Tag Archives: miles

Overcoming the fear

Posted in Running by

  The fear – that irrational feeling ahead of a run you just can’t shake for some reason.
Leads to excuses, skipping runs and being a general wimp! 

long run 3

Taking in the scenery on a weekend long run

I admit, I’ve had the fear recently but it’s about time I shook it off and got my legs moving again! I’ve still been running but one thing’s for sure is that at times I’ve definitely been wimping out of my long runs.

My knee hurt, my calf hasn’t been 100%, I’ve got too much work to do or it’s too late in the day to do it now. ALL excuses and all ridiculous ones. (Obviously don’t run if you’re injured but I’m not – touch wood!)

I’ve slowly been recovering from a knee injury which is why I think I’ve had the fear. It has made me reluctant to get back in to things and to really push myself. I fear that if I start, having told myself I’m going to do 11 miles and have to stop at 4, I’ll be gutted and grumpy for the rest of the day or worse still I’ll have to admit that I’m not recovered and have to rest!

So I’ve taken on the most illogical tactic ever of avoiding long runs and just sticking to shorter ones. But I pushed that to one side – finally!! – and headed out on a surprising 15 miler – see you later fear!!

Here’s how it went down:

Total  miles: 15.01mi
Total time:2hours 10 seconds
Av min mile pace: 8:00/mi
Mile splits:

1- 7.18 (oops started out too fast!)
2- 7.53
3- 8.06
4- 8.11
5- 7.48
6- 7.49
7- 8.07
8- 8.12
9 – 7.51
10 – 7.58
11 – 7.59
12- 8.12
13 – 8.08
14 – 8.24
15 – 8.05

IMG_7768

What I found, not surprisingly, was that my legs were fine, it was my mind that had been struggling and all I needed to do was pull myself together and get out there and enjoy it!

Whether it’s that you’re going to finish last, you’re too self-conscious to run in front of people or you’re worried that you’ll have to walk, there’s always an excuse you can find to get out of running.

There’s nothing wrong with a bad run though. If you do have to walk, don’t beat yourself up about it – you’re still out there moving and logging the miles! Letting go of bad runs is something I need to work on. If you have a bad one, take it in, think about what went wrong and why but only do this for five or ten minutes. Then, put it to one side and move on from it. Don’t give it a second thought or else the fear takes hold as it did with me and it made me annoyed at myself and my progress, or lack of it.

That said, I’m putting the fear behind me and I’m going to crack on and get on with it – starting with a lunch time run in the sun today. If I go slow, fine, if I have to walk, fine, at least I’m out there doing it and won’t get home tonight thinking “I should’ve gone for a run today.”

More self-loving and less self-loathing! Run because you love your body!

🙂 Go and find your happy pace!
#hannahshappypace

Marathon prep: just get it done

Posted in Running by

“Grind it out, Hannah, just grind it out.” Those were the words I was repeating out loud to myself like a madwoman on my final long run before the Yorkshire Marathon.
With less than two weeks to go I took to the roads at the weekend to complete my final long run and it was definitely a tough one.
Knowing I was about two weeks behind where I should/wanted to be due to a bit of an iffy calf I was apprehensive about how far I’d make it on Saturday.
22 miles would’ve been the dream but I think deep down I knew that wasn’t going to happen having not ran more than eight miles in the past two weeks. So I settled on doing anything between 16-22 miles – I’m not one to give up easily!
Everything was fine to start with, I felt strong, my Shot Bloks were slipping down like I was eating fruit  pastilles in front of the X Factor on a Saturday night and I was running a good 30 seconds quicker on each mile than my estimated marathon pace. Until mile 18 that is.
I think my mind gave up before my legs did, which is usually the case, hence why I began chanting to myself whilst Eminem Till I Collapse was on repeat.
I reached 20 miles and decided that was enough, disappointed that I hadn’t managed to hit 22 but pleased that my calf looked like it was going to hold up for the race – and that’s the most important thing, I kept reminding myself.
So with the countdown officially ON (I say that, I’ve been counting down for the past 70 odd days!), it’s finally time to taper.
I’ve been reading up on how to taper and have found that most blogs are suggesting to reduce mileage by another 20-25 per cent during the final two weeks and to run everything easy. So that’s exactly what I’ll be doing.
I’ll be doing three/four runs this week and two/three CrossFit sessions to keep my strength up but if my calf starts playing up I’ll swim instead of run and will take it easy with CrossFit.
I’m in the process of planning my final week now (eek!) and have stocked up on different flavoured Shot Bloks for the race and have almost finalised my race outfit – priorities ey!
Yorkshire Marathon – Let’s do this!!