Finally, A Run To Report

Sunday: Another bad night, this is getting to me, strange nightmares which make no sense and I don't touch cheese before I sleep, so it must just be stress. Again, I eventually rolled out of bed feeling very heavy with an aching back. It took a lot to get me out of the house for a run, the body just felt alien to my mind, a dense object I had no control over. Once I had my training gear on and got out of the house, my 'running head' switched on. It was around midday when I went out and it was scorching hot. Important lesson learned: don't run during the midday sun, it is an idiotic idea, at least for a newbie. I had my hat on but forgot my sunglasses. I didn't take a drink with me, since I had drunk plenty of water yesterday and this morning, and decided to reduce my dependency on drink during running. The park was full of families and I was the only runner (perhaps the sensible runners knew it was stupid to run at the hottest time of the day, lol). Though I did see one other runner later, a male only in shorts, going at the speed of lightning, and I was full of admiration for his energy levels under this heat. I started off well, struggling at 4mins, doing well at 7mins, and struggling hard at around 14mins. The programme advised a 20-30min easy run and I managed 20mins 02 secs, covering 3.32km. The run went better than expected, and I felt better than expected after it, not as dizzy as I thought I might be. A mistake I made today was perhaps my warm-up walk. The runners world magazine had an article about being careful not to warm up too much before a run on an excessively hot day, and I think if I had shortened my walk, I could have run for longer. 20 mins took it out of me in a big way but thankfully not to the level where I felt ill. I drank Ribena on reaching home and felt quite good about having run today. I realised this was my first run in 6 days, proper run anyway, the biggest gap I have had to date. Also, I was supposed to have done 3 20-30min easy runs this week; I did a 16min and a 20min, so am already behind schedule (which is pretty funny really, after all my talk about planning to stick strictly with the programme, I am behind with one week into it!). Having trouble accessing the great trainer website, but I know my next run is scheduled for Tuesday. I plan to go out tomorrow anyway, to catch up and get some more training time behind me. Looking back, this hasn't been the most productive running week but, as Yazz once trilled, the only way is up (yes, quoting an Eighties one-hit wonder is possibly a new low...lol). I have high hopes for the coming week, running is my main source of de-stressing. That is slightly worrying though, knowing how hard a time my runner friend is having during an injury, I wonder how I would cope without being able to run. My friend has had a lot of lows but has coped sometimes so admirably, in trying to keep busy, despite being immobile for so long. It's something I hope I don't have to go through but seeing a runner go through the trials of an injury, it's hopefully something I can learn from. Tomorrow is the start of week 2 of my programme and I am looking for a race for this month, I am missing the post-race feeling in a big way.