Sunshine!  Wow what a beautiful morning to be up early and out running, watching the sun rise.  Cold, icy and dark to begin with, so you can imagine my reaction to the beeping sound of hell at 05.30am this morning, yes you got it, SSSSSNNNNNOOOZZZZZEEEE button ha ha!  Once I was out and about it was amazing, yes I know its early, yes I know its cold and icy and yes at first I don't want to do it.  It makes me feel alive and fresh and doing something great and positive which must be a good start to the day surely!  Well after all my wonderful positivity and woo hoo's 'look at the sun rising' thoughts it took a slow painful deviation, to the point of 'my legs ache!', 'I'm tired!', 'my legs ache!',  'what am I doing here this early?', 'my legs ache', 'am I nearly there yet?', and of course 'my legs ache!!!'.  This wasn't good and pretty much stayed like this for the entire 13.5 miles barring a few moments when I thought I was coming through it and started  bounding along like 'Tigger' to quickly remembering that yes you guessed it 'my legs ache!!' aaarrggghhhh!  All I could keep saying to myself this time was, 'just get through it' and  'this is one of the days that pays off in the end' and ' you'll be glad you've done it later', not very comforting when your legs ache but enough to motivate me to the end.  It was done and like I told myself I was glad I'd done it, it didn't have to be great it just needed to be done.

Moving on to my next fun topic, oh I love this!   'BODY BALANCE',  well this if you haven't had the excruciating yet amusing pleasure is a mixture of Pilates, Yoga and Ti Chi.  Now this is something you can only experience to understand fully what I have put myself through and whats more you will enjoy it as much as me I am sure.  So looking round the room there is only two guys in there, John and myself and the rest are a very friendly talkative bunch of women who all seem to have been doing this class for years.  My first move is to get my mat down and get a good spot on the floor, well this is like getting your towel down by the pool before anyone else has even risen.  Its quickly in, grab your mat and then go religiously to exactly the same place as the last 100 times you've been and get your mat down and sit on it before anyone else gets there ha ha!  Of course John and I have our weekly battle of who can be the furthest to the back of the room so as not to get picked on by the instructor.  Amusing is an understatement for what follows, a series of stretching movements, legs and arms flinging up or round and then legs twisting into shapes and positions they really aren't meant to go to.  It all flows and joins together in brilliant way in tune with the music, just not John and I! This makes me smile every week without fail, our complete lack of agility and flexibility merged with our amazing ability to adapt and even come up with a few new moves is a wonder to see I promise!  I do this to try and improve my flexibility and range of movement, but quite importantly it gives me an hour of stretching which if I am honest when I run or play other sports I don't do enough of.  Its just a quick pull back bend of the leg, then stretch down and straighten one leg at a time with a few deep heavy breaths then off we go.  This isn't enough, you have to look after your body better if asking it to do more and more.  Its not for everyone I admit but I enjoy it as makes me laugh and it does what I need.

So today's thoughts I suppose are whats your stretching routines like and are they appropriate to what your doing!

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