August 2005 Archives

Yesterday afternoon I arrived home just in time to start making food. I meant to go running, but when I got home, I also wanted to start cooking. How to manage both?

I made all the elements of supper and put them all into a casserole dish (chicken, pasta, mushroom, egg and cheese) and put it in the oven where it was supposed to stay for 20 minutes. Then I hurridly put on some running clothes and finally jumped out the door with Andy ... we ran at quite a pace and 21 minutes later we were back home and the food cooked to perfection. Ta-daaa! A 3km run and supper all within an hour!

The rest of the evening were less eventful, although we didn't expect the cold weather and rain that we got when we woke up this morning, which meant that some running shoes that were put out to dry with the laundry are now soaking wet.

I love English weather :)

Running yesterday had to bumps - one minor and another that is maybe a little more serious than I am willing to admit at this stage.

When I stepped outside our front door yesterday afternoon I was hit by a really strong, very unpleasant aroma. Farmers were working in the fields surrounding the village, which explained a lot.

The music was good tho and I wanted to complete the Worthington 5 mile course since the last time I did it, my back went into spasm with very little to go and I didn't move for several minutes before completing it.

After 3 miles I still felt okay, although my legs felt a bit more tired than I had hoped it would. After 4 miles all was well and I felt strong. With 1 km to go I felt pain like I had never felt it before. My back had gone into spasm again and I couldn't think straight.

After standing completely still for a few minutes, I walked home where Andy helped me by giving me a little bit of a massage before I climbed into a hot bath. Half an hour later I felt like myself again, but still a little grumpy because once again I couldn't finish the course.

I went for a walk with Andy later on, but it just didn't feel like a good end to the day.

This morning I woke up with rain pouring down outside, my bed feeling very snuggly and my head telling me that it would be okay to postphone my run until this afternoon. :)

This morning Andy left at 6:20AM and after that I lay in for a while longer, with my alarm going off every 10 minutes and me hitting the snooze button. At 7 I thought it would be a good idea to get up and get some tea. Instead I had a glass of water and decided to go for a run.

As I was getting ready for my run, it struck me how much longer it takes me now to get ready. When I was 10 years old, it was a matter of putting on clothes and shoes (sometimes not even that) and walking out the door. Now I have to get the right shorts, the right top, my iPod, my Navman, my watch... and when I want to do a long run, some water. It takes at least 5 times longer because usually I end up searching for my Navman, iPod and watch. The rest are relatively easy to find.

In any case. I stepped out into some really bright sunshine and turned back into the house. I needed a cap to run with today. 2 minutes later I got out of the house again and stood just soaking in the rays until I heard that familiar beep that said it was ok to start running. My Navman would in a way record how far I run.

The music was good and as I put one foot in front of another my mind drifted, while I just enjoyed looking around me. I turned down the Cloud Trail and eventually landed under some trees. My feet were ok. My legs were just about dead. My breath was little. I kept running and got startled by a load of trucks passing me on the path next to the trail.

After 14 minutes I turned around, having worked out that if I turned around at that point, I would reach the point where I wanted to stop just within the 20 minutes that I planned to run. After 20 minutes though, I realised that I needed just a little more to finish 4km today.

I finished the 4km in 21'30". I felt so pleased that I would've run further, had my legs not turned to jelly the moment I reached the 4km mark.

In other news... I placed a bid on a Garmin Forerunner 301 on eBay and hopefully I'll win the bid. I've been wanting to get one for a while, and now seems like about the right time. If anyone has any thoughts on it, please drop me a note :)

Time to run!

Yesterday afternoon I wanted to go for a run - as per the plan - for 20 minutes. I still felt a little stiff after our gym session on Monday, but I felt good about running and once I got home I immediately hit the road. I put on my iPod shuffle (I run on a trail, so there's very little chance of me being hit by another moving object, unless it is a bike or another athlete) and while listening to the good music, just ran my heart out.

After 16 minutes I felt a little out of breath. I figured it was just the unfit body of mine complaining about running and wanting me to take a rest. I glanced down at my NavMan and nearly fell over. I had covered 3km already! Wow, a pace faster than 6'00" without really thinking about it or trying. I was having a good running day. So I kept on running, but my legs started feeling increasingly more heavy than it did before I looked down.

I worked at it though and decided that I'd keep on running until I managed to get to a 5km mark. My time : 27'49"! It was the fastest 5km I've run since I've started in April. By more than a minute - which is the 5km I ran about 5 weeks ago. I was so happy I got a big smile across my face as I slowly jogged the last 500m home. Only when I got home I realised that sweat was literally dripping from me. I obviously am taking in enough fluids.

Andy gave me a cold drink while I stretched a little and then I took a shower.

I love runs that unexpectedly become faster than you thought it would be. :)

Yesterday afternoon we set off to the gym once again to make those muscles that didn't ache yesterday, ache today. My plan for the evening was to do an upper body workout and then go and relax in the jacuzzi. I did my upper body workout, then did some abwork (the machines at the gym in Whitwick have counters... very nifty) and after that I thought I was done.

