Friday 31 October 2008

Deja vu

Today, I went to the gym twice. I cycled for an hour in the morning. I know I should cycle outside, but I haven't got round to putting the lights on my bike yet. Or more to the point, I haven't got round to asking Sonic to put the lights on bike :-) I was full of great intentions of going for a run after work, but ended up back at the gym. This time on the elliptical trainer for an hour.

Although I had bought in loads of chocolate in case we got any trick or treaters round, by the time Sonic and I made it home it was way past kids' bedtime. So now I'm going to have to eat it or hide it. I know I'm being a bit ditzy of late, I doubt I could forget where I had hidden the chocolate stash.

Wednesday 29 October 2008

Back on the wagon

With a meagre four mile run. But hey, four miles is four miles. And it's another day that I can keep running. I think I'll stick to four miles a few times during the week and then a six/seven miler at the weekend. I'm putting no time limits on when I need to stop (although people keeps asking me), I'm just going with the flow. At present, all is good. Keeping my heart rate in check and just plodding along enjoying the ride. Towards the end of the tonight's run I had a pain in ass. No, it wasn't growing pains before you make any smart comments. Yes that's you, Waterman, Bell and Hall. Note to self: Do not call child David. It was more like a trapped nerve at the bottom of back. More of a niggle, rather than a pain. And my pelvis ached at the end of run. I'm guessing that's mostly to do with things shifting about a bit. That's my medical analysis anyway.

Had a midwife appointment this afternoon. Just the usual checkup, but with blood tests this time. Apparently I'm still a very healthy specimen, so got the green light to continue what I'm doing.

Monday 27 October 2008

Mr Bean's weekend

Could someone please explain to me what's happened to my brain? I know short-term memory loss is viewed as part and parcel of being preggers, but I'm taking it to new level.

1) On Thursday night, Sonic had mountain rescue training. To be a little greener and save us taking two cars on a 50-mile round trip to work, I decided to travel in with him and get the train home. Nearing the end of my relaxing train trip home, Sonic called to tell me I'd left my house keys in the car. So he had to drive home and then over to the Beech Trees - making him 1/2 hour late.

2) Thankfully he wasn't annoyed as I got to return the favour on Friday night. I was staying at my Mum's (25 miles away) ahead of our Nessie hunting trip when Sonic called to say he got home to discover he'd lost his house key. So I had to drive back and give him my key.

To start with my tale of weekend blunders...

3) Whilst staying at the Drumnadrochit Hotel on Saturday, I woke up quite early on Sunday morning. The joy of the clocks going back. I thought it be nice to go for a relaxing bath, so I turned on the tap full blast...and then it got stuck. It wouldn't budge and we couldn't find anyone in the hotel to help. 45 mins later (after I'd practically emptied the loch down the plughole) whilst everyone and their granny had a shot at turning it off, a chef with a spanner saved the day. I was kind of over the whole bath thing by then.

4) After checking out, paying the bill and heading off in the car to go our loch cruise, I realised I had left my bag and camera case in the hotel reception. Doh! An about turn to recover the goods and we were on our way.

5) En route home, we stopped at the Green Welly for a break and a snack. As per normal Sunday afternoons, the place was packed. Whilst tucking into a nice slice of a homemade carrot cake, a loud voice came over the tannoy: "This is an urgent customer announcement..." I just knew it was for me. Oh yes, numbnuts here had left her purse and car keys sitting on the counter. Must have been the excitement of cake. Everyone knew it was me, as I lit up like the Ready Brek kid. As I skulked over the the burly chef who was shaking his head, I started mumbling something about pregnancy hormones.

I didn't get a chance to run over the weekend, but maybe that was a good thing. Even I can't be responsible for my own safety anymore :-) Back to it tomorrow though. Honest.

