It is a marathon not a sprint!!

So, nearly four weeks have passed since my slog around Alice Holt which was the subject of my last blog.

Here is my progress report:

Weight loss: 0
Lake District holidays: 1
Easter eggs consumed: classified
10k races completed: 1
Minutes improvement in 10k race time: 5
Hamstring status: still irritatingly niggly

Starting with the highlights, on 14 April I ran (yes, I ran!!) the Bushy Spring 10k.  Not one step of walk and 5 minutes faster than my Alice Holt slog.  I must confess, knowing I was going to write this blog definitely helped me to resist the little (loud) voice in my head that kept suggesting how lovely it would be to walk for a little bit.  And it was all worth it because this was the medal!!

I do like my bling!!

I should perhaps mention that I have committed to completing one 10k race per month for the whole of 2019.

This is because the "race effect" allows me to silence or at least ignore the "why don't you walk" voice which accompanies me on all my runs.  One day I hope to be able to leave that voice at home, but that day is still some way off.


The next "official" 10k is the Vitality London 10,000 on 27 May so over four weeks to start whittling away at those kilograms!!

Now for the "could try harder" part of the report - yes, I know, no weight loss is not very impressive.  Although, with a Lake District holiday and Easter could I get some credit for no weight gain??  No, I thought not.

At least the holiday indulgence was somewhat mitigated by walking for three or four hours a day as well as running my favourite ever route, which goes from Chapel Stile to Skelwith Bridge and back.  If you ever find yourself in the Lake District with some running kit then do check it out - it is just over 7k and is stunningly beautiful.

I even got to run with (or at least past) some sheep!!

We left the swimming to our dog, Pristine, here she is enjoying her sploshing!!

Hopefully all the pretty pictures have distracted you from my lack of impressive progress.  On the plus side, my hamstring finally seems to be improving which means I can now run up hills without pain, and also that I can start doing a bit more running, which has got to be a good thing!!

I will leave you with a couple of inspirational quotes from my friend Monica:

"We are all happy to be lazy but let's not be lazy."
"Does anything actually hurt?  If not, push yourself!!"

We all need a friend like Monica!!