"Oh gods, here we go" I thought as I woke up this morning. Utterly worn out from a combination of very early mornings for work, relentless checking and re-checking of my playlist, rehearsals for the am-dram panto and opening night nerves (followed swiftly by elation that Opening Night was over) I couldn't find it in me to go for my run and thought about deferring it for a day or two and starting week 4 on Monday whilst Hubby-to-Be is at the gym.
My goblin Cecelia was just settling onto the sofa, feet up in her pink, fluffy bunny slippers, mug of chai tea in one claw (she doesn't drink normal tea, apparently she's a posh goblin) and pushing the tin of chocolates towards me with the other, nevermind that was 8am in the morning and I wasn't in the mood for chocolate anyway when She Who Must Be Obeyed at ALL Times (AKA the one who gave me life AKA My Mother) said: "Go get your kit on, we're going for a run" and so, being the obedient 1St Born Child that I am, I promptly went and put my kit on and allowed myself to be pushed out the door, reasoning that it was better to get day 1 over and done with quickly.
For the first time in 3 weeks, I had a serious case of the grumps when it came to the programme, I resented every single run (this being the week they start upping the ante to having you run for 5 minutes twice within the workout) I'm surprised the air around me wasn't blue from my wasting my energy yelling "F*** off!" and "Go. Ay-WAY!" every time Sarah Millican started whispering into my ear about how long was left, how well I was doing and asking how I was feeling ("bloody crap" was my reply) and I also spent time wondering why the road I was running along which was empty and completely devoid of life or activity when I was doing the brisk warm up walk and the recovery walks, suddenly developed bouts of steady traffic whenever it was time for me to run. I was also willing to swear that the timer for each run was going slower than last week.
The only positive I could see was at the end of my final 5 minutes, where the road to my house came into view and the thought of a hot shower and a quick cuddle with Hubby-to-Be before he went to work was just about enough to sustain me - I was also promised a breakfast out as a reward to Mam and myself for doing it.