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Achieving those running goals

24 Aug

I haven’t written in a while quite simply because I felt like I had nothing exciting to say! The year so has been a roller coaster ride life wise, and I felt a real ‘can’t be bothered’ attitude where my running was concerned. Everything that I originally wanted to do just got put in the ‘too hard’ category and my eating was difficult for a while finding it hard when eating out a lot to always eat a lower carb choice.

So I basically have spent the last few months reframing and concentrating on bite sized goals rather than the main big hairy goals I have been trying to achieve.

I read a great book called The Slightest Edge which basically is precisely all about that. Taking that one goal and breaking it down a task at a time to achieve that ultimate goal in bite size pieces rather than getting scared of the big main goal.

I wanted to run Rainbow Beach half marathon but it came and went. So now I am focused on entering the SEQ trail series and will probably do the ones fairly close to me and not the coastal ones. I’m definitely opting for the 8k race this time not the 15k as I melted in January last time!

Then from there. Not sure. Possibly the Rainbow Beach half next year. I will see how I go.

Starting a new job has helped push me back into my running as they have showers so I have been trying to run at lunchtime when I can, and then on the weekends I run with the Brisbane Trail Blazers so things are improving!

For me it is not about looking the best, looking at what other people are doing and concentrating on times. It’s about enjoying running, fitting it in when I can and not feeling guilty when I can’t train, and not using it for weight loss. – eating properly does that!

So that’s where I am and where I have been running wise..one step at a time – literally.

I hope you and your running are going well. Have a great week!

It’s good to be back!

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Christmas craziness and back to running

27 Dec

Hope you had a nice relaxing Christmas. I popped up to the post with my husband to visit his family and it was chaotic as usual . I’m never used to having lots of people around so 7 adults, 3 kids and 2 babies was pretty full on! My mother in law has just moved and lives near the beach however so it was a great opportunity to put my runners on and explore. I only managed one proper run and then some walks along the beach which was nice.

I ate too many of the wrong things which I am sure many hardcore LCHF people will disapprove of including the very decadent peanut butter cheesecake I made! But this year has been so crazy in so many ways I needed a release – and this Christmas it was the beach and the food! 

I read that many people doing a LCHF way of eating do not find it an issue or too strict and love it. Most of the time I find it an easy way to eat and I also recognise it is a health benefit – but sometimes I need to let off steam for a day or three especially when staying with people that do not observe the same way of eating as me. 

The peanut butter cheesecake was worth every carb!

So it’s back on the horse after champagne, carbs and reduced running to focus focus focus! Starting with a 3 hour run tomorrow. Nothing like a bit of hard work to get you back on track! 

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Low Carb High Fats and Running

31 May

I’ve been running since 2001, and even before then I exercised. Exercise and diet have always been very important to me.  For many years I have eaten healthily and run a lot but yet I have always felt that has never been representative in how I look. I even remember when on a business trip – being at the hotel gym with my boss and he said “You’re running pretty fast on that treadmill for someone your size!” I remember wanting to jump off the treadmill and give him a piece of my mind – but I smiled sweetly and carried on running.

Could carbohydrates and sugar be the issue??

I had lots of tests a few months ago and everything appeared normal, but my husband and I were convinced that sugar and carbohydrate might be playing an issue as I seemed to have more issues when eating carbs and also sugar. My husband tested the theory out and went on lower carb eating regime and lost a lot of weight and suggested maybe I could try to see if it helped cutting out most carbs – but as a runner I never contemplated giving up my carbs as – how would I get the energy to run!?!?

Low Carbohydrate High Fat 

Whilst I was contemplating how to really get my weight sorted once and for all we started to read about a Low Carbohydrate High Fat lifestyle – the benefits of it, and also how many many athletes run on it today and have outperformed their high carbohydrate training days.

The facts seem to be pretty much a no brainer in the sense that low fat high carbohydrate diets are not the way to go and since the seventies when the the food pyramid  was changed to incorporate more grains – there has definitely been a correlation between the rise in diabetes, alzheimer’s and high carbohydrate diets.  LCHF diets are now recommended for diabetics, dementia patients and also epilepsy patients*.

I decided I needed help so a few months ago I enlisted the help of a nutritionist who was pro fat adaption and low carb, but I found  they ended up being in disagreement with what I wanted to do so I turned to The Real Meal Revolution which I found out about thanks to our friend Google. Run by Professor Tim Noakes the program (and there is a great book too) is a 5 week program coaching you in how to follow a LCHF lifestyle – with not only recipes and carb counters – but a forum and videos too – so for $56 I snapped it up and am went through the program and lost a good deal of weight as well as feeling great. My daily diet now consists of eating less than 25g of carbs a day. I’m sure for some people that would be shocking and ‘wrong’ but I feel great and am managing to run on that also.

