Retrospective

So that was 2014!

Little did I know, this time last year, where the following twelve months were going to take me, and yet here I am at the end of 2014, with four hundred and forty miles behind me, and fifty three days ahead of me until my first half marathon! However there is small part of me that would have believed you if you'd told me - I was, after all, already part of the parkrun faithful.

What I think I might have found less believable is that I'd be sitting here writing my blog for the two hundred and fifty fifth time having amassed a total page view figure of six thousand five hundred and seventy! Or that my fundraising total for Barnardo's would have edged past the one thousand four hundred pounds mark, with an additional two hundred and seventy five already in the bank for WaterAid! I think it's fair to say it's been a busy year! With another equally busy one to come!

I've increased the distance I can run from three miles to twelve, which would really be something to celebrate if I hadn't consequently just shifted the distance at which I start to suffer with knee, ankle, and now hip pain! To achieve my goal of three half marathons in 2015, I am going to have to start following the professional advice I sought six months ago and paid no heed to, despite paying for it!

At some point, I am going to have to delve into the world of bag making, the reams of fabric waiting somewhat ominously for me in the cupboard, out of sight but increasingly not out of mind - although most of the thoughts are ones of 'what on earth did I buy all that for?' rather than 'oooh can't wait to get sewing!'

I am also going to have to start thinking about my pitch to Barnardo's to see if they'll accept me as one of their charity runners for London 2016. This is the scariest bit!

I'm not particularly good at New Year's resolutions, but suffice to say I am going to try to be a little more focused, a little less stressed and just take it one run at a time. Apart from tomorrow, when we're running two!

M -496

Brighton Half - 53

Glasgow Half - 277

Total Distance covered  - 440 miles

Twenty Years Younger

If only for a moment!

Woke up this morning feeling twenty years younger, or at least how I sometimes felt twenty years ago, hungover and with the my ears still ringing from the night before... then I remembered I was forty-four, the ringing is permanent and the hangover is the result of ridiculously small amount of alcohol, not that I was ever a big drinker but feeling like this on two glasses of wine is a bit pathetic!

Al awoke feeling a little fragile too, but am pleased to report that at least his hangover was earned in style! Thank you for a fab evening parkrunfastfinisher, so nice to spend some time with you and the lovely L without it necessitating a five kilometre run! Although if all goes according to plan and the weather starts to pick up (current forecast is for a somewhat tropical 9 degrees Celsius), it will be a ten kilometre run next time we see you - as we attempt to do two parkrun's on New Year's Day! Like I said the other day, I may be an addict, but I'm not alone!

Unsurprisingly I haven't done very much today - although I did walk the dogs which is a rare occurrence when Al is home. Spent the majority of the walk thinking about all the things I am going to do, and how focussed and organised I am going to be! This is somewhat of an annual event, mainly due to the proximity to New Year and compounded by the fact that having had Al home for a week now, I am happily living in a little dream world where he always is, and I therefore will have loads of time to put into action all the things that I have now decided need doing as a matter of urgency!

Neither will it come as a surprise to learn that it never seems to happen that way! By the time I return home and we've eaten lunch, then caught up on the latest Scandinavian subtitled drama that we're watching, the winter sun that blessed me with it's presence on my walk today has slipped from the sky, taking with it all motivation to put any of those plans into practice.

Not even going to pretend that I'm going to start tomorrow, but I might start writing my to do list into my "Do It Later" 2015 Non-Planner (for the creative procrastinator) that my sis bought me for Christmas! Seems as good a place to start as any!

M -497

Brighton Half - 54

Glasgow Half - 278

Total Distance covered  - 440 miles

Rocket Science*

just to continue my space theme from yesterday!

Over the past three and a bit weeks I have missed around thirty miles of training.  I have mixed views about this.  On the one hand we started our training early to allow for such eventualities so that, in the grand scheme of things, by the time we reach Brighton it won't actually make that much of a difference. On the other it has had a huge impact because my food consumption doesn't seem to have lessened with my reduction in distance!

I can remember a few weeks ago starting to feel that my body shape was changing for the better, I was on track, running well and filled with optimism.  Fast forward to today and I'm well and truly off piste, can barely run at all, and filled with Christmas pudding, mince pies, chocolate cake, shortbread, brownies, plum crumble and custard, chocolates, marzipan and any other high calorie, sugar laden, carbohydrate I can find!

It's not rocket science, in fact it's a complete no brainer... if you take in more calories than you burn you put on weight. All three quarters of a stone of it! And this is before we've even cut into the Christmas Cake and it must weigh close on a stone all by itself!**

Whilst I am hoping that this will drop off when I get back into our training schedule, I am trying to be realistic about keeping my distance down until I have seen the Biomechanics Man on the 6 January, besides which the pavements are all still covered in ice and I can't bring myself to go and use my friend's treadmill.

Only one thing for it then, I am going to have to start watching what I eat - but not today! Off out to parkrunfastfinisher's for dinner this is not the time to be starting to watch what I eat, or harping on about piling on the Christmas pounds.  As a serial procrastinator this is the best kind of day - one in which doing anything other than waiting until tomorrow would just be considered rude!

M -498

Brighton Half - 55

Glasgow Half - 279

Total Distance covered  - 440 miles

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THNPmhBl-8I

**for the non British readers amongst you a stone is 14lbs or 6.35kg or in other words TOO MUCH!

The Dark Side of the Moon

Wish you were (still) here sis!*

It's never a good day when sisterofMG750 goes back home, and today was no exception, but there were two noticeable differences about her leaving today - first up a change in tactic to get her to return, the second being the gravitas with which we parted.

My nephew and H, despite only being cousins, are clearly from the same the mould! They share the same wonderful, if slightly strange sense of humour, and normally it is my nephew who I try to encourage to badger his mum into bringing him back ASAP, this time I thought I'd try my luck with my niece!

Much as I love being the only female in an otherwise all male household, it doesn't make for much 'girlie' time, so it was a real treat last night to spend it with my sis and gorgeous niece having a 'make over!'. With options that made me feel like I was actually in the cosmetics department, I was transformed into a much more glamorous version of my previous self! Unfortunately recreating the effect isn't going to be possible with my meagre selection of products and I think it's time to take me in hand! So, shopping trip to Manchester proposed (although I'm not sure going with your mum and Aunt is likely to be top (or even on) my niece's to do list!) it was time to say bye to my sis....

In a manner akin to that of Command Module Pilot James Lovell, the Apollo 8 astronaut who used the phrase "we'll see you on the other side" when passing behind the moon for the first time in history - we parted with the words "see you in Brighton...." and an equal sense of foreboding!

Eight weeks! It's been three since HMG and I last did a long run and I just can't imagine ever doing one again! Much like those astronauts who sped off into the great unknown, we have no idea what lies in store for us between now and then, nor what shape we'll be in when we next meet up! Fingers crossed for fit, fabulous and raring to go!

M -499

Brighton Half - 56

Glasgow Half - 280

Total Distance covered  - 440 miles

*Two Pink Floyd references - I hope you're impressed Mr L!

Addiction

Really?! This is my vice of choice?!

Arriving at the park on Christmas morning, a friend of ours greeted us saying "Morning Addicts!" I liked this, it amused me, it made me smile, but it didn't however fully ring true until today!

