The power of the mind is crazy – at the weekend my legs were like anvils, I was bottom-shuffling down the stairs (couldn’t manage walking properly) when my little bro laughed at me & I had nothing back, no banter, nothing. I just snivelled in response. Today however, with no running predicted in my Horoscopes I am all high heals and Aero-feeling legs. In the words of Randy Crawford ‘what a difference a day makes.
The hardest bit as I thought was battling my lack of commitment – you know how it is – remember your GCSEs/ A-levels and probably every other exam you’ve done? Do no revision for months and then cram like hell? Well, that is moi to a ‘T’- I crammed 90km into the final week after doing only 10km the previous week, I will never learn?!answer: never
GOAM (www.g-o-a-m.blogspot.com) asked me what I’d learnt doing it & did I have any nuggets for inspiration. Well you’ve got to know you & what makes you tick – unfortunately there isn’t a one-fits-all motivational pill. For me it was good ol’ fashioned Catholic Guilt. The thought that I would let Justine down if I didn’t do my allotted run was a no no, and that pretty much kicked my a$$ every time, people kept telling me that no one would know if I didn’t run that day & I shouldn’t bother, but if I’m honest, I thought that was a pretty weak way out & if I thought that, then why bother in the first place. If I’m honest, I did too much in Februlous, I didn’t tone my partying down, I continued my passionate love affair with Barolo and Camel Blues & didn’t go to bed early. Obviously, this was the biggest killer of the month and to be polite, don’t look great. But, there was no way I would have survived if I was just running & going to work with no social life. But sometimes - maybe I had too much of one! Feb was the month of Friends visiting London & London Fashion Week...
Your body can get used to anything, but your mind cannot. Bodies are durable and health permitting will adapt & get on with things, mine found the 10km easy to complete just after 2 runs, the mind however, is still tells me I am not a runner. The treadmill at the weekend pointed out I’d run my 10km in 51 mins, whilst my mind tells me I am a clumsy runner rivalling Phoebe in Friends. There honestly comes a point where you have to ignore yourself and my ‘point’ has been February. ‘Myself’ if you give it a free reign is one moany bizatch, it whined continually for me to stop running. To drown said self I found Hip Hop (in particular my boy Kanye West) was the perfect prescription. Although this did induce a few ‘oopsie’ moments when much to the disgust of the St. James’ park’s resident Pelicans I realised I was rapping, telling them something about Chi-Town, Lights and being a Monster. Looks like Roc-a-fella records wont be signing up this Surveyor yet.
Last week near Big Ben, a guy tapped me on the shoulder, said ‘tig’ and then pegged it over Westminster Bridge, the innate 6 year old in me knew what to do – dodging around tourists & playing tig chase across Embankment was hilarious and ultimately pushed me to do a few 4minute kilometres. In the first week I noticed at Hyde Park traffic lights that I was standing with 3 other girls running to work, you know how females are; we had a chat. Congratulated each other, berated our own distances/times/efforts and then non-competitively ran for about 2km together. If I’m honest, those sort of times were sporadic.
Much to many people’s surprise I have no desire to run a marathon or half, although that will probably happen because I like to do a challenge with the girls. Also, I don’t like what running has done to my body, it has turned me scrawny, ok that’s ‘myself’ whining again!, but I am thinner & I don’t like it, even though I am now eating around 2,500-3,000 calories a day. More than that though, it honestly doesn’t have a patch on doing group training, after each session I felt really pumped up, the ‘yeah…what else you got?!’ feeling kicks in and I’m a sucker for that.
Thanks Justine for letting me jump on the band wagon again!
Glad it’s over, but glad I did it...my final pic running over Westminster Bridge
No comments:
Post a Comment