Rising hysteria

I am feeling slightly hysterical, I keep laughing, possibly inappropriately! On Sunday I am doing The Great North Run. Honestly. Me!

I'm quite proud of myself, and will be more so when I've done it - there's been so many times when I've thought I'd have to back out. But, despite the panic when I haven't been able to train, here I am. I did twelve miles last Friday, just to prove to myself that I could get near to it! So, off to Hartlepool Premier Inn tomorrow - oh, the glamour of the athletic circuit! I'm going to do it, I'm going to finish it, and it's all a bit wow! And Daisyfay and Paul will be there too - I think I'm most excited about her seeing me do it. At which point, collapsing in a quivering heap probably isn't an option!

I'm getting sponsored on https://www.justgiving.com/Liz-Prosser2/   It's for Guide Dogs - an amazing cause. Since Daisyfay started climbing with her climbing club it's become a cause she has felt more and more strongly about - her club trains paraclimbers, many of whom are visually impaired/ blind - and it's made her think. She sponsors a guide dog called Freddie with her pocket money, he's not a puppy now, he must be getting close to getting out there - and changing someone's life for the better.

So all you readers out there that I don't know, you could always sponsor me - I could exceed my target...!!

And get watching on Sunday ... me and Mo ... we'll be heading for the same finish line, albeit with a bit of a gap ...

For the first time in forever ...

... there'll be music, there'll be light!
Well not quite, but there will be a sort of balanced bank account at the end of the month - which I have to say is cheering me up more than music and light could probably manage...

(Have you seen Frozen? We have, it was good, the music was excellent! But you can have too much of a good thing - the Miracle Girl loves it - she knows all the songs off by heart - and sings them very dramatically at top volume - all the time ...)

So - the epiphany ... I feel I can't really keep going with it as a theme - it's stretched out far too far to be classed as an epiphany any more ... more a slow ascent into changing things - it's not such a catchy title though! Anyway, so far, I have:
* beaten my cup-a-soup habit and started drinking fizzy water in school instead
* had prunes and yoghurt or grapefruit for breakfast most days
* whooshed fresh beetroot, orange and carrot juice most mornings
* cut down processed carbohydrates (especially bread - no "bought" bread, only from the proper bakery or homemade - and only at the weekends... )
* made healthy salads with lots of nice stuff in for lunch, and taken nuts and dried fruit for snacks
* eaten more fish
* been running ...
* been for walks and just got outside more
         
Next I am planning to:
* go to bed earlier to get more sleep ... so that I could contemplate getting up earlier, and then go running ...
* drink less wine (repetitive refrain ...)


Quite pleased with myself...

Epiphany on the horizon

It is - I've made a plan - and we all know how well that usually works ...

* house - pretty okay - even stretched to a bit of gardening...

* exercise - chest infection improved  (but not gone sadly) - been walking ...

* positivity in place - have created a plan!

Tuesday is the day - new me and all that ... I have a menu plan sorted for a couple of weeks, into May ... Primal, sort of  - still can't get my head round the legumes, and potatoes ... but it's a start... And I have timetabled exercise - again not tons but it's a start... And wine - Primal eating approves (!) - but I'm intending a reduction...

Starting slow - hoping to up the running rather than walking once I feel better - and yoga, I want yoga back ... and I'm contemplating early get ups and going out then ... now it's light and sunny ...

I want it to be achievable, I'm aiming at 21 days, then I can review it ... but if, if (!), I can get that far I should be on a roll ...

Heading for the horizon, full of the joys of spring ...

Hurdles

I am thinking that the Miracle Girl and I have more in common than I would like to admit. It's like Sports Day - give her a perfectly good flat race and she's in her element - point her in the right direction and shout go, and she's off like a ... I was going to say ferret, not sure why! ... let's go with gazelle, much more graceful image ... hurtling headlong towards the finish line. But then, the flat race is always followed by the obstacle race ... never her forte, engaging brain and legs at the same time! She's still pretty quick, but you can see her thinking why? Why mess up a perfectly good race with ... stuff!?

