Runners United: the one where we talk about running, life, the universe and everything inbetween

[Pawsnclaws]

New thread everyone!

Rest for me today - just six days to go and I've woken with a sore throat .....

Gosh there are a lot of us Scots on here. Am I the only one of us still living in Scotland though? It's wild and woolly here tonight. I didn't get out to running club as 'D'H forgot to tell me he was on an overnighter at work so I didn't have anyone to look after the boy. Grr...

Welcome, Strangeways

Wow Wheely, that is a seriously impressive time, and that's just in training! Well done

Welcome strangeways!

Rhet, can I just say I love you!!! Have got 4 egg yolks languishing in fridge (left over after shameful meringue-fest) and must be used tomorrow. Custard obviously. But to have with what? Why Damson crumble of course, you having just reminded me I have a bag of stewed damson in the freezer. Get in, as they say!!!
Sympathies on the potty training front. Do you think you are putting pressure on yourself to get it sorted in the next 8 weeks, and maybe that's why it feels so stressful? Love the otter chat btw.

Oh orange, your poor DS, that must be so hard. He sounds absolutely lovely, what a shame the other kids feel the need to make fun of his behaviour, it is just awful, and must be very tough on you too. In an ideal world, we would protect them from ever feeling hurt.

Oh orange that's horrible. Hope you get it sorted out with the school.

I'm another broody one-ordinarily it would have been a straightforward yes and we'd be getting down to it asap but just so many things to think about. Very excited about the thread babies though!

peach - on potty training front, no, not really - given that we only have Tuesdays, Thursdays and the weekends to train her (nursery will not help. At all. ) we are assuming that it will take a while, plus we may as well incorporate the inevitable regression into the process. She kind of wants to now - which is a start at least. It's just so damn frustrating, but I know it's not her fault and that it's all part of the learning process...

the zoo was fun - it's about 15 mins walk away, and is going to be a big feature of our lives: she loves animals - was rather sweetly putting grass over the fence for the rhinos to eat

I am seriously impressed that you make your own custard - it has been known in this house, but generally it's Birds Eye all the way (which I actually love; the man who invented it did so because his wife was allergic to eggs, but adored custard, so he worked out how to make custard without eggs. How cute is that?)

everyone waffling and blustering about human rights on Question Time...my bed is calling

oh and my very needy and severely anorexic student has sent me yet another email...

That is cute rhet. I do love custard, I could eat a big bowl just by itself

wheely you'll have to slow down if we're going to do the GSR 3 legged! I'll never keep up with that pace!

Can I count as 'honorary' Scottish? I've been here for 15 years - was only supposed to be here for 6 months but fell in love - first with Edinburgh then with DH. I think my great granny was Scottish too.

Windy 4 1/2 miles this morning - started off in one direction then realised there were no lights and it was middleofthenight dark, so changed direction to windy but busy and well lit route instead. Does any one else feel really vulnerable out by themselves - in the dark - either first thing, or in the evening? What strategies do any of you have for this? I think I might start having to go to the gym first thing instead - particularly in the bad weather as my lit route gets closed off in high winds.

Anyone do any rowing? I think I've volunteered for a family rowing event in Jan with DHs cousin - thought it might be good cross training goal for over the winter. Think I should be able to train in the gym for it, but will probably need a few practice rows.

Actually Rhet, have never made custard! Just thought it seemed the obvious thing to do with spare yolks! Hope it's not too difficult! So you are saying there are no eggs in Bird's Custard? How odd??? That man must have been a genius then!

Am quite surprised nursery won't help with potty training, just assumed they would!

Really must get to bed. Was knackered all day, but 10 minute Kip while DP did DD's bath (induced by listening to hypnobirthing CD) has fooled my body into thinking it is well rested!

squix am intrigued by what 'a family rowing event' could possibly mean? are you sure they don't just mean yelling and having strops?

But surely you know the old saying "The family that rows together stays together"??? No, me neither!

rhet probably knowing DHs family.

DHs cousin rows (with boats and oars and stuff) and there is a family rowing thing in the town DH was brought up, in Jan and she wants to enter a team.

orange that is awful poor boy, I hope the school response is quite robust

rhet sympathies with potty training, and needy student, does she need mothering?

Rowing dh does sculling, dd always asks if he fell in the water every time he returns from a session that only happened twice but she is not letting him forget it, I think she might have a twisty side to her character, she thought it was funny when he came home nearly blue last February, he fell in the river and it was easier to walk home than walk to club house where his clothes were, and his feet were bleeding a bit, it took a while under the shower to defrost.
I like bigger boats, or a canoe in a warm river.

