And we're off!



Brighton Half Marathon - here we come!

Having enjoyed holidays in the North of Scotland in both glorious and somewhat less than glorious weather, we have a saying in our house when the weather's a bit rubbish and we don't really want to go out which goes along the lines of "If we were in Balnakeil we'd be on the beach..."

I was reminded of this this morning, not because of the weather, but because I didn't want to run, I hadn't slept well and it was me who was feeling a bit rubbish and I found myself saying (albeit to myself) "If this was a Saturday I'd be at parkrun..."

So I donned my trainers and set out for the first three miles of our two hundred and twelve mile training plan, which should see us up to half marathon distance by Christmas - I don't know what panic's me more the running or the fact that it's around twelve weeks till Christmas!

It wasn't the most spectacular of runs, but I did it and I'm glad I went early and got it over with rather than spend the day making excuses over why I shouldn't go.  Disappointingly my Garmin died just as I set off and I'm somewhat gutted that I won't have a record of the whole two hundred and twelve miles, but not so much so that I want to do a second 'first' run! It does however, also mean that I have no idea of my pace but I know it was faster than the recommended twelve minutes per mile on our tortoise training plan! Halfmarathongirl is struggling to run this slowly too, so we have reached the conclusion that we'll just run at a comfortable pace for now, there's plenty of time for us to get slower as the distance increases!

Finally we're on our way! It feels like it has been a long time coming and I just hope that the training that I've put in to date will help my knees and ankles stand up to the increases in distance that are heading our way.  Although that said it's five weeks until we run eight miles, so perhaps I'll be ready by then, especially as if I do my exercises twice a day on days that I don't run that's two thousand four hundred squats away!

M - 588
HM - 145
Glasgow  - 5
Distance covered 3.1 miles
Total Distance covered  257.5 miles

Day One*

* of Half Marathon Training

Isn't quite the runaway success I was hoping for!

I apologise now to every male reader for bringing up the subject of filing my nails (please bear with me!) but if ever there was a tale whose moral was to stop procrastinating and get on with the jobs you know need doing, then it was the one that befell me this afternoon involving my finger nails, a poo bag that wasn't quite able to withstand my talons, and a pile of dog mess.  There are some lessons I guess I'm just going to learn the hard way! Especially as scrubbed, rescrubbed and disinfected they still need filing!

Determined to have a more productive day than yesterday I did manage to work out what my priorities were for the day and stick with them.  I haven't had a lot of time but I used what I did have well, ticking off jobs and trying my best to keep focussed.  But by three o'clock I was bored rigid! Clearly I thrive on chaos, and this structured approach left a lot to be desired. 

Having been so disciplined all morning, this afternoon I found myself once again staring at my Etsy shop willing an order to come in so I can leave the monotony of my jobs and disappear into a far more exciting world, but unfortunately there has only been one view today, a New Home card by someone in the United States which I think is equally as implausible as last week's Happy Birthday card to Hungary, but you never know...

I have loads to sort out before I go away on Friday, and two runs to fit in before then! Having taken last week off running I am amazed by how quickly I have managed to erase the need to allocate time for this from my consciousness.  I already had tomorrow all planned out and at no point had 'run' entered my head. Which makes me wonder if I haven't really taken the first day of my half marathon training as seriously as I ought to, hmm... thinking about it there may have been some dietary intake in support of that suggestion!

M - 589
HM - 146
Glasgow  - 6
Total Distance covered  254.4 miles

Dizzy

like a whirlpool it never ends...

Over the past seven weeks, since finishing the course of antibiotics designed to get rid of a gut infection, I have become increasingly convinced that all I have managed to do is replace it with another! You will however be glad to know that I intend to spare you the finer details, suffice to say I'm feeling a bit crap today. Run down and exhausted this is not the best way to embark on my half marathon training plan tomorrow, although to be fair it doesn't actually require me to run until Tuesday!

Yesterday I called round at Halfmarthongirl's to drop off her Etsy order and was delighted to find her at home yet disappointed that I didn't have time to stop for a cup of tea. Standing chatting at the door, her house beckoning to me like an oasis of calm, I would have loved to have had the time to go in and have a cuppa and chat, perhaps followed by being left to curl up on a comfy chair in her conservatory and sleep in the late afternoon sun!

It did however get me to thinking about my house and apart from in the winter when the fire's lit in the front room and the lighting is so dim that it induces sleep (ring any bells sisterofMG750?) I'm not sure calm would be a word anyone would use to describe my slightly chaotic house (although hopefully welcoming might not be too far down the list).  We've already established that I don't know how to do calm and perhaps my house is a reflection of this, although that said I clearly have a very relaxed attitude towards cleaning!

