When the going gets tough...

nothin's gonna hold me back!

A good chat with Al last night, a period of reflection somewhere around 4am(!), and I got up feeling in a much better frame of mind this morning. Action plan to keep me busy all day formulated and exercises done before I came downstairs things were looking up.  Until I saw the weather! It was throwing it down. Dougal took one look at it and retreated under the dining room table and for a fleeting moment I thought about joining him, which conjured up a lovely mental image of Al coming home to find me and Dougal in our den hiding from the world, with Sid standing, legs crossed, at the backdoor desperate to go out for a walk.  It was however just as well that I let the thought pass, I'm not sure that sisterofMG750 would have been prepared to cut me that much slack when she phoned at lunchtime to see how I was doing.

With that special brand of straight talking borne out of concern that I love her for, sisterofMG750 has, in a nutshell, observed that I either need to find a way to enjoy what I'm doing or stop doing it! That the overall trend of my blog is of someone who doesn't appear to enjoy running and rather than energise, the whole process of running, fundraising and blogging seems to be draining me.

Not for the first time, she's right, and I promise to give some proper consideration to your suggestions sis, but for today it really was just a case of put one foot in front of the other and keep going.  Perhaps yesterday was the equivalent of me hitting 'the wall' and I can either give up, or persevere.  I hope you'll be glad to hear that I've decided to go with the latter!

I kept myself busy in the kitchen all day, a conscious plan to keep me off the internet and focussed on something other than MG750 (although I did manage to do some calf stretches whilst stirring the sauce for tomorrow's dinner!).  It's been good therapy, and I feel loads better than I did last night, but apparently such productivity is somewhat out of character as the first thing that Al did on coming home to discover my prolific cooking fest was to ask if I was feeling OK!

I'm trying my best to be. I chose to do this knowing that it was going to be a struggle both mentally and physically.  Bailing out at the first serious down swing is not part of the plan... finding a way to pull myself out of this dip is.  But when my phone died after getting rather wet on our dog walk (my waterproofs clearly not as waterproof as they once were) I couldn't help but think "Really? Was my ipod in the washing machine not enough water damage for one week?!" Unless of course this is the Universe conspiring to get me my iphone!

Nine miles tomorrow - see you at half seven HMG!


M - 549
Brighton Half - 107
Glasgow Half - 331
Total Distance covered      338.7 miles

Day 200

Hoping Day 201 might be better!

My insomnia is back which means that something is clearly keeping my mind from shutting down at four in the morning, but I haven't quite worked out what it is yet. There wasn't any particular problem I was trying to solve, or worry that was churning over in my head, just couldn't switch off and then when I did get back to sleep I had the most bizarre dream, the meaning to which I have also yet to work out, although I think it's fair to say that I might be a little stressed! I am certainly carrying rather a lot of tension around with me in my muscles as was confirmed by my return trip to the Biomechanics Man this afternoon.

I haven't been for an assessment for months, and I was really hoping that he was going to be impressed with how well I was doing, especially given the fact that I've miraculously managed to get myself into such good shape without doing any of my exercises. It didn't really come as a surprise when it didn't quite work out this way.

I've known for a while that I've been getting more tense and my muscles have felt tighter but I was shocked to see how much my mobility had ceased up. I'm cross with myself for letting this happen and I don't really know how it did. Always reluctant to do my exercises I know that I've never really found a way to fit them in on a daily basis, but I used to at least have the good grace to feel guilty about not doing them, now it doesn't even cross my mind! So when BM said the dreaded words "I think it's time you got reacquainted with your foam roller" there is no one but myself to blame!

Day two hundred and the optimism of both a few and a hundred days ago seems to have waned slightly! Back then I was all enthusiastic about putting what I'd learnt from the Biomechanics Man and Running Coach into practice and celebrating my internet sales and fundraising efforts.  It would, I think, be hard to feel further from that this evening and even HMG's realisation that our nine mile run on Saturday sees us three quarters of the way to half marathon distance isn't enough to pull me round. But I'll get there.

M - 550
Brighton Half - 108
Glasgow Half - 332
Total Distance covered      338.7 miles

Eating Cake

for once not literally! (but only because I haven't had time to bake)

With two five mile runs, this is the biggest mid week schedule of the whole twelve weeks, and I have to say I felt it today (not wanting to put you off your run tomorrow HMG).  I think psychologically it was harder still because of how much I had enjoyed running the same route on Monday. I missed you this morning Al - and I'm almost sure that you would have rather been running than teaching!

I think I knew before I set off that it was unlikely that I was going to be able to match my performance on Monday, and also that it would be foolish to try, so I just decided to take it at a pace that I was comfortable with and see how it went.  It was OK.  I'm glad that I ran and I'm glad that it's behind me.... it would appear that my dislike of the Thursday run is happy enough to shift to a Wednesday when circumstances dictate a change in running days!

