Warning : Floss Ramble!
Hello everyone.
It's me again. Just popping up here, after popping into Catch-Up Corner on the C25K forum.
Well, I have been having a happy running time recently, finding great fun using the NRC app, enjoying a real fling with Coach Bennett, despite his propensity for spending as much time with others as he does with me, and moving forward, slowly and steadily.
I have had a few really enjoyable runs, since embarking on the NRC HM training plan, following the guided runs and tweaking here and there to give myself extra rest days or to use another run where I felt it was necessary for me.
My last run on Sunday was a long run for Week 2 of the plan... just 6K.. For me, this was typical of what were once, my usual regular, Sunday Runday runs; relaxed and easy paced. The, see where I get to, runs, taking me here, there and everywhere and all the time building up stamina and core strength.
It was a glorious morning if a tad chilly to begin with and with a very sharp wind! Suffice to say the run was done and I was all set for a Monday's work out day caring for small, ( not so small now), runner in training and then heading to the coast...Sunday night, a tad wakeful with the first twinges of a recurring sinus issue. ( More later).
So Tuesday morning dawns after a not so good night's sleep I do a very short run down to the GPs and eventually get a prescription to take to Wales for antibiotics for what now, is a blocked sinus
Glad I got a short run in !
Off we go.
Now here, is where I pause for thought.. Hmmm!
I sometimes wonder if the words I write, mean to others, what they mean to me. I think them, I say them and I believe them. Sometimes though, I wish I took a lot more notice of the words I use and the words I share with others, like advice on being kind to ourselves.
After another not so good night's sleep, Wednesday morning dawned... the morning sun fingering the curtains, and the birds in the trees outside the window, disrespectful and uncaring in their melodious chattering. I am up, and warming up, gear on and ready to go. I did have the common sense to NOT do the Speed run which was the last run of Week 2. Aware of increasing pressure in my sinus, pain along the cheek bone and my ear... I only did 20 minutes.. How sensible am I ?
[Fast forward... a few hours later after discovering electronic prescriptions can NOT be filled in Wales, and a 20 minute + consultation with an amazing Pharmacist trained and working in the Common Ailments Scheme. I had a seven day course of hefty antibiotics to ease the now, pretty draining, pain in my right side of my face.}
But I digress...the run. Oh the run ! What a run?
It may have lacked style it may have lacked speed, but every second was filled with sights, sounds, smells, sensations, and sheer enjoyment.
From the app, I chose Tough Day... Easy Run / 20 minutes of him, me and the run.
I warmed up very gently; from the onset, the word, easy, is fixed into your brain. E...A..S...Y... it slides into your ear and wraps itself snake-like around your mind, and slowly , almost sensuously, slides its way over your whole running body and down into your feet. You can do nothing, but follow the word,
My feet were light, my breathing was easy, and my Welsh corner of delight, spread beneath me like the Cloths of Heaven in Yeats' poem.
Sunlight and sparkle, shadow and light... the gleam and the glisten... The sun piercing the water with spears of silver, and the waves, white-frilled ripples of laughter, along a shining shore.
On runs like this, my feet take me.
I just let them. My body is almost weightless and I am able to lose myself in the wonder of the morning.
Resisting any residual urge to move any faster down towards the sea, my feet make no sound and the small birds dance in and out of the hedgerow, almost in time with me. The Esplanade is empty, devoid of man or beast.
The shore, the tide receding slowly, is empty also, no sea bird resting here, and watching, as ever, from a rocky throne, the castle. That kindly but stony-faced Guardian of a small town, which has a place, forever, in my heart.
I run along the paved way, feet still silent . At intervals, the disembodied voice murmurs encouragement , quietly, reassuringly, and that word, Easy, punctuates every sentence.
I run back down the beach ramp and along the ever growing shore, polished pebble and slippery stoned, down to the wet sand. I am cautious of the pull of wet sand, but my pace is so slow, that I feel comfortable. A few moments left and CB counts me down to the Finish Line.
A few photographs are called for... and of course a paddle in the sea.
I feel so strong...
But...
Yesterday was spent just sitting and sleeping. Antibiotics and I do not meet often and they let me feel their power. On my decking, in the shade of an umbrella overlooking the sea, listening to the birds and letting the wonders of science work their magic, also.
Three days into the antibiotics... and the pressure has eased a tad.
I maybe should not have run... I ignored my own advice. But I shall not run now, until next week. I shall be fully recovered before I head out again,
Am I glad I ran. I am.
But... ( There's another, but? )
Yes there is. I am I feel going to have to listen to my body a little harder right now. I have been building back slowly and steadily from my blip in 2020, and have indeed got back to 10K...I have upped my runs gently, but despite this I am not making the ground I had hoped. My weight gain is there but so, so slowly increasing ... and I do need to pile on a bit more muscle to do the runs I wish to.
I am going to ease back, not run, until my course of antibiotics had finished and then maybe run with a tad more rest in between.
To coin a phrase, I used in a past Catch-up Corner post... I am going for while, to follow the three A principle.
Acknowledge, Accept and Adapt.
Happy, safe running, everybody!
Floss x
🍏When it all goes wrong 😑 
Hill free hill workout
A toughed-out 5k: An investment in my future
The beauty of the beach. 