I'm sick of going round in circles, and I'm conscious that regular readers are already at risk of getting dizzy.  Sooner or later you know I'm going to say that I need to get organised, that I don't know where to start, that it's all a bit overwhelming and how I wish I'd done things as I'd gone along and not left it all to mount up, not to mention how many times I've said it's time for action!  However, like it or not, here we are again.

I really need to try to get to grips with this and actually move on, and yet just at the crucial moment where I'm about commit to sorting my life out (or at least the jobs that are STILL on my to do list) my neighbour texts to say she is free on the 18th October, which is the starting point I have been waiting for, and Operation Afternoon Tea Take Two is launched, looks like the cupboard may have to wait a little bit longer!

M - 590
HM - 147
Glasgow  - 7
Total Distance covered  254.4 miles

Good

But already in my head not good enough...

Sitting soaking up the sun outside the café post parkrun this morning I had the feeling of the day stretching ahead of me and nothing planned to fill it, little did I know at the time that the next six hours would disappear in a never ending stream of chauffeuring duties that would drain any ounce of post run euphoria out of me!

Having not run all week I was a little unsure as to how this morning would go, but my legs seemed to have been grateful for the rest and I ran my fastest time this (Dewsbury parkrun) year (which resets sometime in June).  All the way round I kept thinking that perhaps, with the start of my half marathon training next week, I ought to give myself a break on a Saturday morning by running a bit slower and just chalk up the runs towards my hundredth (only forty eight to go!), but as I edge ever nearer the twenty four minute mark I know that I'm going to want to try to get back under it, or at very least maintain my speed, so it looks like the idea of taking it easy is already a non starter...

Question then is, can I motivate myself to want it during the week when I need to get back on with my exercises and out on my training runs, because it won't come with just pushing myself on a Saturday morning.  I know what I have to do, but do I have the mental strength to do it?  Not for the first time I think I need to take a leaf out of Fellow Parkrunner's book of sheer grit and determination... MOMENTOUS DAY for her today as she ran an all time personal best and in doing so has beat all her post accident daemons both physical and mental. Way to go RLB! Going to have to train just to keep up with you soon!

M - 591
HM - 148
Glasgow - 8
Distance covered              3.1 miles
Total Distance covered  254.4 miles

Pink Noise

Pie Charts and Puddings...

After the furore of the past couple of days it was nice to have time this morning to get my cards finished and my spreadsheet updated, whilst sitting in the relative quiet with just the dogs and some 'pink noise' for company! Pink noise* is apparently easier to listen to than white noise, I'm not altogether convinced of this and do wonder who they ask to reach these conclusions, but I needed to concentrate so opted for it instead of the radio.

My spreadsheet is far from sophisticated and a bit on the inefficient side as it still requires more manual inputting than I think is absolutely necessary, but it works! I know how many cards I've sold, how many I've made but not sold (to be fair I can count those ones in my head!), how many are listed on Etsy, how many pieces of blank card I need to keep on one side in case I get an order, and how many are left.

This sorted I then decide to see if I can remember how to get it to produce a pie chart, and before long I have a lovely pictorial breakdown of how I have raised my thousand pounds.  Sue's garden party remains by far and away the most successful to date raising a little over half of the total, and it will be interesting to see where the changes come as I go on to raise the next thousand and this segment reduces to a quarter.

I had hoped to be able to post a picture of my chart on here for you to share in it's beauty but I can't work out how to do it, and FIFA15 came out today so the chance of seeing a teenager who might be able to help is, at best, slim to non existent!

I then move on to who has been my best customer (but choose a bar chart this time!) disappointingly but not unsurprisingly it's me! As the only person who has bought every card they've sent from me, it stands to reason that I will be my own best customer, but it isn't really the most sustainable of business relationships!

Trying so hard to wean myself away from staring at my Etsy viewing figures (which, lets face it, just replaced my blog readership stats) I have actually managed to refrain from checking on them half hourly basis. Although it's hard not to feel a bit flat when you've watched them rise to being in their twenties and then plummet to one, and worse still when that one lives in Hungry and isn't therefore particularly likely to hit 'buy'.  But perhaps it will give me time to tidy up and get the house in order before going away next weekend.

Very much looking forward to our wee trip north Halfmarathongirl, and catching up with schoolfriendofMG750 - it's been far too long.  As for you sis, I may curse you around the 8km mark, but I'm glad you suggested it and can't wait to see you either. Al has spent the past two evenings preparing your Christmas pudding ready for me to bring with me, but it's smelling so good it may just get eaten before then. That said, my little week off is over with the arrival of another Saturday morning parkun and that hill's going to be bad enough without lugging a belly full of Christmas pudding up with me!

