Running Anniversary!

Hey everyone!

Sorry Ive been a bit absent in my posting lately. Everything seems to have taken over a little bit recently.
It flashed up on my TimeHop that exactly a year ago on Monday I stepped foot outside and did my first ever run. It was 3.5km and it took me nearly 35 minutes but I did it. Needless to say I didn’t think I would be planning on running the London Marathon anytime soon after that and here I am in training for it and with it coming round 13 weeks on Sunday!
This year I have done…
Harewood House 10km event (April),
Market Drayton 10km event (May),
Leeds 10km event (July),
York 10km event (August),
English Half Marathon (September),
Bridlington Half Marathon (October),
Clowne Half Marathon (November).

My highlights have to be my first 10k with my dad in April at a very muddy and hilly Harewood House and then I wont ever forget that buzz of running around the athletics track on the last 400m of my first ever half marathon in Warrington. That was amazing. I honestly didn’t think I had it in me. If I could bottle that feeling up and make it last forever I would!

Training wise…
I celebrated with a Club Run on Tuesday – 4.7 miles later I felt amazing. At a steady 10 minute / mile pace. That was what I now call a “short” and “steady” run. Comfortable, whilst still maintaining conversation.
The plan is to run tomorrow evening, swim Friday and a steady run Saturday before Ferriby 10 mile race on Sunday which really kicks off my London Marathon Training.

Looking ahead, the plan is to slowly increase the weekend run distances & keep the mid week runs in place along with 1 or 2 swims a week for the cross training and to take the pressure away from my joints all of the time.

My training feels like its going okay, I will know properly depending how I get on on Sunday. Im looking forward to it but cant help having the usual pre – race nerves.

Please don’t forget my true reason behind writing my blog…
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Tori-London-Marathon-2015

If anyone has any questions feel free to post them in the comments below.
Happy Running
Much Love
x

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Tori-London-Marathon-2015

Marathon Training!

Wow! 2015 has come round so quickly – Happy New Year to everyone!
I’m officially running a marathon THIS YEAR! Oh my word. Honestly cannot believe it will actually happen in 113 days time (from the time of me writing this post).
It doesn’t seem like 5 minutes ago since I was saying to friends its over 200 days away, it soon flies by!

Training schedule wise, it just keeps getting more and more intense. I’m currently averaging about 25 to 30 miles a week running as well as swimming sessions (I will come to those in a while).

My training week for the next 4 weeks is likely to look a lot like this…
Monday – Double run day (so a run before and after work)
Tuesday – Morning Run before work, swim after work.
Wednesday – Run & Circuit training
Thursday – Double Run day
Friday – Swim (No Running)
Saturday & Sunday – Back home in Wakefield so Hill work.

Swim training or cross training
Incredibly important within my training schedule for the marathon. It really helps to stop injuries occurring as you are allowing leg muscles and joints which you use in running to recover actively. So whilst still working out, the muscles and joints don’t have the pressure on them.
It has also inspired me to really get back into my swim training, I’m really enjoying it and got a bit carried away today clocking up 1.9 miles in the pool.
I am now looking at something I never thought I would, that being Triathlons, with the current aim of completing an ironman by the time I’m 25 and looking at smaller triathlons in the meantime. I’m yet to get on a bike but I have promised myself I will as soon as I have ran the Marathon so that I don’t injure myself learning – that would be the last thing I want.

Hill training
This is something that is a must really to improve performance and endurance. Living near Wakefield we have them in plentiful supply so when I am home on a weekend it is ideal.
Repetitions are usually performed, find a good hill and power up the hill as hard as you can and relax a run going down to get your breath back. Hard work but when you see the elevation charts on your app (garmin, tomtom, strava etc). it makes it all worthwhile.

Performance
Having been working hard for a good few months now I’m really starting to see some results. I feel loads better in myself. People who I run with are noticing differences too, and the big improvements even though I don’t always notice them in myself.

