Holiday Running Streak: Week Six

So, as I mentioned earlier today, this officially ends my running streak. I'll confess, I didn't quite make it the way I wanted to. I've been starting to feel sick the past few days, so between fatigue and feeling a bit blergh yesterday, I didn't get a chance to run on New Years' Eve. That said, I think my 10.2-miler today makes up for it a bit. And in the end, I made it for essentially the whole of the 6 weeks of my challenge. Here's the last run-down:

Thursday: The day after Boxing Day was a huge family get-together for my mother-in-law's family. Just before everyone showed up I managed to nip out for a quick run. Got in an average pace of 8:46 min/mi, which was a PR for me on a single mile. Mileage: 1 mile.

Friday: We were heading up to Leeds this day. The Husband was standing as one half of the Best Men for his friend Carsten. (Carsten's brother Keith was the other BM...they also stood the duty jointly for the Husband at our wedding!) Also, my father-in-law was doing some of the photography, so we decided to make a showing as a family. I went up the steeper end of the hill and back before we packed up the car to go. Mileage: 1 mile.

Saturday: This was the day of the wedding and we were staying at a Premier Inn in a roadside business park in Leeds. Since I had to get up, run, shower, get dressed up, do hair & make-up, get E dressed, pack his nappy bag, and make sure to pack up the whole of our room so that Victoria, E, and I were ready to hop back into our own car at the end of the day, this was another short one. To be honest, I'd resigned myself quite happily that this stretch of my daily running would just be to keep things ticking over. Besides, there's only so far you can loop through a deserted business park at 7 in the morning. Mileage: 1 mile.

Sunday: I dragged myself out late in the day after sleeping until about noon. We'd driven back home late the night before, not getting in until about 1:30. I know I have a baby, and that means interrupted sleep is the norm, but I was riding the Struggle Bus that day. I couldn't keep my eyes open! I pushed myself to do slightly more than the minimum, though. Mileage: 1.79 miles.

Monday/Tuesday: So much of me wishes I'd just dragged my butt outside before the rain kicked back in on Monday. But it was another sleep-til-noon day...the struggle bus and I were getting to be good friends. So were me and the migraine medicine. Anyway, after a late night (and, incidentally, another sleep-til-noon day today), I managed to get out with the Husband for our mythic beast of a run, setting my current PR for distance. Though thanks to the distance and some disgusting bog-like patches of mud along the way, our pace overall was only 10:27 min/mi. At least that gives me a starting point as we get ready to buckle down in earnest for our half marathon training! Mileage: 10.2 miles.

And now, my last set of Instagram pictures from the runs: (which may be my last set of Instagram pictures unless they change up those new TOS...)

Dude, I feel like a champ. I may have barely scraped by a lot of the time, but I did it. I put forth my level best to run every day for six weeks. If I can make it through that sort of commitment, I can definitely work myself up to this half marathon. It may be my first, but it certainly won't be my last!