Run 4 - Squeezed in

No alarm. I was ready. I would not say I was excited but I knew what I had to do. Run.

The cold air took me a little by surprise (not sure why because it is Jan 4th) but I was a little unprepared and was soon wishing I had gloves, running headband and jacket. I was in vest and long sleeved thin running vest. Bit chilly!

I thought I would warm up. I didn't. Yes I got sweaty and a little warmer but I never really warmed up. My toes went numb and my fingers started to hurt they were so cold.

BUT - I quite enjoyed it. It was quiet out and the frost was so so pretty. 

I squeezed in the run before taking No 2 son to rugby and this is where the trouble starts. It is not so much the running that is a problem to squeeze in, it is the aftermarth!! Hair! Washing and drying hair!! Takes FOREVER! 

One added bonus to running before rugby is that I had turned myself into a little hot water bottle and I got through the first hour standing on the sidelines without feeling the chill! #brucey 

Back to normality tomorrow with the kids at school (not sure how we will cope with the early mornings!!) so I am hoping to find some sort of schedule for my runs. 4 down, 27 to go.

EJMx

Total Miles in January: 12

Speed: Great film with Keanu Reeves - second one was  bit rubbish though

Day 3 - Pain in the Knee

Alarm. Snooze

Alarm. Snooze

Alarm. Snooze

Alarm. I give in.

It is raining. My knee hurts. Not much, just a little bit. Enough to usually give me the excuse to stay in bed and give it a miss but this is Day 3.

So off I went. It was hard going today. Body was calling out to me saying: "Are you having a laugh?"

Well. No actually, I am not. Today was not funny. 

Now I am home I feel good about myself and a little smug that it is done with.

Only 2.5 miles today which yes I know is not that far but it included The Warren (little hill) leading into Port Hill which some might say (me when I was running it) is more of a mountain!

Day 3. Done

EJMx

Total miles in January: 9.5

Speed: Not yet

Good Day Sunshine!

As I went to sleep last night listening to the rain on the windows I was dreading the run on Day 2. That made it all the better when I woke to sunshine peeking through the blind!! It actually made me want to go. That and the sound of the kids already squabbling!

So I set off and I had said to Mr EJM I was going to do a quickie round the roads. Then the beautiful blue sky started calling to me to run free! So off I went without a real plan. My Playlist was making me giggle. I think I went overboard on the positivity when I made it last night. I started running to Don't Stop Believin' the uber cheesy Glee version. Then I got a giggle from the Wicked Cast singing Defying Gravity which my wobbly bits certainly are doing. You get the picture! It made me smile so that helped!

Just choosing my way as I went.

Today I did not care about any wobbly bits. Who cares - at least I am out there running. I also went into Pheobe mode (Friends) when running down a steep hill, I sort of lost any rhythm and my arms and legs were everywhere but for some reason I decided to carry and kept running like that for about 20 metres on the flat. No-one was around. Such fun!

It felt like miles. So much so that I doubted my Strava app and checked Google Maps to confirm it was only 3.5miles. Which it was. It felt like about 6!!! Honestly felt twice as far as yesterday.

It is really lovely out there today so grab some trainers, walking boots or wellies and just get out there. 

EJM x

January Running Total: 7 miles

Minute Miling: Beyond Slow but who cares!

Stopping to take a Photograph just to get a break: Lost Count! Amazing how pretty things can look when you just want to get a breather!!

NYD - RUN 1

So I was lying in bed this morning after not much sleep and I honestly could have cried! 

So this was my head....

Why on earth did I think of this? Why would I even want to run every day? WTF? I feel a cold coming. My chest is a bit tight. Is that my ear hurting, oh blimey I have an ear infection. Stay in bed. Ignore the world...

I eventually haul myself out of bed and a sharp pain shoots through my foot and the vague recollection of falling down a curb in heels sprang to mind. Ouch. That is it. Over before I have begun. Then I was thinking this is so unfair I was really looking forward to it and I have told the whole of EJM peeps about this challenge. Then I take another step and realise it is absa-bloody-lutely fine! Oh the drama!

Mr EJM despite a horrible cold insists he is coming with me on Run 1 and a good job he did as I needed all the help I could get! Now as many of you know I do not really drink but I did notice whilst running that perhaps I had on this occasion had one too many Prosecco.