Keep at it everyone, whether you have just started running because of a new years resolution or you are an avid runner.
Please don’t forget the real reason behind my blog at…
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Tori-London-Marathon-2015

Happy Running!
Much Love.
x

TomTom MultiSport Review

This post is about my newest piece of kit which I purchased last week… The TomTom MultiSport
Having had my Garmin FR 10 since April and it recently developing a very foggy screen I sent it off to Garmin for a replacement. They replaced it without question and sent me a new one.
I decided however with the long marathon training runs that it was time to update my tech to something that could withstand the longer runs and I also wanted something to log my swims on which have become a regular feature of my Friday evenings to cross train.

Having looked around on various websites and asked people for advice it was Emma at Up & Running in Wakefield that suggested the TomTom Multi Sport at £129.99. It sounded great, I could track all of my runs on it and it had a few extra features to what the alternative (the FR15) would have offered. With a 10 hour battery life in GPS Mode and the ability to track swims on it I was intrigued.
At the time I was still weary about it not being a Garmin having loved my Garmin but I was reassured it was a brilliant rival to it.
I did my research and it sounded perfect. Needless to say I soon bought one.

The box…

It looked great. The FR 15 retails at slightly less but I was prepared to pay a bit more knowing it was a multisport and not just a running watch. I bought it on the Saturday, charged it up and didn’t have a run planned till Monday morning, so needless to say I was excited come Monday morning. On my plan on Monday was a 45 minute run so I set it to time me for 45 minutes. The TomTom alerts you when you hit 50% of your goal, then again at 90% and finally at 100%.

I loved it. I didn’t feel like I had to keep checking to make sure I hadn’t lost track of time or anything. I felt on pace and happy. The display on the watch was great, very big numbers which you can alter what shows by clicking the down button.

Sorry the picture is a bit blurry! It was at 5.45 in the morning.

I put the watch through its paces all week. On Friday my training plan involved a swim, so it was a great chance to test it and see how it got on in the water. It said I did 52 lengths which is 0.8mile but I did count 4 or 6 more than that as I think it needed configuring a bit at the start. But not too much bother, still very useful. And it measured my stroked per length in order to improve stroke efficiency. And then broke your pacing down like it would with a run.

On Saturday I did a park run and wanted it to pace me, I figured out that this pacing option was great, you could put a gap in it, and not just one time per mile, so I set a range from 8:50 min miles to 9:15 minute miles. It buzzed and showed a target when I was on target, and then an arrow showed up facing upwards if I needed to up the pace a bit or downwards if I was going too quick (needless to say the later of the two didn’t happen very often!)

All in all a very good watch for the price I paid! Very glad I bought it.
Please don’t forget the reason why I am writing my blog, to raise money for Action on Hearing Loss with my London Marathon Journey!
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Tori-London-Marathon-2015

Happy Running!
Much Love
x

Clowne Half Marathon

I have to say I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this one, after I didn’t really rate Bridlington.
We got there about 8.30am for a 10am race start as I knew we had to pick race numbers and timing chips up before we started.

I ran this one with a fellow Running The World member Tim Molloy & Dave Davidson also met a few others there, Angela Weeks & Deborah Leese (the marshal at mile 10, more about that later) so it was great to finally put some faces to some names!

Organisation…
Was absolutely great, I couldn’t fault it really. The only real niggle was that the bag drop was absolutely miles away from where we registered and even further away from the car. If we had known no doubt we would have dropped the bags back at the car.
The marshals at the start and throughout the race were great.
I rocked my East Hull Harriers top for the first ever time, and it was great to hear people cheering for East Hull, it felt so strange but very encouraging.

The aim for this one was just to finish it, I didn’t know the course, I had heard it was to be very hilly but all road so no real surprises. I just wanted to finish it sub 2:30, not exactly breaking any records but I’m out there!

Mile 1 – 4 – They soon flew by, once the initial niggles which I always seem to get (Mile 1 always lies!) were over I felt amazing, our pace as I later found out was great at solid 10 minute miles for the first 6 miles. Water stations were great there was one just after mile 3 and they were in bottles! So you didn’t get covered in water.

Miles 5 – 6 – These couple of miles involved quite a climb after a nice drop towards the back end of the first third. But we soon got through it and still at a great pace.