Also dd's choice of costume for Hallowen is a Dementor what have we done? too much fantasy/sci fi at an early age?

i'm pulling my hair out trying to work out my pace for this weekend, little bit of help please?
my hm pace was 9.46 /mile. i did my 7th mile in 7.31.
my 10k pb is 52 minutes, which i think works out at 8.36/mile
today i did 5k in the treadmill and finished in 26.6 minutes, so that's 8.58/mile and i was exhausted.

is there that much difference between your different paces?? i think i may not have had enough time to train at 10k pace so soon after the hm to beat a pb this weekend, what do you think??

sorry this is such a self centered post! my head is steaming trying to work out the kms into miles and paces etc.

June Just run! Run fast if you feel great. Slow down if you don't feel great!
Generally push yourself all the way round. Enjoy it. Don't be a slave to the Garmin!

Is the course PB possible? I mean how does it compare to when you got your PB? How many people are running? If it's a massive race and you got your PB in a smaller one it'll be harder to achieve (unless you are tonnes fitter than when you got your PB).

rhet I've never heard of a nursery not helping to potty train. How confusing for the child. Have you discussed it with the nursery manager? My DSs nursery was way more proactive than I was and got him into pants much earlier than I would have done. What is their reasoning?

Hi all

I have been here rather infrequently on the threads and in fact you lot talk so much I didn't even realise you were onto a whole new one!
Just flicking through this one, moshi I hope your sf move goes well, it's one of my favourite cities. You could always do the alcatraz triathlon there - one of my life aims, the swim start is jumping off a paddle steamer en mass in the bay
Oh and re scottishness, I am technically a scot and have no English blood despite having lived most of my life in sassenach land

So, have got my race on Sunday, it's 10k. Ive been training well, doing around 6 mile long runs. And even though I haven't been contributing here, I have been reading, and I have to thank you - generally very inspiring and supportive and as a result I'm rubbing better than I ever have

BUT feeling like rubbish today, my back has gone, got the start of a cold and terrible period pains. I'm lying in bed with a heat patch ob my back and hot water bottle on my front.

So,anyone got any tips to help me drag my sorry arse around on Sunday or any inspiring stories?

Hope we're all OK today - wish I'm actually imagining all sorts of aches and pains at the minute, part of the pre-race ritual I think for me. Just done my last 2 mile gentle trot round the block and my knee was creaking and my calf was aching despite having gone a year injury free.

orange didn't want to slope off to bed last night without replying. DS1 is 8, has always been quiet and sensitive. A few months back he asked me what being gay is (he knew that some men are in a relationship with another man and some women are in a relationship with another woman, we had just never used the word gay I think). I told him and asked why and he said he was being called gay a lot at school.

To cut a long long story short ...... it was two/three boys in his year who apparently were saying "urgh you're gay" if another boy stood too close to them in the changing rooms or toilets. DS wasn't remotely bothered about anyone thinking he's gay (he is, as the kids say, "cool" with that!) but he was really hurt because in his words they made it sound like he was really disgusting and had a disease so that's what he thought gay was.

I was fuming, but had a discussion with the school, who IMO didn't handle it well. His teacher's response was "I can assure you they don't know what the word means." So that apparently made it OK then. My response was (1) yes they did. According to DS it was all taking place in the toilets ie urgh he's standing too close to me at the urinal. (2) irrespective of that they were using it in a negative way and I didn't want to hear it. Anyway, after some flimflam about talking to the boys about being unkind generally, it has - for the moment - stopped. I'm not happy with the response but am leaving it for now.

I hope your meeting goes OK, is your ds the only boy being targeted? What helped me was talking to a couple of other parents and finding out that ds was not actually alone, but some of the parents didn't want to raise it at school. Thing is, it's difficult because I knew full well that home was exactly where these boys were getting the attitude from, but no way was I going to allow that to creep into school.

squix I rowed a little bit at university. but, what with being 5 foot, coxing was more my thing. I spent vast amounts of time with 8 burly men, whispering double entendres into a sexy gadget called a cox box ("Give to me harder" "I want more" "longer strokes" etc etc) . I'm talking 6 early mornings plus 5 or 6 afternoon/evening sessions - not all in a boat - some were weight sessions but apparently I needed to be there to time and motivate them . Personally I think they just couldn't bare the idea of me getting a lie in. I got my revenge my having a t-shirt with the team's name on it followed by "the ones with the tiny cox". No points for originality - I expect 100s of such t-shirts exist. but I'm sure there'll be none of that at a family rowing event. just, I expect, fond memories of such juvenile behaviour buried in a load of middle aged minds...

I have two beautiful hand-painted oars for all my efforts. got the names and weights of the crew on them. So many people glance at them and, for some reason, assume they're dh's .

Orange and Paws - we also had the same thing when DS was in year 3. Came home asking what gay was...we told him and asked why and yes, you've guessed it, an older boy was using the term in a derogatory way and using DS's innocence against him. The other boy apparently denied doing it but it happened a number of other times (also via school email system!) and then the school woke up and realised that the boy was doing it on purpose despite his wide eyed pleas of innocence and he was told off and his parents informed. We've made sure that they are no longer in the same class together although DS is older and wiser now and has heard A LOT more serious words ("Mummy...I know the C word..."!)

