Wednesday 25 April 2012

I'm going to College!!

I'm going to college in August!

I got offered a place on Jewel & Esk College's HNC course in Health, Fitness and Exercise. I've accepted it!

I'm really pleased and excited at the prospect, and I'm enjoying getting my head around the idea that life's going to be overhauled by the end of the year. My daughter will start school, I won't be needed as a full-time mummy any more, and I'll be going to college and studying. And working. And being a mummy.

I am really excited and looking forward to it. I have so many questions about college:
do they still use books?
do I need to wear fitness clothes every day?
will I be every bit as annoying as the mature students who were on my university course when I was 17?
will there be lots of colouring-in?

I'm so excited. Only four months! Wow!!

Fuelled up on Jelly Babies

Today's running lesson: don't put jelly babies in your pocket on rainy days.

I read in Runner's World that some runners shun isotonic energy drinks and other advanced fuelling strategies in favour of good old jelly babies. I liked the sound of that, and got some jelly babies to keep in my pocket for big runs. The yellow ones were disgusting, but apart from that they were quite a nice distraction, along with my energy mix.

But today at 5am it was seriously rainy when I headed out for my 9 miles. I didn't sweat so much and didn't munch my sugary treats - and when I got home they'd turned to goo in my pocket. They were still discernably jelly babies. Just covered in an kind of sugary amniotic fluid.

And the yellow one was still disgusting.

Otherwise, the running is great. My 18 miles on Saturday felt pretty good - no niggles, no problems, and man! did the bacon & egg roll I had afterwards taste GOOD!! I had an incentive to get home fast - I had to take my daughter to her ballet class - and I'd asked the kids to make their own breakfast while I was out and not to wake up daddy! There comes a time in every child's life when they have to pour their own Blueberry Wheats and peel their own satsuma - and for my cherubs, it was last Saturday at 7.30am. Anyway, I did 18 miles in 2 hours 50 minutes. Not that I was really counting.

Fuelling is preoccupying me at the moment. I always run on an empty stomach, but that's mainly because I run first thing in the morning - 0530 or 0600. The Marathon starts at 1000 and I really don't think I can make it till 1000 any day without any food! So I'm thinking I'll get up at 0600 to eat, that way I'll be empty by race time, just top up my glycogen levels with an energy gel before the race. But I won't get the chance to check the tactic before the race.

I'm indebted to the Marathon Training Academy for keeping me going these last few weeks and for all the information on fuelling, training and recovery. More on them later.

What's blowing my mind at the moment is how my perception of distance has changed. This morning I did 9 miles and didn't think twice about it - didn't worry that it might be hard, just went out and took it on like it was easy. And when you think something's easy, it does become a whole lot easier. Until a month ago, 10 miles was what I considered to be a challenging big run! But now 10 miles isn't a big deal. I'm amazed at how my attitude's changed. I guess I know now that I'm capable of more!

Last night I'd organised a training and/or recovery with the other Leith Primary Runners, who are all running legs of the Marathon Relay. I was the only one there... but as I don't want them to feel guilty or in any way put off, I've told them that it was a great evening (it was, I went home and kept warm!) and we need to meet up again soon (we do!) I know they're all training, and we're all busy - but at least they have to meet each other so they know who they're supposed to be handing their batons too!