URGH...PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER GIRL!

Only a quick one tonight. Before I start I should explain my day confusion in my last post. The rainy run was Friday, the half run half walk was Sunday and really I don't think I intended to refer to Wednesday at all and where I have I probably mean Friday. Well I'm sure that's all just been made crystal clear!
Just back from running our regular Wednesday 6.1 miles and am feeling a little done in! So quickly writing this while Darren's grouting in the bathroom as I can't get in the bath til his done... trust me I need to... I stink... not even I want to sit by me and I have to!
So don't know what on earth's wrong with me tonight. The weather was perfect, nice and dry and cool with lots of lovely air to breathe so really I shouldn't 've had a problem but I found tonight quite tough. Way back in the days when I used to go to the pub all regular and everything, occasionally I'd drink a certain brand of jamaican inspired coconut rum and cola. Sometimes on such occasions I'd find this would give me a horrible feeling in my chest. The best way I can describe it is like there's a fist behind my solar plexus and it's pushing really hard outwards (oooh alien flashbacks!). OK sounds dramatic.. it's not at all, it's just damn uncomfortable and makes me feel like I can't fully breathe in. So that's what happened tonight which is pretty pants cos it was bugging me and making me feel uncomfy all the way round. At it's worst half way round it began to feel I had a rope tied round my bra line that just kept getting pulled tighter but persisting past that it lapsed back to jamaican rum syndrome.
With this in mind I haven't really enjoyed tonight's run but am happy as I still got round it. I just kept thinking I've done it before so I have to do it again - if I slow down or take a step backwards just once it could be a slippery slope back to square one and we've come far to far. Tor did awesomely fab again tonight, doing all the dodgy hills etc and we're still keeping to our PB time.
Well I refuse to moan and groan on anymore cos reading back through this it's so whiny and annoying I'm feeling the need to give myself a slap so I shall move on. Some positive thought's: Tor's sister-in-law has pointed out that we're running the best part of a marathon every week, my justgiving page donations have lept up today and I lost 1lb this week! Woo hoooooo! As for now, Darren's finished his little bit of tiling so I'm off for a bath...

Rain, Socks and Chav's v Runners

Well a chance to catch up on my blogging then to bring us semi up to date. Are we sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin with Wednesday...

The weather turned cooler as we set out for our Wednesday night run. This run up through Northfield, round through Rubery towards Rednal and back to Longbridge has become our regular 6.1 miles midweek jaunt (now there's words I never thought I'd string together in a sentence!). It was my socks that most concerned me on heading over to Tor's. You see, since becoming a runner (heehee.. me a runner) I have found that the right socks in the right shoes helps. I can't tell you how much pleasure it gave me that when I bought my first pair of running socks one was marked with a little L whilest the other was scribed with an R.. now all I have to remember is which side the L goes and which side the R goes. Anyways, I digress... So my regular running socks were all in the wash and I was left with a black pair of Tigger socks (the annoying tiger from Winnie the Pooh in case you wondered). Now whilst he may be the bounciest flounciest Tigger this unfortunate happening was not helping me feel remotely springy. You see my socks made my trainers feel wrong which isn't a good place to be when you're about to run 6.1 miles! However, frantic searching was futile and failed to turn up any suitable alternative so it was off to run in Tigger socks I went.

The run however was great! It was cloudy and very very rainy which seemed to make everything so much easier. I didn't get too hot as the rain constantly cooled me down and generally it was a much more comfortable temperature to run in. Breathing was a lot easier too (yes I know you'd think it comes naturally but you'd be surprised). I do find my head gets hot when I run and as such needed to remove my cap but this then led to me getting rain in my eyes (a condition that from this day forth I shall refer to as raineye!) meaning I couldn't see where I was going so I did need to put the cap back on. A hot head but I was no longer running into things which given the harm potential of such things is probably the better of the 2 options.

Another rain hazard is of course the chav's in their boy racer cars who rather than think "Oooh look at that couple of portly young ladies out for a jog trying to improve themselves and the world around them in small everyday steps.. wish I had that sort of motivation to levitate my backside to a position where I could achieve such things... perhaps I should slow down and steer widely so as to make their journey that little bit easier and thus express my support and admiration" think in stead "oooh joggers, oooh big puddle. I'll whack me foot down, steer into that mini lake and soak the sad cows". It is with glee then that I report of Tor's amazing excellent evasive skills! I'm sure she read their minds a la Alice in Meyer's Eclipse as with one tiny little step she ensured they missed their target and runined their sport! YAY Tor! JOGGERS 1 - CHAV'S 0!!

Other fantastical type developments are that we are completing this run now in a regular time of 1hr 15 mins and Tor did the whole route non stop too including the mountainous hill which taunt and haunt are every turn (OK so they're not mountains but you run up 'em and see how you feel!).

Overall then Wednesday night's run was fantabulous and whilst wetter than a wet thing on a wet day in wetsville (running for the lifeboats seemed rather apt), I felt really motivated by the end of it.

Today's run was a lot more tricky. Not sure why but think not doing a proper warm up may be taking it's toll. I felt quite stiff before starting and very much like I was struggling before I started. Sunday's we run a 5km route twice and I think doing laps may be the problem. You see when you run one big circuit you feel like you're actually heading somewhere no matter where in your route you are. Doing a lap and knowing you've got to run another one feels like there's no progression so I think next week we're going to tackle an 8 mile run round the same area but in one big circuit so we're actually heading somewhere an not just going round and round in circles. We ran the first 5km non stop then speed walked the rest so we're only 15mins slower than running the whole route. Leg muscles are definately complaining though so I'm going to google warm ups to see if that helps. Wonder if the time if day affects how we do too?

Well, am still sat here now in my sweaty running gear as the water's turned off whilst we have some plumbing issues. Going to go see if my involvement helps solve the situation or adds to it...