Gym - AnnaTheApple

April 14, 2016

How I trained for the Boston Marathon

One more day before I’m off to Boston with my mum! We get a taxi tomorrow morning and off we go. We’re both very excited. Before that though, I thought I’d do a post on how I trained for the Boston Marathon.

Like the Liverpool Marathon, I didn’t really follow a generic plan though I did use a few in combination to get a good idea of level of mileage and the long runs (how many, when, the build-up to them, etc.). In terms of running I decided to keep with running four times a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday usually). My mid-week runs would be 4-6 miles, then parkrun on a Saturday and the long run on the Sunday.

When I initially started training I was keen to include regular hills and possibly some interval training in my schedule. Ha. That didn’t really happen long-term. I kept it up to begin with but then lost motivation.

The red highlight is where I had my niggle

This is probably because I was also juggling a lot of stuff at the gym. I was finding myself really enjoying my time strength training and lifting heavier weights (a lot heavier than I was during my Liverpool marathon training). This meant that my recovery was a lot tougher and if I went to the gym on Tuesday morning and worked on my glutes then that evening’s run would be really hard-work with heavy legs.

The gym

Of course I could have cut back my gym sessions or lifted less heavy weights, but the truth is I didn’t want to. The goal for Boston has never been to get a PB. Not every marathon for me has to have that aim. I enjoy them so much (when they don’t involve me getting injured…) that I don’t mind not getting a ‘fast’ time because the whole thing feels epic and an accomplishment anyway. (I don’t feel the same way about 10ks!). Plus it sort of takes the fun out of the entire process if I’m constantly worrying about speed sessions, hitting certain paces and goals. I much prefer to trundle through the training consistently, hitting the long runs feeling strong. And that’s what I’ve done.

So I usually went to the gym four times a week and generally split it shoulders/arms, glutes, legs and back with added running-specific exercises to keep injuries at bay for running (e.g. single leg work, balance and coordination focuses, plyometrics, core, etc.).

The running

Fortunately I only had one niggle-woe which disappeared after a week of rest. My foot randomly started causing me sharp pains during a planned 18 miler and so I cut it short to 12 miles. I then cut back my next long run to 13 miles. I was surprisingly sensible and didn’t panic. I’m almost certain the root cause was choosing an old pair of trainers to run in which disagreed with me. Other than that I haven’t had any issues (fingers crossed, *touches wood*, *does a rain dance*).

My build-up has been nice and gradual and my mileage around the level I like it (30 miles/week). My only slight concern is that I’ve only done one full 18 mile run that wasn’t broken up. Two of them I used half marathons and added on extra miles beforehand to get the mileage up. But it is what it is! I have two 17 milers which I’m really pleased with.

Food

This time around I was far more conscious of what I was eating. For Liverpool I’d refuel after long runs with afternoon teas, cakes and just general crap “because I’m training for a marathon”. This time around I focused on more balanced meals, especially post long-runs, and ate a lot more protein and fat. Especially with lifting weights I knew I needed to increase my protein. I didn’t want to lose muscle through running and I didn’t want to lose weight.

Steak with stir-fried veg and Brie

I haven’t had those nagging headaches I used to get after my long runs and I feel like my body recovered quicker. I didn’t stop treats or meals out though. As you’ve probably noticed I ate out a lot and ate a lot of ribs and more red meat. Life isn’t fun without the good stuff you love after all

So I’ve just got to survive Monday. The hills and predicted high temperatures are slightly concerning me but I have to keep reminding myself of my main goals: don’t get injured and enjoy it. I just have a few nightmares that this was my goal for Bournemouth and I was injured for six weeks afterwards… But I actually have proper paces planned that I’ll stick to (whichever goal I go for – likely to be 3:35 or 3:40) whereas for Bournemouth I just ran off like an idiot without any plans. I’ve also got 15 solid weeks of structured training behind me. Have faith, Anna.

Afterwards…

After the marathon it’ll all be about the crucial refuelling process. I’m thinking this is going to be a feat in itself. I’m almost certain I’ll have burned about 10,000000 calories during the race and so to that effect I’ll need to hunt out adequate spots of good food. This is likely to include some cake, probably some ribs, more than likely fro-yo and, purely for medicinal purposes, donuts. It’s going to be hard work but I’m hoping the US will help me out with this. After the marathon I only have four days so it’s going to be tough, but I’ll try my best

Do you strength train during marathon training?

How do you refuel after a big race?

How often do you like to run/train when training for a big race/event?

