Mind games (with myself)

The River Wye at Miller's Dale

I love these giant Gunnera (I think!) plants. The colour is fantastic and they're massive, at least 5 if not 6 foot high. It's like the tropics!!

White water

The Monsal Trail (a disused railway track) on the viaduct crossing the Wye and Minty-Chops, oblivious to the view!

I liked this track, it still had a slightly summery feel to it and Minty turning round looked very "Littlest Hobo" (does anyone remember that?!)




Rain -soaked hills - it was one hell of a wet walk

A hint of sunshine from time to time just to keep me going until the next shower

The river was racing, really high. Shelagh was desperate to swim but I wouldn't let her. I thought she'd be carried off by the torrent if she got into the strong flowing part of the water.

Yes - I'm a crazy woman and I talk to myself far too much

I managed to drag my sorry carcass out for a run this evening. It is not getting any easier to do but I'm being gradually more sucessful and consistent. I'm managing to run frequently enough that I can remember that, although I really don't feel like it, it will feel better soon! This evening I had promised myself that I would go out whatever the weather and it was a process of slow bargaining and, basically, lying to myself to ensure that I did it!





It's a bit depressing - I enjoyed it more when I genuinely wanted to go out running but at least I'm doing it.





By lying, I mean that I bargain with myself internally. As I drive home and it's spitting with rain (very gentle stuff) I'm saying "you don't need to go out running, but, if you don't, you have to do at least 30 minutes on the trampoline and crunches instead. To stop yourself getting out of it, you have to get changed into your exercise gear straight away".





Then, as I get nearer, I start thinking about the dogs and how much they like getting out. I say "Well, you won't have time to walk them and do your exercise, so you may as well go out for a very quick run. Only 20 minutes. No hills. Just round the block."





Then I get home and force myself into running gear and tell the dogs that we're going out. This ensures that they're really excited and I would feel like a total heel to back out.





Once we're running, I bargain with myself the whole way round - "Right, just up to the gate and back"; "Well, just the small hill." "Okay, you feel better now, do the big hill"; "Well, it would be bad to do less than you did last time out, keep going and do the full circuit"!.





And, somehow, I make it round the full circuit and even, on the way back, run a bit faster.





And the weird thing is I do feel better. I have been in a foul, pre-menstrual mood all day, wanting to snap at colleagues and having very little patience with the dogs and yet, when I came back in, I was much more relaxed and happier. I know it but somehow it still isn't any easier to put it into practise. I'll get there. I'm just breaking the back of the resistance stage!!






The photos are from a walk I did a week last Sunday round Millers Dale (another one of my random, walks-out-of-a-book). It seemed like a nice-ish day when I set off. I thought there might be some minor showers but nothing too bad. About a third of the way round a 6 mile, very hilly and muddy route, it chucked it down for at least 40 minutes. It cleared up but then chucked it down again. Luckily it wasn't cold but it made it pretty hard work, trudging through the wet grass and mud! Still, it was beautiful and I enjoyed the solitude and time to think.