New year, new me??

A good question is it a new me? Well, certainly from a hair perspective I have gone bold and being brave!

Let me tell you a little story.... when I was 12/13 and it was the early 80s, “Born Blonde”, "sun in" hair bleach was all the rage. I  had decided that a blonde fringe looked so good going full blonde was the only way to go....fast forward a sunny Saturday afternoon, sitting with a bottle born blonde on my LONG DARK BROWN hair, in the sun with a plastic bag on my hair (to help aid the processes 😮), as I went to wash off the peroxide concoction off my hair, the fear of impending doom never struck me, until the towel fell from my hair and I finally looked in the mirror!        

Needless to say, it took less than 10 minutes and I was back at the sink with my mums wash-in wash-out brown/black hair colour. For the next 5 years, I had to constantly dye my hair dark brown and had to stay away from perms which in the 80s was the style of choice for any self-respecting teenage girl!!

 

30 years later I was sitting in the hairdressers with a clear plastic bag on my head watching the colour leave my hair, trying to convince myself this time it will be better, time has moved on… computers can fit in your hand,  cars run on electricity and you can get a flight to Vegas for £250! Surely they are not still using Born Blonde…. Whilst I’m enjoying my new hair, to a degree, there is still that 12/13 girl looking back at me in the mirror on the odd occasions.

So what about your running I hear you ask, well I'm feeling a little more like a new me; I ran my fastest parkrun in 16 months and I ran my longest run is nearly 20th months!! I did rest while I had my cold and waited until I had recovered before I commenced training again, so it was a good 5/6 days off, but I got straight back on the plan and even took it sensibly, with some reduced mileage runs rather training to ramp things back to where they were.  So after my mini break and my week back, I have three new records:

My fastest parkrun (27:33) since 19/08/2017 at Fletcher Moss parkrun, which was a nice little course, a couple of small hills which had quite impressive downhill section considering I’m sure we didn’t climb that much. 

My fastest mile (8:03), I can remember the last time I ran a whole mile that quick it was in my last mile of my parkrun, I was picking people off as in the last half a mile and even managed a sprint finish which I have not done in years either!

Finally ,my longest run (11.1 miles) since 28^th May 2017 which I am pretty sure was Manchester half marathon!!   

So it really does feel like a new year and new me 😁

Road bump

Well, I have hit a road bump this week, week 2 into my Edinburgh base training plan and things were going well. 

On Tuesday I had made it to Derwent runners, had a great 6 miles steady run, got to explore a lot more of Derby and knew I would be back, 4 miles on Thursday morning and was all set for my long run on Friday.  Then Thursday came, I woke up and had a tickly cough but pressed on for my 4 miles treadmill run, however, as the day wore on I started to go downhill quickly and apparently I was looking rather rough (and that was them being nice).

Fast forward to the evening and I am huddled up on the sofa, in three layers of clothes, surrounded by tissues, sipping a very special hot toddy, which is only making do until I can take my hit of night nurse and go to bed.

I have come down with this horrible cold that is going around at the minute, the news on the street is that it lasts for at least a week! I really hope not. Fortunately, at the minute, I don’t work Fridays so it meant I could take up permanent residency on the sofa for the rest of the day. I gave myself a long lie in, got dressed and settled down for a day of Wanted Down under, RipOff Briton (Holiday edition) and the box set of "The Good Doctor" which was a bit of a lifesaver (pun indented).

Needless to say that I am taking the week of my training plan and when I feel well enough I will get back to it…

Not going to sweat it and I have a good running buddy who is going through something a lot worse, so a little cold is not going to keep this girl down for too long, I'll be up and running in no time.