When I Have Time

The day job is squeezing the life out of me. Major project going down, so the whole team are pulling out all the stops for deadline day. Cue early morning starts, late night finishes, and work all through the weekend. Why, I barely have time to squeeze the odd run in.

Luckily, I`ve prioritized running over housework and sleep, so yeah, the training gets done.

I am longing to get my life back, though and, when I am pounding the roads these days, I let my mind meander on what I will do, when I have the time. They fall into two categories: the must-dos and the would-like-to-dos. You`ll have no trouble spotting which is which.

When I have time I will…

…Go on an art gallery crawl in Some City or Anyville, just to soak up the sights and colours and observe my fellow spectators.
…try to figure out how to turn on the TV and then watch whatever I want for a whole twelve hours.( Kids, I hope you`re reading this.)

…download Spotify, because Teen Son says it`s the way to go and my CD collection embarrasses him

…find a partner for all my sports`socks.

…find the black hole in our home where all the odd socks have congregated

…finally assemble my Ikea bookshelves

…mow the lawn

…file my tax returns

…clean the oven
…review my health insurance

…call on my neighbours to let them know I am still in the land of the living

…send my nephew a belated birthday card for his February birthday, enclosing a voucher to ease his grief

…figure out how to set the Virtual Partner on my Garmin so I can finally outrun him

…read all the books that I have stockpiled at my bedside, and on my kindle ap

…book a pedicure and a manicure

…book a mammogram

…catch up on all the films I missed this season

…go to anything in any theatre

…unpack that fancy new digital camera I got and figure out how to use it

…book dinner with some of my gal pals and enjoy a long catch up chat

…break open my art materials and start painting again

…watch a war movie with my sons

…watch a chick flick with my girl

…catch up on all the posts on my WordPress reader and send each one a sincere comment

…unleash two new Ottolenghi recipes and one new dessert recipe on my children

…get back into swimming again

…go watch a marathon

As long as I can, I will always run. It is too fundamental to my well-being to let that go.

Now, what do you dream of doing when you have time?

 

Aran and I ran

 

Especially for Paigesato… and all you other crafty bloggers out there… yep,this is my latest knitting project. I bought the wool last September and here I am, on the twelfth row of the Aran pattern.Luckily I run faster than I knit.If I keep going at this rate, I might have it done in time for next October`s Dublin City Marathon.

Mind you, I could`ve done with it this evening. I wriggled out of this morning`s LSR on the basis that it was just so c-c-cold.Temps read just below freezing but it was the added wind chill factor that morphed me into a complete wimp and I bailed on my morning`s run.

Instead, I lolled about the place,eating like an athlete. Just got the appetite from hell today. Don`t know where it came from but all I wanted was food. Cereal, bread, tomatoes, olives, goats`cheese. Yep, all good stuff, but then I found some chocolates, and later on had a large slice of coffee cake. Curry, carrot and coriander soup all passed the lips in record speed. At one point I even considered stealing one of the kids` Easter eggs. `Til my conscience finally intervened. It was a close thing though.

Of course my inner saboteur convinced me that I would burn the lot off with my Sunday long slow run. Problem was, I`d put off the LSR and it loomed like  large cloud over my whole day. I almost chickened out on it too but guilt whipped my ass out there tonight and even though I didn`t go as far as I should have, I managed a grand six miles and in a new route, with some elevation thrown in.

Temps still at freexing point when I got out there. Pretty amazing actually, as I know this time last year I was on the beach with my girl basking in unseasonably warm sunshine. It turned out to be the best sunshine of our Irish summer. Meanwhile. I`ve heard today, that we`re having the coldest March in fifty years. I can testify to that. I ran in thermal base layer, t shirt, fleece, leggings and beanie.Didn`t take off the fleece til my run is over. That`s a rare thing for me as I warm up very quickly.

Cue need for cosy Aran jumper.

Hopefully, Spring will have truly sprung before I get my aran knitted. If you look closely at the picture you`ll see my garmin on the book stash all ready to offload it`s data onto garmin connect. Have to say, I love that nifty little record keeper. Then there`s the bookstash itself. Two Leonard Cohen biogs. and Danny Dreyer`s Chi Running. I`ve yet to work my way through them all, having, perilously, read bits of each.

Yep, on the running, reading, knitting front there`s lots more to do.

Oh well, busy is good, right?

Interminable Rain

Pic from www.imgur.com

Aw… poor little guy. And, after yesterday, I know exactly what he feels like…

Torrential rain in these parts. In this pic, the orangutan is sheltering from the monsoons of Borneo. At least monsoon rains are warm. No such luck here in Ireland. We had hours of wind and rain and c..c..c..cold like I`d never seen before.

Since I`ve started running regularly of course, I`m more attuned to the elements. Whereas before I would have closed the curtains and shut the door on the elements and curled up by the fire, now, I`m like a little kid with my nose pressed up to the window wondering if I`ll get out at all today.

And there was no way in hell I was going out in yesterday`s squalls. Should`ve stayed home and done core exercises. But instead I stayed home and ate creme eggs. No, there is no correlation between the two, except that more of one is required to offset the effects of the other. And I know which one I prefer to be doing.

Sigh.

And that neatly describes my relationship with running. I`m a fair weather runner.

Damn, someone stole that name already for their blog!

On the plus side, I got to fool around about with wordpress. Boy, but it`s a complex planet: so many themes, too many choices. I inadvertentently changed my theme to the one you see here now. I like it though. It reminds me that my heart is also in art and that I really should spend a little more time updating my photography, painting and knitting interests. And maybe even blog them on here.

I also found a fab photography blog. I`m sure there`s a ton more out there too but this one really appealed. Back when I started running I used to take the camera along and enjoy a photorun. I reminded me that I`ve gotta do that again.

And I have an ongoing knitting project in the works with the beginings of an aran jumper in my knitting basket. More pics and updates to follow….

And the very best of news. I start two weeks holidays today so I`m going to knit and photograph and swim and run to my heart`s content.

Oh, and blog it all here, of course.