0 to 16.6

I got up yesterday morning with a target for the day in mind. I wanted to complete 16 miles. I decided I'd try for 10 miles easy run/walk in 2 hours, come home and have a bath and some food then go out and do 6 miles walk. Graeme asked me what my plan was for the day and I told him I was just going to see how it goes. After all, the longest time I have spent on my feet since the beginning of December in Grand Cayman is only one hour (which got me to just under 6 miles). I'm good at getting the mileage up quickly after injury, but I have also learnt to judge wisely. I suppose that's why I haven't done more than 6 miles yet... I know I haven't been up to the challenge!

I had breakfast and went out on my planned 3:3 run/walk. It was lovely and sunny and it felt great to be out. I knew within half a mile I would do what I had planned in my head. I felt really good. I ran a route I hate, but it's one of those routes that when I'm fit enough to run it, it gets my head in a good place. It's not that it's a difficult route... only mildly undualting, but I just don't like it. I have to say it's the only time I've ever ran this and enjoyed it. I just took my time and didn't care about the pace or the time it would take me. I used my Gymbos so I didn't have to clock watch and had set it up for the 3 minute interval alarms. My legs had been really really tired since Thursday (probably from the squat session) and I was concerned it would be painful running but I can honestly say I only really noticed it on the uphills in the last 4 miles. When I got home I had done 10.6 miles... give or take, and it had taken about 2 hours 2 minutes.

I had a bath and my recovery drink and Graeme made me some vegetable soup. The second I had finished eating it, I was back outside, armed with a bottle of lime and lemon Lucozade. I wore my Garmin but I didn't pay any attention to it. I didn't try to walk fast, I just bimbled along and did 6 miles in around 1 hour 35 minutes. (So, averaging about a 16 minute mile without any effort at all).

I expected to be in a world of pain and got home and stretched and rolled all the places that I know I'm prone to suffering from. I felt fine, although a tad stiff. Today I woke up feeling absolutely fine, which I'm astonished at. I did my deadlifts this afternoon and had a sauna, so I'm chilling out for the rest of the day now. I get to have my takeaway curry tonight as a treat. Last night we all went to a comedy club and seeing as I'm taking all of this training rather seriously, I chose to drive so I wouldn't be tempted to drink. Ironically, the only person to give me shit over it was Graemes' brother Paul. Surprising considering he knows how important getting back fit is to me. The complete pissheads in the group found it admirable I was sticking to my guns, but Paul accused me of not having a good time because I couldn't drink. Incidentally, I had a great night.. we will put that down to Paul being shitfaced and not being able to see properly I think! Or maybe it's him who would find a night out impossible to enjoy alcohol free?