Guest Post by Mike S
Hi everyone, so I’m still going with my 4 mile challenge (4 miles, 30 mins including 3 mins of walking.) I’m going to be completely honest and say things have gone backwards but I do have some good excuses!
By last time I’d gotten up to 3.92 and looked like it was any day now that if get to the target. Then life got in the way and along came the latest addition to our family – baby Oliver (we already have a 3 yet old called Emily.) Combine this with the heat in our home ‘gym’ (the oven shed sauna of death) and it’s been pretty hard to squeeze in any running at all! Every time I got on the treadmill and managed to squeeze in a half hour run it felt like a small victory – even if I was basically walking with my eyes shut! Just keep running right?! It’s also worth noting that I’ve been drinking a lot of jack Daniels and coke and eating about a kg of chocolate every day as comfort for lack of sleep so the fact that I’m able to waddle down to the shed and roll onto the treadmill is a miracle!
Yesterday I managed to get some time in to go for a run – Oliver was asleep and Emily at nursery and if booked a day off work so the Stars had aligned! So I hopped on the treadmill and decided today I would break my record! Bold considering the times over the last few weeks contained more DNFs than anything else – ah well fortune favours the brave! Well… Actually it doesn’t, after about 5 mins I was sweating buckets and pretty much dead on my feet. I had to put my hands on the treadmill to keep me from falling and also rapidly reduced the pace to what can only be described as a brisk walk. I started giving myself a hard time – how had I gotten so lazy and slow so fast? I’m rubbish! I’m going to be fat and slow forever!
Does anyone else do this?! When I’m having a ‘bad’ run I give myself a really hard time and sometimes it can actually be a bit depressing going for a run – especially if you have to abort as it feels like such a waste of time. Anyway, this all took place in the space of about 1 minute until I decided to pull myself together and just get on with it! I cranked up the walk a little after and decided to just enjoy it a bit more – after all some exercise is better than none right?! Then a bit more, then a bit more until actually I was running quite quickly at the end – finishing with a moderately successful 3.62 miles. I actually didn’t give a monkeys about the distance or my target distance – I just enjoyed beating myself (not as weird as it sounds) – pushing through the the pain barrier and finishing. So I didn’t get to 4 miles but I was running on no sleep, powered by rubbish food and Jack Daniels so simply not falling on my face and dying is a win!
Anyway, I’m not giving up and tomorrow I’m going back to do the 4am feed with Oliver and then go for a run after. Obviously I will learn my lesson, take it slow and not try and go for the PB… Honest!
Times:
16 June – 3.29
18 June – 3.31
20 June – (aborted – early morning fatigue)
22 June – 3.79
23 June – Oliver born!
29 June – 3.14
1 July – abort too hot
3 July – 3.59
6 July – 2.13 Oliver cry abort
11 July – 3.62