… said Jess, never ever ever before about running but it is true. I did enjoy our run this afternoon. We are in week 6 of a Jeff Galloway 10km programme. Week 6 was to start on Tuesday but that didn’t happen. As I woke up this morning after a night interrupted by the kitten and having had a few glasses of wine at an evening out with work I wasn’t entirely convinced that week 6 was going to start today, or that it would start on a positive note. I was no more convinced at 3pm when Kath suggested we might get ourselves organised and go for a run. But I went and got changed (ahem, well, dressed really – the benefits(?) of working at home). We walked to feed our sheep (if you’re interested in them check our riddlesdenjacobs.com) and then set off from there. We ran up  the little path into the wood and then down Riddlesden golf course and then along the canal. It was a 30 minute run and we stuck to our interval pattern of 1 minute run, 30 seconds walk.

The first two runs were on the path leading into the wood and it’s uphill. Not steep, just a steady little pull. I was puffing a bit  (alright alright –  a lot) but as we levelled off I felt fine. The downhill was quite fun and by the time we got onto the canal I realised that I was actually looking around. I saw the 11 ducklings, the shy little moorhen, a little bluetit fluffed up on a branch… I was running and noticing things around me!

I had a vague sense that we were pushing the pace a little more than we had previously but I really wasn’t sure and because we hadn’t started from home I didn’t have my usual markers on that route to tell me if I was slower of faster than I had been before.

We did 2.29 miles – so we had gone faster than previously. But much more importantly, it was a really positive run with a strong finish which we both enjoyed. That is a huge step in the right direction and one to file away safely in the memory bank. I’m almost looking forward to the next run! Almost.