Happy New Year!

Ok so I think it's time for a blog update or two!!  Firstly, hope you all had a great Christmas and a very happy New Year.  And now it's January, which means Marathon Season is upon us!  I had a tweet last week reminding me that it was only 100 days until the London Marathon.  Plus Brighton is a week earlier so  we really are counting down the days. 

So it's 2014, and all across the land, folk are getting their gear on and making those resolutions and training for their next goal.  I love seeing loads of runners, cyclists and walkers out on the streets at this time of the year, whether they are first timer joggers or upping the mileage again for a spring marathon.  Even better is when the new runners stick through the first few weeks and keep going well into spring, as we all know how difficult it is to keep resolutions in dark, cold January.  Although it seems to be mild (I ran today in shorts and a vest) much of the UK is still very wet and flooded.  I do feel for my friends in the US though having been hit by terrible winter blizzards.

So what have I been up to?  Well – I carried on running over Christmas!  Although I did treat myself and probably eat enough carbs to fuel a 100 mile ultra, plus the triathlon sessions stopped for 2 weeks so I have only been running and trying to keep active during the days off by walking and the odd swim.  I’m pleased, as I ran not only on Christmas Day (2 miles to church!) but on New Years Day (St Albans Parkrun) too!  I’ve also done a couple of races, the Pednor 10 – the last of 2013 - and the Polar Nights Half Marathon (which I’ll do a separate post on) which was the first of 2014.

I got some awesome new gear for Christmas.  A Nathan hydration backpack, which is much for comfortable than my old one, and some insanely bright pink running tights which I love.  Plus some money from my brother to spend on new gear so I bought a hi-viz run jacket in the sales.  He also got me a very interesting book on low-carb diets for athletes.  He and my parents are all low carb and have done very well on it, but I’ve always stuck to the traditional marathon runner’s diet of pasta or potatoes before the long run!    I won’t review the book here nor go into a debate about it, but I did find it very interesting and strongly considered following it, weighing up the pros and cons.  In the end I decided to stay with the traditional carb-burning methods rather than convert my body to a fat/ketone-burner, mainly as I did not need to lose any weight, but also because it would mean several weeks of very difficult training and poor performance while my body converted to fat burning.  Plus, I LOVE carbs, and I don’t want to be guilty about still having them in my diet!  I did make me decide to review my sugar intake though, which I admit is rather high.  Not only do I treat myself after running but I tend not to think twice about snacking on cake or chocolate in the day either.  I need to cut down on all the random sugars and unnecessary carbs I eat during the day when I’m not training, and replace them with healthier snacks – which, I’m glad to read, can include cheese, eggs and cream and not just celery!  I will also make the effort to enjoy a small, half-sized bowl of Ben & Jerries after running too as I have been known to eat most of a tub after a long run (it will save me money as well!).

While I was deciding, I did have a few days where I really cut down the carbs, and I felt it during my running.  I did the Pednor 10, which was my PB for the 10 miles in 2012, but this time really struggled.  It was a truly horrendous time, just minutes off 2 hours!  Luckily, it was a gorgeous day, and when I gave up pushing myself I enjoyed the event a lot as it’s in an attractive part of the county and has a small, friendly field.  On new year’s eve I went out for an 8 miler, and I almost hit the wall at about mile 4.  And by the time I struggled round New Year’s Day Parkrun – having been sober the night before! – I’d had enough and literally wanted to have my cake and eat it too!  I did expect this and know with time I could have adapted to fat-burning eventually but I’d only try again it if I did not have any races coming up (and did not have a sweet tooth).  Are you on a low carb diet or sticking with the good old carb-loading?  If so I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

One more January race lined up – the Fred Hughes 10 (another local 10 miler).  Last year it was snowed off, so hopefully it will go ahead this year.  In the meantime though, I’ve got to start getting the long runs in again, so have a 14 miler planned this weekend, which I’ll try and combine with parkrun.  Means my parkrun times will start getting very slow again and I won’t be able to go for the traditional coffee and cake every week, as I’ll have to run 7 miles beforehand, do the 5k, then run 4 miles home!  Tri-Force sessions have started up again now, so we had a HIIT session in circuits on Tuesdays which was a bit of a shock to the system, and swimming yesterday.