Ah, those weeks where you forget how to run, everything hurts, you cry, you have tantrums, you eat a bucket-load of crap and you think there’s ABSOLUTELY NO WAY I CAN RUN THIS FRICKING MARATHON. We all have them, Lorna’s just finished one. She’s feeling better now.

Name: Lorna
Age: 30
Goal: To finish better than last year!
Marathon history: One marathon under belt – London 2013. Finished in 4hrs 54 mins
What I learnt this week: Sometimes you need to be your own best supporter rather than your own worst enemy.

The week just gone was a light training week on my schedule and boy am I grateful for it. I’m one of those people that thrive on stress – the adrenaline rush actually allows me to focus more on the task at hand and weirdly I become more productive on it. But not this week. This week everything has been a chore. My legs didn’t want to move each and every time I ran, my muscles didn’t want to work every time I reached for a weight, and my body certainly refused to stretch anything out when I attempted to restore. Sometimes training just doesn’t want to follow the plan.

How did I work through this ‘disaster’ week? I didn’t. I reverted to a child like state and threw tantrums. I cried actual tears, I considered jacking it all in and I berated myself constantly. I was my own worst enemy. I attempted to go shopping for new kit to lift my spirits but even that didn’t work. I also let my diet fall around my ears and ate everything in sight.

I got to Wednesday feeling this way and decided enough was enough – I needed to D R A G myself out of this slump somehow and get back on track. I’m my own worst enemy but also have to me my own best supporter – If I wasn’t going to help myself no one else was. So how did I do it?

• I cried for attention and called out for encouragement via the means of social media. Although perceived by some as a little needy, sometimes you need to ask for help – and boy did I get it. Hearing some simple words of encouragement or receiving some metaphorical slaps in the face definitely helped the situation.

•  I rested. I sat still for two consecutive days and did nothing (ok I stretched, but that’s all). It wound me up but when I ran on Wednesday it felt like there was a tiny new lease of life in the legs after all.

• I gathered my thoughts. These rest days made me assess where I am now with training – am I where I wanted to be? Am I on track to reaching my larger half marathon/marathon goals? Is all my training benefitting my running or is some of it a little unnecessary? Taking this time to look at the cold hard facts on paper meant that I could be unemotional (there’s a first) about the numbers/miles/findings and see the results for what they are – improvements. This evaluation told me I had made vast improvements from last year so I should stop being so harsh on myself. They also showed me that I need to put a little more effort into my speed training in order to realistically reach some longer term goals.

• I leaned on my ‘fit fam’. I talked. I talked and talked and talked to two of my fitness family. These two gents know their stuff and I respect them greatly. They also are two no nonsense kind of guys that don’t have time for time wasting. Blurting out my worries to them made them seem quite unnecessary and a little over the top. They took me down a notch or two and made me see sense. Talking my weekly programme through with them both gave me two new goals: add in one more weekly runs to my schedule, and make a bit more of an effort to push through the imaginary pain barrier I throw up on the gym floor. I also need to stop my clever little delaying tactics of chatting too much – it’s fooling no one.

• I went cold turkey. I need to stop whinging, be a grown up and just stop eating crap. Eating it isn’t fun, the way I feel afterwards isn’t fun, and it’s not fun running on a stomach full of crappy food. It’s day two of good food and so far its very good.

Weekly training stats: 23.5 km run this week

Friday 7 Feb

4.5km interval session on a treadmill – I ran as follows: 7mins at my goal marathon pace, 60 seconds at (better than) 5km pace, 7mins at my goal half marathon pace, 60 seconds at (better than) 5km pace, 7 mins at my goal 10km pace the finished with 90 seconds at (better than) 5km pace and a 30second walk.

60 min strength session with a personal trainer. I struggled with weights today – over tired, over stressed and therefore under performing. Lets call this a ‘Character Building’ session

Saturday 8 Feb

Rest day – travelling today

Sunday 9 Feb

Core and stretch session in gym, 10km run in Berlin.

Monday 10 Feb

Rest day

Tuesday 11 Feb

Home yoga using the NTC app.

Wednesday 12 Feb

It should have been an hour of plyometric training technique with a Personal Trainer – it turned into a 60 minute stretch.

5km run with Nike+ Run Club Holborn

Thursday 13 Feb

4km interval session on a treadmill followed by a 30 min core session in gym

Follow Lorna on Twitter @shoebird
Read Lorna’s previous blogs here