My Forum

I'm sorry about your brother in law, Terence. Hope it is a slow-burning version of the disease.

I have a problem! The finger I dislocated on January 29 when I tripped while running is still painful and swollen, although it was "relocated back" at the hospital.  I've only just managed to be able to hold a pen well enough to write in the last few days.

 Well, I know I don't run with my fingers, however the constant pain does keep reminding me of my fall. I'm being a total wimp about starting again. I keep meaning to, and then the pain butts in and then I get really scared about falling again. 

Does anyone have any tips for getting over this type of mental block? For the first two weeks, I was too scared to leave the house at all in case I fell in the street. I'm now making myself walk to places whenever possible, but that's as far as I seem to be able to manage. 

I've had a fear of falling most of my life, because I  have a lousy sense of balance.  So when I do fall, it does nasty things to my mind as well as to my body. 

 Columba, when I was with my daughter over Xmas, she found a purse with credit card and Oyster card on the street. She took it to Wimbledon station, where the idiot in the ticket office cut up the card and tossed the purse into lost property. Fortunately, she remembered the name on the card, phoned up the bank herself, and the bank managed to identify the owner and promised to let the owner know the purse was at the station. 

Heigh ho,

 Thought I'd go out for a run about 4pm. Five minutes in and just starting running, I tipped over the kerb. 

 As well as a most unaesthetic graze above the lips, which bled profusely for a while, and a swollen nose, I noticed little finger of right hand was at a strange angle and I could not bend it. Luckily I was able to get back home before the real problems started.

 Hmmm, can't drive myself into A+E 12 miles away, no one here I can ask to drive me because I do not know anyone socially let alone on a friendship basis, all local taxis need to be booked in advance, don't know buses and once the shock set in I was on the floor in the living room trying not to pass out and unable to go upstairs to the computer to look up bus times. So I phoned an ambulance, which came after 3 hours (OK, I wasn't a real emergency so chwarateg as they say here - fair enough). 

Just got back at 11pm, fortunately A+E reception found a taxi company willing to brave the wilds of Treorci to take me back home - cost me £22! The good news is the finger was only badly dislocated, not broken. Doctors very nice. When I paled and said I was squeamish, they said they would apply freezing spray to finger before injecting local anaesthetic prior to "re-locating" procedure. When I said I had a low pain threshold, they wheeled in a laughing gas machine for me. Wheee!!!!!  Total pissedness feeling with no hangover and no calories! I can truly say I was totally unaware of the procedure itself. 

I'm now about to eat after having only one omelette so far today. I'm following a strict but successful diet (Dukan) which has removed 17 lbs since Xmas. I put on 3.5 stone since my surgery in 2008 plus subsequent horrors so really need to lose weight badly. Alcohol is forbidden, but sod it, I'm having a VERY large glass of wine with dinner tonight. 

 Think I might need to wait a bit before running again. I'll cross-train by delivering Welsh Assembly election leaflets once more tomorrow. Since I probably will not be able to drive, I'll have a 2 mile walk plus steep uphill climb to my destination streets as well as the delivery itself, which will provide good cross-training. 

Hello Jim, Nice to see you again (says she who was once Tehuti)

 Every time I travel, it seems to take me days to get back into the swing of things, and having election newsletter deliveries to fit in isn't helping. 

Rome was very cold. Fortunately, the hotel supplied a polar fleece blanket. I managed one run while there, but also had to do a lot of walking so got in a good deal of cross-training. Unfortunately, I did not have time to catch the hotel shuttle to a big park that is supposedly lovely for runnning and instead had to stick to the roads round the hotel and weave my way on and off the pavement around cars and people. 

Managed to run today. What I find curious with the schedule, and a little bit disappointing as well I must admit, is that as the running sections increase in time and the walk breaks decrease, my overall pace gets slower. I'm now at 3x 8 min run/2 min walk and am over a minute slower per mile than when I was doing 1min/1min. Still, I'm letting things develop in their own way and refuse to get concerned about it.