More records and a long overdue swim!

Today has been another day filled with fun and exercise - one that's going to be difficult to summarise in a short blog post (well difficult for me anyway). Short this needs to be though, not just because I want to be posting this on the correct day, but also because I'm shattered and want to get some sleep! 


The first business of the day was getting Sarah some new running shoes as she's been running in standard gym class trainers until now. It's actually only 6 weeks since Sarah's first mile run (when I convinced her to run back from the pub with me after a long walk) and in that time she's made amazing progress. The service from Sweatshop was great as always, and after trying on several pairs, Sarah chose the Brooks Ghost 4s - impressed me, as she was hoping to find some pink ones and the Brooks were amongst the least girlie... 

Sarah's first proper running shoes.

We then took the new shoes for a test run - down the canal to the riverbank, along to the pedestrian bridge that joins Victoria Embankment to the West Bridgford side of the Trent, across it and then headed towards and under Trent Bridge. 


After passing by the City Ground, we did a loop along the riverbank and back... 

The Trent End at the City - with Trent Bridge in the background.

We retraced our route back up the canal and ended up with a total of 5.7 miles, which was over half a mile further than Sarah's longest previous run, and the first 5K today was also her fastest 5K ever too - 33:30. The shoes clearly helped, but I'm amazed how much progress she's made in just a few weeks - from "I will never be a runner" to running for over an hour today, without stopping once and very nearly completing her first 10K (that's next week's plan :)). 


This afternoon, my Mum joined Sarah and I for a lovely walk through the nature reserves and Woodland Trust areas near here, in a big and hilly loop that eventually ended up, after 6.5 miles at the gym/health club where my parents are members. Mum and Dad had received free guest passes when they joined the club, and kindly offered them to Sarah and I. We weren't able to stay as long as we would have liked (next time we'll stay longer!), but it was great to spend some time in the sauna and steam room and, for the first time in over 2 months, I went for a swim! I only did 400M, but felt pretty good and was really happy to have finally logged my first swimming miles (well, 0.25 miles) of the year. 


We then walked back home (another mile) and then had a very tasty evening meal of posh sausages, Crinkle Cut chips and beans - and I managed to get #Pressupathon and #Situpathon done while it was cooking. 


As usual this post has ended up longer than planned - it's very hard to summarise such a fun day in a small number of words, but I need to sign off now as I need to get up early for work tomorrow and then it's long run night tomorrow night!


Annual summary (major milestone reached - 300 total miles!): 



Running: 185.7 miles
Walking: 30.18 miles
Cycling: 84.12 miles
Swimming: 0.25 miles
Total: 300.25 miles
Running streak: 68 days (started 23/11/2011)