I am however feeling a little spurred on by the fact that I've looked at the dates and we CAN have both our cake and eat it HMG -there is time for rest weeks and still get to thirteen miles by Christmas! Which means that next week we can step the distance down, and looking at the plan that Brighton Half sent us, by more than just a notch! I'm not sure that this is the right attitude but I'm definitely more excited at the prospect of this than the thought of running nine miles on Saturday morning!

Have had a bad few days wasting a lot of time swithering over every decision and came back from my run determined to be more decisive... all ready to put this into practice over some fabric I found on one of my many internet trawls, I put it in my basket only to discover that the postage was going to be £6.20 - I don't think so! Another hour wasted trying to source it elsewhere only to go back to the original site and discover that for some reason I had chosen Spain as my country of residence! Mistake rectified, fabric ordered and peg bag started so that I am free to 'play' when this latest purchase arrives... I think I might have found a way to spend the extra time I'll gain from less exercise next week!

M - 551
Brighton Half - 109
Glasgow Half - 333
Distance covered                  5.1 miles
Total Distance covered      338.7 miles

Sound and Vision

(Nothing I could do but) sit right down waiting for the gift of....

Last week when Al was on holiday and I would have had no problem with waking him up to go and see to the dogs if they had woken early - they didn't - going back to work this morning and Dougal decided to wake up at five.  I did lie there for a few minutes hoping that I'd misheard but no such luck - it's been a long day! Some of it productive (a couple more jobs ticked off the list), some less so!

Yesterday I inadvertently managed to leave my ipod in my running kit and put it through the washing machine, not surprisingly there was no sign of life afterwards but I put it in a bowl of rice to try and dry it out just in case.  It is an old ipod Nano of C's and both he and I were of the impression that I would be able to pick up a replacement for pence as it is really out of date.  Not so.  I am unsure as to why exactly but the ones on Ebay are all being keenly watched by large numbers of people and selling for significantly more than we thought.  I wonder if this is for the very reason that I like mine so much, it is small enough to fit in the exceptionally tiny pocket that they include in some running kit (I think it's meant for a key).

So I found myself trying to work my way through this current dilemma - do I spend money on a 'new' ipod Nano, do I try and find a way to run with my ipod Touch (which I have also inherited from C), or do I put the money I would have spent on a replacement Nano towards an iphone and just be done with it? But if I do go for one of the two larger options where do I put them when I'm running? Al has an armband contraption that I think would drive me nuts (although to be fair I've never tried), I could make some sort of belt with a pocket in it, again I think this might annoy me (never mind how it would look!), or I could sew pockets onto my running tops - which is possibly my preferred option but seems a little time consuming and I can't help but think there must be a better solution out there.

Before I had time to go off into cyber space in search of it, I decided to retrieve my ipod from it's grain covered home and see if there had been any sign of improvement - we have sound but very little vision! I don't hold out much hope for being able to add anything new to it, but as long as I keep it on the same loop that it's been on since April I am hoping it'll be OK! And for whilst this should make me happy, I can't help but wish that it had sparked into life an hour or so earlier and saved me all that time searching for and debating it's replacement, add in the hour that I've now spent typing up the tale to tell you and it would appear that most of my day has in fact been wasted! BUT I did make myself text the lady who is doing to lend me her face paints for the juggling convention, she remembers me and is still happy to let me borrow them - I think this I good news!


M - 552
Brighton Half - 110
Glasgow Half - 334
Total Distance covered      333.6 miles

Running Joy!

sorry Al!

A change to my dog walking plans for later in the week, meant that it made much more sense to run today instead of tomorrow - especially as Al was at home and could come with me! But I'm not sure either of us really knew what we were letting ourselves in for when we set of!

I don't like running behind him, partly because the feeling of the open road stretching out before me isn't quite the same when the view in front of me is the back of his running top, and partly because I hate the feeling of needing to keep up with him - so I thought he was being very considerate this morning when he either ran along side or just behind me depending on the width of the pavement...
At no point did it dawn on me that he was working hard to keep up, all the time wondering why today felt so much harder than last week, was it the oatcake and peanut butter he had just before leaving that wasn't sitting well in his stomach, was it the extra can of Guinness he had last night, or was it because he pushed himself on Saturday? At no point did he consider the option that perhaps it was because we were running each mile over a minute faster than last week!

Oops! I'm not sure what came over me! But I all I wanted to do was run and run fast, and I loved it! After the first hill we managed to maintain a pace of around eight minute miles, which would have seen us both with a parkrun time to be pleased with!

