It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

A couple of weeks ago, as mentioned in my previous blog, I had the bright idea of taking part in some thing I'd briefly seen called Advent Running.

Really, I'm not sure why I decided to do this. I'm not exactly someone who has bags of time on their hands, but phrases like "it's only half an hour" and "making time for yourself every day" had me convinced it was a good idea.

So on 1st December, with fresh legs and still on the post-race high of EMA 10k, I excitedly packed my PE kit to take to work as the only time I'd fit a run in that day would be at lunchtime... 'runch' was a concept I'd heard lots of runners talk about but never something I'd tried. I must admit, I really enjoyed it! Getting a bit of fresh air and time away from the office was great! And it's for the best really, as next week I'll be doing it for 4 out of 5 days.. but that will be a story to tell next week.

Day 2 was good as well. I've hugely wasted my gym membership for a good few weeks so it was nice to get my stuff together and head down for an early gym session on the first day of a week's annual leave. A gentle 30 min interval treadmill session went by fairly quickly and pain-free. I was loving this advent running thing I'd started so much that I even decided to order an official t-shirt to sport during my festive frolics.

Day three was another story, and the first of many times (so far) that I've said Advent Running is a stupid decision. I headed out in the semi-darkness and still with mild hangover symptoms, full of self loathing for not taking on an easier going advent hobby. But I got it done, even though I could easily have thrown the towel in.

The next few days were quite uneventful, some outdoor and some treadmill running, mainly smiley and grateful in the panic stricken days that come before an exam (again.. another story) that I'd set aside time to run and clear my head each day.

Then another couple of tricky days followed.. third treadmill session in a row followed by trying to fit a run in on a stupidly busy and again slightly hungover day triggered lots more thoughts of "This is stupid, why am I doing it?"

Today was good again though.. after my first day back in a stuffy office on a rubbish tip I was dying for some fresh air when work was over and really enjoyed my warm winter evening 5k.

So I figure that's how it's going to be, some days I'll love it and some I'll hate it. But either way, every day I'll be doing it.. purely to piss of those who think I'll give up if anything! I'm over a third of the way though so I'm definitely not packing in now!

Stats so far:

Runs......................9
Distance................42km/26.25miles
Time......................5 hours
Major stops...........3
Minor strops..........about 20
Small accidents.... 1