Hiya Runners!
This has been an interesting and challenging week. This week I officially hung up my trowel and became a desk bound commuter. This has meant the freedom I did have in my old part time role has gone and I'm in to squeezing runs in where I can, whatever the weather. Like most other people then...
Run 1: On my first day in my new job! I was pretty shattered, it had been a pretty full on day. It was blowing a gale and chucking it down horizontally outside. How committed was I? Well, at the weekend I had kicked off my sponsorship and I already had 27% raised, so if that wasn't motivation enough nothing was. I got a lift from Katnap to the track as he had a club training night and decided to run home from there. It was supposed to be intervals but not in that weather and not really in the dark. I'll have to have a think about these. Anyway, as soon as I left the track the heavens completely opened. Ironically, Mr Blue Sky was playing on my headphones and I just had to run, it's such a happy tune! I waved my fist at the sky and just went for it - it was fantastic!!! One of the best runs I have ever had!! Who'd have thunk it! 6km of pure fun!
Run 2: Another challenge. 10km in the dark. It wasn't raining, but it was dark and I was tired. Normally I'd find a nice, interesting route but I didn't want to go too far as I wasn't sure how my tiredness would affect me. So two loops around our side of the river. Not very interesting but it got it done. I did find that the hill we go up was much easier than usual though. I don't know if that was just having the distraction of Katnap, my 'counting cars' distraction technique (starting from 0, add 1 for cars going up, take one away for cars going down. It works!), both or just the darkness or maybe I'm fitter?!
Run 3: Yet more of a challenge. Katnap usually does the Friday night kids taxi service but tonight I had to do it. So my 3km 20 minuter was done in a different town...in the dark! It seemed an easy run but my stats told me differently, which was a bit disappointing.
Run 4: parkrun as usual, with pre-setup. I really need a rest from pre-setup for a week. It was extra hard to get up this morning! It was our run's 200th and Katnap's 50th - a big day. We also had Sandie1961 and Shake-and-run with us, and the sun was out! So all in all it was a lovely morning despite the lethargy. We all struggled with the slippiness of the riverside surface today - not only was it damp, it was icy. I tried my best to go fast with the leaning technique but it was really difficult. I'm getting a bit cheesed off with it now as I know I can go so much quicker and I don't want to wait until the summer to get faster! Might investigate better gripping shoes...
So, I survived my first week of my new job. The sponsorship thing has been a big incentive to keep going as well as my sheer bl@@dy mindedness. I don't walk around as much as I did but I've still kept my step count up. Calorie burning is a bit of a problem as I do like a snack but I'll adjust. The only thing I might have to really change is my plan when the runs get a lot longer in a few weeks time, which will mean changing my gym membership to let me do that in the evening instead and the long runs will move to a Sunday (but I'm not giving up parkrun, no way!!).
Let's see what Week 8 has to offer: bring it on!!! Happy running everyone!
