A week of excuses

This week I have not had a busy week workout-wise. But that's ok becuase I am prepared with my excuses for this, or as I prefer to call them, 'mitigating circumstances'.

Excuse number 1: No school

Monday was a local holiday, and so as usual, the schools took the opportunity to close for a full 3 days. Even worse, Emma's playgroup gave themselves the whole week off. Nice for them, but I do all my cycling and some running during the mornings when Emma's at playgroup and Robbie's at school, so this really threw a spanner in the workouts. Consequently, I've hardly done any cycling this week, nor been to the gym, nor pilates.

Excuse number 2: A cold

All week I've been battling a mild cold, with sore throat, congested head, and a bit of a cough. On Sunday night, I had a real fever, and was shivering in bed for a while, but felt a lot better the next day. When I managed to fit in a quick run on Tuesday evening, I was wondering why my legs felt tired and sluggish and my pace was slow. It was only when I ran the last few metres to my front door, and my legs started to feel really achey, that I remembered that I had a cold, and should probably have taken it a bit more easily. Doh!

Excuse number 3: Spontaneity (lack of organisation)

On Thursday I found myself coming home unexpectedly early from work. I had an hour or so before having to pick the kids up from the childminder, and I suddenly realised I could fit in a run. The problem was that I had eaten too much and drunk coffee too close to running, but I actually ran 5k in just over 27 minutes, so I was quite happy, and I don't really need an excuse for this one.

Excuse number 4: My constant companion

Due to the aforementioned selfishness of playgroup organisers, even when Robbie was back at school at the end of the week, Emma was still around. So I decided to attempt a cycle with her on the back of my bike. I usually take her to playgroup like this, but it's a 1.5 mile journey which is downhill all the way, and I pick her up afterwards in the car. This time I tried to keep to flat roads as much as possible, but there was still a fair amount of hills, and it was hard work with her weight on the back. I only managed 4.6 miles, but it took me nearly 34 minutes, and I'd had enough by then! Great quads workout though. My too-heavy passenger

Excuse number 5: Wind

Yes, my old foe, the Scottish weather has been very active this week. After the scary gales on Monday, it's continued to be very windy. This morning I headed off to try a 6-mile run, as I've only run up to 5.3 miles since my comeback. It didn't start well when the route I'd planned to take was blocked (by men clearing and chipping broken branches off the road from the recent gales). So I had to change my route, which left me in a bad mood and I kept changing my mind about where to go. The first 2 miles were great, as it was mostly downhill, and mile 2 took me a thrilling 8m26s! Unfortunately as we all know, what runs down must run up, and as I came back uphill, it was straight into a strong head wind. Mile 5 took a horrendous 10m21s - bleurgh. By this time I also had a bad stitch, and eventually I stopped at 5.5 miles. As I got home, I thought this was one of the worst runs I can ever had! However, after such a long period of injury, I'm remembering to keep counting my blessings that I'm running at all.

So the stats for this week are pretty sad to look at.

Cycled: 4.6 miles
Run: 11.9 miles

...and that's it. Thankfully next week should be back to normal - but you never know!