Runblog 2: Shut up, brain

I made a conscious effort to not overdo the running this week. My thigh occasionally does a little groan at me, normally when I'm doing something running-unrelated, reminding me that it was pretty knackered only a couple of weeks ago, so I make a point of listening to those groans and taking it a bit easier and so far, so good. I've been doing daily squats and assorted leg strengthening exercises and I think that's been helping a lot.

I did a 5km run on Monday and that was a tad tough. I knew my body was capable of it but my brain was telling me that it wasn't. I was all "We've done this many times, you daft brain. My legs and I can do this just fine, thank you very much for asking!" but my brain was telling me and my legs that we couldn't go on and that it would just be better for all of us if we stopped running, walked home and had a nice rest. I told my brain to shut its filthy piehole, and my legs and I completed the run. I also faffed about trying to do one of those running action shots. I propped my phone up against a post, set the self timer thing and ran past it. I managed to capture my leg. Still, my leg was running so I reckon the photo qualifies as a running action shot. (And don't be looking at my VPL; my Runderwear makes my arse look like a joint of pork.)

My mudguards for my bike arrived so I fitted them and went out to test them in the rain on Wednesday.

Post-cycling selfie

There was no grubby-buttocking incident this time, so that was a fiver well spent. I timed the ride wrong, though, and I got caught up in the school-home-time cycling traffic alongside the busway. I was bombing along on my bike amongst schoolyouths bombing along on their bikes and there was a moment where I felt like some kind of geriatric Goonie.

To date, bar parkruns, I've done all of my running alongside the busway. It's straight, flat and smooth, and I only ever have to cross one road. Apparently varying your route is a good thing to do so on Friday I planned a run somewhere that wasn't the busway.

Post-run selfie

I have no sense of direction. At all. The part of my brain that does directions and maps is just utterly useless; somehow my brain can remember the names of the entire Lockhead family from the terrible '90s BBC soap Eldorado, but it is incapable of working out how to get to a place. I studied Google Maps and worked out a route that was about 3.5km – a loop, all run on paths that I walk on a very regular basis going to the shops and the library and such. Except for one bit. There was one tiny bit that I didn't know but after looking at the map about fifteen times before leaving the house, I was confident I'd logged it it my head, but nope, I got to that bit and instantly my brain became all befuddled and I ended up doing a three minute scurry-about, trying to correct my route like a malfunctioning sat nav device. The stupid thing was, I was only five minutes from home! Eventually I sort of got my bearings and headed in the general direction of where I wanted to be and I ended up on a green, amongst children's boingy playground equipment, but I kept on running and sure enough I ended up on the right road and I was able to complete the run and make it home. I honestly shouldn't be allowed out without a helper.

I've not done a parkrun yet this year. Cambridge parkrun is in a country park so the route is muddy and there are lots of tree roots to dodge. When it's been raining there are puddles too, and sections of the route become mighty slopslippy.  I had to do a bit of tree root and puddle jumping on my last parkrun and I'm pretty sure that's how I twanged my groin, so I decided that I wouldn't run there again until the weather improves a bit. I know that's a bit runner wimpish of me, but I just don't want to risk injuring myself again. However, with my self-imposed parkrun hiatus, I was getting such parkrun ennui on Saturdays. Every Saturday my Instagram and Strava feeds light up with lovely parkrun photos and I was missing it so I decided to volunteer and yesterday I donned a hi-vis vest and did a bit of marshalling.

