I had a phone call from my running friend Jenny today. There is some background to the call which I must explain first. Almost 2 years ago Jenny did the Gold Coast Marathon and afterwards confided that her biggest achievement was in staying dry. Now all you who have given birth, are perimenopausal, menopausal or are in any way continence-challenged will understand the enormity of that statement. Having had 3 kids myself, I understood.

A few weeks later I was at a clearance sale and saw little packets which had emergency, one-size-fits-all undies. I HAD to buy Jenny a pair.

Fast-forward to this morning. Jenny finished swim squad and had her shower. When she went to get dressed she realised she'd forgotten her undies. That's the moment that my gag-gift became a hero. She unwrapped the emergency undies to a round of applause from her fellow swimmers. And then she called me to have a laugh about it.

So the moral of today's story is - always have an emergency pair of undies stashed. You never know when you might need them.

Two Days =

Two days = two runs plus two concerts. It's that time of year again. It's Musical Showcase time. Yay (can you detect the strong undertone of sarcasm?) Luke, my 6 foot+ baby is heavily involved in the school music program. And when I say heavily I mean significant tonnage. He's in the percussion ensemble, the symphonic band and the jazz band - each of which require either an early morning start or staying after school for rehearsal.

Twice a year we, the parents of prodigiously talented musicians, get invited to hear what these early mornings/late afternoons have produced. The powers that be, in all their wisdom, program the two concerts to run on consecutive evenings and they go to special lengths to make the concerts run REALLY, REALLY late. (Keep in mind that anytime after 8:30 is late for me) We got home last night after 10pm - not so great when you get up at 4:45 for speed and have to be up at 5:00 the next morning.

I decided, when I was sitting through the Wind Ensemble, that things could be done much better. Firstly I would eliminate intermission. There is absolutely no need for me to have a cold beverage at 9 pm at night and I would happily forgo this wasted 20 min if I can be in bed earlier. Secondly I would eliminate any and all talking by the conductors to save a few more minutes ( or in the case of Mr Ruben 20 mins per ensemble). I have no interest in discovering that the composer Mr Chance died by means of his own electric fence. Finally I would reschedule all ensembles so that the really crap ones (and we all know who they are)have to play on one evening and the good ones play on the other. Then I would only have to go on one night and I wouldn't have to listen to anything that disturbed my highly-tuned musical sensibilities.

Can you tell that I'm tired?!!! And I still have one concert to go.

Speed session went really well, yesterday. I know so because I got a text from Coach Chris telling me that it had. It was a mix of 300m and 400m reps. I was really consistent and a little faster than last week. Today's run was a 10k'er. My route ended up 250m short but what's 250m between friends. I averaged 5:19 for the run and even managed a couple of k's sub 5:00 mins.

Off to have a little nap before work so I can face this evening's concert.

How Do You Mend a Broken Heart?

I piked on my run this morning. I piked but I don't feel in the least guilty about it, which I normally would. I have two very good reasons for piking - I was really tired last night after my longest running week since I cut right back and I got very little sleep last night.

The reason I got so little sleep is because of my love-lorn son. Josh is struggling with his newly-single status. His sadness is almost tangible and when he's at home it pervades every room. It's really normal for him to be feeling this way but when it's your baby that's so sad you just want to make it better. He's usually the sort of kid/man who's a ball of energy - a little irritating and a little loud at times. At the moment he's like a deflated balloon. There's no energy and even when he smiles or laughs he's just going through the motions.

Last night he couldn't sleep so at 1 am he decided to take himself off for a bike ride. I was woken by the door shutting and once I was awake I couldn't go back to sleep. I spent the next three hours sitting up pretending to read but really just worrying sick about him. Funny how everything seems so much worse at night. I finally got back to sleep and when I woke he was back home asleep in his bed.

There's going to be some very long days and nights ahead for both of us I think. It's a pity there's not a pill you can take to mend a broken heart.

Temperamental Girlfriends and Garmins

What a manic week it's been. It's been work, work and more work and interspersed with the work there's been all the emotional fallout of my middle son and his rocky relationship with his girlfriend.