March 17, 2016

Rants and Raves #28

More raves than rants lately which is all good in my book. Marathon training is going well (*TOUCHES WOOD IMMEDIATELY*) and I’m in a happy place. For no specific real reason really (I’m still single…which I don’t particularly mind right now), just loving that the days are longer, the sun is brighter (or actually present) and I’m enjoying life!

Rave: I’m not a huge shopper (unless it’s to do with running/gym clothes, then I’m the worst) but occasionally I might splurge on non-fitness related items. I recently fell in love with a pair of Timberland boots. My mum has the same size feet as me and has a pair but annoyingly she has them in a deep raspberry colour, of which I wasn’t too keen on (otherwise I could borrow them). I went and perused a light brown pair on Saturday and tried a few different styles. They were quite expensive though so I left without buying them. But then ended up going back the next day as I couldn’t resist. That’s always the sign of a good purchase I think!

They’re really good quality, water-proof and hardy. Though the worst of the weather seems to be behind us, I always need a good pair of ‘proper’ shoes that aren’t just trainers or slip-ons. I also got myself two new pairs of jeans from H&M that were a bargain (£15!). They fit perfectly so I bought one in black and one in denim (in above pic). When you’ve found a pair of good fitting jeans, BUY THEM ALL.

Rave: OK I have a leeeeeeeetle thing for leggings. Most of my leggings though are more gym appropriate than running appropriate. They tend to be a bit more flashy or the material isn’t as good. I normally stick with either my trusty Nike capris or my slightly longer Helly Hansen ones. I do have Puma full-length ones but I rarely wear them unless it’s super cold. Anyway, my Nike’s are looking a bit tired (they’ve been around for a few years now…) and I’d seen some cool compression-style ones at the Marathon Talk Run Camp. In the end I went for 2UX 3/4 tights.

I got them from Zalando (I had a £10 off voucher. It made sense. [Not an affiliated link]). They are expensive at £70 (without my voucher) but I know how long my Nike’s have lasted and I wanted a quality product. And let me tell you, they are fantastic. They’re compression so they’re obviously a bit tighter than my Nike’s but they feel great on. They don’t slip down, they’re water-resistant, they have a little pocket for a key and they’re lovely and smooth. And they have the compression technology in them. Fully recommend!

Rant: When you’re one of the few people in an office who regular runs you become known somewhat of a ‘guru’ for all things running related. It doesn’t sound too bad I guess but it’s become more and more regular that people expect me to solve their fitness-problems. One fellow colleague started running with his dog and found after a few runs his knee started hurting. He told me this and then looked at me questioningly as if I could a) explain his knee issue or b) give him some solid medical advice. I’ve had my fair few injuries, don’t get me wrong, but I can barely solve my own let alone other people’s! I suggested getting trainers fitted and laying off the running until it felt OK…and possibly seeing someone about it if it wouldn’t go away.

Another guy told me how he was going to run the Reading Half Marathon which is in a few weeks time. I asked how his training was going and he said he wasn’t really training for it. OK… Yeah so plucked a random time goal out of the air, he then plugged that pace into a treadmill and evaluated how he got on. Apparently he lasted 10 minutes. Riiiiight. I told him normal half marathon training plans were at very least eight weeks long for fairly new runners, though ideally 12 weeks realistically (and that’s probably with at least some running experience behind them). He laughed and said, “Weeks?!”. Good luck, my friend. Good luck.

Rave: But on that similar note, it’s always nice people from other companies (we share an office block) coming up to you and saying they saw you running after work and asking what I was training for. They did London, they’re planning on doing this or that and the conversation just flows nicely. Running brings people together

Rant: When I was in Bristol the other weekend Alfie joined me. This is a tad gross but Kate said when they took Alfie and Doug, her pug, for a walk in the morning when I was at parkrun she noticed Alfie’s poo wasn’t, er, optimal. She suggested feeding him pasta to help his tummy as that’s what the vet has always told her (Doug’s had a few sick times). She kindly cooked him a little bowl of plain pasta (fusilli if you’re interested) for him to eat. He absolutely wolfed it down. Now Alfie is far more a grazer than a wolfer-downer (I just leave kibble in his bowl and he has it as and when he fancies it). I was really shocked.

My little Alfie is a carb-lover it seems! However, when I tried to recreate this at home but with rice instead of pasta (as I never have pasta) he played around with it and then left it. I’ve now been finding rice grains all over my floor since. *Sighs* Thanks Alfie. Clearly he’s picky with his carbs. But his poo has become more normal so it’s all good (TMI?).

Rave: I’ve been doing so well in reducing the number of artificial sweeteners I eat in my diet. I’m really quite bad at this… Sugar-free squash, sugar-free jelly, Options Hot Chocolate. It isn’t pretty.

