18/07/2014
So folks, just grabbing 5 minutes to pop in here… I’m conscious I haven’t updated properly since the last post connected to the Sierra Leone Marathon, but that’s because life has just kept getting busier and busier. Do you every get to the point where you just feel totally overloaded? Well although we talk about managing time and stress and pressures of life, it happens to Counsellors too! And I miss my writing so will endeavour to pop in more, albeit shorter posts.
For those that follow regularly, you will have noticed that I have stepped into the world of poems, which feels to flow very nicely at the moment. They will be posted on Wednesdays, hopefully fortnightly… but I will see how that goes.
And how come the lack of time? Well I finished the college course I was on… and promptly started another! At the same time as the day job and the counselling job (both voluntary and private)… and then there’s the running! Sometimes you never know what’s around the corner and this has most definitely proved to be true since visiting Sierra Leone in 2013.
For those that follow me on Twitter, you will no doubt know how some of this has seeped into my life… I’ve heard the phrase “taken over” muttered by friends but feel that may be just a little harsh 🙂 … but what we do in life will always ripple out. For every action, there is a re-action. And travelling to Sierra Leone to run in the marathon that the charity Street Child organises each year… well that opened new doors for me… very positive and happy doors… more on that to follow!
In the meantime, this weekend I am running a race to once again raise awareness for Street Child. I will be running it with a few of the amazing friends I met out there, including the mad Geordie previously mentioned here… who still reminds me I went and left her (yes Helen, I’m talking about you again!)… this will probably happen again tomorrow… well I reckon if I’m never going to hear the last about it, I might as well make it worthwhile 😀
And the race, it’s a little adventure through a wonderful trail which takes a bit of time… 100 kilometres long… from a town to some stones that have been standing a while in a field… time to go lace some running shoes up…
Happy Friday everyone 🙂
Michelle
© 2014 Michelle Payne
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Thoughts | Tagged: adventures, checking in, choice, choices, college, consequences, counselling, education, exercise, fiction, growing, happy, healthy, inspiring, life, marathon, overloaded, poems, pressure, RacetotheStones, responsibility, ripple effects, running, Sierra Leone, Street Child, stress, time, twitter, ultramarathon, update, writing | 
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Posted by Dreamweaver Consulting
31/03/2013
Where has the time gone? I meant to get this posted last week but time and circumstances have conspired to pile things up to such a degree my to-do list has it’s own to-do list! Not good!
So five weeks in and the initial euphoria was starting to wear off as I mentioned previously, and as is often the case, when you’re experiencing difficulties with one thing, then many others will very often appear to turn to crap as well… sod’s law or whatever you want to call it, this was the week that Hell decided to come calling at my door… and what a doozy it was… I don’t think one area of life was unaffected!
And then, just to add to the delights of the week, I had to slightly extend my longer run… 70 minutes along the freezing seafront… when it was attempting to rain/sleet/snow… into a nasty headwind that not only saw my baseball cap flying off (gave up on that in the end) and freeze my hands within 5 minutes but one that meant I couldn’t actually breathe when facing straight ahead. 35 minutes of that before I could turn around… there was a saving grace however… the weather was so crap and cold that it meant there was virtually no-one out… and therefore no-one to see the grimaces I pulled, the language I muttered… or the colour I turned!