Full of running joy, but slightly exhausted, I then spent the afternoon looking at fabrics on the internet - never the most productive use of my time but always enjoyable! Clearly I am not ready to give up on the idea of my Etsy shop just yet and am trying to think of some new things to make, but continually come across the same problem that the fabric I like isn't never the most cost effective! I need to sit down and plan what my next fundraising projects are going to be before I go ordering fabric which will then have to sit in the cupboard until I find time to do something with it! Nice as the afternoon was I think I've allowed myself to be lulled into a false sense of what time is available to me after having Al home for the past ten days, and maybe I'd be well advised to leave any fabric purchases until after I've had a look at the job list I've conveniently ignored over the holidays! Going to miss you tomorrow Mr L.


M - 553
Brighton Half - 111
Glasgow Half - 335
Distance covered                  5.1 miles
Total Distance covered      333.6 miles

Tough Mudder

The other side to husbandofmarathongirl750 ?!

Out for dinner last night (at the lovely Mr & Mrs J's) and the subject invariably turned to running - how things were going and did Al not fancy running the half marathon with me?  Adamant that he didn't want to run further than five miles the conversation moved on, only to resurface again several glasses of wine later.  This time it turned to Mr J's (albeit as yet unconfirmed) plans to compete in a Tough Mudder event next year, at which point Al announces that he quite fancies doing this (despite it being twelve miles!).

In the cold light of morning he was slightly less committed and claims he didn't agree to anything, but has been told that drinking the man's whisky after voicing his interest is tantamount to signing on the dotted line!  Looking at video footage of the event over brunch and the full extent of the challenge unfolded before us...  I know that you struggled with the shopping and nail art conversation post parkrun yesterday Al, but I think this may be taking things to an extreme! HMG and sisterofmarathongirl750 have no fear I will not be suggesting this for our next adventure!

My feet are feeling better today than I thought they would, and HMG and I are already looking forward to our next long run together on Saturday. I'm wondering if perhaps this might have a little to do with the fact that it is yet another beautiful day today and as we don't have to run again until Tuesday we can say this safe in the knowledge that we don't actually have to do anything about it! A quick look at the weather forecast for the coming week and I am less convinced that we'll be feeling this way come Saturday morning!

The unseasonably warm autumn we've been having is due to come to a rather abrupt end and I can't quite get my head around what potentially lies in wait for us! My second delivery of winter coat options has been held up at the warehouse and I can't help but think I may be wishing I'd kept one of last week's contenders! I have however sorted out my winter training dilemma with the kind offer of the use of a treadmill at the aforementioned friends - thank you!

Brighton Half sixteen weeks today! Running out of excuses not to be ready - looks like my optimism might have to stay with me a bit longer!

M - 554
Brighton Half - 112
Glasgow Half - 336
Total Distance covered      328.6 miles

A rare moment of optimism

or perhaps just mid run euphoric!

Big run day today! Eight miles! In actual fact the same distance as last Saturday but run in two instalments instead of three!

As the distance we've to run gets longer so HMG's arrival time at mine is getting earlier, a slightly uncivilised quarter to eight this morning, (but not as bad as next week's half seven start!).  It was a beautiful day, our route was slightly different but still enjoyable, and we are starting to settle into a comfortable conversational pace, which makes it all the more enjoyable still! The five miles to parkrun didn't seem any longer than the four miles last week and for the first time I really got the feeling that I might be able to do this! That thirteen miles is, if not quite yet within our reach or even our sights, definitely attainable. I felt at the end of it that I could have run and run stretching out into the great blue yonder, the thought of three and a half times round Crow Nest Park didn't have quite the same appeal!

But I did it, chalked up another run on my way to my 100th and maintained my time of around just under twenty six minutes, since starting our long run to parkrun training.  My knees and ankles are however less than impressed! Thankfully I have a trip to see the Biomechanics Man on Thursday, which can't really come soon enough, although by then I should have run a further ten miles, no rest for the wicked eh?!

Actually, although perhaps not rests exactly,  HMG and I have been discussing possible alterations to our training plan to accommodate other commitments (running and non running) but for the next week at least we're sticking to the plan.  I'm a little anxious about deviating from it - that once we've done it once, or indeed twice it might all just slip away, and then there is the arbitrary goal of running thirteen miles by Christmas to consider, but I think if we decide on the deviations in advance then it should still feel like we're sticking to it - just that we've tailored made it for us! I'll have a look HMG and see what I can come up with!

Clearly running during the week (and being held back from his full potential!) worked in Al's favour as he completed his fortieth parkrun today in his forth fastest time ever - way to go Mr L! What better way to celebrate but to be man amongst ten babes sat outside the café post run?! Although in fairness I think he would have rather have had some male company - come back parkrunfastfinisher! All this holidaying is getting a bit wearing now!


M - 555
Brighton Half - 113
Glasgow Half - 337
Distance covered                   8 miles
Total Distance covered      328.6 miles