Pandemics, (non)parkruns and pregnancies... thoughts to round off 2020!

So, apparently it was April that I last penned a blog post. I began that post by musing that it would soon be Christmas.... and indeed, it now is! That was the early days of the pandemic, when we were all basking in the blissful ignorance of what was brewing in the months ahead. Where we knew that the situation wasn't great, but then, SARS, MERS, Ebola and all those other exotic diseases that experts warned could engulf the planet weren't great, but they never lived up to their full threat. April, where we filled our windows with handcrafted rainbows, emerged on our doorsteps every Thursday evening at 8pm in collective appreciation of our NHS and where there was a countrywide sense of unity and "in-this-togetherness". April, where the sun shone endlessly and the long light days were full of picnics and woodland walks and family time and embracing the situation as an opportunity to reset and to reconnect with the important things in life. That was then; this is now. The centre of winter. 

I have never been a huge fan of winter. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I suffer with SAD, but I am really sensitive to the cold and definitely feel less inspired to go out when it's a dull, cold, wet day. I find the winter months a real slog, briefly enlivened by the providentially placed Christmas holiday, but otherwise a chunk of time that I regretfully find myself wishing away each year. If we got the picture-postcard perfect white winters of old, I might think differently; but as climate change seems to deal us a wet and soggy hand these days, there isn't much to get excited about. I have always struggled with winter training too: give me the sun and 20+ degrees to run or cycle in any day! Anyway, this year, this is all an irrelevance as there are no races.... and I am currently 28 weeks pregnant with Baby D. v. 2.0. Being pregnant in a pandemic is in many ways not ideal, but then, it isn't like there has been an a great deal else to do these past few months!! So rather boringly I have followed the madding crowd to become the butt of the "Oh so that's how you kept busy in lockdown" jokes. A Corona kid; a quaranteenie... whatever this generation of offspring will come to be known as, we couldn't be more thrilled about it. Currently planning a home-birth for my due date in early March to avoid the germ-infested hospital if at all possible. 

So, whilst I have of course been missing parkrun and the thrill of a race, knowing that I wouldn't be able to push the pace at the moment anyway definitely assuages my competitive brain! Somehow, being unable to participate in events that are happening and that others are participating in is harder to cope with than there being no events full stop. FOMO and all that! So when 9am on a Saturday comes, I haven't really thought much about that old absent friend, parkrun, as we have just settled into a new routine without it. Parkruns happening and thus forcing me to make some difficult decisions about whether or not the joy of participating outweighs any potential associated risks to both me and baby, would be harder than there being no parkrun... as selfish as that sounds! I am confident that the whole virus situation will be a lot more positive in the Spring, as the vaccine machine hits its stride and the balmy weather helps to suppress the virus as it did over the summer months. See, there's every reason to dislike winter, as even the bugs and nasties are at their most virulent during this time!

And not all pregnancies are created equal. Looking back now, I can reflect that I had a pretty easy time of it during my first pregnancy. I had a bit of anaemia that somewhat stole what should be the energised middle trimester from me, but I managed to stay on top of it and keep up a relatively high exercise volume throughout... I now know why: I didn't have a toddler to look after! I could go to a spin class as I could then come home after, put my feet up on the sofa and rest for the remainder of the day. My 21 month old doesn't go to nursery as I gave up work to be a full-time Mum, which is so important to me... but it is bloody hard work when you are feeling knackered and there is a pandemic rumbling along in the background. What I wouldn't give on a rainy day to be able to take him to a soft play and sit back with a cup of coffee whilst he uses up his energy in a safe, foam-lined environment; or to just mulch around Ikea, fuelled up on bargain meat-balls, using the mock-up apartments as an interactive play setting! These places just aren't safe at the moment though. Sure, they put measures in place to mitigate the risks, but they cannot be considered completely safe as the virus lurks in corners unseen, and so everything becomes a case of weighing up the benefits against the risks. 

