A steady start.

Monday 9th May

Running: 5 miles  - 50 minutes - 10 min mile pace - HR Zone 2 Recovery Run

I rose early for the first time in ages feeling fresh after a few nights of decent sleep. I slipped out of the house for a very gentle recovery run around Walney. My legs were still a bit stiff after Saturdays race and I felt much better after the run / jog / hobble :) The walk to work helped to loosen things up a bit more (legs not bowels!!)

Food Diary

Breakfast 
Nutribullet Smoothie : Spinach, Avocado, Mango, Pineapple, Brazil nuts

Lunch: 
Chicken and potato salad with Avocado and a little blue cheese dressing

Dinner: 
Roast Salmon with parsnip chips, Asparagus and Sugar Snap peas and half a pepper stuffed with Maize Cous Cous, pesto, olives and feta cheese

Drinks : Lots of Bottled Water and coffee

Start over!

Father forgive me... its been a while since my last blog :)

The last month has been possibly the toughest the Winter family has known. Its been hell and Oliver has had a really hard time. We are all very exhausted, stressed, upset, etc etc you get the picture.

Autism has a way of delivering blows like a prizefighter, it only takes one punch and your knocked on your back. Oliver is growing up fast and is really struggling with the changes and challenging EVERYTHING!! Joannes insomnia has been getting worse and I've been sleeping on the front room floor for the last 10 weeks. Something had to give and last week Oliver exploded and I was called out of work. Joanne was in pieces, Oliver had attacked her and left her shaken, bruised and heartbroken.

After the dust settled, I tried to work out what was going wrong, I didn't have a clue what was causing all the problems, we'd been working closely with his school to put things in place to stop him stressing but it still wasn't working. I looked at the situation again and wondered if me sleeping downstairs and the house being upside down was upsetting him somehow...so I took a few days off work, sorted the spare room out and bought a proper bed for myself to sleep in. Ive had 3 days of decent sleep instead of the 3 or 4hrs  I was getting downstairs. I feel 100% better and hopefully will be able to spend more time with Oliver instead of being like a zombie after work.

So, my training had gone completely to pot. I had a race on Saturday and it found me completely lacking. It was hot and hilly and I ran out of steam after an hour of running. I finished 16th in the end - not bad you might say, but I was tenth up to the hour mark and had to drop off the pace. Its all part of the learning experience and I just wasn't ready for the race.

Me dying up a hill.

 I've got a trail marathon in 4 weeks and my 100 miler in 9 weeks so this is the plan...

Restart my blog - it helps me focus and makes me accountable.
Tweak my training - get my strength training back in and add in some more miles.
Lose some weight - Ive put half a stone on, eating crap and being very stressed
Enjoy my running - Just get out there and run!

So there you go, weve been to hell and back, Oliver is a little bit calmer and hopefully over the worst of this "blip" so onwards and upwards...