Tag: allaboutrunning

Feeling Fatigued ……….

“Whenever you find yourself doubting how far you can go, just remember how far you have come. Remember everything you have faced, all the battles you have won, and all the fear you have overcome”.  – Unknown.

 

I have been feeling really fatigued over the last few days. Have had a ton of sleep, as in almost 12 hours for 2 nights running. My mind set is normally one of ‘push through’, ‘everything will be OK in the end’, ‘just get it done’, but this feeling has stopped me in my tracks. I didn’t do a moment of exercise yesterday, and didn’t get up for a run this morning.

This morning I have been doing some research about likely causes. I don’t want to feel like this, and the sooner it’s gone the better.

I’m a “all in or out” kind of girl. My exercise regime has been ramping up since I decided I wanted to be a runner. Together with the running training, I have been doing strength and conditioning with my PT (a no – brainer, you don’t start running at my age for the first time without building up core and strength) and also doing High intensity workouts to help build up my fitness.

Together with some girlfriends, we walk 3 mornings a week, long high intensity walks, either fast on the flats, or up small mountains in the bush with big elevations of heart rate. The walks are glorious and I love them. You always feel so great afterwards and full of the joys of life.
Often we also do a bike ride one morning a week for an hour or two.

I walk the dogs an hour a day.  This is in itself great exercise.  They pelt along at a rapid rate and stop for nothing.  So, every day I do at least 2 sets of exercise per day, some days I do 3 sets and some days 4 sets. On Sundays I just walk the dogs, nothing else.

Maybe I am just doing too much so have decided that today I will make myself an exercise planner for the weeks ahead, and try and get some space and recovery between sessions.

The other big issue which I have been alerted to following my research this morning is food and water intake both before and after training. Water is not an issue, I drink at least 2 Litres per day, but nutrition is definitely a problem for me.  I just haven’t taken enough care about eating right before or after training sessions.  The Livestrong foundation wrote the following  “When blood sugar levels drop too low, exhaustion may occur. Pre-workout meals prevent this by stabilizing blood sugar levels. Eat a high-carbohydrate, moderate-protein and low-fat snack between one and three hours before working out. This can be a banana, oatmeal, juice or low-fat yogurt. After-workout meals eaten within 20 minutes also help. A snack with a 3-to-1 ratio of carbohydrates and protein will restore glycogen and replenish tired muscles, according to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Good post-workout snacks include trail mix, yogurt with granola and chocolate milk”  This same advice was recommended in other places I looked, so from now on, I am going to take nutrition more seriously.

Have a great week everyone.  Until soon.

Motivation through quotes

I find quotes motivate me. I come across particular ones and they hit a chord within, propel me into action, or just make me feel more determined, motivated, accepting, kind, upbeat, strong, powerful or validates what I am thinking right now.

I wanted to share these quotes with you because they may help you along the path too.

The first one that is a favourite goes like this:-

“New day,  new blessings, new opportunities, new start, new mindset,      new focus, new intentions, new results.”

I read this one often, particularly when yesterday didn’t go as well as I had planned, or just ended up being a nothing kind of day that leaves you feeling a bit blah.

One that follows from this one is, and one I absolutely love:-

“She needed a hero, so she became one…..”

 

There is a short poem that I read that speaks to my belief in sisterhood and how the very best can happen when women support each other:-

“Hey girl, I see you there.
Trying, showing up.
pushing through even when it’s hard.
Choosing energy forward over staying stuck.
Backing your talk with action.
Standing up and fighting for your fairytale.
I like what you’re up to, keep doing it. “

by Natalie Brite

To do with running, I like:_

“Run the mile you’re in”  

I also like (and I repeat it to myself often)

“It’s a slow process, but quitting won’t speed it up”

And then, just for fun, I love this sign outside my local coffee shop:-

Have a great week everyone. Heading for my second Parkrun tomorrow.  It’s still making me nervous as I was last week, but am sure the nerves will fade as I do a few of these.

5 things I learned from my first ever parkrun

Well people. I did it. My 1st ever Parkrun. It was exhilarating and for the record, I ran 37:22 which I think may be snail pace, but gives me a target to beat next time. I was super impressed with the organisation of it all, and also how many runners turned up. I had done some research on Parkrun the day before and was amazed to discover how many Countries it is being held in, and how truly global it is. There is this whole world out there I didn’t know a thing about until I started running. Loving all the discoveries. I learned a few things along the way I thought I would share.

1. Runners are truly supportive of each other. I got some positive comments along the way such as ‘doing well’ or ‘keep it up’ which was unexpected and really helpful.

