Tuesday 26 August 2014

Fair weather blogging!

It would appear I am a fair weather blogger! I have been struggling a lot and if I am honest I am not good at admitting it. So the fact that I am here typing shows I am feeling better. I think when you have a condition that leaves you in pain pretty much all of the time you become really good at putting on a front and looking to the outside world that all is fine. It is hard to let that guard drop because if it does you might just not get back to functioning like a normal human again.

But actually this time it was not so much a really bad flare up, although I have been knackered and things have been popping it wasn't really any worse than normal. It was more of a mental thing.

When I started this the Spartan Sprint was very much the end game. That was what I was working towards, while trying to raise a bit of awareness (and money please feel free to donate https://www.justgiving.com/bendyspartan/) about EDS. Within my circle of friends I have done that, people who have people I their family have been in touch and it has been great to feel like I have aided understanding a little bit.

So the Spartan, well I think that has been part of the problem. With less than a month to go I am not as fit as I wanted to be, although my expectations were perhaps a little unrealistic. I was genuinely concerned about making it round, both because of fitness and the fear of something dislocating. In my head I think I had convinced myself that if I got fit enough EDS would magically heal itself. Hmmmmm that isn't going to happen, you numpty!

So yes I have been struggling, I have still been plodding along and training, maybe not as much as I could have but I have been trying.

Yesterday I went to bootcamp. Now I would like to point out that this isn't a military style shout at you till you cry kind of bootcamp. It is a very lovely group of folk that just want you to do your best. I went. It was a struggle to get there but I went. First off it was blooming freezing, I had a subluxation of the shoulder after dislocating it on Saturday with a heap of muscle pain around it, my back is not 100% aligned and is refusing to go back in and I have the usual dislocating toes. I thought about not going. But I went. I told myself I would modify and I wouldn't do any shoulder stuff. But I was there and I thought well I just try and do as much as I could. I did it, I gave 100% and I completed everything. It might not have looked like it to anyone else but it was a huge achievement for me.

Not only did it get me through bootcamp but it has given me the confidence to believe I can get round the Spartan. I had visions of galloping round the course, leaping over obstacles, gracefully rising to the top of the rope climb. Yeah, there is going to be nothing graceful about me hauling my bahooki round, over and under to get to the finish! But I will get to the finish, dislocations, subluxations it doesn't matter I can push on through and I can do it.

And do you know what the Spartan isn't the end, I have a feeling it is just the beginning!

Friday 1 August 2014

51 days......

51 days until the Spartan Sprint! 51 days! I feel a bit sick.

It has been a while since I have last blogged, now I would love to tell you that it is because I have been so busy training I have not had time to put finger to keyboard, but, well, erm, not so much.

Chloe broke her arm and had to have an operation which combined with being busy at work, planning a party for my mother in law just left me with not much extra time. It is hard work trying to entertain a child who is used to being on the go ALL of the time when she couldn't.

Anyway, she was fixed by the end of June, then we went to Disneyland Paris (which was amazing!)and now all of a sudden it is the 1st of August and I have 51 days until D-day!

Now time is always a bit of a struggle, as a full time working mum it's always tempting to use any spare minutes just having a bit of a sit down.

I have been training, I have been out running in the mid-day heat (living in Scotland I'm not used to this big orange thing in the sky) but after a morning at the park with Chloe where we both discovered we are still rubbish at monkey bars I don't feel I am doing enough!

So here it is, no excuses, 51 days to get ready, 51 days to dig deep, build strength, build speed, build stamina.

My plan is to keep myself accountable by blogging DAILY what I have done. If I don't post please shout at me :-)