Doing the hard yards!

 Doing the hard yards!

So this isn't just about getting the miles in on mornings when its lashing down, freezing cold and icy or just simply when I'm tired from the day to day regime of life itself, oh no, its about stretching constantly to keep on top of recent injuries and to help prevent new ones.  For me this is a biggie, I seem to have acquired quite bad flexibility over the years and now having to work hard at overcoming this.  So apart from ritual-like stretching I have yoga booked in my diary every week on a Friday.  I am completely and utterly useless at this but it gives me an hour of stretching and working areas that I would probably ignore.  I spend most of the session chuckling to myself as I'm flexing a leg here or bending my body there or just simply balancing on one leg like the leaning tower of Pisa ha ha!!!  What else, oh yeah food and drink consumption, ugh!!  So to achieve any kind of success in weight loss my first step is 'Dry January' or as its turns in to, 'Dry January, February, March and April' lol.  One month wasn't enough unfortunately so I have to keep going and now this is something I go through every year.  So, no booze, rule number 1.  Next I have cut out crisps and chocolate, not that I think I have too much of this stuff but to get the weight off that I need then I have to cut it out altogether ugh!! Once I've done that another biggie is bread which I probably find even harder than beer, I'm on track to achieve my goals but I still have to count calories and be careful.  I'm focusing on getting a good level of protein, reduced salt intake and no sweet stuff. UUUGGGHHH!!!

These are the hard yards!

As Alex Ferguson once said "You can't have success without sacrifice!"

The 160 has been a target for a few years now and I've been close to achieving it once before but I've not really been in a good place physically for the past 18 months so I'm really trying hard to 'control the controllables' as my wife would say.  So for me this means, weight, training, self-care and sleep.  So, as you may gather by now one of my main hold ups is my weight, but really this is a 'controllable', I can do something about it, its in my own hands (head) to whether I do it or not so like I've said recently its mindset.  I have to focus on it, fight one day at a time and achieve small targets. Again, with regards to actually training, I have to get into good habits, routines and stick to the plan, build and grow! Self-care, for me this about looking after myself so little things like eating well, getting the protein I need to help recover, stretching, massages, foam roller, a bit of swimming (I'm not a fan but it helps!) and a bit of time in the jacuzzi for my back. Sorting my feet and looking after them as they can be come an issue if I let them, and if you've seen them then you know what I'm talking about ha ha! I've even got in the ice bath a few times to help with recover after runs.  Now that I'm not drinking my sleep has improved as it always does, but I'm trying to not always go out running as early as I can all the time, even though I like this I'm trying to allow a little bit of rest to help recovery.  I'm currently feeling good, but the problem is once I'm like this I'm not as tired when I go to bed and I can't help getting up early doh!

I know its a few months away but I'm actually already getting excited for this race as I know I'm doing the right things and getting myself in to a good place for it.  I keep thinking about the areas on the route that I know will be key so I'm thinking of getting out on the course and covering some miles over these sections.  Getting comfortable with the uncomfortable, thats what Goggins says, so I need to become comfortable with certain sections that I know will push me to my limits.  I'm certainly not going to go and run 100 miles and then get to the sections just so I can experience the suffering but if you go run them with confidence and set little markers as goals to hit then it becomes easier on the day.

So just remember...