Stress – Page 22 – My Outdoor Living Room

I shall start this first post of the year by wishing both of my readers a very happy New Year. I hope you enjoy reading this one. I can guarantee it’s the best thing I’ve written this decade so far.

Christmas and New Year were very enjoyable and different to what I’m used to, but in a good way. In the midst of all the festivities also was a house move, which, truth be told, is still ongoing. Towards the Christmas break however, I could, and still can, feel my general confidence level plummeting. There are probably many reasons as to why this is happening. One thought might be that so much happened to me last year, mostly in the summer, as well as achieving so many of my goals. By the end of September, I had had my first ever DNF and was almost definitely at the mercy of a potentially long-term injury. Two very unusual events for me as I’ve lived a seemingly charmed life in my physical activity existence. Being injured has held me back a little and I do feel out of shape, feeling reluctant to push myself like I used to.

My new tradition (second year) is competing in RED (Run Every Day) January. I headed out for run number two and felt up against it so decided to push it a bit and by the time I got home, I felt like I used to years ago when I first started to run seriously – fairly sweaty, suitably pushed and most importantly, buoyant on endorphins. It left me very satisfied and feeling raring to go for my next session, so I am able to see the positive in my fitness slipping.

With last year being pinned down by three ultra marathons, a Fan Dance and two Paras 10 races, I feel 2020 should be a return after a three year absence to road marathons to rediscover why I run to begin with. In true me style, I have set myself the goal of running a marathon in April in under three hours and fifteen minutes. I think currently, I’m in the four hour mark, and my personal best from my peak is three hours twenty-something, so I have a lot of work to do. Symbolically, the marathon will be exactly ten years since my first marathon, so there will be plenty of parallels to be drawn on many fronts. It’s definitely been ten years of complete change so I will more than likely be quite reflective throughout the whole thing.

I am hoping the marathon will be exactly what I need to put me somewhere near halfway to feeling like I’m actually good at something.

Last Sunday was a strange day. We went out for a walk, and it was cold, wet, muddy and flooded – but it was perfect.

It’s funny, when I imagine a “perfect walk”, even in winter, I picture clear blue skies, the sun shining and nice, easy paths to tread. But I have been on walks like that and they haven’t always lived up to the expectation. I’ve found over the years that the walks – and indeed, days out – can only be measured by the way they make you feel. If you’re not quite with me, let me elaborate.

Say, for example, you’ve had a difficult, stressful week and all you want to do on Sunday afternoon is put your boots on and go for a long ramble somewhere. You decide to do a route you’ve never done before and you see from the map that it passes through a quaint little chocolate box village, takes in a wooded hillside, and a meandering river. Your imagination – rightly so – goes into hyperdrive, concocting images of it all, and building expectation. You probably imagine perfect weather and even imagine the way it will make you feel, lifting your spirits after the five day slog you’ve endured that week. Then, reality. It’s muddy, cloudy, cold. The village is ugly, the pub is closed due to hygiene issues in the kitchen, and the woods aren’t exactly enchanting because some of the trees have been felled. Disappointment reigns supreme. Or it could be that your state of mind spoilt the day for you. If I am distracted in my mind, I fail to take things in properly, failing to be mindful.

Well, Sunday came around. It had been a difficult week, and I knew that being outdoors would go some way to compensate for it. Saturday had been spent largely going round the shops, so it was high time to get back to nature. I got up really early and went for a long run, got back and showered. Then, the unimaginable happened – the kids got up, unprompted. At first I thought they were sleep walking, but it turned out they were genuinely awake. After a little persuasion, they were dressed for a day outdoors. I already had a route in mind, and off we drove.

Having kids around me these days has changed me in many ways, especially my experiences in the outdoors. For years I have accumulated knowledge of all sorts of bits about nature, geography, folklore and the like, and have imparted it on people, but there is nothing better than sharing it with kids. I have the heart of a kid (it’s in a jar on the mantelpiece) so I can easily get lost in a game or story that I, or we, are weaving. It has also led me to re-discover my love of pooh sticks.

Once parked and dressed appropriately for the potential conditions, we set off. I got my phone out and did some geocache hunting, which proved successful. The sun came out in the woods, and despite the mud underfoot, we had a great time. By the time we got to the halfway point, the rain had set in. I knew a couple of places we could go to get out of the rain and enjoy a hot drink and something to eat. It quickly dawned on me however that these places were seasonal and therefore, bloody shut. There was a tearoom down the hill in the village, and as we drew closer, it was apparent that the light was on. Imagine our joy when the sign on the door said, “Open”. Stepping inside, we were met by a member of staff telling us they were about to close. I laughed out loud. Of course they were, we were destined to be soaked. Then she said, “But you’ve just made it in time. What can I get you?” Unbelievable. So we enjoyed a pot of tea (hot chocolate for the young ones), cake and a view out of the window of the rain, feeling safe, snug and warm. All this guaranteed the second half of the walk quite magical. The path followed the river, which in places had flooded the path so we had to (hilariously) get creative. It was getting dark, it was raining, it was muddy – and we were all still laughing and stopping to look at things. Eventually we returned to the car after what should have been, by description, a miserable day out, but turned out to be one of the best walks I’ve had.

It just proves it can be down completely to company, conversation and state of mind. These, in combination, can save.