Fitness Friday: Running Events

Good morning!

I don't know about you, but sometimes motivation is a little hard to come by. Especially at this time of year, I find that I'm passed the initial 'New Year, New Me' kind of mentality but unfortunately better weather still hasn't arrived so I still don't feel ready for outdoor running or hiking or generally anything else that's different.

Last year me and M both completed Tough Mudder, it's a 10-12 mile obstacle course designed by UK Special Forces to test your strength, stamina and mental grit - we did complete it but not without digging deep and working hard in the months leading up to it.

Image from Tough Mudder Twitter page

We took part in the August event in the South West area, but there are many Tough Mudder events throughout the year around the UK. But as it's one of the original events it can be expensive and it's also the hardest - there are so many other events you can try out for fun!

Today's Fitness Friday is all about the variety of running events you can sign up for that doesn't include a single fun run or marathon, hope you're inspired!

Spartan Race - This one is also another very popular obstacle race with three separate distances, Sprint (5km), Super (10km) and the Beast (20km). The idea with Spartan races is to complete all three within a year and you get an extra medal, plus you can fit all of your medals collected throughout the year together. It also gives you the opportunity and aim of building up your distance over a specified length of time. Here's their website

Tough Guy - Allegedly the hardest, this 8 mile course claims to be the original obstacle course (website here). The catch with this course is that its run on the last Sunday of January and contains a whopping 250 obstacles. Dear Lord.

X-Runner - another obstacle course with a variety of runs including a Wild Run, Water Wipeout and Wild Warrior. You can find out more on their site here, but there should be something for everyone on this site courtesy of the variety of types and 5km and 10km options for distances.

Zombie Evacuation - Totally different kettle of fish, a 5km fun run from one place to another trying to 'survive' the zombie apocalypse. There is a massive increase in runs like these and you can see why! Definitely one to get your adrenaline going with a zombie chasing after you trying to steal your 'life' (also known as a scarf that you wear during the run!). Website here.

London Cardiff 24 - If you're not one for too much mud or being chased, this one might be more your thing. Running from Twickenham Stadium in London to the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff with a team over 24 hours. It's certainly a challenge but it won't leave you bored like a normal half marathon might, the darkness and map reading will keep you on your toes! Website here for further info.

Survival of the Fittest - Another obstacle run but this time it's an urban theme. Men's Health devised this event in major cities around the UK including Cardiff and Edinburgh, expect less mud and more water and tyres, with views of the city around you. Website link here.

Last but not least....

Tough Mudder - The beast that me and M are so proud to have conquered! We endured 25 obstacles over an extremely hilly 11.5 miles including swimming through ice water, electric shocks and jumping off a 4m high platform into freezing cold water. You can browse the site here, and view the terrifying ordeal of the World's Toughest Mudder event. I just can't even...!

Have you taken part in any other types of runs? There's also Revolution Runs which is a new event in the South Wales area, there's Dirty Dozen, Total Warrior....the list is endless!

We've signed up to do another Tough Mudder this year but the training for it is looking a little bit behind courtesy of our new jobs.

What are you training for this year?

L xxx

Life Update

Hello there!

I hope you enjoyed your bank holiday weekend and stuffed yourself with a considerable amount of chocolate! I've got a few pictures from my life over the last few weeks that i thought I'd share with you.

You might have noticed I've been loving the pancakes recently; absolutely loving them! So many different toppings and ways to make them that can be really healthy considering they feel like such a treat. Yogurt and blueberries are my favourite way to eat them but when I'm extra hungry I have a banana and and peanut butter or apples, cinnamon and walnuts. Whenever I reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally need a sugary boost I do have to get the Nutella jar out, but I try and save it as a last resort!

I've been running a lot recently and trying to increase my distance. I reached my first 6 mile run in the last few weeks which I was extremely proud of but unfortunately ever since it has all gone to pot! My running buddy hasn't been around much because of work so its been harder doing it on my own and this past weekend I've felt awful and I'm not really sure why. Hopefully after a few days off I can get back into it. The weather certainly helps and running past things like Cardiff castle helps!

