2013: twelve months in twelve sentences

In 2013, I ran 1226 miles; I had my 40th birthday; completed two marathons and three half-marathons; I started a running club in my children's primary school; I learned to do chin-ups; I joined a gym for the first time in nearly a decade; I totally overhauled what I eat. It's been my best fitness year ever.

In January I was rather miserable and got poorly.

In February I started training for the Edinburgh Marathon, feeling daunted but quickly realised that I could regain my speed and increase confidence.

In March I passed my CYQ Level 2 Gym Instructor qualification! It took a lot of hard work and practice but I'm really proud to have held my own in a class of people half my age and feel so much more confident in my fitness knowledge and my own fitness.

In April I finished up my HNC in Fitness, Health and Exercise from Edinburgh College. I'd originally signed up for the HND - one more year's study - but the course was geared towards university applicants, so I took what I had and decided to work for a Personal Trainer qualification in January.

In May, I completed the Edinburgh Marathon in 4 hours and 12 seconds, and accordingly developed a monkey for my back about getting a sub-4-hour marathon.

In June became a coaching client of Angie Spencer at Marathon Training Academy and learned the value of having a coach and mentor and exactly how that can make me a better runner. 

In July I took a month off running to see if I could cure the plantar fasciitis which I'd suffered from since May. It didn't work but I did enjoy working out in the gym instead, including the lovely Elite in Broadstairs and the glorious Fitness First in Brighton.

In August I had one of my favourite, most transformative runs, 8 miles up and down the Royal Mile with Vicki Weitz, when I realised for the first time that running need not be solitary and need not be non-stop.

In August (also) I started a few new college courses: CYQ's Exercise to Music qualification via Edinburgh College at Granton; Applied Nutrition, and Pre- and Post-Natal Fitness, both at Edinburgh College at Milton Road (same institution, a few miles apart but a world of difference!)

In September, I completed the Loch Ness Marathon in 4 hours 7 minutes and learned how much fun running a marathon can be, especially when the scenery is beautiful, the race is well-organised and there's a bit of tourism involved.

In October I switched to a No Sugar, No Grains diet and loved it, and I'm still thriving on it, delighted to no longer be a slave to sugar and to instead have long-lasting, fat-fuelled energy.

In December, I managed to do 40 chin-ups in one week before straining a pec and having to take the rest of the month off, but also managed to run 40 miles in the week of my birthday, including a brilliant 22-miler on my actual birthday.

If you'd like to see some of what I plan for 2014, nip over to my fortyfest blog, for some forthcoming fitness fun. There will be more too, as I study for my PT qualification and set up as a PT - can't wait!!

Back to college!

I'm very excited to be going back to college this term! Hurray!

I'm sticking with my decision not to study for an HND, but I still want to increase my knowledge. I'm going to Edinburgh College's Milton Road Campus to study four credits, two in Applied Nutrition and two in Applied Exercise Prescription. I am optimistic that the teaching quality will be better than most of what I experienced last year at the College's Granton Campus, although I am nervous about meeting a new group of people. It's only for one day a week (and not even a whole day) so hopefully it will keep my brain occupied and keep me consciously working towards my career goal.

Then on Fridays, I'll be back at Granton Campus studying for a CYQ Exercise to Music qualification! This is something I've wanted for years and I'm really looking forward to it. As a dance instructor you might think this might be something I can already do, but the fact is that Egyptian bellydance is more about responding to the music and interpretting what you hear than it is about doing a certain number of moves and changing to another move at the right time. I really enjoy music-based exercise classes so I think I'm going to love this course!

In January I plan to study for a level 3 Personal Training qualification at Milton Road Campus. This is the one that I really want, and I'm sad I have to wait until next year for it! But it gives me some time to get on with other things that need my attention, like organising a loft conversion!

This week I have an appointment with a business adviser at Business Gateway. I've been trying to set this appointing up since June so it's been a long time coming. This is outwith my comfort zone but I hope it will keep me focused on preparing to build my business when I'm fully qualified as a personal trainer and a post-natal fitness instructor.

It's an exciting week with so many new things to look forward to - bring it on!

Marathon ranting

I had a marathon moan a few weeks ago, and now I'm going to tell you about my marathon rant!

Yesterday I had the chance to bore the pants off my classmates about my marathon training. It was (for me) brilliant.

As part of the HNC course, we do a unit called Personal Development Planning. We each select five goals (academic, professional, or personal) and track our progress towards them. Theoretically it's a helpful skill to aquire, but it's impossible to make people achieve goals if they're not motivated towards them - which frankly is the main problem with the course. "You WILL achieve your goals, or else!" - it's not the best approach.

So anyway, part of the course was treating our classmates to a five minute presentation on the progress so far we'd made towards one of our goals. Looking at my goals and realising that there'd been a distinct lack of progress on four of them, I sighed deeply and opened PowerPoint to write about my marathon training.

My goal is to run this year's Edinburgh Marathon in a personal best of less than 4 hours.  Cue a SWOT analysis of the goal, photos of last year's race and details of my training programme.

The truth is that once I got going, I really enjoyed telling everyone how I was getting on. Perhaps all I really wanted was the chance to share how my training was going - I don't really have anyone to bore with the facts of my training, and these guys had to listen - or at least, they had to not fall asleep. I finished off by giving them a jelly baby each - after all their are the secret of my training success. Why was I surprised to get the bag back afterwards to find all the black and red ones gone?

(red and black ones still shown)

It also gave me the chance to look at my statistics and realise that I'm making progress.

• My average speed for my easy runs has increased by 36 seconds per mile
• my average speed for my long runs has increased by 18 seconds per mile, and 
• my 20 mile run time predicts a marathon finishing time 3 hours and 55 minutes.

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!!