So, I was going to write a blog post about my ‘Top 10 Marathon Training Tips’ – but after looking online, the internet is FULL of them, so rather than just adding another generic list to the hundreds already out there, I thought I would take a different approach. So here are my 10 Reasons To Run A Marathon.

1. BRAGGING RIGHTS

There, I said it. Running a marathon is pretty fricking awesome, and don’t let anyone tell you differently. The first ever person that ran a marathon died doing so, and yet here we are centuries later putting ourselves through the ordeal, voluntarily, for fun! So yeah. You ran 26.2 miles and survived. BRAG AWAY!

 

2. CARBS

Forget diamonds, forget dogs, carbs are a runners best friend! Carbohydrates will become a staple of every meal, and in no way should you feel guilty about that. Our bodies need it! So if anyone questions if you really need to eat a family size portion of pasta for dinner, tell them to shut up, and then throw bread at them (and feel free to eat that too, because you know, carb loading!)

3. NEW TRAINERS

You are going to be running A LOT of miles on the build up to the marathon, as well as the marathon itself. So it’s the perfect excuse to buy at least one new pair of trainers to get you through the training cycle. You’re welcome.

4. MORE ACTIVE WEAR

As above, a lot of sweaty miles means a lot of sweaty running gear. And if you think about, if you buy more, you are just saving the planet by not having to do as much washing! So really, its just best for everyone if you go and buy more running gear (or at least thats what you can tell your other half when you come home with ANOTHER new pair of shorts/leggings/vests)

5. EXTRA BRAIN POWER

For someone that has always struggled & hated maths, on my long runs I feel like some sort of mathematical genius. Working out splits, average pace and how long a run is going to take becomes a great distraction when you are out getting the miles in. It also becomes a fun game when you are driving, I always look at road signs and work out ‘how long would it take me to run that’ (I will warn you, this does get very frustrating when you get stuck in traffic and you realise you could have got there quicker if you had your trainers on!)

 

6. EVEN MORE EXTRA BRAIN POWER

Similar to Maths, running a marathon can also introduce a whole new glossary of words & phrases to your vocabulary.

MP*?! Threshold?! Tempo?! LSD**?! An easy way to confuse the muggles (non-runners) is by talking in code, these will soon become part of your every day language when training for a marathon, it can also make the standard Friday afternoon work conversation a bit more interesting…

‘Up to much this weekend then Carole?’

‘Not really, just having a quiet one and then getting my LSD in on Sunday – have a good one!’

*Marathon Pace

** Long Slow/Steady Distance

7. FEET

Hate people touching your feet? I know I do! Well don’t worry, after training for a marathon, NOBODY will want to go near them ever again! Problem solved!

 

8. UNLEASH YOUR INNER GRANDMA/GRANDPA

Want to go to bed at 9pm on a Saturday night and not feel guilty/boring? GO FOR IT! You are working your body hard, and you need as much rest as you can get, and chances are you will probably need to get up early on Sunday for your long run anyway! So if your perfect Saturday night has gone from getting 241 cocktails to being in your PJs with a hot chocolate then just EMBRACE IT!

(Okay, being serious now)

9. IT MAKES YOU FEEL AMAZING

When you cross the finish line, I can almost guarantee you will feel about 5835284 different emotions at once. Yes you might be hurting, yes you might be tired, but as soon as the pain wears off and your brain processes what you have just done, you will feel like you have just won Gold at the Olympics!

No matter what your time, no matter how your race went, you will have still ran a marathon, and you will now be part of a very elite club of people that have done so!

10. IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE

To put it simply, training for a marathon will change your life. There is no doubt about it. Whether you decide to give up running after wards or continue and train for your next marathon (and that probably will happen – just to warn you!) your life will have changed for that period of time.

Yes there will be times it will be hard, and yes there will be times you question your sanity when you are out in the pouring rain, or dragging yourself out after another long day at work, but personally I don’t think there are many things that compare to achieving something you have worked really hard for.

Good luck to anyone who is running a Spring marathon in the next few weeks, whether it is your first or your 100th, you are all bloody awesome!

Jordan xx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of us are familiar with that saying, whether you are a runner or not, at one point or another we will all experience that feeling where we want to crash, whether thats physically, mentally or emotionally (and sometimes even a combination of all three!)

As a long distance runner, I have ‘hit the wall’ on many occasions, during my 1st London Marathon it happened at around mile 18, and last year it happened at mile 14 (that was a bad day in office, let me tell you!) But it isn’t just something that happens on race day, it can also happen during training too.