Snow, rain and freezing temperatures overnight meant that when we got up this morning there was a large question mark over this morning's run, but refusing to believe the inevitable we got up and ready whilst we awaited the news from parkrun HQ...

First up HMG and I had to make a decision about our pre parkrun warm up - not happening! HMG preferring to be stuck with IT Band issues to conquer rather than a broken leg! Can't really argue with that but still we held on to the hope that somehow conditions would be different in the park, or that the course could be gritted sufficiently as it was the other week. Not so.  Sheet ice on all paths and car park areas meant that they had to cancel.  I know this isn't a decision they will have taken lightly, but I was gutted.

Earlier posts on facebook meant that I knew there was one other option several miles away and for a few fleeting minutes my hopes soared as we considered the option of trying to make it there in time, but in the end decided that it was too close a call. Devastated for the second time inside five minutes, made even worse when fellow parkrunner who had made it, reported a delayed start!

The reaction to this news was met with differing responses: I was inconsolable. Before you picture some sort of snivelling wreck I wasn't actually crying, but that cheery disposition I am supposedly working on was no where to be seen; C was disappointed and extremely fidgety for a while; Al less so! (If he'd run this morning, and did the double parkrun on New Year's Day, the second of those two run's would be his fiftieth - now it will be his forty ninth, and I'm not sure he's going to think that worth getting out of bed for!); SisterofMG750, when she arrived, was both relieved at not having had to run, and sceptical as to why I would have been disappointed, it was after all only a normal parkrun that I was missing.....

But it didn't feel that way! I hated not being there. If I'm at home, I don't miss parkrun, and I'm rarely not at home and then only for run related excursions! I'm not sure that this is normal behaviour, and what I had thought was just habit, is beginning to look more like addiction!

Thankfully I am in some extremely good company! Only commenting the other day on how fortunate we are to have friends who turn up week in week out, when the average number of runs per person attending Dewsbury parkrun is around six, it would appear that rather than being proud to be part of the parkrun faithful we're at risk of needing a support group!

On the plus side a few days off is possibly what the doctor would have ordered - if he'd been consulted!

M -500
Brighton Half - 57
Glasgow Half - 281
Total Distance covered  - 440 miles

Day 250

A third of the way there!

My right leg has definitely decided to join in the hokey cokey dilemma with HMG - is it in or out?! It can't seem to make up it's mind. Some days it seems OK, other day's, like yesterday, it's shocking!

Time has not permitted me to make the most thorough of internet searches but I think we may be suffering from something called IT Band syndrome. I could look up what the IT stands for, but I'm guessing you fall into two categories - those of you who have come across this before and already know, and those of you who haven't and don't really care! - suffice to say it is a ligament that runs down the outside of your leg and when inflamed it hurts!

Stretching, foam rollering and ice are all on the to-do list as is reduced mileage or complete rest, but I can't quite bring myself to acknowledge that the last one may be necessary, I have too many social plans mapped out around my festive running schedule! Besides which as I said to HMG this morning, having repeatedly ignored the Biomechanic Man's advice to do my exercises, I'm not likely to start listening to the be sensible and don't overdo it option!

Two hundred and fifty days nearer my marathon goal than when I started, I am however, going to have to start listening to someone soon! Cross with myself for 'wasting' the past six months on the exercise front, I can't help but think about how much stronger I would be now, if I had only stuck with them.  It is however a few days too soon to be discussing all the things I'm going to be doing differently next year!

M -501
Brighton Half - 58
Glasgow Half - 282
Total Distance covered  - 440 miles

Merry Christmas!

parkrun style!

For a variety of reasons, not all of them directly connected to the fact that I don't really 'do' Christmas, our family is a little devoid of traditions on Christmas Day.  Which on one hand may feel like a bit of a shame, and on the other allows for flexibility and 'new' traditions to be born (if two years on the trot makes a tradition? I'm never sure).

However last year, and this, Santa has very kindly delivered the gift with the most entertainment value direct to the boys bedrooms, meaning that once opened they will happily stay there for the majority of the morning, leaving Al and I free to go to parkrun! The alternative for those with younger children - after years of hoping they would sleep in and the present opening would last a bit longer - is now to hope they wake early and will be done in enough time to get to the park! (mentioning no names fellowparkrunner, or as it should have read parkrunfastfinisher!)

Leaving the house this morning we had the added bonus of seeing Mr and Mrs J out enjoying their first Christmas as dog owners having left their teenage son asleep in bed (Oh how our lives have changed since our boys were little and in ways we would never have dreamt of! Exercise?! First thing on Christmas morning?! What's that all about?). You'll either get it, or you won't, but don't knock it till you've tried it!

Neither Al nor I actually enjoyed the run, our still lingering colds making it hard going, but it was good to see our friends and be part of a hundred strong group of parkrunners - which is considerably more than normal - clearly the message about the merits of escaping the chaos on Christmas morning is spreading!

Best present of the day - definitely a surprise gift signed from "Etsy Favouriter", but I'm not sure if it was chosen for it's smell, it's gorgeous wrapping, or the fact that the product label tells me not to get in a flap - the 'smellies' inside are on hand to calm and soothe! which ever it was THANK YOU!
Touched that you bought it for me, chuffed to bits that you referenced my blog! Thrilled that so many of you have taken time to read since I said I stopping for the holidays!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS to each and every one of you xxx

M -502
Brighton Half - 59
Glasgow Half - 283
Distance covered               3.1 miles
Total Distance covered      440 miles

Christmas Eve

The last of it's kind!!

It is quite a daunting thought that I will still be documenting my daily life in a year's time, yet at the same time the best possible outcome as it means I will still be on course for running a marathon! What I will NOT be doing however is having another Christmas Eve like this one!

Depending on how many of you find time to read, there will be between nine (die hard MG750ers) and twenty something of you, who can now bear witness to the fact that I am committing to being more organised next year!

As fellow parkrunner was making her mince pies whilst listening to some (albeit rather suspect) Christmas music I was cleaning the bathroom! (Say NOTHING about the Cliff Richard number you heard on your return from walking the dogs Mr L, it's a compilation CD and I couldn't hear it over the steam cleaner - honest!).

It's little wonder I don't feel Christmassy, I never leave us enough time to DO anything to get us into the Festive spirit, and it is instead, a mad dash to the last trying to get everything organised! However I think we've done it! We're ready for you Santa! And by the way is it too late to ask for a new ipod after I put mine through the wash AGAIN?!

M -503
Brighton Half - 60
Glasgow Half - 284
Total Distance covered      436.9 miles

Peace

and quiet....

It was a little disconcerting the other evening to receive a notification from Facebook to tell me that the post that was outperforming all others this week was my announcement on Sunday night that there wouldn't be a blog! However my faith was restored this morning with the news that it has been outstripped by my return last night!

Lying in bed this morning trying to persuade myself that I really should be getting up and hitting the shower, when it dawned on me that it was a run day and that I really should be getting up and running the scheduled three miles before even thinking about a wash.

It was hard work -  my legs were heavy and it just felt like a long way today. But it felt good to be out, my hip is not discernibly worse for going, and with Christmas Day parkrun to look forward to on Thursday, and our usual parkrun on Saturday, it looks like I might stick to training plan for the first time in three weeks  and will hopefully feel like I'm getting back on track. Email in from Brighton Half... two months to go!

Not quite post run euphoric on my return, but thankfully in a better mood than yesterday, Al was clearly not going to take any chances and suggests a trip to the library (our first in eighteen months).

