Trying not to jinx things… {Weekly workouts}

OK, I don’t want to prematurely start celebrating…but I’m thinking (I’m praying) that my running is almost back to normal. Obviously trying not to jinx this!!

I went to my running school session last night and I was quite nervous. But I did loads of tough speed intervals on the treadmill while trying to maintain a good form…with no pain. This involved a lot of shouting from the coach “hips forward!”, “relax that foot”…that kind of thing. We did speed intervals, high incline intervals, high incline with speed…jeeze it was HARD. I almost fell off towards the end!

Then he got me running on the treadmill backwards. Yes, backwards. Apparently this works a load of different muscles. I have no idea to be honest, I was just concentrating on not falling off.

Then we did lots of stability work. This involved one legged squats on one of those wobbly disk things (technical term there), lunges, core work, bridges… My legs felt fully abused by the end.

But, no pain. And when I got home, I foam rolled, stretched and iced…no pain.

This morning…no pain.

But I’m not going to get ahead of myself. I’m going to see how Parkrun goes tomorrow. I have absolutely no goals. Just run, see how it feels. Don’t blast it, just run it. Sounds so simple, right?

I’m not even going to talk about Sunday. One day at a time.

As I mentioned, this week was gently getting back into things. And I’m fairly happy I did this.

Monday: nothing.

Tuesday: 5 mile run (easy)

Wednesday: strength work in the gym

Thursday: running school torture

Friday (today): 35 minutes recumbent bike, 10 minutes rower

Gym equipment

For the moment I’m not doing Spin as I was worried it was putting pressure on my knee (all that standing up and sprinting). So I did 2 minutes easy, 1 minute speed, 30 seconds sprint on the recumbent bike (less pressure on hips and knees) for 35 minutes. Then the rower for 10 minutes.

I hope to get back into spin soon though as I do love it. Sort of?

Saturday: Parkrun

Sunday: I hope to do a long run but I’m not setting any targets for fear I will be quickly smited down by the big Running God in the sky for being too ambitious.

I have started to feel less sick about the marathon…though obviously anything could happen in the next four weeks (FOUR WEEKS!) and let’s be honest I wouldn’t be surprised at all if my world comes crumbling down once again with another injury or reoccurrence of a niggle. Ahh the joys of running.

What are you up to this weekend? I’m working (from home) tomorrow. Joy. But I do have friends over in the evening for a Mexican evening (helloooo guacamole).

How do you exercise when you’re taking things easy? I do less intense workouts. I try to workout for just as long, but at an ‘easier’ level.

What gym equipment is your favourite? I love the rower. It’s the rhythm I think.

Fingers crossed

I went running last night…It went surprinsgly OK. After spending ages warming up, I left the house and started running. Everything felt normal. No twinges. No pain. No discomfort. Just normal running. I swear I almost stopped in the road and danced about with happiness.

I’d be lying if I said it was a truly spectacular run though. It was tough. I kept around 8mins/mile and it felt hard going. Not tough as in my legs felt niggly. Just tough as in “wow I haven’t really run this speed for a while”. This obviously fills me with great confidence about the upcoming marathon. Not. Anyway, I was aiming to do 6 miles but couldn’t find a route off the top of my head through areas that were well-lit as it was so dark. So I did 5 miles. Towards the end of the run my knee started to make itself known just a little. No pain, just discomfort. But this is to be expected, right?? There was no pain afterwards, maybe just a feeling of weakness, and this morning (Wednesday) everything feels pretty much fine.

Fingers crossed! I have my running school session tomorrow night so I hope that doesn’t aggravate anything.

Anywho…Ben has been flying about Europe recently leaving me on my lonesome…well, with Alfie! Thankfully he’s back this week but previously he’s been gone like every week. Alfie loves this as it means he gets to stretch out a bit at night on Ben’s side of the bed.

Tired Alfie

Though through the night he still manages to move right where my legs want to go and I wake up in the morning curled up in an uncomfortable ball.

