Tag: wisdom

Monday Motivation: Three Weeks Until Spartan Day

Monday Motivation: Three Weeks Until Spartan Day

by TartanJogger ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I can’t believe that, in three week’s time, it will all be over and I’ll have- hopefully- completed my first Spartan Run. Eek! This is hurtling towards me at an accelerated pace, and I’m hoping that my nod towards training is enough to see me through.

As I said in last Monday’s post I started the week with WAR. And I had DOMS for days, I definitely pushed myself! On Tuesday I did a 5k run/ walk which felt good, but reminded me that my body isn’t quite 100% yet, my left leg still felt a bit off and weak. I’m hoping that my runs this week will show an improvement, but who knows. 

I had an unanticipated busy week, with a trip to Islay on Wednesday meaning that I missed my regular Jog Scotland run. I was out on Thursday night and so I missed PiYo but I managed a walk and a little cross training on both nights which was better than nothing. Since then, I’ve had visitors all weekend for the Seafood Festival, which is one of the best weekends of the year in Tarbert. This year was no different: it was really wet but we had great fun, great food, excellent company and a few cheeky drinks including the newest addition to the local gin collection: Kintyre Gin   I’ve had a day off today, which had mostly been spent getting beds stripped and washed, and catching up on a few things around the house. We have a quiet weekend coming up, with no visitors which will be nice as we’ve enjoyed company for the past three weekends. I’m hoping that this week will give me a chance to keep my fitness goals on track. I’m heading to WAR later today, we’ll see how that goes after such a busy weekend 😉 

We then have a trip to London planned before the Spartan Race, so I’ll be doing what I can between times to keep up. Eeek! Here’s some Monday Motivation that I’m holding on to- I hope it works for you!

Wednesday Wisdom 

Wednesday Wisdom 

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Monday Motivation: More Spartan Training

Monday Motivation: More Spartan Training

by TartanJogger ♥ 3 Comments

Pheeee-ew! What a busy weekend! We had our end of class salsa night out on Friday, our Ceilidh-come-Fèis-Showcase on Saturday and a lovely day out to Portavadie on Sunday. My parents were here, so it was good fun to catch up and relax. But it did mean that I didn’t get much training done over the weekend.

Before that, though, I’d made good progress in my attempt to become a SpartanJogger: I didn’t get to WAR on Monday or PiYo on Tuesday: I’d had some adjustments from the miracle working Osteopath on Monday so I gave my body some time to adjust, but I felt brilliant afterwards.

On Wednesday I ran. Yay! 

First run in five weeks. It was a slow, steady three miler chatting with Emily so the time flew by. It was also torrential rain- we had thunder, lightening and overflowing drains to contend with, but we got it done. Why does running in the rain make you feel so bad ass?

Thursday was my first full- power PiYo session for some time and it felt great to be back to some degree of strength and flexibility. Jacqui loaned me some kit so that I can work on strength training in advance of the Spartan race, which is brilliant- and very kind of her. I now have a box jump, medicine balls which I can use as they are intended for or in a hold-all to replicate a sand bag. Jacqui gave me some really really good tips on some training ideas and exercises so I’ll be testing those out in the coming few weeks. 

Friday night was our last Salsa class- boo 😔I’ll miss it: the fun, the footwork, the cameraderie- hopefully we’ll have a chance to do it again.

So, all in all, I have definitely made progress in my work towards the Spartan race. Yay!

Tonight I gave it my all at WAR. I’m almost back to my old self: I definitely still have some weakness in my left leg, and it did collapse under me when I was doing some jump lunges. But for other parts of the class I dug in deep and kept focussed. I imagined myself in four weeks, ready to run and as strong as I could be 💪🏻, so I worked HARD and used my weighted gloves as much as possible.

 My plan for tomorrow night is to get in a solid run and to follow it up with some circuit exercises- if I’m not too sore after tonight’s class. I want to test my body a little, pushing it on while trying not to set back my recovery. 

We’ll see how that goes and I’ll report back to you next week 👍🏻, meanwhile I hope this resonates with you:  How is your training going? 

