Thursday 28 March 2013

This post contains BOOBS!


So I run with the knee support bandage thing now and try not to panic. I try not to panic even when my left foot toes blow up in size and go tingly or when my flatmate sneezes all around spreading horrendous germs. I try just to stay focused. I finally did the sensible thing and stopped drinking ANY alcohol. It's been a week and nearly 4 days now. Probably the longest I've survived in years. How sad is that.

Today I finally did a long run after a way too long break. It was all about testing equipment. First of all my rubbish left leg was to be tested. I removed the bandage after 1 and half hours and then ran further 30 minutes. In total I covered roughly 20 Km. It's not as far as I wanted to go but I am still very cautious with this leg. 

I also tested Lucozade energy drink and one of these scary gels. I hated the gel. It made me thirsty for water but all I had with me was Lucozade. Not sure if it was needed.



And now to the main attraction of this post: BOOBS. I can not believe I'm actually posting a picture of my boobs online but one has to do it ones, yeah? The reason for this terribly offensive and immodest picture is to demonstrate the multiple uses of a sports bra. I heard this trick from another girl in the marathon training day: store the energy gels in your bra! Storage problem solved plus the gel stays nice and warm which makes it easier to consume.  At least sometimes life is much easier for a woman!



Friday 22 March 2013

I'm PANICING


Above is me looking like a real ninja just before an evening run in the freezing cold weather. The sad truth is that I'm everything but a real ninja at the moment. I'm bloody broken. My left leg started aching badly behind the knee, so week ago on Thursday I saw Blossom, the super amazing osteopath. She explained to me that my muscles were very tight and were pulling my pelvis so that my left leg actually was shorter than the right one. Then she did all sorts of tricks and I nearly fainted. I wasn't allowed to run for 48 hours and even after was advised to take it easier. She also gave me strict instructions on how to stretch and warm up properly. Problem is that there are less than 5 weeks to go to the big day and right now I should be really pushing it with long runs. That's why I feel panicky. It doesn't help that the leg still feels rather odd and now I'm worried that the actual knee is giving up as well. Blossom tried to calm me down over the phone and told me to try knee support and do silly looking running in the swimming pool. I am just so frustrated because I feel like I don't have time to let my leg heal properly!!!!

Matters were not helped few days ago when I felt that I was getting ill as well. So in a mild panic I rushed into Holland&Barret health shop and bought everything the shop assistant advised me to. I used to not to believe in natural healing and all bizarre supplements but faced with marathon panic all my principals simply vanished. I even bought every child's nightmare: cod liver oil! Mine is in capsules though but luckily in an old-fashioned scary looking jar. I placed it between my heroic looking figurines. There it symbolises strength and recovery! Omega-3 is good for joints so this fish shit should get me trough this running challenge!



For the ill feeling I got Echinacea tablets. It's a pretty flower which, according to Wikipedia, can cut the chances of catching cold by more than half. That's enough reassurance for me. 



Thursday 7 March 2013

food, glorious food!


I'm going to talk about nutrition! Yes, me who hates nutrition talk. Something has happened to me now after I started running those rather long runs. The usual amount of meals and the usual size of my portions don't seem to be enough for my body anymore. The poor thing is confused. I've experienced a series of mega munchies including eating the whole tub of Häagen Dazs ice cream in matter of minutes. I've also purchased cheap sweets that come with a serious warning about the side effects(see picture above). Luckily I am a grown up....
I tend to start yawning the moment anyone mentions healthy eating or the boring word nutrition but slowly slowly my mind has started changing. I should probably pay a teeny weeny amount of attention to what and how I eat around these super runs. Problem is that all the instructions are written in this boring nutrition language that again puts me to sleep. What I gathered so far is that carbs are good. Well, I like pasta.

This is my super food salad earlier today. It has such super ingredients as spinach, green beans, carrots, nuts and above all CHOCOLATE! I was given this chocolate chip salad dressing as a present by a very cool and nice person. It's genius. Always eat chocolate, especially with your greens!



If my tummy got confused by all this mega running so did my legs. My left leg has started behaving weirdly again. This time around it just has bizarre feeling next to the knee rather than the odd numbness. I finally took some serious action to sort the problem and booked an appointment with osteopath. She was recommended to me and sounded super good and caring already on the phone. I will meet her next week.

This is my left hand all pandafied. Right hand was an impossibility so it only has plain white nails. I have to stay in the spirit of saving pandas for my charity challenge!