My running shoe journey

Hello!

So, I've never really classed myself as a 'runner' until recently. If you saw my gym challenge post you'll know that I've been trying to rack up the miles over the month of April in order to complete a marathon as it were (just bit by bit).

Taken from www.twenga.co.uk

Since starting my fitness journey in June 2012, I've come on leaps and bounds. I look back at what I was like in the beginning and I literally would be struggling for breath after about 2 minutes on the treadmill!

When I ramped up my exercise regime to near on everyday, after a month into starting out, I realised I would need some proper footwear to help avoid problems such as shin splints, knee pain etc...which can come from wearing the wrong shoes when working out.

Way back in July I did a post about upgrading my trainers...I can't believe I actually worked out in these...

They're pretty much as flat as you can get! No support whatsoever!

I headed over to my local sports store and got tested on the treadmill to see how my feet land etc whilst running. I would really advise having this done because it means you know what training shoe is the best for you in terms of support.

My result was a fairly neutral left foot, with a over-pronating right foot. This basically means my ankle rolls inwards slightly when it lands. Consequently I left the shop with...

A pair of Adidas running shoes. Unbelievably in a size 7...when I usually take a 5 in shoes!
The colour wasn't to my liking but...if they did the job then hey ho! And then a pair of insoles to help with my over-pronation! However, wrongly, I was advised to only wear the insole in my right foot...So for a little while I wasn't wearing them correctly.

Quick to follow came my blister complaint post. As I got fitter I naturally started to 'up' my treadmill usage and when I became able to run comfortably for 5-10 minutes straight I got really excited and quite proud! :)

However with this increased run time came the sheer burning pain on the inner arches of my feet, although the right foot was always severely worse. Convinced the insole was adding to the issue I removed it but found the blisters still reared regardless.

Having paid somewhere in the region of £60 for the trainers and insoles I headed back to the store unhappy and in exchange left with a new £70 pair of Asics.

The Asics brand are designed to help with over-pronation and generally support most runners' feet so I was confident they would resolve my issues.

Sadly, they didn't and although they were much better than the Adidas ones, they were still causing me painful inner arch blisters right up until this Saturday!

Now at the peak of my fitness, I am able to run for much longer periods of time (30+ mins) but this  is always cut short by the sheer pain of the blistering...usually occurring at around 15-20mins into a run.

Nearing the end of my marathon gym challenge, I was getting fed up of my skin being ripped apart quite franky and getting frustrated because my heart wanted to continue running but my feet wouldn't let me!

Sunday I returned to the store and possibly spent over an hour trying on different brands of footwear and running on the treadmill to test them out! This time both my feet were slightly over-pronating but again my right foot was definitely the biggest culprit.

This time I left the store with a pair of Saucony's! Apparently these are very highly regarded in the running world, featured in the running mags and what not.

Amazingly I also found myself a right bargain, with these beauties reduced from £90 to a mere £30! Result!

And the verdict?!

Well...I don't want to jinx myself but having tried them out last night...so far, so good AMAZING! I managed to complete a 3 mile run in 26 minutes (which isn't a brill time but for me it's improving) and I wasn't in agony at any point! I could have ran for longer to be honest but I had to stop for my Core Blimey ab class.

So, yes, I'm pretty happy at the minute knowing I can run without pain :D !!! As for the marathon challenge I only have 1.2 miles to complete so I will do that and more on Wednesday. (Tonight I have spinning and zumba so I can't fit a run in! hehe)

Hopefully I've solved my issues!!! Wish me luck :)

London Marathon Gym Challenge

Hello!

I feel like today has shaped up to be quite a productive day so I thought I'd mark it with a post :)

Admittedly my day didn't really begin until 12 noon. Since being back home and up-ing my exercise I've fallen back into the insomnia trap. Working out in the evening means that I find sleeping ever so difficult until around 1am/2am. Then I occasionally wake up early morning as well. Today I jumped awake at 7:30am before forcing myself back to sleep. Headache.

Why not exercise earlier? Well...it's difficult when most of the exercising I do is in the form of group classes, so I go whenever they are on...mostly around 6/7pm. Nevermind. I love it so I don't mind a few ill effects...

like the blisters...

OUCH!

Wednesday's are typically one of my gym days so I get to workout earlier than usual.

At my local gym they have started a challenge during the month of April where you can record the number of miles you run/walk on the treadmills, with the aim of essentially completing the London Marathon (just in however number of attempts it takes you).

I think it's quite a neat idea. The wall shows you where you would be in London in turns of the mile markers and you have a little tracker with your name on it to plot where you are.

I signed up to it today and managed to run 3 miles in just over 28 minutes, before my lovely blisters surfaced and meant I could barely walk afterwards, let alone run haha! NICE!

My name is somewhere on the wall along with many others...3 miles is a popular point at the minute though!

My sister ran 4 miles today which has given her 7 miles in total so far, so she's doing really well but it doesn't matter who finishes first...

At the end of the challenge everyone who's completed the 26 miles will get the chance to win a free month's membership (name in a hat type draw). I think this is good because it gives everyone a chance to do it in their own time but still having had achieved a fair amount of mileage :)

Apparently one guy completed the challenge on Day 1 in about 4 hours...Hats off to him I say!! :)

Anyway, aside from the good old fitness...Today has also been worthwhile for me in terms of revision. I'm currently in the process of revising for my Maths QTS skills test and boyyy is it grating on me! 

I've never been a fan of Maths and although I managed to somehow get a B in GCSE I've never found it to come easy to me. However I feel as though I am starting to make progress...slowly, step by step!

Actually finding the motivation to force myself into revising in the first place is half of my battle but once I'm doing it it's not too bad :P

So yes, revision CHECK, 3 miles CHECK...and the night is still young. Good times :D!!

How was everyone's day?

Ellie