Back to the dreadmill

Today is Monday. Not Saturday. Saturday was two days ago. And I didn’t run. My reasons were plentiful and all exceptionally valid (it was raining and I had just washed my hair, there was a 90210 omnibus on E4, my sports-bra needed a wash… see… valid!) On Sunday, I felt a little bit sniffly. The kids and the husband all have bad head colds and I feared for my health. So I didn’t run. And, miracle of all miracles, today I didn’t have a head cold because I fought it off yesterday, whilst watching the Hollyoaks omnibus and the American X-Factor in my pyjamas! But today I ran out of excuses. Shoot!

            So I thought about going to the gym. Thinking about going to the gym made me feel tired so I watched morning television instead. After twenty minutes, I realised that there could be no pain on this earth greater than watching two simpering model wannabe’s pimping their new books on ITV. So I went to the gym. And I hit the dreadmill- hard!

            I haven’t run or done any physical activity since completing the half marathon last week. Quite honestly, after that gruelling ordeal, I expected a measly 4 miles on the dreadmill to be easy but, alas, (and as usual,) I was wrong! Because I HATE the dreadmill- it is SO boring. After only 0.5 miles, I was losing the will to live. I people watched for 0.4 miles but no-one hurt themselves or started kissing their biceps (which has happened before, I promise you.) They were just normal people who had come to the gym to get fit- nothing funny there at all! Even the television was broken so I had nothing to distract me from the miles and boring miles of boring boredom ahead.

            Then, about 2 miles in, my old friends the endorphins kicked in. And suddenly I remembered why I run. In fact, I was so overcome with hormonal imbalance that I immediately started to list the various other reasons why I bother with sports.

1)     I love endorphins

2)     I love feeling smug when people ask what I’ve done during the day and I can say that I ran 4 miles, did an extra 30 minutes of cardio then some core and upper body strength work then a 90 minute Iyengar yoga class (I felt smug just writing that, sport really is the gift that keeps on giving)

3)     I love feeling smug when I’m wearing my Bradford half marathon t-shirt

4)     I have signed up to 2 races in the next two months because I know that I am still a little bit lazy when it comes to rocking a body like Beyonce’s (minus the baby bump)

5)     I am racing against people I know and don’t want to look stupid in front of them (refer to number 4)

6)     I really like eating chocolate and doing sport is the only way that I can eat as much chocolate as I want to without looking like a sumo wrestler.

So as you can see, my reasons are thorough and plentiful. Of course, I also run for serious reasons (I run because I know I am lucky to be able to, I run because I want to see my children and grand children get married and have long and happy lives, I run because I want my children to see that I commit to something and follow it through, I want to be a good role model for them) but I am a Yorkshire lass so only the silly reasons get numbers!

      So, with the endorphins dancing a path through my nervous system, I managed not to crush myself doing upper body weight type thingies and then skipped off to yoga. After a happy 90 minutes being shouted at for going into my lumber and not doing down facing dog properly (apparently my dorsal fin was sticking out. I thought only dinosaurs and sharks had dorsal fins so I suspect that my yoga teacher might have lost her marbles,) I emerged into the soaking Yorkshire weather and drove home singing very loudly all the way. Tomorrow, I am running 6 miles. Promise! (But I’ll definitely make it back for 90210.)

Wind-swept times x



My December race is a Reindeer run in aid of the RNLI! Check it out at http://www.rnli.org.uk/how_to_support_us/events/reindeer-run/2011/