Welly Walk

As far as being a welly walk that was a huge disappointment. Very little water was to be found. Considering our village had reverted to being an island once more by yesterday evening I expected to put my wellington boots to good use.

Yesterday afternoon Penenlope Sunshine struggled to get us through the lake like puddles on our journey home and I did think we would be parking her at the nearest houses and asking our son to come and get us in his big truck.  But she got us through, slow and steady on our third choice of route and we made it home.

I had already decided that my thigh strain would mean I could not do my planned Taunton 10K route this weekend and that I would walk the route and take some photos instead. I was delighted when I got up this morning to discover that we were in for a sunny Sunday and my 2 hr trek was a treat. I took my long lens and found gates and tress to lean on in my attempt to get an in focus long range shot. I tried to capture some birds in the lofty heights of trees but mostly managed to shoot beautiful blue sky and branches.

This was my first outing with my new Christmas present polarizing filter and carrying both lenses. I got myself in quite a pickle changing lenses, back lens covers, front lens caps and filters, it's not easy with only 2 hands and coat pockets with holes in the linings!

47 pictures taken and nothing special to share but I will leave you with this photograph of the biggest puddle I came across.

Adding Insult to Injury

On Wednesday evening I joined the assembled runners in a local running group. I may have mentioned The Whippet before, there she was, all beautiful blonde petiteness and my heart sank. This would mean a fast pace. I asked one of the other woman if the group to our left was the next group down, she replied that it was but to stay with them, they wouldn't leave me behind. I was seriously contemplating reducing my ambition and moving to the slower paced group when my usual group took off. And I mean took off at high speed. I soon found myself not quite at the back of the pack but realising I should have jumped ship and now it was too late.

A slight incline and a loose lace put me right at the back and feeling very down. Come on head down, the first mile is always, always the worst. The group leader joined me at the back to check if I was the back runner, as if she needed to ask. A slight breather at the crossing of a roundabout but my decision was made, if they were going straight on at the next roundabout I was not.

Kindly, two other runners agreed to join me on a shorter route. We three took off and I very quickly knew I was just not able to do it. No matter how hard I tried, the quick start had finished me off. I was planning on taking the next left and heading back to my car. My new partners had other ideas and I feared they would not allow me to run back on my own and I did not wish to shorten their outing further so I dug in and tried to find an ounce of energy from somewhere. However by the next turning enough was enough and I left them to go through a short cut. They soon rejoined me as I was hobbling/jogging back to the start and the relief of horse power to get me home.

I limped through Thursday seemingly having pulled or strained my right thigh and calf. I was very downhearted about the whole episode. I have to resign myself to the fact that I have to join the next group down. This was not in my grand plan.

The insult? I wasn't needed for my usual Friday morning duties. No problem there, in fact very useful. However it would have been nice to have been in the loop instead of a forgotten team member who wouldn't have known anything about it had I not gone to speak to the team leader about my already done plans.

Is it not quite interesting that at the beginning of this very week a training day highlighted communication as an error requiring attention?

Have a great weekend.

Ruffle Revival

My body clock is rebelling like it has never rebelled before. I cajole, encourage and argue with myself to get out of bed in the dark and gloom of this never ending winter. No matter how hard I try it is not natural to get out of bed accompanied by artificial light. I have no idea how I am going to get to work on time on Monday. A two week holiday is a joy at the beginning and a nightmare at the end.

However I have a date, I have already pushed our meet up time back half an hour and this is a very welcome compromise to our usual start time of 8 a.m. Eventually I leave the house, text Ali that I am on my way and and head in to town. Pausing at traffic lights I ponder the wiseness of the snug cocoon I have made my car. Warm air circulates my bare shins and keeps life in my icy fingers. I also note that 9 degrees is a perfectly acceptable if somewhat abnormal temperature for January and not really cold at all.

Ali jumps in and we decide to head for the canal. Hopefully the water from the parallel river is once more within it's own banks and that the tow path is not too slippy slidey with mud. This will be my second run of the year and Ali's third, but she tells me she has also been cycling and swimming this week, I think of the sitting, eating and socialising I have been doing and think I might struggle to keep up.

Between us we need two hands to list our ailments but we are both determined to exercise our way to perfect figures and health. We don't seem to have noticed that although we have been exercising for quite some time we don't appear to have made much progress with either body shape or fitness! We have however put the world to rights and continue to do so this morning. We huff and puff, run and shuffle, what we call ruffle for about 2.5 miles.

Today's ruffle was slow, we didn't go far, but we did it. We added more calories to the burned energy tally and best of all we felt good and had a good and much needed catch up. We are ready to start the day.

Wishing you all a happy and healthy weekend 8)

Looking For Red

Once something is in writing it has to be seen through!

I joined in with a keeping fit thread on the Meniere's Disease Face Book group I am a member of. Promises were made to either start running, resume running, get back onto a treadmill and even to get out and cross country ski. My promise was to get back out and run on the second day of this new year.

Today was the day, I did not want to get up which was most inconvenient. Eventually, after breakfasting in bed and reading several chapters of my book I got into my running kit and spent the next couple of hours finding things to do rather than go outside with my ipod!

Finally, after checking into FB I was motivated to get going as several group members had either materialised their promises or were just about to. I selected a fairly short route and promised myself I would walk if the going was tough. The last few months I seem to have had endless ailments and dizzy spells and in a last ditch attempt to get well I had not been outside in the damp and cold for what felt like ages. My ipod shuffled to a decently speedy track and off I went. It was only a few moments before I was thinking the walking would be happening soon, I needed to think of a diversion for my brain as soon as possible.

My younger son gave me a beautiful book for Christmas, Life In Colour - National Geographic Photographs neatly organised in colour chapters. Photography is another hobby of mine and I was soon thinking about my next photography project. I am planning to take pictures focussing on specific colours starting with red. You may not be aware that I am just a tad OCD when it comes to choosing things.  I couldn't for the life of me just randomly select any colour let alone my favourite colour which incidently is green. Oh no, when thinking about colours I always think of the rainbow order of the spectrum, hence red is my first project.

So there I was trudging through the soggy and muddy lane looking for red. I found the obvious, post box, phone box, vehicles, litter and a sprinkling of red leaves barely hanging on to the hedgerow, but I failed spectacularly in finding red in a less obvious guise. I've given myself the whole of January to hopefully find something a little more original, watch this space.

Looking for picture opportunities certainly eased my journey and I am delighted to report that I ran the whole way out and all the way back. I did slow down quite considerably from time to time but I didn't stop or walk. I am so glad that it wasn't as hard as I thought it might be and I think I might even be looking forward to my next outing.

I wish to publicly thank my fellow MDers for motivating me back out onto the road and I sincerely wish them all success with their chosen exercise. Come on girls MD will not win 8)