Ten miles later

Last week I ran 9 miles and hated at least 4 miles of it – I struggled to run, I was in pain and I was caught up with fighting the voice in side my head (which by the way is very whiney and is a massive quitter), but I ran it and I completed it.

Unfortunately that bad run haunted me all week because the niggly knee pain on the run on sun became actual painful knee pain on Monday. By Tuesday it was no better so rather than attempting to run I was following a strict regime of ice, stretches and some ibuprofen. I missed 2 runs this week but managed to do a slow 3 miles on Friday during which I had only a small amount of pain.

So maybe it was the extra few days rest, or the blissfully hill-less course we chose, or the warm sunny day, or the fact that I implemented a “positive mental outlook” tried to think very positive thoughts the whole time while running (and when that failed at mile 9 I turned my music up super loud so I couldn’t hear my own whinging!)……but I ran 10 miles yesterday and it was nowhere near as awful as last weeks 9. Wahoo for progress!

I borrowed Kathy's running belt and carried gatorade endurance in one bottle, water in the other and a GU in the other - first time trying the GU and it had the most disgusting texture but didn't taste too bad but I don't know how much I like them - also carried my ridicously oversized phone which is such a pain to carry on runs but it's my only music and GPS tracking source unfortunately. And yes that is a selfie in a bathroom at the high way point - oh the shame!

[Also: I managed to run all 10 miles at a sub 10 min/mile pace which is fantastic! So if in a year from now I’m struggling to run and telling myself I can’t run I want to remember those 10 for 10 miles and if in a year from now I’m super fast (unlikely but I can dream!) I want to remember how hard I worked to get there.]