And that's it, folks!

I DID IT!!!

As you might have guessed, I am incredibly proud to say that I completed the 5 kilometre Race for Life 2013 in around 38 minutes!! That's about 2 minutes faster than my run on Friday which doesn't sound like an awful lot but it really does make a difference. That means I completed the race in my fastest time yet :o Absolutely buzzing :D The route was pretty much as I had expected and was roughly where I had gone running before so it wasn't unfamiliar, which was good. Thankfully there wasn't too much of an incline throughout the run but at points I thought the heat was gonna take me out! Even at the 4 km point, I was pretty exhausted but I managed to push through to the finish line :D

Thank you to my dad and his girlfriend for leaving at 7am to drive through to Aberdeen to support me this morning!!

Back at the flat after the race

Also, thank you to my other cheerleaders for coming along to support me too!!

Check out that awesome banner!!

My number, support banner, "I race for life for" poster and my medal!

I'd also like to say an enormous thank you to everyone who donated and sponsored me to run the Race for Life, from those of you who donated right at the beginning and anyone who donated online & offline, right up to everyone who donated in the final week. No matter how much you sponsored me for, your support means the world! I raised a fantastic £305 (check it out!) for a fantastic organisation that are doing all they can to improve life for this generation and our future generations. Thanks so much to everyone for being a part of this journey!

And for anyone still reading this blog, thanks for listening to my ramblings. I hope you enjoyed my progression and little insights into my training for the race.

That's all from me now. Thanks again all <3

Final total: £305.00

Countdown: COMPLETE

 Chilling before the race

 And we're off!

 Less than 1 km to go!

Check out the relief on my face!! Hehe

Just one week to go!

Well, I'm almost there! Only 7 days left until I do the Race for Life! In fact, this time next week, I'll have completed it and will be recovering hehe.

I'm completely overwhelmed by the fact that I have finally reached and surpassed my target of £250 which will go towards Cancer Research UK :D A big thank you to my dad who kindly took my sponsor form to his workplace (and my former workplace) and also to the lovely people at Marine Harvest (Scotland) Ltd for their kindness in sponsoring me for my run, tipping me over my target amount. Also, thanks to those of you who have sponsored me this week who haven't yet had a mention!

If anyone else I have spoken to about my run is still interested in donating, please go ahead! My sponsorship page is linked above and also on the right hand side of this blog. Every little bit helps towards what Cancer Research UK can do for current and future generations and I'm so glad that we can all be a part of working towards a healthier world.

This week I've been trying to keep up with my "every two days" for training. I missed out on Monday due to carrying out research for a job interview but I went swimming on Wednesday and really enjoyed it! It's been a really long time since I last went swimming and I'm always disappointed in myself that I don't go more regularly. I'm going to try and change that as of now though so I'm looking forward to going more often.

On Friday, I went for my first run for quite a while too! It's been a few weeks now and given that the run is next week, I decided that I should probably find out what level I'm at. I'm really pleased to say that I managed 1.8 miles! It's not quite the target distance or even my personal best but I'm proud of myself for pushing myself to that point. I also managed a 2.7 miles walk that evening too! My legs were killing me the next day but it was totally worth it.

I'm also proud to say that this afternoon, I went on the Wii and did a Zumba work out. It felt good to work out, especially after pigging out for my mum's birthday lunch yesterday!

My plan this coming week is to go out running at least twice and maybe go swimming as well, before taking a day or two break before the big day. I'll catch you guys here with an update after the race to let you all know how I did!

Wish me luck!!!


Current total: £275.00
Countdown: 1 week. 7 days. 163 hours. 9,780 minutes. 586,800 seconds. Eeeep!

Time for a plan

Wow, the week following my plea at the start of May was fantastic for donations - I received an incredible £95 from you wonderful people! On top of that, I received £35 in offline donations from the amazing people at William Glen (my [sadly] former place of work) which tips my donations over the £200 mark, leaving me with just £35 until I reach my target!! Thank you so so much to my most recent donators and to everyone else who has donated so far - I haven't forgotten about you! Your support means the world!!

Unfortunately due to various reasons, I have been laying low with running over the past month or so. I've been suffering from muscle weakness amongst other things which means I get tired much earlier in my run than usual. It's incredibly frustrating because I was progressing well and this feels like a major setback! I've had to adjust my training to allow for these changes.

