loopyloulaura

I am officially crazy. Joe Wicks has got me with the fitness bug. Lockdown fever is to blame! Usually I walk an hour a day on the school runs but for three whole months I have been mostly stuck at home with only a couple of leisurely walks a week.

The upshot is, I decided to run. Now, I haven’t run since school and I hated it then. Spot a problem with this plan yet?

My asthma is another problem. At the start of lockdown, my lungs decided to go a bit bonkers and I needed to get an inhaler for the first time in 20 years.

So the first run. Preparation: I had spent £100 on running clobber to get me properly equpped. New trainers, leggings, sports bra and tops, and a running belt to store my keys and phone.

The evening came. Thunder, rain. Determination.

The first run begins with a brisk 5 minute walk then 60 seconds of running on repeat for 20 minutes and then 5 minutes of walking to warm down.

I overdid it, thought my lungs would burst and my asthma would force me home. I was so relieved that there were few other idiots out to witness me struggling to breathe. But I pushed through. I did it! I pulled something in my right hip near the end but I did it!

I felt so proud of myself as I finished the 5 minute warm down walk and arrived back home. Sarah Millican, my instructor, told me I had run for 8 minutes. EIGHT poxy minutes! It didn’t feel like much. But that it 8 minutes more than any time in the last 20 years.

Later that evening the aches started and the next morning I was stumbling and lurching around as my legs failed to work!

The following two runs were completed in much the same way except I did them early in the morning, voluntarily waking up before 6am!

I am soooooo proud of myself, exhausted but also kind of jumping around with happiness.