Friday 27 March 2015

I should be in bed; but a decision is made ...

I should be in bed.

If I don't do this really quickly right now though the man that goes around stealing time will be back and another day will have gone when I should have posted something.

I have nine minutes.

This will be short.

I have been running.

I have been short running and I have been long running.

I have had one enjoyable long run and all the rest have been great big steaming piles of horse poo; but none the less I have 'long runned' my legs up to 21 miles so far.

The man that has been stealing my time has also been stealing my sleep, my patience, my energy and my ability to refuse cake.

There is no man, only Tom and his time management is much worse than mine.

Yesterday Tom and I ran together and we both said we were going to pull out of Comrades.

This was at mile 10.

By mile 15 we had talked each other back into it.

By mile 20 our run was more of a shuffle but we did it.

There are 4 minutes left to tell you that my children are being gigantic pains in the arses.

Rosie has decided that 'tantrumming' is the new black (again).

Aston has discovered the art of projectile vomiting and making a really annoying noise to get my attention.

Neither of my children show any regard for the small requirement that to get to sleep one has to actually close ones eyes.

I'm about to go and close my eyes.

The second Aston hears my eyelids drop onto my face he will wake up with the hunger of a starved wolf.

I'm pleased we made a decision.

It's not the right decision.

It pleases me even more that we made the wrong decision.

Good night.

H :)












Friday 13 March 2015

Good week, bad week, good week... life on a Yo Yo

Firstly apologies for my last blog entry. It wasn't meant to be such a sombre read and reading it back I can see that I was caught in the intensity of a hard core four days. Like most things, once I was out of the other end and with some amazing advice and comments from you I could see the bigger picture. So before I waffle on let me answer the two burning questions that I left hanging in the balance of the last blog...

... Yes, I did my 18 miler the next day. I ran with my lovely friend Nicky and some Harrogate Harriers, my legs fell off at 14 miles and were broken by 16 miles but I plodded on to finish it and was happy I did it. Running with people made a HUGE difference.

... No, I haven't made my mind up about Comrades, although if you were to ask me my gut feeling right now I would say I'm probably going to do it... but it's not going to be pretty. In fact I'm more concerned that the other 'Fat Comrade' in the house isn't doing enough training to be able to run it with me!!!

Since #PoxPukegate I gathered mine (and your) thoughts and had lots of conversations about it. I didn't stop running and not running for four days had no real impact on anything other than my mental fitness. I ran because I could, not because I had to and I suppose that's how I'm going to approach Comrades. If at any point it all becomes too stressful on either myself or Tom (who barely sees his trainers these days) we've said we won't do it. Normally I need a definite goal but I think this one is easier to manage if I know I can jump out, mainly because I think it will have the opposite effect, I'm stubborn to the very core. Last week I managed a 53 mile week, all but 21 of those miles pushing Aston and thankfully the 21 miler was a lot more comfortable than the previous weeks 18 miler. Today I was meant to be running 22 miles but #PoxPukegate2 has hit the house. Aston is covered from head to toe in the pox and I was hit by the most hideous 24hr bug yesterday which floored me completely. Weirdly I don't have the same negative feelings towards Comrades even though I'm in a fairly similar situation (Tom's in Wales). At the end of the day it's a run, no one (let alone me) is going to lose an eye if I don't do it.

So, who knows what the weeks ahead will bring. Hopefully no more spots, we've had more than our fair share thank you. I'm going to stick to my little running routine (where kids and time allows) and keep adding a couple of miles on to my weekly long run and before you know it we'll be on the start line in Durban ready for the task ahead ;)

Thanks again for the support. I'm going with the yo yo of life.

H x