Road to London 2011 goes on a slight detour

Road to London 2011 is going on a slight detour but it’s not the end of the world. I injured my ‘good’ leg on 20^th February and I did the sensible thing for once and stopped! So I haven’t done any running since then but I have continued to train with Stu, the good old faithful Kettlebell and TRX. I would have been a nightmare if I didn’t have these in my life. I remember when I was about 13 and I knackered my right wrist messing around with friends which forced me out of playing squash for a few weeks but there was no stopping me… I needed to play so I taught myself to play left handed!!

Anyway my goals for 2011 were as follows:-

Do a 4 min plank by 15.03.2011…. just so that I could open window 6 in my Advent Calendar… Mission completed on target date with 4 mins 5 secs!!

Reading Half Marathon in 2.05 yeah right I think it was 1:59…. 20.03.2011…. target aborted for THIS year… but there is always next year!

London Marathon 2011 (17.04.2011) in 4.30… not with Stu…. 4:25…. Very sneaky Stu gets you pushing yourself even harder than what you already would have been to reach the 4.30 goal…. Well today I have finally filled in the withdrawal form and hit the send button.

Get into a target size pair of jean by 17.04.2011….. I am sure I will be able to do this as my body shape is changing big time through my workouts with the kettlebell… plus I had a sneaky peek last week and managed to get my thighs and backside into them… I was really shocked my this! Haha

The London Marathon was still a goal yesterday although deep down I knew I was fooling myself….. it is so difficult to give up on something that you want and know that you can achieve…. This year is the fittest I have ever been…. Was discharged from the hospital regarding my dodgy leg… shame I now have a new dodgy leg… something tells me maybe I should just give up on running and do something else… but there is no chance of that happening…. I shall just put the London Marathon Goal to 2012… At least this way I will be ready for it… and I shall be back stronger!! How many sleeps to go?? Roughly 395.

Motivated and training isn’t going to stop just because I have been forced to withdraw from the marathon… I have set myself a new goal…. To run the Royal Parks Half Marathon in October 2011 and get a Personal Best… I haven’t quite worked out a realistic time for this yet but there is still plenty of time to go.

Another goal is to STOP AND LISTEN TO MY BODY….. which I have already started to do… I gave myself until 5pm to withdraw from the marathon and I have already sent the form off by 9am! Well proud of myself… I should have done it ages ago but wasn’t quite ready to give up the dream of running the marathon becoming a reality in 2011…. Just looks like this will take place a year later… so it’s no big deal in the grand scheme of things. Now I can concentrate on getting my leg fixed and start with a few 5K’s and 10K’s at least this way I will increase my speed.

Yesterday……. I had the most amazing and awesome session with Stu…. This was definitely what I needed this week….. been a little bit stressed as I knew the Marathon goal was slipping away and it didn’t matter how hard I trained without using my leg or whether I rested my leg I knew I shouldn’t be getting to that start line. Is was silly to try and kid myself if I can just score a few hours or days without hitting a 6 or a 10 in pain… I have ever chance… oh well… so over that now…

My session was my best one by far……. 100% in the zone for the session…. Mixture of kettlebell and TRX and boy was it tiring. I really went for it today as I knew the technique to swing correctly and I didn’t have to think about it too much… just that I need to snap the string tense the core and put in 100% and some into it! I think I defo did this.

My dodgy leg started to play up but nothing major….. too much standing was playing on it but Stu is ‘the man’ and off we go… for a walk… haha a walk what a nightmare…. I am having to walk….. I bloody well want to be running but it’s just what I need… then we are back on programme…. Swinging and effort is amazing…. Getting tired and tired and really going for it. Onto the TRX for exercises and back to Kettlebells…. Got some ‘new moves’ on both the TRX and Kettlebell….. Then what a mere.. I do something to my old bad leg….. what a wally…. I didn’t even do anything wrong and here I am in bloody agony…. Stu doesn’t even have to say anything…. Like and you still want to run the marathon as I now know I am defo out!

‘Louise where are you going?’ says Stu…. As I am walking away… OMG… how embarrassing…. I have just been sick!!

Oh great….. there is me thinking I am going to have to stop but nope wahoo…. Stu’s magic hands and other exercises do the trick and my leg is OKish. I am so glad we carried on with adapted exercises as I left my session feeling really good but also with a reality check that I needed to withdraw from the marathon.

Then we have the “Let’s Talk’ chat……. I am starting to get better at this…. Still need to learn not to say ‘it’s fine’ but I am getting there. We discuss the marathon and next years marathon… new goals……. I am defo looking forward to working towards them…. Just because my goal of the London Marathon 2011 is over doesn’t mean I have to give up… I have just moved the goal post… and it’s going to be fun and hard work training towards them.