Started Week 8 today!

Had a really good run this morning!

It was the first Week 8 run so I was a bit nervous about the extra time. As some of you might remember I have been having trouble with a pulled muscle at the bottom of my ribs which for a long time I thought was a stitch. It tends to act up about halfway through each run and it has really slowed me down.

We got up nice and early, I took my painkiller and ibuprofen and set off.

As we approached the 15 minute mark I waited for my rib to start hurting... and waited... and waited...

My rib didn't start hurting. I couldn't believe it! Laura announced we had five minutes left and still no pain. I was chuffed to bits!

For the longer runs she tells you when you have a minute to go and says that it's nice to speed up for those last 60 seconds to prove to yourself that there's always more to give. I have never been able to do that because I am always fighting through the pain at that stage, so today I went for it!

Hilariously I got a stab of rib pain with literally about 10-15 seconds to go. Too late, rib, you can't stop me. Hahahaha.

It was quite hard work - we both couldn't believe it when she said we had five minutes left to go as we thought we were nearly finished! - but we did it and I am so happy that my rib seems to be almost better.

I am going to leave another two days before the next run and if that one is pain-free I might go back to every other day. I want to finish the programme now - so close! Just five runs to go before I graduate.

Bring it on!

[hollyO Graduate]

Wow - thats great! What a relief for you.

I had a big problem with headaches and thought I would have to give up completely, but some fantastic advice on here got me through it and miraculously, no more headaches!

Suddenly you are really close to finishing the programme I bet you wonder, how did that happen? I did!

Very best of luck to you for the rest of the programme.

Ps - big up the ibuprofen!!

[Hidden in reply to hollyO]

It's so frustrating, isn't it? You're trying to focus on getting fitter and it's just a distraction!! I knew I could run for the times I was trying for but it was like having two challenges at once - running for x minutes and at the same time trying to ward off the pain for x minutes.

Ibuprofen and my ice pack = my life savers!!