The one benefit of Ben being away is that I get to eat whatever meals I fancy without some sort of sarcastic comment about there being too much veg. I love my husband but he doesn’t share the same love for vegetables that I do. He always looks at his plate in mock disgust if I’ve had the audacity to put a few peas on there.

For What I Ate Wednesday I thought I’d share a couple of meals that I’ve been loving lately.

As always, thanks Jenn

I didn’t do any slow cooker meals last week as (surprise surprise) I had a lot more free time on my hands with not going to the gym or running. But I still fancied something quick and easy one night.

Salsa cream cheese chicken

OK, granted, this looks pretty awful. But it’s one of my favourite meals lately. I’m sure I’ve posted it before but hey ho. It’s chicken and lots of veg (courgettes, mushrooms, onions, squash) and a small jar of salsa with a big dollop of cream cheese (probably two tablespoons). It’s a kind of ‘throw it into the saucepan and see what happens’ kind of meal. So creamy and tasty though.

I also enjoyed a lovely roasted vegetable and bacon meal.

Roasted veg, chickpeas and bacon

This was courgette, mushrooms, tomatoes, beetroot, onion, squash, 1/2 tin of chickpeas and 2 slices of bacon. I scattered lots of garlic, rosemary and thyme over this with a good splashing of balsamic vinegar. So good.

Roasted veg, chickpeas and sausages 2

Yep way too many vegetables in there for Ben. I’ve been really enjoying these sorts of meals though. It feels very season-appropriate. Variations are endless…sausages, goats cheese, sweet potato…anything really goes.

I plan on making a nice creamy tomato soup tonight so hopefully I will post the results of that at some point if it’s tasty πŸ˜‰

Do you like bacon? What’s your favourite meal with bacon?

Does your other half enjoy the meals you cook? Ben usually does unless I go crazy with too many vegetables. Usually as long as there’s cheese in there he’s fine πŸ˜‰

How long does it take you to get back into shape after some time out of exercising? I don’t think I’m out of shape from not exercising for over a week, but I do think I’ve lost a bit of fitness. And that my legs aren’t as strong, especially my knee now.

Catch Up

Hey guys, sorry been a while… I’m so behind on all the blogging business at the moment…I kind of avoided it a bit as I wasn’t feeling all that up-beat. But I’m feeling more positive now.

I worked from home on Thursday which is always nice. Though Alfie gets very confused and expects me to walk him every five minutes. Hmm. I also managed to make my own standing desk.

DIY standing desk

I am so aware of how much of the day I spend sat down so I’m trying to minimise this where I can. At work there’s not much I can do but get up a lot and walk about (go to the loo, get lots of drink – helpfully it’s a self perpetuating cycle). And lots of my hip flexor stretches!

I had the day off on Friday. Ben was supposed to as well but in the end he had to go in. So what does an Anna do when she has no plans and the house to herself? Clean. Fun times. I also washed Alfie in the bath. I used the shower head thing and he was not loving it at all. Neither was I as he kept shaking and getting soap and water everywhere.

Alfie bathtime

An old photo, but essentially the same look on Alfie’s face

Then I dropped the shower head and the water went straight in my face and all over the walls. Joy.

I also had the sports massage that I’d gotten from Groupon. *Sighs* I have mixed opinions about the guy I saw. It seemed he was a bit hell bent on trying to sign me up for another five sessions to properly ‘fix me’. And though he certainly didn’t say it, he definitely implied that if I didn’t come back and see him again my niggles were bound to reoccur and I won’t be able to run. He told me a lot of stuff I already knew and was already working on with my running school coach so I don’t feel I’m missing out on any valuable hidden information. The appointment wasn’t completely worthless though as he massaged a lot of knots out of my body, but I won’t be going back there.

Saturday morning was my first day back in my trainers and ready to run. Sort of. Ben and me went down early to help set up.

Netley Abbey sunrise

It was so cold. We had our winter coats on over our running gear but we were still freezing. I was dreading taking my coat off to run!

