So you been broken and you been hurt......

Show me somebody who ain't,
Well I know I ain't nobodys bargain but,
Hell, a little touch up, and a little paint..........

May be a major overhaul and loads and loads of paint??? ;-D

Sorry I'm still on my Bruce kick. My husband says I should be listening to Band of Skulls, and I have tried, but really unusually for a recommendation from him I'm just not getting it. They are on at V, maybe while they are on I will go and throw myself round the dance tent for a bit, get my fix :)

(I don't actually mean go and buy drugs you understand)

(I dunno it might be an idea)

Training wise, I do feel broken at the moment. I'm a bit dissapointed in myself not to have dealt with things earlier, maybe I wouldn't be at this point. I also feel like I am being lazy and making excuses, and I don't like that. The actual reason I went to the doctor though, was because I need to not feel like I am in a fog at work, I keep getting home and remembering that I have forgotten to do something, or put something away. I don't need to be like this, I'm trying to write a job application, for hobbies I do not want to put SLACKER.

However, I have taken action and hopefully will get my energy levels sorted. (had no idea how much ferritin levels could affect performance, I have educated myself, incidentally ferritin is upregulated when Haem Oxygenase is induced. I did my PhD on haem oxygenase. My professor always made me write it haem, not heme like the Americans, he was proper old skool.)

I only ran once last week (do not count 30 min jog) and that was the Ilford Hilly 5. A two lap race that is usually bit of trail bit of tarmac. Troops being quartered in Hainault Park meant it had to be all off road, and actually I preferred it for this although it was a bit of a mudfest (dear pink shoes of speed, I am so so sorry) anyway I got 42 something which I was dead chuffed with. A long upwards drag twice is never going to leave me with the quickest 5 miler but I dont think it was too bad. It was very nice to see @JWUltra there for his first race in ages as he was working in Essex. Predictably he found someone to talk to who came from Bournville so he felt right at home :)))

Finding myself feeling like a squeezed out teabag for the rest of the week was pretty predictable really, but I did have a nice weekend. Ran 3 miles to do a quick test mile to report to my PT, went for a curry, went to the town show twice and watched the olympic torch go up Lodge avenue. Whilst at the Town show I spoke to someone from a bike co who do cycle training. One of they things they do is help people to commute on their bikes.

I now have a guy from there coming to my house next Monday morning at 8.30am to have a meeting about what training I need :) I am saying this in case I end up in bits in a freezer. You can tell the newspeople 'she only wanted to ride her bike into town....she didn't deserve this.....' :-D

Please make them use the photos from my first graduation, the second one I look rubbish.
Donations to the Parkinson's disease society.

See ya :)

C'mon and take your best shot....

Let me see what you got..

Not a lot actually. I have pretty much written off the last 2 weeks training due to being rubbish.

I do however have 1 10 mile run to report, my leg of the endurance life real relay. This is the unofficial relay following the Olympic torch but, all on foot and 24 hours a day. Basically you look on the website as legs get added and you sign up for a free one and donate £10 to Chicks charity. When I looked in June the nearest one to me that I could reasonably get to was from Colchester to tiptree. Still 60 miles from me but what the hell. I signed up anyway.

The deal is you navigate yourself, so I did a google maps and it looked like a straight line, cool, I thought, even I can do that! :-D

So after a weekend of resting because I didn't feel that well I set off early to catch the train to somewhere I had never been with my phone, a bottle of drink, some maps and 2 mini mars bars. I know how to travel.

Anyway the first panic was at Shenfield when I discovered my train was one of those sodding things that splits. Why a train can't just go all in one piece to the same place is beyond me. I stressed a bit and kept walking down the train until I was convinced I was on the right half and was delighted to actually arrive in Colchester only slightly wound up.

I then needed to find Colchester castle. I looked at my map, and struck out towards it. It was about a mile later when I discovered I was walking in completely the wrong direction :-/

I may have had a strop at this point. I may have said on the phone I was going fucking home and sod this fucking relay..... Nah....that's not me is it! Of course not!

I went back to the station and asked someone, who said if you are good at directions you can walk there or if you are not you could get a cab.

I got a cab.

Then I sat outside the castle for about an hour waiting for the runner before me. He duly turned up accompanied by a woman on a lay down bike thing. They said they would help me find the B1022 which I needed to take. Which was nice of them but because they knew the area they gave me a better route...... So I only got a bit lost :-/

I did find the correct road though and then all I had to do was follow it, carrying the 3 foot long baton with a GPS thing taped to one end and a union jack flag on the other :-D

At one point I had to go round a mini roundabout and go right off it, I knew this was right, but I spotted a sign pointing in exactly the opposite direction saying tiptree. Fuck.

I was sure I hadn't gone wrong but maybe I had turned round and forgotten I had??? Seriously stranger things have happened to me....

So I did what I always do, I stopped in a gateway, threw all my stuff on the floor and went into meltdown mode. Just as I was about to do this a guy walked out of the gate and said 'are you a runner doing the real relay? Can I shake your hand?' Really, that happened :)

I said I was but that I was really confused by the sign. He assured me that I was right and that the sign was for the sustrans cycle network.....see just another example of life trying to fool me. Not right, not fair but I have to deal with it :-D

So I set off again happier, and basically spent the next 5 or 6 miles jumping in and out of the hedge to avoid being run over. I'll admit I still wasn't feeling that well so I was slow anyway and about a mile from Tiptree I was walking when a car pulled up on opposite side and a woman leaned out and told me she was a journalist covering the relay for the local paper, would I like a lift?

Bloody no I wouldn't! That wasn't really the idea of a relay on foot.

Anyway soon enough I finished, handed over and posed for some pictures. And then walked about 3 miles to the nearest station..... I was it appeared in the middle of nowhere.

Glad I did it though. It feels good to have been a part of something and challenge myself a bit too.

I haven't been well since, but I reckon I have picked up a virus somewhere and hopefully I am seeing the back of it now. I haven't had the slightest desire to exercise and I know that's not me. I'm also seeing the dr for anaemia related stuff so I'm really hoping that very soon I will have all my enthusiasm and energy back.

I did get some energy back last night at the Bruce Springsteen gig in Hyde Park, supplied to me by LAGER. It seems a long time since I ran around and danced like that, it was ace. We were completely Knackered by the end of it so I'll assume that's why Mr H fainted on the tube on the way home. Bloody lightweight. :-D

Hoping to run tomorrow, and decide whether to do the Elvis race on Wednesday.

See ya.