Friday 24 October 2008

It's FRIDAY! :-)

Another working week in the bag. The time just flies by. I can't believe it's been 18 weeks since the WHW race. Putting it into that perspective, D-day is a frighteningly close 12 weeks away. I only get nervous thinking about how unorganised I am. I find it hard to get excited about baby shopping when I don't know whether it's a girl or a boy. Although I have made no secret that I really want a girl, I'm coming round to the fact that it could be a boy. I'm only preparing myself so I don't make a scene in the hospital. I've started by stopping telling people that if it's a boy it's going to be called "to-the-orphanage". Hey, it's a step in the right direction :-) Actually we only have a boy's name in mind - stuck for girls - so maybe that's a sign. So, until we know for sure, then it's a yellow baby. But without an abundance of yellow outfits. Sonic said he wanted to go out and buy the baby's going-home outfit...so the midget will probably be going home in some kitchen roll and a carrier bag. Either that or there will be a lot of phone calls. Probably panic calls to my Mum.

I did have a giggle whilst reading Davie Hall's blog. I was very impressed with his chat of domestic chores, shopping and cooking...before settling down to watch the football. Sonic watches the football, whilst I do the cooking. I'm sure he knows how good he's got it. He's totally sussed it out by playing the idiot. Here's an example:

Last weekend he was taking our microwave over to his Dad's (something faulty) so I asked him to give it a clean. Here's how the conversation went.

Me: Can you give it a quick clean before you take it?
Sonic: Does it need cleaned?
Me: Just a wipe down to make sure.
(Pregnancy hormone thinking: would I have f-ing asked if it didn't?)
Sonic: What needs cleaned?
Me: All over
(Pregnancy hormone thinking: the f-ing dirty bits)
Sonic: What should I clean it with?
Me: Just the multi-purpose spray
(Pregnancy hormone thinking: Why did I ask?)
Sonic: Shouldn't I use the oven cleaner?
Me: No the spray will do.
Sonic: But what if it gets on the food?
Me: It will be fine.
(Pregnancy hormone thinking: you're not cooking, it's going to get fixed)
Sonic: Should I use a cloth or a sponge?
Me: No words, just "the look"

And that, folks, is why it's better to do things yourself. He's not daft, is he? In his defense he is good with all the gadgets and electrical stuff in the house. Although I've got no idea how the DVD player works, why I can't switch on the lights without a remote control or what the toaster like storage machine is for.

Anyway I'm wibbering again. Sonic has been left to his own devices this weekend (fingers crossed he doesn't burn down the house), as I'm off Nessie hunting with my Niece. I hope she's not too shattered if she discovers the Loch Ness Monster is only a myth...or is it...

Have a nice weekend y'all.

BTW: I only ran once this week. Went to the gym three times and one yoga. Talk about slacking off.

Monday 20 October 2008

Catch-up

It's hard to motivate myself to blog when I feel I'm wibbering on about the same stuff., but here goes...

Last week I ran a grand total of 17 miles. Four on Tuesday, six on Thursday and seven on Sunday. I pretty sure it's not classed as running as more, as I need to take more and more walking breaks. Hills are just a no-go area. During the last mile of my seven-miler yesterday, there's a incline that I didn't have the inclination to tackle, so I stopped to walk up. I thought I was walking quite briskly, but Jim Robertson stopped in his car and asked if I needed a lift. Oh the shame of it all %-)

The weather wasn't the best over the weekend. Wet, wild and windy. When I came back from my run yesterday - for reasons which escape me - I decided to cycle along with Sonic on his 13-miler. Now running into horizontal rain and wind is one thing, but cycling into these conditions is torturous. I even had to pedal frantically going downhill. I'm surprised I didn't crashed, as I pretty much had my head down for most of it. And I was more surprised I didn't spit the dummy and go home. Thankfully the last five miles the wind was behind us, so I finished the route feeling quite cheery. Albeit completely drenched. And as I hadn't been on my bike for a while, my ass was killing me.

Another shameful tale of the week: As Sonic and I got married over a year ago, I thought it was about time I got round to changing my name - especially with a new Consani on the way. You can imagine the shame of walking into the bank with a protruding midriff and a Las Vegas marriage certificate... and trying to explain that it in fact wasn't a shotgun wedding.

Book of the week: I previously blogged that I felt so unprepared and clueless on the subject of pregnancy. Now I've done a full 180 and want to know EVERYTHING. I'm a bit of a control freak, so I can get quite agitated when I don't know what's going on or if things don't go according to plan.



This weeks book - part of the collection courtesy of the Amazon delivery man - is Stand and Delivery. It's a humorous and insightful collection of useful and positive stories compiled by British journalist, Emma Mahoney. I love this book. Up until now, I've found that most books are far to medical and full of scare tactics. I'm really not worried or scared about childbirth. I'm more worried about the fact that I'm not worried. Actually I'm really looking forward to it. Does that make me strange?

Sunday 12 October 2008

It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings!

And quite frankly there's a few miles left in me yet.

Today, I nervously agreed to participate in Milburn Harriers' 10-mile handicap race. I have only run 10 miles once since I found out I was preggers, so I was quite sceptical about my ability. Plus the route was over the Balloch Horseshoe, which has many, many cheeky hills. But hey ho, I thought I'd give it a bash. Worse case scenario would be throwing in the towel and walking round.

It was a gorgeous crisp (code for bloody freezing) and sunny day, so there was no excuse not to get out there and enjoy it. After going to the wrong place for the start we arrived just after the meeting time of 9am. Some of the runners had been sent off. My start time was 9:31am - based on last week's 10K time. I set off with two gals from Millies, but decided to push on after a mile. I was pretty sure they'd catch me on the hills, but I was on my own for the rest of the course - just passing a few runners who started earlier.

Apart from having to walk on a few of the steeper hills, I felt fantastic. I really enjoyed every minute of it. On the last mile, I spotted three of the early start runners in front of me. I tried to catch them, but they pipped me to the post by 20 seconds. They did say seeing me behind spurred them on.

I finished the 10.26m course in fourth position in 1:40:36... 7 minutes ahead of Sonic. the fact that I had a 43 minute head-start is neither here nor there.

Thanks to everyone at Milburn Harriers for letting us gatecrash the race. It was really nice to meet up with such great bunch of people. And the post-race homemade carrot cake and chocolate biscuits made the run really worthwhile. Trust me, Jim, carrot cake is one of your five a day.

Saturday 11 October 2008

I won a trophy

And not just a little token effort, but I HUGE one.

At Garscube Harriers' annual awards presentation, I won the the award for "The Most Meritorious Performance". I have to admit it didn't come as a huge surprise as I organise the awards' do, so I knew who won everything. But I was surprised, shocked and stunned that people actually voted for me to win the award. I'm never going to be the fastest runner, so winning trophies is not not within my reach. Winning this is both the highlight and happy farewell to a fantastic year.

To recap, I won the award to setting PBs in all road races at the beginning of the year and for being the clubs' first female ultra distance runner - namely, the West Highland Way Race. I'm sure my support team's tales of woe and my relentless stubbornness were what swung the votes my way.

I couldn't have done it without the help of some fabulous people. Big thanks to Coach Lesley for my training plan. And the fact that I'm too scared of Lesley not to follow it with fine detail :-) Thanks to my support team (Sharon, Sara, Jill and Kas) who gave up two nights' of sleep to follow me along the WHW. Although I'm sure Jill was having her own little slumber party! If anyone would like to see the softer, patient and caring side to Kas - you should have been at Lundavra at 3am. Although I'm not convinced it wasn't one of my many hallucinations. And last but by no means least, thanks to Sonic - for ruining my run of great PBS! Hey, I still maintain I was sleeping at the time of conception. Just kidding. I'm sure I'll thank him for the "woman are stronger runners after childbirth" theory.

Well done to all awards winner. Especially to Sonic for winning the club marathon championship for the third year in a row. His little medal looks so cute next to my MASSIVE trophy :-) OK, I best point out that Sonic won the award in 2006. So now there's two Consanis on the plaque. No pressure Paul.





Pix from Loch Ness 10K



Friday 10 October 2008

Friday fun

I think I'm going to have to change the name of my blog to "Debs on walk-jogging". That's what happens when you get a bit cocky. After feeling great during Sunday's race, I went out for a 6-miler on Tuesday and a 4-miler last night. Let's just things didn't go so well. I can say specifically what went wrong. My legs felt fine and my breathing was OK. Quite frankly, I just couldn't be a*sed. I think I'm just having a temporary loss of mojo, as I don't think it's time to hang up my trainers quite yet. Or maybe it's just running after work and not appreciating that I'm a little more tired than normal. Anyway in a vain attempt to keep going, I've ditched pace watching but I'm still wearing my Garmin so I can tally up my yearly mileage. Pace is not important and walking breaks are OK. It's just the motion of running that's key.

So other than feeling a bit knackered these days, things are all grand in Team Consani. I have to admit I'm getting more ditzy though. I'm usually quite freakishly organised, so I'm finding this new scatterbrained character quite embarrassing. I sure the receptionist at the gym thinks I'm completely mental. In the last month, I've managed to leave behind a swimsuit, sports bottle, my trainers and an ipod. Thankfully each time, a kind member has handed them in to lost property. But when I left my umbrella in there last Friday, I went and bought another. I couldn't face the shame.

Have a nice weekend y'all.

Congratulations to Thomas for running a fabulous time of 2:48:19 in the Cologne Marathon, beating Sonic's PB by a whopping four seconds. Thomas - thanks for the heads-up on the marathons with baby joggers. That's a great idea! And good luck to Mr and Mrs Pacepusher for this Sunday's Chicago Marathon

Monday 6 October 2008

57 min jog round Loch Ness

Over the past few months, as suspected, I have got consistently slower. I did the women's 10K in May unaware that I was four weeks pregnant in 47 mins, the Paisley 10K at five months in 54 mins and yesterday's Loch Ness 10K in 57 mins. But what I have lost in time and the inclination to push myself, I have gained in the smugness that I can still run 6.2 miles at six months pregnant. And more to the point, I'm still really enjoy running.

The last time I did the Loch Ness 10K was in 2005, when I had an appalling race. I ended up getting completely lost (life before the Tom Tom) and when I finally found the start, had to jump out the car and start running pretty much straight away. After a 3.5 hour drive! This year's attempt wasn't less stressful. We got stuck at roadworks and then I had to wait in the queue for the toilets for 40 mins. I made it to the start with only a few minutes to spare.

The start was organised by race number and subsequent finishing times. I lined up in the 55 minute section, which is what I applied for. I thought giving my "condition", that this was a realistic position in the field. Bad move. I got completely held up by really slow runners for the first two miles. The narrow country roads weren't the best for passing. So there was a lots of bumping, near tumbles and numerous snide remarks. I probably expended far too much energy in the frustration to overtake, but at least I kept my gob shut.

From mile two onwards, I felt really good. Just a nice steady pace. I was hoping for under an hour, but I wasn't hell-bent on pushing myself to get it. I knew it was going to be my last race for a while, so I was more focused on simply enjoying it. It was such a lovely day - sunny and cool - and a great course, so it was hard not to enjoy it.

For the last few miles there was a small gang of runners around me, travelling at the same pace. There was a girl in the pink vest who seemed to be either one foot in front or one foot behind me. You always find there are people in a race that you just can't shake off, don't you? Anyway my lack of competitive spirit meant I wasn't rising to the bait. Even when she sprinted off for the finishing line. I crossed the finishing line in 57:36 and was completely delighted with my time. When passing through the finishers tunnel I congratulated the pink vest, who duly informed me that she was "determined to beat me". I did giggle and told her I had the upperhand being six months pregnant. Touche. I left her to pick up her jaw and went over to meet Sonic and the Pacepushers. Sonic finished in 36:27 and Pacepushers both got PB - a good tuner race for next week's Chicago Marathon. Fellow Garscubians Jill and Kathryn had great performances - 41 and 43 mins, respectively. And well done to WHW WAGS Katrina and Muriel.

The way the races were scheduled, we got to cheer on the marathon runners finishing. The first runner was home in 2:28. Congratulations to George, Sharon, Tim, Karen, George R, Ellen, Pauline, Fiona, John H and Crawford (and anyone else I missed) who all completed the marathon. Especially to those who have recently completed ultras. Davie B- you're a big poof! Just kidding, buddy. Hope your knee/IT recovers well.

On the way home, Sonic, Jill and I stopped off at a cafe in Fort Augustus for a post-race feast. They opted for the bake potato in haggis, whereas I was more reserved with the ol' tuna mayo. The highlight of the experience was the waitress (providing the usual Scottish hospitality) trying to explain to an American couple what Irn Bru tasted like. Hilarious. Almost as hilarious as when the male American tourist asked if I would stand in the middle of the road to take a picture of them outside the cafe. I honestly thought he was joking, but he really did want me to stand in the middle of the road. So there I was standing in the middle of the A82 on a sunny Sunday afternoon....just part of the adventure me thinks.

Wednesday 1 October 2008

More blethering

Where does the time go? I can't believe it's been a week since my last posting of drivel. Who says pregnancy drags? Now that we're in October, I'm starting to have a slight panic about my distinct lack of preparation and knowledge. I was full of great intentions at the start. I have wonderful collection of books, magazines and DVDs, but no time. As the weeks fly past, I'm finding myself missing chapters in the book as I pass stages. I've also found that maybe ignorance is bliss after all. I'm not sure Sonic can cope with my shrieks of: "they f-ing cut you where?" And watching the baby channel is mashing my brain. I was glued to a programme about some tree-hugger who doesn't use nappies (diapers to my friends in the west), because her baby "tells" her when he needs the toilet. WTF? And then there's the high-drama delivery programmes. It's my new "car-crash viewing" - I know I shouldn't look, but I'm drawn to it.

So now that the holiday's over, I'm trying to get a bit more organised. You know what it's like, life always starts after an event. I spent the first half of the years saying: "Once the marathon is over" or "when the WHWR is over"...you miraculously think you're going to have all this spare time on your hands. In reality, there's always something else. In my case it should be baby prep, but oh no, what have Sonic and I decided to do? Oh sell our house and buy a bigger one! Perfectly planned timing, don't you think? What started out as a innocent browse on the net, has opened a HUGE can of worms. I've spent the last week or so cleaning, clearing, painting and general DIY-ing.

In the midst of it all my Mum dragged me out pram shopping. How was I to know that three months was leaving it a bit tight? Sonic (bless his heart) did volunteer to come with us, but even I wouldn't have subjected him to a Pram Centre day trip with my Mum, Gran and Sis. I think I'm still recovering from the experience. It's a mind field. The last time I was there was when my Sis was preggers with number two. I was amazed that everyone automatically looks at your midriff. I distinctly remembering sucking in my 24" waist so much that I nearly passed out from oxygen deprivation. This time there was no hope. I just joined the ranks of the bump brigade. I think mums-to-be should be given badges with their due on it when they enter the shop. I mean, how am I supposed to compare myself without this knowledge? Tut! Anyway, meanwhile back at the ranch, I choose a pram. Not after much debating, testing and the mandatory fight with my Mum about who was going to pay. She won. I have to mention that the humorous highlight of the experience was the shop assistant who kept asking my Sister what she was looking for in a pram. Ha ha. It's a good job she's thick-skinned. We had to go to Pizza Hut to get over it ;-)

Anyway, back to running. A couple of weeks ago, I really thought my running days were numbered. It was a real chore and I wasn't enjoying it. Now I've put that blip down to post-holiday fatigue, as I had a fabulous seven mile run on Sunday morning and a great run last night. Mind you, the cooler temperatures are more to my liking now. I think having a winter baby was great accidental planning.

This Sunday I'm running - OK, participating in - the Loch Ness 10K. There's quite a gang of us heading up to Inverness to take part in the Marathon or the 10K, so good luck to everyone. Try not to choke on the post-race beers.