You know last week when I went on about recovery? I should really listen to myself!

Monday

I had a fully restful day. I did have my yoga session at the end of the day, where I nearly fell asleep doing pigeon pose. I love that pose.

Tuesday

Track Tuesday has come to an end this season which is a shame.

Instead we headed to the park for lumpy loops, hooray…! By this I mean not flat 😂

It’s tough but it’s much easier when doing the session with others. Today it was 5 big loops with a mini loop to recover.

Last year looking at my first two efforts I would have thrown in the towel and given up.

Instead I kept going and my final 3 efforts were stronger. The 4th effort was the quickest because I was following some of the speedier runners.

I often find listening to others footsteps a good distraction. I am nowhere near the pace of the speedy runners, but those few seconds can help me push further.

Wednesday

I was in the office today, so I walked to the train station for a long day of meetings.

It was our end of financial year get together so we had food and drinks after. Which was lethal…!

I don’t think boozing about is great crosstraining 🤔🤣

Thursday

Up early again, to run for an hour.

I stayed over in Manchester and I’m really annoyed at myself for getting so drunk. I had an opportunity to run somewhere different, yet the whole time I felt like shite.

I was dehydrated, didn’t sleep very well and I was wondering why I was tired. Idiot.

By the time I got home I was too tired to do anything. No foam rolling, yoga… Just me feeling sorry for myself!

Friday

I had an extra hour and a half in bed this morning but this wasn’t enough. I was exhausted.

My calfs were tight, likely from dehydration and lack of stretching and foam rolling. I brought this on myself.

I was reminded by my PT that the volume of my runs are increasing, I shouldn’t try and squeeze everything in.

It doesn’t mean I should stop being social, but if I need to do an easier cross training effort or have an extra day of rest… The world won’t end!

I love following plans and routines so this will be hard. Please friends… keep me honest.

PT session itself was a tricep murder, but I don’t quit!

Saturday

Parkrun day!

Today I was a tourist to Middleton woods parkrun as my friend Nigel kindly offered me a lift.

It was cold but it was a great location.

It was two laps, a lovely long downhill which made me suspicious and back up through the woods.

It was tough as it was quite muddy and I definitely enjoyed the downhill far too much, but I was only a minute slower than my average parkrun time.

I did find it annoying to see Nigel bounce uphill on the 2nd lap like it was nothing 🤣 but he definitely paced it better than I did!

Sunday

Today the run was 2hrs 20mins again but instead of 50 minutes of effort, it was an hour.

So I knew I had to run further this time!

I wanted to hit at least a half marathon this time and I knew I could do so easily but I also had 1hr and 20mins to run easy.

I didn’t run as easy as I probably should have but I had a few moments where I reminded myself to back off.

I ran exactly the same route to compare, so when I left Slaithwaite towards Marsden I told myself to be careful with the muddy puddles and not waste too much effort.

Then when the effort started, I did really well. I had a strong focused effort and saw some friends on route.

I ended up running 13.35 miles but truthfully I could have run another half an hour at this effort.

It’s strange what a difference a week makes, I felt so comfortable and strong.

I had a lovely recovery with food and a relaxing bath. Well deserved!

Next week I’ll run the furthest I’ve ever run. I feel confident about this after today.

Overall Thoughts

I need to follow my own advice… Recover, take care and hydrate!

I had a midweek wobble but I turned things around and finished strong.

I reaaaally need to start to take recovery more seriously but I will put my hands up and say I have a busy Easter weekend coming up.

I will try to behave but, if not, I promise to be better behaved the weekend after…! Eek haha.

This week’s song is such an earworm. If you see me running along with and muttering to myself, I’ll probably be singing something like this 😂🎶