Another week has started and my disposition is a bit sunnier that it was at the end of last week, just a little. Saturday was a complete write-off emotionally…I really did fall into a bit of a hole. Sometimes life does this to me, I get hung up on being lonely (which I am a good deal of the time) and when the house is quiet with the kids away I wish I had someone in my life to share the emptiness with. So Saturday was spent feeling a little sorry for myself. Thankfully the sun was shining and by the end of the day, and with a little hard labour thrown in on the floor prep for the new tiles, I was feeling a little more optimistic. I can only tell myself that all things happen for a reason, and being eternally single must have something to do with my life’s plan…and I focus on something else to numb the loneliness.
Blah, blah, blah; you’ve not agreed to read this to hear my sorry tale, but I guess you get it free of charge. With the good, comes the bad; and everything in moderation means I know I have a pretty good life (mostly), with amazing kids and there are a lot more people out there far lonelier than me. Needless to say though no exercise was had on Saturday, unless you count sitting on a backless student chair, wheeling around the floor chipping tile adhesive off the cement, exercise!! I have the bruises on my left knuckle to attest to the times I missed the cold chisel completely, and hammered my fist holding it instead.
I aimed for an early night as I was determined to get off my sad sack on Sunday morning with a run in the hills, so I wanted plenty of sleep. The only problem with that is that my sleep has been really restless lately. I guess my mind is bubbling over with too many things; home renovations, fundraising, making time to run, looking out for CBoy’s happiness (which is on a dive at the moment), empathising with MGirl at her having friends who can’t be bothered to organise anything for Year 12 Leaver’s week…but are happy for her to do it all! Oh, and working full time…but I think it is the fundraising bit that is keeping me awake. Where to start, how to start? I am going to order some fundraising chocolates…maybe that will make me sleep a little more soundly. At least that is a start! I will attempt to get to it today.
The alarm went off on Sunday at 6am… (a weekend sleep in would be nice one day, perhaps when I’ve got someone to share it with!) and I was proud that I got out of bed straight away, even though sleep had been fitful! The sun was (supposed) to be shining later and I wanted to be in it! Porridge for breakfast, and loading the Camelbak with water, a bottle of Staminade (I prefer this to Gatorade or Powerade, it isn’t quite so sweet), some trail mix, a banana and a gel shot, I was all dressed and ready to go with MGal when I started to wonder if I was supposed to pick her up or if she was coming to my place. At about that time I got a text saying she’d be another 30 minutes, she had my sleep in! I jumped in the car and went to her place… we started a bit late, but I couldn’t care less. This is our 2nd Sunday run and I just enjoy the company, the challenge and being out. We’d done the Zig Zag a few weeks ago, and we were planning on it again, but had a change of mind and decided to run part of the Bibbulmun Track, something with grunt!! and rocks and dirt and stuff.
So we headed out from Kalamunda, near the shops, and finally I felt like I was training to be a Death Racer… something about being off road made me feel legitimate! We were setting a fairly quick pace, and considering it was mostly downhill I thought we did and awesome job not to land on our faces! But the longer it continued downhill, the reality of the climb back started to dawn on me. We were told “you should reach the power lines at about 40 minutes in”…. he of little faith; we hit the power lines at 25 minutes! I was feeling awesome at this point and my crappy couple of days floated off into the eucalyptus canopy, the creek singing to me and the birds twittering away. We decided to head out for an hour (this decision was made at the top of the hill) and followed our nose until we lost the yellow markers that mark the Bibbulmun. We didn’t feel lost even though we seemed to have ended up on a bridal trail which was marked by horse poo and hoof prints, not yellow triangles! There seemed to be so many off shoots of tracks but just kept poking our way along, noting drains and junctions to make our way back.
On the 45 minutes mark we hit a big white gate, to block cars, and really started to wonder where the yellow markers were. We decided this was as good a place as any to turn around as we knew the homeward journey would take longer as we’d run downhill most of the way to the gate. So turn we did; and it wasn’t too long before we were groaning and grunting, huffing and puffing, climbing and dancing between rocks, and water-eroded rivulets and slippery muddy patches…none of which seemed there on the way down. It struck me how mental it is to run on trails like this. You are constantly looking down, picking your next place to step and rarely do you get to look up until you reach a flat spot and can run without fear of falling over your feet! I was loving this, I was working hard, my HR told me that and my legs were in full agreeance. This was exactly what I needed to lift me out of my funk…
MGal kept apologising because she was a little slower than me. I am in awe of you MGal, you haven’t been training as much as me (we’d discussed this) and you kept plodding along…look out NZ Ironman, you will be conquered one step at a time! I felt a little bad, as I waited at the crest of hills for MGal I felt like I got an extra rest yet she would crest the hills and catch her breath and be ready to keep going. There is a great deal of satisfaction to be gained about pushing your body even when it says “stop”; at that time it becomes a mental test and not just a physical one. As we clocked back into Kalamunda at 1 hour 45 minutes… I thought all I need to do is multiply that by about 11 and I’ve got myself a Death Race!!
A quick walk around the markets to stretch the legs, a take away coffee in hand and MGal spending her life’s savings at the cake stall and we were off home! I love these mornings, thanks MGal… wouldn’t want to do Sunday’s without you and I hope we can make it a fortnightly thing… or weekly. Perhaps we can grow our merry crew and drag other’s out of there Sunday sleep in.
Now though, it is Monday, and I am walking like an 80 yo that’s just had two hip replacements! Someone else mumbled something about John Wayne, but I shot with my gun and they didn’t taunt me again all afternoon!
PS…I also found out the more accurate way of determining your maximum heart rate is 220 - (0.65 x age); so in my case 220 – (0.65 x 43) = 192!! That makes a whole lot more sense as to why I found it so difficult to run down to such low HRs…I was working off a calculation that gave me 20 beats per minute less. Thank goodness, now I can start running harder without fear of keeling over!!
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