September Recap

September's been a difficult month and I haven't achieved any of the goals I set, really. Stress about work has led to regular insomnia and lots of overeating. I've put weight on and I still haven't finished reading Intuitive Eating. I've barely stuck to my 10k running plan as well. I didn't like the Hal Higdon one I was following because it was heart rate driven and I didn't feel like I was pushing myself and if I'm honest I didn't enjoy running so slow. Don't get me wrong I don't go hell for leather every session, but I like a bit of speed to keep me entertained.

I'm in two minds about October goals because I have consistently failed to meet goals I have set over the last few months. I want to lose the weight I've put on. I want to finish Intuitive Eating. I want a PR on the Yorkshire Coast 10k. I want to reduce the amount of dairy I'm eating because I feel uneasy being vegetarian for moral reasons while supporting the meat and dairy industries through buying milk and cheese. I want to use more functions on my Garmin FR 610 (notably interval sessions and HRM managed tempo runs) so I can write a thorough review.

I'm just not willing to say these are concrete goals.

Either way last week was very good.
Monday: 3.5 miles
Tuesday: 10 x 1 minute intervals with 5 minute warm up and 5 minute cool down (3.07 miles covered)
Wednesday: 4 mile run in 38:37 with a 5 minute warm up and cool down
Thursday: Rest
Friday: 40 min tempo run (10 minutes warmup, 20 minutes faster, 10 minutes cool down covering 4.01 miles)
Saturday: 40 minutes cycling instead of an easy run because a ligament in my ankle was pulling. (9.5 miles)
Sunday: 6 miles in 56: 47

Total: 30:08

My knees hurt a bit so I'm icing them.

August Recap

How did it get to be September already? You can definitely feel autumn in the area around here. The fields have been harvested and the leaves on the trees are slowly beginning to turn.

In August I set the goals to lose 2lb, cut down on emotional eating, and stick to the 10k training plan. I've lost 1.6lb despite going to Leeds festival last weekend, cut down on emotional eating a bit. I haven't stuck to the training plan because I started going to a running club and prioritised their runs over the ones on my training plan. Since getting a 5k PB on the 20th of August ago I've barely run at all. I tend to naturally have a period of sloth after PBs or hard races. Still, not a bad month all in all.

My September goals are:

• Lose 4lb
• Finish reading Intuitive Eating and apply the rules to my life

This post's soundtrack is provided by The Naked and The Famous, a new-to-me band I saw at Leeds Festival. On the Saturday afternoon we only really wanted to see Patrick Wolf so we spent the time up till he came on wandering around the stages listening to bands we didn't know so well. The Naked and the Famous came on and I loved them instantly.

Here's a recipe for some date balls I made recently which were inspired by some dates I had once which were pitted and had a slice of dried lemon placed where the stone used to be. Blend a cup of pitted dates, a quarter of a cup of cashew nuts, a heaped dessert spoon of lemon peel (I used Tesco's Italian Mixed Peel) and a pinch of ground cardamon together. Add a drop of water if the mixture isn't coming together and form into 8 balls.

July Goals Review

So in July I set some goals. They included lose 4lb, keep off the booze till my 10k, and continue on the 100 pushups and 200 situps challenge. I failed all of them. Wahey. I've actually put 1lb on due to emotional comfort eating in mid-July and not doing much running then either, didn't keep off the booze as I had a few drinks in the week leading up to the 10k and drank a lot after that, and I had to abandon the pushups and situps challenges due to the number of reps causing me abdominal ache when I run.

Oh well.

I have goals for August though.

• Lose 2lb or stay the same weight - I'm going to Leeds Festival at the end of August so I'm trying to be realistic here.
• Cut down on emotional eating - already started as I've found out my work contract is ending almost 3 months earlier than I expected. I'll be out of a job by mid-October instead of New Years Day, which is good for job hunting but bad for missing out on November and December's paychecks. I desperately wanted to just eat loads of crap and cake on Friday, yesterday and today etc but I managed not to, aside from a few sweets, because I recognised that wasn't what I really wanted. What I want is have already secured another job. ;)
• Continue following Hal Higdon's Intermediate 10k plan. This will be tough at the end of August because I may be going away for a week, but I've already reworked it around the Leeds Festival so hopefully all will be well.

