Fitness // Half Marathon Training ~ A Couple of Bumps in the Road

Happy Sunday and happy February everyone! I hope you have all had an amazing weekend. The weekend for me has been pretty relaxing just hanging out with Matt, doing yoga and lots of healthy cooking (the butternut squash soup I made tonight was sooo good!).

Half marathon training has been going... not fast not far but it's been going. I haven't done a long run in a couple of weeks. The reason being that my feet have been hurting because of blisters and I had a thought in the back of my head that something wasn't quite right, so I have been running just not too fast and only a maximum of 5 miles.

The above quote is from Spirit Junkie by Gabrielle Bernstein and it really resonated with me today. I wrote this on my instagram earlier today... "Listen to your body, don't push yourself so much you break... Sometimes it's okay to slow down, take a breath & listen your inner guide. Listen to your heart.... and of course don't forget to smile!" I knew there was a reason I shouldn't push myself too much when running. I found out exactly why when I went to get new trainers fitted and my gait analysed at a running shop in Bristol. I was so shocked by what I saw. 

Basically if you have never had it done before (I hadn't) gait analysis is looking at how you run, how your feet hit the ground and assessing what kind of trainers will suit your feet best. I found out that I severely overpronate while running and I really shouldn't have been wearing the neutral running Nike Flyknits that I had been. Pronation is the normal inward rotation of the components of the foot as it hits the ground, this rotation serves to absorb shock every time the foot hits the ground. Some people have an excess amount of movement in the foot and so they rotate too much when the foot hits the ground. This is me. So much so that the girl in the shop asked if she could use my video as a demonstration to show the difference a correct shoe can make! 

Say hello to my new running shoes ~ the Brooks Vapor 11. I'm going to try these out on a short treadmill run tomorrow and see how they go. It was between these shoes and another pair of Brooks in the shop, I decided to opt of these because a) I love the colour and b) they were slightly cheaper! I will post an update on instagram so be sure to follow me there for all things fitness if you don't already! (@jaynebecca)

Speaking of instagram I am taking part in a yoga challenge for the month of February called #InversionsMakeYouHot. I love the hashtag! As I am currently working on my inversions in yoga I thought it would be fun to join in :) 

I am running Bath Half Marathon for the Katie Piper Foundation and I would love your support no matter how large or small! You can find my Just Giving page here.