YAY 2020 LONDON MARA...NOPE 2021!!!

Well well well! It’s been one hell of a year hasn’t it?! To think I was weeks away from running London back in March of 2020 to having the world shut down and bang no running, no races, just lockdown. For me personally, having the London Marathon postponed for another year, was a blessing in disguise. Let me explain why. 

At the end of 2019, I became very ill around Christmas time and really struggled to recover from illness. I had developed a very bad chest infection in which I had three rounds of antibiotics and I still was not running at 100% by the middle of February of 2020. By the time I started to feel better, that is when the rumours of Covid-19 began and a few weeks later, Boris announced the first ever national lockdown. Never in my life had I experienced something in which my mental health would take a hit. I feared I would not be able to see my family or friends in person for quite some time. To top it all off, I managed to get covid the first time around (the time in which loss of taste and sense of smell were not covid symptoms). Two weeks in isolation with housemates leaving food and water at your door to ensure that no one else got sick was hard on me mentally. Yes there was a lot of crying and facetime with my parents to help me get through the struggles of isolation and global lockdown. At the end of my isolation there was only one thing to do whilst stuck at home: Eat, Drink, Bake and start a Garden. Not once did I try to run in April and May. Okay just for the virtual Green Belt Relay I did run. Instead, I did a lot of baking, gardening, working at school for key workers and vulnerable children, working from home to plan lessons for the new academic school year and hope children who were at home were accessing the learning posted for them on a weekly basis.  Running at this moment in time was at the very back of my mind. 

As we entered the summer months, I decided I would try to get back into running. Every run I completed throughout the summer months was a struggle. Physically my body was not at the level of fitness it was in pre-covid times, mentally my head was never in the right headspace. The people who I saw at the beginning or end of my runs would say it's only natural to feel crappy on your runs because we’ve been in our homes for such a long time; take your runs easy and slow. This does make sense to me now, but at those moments in time, in my mind it didn’t, no matter how many times someone said it to me, I just thought I would just bounce right back. That's when I decided that I would plan all my runs and workouts on a calendar and tick off the days I did complete a run, cycle, or workout and literally take it day by day. At the end of each month, I would evaluate how many workouts or runs I had completed and take it as a win. That small step I took, helped me to overcome the mental block in my head. 

As autumn arrived and the new school year began, I decided to take another small step and focus on small runs for the time being. I focused on building my stamina, muscle memory by running 5 to 10km at most. This is where I began to feel my body come back into form for running and I did not have the need to stop every 3 kms on my run. The virtual 5k time trials also helped me have a goal to aim for at the beginning of each month to try and shed off a few seconds from my 5k time. My Season best for 2020 was a time of 32:11. I was doing quite well for the final months of 2020, my runs were feeling good, celebrating my 30th birthday with a small group of friends (rather than celebrating large as planned), sitting outdoors to drink a pint in the pub during the middle of December in cold weather and many many zoom calls with my family and telling them hopefully the worst is over….Boy I was wrong!

As we approached December, I knew something was brewing quietly in the shadows. My housemates both tested positive for Covid and I spent both Christmas and New Years Eve in isolation. To think that was it, the third national lockdown was announced. Great, I was back to online teaching and running was affected by the back to back isolations throughout the Christmas holidays. I thought to myself, I am not going to let this third lockdown get to me and I will take it day by day and go for my scheduled runs as I had planned on my calendar. My body, on the other hand,  had other plans. The first week of January my appendix ruptured and I caught Covid while in hospital. The transfer to another hospital to get emergency surgery, and being on oxygen post surgery was hard for me to process what was going on. The doctor then explained to me that I would need to stay in hospital to be observed as I had caught Covid post surgery. She explained this may be due to the fact I was exposed to it by my housemates and being put in the wrong ward by the previous hospital. 10 days in absolute isolation in hospital during the height of the pandemic and no one allowed to visit me hit me hard. I kept crying so much and most nights at the hospital I cried myself to sleep hoping this nightmare would just end. The NHS staff were doing their best to keep me in good spirits and did their best to comfort me at a time which was not allowed. I also cannot thank them enough for saving my life and helping me recover as quickly.  As I was discharged from the hospital, the doctor's orders on my discharge papers stated that I was not allowed to run (or lift heavy objects) for 12 weeks. Another hurdle on my journey to run the London Marathon. I thought to myself that this was it, my running career is over. There is no way I can make a comeback and run London in October. 