It’s at times like these that finding positivity and maintaining focus is especially hard… time to be pleased with the small gains… health results that came back positive (or rather negative LOL), college work that went well, loving supportive friends and family, a fantastic personal trainer who on seeing the state of me on the Wednesday not only boosted my confidence but took the time out to give me a hug… and even of being grateful that I got to finish the cholera vaccinations (seriously… it does not taste like raspberry Andrews salts like they tell you it will!) which had been sitting in my fridge for a week. Probably a very good deterrent if anyone had wanted to raid it for chocolate…
Training for Week 6 included:
***lunchtime treadmill run of 30 minutes x 1
***PT session with Activate Plus PT x 1
***lunchtime outdoor run of 40 minutes x 1
***lunchtime treadmill run of 40 minutes x 1
***weekend run of 70 minutes x 1
***2 hour karate session
Total overall running: 19.45 miles / 180 minutes (3 hours)
Unfortunately the yoga had to get sacrificed yet again due to needing to leave the office early to get to the hospital, and much as I would have loved to do it afterwards, that was Tuesday and the worst day of Hell week and I had to go straight from hospital to college! A very long and hard day indeed. My Friday treadmill pace also was a bit slower but I put that down to the Cholera as I had the same reaction as the previous week… it’s obviously not something that agrees with me 😀
Overall, I was pleased with how the running progressed, how my hip handled the increase in exercise… and it held a valuable lesson in learning where and who I do and can learn on when I need some extra motivation to get me through the tougher times and just where my psychological challenges lie! I wonder how many other runners encounter weeks like this…
But it got done which is what matters… so to quote one of my Texan twitter friends (who happens to be in sports himself)… “I GOT THIS” 😉
Links:
My fundraising page: MichellePayne13
Street Child
Sierra Leone Marathon 2013
© 2013 Michelle Payne
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Leave a Comment » | Sierra Leone Marathon 2013 - #SLM13 | Tagged: 9 min mile, achievement, ActivatePlusPT, alive, bodies, celebration, choice, cholera, college, consequences, family, friends, goals, gojukai, growing, gym, half marathon, health, Hell, hospital, inspiring, joy, karate, learning, life, love, marathon, motivation, nature, nausea, personal trainer, running, self-awareness, Sierra Leone, SLM13, Street Child, strong, support, treadmill, twitter, vaccinations, weather, yoga | Permalink
Posted by Dreamweaver Consulting
05/03/2013
Week 3 has now been and gone… and it seems to have gone so fast!
So what has this week encompassed? That would be the usual full-time job, the commuting, back at college (why is half-term only one week?)… counselling and admin, plus a best friend’s celebratory birthday cake to indulge in and a catch-up with friends.
Not bad when you also take into account the exercise stuff done, which included:
***lunchtime yoga session x 1
***lunchtime treadmill run x 1 (40 minutes)
***PT session with Activate Plus PT x 1
***lunchtime outdoor run x 2 (30 minutes each)
***2 hour karate session x 1
***weekend run x 1 (another 50 minutes)
Total overall running: 15.77 miles / 150 minutes (2 hour 30 minutes)
And how did it feel?
Not all that bad considering there was only a 10 minute increase overall but almost 1.5 miles extra which I think increases my average pace/speed slightly. The treadmill run was hard and I’m finding that the runs outside seem easier… maybe easier isn’t the right word for it… maybe it’s because there is different scenery rather than running on the spot on a treadmill looking at a video screen that makes the difference. And it’s cooler outside at the moment. However given the high temperatures in Africa, I’m not sure whether it would be better to train more indoors or not.
I’ve also been lucky enough to have one of the karate students accompany me on the weekend runs which means I’ve kept my pace up as it’s the longest time run I’ve done so far. Probably a good job that I didn’t give them all too hard a time on the Friday evening when I ended up teaching the entire session (2 hours of kata anyone *evil cackle*). And although it was cold on the seafront… it’s not a bad place to run. I may change my mind about that when the warmer weather arrives and there are a lot more people to run around!
Links:
My fundraising page: MichellePayne13
Street Child
Sierra Leone Marathon 2013
© 2013 Michelle Payne
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Leave a Comment » | Sierra Leone Marathon 2013 - #SLM13 | Tagged: 5 mile run, achievement, ActivatePlusPT, alive, bodies, cake, charities, choice, college, counselling, goals, gojukai, gratitude, half marathon, happy, healthy, karate, kata, life, marathon, personal training, running, seafront, Sierra Leone, SLM13, strong, training, treadmill, update, work, yoga | Permalink
Posted by Dreamweaver Consulting
24/02/2013
Week 2 has now finished!!!
