One year on

so according to timehop, I started this blog a year ago! 
  
How exciting! And appropriate, as I completed a goal I set myself on Nike plus today, managing to run 120 miles in 6 weeks, which I wasn’t sure I would. 

  
I was so tempted to not go for a run today, or even go for a shorter one, because I had cramps. Being a girl sucks sometimes. But I’d been doing so well this week, and I didn’t want to let that slip as I’m feeling really good about training right now for a change. So I watched TV for half an hour with a hot water and some paracetamol, and manned up. For 12 whole miles. And I made it, without walking at all, and I’ve got plenty of new blisters to show for it. Not super fast, took me just over an hour and 50, but I made it! This has given me a total of 92 miles for July, compared to only 29 in June. 
My progress has been slightly varied over this last year, dropping in the winter due to a lack of a looming race day, but I’ve ramped it up since signing up for the Yorkshire marathon. The Leeds half was a little disappointing, but I learnt from it, and I’m determined to do better in October for the full thing! Here’s to more goals being completed in the next year. 

Training through illness

July has been a busy month, with moving and my trip to Belfast, yet I’ve been doing quite well with actually getting the miles in this month. And Here we are at the end of July, the weather is more akin to that of the end of October and I think this combined with my ability to never stop has left me with the dreaded summer cold. 
I woke up on Sunday with a terrible sore throat. However I had not gone for drinks as invited on Saturday night, specifically so I could get up and go for a long run on Sunday. So even though I knew what might be coming, I got up at 10 (still catching up on sleep from the previous two nights  graduation based frivolities) and I ran 10 miles outside. The weather was actually ok, sunny but not hot and it was windy. I did this in 1.37 odd. I’m fine with this, I’ve still got plenty of time to train and that was the furthest I’d run since the half marathon back in May. It was more important to me that I did not stop to walk, than push myself to be fast. 

Then on Monday the throat felt worse. No problem, plenty of liquids consumed, got some powerade for my run and put away 5 miles on the treadmill, 4 easy pace and the final faster. The sore throat was fine, I just had to have more liquid than normal. 
Tuesday was a slightly different story. I barely slept on Monday night from having a blocked nose now too. I had to load up on lemsip capsules, taking 6 during the day. I was very grumpy for 8 hours at work, but I felt fine to run. In fact I ran 7 miles fartlek quite happily. It was arguably the best I felt all day. 
My right calf was complaining a bit during that last run though, so I took Wednesday off. I went shopping for some holiday stuff, then came home, did a covering letter for a job, and made dinner (Homous, falafel and spinach baguette, yum) then relaxed for a bit. Tomorrow I will be back on it (it being the treadmill assuming this rain keeps up) and raring to push through this silly cold… Here’s to hoping ‘sweating the cold out’ is a thing! 

Here is a picture of some feet in Northern Ireland at the giants causeway. Because feet are used to run and I mentioned my trip in this post. Super relevant.  

 

Nike+ achievements and trophies

So this post is all about the trophies available on the Nike+ app/website that you can unlock by using the app on your iPod or iPhone. Personally I use the iPod nano 6th gen (the small square one) as I got it free from apple after they recalled first gen ones due to dangerous battery overheating issues. It came with the app preinstalled, and it has a clip on the back so you can attach it to your clothes which is cool and means you don’t have to buy one of those weird looking arm straps for your phone. I’ve always imagined them to be somewhat annoying, but who knows. 

One of the things I like about Nike+ is the fact that it tells you when you reach achievements such as your longest/furthest run, or a PR over a certain distance. Not only this, but it also uses data to inform you of cumulative achievements like months in a row you were active, or if you break a certain number of miles a month. I don’t know if any of the other apps like run keeper or map my run have this feature, but I’d imagine they do something similar. I have to say I find them a really good motivator. If I am close to the 50 mile a month one by the end of the month for example, I would run further to make sure I get that award. 

Since I enjoy getting trophies, and I now have an audience to share this with, hopefully who share this interest and sense of achievement, I thought I’d do a bit of research, see what I was missing, and see how i can get it! 

