Loving it slow!

If you had told me a month ago that I would have recaptured my passion for running then I wouldn't have believed you. I was finding running mentally and physically difficult. The fact that my weight had shot up over Christmas didn't help. The biggest problem was that we were training at a much too high pace - something my body and mind found all too stressful. When you aren't fit you worry about the effort involved - this makes you tense and makes the training ever harder. This is something I usually encounter when I mountain bike with my brothers (and brother-in-law), who are all considerably lighter than me...I get stressed (and tense) before I even begin the bike ride. It was the same running with Jo at the start of the year as she is a faster runner than me whereas I like to go slow but far :)

Somewhere along the line Jo and I slowed down our pace drastically. It made a huge difference to our enjoyment factor. It can still be difficult mentally, because it takes so long to complete a run at the slower pace, but physically you relax and begin to enjoy it. My tip for anyone wanting to try running is that no pace is too slow, even if you think you can walk at the pace you are jogging at it doesn't matter.

Since I injured my ankle on Tuesday I was craving going out for a run. You know your training is going right if you miss it when you don't do it whereas if you are relieved when you get injured then you probably needed a break anyway. I'm glad to report that I was able to take part in and complete our Sunday run of 21 kilometres. We ran to and around Greenwich park again, doing three loops of the hill (not quite the Rockies, but it's a start). My ankle did hurt a little when we started the run, but the pain faded by about 5k. In fact I think my ankle hurts more when I walk on it, rather than running on it! The injury was actually a big confidence booster - to know you can still run when you have a niggling injury feels good to know.

So in summary another good week, and happy to report it's getting warmer. We even ran without jackets on Sunday....yippee. I love the heat :)

Thanks for reading, please feel free to post a comment.