Parkrun volunteer

I ran with Ben and left the music at home so I could just focus on what my legs felt like. I kept things very, very easy. I had a knee support on as well. Things felt OK, not amazing but no pain. Just a bit weak and slightly uncomfortable. But better. The plan for this week is to keep things very easy.

Sunday I went to the gym in the morning to get back into my strength workouts. I did the following routine:

  • Bridges (holding for 30 seconds and pulsing)
  • Squats (holding a weight in front)
  • Wall squats
  • Single leg squats (no weights, and went fine – these were my biggest concern as when my knee was its worst I couldn’t do this without pain)
  • Russian twists
  • Press ups
  • Glute ham raises
  • Planks

I spent an hour just going through all these moves and repeating them. My aim is to continue to build up my leg strength. I’m terrified I’ll crumble in the marathon!

Then I gently cycled 6.5 miles to meet my parents, Ben and my mother-in-law at the lovely tea room we’re loving. I wanted to do something gentle to shake my legs out after the weights and also start to build things back up again.

I have to say, the cycle there was far better than the cycle back. Cake doesn’t lend itself to be a great cycling friend.

Victoria Sponge

How pretty is that plate? Oh and the cake was amazing obviously

So my plan for the rest of the week in terms of running? Oh jeeze, I have no idea! My legs felt fine for the rest of the day after the Parkrun, and the next day. Doing the leg exercises in the gym felt fine as did cycling. But I still don’t feel like I could just go out and bang out 18 miles or run 7 min miles at the moment. My leg doesn’t feel strong – does that make sense?

So this week is all about gently getting back into it. I’m going to run on Tuesday night and aim for 6 miles but just see how it goes. I just pray everything will feel OK and I can maybe think about a longer run (10-13 miles?) on Sunday. Nothing crazy and it’s not set in stone. At this point, I’ll be lucky to get in one decent long (17+ mile) run before the marathon. Maybe I’m being pessimistic…I’m not in a confident place right now! I know my knee is miles better than it was but I don’t want to aggravate things again before it’s ready…it’s a guessing game at the moment. All I can do is take one mile at a time.

I know it’s almost Tuesday…but how was your weekend?

 Marathon runners, how many long runs did you do before doing a marathon?

 Do you sit down a lot for work/school?

The Great British Plank Off

Hey you lovely people. Thanks so much for the lovely support and comments regarding my last post. It really meant a lot to me and I was smiling so much by the end. Thank you πŸ™‚

Well, it’s Wednesday. Dare I even mention it for fear of jinxing things, but my hip feels a lot better and my knee is definitely getting there. Specifically this is what I’m doing:

Nothing.

OK, maybe not just nothing, but in terms of exercise I haven’t gone to the gym. I haven’t run. I haven’t even done that stupid tester run down the corridor when no one’s around – please tell me someone else does this? You know, you do a few running steps to ‘test’ things out. I haven’t even done that.

Instead I have been giving Alfie a longer walk in the morning…he’s loving this week, the furry little traitor πŸ˜‰ and a longer walk in the evening.

Guilty Alfie

Nothing major though. And working on my planks. FOUR AND A HALF MINUTES!!

Excuse me while I celebrate a little – a PB I can physically achieve right now. Hurrah.

Incidentally a man at work who cycles a lot happened to mentioned planks to me the other day. I loved that I could tell him I can do a 4.5min one. He got down on the floor there and then and attempted it himself. 1.5minutes. Not bad for half way through a day in the office!! And now we’ve launched an Office Plank Off for December as a competition. Amazing.

But yeah apart from doing planks, I’m also taking Ibuprofen and foam rolling. That is it. Come on Saturday – I’m going out of my mind with energy here!

But onto things a bit more exciting. FOOD. In line with WIAW, let’s cheer things up a bit round here!

 
I’m still eating what I would normally eat. A girl at work asked if I was suddenly watching what I eat because I can’t run. Nope. Not worried, don’t care. My body needs good food and nutrition right now. And the cake and chocolate are still there, rest assured. Gosh, wouldn’t life be even more depressing for me otherwise??

