A blow by blow account of how crap my Wednesday (thats the hill repeats) mornings are:

1. Alarm goes at 5am and I open eyes and stare at ceiling until I feel myself drifting off, at which point I get up and stand indecisively in the bathroom thinking about what to do next.

2. Put half my kit on and then sit back on the bed to tie trainers which then turns into lying back on the bed and thinking about what to do next.

3. Cat is now awake and wants feeding.

4. Apply rest of clothing to body and wander over to the window to check what the weather is doing in the inky blackness. Think about what to do next.

5. Its raining!

6. Think about whether I can use this as an excuse not to go out, but realise that as I am now half ready I might as well carry on.

7. Tie hair up, find iPhone, headphones and go downstairs.

8. Get downstairs and think about what to do next (which now is blatant procrastination).

9. Feed cat.

10. Prevent myself from opening laptop to read work emails.

11. Go onto balcony to check what weather is really doing and think about what to do next.

12. Find door keys and leave house.

This entire process wasted 45 minutes of my life. I have heard tall tales from other runners who claim to get their stuff ready the night before and manage to get out in ten minutes. I don’t believe this is possible at 5am in the dark.

Running notes
Route: 1km hill repeats at 30% x 7 so as the motor is being fixed (again) I ran there and counted that as two ups.
Time started: 5:45am
Total time: 1:58
Total distance: 16km
Temperature: 17˚
Runner’s condition: It was dark for the first hour, but was treated to a stunning winter sunrise, and then it rained.