M - 592
HM - 149
Glasgow - 9
Total Distance covered  251.3 miles

*For those of you wishing to share in a little of the tinnitus sound therapy treatment.... you'll be pleased to learn there's nine hours of it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC578OQYGf8

Zip A Dee Doo Dah

Zip A Dee A

My appeal for friends to help me reach the half way point in my fundraising resulted in fresh interest in my shop and the excitement of a couple of orders fairly early on last night.  First up was schoolfriendofMG750 with her first order, followed by Mrs J, my Westival saviour with at least her fourth!

SisterofMG750 then remembers to tell me that one of her friends has had difficulty finding my shop as the link I've been posting on FB takes you to Etsy's home page, not mine.... Nightmare! All those cards I rushed to put on a few days ago and no one's been able to find them! ( My Etsy shop's called marathongirl750 in case anyone reading has had the same problem!)

By the time Al got in from juggling I was busy drawing and colouring in, and rubbing out and glossing so I can get the orders out as quickly as possible. It was all very exciting as I edged ever nearer my target and by the time I got to bed I was like a child waiting to see if Santa had been... I couldn't stop checking my ipod for any updates.

Two late orders, one from a friend at parkrun who, having seen what she's managed to do with a piece of furniture purchased on holiday in France and a coat of albeit rather expensive paint, shall from here on in be referred to as Style Consultant, and, perhaps the most exciting of all, one from a friend of Fellow Parkrunner who reads my blog! This is the closest I've got to a 'proper' sale (although the boys have discounted it because I begged people to buy!). Ignore them...  I was by now in a state of euphoria and completely unable to get to sleep!

I am both touched and amused by the message sent to me along with this last order, where someone who only knows me through my blog has managed to learn enough of me to tell me that they aren't in a rush for the cards and I'm not to worry about sending them off quickly, but perhaps doesn't fully realise the extent to which I am unable to see "it's OK take your time" as anything other than lackadaisical! (They will be ready to pass on to RLB on Sat!).

This morning over breakfast it was clear that my euphoria has not abaited overnight, I'm singing and dancing and C keeps telling me not to get ahead of myself, but by this point I am ONE card away and am checking my ipod every minute waiting for that all important next order. Which doesn't come.

A couple of early views of my shop and then nothing. It was almost like the world had gone off to work or something and didn't have time for surfing the internet in search of greetings cards.

I was devastated, the boys had (for once) quite rightly stopped me from being the £1000th pound customer and buying one of my own cards but it was a long wait until I got back in at half past four to discover that Halfmarathongirl is the rightful recipient of the title!

Thank you to my wonderful friends who were part of the excitement of the past twenty four hours, and to all those who have played their part in getting me into the position where I can say...

We've done it! £1000 raised for Barnardo's.....

MY OH MY WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY!

M - 593
HM - 150
Glasgow - 10
Total Distance covered  251.3 miles

Preparation

why didn't I think of this earlier?!

The money for the last flurry of Etsy purchases is in... and I've reached the nine hundred and fifty pound mark on my totaliser! Whoop! Whoop! Actually I've raised nine hundred and sixty five pounds which means I only have to sell five cards to six people and I'll have A THOUSAND POUNDS!

I have this evening launched an appeal of Facebook to find those six people and have my fingers crossed that they are out there and ready to help me reach this milestone, especially as at the moment with the Etsy offer they will get them for half price! (Etsy favouriter you are not expected to spend your birthday vouchers in my shop, but when those orders are in, you are expected to come and eat cake and dance the Etsy dance with me whether my son invites you to or not!).

I know I am getting my hopes up and am perhaps being a little too expectant but I'm so close it's hard not to be, besides which it comes with the added bonus that I would be busy making cards and wouldn't therefore have time to do anything else! Quite where this fits in with my newly required relaxation is anyone's guess, but perhaps I could kid myself (if no one else) that I'll stop stressing quite a much once I've reached this milestone?! Not convinced? No neither am I, especially as I am in the process of organising my next afternoon tea party!

I haven't run, or exercised since Sunday, I am just too tired and haven't managed to find the time, but I am trying not to beat myself up about it.  Instead I've been consoling myself with the fact that the end goal of the first week of our training plan is to run 10K, which if I set as next Sunday in Glasgow, means I've got a week in hand before training starts in earnest, so if I'm going to take time off it kind of has to be now. 

I'm sure I also read somewhere that the best way to prepare for the start of a training plan is to eat copious amounts of brownies and cream in the week building up to it, which is handy really as I just happened to bake some yesterday.

M - 594
HM - 151
Glasgow - 11
Total Distance covered  251.3 miles

First order in, thank you schoolfriendofMG750, that's the ironing pile bumped down the list!