Not posting = not running

The weekend will mark a fortnight since I last went for a run.

This was not in the plan!

My body seems to be conspiring against me at the moment and I'm pretty anxious about it.
After my last run, I started to develop a headache and was feeling sick.  I thought it might have been dehydration so I made sure I drank a lot of water, but to no avail.  The exertion of getting out of bed on Monday morning reduced me to tears because I felt so terrible, so back to bed I went.  I was fretting because I knew it was going to be a busy week and I didn't have the time to be ill, but my body had other ideas.  6pm I got up out of bed, and not because I felt much better, just because I couldn't lay there any more.  By 10pm I was back in bed.
I felt loads better the following morning, and so thought that whatever it was had passed, however not so.  I felt sick whenever I ate anything and was generally feeling pretty low, not helped by being at work late each evening.  On Thursday morning around 11.30am the headache and nausea returned with a vengeance and I left the office in tears to head home.  I couldn't go to bed though, which is what my body wanted me to do, I had too much work to do.  So I sat on the sofa with the curtains closed working on my laptop.  It took me until 3.30pm to be able to take a sip of drink, and another hour before I could stomach half a sandwich.  It was only at this point that I could take any pain relief too, and by the evening I was starting to feel much better.
By this point I had admitted to myself that there was no way I was going to complete all the work I needed to do before the Monday deadline, and I don't know whether letting go of that deadline was what made me start to feel a bit better, but Friday I was relatively spritely, although still feeling sick most of the day.

I went away to Wales for the weekend with some of my best friends, and it was just the tonic.  Honestly, I needed that so badly.  I spent some time playing with my 3 year old friend Freyja on the Friday night, and I could feel myself relaxing and the tension draining from me.  It struck me then that I hadn't even realised quite how stressed I had allowed myself to get, little wonder I was ill.  I now honestly think that stress was the major factor in how ill I had been feeling.

Looking back over the previous couple of weeks it's little wonder!  Finding out that one of your close friends has a life-threatening illness is pretty devastating.  It was the 5 year anniversary of Kat's death after fighting that same disease.  The atmosphere in the office had been low as folks had been to visit one of our colleagues who is losing his battle against pancreatic cancer.  On the Friday evening, just as I was packing my bags for the weekend away I got a call from my Mum, in tears.  This is never a good thing!  Turns out my Uncle Michael had a heart attack and had been rushed to hospital earlier that day.  He needed urgent bypass surgery.  I'm so pleased to be able to report that it went well and he is now going from strength to strength.

Sadness just seems to be all around and all-encompassing sometimes.

I knew I wouldn't be able to run whilst we were away, the weather was too appalling!  Plus I wanted to be able to relax and enjoy time with my friends, so I didn't even take my running kit.  I had planned on getting in a run on the Monday evening after we got back, but I had a little accident on Sunday and running has been out of the question this week as a result!
We had a little break in the weather, there was even a brief flash of sunshine, so myself, Pete and Sui went for a little walk up a hill behind the cottage we were staying in.  It was fab!  So good to get out of breath, get to the top and admire the views and get a little windswept, knowing we could head back down for some mulled wine.  Heading back down turned out to be a dangerous activity for me!  The ground was grassy, wet and steep, and we were all slipping around a bit so we took our time and joked about who would fall over first.  Stupid bluddy question really eh!  My feet went from under me, and I landed on my bum, closely followed by my head.  The resulting whiplash is still causing me the occasional twinge of pain and codeine has been my best friend this week.

So, after all of that, you could be forgiven for thinking that a run this weekend would be just the tonic.  Get me back into it, no time constraints, fresh air and time out, all things I need.  But I was dealt a bit of a blow yesterday.  I had a mole on my back that was causing me concern, and my GP agreed and referred me to a specialist.  I say HAD a mole, because yesterday she removed it.  I'm a bit sore today, but more of an issue is the fact that she has told me I shouldn't run for at least a week if I want to avoid the wound getting infected, and two weeks if I want to avoid pulling the stitches too much.  It's advice rather than instructions, and I am feeling torn.  Should I just go for a run and take the risk, given I am fretting about all this time off, or should I take her advice and wait another week before heading out to be sure I don't end up with an infection?

What would you do?

Life is a rollercoaster...

Monday 12th November.  What a day of ups and downs!

