Sunday

Good day today for so many reasons, it's been sunny, blue sky and a very pleasant temperature. Had boxing practice this morning and not only was is a great practice I also got told by my trainer that my upper body definitely got stronger and that you could actually see some muscles coming through. Yey, the time spent at the gym and all the ground work at boxing had paid off! It's nice to hear someone else tell you that they see a difference, sometimes it's hard to see it yourself!

Got home only to walk in to a house that smelled lovely from the Sunday roast that was in the oven, so good! Sometimes it strikes me how very lucky I am! I have so much good things in my life and so many great people around me. I really have nothing to complain about!

Thinking I'm going to have a calm and cozy evening, a cup of tea and a movie. New week tomorrow, and I'm kicking it of with gym and boxing! And my mission for the week ( has been my mission for the last 4 month ) is to get myself a haircut... My hair is getting ridiculously long!

/Malin

I was sure it was gonna fit... But no.

Here and there

I now had a couple of days to try out my new shoes, I eventually ended up buying the Nike free run 4.0, the 3.0 felt a little to soft. I always have problem with shoes, there are so many and different kinds and you never quite know until you have been running in them a couple of times. Anyhow, So far I'm happy with my Nikes, been running mostly on pavements and the longest run have been 10k so far and they felt great all the way trough! Today I ended up taking a path I didn’t realized was going to be as muddy as it was, and to be honest the shoes was not great on all the mud, wet leaves and undulating ground but that is not what I bought them for!

Been trying different kind of running “schedules” to find the one that works best with my shins, even though they have been much better lately I don't want to jinx it. But I think I found something that works now, I'm running every other day, it gives me day to let my shins of the pressure, usually I have boxing the days I don't run, or just going to the gym. But that dose not do my shins any harm! Going to stick with this now and see how it works out!

It's hard to find time, I really love running and I never want to not do it, but boxing is really growing on me. As I am getting better I enjoy it more and more and it's a great form of exercise as well! And a big different is that with my running I'm all by myself, none to run with or to coach me, when at boxing there is always someone who push me to work harder and and to really give it all I got. Sometimes I need that, I'm usually pretty good at motivate myself but at time I could use a running partner or a coach to tell me to hang in there!

Last week I entered the 26.2 marathon Challenge... What was I thinking? Haha, but what would life be without a challenge every now and then, and I'm sure that if it comes to it I will give 110 % and kick that marathons butt ;) My next thing to try to decide is if I'm gonna stay in England for Christmas or go back to Sweden... We'll see, right now I'm gonna go off to bed so I am well rested for tomorrows all adventures!   

Getting sick of taping my shins...

5k Race in London!

Happy!!

Sweets at finish!!

After todays run...

My current running shoes,

Stay positive!

Been having a bad start of the week, got bad new yesterday, didn’t get trough in the police academy application process. Third time I don’t get in, I know that people are applying 7-8 times before they get in and I know I'm still quite young but still it is not fun getting turned down time after time... And being cut of at this state doesn’t even give me a chance to show them what I got. So yesterday I allowed myself to be a little depressed and grumpy, didn’t go to the gym and just felt low, woke up today just to stay in bed and feel sorry for myself... until around 1 o’clock when I got sick of it and just picked myself up and put my running shoes on and went for an off road run!

Running really is the best therapy! Had a fantastic run, sun and blue sky, cold but not to cold, and after my complete lack of moment in Turkey I did get back within a decent time! So now I'm back to my happy positive me, looking forward to apply again and to show them what they have missed out on, to keep running, to come back stronger and faster then ever!

/Malin

I'm back

I will from now on have a little more time to put on my blog, hopefully I can get some more blogpost out! Been really busy lately and last week was spent in Turkey with a poor internet connection and my mind set on things far from bloging! But now when everything is back to the old routine and I seem to have a little more time I hope I get to maintain the blog a little better!

The week in Turkey was amazing...It did not contain as much exercise as I had planed, that for sure... But sometimes you just have to give yourself some time off, a beer at night and nutella on your breakfast toast! You can't forget to live life! I had a great week with crazy water rides, good food and a well needed relaxing time! What's really good about the lack exercise is that my shins had a week to rest! Lately they have been much better and after this week I don't feel anything! As I get back to running again I reckon I will feel some pain but as I said, it's getting better and better!

On Sunday it's back to racing, a 5k in London, if this weeks training feels good I'm gonna try to push the time on this one, I think I'm past jogging around in a study pace on the 5k's. Time to take it up a notch! Next weekend I have 10k and the weekend after that it's finally time for the Guts N' Glory! Looking forward to some mud and fun running!

Since I'm going in to London this weekend I'll finally go buy myself a new pair of running shoes, been needing it for a while and I think after a lot of thinking, trying on, asking around and researching I'm gonna go for the Nike Free run! They seem to be a really good pair for a decent price and I am keen to try them out!

Got to go now if I'm gonna have time to go out for some hill training! Have a mad hill up at the water tower that is gonna take me out for sure! More posts to come so stay tuned!

