Week 1, Run 3. I believe I can fly...

[Simon_RM]

Firstly, my scheduled Tuesday run was a bust, I almost slipped back into my old negative self. Alarm sounded at 6, it was windy, rainy, and I still haven't plucked up the courage to go out and buy some better gear. It wasn't going to be a repeat of run 2 (Michelin Man!), so I rolled over and fell back to sleep. It was too easy to do, and I felt so disappointed.

I eventually came round and decided I probably needed this as an extra rest day, figuring if I could snap out of the negativity and try again in the morning I'd be fine.

Well, this morning, I sprang out of bed the moment my alarm started to chime, immediately sat down again, panted, waited for the dizziness to fade and started to get ready to finish Week 2.

Pulled on my compression sleeves over a liberal helping of Deep Heat, the smell immediately taking me back 30+ years to high school changing rooms, causing me to quickly check behind me for some joker with a towel whip. Fat pants, fleece pullover, I'm almost ready.

Headed downstairs, drank some water and decided not to go for the banana until after I returned today. Thought I'd try my other trainers today, wondering if that might improve things, whilst ignoring the voice in my head telling me that could be a very bad idea, and off I went.

It was great! There was still pain involved, but I was able to recognise today that it was just the pain of actually doing something, rather than the pain I should listen to and stop for.

I even picked up the pace on my last two 60 second sessions, the two uphill sessions, really going for it in the last one, and it felt amazing!

Due to the pace I was almost home before my 5 minute warm down, so ended up walking laps around the church yard, whispering to the quiet grave stones, "Did you see that! I did it". Fortunately no words of praise or encouragement were forthcoming, so I went home to hopefully bask in praise from my family... if they'd managed to get out of bed yet.

What made it all worth it was that my gorgeous six year old daughter greeted me as I entered the house.

"Have you been to do your run Daddy?" she asked.

"I have, and I did it!" I replied, with a smile from ear to ear.

"Well done, I'm proud of you," my heart melted as I gave her a big hug, grabbed a banana, and started to stretch.

I doubt I'd have a chance of getting through this without the encouragement of my amazing wife and two wonderful daughters.

So that's Week 1 done! I'm absolutely buzzing, probably annoyingly so for those around me, but I'm really looking forward to Week 2 now.

[Debston Graduate]

Well done you! Week One done and dusted, no stopping you now. Great that you have encouragement and support from your family - maybe you'll inspire your daughter to have a go at running too!

[Simon_RM in reply to Debston]

Thank you. On my rest days I'm trying to get up and walk my running route, at this stage it's helping my stamina, I brought her with me on Saturday morning, her little legs were tired when we got back but I think she's keen to do more, might start looking at park runs soon and involve the family.

[backintime Graduate in reply to Simon_RM]

there is junior parkrun too if she is keen

[Debston Graduate in reply to Simon_RM]

That's great that she is keen to do more. Junior Parkruns are great if you have one nearby - 2K route instead of the usual 5K for regular parkrun. One of my daughters (9) was desperate to come to Parkrun with me but it's quite a tough course and she ended up walking a lot more than running and found it a bit frustrating. Now she does Junior Parkrun every Sunday with her twin sister and loves it. On the other hand my son (12) comes to regular Parkrun with me and zooms round, leaving me way behind.

[-slowjogger Graduate]

Well done! It is a great sense of achievement, even more so for getting out there when we can make a hundred excuses and find plenty of other things to keep us busy instead! Thats week 1 under your belt, heres to week 2. In the meantime hold on to how great it feels when you get home having done your run. And how lovely to have support from your nearest and dearest

[Simon_RM in reply to -slowjogger]

Thank you, it certainly feels like an achievement given my past 8 months or so of complete lack of activity. Thinking of the feeling of getting home is exactly what's helping me blast through the negative thoughts at the moment.

[Sheppers]

Loved this! 🥰