The To Do List

Miles Run: 12.5

Days until the big day: 68

Melt downs: 1

The run streak was too hard. I gave up. So I took up heavy wine drinking instead, which probably explains what happened next...

...Last Monday morning, at 1am, I suddenly realised how much I still had to do, and how close the wedding was getting. I sat on the sofa and tried to sob quietly so as not to wake Mr Runner. Unfortunately I can't do anything quietly, and Mr Runner found me in my overwhelmed state. After laughing at the ridiculous list of worries, including - being too busy on our holiday to New York in a few weeks time,  what if we are never able to find appropriate wedding invitations and what if all the florists in Edinburgh are fully booked, forever, he made me write a to do list.

Having added a few of extras of my own it now looks like:

1. Choose wedding invitations
2. Find florist
3. Organise wedding rings
4. Sort life out by: drinking green juice, running everyday, smile more, eat more healthy, stop drinking wine, be more organised, write more lists, stop eating cake, only drink organic coffee beans that have passed through the body of a wild cat from somewhere exotic, don't cry on the sofa at 1am about stupid things, take everything calmly and in my stride. 

Number 4 is proving to be rather tricky...

Project Runstreak

Miles run: 18

Runstreak: 9 days

Days until the Big Day: 83

Things are heating up in the wedding planning arena, and there have been tantrums a plenty. Wedding invitations - my choices are boring; Wedding cakes - I'm too old for a lego cake; and Wedding day Park Run - it's happening people, I have a getaway car organised and everything. Mother, I'm sure I will be back in plenty of time to get my hair done!

In order to "cope" Whatsapp has been deleted and reinstalled multiple times, I have consumed an ungodly amount of cake and wine, and Mr Runner has had to hide my car keys so I can't run away to Wales. 

As a result, my current wedding planning stress management strategy is to try and do a runstreak to the big day, by running at least one mile a day. So far so good, and I think it might be helping. 

I hope it helps, because otherwise my back up plan is to run away to Wales, and hide in a remote mountain somewhere, where nobody can find me! 

Beta Test

Miles run: less than I would have liked

Glasses of wine consumed: more than I should have 

Life crushing, soul destroying, strength and conditioning workouts completed: 3

In 90 days, I will be getting married, whether I am ready or not. At the moment, I am most definitely not ready, and at the rate I am going at, I can't believe that I will ever be. 

So in a bid to distract from this problem I signed up to be a beta tester for the Nike Training Club App, to trial a new 6 week training program. My rationale for this was that I am fit, so it will be easy. Plus all the running has given me very toned legs, but the rest of me is pretty scrawny, so maybe it will help even things out a bit in time for my big day. How bad can 6 weeks of strength training be?

It is NOT easy. Every muscle in my body aches. I struggle to get out of my car in the morning because my legs are so sore, and raising a mug of coffee to my mouth is AGONY! My poor scrawny little arms! 

What's more upsetting is Mr Runner initially agreed to do this training program with me. He did grumpily get up with me, dutifully, at 6.30am on day 1. Disappointingly, he decided 1 workout was enough for him. He has popped his head round the door a few times, and looked at me with a bemused expression his face, but that's as much as he's managed since that first day. 

Despite the aches and the pains, the sense of achievement after each completed workout makes me keep going back for more. I am not a quitter. I will finish these 6 weeks! 

 

It's not all been tough workouts though. I've also been drinking lots of tea and watching the IAAF Athletics World Championships. Maybe that will be me one day!?!? 🤣 

Hello, it's me!

Hello, it's been a while!

A lot has happened and changed in the last twelve months, and I think I ended up running slightly obsessively to cope! Which, ultimately ended up in me becoming completely burnt out. Twice. 

Once you can forgive, but twice, surely that's just stupid! 

I run to manage my stress levels, the more stress, the more I run. Until I break, and I can run no more. Then I become a tired, miserable, lump. Moping on the sofa. Fed up, because not only do I lack the energy to run, I also lack the energy to do anything other than go to work, eat and sleep. Totally convinced it's all everyone else's fault, and absolutely nothing to do with my inability S-L-O-W down. 

I'm sorry Mr Runner. I promise I'll try super hard not to do it again...

So I had to hang my trainers up for a little bit. Accept defeat, and allow my body the chance to recover. 

Before getting my trainers back out again, and trying not to be so silly next time! Fingers crossed....

Congratulations to me!

