Ouch!

I came, I saw, I conquered the 16 mile race yesterday. And I did it on 2.5 hours sleep. I got invited to see Hairspray at the last minute the night before so I was late getting home from that. The clocks going forward one hour didn't help matters, not when I had a taxi booked for 6am to take me to the train station. Somehow I managed to wake up and get myself to the start line.

I joined the Run-Walk pacer and ran it that group which was a big help. If I felt tired running I couldn't give up as easily as I would if I had been runing on my own. I was able to push myself and when it got really tough in the last mile and few words of encouragement was able to spur me on, especially in the last 50 metres when I was approaching the finish line. My right leg doesn't feel too healthy today (but I won't worry about that yet) but I'm glad I did it and pushed myself. I know I can do 16 miles now, I just need to worry about the final 10 come marathon day.

Now I'm back in the real world, back at work and time to focus on other things for a few hours.

Too Early For Me

Nothing interesting to say except that it's 7am and I'm up instead of snoozing in my bed for as long as possible. Woke up around 5:30am and couldn't get back to sleep. Thought I'd get up and go to the gym but might just go into work early, work (and get paid for) and extra hour and then gym it at lunchtime as usual. Gives my wee legs some extra time to recover from yesterday. There's a dodgy ache in my right hip joint but I'm not going to get too worried about it yet.

That's all! Four day working week - Hooray!!!

12 Down, 16 To Go (Then 26)

Waking up yesterday morning and feeling completely uninspired by the wind/rain/snow/dullness outside I decided to go back to sleep and run today instead. I made myself go to Bikram yoga last night though so it wouldn't be a completely inactive day. Today's weather wasn't great but it was easier to make myself run today and run I did. Twelves miles in 2 hours 10 minutes. Thirteen miles would have been ideal but going by the training schedule I was only supposed to run/walk for 2 hours only and my wee tired legs were almost giving up near the end. I do wonder if my tiredness when approaching the end of a run could be something mental. I do notice the tiredness more as soon as I've past the half-way point and drinking the right fluids and eating the right gels today didn't seem to so much good. Is a little part of me allowing myself wind down too early because the end is near?

This Sunday coming I will be participating in a 16 mile run along with a thousand other people so it will be great to experience taking part in an actual race with others and I can also see how well I'll cope with the length and duration of it. The cut-off point for completing the race is 3.5 hours but I hope to complete it in 3 hours. As it starts early in the morning, I'm just going to focus on the huge lunch I plan to have once I reach the finish line. Yum.

Continuing with running news, following a conversation with a friend last week I've now decided to enter the Dublin marathon in October. Part of me thinks I should wait to see how horrible the first marathon is before I sign up and pay the registration fee, part of me is so excited to do it that I wan't to register straight away (or as soon as I get paid). I must be crazy!

This Is Going To Hurt

Tomorrow is Big Run Sunday and I have set myself the goal to run 12-13 miles in 2 hours. I managed 10 miles last Sunday so I want to improve on that to prepare for the 16 miles run I've entered next Sunday. However, the weather is absolutely rotten at the moment, especially today when I got sleeted on and it's showing no signs of improving before 11am tomorrow. I'm not sure what I'll do, I'll really need to find some special inspiration to make me run outside for 2 hours in 2 degrees weather with strong winds, rain and snow getting in the way too. I could always run on the treadmill, with an incline, for a couple of hours.... but it's not the same.

Just had another thought to me. I could always run on Monday as I'm off work. My friend is will be coming over to help me decorate that day but I could always get up earlier and run then. There won't be a dramatic improvement in the weather but it will be sunnier. And hopefully the miserable blustery, windy, rainy, freezing unpleasentness will have calmed down a little. I could go to a Bikram yoag class instead tomorrow and stretch myself out. Ninety minutes of yoga in a stiflingly hot room sounds much more appealing right now. If I'm disciplined enough to make sure I run on Monday, then Sunday yoga could be an option.

Running long distances is hard enough, I don't need the weather making it harder for me. Boooooo!