Half way – We passed the half way mark within 67 minutes, I knew then I was running a reasonable race. There was another water & aid station just before this point so they were situated about every 3 miles.

Miles 7 – 9 – I suffered the most horrendous stitch, they are so random as you never know what cause them, they just always seem to come on when you think you are doing quite well. I just knew I had to breathe through it and try my hardest to get rid of it. Before we started we had heard talk of this hill at mile 8 or so which was known to be one of the toughest on the course. The elevation map proved this at just over 150 ft climb I believe so far its the hardest hill I’ve done in a race. Once we powered up that my stitch was finally on the move & I knew we were well over half way.

Mile 10 – Now wasn’t that a relief to see Deborah Leese cheering us on with the most welcome tub of jelly babies. I believe they got the prize for loudest marshals on the course and they truly deserved it.

Mile 11 – 12.5  – I found a struggle, they were along a stretch of road that seemed to go on forever and you could see right up it to where you needed to be. I know for a fact the pace dropped here but I got through it and battled mentally.

Mile 13 – We then started to recognise where we were and knew we weren’t far from the finish line. The 800m marker came and that was it, I had to give everything I had left in me to give a sprint finish.

I finished in 2:18:57, it was a great race with just over 600 runners it was a nice size too.
Sadly no bling to rock, but a goody bag with a t-shirt, banana, Lucozade, caramel wafer, crumpets and some blister plasters!

All in all a great race and I will do it again should I get the chance!
Please don’t forget the real reason behind my blog, the Virgin Money London Marathon.
You can sponsor me via this link…
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Tori-London-Marathon-2015

A huge thank you to all my readers.
Happy Running.
Much Love
x

Mojo & Motivation

Firstly thanks to Dave Davidson for recommending that I wrote a post about this topic, it is a truly relevant one and one we as runners experience day to day.

It’s probably quite relevant that as I’m writing this post Tim Christoni is currently smashing a full Ironman. It’s a 2.4 mile swim followed by a 112 mile bike ride, followed by the marathon. Kind of puts my single marathon to shame. But seriously the guy is a machine! I am tracking him and it’s great to see.

As the definition goes mojo basically means the idea of self-assurance and self-confidence or the idea of an influence to make you do something. When any runner at any level says “I’ve lost my mojo” it basically means they have lost their way slightly. They don’t quite have the motivation to be out there training, they have lost the confidence. Sometimes it can be for all sorts of reasons. It might be that something has happened at work, at home, you might be coming back from injury, or you might just be getting a little bored with your training schedule.

Motivation comes and goes in most people, its perfectly normal to feel like you are absolutely going for that goal regardless of what it might be (in my case the London marathon 2015!) and the next week you feel a little deflated. That’s because as the famous saying goes “Rome didn’t get built in a day.” Sometimes we really do as humans expect too much from ourselves, we are all guilty of it, I hold my hand up and can quite easily say on more than one occasion I have expected my body to perform in a way I just wasn’t ready to perform.

Everyone has off weeks. We all have runs that just didn’t feel that great. On the flip side we all have runs that truly felt amazing, we felt like we were seriously smashing it and giving it some BOOM as our lovely Netty would say. But there is some great sayings hovering around the running community. My personal favourite is the one which basically says you know what… you are out there, you are doing it and you are lapping every single person who is on the sofa or in some cases of early morning runs still in bed! You are out there putting one foot in front of the other and you are clearly kicking some ass for doing so. Its badass! (Thanks for the phrase Tim Christoni!)

Mojo really is a very hard thing to explain, people really do lose it for no apparent reason, and then it can take a few days to come back or in some cases months, but its normal, as long as you keep at it, keep out there, just keep going towards your goal whether it be big steps or baby steps that you take, slow miles or quick miles, every single step and every single mile counts. Some days you do need a day to yourself, to recuperate, to rest and recover. You know something… that’s normal too, you can’t expect your body to be firing on all cylinders 24 / 7, you will burn out.

