This week was a hurdle of a week, being the week before my nationals race I woke up Monday morning feeling more sick than I have in years. Somehow I pushed through working all morning but as soon as I got home I was bound to my bed and unable to walk without falling dizzy and nauseous. Even when I thought I was feeling slightly better I vomited four times for the first time in years securing the fact I wasn’t just feeling sick but had caught some sort of virus or food poisoning.
View More Monday’s with Jessica [Ep 75]: IllnessTag: Jess Bray
Monday’s with Jessica [Ep 74]: Life Milestones
This week was a week of milestones for me, as well as it being the first full week at full swing towards my races in Timaru now less than 3 weeks away, I also hit some personal goals outside of my running. On Wednesday I had my final school exam. This means I will never have to sit another school exam or study for one in better terms. As well as that, I finished off my final extra internal assessment achieving my excellence endorsement and being the first of my year group and maybe the only to do so.
View More Monday’s with Jessica [Ep 74]: Life MilestonesMonday’s with Jessica [Ep 73]: Recovery Week
It’s already been a week since race day and what a race I have been getting to reflect on! Receiving the race photos earlier this week let me recapture the moments of the race I would have forgotten about, and put an image to remember them too.
View More Monday’s with Jessica [Ep 73]: Recovery WeekMonday’s with Jessica [Ep 72]: Auckland Half Marathon
My race recap- the day finally came, the Auckland Half Marathon just like that is finished. The training up to this event has been eye opening in just what I love and want to achieve, but also what I can achieve, being so much more than I ever thought. I stayed with my Mum at the same place as last year when I competed in the 11km, but this year by the 11km point i was already at a faster pace than a year ago.
View More Monday’s with Jessica [Ep 72]: Auckland Half MarathonMonday’s with Jessica [Ep 71]: Nearly Race Week
We have entered race week. The feeling is strange not having a full week of training planned out, tapering will always feel abnormal and ends with being full of energy with it not all being used throughout intervals and long Level II runs. But this is the week I have been leading up too, putting all my effort towards and the motivation to push myself everyday.
View More Monday’s with Jessica [Ep 71]: Nearly Race WeekMonday’s with Jessica [Ep 70]: Fast Shoes for a Fast Race
This week was a week full of training, and a step up in pace along all the boards of my runs. Usually I just have one run a week where I focus on intervals, pushing and holding the pace, but leading into my half marathon in less than two weeks Ray has added in pace into all three of my runs, making me focus on hitting the correct paces, but also holding and repeating them throughout what is on schedule.
View More Monday’s with Jessica [Ep 70]: Fast Shoes for a Fast RaceMonday’s with Jessica [Ep 69]: Three Weeks and Counting
There is three weeks to go until my goal race arrives. It’s slightly unreal to think that it’s so close. It feels like I just decided to start my journey into longer endurance racing. The change has been more than I could have imagined and I’m so happy that I took the leap of faith and threw myself into something so different and so new to what I normally keep myself confined too.
View More Monday’s with Jessica [Ep 69]: Three Weeks and CountingMonday’s with Jessica [Ep 68]: Tramping Mount Pirongia
This week looked slightly different to the usual. It was my first week of my final school holidays leading into the short time I have left. This week I stuck to all of my training as planned and was very happy with my interval run I completed Tuesday morning, where I felt strong and capable in my running abilities.
View More Monday’s with Jessica [Ep 68]: Tramping Mount PirongiaMonday’s with Jessica [Ep 67]: Shave For A Cure
This week was a pretty standard week in terms of everything, as usual I completed all my trainings and had my first interval session of this transition phase which felt good and I’m excited to continue to ramp them up and build some speed and paced endurance leading into my half marathon in just over a months time.
View More Monday’s with Jessica [Ep 67]: Shave For A CureMonday’s with Jessica [Ep 66]: Combining Study and Sport
This week was a big learning curve for me and how much mental tiredness can impact as such as physical. This week I have my mock derived exams and I was off school studying getting prepared for them all week before each one. Having to be so focused and engaged for long periods of time and covering every subject that could possibly be brung up is quite exhausting.
View More Monday’s with Jessica [Ep 66]: Combining Study and Sport