2. Other runners are inspirational and aspirational. I was a bit slow today but saw so many quick and awesome runners, and got inspired to do better, and thought that I could get better and quicker and fitter.  No sooner had I finished that I was planning next week and how I would attack it differently.

3. When you plan to do something, at some stage you have to stop planning and just do it whether you think you are ready or not. The fear of failure can stop you in your tracks. I have been planning a 5km run for months, and if it wasn’t for a quote I read during the week, I would probably still be planning.  It popped up in Instagram and was the Nike logo “Just do it” but seemed to be somehow speaking to me and it did propel me to action.

4. How awesome it is to achieve something new and challenging. This is not be underestimated.  I think we go through life and there is a period we are doing lots of new things and kicking new goals, but as life moves on, it seems to happen less and less.  I think we need new challenges all the days of our lives, and we need to work out what they could be, and how to achieve them. It doesn’t have to be physical, it could be mental, learn a new language, do an art appreciation course, something.  It’s mighty good for the soul.

5.  How truly wonderful woman are (men too but this is particularly for all the women out there)  I am blessed to have a couple of daughters and a sisterhood of women around me who support me and are there for me whatever I do.   We laugh (sometimes uproariously or get the giggles) together, we cry, worry, share thoughts and feelings and events and without each other, life would not be as glorious as it is.  I am sure the women reading this will ‘get it’.  Nothing like your girlfriends to hold you up and validate the person you are.

Until next time.  Enjoy your running.

Anne

p.s. Thanks to Sheila for coming today and taking these photos.  You’re a treasure.

 

 

5 Ways to occupy your mind whilst running.

 

When I first took the road my inner voice would pop up; how much longer; are we there yet; I am feeling tired; can we stop soon.   It drove me to distraction and it didn’t need a psychologist to tell me that wasn’t useful. I needed to come up with a better plan, and to distract my mind.
I started to talk to experienced runners about what they did and discovered that they were probably further down the road than I was in controlling their thoughts. The big advantage they have is that running is second nature to them, whereas I was just learning and it was hard, and therefore needed a different strategy.

1. Listening to new music.
I choose a playlist on Spotify with a beat i.e. 150-165bpm, but choose music I had never heard before and set myself the challenge to listen and decipher every word. Its tricky, particularly listening to hip hop (so not my kind of music) but also fun. Fun is good.

2. Choose a different path
As I am using the 5KPro app, and someone is telling me when to walk and when to run, I don’t need to plan my distance. I just go in different directions, sometimes drive somewhere and start from a new location. Just something different to look at. I find it helps to distract my mind.

3. I make up a story about the people I run past. If they’re walking with someone I invent relationships and conversations they are having. I do find this very distracting and also amuses me continually.

4. If I am having trouble making all of the above stick, I challenge myself to mathematical problems. For example, if I keep running at the speed I am, in 4 minutes I would have covered what distance, or if I increase my speed by a X how would that distance vary, or how long would I then take to finish. etc. etc. This usually drives me crazy but has great distracting benefits.

5. I find listening to my breathing works sometimes. I try and breathe to the rhythm created by my feet. Equal measure in and out. When this works for me it is actually incredibly pleasant and relaxing. One of these days it is going to work all the time.

Would love to hear what you do.
Enjoy your running. Until next time.

Yikes … losing hard gained fitness

I’ve been sick this last week. Cold/flu – felt miserable, no energy and didn’t do a thing. Not even a walk. Every day I’d get up and tell myself today was the day I’d at least go for a walk, but no, nothing eventuated. Just sat around like a vegetable.

This morning for the first time this week I felt like doing something, yay, and then I started to think and worry about how much fitness I had lost in the week.  It’s a hard task to build fitness.  It takes consistency, hard work and dedication, and the urban myth I had heard was that particularly women lose half their fitness in the first week of non training.  What does that even mean, half what of their fitness? Cardio fitness, muscle fitness, strength fitness or all three and then some.

I hit the research button and read many articles on the subject.  There is unanimous agreement that there will be a loss of fitness mainly in the cardio area but research shows that in the first 14 days it’s neglible.  One of the articles published by https://runnersconnect.net/losing-running-fitness/  talks about a 5km runner who is running the distance in 20 min (so not me) after 7 days of not training running the distance in 20:10 and after 14 days of not training in 21:05.

I can live with that.  I run at snail’s pace anyway so that is not too bad.  Just means I’ll go a bit slower but it would appear I will still be able to cover the distance.

Bring on the week.  Back to the joy of exercise and the happy endorphins that follow.

Have a great week everyone.