Dull day.

Well, that title is sure to entice readership!

Anyway, it's been dreich, drear and dour over East Fife today, so naturally Fisher wanted to go for her first outdoor run since crocking her foot. The dogs were ecstatic - I less so. I have to say, swimming really does take it out of me! Plus, my training schedule recommended a rest day, but I'm a bit out of synch with the week so I thought I'd do my 25 minute run today, then rest tomorrow.

We went to lovely Tentsmuir, and Bridie whined in anticipation from the bull's field onwards. Baffie just lay, serene as a sphinx, awaiting her due. All the way there I was thinking "I don't want to do this. I do not want to do this. I ache. I'm tired. It's cold. I hate running. I hate Fisher. In fact, I hate everything and everone. I want to go home and watch Queen's on telly." But then I got out of the car and everything changed! The wind blew icily up my spine, a few drops of rain fell - and I realised I didn't just not want to do it, I would actively pay someone a million pounds to do it for me.

Alas, the granny wandering about with a scraggy terrier made no offers to take my place, so I clipped Baffie onto her lead and off we went.

I don't know whether it was a strange desire to really make myself as miserable as possible or whether I decided 'in for a penny, in for a pound', but I decided to run through the thick trees where the track undulates wildly, to make biking a little more interesting. This lasted about 3 minutes ... then I decided that running along the flat was what God intended for me.

It was pretty terrible. It was 8 days since my last run up Quarry Road, but I really wouldn't have thought a week's gap would slow me down as much as it did! At the end I was so depressed I almost cried.

Ok, not really (I'm not that sad), but doing 5k in 40 minutes is as bad as I've ever been. The frustrating thing is that, this time, it wasn't my lungs that gave up on me but my legs. I swear, it's always one or the other! Why can't I have a run where both lungs and legs work prefectly? Grrrrrrrrr. My achilles's really gave me gyp.

So - first thing on my To Do list is a new pair of trainers. They're well overdue, and I'm sure it'll help with muscle and joint pain. The second thing is to actually pay attention to the rest days on my schedule. I'm hoping that the swim yesterday has left me more tired than I originally thought, and that had I gone for a run tomorrow it wouldn't have been so bad. I'm also secretly hoping that a) the hills and b) Baffie stopping for a crap and me screwing up my watch in trying to pause it has put an unfair total on the time. Alas, this is but wishful thinking, and I can't keep making excuses for myself. I'll just have to suck up the fact I did a 40 minute 5k and do better next time.

My schedule says I'm supposed to do a steady 700m swim (28 lengths) tomorrow, but I really think I should rest. I'm bone tired right now, so a day off is probably sensible.

On the plus side - no PT today! And none after supper yesterday, either. We'll see if going out for supper tomorrow night at Brave Bird & Minstrel's brings it on.