Miles I ran this week: 19.3 (tapering!)

Wine I have drunk: 🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷😋 

Today I managed to knock 5 minutes and 26 seconds off my 10 km PB. Wooo! Go me! 

I've been waking up at 6am every morning for the last 3 months to go running, and averaging about 30 miles a week. I've worked so hard, so I'm over the moon to see my hard work pay off, and now i'm enjoying a nice glass of wine to celebrate 😊. Probably followed by a ridiculously early night, as I'm shattered. 

The last few months have been stupidly busy, and the only way I've been able to fit my training in is to get up early. However, I've discovered that this also has it's advantages. I can get up, put my kit and trainers on, and be out the door in 9 minutes. Which means that I don't really wake up until I'm half way down the road! Once I'm out, I don't see the point in talking myself out of it, so I've found it much easier to stick to my training plan this time round! 

Not that I haven't had my adventures; being chased by teenagers on bikes, cat calling me; falling my length miles away from home, calling Mr Runner in tears, and having to limp my way on to a train to get back; and running circles around Battersea for miles, because I have a crap sense of direction! All stories for another time I think! 

Next week, another 10km, this time along the coast in Aberdeen. Will it be another PB? Can I manage two 10km races in two weekends? Who knows. Right now I am celebrating this weekends achievement, so pass me the wine!  

2nd March 2017

Glasses of wine consumed: More than I should have....

Miles run: 10

My parents have been down for the last few days, and Mr Runner saw this as an excellent opportunity to need to go to New York for an urgent business trip. As my parents left yesterday, and I'd booked this whole week off as holiday, I realised I was going to have to occupy myself today. So I decided the best plan would be to get the train to Richmond and run home along the Thames Path. It's something I've always wanted to do, but when Mr Runner is home, I'm always conscious about being out of the house for as little time as possible, so I figured today was a perfect opportunity. 

The last time I ran 10 miles, I was pretty confident it was the perfect distance for me. So I was sure that this would be a lovely way to spend the morning. 

So what if I haven't run more than 5km since October.

The sun is shining, it'll be really nice. 

Nope. 

It was exhausting. I spent the last 3 miles distracting myself from my screaming muscles and dragged myself onwards by playing Pokemon. Yes. I was that desperate. 

When I got home I had a really long nap on the sofa, and felt slightly guilty that all the wedding organising and other jobs I was going to productively get done hadn't been touched...but then maybe that was my secret plan all along! 

Tomorrow is another day! 

4th December 2016

Number of miles run: 5

Tantrums thrown: 3 (not all by me)

I wasn't going to write about wedding planning. It's too risky, too many of the parties involved may read it. However, I'm at a point now where I don't care if nobody wants me round for Christmas. It'll save me money on presents.

Getting engaged is supposed to be one of the happiest times of your life. It's exciting, it's new, and you're disgustingly in love. Now it's happened to me, I've realised that that is a complete fantasy portrayed by the media and Disney. Either that, or everyone else in the world has sane, functioning families who appreciate that you are a grown up and able to make sensible decisions. 

My wedding planning is becoming some sort of ridiculous sitcom, only I'm the protagonist and I'm not finding it very funny. 

My mother in law would like to be a bridesmaid.

My father believes its his wedding, and is insisting I invite all 60 of his closest friends. 

My mother is being strangely silent on the whole subject, except for occasionally high pitched hysterical screeching in the background of phone calls with my father. However, I fear she is the brains behind my father's ridiculous demands.

While this is going on I suspect that my father in law is sitting back, watching the whole thing unfold and being slightly amused, and Mr Runner is playing Xbox. 

The icing on the cake was when my father called last Sunday wanting to know why the whole thing hasn't been booked and planned yet. We've only got 11 months and 2 weeks to go you know. 

The harder he pushes, the harder I am trying to run away. Which only makes him push harder to get things done. It's like I become a stubborn 14 year old all over again, and it's an argument about eating my peas. I resolved that one by running in to the middle of the street with no shoes on, in the rain, and threatened to call ChildLine, very loudly so that the whole street could hear. I didn't have to eat my peas that night. I fear a similar strategy isn't going to work here though. 

I get he's excited, and wants to show off. I'm just not sure I'm there yet. 

So instead, I'm going to sign up to run the Yorkshire Marathon in October next year so I can be too busy training. It's exactly one month before the wedding, so I feel it's an excellent avoidance/coping strategy.