As I had mentioned, I put a whole load of new kit into my amazon basket, and on Monday I used vouchers from work to hit submit on the order.  I was feeling very pleased with myself because I had managed to get a few bargains - two pairs of running socks for £3.99, two long sleeved wicking tops for only £4.99 each in the sale, a pair of thermal running trousers and a thermal running top.

In the afternoon I had a doctors appointment to have a blood pressure test to make sure my medication is working, and thankfully it was great (110 over 80 which for me is a flippin miracle!).  I have also been referred for a dodgy mole so chased that up, and finally spoke a little about my aches and pains.  I have to say, the doctor was new, and it felt a bit to me like she was in a rush.  As such I didn't feel the inclination to go into too much detail with her, but she prescribed me some codeine for pain relief, again told me to rest, and also told me that I should under no circumstances be taking ibuprofen whilst exercising with my medical history.  I was pretty surprised by that, and would have pressed her for an explanation but as I said, she was in a rush so the most I got from her was that my body would struggle to process it with one kidney and being on medication for my blood pressure (whilst putting my coat on and being ushered towards the door).  Weird, but hey, I now have a LOT of codeine and suffice to say I have been in a lot less pain this week!

When I got home, the post had arrived and there was a pack for me from Cancer Research UK which contained my marathon vest.  I was expecting the usual turquoise, so it was with a smile on my face that I opened the packaging to reveal a really rather fetching vest in dark purple, pink and white.  It might sound funny but receiving the vest made me feel a little excited and emotional!  Little things like that make the whole thing seem very real, and when I think about it I do still get butterflies!  I had decided to take the week off running in order to rest the groin strain and various other injuries, so seeing the vest that I will be wearing on the day gave me a little lift.

I had already decided that I would like to add names to my marathon vest of all the people I know who have been affected by cancer.  Those that have fought the battle and won, those still fighting, and those who have fought the battle and lost.  I figure these people are my motivation and so I'd like to have them with me for the whole journey.  I have a list of 9 names so far and I decided I would sew the names onto my vest with silver thread.

Later that evening, I was perusing facebook as you do, and I saw the news that one of my good friends has aggressive breast cancer.  It completely floored me to read that.  We exchanged texts, and privately I had a good old cry.  I just can't believe that this is happening to my lovely friend.

And just like that, I have another name to add to my vest.  Just like that.

So today I took my vest to a craft shop in Reading in order to match the best colour thread so that I can start adding these names.  Whilst in there I discovered a fab range of buttons, and so my plan has now changed.  Each of those 10 people will have a button with their name on it sewn onto my running top.

This is for you guys;
Kat, Claire, Tina, Alison, Joleen, Daithi, Kevin, Freda, Tony and Zeph.

Niggles

After the relative elation of managing to reach my first target early last weekend, I have definitely had the wind knocked out of my sails this week.

I have been nursing a few little niggly aches and pains for a few weeks now, but after the 10 miler on Sunday I added a new one to the list which has scared me, because it's a groin strain, and as I mentioned earlier in my blog this one has had me out on the injury bench before.

To list the niggles out might help me put them into perspective I think.

1. Pain in my right wrist and the back of my hand, between my little finger and the one next to it.  Especially when stirring things, or trying to write.  My right wrist is the one I broke, and this time last year was recovering from an operation on, so I am suspicious about these pains and what might be causing them!  So much so, I booked myself in for a session with my old physio last week, which I have paid for myself rather than claiming on private healthcare.  Jess had a good old feel and tested range of movement etc. and decided that she couldn't see anything wrong and was pleased with the mobility in my wrist.  I am under instruction to do some exercises and to call her back in a couple of weeks if there is no improvement or if the pain gets worse, so watch this space!  I can confirm that after a weekend of no writing and no baking, the pain is much better, however I will test the water properly next week and see what happens.
2. Pain in my left side and back, in the area of my ribs.  I think that I must have pulled something 3 weeks ago when putting my trainers on, as I remember suddenly getting a sharp pain in my side before I even started running, which meant that when I took a breath in I got a wave of incredible pain.  This is still lingering and causing me the occasional issue, such as if I lean on my left arm on the sofa, or sleep on my left side.
3. Pain in my left heel for the past couple of weeks.  I am pretty certain this is plantar fasciitis and as such have been doing all sorts of calf stretches, which seems to be improving the situation.
4. Pain in my right knee.  This is the one that I dislocated four times last year, and is still very unstable.  Sometimes it is OK and sometimes it clicks when I walk.  When I run, I often get a few niggles from this knee, usually at the start and finish of the run.  I think that when I have done this marathon, I will be getting a second opinion from a different knee specialist, and asking for my bone chip to be removed.
5. The aforementioned groin strain, in my left leg.

