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

Anyone for tennis?!

Confused? I know I am!

 

Prior to starting this blog I had never been on Twitter, but as Al doesn't do Facebook and C refuses to have any link between me and him on his account, it seemed like the obvious answer to also 'tweet' a link to my blog so they could read it.  Al has since all but stopped using his account but before doing so, did encourage (and this is where I struggle with the terminology) his 'followers' to have a read! At least a couple of them did, and at least one of them has stuck with me!

With the sum total of three followers (which makes me feel like I'm recruiting - albeit rather unsuccessfully - for some sort of cult) or put another way three people following me (which makes them sound like stalkers) I think it's fair to say I haven't exactly embraced Twitter as a communication medium! Of the three, one is related to me (thanks C), one I see most weeks (thanks fellow parkrunner) and one is unknown to me personally, but is someone Al came into contact with after tweeting about his first parkrun a year ago!

Given that I don't actually know the third, when they chose to contact me this week via Twitter, I decided this constitutes a success for my blog on a par with a purchase from an unknown person on Etsy! Thank you MM, which given the news that you are going to be running London 2015, has to make you Marathon Man!

A few messages on and I was starting to feel like I was getting the hang of this tweeting malarkey, when an email notification telling me that 30 Second Tennis have favourite a tweet I'm mentioned in starts to cast some doubt over this.

Initially I got my hopes up that, seeing as MM had mentioned tennis ball rolling for a knee injury, perhaps 30 Second Tennis was just what I needed to kick start my exercise regime and sort out my aching calf muscles (after all 30 seconds with a tennis ball might be preferable to several minutes with a foam roller....) but on delving deeper all I can find on their website is reference to actual tennis coaching from a company based in Seattle.

Now I am really confused, either they are friends with MM  (actual or virtual!) or someone has picked up on the word tennis and decided to share it with their following, not knowing that it referred to the torturous and somewhat ungainly activity of rolling a tennis ball along some aching muscle!

I might not understand the inner workings of social media, or the inherent dangers that apparently lie within, and I may have mixed feelings about whether or not it is a good thing, but I like that it keeps me in touch with old friends, and enables me to make connections with new ones. Good luck with your training Marathon Man, I am sooo envious of you having your place for London, and almost wish I was running in 2015, April 2016 seems a long way off...

M - 527
Brighton Half - 84
Glasgow Half - 308
Total Distance covered      399.6 miles

ELEVEN Pipers Piping...

Whooo hoooo!

Not surprisingly it was still dark when I got up this morning at quarter to six to eat my breakfast in enough time for it to have settled slightly before setting off on our run.  It was however still dark when HMG and I set off just over an hour later, oh and it was also raining, just to add to the whole experience. But with our usual Saturday morning greeting of 'we must be mad' off we set on a new route to run eight miles to parkrun.

Dark and with fogged up glasses the first four miles or so were a bit of a blur, but it's OK we'll still be running this route next summer so plenty of time to familiarise ourselves with the scenery! A bit of a killer of a hill mid way round but a lovely feeling of satisfaction when we got to the top knowing that by and large it was downhill all the way from there to the park (ignoring the REALLY steep bit that we finish our run just before so we can walk up it!).

By the time we reached the park I was already post run euphoric and enjoyed the final three miles - week before last when I 'only' ran three miles to get there aside - I ran my fastest time for a while which on the end of my furthest ever run is something to smile, write and potentially harp on about for the rest of the day! Even if Al can trump it....

Over eight minutes faster than when he ran parkrun for the first time a year ago this weekend, he managed a PB of 23.31 and although still not euphoric has at least admitted to being pleased! (not least because he managed to beat parkrunfastfinisher!! But only just!)  You've come a long way from those first few runs when your only focus was not to be sick Mr L! I love you (still a bit on the emotional side) and I love that parkrun has become part of our lives and something that we can share together. Extra bonus that C joined us this morning. Extra extra bonus that he decided to ease himself back into running gently and finished behind both of us! Love you too C!
 

Been a roller coaster of a week, but ending in a better place than it started! And for whilst there weren't eleven pipers piping us in past the finishing post today, there will be thirteen awaiting us at every mile marker next October in Glasgow HMG and sisterofMG750! Long way off I know but I'm looking forward to it already! 

M - 528
Brighton Half - 85
Glasgow Half - 309
Distance covered                11.1 miles
Total Distance covered      399.6 miles (aarrggghhh! Sooooo close!)

PS Just in case you ever do read this H - love you as well x

Black Friday

Never ever ever again!

Drawn in by the latest marketing hype - Black Friday - I decided to get up early and grab myself a bargain.  Trouble is, so did everyone else. 

It was a nightmare.  I could get onto the website, I could even find what I was looking for and put it in my virtual basket, but try as I might I couldn't actually purchase anything! Every time I got close the website crashed and I got kicked out, only to have to try and start the process all over again.  As it got later and more and more people got up to join in the fun, it got worse to the point where I couldn't even get on to any of the websites I wanted to visit. 

On my way to completely losing the plot, I decided to try an actual shop.  Bad idea! Entering Argos, it was like acting out trying to get on the internet, only this time there were actual queues of people all waiting for their turn to flick through the 'book of dream's'* I left without finding what I was looking for.

Rushed home to walk the dogs, and came back from my walk resolutely telling myself I would not to succumb to any more 'today only' 'must act now' emails when there is one from East Coast Trains - the date for our outward trip to Brighton is available! Get your bags packed HMG we're booked on the 10.15!

