So here I am back with another blog about my (tough) tough mudder journey, as the title may suggest, it’s not really going that well! I am now finishing up on week 5 and am feeling that exercising is taking over my entire life! I don’t feel like I get any me time to just chill? I am out every single night doing something, whether it be my classes or my couch to 5k app and to be honest it is becoming a chore for me and I am not enjoying it. I am hoping that I am just having an off week and it will start to get better. I have battled through the week because I know if I throw it all in this week it will be so hard for me to get back into it.
Let’s start with Monday! Monday night is clubbercise night, my 45 minutes of high intensity dancing/work out, I love my classes and although Mondays are always a little bit of rush I am always glad once I’m there. This week I burnt 346 calories, a definite improvement on last weeks 302!My sister on the other hand always does so well in classes! She easily burns at least 100 calories more than me! ? I need to know her secret, I work just as hard (honest)….
So Tuesday saw me tackle my first run of the week! I can’t say I was particularly up for going out after getting home from work, especially after I saw it was raining! Seriously I can’t think of anything worse than running in the rain! And it was the really fine rain too (you know the type that gets you soaked really quickly) so I was thinking ? ‘do I really want to run tonight’ .?.luckily my lovely mum was on hand to kick my butt into gear and get me motivated (plus our little Westie Daisy was desperate to head out for her nightly walk) so I got my head in the game and got ready! I was totally prepared for tonight too! run playlist? fitbit? couch to 5k app?. Tonight I was going to have to run twice for 8 minutes with one 5 minute walk in-between! (Plus of course the standard warm up and cool down both 5 minutes each).I decided tonight to stick to running on the concrete path, I wondered if I might find it easier than running on the grass especially on such a wet night when I knew the ground would be really soggy. Unfortunately where I run there isn’t really a lot of concrete paths to choose from…. well actually there’s just one! So I was in for a boring 30 minutes running up and down the same path! I do find the warm up and cools downs a bit boring on the app, 5 minutes is too long! Anyways as soon as started my first 8 minute run I knew I was doing well, I was completely focused, and felt like my pace was better than usual, in my head I knew that 8 minutes would roughly be 2 and bit songs 3 at most so I had something to count down against. Don’t get me wrong I am always so pleased when it’s time for the walk, although that happiness is short lived! When I got to my 2nd 8 minute run my stamina had dropped but my determination was still there, I just knew that no matter how much legs ached or how much I felt my lungs were going to explode I just knew that I had to keep going until I heard my app tell me I was done and begin cool down, I just tried to stay as focused as I could and tune right into the music, just as I didn’t think I could take another step Rachel Plattens ‘fight song’ started playing on my iPod and as absolutely cheesy as it sounds it really did give me that extra push to keep going! My legs did nearly give way when I heard the cool down beep in but I was so happy I didn’t give up when I quite easily could have. I was happy with the calorie burn too!
I do wonder if I am the only person who struggles with running? I see people out running all the time, or I hear people talk about how they had never run before but are now doing a marathon or something, and I just think to my self ‘why am I struggling so much’ and ‘will it get any easier’.
So now it’s Wednesday and tonight I can’t be bothered Luke’s called to say he’s going to be late home from work, I don’t really want to run without him, so I had a bit of it a dilemma! However I won’t be able to fit 3 runs in this week or the gym so I pretty much knew it was tonight or never, so I got it together and decided that I might as well just get it over with (plus luke did say that he’d be home before I got back so would start dinner….. that’s a winner for me!) when I got to the field I could see it was occupied by someone else(how dare they)I couldn’t tell if they were male or female all I could see was their torch flashing up and down(bit off putting really) Now like I explained before it’s a big field but it’s so dark up there and really eerie (I know I’ve mentioned this before) So I decided once again to stick to the concrete path, but to be honest I was so aware of the random person walking up and down flashing a torch, my mind wasn’t really on it. When I saw that they didn’t have a dog I couldn’t help wondering why they were up there at that time of night on their own! Okay okay so any logical person might reason with the fact that they too could be doing a couch to 5 k app, training for a tough mudder maybe, but not me!… No I had convinced myself that it was Michael Myers or some other serial killer! (I watch way too many horrors!) So now by this point I’m nervous, and had to keep one eye on the axe murderer and one eye on what I was doing, well clearly I was too worried about the weird person walking up and down the field to have my head in the game! So I struggled a lot!….. the whole way through! Tonight i was tackling 2x 10 minutes runs with a 5 minute walk in between My god I found this so difficult, I had a stitch most of the way through and my back really ached from the 5 minute walk point (after the first run) right to the very end, it was really quite painful, I wonder if this was because I was more tense than usual? Anyways I battled through and made it to the very end, but I just think if I felt like this after a 10 minute run what am I going to be like for 30 minutes!!! It’s getting tougher and tougher!!?
Oh I did finally get to see who was also occupying the field too, I’m going to just say she (still could be a he) resembled Miss trunchball from Matilda….. she appeared to be practicing her shot put! So now we know.
Thursday was another great clubbercise class, although a bit annoying that my Fitbit had a melt down and didn’t record my cal burn! I’m sure I must have done around 350 though!
I confess that Friday I didn’t get home until 10.30 pm…. so no run, although I knew I wouldn’t get another run in, but was happy with the 2 I did.
Saturday was another productive day/non productive…. Luke had a car service booked in for 8am, and I had a nail appointment at 10.30am, I also some valentines shopping to do while in town before meeting back up with Luke for lunch. We then made a surprise visit to see my Nanna, its crazy that she lives around 20 minutes drive from me but yet I don’t see her enough, general day to day things get in the way and then before you know it another week has passed! It was nice to see her for a little chat. I then decided to give the gym a miss (very non productive) and instead went off to the cinema with Luke, my mum and his mum. I couldn’t resist going to watch rings (follow up too the ring) I wouldn’t recommend it though, it failed to make me jump, but it was nice to all spend some time together.
So now it’s Saturday evening, I am feeling a little guilty about the white chocolate buttons and popcorn I’ve eaten today (surely I’m allowed one naughty day?) I have been talking to Teresa (my tough mudder buddy) and she is actually feeling the same as I do at the moment, like this is all one big chore that we are not enjoying. At the moment I feel like I have signed my self up for something much bigger than I’m prepared for, I’m not really sure what I thinking to be honest, just wish I was starting to find it easier, and more enjoyable and I also wish I could see some improvement and results but at the moment nothing and it’s not very encouraging. Next week I should be tackling a 15 run and one 20 minute run which I am already not looking forward too.
I’m going to switch off now, have some dinner and chill (chill time at last) no work out tomorrow either hopefully after 3 days off I will hit next week with a more positive attitude.
Thanks for reading everyone, I really appreciate the views and comments and likes. I’m hopefully going to upgrade my site at the end of month….so watch this space….
Until next week that’s me littlemisskeepingitreal ?
I think running always starts out as feeling like a chore. I hated it when I started. Now, with a broken ankle, I miss it every single day.
For a little inspiration, if you have the time, read “Born to Run” by Chrisptopher McDougall. It really got me fired up when I was starting my running routine. And, if you’re still feeling like not going out, check out the quote I have in the middle of this post (it’s a short one): https://theobstacleblog.wordpress.com/2017/01/12/a-bad-run/#more-341
Thank you so much for this. I will head over and check this out ?. Hope the ankle heals quickly and you are back out there running soon. Thank you for comment ?
Thank you so much for this I will check this out now. I appreciate this. I hope your ankle heals soon and you are back out there running. Thank you for the comment ?