Running Rite of Passage II

Today my toe nail fell off! It started to turn grey a while back, during a brief relationship with an unsuitable pair of trainers, but has taken weeks to finally fall off. I am now left with 9 toenails painted in sparkly red nail varnish and one toe with out a toenail to be painted. The result is not pretty and I only have open toe shoes with me! I am in France at the moment, mile away from my rather large collection of nail varnishes, so will have to pop out today and buy a pale, pastel shade so that my toe doesn't stick out like a sore thumb!

I had a lovely run this morning, although my left hamstring is playing up, so it was a slow, short (3mi) one ending at the boulangerie. I ran down to the Parc and got lost amongst all the roads and paths. It had rained overnight, so was cooler, but quite humid. Today we are off to the Musee d'Orsay (can't work out how to do accents on my friend's PC!) and maybe a ride on a Batobus, followed by a little gentle sight seeing (and nail varnish shopping!)

Stamping my feet in a stroppy fashion!

Please excuse me a self indulgent rant!

I love running. I love running by myself! I tell anyone who asks me that the main reason I run is because it is the only way I get a bit of peace and quiet. A couple of weeks ago Stephen asked if he could come with me. Foolishly I said yes, thinking that it would be a one off. It was OK, a bit of a novelty having someone to talk to. I didn't realise that he would want to come running with me every day! He is going around telling everyone that he is really enjoying the fact we are running together. I am still blabbling on, in his hearing, about running be a good way to get time on my own. He is like an enthusiastic puppy about the idea of us running together.

Yesterday I got up at 5.30am, just after he had left for work, and went out for a run on my own! It was bliss - but when I got home it was to the news that, had I told him I was going to run early he'd have come with me! Argh!!! Tonight we went out again together, ran a very slow 5.5miles and I wonder if I can get him to give up running with me by being very slow....

I shouldn't really have gone for a run today anyway! In addition to a 4.5 mile run yesterday morning I also did a Power Plate session and swam 70 lengths of my friend's pool (only about 9 or 10m long). I am not a swimmer and I ache all over this morning.

Ho hum, rant over. Back to do battle with a website that keeps messing up the photobook I am trying to order!

Race for Life

I 'did' Race for Life with my daughter today. I don't think I will do it again. It may have done great things in terms of fundraising and raising the profile of running in this country, but it is not a good event to do if one actually fancies running!

The organisation today was awful. The PA system was inaudible from where we were standing. The start was chaotic. We had three starting groups, runners, joggers and walkers. That seems like a nice, logical distinction until you start to think about it. Last year I dithered between the runners' and the joggers' groups. Was I running or jogging? I knew that I could run 10k in 52 minutes - but was that technically running or jogging? And how fast would my lovely daughter be able to run? Jogging seems to be a somewhat derogatory term so I chose to plonk myself, and my daughter, in the runners group, as we did this year the friends (also a mother/daughter combo) with whom we were running.

We crossed the start line just over a minute after the start and immediately encountered groups of friends who had yet to learn the difference between walking and running! Why start in the runners' group if you are not even going to run the first 5 meters? And because you are running with six of your friends, why not walk six abreast (if that is not a heinous pun when talking about Race for Life) so that those people who would like to run can't pass you? And why have a 'walkers' group' in something that is called a 'Race?' If you want to walk for charity then do a sponsored walk - there are plenty out there! I'm not denigrating walking at all - I have running friends who have taken part in various walking events and tell me that walking is far harder than running, but a 'race' is not the place for a leisurely stroll!

As we went around the '5k' course this was a repeated problem - lots of walkers, lots of spectators on the wrong side of barriers (I came around a sharpish bend and bumped into a bloke with a camera - he swore at me for not looking where I was going, but I hadn't expected to encounter a totally stationary person!) people 'running' in flip flops!

I ran the first 3.5k (or thereabouts) with my daughter and her friend. It was s-l-o-w going! I may have had a few days off, but the pace was far too slow for me - I ended up running on and then back to meet them a few times, and running backwards so that I could make sure I knew where the girls were (I was not running backwards when I collided with the spectator!) Eventually I could stand it no more! I called back to the girls that they were to stay together, not talk to strangers and that I would meet them at the end, and ran a wee bit faster!

I finished in about 28 minutes - not a great time, the girls took about 31 minutes so a lot slower than Kitty managed last year.

I got home and the Garmin uploaded all the data from the race. It is not pretty! It also confirmed something I slightly suspected last year and suspected again this year. I know how fast I can run 5k, and what the pace feels like over that distance. I know that I was running very slowly today, and that it is unlikely that I could have completed 5k in the time I was running. The GPS distance, which shows the extra switch backs I made to check on the girls (you get some funny looks running the wrong way in a race!) is 4.55k! I don't doubt my Garmin (or my gut instinct), the Garmin has been spot on for all the other known distances I have run - so I can't see it being wrong now!

I haven't told my daughter, her friend or my friend - whose first ever race this was. It would seem mean to take away their sense of accomplishment. This race was run across park land - it wouldn't have been hard to add in an extra 500m or so, and it should be fairly easy to measure the distance.

Ho hum! At least I didn't blub too much reading everyone's back signs about who they were running for this year! And we have raised a few pounds for a great charity. As I said earlier - I won't be doing it again, but it occurs to me that I would get a perverse sense of pleasure from entering as many as possible and auditing them for organisation and accuracy of course distance...

My hip held out quite well. I haven't been for a run since Wednesday (5.6 km, over hills, in 30 mins) when I wanted to make sure that I could run on my hip, as I had been 'resting' since last Friday. I went to the GreenDay concert at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night. Three hours of jumping up and down seems to have been very beneficial to my IT band. Just as well as I didn't get home until 2am! My hip is a little sore now - but nothing like as bad as it was this time last week. I am so pleased, as this week has been miserable without being able to run.

