I did it!

‘No I bloody well can’t cook dinner, I just ran a half marathon!’

‘Mum, that was 3 days ago!’

I can see that one is going to wear thin really soon, but I’m milking it a while longer.

People don’t talk about this. It’s all about the lead up to the event, the training, the fuelling, the stretching.   Nobody actually tells you that afterwards you will feel like you’ve been tied to the railway tracks and left there for several days while trains go backwards and forwards across your body. And the mental fog! It’s taken me 2 full days to trust myself to do anything that required some level of concentration or operate machinery (like the oven).   But it’s uncannily like childbirth. You forget the anguish and the pain and can’t wait to do it again. After all, (but unlike having a baby) when the event is over you are at a bit of a loss as to what to do.

Let me tell you how it went down.

Feeling the fear…(Part 2)

I thought I had a sleepless night, but I am recalling some weird dreams. One involved my mum holding a glass of wine for me with a straw in it. ‘I told you not to over do it’ she says. Obviously the paralysis from my leg has spread to my arms too.

The weird feeling in my bum and leg is still there. This has completely taken over from the fear about my lower legs.   I have to face this and deal with it. I call the physiotherapist. They have an appointment today or tomorrow. I can’t get it together to get there today. I take tomorrows appointment reluctantly. I want this over with, I just need to have my self diagnosis confirmed. I tearfully push my trolley round the supermarket. I’ve done something. Irreversibly damaged myself by this ridiculous notion that I could possibly run 21 kilometres. I’ve brought this on myself.

Feeling the fear…(Part 1)

I’m late. This post is at least a week overdue. I delayed it because I was afraid of writing a negative post about running. Or at least what I feared to be a negative post. I should have manned up. I should have written about it. Instead I obsessed, I whined to my friends, I googled and I wound myself up into a tight little ball of frustration and despair.  Sounds life threatening, doesn’t it.  I thought so too.

It was all going so well. I was up to a 16k long run with just an 18k the following week and then the Sunday before the half marathon a 14k as the start of my taper. The 16k went really well (I wrote about it here). Then I went out 2 days later to do a planned 8k. My calf felt tight, a bit weird. It’ll loosen up, I thought. 10 minutes into the run a cramp in my calf set in, but that wasn’t the worst of it. On the insides of both my lower legs I felt an incredible tightness, like they were going to burst. The sensation came in waves. This is it, I thought. I’ve got a thrombosis and I’m about to have a stroke. Not that I’m dramatic or anything. Listen to your body, I told myself. So I curled up in a ball in the middle of the road.

Freezing my fru-fru.

I’m just 3 weeks away from my half-marathon now (dies a little inside). I ‘um’ and ‘ah’ about running my long run on the track again. It’s 16 kilometres and I don’t even want to calculate how many circuits that is. But I am totally into prevention, so to save my virgin half-marathon legs I decide I should. I also look into some other ways of staving off sore muscles. It would be a bonus to be able to walk the next day after all.

And there it is. Ice baths.

No-one is leaving.

If you ever needed examples of the complex, colourful and resourceful nature of the Greek character, you wouldn’t need to look much further than events from this week;

What to believe…#wednesdayswordsofwisdom

Here are my first ‘Wednesdays words of wisdom’.

With a general election coming up on sunday 20th, I thought it was quite appropriate…

 

“Οπου ακούς πολλά κεράσια κράτα μικρό καλάθι.”

(When you hear ‘many cherries’, hold a small basket)

What do you think?

(Running) friends with benefits

More running revelations afoot this week. (See how I did that?)

After my ‘reboot week’ brought me to that fantastic little yoga routine, I am pleased to say that I have done it most days and at least parts of it on other days. The stretches are amazing, but I do still nod off at the end. Which is annoying really as I wanted to use that time to visualize me running a 2 hour half-marathon.

I also sought out some ways to prevent some of the discomfort bought on by the long runs. I ate properly and hydrated well in the days leading up to it. I prepared the right carb/protein balanced food for after the run the night before. And I did my long run on a proper running track with a springy surface. Round and round 400 metre circles. Like a teddy bear. One step, two step oh my god I nearly died of boredom. And of a heart attack;

Greek island tails…

If it’s true you never get a second chance to make a first impression, then Halki has nothing to worry about. As the boat approaches the island you are welcomed into a harbour, shaped like an embrace.  A welcome hug from a relative you never knew you had. The faces of colourful neoclassical houses are warm and pretty. The little harbor IS Halki and its beautiful in the fuzzy-feeling way only a pretty Greek island can be. The houses are arranged around the harbor and tumble down right to the waters edge. And that is right where we are going too.

Rebooting…

Pah! That’s easy. Is my reaction to my first challenge as a ‘Too fat to run’ blogger. I have to schedule 3 days in this first week of September to:

Oh. Well, this doesn’t really apply to me as I am in week 7 of a 12 week half marathon training (puffs out chest, looks smug). So what do I do?