Can you believe that I haven't writen up a blog for each exercise (.........Yay...I can hear all screaming) But don't worry, I won't tell you about each one, this blog is a bit different. It's just by feelings about it all. It's about how I am handling stuff, and how I must stop feeling bloody sorry for myself that "I can't run, I can't do it" Because the fact is, I can do it, I do, do it! Right now I am one of the lucky ones that don't have Covid-19 and I don't have to go out to work 'in the field'. I have been furloughed! I a safe at home!
It's blimmin hard hard though, getting out there are running. Mentally hard, I don't know why either. Why? What is my problem? My friends are all struggling too, we are not used to self isolation, we are social people, we love to talk and chat over a coffee. Even when we've taken a week off from work, yes, we enjoyed our solitude, but we still had coffee, we still went shopping, we still stopped and chatted to neighbours, friends even strangers on the street! Now we are scared to pass by anyone, we make at least twelve foot gaps as people avoid contact. It's most disturbing. People are suspicious of runners as they run up towards them or behind them. The banter that has been going around about how runners shouldn't be doing it any more, 'they will spoil it for everyone else', 'they will make it be total lock down.' The thing is, yes, there are people that are disobeying the guidelines but not just runners, not just cyclists, but everybody. Dear Boris said that we can go for a run, walk or cycle, in our local area. But because nearly everyone is off, furloughed, working from home etc, everybody is taking Boris at his word. Families are going out for a walk....together....not one parent with one child then other parent with another child, the whole family are going, taking up all the path, the children on their scooters or bikes dogs on leads! Normally it's fine, of course it's fine, it's fine for everyone to get out for their one piece of daily exercise per day, it's beautiful to see families enjoying their time together. But we all need to be mindful of the guidelines! We all need to abide by them. Listening to people on the news about 'those runners running up behind you, breathing all over you, passing with just inches to spare', where are they,...where are we meant to go? Someone described going out of the house as a 'mission to get food during a zombie apocolypse'. It really feels like it, it really does. The suspicion you feel when you step outside your door is quite heavy on people, on me!
One of my club runner pals wrote up his own running code of conduct, our club wrote up the same thing too, this is it,
• I will only run a maximum of once a day, preferably for no more than an hour.
• I will stay local to my home and take my phone and ICE details with me.
• I will run on my own, as much as possible. I may run with other members of my co-habiting family, to assist them with their exercise needs.
• I will try and run at times and in places where there are as few other people as possible.
• If I need to pass you when approaching from behind, I will politely call out to give you time to move to one side. I will, however, ensure that I do not make you move off a path or pavement. I will do that, if necessary, and safe to do so.
• If you move for me whether coming from behind or the front, I will thank you.
• I will run in the road if safe and possible, to give you greater space.
• I will run at a comfortable pace or slower, if needed. Please be aware my comfortable pace may be faster than some (and slower than others!), but I will attempt not to run in an aggressive manner at all times.
• I will not, under any circumstances, spit.
• I consider that, at all times, the pedestrian should be treated as having right of way on a path or pavement. I will, at all times, try to be the one who moves away from you, where safe and possible.
• If I do pass at all close to you, I will hold my breath or cover my mouth with my running buff, to add protection to you.
Stay safe everyone
It is a very good code, and one that I have been practising my self, even though I didn't realise it, I don't wear my buff though, but I do hold my breath. I thought I was weird doing that! What do the 'walkers do' the ones that usually at work during the day, the ones that have been complaining on the telly, do they see the runners and step aside? By what they have been saying on the tv, no. Fortunately I have not experienced anything like those on the news! The area I live, people are friendly, they are polite, they move out of the way as well as me! There is always a thank you. I hope and pray that it will continue this way. But it is still so very scary out there.
I have been exercising, either running, on my friends bike in doors or with an app on my gadgets. I have also been walking Naggy's dog, she is one of them on the front line, in Lewisham Hospital, we have quite a few PWR NHS workers actually, all getting on with their jobs, urging us to do what we have been told! With all the exercise I've been doing something in my head has just stopped me from writing it all down, procrastinating? Hmmm, maybe. But I have not been 'motivated' to blog my thoughts and feelings, I felt it would have all been negative, just like this blog actually, and just like it was again today when I was out running, like all the other exercises I've been doing, there's been tears! I am really struggling to keep on running. I am not going to stop that's for sure, well not until our government say so, but I am finding myself taking more walks, beating myself up, wanting the exercise to finish! I feel good once it's all done, don't get me wrong, but also I feel emotionally drained. and even writing that bit, 'I feel emotionally drained' I feel like such a fraud! How can I feel drained, when our key workers are out there dealing with Covid head on! All I have to do is to sit on my arse and do nothing, save lives by doing nothing! It's definitely not the short straw! Don't meet up with others from other households, definitely not the short straw! Shop only when I need things, well, my husband and son have been doing the shopping, so again, no short straw! All this is just a blip in our life time, a blink and it will be all over, IT WILL BE OVER. I can't wait for us human beings to kick Corona Virus ass, we will do it, we will survive. We will be able to pop around for coffee again, hug our families, have those BBQ's, only we will appreciate it so much more, we will make an extra special effort to stay in contact with our friends and loved ones, I know I have done that now, you know who your friends are. I don't know about you, but during these couple of weeks I have spoken to my family and friends more often during the week than before this. My family and my friends are just that little bit more important these days. And as our Queen said in her speech on Sunday, ''We will meet again!" and boy when we do......
For today, I am just going to list my exercise, not my walking, that was just Garmin turning on automatically, and just leave it at that!
30th March 4th solo run Peloton
31st March Class on Peloton
1st April 5th Solo run using Peloton
2nd April Cycling (indoor) Trip around Vicar Of Dibley country(FulGaz)
3rd April 6th Solo run using Peloton
4th April 7th Solo run (parkrun day) with Spotify
6th April Cycling (indoor) Trip around Windsor park (FulGaz)
7th April 8th Solo run using Peloton
Stay safe everyone, keep to the government guidelines, be kind, stay kind, we will get through all this shit! I shall be saying prayers for all of us.
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