I did manage to go out for a run twice since my last post, one a couple days after it and the other at the end of May. I managed to reach 2 miles for my run at the beginning of the month which I was pleased with given that I was pretty tired with sore legs by the end of it! With my last run, I decided that I would try the Couch to 5k podcasts again to give myself a bit of a breather but still maintain training for the race. I didn't really calculate how many miles I ran since there was a lot more alternation between running and walking but it was definitely less than usual.

After a few weeks visiting family when uni finished, I returned to Aberdeen last week and have been trying to be more proactive about my training! I decided that even if I wasn't going running all the time, any sort of exercise would put me in better stead for the race. I'm aiming to workout every second day, hopefully until race day, and so far I've been keeping that up :-) I usually find myself disheartened if I end up not going out for a run so with other cardio work - exercise videos and walks - I'm pleased to be doing even something small, more frequently. My flatmate asked me if I wanted to go swimming next week too which is a great addition to my training! I'm going to aim for at least one run next week in amongst my other exercise so wish me luck!

See you next week :)


Current total: £215.00
Countdown: 2 weeks 1 day

Slow and steady...

...wins the race.

So, I haven't posted a blog in a couple of weeks as not a lot has been happening! I haven't managed to keep up with my 2 runs a week since my last blog so I decided not to bore you with my excuses for not doing them ;) It's all in the past and what matters now is that I try and maintain the 2 runs a week from this point on. Any guesses as to why that is? Because I only have EIGHT WEEKS left until I do the Race for Life!! :o I still can't believe it's coming up so quickly so now I really have to keep up with my training.

This week, I did manage to go running twice. Once on Tuesday and then again today, Sunday. After completing a 5k run several weeks ago, I decided to try to maintain an average of around 2 miles for my runs as I knew I'd probably get bored and psych myself out if I pushed for 5k every time!

For my first run of the week, I managed 2.07 miles and given that I wanted to give up around 1.4 miles in, I'm pleased that I was able to push it over the 2 mile mark :) At the end of my run, Tiger Woods came on my iPod congratulating me on my fastest run to date. I wasn't convinced so when I got home, I checked it out. Although I've changed 'techniques' with recording my runs several times between February and now, I'm really proud to say that my 'average pace' has improved by around 2 minutes!! So Tiger Woods was in fact right! :p I'm also consistently running more miles than I'm walking which is usually only the warm up/warm down now anyway. I've been wondering recently as to whether I'm actually getting any 'better' at running given that the amount of miles I run and their frequency fluctuates so much. It's really satisfying to find out that I am actually improving and not just hitting a brick wall!

Today's run wasn't quite as successful at 1.59 miles. I'm proud of myself for going out and while it wasn't my best run, it certainly wasn't my worst! It was the first time since I started running that I decided to go out in the evening and I think I can honestly say, it's going to be the last time I run in the evening!! It's been a surprisingly hot day here in Aberdeen, peaking at 19 degrees earlier today and it's currently at 16 degrees despite being 9 pm! The combination of heat and time of day clearly do not agree with me so I'm sticking to my morning runs from now on.

So with only 8 weeks to go, I'd really really appreciate if you could take the time to donate to my donate page as I'm still £165 away from my target. It doesn't have to be a lot of money but anything you can manage would make such a difference. Thanks so much. Check out this link to see how your money will change so many lives.

Current total: £85.00

Countdown: 8 weeks

Boom!

Hey all. I'm back!!

I had a lovely week away in France with a couple of friends, where admittedly I pigged out and drank a bit more than I should have, but if you can't do that in the wine capital of the world, where can you do it??

Me with a mahoosive bottle of wine during a wine tasting tour - unfortunately I didn't get to keep it :p

I also really enjoyed my week at home visiting with family so, thanks to these chilled out couple of weeks and the over-indulgence I experienced during them, it has really set me up for getting back into my running routine! :) I actually kind of missed it!

I'm very pleased to say that despite several weeks out from running, I managed to complete not one but two runs this week! I wasn't expecting much from my first run because it had been so long but I was pleased to complete 1.52 miles. I felt like I had more energy on this run but just after the 1 mile mark I ran out of steam pretty quickly but it was definitely a start!

