Fitness Friday: Brathay Half Marathon training week 8 #ThisGirlCan

It's been a struggle fitting in exercise this week as I have been working full school days in Morecambe so not much free time at all! On Tuesday I went along to my Run England running group. Despite the fact I have got faster and fitter they were all much faster than me! I did my second fastest 5k of the year plus another 3k which I found a lot harder...

Hopefully it will stand me in good stead for my race on Sunday though!

The following night it was more of a recovery run as I was out with the juniors so a stop start 3k:

No more runs done but I did manage a tough MetaFit class on Thursday night. Let's just hope I can make up for it with my race this weekend...

Fitness Friday: Brathay Half Marathon training week 7 #ThisGirlCan

School holidays often play havoc with my fitness as I don't want to abandon my children whilst I do it! It does make me be more creative though. We did all manage to go to Parkrun together on Saturday. My daughter marshalled and took photographs whilst her brother ran to 3rd place in his age category and I was 6th in mine:

By Wednesday I was desperate for some exercise so I combined having to go to the bank with a run. Its just over a mile to the town centre so I decided to just blast it and did my fastest kilometres of the year:

That's the face of someone who smashed their target on one Strava segment:

Yesterday we had some gentle family exercise with a hike. (This will be fully blogged about tomorrow!):

Today I wanted a decent bit of exercise so I was glad to discover that the swimming pool was open to the public at the same time as the spinning class:

We all got some exercise and fun at the same time! I still haven't worked out how to get a longer run into my week though.. At least I lost another 1 1/2 pounds though to keep up the steady loss and almost half a stone this year.. Onwards and downwards!

Fitness Friday: Brathay Half Marathon training week 6 #ThisGirlCan

I kicked off this week's training with a pace session at Fell Foot Parkrun (blog post here). The new course provides some great hill work for fitness:

Next time I aim to get up cafe hill twice at a run and build from there! I definitely need to reduce the time gap between my son and I as he was 10 minutes faster than me...

As I am trying to do some form of exercise every day this month I went swimming with my son on Sunday. Of the hour in the pool I am not sure how much was actually swimming apart from 4 lengths at the beginning! We did do diving, floating and other aquatic bits of fun though.

Monday was the only day that I definitely had time for the long run as this takes me over an hour. Typically the weather was cold and very, very wet but I planned a longer route than last week and set off. On the fly I adjusted it which made it longer but also reduced the climbs. As a sign of improved fitness I ran the whole length of Valley Drive for a new PR! There was an enforced walk as the verge was a bog to get to the summit but the rest of the run was Jeffed with 5 minutes of running and 30 seconds of walking. Got me to my first 10 k of the year in the same time as my last one last year:

Fitness Friday: Brathay Half Marathon training week 5 #ThisGirlCan

This week we haven't had any medical crises so I have managed to fit more of my marathon training schedule into the week! I would like to do some form of fitness every day in February in order to keep me on track and make best use of my gym membership.

So on Monday I headed across to the leisure centre for a 30 minutes on the cross trainer to kick start my week. Its such a great feeling to get those endorphins pumping after a stressful weekend!

One of my difficulties has been getting a longer run in each week. So on Monday I plotted an 8km / 5 mile route using the Run Go app so that I had a loop of the right length.  The route combined hills and level bits for variety and I listened to an audiobook on the history of England to keep me going:

I think I was pleased with myself:

As Wednesday is my son's running club I was out for a couple of kilometres of stop/start running. Just enough to count as exercise but not a proper run!

Yesterday I decided that I needed to work on my stamina. The training programme said an easy 40 minute run but instead I aimed for a non-stop 5 km (something I hadn't managed yet this year!). Again I plotted a route on Run Go, so that I had no excuses for cutting it short, but tried to avoid hills so that I could plod on. Very pleased that I not only didn't walk at all but a) kept a steady pace b) ran my fastest 5 km of the year so far (still not back to my PB from this time last year...):

My end of run grin was even bigger:

Today I have been to the cyclone spinning class at the leisure centre for some cross training. Boy is it hard work "and up another quarter turn.."

All of the hard work this week has paid off with a decent 1.5 pound weight loss! Yay. So its onwards and downwards with the weight and upwards and faster with the running... Let's see what happens tomorrow at Parkrun..

Fitness Friday (on Sunday!): Brathay Half Marathon training week 4 #ThisGirlCan

As I was back at hospital with my daughter on Friday I am a bit late with my normal Friday post! A combination of work, bad weather and a poorly daughter has paid havoc with my exercise but luckily I did manage to run on a couple of days. First up on Monday I went for a long run on my own following a route I did with my running club a fortnight before:

I was pleased to do the route faster than I did with the club even if not by a lot! Nice to have a few PRs for sections of the route too. 

I didn't get out to running club due to the wild weather so I missed out on a probable 4 mile run... Instead I went out on Wednesday morning and combined a trip to the bank with a 4 km run. On the way home I did some fartleks (walk/jog/run/jog/walk) using the lampposts along the canal path:

In the evening it was junior running so a few short quick runs but not a major workout!

On Thursday I went to a Meta Fit class at the leisure centre. This is high intensity exercise with short recovery sessions. Nice way to get sweaty!

Here's hoping I can squeeze in more running next week as my marathon is getting far too close...

Fitness Friday: Brathay Half Marathon training week 3 #ThisGirlCan

Well my cold did prevent me from running the new course at Fell Foot Parkrun last week but I did manage to complete my first ever fell race on the Sunday! First of all I supported my 9 year old in the under 12s race:

Then it was my turn to head out in the snow and mud:

Fitness Friday: Brathay Half Marathon training week 2 #ThisGirlCan

Well my marathon training moved on quite well over this last week with a total of 20 km of running - which is as far as I have to go in one run for the half marathon! I started out with what was described as an "easy" 5 km in the program:

It was a wet and cold run and not at all fast but more comfortable than the previous week:

On Saturday my son and I headed over to Lancaster as they were launching their first Parkrun at Williamson Park:

We were rather surprised at being part of 374 runners at the start:

Fitness Friday: Brathay Half Marathon training week 1 #ThisGirlCan

I have joined in with Kate's new weight loss linky to help me with my half marathon training. A combination of ill health and the school holidays meant that I had a couple of weeks of going backwards to I have decided to start again this week! Being a bit behind means that I am paying catch up on the official training plan and I have a few extra pounds to lose... Kate wants us to kick start by answering a few questions:

What are your weight loss and healthy living goals for 2016?
I want to get my weight closer to a healthy range as at the moment I am a long way from there... I know I need to eat more vegetables and fruit whilst encouraging the children to do the same! This is what I am working from:

In an ideal world losing 1 and half stone before the half marathon would get me round a lot faster!

What tools are you going to use to help you succeed?

Half Marathon Training Update - 30th November

Well with my first winter 10 k race of the season this coming weekend I am not too pleased with my training runs these last couple of weeks! It was going well when I did this lovely chilly and hilly run up around the Helm:

Wrapped up warm

Its a lovely route and so peaceful:

I even squeezed in a run to take the long way to the shops:

Then with all of the events taking place over the last week or so I've not been able to get out... So today despite the horrid weather I went out. I had to change my planned route due to the conditions so went in front of the Helm instead of behind:

Shame there wasn't much of a view:

I also needed to take avoiding action due to flooding:

As the route came up short I took the longer way back via one of the estates and wiggled around a bit until I got back to familiar territory and the end of the canal path:

I was cold, wet and relieved:

Things are not looking fabulous for even coming close to equalling my course PB on Saturday ...