Brighton Marathon 2017

THE SUMMARY

I signed up for the Brighton Marathon with the intention to train for a “Good for Age” finish time so I could race the London Marathon in 2018. Good for Age is sub 3h 45m in my age group, so that was my target. I finished the Edinburgh Marathon in 2013 with a time of 3:55 so I knew that with some dedicated training, sub 3:45 was within reach.

I built out my training plan and in January I was ready to hit the ground running – literally. Unfortunately in week 2 of training I managed to fall down a set of stairs and sprain my ankle…. I tried walking it off but there was no walking this one off. My ankle took 6 weeks to fully recover. I got running again at the end of February and managed to develop runner’s knee (too much to quick). All this, and I am convinced I can qualify. I knew I was stronger and faster than I was four years ago, and I figured that if my fitness fails me I’d at least have the mental toughness to make it through.

The result? I TOTALLY miss judged how tough a 42km race is. To my surprise (and probably me only), I am disappointed to report back that I didn’t get sub 3:45 as planned. But all things considered, I am actually really happy with this race. Here’s the breakdown…

10k split: 52m 56s
Half marathon: 1h 50m 37s
30k split: 2h 41m 25s

Total Time: 3h 55m 02s

Gender Position: 350 of 4825

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Eat Sweat Play – Why our twenty-first century obsession with exercise is all wrong

Anna Kessel’s book, ‘Eat Sweat Play’ covers everything from gender stereotypes and the societal view of women in sport to common sporting taboos such as periods, pregnancy, motherhood and menopause.

It is jam-packed with facts; to the point where I found myself flagging pages that had interesting viewpoints and writing down athletes names that are mentioned throughout the book so I wouldn’t forget to follow them on Twitter and read more about them afterwards. Eat Sweat Play covers so many different angles and aspects of women in sport but the topic that resonated with me most discussed why our twenty-first century obsession with exercise is all wrong.

The twenty-first-century notion of exercise being the whole #fitspo fashionista image where expensive juice bars, gyms and classes result in picture perfect toned legs, arms and abs.

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Swimming with World Champion and double Olympian, Katy Sexton!

I’m not sure what I else I expected, but wow Katy swim’s fast! Mind blowing-ly fast.

Last Saturday, Katy and I met at the Guildford Spectrum Leisure Complex and started the set doing 8 lengths front crawl as a warm up. I obviously wanted to make a good impression so I attempted to swim at a decent effort-level to avoid being categorized as a “loss cause”. What actually happened… me thrashing-about in the pool trying to not look slow, while Katy effortlessly glides through the water and laps me in the process.

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Pumpkin Muffins

These muffins are quick to whip together and they are so nice and warming as the cool weather settles in. Spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice, its like the best part of a pumpkin pie is in muffin form making it totally acceptable to eat for breakfast. Prep: 10 minutes
Bake: 25 minutes

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Should you pace your next run with a GPS watch/ app?

When I was preparing for the Edinburgh Marathon I lived by my Garmin – I used it on every run and kept track of ALL my stats. I was borderline obsessive about my pace and my progress.

After the marathon, I stopped training for a couple months and by the time I decided to get back into a training regime, it felt like I had lost so much fitness. All of the sudden, I hated my stats. I was slower; it was harder; and it was annoying how quickly I lost fitness after working so hard to build it up. As a result, I started to dread going for runs. Something I loved turned into something I avoided… I quickly realised that if I want to keep running, I needed to leave the watch behind.

There are many benefits to tracking your runs though and I’ve recently tried to get back into the routine of it.

If you’re wondering whether you should start tracking your runs, or if you should step back from obsessing over your running data, check out my list of pros and cons below…

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Butternut Squash + Quinoa Power Bowl

Check out my first YouTube appearance on The Performance Kitchen and learn a little bit more about me and how to cook this delicious power bowl recipe!

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Live Loosley Takes Over The Performance Kitchen!

As you know, I am a big advocate of people pushing their limits and getting out of their comfort-zone. For those who know me well, you know that I never feel more out of my comfort-zone than when I am the center of attention. So filming a 20 minute cooking show was massively pushing my limits! But when The Performance Kitchen asked if I’d be interested in doing a Live Loosley takeover episode, there was no way I could pass up the opportunity. Even though I hate being the center of attention and can be known for blushing when someone just looks at me too long, I always get a sense of satisfaction after spending some time out of my comfort-zone.

The Performance Kitchen is a YouTube channel that focuses on professional athletes, their sport/training and how their cooking impacts their performance. What better way to learn about fueling your body than from some of the best athletes in the world – straight from the source.

My episode was filmed right after World Champion Swimmer, Katy Sexton and right before Professional Basketball Player, Tayo Ogedengbe. The call sheet for filming that day also included: Sophie Papps, Chris Gregory and Vanessa Raw. All amazing athletes in their own right.

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Life in between goals…

This Summer, I set myself a bit of a vague goal: Approach training with a ‘healthier balance’. I set this goal to avoid over-consuming myself in training and to make sure I don’t compromise too much from other important aspects of life.

But what exactly is a ‘healthier balance’? Was I not healthy before?

For 10 years, I have consumed myself in specific functional goals in preparation for “Race Day”. It is something I’m really proud of, but sometimes I struggle to find enough meaning behind it all… a reason to dedicate so much time to it.

So this is what I was trying to accomplish by training with a ‘healthier balance’… less compromise to train and more time with friends and family.

It almost backfired! … I started questioning things way more than before.

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My first DNF in Triathlon

The Monster Triathlon just isn’t my race. Two years in a row… Year 1 – DNS (did not start), Year 2 – DNF (did not finish)…

Last year I came down with the flu a few days before the race and was unable to compete. This year I planned on racing the Monster Triathlon as my main focus race and my last triathlon of the season… There’s nothing worse than dedicating time and effort in training and then ending up with a big fat DNF!

The last time I got a DNF was in rowing when I raced at the Royal Canadian Henley with Becca. We were in the under 25 women’s double final and the collar on my oar wasn’t fastened properly; it slipped right off at the 1250m mark leaving us unable to finish the race; equipment malfunctions are the worst!!

So what happened this time? Well here’s the very short race report and a few silver linings from the experience…

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Who cares?

Lately, I’ve been questioning myself a lot… wondering things like: Why do I care so much about healthy living? Why do I care about something that can seem so superficial on the surface and that in the grand scheme of things, is so insignificant in comparison to “real life” and “real problems”? I even started to question why I spend so much of my time in preparation for a race? Who cares?

I haven’t been posting regularly over the past few weeks because I’ve struggled to find a meaningful answer to these questions.

Healthy living in comparison to lets say… living with an illness, or living in a war torn region for example… just does not stack up and I started feeling silly for sharing ways to maximize a privileged first world way of living. But though it is important to have perspective, I’ve been reminded over the past few days that it’s OK to care about it… That even though it may not ‘stack up’, it does matter, it is something I’m passionate about, and sharing my honest approach to healthy living actually does have a positive impact.

So, thank-you to the people who have reached out and reminded me of that. I am officially no longer lost in my thoughts and seeing the Olympics come to a close this weekend has definitely confirmed it for me… it has been amazing watching the best athletes in the world do their thing and it has been such a nice change of pace seeing positive headlines in the news too.

Just a few days ago I was questioning why I bother racing at all and what the meaning of it all is, and now I’m searching for another race to sign up to. I love competing and I thrive off of keeping an active lifestyle. Is there meaning behind it? Maybe not… but it keeps me sane, it gives me something to work towards and I simply enjoy it. So why not?

In saying that, I have a race report post coming up next and an exciting announcement to make too. Onwards and upwards…

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