Week Three - Going Places

Week threeeeeee. Great news. 

Pulled up pretty well after Sunday's 8 and a bit miler - feeling good in my body and with every run and week that I can tick off the more confident I am getting that my knee is good to go. If I could do the hands up celebration emoji on here, now would be a good time for it.

With that confidence, I've started to think about which charity I'd like to raise money for. There are few greater motivators than making a difference, however small, for any of the great charities that do amazing things for us, our families and friends. I'll never forget a literal double decker bus of British Heart Foundation guys going absolutely mental for people running the Great North Run at about 11 miles. It makes such a difference when you're beginning to flag/hate life - be it during the lengthy training or the actual day itself.

In the past I have ran for the British Heart Foundation and also Balls To Cancer raising around £1,250 which is a-m-a-z-i-n-g so I'm really keen to get something tangible out of this and hopefully do something good for a deserving cause.

I have a few ideas in mind about possible charities, but I'm interested to hear from anyone who has any suggestions too. I might do some mad vote in a few weeks (no electoral college system used by BQ). But yeh, let me know.

So, week three.

Run #6 - Tuesday 17th January

The absolute definition of a recovery run this one. Which I think is the point. Drifted through the first few miles at over 9 mins per mile then picked it up once I had loosened up a bit. But yeh, no dramas, all good.

Run #7 - Friday 20th January

Big news kids, today marked the start of FRIDAY MORNING RUN CLUB! It's an attempt to break up the monotony of running at night after work around the same streets near home. So it goes like this; drag my sorry state out of bed at 5.45am, get in to running attire and drive to work. Drop my shit off at my desk (with the wonderfully glamorous running gear and my work coat playing off each other like a dream), do a quick warm up and zoom off in to the Nottingham morning. I can't tell you how nice it is to run somewhere different. I also can't tell you how worth it is to be up, running and in full flow when the sun starts to come up on a clear sky morning. It's the bomb.  It also took a good two miles for me to feel my fingers but that's ok. 50 mins (as per the plan) at a rollicking 8.01 mins per mile for 6.28 miles. Good start to the morning. Now time for some New Ways scrambled eggs on toast and a day of Jelly Babies.

An 80 minute stint awaits on Sunday which should be ten miles or so. Out tomorrow night for a birthday in London sooo let's hope that gin offers good fuel properties. 

*Note to self - remember to rehydrate self on the train back on Sunday.

**Note to all - membership to BQ Friday Morning Run Club is one chocolate bar a week, if you are mental, see you at D90.

Run #8 - Sunday 22nd January

Well, considering I was in McDonalds at 2.30am this morning and dancing pretty keenly to big bangers in the hours preceding, today's run has gone remarkably well! I was wise enough to have a lot of fluids (and a Galaxy Salted Caramel) in the hours leading up to setting off so by the time I got out the door I felt ok and hallelujah, there was even some daylight to enjoy.

First things first - look at that bloody average pace! Target time BOSSED. 

And it felt comfortable in doing so, so that's a real plus point. This route was quite hilly so that can account for the fluctuating mile times, whilst I am pleased the knees felt pretty good both going up and down the hills. Ten miles is quite a distance (only sixteen to go - CRY) and it was June that I last covered that much distance. Did a few more mins than the 80 slated, but my sister was picking me up at the ten mile mark and I really couldn't be bothered to walk it. Soz plan. 

Much like Friday morning, it is so nice to run new and different routes. 

So on to Week Four which is pretty similar to this one I think, maybe a few more miles in total than the 20 of this week.

Things are a movin'...

Cheers.