Sub 30 5km.......Finally!!

Regular readers of this blog or those that follow me on twitter will know that I have been trying to get this sub 30 5km for months, well, 9 months and one day to be exact. When I crossed the line after finishing London Marathon in a not so respectable time of 6 hours and 15 minutes (I should have finished in 5 hours 30 minutes according to my training pace and had I stuck to the plan on race day) I promised myself that this was the end of plodding along and getting the distance in, it was time to do something about my weight and turn into a proper runner. Which is when I started this blog.

Well I have started what I set out to and I am halfway there, 34lbs down and 36lbs to go. I have changed my attitude to food, although this is a daily battle and I am enjoying my new outlook on life. I can see my body changing, especially over the last couple of months. My arms, shoulders and neck have slimmed down and my chest is rapidly disappearing, my legs, hips and stomach are slowly shrinking and my bum seems to be shaping up, best of all I now have a waist. 

You may have read previous posts where I have talked about breaking 30 minutes for a 5km, and how I just couldn't do it. I almost became obsessed with it and I imagine this got boring for my friends and those following me on Twitter! I felt it was something that I had to do to prove that I had changed. After my failed attempt at Long Marston 5km in November last year, I was so crushed and was close to throwing in the towel, but looking back it was just a bad run. I knew I had it in my legs, this had turned into a mental thing so I looked at it in a different way:

If you don't fail, you're not trying hard enough

I decided that I needed to get used to running at 10kph so this became my normal pace, to do this I decided to use the treadmill to get that consistency so everytime I was in the gym I did a few kms to get on track. I set myself a target by the end of 2012 to get the time but my attempts failed, again, it was in my legs but mentally I struggled. I kept trying into January but 3.5km seemed to be my limit, but I was getting closer. 

I had offers for pace makers by @Russww (a Warwick local) and @TheIron_Bear (one of my oldest friends) and I was absolutely petrified, mainly as I didn't want to let either of them down, and I was scared of failing again. So, I decided to set a target date: 23/1/2013, I was going to run it on the treadmill and @TheIron_Bear was going to run next to me. 

The run itself went better than expected. I got halfway and was told to knock the speed up to 10.5kph but the advice was ignored, I was feeling ok but I knew that 3-4kms were going to be hard, this is usually where I give up so I wanted it out of the way, my plan was to get to 4km and then start knocking the speed up and that was what I wanted to stick to. With 800m to go I started to knock up the speed, I wasn't aware of the time but knew that I had to make up around 30 meters so I had left it a bit late. As soon as I hit 5km I checked the time: 29:52, I had just scraped it and I was ecstatic, such an amazing feeling that I now could officially call myself a proper runner! I could draw a line in the sand now from playing at it and actually doing it, and I now have that benchmark and know what I need to do to improve it.
 This is me hanging onto the treadmill for dear life after finishing!!

This is about to start getting expensive!

As if the gym memberships, PT sessions, protein powders, supplements and endless amount of kit wasn't enough to keep me on the verge of bankruptcy over the last eight months, it seems that I now have the problem that you would think would please me, believe me, it does not. Nothing in my wardrobe bloody fits me! Well, maybe not quite true, nothing in my wardrobe THAT I LIKE fits me.

I went to work this morning in an outfit that only needs one word to describe it - Disgusting! Grey trousers, which I hate with a passion as I usually wear dresses to work (kept only as they fit me, and are suitable for work) and a top that literally hung off me, this was after half an hour of literally ripping clothes out of the wardrobe, trying it on, sighing and throwing in the charity shop pile. I looked like a mess.

I shouldn't really moan about this, it is great news that I am seeing great results from my hard work, but I really like some of my old clothes and more importantly, I'm constantly broke, so buying a load of new clothes when I want to drop another 2/3 dress sizes isn't sensible. I worked out today that this must have been the reason that I have never got lower than this weight when I have lost weight in the past! I know it isn't but I am a lover of my clothes, I don't want to let them go!

