I have been struggling this week, I put it down to a combination of time of the month and some serious passive smoking! I visited my folks in Scotland last week, now all my family and all my Scottish friends smoke , I never have , its always been like that. For the last few years when OH and I go up to visit we take bikes/walking gear etc and are generally out and about but this time as OH was away I was on my own, the weather was pretty awful for hill walking and I don't like MTBing on strange trails on my own, so I pretty much just visited friends and family and was smoked on. God knows how many cigarettes worth of rubbish I have inhaled but after two days I was insisting we go to the pub so I could get away from it (yay for smoking bans!). Now I used to live in that environment about 10 years ago and coped (or did I? ) but now I spend no time in a smoky environment and have no friends here who smoke so all this week my chest has been so tight and sore, I just know its from the cig smoke

I ran on Tuesday for 5 miles and struggled for breath a bit and ran with the club on Thursday for about 5.5 miles, I was better but it was a harder run that I am used to as we were chasing the faster runners so I still struggled for breath especially up some hills which I can normally cope with.

Today is start of period day so I'm always a little out of whack but I set off for a trail run then turned round after 1.5 miles as I was just drained, didn't even have the energy to run downhill which is not like me. I have obviously not eaten enough this week, seemed to be constantly hungry at work Thursday and Friday. I came home from the run and have eaten some yoghurt and honey, some G & Bs ginger chocolate , a pitta bread and some houmous and I have just polished off the most enormous bowl of pasta and now I'm eyeing up the remains of the Margarita ice cream I made a few weeks ago.....Had a bit of a thought, maybe the reason I get so tired during my period is because I don't eat enough, you need up to 500 extra cals a day around this time or something ? Nutrition has never been my strong point. I have a 25 mile MTB ride planned tomorrow - I will be filling my camelbak bladder with sports drink, I normally just eat a bar when I remember (usually when hungry and its too late) but I'm taking no chances.

Sorry that was long!