Nuts

I've not ran my 3 miles yet. I've been to Manchester today for a meeting & didn't fancy an early run on a Monday morning. I'm begining to regret it now, it wasn't raining when I woke up at 6.30am. It's throwing it down now. I suppose I could go to the gym and do 3 miles on the treadmill but it feels like cheating. I don't really enjoy running on a treadmill, it always seems to take such a long time and I get really hot. Running outside is usually a better experience. At least there are things to take your mind off the pain.

So I do I just man up, put my trainers on & go or should I wait for another hour? The BBC weather page says the rain should be dying away early evening so I think I'll wait a while.

In an attempt to feel less hungry I bought a small packet of mixed nuts today. I was horified to find out how many calories they contained. I know that they are meant to be full of protein so should keep you feeling full but hells teeth - 670 calories per 100g. There was 70g of them, so about 2 handfuls - so 469 calories. More than a Chunky KitKat. I still ate them though.

There's always articles, news reports, whole programmes, devoted to the rise of obesity in the UK. I think some of it must be down to people not understanding just how long it takes to burn calories. Maybe the information on the packaging could read something like this:

This pack of nuts contains 469 calories. You'll need to run 5 miles to burn them off. This could take anywhere between 25mins and 2 hours depending on your level of fitness.

I feel much better today than I did yesterday, the bath & early night must have helped. I'm 2 weeks into this now. In 8 weeks I'll have done the Great North Run. I'll be sitting in my house having actually run 13.1 miles. I want to feel like I've done the best preparation possible. Right, best get my trainers on then, rain or no rain!

I'm sprinting in the rain

I don't work on a Friday (or a Monday - more on that another time) so I usually have a PT session at 9am. Most Fridays I walk there, do my session and stumble back home cursing Rich for making me do burpees or bear crawls or other ridiculous tasks.

Today we were planning to do some sprints outside. There was an actual monsoon. We still did the sprints. 4x800m (ish). Bear in mind a 'sprint' for me is something I've only ever done if I'm late for the bus. Half way through the session I felt like a rung out dishcloth but when we finished I felt like a warrior. 

When I'm running fast (for me) I struggle to breathe, I sound like I'm about to pass out. My shoulders tense up and I start panicking that I'm never going to get to the end. Then I start to slow down as a result which makes it all worse. In general I'm a worrier, I worry about unnecessary things and it makes me stressed so then I worry more. It drives me insane; I know I'm doing it and I can't stop it. Today when I was running, for a couple of seconds I thought about my breathing, I made myself breathe in and out properly and then I relaxed and I managed to run just a little bit faster at the end.  It felt like I was almost in control.