As I lay here on my living room floor – the reason why I’ll explain in a minute – it’s occurred to me that in just 5 days time I’ll be doing the Swansea Bay 10K. It only seems like the other week that I sent off my entry form.
Yes and why am I in my underpants on the living room floor, well it’s because I have a slight hamstring pull in my left leg and I’ve got an ice pack on it. My timing is impeccable isn’t it!
Today’s easy run of 30 minutes 16 seconds was meant to be part of my pre-10k build up, taking it easy during the last few days and just keeping things ticking over really. Aggravating an old injury really wasn’t in the grand plan.
Fingers crossed the ice pack will do the trick and after a good night’s rest – i.e. no kiddie inspired 5am wake up call – I’ll feel right as rein and ready to go about my business as normal.
I decided to go back to work today and break myself back into work mode gently rather than face a full on onslaught on Monday morning!
Thankfully the plan seemed to work as I managed to get the usual pleasantries out of the way and clear most of my stock piled Christmas/New Year emails. So hopefully come Monday things should be more relaxed – which is always a nice thought when it’s your first full week back.
No doubt I’ve just put the mockers on it now though…..
As I was in work it also meant back to having a lunchtime run along Swansea Bay and my word what a run I had today! Somehow I managed to set myself a new personal best time of 41 minute 6 second run for my regular 5 mile run.
I was all the more surprised by my time as despite having put the miles in over Christmas I personally felt that the intensity was missing. I was also feeling physically tired and the bitterly cold wind made for rather uncomfortable conditions. Still I’m chuffed to bits and am now more eager than ever to try and nail a sub-40 minute time!
Continuing with my recent spate of watching films, tonight was the turn of ”Ghost Town‘ starring Ricky Gervais. It reminded me a lot of ‘Ghost‘ but without the gorgeous Demi Moore and was considerably more funny in a way that only Ricky G could carry off. Not great but well worth watching, especially if you like/loath dentists 
We finally got our garage back to normal after I jammed the car full with all the Christmas and New Year cardboard, plastics, cartoons, surplus clothes and headed off to the local civic amenity site.
It really is amazing how much packaging accumulates over a 2 week period and judging by the number of people at the site, I was far from being the only one who felt that way! Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to see so many people using the civic amenity sites across the country, but I do wonder how much fuel, etc is being used/wasted and the environmental effect by having so many people transport their own waste to such sites.
Begs the question why the manufacturers and/or supermarkets don’t do something about the packaging materials they use at source – rather than pass it on to the customer. But hey, that’ll cost them money and cut into profits so that ain’t gonna happen is it. Cynical aren’t I.
On a more positive note, I went for my first run of 2009 today and was over the moon with my ‘achievement’. The run of 72 minutes 31 seconds was the longest continous run I have EVER done in my life and at the same time the distance of approximately 8 miles is the longest continous distance I’ve ever done.
Despite feeling leg weary at the end of it, to say I was chuffed was an undertstatement! Whilst I know it’s no mean feat really for a 37 year old man – given how many OAPs run the London Marathon, etc – it still means a heck of a lot to me personally.
Maybe my dream of running a marathon one day isn’t such a pie in the sky idea after all 
Five days on from the first serving of turkey breast and we have finally (thankfully!) finished the last few strands of the big bird. Never again will I purchase such a mammoth bird – so big it almost didn’t fit in the oven – as if I ate any more of the darn thing I swear I’d go down with turkey poisoning.
Apart from Christmas dinner, we had turkey sanwiches (spinach, salad, etc varities), turket toasties and turkey curry – arguably the nicest of the lot, apart from it’s intended Christmas dinner usage of course.
Looking on the bright side, at least that’s it for now, well until next Christmas anyway.
It’s in part thanks to my over indulgence of the turkey – not to mention the trimmings – that I’ve found my running being somewhat hard work during the last few days – or at least that’s how it feels! I felt decidedly iffy after my 56 minute 16 second workout today. Mind you if could also have been the fact that the distance of approximately six and a half miles was the most I’d done for a heck of a long time.
Finally got to catch up with coach today for a lunchtime run and was soon being put through my paces – as per usual! It was more a case of keeping up than catching up I can assure you.
The wind blowing in off Swansea Bay was strong to say the least and it made harder work of the 5 mile run than I’d experienced over the last couple of weeks. Couple that with what felt like an increased pace and I was certainly feeling leg weary over the last half mile or so.
My time of 44 minutes 22 seconds was a wee bit quicker than my last effort which considering the conditions I was more than pleased with, even if I did feel ‘shot’ at the end of it.
I did joke this afternoon that my legs felt like jelly – which in all honesty they did – but at the same time I couldn’t help but feel satisfied by how taut they felt due to the recent mileage I’ve been putting in.
Who knows, one day I might even fulfil one of my lifetime ambitions and run a marathon!