But I’ve managed to cut back on my squash successfully; only two glasses a day. The rest have been swapped for herbal teas (peppermint and raspberry & Echinacea are my two current favourites). I haven’t been able to stop the jellies (choose your battles). But I have been able to stop the Options Hot Chocolate. This is a big move for me as I literally have one every single night. Not now though!

I now have real cocoa powder with Stevia to sweeten. Stevia, though yes is still technically a sugar, is far better for you than other more chemical ones. At first it wasn’t the same… Not as sweet, a little bit too bitter, but now I’ve adjusted. Cocoa actually has some great benefits for reducing inflammation and contains antioxidants. Win win!

Rave: Still loving the gym. I thought I wouldn’t be able to balance the two: strength training and marathon training but I listen to my body and go with it. When I’m tired or ache from a run, if I still fancy going to the gym I’ll lower the weights or do less reps. Or avoid some exercises completely. But I’m really pleased that I’ve managed to reach 75kg for my squats (six reps!). My depth probably needs to improve a bit but I focus on that on a different day when I do higher reps (12) with a lighter weight. My deadlift as well is coming on better. I had a break from it for a while as my lower back was bugging me (trampolining…). When I went back to it I needed to lower the weight again and work on my form but it’s all nice progress

Rant: Easter eggs. They’re everywhere. How am I going to resist?!

It’s just a nightmare. I love Easter Eggs – especially the ones with bits in the actual egg (Thornton’s do a great peppermint speckled egg and ones with fudge pieces in) .I can give or take the plain chocolate ones but anything that’s remotely a bit more exciting I struggle to resist. I do want one this year but I know that it’ll only goad me from it’s see-through prison and then when I break into it it’ll be game over. I just have no self-control.

Do you buy Easter eggs? What do you go for?

Do you eat a lot of artificial sweeteners?

What kind of ‘proper’ shoes do you usually go for?

February 23, 2016

Niggle begone and a newbie gym goer

Last week I hugely surprised myself by not panicking or fretting about my foot niggle that had cropped up during the previous weekend’s long run. Perhaps this is because I’m so used to getting injuries and niggles that they no longer surprise or frustrate me or perhaps it’s because I know how to deal with them, having had them so often.

As I wasn’t limping and there was no sharp pain, just a dull ache and a persistent niggle when I walked, I knew I was relatively safe from a serious injury that would keep me out of the game for weeks. But I also knew that jumping back into running immediately because it didn’t feel so serious would be a huge mistake. I gritted my teeth and took five days off of running. I was tempted to run Thursday (a usual day I run) as it felt pretty good but I withheld a bit longer as I really wanted to make parkrun (I’m still 2nd on the points table!) and possibly a long run on Sunday.

I carried on at the gym doing my weight lifting thing as usual (though no explosive plyometric moves obviously). When I woke up Saturday morning my foot felt pretty good and I went to Netley parkrun with the intention to run. I’d bitten the bullet earlier in the week and bought a new pair of trainers (identical to my old, trusty Mizunos) and was ready to see what would happen. I could feel a slight niggle when I walked but I carried on as usual setting the course up and then having a warm up.

Luckily my friend Mike had run a long run the night before and fancied an easier parkrun so I ran with him at an easy pace (well, it was easy for me but apparently didn’t feel so easy for him and his tired legs it turns out!)

My foot didn’t feel 100% awesome at the beginning but by the end it felt fine.

I finished in 25:32 (and 100th position – nice number!) and with a foot that was no worse than before. Hurrah! It actually continued to feel better and better throughout the day. Huge sigh of relief!

One of my friends, Julie, from the running club (who also did the Cakeathon last year) was celebrating her 100th parkrun (sorry, brief tangent – could you imagine getting 100th position on your 100th parkrun? How cool would that be, but nearly impossible to orchestrate. But I have 10 weeks to figure this out…). She’d made a whole bunch of cakes which all looked amazing. She’d even made some GORGEOUS cake pops. I think cake pops are my new favourite cake. OK size-wise they do leave a bit to be desired but icing to sponge ratio is absolutely spot on. I just need about six to be satisfied…

Luckily she still had a few left by the time we headed to the cafe after closing down the course so I could sneak another one to have with my peppermint tea. Divine.

That evening I went out for dinner… *coughs* on a date. I won’t talk too much about it because it’s not really fair on the other person who I don’t think knows that I have a blog. I will talk about the food though because, well, it wouldn’t be right not to on my blog!

