Back on track?

It’s been 4 days since my last blog and I am well and truly over my Spen 20 trauma!  I rested the day after and then decided (perhaps stupidly) to go out for a 5 miler on the Tuesday. As soon as I started running the pain in my shoulder came back and I (sensibly) decided to bail after a mile and a half.

I made a promise to myself and Bozza that I would listen to the advice I’d been given (from several medical professionals may I add) and start doing back/core strengthening exercises.  I was quite shocked at what a wimp I have become when it comes to supporting my own bodyweight! I could hold a plank for about 5 secs before collapsing in a heap and I could barely muster one chuffin press up!  I use to be able to knock out 20 of these bad boys with relative ease! In fact Bozza can vouch for that because he said he wouldn’t marry a woman who couldn’t drop and give him 20, which I promptly did on our wedding day!

We had decided to swap things around a bit following the Spen 20, so Wednesday nights run was 10 miles.  We were joined by our friend Lucy who isn’t training for anything (yet!) and was worried because she’s been ill and hasn’t been out for a while.  She had no problem knocking out a steady 10 miler in an hour and a half though! Bozza’s running tourettes had flared up again but I felt alright (makes a change) until the last mile when I thought the contents of my stomach might spill out onto the pavement! I’ve been having this terrible problem with bloating recently (just to add to my woes!) and it’s been really getting me down because it’s making me feel heavy and sloth like.  This is a dangerous situation for a recovering anorexic to be in because I feel self-consciously huge and automatically assume that I’m eating too much. On the advice of my dietician I have split my meals up so that I’m not eating too much in one sitting and overloading my stomach! This also ensures that I never get too hungry and then end up bingeing or making poor food choices.  I have also been advised to up my protein levels and eat less refined carbs.  I’m not going to obsess too much about it (I’ve done enough of that over the last 15 years) cos that just wouldn’t be healthy and I’ve taken a bit of a liking to chocolate Hob Nobs!

Thursday night was track night.  Lucy joined us again for 16 x 200m intervals.  Unfortunately when we got to the 3^rd interval Lucy had to drop out because of pain in her knee.  It must have been bad cos she’s hard as fuck!!! I was also feeling pretty hard as I was thrashing out the 200’s.  For the first time in about 6 weeks I actually enjoyed running.  I felt lighter on my feet, had less pain and was running faster.  The healthy rivalry between me and Bozza was back and I let him know I was there. I got a couple of twinges in my back so held back a little bit.  I felt like a different person both mentally and physically.

So hopefully I have weathered the storm, my form will improve and I will climb out of my running rut.  I have posted this picture of myself  finishing last year’s Leeds Abbey Dash (I can’t help but laugh every time I look at it) to inspire me to dig deep and always give it everything I’ve got!!!

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"I will not be beaten by someone in a tutu!"