All advice I sought, and could find courtesy of google, has confirmed the need to rest the groin strain, so I only went for one run last week on Thursday morning.  A little 4.5 miler.  And I can confirm that it was quite painful, and at times I could feel myself limping a little bit.  Since then I have found even walking agony at times, so I haven't been for a run this weekend.  What I have done instead is some gentle stretching, and am feeling a lot less pain this evening.  

If I'm honest, it's been getting to me a bit this week.  I'm worried that these little niggles could grow into bigger things that hinder my training and halt my momentum, and it feels like two steps forwards and one step back.  Although when you actually think about that statement, that's still a step in the right direction isn't it so I shouldn't be too down on myself and my poor old body!

In an effort to keep my spirits up, I have tonight added a load of new running kit to my basket on Amazon, which I shall purchase tomorrow.  The next item on the list is to sort myself out with some new trainers, so a trip to Sweatshop is in order.  Because there is nothing like shiny new kit to make me want to get back out there I reckon!  Wish me luck!

This life is more than just a read-through

Music plays an important part in my life.  I go to a lot of gigs and listen to music most days at work.  I find it can lift you, empathise with your foul mood or just plain make you smile.

When I am running, most of the time I find I have a song stuck in my head.  It can be the last one I listened to, or just something completely random that has popped in there for no particular reason.  At the moment I'm going through a rather irritating phase of having the song below stuck in my head when I go for early morning runs, and it's one that I definitely have to encourage back out of my head by any means necessary!!

Good morning!

Last weekend, I was at the beginning of a much-needed week off work, and so was feeling great.  I had some lovely things planned in to do, and I also knew that I would be able to go for at least one run during the week, in daytime.  Since the clocks were changing that weekend I knew that all my weekday runs going forwards were going to have to be dull laps around Green Park, as my usual run routes are on unlit footpaths.
And so on the Saturday morning, I headed off with hopes of running 8-9 miles, to keep me on track for my 'run 10 miles by the end of 2012' target.  My current favourite track is 'Not Giving In' by Rudimental, so I had that stuck in my head.
However, give in I did.
I have absolutely no idea what happened, but after a mile and a half I just felt like I couldn't keep going.  I thought I would change the plan and run 6-7 miles instead, in the hopes that the thought of a shorter distance would encourage me and buoy me up, however it didn't work.  My legs felt good, my breathing was fine, no stitch, I just couldn't keep going.  I forced myself to drag my sorry backside around 4.5 miles, but it has to be said, I came very close to calling Pete and asking him to come and pick me up.  Something was definitely up with my body, because by the time I got home, I was a sneezing mess, and one of my eyes had swollen up really badly.  I felt like I had a cold that had come on over the course of the run!

It's safe to say that this wasn't part of the marathon training plan!  I think basically my body was trying to tell me that I hadn't given it a cut-back week yet, and that it was in holiday mode thank you very much so enough with this running lark!

By the time I woke up the next day, all signs of the cold had gone.

A couple of days later, I had to run again.  I knew I had to run again, however I was feeling so deflated I was dreading it.  I was trying to talk myself out of it, but thankfully Pete wouldn't let me!  And so run I did, and this time I had 'Can't Stop' by Red Hot Chili Peppers stuck in my head.  And this time I didn't!  I ran an easy 6 miler, and could have run further but decided I wanted to save my long run for the weekend, as that is going to be the routine going forwards.

Fast forward to today.  I am sitting here enjoying a glass of wine in celebration of achieving my target of a 10 mile run by the end of the year, 8 weeks and 1 day early!  Again, I have no idea how it happened.  I set out with the aim of 8 miles, just so as not to intimidate myself too much, and to cut a long (2 hours 51 seconds long to be precise!) story short, I added loops here there and everywhere and before I knew it, I had done 10 miles.  And the song stuck in my head?  It was that Rudimental one again.  'Not Giving In'.  And this time, I didn't!

And just in case you still have 'Good Morning' stuck in your head (sorry about that), here is the Rudimental track for you, which will hopefully replace it!

Not Giving In