Week Three - January 2025 - 19/01/2025

 

💜Week Three - 2025!💜

Highlight of the week: It definitely has to be getting in through this second ballot into the Great North Run in my first year of trying to!😁😁😁 I don't have the pressure of running in a charity place and having to raise a huge amount for charity, it is also far enough away in the distance to get some decent mileage mounted up before that part of the year so I am in a good position.

That said! I *do* have a charity in mind that I would love to give back to, who have honestly, as an organisation, given me and so many others with specific conditions so much, so I will be getting in touch and asking if I can run for them! I will let you know!👀😁💙🏥 I have also entered a 10 mile race in the lakes😧 at the start of April so I am pushing myself mileage-wise but I think, "if it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you"!

A self-care positive: I have loved my Thai Fusion massage today (Saturday 18th January) with Dee! It made me smile so much that Dee says I am getting more toned every time I come back and that my muscles feel looser, yay! My yoga and running stretches must be paying off! I have been trying hard to keep them incorporated into my routine since going to the Police Treatment Centre in December. Dee and I both noticed how much better my muscles felt after I came back from my two week residential stay there where I was in a daily yoga, pilates and physiotherapy routine!💟

I am going to class this as self-care too! I gardened twice in my parent's back garden today, before and after my shift, to clear space on their patio for kitchen units to be moved through from the front of the house to go into the kitchen via the back of the house and honestly, clearing space for them and making the garden tidier has made me feel good. It felt nice to help them out and it helped my muscles too! I enjoyed cleaning the floors for them too!

 

Favourite meal of the week: I am going to go with a joint favourite this week! It would be the smoked salmon I flavoured with BBQ buffalo seasoning, sesame seeds and 0 calorie honey (you can get that from Bulk) with my favourite carb - a buttery baked potato and veg *joint with* chicken fajitas! Chicken breast fillets cut into strips and flavoured with spices with added onions and bell peppers in the Skinny Food Company wraps and salsa! Both winners in my eyes and both balanced meals suitable for day-to-day and in the salmon's case, post-session refuelling!💜

Favourite snack of the week: Ooh as per usual I have had quite a few favourites!😂 I really enjoyed the M & S mini choc eggs and the small white chocolate Toblerone pieces my Dad gave to me tonight. I am having gorgeous chocolate profiteroles tomorrow after my roast dinner so they are going to be up there!!💜 It is like it is Christmas again!😃🎄

These two 🍫 bars after my dinner Thursday were lovely!!!

I enjoyed the Cadbury Hero Wispa and Dairy Milk I had before and a couple of Cadbury chocolate coins (Christmas-related again!😅). Honourable mentions to the Belgian chocolate biscuits we had this week that our lovely hosts in Harrogate left for my parents and I in the apartment we stayed in, back at the end of November! I had some naughty M & S Millionaire mini-bites too - gorgeous!!

My all-time favourite snacks! The bars being top-tier!💜

 
My beautiful company for my favourite session this week!

Favourite session: I am going to go with Thursday's 10k-specific interval session which was 8 x 1km reps! I also had a 10 minute warm-up and cool down so overall the amount was close to my long run distance on Sundays at the moment of 10k! The feeling of achievement of having got through each and every one of those reps and at decent efforts, even pushing myself hard in the middle, is an achievement to be proud of! It gave me a massive confidence boost as before this session, I wasn't sure I would have the juice in my legs or strength in my core to carry me through a session of this distance so that was good! It also gives me confidence that I will only get stronger at adapting to this new distance of 10k races as the year goes on - which again, will help so much towards my Great North Run training!

 

Ready for one of my sessions this week!

  

Reflection: I posted the post on the left, two years ago this week, a couple of days before I had my spinal operation. Honestly, that time has flown by, I can't seriously believe it has been two years!

It is heartening that you get to see memories like that from the Facebook time hop because I remember how desperate, lonely and hopeless I felt and how much I was in agony and pain. I remember feeling like things would never get better and in a relatively short time, my life is better than I could have ever imagined for myself back then.

I am living the dreams of the Mairead who was lay in her bed two years ago watching life pass her by from her window wondering whether she was forgotten or whether she would ever catch up with others or where she wanted to be again...

