She's Back!!

Back from my holiday, back in the gym and back into my training!!

I spent a wonderful week away in the South of France. Click here to look at the photos! I did actually pack my trainers and jogging gear in good faith that I'd have a bit of a run around, but it was just sooooo hot, that it would have been an awfully traumatic experience, and since the nearest hospital must have been about 2 hours away, I didn't want to risk keeling over and dying! So instead of donning my jogging gear I donned my bikini and sat by the pool for the whole week. It was heaven!

But now I'm back and I've not been running since the Itchen Bridge debacle. I was actually a little bit worried that I would be rubbish (even more than normal) and would have to start my training from the beginning again.

So I went to the gym yesterday and thought that I'd just test myself to see where my fitness and stamina levels were. I've got the Race for Life coming up which is 3 miles, so I thought I'd just run that and see how quickly and easily I could do it. I'm hoping to run the half marathon at an average of 6mph which means I'd run a mile in 10 minutes. So for this 3 mile run, I thought that if I managed it in under 40 minutes then I'd have done a good job.

So I selected '3 Mile Run' on my treadmill and I was off. The first few minutes were pretty tough and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to do any of it. But I carried on and after a while found that I was finding it all okay. So I ran and ran, not looking at how long I'd been running for. Then when I did look I saw that I'd been running for 23 minutes!! Non stop at 6mph!! I was very, very impressed and very happy that I hadn't found it that tough. So I carried on running - the last 5 minutes were hard (especially as my iPod decided to pack up and switch itself off - I rely on having upbeat, motivating songs keeping me going, so running in silence for the last bit was horrible). But none the less, I carried on running and managed to run all three miles in 30 minutes flat!!!!

YEAHY!!!! GO RIA, GO RIA, GO GO, GO RIA!!!! WHOOP WHOOP!!!

I was really very happy indeed. I don't know if it was because I hadn't been running in a while so my body had had a good break, or if it was because I was on a treadmill and in an air conditioned room, but either way, it's the most I've ever run non-stop in my whole life! Maybe it's just because after about 5 weeks of training I'm starting to get okay at running. Who knows? Who really cares, as long as I can get back in the gym and do it all again but a little bit further on Tuesday.