I had given up chocolate for Lent. A big undertaking, but it wasn't that hard once I got into it. Now Easter had come, and there is chocolate overflowing in our house. The good behaviour of lent is over, and I'm now consuming chocolate like a junkie. And it's having some nasty side effects - my sleep isn't as great, I've been having crazy dreams, and my motivation to go to the gym has diminished. Not good!

In order to get back on track I'm going back to no chocolate as of May 1st. I think it's for the greater good.

I did hit the gym on Thursday night, with the ambition to get a good run in before going to a body balance class. The run was less than impressive. I started off at my usual pace, and I felt like I was crawling. Obviously my speed interval training is working. So I upped my speed. And that was going well for about 8 minutes, then I hit the chocolate wall. All that overindulging felt like lead weighing me down and making every stride more work than it was. At first I thought it was the speed that was the culprit, but even when slowing back to my original speed I still felt sluggish and like every move was a massive undertaking. I slowed to a fast walk, adding some incline, for the rest of the time before heading to my class.

Looking back at all my post-Easter runs, I just haven't had the same physical perserverance that I did prior to the chocolate. I didn't think putting so much junk into my body would help me, but I really didn't think the effects would be so dramatic. I really want to get is half-marathon shape for the end of August, so I really need to take everything a bit more seriously!

I think I'm going to sign up for a 5km run in May, to get the feel for a race, and to have a closer event to motivate me as I go!


Steady Run 20minutes
Incline - 1.0
Speed - 9.5km/h for the first 10 mins, then dropped to 6.5km/h
Distance - ?? I didn't catch it on the machine

150 Days till the race