Music is the food of life.....

So, it feels like absolutely ages since I posted an update. Work has become extremely busy in the last fortnight and we have also been up and down the country at weddings and hen dos. My fabulous friends Kath and Rich got married last Sunday in a beautiful ceremony in Bath and Adam and I then had a few days in Bristol generally relaxing which was lovely. Some of our closet friends, Chris and Christina are getting married next Wednesday and so we then headed up to Doncaster the following weekend for their respective hen and stag dos. The Hens were very restrained whereas my lovely boyfriend was somewhat worse for wear! All of this gallavanting has meant that whilst I have still managed some decent training including all my long runs, it has been slightly less consistent than usual and my outside biking has certainly suffered due to us travelling over the weekends.

I have also been feeling a little bit run down this week so had Tuesday off and dosed up on Lemsip and an early night. I nearly took Wednesday off aswell but the guilt of not training got too much as I was feeling a bit better, just a little tired, so I did my reverse brick session. I did feel better for training though a massively elevated HR in the sprint sections of the bike showed I still wasn't 100%. Another early night last night saw me falling out of bed at 0510hrs to head to the gym for a 2hr 15 run before work. Phew!

And this is where the title of the post comes in. I don't know about other people but I really can't run without music. I know loads of people say it ruins the getting in touch with yourself as you run scenario but I don't care! It definitely helps me keep going when times are tough and I am feeling fairly distressed by the precedent that appears to be being set so that IPods are banned at races - trauma!! Apparently there are two ways that people follow when getting through tough runs. I forget the exact names but one is about being introspective and really concentrating on how you are feeling and being totally aware of yourself. The other, my school of thought, is the distractionist theory which basically says distract yourself however possible so you don't think about the pain!

Anyway, the traumatic thing that happened this morning was my IPod dying with the last tough 15mins to go. As I was on the treadmill this shouldn't have been too stressful as I could have just plugged into the radio. However, I am particularly partial to a certain treadmill which is located away by itself in a corner with its own fan and a mirror directly in front for me to check form. Unfortunately this is the only one which for some reason doesn't connect to the entertainment system. So, I had to revert to the introspective theory and concentrate on how I was feeling instead. As I was getting pretty tired this wasn't a particularly attractive option so I quickly reverted to distractionist theory by counting down number sets and minutes to go etc.

All in all though a good session and I am feeling much recovered which is fantastic. The extra rest was definitely a good idea and I am pleased that I am recognising when to train and when I need a bit more rest. This will become key as the sessions ramp up over the next 18months!