We went to Relentless Lobster and Steak House in Port Solent. We shared a baked Camembert and then both had surf and turf with a rib eye steak and half a lobster. I had my steak medium rare with blue cheese sauce I didn’t take any photos because I didn’t want to be that weird on a date but it was delicious. Probably slightly unwise to have had cheese for both courses, both of which were quite rich, but it tasted great.

For pudding I had brownie with chocolate sauce and ice cream. Now I’ve had a fair few brownies and chocolate fudge cake puddings in my time (as have been well documented on this blog) so I’m a pretty good judge on them now. They’ve got to be just the right amount of firm but also gooey, soft in the inside with a slight bit of a crunch on the outside, nuts are optional but always a nice addition for texture and it OBVIOUSLY has to be warm. Ice cream is absolutely essential. This brownie is right up there as one of the best I’ve had. Oh it was heavenly. I tried not to look too much like a weirdo in my brownie heavenly bliss.

I planned to have a lie-in the next day before deciding whether to run or not and if I was running how far I would run. Alfie however did not fancy a lie-in and checked on me (nudged my face) every 20 or so minutes from 7.30am to just before 9am. I took the hint and got myself up and walked him. My foot felt good. The run was on!

I decided not to try and do the 18 miles I missed doing the weekend before (that would be stupid post-niggle). Instead I decided to do a standard six mile loop and then judge how I felt at the end. It also meant I was never in a position that I’d be miles away from getting home if I needed to bail. The run actually went really good. I could slightly feel the niggle but in a way that suggested it was on its way out. By the end of the six miles I decided to do the loop again.

I’d love to say the run felt amazing however it felt pretty crummy. The richness and large amount of food the night before and the glass of Prosecco I had (I rarely drink) really weren’t doing me any favours. Potentially not having run all week probably didn’t help either, nor did the wind and the unseasonably mild weather. In capris and a long-sleeved running top I was sweltering (probably sweating off cheese and brownie…nice).

But I refuse to complain (ignore the above…) as it meant I was back in the game and getting some needed miles in the marathon bank. 13 miles to be exact!

(Ave. pace 8.12min/miles)

My tummy felt pretty retched at the end and it took a long shower before food to be even near possible. Best to stick to ribs or Indian food in the future

I met up with my mum at her gym after eating breakfast (well brunch/lunch at this point). She’s joined in the effort to help her back (as she had a back operation a few months ago) and to help lose a bit of weight. So far she’s lost nine pounds through Slimming World since October and I’m very proud of her. But she’s quite nervous about using a gym so wanted a bit of support and help for her first visit.

Her gym (at the Solent Spa & Hotel) is very posh compared to my usual gym (PureGym, open 24/7, cheap as chips). For starters there’s free fruit!! The only thing free at my gym is a possible bacterial infection and lechery stares. But you get what you pay for. To be honest, I do prefer my gym as it’s HUGE and has all the weight equipment (squat racks, barbells, cable machines, etc.) I want, whereas my mum’s gym is a bit more cardio-focused with a few weight machines and some dumbbells. But it was rather lovely. Check out this water dispenser.

We both tried a small cup, expecting it to be some ridiculously sweet fruit concoction that would probably negate everything you’ve just done… but it was like unsweetened, weak squash. Weird.

My mum did a power walk on the treadmill and some time on the recumbent bike. I did a bit of walking next to her, some rowing and used a couple of weights machine.

But really I was just there for my mum. I was actually freezing in the air conditioned gym in my shorts and vest!

She’s going to become a regular now apparently. With that, Pilates and swimming she’s becoming as exercises obsessed as me! After that we had a nice coffee in Starbucks. A pretty good Sunday in my eyes!

Do any of your family go to the gym or keep fit?

How posh is your gym?

Have you ever had cake pops before?

December 16, 2015December 16, 2015

Those buns were made for running…

If I could only give one piece of advice to a new runner it would be: work those glutes. So many running-related injuries are caused by weak glutes. When your glutes aren’t working this means your hips are dropping and other muscles are over-compensating to take on the unnecessary strain.

I’m not a physiotherapist or a qualified sports person but I’ve had I fair few injuries. Last year I was consistently plagued with one thing after another: hip issues, groin issues, knee issues and IT band issues. My physio said to me my glutes (specifically my gluteus medius) weren’t playing ball when I was running and this caused a whole chain of compensations and over-working of muscles that shouldn’t be working so hard.

I took time off of running and hit the gym. My physio gave me some great exercises to specifically focus on improving my glute strength and hip stability and I scoured the Internet and magazines such as Women’s Health to further supplement my training (they actually had a great article in their December addition giving good focused moves to help strengthen your buns).

