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