Inching along the progress chart

I can't say I'm flying at the moment, or buzzing with the excitement of it all, but Iittle by little, I'm getting there

On Instagram I’m trying to take a photo a day for a month. This was Tuesday’s picture, a selfie running through the redwoods.

I’ve been struggling a little to get out running this week. Partly it’s because I have my book deadline looming - the first draft is due at the end of this month - and so it’s hard to justify spending time doing anything else. I know that running helps blow away the cobwebs in my brain, and so it actually helps me write*, but sometimes a little chink of an excuse not to go for a run - like you don’t have time - is enough to stop you.

Not having a big race lined up doesn’t help, either. I’m often building towards something, which means I know I simply have to get out running if I’m going to have any chance of achieving whatever goal it is I’ve set myself.

I do have my sub-18 minute 5K goal, but that’s a moveable target - as in, I can simply tell myself I’ll do it later in the year, once I have everything else in order. That’s the advantage of targeting a 5K time - you get multiple attempts at it - but also, it removes the laser focus on a set race, which can give structure to your training.

As a result, I’ve been running a little less, and feeling as though my fitness has been slowly ebbing. I haven’t felt that zing in training runs for a few weeks now, and I’m still neglecting to do intervals or core movement sessions, which I know I need to do if I’m going to have any speed at all in my legs. I can also feel a few niggles returning here and there, a few creaks and groans, and I know my movement exercises (mostly cribbed from the Run True online course) are important to stop those glitches turning into fully fledged injuries.

But somehow I just forget, or convince myself I really, really don’t have time.

(Right, that’s it, I’m saying it now, as soon as I write this I’m going to do a core movement session - no excuses!)

In any case, it was in this suboptimal state that I woke up on Saturday and decided I would go and run the local Sharpham parkrun. It’s a very hilly course - virtually the entire 5km is either uphill or downhill - and I’ve run it twice before, finishing third and then second. My hope was that I could at least run close to my best time for the course, which was 20 mins 08 secs, and which I was very happy with at the time.