Another New Focus

This morning, while I was brushing my teeth, I decided that I am going to write a play. It sounds like such a simple decision to have made but carrying out the task in hand will be very interesting/difficult. I've been thinking a lot about doing some writing in recent months inspired by attending rehearsed readings of my friend's plays and taking part in the the "home-made" musical recently and meeting aspiring writers through that. I used to write in my early teens and then I stopped. I think that's when I tried to become a songwriter so my focus changed.

I decided to be more commited to reading books as I believed that "ingesting" new words would help me become a better writer. I'm still trying to commit fully to this but I'm getting there. I've started reading 4 books since the start of the year so now I am forcing myself to stick to one at a time and to not start/buy anymore books until that one is finished. It didn't work, I bought another 3 on Friday but I can always try again. This pretty much sums me up. Always flitting between a couple of projects, never pausing on one long enough. Then a new idea comes along and I get carried awy with that and other things in my life are set aside and then maybe I come back to them later. Now it's happening again.

So this morning as I was getting ready for work I was thinking about one of my theatre groups and how the writing stages of the next play we are producing are almost completed (by the woman who was the make-up artist on our last show) and the idea just came to me. Why not write something for the group to consider as a third production? I am a creative person and I must be able to dig deep and come up with a funny, quirky and smart little play, re-write it, present it to the group and even if it's not chosen to be a future production, it's still mine. All mine. So this goes onto the mental "Things To Do In 2008" list. Now all I need is an idea to get started with.....

Eat, Sleep, Run

I'm feeling quite bright and perky this morning, probably helped by the fact that it's a Friday and Fridays are always good. I have spent this week working, training and sleeping and not much else. I had no social engagements and even decided not to go to the audition for the play I'm interested in (I can still audition on Sunday) in favour of getting home nad relaxing in front of the TV with a nice bowl of Red Thai beef curry. My body was crying out for that all week (subcousciously telling me I need more iron in my diet maybe?) so I listened and had a very tasty Thursday evening in.

I've been feeling very sleepy all week despite getting a reasonable amount of sleep. My trianing must now be taking it's toll on me so all I can do now is eat well and sleep well. How did I ever manage to work full-time, training and perform in 6 shows only 4 weeks ago. I was tired then but I wasn't as sleepy as I feel at the moment. I guess that's just the way my body responds to a lot of exercise.

I've signed up for a 16 mile run at the end of the month so how I cope with that will be very interesting and will gve me and idea of how I'll cope with the marathon itself. I'm going to look after myself and train well in the meantime and hopefully that run will go well and build up my confidence for running the actual marathon 2 weeks later. Fingers crossed. I've been talking all about this non-stop to everyone and I'm sure they must be bored. I bought my running shoes and heart rate monitor on Monday and when I got home my official London Marathon magazine was waiting for me full of information on the race day. So now I'm packed full of information and it's all I ever talk about now. It's probably for the best - a feat this big, I NEED to get obsessed about it.

A Little Bit Of Me Onstage

This is me (in pink) on stage in my most recent show. I have lots more including backstage pics to share but at the moment I'm just working from what's on my work computer.

*sigh* Missing the stage...

The Positive List

I've been in an odd "down" mood lately and I understand where a little bit of that is coming from but the rest of it can't be down to post-show blues, can it? While doing some random reading on some random blogs earlier today I realised that I need to not focus on the negative things but instead focus more on the positives. Now, I love a good list so I've made a (unfortunately short) list of things I need to be happy about in my life at the moment:

1. With all my marathon training I am getting fitter and getting more toned and in better shape.
2. I've made a new network of friends and acquaintances through my theatre comapny and shows and I am seeing more of London theatre because of them. And being more sociable in general
3. Even though everything is quiet now, I am confident that I will get more performing opportunities soon.
4. Clarissa will be having her new flatwarming party soon so I can plan a nice visit to Brighton and paddle in the sea soon.

I'll have a longer think (without the distraction of the office around me) and try to add more to it tonight.