I have to admit, at this precise moment, I agree with her. I was thinking about hurdle races, who came  up with that idea ...? Let's just chuck a wooden fence every 10/20m to add to the fun! Paff!! It's like life, who needs the complications, why can't it all be a nice grassy, green flat race - I'm thinking I don't need mountains to climb, rivers to ford, chasms to cross - I just want my nice grassy plateau - excitement is overrated!

So why am I rambling on about hurdles and ferrets and grassy plateaus? The campervan  - it doesn't seem to be getting any closer, no sooner do I think we may be getting somewhere in the ongoing battle to conquer our finances than some other emergency pops up and sucks up everything!

Hurdles, you see.

This week, a week of hurdles ... First there was my phone, apparently it is not my excessive storage of stuff on it that is causing problems, oh no: it is a "software" problem. Fixing it involves sending it away and updating it with all the latest software, which will take 10 - 14 days, and which will also wipe all my contacts, apps, navigation routes, etc, etc. On the plus side they think my Christmas photos will still be there when I put the memory card back in. Okay, not good, in fact damned annoying, but that's what you get when you rely on the Technofairies of Doom.  Then there was the car - it started making a noise during the holidays, which got progressively worse, until it turned into a continuous howl ... apparently this is a very expensive noise - a very, very expensive noise - which involves copious time in the garage to fix. We live opposite the garage, they are very lovely people - Heatons Bridge Garage, would link but no website, but another very nice people recommendation. More reliance on technology that rises up to scupper you ... They say it comes in threes, the tin opener broke - really hoping that's the third - had enough now!!

So, hurdles, had enough of jumping - a bit of grassy plateau, please ...

Reprehensible wussing out!

I am not going to run 10km on Bank holiday Monday. I am a wuss! I am sorry!

Reality is what it is: one of my cousins has an injury and probably won't run. Her husband won't run if she doesn't. My other cousin has family commitments - yay - go you, you know who you are! We can't afford petrol, train fares, etc.

Think I could stagger round but not trained enough ...

My main reason for feeling bad is I don't like Daisyfay seeing me not go through with something - so: going to try and enter a Race for Life - can run 5k already and the Miracle Girl could do that with me too - and going to look for a 10k closer to home, maybe around September.

Feeling bad - but looking forward ...

Willpower

I don't think I've got any.

Should have been running whilst the Miracle Girl was at Brownies; not for the first time, instead I went to Tesco and bought wine...

This is bad. I know this, you know this, but still I persist.

I will discover willpower ...

The Sub-Plan

I have been running. Twice. In consecutive weeks. Not quite twice in a week, but still ...

I have just run 3.84 miles, albeit quite slowly! This means on current form it will take me about an hour and a half to run 10km - which is pretty pants but just on the right side of acceptable!

I'm off for a shower.

I'm feeling quite pleased with myself ...

Good Intentions

I'm full of these - I shall : clean my house, declutter my house, sell my clutter, do yoga, organise my stuff, file things where I can find them, advertise tutoring, be healthy and whoosh fresh juice regularly, lose weight and become a shadow of my former self ... and here is where we we enter into reality - in January, flushed with New Year's Resolution frenzy, I listened to my cousin.

I love my cousin - she is fab! She is my much younger cousin, now I think about it. Let's do a run she said, in London she said, exciting and fun she ... inferred! Yes said I, I can do that, said I, how hard can that be...

Very hard!

January - flushed with enthusiasm, I started training, did ok, thought : this is not a problem - slow but steady wins the race!

February/ March - nasty bug, Daisyfay's half-term and social whirl, too much work for the last halfterm, tutoring, cakes ... confession: no running!!!!

I used to run, in my former life I ran a lot, and did yoga ( and even aerobics during some slightly deluded life phases) - I did the Great North Run, twice!! But now ...

So my latest distraction is ... I must run.

Thus we have the plan - prongs 1+2. We now have the sub-plan, as I attempt to get somewhere with preparing to run 10 km on the 27th May - don't laugh, it is not funny!!

Let's be positive ...