Listening to the voices in my head...

I really ought to listen sometimes to those voices in my head, particularly the one last Tuesday that was telling me that I really ought to have a gentle run with the club and not over-do it as my legs were sore after my hill race.

Alas, as ever, I couldn't resist a bit of fartlek and whilst my legs felt absolutely fine at the end of the evening, my running has absolutely sucked big time since then.

Last Thursday I thought I'd try a nice an easy run up the River Ayr Way from Auchincruive to Failford and back but my legs felt like lead right from the outset. I plodded my way up but felt drained by the time I got to Failford and when I turned to go back, I was running head on into an icy wind. Not long after it started raining & then hailing and my legs had just given up completely on anything resembling a hill.

I just didn't feel I had it in me to get back to Auchincruive so I phoned for the cavalry and got rescued back at Failford. It's the first time I've ever had to bail out of a run like this and it was a demoralising experience.

After a weekend when I couldn't run as we were travelling, I went out for a gentle jog on Monday evening and again my legs felt sluggish but sometimes they do when I'm running at other peoples pace (as I was that evening) so I didn't think too much about it. Yesterday I woke determined to do my run up and down the Carrick HIll from Minishant. No sooner had I started running up the hill though, again my legs felt like lead and from then on the run was a real struggle not to just turn back.

Perhaps I should have as it was one of the hardest runs I've done in a very long time but I was just too pigheaded to turn back without running all the way to the top. I was almost weeping with frustration at every hill.

On the plus side though, it was a beautiful day, the skylarks were singing, crows calling and lambs bleating so I'm glad I was up there. Just wish my legs had enjoyed it more!