Positive February

For the last two years I have felt really motivated in January embarking on Janathon as a way to kickstart my fitness journey. For those of you who have never heard of Janathon, you are encouraged to exercise and then blog about it daily for the whole month and if January is too cold then you can also give it a go in June too. This year I am afraid to admit that I have been lazier and greedier than I have been in a very long time and I have done absolutely no exercise. Janathon is a great way to get you moving but I decided that it wasn’t the way I wanted to approach things this year. Exercise is important but I have learned that it is also important to give your body adequate rest too. I can be a woman of extremes and I’ve most definitely taken the rest days to a different level in the last month. Don’t get me wrong, I have been busy with other things such as work and eating it seems, but this is where it stops!

In my experience I have found that February can be pretty miserable. No more gloss of the fresh start of a new year, resolutions well and truly forgotten and cold miserable weather that is no longer a novelty. Yes snow, I’m talking about you! You were fun when you first arrived, we all built snowmen, went for family walks and bored everybody on every social media channel with as many photos as we could possibly take.  So please, no more until next year because the frozen grey sludge just makes everything that little bit harder.

 

I’m not big on New Year resolutions. I’m a lady who likes to work towards goals and I continually stop to check in on my progress. I feel strongly that every day is a new day so why wait until Monday, next month or next year to make changes! I’m very, very aware that I can’t go on the way I have been in January. I’m not beating myself up about it. I’ve enjoyed slowing down a little, eating naughty food and being a little lazy but I’ve got things I want to do and goals I want to achieve.

The first challenge on my radar is the Paris Half Marathon. It was my very first big running challenge nearly two years ago and I am excited about going back. If you want to read about the first time round check out this post. I’ve neglected my training recently but I am confident that I can pick it back up. Training is very important but in my experience positive attitude is just as important as I found out when I ran my first marathon last year.  I will be running regularly and I am going to start back on the Spartanfam homework videos every morning and evening. Me and my Lycra are going to become very familar with my lounge floor. When training for the Berlin half last year, I really noticed an improved fitness level by doing these regularly. I am going to try and document my training to help motivate me and maybe I will motivate others in the process. The pressure to blog when doing Janathon makes it harder to not exercise.  

 

 

 

For those of you who follow me on Twitter or Instagram you will know I’m a bit of a foodie when I flood your timelines with dinner pics. Sorry if it’s not your thing but it is mine. I like good, healthy food with colour. No anaemic beige food for this girl! I am going to share some of my favourite recipes in the next few months and I’m also going to try and cook as many new things as possible. I love to experiment and try new foods.  I don’t have lots of spare time but there are definitely ways to eat healthily if you get yourself organised.  Diet is so important when you are training. I realised this when I was training for my marathon. Once you start running for more than a couple of hours, you notice that your body really needs the right fuel.

I’m also going to be doing a sponsored walk with my family in March to raise funds for the Royal Marsden.  TheMarsden March will take place on 17^th March and the route will take us 14 miles from the Royal Marsden Hospital in Chelsea to the Royal Marsden in Sutton. This is a really big deal for my family, especially for those who didn’t even own a pair of trainers until we signed up. My 4 year old niece Ciana has been very poorly as some of you know and we want to acknowledge her amazing bravery and courage as well as show our thanks for the fantastic care she has received. She is out of hospital at the moment but still has a way to go. I think it’s really important to stick together with friends and family and show support and thanks.  If you’d like to make a donation, no matter how small, you can go to www.justgiving.com/princessciana ( Apologies that the page isn’t prettied up yet but there seems to be some kind of glitch with the system and it won’t allow me to update it to include her story or photo).

