It’s Saturday: Parkrun day. 

Another visit to Rutland Water Parkrun, only this morning it was very different to last week. Last week is a beautiful morning; today it was cold, wet and windy. 

It was a gentle jog round with Helen – no PBs today – for two reasons. Firstly, Helen is still recovering from a calf injury, and with her big race getting closer she needed to take it a bit easy. Secondly, I’m running the Peterborough Half-Marathon in the morning. 

Hoping for a slightly drier morning tomorrow. I don’t fancy 13 miles in the rain. 

Friday. At last. It has been a busy week, but that’s one week down. 

Run streak = 7 days

After a ridiculous meeting at school where we were told everything we already knew, and even if we didn’t already know it (which we did) we could have read it ourselves; day seven was a trip to the gym. 

35 min on the treadmill. 

I was joined at the gym by Skinny Lister, metaphorically of course (there is no way the double bass would fit on the treadmill), they have a new album out and although I’ve had it spinning a couple of times at home, having it on through the earphones at the gym meant I could really LISTEN to it. It is good. Well worth a listen. 

The gym session was followed by a trip to the pub, where I am currently writing this, whilst demolishing a bottle of wine and following it up with Jack Daniels. 

Tomorrow: Parkrun. 

I had every intention of getting out for tonight’s run on the mean streets of Bourne. I quite fancied the idea of being Rocky Balboa, the Italian stallion, pounding the Bourne ghetto. Pounding the dark, dangerous alleyways and no go areas of South Lincolnshire. 

The people’s champion. 

‘You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!’

I was going to, but it was a little bit windy and starting to drizzle with rain, so I went to the gym. 

For the last 5 weeks, every Wednesday, I’ve been taking advantage of the school facilities by grabbing a basketball and shooting some hoops in the sports hall. So today was easy – just had to incorporate a bit extra running.

All in all I ran 20 laps and scored 1000s of points. I felt like Michael Jordan…

Although it probably looked like this…

Five days in and the run streak stands at five. Lovely jubbly. 

Day 4 and continuing the theme of mixing it up I headed to the woods for a run. 

Now if you’ve clicked on this post hoping to hear about nudity in the woods, you should be ashamed. Or if you’re hoping to see me nude, you should be very ashamed.

When I say ‘semi-naked’ I actually meant no music and headphones. So I grabbed the dog hit the woods and ran. Just ran. No planned route. No planned pace. 40 mins of relaxed no pressure running. It felt good to hit the trails, they were pretty overgrown and I had to be on my toes to avoid thistles, brambles and the like. I did have my watch on to track the run, hence semi-naked, big loop of woods…

I found this wristband thingy that had a zip and place to put your key in. 

Together with my headband on to keep my hair under control, cue comedy image of the day, I looked like an 80s throwback…

Day 4 done.  

Day three done. 

One of the issues about running a lot is that it can tend to get a bit boring. So I’m attempting to mix it up over the course of the month. 

It was the gym today: 30 minute run on the treadmill; 2000m on the rower; and some cross-trainer to cool down. 

Job done.

To state the obvious: my hair is big. Throw in some sweaty exercise and it begins to look ridiculous…

Not sure what day four is going to bring…