Big compound moves can help improve overall lower body strength:

Squats (single leg variation are great for addressing imbalances)
Romanian deadlifts
Regular deadlifts

Whereas accessory moves can specifically target the glute areas:

Glute kickbacks
Bridges
Lateral leg raises
Clams

And obviously overall core work is essential with running in general:

Planks
Russian twists
Leg raises
(The above compound moves help target the core too)

Obviously I’m still not immune to injuries (hello 6.5 weeks of not running because I make stupid choices and do too much), but I can say that my glutes are far more strong than they used to be. I can physically feel them working when I run. The telling point for me was after my first marathon (before all the strength training) my quads were on fire. After working on my glutes, the aches were more general. My quad dominance had hugely decreased as my glutes were taking on more work.

Getting my PB (3:24:06) at the Liverpool Marathon earlier this year

And it made me realise that I do actually enjoy going to the gym. Aside from PBs and running strong, there’s nothing better than lifting heavy weights at the gym and feeling like a superwoman!

**Full Disclosure: My subscription to Women’s Fitness is provided for free from magazine.co.uk as part of being in their blogger network. All opinions and content are my own.**

November 26, 2015January 3, 2020

Why I don’t regret getting injured

Firstly thank you for the lovely messages, comments and kind words after my last post. It really meant the world to me. I know I’m young and my life is ahead of me, I just needed that cathartic vent…

Anyway, onto the subject of this post. Since being injured and being unable to run I’ve been focusing a lot of my energies on going to the gym and really working hard at overall strength. Previously I had been following the New Rules of Lifting for Women which was really good but I was losing a bit of motivation for it. Doing the same two sets of workouts for weeks on end was getting boring. Don’t get me wrong, I still fully recommend that book and it’s highly likely I’ll get back into it (and it’s a great point of reference for different exercises). But after getting injured I needed a complete shake up of what I was doing and a new drive.

I actually found a great website called MuscleForLife that spoke a lot of sense to me by a guy called Mike Matthews. His website has loads of great resources and he talks a lot of sense in terms of workout splits, reps and different exercises (from what my albeit fairly limited knowledge and experience can tell anyway!).

I started breaking my workouts into body parts (sounds painful) and balancing ‘push/pull’ exercises. So for example, Monday is arms day and I’ll try and balance some bicep curls (a push exercise) with tricep pull downs (a pull exercise), amongst other things. And I’ve really been loving it.

What I’ve really come to learn is that you don’t need to go to the gym and come out sweating and gasping for air to know you’ve worked hard. Your heart rate doesn’t need to sky rocket to get a good workout in.In fact, I’ve never seen my body change as quickly as it has done with these kind of workouts than all the time I’ve ever been running. And I haven’t touched a cardio machine other than a three minute warm-up for each session. OK, OK I’ve only been doing this for a few weeks and I’m not saying I have muscles of steel or popping abs, but I can see the changes – they are tiny changes but they’re perceptible to me.

And more importantly, I can feel the changes. When I was down in the dumps about not running and I needed to find a new focus I decided to give myself the goal of strengthening my upper body (as well as continuing to strengthen the rest of me). One of my goals was to eventually achieve a full pull-up. I haven’t achieved that yet, but what I did achieve at the gym yesterday was almost there. Technically I achieved a neutral grip pull-up… or chin-up. To be honest I’m not entirely sure which it is, but there was definitely an ‘up’ in there 😉

It’s not a full pull-up because as my grip needs to be wider, which is ultimately so much harder because you’re using your back muscles to do most of the work, whereas what I achieved was kind of a combination of back muscles and biceps (a full chin-up uses solely biceps I believe).

I was so pleased you wouldn’t believe. I felt bad ass and like a warrior. If I fell off a cliff I can smile smugly knowing I can pull myself back up it 😉 and then run away from the zombies chasing me in this crazy scenario.

The point is, I don’t regret getting injured. It taught me a lot. Firstly it taught me not to be such an idiot about marathons and running. Three marathons in under six months is stupid for me. I’m an injury-prone runner and looking back I can see the times I was pushing myself when I should have been taking time off. Never ever underestimate the marathon distance. Even if you think “oh I’ll just pootle around really slowly and enjoy it” it’s still 26.2 bloody miles. There ain’t no pootle in that.

It also showed me that the gym isn’t just to keep me running and it isn’t necessarily a chore. It’s somewhere else I can push myself and feel like I’m achieving something amazing (for me anyway). I don’t always need PBs, a runner’s high or the fresh air to get that ‘punch in the air’ killer workout.

It’s another quiver in my bow of mistakes I’m learning from. Plus I got a huge medal soo… totally worth it 😉

Do you have any mistakes you don’t regret?

What is your favourite exercise?

What achievement are you most proud of?