On Tuesday I was so tempted to sack off running, alot of things have been happening in my personal life and all I wanted to do was eat and curl up on the sofa under a big blanket. I quickly snapped myself out of it and went along anyway, knowing the fresh air would do me good and it's always best to keep yourself occupided in times like this.

No-one I normally run with was there which left me panicking as to how fast I would have to run. Thankfully Val came in, she started running about a month after I did and seems to be increasing at the same rate I am. We decided to run together, she told me last week she had managed 3.5 miles and was really chuffed with herself but didn't think she would ever be able to go further. We set out and I told her we were going to aim for 4, if she had to walk we would walk it was fine. I actually knew the route we were going was 4.5 miles but I didn't tell her as I wanted her to know she could push herself further then she imagined.

We did it. At a really comfortable pace, actually slightly faster then I usually run, managing 12.22 minute miles as an average pace.

Afterwards I felt really proud that I had managed to help someone get that little bit further round. It's funny to think that last month that was me and now I'm able to set the pace and couch someone to do something they didn't think they could do.

I was meant to have a race yesterday morning, but due to the annoying weather this was cancelled on the day. I was really looking forward to it and gutted it was cancelled, but I decided I would still get out there by myself. I managed 6.55 miles, and was quite impressed I managed that in the snow. You really don't realise how much more effort it takes to run in the snow and not fall over.

I'm glad I still went out and did something, who would of thought 3 months ago that I would ever get out of bed early on a sunday morning to run 6 miles in the freezing cold and snow. As you can see I wrapped up warm.

I RAN 7.2 FREAKING MILES WITHOUT STOPPING...

Sorry for the capitals I'm just very excited. On Thursday I went out with Gary with the intention of doing 7 miles. When we set off I really didn't think I would be able to complete this, I hadn't eaten much during the day and I set off feeling so hungry and lathargic. But I powered through by the 3rd mile I was feeling ok, and pretty strong if I'm honest. At about the 4th mile we ran past Gary's house and he decided to stop to pop to the loo. I had to keep going, I knew if I stopped there would be no way I could keep going, so off I went. I managed a whole mile and a half before he caught me up. We past the pub and I could see my friends waiting for me, depressing to know I still had at least 30 minutes of running until I would be able to sit down there. By mile 6 I was feeling strong, but looking at Gary's GPS watch, to see we had only covered 6.2 miles and we thought we were .5 of a mile away from Bushfield. Gary had already said if we didn't reach 7 we would be doing a lap of Bushfield until his watch ticked over.

As we approached Bushfield I found some inner strenght and managed a sprint finish as we made our way down the straight Gary read off his watch... 6.8, 6.9 and finally 7. I felt so happy.

We ran this is 1 hour 34 minutes and my average pace was 12.59 which the fastest I have been. My first mile was 11:28 but as show I really cannot keep that up.

On Tuesday night off I went to Bushfield as usual. Today wasn't really a normal day though, my Gran has been ill and was taken into hospital so I needed to get off early to visit her. So just a short 3.19 miles. I never thought I would of said 3 miles was short a couple of weeks ago, it's nice to improve.

I went out with Gary so he could push my pace a little more than normal. I managed to shave 2 minutes off my previous best time for this route so I was pretty pleased with myself. Today will be the last run before my 2nd race on Sunday. I'm really looking forward to it as I'm hoping I won't be feeling as nervous as last time, but then I remember 10k is a long way to go.

I have ordered myself Clean Food by Terry Walters as I really need to kickstart my diet, as I mentioned before I am trying to cut gluten and diary out of my diet and I am finding it really hard. I am lacking the knowledge in where gluten comes from and how many different foods it is housed in (peskly gluten). Therefore I thought I would order this and see if I can really and I mean 100% give this a go instead of a half hearted effort.

Wish me luck.

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On friday night I had a choice, one which I have to make every week. Do I run saturday or sunday morning? Normally it's a resounding saturday. But this week was different, I had a hair appt at 9am, meaning if I wanted to get 6 miles in before this, including shower and breakfast I would need to be out the door at 7am. Now as a beginner this screams dedication to me, and it also makes me think I might be crazy if I would even consider getting up at 6:45am on a Saturday (earlier then on a weekday may I add) just to get those miles in.

But you know what I did it and it felt great. I headed out at 7am, it was slightly spitting with rain but nice and warm and I just ran and I managed to keep going. I took a few walk breaks as I normally do when I am on my own as I lack motivation. I cut my run slightly shorter then last weeks 7.4 miles as I knew I wouldn't be able to complete it in time, so I managed 6.22 miles and it took me roughly 1:25 minutes. My app had a glitch and says it took me 1:8 minutes (I freaking wish I was that fast).

I rushed in, jumped into the shower, eat a banana and gulped down some dairy free chocolate milk, got dressed and headed out the door in 10 minutes flat.

My Saturday was overly busy and when I saw a friend at 3pm and she asked what I had done that morning it was a nice feeling to state I had ran 6 miles, had a hair cut, had breakfast in town with my parents, had my eyebrows threaded, cleaned my flat from top to bottom oh and made it to Leicster for an afternoon of shopping and tasty food phewwww.

It's a strange feeling when you realise that you start to put running over other priorities in life and get enjoyment from hopping dragging yourself out of bed in the morning to get out there and run.

Hello everyone. I just had to share this as quickly as I could. Last night I went out with Bushfield with the intention of doing an easy 3 miler (I'm not sure if I ever thought I would be able to say easy 3 miler when I first started), but this changed pretty rapidly. With my first 10k race coming up and having managed to walk/run 7.4 miles at the weekend, Gary decided it was time we upped my game and attempted another 7 miles. I was confident I could cover the distance, but was worried about having to stop and walk, Gary is a great trainer and I love going out running with him as he pushes me further than I think I can go, but he doesn't like walking.

But off we went, we settled into a fairly good pace, slightly quicker then I would normally run but it felt good and I knew I could keep up until mile 2 and 3, I really started to flake fairly quickly and I knew we had so much further to go, I had the route mapped out in my head and I was just telling myself to get to the next part and then I could walk. But I didn't surprisingly I just managed to keep going. There were 4 of us running and I think it really helped to just have a chat and listen to what the others were saying to take my mind off of the distance. This route even included two hills (well inclines, but they felt like mountains).

Looking at the milage splits I'm pretty impressed with myself, I've never been so consistant and holy crap I never thought I could run 3 miles sub 13 minutes. I know that is painfully slow to most people but to me thats a great achievement and I'm really happy about it. It's nice to see that my endurance and my speed is starting to increase, and I'm pleased to know I can run a 10k distance.

So pretty pleased to say I'm freaking proud of myself.