I am not quite sure where the week went, but its Friday tomorrow and I need to get busy and write!
Saturday morning began early with a trip out to Kalamunda and running on the Bibbulmun…my favourite part. I say it’s my favourite, but it is always a tough run; even tougher when you bring along the fast bunch to do the run as well. Inevitably I was dropped, but I was briefly in front for a moment…when I caught up to them having a wee rest while waiting for me! No rest for me I turned the corner and I was in front, then we hit a climb! I know I have to be getting fitter, and it isn’t good to compare yourself to people that run abnormal amounts…but they blew past me and that was where I last saw them. BGal was more assured this week about losing me as I “had run here before and knew my way around”…or so we both thought. Each time I go out in to the wilderness I am having increasingly serious doubts about the sanity of me running without a guide dog! I always manage to go off trail and get lost, only to find “where I should’ve turned” on my way back. I tend not to worry as all the runs I’ve been doing have been out and back…but seriously, in a point-to-point race I think I’d be screwed!
This was even over a trail I done before when two weeks ago I ran out to the Camel Farm. I thought I’d turn there and they’d catch me up and I could run back in with them. The Camel Farm never appeared…apparently it had been moved! I kept running until I hit a bitumen road and the watch said I’d run just over 9kms so I figured that was as good a place as any to turn around. Considering this was my “rest” week and my long run was to be only 13.5km I knew this was enough. I still wondered where the Camel Farm was while I headed for home. I got to a junction where I’d zagged and realised I should’ve zigged here on the way out and I’d probably found the Camel Farm again. The run home was lonely and I kept being paranoid and thinking they’d gone an extra km or two and maybe they’d already gotten back before me! I couldn’t possibly be that slow, but I knew I was tired as I feel over myself and landed heavily on all fours! The broken skin that comes from a fall doesn’t hurt as much as the force with which you hit the ground when you fall while running! I briefly stayed there, hands and knees, to take a deep breath and assess if I was really hurt. My knee ached a little from the collision with the ground but I was ok. A few 100m later when I lurched forward off balance only to regain control before I fell, did leave me swearing at myself about lifting my feet! As the car park drew nearer I readied myself for humiliation as I climbed the last hill to the picnic table…expecting to see them all there munching on protein bars and looking at their watches! As I covered the last 30m…ashamedly at a walk, but it was a slight uphill, BGal came screaming past me and I was overcome with the guilt of being discovered walking! I quickly tucked in behind her and made an impressive surge to the picnic table!! “Lost again” she asked…laughing about how this “was my favourite run”….I haven’t done it that much I protested! It was all in good humour and I was pleased they hadn’t beaten me…even if I’d been sprung walking.
A little while chatting about gear and some fancy shorts BGal and RMan had on…munches on protein bars and apples….and I was out of there with the rest of Saturday to get stuck into. I ended up running over 18km…which I was told by three GPS wearing runners that my foot pod was less accurate and their extra distance run was 18.5km so mine had to be shorter. As this is the way I’d measured all my runs I wasn’t going to change now…I had done 18km and that’s what I was writing in my log! It is true though; the foot pod works on foot fall and average stride distances for height and weight and when you run trails your foot strike is irregular and choppy…so I knew the distance isn’t quite accurate. I was 5 minutes quicker than last fortnight…so I was happy with that; however technically I hadn’t done the exact same route…LOL.
Home for a quick shower and off for a massage…all too brief and so left me wanting more. I’d really love an entire body massage, especially over my shoulders and back. Who knows, over Easter with some time off I might just get one! My body sure feels like it deserves one. The rest of Saturday was domestics; pink jobs and blue jobs. The weekends are also where I enjoy trying to cook a meal that doesn’t have to be quick, or late or reheated!
Sunday was to be another run, only had to do 6.5km! I had turned the alarm off as I decided a sleep in was first priority. Unfortunately 6.24am just didn’t cut it! I woke up with a start as MGirl had been out the night before and was supposed to text me when she got into the taxi to come home with her friend JGirl, and then wake me when she got in! It was now the next morning and I realised I hadn’t heard from her and quickly jumped up and ran into her room to find the two girls snoozing! Thankful they were OK, but of course now there was no going back to sleep. CBoy had also had a friend sleep over that night, and they too were getting a sleep in. I made a coffee and sat down to read Saturday’s paper, always better on a Sunday…and waited until the house woke up.