And rest...

I'd barely finished Sunday's race before I was trying to work out my next 10k goal. My long-term goal is still a sub-50 minute 10k but right now I'm going to aim for a sub-52 10k. There's a couple of 10k races coming up in the northeast over August but I'm going to hold back and give myself a few more months to train. All being well I'm going to enter the Town Moor Memorial on November 13.

HAHA! I LIED  My next race will not be in November. A week ago I entered the Sunderland 5k Road Race. The course is billed as being flat and fast. I probably shouldn't have entered another race so soon after my last one. I'm going make another attempt on a sub-25 5k. I'm probably going to be desperately disappointed and will be whinging about it on here, but the flat course and convenience meant I couldn't resist. I rested yesterday and am resting today, kidding myself that if I treat Sunday like a long slow run I'm sort of 'tapering' before my 'proper' run. Um. Or something like that.

Anyway. Over lunch I went vegetable shopping in a local greengrocers and I was a bit like a child in a sweet shop. I bought globe artichokes, yellow (YELLOW!) tomatoes, portobello mushrooms, some of those flat peaches that are popular right now, and boring red tomatoes. I also saw some samphire and salsify, two vegetables I've never eaten before, which I didn't get because I really had no clue how to cook them. The internet tells me samphire is best steamed, and salsify can be peeled and treated like any other root vegetable. They are on the mental 'to buy' list.

Yummy yummy fruit and vegetable haul

 I've got some ground flax seed left over from the GN10k goody bag - how do you prefer to eat it if you do?

June Goals Review and Goals for July

In June I set myself some tentative goals for the month.

• Lose 4lb 

3.4lb lost. Not bad, I'm a bit disappointed but I haven't eaten particularly well this week, nor have I stuck to my no-alcohol goal, so to be honest I'm lucky I've lost this much. Hurray for running!

•  Complete every 10k training session 

I missed an interval session on Tuesday because I had the wrong shorts on. I had accidentally packed the shorts that creep up my legs and I hate them but I only realised when I put them on at the gym. I'd planned an interval training session but decided to go for cross-training instead, and was too busy to make up for it on Wednesday or Thursday.

• Do weeks 1-4 of the 100 pushups programme 

I did weeks 1 and 2, then decided to go back to week 1. By the end of week 2 I was cheating a bit by doing shallow pushups or collapsing to the ground on the last pushup of the set. I knew I wouldn't be able to move on to week 3 and didn't want to cheat so decided to take a step back and repeat the weeks to build up my strength. It worked and I did week 1 very easily, but then life somehow got in the way and I didn't do any more. All the same I completed 130 pushups in June. I don't want to come across as smug, because there are people out there able to do a lot more than this, but I'm still pretty chuffed! Also, I'm getting some muscle definition in my back and arms and losing a bit of the fat in that area.

• Do weeks 1-4 of the 200 situps programme 

Life somehow got in the way and I've just completed week 3. My situps are strong, fluid and with good form. It hasn't been easy, but I feel confident I can work through the programme without having to repeat weeks. I think I can see a bit more muscle definition on my belly as well, although this could be due to weightloss. I completed a total of 631 situps in June.

• No alcohol till me 10k run 

 I didn't drink at all until last Thursday, when I had a glass of wine. Then a few more wines and beers over the weekend at my parents, then another glass or two with a friend on Wednesday. This may be why I failed to lose 4lb this month...

 My goals for July are going to be very similar.

• Lose 4lb
• Do weeks 2 and 3 of the 100 pushups programme twice
• Do weeks 4-6 of the 200 situps programme
• Do not skip a training session. NOT EVEN INTERVALS.
• Complete the Great North 10k in under an hour
• No alcohol until the Great North 10k