Ouch...legs hurt!

It's been a while since I posted, for all sorts of reasons.

Magic kept us awake all night for four or five nights on the trot last week. Ali, who is wise in the ways of animals, decided that she (Magic, not Ali) must be on heat. This was odd because, coming from a rescue home, she was supposed to have been spayed before being rehomed. Regardless, Ali called the rescue home owner, who picked Magic up yesterday, whisked her off to the vet, and confirmed that she had indeed slipped the net. That oversight has now been rectified. Thankfully Magic doesn't seem to hold her ordeal against us, which is good because since those few days (when I could have cheerfully returned her whence she came) she has become much more settled and is turning into an affectionate member of the household.

Evenings and weekend have been their normal busy selves, spiced with a power outage on Monday just as Ali was about to get the kids something to eat.

And on Sunday I took part in the Victoria Times Colonist 10k run. I was pleasantly surprised by my time (48m43s) which was slightly faster than last year.

Now, let's be clear about one thing. I am not a runner. I don't actually enjoy running. At least not the solitary pavement-pounding that serious practitioners go in for.

But I do enjoy the buzz of a big event like this. Being part of a ten-thousand-strong river of humanity. The periods of eerie hush broken only by the slapping of thousands of feet. The camaraderie of shared suffering and shared encouragement. The good wishes of anonymous spectators. And (best of all) making my kids proud of me at the finish.

So my training regime is based on the minimum necessary to get me safely through the event. This year it consisted of: in March, two brief outings (about 2 & 3km) to get my legs used to the idea of this unaccustomed kind of effort; in April, three visits to the track with a stopwatch, two 4km runs, and one of 6km so the step up to 10km won't come as too much of a shock.

I guess I might need to do a bit more next year if I want to get my time down any further.

All this has left me with the after-effects, of course. Stairs were a bit of a challenge on Monday. By today I felt ready to get back on my bike, but only just, and it was hard going.

So...no more running now, until maybe next year.