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Well, lets be honest about this! If I needed a kick up the arse and it was down to me to do it, I'd miss. Taking my arse into consideration, that would take some doing! Following on from the last blog, which wrote about doing basically bugger all, I needed to get going....and at this stage in the proceedings, I barely managed that.
Saturday 21st saw a return to Preston Park to do my 205th parkrun....which was naturally upstaged by Val doing her 250th. A hugely impressive achievement and it was great to share the morning with her, as well as see a number of mutual friends enjoy the hot (surprise surprise) weather.. (and cake!) The run itself for me was ordinary, except in the fact it was great to see a number of familiar faces around the park...some of them overtaking me too! I adopted my usual post run look of being caught in a downpour and the only consolation was the fact that I may have shed a pound or two in sweat!
Sunday saw me head off to Chichester junior parkrun to catch up with my good chum Mike Houston, and with the early start and traffic queues heading back meant I was hardly in a running mood (no bloody change there then!)
Perhaps with a degree of guilt, I headed out Monday lunchtime for the first time in ages for a gentle two miles with Sasha. As ever the heat was unrelenting and two miles wasn't a bad thing to do ahead of track. I finally got my arse in gear and together with Georgia, went to track. 30 minutes later and once again, despite the glorious weather, I looked like it had been raining. With the heat a factor, Bob gave us 7 sets of relatively short reps - one rep was 200m jog, 200m quick, 100m jog, 300m quick. On paper (and even on a computer screen), it doesn't look too bad. In reality, it was knackering! I knew I'd be near the back and it didn't bother me in the slightest! At least I was working hard and whilst there is a lot of room for improvement, it was a step in the right direction.
Tuesday saw GoodGym and it was then I felt the full effect of Bob's session. I had all sorts of ideas about what kind of run to do, what distance etc. If it wasn't for the fact I need to register my runs for GoodGym, I'd have been embarrassed to load it up. School was out, the sun was shining and the seafront was packed. So as I headed west, I took a diversion and the outbound part of the run was only 1.8 miles. Never mind, I'll add on, on the way home! Well that never happened, as the visit to Fletch went on longer than it should have done again, which meant my legs called time for the evening. Fletch offered a lift home as he was heading that way and I didn't think twice about accepting. By the time I was home, I was already feeling guilty. I needed more miles in the legs but the legs weren't in the mood. Wednesday was the same and I felt shattered. Track was taking more out of me than I thought - the gift that keeps on giving!
My bike has been at work for more weeks than I care to remember, so I hatched the cunning plan to run to work on Friday and collect the bike ahead of Arena 80's volleyball social. So, get me! All organised bringing clothes and kit to work Thursday so I could run in without a bag. Early night done! Friday morning....knackered. The sort of tired that you can't get up with and with every passing minute, I was more and more irritated that ANOTHER run hadn't happened. It's at times like this, running friends make a difference.
Fellow ambassador Lucy was on a mission to complete a 6.7 mile run as part of a Ragnar Relay challenge. She asked me to come with her and whilst I was nervous about the distance (I later realised the last run that came close to this was Worthing 10km and that was in June!), I was up for it. Then, there were two miracles....first one was the dramatic change in the weather which meant that despite the fact it was still warm, we ran in the rain which was a great change. The second miracle was the the run was done and I actually felt ok at the end of it. Yes, I was drenched but at least I can blame the rain for that! Lucy got her award and I felt relieved that I could still get 6 miles out.
Weekend saw lots of parkrun stuff, with Run Director duties at Hove Prom, and Tail Walker in the downpour at Preston Park juniors. The drenching, which whilst always better than the heat, did me in to the effect that the planned post-juniors run never happened. Then something clicked....
Monday saw the miserable weather continuing and with track in mind later, I set off for a 2 mile "Runch" on my own. There were no plans, no pace, just off to get a couple of miles under the belt. It was fun, it was quicker than I anticipated and I enjoyed every second of it. Average pace was 8:17/mile which again, wasn't dramatic, it was better than I'd normally do. Plus it wasn't exactly me pushing it so I was chuffed. This meant that there were 2 miles in the bank before track had even started. Eager to get the legs going again, I joined Issy for a couple of laps, then Georgia arrived for a couple more which meant another mile was in the bank. Then we found out the session!
3 sets of 1 x 100, 1 x 300m, 1 x 100m, 1 x 300m with 90 seconds off in between. And if that wasn't enough, the next batch of 3 sets comprised 1 x 100m, 1 x 400m, 1 x 100m, 1 x 200m were thrust upon us. In each set, the 2nd and 4th segments were to be done "quicker" and I was pleased to see the number 6 on my pace, albeit briefly. Yes, as the sets went on, the 6 became a 7 and as we started the final batch of 2 sets, I was working hard! The last two sets were 1 x 100m, 1 x 500m, 1 x 100m, 1 x 100m and that final 100m truly had the lungs burning! Somehow, I found the energy to get the 6's back on the final sprints and it was good teamwork as Sophie and James also kicked on. We kept together as a team and it really helped us get through it. Plus it added 4 miles for the week!
Tuesday saw me awake with the cramp from the night before still in my calves but with excellent timing, Joe was in the office and gave them a going over. The legs felt sufficiently good enough to get another 2 miles out at runch. It was warm again, and the weather brought a number of people out meaning a few mini-diversions, but ultimately another decent run. A few seconds slower than the day before but I was happy with that. The plan later was to go to the gym and that's what I did. A decent 10km on the bike and a sauna was a good end to the day for sure. So, with GoodGym tomorrow, there is the potential to add a few more miles and keep going in the right direction! Will it happen? I bloody well hope so, but as ever, that's another story!