Although he maintains that it is because he doesn't want to finish his book and be left with nothing to read over Christmas, I can't help but wonder if he thinks our time spent together may be more peaceful if I too have something to read! Consequently I now have a selection of five books to choose from should I ever get the chance to sit down for long enough!

M -504
Brighton Half - 61
Glasgow Half - 285
Distance covered                  3.3 miles
Total Distance covered      436.9 miles

Sparks flying!

The truth will out....!!

Several years ago we had a stove top kettle. It was a thing of beauty despite being rather slow to come to the boil. Rather than get frustrated we used to relish the opportunity to take five minutes to stand still.  It was at some point replaced by an electric alternative which was much quicker yet far from so aesthetically pleasing. Just to add a little sparkle to the Christmas chaos, it blew up yesterday -taking our plans for avoiding the shops today with it!

Although tempted to continue with my pan of water and ladle alternative, in an attempt to get me to slow down, we decided that this probably wasn't the best way to go and so disappeared the first window of opportunity for curling up on the sofa. The second went a couple of hours later, when just as I had closed my eyes for a wee snooze, H called to say his chauffeur was now required at the cinema.

Neither the shopping nor the driving duties did anything to improve my already somewhat shocking mood.  Tired, grouchy and apparently "moaning all the time" I don't think I was the best of company today! Oh dear.... here's me saying I won't write my blog so I can spend time with Al, and there's Al wishing he could just read the abridged version of my day rather than live through the whole of it with me!

Exercise's done all four prescribed times today meaning new leaf has remained right side up for over 24 hours - time to get to work on my cheery disposition.....

M -505
Brighton Half - 62
Glasgow Half - 286
Total Distance covered      433.6 miles

Or not!!

Stealing a quick five minutes, having felt so lost with no blog to write!

I think it is fair to say that sisterofMG750's approach to training differs considerably to mine, I am fastidiously following the training plan (that she found) and beating myself up when I miss a run, she has yet to start her half marathon training! 

Admittedly our lives differ in a great many ways and the fact that she works exceptionally hard and often away from home, is a significant factor in determining how much time she has to train. But when she told me earlier that she wasn't running because of the rain, I must confess I did think, oh for heaven's sake just get your trainers on (now that you have been reunited with them after your luggage didn't make it back from your latest 'jaunt') or words to that effect!

Knowing better than to voice this opinion, I must confess to owing you an apology sis when a while later I heard on the radio that the motorway was down to one lane at Glasgow Airport due to flooding... perhaps I should have pictured something slightly more than drizzle when you text to say "Weather getting worse, I ain't going out in that!"

Busy all day and didn't have the opportunity to write my blog - but I wanted to! Day just didn't seem right without it! Nothing particular to 'report' except from the fact that I contacted the Biomechanics Man about the pain in my right leg, AND followed his advice! He hasn't any appointments before Christmas and isn't working over the holidays, but has sent an exercise which may help. I am obviously more concerned about this pain that I've been letting on because I did the exercise as soon as I got it, and again before going to bed! Who am I and where has Marthongirl750 gone?! 

M -506
Brighton Half - 63
Glasgow Half - 287
Total Distance covered      433.6 miles

Over and out

but I don't think I'll be able to stay away for long!

Woke up this morning and really struggled to drag myself out of bed, at which point I realised that had we be running our thirteen miler, we would have left half an hour before and I would have been up for two hours already! Definitely made the right decision!

My cold finally seemed to have broken and I could happily have stayed in bed, C decided to stay in his, and I'm not sure how much persuading Al would have taken - but he's on course for hitting his parkrun fifty if he does the double on New Year's Day and I wasn't going to be the one who talked him out of that one!

Odd running weather, too cold to stand around, too warm once we started! Missed our post run catch up with the café being closed, but rushing home and having my cup of tea in the bath will take some beating!

So this is it... last blog for a while. Feels VERY strange, and I'm not sure how I'm going to manage being away! Thoughts are oscillating between having a whole fortnight off, or blogging every day in reduced form, or just writing when I've got something to say!  But if today has taught me anything then it's not to get too hung up on deciding in advance exactly how things are going to pan out!

HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! There isn't a one of you out there who believes I've learnt that lesson! But I'm trying! I'm going to take the next couple of weeks to have a rest and run a bit, and curl up on the sofa with Al, and spend time with family and friends, and do some tidying up and get myself organised for starting again next year, and maybe just maybe do my exercises!

In the meantime the damson gin Al has made in the summer has been opened, the fire is lit, my Christmas shopping is finished and even more surprising than doing my exercises, I may just start to relax!


M -507
Brighton Half - 64
Glasgow Half - 288
Distance covered                  3.1 miles
Total Distance covered      433.6 miles

Learning

and difficult as it is, I think for once this isn't the hard way!

I received a letter this morning inviting me to phone the Ear Nose and Throat clinic to make a follow up appointment and on doing so was offered one at 9.15 on the 24 February.  Usually I laugh when offered a date a couple of months away and then asked if this will be OK, in a sort of who could possibly have plans this far in advance kind of a way. However this morning, mid chortle alarm bells started to ring - I HAVE PLANS THIS FAR IN ADVANCE! All being well I will have only just returned from Brighton, and if I can still walk I think my presence in the supermarket will be better appreciated by my family than attending a clinic to be told there is no change in my hearing loss! The lady on the other end of the phone very kindly offered me one a week later - to give me time to gather myself!

But I was a little shaken by the fact that I am now booking post Brighton! It's a bit like when you look at a sell by date and it's after your birthday or some other significant date which at the time seems like ages away - or is this just me?!

The sad and deeply disappointing news of the day is that HMG and I have made the decision not to run thirteen miles tomorrow, despite our best efforts to the contrary.  In the end we made it slightly earlier than I thought we might, when I was sat staring at a pint of water unsure has to how many more of them I was supposed to be drinking!

Disappointing as it was, I think we have made the right decision. Better to wait, repair and run another day than set out tomorrow and have to call Al to come and rescue us.  More importantly I believe that it shows us to be the intermediate runners that we've become and not the beginners that we try to pretend we still are.  HMG says she is taking a leaf out of Mrs Motivator's book of resting when things aren't quite right, and as she has PB'd twice recently we decide that this isn't bad advise to follow, and something that I would be well advised to pay more attention to!

A lie in tomorrow - what's one of those?!

M -508
Brighton Half - 65
Glasgow Half - 289
Total Distance covered      430.5 miles

Bankrupt!

Potentially in more ways than one!

By the time I've made the necessary alteration. the date above will read Thursday 18 December... the fact that I'm writing this on Saturday 20 December is by way of a small reflection on just how behind I am this week - with everything - oh that it was all so easily adjusted retrospectively!

I have an infinite number of things to do, in a finite amount of time and I've gone bust! Bankrupt! Where the unit this particular bank is counting in is time (although that said Christmas presents now bought, we might not be too far from the conventional use of the word - but I haven't had time to check!). I have officially gone into receivership! A list of what I need to do has been looked at, the most important obligations will be met, and any remaining time will be shared out amongst the rest.

Question is, where on the list does my blog sit?! The answer is not straight forward. Well in truth it probably is, but knowing me I'll have to deliberate over it for a considerable amount of time before I concede that it has to go.

