Run block 1, week 3, nearly time to ease

Another humid as heck week, which means for me, as someone who sweats instantly on activity, running continually in dripping wet kit. Ordinarily, this isn't an issue because I can change and shower when I get home, but yesterday, during my overcast and uber-humid long run, I was wondering how I was going to manage this during my Kylgh Kernow run. I will be unsupported as such, and so have to manage with what I carry, and my clothes get utterly sodden. The best two solutions I could come up with were 1) take 3 sets of kit, one on my body and two carries so that I can wash the kit and tie it to the outside of my bag where it will dry as a run but only if it isn't raining 😬 or 2) get my body to the point where I feel confident enough to run in only a sports bra and shorts.

So, solution number 2...an interesting but very, very practical solution as it requires fewer clothes and fewer items to wash and dry...but...tumbleweed...........If I am going to be totally honest, the following is how I think and feel. I am aware that most of the work that I need to do to allow me to run in a sports bra should be psychological. I know, intellectually, that many people with bodies like mine would be, if not happy, then definitely able to run in a sports bra...but that's them, and with the best will in the world, I can't currently do that. It took me nearly 50 years to realise this, but where my own body is concerned, I am a perfectionist, and because I am so very far away from perfect, I feel a little bit ashamed of what (at my lowest moments) is the "state I have allowed myself to get into bodily". I have "quoted" myself as a way of acknowledging that the aforementioned is a slightly bizarre statement, however, I can both know that but, at the same time, allow my behaviour to be driven by that statement. I also know that I am not alone. I know far leaner, more athletic people (not just women) who feel something similar. It's pretty bonkers. We have two-thirds of the UK population who are either overweight or obese, but that's them, and I am me! I think this goal to run in a sports bra is going to be a fight, but I am going to work on it, as the practical outcomes of achieving it would be great!

Anyway, I digress. It is week 3 of my running block and week 4 of my strength block. In run training, my 4th week is adaptation week, and in strength training, week 1 is my deload week, so this week has been my biggest week so far since I have returned to run training. I am slowly beginning to remember the feeling of building fatigue and the sense of becoming ready for adaptation/deload week. Last week I was crap at work because I was so tired, but I think that will improve once I adjust and stop being such a princess about being tired 😆. Other than tiredness, it has been a great training week. This week I have been 100% consistent, considering I truly felt like I wasn't game for my longer run yesterday (we had a small argument about going, me and me!), I am happy with that. The strength work continues to prove itself worth its weight in gold as my distance increases and none of my old pains have shown themselves. The cramping is lessening week-by-week, and my legs are re-building fatigue resistance week-by-week. My last run of the week is easy + hill strides, and then I'm heading for a soak in the bath and sorting my shit out for the week ahead.

It's not new knowledge but a note to me, really. This week I have had some amazing sleeps and some short nights. On my long nights of sleep, I have had green recoveries and on my short nights, just yellow. It's not rocket science but a good reminder that training, even as relatively little as I do, requires nearer 9 hours of sleep, and 7 hours just doesn't cut it....must be more consistent with my long nights of sleep!