Welsh Varsity, Microbiology and Stress Relief Running

So I haven't posted anything for over a week, which is bad of me, but honestly there hasn't really been anything to qualify a standalone blog post, so this is going to be a week review more than a real blog. Do let me know if you prefer/hate this format!

Saturday (01/04/17) parkrun PB! I managed to run the first 2.5 miles before taking a walk break, so progress. I got 33:01, about 30 seconds faster than last week.

Sunday (02/04/17) planned to go for a short run and failed. 

Monday (03/04/17) microbiology lab! I've recently become really interested in bacteria (as weird as that sounds) and I'm considering taking it as a career path, as its the module I've enjoyed the most so far. Yet again failed to go running.

Tuesday (04/04/17) empty day. Went food shopping, revised.

Wednesday (05/04/17) VARSITY! Me and 6000 other Swansea students descended on Cardiff for Welsh Varsity, the biggest inter-university sports event in the UK over than Cambridge v Oxford. I watched one of my flatmates compete in her badminton matches, walked through the beautiful Bute park to the Principality stadium to watch approximately half a rugby match. 
Me and the BF left at half time because I was feeling pretty bad watching my old team competing where I dreamed of competing before I quit the team for the sake of my mental state. It wasn't helping that one of my flatmates kept making comments like "I bet you're glad you're not on the team" and "if you were playing, you'd be the first to get injured". At this point I was just tired, and me and BF caught the train home.

Thursday (06/04/17) First run of the week! Pushed myself to run 4 miles with negative splits, and by the end I was exhausted. 

I evidently needed a good run, because I felt so much better after it, and we walked down the beach to soak our legs in the sea (the best kind of ice bath).

On Saturday I'm returning to Devon after parkrun, so over Easter there'll be less photos, but at least I'll get in more hill training in the absence of the lovely flat coast path.

Into New Territory

I've had a pretty good week, running-wise. After parkrun on Saturday my calves felt a bit tight so I made a mental note to stretch more and went for a short recovery run on Sunday. It felt like death, but the route passed through a lovely park with a lake (complete with ducks!) so we stopped to get some photos.

I also made an Instagram account if anyone wants to check that out! 

Tuesday's run was basically a test run for a slightly harder route I wanted to try later. Instead of running on the paths inside the park, I decided to leave the park gates halfway round and run down a road. On the map it looked like it would work out, but once I got onto the road I quickly discovered it was winding and had no pavements. Back home this isn't a problem as there is little to no traffic on the lanes, but it's a very different story in the city and I had to constantly keep on my toes to make sure I didn't get ran over. It's a shame that the road's a bit dangerous, because it would have been the 3rd side of an almost perfectly square hilly 5k.

Today we planned to run to a nearby ornamental gardens that we hadn't been to before that was about 1.5 miles down the coast path. Me and the BF calculated that if we ran there, up the drive, walked around and then back again it would be a good 5k overall.

 When the Garmin said we'd run 1.8 miles and the gardens were still nowhere in sight, we concluded that we had missed the turning into the drive on the other side of the road and decided that instead of the 5k we had planned, we'd just run home now and make it a 3.5 miler, which sounds like nothing but was our furthest run yet. 
On the run back, I remembered how before my burnout I used to be terrified of increasing the distance into new territory. If I planned a run that was further than I'd been before, I'd feel anxious or skip the run altogether. Now I'm excited to reach 4 miles or further, which goes to show how much healthier my approach to running is now I've gotten over my fears and data addiction!

Sunday: 1.3 miles, 14:17
Tuesday: 2.0 miles, 22:39
Thursday: 3.5 miles, 38:25

How To Trick Yourself Into Being Active

I somehow managed to go outside and actually do exercise 4 times this week. This is such a rare occurrence that upon entering the flat kitchen in running gear, several flatmates voiced their surprise that I went outside two days in a row. 

pictures or it didn't happen

Even I was surprised that I dragged myself out of the warm confines of the building and into the typical welsh weather wind and mild drizzle, but I'm putting my sudden motivation down to these factors:

1. If I don't move, I may become an integral part of the sheets and become a human-fabric chimera
2. I rediscovered Strava and remembered how much I like looking at the statistics
3. I can't let the BF be better than me at something I used to be almost okay at

The initial motivation for going into the cold and going for a run only lasts a few weeks if your reasons for running only consist of "it'll be good for me". It's very easy to look out of the window and put it off for later/tomorrow/next week/never. A reliable exercise buddy or group can help to keep the habit up until you show a visible improvement, which will motivate you further. 

Being a university student has given me the great opportunity to join sports societies, such as the Mountaineering society. The fun and social atmosphere outweighs the effort to actually get out there, and this week, after four weeks of attending, I met my goal to get to the top of the green route. Although this is the second easiest route on the university wall, I felt a massive sense of achievement considering my arms greatly resemble spaghetti and have no strength in them at all. I also noticed that I was a lot less nervous about the height, and my goal for next week is to get past a particularly nasty part of the blue route, which involves gripping a small hold with both hands and trying to pull yourself up.  

Leave tips for staying motivated in the comments!

Rowan