For the most part I've enjoyed writing it, admittedly some days have been easier than others, but overall it's been a good thing, it has become part of my daily routine and I can tell by the numbers reading that for some of you it has become part of yours too. This makes me smile (and at the same time wonder what you were all doing a week past on Sunday which meant you were too busy to read?!).  But I think I need a break.  I think I need to spend the time actually with Al over the holidays, and not spending it writing and publishing my blog, followed by the obligatory time spent on FB and Blogger checking to see what response it has generated! Especially as we have already ascertained that taking time to write about not having enough time is slightly incongruous.

Following my recent attempt to hash tag my way into gaining a Twitter following, I am now reading the weekly report that they send me with much more interest... especially the news that last week one of my tweets gained twenty four views AND was favourited by a randomer (I know both made up words!) It was then somewhat disappointing to discover that this was my one liner fired out in response to Eddie Izzard's call to get #BigThankYou trending during Sports Personality of the Year!

Hours spent documenting my progression from 5K to one day marathon runner, and "Saturday's wouldn't be the same without you #parkrun" is all I needed to say!

This got me thinking as to whether I should limit my blog to a hundred and forty characters over the Christmas holidays, or perhaps I could go one further and adopt a Simon Mayo approach of 3 words to describe my day. An afternoon was then spent considering the merits of this approach
but I can't decide whether trying to be clever and succinct enough to do it would actually take more time! Getting to the point has never been a strong point!

M - 509
Brighton Half - 66
Glasgow Half - 290
Total Distance covered      430.5 miles

The Hokey Cokey

Is your right leg in or out HMG?!


I think today was best summed up by my friend who called in to see me this morning, and left saying she was glad she'd come as it was strangely reassuring to be in the company as someone as fed up as she was!  Oh dear! Never usually synonymous with Festive Cheer it would appear that I'm doing worse than usual!

A small part of this is down to the fact that there is a question mark hanging over Saturday's thirteen mile run.

Following on from yesterday, I was already having doubts over whether or not it is a good idea to run so far, when a text from HMG late last night informs me that she's got an issue with her right leg, and has yet to ascertain how serious it is.

Checking in with her this evening she is better but erring on the side of caution, and before long we have decided that it makes no sense to do our long run on Saturday especially given how early we will have to get up for a six thirty start.  It is madness, it isn't necessary this far from Half Marathon Day (Take One) and we would be very well advised to sit tight, rest up and allow some injury recovery time to pass.

Trying very hard to resign myself to the fact that we are not going to reach our, somewhat arbitrary, pre Christmas goal I fire off a text saying that for whilst it is the right thing to do, part of me is sad at being sensible...

Before I know it, we're discussing ice packs and skin remedies and leaving all our options open until late on Friday evening! "Stay in Bed!" I hear you cry, "It isn't worth it!" I know this, HMG knows this, yet I also know that both of us will do our damnedest to be fit to run on Saturday

I love having HMG as my running buddy, clearly as nutty as each other, we also share a similar level of determination to prove to ourselves that we can do this! Unfortunately we may HAVE to be sensible, we may have to acknowledge that it just isn't going to happen exactly according to plan. I have no doubt that we will run the thirteen miles before we get to Brighton, it just might not be this weekend. It is going to be a tough decision to call and one that I imagine we will make as late on Friday as possible, obviously taking into account our need for an early night ahead of our early start! In the meantime keep your fingers crossed that much healing happens in the next forty eight hours.

M - 510
Brighton Half - 67
Glasgow Half - 291
Total Distance covered      430.5 miles

Excuses

or are they?

I am still not feeling particularly well. The cold that has been threatening for a while now has still not materialised, but the feeling that it will at any second has not left.  Generally feeling a bit run down and rubbish the war in my head over whether or not I should run today was raging when I got up this morning.

In the 'no' camp there are a whole host of reasons - my left leg hurts, my right shin is a mess, it's cold outside, I feel cold, my calf muscles are starting to scream at me... this is far from a conclusive list!

The 'yes' camp is far less prolific - you have a training plan, get on with it.

Not able to run this evening and with my days getting increasingly busy as I try to cram my last minute Christmas prep into the week that is left, the only option available to me is to run between dropping the boys off at school and the post office opening.  A four mile route starting and finishing at the supermarket car park was mapped whilst still in my pyjamas, and the decision about whether to go or not wasn't taken until I went to get dressed and found myself in my running kit.

I struggled with the first three miles but felt a bit more in my stride by the fourth, and have started to wonder recently if there has been a slight shift from that of '3 mile' to 'slightly longer distance' runner. At times I dare to believe it's the latter! But what is becoming less clear to me is whether or not I am making excuses for not running or really should be paying greater heed to my aliments!

My injured shin following Sunday night's run in with the wall still hurts, but started to feel a little lame (ha! ha!) as a reason not to run. I'm not sure a bruise and a bit of missing skin constitutes a good enough excuse, but as I found out to my detriment it really depends on where the skin is missing from.

In my determination just to get on with it, get out there and run, I overlooked the patch of skin that I had managed to rub raw on Saturday, convincing myself that it had healed. It hadn't. We've been here before and a mixture of modesty and my son reading this stops me short of describing it's location again, but it's not in a place he'll ever have to worry about!

By the time Al comes home and announces that he's not running because he doesn't feel well, full stop.  I am beginning to wish that I had taken the same approach, just decided that I wasn't going and not tried to justify it with reasons, that I then decided were excuses. Undoubtedly some of them were but I wish I had been slightly more discerning as to whether any of the physical reasons were legitimate before I bundled them up and wrote them all off as mental! The learning curve continues!

M - 511
Brighton Half - 68
Glasgow Half - 292
Distance covered                    4 miles  
Total Distance covered      430.5 miles

About last night...

(and how can it be twenty eight years since I saw that at the cinema?!)

Late to collect C from his underwater hockey training last night, I didn't spot that the gate was open as I dashed to the car. Seconds later I found myself sitting in a puddle on the little wall next to the gate, having first tried to impale my left leg on the gate latch before attempting to bend my right shin over the wall I was now sat on.  Bruised, grazed and feeling somewhat sorry for myself I didn't do the ironing as planned, but sat still for the entire time Sports Personality of the Year was on nursing my wounded limbs and pride.

In the end Jo Pavey didn't win, but she did come third - which I thought was a commendable achievement given the opposition, although listening to James Corden on Radio 2 this morning it is debatable about how pleased these elite sports people, who have just had a fantastic year, are going to be about finishing it off with an award for being the best of the losers! Or in Jo's case the second best!

She has cited her family and current contentment as the biggest possible reason for her recent success however Gaby Logan's comments regarding most new mum's struggling to match up their shoes before heading out the door has sparked an angry response in the press, and given rise to a debate over whether or not it was patronising to applaud her for her achievements in relation to the recent birth of her baby.

For what it's worth, I think it is remarkable that physically she was able to get herself to that level of fitness so soon after nurturing her child and mentally able to find the determination to get out and train at the level required to win. 

Watching Jo and the rest of the sporting world's finest last night, I did wonder as to whether any of them are hot wired to procrastinate, or if mentally they are stacked up differently to me and it is this, along with their physical talent, that makes them champions.  Perhaps disorganised and frequently more than a little bit flustered just doesn't come into their mindset! 