It really does help if you have a great support network around you, whether it be online through some absolutely immense Facebook groups such as Running The World or Run For Fun, or whether it be through friends and family, or if you are a member of a running club. They really all do help, if you have had a “bad” run you will soon realise that the run wasn’t nowhere near as bad as you think it was. Support really is the key. So surround yourself with those who are going to really help and encourage you and not hinder you.

It takes some guts to be out there running in the first place so just remember you really are amazing for being out there running (whether it be 5k or a marathon or an ironman) its truly inspirational. And remember we are allowed to have off days and times where we just don’t have the motivation; you soon get back on it and get the bug back for doing something you love.

Im going to leave you with one of my all time favourite picture quotes…

Please don’t forget the real reason behind why I am writing my blog, please donate at… http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Tori-London-Marathon-2015

Thanks again for reading my post.
Happy Running.
Much Love.
x

Bridlington Half Marathon!

Sorry, a long time since Bridlington I know but the post is finally here!
This one I did with the lovely Sarah Swift & met Catherine Thornton & Jayne Russell there 🙂

Well well well… Bridlington, I had heard mixed reviews about the course, some good, some not so good. I thought lets just do it and enjoy it.
We got there, went to try and find race HQ and it seemed poor.
So we took a walk to where it would start. Luckily we had my mum & dad with us to hold bags as there was no where to leave them. I did see most people using it as a warm up and legging it back to the car with them.
Pre race pictures… totally innocent before we found out what lie ahead of us!

The start… no announcement just a gun that went and everyone assumed we were off.
Mile breakdown…
Mile 1 – 4 – Steady, got into a rhythm, the first mile is always the one that seems to lie and this one did. I found myself not really getting into a rhythm even though I had my garmin pacing me. I really struggled till about mile 2 or 3.
The race took a bit of a country route from Bridlington Prom, through and round out towards Flamborough, through Bempton and then “downhill” back to Bridlington Prom.

This photo was captured by a friend at East Hull Harriers at about mile 8! You can tell by my face just how tough it really was! Hopefully on my next race I shall be rocking the red & white of east hull 🙂

Mile 5 – 10 – Weren’t too bad, I just kept going up the hills and made a promise to myself that it didn’t matter how slow I plodded up them just as long as I didn’t walk. The only bits I had to walk at were the water stations as water was in cups! Had I not took water on I would have suffered so it was walk or nothing for about 30 seconds.
Mile 11 – 13 – We were practically on top of the cliff, the wind felt like you were running against a brick wall. The people walking their dogs really weren’t that bothered about you, it was so frustrating, they could see you were struggling, a slight pause to clap and a well done wouldn’t have gone a miss! But hey ho. Thanks to the rare few that did say well done!
Mile 13.1 – Along the promenade was the best bit, it had the most support as there really wasn’t much along the route and non of the roads were closed off! Mum did her usual and screamed at me, but my legs just wouldn’t go any quicker.

It is an extremely tough course! One not to be taken lightly.
Finishers photos…

We well and truly earned our medal after that race.
Please don’t forget the real reason behind my blog… London Marathon 2015!
If any readers want to sponsor me follow this link…
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Tori-London-Marathon-2015

I did take a couple of weeks rest after this race but Im well and truly back now! 🙂
Happy Running.
Much Love.
x

My First Ever Half Marathon!

Wow! What an event! The English Half Marathon was to be my first ever half marathon.
I ran with Robbie Shanahan (my uni housemates dad!) who is a seasoned runner & agreed to get me round my first half comfortably and hopefully well within my target time of 2 hours 30 minutes.

In the week leading up to it, it meant the nerves kicked in, I didn’t sleep very well on a night and I was eating pasta for dinner every night on the advice of my Personal Trainer (Omar Jags who I mentioned in another post). Then I went to Chester on the Saturday to spend the day with my good uni mate Emily & her family to prepare for the following day.

The night before…
I barely slept, I went to bed at 10pm, reasonable time, I didn’t get to sleep till after midnight although I was resting well & good but only actually slept about 5 hours maximum. Its apparently perfectly normal but when Ive struggled to sleep all week due to nerves I felt incredibly tired come race day so I will have to figure that one out. ‘Note to self’

Race day!
Oh my word, race day has come around, the past 6 weeks since York 10km with all the long runs and the training really has come down to this. The biggest race day of my life so far. I was so nervous, my stomach was in knots so I just tried to keep as hydrated as possible. The picture below is me before the race…

The sun was shining and it was slowly warming up. So I knew full well hydration really was key and I had to make sure I kept it topped up.

