A month ago I set myself a challenge to run 100k in the month of November. Not only have I successfully completed my challenge, I’ve run 101k to be exact!

This week was my final week. I’ve been averaging 25k a week over 3-4 runs each week. I left my biggest challenge to last which was to run my longest run to date of 15k. It’s been another massive week which started with Mia waking at 4am on Monday!!! She then proceeded for the next three mornings in a row to wake between 4.30am and 4.45am, add in a ladies night out with my school mums, a massive week at work, taking the kids to specialist appointments and squeezing in a visit to see my grandad in hospital, to say I was tired by the end of the week is an understatement…oh and with only 6 more sleeps now until we board the plane for America, my mind is about to explode!

But once again my running has kept my head above water. It’s my therapy to keep me sane. It allows me to gather my thoughts, plan things out in my head and it keeps me relaxed and focused…although my family probably don’t notice that at the moment lol!

This weeks running consisted of two 5k runs – Tuesdays hill run was done in 25.05mins and Thursdays hill run was a naked run (no watch) but I checked the time on my iPod when I left and when I got back and I would have run that in about 26 minutes! I was happy with anything this week. My aim when I run is to just do that. I still hold a record of not stopping and now I’ve been running for 3 years, I have put pressure on myself to live up to those expectations every run!

By Friday, my mind was consumed with getting ready to celebrate an early Christmas with my family on Saturday and completing my 15k run the next morning. Thankfully I had a good night sleep on Friday night and as soon as I woke at 5am on Saturday I set off on my run. The weather was perfect. No humidity, a nice light breeze, but the sun was shining. I had no expectations for the run other than not to stop until I was finished. I decided to run my 4k flat route three tImes and then three extra kilometres to make the 15k.

I started off slower than I usually do. My first kilometre was 5.05mins and with each kilometre I became slower and slower. To be completely honest I wasn’t feeling it for the first 4k and when I saw 21.36mins I knew I had to pick up the pace. I finally picked up my pace and started to sit a lot more nicely into the run and when I reached 10k at 52.20 minutes, I was happy enough. As I approached the 12k mark, which was three times my 4k route, I told myself you can do one more lap…and I did!!

I was stoked when I got to 13k at 1 hour 9.30 minutes – new PB set!! The next two kilometres were so much easier than I anticipated. I would have loved to run 15k in 1hour 20mins or less so when I looked at my watch and it was 1 hour 20.50mins I was cheering to myself. I didn’t care how I ran the last kilometre I just didn’t want to stop until I reached 16k, but once again it’s amazing where that last bit of fuel comes from and when I reached my 16k mark, four times my 4k route, I was overjoyed that not only did I complete it without stopping but in 1 hour, 26 minutes and 10 seconds!!!! Was such a fist pump moment…until my legs started to buckle a bit lol (which surprisingly they feel great today!!!)

I did it I really did it and it wasn’t a disaster, it wasn’t painful like I thought it would be, there were times where I couldn’t wait for it to be over, but for most of it, I was so determined to be successful. I am a competitor and I compete against myself, so when I set out to run 100k for the month I had to do one better…and that I did…even if I ended up with war wounds!!!

I was so excited when I got home, the kids always run to me to see how I went – they always ask “how many did you run today mum?”…my response “I did it!!! I ran 16k!!!!!” “Wow mum!!!” they replied with:) My excitement was short and quick as my mumma duties kicked back in quickly as we had Christmas celebrations to get ready for…and what a great day it was!

Where to from here??
If my cardiologist approves, I am going to start training for my first half marathon in March for July next year. I’m quietly confident he will let me. Now I know I can run 16k that’s only 5.1k off a half marathon so hopefully I’ll be able to pull one-off! But for now, I will spend this week finishing off getting ready for our holiday we’ve been planning since we returned from our holiday to America 5 years ago!! My goal is to run at every place we visit over there…I shall keep you posted!

I hope everyone has had a great month challenging themselves to achieve new goals!

75k done and dusted….

What a week! This week has been a normal busy one which started off ok, but slowly went downhill starting from when I got a call from the school to say Bay was in sick bay with an ear ache! 1 – I’ve only ever had one other call from the school in 4 years and that was from the school’s PE teacher, asking my permission for Bailey to be changed to Cunningham sports house, after he asked to be in the same house as his cousins (bless him) and 2 – I’ve never had a child go to sick bay!

Poor Bay he has had a such a rough year. He has now ended up with an outer ear infection (swimmers ear) which the doctor said is very common in this extreme heat we are having! In all the years of my children getting ear infections, this has to be the worst I’ve seen one of my children suffer. He has been on pain relief for four days, ear drops, antibiotics, he’s had a leaking ear, jaw pain and you can’t touch his ear as the pain has been excruciating – poor kid. When he wakes in the night you know something is wrong and he has done several times this week;(

It’s been one of those weeks that consisted of unfortunate news for loved ones around…grandad developed an infection (but is finally on the mend) and my Aunty was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer (she now will fight the toughest battle of her life). This week in particular is always a week that leaves our hearts feeling heavy as it’s my cousins memorial day and my late aunty’s birthday – mother and son taken way too soon…may they be dancing in the heavens above with nana by their side!

But all this aside, I kept my 100k challenge as my focus to not let the week get the better of me!! I started on Monday afternoon this week. After running my longest run ever of 13k two days previous, I thought this 5k run would sting. I purposely did a naked run (no watch) as I didn’t care how long it took, I just wanted to get it done and under my belt! Surprisingly I didn’t feel bad at all. And from the time I left and got back, I would say it would have taken me about 26mins and I was happy with that!

