Hayfever blues

My last two runs have been a little disappointing. As it is now officially British Summertime my hayfever has kicked in, so much so that I've been waking up with a bloody nose (sexy, I know)! Because I'm generally forgetful, I managed to find myself without antihistamines for a couple of days- long story short, I found myself almost hyperventilating up a hill this afternoon and then having to walk a little way. Fortunately, I'm now armed with medication, so hopefully Saturday's 16 miles wont be too horrific!

I mentioned in my last post that I had ordered Racing Weight by Matt Fitzgerald. It finally arrived (note to self: don't order things online at the same time as the Royal Mail has to deal with a national Census) and I must say that I'm extremely impressed. While it's not an easy read, it lays out the facts and backs up all of its advice with statistics from scientific studies. The most interesting part is the few pages where you can read what elite endurance athletes eat in a typical day. Some of the advice in it also just made me feel a little stupid for not thinking of it sooner, but then there is so much conflicting advice around, that it is easy to get into a muddle. It seems to be a lovely holistic approach to nutrition and I already feel happier about what I'm eating. It has also made me rethink my training strategy in general, and I feel that it's time to turn things up a notch. Tomorrow will be my first full day of eating according to Fitzgerald's advice, so I'll let you know how I get on. The main thing that I've taken from it is that I'm not eating enough carbs to sustain my workouts, so I'll be upping them significantly.

I plan to do two workouts tomorrow: a strength workout in the morning and some cross training on the exercise bike in the evening. I'm on holiday from work this week, so it's very nice to be able to fit these things in whenever I want to, especially with all of the extra snacks that I'm supposed to be eating now! 

We shall see how I can fit them in around work next week, but I don't want to think about that now!

New shoes!

Apologies to the hordes of people who read this for the lack of posts recently! I haven't been able to get to the computer much due to Mr. D. needing it to work on his thesis. I haven't taken a break from running though and have logged some steady mileage over the last week or so.

They say that you should retire your running shoes after around 300-500 miles. After 417 miles it was time to say a tearful 'goodbye' to my beloved ASICS Gel Stratus 3's and say 'hello' to these bad boys: http://www.activinstinct.com/sale/footwear-sale/running/ladies/saucony-pro-grid-hurricane-11-ladies-running-shoes-silver/

I took them for a little spin on Friday and they provided an extremely smooth ride... however taking them for a 13.5 mile run on Saturday was a little silly, and I have the blisters to prove it! The problem was that I had to choose between cushioning- as I'd noticed that my hips and knees had been hurting more the older that my ASICS got, or blisters from new shoes. I thought skin would heal faster than achy joints... and I think I made the right choice.

My bugbear at the moment is that I'm heavier than I was this time last year, but I have trained harder, so maybe I'm eating a lot more than I realise to compensate. I've ordered Racing Weight by Matt Fitzgerald though, so hopefully that will kick me into touch! I will post a review; I could do with losing around a stone in time for the marathon, so I really hope it works.