Back to running...am chucking vitamins down me ..I have got slight sniffles but hopefully I can batter it with healthy eating/vitamins before Sunday.

Hatwoman

Paws I get irritated but 'they don't know what the word means' excuse, explain it to them, I generally do explain words with 'connotations', including swear words, if dd asks, simple terms and why I do not want them repeated, takes the mystique away I find
Your son sounds lovely and well balanced, you are obviously doing a good job

I always remember what my mother told me when I was about 12, some girls had been going on about being in love and loving men and that you can't love women, and that I was queer as I did not have a boyfriend and so on. My mother listened and said they were being silly as of course for one women did love other women, she loved me and she loved her sisters and her friends, and other kind of relationships were for me to decide on later in life, and that at 12 it was too early, and I would be better of building good friendships with boys and girls.

Hope all the ones feeling poorly perk up soon

have a 5k planned for tomorrow morning
and a 10k with friend pacing me on Monday, fingers crossed I start feeling stronger and more positive about such things

I have to say, ladies, that your responses to the gay name-calling (or to be blunt, homophobic bullying, because that is what it is) cheers me up no end; I do worry about this, although I think that dd would probably give as good as she got, but you can never be sure. I really think that schools need to be proactive about it when it arises - an approach like sfxmum's mum seems good to me (except 12 probably isn't too young, most research suggests that people who are gay usually first realised this about the age of 12, in fact)

well I ran some hills, and then a bit of fartlek, which seemed fine, although I am feeling a bit meh about my running at the moment; or probably a bit meh about everything, really

yes the nursery non potty training stance is a bit ; I know no-one here in Ireland who has encountered this. I don't know how the kids who are there 8-5 every day get trained; manager just said that we should move dds days around so as to have a sustained go at it. She did say that they encourage move straight to toilet - so we might have been talking a slight cross-purposes. It makes me want to move her, but that is hardly a good plan with a new baby coming, and certainly won't help her progress with potty training. Just as we start to get somewhere, then they put her back in nappies. Aaargh.

hat I rowed a bit at college, but I'm actually a bit too short to be very good at it (boobs got in the way, too); I rather like rowing machines though

house is a tip, and I have reached the end of my tolerance, so it looks like I am going to clean for the morning now.

Hat, your post really made me laugh , you are a woman of many talents!!!

To all those will troubles at school, am so impressed with the way you have dealt with it. All your kids sound lovely. When they are wee you can keep them in a little bubble and make sure nobody can hurt them, but once they are at school....sigh.

June, I think it will really depend on the course, but it is hard to train for a half and a 10k, so just enjoy it and see how it goes. Oh, and as always, don't zip off too early!!!

Orange I hope the school takes the right line on this. The school should be educating the children not to be ridiculously prejudiced in general, as well as taking steps to prevent the bullying of your DS in particular.

Rhet if your DD was in nursery 8-6 every day, how on earth would she learn about the potty . I've been guiltily relieved that because I was working full time at that time, the nursery took on the bulk of the training (tho I think they learn a lot from being with the other children. There was a lot of group toilet visiting!). But don't worry, they all get it eventually - definitely one for the "this too will pass" mantra!

Squix I rowed at college, and have been wondering about going back as a vet since Durham is very active (and the river is lovely). Was talking to another woman about it last Saturday actually, as one of the other parkrun marshalls was an ex-boatie. Would all depend on the timings of the outings, really. Such a lovely feeling though, skimming across the water - and such a great work out. Hatwoman tee hee at the tiny cox ... we've got a house full of pictures of crews here, DP was a bit keen in his youth.

Just to keep the thread stats in order, I'm not Scottish, not even a little little bit. It is the most beautiful place though. We did the Southern Upland Way a few (pre DC) years ago, but I've never walked in the Highlands, tho I'd really really like to....

6 miles this morning, beautiful beautiful day - all golden and sunny. I think I was having too nice a time, gone off in a total reverie and then tripped over a log. So sitting here with a bag of frozen sweetcorn on my knee, cos my leg hurts to bend it. Hope it's better tomorrow as I'd had a PB bashing planned for the parkrun!

some of you may be vaguely aware that fell running brings with it its own heroes. some are world-class athletes who chose a non-world-class sport, iyswim. many are unassuming lovers of the country-side. many are (unsurprisingly) northerners. many stay involved for life - marshalling, training, advising. Bill Smith was one of them. His death - on the fells - was confirmed yesterday. I thought I'd share this write up with you - it gives a flavour of why I fell in love with fell running.

Ignore the moronic comments.

legendary, hat, thanks for posting that. There is a small band of mountain runners in Ireland, but they are mostly male, and mostly quite fast.

Must look up Todmorden Boundary walk - DD's dad's family are from Tod and very proud of their town