The Week of Abnormality

This week has been anything but normal for me - a self confessed somewhat quite routined person. The cause of such change has not been a negative though by any means, and has been due to my best friend visiting from Australia. After two years apart, last week we ran together at the Doncaster 10k, and this week she has spent most of the time with me in Lincoln with more running, but also lots of food and drink involved! However despite being out of my usual lifestyle habits, I have actually still logged 36 miles of running this week, whilst still partying a little too hard - balance! 

MONDAY: Body Pump class

TUESDAY: Rest Day - an early rest day with my friend arriving in Lincoln and also with a bit of forward thinking regarding my plans for the remainder of the week.

WEDNESDAY: it was bitterly cold today - a bit of a shock for my friend who is used to a slightly warmer climate these days! We wanted to attend Body Pump at the gym in the evening as it is something we used to do all the time, and my friend also wanted to reunite with our other friend (my long suffering marathon machine run buddy!) to reform our gym/running trio - Team One More Green (long story!) With all this in mind, we opted for a 5 mile treadmill run before Body Pump. I cannot even remember the last time I ran on a treadmill as I usually hate it! But having my friend next to me to chat to, and to keep me from slamming the big red 'stop' button it actually made me find it quite pleasant. Body Pump after was then such fun having the team back together again (see image) - I smiled throughout! 

THURSDAY: my friend wanted to explore one of our old running routes today and had requested we fit in a 10 mile run - I obviously was not going to complain about this! What my friend probably had not predicted however was that the icy temperatures would continue... It was a freezing morning and I had to laugh as my friend tried to run with her arms folded to begin with in an attempt to keep warm! She adapted though and also stuck to my pace suggestion of 8:30 min/mile - rather than her usual speediness! Despite the cold - which even I was taken aback by at times, it was a beautiful run (see image) with even a few elegant snow flurries gracing us. 

FRIDAY: today was December 1st and the start of the Run Up To Christmas Challenge I had signed up to. I am not a big fan of virtual runs usually, but I wanted to support Mind charity and I liked the flexibility of this one, e.g. no pressure to run every day! I kick started the challenge with 5 miles; however December 1st is also my friend's birthday and Thursday night we ended up drinking one too many celebratory gin cocktails; so I was not feeling on top form as I laced up my trainers! I surprised myself though with a good run at 8.19 min/mile average pace. 

SATURDAY: due to an event held in the park, there was no Lincoln parkrun today. I therefore took the opportunity to rise early and get another 10 miles in, before heading to a 'Team One More Green' brunch with my friends which included and the best post run cake I may have ever eaten!

SUNDAY: more gin fuelled miles today after another birthday night out with my friend. This celebration had been planned so I knew to expect Sunday running to be a bit of a struggle! It was certainly harder than Friday's efforts, which may be correlated to the level of gin consumed, but I logged a 10k run, at not a bad pace considering I felt questionable! 

So this week has been very varied for me - but I have still enjoyed my running (helped by having a best friend who loves running too!) as well as spending some quality time with my friend and letting my hair down a little bit (well maybe a lot!) I have loved having my friend with me this week and have such treasured memories from every day, but it has also reminded me that I can be a little less routined when I want to be!