A running rite of passage?

I have a proper running injury! Woo hoo! Or not, as the case may be! I have Iliotibial Band Syndrome - basically my IT band is causing friction where it meets with my hip. My fab chiropracter caused me a great deal of discomfort (to put it mildly!) while he worked on it. And then he gave me a load of stretches to do and charged me £40 for the privilege! I have two things to comfort me: 1) although IT band problems are common in runners (get that - I'm a runner!) they normally affects knees and thighs, I am less common (therefore more special!) in that it is my hip that is suffering, and 2) I don't need to stop running, I just need to make sure I do the nasty stretching exercises RELIGIOUSLY!

So, may go out for a wee run tomorrow, and do a session on the Power Plates as that will intensify any stretches I do. Hopefully I'll be good and ready for Race for Life at the weekend.

Woe is me!

I have a poorly hip!

I am now forced to admit that it hurts a lot. It hurts every time my foot hits the ground, not just when I am running. In retrospect, yesterday's 5.25mile run and 30 minute power plate session was not the best idea in the world, but I grew up in a time when we were told to 'run the pain off.' I am going to have to take today and probably tomorrow off, and try to get an appointment with my chiropracter. I am very cross about this.

In other news, we had a call from Joshua's school at 9.08am yesterday asking us to pick him up as he couldn't cope with the pain! I think this is a new record. The school seem much more solicitous since our local MP contacted them to ask if he could meet with Joshua. This has nothing to do with any unhappiness we have with the school, Joshua got really involved in the election coverage, and emailed Damian Hinds (must remember not to call him Damian Hurst!) to ask him some questions, and enquire about shadowing him for a day.

The morning after the day before!

You know that little Power Plate thing I was talking about yesterday? Well, when I was striking my strange poses and doing my press ups and lunges on the weird vibrating machine it all felt terribly easy, I bounced (or should that be wobbled?) off the machine feeling absolutely fine - so good in fact that I jumped onto the rowing machine for 20 minutes!

This morning was a different story! I could hardly ease my aching body out of bed. My legs were not working, my bum felt as though I had been kicked in both buttocks, and my upper arms, shoulders and chest were screaming in protest at the unaccustomed activity they had been asked to perform. So, in the face of this pain what do I do? Toddle off to the gym and book another 30 minute session for tomorrow. If it hurts this much it must be doing something, surely!!

Today was my youngest child's 'Fun Sports Day' and she certainly looks as though she is enjoying herself as she runs back to the start line here! It is good to watch young children run. They don't worry about how fast they are going, how far they are going, they just run because the can and because it feels good.

I went for a run with Stephen again. We set off too fast (for me) as usual. I cannot sustain a pace of 7.30 mins per mile! Stephen didn't run as far as I did, turning back early to complete a shorter loop. I ran 4.25 miles and caught up with him when I was nearly home. He had blown up. Maybe he should have started off slower...

I think I am going to have to rethink running with him. It isn't good for my self esteem - I feel I have to keep up if he is going faster than me, and if he is lagging I feel I should slow down. I used to run at a pace that suited me! And I miss the 'me time!' I like being by myself, I don't find my long runs dull or boring. There is so much going on in my life that I value the time on my own to mull things over. But, but, but if I stop running with him he is going to be upset and take it personally. Maybe I should try the 'It's not you it's me!' line! Or schedule one run a week with him when he can shout at me for being too slow!

Anyway - got to go and ice cup cakes for year 3's cake sale tomorrow. I'm so rock 'n' roll!

Why is it?

Why is it that, despite the fact I can run 10 miles in a reasonably respectable time, I still worry that I am 'unfit?'

I had an appointment at the gym for a 'Power Plates Induction Lesson' and I was terrified that the über fit gym instructor would be laughing at my puny attempts. I went for a quick run before my lesson, as I knew that I wouldn't have time to run later (and who knew - maybe the Power Plate workout would mean that I couldn't run even if I did have time). I was fairly pleased with this run, I stupidly left my water bottle in the car, and I really did miss being able to swig water as I went on my merry way.

The Power Plate thing was very odd! Who knew you could exercise sitting on something that vibrates like a washing machine on a rapid spin cycle? I did feel a bit of a tit, standing in strange postures while my whole body vibrated. I can see why the private market for these things is so strong (despite the price) - wobbling one's flabby bits in private is less alarming than doing so with an audience!

I had a quick go on the rowing machine after my session was over. Twenty minutes listening to loud music and rowing - ignoring the blisters forming on my hands! I was wearing my wedding ring and my engagement ring which is never a good idea while rowing. I feel I have achieved my cross training session this week! I often don't as I find the gym so dull.

In other news.... We took Joshua to see the consultant today. He is being referred for a CT scan and will probably end up having laproscopic laser treatment of his adhesions. Joshua has missed so much school, he managed half a day yesterday, and the sum total of one lesson today. He is in constant pain which peaks sharply and without warning! Hopefully we'll get some answers soon.

And in yet more news.... Parents' evening for Hamish and Freddy. Freddy has settled in well to his new school and is doing well, although he can 'lack motivation' when it comes to writing! Mrs J kept telling us what a wonderful little boy he is! Friendly, cheerful, resilient, caring, thoughtful - my heart swelled with pride! Hamish did really well on his NFER tests, his lowest score was at the top end of the expected range, and his teacher was cross as she said that the only mistakes he had made were because he hadn't read the questions properly! She said that she knows he knows the answers! Still - better to make these mistakes now when you can learn from them rather than in an entrance/scholarship exam or GCSEs!