If you have ever trained for a marathon, you know that it is hard work (and if you haven’t trained for one before, I am telling you, it is hard work!) When you press ‘Submit’ on that race entry form you are pretty much signing your life away for at least 12/16/18 weeks (depending on the training plan you decide to follow), and it will take it’s toll and make you question your sanity & why you have voluntarily signed up to run 26.2 miles!

The Spring marathons are getting closer, and for a lot of runners (myself included) around this time is what we call ‘peak week’ – which means it will be the highest mileage week, or include a higher number of harder sessions than usual – or in my case, both! When I looked at the my plan for this week, I thought it was going to be tough, and I was right! And today, was the first time in a long time, that I bailed on a training session part way through.

Tonights plan was 5 x 1 Mile efforts. Effort level = HARD. I was dreading it.

I think this was the start of my problem, I went into the session with a negative mindset. I knew it was going to be tough. I knew my body was tired. And I let it get to me. I wanted to stop after my warm up, I then really wanted to stop after the 1st effort, and then by the 3rd I was 100% done. Although physically I probably could have ran another 2 efforts, my head was just not in it. The last 10 days have been tough. I have only had one rest day since The Big Half and have ran almost 70 miles, which for me is a lot! And if I am honest I think my body and my mind just need a bit of a break!

I could beat myself up about today, or tell myself I will go out tomorrow to make up for it, but that isn’t going to make me feel any better, or do me any good. Instead I am going to take full advantage of my scheduled rest day & hope that it recharges my batteries so that I feel fresh for the weekend.

Running a marathon is hard, there is no doubt about it, but the training leading up to it can be just as hard, and at times even harder than the race itself. Both are not just a physical challenge, but a mental challenge too. And today, my mental side let me down. It’s just over 5 weeks until race day, and as well as making sure my training & nutrition is right, I know I also need to work on my mindset, as when it gets tough on the day, I cannot give into that voice telling me to give up!

If anyone has any tips or any strategies they use for getting over that ‘mental wall’ then please let me know in the comments!

Jordan xx

I get asked on a regular basis about what sort of training I do, so I thought I would share what my average week tends to look like! My running sessions will change on a weekly basis, but I tend to stick to the same gym sessions, and just chop & change when needed to fit into my schedule.

I hope this is useful to some of you, and I will go into more detail in my strength sessions in a post later this week with photos & videos.

Just one final thing – I have been working out like this for a while now, so please please PLEASE don’t all of a sudden add in lots of extra sessions or start doing too much too quickly as you could risk injuring yourself or over training. Start by perhaps adding in one extra session a week and see how you get on!

W/C 5th March 

Monday

AM – Rest

PM – 4 Miles (Easy – Average 8.00 min miles)

Tuesday 

AM – Bootcamp – I attend this class every week at my gym as I love it and means I don’t need to think about my workout! The class can vary week to week but always includes a great mix of cardio, strength and core (pretty much the only specific core work I do!) 

PM – 6 Miles

• Steady
• Average 6.41 min miles

Wednesday 

AM – 9 miles

• Easy
• Average 7.25 min miles

PM – Gym/Strength Training (Upper Body) For me, being a good runner means having a strong body, which is why I now include one focused upper body strength session per week. I tend to do the same exercises every week, and just adjust weights/sets when needed. I will be doing a post later this week with full workout details.

 

 

 

Thursday 

AM – Gym/Strength Training (Lower Body) I truly believe that adding a weekly leg session to my training plan has made me a stronger runner. I do a variety of exercises using resistance machines, free weights, resistance bands & plyometric body weight exercises. Again, I will do a more detailed post later in the week with full workout details.

PM – Track Intervals –  2 mile warm up, 5 x 800m/400m recovery, 1 mile cool down

800m Splits

• 2.42
• 2.45
• 2.47
• 2.48
• 2.46

 

Friday – Rest Day

Saturday – Park Run – including 2 mile warm up & cool down 

• Park Run Result – 18.57
• Average Pace 6.06

That felt reaaaaaally tough! It had been a hard week of training off the back of The Big Half and my legs did not like going that quickly! I should have taken this as an easier run, but sometimes we all get a bit carried away! 

 

 

Sunday – 15 Miles (5 Steady/5 MP/5 Steady)

During marathon training it is quite common to structure your long runs this way, although this is the first time I actually stuck to my plan and didn’t just go off at any pace (sorry coach!) Mentally it helped as rather then thinking of it as 15 mile run, it was just three 5 mile runs put together (for someone that hates Maths I tend to do a lot of mental maths when running long distances!!) 

