Tuesday 1 September 2009

Musings from my week

I don't usually do these weekly posts because... well in reality, my weeks are never that interesting but I figure I have to list my poor excuses somewhere so why not here?

When he last left you, our intrepid hero was unpacking boxes and wondering when his legs were going to come back to life. I'm pleased to tell you that 7 days on, he was still bloody unpacking and still ached! You'll also be pleased to know that he was also going to stop talking in a 3rd person narrative!!

I hate moving. Well moving house technically. If it was just 'moving' then this blog would become redundant pretty damn quickly but there is absolutely no pleasure in moving house though. Forget all the lovely new surrounding thoughts, the making a place your own, the finding things that you forgot you had, it'll all vanish after 7 days of unpacking the same boxes, building and moving the same furniture and still not being able to find where you stored the sodding charger for your toothbrush!! Iliketocount and Jogblog. DON'T DO IT!!

Obviously you know what's coming, yup, I didn't run last week. Instead of Tuesday's run, there was 3 hours of building flat pack furniture. Instead of Thursday's run, there was my workplace keeping everyone here for an hour after the usual finish time, the need to go shopping for bits and pieces for the weekend and also, the need to get all the camping gear together and pack some clothes (including the running gear I might add).

We'd decided to do something a bit stupid this bank holiday weekend. Firstly because when we booked it, we didn't know we were going to move house the week before and secondly because when has it ever been a good idea to drive to Devon on the August Bank Holiday weekend. None the less, we needed a break from the numerous plastic crates and cardboard boxes that has seemingly taken over our life. We'd found a great little campsite that is very eco friendly with the way they are trying to do everything. From the no cars on sight, the eco loos, the fire pits on every pitch and the really nice people running it. It was great and I'd thoroughly recommend it to anyone heading down to that area of the UK. The only problem is the complete and utter lack of paths which means I didn't fancy running somewhere I didn't know when I'd be running in the actual road so there went another weekend!

The nagging thoughts of the boxes waiting at home and the fear of the traffic that would be come Monday morning, we decided to head off Sunday instead to give ourselves more time dedicated to finding that toothbrush. However the best thing was that I was able to go for a run on Monday morning! YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!

I headed off around 9:20am for a 4 mile out and back route around Wimbledon Common which is near the new flat. I got lost! On Wimbledon Common!! Embarrassing! I took the wrong gravelly, stony path and only realised when I looked up to see an underpass in front of me. I remember thinking 'ERMMMMMM???'. That was the extent of it actually but instead of turning or stopping, I just carried on regardless and found myself running through Putney Heath and past a lovely looking pub that needs to be checked out called The Telegraph. Soon after, I worked out where I was again and trundled home and checked my route. Pretty much bang on 5 miles in approx 45 ish minutes (I didn't take the watch obviously). It was quite nice to be honest although I reckon it'll be a horrible route in Winter. Mud, gravel, dust and no lighting but for now, it's great.

So, it's Tuesday morning and I guess I better get back on The Plan tonight. I have the Surrey Badger Half Marathon on Sunday and haven't run over 6.5 miles since April. I'm thinking that it's going to be a tough, tough race for me. Last place is a distinct possibility but all I want to do is complete the distance as it should give me a lot of confidence going forward towards the Royal Parks. After that though, I may have to swap my Saturday and Sunday runs around as LG keeps arranging things for Saturday nights which although lovely, isn't the best possible training practice. I want to go back to my long run on a Saturday morning. That worked well leading up to Prague!

Things I've thought about this week

-Halloumi Cheese should be used as a fire protector. The stuff just doesn't catch
-I need to run to stop myself getting cramp
-I want to do Michael Palin's '80 days trip'
-I'm going to struggle to run a Half Marathon next weekend
-We need a bigger tent when HMC and LG's camping adventures begin again next year

4 comments:

  1. Hey, thanks for the link. Glad to hear you finally managed to get a run in :-)

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  2. Sounds a bit similar to mine and Red Bucket's few days away last week - from the horrendous traffic and no running pov... But we're not even contemplating a half marathon at the moment.

    We also need a bigger tent! The tiny-two-man-tent-without-even-a-porch-to-speak-of wasn't quite up to the job of a few days in damp and windy Cornwall. Let us know if you come across any good deals!

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  3. Training plans are flexible and sometimes you need a break - aren't you supposed to taper before a big race...? Campsite sounds gorgeous and good luck with remaining boxes!

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  4. yes yes. That's it. I was trying a new kind of tapering out. The tapering where you don't run 2 weeks prior but then pick it up the week before. Hmmm, doubtful it's going to work though!

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