I am so sorry that Louisa and I have not been updating recently, but thank you to everyone who has still commented on previous posts. Glad to know you’re still reading us.

Activities to raise money for charity are a great motivator to get your fitness up to scratch. Having found myself in a bit of a fitness rut and eating more junk and going to the gym less, I knew I needed a longer term kick up the bum than the vague fear of ‘bikini season’

So I’ve signed up to do Race for Life in aid of Cancer Research UK. It’s a women only race of 10k or 6 miles if you’d prefer. It focuses more on finishing the race rather than a huge competition, but I am determined to run it in under 1hr and 15 mins even though people can finish it in under and hour, I saw it happen when Louisa ran the same race a couple of years ago.

This is a huge deal, as I’ve decided to run it in memory of my Grandfather who died of cancer last year and I want to raise £250 for him and during the last of his life, I was not happy in my work and my life and I know that this hurt him and I want to show him now that I am by achieving this. I can’t let him down.

Signing up to an activity as such for charity means you are not going to want to back out and on those days that you really don’t feel like training, you’ll remember why exactly and get your bum out of bed. I know that with every bite of junk food I eat or every day I put off going for a run, is more unnecessary pain that I am going to feel on the day of the race.

Right now, I have devised an 8 week plan that will see me add more and more distance until I hit 10k the week of the race.  Running 2.5k to start with as I am used to running 1.5k in my usual gym sessions. I do interval training which is a minute on and a minute off on intervals of 6mph and 8mph although I am trying to extend the amount of time that I run 8mph and that I am always moving and don’t stop.

The most important thing when you are running is to stretch properly so that you don’t get that offputting muscle pain the day after. Stretch each muscle for a count of 30. Warm up for a good few minutes. I warm up for 5 minutes on the cross trainer, upping the difficulty level every minute and then stretch my leg and arm muscles, front and back and sides. Don’t be put off by the fact that you see people in the gym rarely stretch, they’re the ones who are going to hurt the next day.

Another thing is to keep your resistance training up. Running is an excellent fat burner, but doesn’t exactly do wonders for the shape and tone of your bum or arms. Trust me, get a resistance program in twice a week, I am now squatting and doing arm weights like never before. This is how you achieve that lovely lean shape that runners have.

Hopefully, you’ll stay with me throughout my training and I’ll update regularly on my progress. I’ve got another run planned for later so will look forward to that.

If you want to have a look at my sponsorship page in the meantime here it is: http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/ameliahastings

I would never be so forward as to ask for sponsorship, but if you want to donate, I would be hugely flattered by your support. Your support by joining me in this race or joining your own activity for charity would mean so much to hear about your own journeys.

Last week, I was sat watching the TV minding my own business when an advert came up through the TV and smacked me right in the face. Well, obviously not literally but I was surprised all the same.

The advert was for a cd box set of 5 cds that is purely songs to go running too. 101 of them to be precise.

Now, a lot of them clearly are not my taste in music but my biggest problem is how the b****y hell are you meant to run to The Fray’s ‘how to save a life‘? It’s hardly upbeat and positive and if anything, the line “I would have stayed up with you all night had I known how to save a life” catches me in the throat every time as we spent 2 days by my grandmother’s hospital bed watching her slowly slip away back in 2006. P!nk’s ‘Who Knew‘ still gets me with the line ‘If someone said three years from now, you’d be long gone, I’d stand up and punch them out, cos they’re all wrong. I know better, cos you said for ever.’ Anyway, I digress but my point was that songs like that are hardly running songs.

If I am running, I like to listen to very noisy rock or even metal music with the exact intention of drowning out my thoughts because sometimes they can be rather loud. ‘Meds‘ by Placebo has a bit that just sounds like noise and it clears any bad thoughts from my head so I love running to it.

Why should you run to music?

• Music can help lower your perception about the amount of effort you’re putting into your workout. It’s almost as if your mind and body separate, and if you’re into your music enough, you can ignore the niggling aches that would have bothered you when you weren’t listening to anything at all.
• Listening to music as you run can help you develop a more effective running technique i.e. how your foot hits the floor and the follow through (take notice of the beats per minute)
• If you match the tempo of the music to your pace, you can reduce the amount of oxygen you need by 6%! (source: www.runtothebeat.co.uk)

I don’t rate this CD very highly as I believe that you should create your own playlists that match your pace and ability perfectly. If you’re more of a placid jogger, running to house music isn’t going to help! Digital music players make creating your own playlists a doddle but if you really can’t live without this 5 cd boxset, you can get it from Amazon