Chao!  

Update

Wow, my blogging skills are beyond terrible... Saw that my last update was October 9^th Sorry about that. It's the 23^rd today and I have honestly been quite busy with work, boxing, running, more work and then it starts over! Last race I wrote about was the 10k in Abington if I don’t remember completely wrong. The plan was to do a 5k the weekend after that, but... Somehow I ended up missing my last bus on Saturday night, had lots of beer with awesome friends, got home at 5 am so when the alarm went off at 7 I just felt no way. I was not going to do any good to anyone by running. Well no regrets, had a really nice night out and I think I needed a little break from all training and strict eating!

But this Sunday I did run! I did a 5k in London, been doing quite a few 10k's now and all of a sudden 5 felt so short, when I got to that nice flow and got in to the good breathing I was almost done. Could have pushed the time more, think I was more in the pace I have for 10k's but that's not the important part, not yet!

The important part is that I enjoy what I'm doing and that my shins keeping up! And so far so good, I do feel pain after races and longer runs but it goes away faster and faster. Been feeling a slight pain in my knees and I know I need new shoes but I'm so torn between Nike free run, flex or Lunarglide. I have to go in to a Nike store and have them help me out! But it really needs to be done soon, Don't want to end up with knee problems...again.

Have also decided o sign up for a half marathon in March, looking forward to train for it, to go there and to do my very best and hopefully be back in the game by then!!

On Saturday I am off on holiday for a week, going to Turkey for some sun and well earn relaxation! But I think I'm going to bring my running gear, need to keep in some kind of movement, Can't do nothing for a week, that’s gonna hit me hard when I go back to England and training normal again!

Been adding two boxing trainings a week too, I really enjoy boxing and want to improve, been feeling that I have been stuck lately and just kept doing the same mistake over and over again, ended up with a black eye last week... But last time I felt how it really fell in to place, think my brain and body needed some time to process it all. It's so much to think of and now I got a better hang of it! Still need to be faster, stronger and work a lot on my technique. But practice makes perfect!  

Keep running people!

GymGymGymGym

Pre-race!!

Back on track

I am terribly sorry for the complete lack of updates... I have been busy with work and to settle in all right! Been in England a little more than a month and I'm loving it! This is really a great country, and so different from living in America!

When it comes to training it's been going very well. Since I got here I’ve done one 5k and three 10k races and been improving my time at every race. I finally got it all to work out with boxing, at first it looked like I couldn’t get the schedule to get any good when I added boxing twice a week, but with a little modification and one day with double workouts it has been working out great! And now, two and a half weeks in it feels really good. My shins are doing okey, still hurts but I want to believe that the pain is not as intense as before and that after I had a long run or a race the pain dose go back faster than before. And since it's not getting worse I am going to keep going!

Been making progress in the gym as well, my upper body is no longer comparative to a slug, now its more like something with an actual spine! It's incredible how just two weeks of workout and clean eating can make such a visibly different! I'm far from confident enough to put up pictures of that, you just going to have to trust be on the progress part! Who know, maybe one day!

Next weekend looks like it's going to be no races, just a chill laid back weekend, and back to it October 21^th,, when it's a 5k in London! I have actually though about to sign up for a half marathon in March, that has been one of my main goals and to able to complete that would be fantastic! We'll see!

I am also in great need of a new pair of running shoes, I have my old pair that I use for hard ground pavements and then I have my trail shoes, New Balance 110, that I'm very happy with but they don’t do a very good job on a 10k pavement race... I've been looking in to different Nikes, Free run, Lunarglide and Flex. They all seem to have there pros and cones. If anyone have any experiences with any of these shoes or if you have any good suggestions please share it with me! They need to be good for running on hard grounds for a fair amount of miles!

Off to bed now to rest my quite sore body, boxing is really kicking my butt! :)

I so deserved this on my birtday!

Good week!

It's Thursday and this has been a really good week! On Monday I had my boxing and I just love it, I always walk away from training with a big smile on my face! I enjoy every minute of it and I am very happy I found a club that is so great! Lucky me! Although I was a little worried about going all in on with all the sprints and running during warm up, I did feel in my shins that I had done a 10k the day before and my knees were a little weird. But it went incredibly well, even though I still feel pain in my shins it goes away so much faster! I put liniment on before bed and a warm sock and wake up pretty much pain free! Can not even begin to say how happy it makes me, hope it keeps improve as I build more muscles!

The rest of the week I have spent at the gym or on the tracks. Trying to do as much off road as possible, don’t like the hard grounds, it's friendlier to my body and the view is just so much better! Have a great 6k trail up by a water tower, amazing! My upper body is making progress and I just had a really good week in general!

On Sunday I'm going in to London for a 10k race and I'm hoping to push my time at least 5 minutes from last time, now when I know my pace better! But I'm just happy to be able to run 10k races again so time doesn’t really matter! It's about having fun! Never forget that!  

Do it with a smile!