These were my Easter treats this year; a white chocolate Lindt bunny and Reese's pieces! I do love peanut butter, me and my brother had a bag of white chocolate and milk chocolate pieces to share between us.. I was like a kid splitting up the bags!

Last Friday me and M went to a Urban Decay event in Cardiff for their secret launch of the electric palette.
I wore this top I bought from Zara last year (and hadn't cut the tags off until now....) as it was so nice and sunny and I felt like being in a bright electric colour myself! It's a gorgeous top and although it's loose and flowy the back is split which is great for hot weather and you can easily wear a vest underneath like i did.

We met up earlier before the event as I had a £10 Cafe Rouge voucher to use up before May so we met there for lunch and in true fashion we ended up ordering the exact same thing! 2 waters and the fishcakes later (which were very yummy by the way!) we legged it over to Tiger Tiger to be early and bought ourselves a few pints, the classy ladies that we are! It was perfect weather for a pint in a beer garden so we decided after the event to go for a 'quick drink' in our favourite bar before going home.

Naturally one turned into three, and after tucking into some very generously sized bar snacks at 10 Feet Tall we managed to consume a Long Island Iced Tea, Zombie and a Cosmopolitan without even batting an eyelid. We do love their cocktails especially as they always seem to be hangover free ones!

I had a pretty quiet Saturday as i had to work but I did watch Frozen with my mum. It was good but I'm afraid the hype had built it up too much for me and i didn't enjoy it as much as I thought. Maybe I'm just a lover of  Disney classics!

On Sunday we were supposed to be going zip lining after buying a Groupon deal:

We were super excited and after driving all the way there we were GUTTED to find that it was too windy for it as it would have been 'terrifying' and not enjoyable. The line is over a quarry so i definitely didn't want to be zooming over that too fast!

For example this was my hair after walking from the cafe to the car....a few gusts as you can see!







I had planned a proper Sunday Funday and me my dad and my brother also had tickets to 'Judgement Day' which was a South Wales derby of rugby teams. It was a double game so was effectively 5 hours of rugby which was a long time but it actually didn't feel like it.





Unluckily for my dad his team lost the first match but the second game was won by our faves so at least it wasn't all doom and gloom. We had a few pints throughout the afternoon and it was a lot of fun, I'd definitely want to go again but I'd wear warmer shoes! My feet were freeeeeeeeeeeeeezing!





So that's what I've been up to recently, I've been quite busy!

What have you been up to? Have you been zip lining? Do you go to sports matches with your family?

Send me your recent life updates to read!

L xxx

Fitness Update

Morning everyone!

Hope you're having a great week so far. I am spending today with my mum at Swindon's Shopping outlet as we need to get a load of birthday presents for family members.....and I can't guarantee I won't pick up a little something for myself too! I need to be good though and hopefully not pick up any more than 1 product....

Anyway, my main reason for posting today is to give you an update on my fitness plans and goals so i hope I don't bore you too much with my waffling on but it's as big a part of my life now as blogging is and I'm sure I'll be mentioning it a lot in future.

I would imagine we've all been on a bit of a health kick after the gluttonous Christmas period and kicking up the exercise a notch was my first priority. I've put together a plan for myself to kick my metabolism back into action, drop the few (!) extra pounds I put on over Christmas and get myself fit and ready for the challenges I've set myself this year.

Let's list these first:

1) 10km run on March 1st
2) Dirty Dozen on June 22nd
3) Tough Mudder August 16th
4) Cardiff Half Marathon October 5th (this is provisional...depends on how TM goes!)

These are the physical tasks I've set myself this year. I'm not a runner by any stretch of the imagination but I've started on the treadmill so that I can force myself to learn! I need to increase my distance so that i can reach 10km by March, and increase this slowly to 20km for TM in August.

If you don't know what Tough Mudder (TM) and Dirty Dozen races are then give them a quick google....basically they're both obstacle courses that require you to run a certain distance and then also tackle a number of obstacles. These range from climbing walls, swimming through ice, running through fire and getting electrocuted all before a free pint and a big party!
They sound very fun and a massive challenge for me as I'd never run further than 5km before let alone completed any obstacles like this.