The atmosphere at the start was amazing, all be it a little delayed but there was the buzz you just don’t get anywhere else. Feel free to skip the next bit if you are no runner but if you are interested Im going to break it down mile by mile or so.
Mile 1 to 3 were all on steady inclines, but myself & Robbie went out with a 10:07 mile, then a 9:58 mile, then a 10:09 mile. I then found myself realising this isn’t a 5k, I still have over 3 times more to run, and I had to take the foot off of the gas a bit.

Mile 4 & 5 I suffered with a bit of a stitch but it soon went once I got the breathing under control and we carried on plodding on with a 10:24 mile and a 10:16 mile.

Mile 6 & 7 came along and Robbie just kept on reminding me to focus on now and carry on and every so often reminded me how well we were doing for time. They were slightly slower at 10:29 and 10:33 but they were soon done.

Mile 8 & 9 I realised we had done more miles than we had left to go and we were well ahead of my time I wanted. By this point I just kept being reminded that I had less to go now than my average run in the week and that massively helped. They were done in 10:09 and 10:40 respectively.

Mile 10 and boom the stitch which I had suffered with earlier came back, only twice as bad, I was struggling with my breathing a little so slowed to a walk for 30 seconds then gradually increased the pace, that mile was done in 10:29.

Mile 11 and 12 soon flew by even though they were the slower miles, you could slowly hear the roar coming from the finish line and you knew you were on the home straight almost. Even though they were done in 10:49 I still knew we were well ahead.

Mile 13 was slightly quicker at 10:17 as Robbie encouraged me to pick the pace up again, as much as I didn’t want to im so glad I did.

The last .1 of a mile and the last part of 13 was a sprint, up the home straight, round the athletics track and over the finish line.

Yes Im still on a high and probably will be for a few days, the goodies included a medal (of course!) a gel, a packet of haribos, a banana, crisps, a t-shirt and some socks as well as plenty of water.

A massive thank you to the team at English Half Marathon including Adrienne Hall, and also a huge thank you to the locals who came out and cheered us all on, especially the young couple that tracked me and Robbie round the course and screamed at us every time they saw us 🙂

On amazing event and the first of many half marathons to come!
Really enjoyed it, a massive thanks again to Robbie as I wouldn’t have done it that quick without you!

Happy Running.
Much love.
x

A new routine, a new nutrition plan, a new attitude!

You might be wondering why I haven’t blogged in a while, I’ve recently moved to Hull on a work placement with Cranswick PLC as well as taking on a new full on training plan with a personal trainer aka Jags, he runs Screaming Eagles Fitness and has offered to take me on board as part of my journey to a marathon runner.

Life has been pretty full on but tonight’s write up will focus on my experiences so far with Jags and the work which I have done with him so far. So here goes…

Initially we had quite a long conversation about current fitness levels (running 10ks, longer runs but no speed demon), where I want to be (Be able to run London in April obviously!), what I wanted to improve on (form, core strength, general fitness), what I was like in terms of nutrition, what he thought I was capable of doing and then he explained the plan.

Week one saw an assessment week. Which was incredibly hard work but before I knew it the week was over. It involved basic tests involving body weight exercises (squats, sit ups etc.) as well as some timed runs to really see what I was capable of when I had my raring to go head on. Throughout that week nutrition wise Jags just gave me the reins (so to speak) and he said eat healthily but just go with what you want, having given me rough times of when I should be eating to fuel the workouts. Automatically I chose to eat clean and healthy as I didn’t see much point in doing it any other way because of all the exercise and hard work I was putting in.

As I moved into the initial full training week, it meant getting up half an hour earlier to do core work before work every morning, as well as runs of different lengths in an evening with body weight exercises included. Needless to say it was a bit of a rocky transition and still is as I come towards the end of week 1, but the difference I am already noticing are great. Simple things like feeling a little bit more trim around my tummy or arms.