So what has this week encompassed?
***full-time working day x 4
***one day off, however no rest for the wicked as I’ve used that to catch up with college homework, coaching admin, personal admin and other stuff at home that has been put to one side for far too long
***CPD counselling workshop (daytime) x 1
***3 hour daily commute x 4
***counselling evening x 1
***supervision therapy evening x 1
***no college evening this week as such due to half term, however… yep you guessed it… spent that time actually doing college stuff! The call from my very bereft and lonely tv was hard to resist… I caved on Saturday evening!
***evening admin work x 1
As for socialising… one party which started too late so I forfeited that, clash of plans which meant cancellation with another friend but managed to fit in an after work catch up with friends, a group get together for a few hours after training one evening and another friend dropping by, so have not turned into an absolute hermit yet. I also got fed cake. What’s not to love about that!
As for the actual physical work/training… achieved:
***lunchtime yoga session x 1
***lunchtime treadmill run x 1 (2.89 miles)
***PT session with Activate Plus PT x 1
***lunchtime outdoor run x 2 (3 miles each)
***2 hour karate session x 1
***weekend run x 1 (first 5 mile target hit!)
Total overall running: 14.36 miles / 140 minutes (2 hour 20 minutes)
And how did it feel?
All things considered, not too bad at all… and when I look at the distance and time over the course of the whole week, I’m rather pleased, which is saying something considering my perfectionist tendencies :). It also helped today that I did my longest run of 50 minutes and had a karate colleague with me. He helped me keep the pace up when I possibly would have lagged a bit more had I been on my own! The biggest challenges at the moment are getting the breathing right, pushing through around minute 25, and then the last 5 minutes of each run. I’m assuming the last 5 minute thing is what happens to most people when they start out running seriously and is more of a psychological aspect than physical.
Time now to get back to the college work… hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!
Links:
My fundraising page: MichellePayne13
Street Child
Sierra Leone Marathon 2013
© 2013 Michelle Payne
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Posted by Dreamweaver Consulting
19/02/2013
My intention is to post a general update at the end of the week on Sundays. Unfortunately Week 1 went by so quickly with not enough hours in the day, that I never got round to typing everything up in time. Fingers crossed for this weekend.
So yes, training has indeed started and I’ve survived the first week. So what has this week encompassed:
***full-time working day x 5
***3 hour daily commute x 5
***counselling evening x 1
***college evening x 1
***evening admin work x 1
***healthchecks x 1
and let’s not forget some socialising being chucked in there! I definitely agree with the work hard/play hard ethos… after all, you have to have balance in life and fun, right?
As for the actual physical work/training… unfortunately due to health checks, one lunchtime session got missed which I was not happy about but you have to go with the flow on these things I guess. Anyway, I digress… training achieved:
***lunchtime yoga session x 1
***lunchtime personal training session session x 1 with Activate Plus PT (check them out on Twitter: @ActivatePlusPT, great guys and more information on them to follow in later posts )
***lunchtime outdoor run x 1 (3.80 miles)
***lunchtime treadmill run x 1 (2.89 miles)
***weekend cross-country run x 1 (4.40 miles – and dying!!!)
***and I almost forgot, an hour of karate: including kihon/kata and jiyu kumite.
Total overall running: 11.49 miles / 112.26 minutes (1 hour 52 minutes 26 seconds)
Not that bad for a first week I think… as for an actual training plan… personal training sessions, travel planning and other arrangements… more to come in later posts!
And how did it feel? Considering I’m battling a few personal challenges at the moment which need to take into account the physical safety aspects of taking on this challenge, I think it felt pretty good overall, even if I did resemble more of a squished red tomato than a boiled one after the cross country/trail run on Sunday (thankfully my friend Charlotte was with me and encouraged me every painful step of the way).
Links:
My fundraising page: MichellePayne13
Street Child
Sierra Leone Marathon 2013
© 2013 Michelle Payne
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Posted by Dreamweaver Consulting
Dreamweaver Consulting 