Aaaargh!!!! Spiders......

Can I just state up front that I hate spiders - big ones, little ones, hairy ones, fat ones, daddy long legs, and I avoid then as much as possible. This dislike of spiders goes back to when I was little and I was behind mum in the hallway when a spider either lost its footing and fell off the ceiling or deliberately jumped on her (I'm for the latter), and she screamed and screamed and screamed (not an unnatural reaction).

This morning I woke up at 5.30am (I did briefly open my eyes at 5am when Mr CJ got up and I thought it wouldn't hurt just to close them briefly.....) So by the time I started my run, after toast and honey and coffee (of course), it was 6.30am. I grabbed a cap off the bedroom door handle on my way out and shoved it on my head. I thought I could feel something on the top of my cap and quickly brushed it with my hand, thinking it was a twig or something from the trees I ran under as I left the yard.

It was a slow start to the run and my right glute was complaining bitterly about doing two runs back to back, something I normally try and avoid. This was starting to look and feel like a very slow 16km run.

1km went past, 2km went past, 3km went past and then I noticed a long brown thin leggy looking thing hanging over the top of the brim of my cap. Well, I yanked that cap off, saw a h-u-g-e white tail spider on it, promptly slapped my cap against the ground to dislodge said spider, and then proceeded to stomp on the spider (apologies to any Buddhists, pacifists, and spider lovers reading this). I'm sure my heart rate was maxing out at this stage. Then I calmly put my cap back on, after searching the surface thoroughly for the presence of any other spider, and proceeded on my run. For the first few kilometres i imagined spider legs crawling up my back, down my legs, across my cap, I was paranoid - I felt like I was starring in my own version of Arachnophobia. However, looking on the positive side, I certainly picked up the pace after my spider encounter!

Session - medium long run
Time / weather - 6.30am / 18*C, started off overcast but the cloud soon burnt off
Distance - 16km
Time taken - 1hr 26.14min
Av pace - 5.23min/km
AHR - 150; MHR - 240
Calories - 893

Lunchtime - Gym
Session - lower body weights and ab exercises

Today I did the following exercises:

* Swiss ball one leg squats - 4kg / 15 reps; 4.5kg 15 reps
Apart from trying to stay steady no problems. Concentrated on form so did them pretty slowly.

* Swiss ball hamstring curls - 2 sets of 15 reps
No problems

* Swiss ball one leg bridges - 2 sets of 15 reps
My right glute complained about this exercise and I did appear to lack strength on this side.

* Stationary lunges - 4.5kg / 15 reps x 2
Concentrated on form ie keeping knees facing to the front, not bending front knee too far over foot, slow and steady.

Then I did the ab exercises and stretches. A good session.

There was no cake today - only oatmeal and dried apricots for breakfast; fruit salad and yoghurt for morning and afternoon tea;, cottage cheese and salad, and avocado on crispbreads for lunch; plus a protein drink after the gym, and a high protein banana smoothie for tea. However, I'm off to Belucci's for lunch tomorrow and they have a vegetarian pizza to die for :-).

Lately I've been so busy that all I'm managing to do blogwise is update my own blog and quickly glance at some of my favourites. So I haven't fallen of the face of the earth and I am trying to read everyone's blogs but adding comments is just a bit beyond me at the moment. Hopefully this situation will right itself very soon :-).