My next focus is my beauty routine. I am a beauty junkie and love nothing more than a new product, as anybody that has visited my home will know.   I have a regular routine when it comes to my face but I tend to neglect my body so I am going to make an effort to do more at home pampering. I have the products, I just need to make the time. I work, live and breathe beauty and I am going to try and share some of my experiences. Because I’ve always had an interest, I forget that some people are really out of their depth when it comes to shopping for beauty products. I’ve always had problem skin and I don’t want to speak too soon but it’s better now than it has been in a long time. I’m no expert but it may be useful to some people and I love the chance to talk about beauty in any capacity. Up until now I’ve tended to avoid it on here as the running took over but it’s time to get some glamour back in my life. I’m not just about trainers and lycra!  

In the last two years I’ve experienced a lot emotionally. It has made me realise that life is short, life is precious and things can chance in a second so appreciate everything that you have. February can be miserable but life is what you make if it. Starting from now I am going to make a conscious effort to be more positive in all aspects of my life. I will be using the hashtag #positivefeb to remind me this month but I don’t plan on turning into a glass half empty grump in March. Feel free to join me and let me know what you’ve been up to and any positive changes that you make.

 

Janathon day 20: A forgotten costume = foam rolling

I planned a chilled out relaxing night in the Jacuzzi and steam room but first I had to work for it. I hate feeling beaten and I’m determined to get over this hatred of the treadmill. As I have mentioned previously in this post, I have chosen to train without music. I tend to do most of my runs outside and as I said in yesterday’s post, I love enjoying the sights and sounds of the outdoors. The reason I find the treadmill so painful is because it is excruciatingly boring.

I decided to spice things up with some music in the form of one of my old garage albums and it was the best idea I’ve had all year. Don’t get me wrong, being in the gym on a Friday night isn’t the coolest thing ever but my old school music livened up the session more than you could ever imagine. The familiar sound of tunes I used to dance to when I was in my teens gave me the edge to keep pushing through, with a beaming smile on my face.

 It was still really difficult and I was absolutely dripping with sweat but the music just made it all the more pleasurable. I love the way music can trigger great memories and as if by magic, when I took my earphones out and stepped off the treadmill, the Paris half marathon theme tune was on. It was the song that was played as we all crossed the start line (Barbra Streisand by Duck Sauce) and I can’t help but smile and get a good feeling when I hear it. It takes me back to the excitement and anticipation of the big day, my first ever half marathon.

After a hot and hard 5k I really felt like I deserved a wallowing session in the Jacuzzi and a stretch in the steam room. The sheer devastation when I realised I had left my costume on the radiator! I couldn’t believe it and felt really hard done by because I pushed hard to complete my fastest 5k in a long time. My calves and shins were sore and were screaming for a massage and the jets in the spa pool would have worked perfectly. I left my boyfriend to relax and headed back up the stairs to the gym for a stretching session.

As a qualified sports massage therapist, I am aware of the benefits of stretching but I have to confess, I don’t always dedicate as much time as I should which is probably why my legs are feeling tight. I did some work on my glutes first followed by a little planking and then headed for the foam roller. If you haven’t used a foam roller and you enjoy running, then I seriously recommend that you consider giving it a go. It is simply a large cylindrical foam roll, as the name would suggest.

The foam roller is a great tool for lengthening and elongating muscles, and they are especially helpful for runners who are suffering from tight and fatigued muscles. When used correctly, they can help you to avoid sport-related injuries by conducting self myofascial release, which can work in a similar way to a massage. The roller is effective on different areas of your body and you can use your body weight to apply pressure to sore muscles.  You can control how much pressure you apply to the tissues that you're working on, and you can locate and focus on areas that are problematic. It allows you to apply deep pressure to areas that may otherwise be difficult to stretch.

It’s not a replacement for proper stretching, warming up or cooling down, but it can be used as a tool to limit soreness and tightness.  I will warn you, much like a sports massage, it is not particularly pleasurable but it does definitely help to relieve sore legs and prevent injury.