I appreciate that by the time we see them at the start of a game, or race, or event they are completely in the zone and that in all probability they wouldn't have made it to compete at that level, if they weren't able to focus and get on with the job in hand. But it has made me wonder if any of them have ever put some letters in the post, then been unable to find the larger ones that were due to go to the post office for weighing, and genuinely not known if this was because the letters had been left at home or posted unstamped!

Not that I'm saying that sixteen years on after giving birth my brain has remained as mush, but I was awfully glad to find them lying on the table when I got back home!

M - 512
Brighton Half - 69
Glasgow Half - 293
Total Distance covered      426.5 miles

#GoJo

How can it be that time of year already?!

Sometimes things that I know in one sense to be true just don't compute in others.  For example, I know that I am forty four yet find it inconceivable that it's thirty years since Frankie Goes to Hollywood were at number one with the Power of Love, or that it's the fourteenth of December but am completely unprepared for it being the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards tonight.  This is something that I associate with Christmas and the end of the Year, and I'm nowhere near ready enough to acknowledge that it IS almost Christmas and just over two weeks until the end of the year! How did that happen?!

But ready or not, this evening it is, and along with it the opportunity to vote for Jo Pavey, fellow forty something, mother of two, parkrunner! (Who just happens to be the European 10,000m champion and the oldest female to ever win Gold at the championships).

Tonight, competing against golfing, footballing and formula one hero's (to name but a few) the call on social media is to rouse the running community into action and vote for Jo.  Certainly her achievements are remarkable and yet at the same time understated.  I don't know if she is more worthy a winner than any of the other contenders, nor with my half hearted attempt at cross training and doing my exercises do I profess to know any of what she has gone through other than running 5K around a local park at nine o'clock on a Saturday morning! Yet I hope that we can stand up for all that she represents and show the big money sports what we community runners are made of!

There was a link to a blog in the parkrun news letter this week highlighting Jo's case, and suggesting ways in which we can help spur people into action.  For someone who struggles at times with sending yet another day's link to my blog onto your Facebook or Twitter feed, the thought that I am supposed to be doing so at least three times a day, and then raising the tempo of my activity even further as the start of the show approaches is somewhat alien to me! But it may give some insight into the workings of social media and why my half hearted attempts to include hash tags at the end of my links posted on Twitter have by and large gone unseen. Despite Marathon Man's valiant attempt to raise my profile a couple of weeks ago, and introduce me to the whole notion of a hash tag, I have only acquired two new followers on Twitter - thank you Etsy Favouriter and Westival Saviour - but as you were already readers I'm not sure I can count it as a success!

Perhaps I'm missing the point regarding getting myself 'out there' but I just can't imagine sending out information on the same topic three times in the same day! Perhaps the thirty years that has passed since I was going to Scout Disco's has rendered me part of a different generation or perhaps I'm happier without the pressure of thinking I have to make this run related if I'm including a link after my daily ramblings! So call it old school, or social media naivety but this is it.. my one and only call to arms... for mothers, for older women, for parkrunners, and for sheer guts and determination VOTE FOR JO or should I say #GoJo!

M - 513
Brighton Half - 70
Glasgow Half - 294
Total Distance covered      426.5 miles

THIRTEEN Hundred and Fifty Pounds!

(thirteen miles is next week!)

I am aware that, on occasion, when my brain isn't quite in gear and I can't get appropriate, well thought out words to my mouth quick enough, my face may jump in and portray my gut reaction. It is likely that anyone who knows me may have been on the receiving end of this (no need however to all comment 'yes') and HMG certainly was this morning!

In a change to our normal routine we met at the park for a three and half mile 'warm up' loop before parkrun. Waiting for the park gates to be opened, HMG dared to suggest that we might just have to go for a gentle jog instead of our planned run and, without stopping to think why she was suggesting this, I know I shot her a look which made my feelings clear on the matter! I was ready to run!  Once coined (by my boss at the time) as the Glaswegian Death Stare, it clearly did it's job and off we set without any further discussion as to the foolhardy nature of our plan.

It was a tad on the icy side. We couldn't get into any sort of rhythm, hadn't accounted for the delay in setting off, had to really push it (uphill) to get back to the park on time and didn't enjoy it much at all! Sorry HMG! Although I'm not sure we would have faired much better had we stayed at the park and just gone for that gentle jog as the course was deemed to be too dangerous, but rather than cancel parkrun was run over an amended (and gritted) course which saw us run six short laps, and consequently six hills instead of three! No PB for C today, as he had been hoping, but he did complete his tenth parkrun and will be the recipient of a ten t-shirt (which I still think shouldn't just be for juniors!).


Given that parkrun numbers were a little depleted and the cafe was indeed closed, I did bite the bullet and have the run director invite everyone back afterwards for coffee - eek! Needn't have worried, no 'randomer's' came! Whilst this isn't the best news for my fundraising, it did mean that instead my house was busy and full with parkrunners I am fortunate enough to call friends.  It was lovely, coffee was drunk and cake was eaten! There was enough to send everyone home with a goodie bag for later (much to C's horror) and still have leftovers to ward off any sugary carbohydrate craving for the foreseeable future, added to which I've reached another milestone for Barnardo's. I think that's called a Win! Win! Win! situation!

M - 514
Brighton Half - 71
Glasgow Half - 295
Distance covered                  6.6 miles
Total Distance covered      426.5 miles

Celestial Intervention

Thank you!

Although I should perhaps apologise in advance to those affected by a turn of circumstance that they possibly didn't enjoy quite as much as I did!

Dashing round the supermarket this morning, I had the best news I could possibly have wished for... there was no water in the town where Al works, and no water means no school. By the time I got back with the shopping he was home - both me and the dogs couldn't believe our luck!

I'm not sure it was quite the unexpected day off that he would have hoped for, although I think as soon as he heard the news that the school was closing he had a fair idea what lay ahead of him. Consequently, short of a last hoover up of dog hair I think we are just about ready for tomorrow.

I have however, still got no idea quite what to expect in terms of numbers! I haven't added up how many pieces of cake there are but if there isn't enough for at least two pieces each then we are going to struggle to get everybody in!  I have however bought enough milk to fill the bath, although I'm not sure semi skinned cows milk is going to cut in in terms of the Cleopatra experience should we be left with any!

I am feeling fairly relaxed about it and even the news that the café may be closed tomorrow hasn't thrown me into disarray! (Which in itself is almost enough to make me start worrying!) Instead I am daring to believe that perhaps the stars are in alignment and someone somewhere is smiling on me and giving me a helping hand. Or perhaps I should just thank Al for all his help, and offer to make tea on Sunday when he's catching up on the work he should have been doing today!

Mr L you are a star!


M - 515
Brighton Half - 72
Glasgow Half - 296
Total Distance covered      419.9 miles

PS Things are definitely working in my favour... the only cake that Dougal managed to eat was my dad's birthday cake and that's not needed until Sunday!

Tempting Fate

Twice in the one day?!

This morning I had to wait in for a man to come and fix our broadband connection, which has become increasingly intermittent recently.  He arrived, swapped some bits, went to fetch some bits he didn't have, came back, fiddled about some more and left saying "if I don't see you before, have a nice Christmas!" For someone who had supposedly just fixed all our technical issues I found this a little odd, and surely tempting fate somewhat.

