Back in training

It's been a little over four months since I ran the Paris Half Marathon with Team Bangs on the Run. Four months is a long time to give up running regularly. I know this because I'm finally back in training and it ain't easy.

If you follow me on Twitter, you may know that I'm currently training for not one, but TWO half marathons. Two. Half. Marathons. Only two weeks apart. I realise this is small fry to the hardcore runners that hardly break a sweat running full marathons every week, but given that I started running a year ago and have been avoiding it for four months, the idea of an entire marathon in only two weeks is pretty terrifying.

Luckily, I've picked two of London's most exciting half marathons. First up, on 25 September is Nike's Run To The Beat - 'London's music half marathon', which the second Team Bangs on the Run are also running. Exactly two weeks later, it's the Royal Parks Half Marathon, which I've only ever heard amazing things about.

It was never my intention to run two more half marathons this year, but it's happening, and I'm taking the opportunity to push myself and my body further. I'm determined to beat my Paris PB of 2:03:21 and come in at under 2 hours in both runs, so I'm following a pretty hardcore Runner's World training plan, which has me running five times a week.

I missed Week One because I didn't count properly (I blame holiday blues), so I started on Week Two last week. Here's how that went:

Monday

• Plan said: Rest day
• I rested

Tuesday 

• Plan said: 5M speedwork
• 19:00 - I tried to brave the huge rain storm on Tuesday evening, but only got to the end of my street before turning round and going home

Wednesday

• Plan said: 5M (steady)
• 05:30 - 5.02M (steady)
• 19:00 - NTC in Hyde Park with the fabulous Joslyn of Fit Girl About Town fame

Thursday 

• Plan said: 5M threshold run
• I slept through my morning alarm, so missed my run
• 19:00 - PT session

Friday

• Plan said: Rest day, but I wanted to make up for Thursday's missed run
• 05:30 - 4.66M including 2M  fartleks

Saturday

• Plan said: Hills 5M (inc 6 x 150m hill)
• 07:30 - 5.62M including 7x sprints up Primrose Hill

Sunday

• Plan said: Long run 8M
• 08:30 - 8.15M (steady)

Plan total: 28 miles
Kaye's total: 23.45 miles (Target: 28 miles)

A little wobbly, but 0-23 miles in a week isn't too shabby. Wednesday's double session perhaps wasn't the wisest decision. As much as I'd like to continue the NTC outdoor classes (which you should definitely get to if you're in London), I should make the runs my priority. I've never really incorporated speedwork, hills, fartleks or threshold runs into my training before, so that's going to take some getting used to. If anyone has any tips on any of the above, I'd love to hear them!

Juneathon: The End

I totally failed at Juneathon. I won't make any excuses, but I promise I'll try harder when Janathon comes around. Strangely, I found it easier to exercise in January than I did in June, so I look forward to kicking Janathon's ass in 6 months.

Moving on swiftly from my failure, I'd like to point you in the direction of some marvellous bloggers who made it to the end of Juneathon:

• JogBlog
• Fortnightflo
• abradypus
• Cake of Good Hope
• Lazy Girl Running
• Travelling Hopefully
• Bad Wabbit
• Shazruns
• jensruns2011
• fairweatherrunner
• 2011 miles

Well done you fabulous lot and everyone else who completed Juneathon - you should all be very proud.  

Read it and weep

So there I was yesterday, sat at my desk, eating my lunch and clicking through my favourite websites - Heatworld, Grazia Daily, Jezebel, TMZ, *cough* Daily Mail online *cough* (yes, it's dirty, but they have a great Showbiz section) - and as usual, I clicked onto Marie Claire's daily newsletter. I saw this. I saw red.

Now, it's not often I get enraged by silly news pieces - my eyes just completely filter out the 'Everything You Do Will Give You Cancer' stories that litter the Daily Fail site - but stories like this really rile me. 'Get fit by fidgeting (yes, really)'?! NO.

The article is actually based on a study by scientists at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, which showed that just 30 minutes of light exercise a day is enough to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and benefit the heart and lungs. Now, this is nothing new - we all know that we should be doing at least 30 minutes of exercise a day, right? It's a good message, one that should be reinforced regularly. But why do Marie Claire feel the need to turn it into a ridiculous piece about fidgeting being exercise? Why can't they encourage actual exercise? It's not evil!

To be fair to them, they do go on to say this:

"That’s not to say we should be chucking our trainers for a life of fidgeting – there’s no replacement for vigorous workouts – but it’s encouraging to know that a little can go a long way."

Yes, exactly. Fine. If 'a little' is taking the stairs instead of a lift, getting off the bus a couple of stops early to walk the rest of the way - not 'jiggling your legs up and down'.

And then:

"As well as improving fitness, fidgeting has also been proven to help with weight loss."

Le sigh.

Am I the only one really angry about this? Also Marie Claire, have you ever sat next to someone that fidgets continuously? It's fucking annoying and will only lead to violence.