Stepping up the training

running the park run

It wasn’t my usual pace on the Park run but I pushed hard considering I didn’t have many carbs and was still fat adapting.

I lay low on my training for a couple of weeks to get used to it and to fat adapt (get my body used to burning fat rather than glycogen) – I picked things up a week or so ago and I ran a parkrun and a 13.5k trail run with no aching afterwards! I had a cup of coffee and 3 tbsp of cream (I don’t like the recommended bullet proof coffee recipe of coconut oil and butter – makes me gag) before training as my breakfast and managed to push on parkrun and up and down the trails – I was quite amazed.

I’ve met a few people on this journey that run on LCHF and it’s really encouraging to see how well they have done so that’s my post for today. I know that for many people they believe in high carb diets as runners – but this is what I do and it’s working for me 🙂 Anyway watch this space, and if you see the words LCHF pop in my blog posts I am referring to Low Carb High Fat and the way I eat.

Bye for now 🙂

*please note that I am not a doctor or a practitioner in nutrition – this is purely based on experience, opinion and books I have read. Please always consult an expert or medical practitioner before embarking on any new diet or regime. 

Further Reading 

Some great books that my husband and I have read around LCHF and carboydrates – these are NOT affiliate links.

Gary Taubes – Why We Get fat 

Tim Noakes – Real Meal Revolution

David Perlmutter – Grain Brain

William Davis – Wheat Belly 

 

 

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What’s next after the Twilight Half Marathon?

29 Mar

Hope you had a lovely Easter!

The last week has been a bit of a write off. After running the Twilight Half Marathon I got sick, and today is the first day in a  week that I have felt remotely like exercising. I didn’t run – instead I worked on my wobbly belly and arms 🙂 as still not feeling 100%.

I think the race took it out of me and I shouldn’t have run not feeling 100% and having a migraine all day, so yet another lesson learned.

So now that Twilight is done I had a chance to think about what’s next. My husband would like very much that I have a rest from races but alas he is not that lucky – I have a few more planned for this year!

Running goalsGold Coast Half possibly Marathon

I honestly don’t know if I have another marathon in me, nor do I know if I want to run one. Five is enough and last year was meant to be my last one (famous last words!), but my lovely friend is really wanting to run her first so I have been thinking and I might do the training and then enter the half marathon – OR run the full and not worry about time – I never have with marathons anyway as I am no Paula Radcliffe!

So, not sure yet….

Dubbo Stampede Half Marathon 

We have friends in Dubbo and so it’s the perfect way to do a race and to see them at the same time, and it looks like great fun. I decided that I will definitely not do the marathon. I think it’s the first year and also it is a second lap of the half marathon and I am really not a lover of laps! The thought of running that over a marathon I think I would tear my hair out!

Do you need Goals?

I don’t know about you but if I don’t have a goal to work towards then I find it is really easy to let things slide.

When I was training for the Marathon I ran last year I was so focused and motivated, but this year I have found it much harder so I have started documenting everything again and planning sessions as if I am training for the race again – regardless of whether I do it and suddenly I am focussed again!

LCHF Goal

One of my goals for this year also is to try and run my races on a lower carb lifestyle. My husband and I are advocates of a LCHF (Low Carb High Fat) way of living but it has always been tricky for me being a runner. I have found some great likeminded people and a nutritionist who advocates LCHF for athletes (she called me an athlete! I’d never considered myself one before lol!) and I just started training on a lower carb diet – interested? watch this space…

Anyway have a great day and I’ll write more soon 🙂

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Counting down the days to Christmas and setting challenges for 2016!

22 Dec

It’s been an interesting week or so which landed me right back in the physio’s office and no running thanks to bursitis on my hip and a bit of the same on my shoulder.

I thought I would freak out but I was actually quite surprised at how calm I was when my physio said no running in the lead up to Christmas. I do feel somewhat lazy but it has given me time to think about next year and what I would like to achieve.

I have found since the Gold Coast Marathon and then being overseas that I just haven’t been able to get it together with my training or eating to an extent. After chatting to friends and to my husband I realise I am a structured person and need structure in my training too. Not having any major goals has meant I have been a bit all over the place with no real reason to get out there and run So I have a plan for next year.

