Runstreak Day #358 - one week left...

... and yet another very sensible run today because my back is still bad and keeps on seizing up if I stay put for too long.  Ouch!

And exactly the same route as yesterday and the day before.  It's the flattest couple of miles I can manage from my house and not get too far from home in case my back gives completely.  It might be boring, but sometimes it's quite nice to just switch off.  There was one moment where an over-powered car went by too loud, too fast and too close which triggered an accident flashback... but other than that, my mind just drifted.

I think that's something that's happened since starting this running streak almost a year ago.  I have had great runs.  I've had atrocious ones.  But actually, I'm okay with being in my own head when I'm running these days.  I don't need music.  I know my routes.  I can switch off.  It's been so important for me in the last couple of months to have that.  When I started the runstreak, I wasn't in that place with my running.  I was more interested in increasing my pace.  Going further.  Doing more.  Now, I don't really care.  I just love running for the sake of running.  I'm curious as to what else I could do, but it doesn't drive me.

Above all, doing a long runstreak has taught me to value the next day's run as much as today's.  I don't jeopardise tomorrow's run by taking risks I can't manage today.  So, yes, my back is painful... and I've still got problems with my energy, with my ankle, with my neck and shoulders... but I am running really gently right now, and that's physically manageable... and the benefits running gives me when dealing with PTSD are immeasurable.

Short, sensible, free.  I still have something that's me.  I'm glad I started my runstreak to make running such a normal part of my life that it's able to give something back to me when I've needed it.

Geeky stats stuff

Distance:	2.13 mi
Time:	17:58
Avg Pace:	8:27 min/mi
Elevation Gain:	83 ft

Runstreak Day #252 - rules of runstreaking

Almost too tired to run today.  But, that's not an excuse not to run.  In fact... while I think of it, here are my 'rules for runstreaking'

1.  Focus only on the day in hand, but try to stay fit enough to run tomorrow
2.  Do not slavishly follow a training plan, if you don't feel like doing a certain distance, don't do it
3.  Vary your routes
4.  Listen to your body
5.  There are no valid excuses for not running, if there's a genuine reason, you'll know it
6.  The weather doesn't matter
7.  The light doesn't matter
8.  Don't get hung up on pace - there's always another day to try to go faster
9.  Focus on your form. Sloppy running = more risk of injury = not worth it
10. Take 'active rest days' where you run slower, easier routes

Straight forward!  Well, sometimes you don't really feel like it, and then, like today, I just end up doing a 'make it up on the spot' route and seeing where I feel like going - a combination of rules 3, 4 and 5 today!.  I ended up braving a steep hill again and that wasn't too terrible.  And running down it I concentrated on staying relaxed as I ran so as not to strain my 'please don't get bad again' knee.  If you'd been near me, you'd have heard me chanting under my breath 'relax, relax, relax' as I ran down it!!

Plus, I had the added bonus of seeing a slightly-worse-for-wear bloke wandering into someone else's garden and peeing up their wall.  It's those kind of quality experiences that make a random run such a pleasure!

And then I got home and sweated so much that I was walking around the house in my own puddle.  Day 252... a thing of beauty.

Which is why I've earned my lovely cuppa cha!

Geeky stats stuff

Distance:	3.36 mi
Time:	27:58
Avg Pace:	8:20 min/mi
Elevation Gain:	155 ft

Runstreak Day #199 - what run streaks are made of

If you don't run every day, you run when you fancy a run.  Or when your plan tells you to have a run.  Or when you think you *should* run.  Or when your club / running partner has arranged a run.  And the mantra of 'REST DAYS ARE AS IMPORTANT AS RUN DAYS' pounds through your head.  If, on the other hand, you are a bit crackers and *do* run every day, then there is no such thing as a 'rest' day.  There are just days.  Some days you have a bucketload of energy.  Some days you don't have so much.

And then there are those days when you just don't think you have any energy left, when you've had a day that was jam packed... when you've walked for miles and you just fancy slobbing in a chair for the rest of the evening.  It's those days where you still get your running kit on, chuck yourself out of the door and somehow find the energy to get your legs moving again... and get 5k done... those are the days when you know you've been runstreaking for so long that you have no excuses left to get out of going for a run.

Which was today.

And I even ran up the stupidly steep hill.  The hill which makes cyclists get off and walk.  The hill which gains you an audience every time you try to run up it.  That hill.  With these tired legs *points downwards*.  Yeah... in your face, stupidly steep hill.  Me 1 : Hill 0  :o)

Someone asked me the other day if I'd ever been injured while I've been doing my runstreak.  The answer is 'no'.  'Do you stretch?', 'Don't your knees hurt?',  I get asked a lot.  'You must have a good stretching routine', another person will say.  'Ermmm... I stretch a bit', I reply... knowing that most of the time I probably do a little stretch here or there, but nothing particularly grown up or clever.

Running every day is definitely not for everyone.  But neither is it that special either.  It just becomes one of those things you do.  When you've run out of excuses and all that's left is running.  So you run.

Today I ran.  Tomorrow will be Day 200.  I'll be running then too.  You just watch me.

Tea?  Yes please!

