Read part 1 of my IronMan journey here, and my training food diary here.
It’s 2017, the year I will run the Barcelona Marathon – as a warm-up to the biggest challenge in my life: IronMan.
Most of us will have spent the last 10 days finishing off the extended-family-size Quality Street box (bar the toffee ones), drinking so much the breweries have gone dry, and half-heartedly making New Year’s resolutions. 'New Year, New You’, and all that jazz.
If you regularly go to the gym, January is really annoying because suddenly you have to queue up behind the resolutioners to use the machines. But instead of getting impatient, this year I’m going to concentrate on keeping you motivated with me. When I started this column I said I would love to try and motivate one person – one person who maybe didn’t think they could do something, whether that’s a 5k or 10k run, or go from a half marathon to a full marathon. So in a bid to keep you in the gym come February 1st, I thought I’d share some of the things that keep me motivated for around… 361 days of the year.
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Myself
You know that bit in Friends in the Thanksgiving episode where Monica challenges herself to beat her last year’s self… That’s me. I always want to do better than I did last time, and prove to myself that my body can complete these challenges. Personal progression and personal motivation is vital for our brains. We all need to believe in ourselves a little bit more.My Friends
When you take on a challenge like this, you need a strong unit around you in terms of training and family/friends. You need them to understand what you are doing and the time it takes – you can’t have precious friends who get upset if you cancel dinner or ask to reschedule on a weekend because either you need to train longer or you just need to sleep – something I’m always chasing. All my friends are so proud of what I’m doing, and that makes me more determined to carry on, and helps me on those days where I can’t be bothered to get out of bed or wish I could just have a weekend on my own time, without having to set an alarm to ensure I get everything done. You need to surround yourself with positive vibes. When you’re training so hard for something you want so much, there isn’t time for negativity or doubt. My friend Rich (who got me into all this) inspires me every day. He is the biggest motivator going. He should be the next Mr. Motivator.My Work
Believe it or not, work motivates me too. I manage an incredible model and activist called Naomi Shimada – who has incidentally been in two Nike campaigns – and in nine months managing her, her positivity has had a huge effect on my life, ranging from having the confidence to wear a crop top and pants in the gym without worrying that I’m not the thinnest girl, to pushing me to do more and more with my sporting achievements.The Men In My Life
My late grandad always told me that I would achieve everything I set my mind to. When I applied for college, uni, internships, jobs, my grandad never questioned my ability to get whatever it was I was after. And I did – through hard work, determination and adopting his attitude of never telling myself I couldn’t do it. Similarly, my dad has always been 100% supportive. When I claimed I wanted to be a shot girl in Kavos (I allow everyone reading this to judge me slightly) he just said, “You’re young, go and have fun.” Then my brother is incredibly fit. He’s an amateur boxer and is about 100 times fitter than me. I feel like a beginner when I run with him – his pace never drops. I LOVE training with him because he keeps me going; when I’m moaning that I can’t carry on, he runs beside me, talks to me and makes me forget I ever said it. The central support system in my life is built with men and they all help me push the boundaries of how men see women in sport.AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT