I went for the weekend to Whitby to have a practice at the course I would be running at the end of January. Only 2 miles into it and I fell over on muddy steps and hurt my wrist. I was absolutely nowhere near civilisation and so had no choice but to carry on until I could get to Graeme at the 6.5 mile point. I had considered ignoring the pain and carrying on but unfortunately I couldn't even grip the map with my right hand. I went to hospital where they said I had a badly sprained wrist and would need a week off work because of it.
As you can imagine, I was gutted, but consoled myself with the fact that it at least was something I could still "run through". That evening, all of the healthy choices for food where adhered to but alcohol crept back into the mix and by the end of the night Graeme and I had had loads of wine, champagne, cocktails and finished off with a chip butty!!! This continued on once I'd got home and the takeaways crept in here and there and as I was unable to cook, I wasn't able to really eat the stuff I wanted to because I felt too guilty asking Graeme to cook absolutely everything.
Then Graeme found out he needed a hip operation and that he's going to need 3 months off work when it happens (sometime between now and April) so the money we had saved for our fancy dress ball is now going to be "sick money" and the party has had to be cancelled. We also got a puppy... although I say puppy... Grace is more of a peeing and pooping machine at the moment and is taking a lot of time to train.
And then there was the run up to Christmas, Christmas itself and then New Year.... it wasn't until about the 30th of December I sat myself down and wondered where it had all gone wrong. I had no motivation for training at all (especially as the race I had gone to Whitby to train for was cancelled due to "unresolvable issues"... although to be honest I had already decided not to run it as I felt it was currently beyond my capabilities) and despite having had a fantastic Christmas I felt guilty for not wanting to do any exercise. I put it down to the fact that I never do much training in December and blamed it on the festive period and all the commitments that brings... that is, I blamed it on that until I looked at my training on Fetch. Back in 2009 I had a brilliant December and had ran 114 miles that month. Since then the mileage has always been under 30 miles each year for December. It wasn't until I sat down and really thought about it that I realised 2009 was the year I didn't drink alcohol (and hadn't for almost a year!). Has alcohol been my main demotivator all of this time? I mean... yes, if I drink alcohol I'm dehydrated quicker, don't run as well and am more inclined to give up... but it wasn't until that day I realised that drinking even the odd glass just made me very demotivated to the point I didn't care about training anymore.
So, on the first of January 2014, I gave alcohol up and started training. The first two days were tough but I'm already back into it and really enjoying it. I've gone back to the healthy eating (which I am also feeling better about) and apart from the threat of a cold (which Graeme keeps trying to give me) I'm feeling great.
I moved my XL vest weight up to 4KG on Saturday and although noticing quite a difference, it felt ok for the 7.7 miles I did in it. I've also started heavy weighted walking outside and am carrying 18.5KG and up to an hour for that. And I've decided to raise money for charity for the 100 miler I'm doing in May. I was going to give all "present" money from our party to Fiona Oakes for her sanctuary, so as I can't do that (due to the cancelled party) I'll hopefully get some money to her in some other way.
It's only 16.5 weeks to the race now!
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