Oh if only I could get to a treadmill at the moment. They are all gathering dust at the gym down the road. Normally I wouldn't dare run in the conditions I've run in this week but needs must.
This is my second go at Run Every Day and my first in the depths of winter. My last go was in May but my body told me not to be so silly and put a stop to it after 14 days. I made the mistake of putting too many long runs into my schedule and forgetting that I was 52. So, 10 days in how is it going? I'm going to touch wood and say, not too bad so far 👍.
My plan this time is to only have one longer run a week, (not) parkrun as usual for the speedy run, and two 5km runs on Mondays and Fridays as part of keeping my kids fit. The others can be anything between a mile and 5km depending on how I'm feeling.
What I have found hard this week is that we're now only allowed out once for our daily exercise and I need to get the mileage in for LEJOG6, so I really need to make the most of my exercise time. This isn't so bad when I'm doing a 5km but today I only did 1 mile and I've come back frozen as I had to tag on a 45 minute 'cool down' walk 🥶 Not sure how this is going to pan out over the next 3 weeks especially when it rains! Just as well I love a challenge 🤣
The main challenge of this week was, of course, the footpath conditions on Thursday and Friday. As I mentioned, treadmills were out of the question so off I trotted in trepidation on to the icy paths outside. To be honest I was quite surprised - I found it easier to run than walk. I kept the pace down and concentrated on what was ahead and I did avoid the corners at junctions as I know them to be extra slippy. I also took to the road on quieter parts,and this seemed to help. It was a challenge that took my focus away from how cold it was, how achy I might have been and how my breathing was, it also kept my heart rate down - win win!
Yoga with Adriene has been helping with the achiness I think, with today being the first day when my legs have felt at all tired - hence today's mile only. I've been doing her routines daily for quite a while now and have really felt the benefits both to my running muscles and my core strength.
Talking of core strength, next week, I also have to fit in 3 days of Joe Wicks to carry on keeping the kids fit. Leg tiredness could be a little more extreme after all the squats, lunges and star jumps! One thing I do leave to the kids is the burpees: I am not doing those for love nor money on the living room carpet! Nearly broke a toe doing them in the first lockdown, so no way José!
So onwards and upwards, and 21 days to go! A great way to spend what is usually one of the grottiest months of the year and a superb distraction from what else is going on out there. I can highly recommend it!
Have fun everyone and whatever else, stay safe x
week3run1 ✅. 3 x 17 mins with 1 min walks. 
How did your parkrun or (not)parkrun go?
