Out for a run first, I think.
Across the fields and up to one of my favourite views.
Actually, it's not that bad - now I'm using the spray water bottle rather than the steamer it's a lot more pleasant.
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Finally I got my wish - a whole day of sunshine! Out for a run first, I think. This route takes me past some rather well-tended allotments, which makes me long to grow my own food again. Soon... Across the fields and up to one of my favourite views. I love the way this view changes with the seasons - one day I'll dig out all of my photos at different times of year to compare. Through the woods, with occasional glimpses of slightly-less-well-tended allotments through the trees. Up through the stables, over the field and home. After a quick shower and second breakfast, the sun was still shining, so I headed out into the garden. It was the first day I've been out there this year, and it was looking a bit scruffy and bare, as it often does at this time of year. Still, there were some flowers starting to peek through. When I'd had enough of working, I sat with a nice cup of tea and took in the sunshine. It's been a long time since I've done that, and it felt good. When the sun had gone in, I came inside and made chocolate nests to take on a family visit tomorrow. Although I confess, the rate we're getting through them, I'm going to have to make some more before we set off. They're just so cheerful, I can't help myself. And then the final job of the day - scraping wallpaper. What joy! What fun! Deep raptures! Actually, it's not that bad - now I'm using the spray water bottle rather than the steamer it's a lot more pleasant. Care to guess the name of Charles and Diana's first baby, anyone? Shouldn't be too difficult - he, like me, is rapidly approaching his 36th birthday...
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I'm doing another triathlon in eight weeks, and a half marathon the week after that. My sister is also doing both races, and at the minute her training log is rather more populated than mine. I'm planning to use this time off work to catch up. Yesterday I took myself to the park for an hour or so. This park heads up a gentle incline from the city out to the peak district. There's a small river, with a footpath one side and a bridleway the other. It's away from the traffic, but with plenty of dog walkers and children riding bikes. It gets quieter the further away from the city you get. The weather's not much to speak of this week, and things looked rather bare and brown. But there were crocuses, and daffodils, and a very faint whiff of wild garlic in the air. I ran slowly, stopping to take photographs and look at the view. After two and a half miles, I turned and ran back, all downhill, a fair bit faster than the way up. I remembered how much I like running, especially gently downhill - it makes me feel like a small child again. The day started with a cup of tea with a friend, and ended with a meal with other friends, and it felt good to be sociable, to be outside, and to be running again. By the time I got back to the car, there was even a hint of blue sky. It didn't last long, and there's no sign of it today, but it did feel like spring.
Today is quieter. This morning I'll go swimming, and then a friend is bringing round some ladders so I'll have an afternoon of plastering (or, more likely, of preparing to plaster...). It feels good to document my days like this, they slip through my fingers so quickly otherwise... Things are feeling distinctly autumnal round here right now. My long weekend runs often take me through woodland, and each week I notice more leaves on the ground. This is one of my favourite routes. Eight miles, down a main road at first but then up through this local nature reserve, along what used to be an old carriage track in the days when this was hunting ground. At the top, there are views out over the reservoirs and the city - better on a sunny day bit still impressive in the grey autumn light. The bank slopes steeply down to a rocky stream, which I love to walk alongside but is too higgley piggledy for running. You'd be forgiven for thinking all I ever did was run these days, but you'd be quite wrong. Most of my other activities don't feel very photogenic, but there are still plenty of them. Last weekend we played as part of a local classical music festival in the Winter Gardens, where, bizarrely, musicians stood under a giant inflatable e.coli bacterium. This morning it's grey and wet, and I'm off to curl up with my knitting until it's time to help a friend move her shed. The half marathon is next week and of course we're not remotely prepared, but we're going to take a breakfast picnic and we'll get a medal at the end and I imagine it'll be a grand day out regardless.
