The Habulous Blog result backcare

After what feels like weeks of rain, I opened the curtains to sun, immediately my mood lightened and the thought of today’s training run changed from dread to excitement.  I love being outdoors especially when its dry and you can feel the sun heating your skin.  I’m feeling very lucky that I also have a walk planned with friends later today. 

We have had lots of fun in the shops in the last few weeks as we have received loads of new stock from my trade show orders earlier in the year.  It’s a great feeling when we get new ranges in, 13 years into running shops I still feel like a young child opening a present when new things arrive.  I’m super pleased with my finds this year, we are now stocking a new range of jewellery, that is absolutely beautiful, we also have a range of ceramics by an artist called Jimbobart whom I have made personal purchases from in the past.  His work is so clever featuring caricatures of animals with great slogans.  We have a total of 4 of his plates on our wall and they are supposed to represent each one of my family members.  I’ll let you guess whose is whose!?!

Training for the marathon is so much harder than I expected.  The commitment is at times totally overpowering both physically and mentally.   I’ve got a busy life anyway and I really have been finding it hard to squeeze my training in.  This week I managed 16 miles and believe it or not I ran the whole way, I didn’t walk once, not once (although I did have a very brief pause for a wild wee!)

I find myself focussing on fractions on my long runs. So the conversation in my strange mind goes a little like this; Great 1/16 of the way only 1/15 to go, 2/8 of the way this is easy....  you can do it.....  You’ve only got to run this another 5.5 times.... OMG 5.5 more times, what am I doing, why, it will be worth it in the long run, stupid girl thinking this would be easy.  Oh look there’s a walker, say hello and smile.  Your nearly  ¼ of the way now,  come one keep focused, gosh your ½ way you’ve got this, keep on going.  Think of your form (bugger that just run) and the second half in reverse, I won’t bore you with more fractions.  Then I reach the last mile and if I have any energy left I think I might just smile.  

Before I confirmed my charity place with Back Care, I needed to know more about the charity, so I phoned to ask my list of questions, I’m one of those people who have to be passionate about something to give it my all.  I was super pleased to get a call back from Brian Hammond the charities Chairman.  It’s always a good sign when someone takes time out to explain things.  From speaking with Brian I learnt that the charities core focus is on education and fact sheets to help prevent back pain/problems.  Over the years they have ploughed lots of funding into research and have had a positive impact on treatments.  They have a help line and have when funding has allowed, paid for individuals who could not access treatment to get help.  What really amazed me is how reliant they are on the funds raised by their small team of London Marathon runners, without us Brian does not think they would be able to continue their work.  So by supporting me you are helping this great small charity continue their amazing work. Sponsor link just click here

At this very moment in time I ache like bloody mad, my legs and my butt in particular.  I definitely feel as if I have overestimated my ability to run a marathon, I won’t give up but I am getting worried.  I’ve not long come back from my long run for this week,  a mere 14 miles, I say mere lightly, it’s a massive achievement for me and one I would be really happy with, if it wasn’t for the pressure of training for London.  I need to run an additional 12.2 miles on the day, which right now I really can’t imagine doing. 

Today’s run was the furthest I have EVER ran and I must add if it wasn’t for my commitment to the marathon it would be the most I’ll ever do.  I’m not good at repetition so today I ran a new route,  the cycle route from Yelverton to Plymouth, this meant that until the half way mark I was running a gentle downhill slope, so when I turned around all I could think was “Bugger” I should have thought that one through a bit more before setting off.

When I finished the run I had to nip to the local shops for a few essentials, I got out the car and started to sway on my feet, as if I’d just left the pub after way to many units of alcohol, I did a quick recky to make sure no one had noticed and then hobbled around the shops before heading home, where I planned to jump into a steamy hot bath.  As soon as I walked through the door the doorbell went and I had the sinking realization that I had a meeting with a rep to place some orders for the stores.  Oh well life goes on, a little stiffer than normal.

Last week was half term for my kids and my eldest was off skiing.  I was so pleased for him (even though I will admit to being very jealous).  It was certainly strange for the rest of us, who had to carry on as normal, knowing one of our clan was having the time of their life.  The week was spent juggling work with occupying FFion our youngest.  I’ve got to say I’m glad they are back at school today and the juggling can stop, anyone else feeling the same way?

So this week its back to normal ish, we have an exciting new project on the go, which I’ll share with you all soon.  In the meantime I’m really looking forwards to getting some time on my pottery wheel, as I have been working on some new decoration styles that have worked really well on the testers and I want to get more done as soon as I can.  So I’ll leave you with a photo of my new jugs and a link to my fundraising page!