2016 running goals

The Plan

Whilst I hadn’t planned to run another marathon I have decided actually I will. I am not going to put any pressures on myself but I am going to train for it and run it – simple as that. I’m going to enjoy it and enjoy the training 🙂

I have a few in mind – I could either do the Gold Coast Marathon again, or try out the Brisbane Marathon or my wild card this time is the Dubbo Stampede as you get to run around Dubbo Zoo and we have friends there too (in Dubbo not at the Zoo !!). How fun would that be!

So the plan is sort my hip out, train and run the Twilight Run in March and then start the steady build up to one of the Marathons!

This year was hard because my friend was meant to be training with me but she got injured so I did a lot of the training alone, but next year I have a few friends who are planning to run a marathon and I am a member of Intraining now too so there are runs that they do that I have access to for Marathon build up. So I am hoping that things will be a bit easier where training is concerned.

R & R 

So whilst a lot of people are relishing the idea of having time off work over Christmas and running lots it looks like I may well still have my rest time if my hip doesn’t clear up and then will start training in January.

I’m quite excited about the new challenges and really enjoying running at the moment (when not injured!) – with no pressures.

So here is to an exciting 2016. I hope you have lots of challenges and goals planned! I have a feeling it’s going to be a good year 🙂

In case I don’t write again before the new year. Hope you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year – thanks for continuing to read my random ramblings – it means a lot 🙂

Zoe 🙂

Ps. 

My most recent blog post as guest blogger for Azumio Inc is now live if you’d like to read it. It’s all about running safely after dark.

 

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Training for your first 5k and considering running for charity?

20 Oct

I’ve got a few posts coming up in the next few weeks as there has been a lot going on, but in the mean time I just wanted to share two posts that I recently wrote as guest blogger for RunstopShop and Azumio.

The first blog post which was for RunStopShop is all about running for charity. It’s often hard to decide whether to run for charity and how to ask people to support you. So I have given a bit of an insight in my post which you can read here.

My second post which was writing for Azumio gives guidance if you have just started running and are wanting to run your first 5k. Read it here.

Have a great week of running and I will be writing lots more soon 🙂

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First Marathon after having my baby!

8 Feb

Its been 9.5 months now since my son was born and all I could think of whilst I was pregnant was how I was going to get back into my training and what I wanted to achieve as I missed running. Don’t get me wrong I was delighted being pregnant but I’d always run and not being able to was harder than I thought it would be!

Running the Gold Coast Marathon in 2015 - The Girl That Runs

This photo of Nadia and I was taken just before we were about to run a race a while back.

So I decided that in order to give myself a goal to get back into running I set myself the goal of running another marathon once my son was born – and that chance has arisen and I’m going to run it with my lovely and most awesome friend Nadia 🙂

RunStopShop invited me to be an Ambassador which has been an awesome opportunity, and they have given me the opportunity to run a marathon of my choice in Australia which is very cool. This will be my fifth marathon and I was intending on running the Perth but decided that this year I would do the Gold Coast Marathon as it’s a well organised race and on a nice flat route with plenty of entrants – as my other fear when looking at some of the races such as the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane was that I might actually be last as I am coming back from not running for a while!

So since the beginning of January I have been following a schedule done by my professional runner friend back in the UK to get me to marathon ready by the beginning of July! It’s been tough as whilst I started training again after my baby was born I hadn’t really pushed myself until I decided I was going to go for the marathon.

I’m excited but scared at the same time. I’ve already clocked up 55km last week (Thursday – Wednesday) and I know it’s going to go up and up! I ran 16k yesterday and 11.5km today – and whilst it hurt it was so good to be back into the two figure numbers in distance 🙂 I have been doing a fair bit at the gym but also training with friends who are also training for races this year and my one friend that I am slowly convincing that running is fun 🙂 which is great to have someone to chat to whilst running the long distances.marathon-number-5

RunStopShop will be providing me with lots of kit for the race day which I will review and I’ll be writing some blog posts for them too which is exciting and fun! So it has given me the motivation I needed to get back into shape. I have already seen progress just in the 4+ weeks of training where my heart rate has lowered and also I could hardly run 5k at the beginning of January and like I said – this weekend I have run a total of 27.5km 🙂 Anyway watch this space. I’ll be writing more about my journey back to the marathon. I’m really excited as it’s a ‘special birthday’ year too so I’m hoping it will be a great year of achieving and having fun running 🙂

Have a great weekend (what’s left of it and as always – happy running 🙂

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