I only want to be left to my own ways

*WARNING* THIS BLOG ENTRY CONTAINS EXTREME WHINGEING. PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!

Phew, what a week! Some things that I have learned or become aware of this week are as follows:

1. I don't take kindly to criticism. Okay so I didn't win Carnethy. I wasn't last either. Does that make me a bad person? Does that give anyone the right to criticise my efforts? I'm out there giving it a go and enjoying myself which is a damn sight more than a lot of people. So when somone had a go through the week about how crap I ran, how slow I was and told everyone I was a crap runner, I didn't take it very well. In fact, the following day I was very very annoyed. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a bit of playful banter; what I draw the line at is personal attacks, regardless of how innocent their intention may be. This incident later led to a serious falling out at training on Thursday and frankly at the moment if we didn't cross paths again I'd be happy. I'll get over it though.....
   
   
2. Hill running takes more out of me than I ever thought it would. I have really struggled this week. Sunday was bad, Monday worse although I did manage a painfully slow 5 miles. Tuesday I was able to run a decent-ish tempo run but Wednesday was a non starter. Thursday wasn't too bad but it was only about 4 miles, while Friday's planned 15-20 miler turned into a pitiful 9 and every one of those was hard going. I struggled out of bed at 7am on Saturday morning in an attempt to redeem myself and although it was marginally better, it was still a hard going 10 miles. Still, I'm hoping that running on trashed tired legs is good Fling training??
   
   
3. Some of the kids at Boys Brigade are seriously unfit and overweight!! I took a group of BBs out on Thursday after training. Oh dear.... These are kids aged 11-16 and some of them could hardly do a brisk walk let alone a slow jog. I certainly had my work cut out!! Interestingly, I haven't been invited back....
   
   
4. Lack of sleep is not good for your general well-being. Aren't the winter olympics useful in the wee small hours though?! Next week I'm going to attempt to chill out and sleep more. Yeah, easy peasy....
   
   
5. I have some very good friends.... ...who looked after me after Thursday's meltdown and joined me in a breakaway training run.
   
   
6. I need new jeans - these ones are hinging off me! Who needs weight watchers eh?!

In retrospect, after a good deal of soul searching, a lot of blethering and a bit of screaming, the week has ended relatively calmly. Fingers crossed the running picks up this week after 2 weeks of considerably lower mileage than the previous few weeks. This should hopefully culminate in an 8 hour run on the WHW at the weekend.

So there we go, not even a race to report.....