Apparently I have strained a ligament so was told to rest. After some searching on t’internet it seems I may have upset my Iliotibial Band so I have been doing a lot of particular stretches in order to sort it out.

For me, running is about getting some time alone with my thoughts to relieve stress in addition to getting fitter.

So being told that I wasn’t allowed to run immediately put me on edge and wondering what I can do to keep myself sane.

Here I am with one day to go before I can head out for a short steady run to see whether or not the rest has worked. So what have I been doing to keep my stress levels down and grumpiness at bay:

Making bread and Knitting

and sorting out the junk I have amassed to sell on ebay. I feel I have come through it relatively unscathed but I am praying that rest and stretching has worked its magic.

Will let you know how I get on.

What would you do to keep yourself sane if running was temporarily not allowed?

So today was a day for organisation – starting with my son’s bombsite of a bedroom but it was also a day for spending some one to one time with my little man. Don’t get me wrong, both Deaghlan and I have had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends but we actually didn’t have much time on our own together until today.

In between cleaning and organising, we found time to play Top Trumps, Scrabble and had an extra long read at bedtime. Time to draw the holiday to a close and start getting back into early mornings, homework, a lot of ‘I dunno’ responses when I ask what he did at school plus a lot more exercise for me.

Headed back to the gym this evening and completed another 3km run which I have to say I found hard tonight. But I finished it in a good time (for me) and didn’t slow the treadmill down when the going got tough.

Treadmill

Distance: 3km

Time: 22.35

Average: 7.45 mins/km

Sleep evaded me the previous night and I had an early start to get my nephew to Gatwick by 7.30am.

It seems that whenever I have to set my alarm early in order to get to the airport on time, I never sleep properly.

I spend the night waking up practically every 30 mins to an hour, checking the time or checking that the alarm has been set correctly. I drive myself mad doing this and ultimately spend the entire night dozing. When the alarm goes off, I actually feel relieved rather than grumpy that I didn’t get a good night sleep.

Does this happen to anyone else? Or am I the only one torturing myself?

Anyway, we got up and made it to Gatwick on time. No traffic on the M25 certainly helped.

I did manage a fair bit of pacing round the South Terminal after my nephew was signed over to airline staff as I wasn’t allowed to leave the airport until his plane was in the air. But I can’t really log that as my contribution to day 3 of Janathon.

Drove the 2 hours home and promptly fell asleep on the sofa!

Day 4 will be a more productive day!

My aim was to avoid both – I successfully out-manoeuvred a hangover by taking it easy on the champagne last night but a family problem put paid to the ‘best foot forward’ approach to the first day of 2011.

So I’ve spent most of today on the telephone to my sister in Ireland and calming my stressed nephew who has been staying with me for a few days. All was resolved by the time darkness fell and nephew promptly fell asleep on the sofa leaving me with no opportunity to run. (My high level of clumsiness in the daytime means that I’m not trusted to run in the dark alone)

So I dusted off an old yoga dvd and spent half an hour trying to contort myself into positions that apparently will ‘trim my midriff and strengthen my spine’ according the the monotonous lady who doesn’t say much else.

Not an ideal start to Janathon but I’m pleased that I managed a decent level of activity. Tomorrow the gym re-opens and we have also planned a long walk with friends in Constable country so I can only improve – right?

Total activity – 30 mins of yoga

Well, I’m a 30 something fiery character with solid Irish roots. I’m a full time working mum of one and although not officially but might as well be step-mother to three with tech and tea support supplied by Gary.

Life and work is manic, budget tightening, messy, generally good fun as long as there is a supply of tea and chocolate.

My posts will generally cover all of the above and I look forward to sharing thoughts, laughs and plenty of chocolate.