Should I give up my TRAINING VEST???

 Ok- now I need some genuine advice! Comments highly welcome at the bottom of this post! 

So I recently received a training vest- I asked for it- for a present on Fathers Day… 

Here I am, pleased as punch with my present! It was great! It could easily carry my phone and keys without having to worry about me losing them. 

All was going fine until I noticed something on todays run. It was only a slow 5k, but I had to stop about 4 or 5 times as I simply couldn’t continue. 

The same happened the day before too. 

As I spluttered along I began to consider this. Yes I’m a bit overweight and slightly unfit but I should have been able to get round a flat, slow 5k. 

No. Or not without pain. 

A thought suddenly occurred to me. Maybe my training vest was too tight, and therefore was impeding my breathing? It seemed to make sense as the oxygen simply wasn’t getting to my muscles at all. 

Upon my return, I shared my experience on Facebook to ask whether other people had experienced anything similar. Turns out that they had! 

I think I am going to go au naturelle when I next run- to see whether it is any easier- or just me talking clap trap! The jury is out! 

Running is tough… in summer

 I still haul my hefty bulk around my housing estate, trying to delude myself that I am actually a runner still. 

However the harsh reality that I see in the reflections of car doors befits a more fitting state of affairs. I may very well be a runner, but in reality, I’m a fat, slow runner. 

If the 2014 me, altogether more svelte, could see me now, he’s have a heart attack for sure. 

I have today hauled my aforementioned bulk around the estate for a paltry 2 miles- and that dear reader was a struggle too! 

I could lie and say the summer humidity held me back like a rope tied to a car… but I know the real story. 

Anyway, on the positive- an angle I do prefer to take- I have managed to hugely cut down on my alcohol intake this year and have in fact gone without it for 8 days now. Plus I’m actually writing this blog, again a positive. However, the biggest positive is that I am still getting out there and running reasonably regularly- despite the toughest of it! 

The ups and downs of my running journey continue!