On January 7th 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!!
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
