Stalker Pigeons and Discarded Brollies

Tuesday 19^th June             Tuesday 16^th June           Saturday 23^rd June

Distance: 3:40 mile           Distance:                        Distance: 4:13m
Time: 1:22:00 min            Time:  60:00min              Time:  56:47min
Avg Speed: 2:46 kmph                                             Avg Speed: 4:36 kmph
Avg Pace: 24:24                                                      Avg Pace: 13:45 min/mile
Calories Burned: 496        Calories burned 95           Calories Burned: 739
Walking                           Workout class                   Run

Well dear reader I had a busy little week. As promised in my last blog I have stepped up the pace a little. I had the opportunity through the school I am currently at to partake in a few extra activities. Firstly on Tuesday morning we walked – at a very brisk pace I might add- all the Year 5 and 6 children from school to Leeds Town Hall for a fabulous concert by the Opera North Orchestra on the theme of space. We were treated to renditions of the Star Trek Themes, (an arrangement of all the series and film scores) Star Wars and extracts from The Planets Suite to name but a few. It was glorious and I found myself thinking ‘Wow! I am been paid for watching this!’ We then walked the children back to school. It was a round trip of 3.4 miles and accompanied by the usual child protests of ‘It’s too far’ ‘I can’t walk any more’ ‘ Missssss you are going too fast’ and of course the obligatory ‘Are we there yet?’

School done I felt quite refreshed and I had brought my running and swimming kit to work with me as I had the intention to go to the gym and pound the treadmill. As I was leaving school there was an exercise class on which is led by one of the mums. I had seen this class before and had kept saying that I would go. So as it was there in front of me and at £1 for the hour, a lot cheaper than a run on the treadmills, I decided to stay. I mistakenly thought that it was a gentle but stimulating dancercise type class. How wrong was I? The leader punished me for an hour through all kinds of push ups and abs crunches. By the end I was sweating like a hog and aching in places I barely knew existed! However I am sure it has done me some good and as an extra work out it was an opportunity to work a different set of muscles.

On Thursday I went to the pool for a swim only to find that it did not open till 6pm and as that would mean an 80 minute wait and eating after 6pm plus my Raison D’etre was en route to the pool too. A quick phone call determined that neither of us wanted to get home after 7pm so we ducked out and went home. I know I hear the cries of ‘wimp’ but as a new eating regime is part of my up-tempo training plan I am trying to make sure we eat earlier in the evening and not have big heavy meals later on so that is my excuse and I am sticking to it!

And so to Saturday. For the first time in a long time I did not wake before the alarm in fact I struggled to wake at all. I really did not want to get up. My body still ached from Tuesday and what I did not know at the time was I was very run down and about to go down with a bout of ‘English Summer Cold Syndrome’ which would manifest itself by Monday evening. None the less out of bed I got and once kitted up (which seemed to take longer than usual, perhaps my reluctance was manifesting through slowed responses?) I set off on my tried and tested route.

My legs were heavy and sluggish and I struggled to get into a good pace so I just went as far as the Otley Old Road junction at Weetwood, turned and came home. I knew it was a poor run even before I checked my stats and a best lap time of 11.43 confirmed that I was slow today. Furthermore it was raining.

On the run I was amused by two things. I always look for inspiration for these ramblings whilst out trotting through Headingley. The first thing that peeked my interest was the presence of what seemed to be a stalker. I first spotted him as I cut through the Granbys (after unlocking the Church Hall gates). He was sitting on a gate post and looked straight at me. I saw him again on Otley Road at the junction of St Chads Crescent, again on the St Chads fields and yet again at the sight of the old Yorkshire Water filter beds. Now I feel your concern, ‘a stalker’ you all cry ‘good grief woman were you alright?’ Clarification needed here to assuage your generous anxiety for my early morning safety. What I did not say was that he was of the ornithological variety rather than the human species. In short a Wood Pigeon. Ahhhh! Goes up the collective sigh, I doubt that it was the same pigeon at all these places but who knows perhaps he was a fan of my blog and wanted to cheer me along nevertheless he (or others of his genus) appeared everywhere. Early risers these birds you know.

My second cause of thought provoking brain diversion was the abundance of discarded umbrellas. For those of you not familiar with a British summer an umbrella is De rigueur in fact the phrase ‘British Summertime’ is the greatest oxymoron of all. To say it has rained here is an understatement of biblical proportions. IT HAS RAINED AND RAINED AND RAINED AND RAINED for weeks now and clearly some people have decided that an umbrella no longer suffices and are instead building large ark like structures and gathering animals in twos! I found myself wondering about discarded ‘brollies’ and the people who had left them. Clearly they must have got wet because the rain had not ebbed - indeed it has been continuous for weeks now. So were these people just giving up or had they purchased new superior models? Whatever the reason along my route was the discarded evidence of a summer without sun. My barbeque has not been out once, my garden furniture is still in the shed and has not been out all year and yet we had the longest day this week the nights will start drawing in and my thoughts have already turned to Christmas, all that before a single peep of sunshine! Let’s hope for sun next week as I have a BBQ planed and more importantly I am an ambassador for the Olympic torch relay…. Oh yes more of that next week.

So as always I close with my usual appeal. I tested the link recently and discovered that the link to the MDC was not working so I have reposted it here, if it does not work let me know. I write these missives to bring awareness to the cause of Muscular Dystrophy and if any of you good blog readers out there want to sponsor me in my endeavours you can follow my link to the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign its work, outreach, campaigns and research just log on to www.muscular-dystrophy.org and see why I am doing this. If you feel you want to support me then please log onto my ‘Just Giving’ account and make a donation www.justgiving.com/Team-LewisMDC. A huge thanks you to all of you who have donated already.



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