With a little help from my friend!

Tonight I did the longest run I've done so far. We planned to do our usual run along the canal and back, starting at a friends house. Since my best friend couldn't make it I decided I'd run down to the house we meet at, rather than ask someone else for a lift. I reckoned this was about 1 - 1.5 miles from my house and about half a mile is downhill. It turns out to be actually just over 2 miles so was pretty pleased with that!

When I got to the meeting point my friends had decided they wanted to run a bit further as we seem to always stick at around 2.5 - 3miles and can never really get off that mark. We decided to run 25 mins then turn around and ended up doing 3.6 miles so all in all a really great run.

I ran quite a few long stints in the first two sections but on the way home I was starting to struggle a bit, however, my friend Emily was a great help, she really motivated me and pushed me to run further than I thought I could. At one point I started to flag and she just shouted 'push!' at me and I went another 2 minutes! I'd recommend her to anyone haha!

Whilst we were on a walking stint we were chatting about why we run. I explained to her that the charity I am running my 5k from is related to the illness my Grandma had and we chatted about GBS and the difficulties it can cause people in life. (Plug alert: please sponsor me at www.justgiving.com/emma-blyth0) Later on, when we were jogging again I started to flag and Emily reminded me that my Grandma would have been so pleased with my for keeping fit and raising money so I carried on going!

I would say to anyone out there who is thinking about starting running, just go for it! I put it off for so long as I thought I was too unfit but by starting with some walking, power-walking or jogging, your confidence soon builds and before you know it you will be pushing your hardest to beat yourself every time, especially if you can find a group of like-minded people to go with!

Tonight's run

Last night when I went to bed I was lying there thinking about where I would run today and who I would go with etc, ending up getting all excited for it so the bug must be getting to me! The run I had planned was about 3.6 miles with a 1 mile uphill on the way back. The way it turned out my best friend wanted to come which meant pushing it back to the evening as she was busy this afternoon. By the time we set off it was too late really to walk down the canal and back so she drove down and we just did the canal section, which worked out at 2.23 miles so nowhere near as far as I had planned. Here's the link.

Anyways, it probably worked out for the best as all the injuries I didn't get from my mammoth run the other day all worked their way out during this one so I now have achey hamstrings and stomach muscles! Just got home and had a freezing cold shower as instructed but I'm pretty sure one of my hamstrings is pulled so may have to rest it a couple of days! I did run further again this time so my general fitness is obviously improving!

Tomorrow I have to go back to work; I was off all last week on annual leave and the week before that I had tonsillitis for 3 days so its been almost 2 weeks since I went to work - am not looking forward to my return I have to say!

My mammoth run!!

Tonight I did this run. Its only 2.43miles however most of it is uphill (if you click show elevation it will give you the details of how steep!)

I've pretty much nearly died doing it, literally pale, jelly legs etc haha!! However, the start of the route is pretty flat and I surprised myself by running much longer stints than I thought possible. I ran the viaduct:

and set myself a target of about a third of the way across but actually ended up running the whole thing!! I was so happy, I looked like Rocky! Also went on to run a few more stints of similar length, each time surprising myself so am really pleased :)

Got a lesson in how to try and stop my muscles seizing up from my friend (basically - cold shower!) so hopefully I won't be too achey in the morning but if anything hurts I think its going to be my stomach muscles!

Right, gonna chill out now - don't forget to sponsor me xx

p.s. here's my cupcakes:

Cupcakes

Since I have the week off work, today I plan to practise making cupcakes so that I can sell them at work and raise a bit of extra cash for my funds! I am gonna make vanilla cupcakes with butter icing, don't have any decorations unfortunately but am pretty sure I won't need to practise that!

Going for a run tonight, think its gonna be a bit of a vigorous one so will let you know how it goes and post my route tonight or tomorrow, along with pics of my cupcakes!

My first blog

Hello. This is my first blog. I'm not quite sure how entertaing it will be but there we go!

The reason that I have decided to write this blog is that I have just signed up for a 5k fun run on the 14th August 2010 on behalf of the GBS Support Group. For those of you who don't know, Gullain-Barre syndrome affected my family greatly in 2006 when it took the life of my Grandma. Please visit the Support Group's website for more information; suffice to say I miss my grandma very much and would like to honour her memory by raising as much money as possible for the people who supported her towards the end.

She was a brilliant person: funny, kind and comforting and always wanted what was best for all of us. We were incredibly close and I know she would have supported me in anything I do - especially when it will make me healthier and happier!

In terms of training for the event I am currently trying to run 5 miles a week. I walk/jog with a group of my friends, all of whom have different levels of ability but are all great at supporting and driving each other forward! As this blog goes on I will hopefully be able to post some pictures of us training!

Anyways, if you can - please sponsor me at http://www.justgiving.com/Emma-Blyth0 and raise money for the brilliant people at the GBS support group, who do so much for those with GBS and their families.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog and please sign up for updates on how my training is going!