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