I took a deep breath and reflected on my time being a runner since 2016. I reminded myself that I will be able to bounce back as I’ve done many amazing accomplishments in my life such as joining a running club, completing my first ever 10k run, ran my first half marathon, complete cross country races, and going to various locations in the UK to actually run. After reflecting on what I have accomplished so far, I knew that I could not just give up now. 

 I began to take small steps to my recovery such as going for daily walks and distracting myself within my work. 12 weeks later, I decided to go for my first run post surgery and covid. I did not care for the pace or how many times I would stop to walk. As long as I was outside, I was happy to be doing some sort of running and smell the flowers bloom all around me. Finally, I was on the road to recovery and healing. Throughout the springtime, my runs were somewhat consistent and I focused on a lot of strength cross training. I felt good for the first time since the pandemic first hit. 

So it began, the first few weeks of Marathon training. Throughout the June and July period my runs felt comfortable and relaxed (a little too relaxed, I would say). I was quite inconsistent with the number of runs I needed to complete to stay on top of my marathon training plan (provided by the lovely Sonja). Instead, I did more cross training than running in the first few weeks of my marathon plan. In my mind, I felt that I needed these classes to help me form the base due to being off sick for the first 12 weeks of the 2021 year. As many people say, everyone is different when it comes to marathon training but you need to be consistent. Well the month of July was very inconsistent in my training, to the point where I missed two long runs. When you’re a teacher, the very last few weeks of school are always the most crazy and hectic time of the year, which hindered my training in the last few weeks of July. Regardless I know that it is no excuse for not completing the training, which would come back to me as I trained and completed long runs in Canada. 4 weeks of training in Canada…

MY GOODNESS IT WAS SCORCHING HOT! I cannot believe throughout the whole month of August I trained in scorching and humid weather, with no break from the heat. But that is another story for next week's blog. 

Week…. Oh no! Not the same illness!

Well folks, it was fun while it lasted. My irritating chest infection had returned by the end of January, which resulted in taking another week off to recover. After seeing the GP for the third time (and on a third round of antibiotics), it came as no surprise when he said to me that I was not allowed to run for a whole week. Never have I felt so frustrated in my life. The question now is, will I able to make it across the finish line at London?

Prior to falling ill again, I managed to get a few swimming sessions in to stretch and relax the muscles out a bit. Felt good to be able to cross train during marathon training. Hills was another training session I have within my training plan. I know many people have told me that London Marathon is a flat route, but I do get a bit bored running on a flat surface, so I feel the need to add a bit of challenge to my training. In addition to this, I’ve managed to do some strength training at the gym to really build the muscles in every part of my body. Running isn’t just about the legs, the arms, abs and back are just as important as the legs along with stretching which I tend to forget to do from time to time.

As Saturday rolled around, I was able to run 12 miles at a good pace on the 1st of Feb. The weather was good, warmer than expected in January and I was able to plod along around the Ealing/Chiswick area. Given the fact I had run half marathons before, I believe it was the muscle memory that was kicking into high gear as I surpassed the 10-mile mark. Boy did I want to stop running at mile 11, in which I kept telling my running buddy Linda that this sucks and I just want it to end now. Luckily, she kept pushing me to keep going as I kept pushing her and we managed to finish…best of all the food we had at Artisan Café became the highlight of my day (that and the fact I ran 12 miles). 

At the last club social, many Eagles have been super supportive and helpful throughout this difficult time of illness. Many of whom have told me that I need to put myself first sometimes rather than the race. So shout out to those who have spoken to me for keeping my spirits up when I was feeling down and frustrated. 

Hopefully my next blog will not be about me struggling with illness but getting back on track for running!

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Week 1 of Marathon Training

It has begun! Nearly a month of dealing with a terrible chest infection, I have been cleared to run again. It feels good to be outdoors; feeling the fresh air, running around the local area, having your body remember what muscles are used in running and how hard it is to run after such a long time being off. I had to remind myself (more than a few times) to slow down as it is the first run back nearly a month and its okay to go even slower than usual as the body has to build up the endurance and strength again. This made me reflect on what I need to do next within my marathon training plan: modify and adapt the plan when needed. 