 

So here is the list of awards obtainable. The ones I have got are in bold.

 

Platinum mile high trophy – run 160km (100 miles) in a month

Gold mile high trophy – run 80km (50 miles) in a month

Silver mile high trophy – run 40km (25 miles) in a month

Bronze mile high trophy – run 24km (15 miles) in a month

Celebrity – share your workouts 10 times

Sneaker head – tag 3 different shoes in your activity

Uncle Sam – run on 4th July (not sure if you get this in the UK but I didn’t run then this year so guess I’ll have to wait to find out!)

Double shot – run twice in one day

Jack O Lantern – run on halloween

Extra frosting – run on your birthday

Storm proof – tag 5 rainy/snowy days

Night owl – run 5 times between 12-3am 

Early bird – run 5 times between 3-6am 

Anniversary – joined nike+ a year ago (I don’t have this though, even though I joined nike+ about 15 months ago…)

Resolution – run on new years day

El fiesto – run on cinco de mayo

Chocolate heart – run on valentines day

Comfort zone – run a certain tagged route a number (not sure) of times

Local legend – most runs on a top route 

Dragon – run on Chinese new years

Interncontinental – tag on 2+ continents

Off the beaten path – tag 5 runs on a trail 

Beach bum – tag 5 runs on a beach 

Run more miles – set and complete a target

Run more often – set and complete a target

Burn more calories – set and complete a target

Earn more NikeFuel – set and complete a target

8K day – earn 8000 NikeFuel in a day

10K day – earn 10000 NikeFuel in a day 

15K day – earn 15000 NikeFuel in a day

20K day – earn 20000 NikeFuel in a day (I think these four may be fuel band only but I am not 100% sure so I have included them just incase!) 

5K milestone – earn 5k NikeFuel

10K milestone – earn 10k NikeFuel

25K milestone – earn 25k NikeFuel

50K milestone – earn 50k NikeFuel

75K milestone – earn 75k NikeFuel

100K milestone – earn 100K NikeFuel

150K milestone – earn 150k NikeFuel 

200K milestone – earn 200k NikeFuel

300K milestone – earn 300k NikeFuel

400K milestone – earn 400k NikeFuel

500K milestone – earn 500k NikeFuel

600K milestone – earn 600k NikeFuel

700K milestone – earn 700k NikeFuel

800K milestone – earn 800k NikeFuel

900K milestone – earn 900k NikeFuel

1M milestone – earn 1 million NikeFuel

1.5M milestone – earn 1.5 million NikeFuel

2M milestone – earn 2 million NikeFuel

 3 times a week – run 3 times in a week

5 times a week – run 5 times in a week

7 times a week – run 7 times in a week

3 weeks in a row – run 3 weeks in a row

4 weeks in a row – run 4 weeks in a row

5 weeks in a row – run 5 weeks in a row 

6 weeks in a row – run 6 weeks in a row

3 months in a row – run 3 months in a row 

6 months in a row – run 6 months in a row 

9 months in a row – run 9 months in a row 

12 months in a row – run every month for a year

 

As you can see, I still have some collecting to do! There are a few others, however I know you have to have a fuel band to get them, and since I don’t see myself being able to spend £100 odd on a monitoring band any time soon I have left those off my list. The completed a half marathon award I have seems to have come from the mobile app, as it isn’t on my online list, but is on my phone. It comes from completing the half marathon training programme on there.

I imagine that doing the mile a day challenge, which I posted about previously, will enable me to get some of these. This would be a great time to try for the early bird and night owl trophies for example, and the 7 times a week is a given. As for celebrity, Ive never wanted to bore my friends and followers sharing all my running activity constantly, but 10 twitter posts will do that nicely. Then I will stop. The three shoe one will be tricky, as I only have one pair of running shoes! I could go for a run in my dunks, 6.0s or deltas I suppose… if not that one will have to wait until I go through another 2 pairs! Also going to make sure I run on every holiday! In case there is a trophy available! 

 

How many trophies does everyone have? Do they motivate you, or do you not really care?

Attached are some photos of my awards so far, and a screenshot of all the awards together! Something to aspire too!