Like so many, I miss the coffee shop trips to see friends. I miss the Mum and toddler groups and seeing the fellow Mum friends I made during my first pregnancy. My son doesn't see any other children and I worry for the impact this may have on his future socialisation as he is a very sensitive, quiet little chap. I have started attending the pregnancy yoga class I attended during my first pregnancy... but it's not the same. Wearing masks, being wary of what you might potentially be exposing yourself to being in a room with others for 90 minutes... it just adds stress when the whole purpose of yoga is to alleviate it! It's as safe as it can be... but then, nothing feels completely safe at the moment. For the past couple of weeks, I've done the class on Zoom, at home, but again, the social side of it I love so much just isn't as accessible via a computer screen. Aside from this weekly yoga class, I just do 25 minutes on my Wattbike, 4 - 5 times a week, just to tick over. Swimming is, strangely for a usual aqua-avoider like me, the activity I enjoy most when pregnant, but that is just so complicated at the moment. Booking a slot, driving to the pool, being unable to shower after, finding someone to look after my boy for the 2 hour long process for just a 30 minute swim, it's just not worth it. So I have decided not to stress. I will just tick over with Wattbiking and walking and get through to the spring and then see what shape we're in. Hopefully parkruns will have returned by then, the end of the pandemic may well be within sight, and I will be the Mum of two energy-sapping littl'uns and so any form of meaningful training might be as unrealistic as the hopes of a white Christmas! Either way, roll on 2021!

Thoroughly let myself go during lockdown...! @ 27 weeks pregnant with a curious 21 month old toddler!

The 'C' word

Christmas!! It’s only 267 days away! Be here before we know it…. Or not, as the days seem to be somewhat dragging at the moment in our current state of lockdown.

Of course, ‘c’ also being for ‘corona virus’ or ‘covid-19’. How can I not write a blog post on this topic? It is so all-pervasive and all-consuming at the moment, it demands that I weigh in with my tuppenceworth. But not forgetting this is a triathlon / running / training blog, so I will of course be putting a sporting slant on the topic.

We have all had to make sacrifices since Corona Virus hit our shores back in February. I am sure I wasn’t alone in tuning into the news over a month ago, when the problem remained isolated to China, thinking, ‘Poor things. Thank goodness that isn’t here.’ Naïve ‘NIMBY’ style thinking indeed. It is now here with a bang and every single person is affected by it to some degree. I should highlight that for me, that degree is relatively mild. Yes, it’s a pain in the arse having to choose between a daily run or cycle or being able to take my baby out in his buggy to get him his nap. Yes, I miss seeing my parents and having their support with looking after Sylvester. Yes, I miss my barista-crafted flat white and natter with my friends at a local café. Yes, I miss being able to shop where I want, when I want and without restriction on the items I place in my trolley. Yes, I miss being able to drive somewhere lovely to go buggy running, such as Haldon Forest or Exmouth sea front. Yes, I miss taking Sylvester to his groups and classes and socialising with other Mums. Yes, I miss being able to break up the long days by planning difference activities throughout the week. And yes, a week in and I am already feeling just a tad jaded at repeatedly feigning fresh enthusiasm for reconstructing my 13 month old’s tower of stacking cups for him to promptly go and destroy again for the 22^nd time that morning. But, in truth, these are all minor inconveniences compared to what some people are suffering at the hands of this awful disease.

It goes without saying that the recent restrictions on freedom of movement and social distancing laws play havoc with your training regime. In fact, it is pretty much a triathlete’s nightmare scenario: we already struggle to train three separate disciplines when we have the freedom to do so whenever and wherever we want. The closure of gyms and pools means no swimming, unless you are fortunate enough to live within walking distance of the sea. Only one form of exercise a day means no brick sessions: it’s bike or run, run or bike; not both. I have seen people uploading 7 hour long bike rides on Strava, but to me that is somewhat taking the piss. You are meant to exercise from home; a seven hour ride, whilst starting out from home, could take you as far as 60 miles from your house. I don’t think that is what the government intend people to do with their one daily outing. I personally think that anything over 90 minutes is not in the spirit of what the measures are designed to achieve. It’s about doing just enough to boost your physical and mental health; not about using the unexpected time off work as an opportunity to put in longer training hours. Yes, staying at home is boring, but the motto is ‘stay at home to save lives’.

For me personally, the biggest impact has not been on my freedom to exercise but on my son’s nap routines. He only does short nap cycles (30 mins max), so still ideally needs three naps a day. He is notoriously bad at napping unless in motion. The ‘one outing per day rule’ has therefore hit him hard! If I want to run, that would either mean Sylvester not getting a proper nap or Matt sacrificing his run to take him out. So we have been alternating; one day I run and Matt walks Sylvester, the next day I go on my Wattbike inside and then I can do the buggy walk. However…. We have just ordered a treadmill, which is arriving next week, so soon we will be able to run inside. We both hate treadmills but have to admit that the freedom to run daily, without restriction, is tempting at the moment… and much needed to counteract all the extra baking and boredom snacking that has been happening! At least I have been able to put some much needed weight back on I suppose! Another few months of quarantine and I’ll be back to my pre-pregnancy weight!