Two days later I got up early to run 7k before my husband went to work! My aim for this run was to go out hard and try to maintain 5 minute kilometres!! When I ran my first kilometre in 4.44mins I was feeling great! I was happy to reach 5k in 24.44mins and this gave me the confidence to achieve my goal. The next 2ks couldn’t have gone any better…6k 29.08 mins and OMG 7k 34 mins!!!!!!!! Two PBs in one run – definitely my best run in a while!

I had planned to run the next day in the afternoon, but Kane didn’t get home until 5.45pm and I was simply tired! After being up with Bay in the night with his ear, I dragged myself out of bed Friday morning to run a quick short 3k. I would have loved a PB but after running a super 7k 2 days beforehand, I couldn’t expect too much. I was happy with 14.28mins…my PB is 13.53mins which I’ve run twice now – I will conquer this PB!!! I ran as fast as my legs would take me during this run and that’s what my plan was!

Technically I always like to have a day off between runs, but I also like to finish my weekly running on a Saturday and because I didn’t run Thursday afternoon, this meant running 13k in 24 hours. This was also day 19 from when I started my challenge which meant 75k of running complete in 19 days!!! I’m not going to lie this 10k hill run which consisted of 6 hills hurt. When I reached my 1st kilometre at 5.15 mins I knew this would be a slow and painful run. But to my surprise I didn’t pick up the pace much but my legs started to ease nicely into the run….until the 8th kilometre. I swear my feet barely lifted from the ground during the 8th and 9th kilometre as my legs were spent! They were screaming at me and my mind was screaming back at them. I was so glad to be finished and in 54.09 minutes I was pretty happy considering!

After my 10k was done I took the girls down to the footy field for a training session. Over the last 8 weeks my dad has done a fitness program with Bailey, Sienna and my nephew Kaleb. Mia was always promised to go for the last one and sadly Bay missed out because he was laid up with his ear! They trained their little hearts out and it makes me so proud that my children love leading a fit and active lifestyle and I appreciate everything my dad does to help this!

Poppy shouted the kids to lunch at Maccas as a treat for their awesome effort!

3 weeks down and 1 to go….or should I say 25k to go! This week will be my toughest challenge yet as I plan on running two 5k runs (easy) and a 15k run (not so easy) which will be my longest run to date….wish me luck I’m going to need it!!! I hit a brick wall this morning and felt so flat and tired but after a quiet morning, a swim at mum and dads this afternoon and hopefully a good night sleep tonight I’ll be ready to tackle another massive week as we are now down to only 2 weeks to go and I’ll be running in America!!!

Would love to hear how everyone else is going with their challenges this month!

Please someone tell me where did this week go???? Mid November already and what feels like in a blink of an eye I’ve gotten to this point!

I’m so happy to report my week 2 November 100k running challenge to be very successful!!! After starting the week with terrible sinus (thank you dry allergy season weather) I didn’t let this steer me off track. My first run for the week was a 7k hill run that I ran in 36.50mins. I thought my legs would be murder after the first week, but surprisingly they felt great! I ran the first 5k in 25.37 and was hoping to run closer to 36mins but the last two hills in the last 2k slowed me down just a touch, all in all I was happy with this run!

Two days later I set off at 5am for my usual 5k hill route…the days you think you’re going to run slow you end up going fast and vice versa!!! I was stoked when I saw 24.51mins on my watch…where the hell that came from I’ll never know lol! That was the day I came home to a little running partner who I ran up and down our cul-de-sac with until her little legs couldn’t run any further. She did so well!!! A runner in the making for sure:)

By this stage I was feeling great and had one run left of 13k to complete two days later…

13k, I have never run any further than 12k and have only done that twice on complete flat ground and it’s been a while since I did! But once I say I’m going to do something I do and I did!!!!! Due to the weather being so hot this weekend, as soon as my eyes opened at 4.50am I got up, got ready and was out by 5am! Thank goodness I did cause I was so hot by the end! I decided to run my 5k hill route twice and a 3k route that I use to run all the time when I first started running – in total this consisted of 5 hills…damn you Runcorn lol!

I ran the first kilometre in just under 5 minutes and was happy with my pace until I told myself “my legs are bit sore”!!! Why why why?? Lesson to everyone never tell yourself that you are in pain always tell yourself you are feeling great!! This mental thought slowed me down a bit and although I was 20.38mins at 4k I felt my legs tiring with each kilometre…my legs were starting to buck at my challenge. But I didn’t let this defeat me. My goal was to reach 10k by 53mins where I’d placed a water bottle to take with me for the last 3ks. I made it to that point in 53.37mins, my eyes were right on the prize which was to reach 13k by 1 hour and 10mins!!!

As I ran up the last hill in the 11th kilometre I kept telling myself “come on 3k this is easy!!!” I started to convince myself that I wasn’t going to reach my goal but when I made 12k in 1hr and 5mins, I gave that last kilometre everything I had left. I was getting quite delirious though. At one point in the end I tripped and almost fell face down again (story for another day lol), rolled my ankle on a ditch and what I thought was a blue heeler dog running at me it was a shih tzu lol…like I said delirious!!

It’s amazing where you find the energy to finish that last kilometre. I could feel my legs going faster and faster until they were at their peak. I gave it my all. I looked at my watch with 100m to go and had already clocked over 1hr 10mins, but only just. I finished in 1hr 10.50mins…I was stoked with that!!! I proceeded to walk the last kilometre home which I always do a good walk to warm down after each run and I was on top of the world….running any distance is such a great accomplishment!

You ask…how are my legs today?? They are great! I thought for sure I’d feel it but surprisingly they don’t feel any different after any long run. I swam in mum and dad’s pool today and tread water for 25mins which felt so nice. No rest for the wicked though. I’ll be back at it tomorrow to start my 3rd week’s 25k. This week I will be doing 4 runs….5k, 7k, 3k, 10k! Wish me luck…I shall keep you posted!!!

How is everyone going with their challenge for the month?