So apart from feeling a little rough we got running and I was on fire for the first 0.8 miles running at 10 min miling and I felt fan-blooming-tastic. Like a runner. A proper runner. Luckily for me this was also down the main road so people saw me and probably thought - Wow! 

Then I got to the bottom of the hill and things got a little tougher. I started to notice my thighs were bouncing. Actually up and down. Luckily the lycra prevents any round of applause as they clap together but I did start to focus a little too hard on all things that were wobbling.

Then I told myself. It is NYD. You are out running and managed some hills and 3.5 miles so despite - dare I suggest such a thing - a slight hangover and being shattered I have made it through Run 1. 

30 to go!

EJMx

Then as a little brucey bonus when I got home I found out another featuure has been published over on We Heart Living. Jan 1 2015 and already it is a corking day! Have a good one peeps!

Every Day is a Good Day When you Run - Apparently!?!?!

If I write it down, it makes it happen. So I have to write this down. I am actually screwing my face up as I type this. Honestly I am, if you could see my face now it is going - WTF?! - Eeeek. I am setting myself a challenge for January. None of this eating this or not eating that lark. Been there, done that, didn't last. Not Dry Jan - I mean after all that would be easy as many of you know I don't drink (wink wink). No, it is simple. I am going to run every day in January. Don't laugh. I will.

The battle with running is madness. All day long I can talk myself out of a run. Bad weather, tickly cough, chipped nail polish etc. Yet when I am out there, actually running, it is freedom and I kind of love it.

No-one asking me what time dinner is or how long until Christmas (yes I have already been asked!!) but it is more than getting away from the kids, cleaning, phone, husband (written small because he actually reads the blog).

When you run it can take a while for list mode to pass and to gain entry to clear head space! Thinking of what you have to do, what you have done and what you will never achieve. Honestly the head is buzzing. Then you realise you are running, your legs are killing you and you are out of breath and suddenly you just have to focus on simply being able to breath and get home. I know that does not sound like fun and at that very moment I ain't gonna lie. It is no fun at all! Focus, get to the next lamp post.

Get to the next corner. Get out of sight of ANYONE. Then you get to the great bit. The bit where you are free. Head is cleared and the body has given in to running and ignoring the fact it hurts like hell. Yes I sound like Darth Vadar but the force is with ME and in that moment you have reached that freedom. Head space. You are a runner!!

I know there are the haters out there. The I Hate Running Club. They are everywhere. Well blah blah blah to you. When you run you basically are the winner the moment you step outside the door. A run is a run! Whoooop whoop! You never quite know what kind of a run you will get. Sometimes it hurts the minute you start and other days it feels as though you are Tigger bouncing down the road with so much energy - such fun fun fun fun fun. So if you see me out - give me a high five. Don't shout Run Fatty Run like some nasty White Van man did a few months ago - oh how I cried until I realised the fat bastard could barely fit behind his steering wheel. Just a high five will do, or a whoop whoop. Or better still - join me on a run or two!!

I was inspired by a chap I met recently who wanted to give himself a challenge and perhaps he too needed some head space. Yet he was a bit bonkers and was going for the Run 365!!! He got to an incredible 68 (or there abouts as I cannot remember the exact number!) before injury prevented him. Now a year is just never gonna happen for me. A month is enough.

So January. I will be running all over you! I am a little excited and also dreading it and doubting my will power before I have even begun! Will let you know each day the excuses I have had to battle and the distance I manage and just how each run makes me feel and perhaps some photos of my travels (travels - just Hertford I expect). I feel a tingle of a little mojo!!!!!

EJMx

If you cannot offer me a run then perhaps offer to meet me for coffee somewhere (and then drive me home) or cycle alongside me sometime. Let's get out there!! #makeithappen

Less Mojito More Mojo

What is he on??? How does he do it? I am talking about Mr EJM? So blinking fit. Soooo annoying. (Love him though!)

I got to thinking after reading this article http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2869069/Oh-shame-married-MAMIL-s-Middle-Aged-Man-Lycra.html. It is official and last week entered the Oxford Dictionary! Worse than Lycra though, RUBBER. Triathlon is the middle aged mans holy grail. Wetsuits with nowhere to hide! I mean NOWHERE! Leaving the lycra and rubber aside why do they suddenly have to prove to themselves how fit they can be and more to the point how do they keep it up..... yes I know, wink wink. But they do. They remain devoted. I want to know why. And how?