A reflection I have is, honestly, you have to forget what everyone else is doing! Don't compare your chapter one to what could be their chapter twenty or they could be repeating a chapter for all you know! We only see what others choose to let us see, for one, so how do you know it's a real comparison to begin with? Also, you are different people with different strengths and different beauty to each other. We love pizza and we love chicken nuggets, I don't line them up next to each other and go "you're better" because they're both tasty! They're both amazing! You are nuggets and someone else is pizza! You are great in your own way!

And if you are in that phase I was in two years ago where life feels uncertain for you right now, know that just because you can't see light at the end of your tunnel right now, does *not* mean that there isn't amazing shards of light to spur you on in your journey, coming right around the corner for you...

If you keep faith and keep on stepping as if there is light to come, you will *make your own* light! Be your own inspiration xxx

Be you, but even better!! 💜💜💜

Running Lesson: I learnt two things from my longer distance interval reps. It was good to experiment and go faster when I feel good (always good to press your limits) but on race day - to stick to my plan. An echo of a lesson I have learnt this month already... read back on my diary entries this month if you haven't 😊.

The quote on the left is a great lesson too I saw on a runner's instagram which I like. It ties in with what I mentioned about comparison earlier. Don't dim your own light by comparing yourself to others...

If you are feeling good and improving on your journey then you are doing AMAZING!!💞

Something I enjoyed this week: Trying on my new outfits from Shein that came this week! One of those outfits being the first pic on this post!❤

I have some lovely new pieces, some I am hoping to enjoy wearing for my first trips away this year in February to Birmingham and to Bishop Auckland. I am working hard to lose some more body fat and tone up so I am hoping I can achieve my body composition goals. 

I, of course, enjoyed finding out I am doing the Great North Run!! I have enjoyed spending time with my parents and family, as always.💗

I have enjoyed clearing my mind on walks and runs and I have enjoyed pushing my limits on certain runs. I have enjoyed my music playlists on those walks and runs and I have enjoyed watching my reality tv guilty pleasures!! I enjoyed rescuing the bee in the photos below, before my massage today, I enjoyed my massage so much and chatting to Dee and Chokie. I enjoyed having my green tea at Chokies and that moment of calm and having some green tea at home too and I enjoyed the gardening and cleaning (infact I am going to clean the floors again now). I have enjoyed entering some more races too! Stay tuned about them.😍 I also liked rescuing worms on my walks and runs, I will always stop to help creatures #sorrynotsorry 💓

Something I didn't enjoy this week: I did *not* enjoy finding out that my workplace made errors with my P60s so badly that the HMRC ended up sending me letters saying I owed thousands in taxes! It has honestly weighed on my mind and heart a lot so to finally get to speak to someone in the HMRC who knew how to fix it was such a relief! It has caused me so much stress. The latest letter sent at the start of the year said if I did not pay the taxes then the matter would be passed to a debt collection agency. It made me so upset, honestly! I live with my parents while I have been recovering and saving up for a house so the thought of that was too much really.😓😢😢 Thankfully it is being sorted by the HMRC and I have informed work but it hasn't been pleasant at all.

I didn't particularly enjoy my Physiotherapy session this week. I think the particular Physiotherapist doesn't seem hugely invested in my knee problem following my referral from the hospital musculoskeletal physiotherapists. He wanted to discharge me straight away initially - I did feel like my concerns were batted away and I did feel that again last week. I stood up for myself (in a very nice way) though and I will be seen again in February to review my progress. 

I will work hard on what he has given me to do which is continuing on with progressive overload with my quad strengthening - I am to keep working towards being able to squat my body weight on a single leg and I will keep doing my glute-strengthening exercises. My left knee does go in slightly during squats which the Physiotherapist said he believes is glute med weakness on that side. I have seen improvement with my knee over the last few months, however, it did ache slightly the other day during my Tuesday easy run for some reason so I will see how that goes.

Something to think about: Thinking about your choices day-to-day and are they bringing you closer (or further away) from where you want to be? Something I have thought about a lot around my life this week.

Random Question - Which five people would I invite to dinner with me, alive or dead? Ricky Gervais - absolutely hilarious and a fellow animal lover!💓, John Aldridge - my all-time favourite footballer, Winston Churchill - an absolute legend, Jimmy Nail - I have had a crush on him since Auf Wiedersehen Pet (the reformed version of Oz, mind! He would also make me laugh a lot) and the fictional but incredible Detective Robert Goren on Law and Order: Criminal Intent.