About an hour after he had gone, I decided to check my emails on my ipod. No internet connection. Right! Straight on the phone to register my dissatisfaction and demand that the engineer was contacted and told to come back and sort it before finishing at one o'clock for five days!  Working my way through the delight of the automated switchboard it dawned on me that of course there wouldn't be any internet connection, my ipod was trying to make contact with the old 'hub' (whatever that is!) New password registered,  I was up and running before before I actually got to speak to anyone - not often that the five minutes or so of multiple choice questions works in your favour!

The weather today has been foul. Cold, windy and with frequent hailstone showers. Not ideal dog walking weather, as for running - even less so! Dressed like I was about to embark on a polar expedition I finally psyched myself up to taking the dogs out. Someone somewhere was smiling on us as we made it round the fields and back home again between showers. The idea that I would be so lucky if I were to don my trainers and go out for a run, would I felt be asking too much!

My eyes firmly on the 'prize' of our thirteen mile run next Saturday, I am dreading not being well enough to run more than I am worried what will happen if I miss one (or two) of my training runs. My confidence yesterday in things coming together for Saturday has been somewhat short lived, I'm starting to panic, yet don't have the energy to do much about it! Everything is starting to snowball and I'm running out of time. There are lessons to be learnt here about taking on too much that I will have to pay heed to in the New Year, but for now it's full steam ahead, or at least it would be if I hadn't run out of steam already!

M - 516
Brighton Half - 73
Glasgow Half - 297
Total Distance covered      419.9 miles

Wait?!

Perhaps the clue was in the name...

Several years ago H decided that he was going to get into baking, books were bought and post-it notes were stuck on all the recipes he was going to make. We’re still waiting. In the meantime, I have used the recipe for brownies from one of these books many many times over!

Looking in the same book for something else to serve on Saturday I decided upon some chocolate refrigerator cake.  Chosen because I liked the look of the ingredients and, because it doesn't require cooking there is a limit to what can go wrong!  Unfortunately I didn't read the instructions all the way through to the end, because having crushed the biscuits, chopped the nuts, stirred in the raisins and cherries before adding the melted chocolate, syrup and butter, I am now supposed to leave this in the fridge overnight to set! What child or‘athlete' with a severe sugar craving wants to wait overnight to sample the fruits of their labour? Why is this recipe even in a child’s baking book?

In a world of quick fixes and a need for everything to happen instantaneously perhaps this has been slipped in to remind us that patience is a virtue and that (hopefully) something’s are worth the wait – but I'm not impressed!

Things are however, slowly starting to come together for my post parkrun cake and coffee morning! Trouble is, I have no idea how many people to expect!  I have gone from one extreme (trying to organise an afternoon tea party down to the letter with invitations sent out weeks in advance) to the other, whereby I'm kind of just throwing my house open to anyone who wants to join us, although I have stopped short of advertising it on the parkrun facebook page!  Consequently I am a mix of looking forward to having people back, and wishing that the fundraising part of my marathon plan was over!

Meanwhile the aforementioned brownies have been baked, which fortunately are delicious when eaten still warm from the oven, there's curry with the running ladies to look forward to tonight, and refrigerator cake awaiting me in the morning - perhaps there was method in the book's madness after all!


M - 517
Brighton Half - 74
Glasgow Half - 298
Total Distance covered      419.9 miles

Raising the bar

and getting on with it!

Pep talk from C this morning about not missing my run today, telling me if I do I will have missed two in a week. He also points out that I am actually only half way to where I want to be in terms of distance and that really this is my new base level, and I should just get on with it. Or words to that effect! He was also keen to go running this evening (I know, took me by surprise too!) and so he may have had a bit of a vested interest in persuading me to run!

All day as the weather got worse I kept thinking that perhaps he would change his mind, and let me off the hook, whilst at the same time there was my "if you were in Balnakeil" conversation going on in my head, in the form of "if this was a Saturday morning you'd be waiting for HMG and go whatever the weather..." Trouble was it wasn't a Saturday morning, and I had all day to talk myself in and out of it.

When C got in, I was in a 'go for it' moment. He was less convinced, and retreated upstairs to mull it over whilst we waited for Al to get in. Almost tempted to join us, but clearly feeling worse than me today, he decided against it, at which point I started to doubt my decision to run, but it is unclear how much of this was to do with losing the game of who's poorliest! In the end C made my mind up for me, having already got changed into his kit! Nothing like spending time with my son to motivate me into doing something that I wouldn't otherwise!

C is good company and it was lovely spending time with him, despite the cold, wet and windy weather and the fact that he turned his ankle and is currently sitting with a bag of frozen peas on it. I hope it hasn't put you off joining me again C...

Three miles later and my wobble over training too early for Brighton has passed.  It felt good running, I can definitely feel my legs are stronger and as HMG said yesterday it has started to feel more like habit than a training plan.  We both definitely prefer weeks with a long Saturday run and are going to miss it this weekend.  That said I may well be a little flustered over everyone (well hopefully not all seventy parkunners!) coming back here for coffee afterwards. We might not be setting off until eight this week, but I may well be up at quarter past five anyway!

M - 518
Brighton Half - 75
Glasgow Half - 299
Distance covered                 3.4 miles
Total Distance covered      419.9 miles

Knock! Knock!

If I could only hear to ask "who's there!"

There is something incongruous about rushing to get to a hospital appointment to have my hearing aid turned up, coming home and then not hearing the postman knock on the door with a parcel delivery!

I'm sure when I started out, one of my aims was to get fitter, and potentially even feel younger as a result, not so today - I feel about a hundred and ten and there's nothing quite like a trip to the audiology department at our local hospital to put me amongst a group of my new found peers! The audiologist's advice to persevere with my hearing aid now because of the benefits when I start loosing the hearing in my good ear doing nothing to make me feel any younger!

Not wishing to mock the afflicted, but feeling that it's OK seeing as I'm one of them, I couldn't help but smile at the notice inviting us all along to a Hard of Hearing Fellowship meeting where we can meet others in the same boat and discuss our experiences - Pardon? What? Sorry love, didn't quite catch that?! I feel there may be lots of blog worthy material awaiting me there, but I think I'd sooner stop writing!

I am however thinking of having a sign made for the front door saying "Please knock loudly, one hard of hearing lady, one deaf dog, and one dog who can hear perfectly well but is ruled by his stomach and will ignore any audible stimulus if he is in the kitchen and thinks there may be a chance of food, are at home!"

I haven't faired much better on our walk this afternoon, I think my legs feeling surprisingly good yesterday might have been down to the fact that I didn't walk very far on them!

For the first time I am having a slight wobble about whether or not we started our training plan too soon.  At the end of week ten, and with eleven weeks to Brighton it has really just started to dawn on me that that means maintaining our current level of fitness for longer than it's taken us to acquire it! The bad weather that I was afraid of arriving may yet come and curtail our running for a while, but perhaps I was over cautious when I allocated quite so much time for unforeseen eventualities! Glasgow seems like ages ago, but in reality it was nine weeks, which makes Brighton seem even further away! I know we wanted to know that we could do it HMG, but I'm starting to think finding out in Brighton might have been a better approach!

But at least it means that with time on our hands, if I wake up tomorrow still feeling like a centenarian, perhaps I can allow myself another day off running, not least because it's so cold outside!

M - 519
Brighton Half - 76
Glasgow Half - 300
Total Distance covered      416.5 miles

Jobs done!

how exciting eh?!