The iliotibial band (IT band) is one of the areas most susceptible to injury in runners. It is the band that runs on the outside of the leg from the hip to the knee. You can use the foam roller on this area by rolling across it, slowly back and forth towards the top of the leg, particularly focusing on the quad where it meets the IT band and using your body weight to apply more pressure. This will cause you to make ugly faces and strange noises but your legs will thank you. It can also be used on other areas of the body such as the glutes, calves and the piriformis, all areas that can become tight in runners. Have a look at these videos (courtesy of runnersworld.com) which do a great job of showing you how to use the roller in some of these key areas.

A hard run accompanied by some decent tunes, followed by a stretching and rolling session has left me feeling great on day 20 of Janathon. I would recommend the use of a foam roller during training but I would also highly recommend going for regular sports massage as a means of preventing injury.  I am not saying this simply because I am a massage therapist but because I truly believe in the benefits however, I will delve more deeply into the benefits of massage in another post.

Team Bangs do Paris

The months of hard work paid off yesterday and the hard work was totally worth it. Admittedly I am a little stiff and sore today but with each achey step I take I can’t help but feel a little bit proud. On Saturday when we arrived in Paris, I was a nervous wreck all day. We went to meet some of the other Team Bangs girls and they all seemed really relaxed and caught up in the romantic whirl of Paris. I was a clumsy mess and had constant butterflies in my tummy.

Poor Jon had to hear me all day saying ‘I hope I’m going to be able to do it’, ‘what if I’ve got my distances wrong when I’ve been training and I can’t really run that far?’ or have me demanding late night trips to the local convenience store to buy essential water and bananas to ensure I was hydrated and energised. Jon(@jonsanjose on Twitter) has been an amazing support throughout to both me and the other girls on the team so I just wanted to say a public thank you to him. He has been the official team photographer, cheerleader and jester to help keep us smiling as well as personal motivator and masseuse for me so thank you Mr San Jose. I really do appreciate it and I know I’ve been a bit of a nightmare the last couple of months.

A day of walking the streets of pretty much the whole of Paris on Saturday was lovely while we were doing it but my goodness, when we got back to the hotel room after dinner my body and feet ached and I was super tired after only 3 hours sleep on Friday. I was starting to panic that I had done too much before the big day. So I snubbed the offer of free films on the coolest TV I’ve ever experienced in a hotel room ( Check out http://www.mamashelter.com/) and snuggled into the super fluffy bed for a night of undisturbed shut eye.

The busy day seemed the right thing to do as when I caught up with some of the other Team Bangs girls in the morning it seemed there hadn’t been a lot of sleep due to a combination of nerves and excitement. I actually felt refreshed and confident even though my tootsies were a little battered from the over enthusiastic stroll the day before. I’d planned to load up on breakfast and the breakfast at the hotel was amazing but once I’d loaded up my plate I had a bit of difficulty getting it down.

Check out the cool Team Bangs T-shirt. Thank you Nike & Shock Absorber.

Some of the Team Bangs ladies on race day

The journey to the race start was full of nervous giggles and lots of smiles as well as an element of dis-belief that the day was finally here. There was also huge volume of lycra on the Metro. I have never seen so much stretchy shiny material in one carriage, some of which was highly inappropriate. Gentleman, please leave something to the imagination and cover it in shorts as that is just too much that early in the morning. In fact that is too much at any time of day or night.

The journey to the race start

We’ve all become really good friends throughout our training, supporting each other via tweets and facebook posts and it has really helped me in my training. It was great to finally be able to catch up with the girls in person. For those that say social media is in fact not sociable because it encourages people to type away in their room alone and not engage with people, this project is testament to the fact that this is not always true. I know that I have made some really great friends through Muireann (@BangsandaBun on a Twitter) bringing us together on Twitter. I am aware that some of you reading this are not on Twitter and don’t really get it but I am totally hooked. I think it is incredible what has been achieved.

33,000 people were registered to run the Semi de Paris. It just wasn’t practical for us to all be able to start the race together. I set off with Misty and Jon managed to snap us among the crowd of thousands of runners as we were about to cross the start line. As you can see from my face I was totally excited and couldn’t contain myself. I was like this quite a lot of the way through the run actually looking at the pictures.

