Running free

I had plans to go for a run yesterday but had forgotten that I was having a tooth out first thing.  (What a horrid experience that was.)  You're not supposed to exercise on the day of the an extraction and I was not up to it anyway so that was one quiet day.  Having said that, once I'd rested in the morning and taken a painkiller, I perked up and took the dogs for a good, hilly walk at lunchtime so my steps were still in good order.

So, I was properly ready for a run out this morning.  Rich went off golfing early and I did a load of extremely tedious chores.  You know, the worst sort of cleaning and sorting stuff.  It was therefore a genuine relief to set off.  Not a pretty day so I didn't bother stopping to take photos and had to run all the harder as a result.

I was pleased with myself.  I upped the hill content of one of my standard routes.  Firstly I had to run up to the local pub to drop off our second prize from the golf the other day. That added a good little drag and I was half thinking that I could therefore drop my usual double hill.  Well, when I got to that part of the route I did NOT drop it.  My chimp was onside and helped me turn back at the bottom of the hill and run back up.  Go Chimpetta!

Then, when we hit the golf course (not mine, the one next to the Cement Works), it was totally deserted.  So, instead of running along the road back to Bradwell I was able to run over the course and head home the longer and hillier way.   The dogs were happy too as they could stay off the lead longer.

We ended up covering 6km in 43 minutes.  Pretty slow I know but very hilly and I do have to faff around with the dogs from time to time (leads on and off and stopping to let cars past occasionally).  So, it is a good benchmark to build on. After that I checked my Fitbit stats (still in love) and noted that I burned 608 calories.  Doesn't sound much but it'll help later as we're going to see a band at the pub later!

My weight loss has slowed dramatically after last week's fireworks but it is still heading steadily in the right direction and I'm hopeful of a lb or so off this week.  I noticed something else weird as I was surfing my stats: in the nearly 4 weeks I have been using the Fitbit, my average resting heart rate.   has dropped from a peak start of 81 bpm to 75 bpm.  It is a steady drop so must be something to do with the extra exercise.  It's still quite high but, once again, it's a target to work on.

We're making great strides in decorating our bedroom (well Richard is).  Cleared, plastered, painted, carpets down, light fitting changed, curtains up.  Still a new socket to be fitted, radiators to be painted and furniture to be re-assembled and dressed.  The joiner is coming on Monday to fit 2 sets of shelves and it should be done very soon.  Yay - another room ticked off!