Gym Win

Today was the day that I ran again. I was going to get up at 7.30 and go at 8.30 or something. That didn't happen. Instead, I got over to the gym at about 11 and, after buying a bottle of water because I stupidly forgot to bring my own, got on the treadmill.

I thought that I would probably run about two miles and then be knackered, but it went much better than that! I stuck my hoodie over the monitor(I always find that seeing my distance and time makes me get tired much faster) and ran at 10 minute miles. I clearly run too fast normally, because running at that pace was really comfortable. I still started to tire and got stitches, but it felt good. I got myself in to a nice breathing pattern as well and felt really happy with how it was going.

After a while I decided that I better stop before I get completely knackered because I wanted to cycle and row as well. When I took my top off it revealed that I had run 6.5 miles! I was so happy to see that, mainly because I'd been running for 65 minutes. After that I cycled for 10 minutes and then rowed 2.5km, just for a bit of a warm down and to work my upper body a bit.

I felt absolutely brilliant and was buzzing when I got home. Though I didn't feel so great when I went to play Football a couple of hours later. My legs clearly weren't happy with me, and I'm bloody stiff now, but what a great day!

Getting back to business

Right, I haven't been for a run for about two weeks now and it's getting silly. My foot feels much better, so I have decided that tomorrow is the day that I will stick on my trainers and get going again.
Admittedly, it has been my own fault... Playing Football again and then getting involved at a gig while drunk probably weren't the best things to do with a bad foot. Anyway, the swelling seems to have gone down and there isn't any pain walking, so bring on tomorrow!

Silly Boy...

Sons should always listen to their Mother's...
"Don't go to Football, you won't get any sympathy if you injure yourself more" she said.
I thought, no! I want to play Football! So I decided to go along, thinking I'd take it easy. I put my insoles in to my astro turf trainers to try and decrease the risk of further injury. They had been too tight before but seemed ok now I'd worn them a few times.
Had a little kick around with a few mates before the masses got there to try and warm up and I seemed fine for the first half and hour, but then it all went a bit pear-shaped. About 40 minutes in I rolled my ankle in the same fashion that I got my injury in the first place. I immediately went in goal to rest a bit and it seemed ok after five minutes, but when I started running again I noticed I had a bit of a groin strain and my heels were now killing because of my insoles. Turns out the trainers weren't loose enough.
Why couldn't I have just stayed at home?... Now I've got some lovely blisters, my foot will stay bruised longer and a lovely groin strain.
Was an excuse to have a lovely bath though!
I'm not telling Mum she was right.

Foot...

Friday was a great day. I played a great game of Football with my mates, then went to the Pub and ended up going in to town!
Unfortunately, I rolled my ankle at Football, but that seemed to be ok after 5 minutes. When I got home my foot was painful to walk on, but I didn't think much of it because it didn't cause me any trouble out in town. However, I woke up on Saturday morning, stepped out of bed and it bloody hurt! Looked at it and there was a bruise along the bottom of my foot below the ankle and also some swelling.
Not sure that it's a particularly bad injury, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to run the 10k now and also really annoyed because I won't be able to play Football next week at all. I need to become less injury prone!

Fail

So, today I was meant to go for a run. That didn't happen...
After a fun night round a friends for Champions League disappointment(for unfortunate Tottenham fans), I was meant to come home and get some good sleep for a 7.30am run. This was hindered when I couldn't find my keys so ended up staying round and not getting to sleep until gone 3.
Thankfully, I found my keys in the morning, but that hasn't stopped today from being spent in Waitrose and in front of my Mac.
Today's goal is now to avoid alcohol tonight at the Pub and get up early tomorrow instead!
Fingers crossed!

New Route!

So today I tried running on the cycle path for the first time. After having a wander yesterday, I felt I knew which was the best way to run there. I also thought that my iMST app would measure the distance for me, but it decided it didn't want to(though, it was probably something I did wrong).

When my alarm went off I somehow justified putting getting up off for another 15 minutes, and then eventually forced myself up and had my banana. I set off on my run at my normal pace of about 8 minute miles, which was fine for a while.

I was slightly worried that I'd go wrong somewhere and miss the cycle path like I did on my walk yesterday but, after about 7 minutes of running, I found it. This gave me a boost, but it didn't last long as I started to flag. I had to slow down, but this turned out to be a good thing. Running at something around a 10 minute mile was much more comfortable and I kept it up for the rest of the run.

I've tried to run at a slower pace before, but I get a bit self-conscious and think people will judge me. Without all the cars driving past I didn't seem to worry. Probably because everyone else on the cycle path is exercising ans they know that not everyone can run at superhuman pace!

I got back to my door feeling knackered, but that's mainly because of the nasty hill just before my house. I did NOT enjoy that! Despite being knackered, I felt very good about the run as a whole and the fact that I'd run 36 minutes, my longest yet, and probably could have run for longer. As my app didn't want to work I don't know exactly how far it was. But it must have been between 3.5-4 miles. Yay!

After that, some lovely cold buttered toast, nom nom noms! Now for lectures and revision all day, or more likely an hour of Facebook and then back to my house...

Wayward Walk

Today is a 'day off' (not that I run particularly hard anyway, hah), but I decided that, instead of sitting inside all day, I'd go for a walk.
When I started, I pictured a nice straight long walk along what I thought was the cycle path. As it turned out, it wasn't, it was just a path along the river, which ended up leading me in to a field and then a road going in the wrong direction...
Retracing my steps, I realised I hadn't crossed a bridge that I needed to. After doing this, it still turned out to be the wrong bloody way and I spent 20 minutes walking across a different field that I thought was a bit of the cycle path until I hit the actual cycle path and followed it back towards my house.
Turned out to be an 8km walk that I'm very happy I went on. I also now know where the cycle path is and can start running there to avoid cars going by shouting abuse at me. People are lovely.

New start! Training for Bristol 10k

Ok, so I'm gonna change the way I'm doing these posts now.

Basically, I've now got apps and stuff that I put my food intake in to so I don't really feel the need to post a food diary any more because it would just be for the sake of it. However, I would like to post ramblings about my running and general activities.

The last two weeks I've really been getting in to running three or four times a week, and I feel great for it! I can only run about 3 miles at the moment, but you've got to start somewhere, right!?
I should be running the Bristol 10k in 5 weeks though, so I need to improve fast!

Anyway, I will update this blog on my runs and activities for anyone who cares or wants to tell me how bad my writing is :D