Extreme Knitting Redhead: January 2020

Monday, January 20, 2020

Resurfacing

No, not the road surface, it's me resurfacing from the lurgy that caught everyone unawares.

Oh my goodness it was a really nasty blighter and it swept through our little village like a wildfire taking its prisoners at random. Mike succumbed just after Christmas and I really thought I'd escaped it until 2 days into 2020 it got me, big time. It completely knocked me out, going straight to my weak point, my chest (asthma) where it stayed, festering and getting worse and worse until a week ago when I suddenly felt as if it was on the way out.

Mike was getting really worried because I was coughing so much and he said he'd never seen me so ill and I have to agree that I don't think I've ever felt so ill either. A friend in the village had it for 5 weeks and is only just starting to feel better so I think I was lucky in the scheme of things!

As a result of the naughty lurgy I have missed 2 ultra-marathons in my training schedule but that can't be helped and I eased myself back into my training slowly with events on Friday and Sunday last weekend (as opposed to the 3 days I had planned). I took it nice and easy anyway.

Thankfully my recovery hasn't impacted the start of the Six Pack Intensive wave which began this week and I'm really enjoying. I've just finished the first Challenge which included 2 short runs of 1k, which I did on the treadmill, and I was delighted that I managed the second kilometer slightly faster.

I did a little happy dance afterwards to celebrate!

Then I had to wait to see how I coped at the weekend (with fingers crossed!).

I really haven't felt like doing much crafting but I did set up the little loom and started a bit of weaving on it. Of course Shelley appeared out of nowhere to help me:

Finally she'd had enough and went and rearranged the cushions so she could have a nap.

It's a wee bit fiddlesome actually but good for experimenting

You have to lift the shed up as you go across one way.....

Then press it down to go back across the work

Running wise, I did none for 10 days but when I finally felt better I trotted off for a gentle marathon last Friday. I had no expectations of how I'd feel so just ran it gently and power-walked the hilly bits and was delighted to finish under 5.5 hours. This was the first in a series of 3 events at which Id planned to do ultra-marathon distance, but I chose to just do the Friday and Sunday events as marathons to see if I had fully recovered.

Thankfully I was fine on the Friday and took it nice and easy to finish in 5:25:25. I went back on the Sunday and finished in 5:25:21 so was happy with that. So that's marathons 181 & 182 done and dusted.

Sundays marathon - the first time ever my Garmin has measured the exact marathon distance!

Onwards and upwards now into my rather manic training schedule for the South Downs Way 100 mile event in June - eek!

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.