I'm looking pretty excited!

I set myself a target of 5k every 30 minutes and I stuck to this with military precision for the first 15k. I was expecting to see Jon and Michael (Misty’s lovely husband) at 10k and was desperately looking out for them amongst the crowds of supporters. I was pleased when I went through the inflatable 10k arch in my planned time but couldn’t help being a little disappointed that I couldn’t see the boys. I ran on through keeping my eyes peeled the whole time like my own game of Where’s Wally. As I approached Bastille at about 11.5k I spotted Jon and his camera on the left hand side of the road and of course I was on the right so I shot across shouting and waving frantically. Seeing some support really does give you an extra boost so thank you to Jon and Michael the official Team Bangs cheerleaders minus the pom poms.

Me at 11.5k. Smiling!

Team Bangs official cheerleading squad (L-R Michael & Jon)

 In fact, on the subject of cheerleaders, a big well done and thank you to the Semi de Paris organisers. A group of hot fireman cheering you on at various points en route is definitely an encouraging motivator.

By 15k I was hurting but I was still feeling good and still had a smile on my face. A surprise cheering on by Jon and Michael at 16.5k cheered me up again which was just as well as I was going to be facing a bitch of a hill at 17k.

An even bigger smile at 16.5k as I didn't know what I had coming around the corner.

Bangs herself in action

It was a hill that I didn’t expect and I really had to push myself to keep running up it. It wasn’t particularly steep but it was long. I was so close to stopping but I pushed on through while my legs burned. I could feel myself getting tired but with only a few kilometres to go I was determined that I wasn’t going to stop. While I struggled through myself I tried to give some encouraging taps on the shoulder to fellow runners that were clearly also feeling the pain. When you are a struggling a supportive comment or gesture from a fellow runner can really help to motivate you.

The last kilometre felt like about 10 and I just couldn’t see the end in sight for ages. As soon as that inflatable arch came into view I pushed as hard as I possibly could to sprint through the finish line. While I felt sick I was so pleased that I’d finished and without stopping too. I wasn’t sure of my time but I suspected it was just under 2 hours 12 minutes.

The feeling at the finish line was not as exciting as I had expected because I was just so tired and getting out of the fencing that we were penned into too absolutely  ages. I felt a little shaky but the minute I saw some of the other Team Bangs girls I was totally excited and elated. This whole experience had been about doing it as a team and I enjoyed watching other members of the team succeed as much as I enjoyed my own achievement. It was a truly emotional experience. Here are a couple of snaps of some of the Team Bangs girls being a little hug-tastic post run as well as a rather attractive one of me in a white plastic cape. Paris fashion week, eat your heart out! 

Looking good Karleen

The lovely Gemma at the end. Well done lady. You rocked in a massive way!

Me, Misty & George

Myself and Miss 'Speedy Gonzales' Alski

Team Bangs hugs

More celebratory hugs

Go George!

Kaye looking gorgeous even after 13 miles!

When my official time came through I had completed it in 2 hours and 11 minutes. Don’t get me wrong, I am proud of what I have achieved in a relatively short time but I couldn’t help but feel just a little disappointed as I wanted to finish in under 2 hours 10 minutes. However, I’m not going to be hard on myself, it is my first half marathon after all. I had an injury before I’d even started my training and my schedule was interrupted at the end of January when I came down with flu and a chest infection had to stop for nearly two weeks. My running is not finished yet and I have already set myself a target of doing better next time.

After going out for a celebratory Parisian dinner with Jon I thought it was only right that I reward myself with cake so with my medal round my neck, my fluffy robe and slippers on, I ate cake. What a perfect end to an absolutely amazing day.

Me and the official team mascot, Jon

I deserve cake. Fact!

A huge thank you to everybody that has supported us all along the way and an extra special thank you to Bangs herself.  Here is my own little film for you. It's not as good as yours with editing and cool music but hopefully it gets my message across.   

Karleen xxx