Geeky stats stuff

Distance:

3.18 mi

Time: 26:16 Moving Time: 26:16 Elapsed Time: 29:36 Avg Pace: 8:15 min/mi Avg Moving Pace: 8:16 min/mi Best Pace: 7:00 min/mi

Runstreak Day #193 - 193 would be a stupid number to finish my runstreak on... right?

Day One Nine Three
Rhymes with pee
Cuz let me tell you this
Running can be a-maze-balls
Or just like drinking pi...

...tiful amounts of tea and not feeling very happy about that at all, no siree.

What the heck was the matter with me today? My preparation for going for a run went like this:

1. Go to loo
2. Put on running shorts
3. Sit down and arse about on Facebook a bit
4. Mooch off and find sports bra
5. Sit down and arse about on Facebook a bit more
6. Put on sports bra
7. Swear at the clasp
8. Succeed in doing up bra.
9. Facebook break earned.
10. Put on running top
11. Toilet. Again.
12. Facebook
13. Socks on
14. Socks off. Vaseline on sore bit on foot.
15. Socks back on.
16. Facebook
17. Amble into bathroom. Clean teeth.
18. Eat a handful of granola.
19. Clean teeth again.
20. Facebook. Girl deserves a rest.
21. Trainers on.
22. Wee break.
23. Sit down. Glare at husband who's just made a cuppa. For himself.
24. Facebook.
25. Debate finishing runstreak.
26. Decide 193 would be a stupid number to finish on.
27. Arse about on Facebook a bit more.
28. Satisfyingly high score on Bejeweled achieved.
29. Turn on Garmin. No signal = no run.
30. Signal. Damn.
31. And... run.

... and that is how you prepare for a run. When you REALLY don't fancy it.

The run itself was... how shall I put this? A bag of old cack.

Went a really random route. Couldn't decide if I wanted to tackle hills or not, and then ended up running up and down and up and down just through sheer dithering and not planning carefully enough to avoid the hills!

Towards the end I was busily sweating and planning which of the steep side roads to go up (a) very steep, b) not quite so steep c) steepish) when a guy yelled 'GO! GO! GO!!!' at me with massive enthusiasm. I managed a fake smile and pretended to be a gazelle for my appreciative audience, opted for the least worst option of the hills to get back home again... and whipped around the corner as quick as I could... and then stopped to catch my breath. Out of sight. Obviously.

Day 193. Let us never speak of each other again.

Oooh! My tea has reached optimal drinking temperature. Happy days!

Why parents should run... Runstreak Day #102

Runstreak Day #102... a very slow run as I - and I don't know quite how I did it - managed to strain my hip and shin yesterday. Walking. Not even running! I walked about 9 miles to and from train stations and am hobbling today. All those miles of running and it's walking that does me in!!

Anyway, I managed it - about a mile and three-quarters (have lowered my lower limit to a mile a day!), squeezed in a steep hill and got myself home in one piece.

Cutest thing of the day? I was at a conference in Birmingham and my daughter sent me a text message to say she'd done me a running book! I got home and it's ace! The front cover is a picture of 'mummy is running'. Then it says 'I love my mummy'...

'After her run she sits in her green chair. Then she has a shower... After her run mummy dos a run calander. (on her computer)' (complete with picture of me at a computer, smiling...

'She liked doing runing wen thers blue sky... and sun... she likes doing long runs... somtimes she dos not wear her gloves'

'What mummy needs to do her runing... her pink runing top... runing trouzers... her gloves... her traners... her Buff' - and everything's all drawn out and labelled. Awwwww! 

We run for ourselves... and we run because the little people in our lives notice that we run - and they get to see being active and healthy as normal. And that's awesome.

As is tea. That's awesome too. 

Geeky stats stuff

Distance:	1.64 mi
Time:	15:09
Avg Pace:	9:16 min/mi

Time:	15:09
Moving Time:	15:10
Elapsed Time:	15:09

Avg Pace:	9:16 min/mi
Avg Moving Pace:	9:16 min/mi
Best Pace:	7:59 min/mi

Runstreak Day #100 - 100!!!!! Blimey!!

100 not out!!!

WOOOOOO HOOOOO!!!

100 days of trainers worn
Of pounding out the miles
100 days of winter rain
And getting soaked in style.

100 days of being beeped
By blokes in big white vans
100 times my Garmin's bleeped
And tracked me as I ran.

100 days to happy dance
And celebrate my bod
100 days where folks have thought
I'm either mad or odd.

100 days of victories
With happy cups of tea
100 days of freedom
And joy in being me.

100 days of washing
My sweaty stinky kit
100 days of getting out
Even when I felt like sh...
...elving the running
And lounging round the house instead.

I've done well over 300 miles since we started, my speed and distance have improved and I've braved Parkrun for the first time, gone to a running group, run with friends and found a new running buddy as well as entered a couple of half marathons.

What a difference a hundred days makes... 

Geeky stats stuff

Distance:	3.12 mi
Time:	27:16
Avg Pace:	8:45 min/mi

Time:	27:16
Moving Time:	27:16
Elapsed Time:	27:16

Avg Pace:	8:45 min/mi
Avg Moving Pace:	8:44 min/mi
Best Pace:	6:48 min/mi