Well it might not be much and it’s certainly not fast but I have been getting out running! I only managed one run the week after the GSR, but week before last I ran 25 miles, going out 5 times and last week although I only ran 12, going out 3 times, I did run 10 yesterday which was meant to be on Sunday but legs were too heavy. Louise (Miss Pump from long ago!) and I have been out a couple of times and I have been out with my sis-in-law as well who is going from strength to strength and been running far more consistently than me for months now. I have even done two sessions in one day and I’m pleased to have got up to 10 miles again.
I also did the Glasgow Pollock parkrun on Saturday for the first time. My sis-in-law did it two weeks and I looked after the kids and then she looked after them on Saturday and my brother and I ran. What a fab event and although my time was quite rubbish it at least gives me something to work on. It’s certainly a pretty hilly route and I know I really need to work on my hills! I pretty much kept my place though as I was getting overtaken on the ups and then overtaking them on the downhill…and it finished on a downhill! We’re all going to take it in turns looking after the kids to keep doing it.
As I said in the title I have not worn a watch for any of these runs, including the parkrun which felt very strange and I’m not sure I liked that! It is helping though as it would be too depressing to see my time if I had it on. I’ve been doing routes that I know the distance of so that at least I can tally that up. I am planning to build distance and pace up and get back to the club at the beginning of November.
I mentioned before that I felt my breathing was pretty rough all summer and I finally had my appointment at the respiratory clinic at the RAH after being referred by my doctor. The doctor was very helpful, I had to do various tests and describe everything that has been happening to me and at least it felt like someone was listening at last! She bumped me up from a level 2 grade asthmatic to level 3 (goes up to 6) and so has increased and changed my preventative inhaler and told me to keep trying to take the blue one before I start running.
As for my long standing throat problem she thinks it might be a reflux problem, whereby it affects some people quite severely. This is because (if I am remembering this rightly) in pre-historic days we/our ancestors had no voice box and so if they were going to be sick the stomach produced acid to prevent them choking. I rarely feel sick when running, except after speed sessions/hard efforts but this could apparently still be it as in some people the brain thinks this is going to happen and produces the acid. So I have been given tablets to try and stop the production of acid and have another appointment in 3 months to see if it has helped.
I’m not totally convinced as I have not noticed any difference yet but it would take a long, long run to know for sure. I’m still getting some of the same reactions as I previously had though. The tablet is called Omeprazole and I’m taking 20mg a day in case anyone is interested/knows anything else!
The SQH (Standard for Headship) I’m doing which should lead to a masters is taking up a lot of my spare time so I am finding it difficult to fit everything in but am trying to be well planned and time manage with a work/life balance – it certainly makes me feel better being out running again! I’m also off to Malawi again a week on Thursday which has totally crept up on me and is slightly, well more than slightly, panicking me as I’m not ready! I’m going out as part of the partnership with my previous school at my previous head teacher’s request. I’m hoping to set up a new partnership with a nearby school for my new school though and hoping to run again out there as I did before!
I have written a pretty personal blog post on my other blog which touches on Malawi and some other stuff and shows why I am going to try and not get too hung up on not getting my running back to where it was previously/or better – if anyone is interested you can find it here.
