The Running Diaries - Journey To Half Marathon

Day 8-14

Lockdown Day 8.

Total minutes of exercise: 62

5K Time: 30 minutes

The below 30 minute mark for my 5K is so close, I can almost taste the success and satisfaction as I think about shaving them extra few minutes off until I no longer see a 3 in the time, and instead see a 2.

I really tried to push myself today. A part of me thought 'I can push it for 40 seconds to bring that down, 40 seconds is nothing'. It turns out that in the world of running, 40 seconds is actually a long time. The average time that it takes to make your bed in the morning is 45 seconds and I really tried to imagine me doing that and pushed my legs to move further but I think running every day may be slowing them down. At this point, I feel like I'm running with a handbrake on.

I've never ran this many days in a row and the aches and pains are REAL. Sitting on the toilet is becoming a slight struggle. Keep telling myself I'll have a bath but end up too tired and deciding on a shower before getting in bed for 9PM. I thought that taking the commute time from my working day would mean more sleep, but I actually wake up earlier than if I was driving 24 miles from Warrington which was the journey I was doing a few months ago.

I actually miss driving, I miss blasting my music to the max, I miss having that time to myself, but I suppose I've replaced that time with running. I can't say that the time I spend running is as calm as driving down the roads, blasting music and singing along to Beyonce's concert tracks, as at the minute I am just running and focusing on either not overheating, or looking like I'm about to burst like Violet in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.

I have the certain tracks that make me run that little bit faster, the ones where there's a faster beat but also, I feel like this makes me go a little too hard and end up coming to a (brief) stop. Note the word 'brief' as my stops are getting shorter and also, there are much less of them. I found myself googling the average 5K time in the UK earlier today, which to my surprise is 33 minutes which means I'm now faster than the average woman in the UK. Reading this was all I needed for my ego to be boosted and for my head to grow around 3 sizes bigger.

Promised myself that I won't try and do further than 5K until I get the time down to 27 minutes, which may never actually come. I know I can do 10K because I did one in September with no training, however I didn't do it very well and it made me ill for the rest of the day with a crippling migraine. Come to think of it, I was getting migraines constantly for around 3 months which was probably down to the lack of water and outrageously unhealthy diet that I had.

I do currently have a bad habit of coming home from a run and looking in the mirror, expecting to see a six pack but must remember that it doesn't work that quickly. I am seeing change, in fact, I'm seeing big changes in my stamina and in some sort of definition, however I'm not exactly looking like Kim K suddenly.

Keep telling myself that I'd never want to be super skinny anyway, but then also I'm not sure how far I want to go in this weight loss journey. Very easy at the minute to be healthy as restaurants are shuts including McDonalds and I'm addicted to fish finger salads, but what about when things start to re-open? I can just imagine me looking back on my snapchat memories in a years time crying into a tub of ice cream as I see the progress I was making before the end of lockdown and I gave it all up. I could make a promise to myself to never forget how low I felt the other day when I realised how unfit I was, but I worry that I'll never be able to keep that promise because the longest I've kept it previously is 6 months. In fact, 6 months is a long time so I'm not going to give myself shit for doing that. However, I can give myself shit for letting it all go and being worse than who I was before I even began the 6 month diet.