Jags (even though I have never actually had physical contact) the contact is constantly there over Facebook or text, has been amazing, tough but fair when it comes to punishment, for example on Saturday I finished my route 3 minutes quicker than I thought I would and a 60 minute timed run ended up being 57 minutes, so I got a sequence of squat thrusts, sit ups, burpees and push ups to do for it. Yes it might sound harsh but you soon realise why.

Having a trainer on hand is a necessity especially for runners, last night I had a sore muscle in the top of my thigh, through conversations with Jags, we soon figured out exactly what it was (the piriformus muscle which sits on a nerve) and it has enabled us to work together to get through the pain and to do alternate workouts instead of running whilst I rest that particular area. Enabling a speedier recovery and hopefully I will be back out there by Monday in time for a club run night on Tuesday.

Already I am seeing the massive benefits of having Jags on hand, the education, the coaching, the advice, the person that understands what you will be going through physically and mentally as training gets upped and gets harder. It really helps your mental attitude knowing that.

I am really looking forward to things to come.
I will be ready in time for April & am looking forward to London!
I shall update you all pretty soon with a progress report 🙂

Happy Running.
Much Love
x

Club runs!

Okay, so more recently I have picked up the courage to go along to a couple of running club sessions.
One in my home village near Stanley in Wakefield where I met John Walsh which was the Rodillian runners running club.
The 2nd being near where I am on my years work placement in Hull which is the East Hull Harriers.

Still feeling very much a newbie to running with miles under my belt but not necessarily much speed work to add to the tale it was safe to say I was very wary of going along to both of these club nights.

Lets start with the one I did first, Rodillian runners…
I went on a Tuesday evening, having spoken with John before going along I kind of knew what sort of thing we would be doing. We headed out on a run, covering anything up to 10km, we did 5.58 miles so 9km in a comfortable 58:07, it was a hilly run but it felt comfortable. Kept the pace at a pace where we could hold conversation and I slowly began to really enjoy running with other people.
When we got back it felt really good, good to just chat to some like minded people and spur each other on, keep each other going so you don’t stop to walk when you think you would on your own.

East Hull Harriers was the 2nd one I went along to now I am over in Hull for a year on my work placement. Its the one I plan on staying with right through my marathon training as I really feel like it will help me to keep going and improve my speed. My new house mate Kelly took me along as she is already a member there and introduced me to everyone there. That night we covered about 10k in 1hour 3 minutes so another comfortable paced run with a good mix of countryside trail and road.

Clubs really do seem like such a daunting experience especially if you are only very new to running but as you will see in my next post, after only a few runs it really has helped my personal best times to tumble down.
Its great to meet like minded people and hold conversations about running without sounding strange!
Just do it, get out there and find a running club near you that is easy enough to fit in around life.
You wont regret it!

Happy running.
Much love.
x

Park Run Times!

Okay then, so this post goes out as a thank you to Karen Head, Malcolm & Lesley Lavery and of course Ronnie Bray for introducing me to everyone at Temple Newsam Park Run. And of course my brother Ben for coming along for moral support 🙂

I will admit I was nervous turning up to a park run, even though I had my heart set on a sub 30 minute time I hadn’t taken into account how hilly it would be, I came in at 31 minutes so Im pretty pleased with that.

There literally were all walks of life there, old, young, big, small, athletic and first timers. I was worried I wouldn’t fit in, being fairly new to running but everyone fits in, you meet some truly amazing people and have a good laugh.

I had been stuck in a rut with running for a couple of weeks before the park run but it honestly brought my love of running back. The atmosphere was amazing for an event which is FREE! If you haven’t got a race coming up for a while and are missing the atmosphere of race day I strongly recommend getting along to a park run. They vary in size normally there are about 100 ish people that do them with times from sub 20 minutes to an hour. It really is for everyone. I will admit, people told me that before hand and I still didn’t believe them, but honestly, its true!

So honestly, don’t let it put you off, go out, run, enjoy it!
Happy Running.
Much Love.
xx