I was furious, there is just no need to be like that amongst our running comrades. I let her through and stayed at her ankles until the final 200m.

This is my forte, my sprint finish so I sprinted past her but no she was sprinting back past me, did I have anything left.... just when this scuffle was looking to end in her favour in the final 75 I found another gear, family cheering I raced past the woman who I will only refer to as 'the bitch that tried to mess with Gemma' I beat her by about 5 metres, how the hell did I sprint that fast? I guess I should thank her for making me angry.... although she may of regretted it!

I got a PB of 52.28 and came 77th out of 300! No wonder I felt like I was overtaking loads of people, I was!!!

Overall it was such a positive race that has made me realised I am a serious competitor. No I will never be running it in 35 minutes BUT I can certainly try and be amongst the best of the 'quite good' runners in the future!

I will update again tomorrow with some big running decisions I have been making! All very exciting!