 

Weekly Mileage – 47 miles

Gym Sessions – 3

Jordan xx

 

Okay, so before you start reading this I am going to warn you. This is NOT a running post. This is probably going to be the most personal/deep I am going to get on here. But it’s been a hell of a year and without it I probably wouldn’t be writing this blog right now. So yes, you have been warned. Still with me? Okay, here goes!

So let’s go back to the beginning of 2017. I was desperately unhappy. Unhappy in my relationship. Unhappy in my professional (or lack of) life. And perhaps the biggest one, unhappy in my own skin.

This was taken back in Feb 2017 – unedited, unfiltered and a completely natural/relaxed pose. Now I know I wasn’t huge, and I am not saying that. But everybody is different, and for me, I was not comfortable at this weight or size. And it was affecting everything, including my running (okay, so maybe I will talk about running a little bit!) 

But I was stuck in a vicious cycle. I would sign up for another diet, fail after a few days, binge to make myself feel better, get down again because I put weight on. And repeat!

I was still running regularly, in fact I was training for my 2nd London Marathon, and although my training was going okay, I never felt 100%. I always felt sluggish and just ‘heavy’ on my runs, and I was doing very little cross training (something I will be posting about soon!) basically, I just felt a bit ‘meh’!

The marathon came & went, and although I didn’t get a bad time, I was not happy with my performance and the result – which just became another thing to add to the list of things that were dragging me down.

Things started to pick up over the Summer. At the end of June I found out I secured my new job which was due to start in September, which I was so excited about, and it gave me a sense of purpose again. But unfortunately that was just one problem sorted on a list of many.

I also picked up a nasty little hip injury during an event in July which resulted in me not running for almost a month (!!!) and it was safe to say this did not help. Running has always been a great stress relief for me, and to have that taken away was again, just another negative in my life.

And then there was the big one. My relationship. To cut a long story short. I was engaged. We had booked the venue. We had a photographer booked. We had started planning the wedding. But deep down, for a long time, I knew it wasn’t right. And I honestly believe this was the root of my unhappiness. I made the decision in September to leave, and although it was the hardest thing I ever had to do, it was the right one for me and my happiness. But anyway, lets move on.

After some big life changes I was finally starting to feel like my old self again, and started to get my drive & motivation back. I already had my place for the 2018 London Marathon, and I knew I wanted to get back there to redeem myself after my disappointing result in 2017, so, I knew some things had to change.

I signed back up with Team Project Run as I knew that having a running training plan would get me back on the right track & I was just praying that I would start seeing results again soon. I also made more effort to get to the gym regularly, and as I was now living closer to both my work & my gym it made it a lot easier, and a lot harder to make excuses!!

Towards the end of the year, things really started slotting into place. And I was starting to completely forget about the girl at the beginning of the year, as it genuinely felt like a different person. I was in a job that I really enjoyed, I was seeing progress in my running again, and I had lost weight and felt a lot more confident in my own skin.

As the 1st January approached, I was feeling more motivated then ever. Not only was it the 1st day of a brand new year (and a Monday!) it was also the start of my 16 week London Marathon training plan. I knew that I was going to give this my everything, and nothing was going to get in my way – even a knee niggle 3 days into my plan didn’t stop me, I was sensible, took extra rest when I needed it and just worked around it. And if you follow me on Instagram you will see that my training has gone from strength to strength!

I am going to be bold and say it, but I am currently in the best shape of my life. Since this time last year I have lost 10kg and I feel fitter & stronger than ever. I am achieving PBs I never thought I would be, and setting goals, that although seem very scary, seem within my reach.

I took the photos below at the beginning of this week, as for the final 6 weeks of marathon training I am going to be working with a nutrition coach (NOT A WEIGHT LOSS PLAN!) to ensure I am giving my body everything it needs ahead of and during the marathon. Again, these photos are unedited, unfiltered and completely natural/relaxed.

These things take time. This was not an overnight fix, this wasn’t just doing a bit more running, or eating a little bit healthier. I changed my entire life because I wasn’t happy. And now I am & more motivated then ever before.

I am not saying it was easy, and again I am not saying that you need to be as drastic, but sometimes you may need to look a little bit further than just your training or your diet if you aren’t achieving what you want to, as it could be something else holding you back.

Although I have already come so far, this honestly feels like the start of something.. and I am very excited to see where it is going to take me, and I cant wait to share it with you guys.

Jordan xx