I had the most INCREDIBLE slow cooker meal on Monday night:

Bacon, Squash and Goat’s Cheese Mess

Bacon, squash and goat's cheese

All I did was chop up a load of veg (onions, courgettes/zucchini, mushrooms), a load of chopped squash and sliced up four slices of bacon (I got the ‘healthy living’ ones with the rind cut off as we’re not fans of the fatty bits so the slices are smaller) and cooked it in the slow cooker for 8 hours. Then I crumbled goat’s cheese on top and allowed it to get all melty and then promptly scoffed the lot. Oh my gawwdd it was good.

Still loving the slow cooker soup as well. The flavour last night was Pumpkin, Coconut Milk and Chickpeas.

Pumpkin soup

Pretty much same as previous soups, just with pumpkin. A hug in a bowl.

Right, I will leave it there. Have a great Wednesday!

What meal has rocked your world lately?

Do you go to food for comfort when you’re sad? I wouldn’t say I do but it helps to have different things in your life to take your mind off things, like a good meal. But I can’t be more grateful to my family and Ben right now. They’re definitely my rocks!

What’s your favourite soup?

Feeling Pretty Down

Hi guys, hope you’re weekend was good.

I’m not going to lie. I’m feeling pretty down at the moment. I can’t believe I’m writing this post. I apologise hugely in advance for the tone and for the fact that ‘here I am again’ moaning about my running and my stupid body. I don’t blame you if you click ‘close’. Hey, feel free! This is not a happy post. I’m in a dark and shady place.
 
Since the Great South Run my right knee has felt off. My left hip didn’t feel too great either (when it rains it pours). So I went to my amazing, lovely physio the next week. She worked her magic on my hip and said the knee pain was due to me over-compensating on my right side to nurse my left leg and the wind didn’t help pushing me at an angle. She wasn’t hugely worried, told me to take it easy.
 
I didn’t run until the Saturday (so I’d taken three days off). Then ran 7 miles (3 being a speedy Parkrun) and then ran 17 miles Sunday.
 
Very stupid, I know. I jumped straight back into it too quickly. My 17 mile run felt hard and if I’m honest with myself, it felt unreasonably hard. It felt hard before I’d even gotten to 10 miles – not normal. It wasn’t even as if I was trying to keep my pace down. My body wouldn’t go faster. My knee and my hip niggled all the way through and for the rest of the day it felt pretty rough.
 
I took Monday and Tuesday off. I ran Wednesday night (planned 5 mile recovery run) and could only make 4.
 
I cried walking home. I know this is ridiculous. I know I sound very self-obsessed and oh so repetitive and in the great scheme of things this is such a minor, minor thing. Believe me, I know this. But I cried. And I cried when I went to bed and tried to sleep. It didn’t help that Ben was away with work as well πŸ™
 
So I’m currently taking at least one week off of running. No Parkrun. No long run. No running school. Nothing. Then I will reassess (probably this Saturday). If I feel any niggle, I’ll take more time off.

To make absolute certain that I’m going to heal properly I’m not doing anything else. Usually I’d just switch to spin and use the cross trainer (elliptical machine). But I tried that and felt my knee, not being painful just uncomfortable. So all I’m doing is walking Alfie. I’m not going to Pump either. I want to avoid any excessive pressure on my knee and hip.

This also means not running the Gosport half marathon this Sunday. If all is well at the end of this week I need to gradually get back into running, not jump into a half marathon.

 I was so excited about the marathon in December. But at the moment I am terrified. I literally feel sick about it. I don’t feel ready at all.

I’ve hugely reassessed my goals for it. My only goal is to get there in one piece and survive it. Sub-4? I don’t even care.
 
I just hope that taking the time now is enough. I also hope that the marathon won’t be a disaster…that taking this time off now will leave me enough time to prepare a little more.

Sorry to be so down and go on so much about these stupid niggles. Running is such a love in my life that to feel like I’m a prisoner in my own body and not be able to run, it really upsets me.

Cheer me up, tell me something great and exciting happening with you?

 

Let me live vicariously through you, how’s your running going?