Insanity sends buggy running mum to prison

Outside Forest Bank Prison

I've been blessed with 3 months of pretty positive training with everything going to plan.  However every runner fears one of two things, illness and injury.

After leaving on a high and raring to go after the Gainsborough 10k, I woke up feeling ill the next day.  That's OK I thought one easy days cycle and I'll bounce back tomorrow.

I'm not a fan of a rest day and start to break out in cold sweats at the thought of two, so I couldn't work out whether the illness was getting worse or the thought of consecutive rest days had sent me over the edge.

I'm not a fan of negativity either so by Friday when I went to watch Owen run in the Salford 10k I thought what the hell am I going to write about this week.  Other than sleeping in bed during the day with a huge winter coat on to stop me from shaking.

So I'll tell you about my trip to Forest Bank Prison 30 times in 50 minutes!

We arrive at Salford at the crack of dawn, Owen is a bit of a fan in getting to a race super early, we may have well have put the cones and mile markets out.

I thought I'd use this spare time to get in my run before the race started and had checked out that there looked like there was a nice river path close by.  Double checking I asked a local who didn't sound so local! (clue number one)  what the path was like and whether is was OK for a running buggy.  'Yes and you can go for miles'  was the reply.  Off I went to find the route and hopefully put an end to a not so positive week of running.

The first access I tried to take onto the path couldn't have fit a small shopping trolley through it.  Anyone who knows me will know that once I have an idea I'll do anything to make it happen.  So I took a detour to find another way to the water.  All I can think of is this man have never run with a buggy before or probably walked with one as the trail consisted of mud and large stones.  Yet I still tried to run on it but seeing Archie catapulting up and down and thinking of Owen asking why all 3 tyres were flat I let the inevitable happen.  I turned around to look for an alternative as there was no way I wasn't going to run.

I found a lovely alternative route which consisted of about 600 meters down a road leading to ....prison.  So I ran up and down it with the buggy about 30 times until I had run for 50 minutes.  I could only think the guys in there looking out thought 'I think she needs to exchange places with me'.

As 'd:ream' says 'Things can only get better' and they did I managed to end the week with a long run without coughing my guts up too much, so onwards and upwards for next week.

Summary of this weeks training:

Monday: Recovery bike 50 min

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: Recovery run 50 min

Friday: Recovery run 50 min

Saturday: 10, 40 at level 2, 10

Sunday: Long run in recovery 1h35min