#stickingtoyourplan dontgiveup

[mermaid017]

Still going strong!

Thursday, 25th April 2019

Yesterday I flew out to Luxembourg to spend time with my family. I’m fortunate to have a job where I can work remotely and, every now and then, I make use of that luxury and bring my laptop with me to my aunt’s place.

This time I have an office desk in my aunt’s house so I’m all setup to do a normal day’s work in front of my laptop. And the best thing? I have company in the shape of a white shadow that follows me around the whole day. As the office is on the first floor and I keep going to the kitchen on the ground floor for water or tea or something to eat, Héli, my aunt’s bichon frisé, dully follows me around. Well, he does till the point that even gives up and just stays put on the couch as if saying: human, you are far too electric for me! You go and come back. If you don’t come back within 5 minutes, I’ll consider coming for you. So, do me a favour, and take less than that!

I’m currently training for Edinburgh’s half-marathon at the end of May. It all started with the couch to 5k app a couple of years ago. It’s a great app for people like me that always told themselves that running wasn’t for them. You have a coach in your ear - as long as you have headphones on - telling you when to run and when to walk. You start with running for 60 seconds and walking for 90 seconds, with preferably 3 sessions a week. The walking time reduces as you progress with the running time increasing at the same pace. Soon, I was running for 18 minutes in one session and thinking I couldn’t recognise my own body. In the first year, I gave up before finishing the 9 weeks of the app’s programme. I had some excuse or another not to do it and soon, I was spending more time on the couch than running.

Last year, I volunteered with my friend Becca as part of Alzheimer’s Society’s cheer squad for the London Marathon - which actually takes place this weekend - and I guess I was inspired to get back on it and start running properly. So I went home that day, I got my sports clothes on and went for a run with the app. Soon, (well, it took a few months) I was doing 5k runs with Parkrun and actually talking about doing longer runs. I then signed up to do a 10km and managed to be convinced to do a half marathon this year. And where else to do it if not in my favourite city?

I need to do a 20km run soon and this evening I tried to plan the run with my aunt. It’s not that straightforward when you are in a relatively small country with no real running parks. So, we draw a plan which will involve a lot of coming back on myself. This means that I may be stopping to check my bearings and make sure that I haven’t gone completely off course and end up in a completely different area or country. Good thing that there aren’t any passport control around here! I guess if anyone checks my Strava after the run will think that I’ve lost my marbles. I’ll let you know how it went in a week and a half. Should make for a different post!

I was very proud of myself today when I went for a run in the rain. I started the day almost convincing myself that I could do it tomorrow instead. Thankfully, I managed to change my mindset around and at 5pm, when I closed my laptop, I quickly changed into my running kit and off I went. It was good to just go out and run in the rain, I wasn’t too worried about my times. It felt strong and actually empowering to stick to my training plan! Just over one month till I join the other half-marathon nutters! Not long now!

Ok, time to wrap this up! More about my running adventures soon!