Easter Sunday Run Joy

 

 

Well anyway, today is Easter Sunday.

A special day that we have looked forward to.

If only for the ice-cream that we gave up for Lent and would get our spoons out for today!

To celebrate this feast day, my dear husband Stephen and I woke up a little before 6 am.

After our lifesaver coffee, we slipped into our running kit then drove off to the start point of our Sunday run.

It was, as forecast, quite cold when we started off, ten minutes before our running friend of many years would start off behind us.

We have not been able to meet together for sometimes and that all needs no explanation any more.

She is a slightly faster runner than us, and in the past has always caught and past us somewhere on the route.

This means that we soon start glancing back now and again to see if she is in sight.

 

Today was a really special run and not just because we were going back to old habits.

Doing the run the opposite way round to usual, meant that we would be starting with an uphill section

that is more often, a heavenly downhill toward the end of the run.

 

After only abut fifteen minutes we saw a white deer watching us as openly as we watched it.

It stayed stock still, slightly up the slope to our right at the edge of a wooded area.

Steve and I are totally besotted with the deer that roam freely in the Angmering Park Estate.

 

 

They seem to have been a little thin on the ground during a period when many more people than usual have been going out in the country side.

Some for a breath of fresh air or simply to amuse the children, when there has not been any school or jobs in the for the parents.

For a while we thought the estate had had a cull and the lack of sightings was because of that.

We even asked some of the estate workers but they said that the animals had simply gone deeper into the woodland because of the huge increase in walkers and mountain bikers.

So it was in the light of everything that has happened during the Covid days, that we were so delighted to see loads of deer this morning.

 

 Just after the half way point, when our friend had still not caught up with us, though we had seen her in the distance once or twice, that we were stopped in our tracks.

There a little way below us down the slope of the hill were a large group of deer huddled together, again at the edge of a stand of trees.

There were five white ones at the back of the group closest to us and many more of different types, colour and size.

We had stopped to take photos since it was such a startling sight.

At roughly the same spot two hares went bounding by which is equally unusual.

 

We dragged ourselves away even though the herd had not dispersed, because we were after all supposed to be out run training.

The Easter treat was not even finished after that encounter, since during the last two miles running to the west along The Monarchs Way,

we still saw more groups of three or four small deer bounding through the woodland to our left.

We saw some dog walkers who had also seen lots of deer this morning and were as happy as we were.

I am not saying that our spirits were lifted by this heavenly run today but even after a couple of stop and stare moments

our run was still faster that any time over the last few months, though the fact that much of the mud had dried up must also have been a contributing factor.

 

Our old running mate however, who has entered a virtual half marathon for next weekend, did not catch up with us until almost at the runs end when we had stopped to speak to other friends that we had not been able to speak to for some time.

Treats galore of this special bank holiday weekend.

 

Our morning did not end there because we drove to the spot where we had seen the White-Tailed Eagles a few days ago but they were not around this morning.

We always take a spin in the van around Arundel centre after our run and the town was already looking like the tourist town it always was which was our cue to go home.

 

 

Dark corners

 

Flower in Concrete

 

Unbelievable to see that it was even there

growing freely, but tight in the concrete stuck.

All around it, in great strength where

regularly drives an articulated truck

travelling the busy town thoroughfare.

 

question always, how this can possibly be,

a tiny plant that one can press and squeeze.

Such inexplicable strength one here can see,

we cannot pass through stone if we so please

yet minute flora sets itself wildly free.

 

It teaches, through all tribulations severe      

to remember you’re no loser until you quit.

When everyday difficulties to us appear,

face life full on to fight for every little bit.

everyone is a winner if they persevere.

 

Through it is years since I write these words, I still very much feel like this tiny flower.

I am still trying to push against the impossible forces that surround us in everyday life.

Struggling to maintain my fitness through all the setbacks of the last year or more.

It has been an almighty battle.

There have been times when I have thought that it was a hopeless task.

There have been troublesome nightmares and times when tears fell.

 

The mind can be a dark cavern where who knows what lurks in the corners,

or hide in the deep cracks there.

They were most annoying thoughts in those moments where depression slid in uninvited.

The many facets of my life that I struggle to give equal time to, also work against me a lot of the time.

 

The most often question asked of me during my 30 odd years in the sport of triathlon,

has always been, and very often the first thing people ask me is,

“When are you going stop doing all this”?

“When are you going to start acting your age and not your shoe size”?

The other remark, that is often a parting shot has been “You’re mad you are”!

This last one is sometimes said with a smile but quite often muttered seriously.

 

 

 

 

Mind over Matters that Matter

                                                   Human Race Events Eton sprint weekend

 

In the last few weeks, I have been doing much more than is anything like normal to keep my mind occupied.

I have had a new personal stress peak, due to unforeseen circumstances way beyond any area that I could even dream of being in control of.

So, I have had to double down on normal effort.

When there is a situation that is out of your own known world, you need firstly to accept that you have no part to play.

Especially when you are told bluntly that this is so.

The only option is to try not to get too depressed about the situation.

Yeah right! That is not possible.

 

 

So finally, after the fullness of time as our politicians so love saying, you know for stone bonk certainty that the one in charge of you is YOU.

You have to take up the reins of your own life’s horse.

During the last 13 months I have made myself as busy as possible to get through the loneliness of lockdown.

