February 2020 update

So far 2020 feels like the year when it won’t stop raining. This has had a knock-on effect on my desire to go out and exercise especially during my lunch break. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to see that I exercised more in February 2020 than I had in January.

Long run Friday
I had a look at my training schedule on Thursday evening and saw that I needed to run 13 miles on Friday. Unfortunately, Pete and several of my other running friends were on holiday and Rachel wasn’t well. I was really grateful when Sue replied to my message and said that she was interested in running six miles with me.
Southampton parkrun #400
Stuart did his long run on Saturday morning, ending with parkrun, so it was up to me to get M and me to the start line.
International Women’s Day was being recognised at parkrun on Saturday as well as it being the 400th event. A local choice had been to ask people to wear fancy dress, whereas the colour of #IWD is purple. I wanted to wear my purple V25 t-shirt but I realised too late that I’d left it in my desk drawer at work. That’s one of the disadvantages of putting on weight. Only a few of my many running t-shirts fit at the moment. I know that over 80% weight loss is down to eating right, but at the moment I’m so tired that it’s hard to stay focused. All I want is to get a full night’s sleep and to wake up when I’m ready.
As I didn’t have a purple t-shirt to wear, I chose my nuu-muu running dress, which was the perfect choice. Some people asked whether I was cold, but my arms were fine.
Before the start I met some first-timers – I hope they enjoyed it.
How did I do?
I think I started too far back. The first half was spent chatting with Caro, which is never the recipe for a fast run. I left Caro at the crossroads and picked up the pace a bit. I was disappointed that my watch said over 7 min/km on the downhill.

A BIG event for 2020
In 2019, I didn’t manage to do any triathlons. To make up for it, in February 2020 I entered a big triathlon. You’ll have to wait for another post to find out what it is!