Mums Running Club

I certainly drink a few glasses of red at the weekend and don't find it interferes on my performance. I don't drink for a week in the lead up to a big race. But otherwise it doesn't worry me too much. I just find its nice to have something to look forward to on a friday night as we don't go out much. I have a big school mum's night out on the 1st feb. Could be interesting and I expect far too much gin and wine will be consumed. Best get my long run done before hand!

Cost of races is mental. Hubbie was looking at entering some triathlons this year off the back of his challenge last weekend and the cost is ridiculous. He was toying with getting an age group space at the world triathlon champs as in London but all the qualifier races are full. Bang goes that idea then!! What amazes me the most is that London Marathon is still £28 for championship start anyway. It's been £28 for years and years now which is just fab.

5 easy miles this morning and speedwork tonight. No idea where though everywhere is sheet ice on the pavements. Going for a recce drive round at lunchtime. We are supposed to get another huge dump of snow tonight so looks like I'm getting up at 6am to get my run in tom as no doubt they will close the schools and pre-school again. Arrrhhh!

Argh more sodding snow!! Grrrr!

No school and E also a bit under the weather.

getting bored now. E under the weather so can't go out and play in the snow. had to call T this morning and ask him to come over and take J to the doctors. appt was 8.10am and my car was outside my house and there was another 3 inch of snow on top of the snow and ice from friday, so no way i would have got it down the hill. school was also shut. T said 'this is ridiculous. nothing wrong with the roads. why have they shut school etc?' and then drove over. took him an hour to do 10 miles. he phoned me to say 'there is nothing wrong with the roads but it is taking me ages as everyone is driving like an idiot'. in the end, i had to take the kids down the hill (E on the sledge) to meet him, as although there was nothing wrong with the roads, he couldn't get up the hill because of the snow... and he made me feel ridiculous for not trying to drive down myself. hmmm...

just sold my sofa on gumtree in about 2 hours! eek. new one doesn't come for 2 weeks so we will be sitting on the floor for the next fortnight. thought it would take longer to sell!!

CM, he is such an arse! That's all!!....

I totally agree TT. Total arse!!

at least he is consistent!

omg the lads came to pick up the sofa. a peugeot 306 estate and a corner sofa!! anyway, somehow they got it in there, along with all the cushions and spare covers. GOD KNOWS HOW. they put two bits on the roof and had straps, but they were worried it would slip forwards. so they asked me if i had any rope. which i didn't. i jokingly said 'i have some string though'. so - oh yes, they said 'oh yeah that will do'. i nearly died laughing. they said 'it's really strong string though'. (it isn't!). so they used a bit more string and off they went. down the icy hill and all the way back to cardiff on the m4. ah well - at least i have my money, but really - absolute insanity!

Nutters CM!
Gawd I have cabin fever, two whole days stuck at home with sick kids, no walk, nothing, arghhhhhhhh. Must say feeling pretty rubbish my self today but would still have managed a wee walk. M continually saying 'cuddle, cuddle' & C&R complaining of being cold when they are sitting right in front of the fire guard, heating has also been on all day. It's not cold it's cos they have a bug.R now in the bath after more medicine. Gosh being driven demented.
The organisers of the strathpuffer e mailed this morning to say that as there was only two solo female competitors & two female teams entered then there would only be a first prize although second place would still get a trophy and on the podium. Pretty unfair I think..............the other female soloist who is brilliant & will obviously win e mailed them back to say she didn't think it was fair. Was a good e mail and I also replied saying I agreed with her!
Hope E is n the mend CM.
I am supposed to be working tomorrow but at the mo don't know what to do as C and R won't be well enough for school and I'm feeling pretty yuk, hmmmmmmmm.
An hr till hubby gets home n rescues me

Not your fault no one else is as mad as you!

Aw bless RF hope you are feeling better soon. Glad you got out for a wee walk.

CM T never fails to be a complete twat does he!

Hope you managed to find somehwere ice free MM. Sometimes I do think I shouldn't have such drunken binges but ach I'm not an elite athlete and I cant see it would make that much difference really., life is too short. No matter how much I love my running having fun with friends is more important. I have a few glasses of wine a week and a blow out every couple of months!

Still no snow here which is good but jeez it is cold. Hasn't got above freezing all day but they were saying on the local radio the windchill make it -6 brrr. Two 10 milers for me today. The second one was lovely with much off road and beach as the ground is so nice and hard now with no rain and lots of frost. Did an MM though and had to leg it back to make the nursery pick up, had only intended to do 6 or 7 but was having too much fun!

Pilates tonight and I am going to be a skiver on the glute exercises, took me nearly a week for my bum to recover from last week. Better get on and get the tea ready before I have to leave. I failed on that one last week and hubby was not amused.

