#thisgirlcan

Once again this week I was starting to worry I'd not got a decent topic for my weekly blog. Then I wore a close-fitting vest to the gym.

Aside from the 10k mission I'm on at the minute, I'm also on a mission to lose a spare tyre or two from around the waist. All my life my weight's been something that has been a bit of a battle (to say the least). After re-joining Slimming World for the what seems like the millionth time a couple of months ago, I'm starting to win that battle again.

So, feeling great after getting my stone award last week, I decided to ditch my usual gym attire of a hugely baggy t-shirt and trade it in for a more sleek, fitted garment.

Big mistake.

Walking from the changing room onto the treadmill was fine. My two-minute power walk warm-up was sort of alright. The 30 minutes that followed were not good.

As as my power walk turned into a jog and then to a run, my top rode further and further up my mid-riff.

However discreet I tried to be while pulling it back down to hide my wobbly bits, I'm pretty sure I failed. As my top continued to creep up over itself, removing the 'it' from a well known sports brand's slogan I was feeling completely and utterly self conscious.

But then, as the endorphins started to kick in, my thoughts turned to some adverts I've seen recently. Going under the mantra 'This Girl Can' the point of the campaign is to break down a lot of the common barriers women feel stop them from exercising. It encourages us to embrace the bits that jiggle when we run and get on with it. So that's what I did, and I managed to shave nearly a minute and a half from my 5k time!

And as for the vest? Well, I'm just going to have to keep running until it fits properly!

It's a fantastic campaign, have a look at their website for more information.

And once you've been on that website, maybe pop across to my Just Giving page?

Pushing it

After last week's injury based training blip, I got my trainers back out this week with a new sense of determination. I can't believe how quickly the weeks are going by (six weeks and seven days now) until race day, and I was really starting to panic last weekend about how little my training was progressing.

So I did my little run (outside for the first time) last Sunday to check my knee was back up and running (apologies for that shocker of a pun) and then set about this week's training plan determined to start making some real progress.

And it worked! I've had a great week which has included hitting 5k for the first time and getting my best time so far for two miles. My 5k took a couple of minutes longer than my 30min target, but I'm hoping to get that sorted and tightened up a bit over the course of this week.

I'm also relived that donations have started to trickle in now, very appreciated! If you would like to sponsor me, please click on the link below.

Fingers crossed for another good week this week! 

Back on my feet and doing something new!

Not much to report training-wise as a result of last week's knee injury! Turned out I was in a fair bit of pain with it for a good few days so I didn't end up doing any running until today.

With Dementia Awareness Week starting today, I thought I'd dedicate this blog post to the cause of all my running and talk a bit more about the charity I'm hoping to raise a good bit of money for!

To be honest, I don't know huge amounts about it, so writing this week's blog has been a good chunk of motivation for me as I've been reading up on how my fundraising could help.

So a few things I've learned are:

• 850,000 people in the UK are currently living with Dementia
• Too many of these aren't enjoying the quality of life they could/should be
• 7 out of 10 people of these are also living with another illness
• Dementia costs the UK £26.5 billion every year, but a huge chunk of this is the cost to unpaid carers and their families
• There's a massive spending gap on research, much more could be done if the money was available
• Roughly one person every three minutes develops Dementia

This year's Dementia Awareness Week centres around the #dosomethingnew campaign, with the sentiment that just because a person has been daignosed with Dementia, it doesn't mean they can't carry on living as 'normal' and exciting life possible. There's some interesting stories here all about this. 

I did something new today - I did an outdoor run for the first time! It wasn't too bad - once I got through the paranoia that everyone was looking and laughing I actually quite enjoyed it. It wasn't easy, my fitness has definitely dropped in the last seven days with the lack of exercise!

Please don't forget that these blog posts aren't just a jolly bit of reading every Sunday evening, I'd really love it if they made you want to sponsor me! Race day is eight weeks away and it's safe to say I'm starting to get scared! 

A spanner in the works

I was starting to think I wouldn't really have anything to write about this week. Training's going pretty well and as such there isn't anything particularly exciting to write about. 

Then I went out last night.

Now, last week you might remember I briefly mentioned my often-scabby knees. Well today they're in a pretty poor state as a result of lots of cocktails, some lovely pastel pink wedges and a particularly troublesome pavement. 

This throws a bit of a spanner in the works for the old training regime. I've rested it all day today but it's feeling very sore and I don't think it's quite finished swelling up yet. I'm wasn't planning on going to the gym until Tuesday anyway, but I'm trying to decide whether I think I'd be better powering through and risking more damage, or having a good few days off but risking my fitness taking a nose dive.

Heart-breakingly, I've come to the decision that the nights out are going to have to take a back seat until after 12th July! Not only does it bring the risk of further injuries, but I'd realised already that I struggle twice as much at my first gym session after a heavy one. I'm not saying I'm going tee-total, but for the next nine weeks it will be strictly a glass of wine after a long day instead of mad weekend rampages! 

The offender

Don't forget to visit my Just Giving page and sponsor me! 

Start of the mission

Just after Christmas I stepped foot in the gym for the first time in nearly a year. It was one of those post-Christmas "let's shift some of this weight" type decisions and for the first couple of weeks I embraced my inner Jessica Ennis and really got in to it.

Now, when I say I got in to it, what I actually mean is I spent a bit of time half heatedly peddling on a bike and then sat on some mats for a bit pretending I was doing sit-ups and the like. This quickly got quite boring.

Whenever I've been in gyms previously, watching people on treadmills has given me cold sweats. Not because of the exercise but because they genuinely terrify me - I honestly could never understand how there aren't more fatalities linked to them. Anyone who knows me will know I'm not always the most stable on my feet - I'm 23 yet still spend a lot of time with scabby and bruised knees like a seven year old who's fallen down in the playground. (Admittedly, much of this has something to do with trading in playgrounds and plimsolls for killer heals and nightclub dance-floors!)

So after getting increasingly bored of my gym routine I gave myself a good talking to and decided I had to conquer the irrational treadmill fear. Clinging tightly to the bars on one I managed about two minutes on some kind of weird fast walk pace before I decided that was more than enough for one day. But most importantly, I didn't die.

A few of these awkward fast walks later and my confidence in the treadmill was high enough for me to give it a go without holding on. I still panicked and grabbed the sides every now and again, and I had to keep my head perfectly straight and still while I was moving, but I was doing it!

Fast forward a few weeks and the novelty wore off and I started getting bored again. I decided I needed some proper motivation before I slowly packed up with this gym business altogether. So the obvious thing to do would be sign up for a 10k race, obviously.

I'm now at the 12 week countdown stage and starting to think seriously about not only the training but also the fundraising. I've always fancied doing a blog but never really had anything worthwhile to write about, so thought this seemed like the perfect opportunity!

For the next 12 weeks I intend on posting around once a week with an update on my training and fundraising, I'll try and keep it at least marginally entertaining, and not slightly overly long and waffly like this one! I thought it would be something a bit more creative than the re-posting of "Kay Knowles is fundraising on Just Giving" on a daily basis (not that there's anything wrong with that!)

So, here we go, wish me luck!