Definitely not feeling it this weekend. My intention this Thursday was to have Friday off (check), run the parkrun at Blackhill on Saturday (nope), and then do a longer run on Sunday (just about). I missed the parkrun on Saturday by getting distracted by completely purging my wardrobe (seriously, about 70% of my clothes are in a big black bag right now) and was just generally unmotivated to get changed and get my butt out the door. So my aim to attend every parkrun in April, knowing I didn’t have any conflicting events has been a flop at the final hurdle. Ho-hum – pick up and try again!
I woke up this morning to the alarm call of a sparrow and a morning visit from the pusskins, looked out the window to a beautiful sunny morning, went to fill up my bird feeders (not that I’ve seen many birds lately, a pair of sparrowhawks have moved into the area and all my little garden birds have just gone to ground 😦 ), grabbed some breakfast and then realised it was 06:30. Seize the day and all that right?! P is night shift tonight, so I pottered around in the morning sunshine, kicked him out of bed at nine so he’d be able to go back to sleep this afternoon and I’d go for my run then so my bimbling about wouldn’t keep him up. We were intending to take advantage of the bright morning and go for a walk round the bottom of the Derwent Reservoir, across the dam to the visitor centre – we’ve been down to the dam before but never quite made it further. Unfortunately by the time we got there around 10am, I was for some reason feeling incredibly tired, and with the wind picking up and the roar of several dirtbikes echoing across from the other side of the lake I was really not feeling up to it today, so we wimped out and turned back in relatively short order.
P’s pre-night shift nap came and went, I went to the fish store to pick up some cories I’d had reserved, but still no run. Last chance was after dropping P off at work, and knowing I really needed to be upping the miles again, I’d dressed accordingly and headed down to Wylam after I’d dropped him off. I can’t say there was determination coursing through my veins, because there wasn’t, at all. Resolution is probably a bit more accurate and I set off at a moderate lope. Running with my sun visor on – the way back being due West – actually made it easier given my heart wasn’t really in it as it kept my focus low and I was passing landmarks before I’d had time to see them in the far distance. I hit Newburn bridge and 5k at about 31:30 which I’m ok with and carried on. The second half of the route past the golf course is always more exposed, and with an in-your-face cold wind my pace really slowed until I reached the shelter of the trees again. I hit 10k in 1hr6min, again ok. I made it back to the carpark and pushed myself to carry on past Stephenson’s cottage again, wanting to get even a small bit past the 10k mark. I managed 13k – 8 miles before I flagged out and walked back to the car. I got home very tired and footsore for a hot bath. Not bad, but I need to be a lot more serious about going out for longer, and getting more rest rather than staying up late doing blog posts! Due to some technical headaches this has taken much longer than normal and I’m shattered!
On that note… Goodnight!
Blue Runnings 
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