What I've learnt in my 28th year!

Today is my 29th birthday so I thought I would do a post about the knowledge I've gained over the last year. 

1. You only attract what you put out.

This was the year I found myself and became confidence in my own ability and skills. This was important in two areas of my life, my work life and my love life. I have looking at changing jobs for years but wasn't having much luck until people highlighted that I wasn't putting my achievements in my applications mainly as I didn't always feel I was qualified. I changed my attitude and started getting interviews and walking in feeling that I was perfect for the job and eventually the right job came along for me and it's perfect for me. I also 

2. Being respected is the most important feeling.

In any part of my life, respect is important and I have stopped being involved with people who don't respect me or my opinions. If someone doesn't take time to see you or reply to your messages, they aren't respecting you enough to share their time with you. Spend time with people who respect you, want to spend time with you and put a smile on your face as anything else is a disservice to yourself. 

3. Stress reacts in the body in many different ways. 

My IBS is a major part of my life, it effects all that I eat and when I get a flair up everything falls apart. Before Christmas stress was effecting my body and I had the worst stomach flair up I've every had. I had stomach cramps for weeks making it impossible to eat any food, the feeling of nausea and acid reflex that had me convinced that I was pregnant (but wasn't!) The thing that confused me was I couldn't understand why my body could feel so bad from something like stress, that it would have such a major effect on my life that I had to take time off and didn't feel myself. What I learnt is to listen to my body and when it starts to show signs of not being right, do sometjinh! Mainly, I need to take it easier and find ways to manage it myself before it gets unbearable.

4. I need to see more of the UK (and running is a great way to do it)

I have explored very little of the UK in my life so far, I grew up south of London went to uni in Brighton and apart from visiting Grandparents on the south coast the rest of the UK have been left unexplored. In the last year I have visited parts of Norfolk, Cambridge and about to visit York. Thats a big step outside my comfort zone and I've been to beautiful places and had fun. I have plans to visit Edinburgh (for my marathon) and an event in suffolk to get me exploring. If anyone has any 'must complete' events for me please let me know.

5. I need to be better with money. 

For a while now I have been saving for the future and saving a bit here and there. I have been lucky living with my parents for the last couple of years and not had to worry about money too much. If I want a new dress or spent too much on a night out then I could and it had no effect on my daily life. But now I live with my partner, I have rent and bills and although I know I can budget its not automatic yet. This sounds like something that I have in place before turning 29 but I think most females in their late 20s would admit that they could be better with money as well.

Do you reflect as you get older? Do you feel that you've learnt a lot in the last year?

Marathon Training- Take two

Oh the joys of training for your first marathon- feet pounding as your building more and more miles. Running distances you've never run before-it's invigorating and exciting. When I lined up at the start line I knew I had done the miles and all I had to do was finish. I ran it and although I enjoyed it, I was never going to run again (I really told multiple people this) and here I am four and a half weeks into my training for my second marathon feeling like a prize plum.

First time round I just set myself the target of hitting the distances at a pace I was comfortable with, I walked a lot in my long runs and was comfortable with that. I have set myself a goal of beating my Brighton time of 5:30-which means I need to run under 12 min miles. That may not be much to most people but 26 miles at any guaranteed pace is hard work for my tired legs. Also the miles aren't as new as they first were, I'm not reaching new distances every week and therefore I'm not getting the satisfaction that I once had, but I guess that was due to come eventually.

This is clearly a worried face in a very patchy training run.

I am at the moment reaching most of my targets but my body is always tired and I worry that every little niggle is an injury. This spring season I have two friends who have been injured and unable to run their marathons, I am now starting to worry this will happen to me as I haven't been able to train as much as I wanted before I started my plan.

Tempo runs are hard! Forcing myself to pick up the pace when I'm tired and wanting to go home and shower. Having paces are even harder and making myself check pace and run to set times is harder then I thought. I love running and I am enjoying the plan but I don't know if my body will cope enough to make it.

The biggest difficulty I have been having is not being a grumpy girlfriend. I forgot how hangry I get after running, especially the long run. My poor boyfriend has also had to put up with pre-run tears and post run grumpiness. He has handled it perfectly but for the sake of my relationship I want to sort out my fuelling so I'm less grumpy. I'm also hoping that as I grow in strength that I will stop doubting my inability to do the miles and the speeds that my plan is asking.

I'm hoping that as it goes on I will get stronger, I will stop being sore and I will grow in confidence. I just hope that when I line up for the Edinburgh Marathon in May that I am proud of what I've done and I can go ahead knowing the training paid off.

Currently running with...

I thought I would let you know what I've been enjoying while I've been running as I am one of those very anti-social runners who likes to put my headphones in and ignore the world:

Long run:

I've started downloading audio books for my long runs (and keeping it only for the long runs) I'm loving following the story & having the miles pass by. I'm currently listening to the girl on the train by Paula Hawkins, this story is griping, full of suspense and nicely cut up to chapter ideal to stop at the end of the run.
You can buy the book here if your a traditional reader or download the audiobook from the itunes store such as I did.

Training runs

Ive loved this podcast from Ben Coomber's podcast. It's a conversation with Mike Mahler and although I love his enthusiasm for kettlebells. What really stuck with me was his talk about how a lack of estrogen or testosterone can effect training. I recently found out that my contraception may have damaged my estrogen levels so listening to this made me think that it may be stopping me from reaching my goals or full potential. It's something that definitely got me thinking and I will be fully investigating. Please let me know if you would like me to update you on how I got on. If you intrigued then please watch it here: youtube link