Fed up with ordinaryExtra ordinary is where it's at

I’ve just got back from my longest run in a couple of months. A good 8 miles up through the parks to Ringinglow and then winding back along the streets of Bents Green.

The first half was hard though. I had to walk the hardest 0.5 miles through the woods to the Norfolk Arms pub. Still I’m glad I pushed on and didn’t turn back.

I’m absolutely knackered now though. Not legs type tired but sleepy. Very sleepy. Perhaps a strong coffee will help!

My head was pretty bad for a good portion of the run too. Running with a headache isn’t ideal.

Anyway, that’s it for now. Roger and out!

We had a partial meeting of the fellowship this morning (Rich is in Spain at the moment) with the aim of bashing out the route.

Then JP let it be known that he can’t make the agreed date as he’s got some exams slap bang in the middle. Crap.

I guess I should be happy that we haven’t got further with the planning as it would be a lot harder to sort if we had accommodation booked already.

Anyway, getting out diaries, it became apparent that we’re pretty limited on how much we can move things either forward or back.

Also with Rich out of the country, we’re unable to agree a new date anyway. I have no idea when he returns. I hope it’s soon! If you’re reading this Rich, drop me an email will you?!

It all means that far from getting clearer, the whole thing is getting unclearer. Or should that be “more unclear” or “less clear”? Either way, it’s not good. It raises the question too of what to do if we can’t agree a date at all.

We’re still looking for support too. Ideally we’d like someone to either cycle or drive ahead of us, carrying our baggage from stop to stop. They would also be on hand to aid in an emergency. We’ve had a couple of leads but they’ve not come to anything. If you fancy it, please let me know!

All this disorganisation reminds me of a scene in Red Dwarf (Series 5 – Quarantine for all those interested):

Lister: We’re a real Mickey Mouse operation, aren’t we?
Cat: Mickey Mouse? We ain’t even Betty Boop!

Oh my word… We aren’t even Betty Boop…

This week has been pretty good. From starting in pain and despair, I’m ending (the working week, anyway) on a positive note.

I’ve clocked up at least 14 miles this week, with one 6 mile run included. I’ve been out a total of 4 times.

The six miler had a couple of 20 second water breaks in, but I did it in just under an hour still. Going out consecutive days has been an effort too. My legs do feel tired from that.

From where I was over Christmas, I’m pretty happy with that to be honest. Still behind where I should be, and way off the 150 miles a week I’ll be doing on the run, but happy none the less.

Mentally, I feel much more able to run too. After not running for so long I started to think that I couldn’t. It is amazing how much of running is mental. You think of exercise as a physical activity but your body is so much more capable than you think. The problem is that, biologically speaking, bodies are things of habit. Breaking that habit requires a big mental effort. After all, for most of the day I’m sat still at my desk. Is it any wonder that my body is lazy?

Anyway, to get back on schedule I need to have run at least one 10 mile run by the end of January, which is scarily next week!

I’ve decided to not get too bothered if I miss that goal but really need have done at least 8 miles by then. It’s a balance between setting achievable goals and pushing yourself. I figure that if I’m back on target a week into February, it’s not much of a big deal.

This is getting serious (and I’m getting nervous). The run is only about 4 months away and we still haven’t decided on a route.

As you loyal readers will remember, we’d tried to get this sorted before Christmas, but it didn’t happen. It’s still not happened…

The latest update is that we’ll be running the Hadrian’s Wall walking path. Great. But that’s only 84 miles. Add on the 6 miles to get from the end of the wall to the sea and we’re still 60 odd miles short.

It’s really important to me that we run a marathon distance each day for the 6 days we’re running. That’s the whole point of the exercise!

John-Paul is wanting to avoid road running at all costs. I can understand that, and I’d much rather run cross country but doing so has two drawbacks for me. The main one is that running 26 miles cross country is way more effort than on road. Secondly, keeping off-road require much more route planning than following the well described C2C cycle way.

The Hadrian’s Wall walking path is well described and sign posted. It also has a fair amount of ‘accessible’ paths which means they should be easy going.

So I’m happy with that part. We just need to add on 60 extra miles…

A bit of research revealed that there is a Hadrian’s Wall cycle route that starts from a place called Ravensglass. This is about 60 miles down the coast from Bowness-on-Solway, where Hadrian’s Wall starts. The plan is that we will follow the cycle route from Ravensglass to Bowness and then join the walking path from there.

It’s not ideal from my perspective to be honest. If we can run 60 miles of cycle way, a lot of which is on roads anyway, what’s the big difference to just running the C2C route? The thought of running up the coast seems pointless too. Mentally I imagine running across the country, the coastal bit just seems pointless.

Anyway, I just need to get over that I guess and get the route finalised. Note the “I” there. As I’m the one who is bothered about the route and getting things booked in, I need to do it. I can’t wait for us all to get together for the evening and bash it all out as it’s not going to happen. I just need to crack on with it otherwise the stress of it not progressing will get to me too much.

