I've been using the Peloton app half marathon programme, which is cool because the instructors talk about running and strategy and fueling etc. The big message from last week was "don't overtrain, get sleep, follow the low mileage plan, eat well, prep yourself for your race next week!"
So I bought some good healthy protein rich foods, scheduled my few shortish runs, and went to bed early on Sunday.
Since Sunday, my sleep has been as follows:
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| 7:30pm to 5am. The pink boxes are awake time. |
Apparently two nights of up-ever-hour kid sickness threw me straight back to newborn nighttime insomnia.
On Wednesday morning Clara was ill in her crib. So far only Aubrey and I have avoided the actual voms, but I have felt generally terrible this week and the nighttime insomnia is not helping.
I haven't done any running this week, and yesterday my great fueling consisted of a handful of pretzels for breakfast and a bowl of carbonara for dinner.
Basically, this feels like about the worst race prep one could plan. I'm trying to put a positive spin on it though, because if I can run a half marathon while being ill and underfed and on very little sleep then maybe I can run a longer race someday? Arguably this running hobby of mine was supposed to be fuelled by the relentless effort of having newborn twins. I don't have newborn twins, so I should be able to run this race.
I was kind of hoping that becasue I had put in training this half marathon would be fun and feels somewhat good. Having newborn twins isn't fun and doesn't feel good, so perhaps this kind of race prep is the best I could hope for, and very fitting with my own motivation and personal experience
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OK, now this post is going to take a somewhat dark turn.
I sometimes feel like I am living on a different world than my American blogger friends. They/you(?) often talk about the weight of the world and things happening and I honestly don't always know what these things are. I wonder if it's because of the news sources we have... I read the BBC mostly. It could be that stories which are posted a little on the BBC are posted a lot on American news sites.
For instance the tragic floods at the summer camp last summer was written about in the BBC, but it wasn't everywhere. It was horrific, but it didn't necessarily feel ever-present. I wonder if that's because of living over here.
Yesterday, during Yom Kippur, two Jewish people were murdered outside a synagogue in Manchester. It is big news over here. It is really horrific.
I grew up Jewish, and I never questioned raising my children with the lovely religion I remember. We have been going to kids club at the local synagogue on and off for a few years.
I have always felt that the UK, and perhaps Wales, is more anti-semitic than I'm used to. When I first got here I told someone I'm Jewish and he said "Oh I'm sorry!" which I thought was odd. I was told many times "oh wow, I've never met a Jewish person before" but I always felt that it was important to be who I am and not "hide" being Jewish.
Growing up in America, I took it for granted that it was safe to be Jewish. It is starting to feel like a big decision to raise children with a religion and history that might make them a target someday. They have a generic British surname, and they look generically British. Maybe that's an opportunity for safety that I shouldn't take away from them.
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I don't really have any good segue here, but there are happy things too.
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| pre-circus selfie |
- I took the big kids to the circus last week, before everyone got ill.
- I started putting fall decorations up around the house
- The Girl Next Door podcast fall Extravaganza!
- Sickness is probably done circulating around our house
- Next week is a normal 4 day week of childcare (we didn't ask our nanny to come into our infected home this week)
- I'll be done with the half marathon next week! Even if it sucks, it will be over
- I'm starting arial ropes, silks & trapeze lessons with my friend this month.
- It's October. There is good in October. We won't be ill and I won't be awake all night forever.
- I don't have newborn twins.
What's the worst run or race or bike ride you've ever done? Bring me some schadenfreude please.
You want bad race stories? I have them!
ReplyDelete- a few weeks before my first half marathon I ran an incredible, magical 10 mile race so I knew that I was All That and that I was going to smoke the half. Well, it turned out to be the first really hot day of the year. Just because it was 80 degrees at 7:00 AM and I am very sensitive to heat didn't mean that I needed to adjust my plan. I pushed and pushed and pushed for the first three miles and finally had to start walking at mile 5. I got so sick from the heat. Naturally I regarded the freak weather and my heat sensitivity as a personal failure because runners are just supposed to suck it up and try harder.
- at my last half marathon 3 years later I also got beat by the heat. At the finish line I was coughing and gagging and the medics threatened to pull me into their tent if I couldn't get it under control.
- not bad, just funny. Once I ran a half on a relay team. My partner was an incredibly fast runner, and I am on the slow end of average. When we did the hand off at the halfway point he was in second place. As soon as I started running I got passed by just about every runner in the race.
- but I also had a few races where training and last minute events were a disaster and I had great results, so I'm sending those vibes your way this weekend.
I used to be so naive that I thought that anti semitism was something that ended in 1945. It is very sad and inexcusable that it continues today.
I feel this post in my bones, Rachel. There seems to be growing hostility toward all religious faiths and it's scary. I go to church every Sunday and am openly a Christian and I do think about the cost. For me, there is no question that I want to worship openly, but I definitely think about the possibility of a gunman coming into our church and opening fire. Because, sadly, these things seem to be happening more and more. As a Christian, my go-to prayer is the end of Revelation which says, Even so, come Lord Jesus.
ReplyDeleteOn another topic. OF ALL THE WEEKS TO GET SICK. My sister does a lot of ironmans and the toughest women are all mothers. I think the grit it takes to survive the rigours of motherhood is enough to make just about any mother capable of incredible physical feats. Running long distances?? Ha. I just cleaned puke off the floor for 12 hours.
That said, I really wish you hadn't had to deal with all of this and I hope you have a great race, no one else gets sick, and you get a bit of a breather from the intensity of motherhood. It is intense!