Couch to 4.1km

I finally made it out for a run after a hiatus of around 3 months!  I have been thinking about getting back to it over the last few weeks but it has been too hot, too wet, something else was happening, the dog was ill, well, you get the picture.

One episode gave me hope and inspiration: 3 weeks ago, my niece and her fiancee came to visit and on the Sunday we went for a long walk around the Derwent reservoir.  The forecast was for it to be dry all weekend.  At the halfway point around the reservoir, the heavens opened and soaked us.  We tried sheltering under trees until the water came through and it became apparent that the rain was not going to stop.  At this point we were still a good mile from the car.  I couldn't get any wetter so decided to jog to warm me up and I ended up jogging all the way back to the car!  This saved the others a few minutes and ensured that I got to change into the only dry top in the car - Rich's golf top.  I was so wet and chilly that I just stripped my top off standing by the car next to the road - I did not care who saw my flabby tum and bra, just wanted something dry on!  But the jog told me that I still have some residual fitness and helped me get out this this morning.

I utilised the getting dressed straight into running gear to ensure that my chimp didn't talk me out of it.  I told myself we could just do the short 2.5km route over the fields but, when it came to it, I turned the other way and went for the longer, slightly hillier route.  4.1km in total and VERY slow.  When I was running regularly in January and February, I got down to 8.5km per hour average speed.  I'm back up to just over 10km per hour.....whoops.

But, I'm happy to be out there and really enjoyed it.

A facebook friend from the village who is quite a large woman posted yesterday that she is starting a fitness programme to drop weight and get back to fitness.  She is a young woman who has previously dropped many stones of weight but then re-gained them plus more.  I found her post and the comments on it very inspiring.  It is nothing to do with appearance but all about fitness and avoiding the illnesses and lack of confidence which come with being very overweight.  I read the post while I was out walking (which is itself quite weird as I don't usually look at FB while I'm walking) and it inspired me to add an extra, hilly loop to my evening walk.  It also helped this morning to make me get on with the running.    So, even though you probably won't read this, thank you Kate and good luck!!

Weight wise, the scales are heading steadily in the right direction.  I'm down to 16.12 now so that is good news.  My friend Kerry was praising and recommending the 5:2 diet which I have been toying with in my mind for a while so I'm going to give it a go next week.   The difficulty is picking the starve days but, it's like anything, you just have to make it your priority and stick to your guns.  So, Monday and Wednesday it is, despite the fact that I have dancing on Monday and golf on Wednesday.  Gulp!

So,next up is some gardening today and a mixed golf match tomorrow afternoon.  I'm doing a lot of dreaming about how much I can drop before Spain in November (golfing with the girls) and Australia over Christmas but trying to keep my feet on the ground.  I've also got to get back in touch you you lovely bloggers and see what you've been up to while I've been on sabbatical!!

In the meantime, here are some pics from extra long dog walk yesterday evening.