Weekend Running - making sure I get something done

I spoke in the last post about 'consistency, and yet this weekend has been anything but!

Before I get into that, lets quickly recap on what other walking/running I've done this week.

On Thursday, I finished up with:
Total distance for the week: 41km (31km run, 10km walk)

Friday

After the medium-ish 12km on Thursday, Friday was to be a day off from running. I was in the office today, and after a particularly slow morning, it got pretty busy in the afternoon. I did just about manage to finish on time today, and could've caught the bus into tow, but I decided to walk down the hill instead to help wind down and relax... it was a Friday and thus the end of my week at work.

After the wander to the bus station, I caught the bus to make the rest off my way home

And then as soon as I arrived back, I immediately got changed and headed back out to the shops on Friday evening.

Why didnt you just get off the bus near the shops, and then walk home?

Er, well, I didn't really think about it lol. Besides, I had all my work stuff with me anyway, so I dropped all that junk off, and then I could walk to the shops to get more shopping.

The trip was for 2 reasons, the most important was a birthday card for my Dad as it is his birthday next week. Me and my brother were going to visit him on the following day (Saturday) for the evening, so kinda needed the card urgently as I'd been forgetting all week to pick one up!

The second and less important reason was snacks, it is the weekend after all!

Total distance for the week: 46km (31km run, 15km walk)

Saturday

Well, as I alluded to in the introduction, the weekend was pretty much a write-off. It started with very little sleep on Friday night (the last I saw was 3am before I finally nodded off), and although I had already decided on no parkrun this week, I had still hoped to get up reasonably early my usual weekend long run.

I eventually surfaced at 11:30 (must've been tired I guess)... and as I hadn't managed to do what I had initially planned, I sat and sulked and procrastinated and generally wasted the day away.

I've spoke about this a couple of times in the past. Its all very well talking about conisitency, but the reality is that I find it so hard to be consistent. All it takes is one bad morning, one bad day, and I can end up losing all momentum. One bad nights sleep has resulted in pretty much the whole weekend disapearing.

My brother and I were still heading round to visit our Dad, so at 4:30 I eventually found some energy, had a quick shower and walked round to his place.

It was a pleasant enough evening, we had takeaway pizza, chocolate cake, and then watch a random film - John Wick. I hadn't seen it before but there appeared to be a lot of gratuitous and unnecessary violence, so it was quite enjoyable. After it finished, we sat and talked and caught up, before I headed home.

When I arrived home at 11pm, the lack of running today was, quite frankly, winding me up. The only solution was to head out and complete a run now

So I did...

Was it a good idea?

Probably not, but after wasting all day, I was desperately trying to wrestle back some sort of control

Total distance for the week: 53km (35km run, 18km walk)

Sunday

And as it turned out, the late run on Saturday resulted in difficulties going to sleep, and hence another late start on Sunday. After sitting and moping all morning, I eventually got my arse in gear after lunch. I managed to wash the pots and tidy up around the house (along with a do another load of washing), and by 3pm I was able to think about heading for a run.

It wasn't gonna be the 'long run' I had planned this weekend, but I decided 10km would be something... I was lacking ideas of where to go, and so I plumped for the generic 5km route around the village, and I did this twice to get the required distance.

It wasn't pretty, or enjoyable, or motivating, or fun... but I got it done.

Total distance for the week: 65km (47km run, 18km walk)

I don't know why I find it so hard. Why is it that when something doesn't quite go as planned or expected, do I lose momentum? Why is it when one thing goes wrong, everything else (feels like it) goes wrong? And why do I let one problem affect everything else?

Not only did the lack of sleep affect the running, but the knock on effect was I didn't eat properly, so I didn't eat breakfast, and lunch was a whole pack of Digestive biscuits and a yoghurt. I had planned to do some of my home-learning accountancy course, and instead spent 2 hours doom-scrolling on facebook instead.

And then after it all, I beat myself up about it all.

Once again its a reminder that I have to be 'on it' at all times... and never relax. Never take a day off

Is that really that healthy?

No its not healthy, i know that for a fact, but I also know what I'm like and if I want to get anywhere, and achieve any thing, I need to keep on top off it at ALL times.

The one positive of the 'blowout' this weekend was that although things didn't go to plan, and I didn't do what I set out to do... I at least managed to turn it around and do 'something'.

Something is ALWAYS better than nothing!

And tomorrow is a new week, and a chance to reset, and to try (yet) again.

In other news, I received an email yesterday regarding my upcoming race:

And even though it is still 8 weeks, away, it was a useful reminder that I am training for something, and that I need to keep trying to do this, so I can actually enjoy the race when it takes place.

And so I will try again with the training goals (and all the other side goals of improving sleeping, and improving eating habits, and working on my course) and I hope that next weeks post is less of a 'pity party', as I really didn't enjoy writing this one.

Onwards and upwards I guess...

Thank you for reading, I hope you found it interesting.

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All Photos taken by @dannewton unless otherwise stated.
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