Mr EJM. He loves his cycling and when he can (and believe me from his little strops it is not often enough) he meets up with his cycling family and they disappear into the night and he comes home drunk. #lightweight

He usually wears Courtesy Shorts. No-one should have to see all those bits on show. TBH it is cold at the moment so not sure it is much of a show anyway!

This article got me thinking - the dedication these men have to the cycling-get-fit-40-going-on-10 cause is incredible. Is it the exercise or do they simply just want to get away from the nagging and feel like a boy again and this is simply a grown up version of 'going out to play'?

A few years ago I got into running.

I went a few times a week for a run with a club attached to a very expensive gym I used to pretend to afford. I got fit. Lost weight. Felt really great and now I look back I realise I looked pretty darn good too! I got flu, left that gym (realising I was not rich but also that I was paying to go OUT running - D'oh!!) and well and truly lost the mojo. So I am going to force myself to find it. Create one. I have to get my running mojo back! I need to work out where these blokes get the dedication from and go buy me some fitness devotion!! 

Mr EJM. He started running (copy cat). Came out running a few times with me and then found people who he worked with in the Big Smoke and they got together and ran. Not like my running - a lovely steady social pace. No, they just about know each others names, no small talk, just running. I admire him though, his dedication. No excuses, no "it looks like a very dark cloud about 50 miles away so I best not run". Well bloody done. Whoopie bloody do. Rub it in more. He gets faster and fitter. He was never fat but now there is no fat. Not a bit. Hence only making me feel bigger. What a shit! How very dare he! (Love him though)

He then takes it a stage further. Entering half marathons and running hard through the pain despite bleeding nipples - four children breastfed, nuff said! Feel my pain Mr EJM!

Then the marathon. Not London. Not New York. The Sierra Leone Marathon - Africa!?! Yes, very commendable. Yes I was very proud (and bloody worried!) and yes he was brilliant but do you see my point? My little runs made him like that! That is where he ended up. Doing great things running a marathon. Me - I am still running now anad again around the block! Even then, he wanted to do more. Chester Marathon next. Yes he was amazing and I was completely in awe of him. 3 hours 44 Mins, blah blah blah. Whatever! Completely amazeballs but sooooooo annoying too. From my little runs he has become a runner. I am not a runner. I go on runs. I need to get my mojo and fast.

Running on Winterton Beach Christmas Day. I love running. I do!

I asked him. Mr EJM - he said he just loves running. He looks forward to it. He runs because he likes it and it clears his head. Running does all that for me but I have not got to the looking forward to it stage. More like dreading it stage.

I write for We Heart Living and it is often 5 reasons, 5 ideas, 5 ways. So I am going to give myself 5 tips for enjoying running more this month.

Dear Moi

1. You must try, no not try, you must run with friends as much as possible (they know who they are - I am after you!!!!)

2. Run on your own with music at least once a week. Listen to the new Take That album. Listen to music you love to dance to.

3. Get your kit out ready the day before. It will act as a reminder to get a shifty on and you have tonnes of lovely kit so wear it!!!

4. Give yourself time. The washing, ironing, cooking etc will be there when you get back. Mind you keep on running like Forrest Gump and you will not have to face it! No, seriously - you do have to go home!

5. Enjoy it!!!!! Run like Phoebe from friends (when no-one is looking). Smile. This is good. This is healthy. This is freedom. (Said in a Mel Gibson Braveheart shouty scottish voice!)

Will let you know how I fare. Off on a run today. Skies are blue, bit nippy though and there is a very dark cloud over yonder.......

Any other tips to help me find my mojo...?
EJMx
PS Just got back from said run. Enjoyed it. Took Mr EJM as it was dark. Listened to Take That. 4.3miles including THE STEPS - 11.48 /mi. Happy Days. #findingmojo

DIY Chrimbo Wreath

Just a quickie. Made another Christmas wreath out of some scraps I found in the bargain bin at The Creative Sanctuary in Hertford. Going to add some battery powered fairy lights for maximum Chrimbo effect. Do not forget that Naturals by Donna is running a Christmas Wreath workshop so get in touch. Last couple of places left for Friday 12th at 6pm!

The ribbon stuff cost me a fiver

Wrapped the bubble wrap around a metal wreath frame, resisting popping

First layer wrapped like a Mummy and pinned in place

You spin me round round baby

Let's go round again

Made a Pom Pom old school stylee with a bit of cardboard and Hey Presto

Happy Days!!