For the first time in a long time I'm not sure what to tell you about today! When my days don't go according to plan I seem more than happy to share this with you, in the hope that it will strike a cord with at least one of you who is also rubbish at doing what they are supposed to! However when they do go to plan, all I'm left with is a list of jobs that I'm not sure makes for the most interesting of reading...

I've hoovered, ironed, cleaned out the cupboard under the sink, found the leak, put a Tupperware box under it, made a couple of cards, addressed my Christmas Card envelopes, worked out what I'm baking for Saturday's post parkrun café, written a shopping list and put the Christmas Tree up! (Although admittedly this last job isn't quite as time consuming as you may be imagining, our Dougal friendly tree is a silk painting I did last year which just needed a quick iron, pinning over a painting, and hanging back up on the wall!).

Al didn't have any marking to do today which made a very welcome change, and made himself useful clearing a space upstairs for the things we needed to get rid of from downstairs, took said items to their new 'hiding' place, walked the dogs, cooked brunch, tea and next year's Christmas pudding! Chauffeured the boys to Octopush and done the washing up whilst I write this....

Not bad for two people who don't feel very well! Both fighting off colds, if we could have decided which one of us was more deserving of spending the day in bed when we got up this morning the day might have been a little different!

Haven't quite managed to tick off all the jobs that I was supposed to have done by now, and with a busy week ahead I'm sure I will be back to panicking about it tomorrow! But for today, I'm happy and content, having had a nice weekend and remarkably my legs feel a whole lot better than I thought they would having run so far yesterday!

M - 520
Brighton Half - 77
Glasgow Half - 301
Total Distance covered      416.5 miles

TWELVE drummers drumming

but can they do if very quietly so as not to wake me please...

Yesterday when I was on my journey around the wonders of the world wide web I stopped for a while looking at new dog blankets for the lounge. These get put on the sofa when the dogs are sitting with us on an evening, or should they wake up in the middle of the night and, unsurprisingly given the alternative, not want to go back to bed. 

This was dangerous ground, as it is frequently the case that even the merest thought 'dog blanket' is enough to break a run of uninterrupted sleep, a full blown conversation with Al about whether or not we actually needed new ones was definitely tempting fate, and I think I knew before I went to bed last night that I would be up in the middle of the night.

Sure enough I was barked out of my bed at 3 o'clock, which for someone whose alarm was set for quarter past five was a little on the mean side.

A very cold and frosty morning, but for the Scots amongst you, no sign of the three craws*, definitely below zero, with twinkling, rather pretty but somewhat hazardous pavements! On the plus side it wasn't raining - a definite improvement on last week! The route was also nicer, and the two hours that it took us to get to the park kind of flew in!

I had a really good run at parkrun - being significantly warmed up by then definitely helped and for a while I was even in front of Al, parkrunfastfinisher and C, but my glory was short lived as they soon overtook, but for a while we ran as a pack and it was nice after spending so many weeks watching them in the distance in front of me!  C ran the whole 5K without walking any of it for the first time - whoo hoo! - and I RAN TWELVE MILES! Shame we've to wait until the end of February to go to Brighton I want to run it now!!

Well maybe not today! I've been a little too sleepy to do anything, but have had my thoughts return to blankets. Too cold the other evening I had to get up and get an extra cover, grabbed the first one I could find and had a bit of a wry smile to myself as I put it on the bed - forget boxes on the floor... nothing like putting a sleeping Arsenal fan under a Man U blanket to mess up the feng shui!!

M - 521
Brighton Half - 78
Glasgow Half - 302
Distance Covered -            12.4 miles (and got the blisters to prove it!)
Total Distance covered      416.5 miles

And for those of you not familiar with this classic...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BngJKGZe1k

In Denial

but at least I know it!

I think today is what should be classed as an Ostrich Day! I have completely ignored all the things I was supposed to be doing (although I did make it to the dentist) and allowed myself to go on a journey of discover through the wealth of 'links' on the internet!

It started with a thought about a local half marathon being run in the early part of next year. It runs so close to our house that I thought perhaps I ought to give it a second look, to see if we could or should incorporate it into our training plan. Having already eschewed it on grounds of not liking the course, I was somewhat pleased to see that it is the Sunday before Brighton so it doesn't warrant any further thought - not running thirteen miles two weekends in a row! But in looking it up I happened across a link to my next destination... seven  perfect post workout snacks!

A quick read and I'm not fancying any of them! Combination upon combination of things that I don't particularly like. Not stopping on this page for long... no need because next up is The Runners World Big Book of Running for Beginners.

Offering tips on smart nutrition and injury prevention, plus realistic training plans, I am much more hopeful that I've happened upon something that will have all the answers I am apparently searching for. Reading on however I see that the training plans will help runners to achieve a 30 minute run, a 5K or even a 5 miler!  Oh dear, I was quite content to still consider myself a beginner, but perhaps I'm going to have to have a rethink!

There is a certain comfort around being a beginner in which you are allowed to make excuses for ignorance. It's OK not to warm up, cool down, do your exercises, eat properly, pace yourself and cross train (to name but a few) when you don't know any better! This suggestion that not only do I know better, but I should be doing something about it, pushes me into the territory of intermediate runner and I'm not sure I'm ready to go there!

It has also thrown my head into disarray over what to bake for next Saturday's post parkrun coffee and 'cake' fundraiser... I had been thinking cake and just cake (oh and fellow parkrunner's mince pies!) but perhaps should I be making something that in truth I know the marathon elite will prefer? Hmm it's a tricky one, I know I need to make changes to my diet, but I also know that I don't want to do them this side of Christmas - I would much rather stick my head back in the sand and pretend I'm a beginner runner for a while longer!

M - 522
Brighton Half - 79
Glasgow Half - 303  
Total Distance covered      404.1 miles

Me Time

who was I kidding?!

For the first time since starting my half marathon training at the end of September, I have missed a run, consequently my mind is a plethora of mixed emotions, but I think my legs are grateful!

Having had such a bad run on Tuesday it is hard not to see it as defeatist and I think that is how C saw it on his return from school this afternoon, when he tried his best to motivate me to go get my running kit on and get out there.  He knew that I'd feel better for going, and on so many levels he was right and perhaps I should have gone but in the end there was no persuading me. That said he did stop short of suggesting that he put his kit on and we would go together....

I'm exhausted, and for whilst I know that sometimes exercise can reverse this, there are also times when I think it is important to listen to what your body is telling you and rest.  I have to recognise that our plan is only that a plan and my performance at Brighton in February is not going to be affected by my missing a mid week five mile run eleven and a half weeks before D-Day or rather HM Day (Take One!).

If, as is my current intention, I am going to spend the vast majority of the next sixteen months in training then I am going to have to find a way to reconcile deviations from the plan in my head, or my body will do it for me.  It's no use having a rest week earmarked for next week and flogging myself to get there, when I obviously need to rest now. Besides which I am so looking forward to my long run with HMG on Saturday morning that I didn't want to do anything today that would jeopardise that. I guess what I'm saying is that it came down to a question of priority.

I also managed to convince myself that I would use the time I would have spent running and showering afterwards, on doing something for ME! Things that I wouldn't otherwise have found time to do in the day, but once done would give me a sense of satisfaction. I was thinking exercises (yes honestly!), a bit of a shifting around of stuff in our bedroom to accommodate the crafting box and face paints I now have to house until our next 'gig' in January, and a hot bath. Easily doable in the allocated hour and a half, but somehow the slot never seemed to appear. Every time I got close to thinking it might be now something else came along to scupper my plans.