My stomach muscles were complaining because I think I overworked them - did 100 crunches on Sunday and added another 80 to that yesterday. My head was aching slightly. My whole body felt tired.

Andy had other ideas though, so we got on the eclyptical trainer and for the next 10 minutes treaded away at nothing. After 10 minutes he stopped, and I carried on for another 15 minutes. The jacuzzi felt like heaven after that, although I spent about 10 minutes in the sauna as well. When I got home, I felt truly tired.

Absolutely exhausted, I lay in front of the television and watched The General's Daughter with Andy and afterwards we watched CSI. Before we even knew it, it was midnight and we went upstairs. My head hit the pillow and I was gone. Nothing would have been able to wake me for the next hour or two. Around 5 this morning I woke up, feeling a little cold, so I cuddled up behind Andy's back and went back to sleep.

When it was time to get up this morning I wanted to go back to sleep. My body was too tired to do anything other than breathe. I got up and had breakfast and now... well, work lies ahead and tonight we've got a cardio workout. Day 2 of the 12 week workout session, has arrived.

When I woke up this morning the last thing on my mind was going out for a run. After our gym session from hell yesterday I felt really tired, sore and stiff. My body was complaining about the neglect for 4 weeks and a hard first session.

But shortly after Andy left I pu on my running shoes and set out for a 20-minute run Three minutes into the run I came across my first obstacle : Four untrained Labradors with an owner that couldn't control them. The dogs ran to me and jumped up against me. When I tried to keep them off me with my hands and one knee, the owner told ME that there was no need to get aggressive with her dogs. Aggressive my foot. Was I supposed to just stand there until they jumped on me and I fell to the ground? If you can't control your dogs, put a leash on them!

The rest of the run went okay, with the sun leaving my face with a bit of a pinkish glow. When I got home the shower was extremely welcome.

On Sunday afternoon myself and Andy made our way to the gym for a workout. He can't run again yet because of illness, but he felt that he could do some weight work. Once we were there, I grabbed my magazine and got onto one of the bikes that was standing there. iPod in my ears, magazine open, I read while I was spinning my poor legs off.

Twenty minutes later I got off the bike and did some stomach exercises - 100 crunches and my body screamed for me to stop. So I did 2 sets of 20 more and with some effort sat up and breathed a few seconds. Something in me must have wanted more pain, because I dragged Andy towards the free weight area where we both grabbed two weights and started doing lunges. 3 Sets of those and Andy wanted to collapse. My arms and legs were killing me, but I didn't want to show it to him, so I just put the weights down and stood perfectly still. Ouch!

Short recovery and I grabbed a step block. I did 3 sets of walking up the steps and after that found myself bench pressing a few kg (not much, just 15kg) for 3 sets of 20. Andy stood behind me and kept an eye to make sure I don't kill hurt myself. Although, at that stage...

Afterwards we had some cooldrink - the machine that stocks up the sports drinks that we wanted was out of order, so we didn't have that wide range of choice and ended up getting fizzy drinks that we didn't really want.

Tonight we're going to the gym in Whitwick instead of Ashby - just to see how things are there and give myself a little bit of an upper body workout.. And hopefully my legs won't be too wobbly when I walk into the gym.

Ouch. Can you say pain?

I've been ill for 5 weeks. Today was the first day that I managed to get myself to go for a run, and I felt up to it, really I did. I got home about an hour ago, and after sitting on the stairs for about 5 minutes, I walked into the room, opened the drawer and took out the clothes, half fearing that some moths might have found their way into my running gear.

I put them on and ventured downstairs to find my running shoes. I found them, still without laces or inner-soles, left like that after I washed them 5 weeks ago after our soggy run in the Worthington 5 Mile. I found the inner-sole, and pushed Andy to find my laces. He found them in the living room. I laced up my shoes, wondering why the holes were so small and then tied my shoes tightly.

Outside I waited a little while. My NavMan isn't used to being used anymore. A minute later it beeped - the signal was received and I was on my way. The first five minutes went okay. Then my breath started feeling heavy. My feet automatically fell in front of one another.

A lady pushing her bike was walking up the hill, facing me. She smiled at me with a smile that said 'You fool.' I nodded and carried on. I passed a man and his dog. His dog barked and ran after me for about 50m until his owner called him back. I found a turn in the footpath and headed up the hill again. I saw another man and his dog. Everyone owns a dog but me!

At the top of the hill I got the crazy idea to turn around and go down it. Once again I found another dog and his owner. The owner was bopping his head to the beat of the iPod that occupied his ears. He smiled and waved. I grunted and waved. 5 minutes was left before my pain could end. Only 5 minutes.

I ran home the way I went, but no longer did it feel like it came automatically. I had to work for my distance.

