Back on board

Well I decided it's time I get back into this running lark if I want to do the half-marathon. S came down last weekend and that reinvigorated my enthusiasm to do it.
I've been mad busy at work, leaving at anything up to 7pm and bringing work home, but that's no excuse. I was away on a course all this week so I took the opportunity of having the gym practically next to my room to start running again.

It was a particularly rubbish gym - tiny, cramped, dark and hot (no air con) and since I am only just getting back into it, plus all the above factors, I took the opportunity to run a quick 3km. I did it faster than normal - about 18 minutes if I take off the amount of time it took me to work out how to use the treadmill. This equates to about a 2:10 time for the half marathon. I would love to do it in less than 2 though so I know I have a lot of work to do, plus at the moment I certainly couldn't maintain that speed for 7x the distance. I need to build my stamina first though, and then worry about speed.

Next week I am back in the gym for 3 x 4km, I have no work trips (yay!) so I can focus on myself completely. A is away meaning I get to take the dog out too, so he will be coming training with me I think. He'll love it!

Past the 5km mark!

Big achievement for me last Wednesday when I made it to 5km. It took me 31.5 minutes and ideally I'd like to do it in 30 but I am going to work on endurance rather than speed. This is my best distance/time ever, when I had my running phase last year I never did more than 5km.

On Friday I did a quick 3.2km meaning I ran over 12km in total last week - about 7 miles I think! My weight has dropped back down to my pre-hotel weight and I feel good. We had a pool party on Saturday and I wore my new bikini for the first time, it fitted well and I felt great. I have got to keep this up. I drunk far too many beers at the weekend so I'm going to try and stay off alcohol all week.

S came down and we talked about the half-marathon next year. We will make a weekend of it (if in fact I end up doing it) in Stratford-upon-Avon, so it is something to spur me on to being fit enough to run it. Hopefully A will do it too. I know both of them will rush off without me but I don't mind, as long as I can get round within a day :)

I'm having a day off sick today (sick of work :) ) so no running, but I will do half an hour on the cross-trainer and play on the dance machine otherwise I know I'll just end up sitting around stitching.

It's done nothing but rain for the last 2 days so it's quite nice to have an excuse to stay in and mooch.

The Longest Day

I had a lazy weekend, apart from swimming, because the weather was gorgeous. So feeling all guilty I hit the gym last night, even though I didn't get out of the office till after 6pm. I ran 4.2km but I think I could've done more, I was just worried about getting home for tea :) Then I walked to 4.5km.

I rested today, my legs couldn't run if they tried, and I'm going to do 4km tomorrow, with an option to go on to 5km if I feel like I can. I'm happy with how it's going but that 21km seems a long way off, at the moment even 6km doesn't seem at all possible.

I added a new ticker bar to spur me on a little bit.

I think my scales could be broken (a really obvious cop-out I know!) because I somehow managed to put on a mysterious 4lb last week despite eating salads at the hotel for every meal, and I was running more as well. Unless I'm building muscle. Really weird. Anyway, whatever, it's made me feel bad so I'm trying really hard now to shift it.

Now I must go watch the England game. Early night tonight (9pm) as I am going to get up at 3am and pop up to Stonehenge for the sunrise :) it will be my first Solstice since moving here, how totally fabulous. I'm such a lazy cow though I bet you anything I just turn over in bed and miss it. Longest Day tomorrow, my favourite day of the whole wide year.

To start with

I haven't been running for about 3 weeks now, as I had started cycling a lot. I realised that the cycling wasn't doing me much good in terms of getting fit, the kind of cycling I do doesn't encourage much stamina. I'm a lazy cycler. It's infinitely more enjoyable than sweating it out in the gym but I know if I want to get fit I have to run. So when I rested the running in favour of cycling I was doing 4km relatively easily, and it's taking me some time to get back in to it.

I was away on a course in Swindon this week for a few nights so I took the opportunity to get back in the gym. It was hard work and I managed 3km on 2 consecutive nights. The gym was hot and there was no entertainment so it was more of a slog than my usual gym. I know this sounds like an excuse but I really think the heat and boredom contributed to me only managing 3km, and god it was hard.

Today I was back at my usual gym and managed 4km running with a short walk for afters. I think I am running "wrong" because always, without fail, my left calf muscle aches like mad afterwards. I think I may be twisting my left foot when I'm running. I need to sort this out, but it could be something to do with running on a treadmill. I am always conscious of needing to stay "between the lines" so maybe I'm over-compensating.

When I got home I swam for a little bit but nothing too strenuous, just a bit of arm-work really using the floaty sticks. I also did 220 sit-ups. My legs are aching nicely now and I feel good.