TT is definitely consistent CM, although at least he came I guess, I was half expecting you to say he refused!! LOL at the lads and the sofa - that sounds hilarious!

RF - I so hope you stay germ free. Sounds like your girlies have what seems to be sweeping through here at the moment - of my four ladies coming for pilates tonight three were dying so I hope they haven't shared that with me ... am still on my echinacea+goldenseal so fingers crossed.  Hope you get to escape the poorlies soon though, is hard being housebound like that ((())) STAY WELL

Def agree with you Lotte about the having a blowout etc - you DO train hard, but having fun with friends is so very very important  so good for you ... and of course, we are all envious!!

So what was the killer glute exercise then?  Clams?

Am still at basic beginner stuff with my lot, I worry they will get bored, but then equally they need to get the basics right to progress, am trying to introduce small changes etc and still remember what I am trying to say/do!

I'd love to be able to consistently train even a wee bit harder but my body just seems to break .  Have been out on MBK yesterday and today - 10-11 miles on the coastal path both times. We've had some snow but nothing much but like you Lotte, everything is frozen solid which is fab - although think my bones have been shaken to pieces with the bouncing around (bike is old and the suspension is well on it's way out!!). but it is making me feel like I am keeping ticking over ... trying to decide whether to try ankle or stick with the bike for a few more days ... am guessing a week out XT won't do me any harm and I have a few long runs in the bag so far - boo bah!!!

Hope the achilles doesn't create too much for you MM. I find running in ice/snow never helps; other things I've found with mine is it comes and goes, upping speed on longer runs will ALWAYS make it grumpy, ice makes no difference, rest doesn't really either, deep painful massage into the area helps, as does heat.  If I do no running it niggles even more, keeping it bent at night (not pointing toes) helps too.

My niggle is the peroneal tendon and caused by running on frozen rutted sand and boulders/shale I think!

Having hubby home until this morning was such a nice change, just having someone to share even some of the daily load ... made me realise how much more effective and calm I am when I am not continually flying solo . Have suggested he tries to find a way to perhaps improve his flexible working if he's not going to try and change his job!! We shall see.

Camlo - I meant 5km, got carried away there, but you are still speedy ...

Ski holiday is booked - exciting ... I think ... not long now either ... fly out on 9 Feb (but hubby is off for three days skiing the week before - lucky bugger - with some lads)

7.5k for me today - I'm going to have to start taking a drink bottle as so humid. Felt pretty good and is the longest I've run since M was born (was a little depressed to realize that including preg that's the longest I've run since mid 2010! Long way to go but at least heading in the right direction and the Tri 2013 is helping keep me motivated!
Trying to sort last minute things for hubby's 40th. I'm making him a voucher book of 40 'gifts'. Tricky as his main present was a rucksack which he already has so am including things like a family tramp etc rather than just buying lots of things. He's not into cake (why?!!) so im making him a big cheese platter. He misses European cheese so have tracked down quite a few.

Sounds like lots of lurgys out there - hope you all recover soon - especially RF for this weekend. That was v crap of organizers to remove prizes! Tell them you may mention your disappointment to your film crew!!!

and yes, agree some race prices are ridiculous. I think triathalons/ironman traditionally has always been expensive - along with all the kit needed for it!! £46 is ridiculous. I do think that if they cut down on half the 'goody' bag stuff then stuff needn't be so expensive. Give me a £3 hill race with tea and cake at the end any day

Hoggle - my hubby isn't into cake either so was thinking of doing him cheese for his bday next month too. Well done on the running, you are doing really well - getting out regularly. Can imagine in the heat it's tough though. I actually much prefer running in the freezing stuff we have (although autumn is my fave - no pollen for starters).

Hello! I have been reading but not posting as I've usually only got one hand free, but this morning the baby is asleep and the bigger ones are being taken to school/nursery, so I have a few minutes free - hooray!

We had a lot of snow for down here - we don't usually get much - but it rained yesterday evening so a lot of it has gone. We had fun at the weekend sledging and building snowmen etc, but it was lovely to have no stress as neither of us was supposed to be at work so had nowhere we had to be. Isabelle has loved the snow this year (helped probably by agreeing to wear appropriate clothes!) and has been happy outside for several hours. E wasn't at all sure about it and didn't really want to walk around, but wanted to be part of the fun - there were tears!

CC - ooh, exciting about the skiing, where are you going? My parents are in switzerland at the moment, and although my mum's not skiing this year because of my hip, my dad has been, and they've been doing some snow shoeing. I'd be quite tempted to go over during the Easter holidays, but I don't think hubby is keen on the drive. I'm not desperate to do it with 3 of them, but the thought of snow, mountains and a couple of hours off (we'd make sure my parents came too!!) is very appealing.

