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