Running up that hill....

Well it certainly feels like I am. Week 4 days 2 and 3 both done but boy it was hard.

Day 2 was easier than day 3. I did day 2 on Saturday, got up and out early as we had an appointment with the estate agent at 10.30am over in Ashington to get Nanas house on the market. I had much the same time as with day one - the first 3 mins was hard, the next 5 and 3 were not too bad, and then the final 5 I managed but felt very glad when it was over!

Day 3 - not so good. I ran this morning, again early as we had somewhere to be by 11. I wasn't feeling too good, as I had an upset tum and felt rather washed out. First 3 mins were again torture! however this time I also got a very tight chest and wheezed my way through the last 60 seconds of it. The first 5 min run I managed - slightly less wheezy but still very tight chested and a bit uncomfortable and I didn't feel like I had recovered well when it was time to run again. Second 3 min run felt like my lungs were going to burst - I just couldn't seem to get enough air in. I started for feel sick and light headed and the sweat was pouring out of me. Thankfully the voice intervened and said it was time to walk so i slowed right down and practised the really deep breathing thing - you know the pushing your stomach out when you breathe in thing that's supposed to help with stitch - and that seemed to help me recover faster and better than previously. The final 5 mins loomed and I really thought I was going to fail today as I couldn't see how I could run any more feeling like that - however its amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it and I ran the full 5 mins - lungs on fire, legs of lead, head starting to spin and about the throw in the towel when the voice said it was time to walk again. My cool down walk was very slow - looking at the run graph on Nike running - I actually managed to run my fastest mile during the second half of todays session (irony!!) - but I walked the slowest I've ever walked in the 5 min cool down!

The rest of the day hasn't been too good. We went to meet Petes Mam and Dad for coffee at The Boardwalk on Whitley Bay sea front at 11am, which was nice but it was very sunny, I didnt have a hat and I started to feel really queasy while there. We popped home for lunch and had baked spuds with tuna and salad - as soon as I ate I felt even worse. We had a few things to pick up for our hols this afternoon and went to Boundary Mills and The Great Outdoors at Shiremoor, having yet another coffee in the cafe there. I also opted for a ginger biscuit to see if it would help settle the queasy tum! So I have spend most of the day feeling sickly, light headed and spinny, achy and tired and by 5pm was so achy sore and shaky had to go to bed for an hours lie down in a cool and darkened room. I also looked an awful shade of yellowy grey. I guess I'm a bit off colour - its either a little bit of a bug or I've eaten something that hasn't agreed with me. As I type this I have to say I feel and look quite a bit better but then I have been sat down for the last 2 hours watching TV and relaxing. I'm still sore and I have hurt my shoulder/neck quite a bit on my right side, I think because when I was running I was really tensed up tightly because of the wheezy chest soreness - and have strained a muscle or 2.

So I'm quite glad that I managed to run this morning considering. And bloody delighted I managed to complete and not give in. It has made me decide to repeat week 4 though. I know this morning was not a normal run to base the decision to progress or repeat on - and without doing another week 4 session I have no idea how I am coping now. I do however know the previous sessions were very hard, and the thought of running for longer than 5 mins is too daunting right now - so I think I should do at least one more week 4 session when I feel less grotty to really judge, with the possibility of repeating the whole week. I am also going to have the rest of this week off to make sure whatever it is get well out of my system, so the next run will probably be Saturday morning. I'm hoping this will prove to be a comfortable run, so I am ready to move on to week 5 the following Monday, but if it is still feeling hard then I shall repeat another wk 4 session and another until I feel ready.

I think I may have been pushing it a bit running every other day instead of 3 times a week. It's not a huge acceleration of the program but as everyone keeps saying rest days are important and I'm not taking the required number of them when doing day on/day off. I am at where I wanted to be by the time we went on hols but pushing on a bit, so am happy with that however I'm quite relieved that I can now go back to running the 3 times a week and having a 2 day break every week. Once I am back to work and the kids are back to school I shall be running in a routine of mon/wed/fri and having the weekend free.

On a completely different note - I have succumbed to pinterest. I don't know how I have managed to hold out so long - really I don't know how I resisted! its such a fab fab thing. But it is also a total and complete time suck. I am a lost cause already...... you can find my pins  here