Extreme Knitting Redhead: Time to taper!

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Time to taper!

Now that's a statement that causes confusion whenever I type it so I'll explain; it simply means that I'm starting to reduce my weekly mileage both in distance and intensity ahead of a specific event. On this occasion it's ahead of my first marathon of the year at Brighton.

Today's run was 12 miles and for most of it I seemed to be running into a bitingly cold wind. I didn't warm up at all and was heartily glad when it was over!

Of course, as Brighton is looming large, with London hot on its heels, we needed some new photos for the first round of press releases and so Mike assumed the role of photographer and on a brighter day this week we braved the elements to take these photos. Oh my it was cold and windy and my hair kept blowing across my face!

This one is for the Brighton marathon where I'll just be running

This one for the London marathon where I'll be knitting whilst running

More about these events soon but believe me when I say that my challenge for 2013 is one of, if not the toughest things I've attempted!

For any Brighton marathon runners reading this, please make sure you allow enough time for your taper. At this stage in the game less is definitely more and you don't want to risk injury by ramping up your mileage trying to play catch-up for training sessions you might have missed. You want to be raring to go on race day.

For those of you running VLM, you need to start your taper next week.

Hooky stuff

I haven't been knitting over the past few weeks but there's been plenty of crochet. Last night I started these baby bootees - so sweet. The colours aren't showing up very well but are a pale lemon and pale violet and look very Spring-like.

The start of a bootee

You can see the ridges formed by the front post and back post trebles (UK term, DC for others). It's really simple and very effective. This needs the top of the foot filling in with rows of DC (UK) and some contrast trim on the ankle and around the foot which won't take long.

2 comments:

Betsy said...: Hi, I read about you in a knitting magazine a few years ago and recently my niece sent me a link to your blog. I am your age, a runner, knitter and quilter. I recently ran 2 half marathons while knitting mobeus scarves, in Philadelphia and New York City. My friends think I'm crazy to knit and run, but I love it. I always tell people that I got the idea from you. I would like to send you a photo if possible. Coincidentally, my husband ran the NYC half marathon and raised over $15,000 as a member of the Athletes to End Alzheimer's team.; April 1, 2013 at 8:21:00 AM PDT
Susie Hewer said...: Hi Betsy and thank you for leaving a comment.

I love that you've been knitting whilst running - a fellow nutter indeed! Brilliant work by your husband too in raising all that money for Alzheimer's.

Please do send me a photo so I can put it on my blog - my email address is susiehewerATcontrapunctus.co.uk

Wouldn't it be great if we managed to run together in a race one day?!

Thank you so much for getting in touch.

Susie; April 1, 2013 at 9:27:00 AM PDT

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Mum's Story

In 1997 my mother, then aged 81, had a series of minor strokes. Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items. We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her. Then she started wandering and had violent mood swings. Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'. My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive. She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too. She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! When my sister died mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter. There came a point when I suddenly realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter and this was a terrible time for me. In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care - she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself. Finally my husband and I realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live in a special care home where the team did a splendid job caring for her in the last few months of her life. There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was. It was heartbreaking. She died in March 2005, the day after her 89th birthday.

Thank you for taking the time to read mum's story and I hope you'll dig deep and sponsor me using the link below to help find a way of beating this destructive disease.