It has been a lonely time. I have had the company of my absolute saint of a husband, we have been together for 44 happy years.

Stephen knows me inside out and has not complained whilst I have struggled to keep busy for as much of the day as is left after our daily training.

During the covid times my main pastime were my writing (poetry/blog and messages), which is most absorbing once I sit down, my fingers cannot keep up with my brain.

Then needle work galore that is the most relaxing pastime.  Things like gardening and housework have come right at the bottom of the list on the essential things on the ‘to do’ list.

 Keeping the house spick and span seemed to me to be unnecessary in the light of there not being any friends or family coming in for a chat or dinner or coffee.

 Having seen that I had hit a new low mentally, Stephen has tried to make sure that I have as much time as I am asking for the extra programme I have set myself.

He is still making sure of my fitness levels as my coach of over thirty years in triathlon.

This is still top of my list too, since I am thinking of the rest of my life in my sport which also provides for another love, which is travel.

My first event that I hope against hope will go ahead, will be at the Eton Sprints weekend held at Dorney Lake that has regularly been on the race programme since the event started.

This may be the first year that I have not competed on both days.

The race I have my fingers crossed for is the qualifier for the ITU World Sprint Triathlon Championships later this summer.

The only problem will be the tiny amount of swimming I will have done beforehand, but I will be getting back in the water very soon indeed.

My biking and running are race ready… more than ready with the amount of training I have done since my last event, The National Aquathlon Championships September 2019!That was the week after the ITU World standard distance age group Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland. it been a while. 

Back to the plot.

I do love a good coincidence.

Toward the end of last year, I decided to try to learn a bit of Italian since apart from basic greetings my Italian was almost non-existant.

I can get by politely in German, though nobody would call me fluent. Beyond basics though.

A friend who speaks a half a dozen or more languages well, recommended I sign up for a course with Duolingo on my phone.

 It is a fun course and presses the student to be competitive with a very clever points scoring plan and encouraging more practice.

So, with this you can climb up into another league and then another and keep an eye of those near you trying to overtake or at least hold your position.

There is extra benefit if you take the challenge to complete a five-day streak of an everyday study period for the initial goal of the five days.

I got sucked into that and made time for short period every day, the time I spent working away through level after level of the section they present for you.

 

 This is where the coincidence occurs.

Today the funny little green thing that goads me along pointed out that I have now come to time when I am on a 93-day streak!

This means that next Sunday will make that a 100-day streak. No start finish plan for ever set down.

 

 

That will be Easter Sunday.

Steve and I get to celebrate in style because we can have Ice Cream then, because we gave it up for Lent and have stuck to it, dare I say religiously.

To make this a triple celebration I hope the sea is calm enough for me to get into the water again for the first time since last summer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Injury Monster

 

Something I have noticed that I share with some of my sporting friends on Instagram and Facebook, is a dread of injury interrupting the rock-solid training schedule that we push ourselves to maintain. There has been enough stress for over past year, with all aspects of our lives buried under the Covid cloud. We are though, a determined band of hard-line triathlete’s living with their hearts and souls set on being ready, when eventually, there will be an event that does not get postponed for the third time.

 

On flicking through the Instagram posts each morning, it seems that our many hard worked muscles, lead from the darkness inside our super stressed minds almost every day, that there has been a well tightened muscle that has pinged out painfully in protest to all work an no play regime. I do think that the added stress of this time in all or our lives, has caused many of the injury’s that I have read about. So, if some other negative thing bursts into your life unexpectedly, you can well build up so much tension that can in all honesty cause something to give out suddenly and badly.

 

I have suffered from pre-race nerves from the very beginning of my very long career in the sport, to the point where before a big race, the second Steve moved to pull up the zip of my wetsuit, that my body would take that as a cue to throw-up anything I had made the mistake of eating for breakfast. I never eat before a race now and have not for many years.

So, living with our races being cancelled or postponed again, it builds that old stress bank up like an oncoming storm. In the light of a recent extra dose of worry and upset, my body reacted to the tension by seizing my back up violently, to the point where I could hardly move and most certainly could not move without pain. 

 

Of course, it is freaking well annoying, when you get a, ‘stopped you in your tracks’ happening.However, it is best to just try to be a little stoic about the whole thing.From my own point of view, I am glad that it has happened now, when my first three events have been moved for the second time.

Now I have time to do what we all know is the only option which is to take time off and allow the stress to dissipate and those poor old seized up muscles to slowly loosen out again. 

My back has been so bad, that the only two positions I could manage after a slow painful struggle, were either to lie down flat or after an even bigger struggle stand up straight. Sitting down in my great big Eezi-boy arm-chair with my legs elevated to watch TV was a complete and utter NO-NO.

Sitting rigidly upright, supported by hard pillows, with my feet square on the floor, just about allowed me to sit and eat. This is why any action photos of me of late on social media sites have been from my photo memories.

It has been a slow process. 

 

 

I have tried to breathe deeply and slowly and try to stay calm which is almost impossible for me since I am a world class fidget.

I have read a lot of books and listened with Steve to others on audible.

Thank God and all the angels I am starting to move and breathe normally again and have taken a couple of woodland walks but much slower than usual.

Try to find to relax and do more gentle stretching is my advice.

It is not the end of the world to pull a muscle or two.

Time is indeed a great healer.