marathonmummy

Bending over to pick up the pushchair yesterday, I felt my back go ‘peiong’. By the time I got home from collecting the children from school, I could barely lift my foot off the pedals of the car and Keith had to take over childcare for the rest of the day.

Several icepacks later, it’s feeling a bit better, but I’m bored of sitting bolt upright with loads of cushions behind me, and even more fed up about not going out running this morning. I’m trying out a pair of MBTs lent to me by my lovely friend J, which have made a huge difference to the way I feel already. I’ve been spending my time composing a long email to our chosen charity, trying to explain to them why they should give us one of their bonded places for the marathon now, so we can start fundraising asap. I’m full of ideas (that may be due to all the ibuprofen).

Today I’m having a rest day. How nice that I can make lying about doing nothing sound important. I will, however, be reading lots of stuff about marathons, and looking at race calendars to work out a schedule for the next year.

Good news: I feel thinner already. Struggling in from Costco with a bag of dog food that weighs 15kg, I realised I’m carrying nearly two of them in excess weight. I’m hoping that running will get easier as I lose some dogfood weight. Fitter, thinner and with a healthy heart – yay running.

My skin is brighter, I am feeling full of happy thoughts and I have lots of energy. I’m sure all the healthy food I’m eating, and the gallons of water I’m drinking will be helping, but I think running is good for mind and body. This study agrees with me, comparing runners with people who meditate. I can understand that; when I was running at university, I found the mindlessness of running would act like a kaleidoscope, shaking my thoughts and re-ordering them so when I came home even Ulysses made sense. (Well, almost.)

I have an addictive personality. Current addiction: mad endorphin rush after running in the morning. I am also quite competitive, which is not a good thing when you’re married to Mr Naturally Fit who has gone in the last couple of months from nothing to running 5 miles in the evening without even looking particularly tired. Mr NF (actually, I think that name rather suits him) ran two half marathons in his younger days with only a few weeks of training. I, on the other hand, am just not a runner. Every plodding step is hard for me, which means when I get my sponsorship form for the marathon, you all need to remember that and give me loads of money.

Anyway. Addiction. So I spent all yesterday thinking about getting out this morning, which is not really a good thing, because The Book says three times a week to start with, and rest days are important. So I thought sod the book, I need more endorphins and I need them now.

Net result: sore leggies. Ow. I write this with my legs up on a chair, with ice packs on my shins. Having had shin splints as a running student, I’m not taking any chances.

This morning’s effort: 1m r, 1m w, 1 m r, 1m w, 1m r, 2m w, 30 sec actually running at what I consider a decent pace*, 2m w, 1.45m r, 2m w, 1m really-pathetic-shuffling-gait-that-can-barely-be-called-r, some minutes (forgot to press stopwatch button) walk. Quite a bit of stretching and muttering against a tree, in the manner of a mad person. 1m feeble r and then walked all the way home, because I was tired and my legs hurt and I wanted to lie on the floor.

*I blame the actual running for the sore legs. I know all the stuff about upping distance before speed, but as I said, I can’t help being competitive. I’m the same when we’re skiing: if he can do it, I’m going to do it (even when that means learning to do a sport which involves getting over a lifelong fear of heights).

Dear Rachael,

Thank you for entering the ballot for the 2010 Virgin London Marathon

We’ll let you know in early October 2009 if you’ve secured a place – you’ll receive a magazine through the post letting you know if you’ve been successful.

We started trying to get on to the Virgin London Marathon website at 9 this morning, and finally, 12 hours later and so many hits on the ‘refresh’ button later, we’ve done it. K, my sister Z and hopefully as we speak S is celebrating having completed her ballot application too. If we get a ballot place, we’ll all still run for our chosen charities, so they’ll make even more money. Fingers crossed till August now…that seems a long way off.

So, fired up with lots of marathon inspiration I leapt out of bed this morning, ready to go.

Or not. I woke up at 5am, saw that it was still a bit dark, and thought I’d lie in bed for a bit before I went out. Unfortunately I then fell into one of those early-morning-really-heavy sleeps, and woke up at 6 with a start, feeling sick. I dragged myself out of bed and forced myself out the door. It was hideous to start with – my legs felt like they were made of lead. I’d decided to try a little bit of scouts’ pace (walk 1 min run 1 min) and that seemed okay, then I died in the middle and had to have a 4 minute recovery walk, thinking my legs were in danger of falling off. I did the most pathetic shuffle for a minute, which was probably slower than walking but still looked like a jog, then whilst I was recovering I decided I needed to stop being so pathetic, so I did the next minute at a run, rather than a feeble amble. By the time I’d done a couple more I was realising that whilst my legs were tired and aching, I wasn’t having trouble breathing. I even managed to put on a spurt to look a bit dynamic for my friend J’s husband, who was leaving for work as I was trundling towards their house.

So, one week ago running for 20 seconds was so torturous that I thought I might have to lie down on the pavement and expire. Today I ran without it hurting. I can’t believe it’s so easy – one week and I’m already a tiny bit fitter. Talking of which, I’ve booked a consultation in a couple of weeks with the chiropractor so I can make sure my back and hips aren’t going to cause any problems as I start running more.

In between all the other stuff, I’ve spent the whole day trying to get onto the Virgin London Marathon website so I could apply for a ballot place. I think they didn’t realise anyone would want to log on today (snort). I have, however, applied for both myself and Z to run for Heart Research. Fingers crossed…

Running times, for the records:
1m run, 1m walk, 1m run, 1m walk, 1m run, 2m walk, 1m 25sec run, 4 (help me, I’m dying, how can 25 seconds have such an effect) minutes walking, 1m run, 3m walk, 1m run, 2m walk, 1m run and home for lots of leg stretching and drinking water.