Ah yes, that running thing. You would of course be forgiven for thinking that I haven’t been running at all – that’s how it usually works, no blog, no run. It’s not quite true this time though. I have been running but not much, not far and not fast and it has been mostly fairly miserable. I’ve struggled every week to motivate myself to get out and run. Since I last blogged it’s probably been about once a week and I’ve had a couple of 1 mile runs on the treadmill in the gym at work. All of it was pretty hideous and not really in any way enjoyable.

Then we had a lovely weekend with our friends last weekend and just chilled out completely and on Monday I suddenly felt ready to run and we had a short but really good run after work. We ran the .8 of a mile to our sheep to feed them and then ran back. No intervals, no walking. The way there was quite speedy and the way back was also a lot faster than I thought was possible – it’s got lots of uphill bits which I often don’t manage to run at all. I felt quite smug about the run and happy to really get going. It felt like maybe running wasn’t going to be a complete waste of space this year. On Tuesday I started with tonsilitis. I have jelly legs just walking up the stairs in the house so no running until I’m better. Hmph.

So while all this not running is happening I have of course been looking for motivation and things to give me a focus and purpose. Kath joined the Trail Running Magazine 1000 mile challenge at the start of the year and it certainly seems to be helping her get her butt out the door – she’s been running most days – not massive distances but even 3 miles here, a mile and a half there starts adding up! She’s on a roll. I decided to also join. I suspect I won’t get anywhere near 1000 miles in the year but it’s a good goal to work towards and in the Facebook group that goes with the challenge there is lots of motivation to be found – gorgeous pictures posted by people running in stunning countryside. Building fitness so I can get back to actually enjoying being out and looking around is definitely a motivator. So even though I can barely get my backside off the sofa today, I am impatient to get out there.

I’ve also just realised that the Keighley 10k is only a month away. Hm. I do like that the distance isn’t really freaking me out. I am not worried that I can’t do 10k but I’d like it to be a good positive run and of course there is a small (ok, large) part of me that wants to do better than last year. I know this isn’t likely – I was in between Dopey and London Marathon last year. I was a lot fitter with a lot more miles in my legs but I don’t really want to see exactly how much fitness has gone since then!

We are also toying with the idea of entering the Endure24 24 hour race in Leeds in July. It’s 5 mile laps which seems quite doable and teams don’t need to have someone on course all the time so it really does seem like it might be a fun challenge. I think I could do a few 5 miles laps with a little rest in between! But of course I always think I can do things when I am sitting on my sofa. On my sofa I am invincible – sitting on the sofa got me into the whole Dopey thing in the first place.

I’ve rested today and I have no plans for the weekend that require me to really do anything so I can rest and then hopefully next week will be a better week . Let my 2017 running commence!