Ever had day when you felt totally thwarted? A day when those dastardly running plans are scuppered by a serious of unfortunate events?

Take Friday, the planets were all aligned for a perfect trot out. I was working from home allowing plenty of time to run in the morning. As long I was showered and sat at my desk ( in my lady cave) by 9am ready to call into a webinar, no problem, plenty of time for 5 miles. The beauty of working from home one day a week is that you can be at your desk with wet hair, no make up and wearing what we jokingly call in our house ‘the working from home trousers’……think chavvy joggers, meet MC Hammer pants, meet the currently fashionable Primani prints !! Whatever horror that has conjured up in your mind will be about right ! Blissfully comfy and a million miles from my groomed office persona, thank god all our online calls are not video enabled.

It was a beautiful spring morning too, sun shining, birds tweeting ….blah blah flowers in bloom. So nice for a change after the recent endless dearth of British ‘dreary’. It would be one of those morning runs that’s good for the soul, where things smell different and you can feel the seasons changing.

I donned my running gear…..and was scuppered by a teenmonster in need of a bike! That may not sound an issue to a lot of people but I knew I’d need to be on hand because the last time this particular teen rode a bike ( my bike) was about a year ago, so a sudden last minute ‘bike to school’ arranged via group chat on a whim of a few 16 year olds was never going to be easy. It was as high maintenance, if not more complex, than planned and the situation unfolded as predicted. Just one of those conversations that leaves you with a dreadful thought about your own offspring……. ‘you will actually qualify as an adult in around 18 months time, seriously! ‘

‘Can I borrow your bike?’

‘Where’s the shed key?’

‘Can you get it and open it, I can’t do it?’

‘ OMG I’m not going in there, I saw a spider, will you get the bike out for me?’

‘ Where’s the bike lock?’

‘How do you lock it up again?’

‘I’m late, can you lock the shed back up for me’

‘Can I just bring the bike through the house?’ ….. (No! Use the back gate)

‘Can you go round and unlock the gate for me, I’m late’

‘ Bye, can you lock the gate back up for me, I’m late’

…….morning run scuppered!!!

Never mind, there’s always lunchtime. Just reduce the run to a swift 5km, goal achieved for the day. Internet shop due 11-12, another major advantage of a work from home day is getting the shopping delivered and ticking off a tedious weekend chore in advance. Wait, what’s this, a late delivery!! I’ve had Ocado deliveries for 3 years and they are awesome at timing. Why oh why did they have to be late this week? The driver called ahead as always, at least they don’t leave you hanging on wondering where they are ( unlike Asda). But 30 minutes late and the next conference call looming.

……..lunchtime run scuppered!!!

Never mind, there’s always teatime. I started early in advance of the planned morning run so no problem to call it a day around 4, I can always log back on later if needed. Then there’s the call from school and teenmonster 2….’as you’re home, can you come and get me as I’ve got to bring my art home and it’s massive and Jacob’s art is even bigger and still wet and he forgot about it and is on his bike so I said you could drop it off for him too’. Dutiful mother or sucker ?? ( you’d have done it too). Then came the request to go to Tiffin, our favourite home of epic cake, because they’d hardly seen me this week ( they were out and busy, not me !!) and because we haven’t been in ages…….true.

……..teatime run scuppered!!!

I sat in Tiffin eating cake still in my sports bra. By the time I took it off I had it’s imprint like a tattoo from the many hours I was encased in it without running a step.

THWARTED!!

My penance, a promise to run Saturday whatever happened and I did indeed run 8 miles on Saturday morning in the pissing down rain all glimpses of Spring gone again until who knows when.

Categories: Ladies of a Certain Age Running (LCA), Runners Problems

Tags: motivation, running excuse