… well I might be exaggerating a little there but in the context of today having completed a 17 mile run/walk feels pretty awesome. This morning I went to the doctors and my anxiety and depression indicators on a mood questionnaire are through the roof. I am signed off work until at least 14th December. I have very mixed feelings about being off work but that’s not what this blog is about – the doctor was supportive of the running though so – onwards.

So Kath rearranged her work commitments to make time for a long run this afternoon. We couldn’t do our planned 17 mile route because some of it is still under water and we couldn’t get a train to the start of it because they were all cancelled because of flooding. So, a there and back it was then.

We walked down the hill to the canal and then started our 2 minute running intervals with 1 minute walk breaks. I’d decided last minute to ask Kath to try this with me because I was struggling with the 2 minute runs and 30 second walk intervals. We set off. For the first time I was wearing long sleeves and a t-shirt over the top and my jacket. After a couple of runs I took the jacket off. Then onwards. I felt fine. All was good, the canal was showing its autumn glory. We seemed to get to Bingley and then Saltaire quite quickly. 2 minute runs with 1 minute walks seemed to work. I could keep the the walks really strong and still recover quite a lot. At just about 5.5 miles we shared a porridge bar and had some water. As we got past 6 miles we were in unchartered territory on the canal. Neither of us had ever walked along that stretch. We kept going for another 2 and a bit miles along. I still felt fine but I had slowed a little.

At just before 8 miles the garmin had a wobble – it had run out of space for data and re-set itself. We were at that point doing a roughly 12.45 minutes per mile pace. At around 9.5 miles my hip started to niggle. Kath suggested we just walk a little and get ourselves sorted. We walked fast for maybe 8-10 minutes or so and then we tried a 2 minute run again. I can’t say it was comfortable but it was ok. I was sort of excited that I had made it to 10 miles before any real niggles but also a little worried that there were another 7 miles to go.

We walked a bit  – making an effort to stride out – and then kept putting in little runs for 2 minutes. We got to Bingley and then walked up the slopes at the 5 Rise Locks. I was amazed that I still felt quite positive and was still enjoying it inspite of little niggles in my right hip and both calf muscles. We were at Crossflatts  – wow, this was home territory – I have run this stretch 10s of times. We ran a bit – kept going beyond the 2 minutes until we came to the next road. We crossed the road and kept going (it was getting a bit dark now but I didn’t mind because this stretch of the canal is very familiar), after a little walk we managed another 5-6 minute run and then another walk. Then we hit the last bridge before home and as soon as we emerged from under that we ran – we just kept plodding, one foot in front of the other until we hit the bridge that signals our turn off the canal and up the hill to home. We had done about 16.5 miles and instead of running on decided to make the walk up the hill home part of the 17 miles. The walk uphill was horrible and quite painful but that didn’t detract from the fact that we had actually just managed 3 roughly 5 minute runs with short walks inbetween at the end of a long run/walk. No dragging my butt along, no tears, no meltdowns, no tantrums. Just a strong finish. It took almost exactly 4 hours – Just over 14 minutes per mile pace – slow, yes, obviously, this is me – but well within Disney Pace and without that bloody hill, I could have kept going.

We did 10 minutes of yoga for post-run, had a bath and leftover squash and spinach lasagne and veggies. I’m ok, tired but ok. I’m going to bed now in the hope that being physically tired will let me rest and get some good quality sleep, at least for a little while.

Oh and I ‘forgot’ (I didn’t forget, I just didn’t want to know) to get on the scales yesterday so hopped on today. I have lost about half a pound