Foodie Friday and only 65 days to go!

As my training runs are increasing in length, so too is my appetite! Whilst I’m attempting to keep my diet healthy, I am craving carbs and craving cakes, to be more specific! Fortunately the Burgh House Buttery is in plentiful supply. YUM

 

My longest run to date has been 12.2 miles, which was a hard slog! I split the run into two 6.5 mile loops, stopping for 5 minutes in the middle to eat an energy gel and drink some water. I have only just started using gels, as I haven’t really run long enough distances to warrant taking them before now. Fuelling during runs is completely new to me, and I’m also only just appreciating how much healthy eating impacts the way I feel and how well I run too.

I recently purchased EasyNutrition for Runners, which I’m looking forward to devouring (pun intended hehe). Interestingly, ultra marathoner  Scott Jurek advocates eating ‘real’ food during long runs, and has also adopted a completely plant based diet which he credits for his amazing endurance and running ability. I have just ordered Scott Jurek’s book Eat and Run, so am looking forward to absorbing that for some tips and inspiration.

The marathon is just 65 days away! Eek. To prepare, I will be running the Hampton Court half marathon  on Sunday 23^rd February, which I’m really looking forward to! I’m going to run it as part of my training rather than as a race, so will just aim to get round comfortably and pain free. I’m still having some knee issues but have been seeing a brilliant London based osteopath  who has pinpointed the problem and has been working towards correcting it.

If you’d like to come and cheer me on at the Hampton Court half please do! And please do consider sponsoring me for the Brighton Marathon in April! I’m running to raise money for Burgh House, a brilliant, free to enter historic house and museum in the heart of beautiful Hampstead. To donate click here.  Every pound makes a huge difference!

 

 

Training Tuesday

I have to admit that training has been a little hampered by my knee issue, but I am happy to report that it has now been diagnosed! I visited an osteopath last week who told me that the knee pain and previous injuries on the same leg, were caused by pelvic misalignment, caused by poor posture.
Now I know what the problem is, and have some exercises to do, I'm hoping to be on the mend in time for marathon training to get into full swing in October.
To kick start training, I signed up for the Richmond Half on 22nd September, but am a little dubious about running 13 miles in less than a month as I haven't been able to get any long runs in for quite a while, so it may be a non starter.
On a happy note, I was very excited to see that Hampstead's Sweaty Betty has a Thursday lunch time run club, which I am definitely going to go to! I am a big fan of SB clothes and am using the forthcoming marathon as a great excuse to buy lots of lovely work out gear. Even if I can't run far, I'll look nice trying.
Running clubs are a great way to get enthusiastic about a run, especially on those days when it's a struggle to even get out of bed. I'm slightly worried about motivation as most of my training will be done in winter, and getting up in the dark or running after work in the dark and snow can be daunting! Nevertheless, knowing that the effort will translate into raising money for Burgh House will be motivation enough, I'm sure.

Training Tuesday

I thought I’d kick start the Hot Foot blog by introducing some regular posts, including this one: Training Tuesday. Every fortnight I’ll be filling you in on how my marathon training is going, so you can follow along with my progress culminating in April 2014’s Brighton Marathon!

To nudge my training into action, I have signed up for an autumn half marathon (Richmond half on 22^nd September) and am using a Runner’s World beginner’s half marathon training plan. Unfortunately, just two weeks in, I have been experiencing some knee pain, which frantic googling and self diagnosing leads me to believe may be iliotibial band syndrome, or the dreaded runner’s knee. Apparently this can be caused by increasing training too quickly, or having weak legs or hips.

I was told by a physiotherapist that I needed to strengthen my legs after experiencing Achilles tendinopathy (which meant taking a few months off running), last year.  Since then, I’ve been squatting, planking, dipping and press-upping once or twice a week, but I think that judging by this new injury, I may need to step up the strength to combat this weakness. I found a great article on the Guardian website about runners and strength, including a really interesting bit about how squatting with 200lbs (eek!) helped Mo Farah improve his running.

On paper, this is brilliant, but I have to admit that I find doing the same exercises more than a few times a week, or for more than 20 minutes a bit of a challenge. Also, I don’t have much space at home, am easily distracted by anything and constantly find myself being licked by the dog as soon as I’m on my yoga mat, so may struggle with doing more strength.  When mulling over this problem I decided to investigate crossfit, which I’ve read a lot about on the internet. According to the Crossfit London website, ‘Crossfit is a strength and conditioning system built on constantly varied, if not randomized, functional movements executed at high intensity.’

If you’re a crossfit beginner, you are asked to go along to 7 initial sessions to learn how to do all the moves properly, so I signed up for a squatting class last week at the Bethnal Green centre.  I’m not sure how I’d been doing squats before, but it definitely wasn’t the crossfit way! My thighs were on fire! The class was really fun, with a mix of men and women of different abilities, and the instructor was very friendly, scaling each activity to each participant and correcting our form. The group dynamic was really motivating, and at the end I felt that I’d quite like to go back.

Whilst I think I may have found one way to address my weak legs in the long term, in the short term I am resting the knee and have scheduled an appointment with an osteopath. If I can get over this first hurdle, I may be squatting 200lbs and running long distance in no time!