Happy Sunday from my lot to yours!
"One, two, three....SUNDAAAAAAY!!"
It's been a decent old week for me, which may or may not have something to do with the fact that I had the whole thing off work. Maybe. Surprised myself by being pretty productive and only taking a grand total of about two unplanned naps. Hurrah! Nothing I did was Earth shatteringly exciting, but it was nice to catch up on all the boring life admin that usually hangs out in the back of my head, threatening to ignite my stress levels at any minute like an evil child with its hands on a lighter.
Some stuff what I did:
Quality time with dog
Quality time to my dog = sitting three centimeters away from me at all times, staring unblinkingly until I drop food.
Quality time with cat
Let cat in. Let cat out. Let cat in. Let cat out. Repeat times infinity. Cat is an arse hole who am pretty sure does this for lolz.
Experienced too many feelings in a short space of time
As many of you well know, the Netflix series Orange is the New Black made its return with excellent timing. I binge watched the whole thing within about three or four days. Mistake. BIG mistake. There should be a limit on how many episodes you're allowed to consume within a single week. My body and mind are not equipped to handle that volume and variation of feeling in such a short space of time. I just...ugh! It needs to come with a health warning. Like on a box of fags, you get those pictures of shrivelled up lungs...The thumbnail image on OINTB should be an image of someone in food stained jammies with three day old bed hair, sob-laughing into a box of pre-sliced cheese.
WARNING: MAY CAUSE EXTREME FEELINGS.
Turns out when I cry, the dog also cries. Think more out of fear than empathy - don't think he's ever seen my face contort in such an attractive way before. Imagine it was quite alarming.
Learned to cook. Sort of
I jumped on the bandwagon and bought Joe Wicks' (Instagram famous smiley cockney in shorts - look him up if unsure!) Lean in 15 books. Bought more into the premise that actual meals can be made within 15 minutes as apposed to the whole "get lean" part. Although based on the fact that I failed to get a pair of jeans that fit me last year past my knees the other day, "lean" would be a happy bonus... Or new jeans. Whichever comes first. So far, I've seen four recipes through to the 15(ish) minute end and not given myself or anyone else food poisoning so far. Yippee! Joe Wicks is evidently some kind of Becky-proof recipe creating genius. Like Stephen Hawking with a frying pan and a low resting heart rate (I assume).
Lost and regained running mojo
Since Cardiff Half in October last year, I've only been running about once a week, averaging about 3-5 miles and going to Crossfit three days or so a week. I assumed that I can automatically run long distances still because:
a. Am doing Crossfit regularly now and am therefore superhuman (the bar for "superhuman" for me is low. It means "person who can now do up to six push ups in a row on a good day").
b. Have done a full marathon last year.
c. Have conveniently forgotten how quickly my mindset went from "I can run FOREVER!!" to "please can I go home and lie down now?" after mile 7 of March's interesting attempt at the Llanelli Half marathon.
d. Once you know how to run distances, it just stays with you, yeah?
No, Dick Brain. Just no. I've taken a break from signing up to every single race that comes my way this year because that's how I managed to injure myself last year. Also is crazy expensive and doing event after event sucks the joy out of things. This week, as I've signed up for the big 'un (London Marathon) next year, I decided to sign up to a couple of races for September and October just in case I get in (still undecided what I actually want the outcome to be. Gulp). I've got myself a place for the Swansea Bay 10k, and come next payday, I'll be signing up to have my third crack at Cardiff Half.
This sounds so stupid, but I forgot how HARD running is and how quickly easily you can lose the mental capacity for longer distances. I've done a couple of 6+ mile runs recently and after about 5 miles, everything starts to grind. I started overthinking my "slow, oh so very very slow, am rubbish!" pace and assuming that my injury from last year is going to come back at any second to bite me in the ankles. It's not been v much fun. At one point early this week, I was wondering how I could change my website address here to just be "Rebecca Writes" because the lack of running I do of late makes the title of this blog more than a little misleading. Ridiculous.
This morning, Andy and I went to spectate at the Swansea Half Marathon. I've never been that side of the barrier before. It was so much fun to see people I know bossing the course! And so inspiring to watch the 8,000 or so entrants dig in and get 'er done. From the fastest to the slowest, it was clear that every single person was putting in so much effort. Because I'm usually piddling around towards the back, I don't normally get to see how the Speedy McLightningPants types look when they run a race. I assumed that they springily gazelled their way to the finish line, because they were "naturals." Nope! Turns out all of us runners look like we're chewing onions when the going gets tough because guess what? Running is hard no matter your ability or speed, and that's exactly why we do it! To get that feeling of elation that we've survived something. If running suddenly became easy, I'd probably go right off it. Where's the achievement without the effort? And the bragging rights, obvs. Achievement and bragging rights are more or less the same thing, no?
Being reminded that there are shinies, goodies and glory at the finish line didn't hurt either. The atmosphere was brilliant. Bring on the training, and bring on the next race! Here's to chewing onions with the elite and the newbies alike! Hurrah!
...Hmm. Not too sure how a list of "things what I done this week" turned into a emotional ramble about running, but there we are. Least my attitude seems to be steering back in the right direction. I'm sure my next post will have more of an actual structure to it. 75% sure.
...62%
50/50?
Side note: Fully aware that this week's EU referendum vote is of slightly more importance than my ability to cook chicken without killing anyone (only slightly, mind. I mean, it is pretty impressive). Long story short, I'm gutted by how the whole thing turned out. I respect anyone's right to an opinion, even if it is different to mine as long as that opinion isn't blindly concocted and/or driven by fear. I also believe that given the chance to vote again, a lot more people will participate and make the effort to educate themselves about the choice they're making as the magnitude of it dawns on everyone. Sooo, I'm just going to leave this here...
Click here to sign petition for a second EU referendum =)
Okay, bye!
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