Still no luck on the gaming websites and I had to dash off for my long awaited and much needed hot stone massage. What a disaster! I got lost, I was late, and when I arrived and suggested to the scariest looking masseuse in the brightest tightest red dress, that perhaps putting the name of the building (which is visible from the road) instead of the number of the building (which isn't) on the voucher, I found myself being chastised in a manner that made me think of Anne Robinson. Apparently I was the weakest link in this exchange, being told that other people manage to keep time, and that if I had used a Sat Nav I wouldn't have had to abandon my car on the main road to find the place on foot. Plot well and truly lost by now, I told her where to shove her massage, flounced out, came home and booked myself in at a local salon that I should have just gone to in the first place!

It was heavenly and made all the nicer by the fact that when I returned home afterwards Al had made the tea and lit the fire. I'm a lucky woman, and in my post massage state of wellbeing and with the anxieties of the day (and past few weeks) washed away I may have pointed this out to him, repeatedly, like a bit of a soppy drunk!

In the end it took me eight hours to be able to purchase something from a particular gaming website, but I got there in the end.  Shame that I spent all the money I saved on a massage that didn't happen and another one that did! Oh well you live and learn, and just to be clear never ever ever again!

However this morning's shopping trip wasn't a complete waste of time, there is now Granola Squares and Chocolate Chunk Shortbread in the cupboard - it's like being at yours sisterofMG750!

M - 529
Brighton Half - 86
Glasgow Half - 310
Total Distance covered      388.5 miles

* should hopefully take you to Bill Bailey video clip!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggOa9aSG-Ow

The Hunger Games

Contender, Ready?!

Didn't sleep particularly well last night, then spent most of the day either exercising or rushing about - consequently I'm exhausted and back to falling asleep whilst typing this.  I am also starving.

It's awful. All afternoon I have been desperately trying to find something in the cupboards that might take the edge off it, but we've nothing in. I know there's nothing in, no biscuits, no cake, no GRANOLA SQUARES (that I've been fantasying about since about three o'clock) but I still found myself staring that the shelves and looking in tins like there might be something lurking somewhere, overlooked for just such an occasion.

With a craving befitting an expectant mother (better not be!) I have become obsessed with the notion of a particular supermarket's own brand Granola Square. I've only ever had them once (at my sister's in October) and yet apparently they are the only thing that is going to hit the spot and stave off my hunger.  Al was very nearly sent into said supermarket on his way home from work to see if they had any, and it was suggested he detoured on his way back from his guitar lesson this evening on the off chance of finding some.  Rushing out to get to his lesson I don't think he truly understood the severity of the situation - but somehow I don't think I'll get away with sending him to the twenty four hour store several miles away on his return!

Not entirely sure where this hunger and fatigue has come from, I did go for a run this morning, and I did find it hard going, but at four miles there shouldn't really have been much to complain about, although with my usual Thursday lead legs on I did spend quite a lot of it grumbling to myself!  In hindsight I think it might have been the dog walk.  One of the fields is very steep and given the amount of rain we've had recently it has turned to mud. Trying to walk up it is akin to trying to reach the top of the Travelator on Gladiators - in wellies! I think my legs got a bit more of a work out than I had anticipated!

Clearly there's only one thing for it... going have to spend tomorrow refuelling in preparation for our next run on Saturday. How awful!

M - 530
Brighton Half - 87
Glasgow Half - 311
Distance covered                    4 miles
Total Distance covered      388.5 miles

PS Happy Thanksgiving to those of you reading in the US - hope it's a good one.

Christmas is coming

and my thoughts turn to food!

Looks like it might not be just the goose who's gaining weight!

If, as I mentioned last week, there is something inherently wrong with trying to find time to write about not having any.... then taking time to write about all the things I want to do rather than actually doing them isn't much better! But it requires much less energy, motivation or indeed action!

Having spent the past couple of days drifting, I decided this morning that what I needed was to be a bit more focussed, working on the premise that if I could feel a bit more organised perhaps I would also feel a bit more in control.  But my day just seemed to slip away from me and I got nothing done.

Part of the problem is one that I've encountered many times before, and talked about it on more than one occasion.  Unsure of where to start, I end up not starting at all.  I think some more time spent prioritising my list is called for, but I'm not clear about when this level of organising my need to be organised becomes a procrastination tactic.... possibly when I've thought about it long enough to talk about it, definitely when I'm writing out the job list for the third time so that it looks neat and more aesthetically pleasing!

Unfortunately I don't have that much time to waste - Christmas is one of the items on this list.

Speaking to someone last week, she asked if I had started or finished my Christmas shopping and I had to inform her that the answer was neither. A week further on and I'm no further forward.  I genuinely can't get my head around the fact that four weeks today is Christmas Eve, nor has is sunk in that my friend isn't making our Christmas Cake this year and I should have done it weeks ago! I think the lovely restful weekend curled up in front of the fire that I had been planning may have just been replaced by a weekend in the kitchen, interspersed with frantic card making!

Add the post parkrun Christmas Cafe that I'm planning on hosting on the 13 December (fancy a wee pre Christmas visit to coincide with Dad's birthday the day after sis?!) to the mix and I'm not sure how I'm going to fit it all in.

Maybe I'm one of those people who works better under pressure! But why oh why did I start the tradition a few years ago of making H an advent pillow case with 31 (he likes it to run to his birthday) pieces of individually wrapped nice chocolate and handfuls of sweeties inside?! Thankfully C is content with a couple of bars of decent chocolate, which is much easier but rarely lasts till Christmas let alone New Year!

M - 531
Brighton Half - 88
Glasgow Half - 312
Total Distance covered      384.5 miles