I think triathlons can justify a higher price for races as there's a lot more organisation involved, loads more marshals, timers, swimming pool in smaller races etc, but I agree that some of the bigger races for both running and tri's are ridiculous. Although ??28 for London doesn't seem too bad, if you think of how many thousands of people run it, they are obviously making a huge huge amount of money from it. I find I don't mind quite as much paying a bit more for a local race as they don't get the sponsors or numbers of racers, but the biggest races seem to totally take the piss.

I have been out for a couple more runs, but am taking it nice and slowly, and trying to go out on days when I'm not too tired as I don't want to come down with anything either - we seem illness free at the moment!

Sorry for not name-checking everyone. It sounds as though there has been some great running going on, and hope everyone who's poorly is feeling better soon.

Still poorly here but just grotty colds so could be worse.  Nicky's wheezing slightly again so have given him his inhaler - starting to wonder if every cold he catches is going to affect his chest?  He's never had it before but now 3 times in about 2 months.  I just haven't had the energy to go to my usual classes, which is really irritating. And the snow is scuppering my running options at the moment too.  Can't wait for it to melt and for this cold to get lost!

Agree about some race prices - I love the little local ones that cost about £8 and just give you a t-shirt or something.  I don't think I could ever afford to do a triathlon, even if I wanted to!

Better get on and do something useful - less than an hour before I have to try and get Nicky in the pram through the snow to school .  At least the main road is clear but we're not on it for long!  And Nicky won't walk in the snow, at least not at any speed that will get us to school before dark 

Cheesecake?  Yum!  

JG - Aidan has been the same with wheezing with every chest infection, and picking up lots of those, this time he has a chesty cough but so far (fingers crossed) we are either on top of it with inhalers or its not turning into a wheeze - hope its the same for Nicky soon too.

Vixo - saw your post of fbook, we have similar melt downs about things that aren't quite right but also can't find out exactly what is wrong!

Finally had some decent sleep last night, lets hope its not a one off!  I would really like to get rid of this throat thing so I can get back to normal, seeing specialist next Tues so hopefully that will provide some answers....

woo hoo to sleep kinsey, that can make a whole lot of difference to life for sure.

Boo to feeling grim JG, horrible colds sweeping the country I think. And to Nicky and the wheezy chest.

Vixo - sounds like you are surviving rather well . A trip to Switzerland would be fab but can understand travelling with three kids is NOT any kind of holiday!  Although the smallest will probably be the least problem. I remember driving to the Dordogne when J was 2.5 and S was 3 months old. J was a nightmare as he wasn't quite potty trained (vivid memories of being stuck in a traffic jam on the Paris perepherique and J needing a poo ) whereas S just needed feeding every few hours and was a dream!!

Tried a small run today and whilst things are a bit better they are definitely not going away so I am hiding all trainers for the next week + I think.  So frustrated though as training coming along nicely, so to console myself have just ordered some dead cheap MBK shoes and pedals (clip-in variety) for my mountain bike. If I can throw myself into that for the next couple of weeks I might keep sane. Trying not to think of races entered and all that ...

RFree how are you doing in your household, are you still germ free ready for the weekend - is this weekend Camlo's pain-fest too?

Proud mum today - J is learning guitar, and I can honestly say he doesn't practice enough but his tutor (group classes) thinks he is coming along fab and keeps giving him more pieces to learn ... .  Kind of counterbalances the fact he's signed himself up for lunchtime XC sessions on Wed and Thur at school and is pretty much last in the runs, but he is enjoying it lots and providing he doesn't care I don't!!

Cheesecake? Cheesecake where, where? I LOVE cheesecake!!
ONly quick post as waiting for hubby to finish his shower and come and eat! Flat out plastering the extension and I've been making mince pies for a church event.
Yippee to double runs, bumpy bike rides and selling the sofa, skiing holidays and peaceful children.
Boo to niggles, germy ladies breathing over you, not awarding 2nd prizes, expensive races and hangovers.
Only had a brief window again today so legged it around the block 5:25M in 45mins so tempo for me.... Hope to do a slow on Friday and then start layering up for Sunday..... Am terrified.

Xpost CC & Kinsey
hmmm not good about no running but yippee to finding another outlet for energy. Where did you get the pedals and shoes from? dead cheap sounds good!
Asthma and wheezing with every chesty prob is common in our house too, very frustrating and scary. hope Nicky and Aiden grow out of it soon.
I wouldnt consider proper holidays with toddlers but then I can't manage 2 and some of you have 3 (or more!!). Crazy ladies......