Have a good week 🙂

Wednesday Wisdom 

Wednesday Wisdom 

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Monday Motivation 

Monday Motivation 

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Hello! How has your week been? Did you have a busy weekend? Are you loving this weather? Not that we’d know here in Argyll- we haven’t seen the glorious sunshine or high temperatures that most of you have had. Ah, well 😏

I’m not going to bore you with the details of my training last week, since I shared that with you all yesterday. You don’t need to read that lot twice! 

I just wanted to pop by and give you a dose of motivation, if you need it 👍🏻 After our walk on Saturday I thought that this would work: 

 Have a great week!

Monday Motivation: Spartan Training Begins

Monday Motivation: Spartan Training Begins

by TartanJogger ♥ 2 Comments

Yes, it begins. Slowly. But better than nothing.

I’m still unable to run, but my mobility has improved a little meaning that last week I managed to get my sorry butt back to classes. With one eye on the Spartan Sprint in six weeks, I started last Monday with WAR. I didn’t use my weighted gloves, and I kept to low intensity moves, but it felt great to be there 👍🏻

On Tuesday I went to PiYo Stretch and Flow which is more gentle than the Thursday class. While I missed my usual run, I felt that I was helping my body by doing as much as I could to keep up. My left leg was driving me crazy and had a mind of its own but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

I planned to join the walkers group at Jog Scotland on Wednesday night but it was cancelled. Undeterred, I walked 5k myself and I kept the pace up as much as I could manage. 

All in all, the week was a real improvement on the previous few. 

This week, I’ve been back at WAR again and I managed some higher intensity work- but I’m still limited. I do feel that I’m making progress so I’m focusing on that. But I really want to get training for the Spartan Sprint more intensely while not setting myself back. I’m sure that will come in the next week or so. I’m waiting for some training tips to come through, so that should help!  It I can’t help. It feel worried when I see images like this:

Eeek! All I can do is focus, train and do my best.

I hope that this resonates with you as much as it does with me right now:

Have a good week!

Wednesday Wisdom 

Wednesday Wisdom 

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Wednesday Wisdom 

Wednesday Wisdom 

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Wednesday Wisdom 

Wednesday Wisdom 

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Monday Motivation 

Monday Motivation 

by TartanJogger ♥ 7 Comments

Scunnered.

That just about sums up how I feel about my training over the past week. After months and months of running and training well, I had a PB in my sights for this Sunday’s Rock n Roll runs in Liverpool. Alas, that seems like it’s not to be for me. 

My sciatica is back- with a vengeance. You’ll know that last weekend was great, with a good run at the Taynish 5k and a brilliant day marshalling at the Inveraray Jail Break, but I’d been slightly sidelined by a post-holiday cold in the early part of last week. Well, the cold has just about gone (I kindly shared it with The Welsh Wookie so he’s suffering now) but my right leg began to go slightly numb on Tuesday. 

Undeterred, I headed out for a run, remembering the docs advice from last year to keep running if I could. It got worse. 

On Wednesday I had a lovely, social three miler with the Jog Scotland crew. It got worse. 

On Thursday, PiYo and VeraFlow were cancelled so I thought I’d get one last decent run in before Liverpool and so I ran a steady 10k. It got worse. 

I woke up on Friday morning with my right side- lower back, butt, leg, right down to the sole of my foot numb, tingling and in turn burning and ice cold. To make matters worse, that was joined by the same sensation in my right arm, particularly through my underarm, hand and fingers. 

I decided that I should listen to my body, ‘taper’ and hold back from running, but I managed a weird, ugly attempt at salsa on Friday evening. I’m glad I went along, but my balance was shocking. 

The pain has remained bad over the weekend, I’m not sure if it got worse last night or if it just seemed like that after a busy weekend but here I am, with 5 days until Liverpool, feeling decidedly sorry for myself. 

Since it flared up last Tuesday I’ve been foam rolling, pulse point massaging and stretching with no relief yet. I’ve made an appointment to have it checked out but I can’t be seen until 19th June. 

So where does that leave my runs this weekend? I’m still determined to take part if I possibly can. The doctor’s advice from last time should still hold true I reckon, but I’ll need to readjust my targets. My target now is to finish both runs, no more. If that means walk/running, or more walking than running, so be it. I might be very frustrated but I’m not down and out yet! 

 My plan now is for lots of R and R this week, hoping that I can RnR in Liverpool this weekend. I’ll keep you posted.

Have a good week!