Giddy up unicorn

I'd say I was pretty much through my 6 weeks of getting back fitness. I kind of lost count after 4, and got too busy trying to keep up with life.
So the good news....The diet lasted long enough to shift my little belly which took residence during my 6 weeks off. I lasted 4 weeks with no booze, but then I  decided I liked myself better when I'm not grumpy because I'm deprived of the things I love. My jeans got a bit lose at the top and tight in the legs, to some that might be a sign of failure, but to me its success... welcome back quads, you're much more sexy than cellulite. This has been enough to get me back to a happy place.

Everyone's definition of fit is different, so if you think I'm only fooling myself by not weighing in, then that's your opinion which you can keep to yourself. Its only my happiness which matters at the end of the day. I've accepted I will always one of the bigger runners on the start line, but that doesn't mean I'm any less fit. I have muscles to power up hills, curves to hold my skirt up and bewbs (Kerry Suters spelling, not mine) to keep Shock Absorber Bras in business *shameless sponsorship plug*  Some might suggest, all of that coupled with my witty personality and extensive 50s & 60s music collection, makes me a very desirable running partner.

You have to be at least this photogenic to run with my group.

The whole point of this exercise was to get my race fitness back. I wouldn't say its back, but there are a few flickers of hope.

Weeks 1 & 2 made for pretty unfortunate reading. I couldn't run (by run I mean walk) up hills without a back up oxygen tank, I couldn't run with my friends for more than 10 minutes before I got dropped, and I couldn't run more than 5:50min/k on the flat. Oh the shame of it. I was ready to quit.

The circle locates the area where I use to have muscle. First run after 6 weeks off. Tomato face

Weeks 3 & 4 saw the average come down to 5:40min/k... at the time, I didn't see the progress. But it only took one magical morning to change my perspective on things. The one morning BOTH of my friends bailed, and I had to put on my big girl panties and go alone. I busted out 11.2km in 58 minutes. For those of you playing at home... that's a 5:12min/k average. I was shocked, and stunned, and pretty F***ing excited ... I was 'back on the unicorn'.

Weeks 5 & 6 was a mixed bag. 5 went ok, 6 went down the shitter. Probably around the time I had chewed through the last of my iron stores. I'd been on iron supplements since before TuM, but during my 6 weeks off... I stopped taking them, and didn't start again. I don't know what I was expecting to happen when I did start running again. Idiot. Anyways, its taken about 6 weeks for my iron to get low... so I'm back taking those little demon pills religiously.

Here's me at the end of 6km at Hunua. Vomit.

Now that I've counted it out... I've been back running 7 weeks. 7 weeks of genuinely hard work, that I very rarely enjoyed. I'm still struggling and its not easy. Someone made a comment on Saturday that I didn't look like I was enjoying myself. Its partly true, but mostly not. My heart is still in it, I just need something amazing to happen to boost my confidence. So if everyone can NOT turn up to the Speights Westcoaster, and just let me sail away with a win, that would do the trick. Thanks.

In exciting news, I went to an event! I turned up to the 21km Lactic Turkey Big O. I say 'turned up' because I had no intention of racing. Racing breaks things, and I'm taking the less is more approach these days. Racing is not only expensive, but it also takes a fairly hefty toll on me physically.
So to avoid 'racing' this weekend, I decided to wear a fairy dress. Lets face it, there is nothing less serious than a runner in a fairy dress.

I was really enjoyable to just go out and running, crawling and sliding my way through 27km (not 21km, thanks Shaun) of Rotorua's finest bush and trails. Coming into the camp at Okataina, there was a pack of about 4-5 of us. But having marched up 30 minute hill (the steep bastard out of Camp Okataina) a number of times, I didn't bother sifting through a soggy box of lollies, instead I took off knowing I had 30 minutes to stuff my face going up the hill (That was my only real 'race' moment of the day) When I say stuff my face, I mean 1 gel and a chomp which I dropped but deemed still edible.
Have you ever noticed the MASSIVE trees through that section of bush? I never have. Its amazing how much more you see when you're not having a shit fit. After that section was a short bit of bush bashing, where I took a good slip. The fairy dress held up remarkably well in mud. I popped out on to rolley polley farm, which was pretty slow going, at times impossible to see the white markers through white mist. Maybe a different coloured mist would work better next time, perhaps paint the sheep too because I did mistake one for a flag.
I passed an unhappy runner at this point, I didn't want to seem too cheery, because that is my pet peeve. I hate people rubbing it in my face when they're having a good race, and you're having a mole. So I just agreed that it sucked being out there longer, and left him to it.
I ran out of fuel. I was packed for 21... not 27. I wasn't in danger of starving (that's why I keep my layer of endurance fat ;-)) but I certainly wasn't running at optimum levels. I was happy to fall over the final gate and head to the finish. I trotted through in 3:53, it was the first time I'd finished a race with plenty of energy left to burn. I guess that happens when you don't go out and smash yourself. I didn't cry, I didn't grump, I just got shit done.

One thumb up for the Big O, didn't really appreciate those extra kms sorry! I personally liked last years course better, nothing better than seeing your mates throughout a race.

Long runs give you lots of time to think about things. Quite often I'll never remember what I thought about though. I did however have a good deep and meaningful with myself on Saturday and have tried to realign my attitude towards running. I often take things to heart, and get a bit worked up over it. Me, getting emotional, weird right?  So I intend to stop reading too much into what certain people say, as they really have no idea what is discussed between my coach and I. Everything I do in training and racing is according to what I've been told, that excludes meltdowns, James is not an advocate for those. But basically, there is no right or wrong way. The other part is patience. I have less patience then I do iron. I sort of think I'm like the runt of the litter. I'm not quite ready to go and play with the big kids all of the time, but the big kids try and talk me into doing silly shit anyway... FOMO kicks in, then boom, injured and a big fat 'I told you so' from the boss. In the big scheme of things, I'm only a newbie at this running shenanigans, not even 2 full years, so all of you grown ups, stop leading me astray ;-) My other thoughts included what was for dinner, deciding that cleaning my running shoes is the most annoying part about running and I really wanted some Wendy's chilli. I wondered where the Hairy Fairy was, and if my Dad was getting bored waiting for me, I thought about what to do for Christmas, and who would look after Charlie Cat if I went on a holiday. Told you I got a lot of thinking done.

Right, rant and blog over.
I'm off to keep Keith Crook company while we take our bikes for a walk. We ride them sometimes. But mostly just gossip and fix the world.

Lets touch base in a few months ok?

Love yourself.

Leah.