I really wanted the whole thing to be a group effort and didn’t want to push my agenda on the run. Looking back, I think it would have been easier if I had. We’d be a lot further on too. I’ll remember for next time!

Okay, this isn’t a running related post but I’m really quite miffed! No one, other than one guy I was playing Scrabble with, has noticed that I’ve left facebook!

I wanted to leave without telling people but I obviously wanted people to notice I’d gone! It’s quite humbling to realise that in actual fact people aren’t hanging on my every word, waiting with baited breath for my next thrilling status update!

I’ve also found it strange not being able to tell people what I’m doing. I’ve found myself wanting to update my status with things like “Kit Barker is dismantling a big desk” or “Kit Barker needs more coffee”. You know, the usual facebook status update. The thought that people don’t know what I’m doing is somehow troubling. I’m obviously having withdrawal symptoms!

The other side of it is that I’ve had to text people or phone them to ask how their recent holiday was and such like. That’s not a bad thing but if I was on facebook I’d have picked that up through status updates and would have been able to see photos. It obviously has it’s plus points.

At the moment I am thinking about rejoining but with a new policy of not posting everything I’m doing or only checking it twice a day. I would definitely keep it off my phone as I don’t want to get back into the habit of checking it every 2 minutes, even when on the toilet!

Sacrifice. That’s a scary word. But if I’m serious about during this run I need to make some.

I was talking to Smack recently and he inspired me by how disciplined he’s been. He’s given up alcohol, not eating chocolates, not eating at all after 8pm and so on and so forth. He’s set a target weight he wants to achieve for the run and is going for it.

The very thought of giving up say alcohol fills me with dread! That’s not to say I’m an alcoholic, but there’s always an upcoming special event or a reason not to just round the corner. But, if I’m sincere in my desire to do this 150+ mile run I need to make sacrifices.

I haven’t got round to giving up beer yet but I’ve done something equally scary. I’ve deleted my facebook and twitter accounts. That’s it, they’re gone. No more can I waste time reading meaningless and banal status updates or playing Scrabble when you know you’re opponent is cheating (of course, I would never, ever look at Scrabulizer.com or even know about it’s existence…) or deleting the continuous stream of invites to facebook pillow fights.

It’s not just about the time saving, it’s about removing clutter. Mental clutter. I spent so much of my time checking social networking sites at work but also on my phone and it’s such an intrusion. I’d check facebook on the toilet, at the dinner table, walking home… I get no benefit from it and it fills my mind with crap!

Nowhere could I escape. Well, now I have. It feels a little weird at the moment to be honest. How do I talk to people? How do I tell people what I’m up to? But it also feels like I’m free. I’ve dropped off the radar. I’m anonymous and I’m free from the binds of the world.

Well, almost.

Well, well, well… what’s this? A new post? It’s been FAR too long since the last post.

Oh, the reasons are many and varied but needless to say the last couple of months have been a nightmare in terms of preparing for this run. I’ve been ill, exhausted, run off my feet, eaten too much, stressed and depressed all at various times since my last post. I’ve also ’started again’ more than once!

Well, wow the new year is here I’m panicking about the run big style. I’m way off target fitness wise and we still haven’t agreed on a route despite agreeing that we would get it sorted before Christmas.

After putting it off too long, I went out for a run on Sunday and got only a couple of miles before feeling sick. I think it was a combination of stress, fear, worry and too much food but I couldn’t go on. I stopped, feeling like I was going to vomit. I sat down on a wall and cried. If the rest of the team were there I would have told them I was dropping out. I couldn’t do it. I’ve tried. And failed. It was just too hard. At every turn events seemed to conspire to stop me. I was defeated.

To rub salt into the wound the park was full of runners. Everywhere I looked I could see people running and enjoying themselves. I wanted to punch them all!

I sat on that wall for what seemed like an age. In the end I got up and walked home. On the way home, I was praying and things got better. A plan started unfolding. I could do this. It would be hard, yes and it would require sacrifice but I would do it. I had a good conversation with myself and with God and by the time I was at the end of the park I was ready to start again!

So, this week is another ’start again’ week. Hopefully it’s the last one but already my plans to run are under attack. This morning my eldest child was off school, unable to weight-bear on his right leg. His knee was knocked playing football a while ago and hurt a bit at the time, but nothing serious. Last night he was complaining it hurt and this morning he couldn’t walk. No school for him today and no running for me. I’ll go out tomorrow instead…

I’ve not weighed myself for a long time. Partly out of fear to be honest.

Well, this week I did it… and was shocked. Not in a bad way either.

I was 13st 13lb which is about what I was when I started running. Okay that’s 5lbs more than last time I weighed myself but I expected to be well over 14st. I definitely felt like I was.