Week 4 Days 3 & 4. Gotta be a loose fit...

Another glorious morning run down to the barrage.  Blue sky reflected in the bay and the sea beyond the barrage, air crisp and life affirming, nature abounding, morning bustle, coffee toting, trainer wearing, suit clad city waking, enter password, logging in.

With the arrival of the first frost I dug out a long sleeved top from the back of the wardrobe.  It's about 2 sizes too big for me but I love it.  I don't mind tight fitting stretchy running kit as long as it's covered by something else that's not so clingy.  There's nothing worse than lycra clad blubber on display, a trait saddly common amongst the 'road bike' cycling fraternity, I'm afraid.

Thinking about this popped the Happy Monday's, Loose Fit into my head, which I found very useful running music.  It's amazing what can spark off a song in your head and I've even found myself adapting the lyrics of a song with a particular tempo to fit my running rhythm.  Running (or walking for that matter) with headphones outside is a no-no for me.  I like to be able to hear everything that's around me.  I don't know how people can cut themselves off like that.  It can't be safe.

Any road up, it was another 8 miler, covered in 1:18, and put a spring in my step for the rest of the day.

Later, that same day...

Having been shown the correct way to do the various tortures that make up my gym session, I tackled them on my own.  I have to say that I'm very business-like when it comes to following a routine like this.  I don't faff around and I try to get it over and done with as efficiently as possible.  My garage isn't a place to linger when you've not got a job to do in there, and shorts are definitely not the order of the day now that the nights are drawing in.

The 21s (bicep curls) with the 9kg dumbbells are still a teeth gritting, back arching experience on the last set, but I'm determined to master them.  My hamstring curls are a lot better since Bryan watched me do them on Wednesday.  It's all well and good looking at someone do them on YourTube but you need somebody to point out the difference between what you think you're doing and what you're actually doing.  Ooh, feel that burn!

I did a gym session on it's own on Thursday so that I didn't have to do one after a long run on Sunday.  Sitting here typing this, I'm glad I did.  The prospect of getting changed again and fighting the cobwebs and the cold isn't the most appealing at this precise moment.

Talking of the Sunday long run, it wasn't that long really.  We'd intended to go up to Castell Coch, which is about 10 miles up the Taff Trail but we had to take a bit of a detour for a pit stop, if you catch my drift.  We ended up doing just over 9 miles in about 1:25 or so, I haven't uploaded the proper time yet, from my watch.  On the way home, we decided to pop along to watch the end of the Cardiff Half Marathon, in which Bryan was running.  We didn't have time to have a shower and get changed so we stopped off at home to sloosh the pits (I was most definitely pongy by this point), dump the soggier of our kit and grab a fleecey top each before jogging down to the finish line to cheer home Bryan and quite a few of the other 8,000 runners.

D'boy done good, getting the time he'd expected.  If you're reading this, Mr Shelbourne - well done, mate.

Now that I've discovered how to embed YouTube clips, I've got to leave you with the Monday's...