The past week has been much of the same really. I've stuck to my training plan set by Oli and we now have a session booked on 14th January where he will set me a new plan for the next month. I'm continuing to get stronger, and upped the weights again today for shoulder press, I stuck to the 10kg dumbbells for the first 5 sets however I didn't find this to be as tough as it has been in recent sessions so for the last set I used the 12kg dumbbells. I'm not sure if this was a sensible idea, my from wasn't that great but it's encouraging that the 10kgs are getting a little easier. I also moved the weight up to 60kg for the last couple of sets of low row which was really tough but I managed it so all in all a good steady session, I sure feel it this morning! Ouch!!

New Year, New Me

The last 24 hours have been quite weird. Just yesterday morning I was moaning how shit I am at generally all form of exercise whether it be cardio or strength based training, however, I then took myself off to the gym as it was strength training day and all of this completely changed. I knew it would be tough over the Christmas period, so many temptations and excuses to find not to train, but that wasn't the issue, and I couldn't work out what it was. It's not unusual for me to start having these odd moments, usually when it gets towards the end of the month I know I need a PT session because I start doubting myself and the training that I am doing, thinking I'm not running fast enough, not lifting heavy enough and a particular hate of mine, training in the gym on my own, and not knowing enough about training to know what is good for me and what isn't.

When I got to the gym it was quite busy, which I wasn't expecting. I had remembered my iPod (brain like a sieve!) so I wanted to take up the opportunity to get on the treadmill and get further than the 2km at 10kph that I ran Saturday. I did, 3km in 17:58, so I was pleased with that. The strength session went well, the "weight nickers" were in force again but I managed to get the weights that I needed and a good space to do what I needed to do, the aches in my glutes and shoulders today are proof that I must have worked hard! There was a near miss where I thought I was going to throw up after my 5th set of squats but this soon wore off, either that or I just sucked it up and got on with it. I finished it off with a bit of core work then intervals on the rower. I really felt that I had worked when I came out of the gym, and worked out what the issue was, for the first time in ages I felt like I was getting THOSE looks in the gym, the ones that makes you feel that you don't belong. When I feel like this, the first thing I think is that it's because I'm fat. I need to remember that I'm being totally paranoid, I doubt anyone even noticed I was in there, let alone found the time to wonder why I was there! Plus I would like to think that what they are actually thinking is "fair play, she is working hard and doing something about it."

I got home from the gym and felt good, I had a bath, got into my pyjamas and made tea, planning an early night and a run in the morning. During the evening twitter seemed to be going completely mental and I was getting loads of messages of support and new followers from my post from Sunday, this certainly helped my New Years Eve in alone with no alcohol, instead I was high on pride from some of the messages that I was getting from people that I didn't even know telling little (well big) old me that I was inspiring them to either start their own journey or continue with theirs. An amazing feeling.

I got up this morning and took myself out for a short run, 2 miles in 20:38, this was really tough as the cold weather really took my breath away, and not being a fast runner I was really wheezing when I got back home, but the run was done so I had the rest of the day to myself. Before I went I took a quick photo of myself to compare to a photo of myself from London Marathon which I posted in my last post, when I got back I compared the two and it stumped me. I had to sit down and look again, was this really me? Had I really done this? All year when I was moaning that I couldn't see a difference it was creeping up on me, don't get me wrong I knew that I was losing but not to the extent of what I saw today:

I have to admit to having a few tears (OK a lot) seeing this and an immense amount of pride at what I had achieved. This is the first time in a long time that I have felt properly proud of myself and again the response on Twitter and Facebook has been overwhelming. New Years Day is traditionally pyjama day for me so after my run I have spent the day sorting out my diary, planning my meals and training for the rest of the week and creating an Inspiration Board:

So I guess now I will be taking a new found confidence into 2013, and with this new attitude I feel ready!