Nearly halfway round

Day 14 and pushing through. I dropped my antihistamine dose back down to one pill last night so was slightly more awake when I woke up this morning. Lots to do and the sun is shining so I popped out for a run as soon as the caffeine had done it’s business.

Now, I choose my parks based on a number of criteria these include:

• number of people that go there
• type of people who go there (as low down on the fuckwit scale as possible)
• Type of dog owners that go there
• Good running surface etc

Today I went to my usual and favourite running place – Holders Lane playing fields. It’s at the back of a busy park but mostly frequented my other runners and dog walkers. Mostly the dog walkers are pretty chilled and friendly and mostly the dogs are well behaved.

Today was the odd exception to the rule. I proceeded through my warm up, next to the car and the bin, as the dog pottered around looking for a nice place to poo (good for me as running with a bag of poo is a tricky art!). First a car pulled up with some elderly dogs and owners. My dog dutifully trotted up wagging her tail to say hello, the male owner shooed her away and asked me to keep her away.

Now, I wasn’t offended, doglet is a brindle staff cross and sometimes people just see the staff bit and are scared – even though she’s a complete submissive softy. I called her back and she pottered my way and then saw a puppy coming so trotted up to say hi. The puppy owner was a rather overweight young man who looked extraordinarily like his shar pei and was busying himself putting his t-shirt back on (thank goodness). I saw doglet wagging and sniffing and looked down to check my GPS had got signal. Suddenly Mr.Shar Pei was stood in front of me shouting, fat puppy in arms. Doglet dutifully stood between us and put her hackles up ( it looks impressive but we both know that she really means “Help, shouty man, save me”) Apparently, doglet was extremely aggressive and needs to be kept on a lead as she is a “menace to puppies” and her hackles proved his point. I calmly suggested that as a new puppy owner perhaps he should also get a book on dog behaviour as hackles mean a variety of things, not just aggression. Mr Shar Pei continued that he had been training dogs since he was 3 years old and as he was now 25 he knew what he was talking about. I’m afraid at this point I laughed, put my headphones in and jogged off.

It never ceases to amaze me how little dog owners know about dogs. And how by hoping to protect their own precious pooch, they often inflame the situation. Stoopid boy! The mixture of anger at his accusation and humour at his extensive dog training experience powered me through the first half of my run.

A little way into my run I caught up with the elderly lady and dogs. She waved at me and as I took out my earbuds she apologised for her husband “One of the dogs has just had an operation and she’s a bit touchy. It wasn’t anything to do with your dog”. Figuring that she’d probably heard the interchange with the dog trainer extraordinare I thanked her, grinned and ran on.

Now normally I struggled through the first half of my run and then loosen up for the second half but today was a struggle. My shins hurt and felt weak and it was sooooo hot! Must run earlier in the day! I tried to transfer the power from my quads instead of using my shins which helped a bit but I was glad to get to the end.

Runkeeper kept crashing today and so I used my other 5k trainer. Amazingly the GPS worked on it today and I was really pleased with it’s recorded data. For the first time, I have no complaints about an app!

Will review and link to it properly when I have more time. For now I have to go to Ikea which is probably another mile walk!

Roll on tomorrow – halfway through!

Help my world has shrunk

Well yesterday was a good day. I didn’t walk as far as I’d have liked because I was being busy doing other things (also a good thing!) I really enjoyed yesterday’s run and feeling proud for pacing myself. I followed it with an approximate 1 mile dog walk in the afternoon and a mile walk back from parent’s evening. I’m finding it constantly interesting how I’ve overestimated the distance between places. Checking them on Map my Run has been proving very beneficial indeed. I had thought that school was 2 miles away. It’s actually 1.3 miles away. This is also helping me to leave my car at home and stop relying on it so much.

When I thought a little more about why my perception had changed so much, I realised that it was probably due to my experience when I came out of hospital. I couldn’t walk very far and chose my parks based on how many benches they had and how far apart they were. Funnily enough, the one I used most during my recovery due to it’s nice clean smooth pathways and lots of benches (Kings Heath for anyone needing a good recovery park!) is the one I get most quickly bored and tired. It’s a beautiful park with some amazing trees and lots of diverse wildlife but it seems to have the ghost of my recovery trapped in it! I think I may have to go for a run there and exercise those demons, as well as my wobbly bits. I suppose my new walking mantra should be “I am fit and strong” *note to self – must try to squish the sneaky mantra that says “Is it time for a nice cup of tea yet?”*

So, yesterday’s total was 3 miles. Not impressive I know but far better than I’ve been doing. I feel fine today too. Legs are very slightly achy (because I’ve used the muscles for something other than sitting on) but I’ve not crippled myself this time.

I’m intending to do either some weights or Wii later to tone my arms. Would quite like to watch a film so may do the weights while watching. I tend to do more when I distract myself because boredom doesn’t set in so quickly.

Dinner yesterday was a bit of a wash out. I forgot to put the food in the slow cooker and so when we got back from parent’s evening, later than expected and starving I made the quickest thing I could think of: Spaghetti with fresh tomatoes and cheese. I tried to be good and not put too much cheese on and there were loads of tomatoes but it still counts as junk food as far as I’m concerned.

Tonight will be The Turkish Courgettes and Green beans with brown rice, might try throwing the rice in with the rest in the slow cooker and see how it turns out.

Tomorrow is cardio and legs again so I’ll endeavour to do another run. If it’s raining too much I’ll do a Wii workout instead. I wish I had a running machine for rainy days…maybe when I grow up and have a big house and all that money!

Update: did a 2 mile walk to Moseley Park, twice around and back again with the dogs. Was good but slow as we were doing some lead and duck manners training.