Last Sunday I went for a run with my dog, Honey – it was a struggle from beginning to end (both mentally and physically). It wasn’t a long run (6.4 km) but I was feeling a bit down and Honey had serious reservations about the run (finding any opportunity to stop, sniff, scratch, and/or bark at passing dogs – abnormal behaviour – but basically she was just dragging her paws in protest! She wanted to be at the beach playing ball and I think she also knew how reluctant I was to head out as well.
But I did get out there, I kept going and finished the run (really struggled to keep going but I did it). Then, I took Honey to the beach to play ball (see below) – in the end she was shattered 😀 and I, at least, finished my run – strangely not feeling the sense of achievement I normally do, even though MapMyRun gave me a hill run position during the week ha 😀
A week later, and it’s been an intensely emotional roller coaster of a week and I’ve let running opportunities go by and experienced terrible depression and anxiety. But today I felt the tide turn and hit out on a run (without Honey) – I timed it to coincide with the peak of the full moon (just because ;P). It was a great run! I finished a very comfortable 6 km run, kept an easy pace (even with an unplanned kicker of a hill thrown in) and feel like it’s just what I’d been waiting for to keep me moving forward … and I clocked another little achievement boost from MapMyRun – Queen of the Hill I believe (hahahaha but it does actually work it’s competitive magic on me – I want to hit that hill again very soon but I’ll need to be listening to Rage Against the Machine again to get me up there!!!).
So … at the end of a tough week, a run saved me – again!
Now I just need to put together and/or find a proper training plan and stick to it.
Any ideas on fantastic half marathon training plans than include cross training and speed work days are very welcome 😀
Out of the darkroom 