Today’s blog post is brought to you with DOMS! Having DOMS is always a good thing, it’s a sign of regeneration & recovery and it acts as a good reminder that I’ve been working hard!

Have you sprung into spring? I certainly have. I finished February strong and feel ready to take on the rest of this fresh new season. In the past week my eating and activity has been on track, though with our February challenge ending on Thursday I did have a couple of small celebrations. More on that in my round up! Here’s how my week went:

Monday: no class for me- I was travelling to Dunfermline for a seminar so I knew I wouldn’t make it to Core Conditioning and Veraflow. Instead, I packed my running gear and headed out for 5k as soon as we arrived at the hotel.

Tuesday: with a full day planned I knew I’d struggle to get back in time for Sculpt and Trigger Point Pilates, so I was up early and headed out for an early morning run, something that is very unusual for me! I don’t love running in the morning but I’ll make myself do it when needs must. I ran for time- making sure I got in 30 minutes.

The sunrise was beautiful!

Wednesday: more running! This time it was our weekly Jog Scotland session. Our group did 10 minute warm up, 20 minute tempo run, 10 minute cool down. It was ace! Very pleased with our average pace!

Thursday: I was back on my mat- hooray! Back to my favourite class, PiYo. I felt really good, and strong. I worked really hard on the lower body section and I found the challenging core section not too bad. Making progress!

Thursday was also the end of our Feel Good February challenge, and I pretty much stayed on track for the whole month.

Friday: I found a short window of time to head out for a quick lunchtime trail run. I skipped out Kilmory Loch and headed straight up the hill instead. For the second time, I managed it without stopping and I ventured a little beyond the top of the hill. I was absolutely stunned when I got back to the office and discovered my time- I was one happy runner!

To celebrate this and the end of our February challenge I did have a couple of squares of tablet in the evening- it was lovely, but so sweet when you haven’t had sugary sweets for a while!

Saturday: rest. I had Clarsach class in the morning, and the afternoon was a busy one in Oban. We did get a good walk in while we were there.

Sunday: this was our first big recce run in preparation for the Kintyre Way Relay. We decided to run the final section first, taking us from Skipness back to Tarbert, a distance of 10 hilly miles. Our plan was to do this as a run/walk as we still have 10 weeks to go until race day. The weather was kind, and the company was great! Morag, Alison and I set off with Kathleen, Gordon and Amanda too.

I think we did really well- our pace was fine and included several photo stops. It’s the longest run I’d done in at least 18 months so I was very pleased with it. We did it in 2 hours, 20 minutes and our elevation gain was over 1,500 feet. Not bad!

Tony made a lovely omelette to refuel for lunch, after a dip in the hot tub, and in the afternoon I treated myself to one beer. I really enjoyed this bad boy:

Today I’m feeling good after it- my legs are feeling ok, I have some core DOMS no doubt from the rugged terrain.

My mileage has increased from 18.1 miles the previous week to 21.8 miles last week. It will probably drop a little this week as The longest run I have planned is 7 miles.

We’re also back on track with our new month’s challenge, so my eating and exercise goals have been refreshed and ready to see me through March.

Here’s today’s motivation:

My plan is to get more miles in this week. Hope about you?