I think it was after 10am where they surfaced by which time I felt like I was ready to go back to sleep. I lay down for a while before lunch, normally unheard of, and tried to go back to sleep. It didn’t really happen but it was nice to be horizontal for a while and I got up before lunch and told myself I’d run later. Later never came and the run didn’t happen, and the afternoon was time for another nap, more successful this time, and I pretty much wasted the day away and didn’t have a care in the world. It was a rest week and I had run over 31kms when the original total for the week was to be about 33km, so I justified why I didn’t have to run on Sunday and why my body needed to rest. The excuses worked for me.
Monday I woke up early and headed out to the gym to make up for my lazy Sunday. The annoying dog was at it again! Monday night was another session for CBoy at Ultimate and FD#1 and I had a lovely time walking the ovals and lying on the grass stretching. This usually occupies about 45minutes, and the next hour and 15 is spent growling at the dog to “lay down” and trying to discourage her from running out into the frisbee field! It usually works, until CBoy comes within view…or she hears his voice…and then she’s off. All the people seem to love her so I don’t think it’s a problem; until someone someday will trip over her, all 55kgs of her!
Tuesday I was up at 5am, well after one hit of the snooze button, and headed out on a 10km route. The further I go, the more of a challenge it is to guesstimate the distances of familiar runs around home. This one I guessed spot on as I rolled into the corner before the house at 10.3km. It was an ok run, and I felt like I was going at a good pace; I came in just on an hour. Right on the corner where I usually stop (as it gives me a 200m cool down walk back to the house) I spied a dead cat on my side of the road. Lots of traffic was going in the other direction and I knew I had to get his body off the road. I’ve lost a cat to this road and I wanted to get the tag and find the owners and let them know about their pet. He was a lovely, big, longhaired white and tabby patched cat and when I knelt down to scoop him up I was so sad to see his body still warm and limp; he’d only just been run over. It astounds me how people don’t stop, how they seem to not care. I don’t think it’s possible to hit something in your car and not know you have. He must’ve been a she as she had a pretty pink and purple collar on…with no tag. I wasn’t able to contact the owner, but I did lay her gently on the verge, on the grass next to a pole. I was quiet walking the last stretch to home…life is fragile, whether we are two-legged or four-legged. When I drove home later that day the cat was gone, so I knew the owners had found her and I imagined how much they cried. It reminded me of my cat a year ago that I found much the same way while walking FD#1 early in the morning; only he hadn’t come home the night before.
Wednesday morning was an early start with another meeting at CBoy’s school. He wasn’t in trouble but some of his teacher’s had shown some concern about how hard he was being on himself about his work and his results…this was a low key intervention to get him to “chill out” and pace himself so he didn’t burn out before year 12. Then I bickered with MGirl, via text, later in the morning; so it was turning into an emotional day. I stopped on the way home and bought chocolate as I thought we all needed and emotional treat!
Today’s run was interesting…and not only because it was RAINING! Yeah, after so many days of hot and dry weather we had finally had some rain. It was the first thing I smelt when I woke up, which was a nice change from FD#1’s morning farts! I headed out earlier, and faster and knew as I ran along that I was running better than Tuesday morning. I even got rained on and I didn’t care, it didn’t last long and it was a nice change! When I got home my watch said not only had I run about 300m more, I’d done it 90seconds faster and at a lower heart rate than Tuesday. So a good run before a big weekend attack! I have reached the limit, however, of running on an empty stomach. I already get up at 5am but as these runs get longer I have no choice but to get up 30minutes earlier to have something to eat…and take a water bottle or wear my pack. I also devised how I could do some figure 8 runs from home, lapping past the house and leave food and fluid there for my trips past and back out again. A plan for the not too distant future. Tonight is food shopping and bra shopping!
I promise to try to write 3 entries this coming week so the blog isn’t too long! I don’t want to turn my readers off…all 13 of you!
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