Week 2, Day 3 - One Fell Swoop...

I didn't want to get up this morning.  Although I'd slept soundly, I don't think I'd recovered from the lack of sleep on the previous night.  My wife didn't want to go running with me either.

As I made breakfast, I juggled the training schedule around in my head.  Core and strength stuff now then run later?  Just the core and strength stuff, full day tomorrow, long run Sunday?

I took the tray back upstairs for our usual breakfast in bed, still half asleep and none the wiser.

As I leaned back to let breakfast settle it occurred to me that the DVD we'd hired last night would need taking back to the shop - a good mile and a bit away.  Problem solved.  Run to Blockbuster, drop the DVD off and then carry on to do an old hilly route I used to run regularly.

In case you're interested, the DVD was Angels and Daemons with Tom Hanks and Ewan McGregor.  I'd not seen the Da Vinci Code film but read the book and this film was unmistakably Dan Brown.  Bloody awful.  It was like reading an essay by a precocious 12 year old, who'd done a lot of research and really wanted to let you know that fact.  I haven't seen a performance like that of Ewan McGregor's since I last saw The Wooden Tops.

Rant over.

Meanwhile, back at the training schedule...

...DVD jettisoned in the Quick Dropoff box and head for the first and worst hill.  Penylan hill in Cardiff is a great hill to run up.  It's long, steep in places and when you get to what you think is the top, you realise that there's a fair way to go until you start to go down again.  I was knackered when I passed the water tower and started to decsend but I kept going.  I haven't done hills for ages, so this was a bit of a test for me.  I passed the test but only just.  I've still got a way to go if I'm to get anywhere near as fit as I used to be.

Running on my own was quite nice for a change.  You can change your pace or even the route on a whim, which I did several times on this occasion.

The dead foot thing came back again but I was half expecting it as my calves were quite tight.  I pushed on all the same, determined not to let it bother me and completed the 6.26 miles in 57:19 and with a negative split.

Flushed with success, I decided to tackle the gym session as soon as I got home.  No need to warm up, but I did a fair bit of stretching, concentrating on the calves and the hammies and then puffed, grunted and swore my way through the list of torture that is my core, stability and strength routine.

Rest day tomorrow and then a long run on Sunday.

As you may have noticed, I've added some feedback buttons to the end of the blog.  It would be nice to know what you think.

Cheers.