Showing posts with label coffee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coffee. Show all posts

Saturday, 21 July 2012

Henry Ford & the Sunshine

What a beautiful day it's been. Finally felt like summer.

The first thing I thought when I opened my eyes at 7am this morning was 'ouch'. I was aching from yesterday's PT session, I struggled to move my heavy legs out of bed. So I turned over and went back to sleep for another 90 minutes.

The second time I woke up I still thought 'ouch' but got out of bed anyway and whilst I was having a coffee I thought of a million excuses not to run six miles, aching back, could do it tomorrow, should be decorating, what if I can't do it blah blah blah. I was sick of my own internal dialogue. Flino had run the 10K last night and surprisingly didn't want to do another one less than 24 hours later. So in the end, in a bad mood, I put my trainers on, slammed the door and trotted off down the road.

It was the best run I'd done yet. I'd worked out the watch and kept glancing at it to keep my speed at around 10 minute miles. I decided that I was going to run to my parents house which saved me doing the 'run 3 miles turn around and come back again' loop. It was also pretty flat. I had my i-pod on to keep me company, this is what I listened to:

Cash & Carry Me Home - Ghost Poet
I Am The Resurrection - The Stone Roses
Beautiful, Dirty, Rich - Lady Ga Ga
I Just Don't Know - Ghost Poet
FML - Deadmau5
My Oh My - David Gray
F.E.A.R - Ian Brown
Witness the Fitness - Roots Manuva
Rearview Mirror - Pearl Jam * probably my favourite song ever.
Friend of Ours - Elbow
Miss U Less, See U More - Faithless
Don't Mug Yourself - The Streets
Breaking Down - Florence & The Machine
Katy On A Mission - Katy B

When I got to 5 miles I felt good, like I could keep going, which surprised me. I got to 6 miles and still had a little bit further to go. I didn't stop. I ran all the way.

These were my splits:

9.58
10.55 (I had to stop to cross the road!)
10.11
10.14
10.02
9.58

In the end I ran 6.33 miles in 1 hour & 3 minutes. I don't think I even did the Darth Vader breathing. I circumnavigated a few huge puddles on the way, got beeped at by a man in a van and chose to run up the dull A50, reasoning with myself that I would be less likely to stop & walk if there were hundreds of cars speeding past me. I didn't want anyone to point & laugh at the slow girl at the side of the road. (I know that really, no-one would have noticed but the thought kept me running.)

I figured out today that running is just a constant battle with yourself. Like Henry Ford said "Think you can or think you can't - either way you're right". I'm the only person that can make me think I can.

Wednesday, 18 July 2012

Stop moaning, start running

Got home from work, got this hand delivered. All I have to do is plug it into the computer & download the software then it will start telling me how fast I'm running. No excuses from now on. Thanks Rob!

Rest day today. My legs feel ok after yesterday's session. I'm still permanently hungry though. Today I've eaten:

Bowl of cornflakes with a banana.
Handful of dried apricots.
2 scrambled eggs on toast.
Tomato.
2 chocolate digestive biscuits.
Apple.
Sausages, beans & potatoes.
Solero type ice lolly thing.
One Lungo coffee from our brilliant new machine 
About 6 cups of Redbush tea.

Flino became addicted to Nespresso coffee whilst we were on holiday and as a result bought a fancy machine. It's great. Now I have one coffee when before I go to work & drink Redbush decaff tea for the rest of the day.

It's sprints on the cards for tomorrow's session. I need to do:

6x1min @ 8min mile pace with 60 seconds walk recovery between each one.

8 minute mile pace for a minute a time. After Tuesday nights session I actually think I can do that. I hate to admit it but it almost sounds like I enjoyed last nights run! Actually, that's a lie. I didn't enjoy the running, I enjoyed how it made me feel afterwards. I like that it's made me a little more confident about the next 8 weeks.

Friday evening is the Tara Kinder 10k - no, I'm not running but usually help out with marshalling. It's a local race and is for charity. I like being a marshal, I get to see the runners, shout encouragement and catch up with some friends. You can still enter on the night & if that sounds like a ridiculous idea then you can always volunteer to be a marshal?

I'm watching DIY SOS The Big Build as I'm writing this, with tears in my eyes. Really, I should stop moaning. I've only got to run 13 miles. In the grand scheme of things it's really nothing.