26 days to go......On The Up!!

Okay, confidence on the rise; and operation 'Butchers Pencil' is in full flow. Have been watching everything I've been eating, and not overdoing the portions.  Breakfast this morning was porridge and toast - de-cerealled - and I am proud to confirm that the custard creams which were waiting for me in the hotel room last night are still in an extraordinary state of untouchedness 24 hours later.

I know it's pathetic, but of all the challenges that 'butchers pencil' has set me; it's the hotel room biccy willpower of which I am most proud! By the time the next room occupant stays there, the poor soul is going to expect nice, fresh, crumble-crispy biscuit.......and they are going to get.....oh dear.......

It's still blummin' chilly out, but I am also delighted to inform you that there was no costume malfunction - gloves, compression top, ipod, woolly hat....the lot! - and as a result I managed to get a five miler in this evening! It was a little bit of a nerve-wracker, as even though vastly reduced in length by comparison it is still my first run since the tricky one last Sunday where, shall we say, 'things did not go exactly according to plan'.....puff...puff....blow....blow.....agony.....agony.....stop (that was an episode of Ivor The Engine which never made it onto the screen). It went excellently well though (excellently well? hardly the Queen's English.....how about 'spiffing'??); and quick too. Compared to the pace I did my very first iddy-biddy run it feels like I'm sprinting! On reflection I think that might have been another factor in Sundays problems. When you end up walking the last mile and a half of a seventeen mile route (with a few sitting-down-for-a-rests thrown in), and still come in at an average of only just over ten minute miles it is both an amazing achievement but a warning to control my pace.

Great isn't it? The not knowing why things went wrong is the worst feeling; but once you find the reasons why, realise the issues are fairly easily put-rightable, and you make plans to ensure that things are........put right; positivity floods in!

I say that now.....just wait till this Sunday's run....I'll be bricking it!!

Speaking of which; am I really going to be able to go out for a seventeen-miler on Easter Sunday?? At my Mums for a family do......that should be interesting; mind you, at least it will give me some different - and hopefully a bit flatter - scenery to look at before I really start to hate Bury (nothing wrong with Bury I hasten to add, but right now Bury = pain!!).

Night off from running tomorrow, but NOT a night off from Butchers Pencil; I do feel sorry for those custard creams...might bring them into work and see who wants to put them out of their stale misery.