My running hasn’t been going well. At all. This is why I haven’t been active on this blog. I apologise, it’s hard to get pumped up writing about running. Especially when it’s so crappy!

There are many reasons why. Some of it is my fault, some of it out of my control.

My fault:

• Returning from injury too soon
  • Whilst I recovered well from my marathon injury, I then got injured again. Not as major, but I didn’t rest it.
• Not preparing for a 10k trail race
  • In the summer, I ran a 10k trail race. I was woefully unprepared. I hadn’t been running up hills or trails. Fail to prepare – prepare to fail is very apt here.
• Not doing enough strength training
  • I have my gym class with a PT on a Friday which is great, but that’s all I was doing. It’s better than nothing, but it’s not going to help me in the long run (ha!)
• Eating like I was still marathon training
  • I’m not going to improve my running if I continued to eat the way I have been. A wake up call was being unable to fit into half of my wardrobe!
  • There’s also the whole issue of eating ultra processed foods. It doesn’t fill you up and leaves you feeling bloated. It’s fine now and again, but not as often as I was eating it.

Not my fault:

• The weather
  • Every time I seem to feel good about a race or something, there’s an unplanned/unusual hot day!
  • I am prone to heat exhaustion especially if I haven’t been training in hot weather.
• Illness
  • I got ill. It sucked and I didn’t eat for days. Anyone who knows me, knows that this was serious! Haha, I completely lost my appetite.

As you can see here, more things are in my control.

However, before you all jump on me, yes stuff happens and we can’t always be ‘on’ it. Truthfully it has taken me some time to get over my DNF of Edinburgh marathon. Things were improving, my running was getting back to that of 2020. Then injury happened.

I took my eye off the ball whilst recovering and didn’t realise just how much of a toll it had taken on me.

Let’s look to the future shall we…

I have signed up to Loch Ness Marathon next September as my 2nd attempt at a marathon. I truly believe I can do this if I take better care of myself. I hope to run it in 4hrs 30 as a dream goal! I have a year to get ready so I’m certain this is possible.

I’ve also signed up for Joe Wicks’ Bodycoach plan and I’m really enjoying it so far. Even the exercises (burpees, not so much). The food is delicious and I’m really enjoying cooking and eating sensibly.

I’m also going to start getting more involved with my running club. I’ve been fortunate enough to join the committee which is exciting. I’m so happy to be involved! They’re such a supportive bunch and I plan to run with them more on a Thursday. They push me (when I don’t complain!) and there are lots of hills to climb.

For now, I’m going to enjoy the cooler weather and get some endurance back in my legs. I ran 26 miles last week so it’s already a fantastic start.

I have the Tadcaster 10 mile race on the 19th November, nicely after my 2 weeks holiday. I’m looking forward to it.

Now that goal race season is coming to a close, what are your plans?