Easter tiffin, made for a 'virtual' coffee morning with my tri club buddies on Zoom tomorrow: even in a crisis, coffee and cake catch up must continue!

So my goals have changed. Indeed, I currently have no goals. Last weekend I was due to have a weekend in Cardiff with my Mum and race the Cardiff Bay 10k. This has now been rescheduled until November but I am reluctant to get focused and train for it as part of me thinks that there may be no mass participation events allowed for the remainder of 2020…. The World Duathlon Championships in Amsterdam in September look extremely doubtful. Instead, I am using this time to build some steady base miles and to enjoy my one daily outing as escapism, so I have mainly been running off road: much more pleasant and also much quieter, away from other people. We are lucky that we live in the country and there are so many options for stunning off road running routes within a mile of our house. Another bonus of all this is how clean the air quality is at the moment due to the decreased road and air traffic. To keep the focus and the fitness up, I have been doing Strava fartlek sessions, where I pick a couple of segments to target each run and go for it! A bit of fun and it just reminds my legs that they have another gear aside from the 8m/m plod pace.

Before all of this ‘kicked off’, we had been fitting in a lot of new parkrun events, including Salisbury (where I ran a post-pregnancy parkrun PB, a.k.a. a quadruple 'P' of 19:30) and Bolberry Down (where I set a new female course record). I also managed to squeeze in one race in on 1^st March: the Exmouth Ocean Brave 10k. It was a multi-terrain run that went out along the cliff tops and came back along a 3 mile stretch of sandy beach, into a headwind the whole way. That was tough! Amazingly I managed to finish as first lady and second overall! The prize was a voucher for £30 to spend in Ocean, Exmouth, on any meal and drinks off the menu… which will now obviously have to wait. Hopefully the restrictions of eating out will have lifted in time for our wedding anniversary in July and I can “treat” my husband to our first meal / evening out since our son was born! It’s a shame as when the clocks changed we intended to get back to going to our running club and my tri club once a week. Nevermind, it will make us all the more appreciative of these things once the restrictions are eventually lifted.

Bolberry Down parkrun: a stunning course on the cliff tops in the South Hams

3 mile long beach section into stiff headwind at Exmouth Ocean Brave 10k

Finish line! First lady and second overall.

My son shows off my trophy!

 In the meantime, stay safe friends. Follow the rules – they are there to protect us all, especially the most vulnerable members of our society. Now is not a time to be selfish. We are all inconvenienced; for some it’s a pain in the arse, for others it could lead to financial ruin or the death of loved ones. If you are in the former category, you are lucky. Use exercise to stay sane, but don’t abuse exercise: an hour a day is sufficient to keep fit; don’t get greedy and use this free time to put down base training for Ironmans! We all need to play our part. #staysafe #stayathome #savelives #keepsmiling

It's a Euro no-go for me...

No, I haven’t suddenly lost my mind and decided to pin my flag to the pro-Brexit mast: NEVER! I'm a modern languages graduate for gawd's sake! Rather, I finally made the decision on whether or not to go to the Euro duathlon champs in Spain on 5^th March and it’s a no-go. On 3^rd January I took the plunge and paid the (semi-extortionate) international race licence fee to commit to going, hoping that the manner in which 2020 started – namely with me on my hands and knees, crawling pitifully back and forth between bedroom and bathroom, battling a severe bout of food poisoning incurred on New Year’s Eve after eating Morrisson’s deli-counter chicken – was a blip and I could now look to regain strength, resume training and still have enough time to get semi-fit for the champs…. It wasn’t to be. The bad luck that greeted the new decade continued.