In the meantime, I might try and take some photos of something other than scenery on a run... I've neglected a lot of things lately. This blog, for a start. The garden, running, any pretence at housework, my friends, knitting, eating properly. This hasn't been just idle neglect though. I've spent much of the last few weeks writing a job application, preparing for an interview - and celebrating after being offered an exciting new job. I start in January, and I can't tell you how excited I am. It's full time, so I'll lose my beloved Fridays off (sob) but it's walking distance from home, so I'll regain my early mornings and evenings. I've always thought of autumn as a time of change. I love the start of the new school year - always have, even when I've not been at school. There's a sense of possibility in the air - new stationery, a library full of new books, and the chance that this year might just be the one where you're organised and do all your homework on time. My new job doesn't start until January, so this autumn for me is more of an ending. I've got nine weeks left at work, and I'll be finishing projects, sorting through papers, clearing out my office, collecting things and saying goodbye. Nine weeks feels like a long time to wait, and yet no time at all to do what needs to be done. I've had a week now to get used to the idea of my new job, and so my attention is starting to turn back towards other things in my life that have taken a back seat. Today I answered the nagging voice in my head that has repeatedly been reminding me of the half marathon I'm doing in four weeks, and went for a run. I took a detour across the golf course and through the woods, which were hilly and full of rocks, and slowed me down so much I had to take a detour home. But nothing beats the atmosphere of a misty run through the trees on an autumnal Sunday morning. I feel mentally revived (and also a bit sleepy). The immediate sense of excitement and giddiness has passed, and I can think more clearly now about what needs to be done. I have plenty of priorities at work, of course, but they stay within working hours. Outside of work, well, for a start, that half marathon won't run itself. There are people I'd like to visit while I still have all my Fridays free, so there are trips to organise, starting with a new passport. And resting, of course. Most important. I don't want my last few weeks at work to be characterised by stress and grumpiness, and I want to start the new job feeling bright and lively, not harassed and worried. I started knitting again yesterday too - prompted by being cold and not being able to find my shawl, and by being invited to a friend's house for a craft evening. I'm making, unsurprisingly, a shawl (and still hoping my old one will turn up eventually). This is alpaca wool - gorgeously soft, and, it turns out, very easy to tangle if you're not paying attention. And for those of you wondering whether the house move will go ahead now I have a job round the corner from our current house, here's a picture of our kitchen. Hmm. It'll be a long process, but yes, we will still be moving. Probably not in the first few months of my new job, but eventually.
I feel so much brighter with something new to look forward to. I do need some sense of stability, but there's also a part of me that thrives on novelty and change. I'm impatient to get started now, but know I need to s--l--o--w d--o--w--n and enjoy what I'm doing right now, rather than always reaching forwards to the next thing. I confess I've ignored running for a while. Running was one of my themes for last year (along with gardening) and after the marathon in October I felt I needed a good long rest. After six months though, I started to get itchy feet, and when my family told me they planned to do the Race for Life again this year, I knew that was my route back in. My first run of the year was the Liverpool 10k. Hard work, but goodness me it felt good to be running again! Me and my sister laughed our way round, and then laughed our way round a rather painful kids' race straight afterwards with my three nephews scattering in all directions like marbles. So this year I already have two medals, and we've entered a local 13 mile trail race at the end of June. All this has served to make me realise how woefully unfit I am at the minute. Yes, I cycle part of the journey to work twice a week, and walk where I can, but it's nothing in comparison to the amount of exercise I had last year. I've become rather lazy again with my eating habits - always a danger for me with my incredibly sweet tooth - and seem to have acquired a spare stone and a half since October. Hmm. I feel it too. I feel less boingy, less bright and willing to jump up and get outside. I've started to say things like 'nah, it's too late to go for a walk' or 'shall we just go to the cafe instead?' Legitimate sentiments, but not every time. So, more running in my future (in a non-pressured way, of course). Paradoxically, exercise gives me more energy, and makes me look at my body as something other than a receptacle for cake. When I run, I want to run more, and I eat what I need rather than everything in front of my face. Fortunately, a new women's running group has started just around the corner from my house. I've been twice now with their beginners' group, and I was delighted to find myself one of the faster people for once. For someone who's spent her entire athletic life being left behind at school and coming last in races, this was pretty exciting. (I'm nowhere near ready to move up to the next group just yet, mind you, but no matter). I'm also trying to cajole myself out of bed on a Saturday morning for the local parkrun. I love parkrun - a free, timed, 5k race every Saturday morning in parks all round the country, for no purpose other than a love of running. Each week they email you your time (and, in my case, often a message saying 'you were 586th out of 586 parkrunners'), and when you've done 50 you get a free t shirt. I'm up to 42, and frustratingly I can't make a single one in June. Looks like it'll be September before I get my t shirt. So that's two fairly regular runs each week, but if I'm going to be fit for a 13 mile trail race at the end of the month, I need a longer run every now and then too. This week I took myself off to Wyming Brook, a wildlife trust reserve that I adore, for nearly 9 miles of trees and reservoir and views. That's the furthest I've run since the marathon, and it certainly felt like it, although I took it nice and easy and ran for two minutes, walked for one, over and over. I love this style of getting along, it's so much more manageable than trying to run flat out for miles, and much kinder on the body. I'll never be fast, but by alternating short bursts of running with a bit of walking I can keep going for a long time. When I'm fitter, the running bits get longer, but for now two minutes is just about right.
I'm not sure how we'll get on in the trail race, my sister and I, but I suspect we'll make it to the end somehow. The organisers have sensibly split it into 11 off road, timed sections, with the bits in between (crossing the roads) just walking and untimed. Ingenious really, and just the way I would usually do a race anyway. I'm rather excited at the thought of my third medal of the year. In all the months of not running, I'd forgotten one of my favourite things about it - seeing the city and the surrounding countryside on foot, from a different perspective, finding new paths, new viewpoints, new trails. I'll miss round here when we move, but I'm excited all over again at finding new places to run too. |
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