I like following a plan, it gives me the motivation to keep training, even if I don’t want to complete a session or I’m feeling fatigued from work, the plan keeps me going. I always do my best to stick to a plan, even when I am returning from illness. If I see that I need to run a long run on a Saturday, I stick to it, there’s a track session on Tuesday: do it. Club run on Wednesday, I’m on it. Gym session on Thursday, check. Everything on my marathon plan I tell myself that I must do it. Nevertheless, I was told otherwise it’s not wise to follow everything on your plan when returning from an illness. I had to slow it down and take certain sessions out to be able to recover and get back into running. An example of this is taking out the track sessions, so that I may focus on my endurance and to give myself an extra rest day to recover from my illness completely. I also have to remind myself that this is my first marathon ever and no matter what I do, at the end of the race, it will be a Personal Best time regardless. 

I’ve have concluded that training for a marathon is no easy task, you must be prepared to give the time to marathon training, learn to slow down the pace in longer runs (especially when they surpass the half marathon mark), think about what you eat/fuel before/after a run, the gear you wear and most importantly your own well-being overall. If I am not feeling so great, it’s better to listen to my body than try to continue training through the illness or else I could end up even worse than I was before and lose even more time training because I did not listen to my body. 

Slowly but surely I will continue to run using the club to run on those cold dark winter nights, run with my close friends who keep pushing me to complete the distance and use the gym/swimming pool to help strengthen the muscles used in running. So far coming back into running has been a great feeling. I am hoping at the feeling will last as I go into longer miles.

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Marathon Training Starts…...after my Illness

Well folks its 2020, the start of a new decade, new goals and of course being the luckiest girl around getting a place for the London Marathon. 

To run the London Marathon has been on my bucket list since I began to take running more seriously a few years back, however the chances of getting in were slim. Nevertheless, I decided to take a chance on fate and hey I made it in. Since I am new to the world of marathon running, I did my very best to do as much research as I could and looked for plans that would suit a new marathon trainee such as myself, but who isn’t new to running at all. Boy, that was tough! Looking online at various websites, social media, books, speaking to other runners in the club asking them if I could have a look at their training plan to see if it would suit me. It takes a lot of preparation which I now value and respect even more as a runner and to whomever runs a marathon. Kudos to you my dear friend. 

Meanwhile, a slow an unprecedented illness began to take over my body, I blame the fact I work with too many kids (it’s the teacher life). By the end of the term, I had built up a severe cold which I thought it would be over by Christmas time. NOPE. Turns out I ended up in urgent care on Christmas Eve and BOOM, I was diagnosed with a severe chest infection and given a round of antibiotics. That put me out of action for the rest of December. This gave me time to work on finding the right plan for myself and really focus on the foods I will be eating during this time and what I want to focus on for this marathon, which is to complete the whole distance and tick another off my bucket list. 

This brings us to January. Thinking that I have recovered as much as I could from my illness, I decided to start my training plan on the 3rd of January, feeling a bit out of breath, I ran the Ealing Mile. Overall, I felt good (yes it was tough) but I managed to pull through and get around felt good to be back stomping around the area of Ealing. Not to worry I thought, thinking I would be able to get around at cross country the next day.

Saturday. Well I thought I was well enough to do Middlesex XC Champs at Wormwoods Scrubs and boy I was wrong. The coughing and shortness of breath was enough for me to pull out of a race (first time in my running career that I do so too) and I was gutted. The cough returned and somehow I managed to get worse from the first round of illness. The stubbornness in me did not listen to my body and I didn’t give it time to heal completely. Now on my second round of antibiotics and told not to do ANY physical activity (yeah right, I’m the PE teacher, but yes I will be more cautious in my teaching of lessons), I must listen to my body this second time and really let myself recover. Marathon training has been put on hold…. until this upcoming Saturday which I can finally start running. 

Let the good times start….on Saturday. 

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First post

Wow! I am beyond over the moon to get the club ballot place for the London Marathon. For the first time since joining the Ealing Eagles, I will be on the other side of the barrier at mile 23! As the club motto goes: I will not let the club down. Expect my blogs to be about my training, balancing social/personal life, aiming to be injury/cold/flu free and how the club has benefited me. Thank you again all for being so supportive and London: Here I come!

(Hoping to fly like this throughout London Marathon)

(Hoping to fly like this throughout London Marathon)