So instead of feeling pleased with myself for listening to what my body was telling me, and self righteous for how well I utilised the time I had gained, I'm left feeling like I let myself down - twice. Too busy (still) and tired to do much about it, all I can do is chalk it up to experience and try and learn from it for next time, besides which I've a scheduled guilt free 'rest day' coming tomorrow - shame I've to spend it at the Dentist!

M - 523
Brighton Half - 80
Glasgow Half - 304    
Total Distance covered      404.1 miles

A Squash and a Squeeze

Action is required!

After my recent posts regarding the volume of food I've been consuming, it might be a fair assumption to think that given today's title this is going to be about trying to get into my jeans!  It isn't. It's about my house. But that said I've always found a my house tends to act as a metaphor for my life...

The boys had a book when they were wee called 'A Squash and a Squeeze' (by Julia Donaldson and Alex Scheffler) the premise of which was if you think your house is too small, fill it with lots of stuff, then get rid of the stuff and the same space will feel HUGE! Five years after moving in and we're reaching bursting point on the 'fill it with lots of stuff' stage. There isn't room in it for anything else and no time to have a clear out this side of Santa arriving! Admittedly, I have not helped on this front by filling the one cupboard I did get round to emptying recently with fabric.

C is now reading this wondering a) if things are really that critical that a PS4 and a couple of games are going to cause us that much of a problem; or b) if Santa is in fact bringing a lot of large surprises with him this year. Unfortunately it's the former, or even just the thought of it which is almost enough to tip me over the edge.

I have no idea whether I believe in Feng Shui or not, but what I do know is that there are so many obstacles appearing as we run out of room to put things away that there soon won't be any room for us to move, let alone any positive energy flow.

Trouble is I'm a hoarder. I keep everything, and even though I know that I need to have a good clear out, I never seem to get round to it, meanwhile I keep on keeping things, including a large selection of empty shoe boxes for putting things in neatly when I do finally get round to tidying!

Like my house, my mind is full of clutter, and as I found out on last night's run, my energy flow is not as it should be.  My legs still aren't right and I am seriously considering having a day off running tomorrow and not going for the scheduled five miles.

I need to de junk the house, and de junk my diet! But not before I've eaten my way through two (for the price of one) packets of the best Belgium chocolate and hazelnut shortbread that I happened upon in the supermarket today. SisterofMG750 it's like large squares of shortbready Boasters - I'll make sure there is some in for Christmas! Be a shame to start dieting now...

M - 524
Brighton Half - 81
Glasgow Half - 305      
Total Distance covered      404.1 miles

It's a Dog's Life

or is it?!

Walking the dogs this afternoon, I lost Sid. As his eyesight and hearing gets worse, this is becoming an increasingly more common occurrence - if he doesn't see which way you've gone, he has no way of knowing which way to go.

Turning right instead of going straight across a field like we normally do, I turned round a few minutes later and he was no where to be seen. Not entirely sure where to go and look for him first, I noticed the normally docile horses in the adjoining field were picking up a bit of a pace and with a sinking feeling in my stomach saw my little old dog running for his life as they chased him up the field! He managed to escape but then shot off across another field, still at full pelt, but in completely the wrong direction to where Dougal and I were. Normally Dougal goes and finds him for me, but given that neither of us will go into the field with the horses and there was no way across the barbed wire into the other field, all I could do was stand and holler in the hope that he would hear me. Thankfully he did, but had clearly no idea which direction the noise had come from and then set off running aimlessly around trying to get some sort of orientation reference.  Now frantically waving my arms as well as shouting, on the off chance that he might be able to see something, he finally picked us up on his somewhat myopic radar and after navigating a bit of a swamp we were reunited, and both kept a bit of a closer eye on the other on the way home!

Out for a run this evening and I started to get a better appreciation of what life must be like for him.  The traffic was loud, my tinnitus was louder and for some reason I couldn't get my 'good' ear earphone to stay in my ear, consequently I spent a lot of the run struggling to hear what I wanted to.  My vision wasn't a great deal better! There are parts of our route that are fairly dark and the effect of the oncoming car headlights are to momentarily blind you so you can't see anything of the pavement in front of you as they pass. I was starting to feel a bit disorientated, when to add insult to (hopefully not) injury, my right leg decided to give way, albeit momentarily, but it threw me off my stride and I never seemed to regain it again.

Having been too cold when we set out I was now too hot, the four o'clock snack that I had devoured an our earlier was starting to make me feel sick and I had pins and needles in my hands. Obviously my energy flow was not as it should be and without it, it turned something which at times feels like the most natural thing in the world into something clumsy and laboured and slow.

With his grace, speed, reluctance to go out in the rain and desire to spend vast amounts of time curled up on the sofa I did like to think I had most in common with Dougal. But deaf, blind and with a shaky leg looks like it might be Sid!

M - 525
Brighton Half - 82
Glasgow Half - 306
Distance covered                  4.5 miles             
Total Distance covered      404.1 miles

  

Eat, Sleep

and eat some more!

Entering the tenth week of our half marathon training plan and I am really pleased with how well it has gone so far.  We are on course and have run further than I ever thought imaginable.  I haven't entirely changed my mindset from that of preferring speed over a shorter distance, but I have stopped thinking of the half marathon in terms of how it relates to five kilometres and am starting to see the distances as two very different kinds of running. There are however two consequences of this increase in distance that I have yet to fully get to grips with. The first is to do with how tired I am, the second centres around hunger!

Incorporating parkrun into our long run has been great, both in terms of motivation for getting there and round the final three miles, and the fact that come half past nine on a Saturday morning my running is over for the weekend. Trouble is so is my energy! I spent all weekend playing catch up and judging by how tired I've been today I don't think I made it.

Secondly, as mentioned last week, I'm ravenous! I am too ashamed to tell you how much I ate yesterday, but lets just say I was fit to burst by the end of it! This had the knock on effect of me not being particularly hungry when I went to the supermarket first thing this morning, didn't buy anywhere near enough sugary products to munch on and have spent this afternoon back where I was last week scouring the cupboards for anything that will tick the box.  Usually fairly discerning about the quality of chocolate I will eat, I have just stuffed my face with a bar that I wouldn't normally even consider, but couldn't stop myself eating, I now feel a little sick!

I spent some time this morning mapping out our nine mile to parkrun route for Saturday, my legs itching to get out and run, my head desperate to find a pillow and hit it at the earliest possible opportunity. In the end I have done neither, as it isn't a run day nor have I had time to go for a snooze. The second of which I may regret later when I'm sitting watching four GCSE drama performances - no disrespect to H and his peers it's just the thought of a quiet darkened room may prove to be too conducive to sleep... No! It's OK I've just remembered how uncomfortable the chairs are!

I am wondering how long I will have to train at this level for before my body adapts to the changes whist at the same time very concious that cheap chocolate and sugary carbohydrates are not the way forward.  Way back in July when I visited the Running Man he was advocating a carbohydrate free diet - ha! It would either kill me, or I'd kill anyone coming near me eating any! I think for the time being that may be a step too far, and if I'm going to integrate any of his suggestions into my daily routine perhaps I would be better advised to start with the exercises!

M - 526
Brighton Half - 83
Glasgow Half - 307
Total Distance covered      399.6 miles