On January 7^th we took our 11 month old son for his long-awaited allergy testing and, in the worse outcome possible, he reacted as positive to every allergen they tested for! My Mum helped look after him whilst at the clinic and later that day she came down with the flu (as in, confirmed genuine flu, despite having had the vaccine), which then turned to bronchitis and double pneumonia some days later. Two days after, sure enough, Sylvester got ill. Really really poorly – like, actually sleeping on me all day, not feeding, temp of 40 degrees, no attempt to engage, whimpering pathetically and just plain out of it. I suspect he had the flu also, caught from my Mum. Then two days later again, it was my turn. So, two weeks into 2020 and my entire family was sick. My Mum ended up needing a hospital stay of over 2 weeks duration to get over hers. It was a huge stress and a massive setback in terms of preparation for the Euros. How could I train looking after a poorly baby who was waking again around 4 times a night, whilst also stressing about my Mum and trying to fit in hospital visits, whilst trying to make sure my Dad was coping, whilst also feeling like utter crap myself? Something had to give! Determined Ellie did not want to give up on the dream but thankfully sensible Ellie (prompted by home truths delivered by my straight-talking GP, who knows me very well and asked me 'what are you trying to prove and to whom by going?', and told me to sit down and write a list of reasons to go versus not to go... it was a very unbalanced list!!) made me realise that what I was contemplating was utter madness. The logistics of getting us all to Spain were proving a nightmare and the thought of my baby having an allergic reaction in a foreign country before he has had all the allergy tests completed (so we still don’t know the full extent of his allergies) seemed like an overwhelming prospect. Priorities change when you become a Mum and suddenly the things that once drove you and seemed important pale into insignificance where family and health are concerned. Dream abandoned. Reality check delivered. Time to regroup and refocus my goals for the World champs in Amsterdam in September instead.

Thankfully February has thus far been better than January. I’ve always hated January; bad stuff just seems to lurk within the deepest recesses of its dim, daylight-deprived hallways. My Mum is slowly on the mend and I had Sylvester’s first birthday to plan as a distraction. Anyone who knows me knows I just love an excuse to bake and rising to the challenge of making Sylvester a dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free birthday cake was just the distraction I needed. Furthermore, sampling the practice runs of said cake making enabled me to put half a stone of weight back on. What with the food poisoning, the flu and all the stresses of the past month I had dipped to nearly 1 ½ stone less than my pre-pregnancy weight and was starting to look super scrawny. My thighs had lost all their cycling muscle and, whilst I haven’t felt remotely inclined to do an FTP retest, I knew that I was struggling to hold my usual numbers on Wattbike sets and so estimated that my FTP had dropped by at least 20W. It’s alright dropping weight, but if you lose power too then the gains are limited.

Birthday baking for my bestest birthday boy and beef-me-back-up baking for Mummy!!

However, a lighter frame has proved handy for running and so this has enabled me to make the decision to focus on that discipline for a while. A potentially dangerous move given how injury prone I have been in the past. But thanks to regular physio check-ins with my awesome physio, Nigel at Honiton Physio, and the strength program he has given me, I have been able to increase my mileage slightly the past few weeks. We’re not talking anything big here, I only hit 20 miles for the first time in over 2 years last week, but I hope that a “hurry slowly” approach will pay longer term dividends. Besides, I am biding my time for the better weather to arrive! I have always hated the cold and the wet.

So I have a few races pencilled in for March and April, alongside a few new parkrun tourist trips with my boys! In fact, the weekend we were meant to be in sunny Spain, we are now off to sunny Salisbury! I don’t know if I will have a “triathlon season” this year: I have only swum 40 lengths since July 2019!! Swimming has never been my favourite of the three disciplines and driving to the pool, changing, swimming, showering, driving back, is just a time consuming, unwelcome hassle. Effectively it’s a 2-hour affair for just 30 poxy minutes of swimming! Going for a brisk 30 minute run or doing 30 minutes of HIIT intervals on the Wattbike gives me a higher fitness return and infinitely more satisfaction. We are also looking at getting a treadmill for our home gym. Neither of us are fans of treadmill running but the idea of being able to hop on for half an hour whilst our little man plays with his toys is a tempting prospect going forwards….

Next up: Exmouth Ocean 10k cliff top and beach race, this coming Sunday. This race was rescheduled from February due to the storms and threat of participants being blown of cliff tops etc. Hopefully it will go ahead this time!

A few recent parkrun pics:

Christmas Day Seaton parkrun

The residual drag from those un-aerodynamic antlers cost me at least 10s!

Seaton pebbles, January 2020

Haldon Forest parkrun: not the easiest course with 20kg of baby and buggy!!

Cool retro style image at Teignmouth parkrun, February 2020