I had higher hopes for my second run of the week and it certainly didn't disappoint!! At 3.31 miles (5.33 km), I not only managed to completely smash my previous longest continuous run records but also achieved the official run distance of Race for Life, plus a little bit extra!! Suffice to say, I'm absolutely buzzing today and hoping the motivation will transfer to the uni work I've got to do for next week too!

With only 11 weeks to go (I know, I can't believe it either :o), I still have another £165 until I reach my target. I'm so so grateful to everyone who has donated so far and helped me reach 34% of my target but I would massively appreciate it if you could donate and help me reach that £250 mark :D Thanks so much guys!!!

Current total: £85.00
Countdown: 11 weeks (eeek!)

Why weather, why??

Have you looked out the window this week?? Or just had a nosy at your Facebook news feed for updates? Well, I have been looking outside and I can tell you now, it has been miserable!

I read a weather report at the start of the week that my friend found, saying "A complex area of low pressure over southern Britain over the next few days will pull in a bitterly cold easterly wind across northern Britain, bringing an increasing risk of significant snowfall over the next 36 to 48 hours...And as snow begins to fall to lower levels late today, we could see 1-5cm in places below 250m, particularly towards eastern Scotland."

I mean, REALLY? I swear the weather is totally ganging up on me. I've experienced running in the snow/rain and I know that it really isn't pleasant so, while it seems pretty pathetic, I opted out of my runs this week, although forgoing them also coincided with the two essays I had to write that were due at the end of the week!

Running when it's windy puts enough pressure on your body as it is, due to the increased resistance and such is my luck, I always seem to be running into it. Multiply that wind by 1 million like this week and it makes the run even more difficult than usual (may have slightly exaggerated with the figures).

I realise that I need to work at running in different weather conditions due to the fact that I have no idea what the weather will be like on 30th June but my worry is that if I'm not even reaching the 5k in my normal runs then I'll be doing even worse when running in the rain/snow/wind etc which will be disheartening and not the best motivation! My aim is to reach the full 5k on runs when the weather is a bit better so that I know my fitness level is at that point before adding in the extra obstacles.

Typically, today's weather hasn't been all that bad so I technically could have gone for a run but I've been getting myself organised for my holiday so that hasn't really worked out! I certainly hope the bad weather doesn't interfere with my flights!

I'll be back on track with my running plans once I get back but I'll be quiet on the blogging front for the next wee while.

Have a good week!

Current total: £75.00
Countdown: 14 weeks

One month down.

Well, after my last post, I had quite a bad weekend - food-wise. I pigged out a bit too much on junk food and while it was awesome at the time, by the time the start of the week came, I was feeling a bit 'bleh' because of it. This is of course, after I 'helped' out my flatmate by sharing the pizza she'd been craving after she finished off her essay. It's safe to say, that with the new week, I was feeling pretty guilty! Thankfully, this inspired me to get out there and do something about it, rather than wallow in self-patheticness!

I followed a similar pattern to last week, in that I tried again with going out for a run slightly later than usual. It worked out much better this time! Although I was feeling pretty tired around half way through the run, I managed to push myself to 2.11 miles which is my second best run so far! I'm quite proud of myself for doing it because at one point during my run, it started snowing! What's worse was, it was coming in sideways so I couldn't really protect myself from it which was pretty annoying :-/ I quickly came to the conclusion that I was better to keep running as it would get me home faster and out of the snow!! Thankfully it didn't last long so I could finish off my run "in peace" :-P

For the last couple of weeks, I've noticed that I start out really well, getting my run in at the start of the week but it seems to peter out by the end of the week. Sadly, this week hasn't been any different. A combination of university work and bad weather prevented me from getting out for my second run. I'm getting a bit disappointed in myself since I had aimed to go running twice a week and haven't managed that for a while! Weather permitting, I'm hoping to manage my two runs this coming week. The university Easter holidays start this coming Friday and then I'm going away on holiday for a week so I won't manage a run then (it'll be quiet on the blog front too :p).

I'll try my best to push myself and not slack off this week! Wish me luck.

P.S - Happy St Paddy's Day!!

Current total: £75.00
Countdown: 15 weeks