How are we all coping? The world is very much a strange, and scary, place right now. I’ve been OK, I work from home anyway, so that is just a normal situation for me. My husband is still having to go out to work and I have got my son home from uni. We are concerned for the wider family, several of whom have other medical conditions to consider, just like many other people are having to deal with. I don’t really know why but I’ve struggled a bit today, feeling a bit down but not really knowing why. Probably not helped by the fact that we skipped our planned morning run because it was pouring with rain and blowing a gale. I’m not normally one to skip planned runs, but even I am struggling with motivation when all planned races have been cancelled and we can’t get out and about to run in different places. (I will just say at this point that I agree with all of the restrictions that have been put in place – they are there to protect us as a community so that we can manage this awful situation.)
I am on the committee of a running club, and I am the membership secretary. It has been a very difficult period of cancelling all club activities and cancelling our annual race, but trying to keep in touch with members too (anyone have any great ideas?).
But now I want to look at the positives, because there are positives to this.
Not feeling guilty about spending time at home! I am a homebody, I like to be at home and sometimes feel pressured into doing other things because I feel that I should. At the moment we have no choice but to stay at home.
Getting jobs done! This weekend we have finished re-roofing the gazebo (stripping off tongue and groove wood and a layer of felt, then adding new sheets of wood before re-felting). My arms and shoulders ache – this is my gym! I’ve also baked for the first time in a while (goodies to drop off at the in-laws).
People being nice to each other. I know this isn’t happening everywhere and there are some horrible stories out there, but we are also seeing the nice side of people. Colleagues have commented that everyone seems to be including nice things on emails, genuinely concerned about how people are getting on and friends are asking how we are. People are taking the time to say they care. Coming from a family who doesn’t express feelings very well, this for me is a really welcome thing to happen.
But how is the running going?!
I was trying to still follow the half marathon training plan, but that has kind of been lost now. We currently are able to still run from home and are very lucky to live in a rural area where within half a mile I’m away from any houses, barely see anyone at all and can enjoy a run. I’ve had some beautiful early morning runs, heavy frosts, sometimes misty, bright sunshine. They are the mornings I love, that make me feel alive.
Because I am running from home more I have taken the opportunity to get my youngest dog running more. He’s nearly 10 years old, so not particularly young, but has run with me for most of his life. I’d started last year to get him to run on a harness, out in front of me, ad the effort is now paying off and he is doing pretty well. His longest run has been 6 miles and he loved it. I don’t know if I’ll try to build him up to more, but to have him able to run 6 miles happily opens up more opportunities to take him with me. I love his company and the bond that running together gives us. I’m worried about my older dog at the moment as he has aged so much over the last few months.
With a couple of days to go, I have already hit 90 miles for this month, which for me is a good month. We are hoping to still be able to get one longish run in a week, but this will depend on how the CV situation develops. So the plan is several early morning runs a week, plus both days on the weekend.
We have also started to do some glute strengthening exercises. My husband struggles a bit running downhill and he is hoping that this will help. All I can say is ouch! We are just doing three deceptively simple exercises, but you can feel them working. These are the ones that we are doing: https://www.facebook.com/runsmartonline/videos/452201535348542/
I’ve also done a few weights sessions, focusing on my upper body – thought these don’t get done over the weekend when I’m doing lots of physical work anyway! I ache enough as it is.
I’m hoping that the iron tablets are finally kicking in, I’ve had some fairly pacing runs with the dog. I’ve started taking Vit D too – in the current climate anything that will support the immune system is very welcome.
And to finish – any idea why at 2.50am Garmin IQ thinks that I spent 10 mins on an elliptical trainer??? I know I get very restless legs, but I did think this was very funny.
a mile run 
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