Week Five

Tuesday - 8 miles

Wednesday - 10 miles

Saturday - 4 hours (23 miles)

I knew I had to run on Tuesday night as this was a busy week so it was with some disappointment that I noted the weather forecast:

I got home from work and straightaway put my contact lenses in, because it's easier running in rain when you don't have to worry about glasses and once they're in, you may as well go.  So off I went to one of my Top Ten Wettest Runs Ever.  Although the actually running time was only 1 hour 15 mins, I spent more than 3 hours outside, much of which was spent doing bodyweight exercises in puddles.  Any thought of sprinting goes out the window in these conditions and I just focussed on getting round, getting home, and getting in a hot shower.  It was tough but these are the runs that build resilence.  A really amazing crew and positive attitudes aplenty despite the weather.

Photo Credit: Máté Fülöp

On Wednesday I had my DMSA scan at the hospital.  There was a three hour gap between injection and photographs and this seemed like the perfect slot to squeeze my other weekly run, with the massive luxury of it being in daylight hours!  I checked with the staff and they were fine with it, so I set off straight from my appointment for a few loops of Southwark Park.  Unfortunately it rained throughout....

On Thursday I woke up with a horrible cold.  I'm not sure if this was due to the running in the rain, the recently started hospital placement, or just sitting next to someone on the tube sneezing.  In any case, I was feeling pretty rubbish and hadn't had much sleep.  I had planned a nice long run for Saturday and invited various people along, all of whom eventually had to pull out due to injury or illness.  So Friday night, I'm knackered, ill, and facing down 4 hours of tarmac running on my own.  I googled, "running with a cold" and found this article which says symptoms above the neck "don't pose a risk to runners continuing workouts".  I laid out all my kit and went to bed.

 Note new purple OMM bag with hydration, my inner running kit geek is leaping with joy at this! 

I got up at 7am, feeling rough, but determined.  On went all the kit and I headed out without even opening the curtains.  To my eternal disappointment and contrary to the weather forecast, when I went outside it was raining.  AGAIN.  What a week!  But it was too late now, I'd already taken a triple dose of immodium and my body would not be happy if I didn't run it off.

I set off and I could immediately tell that this was going to be a good run.  I found myself having to hold back because my legs were just so full of energy and power that they wanted to just GO.  I did the first few km at marathon pace: 5:36, 5:39, 5:37.  I had to force myself to slow down.  The rain wasn't bothering me, I felt strong, I was actively enjoying running for the first time in a fortnight.  Toby phoned me about 8km in and I was happy and chatty, and he kept me company until about the halfway mark.  I stopped at Hyde Park Corner to take a photo to try to show how crap the weather was, but it wasn't denting my mood at all.

By 30km in, I was thinking, "never has a long run been this easy!"  Perhaps last week's stepback week had acted like a kind of tapering?  I sailed onwards through the parks: Battersea, Hyde, Green, St James's, Southwark.  Even at the end I felt like I could've kept on going and easily finished the marathon, but I knew I didn't need to and there was no point risking injury.  It was already the longest run I'd ever done outside of a marathon, nearly 2000 calories burned, job done!

That evening, Iz was visiting me in London so we went ice-skating, possibly not the greatest idea after a 23 mile run but it was good fun and maybe even a little bit crosstraining.  By the end of the day I'd done more than 50,000 steps - definitely equivalent to a marathon race day.

On Sunday, my new-and-improved training programme had me down to do walking/cycling/swimming instead of the prescribed 3 hours run (thanks George)!  We decided on cycling, even though neither of us particularly enjoy it (!!) and it was a cold day with a bitter wind.  I thought it'd be a good idea to cycle round the Olympic Park as there were no cars and both of us are a liability on bikes.  Off we went, kicking off with an hour's walking searching for a Boris bike station (Iz berated me for not having looked up whether there even was one before we set off).  Eventually we found one.  We started cycling.  It was very, very cold.  Iz didn't have any gloves so she stole mine and my hands turned into blocks of ice.  We managed 30 minutes cycle to the Velodrome, then 30 minutes drinking hot chocolate and thawing, then 30 minutes back to the Aquatics Centre.  Not going to win any awards but hey at least I wasn't sitting on the sofa!

Hoping that next week, the weather gods will be a little kinder.  Until then, here's my fundraising link if you feel that way inclined.  Much appreciated xx