23 minutes 22 seconds after I started I stopped. 4.01km had been run. The jello that is my legs wobbled up the hill to our house. I walked straight through the house, out the back and collapsed at the back of the house, wanting to stretch. Andy handed me an understanding bottle of Lucozade Sport.

I'm running again!

Although I'm afraid to start running too soon after being ill, I have just received new motivation. My goal is still to run Comrades in 2006, and I have just found myself reading an article on Comrades which gave me that extra little push that will hopefully give me strength to start training as required again soon. I'll take it slow at first, since I was ill, but oh dear, I'm really really excited about it again now.

I think I'll start with an easy 3km tonight... really slowly and build it up from there. I'll let you know how it goes!

Yesterday afternoon after Celine and Adas left, myself and Andy went for a walk. After being ill for more than 3 weeks, it felt like a real strain just trying to walk the 2 miles that we have so often run. It felt odd and after 5 minutes I felt a little weak, but carried on with the walk.

I needed to get out of the house and some fresh air - the sky was absolutely beautiful, alive with the colours of fire. I wished for my camera right then, but it was too far away - good reason to go for a walk again tonight!

Its not funny how I lost so much fitness by getting ill. Will have to work on it again now. :(

I don't like being woken in the middle of the night. Even less when its not by a person but ... by the wind.

Last night we got to bed at around 23h00 and I fell asleep very quickly due to late nights since Friday. The next thing I know, water is splashing across my face, glass breaking breaks the silence that surrounded us and both myself and Andy are wide awake, slightly scared out of our wits, thinking someone might have thrown something through the window.

Turns out it was only the wind. How? The wind blew onto the blinds, the blinds shoved the glass off towards the bed, the glass fell onto the central heating panel, the water fell all over us, we woke up because of the noise and ta-daaaa... you have two people that are awake, rattled and in very great need of sleep.

I fell asleep again quite fast after all this, but I think it took Andy a little while to get back into his sleep.

After our alarm went off this morning, he didn't even lie in for 10 minutes, but got up, got ready for work and left. Mind you, he had to be there at 7 in any case, so he had to get up, but it was a little out of character. :) I was out like the dead again after he left and got another hour and a half of sleep in before finally waking up and getting ready for the day. I'm a lot more awake this morning, tho that'll change once I have my meds. :)

Well, I'm finally feeling better and ready to start training again. The past few weeks have really gotten me thinking and made me realise that there is nothing to gain when you train whilst ill.

So, right, am off track for the Robin Hood Half Marathon, but we might still jog it slowly. In the meantime we have to work on a little bit of fitness again now. So we'll start with just doing our 25-30 minute runs again this week. Tonight actually.

Yesterday I went to relax in the sauna, but it didn't quite work out as I'd have liked. We meant to go for a swim, but the pool was occupied by the local swimming club, which meant we'd have had to wait another 40 minutes to get near the pool, and by then it would've been 9 o' clock. I had a long day, needed my rest and we decided to rather go home and just spend some time together. So tonight we'll run again.

For the past couple of weeks I've felt so ill that there was no way that I was going to head out the door to do a run. Last week I was so ill that I stayed at home for 3 days due to illness and when I went to the doctor on Thursday he informed me that I had a viral infection in my chest and gave me tablets that are insanely strong and making me want to pass out at the first opportunity. Unfortunately this is not to happen at work.

So I'm having tea and some other drinks - I figure if I dilute my blood enough, the tablets will have less of a drowsy effect on me. Mind you, I know it won't work. I'm just trying to keep myself more or less awake and able to do my job in some manner.

I find it amusing how when I get ill, I always do it in stages and each stage seems worse than the previous one. Lets see, I first got a cold and couldn't run for a while. Then I ran the Worthington 5 Mile and got even more ill. So I decided to wait till I'm 100% before attempting any exercise. I just got better and we went to the MotoGP at Donington Park - where I got incredibly wet and once again managed to catch a cold that put me in bed for 3 days. After this I had to hear that I now have a viral infection in my chest. What's next?

I'm feeling relatively okay today and am going to go to the driving range tonight. Afterwards we're going to go to the gym in Whitwick and hopefully do an hour or so of working out. I'll not run until I'm off the tablets though. I really need to get that out of my system first and then I'll start running again. In the meantime I need to start doing some other form of exercise. This weekend I was plagued by headaches that didn't quite agree with me ... the migraines seem worse when I don't do exercise, so I am just going to have to force myself to start doing some again.

I bought a book on drawing last week - just something to get me started. I have the picture I want to draw, I have paper and pencils and leads and even an eraser. I just haven't had the time to start drawing again. Yesterday I didn't feel much like it either... I spent a lot of time on Ancient Anguish and after that I felt like sleeping and just relaxing with Andy in front of the television. It was nice to just relax with him... we've both been incredibly busy and stressed at work lately and don't have a lot of time that we can just relax and be with each other. Its just one of those things. This week is going to be another one of those stressful ones. I guess we'll keep each other sane :)