My current plan is the following:

Monday - Body Combat. This will help with cardio as it burns around 750 calories per class and will help me strengthen my leg and core muscles without high impact like running does. Plus i really enjoy it!

Tuesday-Friday - Gym program. I have one at the moment which is great but I'm planning on meeting with my trainer to update my program and therefore get some new exercises related to TM training. I will need some serious upper body and core strength to get me through it! I plan on going to the gym to do this program with 20 minutes on the cross trainer or a run twice during the week.

Saturday - Body Pump. I love this class and it will hopefully help me increase the weights i can use and therefore get stronger, i just need to be committed enough to increase my weights each week!

Sunday - Run day! Sunday's will be dedicated to an outdoor run around the parks near my house. This means I will be running outside in daylight instead of on a treadmill as it's currently too dark to do this when I've finished work at the moment. As the nights get lighter again I'll be running outside in the evenings.


Having been doing this loose plan for 2 weeks I can say that it is hard but achievable to go 5 times a week if you plan your life and put the effort into it whilst you are there. It's hard to be motivated all the time especially when you don't see any results. I've been trying to eat more veg than fruit recently and have been having soup instead of fruit on my morning breaks to fill me up. That combined with increasing my water intake and I've been feeling like a beached whale!

Luckily my body has got used to it not and hopefully I'll start seeing some results soon.


Aside from these challenges I am hoping that it will help me lose about 1 stone (14lbs) and tone up my arms and core where I could do with being a bit less wobbly! I'd like to be comfortable in a bikini in case the situation where I need to wear one arises!

If any of you have some tips for my diet or exercise plans, or anything that will help me in my quest to survive TM then I'd be grateful. If you have any challenges you've set yourself this year please share them with me below, I'd love to know of any others and of your plans :)

L xxx

Couch to 10k

A non beauty post for you today. I just wanted to share this as I've been doing it and actually find myself sticking to it. A miracle in itself (I'm starting week 5 runs on Wed).

I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting to tone up and feel fitter and generally better. I envy seeing those girls in there little leggings and tops and just breeze past me in a jog. I want to be fit enough to do that and enjoy running.

I'm definitely not a runner!! I've done two half marathons and failed to train for both. Even though the second time I promised myself I would after the pain endured from power walking the first one. (I can't believe my friend talked me into a second, she's in the process of talking me into a third, I'm almost persuaded) I found the prospect of going for a run very daunting at first and think that's why I probably I just kept putting it off.

When I decided to start this I had a different aim for the end of it. Though I think I'm likely to be persuaded to sign up to cardiff half again. I like the challenge I feel to make it round the 13.1 miles and the sheer relief and joy when it's finished is amazing. I like the feeling of pushing myself hard and succeeding.

So onto where I am now. After chatting to a lady in work we decided we'd start couch to 10k, it eases you in gently and gradually builds you up. I found an app on my phone called 10k which is amazing.

So this is what the app looks like. It takes 14 weeks running 3 times a week and starts off with half hour workouts with the longest being around the 70 mins. Each work out has a 5 minute warm up and 5 minute cool down, and as you can see the first week breaks you in slowly so is great for those starting out running.

This is the next run I have to do. I will probably do it on Wednesday but maybe tomorrow if I feel up to it. The app is really handy. If you plugged in your headphones it beeps when you need to switch from running to walking which I like as it makes doing this easy as I don't have to keep time myself.

As you can see it also imports all the music in your phone to your app, so click on playlists select the song and go. It's that easy, it'll beep when you need to switch and I have no trouble hearing this over music. All I would say is it doesn't work well when I put my phone on my hip in trousers I didn't have a pocket on.

As a normally non runner I'm actually enjoying this at the moment and I'm hoping it'll be more than a fad and hopefully become a fitness change and something I keep up. Running 20-30k a week is what I aim for towards the end of this and what I'd like to keep up.

Have you done couch to 5 or 10k, do you enjoy or struggle with running?

Do you enjoy posts like these? Would a week 10 update be a post you'd read?

Love M

xxx

sorry for the ramble but this app is amazing and has changed my attitude to running. Today was a big struggle of a run but I didn't give up!!