Gail Hates Running

"It's never going to be *that* bad", I said to James as the storm clouds amassed. "It can't be *that* bad".  My career in meteorology is, most definitely, not assured.  However, I have been having a real shitter of a day and if I don't go outside for a run I''m probably going to end up punching someone. I ran on Monday, but it was just a 30 minute jog round the Meadows, I'm due to run for 60 minutes today and, by Christ, do I need it.  James and I then spend the best part of an hour being indecisive (due to the insane snow showers and the gusting wind) until there's a proper break and my overriding "fuck this" gene kicks in. I brought my wet weather/ stay dry and warm kit with me. What's the worst that can happen? Safe to say that my eyes were so much bigger than my belly.  The photos don't really do it justice, but it was brutal. There were points when visibility was nil. I lost all feeling in my fingers

Ok, got to fess up, work has been mental for the past 2 weeks and I have, yet again, been utterly rubbish at updating this blog. I promise promise pinky swear promise, that I will be better on the coming week. Honest, Guv'. Training has been going well. I'm now comfortably running for over 2 hours on my long runs - did my first ever half marathon distance last Sunday (2hrs and 3minutes) and this week, I took an energy gel mid long run for the first time AND I didn't spew. Very impressed about that. This week I'm off to Chester and the week after, I'm off to Aberdeenshire, so I will have to work out my long routes before the respective Saturdays. Today I ran with a waist pack, which one of my work chums lent me (THANK YOU DENISE xx) and on the back of that, I've ordered one off Amazon and it should be here in time for this week's long run. Today was a lot slower than last week, but training called for 2 hrs slow, so that's what I did, plus

Massive confession: I've been a real lazy shite this week in terms of blog record keeping.  But most importantly, I haven't been lazy in training. So I'm shit, but not totally shit. Following on from the "big run round the fucking big hill" last Saturday, I was pretty knackered. More worryingly, my calves were killing me: really tight and twinging when I walked, regardless of how much stretching and foam rolling I did. That's what led me to the swimming pool on Sunday. I really really really dislike swimming. Mainly because I'm so utterly rubbish at it. However I found that after 20 minutes of laps and a good ten minutes in the sauna, I felt miles better. I've also been trying to increase the amount of conditioning and stretching work I've been doing, so I'm becoming a regular face at the 0630 Tribe Yoga classes. Not only have I found that it's helping with my overall flexibility, it's really good for setting me up for the rest