Sunday 6 June 2010

A tale of two runs.

It wasn't quite a case of 'it was the best of runs it was the worst of runs,' but it wasn't far off!

I went for a run with Stephen yesterday evening, we worked out a 4 mile route, filled up our water bottles, donned our running gear and set off. I am slowly converting Stephen to the idea of carrying a water bottle and 'technical clothing.' He has run for years without carrying water with him, wearing a ratty pair of baggy shorts made out of sweat pant material 'teamed' with whichever equally ratty tshirt is closest to hand. He is already a convert to the water bottle, and I think I am winning on the technical clothing front too - I gave him my Bupa 10,000m finisher's shirt as it is too big for me and he loves it. Now all we have to do is replace the shorts!

The run was good. We averaged 8.44 min/mile, I loved having the Garmin so that I could tell exactly how far we had gone and what our pace was at any given moment. Stephen didn't seem at all phased by the fact that I knew our exact stats - one day I'll have to tell him about the watch, but not yet! The blokes outside the pub refrained from the rude comments they normally make when I run by myself - which was nice! All in all, a fairly good run!

This morning was a different story. I set out with every intention of running 10miles, set the Garmin to 9min/mile pace, which is the pace I ran the same route in the Alton 10mi race last month. I hated the Garmin today! Telling me how slow I was! For an 8am start, it was horribly, horribly muggy. Despite a quick banana before I left home, I felt as though I was running on empty. I managed to struggle on for a very slow 7.55 miles. I then misplaced my foot and took a tumble and decided that was enough was enough. I walked on for another mile before 'phoning Stephen to ask him to pick me up. I was beginning to ache and just wanted to stop moving! We had a sneaky stop for coffee before going home - so all was not lost!

I've not done the longish runs (6miles) during the week that I would normally do, as I've been running with Stephen, and I think this might be why I found today so tough, and it was only 12 hrs since our last run, so that might have some bearing too. Who knows? Got home to discover blisters between my toes! That's never happened before and adds to the general gloom somewhat!

In other news, Joshua's abdominal pain continues to blight our lives! I am fed up with it now, he has to learn to cope with the pain, rather than just use it as an excuse to avoid doing anything he doesn't want to do. He has a hospital appointment on Wednesday (yet more school missed) and I hope we get some answers soon! Part of the problem is that, in the past, Joshua has been very guilty of swinging the lead to get out of doing things (or rather to try to get out of doing things!) so part of me wonders how much he is hamming up his current discomfort. He's had a few good days recently, when he's been out with his friends etc., but the thought of returning to school tomorrow seems to make the pain worse. It may be that the activity of those days out is causing him pain now, but part of me does wonder.

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