Probably one selfie too many

I was positioned at the point where the parkrunners head off on the final straight of the course, up towards the finish funnel. The runners have to go past this point three times before they can head off towards the finish so I was doing a mix of cheering people on as they completed each lap, and spurring on the just-about-to-finishers. I absolutely bloody loved it! Everyone talks about the parkrun atmosphere and I thought I'd experienced it as a runner, but nope, the volunteering was where I really grasped what they're all on about. I have never clapped and cheered so much in my whole life and every time a runner panted, "Thank you, marshal!" at me I got such a lovely feeling. Some fella high-fived me as he ran by and another gent shouted, "Thank you, marshal, lovely hat!" each time he went past me. A lovely lady came up to me after her run and said that my encouragement had really helped her at a point where she was flagging. That was so good! All I'd done was stand there clapping and shouting stuff like "Excellent running skills!" and "I love your leggings!" and "Keep going, you're doing fab!" and here was this lady telling me how that had actually worked. Magical. I had such a big grin for hours afterwards. After we packed up I put my name down for marshalling again next week so I will try and come up with some more things to shout – something better than the nonsensical "Yeah, you're doing a good!" that my mouth said to someone at one point yesterday morning.

Next week I'm going to do three runs with one of them being a 6km one, and hopefully none of them will involve me acting like lost idiot.


This week's runstats
Number of runs: 2
Total distance run: 8.8km (4.56 miles)
Standout running tune of the week: Cliff Richard - Wired For Sound

One of those tedious running posts

This is my running diary. I bought it to keep a record of my running progress. Sure, my Garmin watch and app, and Strava take care of that for me in a digital format but I wanted a physical thing that I can actually fill in, with a pen. I'm also hoping that writing in it every day will help to improve my ever-crappening handwriting. These days I only ever write shopping lists, greetings cards, bead package address labels, and terrible, awful illegible notes for essays, and the latter have got so bad that I now make notes on my laptop so I don't have to spend ten minutes trying to decipher what the hell I've written.

So far my diary is full of me moaning to myself about not being able to run, along with a record of what exercises I'm doing each day to fix my banjaxed groin. It has one date in it, though – a race date! My first one. Me doing an actual running race! It's the Supernova 5K in London in March. The race is at the Olympic Park and it's run at dusk. Everyone gets given a head torch and you wear neon clothing and lights about your person. I've seen some photos from previous events and it looks very pretty and a lot of fun. Chris and I are going to make me some form of neon tutu that will be lit up with little LEDs, and I'm going to get some trainer lights and wear some of those glow stick bracelet things. I'm a bit excited, can you tell? I'm pretty confident that I wont have a repeat of my first running-in-a-tutu experience. I did a Christmas parkrun in December and the Facebook page said to wear a festive outfit, so I did. 

Me, the Christmas tutu tit

Yeah, you know when Bridget Jones turns up to the tarts and vicars party dressed as a sexy bunny but when she gets there nobody else is in fancy dress? Well, that happened. There were 460 runners in normal running gear, with a handful of them wearing a Santa or an elf hat (lazy festive outfit cop-out) and then me in a red tutu, long striped socks and Father Christmas deely boppers, and two six year olds dressed as an elf and Mrs Christmas. I decided to just style my way through it, and I stood in the queue, warming up like normal, but looking and feeling like a complete tit.

Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion

I ran the whole 5K in my tutu and socks because they said festive outfit and festive outfit is what they got. So yeah, hopefully everyone (well, everyone except the inevitable snooty super-serious runners) at Supernova will embrace the light-up dress code and I won't be the solitary tutu tit again.

Anyway, I think I'm going to do one post a week here about running. Maybe on a Sunday. Runday. Sunday Runday. Or something. That way I will limit my rabbiting on about running to one easily-avoidable post for all the people, who like me six months ago, do not want to read about running. I always scrolled right on by all those tedious route maps and times that people posted on Facebook and Twitter. Now I actively seek them out, following other running people and bookmarking websites and blog posts about injuries, exercises, fartlek (I know), nutrition and just about anything I can read about running. I've just finished listening to the audiobook of Christopher McDougall's Born To Run which was so good even a non-runner would find it interesting.

See? I think I could easily waffle on about running for one blog post a week. I do have beads to show you today, though. They are these 'Purquoise' ones. And yes, I know I've named umpteen sets of beads 'Purquoise' over the years but I've become lazy with bead-naming. Simple as that.

The beads are in the shop as I type. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to squeeze my exercise ball betwixt my ankles and knees in an attempt to mend this sodding groin injury. Have a good Saturday!