Honestly, when I decided 21 years ago to have another child I did not realise I should have gone back to uni to get a degree in psychology. Counseling is not something that I've trained for and it's not something that I'm particularly good at. I've decided that even if I feel inadequate, all I have to really do is listen and do things to take some of his other loads off his shoulders - things like making his lunch or tidying up his room or even taking him out for breakfast like I did today.

Our breakfast out came after my long run this morning. It was a fairly good run, I think. I've got no proper stats from my Garmin because it started to rain in the last 3 k's and my Garmin gets a bit precious when it's raining. The bezel seems to be over-sensitive and it flicks from one screen to another and won't let me stop the timer. Of course this all could be avoided if I locked the bezel but I always forget and by the time I remember it's too late.

The Garmin was not the only thing that played up because of the rain. I wasn't wearing my cap (because it wasn't supposed to rain. I'd checked the weather radar before I left home) so the rain got in my eyes. I suffer from dry eye and when water gets in them they sting and I can't keep them open. I tried to keep running for a bit but I had to have one fully shut and the other only partially open and when I couldn't keep the open one open any more I had to swap eyes. Then I couldn't keep either eye open - it's hard to run in a straight line with both eyes shut. So I gave up and walked a bit, trying to wipe my tears with my sodden singlet. I would have paused my Garmin at this point had it not been so temperamental so all my stats after 18k are wrong. What I do know is that I ran 21.5k at an average of 5.30/k for the first 18k and I'm happy with that.

I've experimented with wearing my compression tights after some of my runs this week. (I'm wearing them ATM and feeling like a sausage) It's made a huge difference to my recovery. My legs feel so much fresher for the next run. I've only got capri length ones so I'm now in the market for some long ones so my calves get the same benefit as my hamstrings and quads.

The Rockettes and Michael

I know I'm going to sound like a weird, slightly eccentric bird-lady in this post but I'm going to say it anyway. I think the Rockettes like Michael Buble. That's right - like females all across the globe, my chickens seem to love his romantic crooning.

I only discovered this fact this afternoon. When I'm getting dinner ready I put my computer on and bring up my music. I've got it set on random so the music flicks through lots of different artists. I was looking out on the 'girls' while I was washing up when Michael Buble started to play (Try a Little Tenderness). Both of the 'girls' stopped chasing the lawn moths and headed at a gallop (I'm not sure what to call top speed in a chicken) over the window and hopped up on the tallest rock. They had their heads cocked to the side - exactly like they were listening to the song. They stayed there till the song had finished and then raced back to the moths. My 'girls' have great taste. Tomorrow night I'm going to introduce them to Harry Connick Junior.

It was speed session again today. Coach Chris's idea for today was to run one mile and then either another 2 x mile reps or (depending on fitness and race goals) 8 x 400m. I get preferential treatment and got to choose - 400's! The mile rep went ok. I came in at 7:12 and the 400m reps were around 1:48 (fastest - 1:45, slowest - 1:51) I was really happy with the consistency, particularly because I'd run a fairly solid 10k yesterday. Rest day tomorrow!

What Am I Made Of?

I went to the movies today to see Beneath Hill 60. It's a story from WW1 about a group of miners who tunneled beneath enemy lines to plant mines and blow up the Germans. I found myself thinking about how hard life was back in the early 1900's. Even out of the war zone there were none of the things that make our life easy - no cars, washing machines, dishwashers. On the front line it was unbelievably miserable - the mud, the cold, being fired on, the rats, dysentery. People were so tough back then.

Life has become so easy. We don't need to struggle for our existence. If we're hungry we go buy some food. If we're thirsty we can turn on a tap. Generally we don't have to fear for our lives. And when I see a movie that makes me think like this I wonder how I would hold up if I was the one on the front line. Would I be the blithering, whimpering person in the foxhole who's incapable of moving? Or would I rise to the challenge and lay it all on the line?

Maybe because we don't get to test our mettle like that we undertake our own tests of character. Some people climb mountains, some trek across frozen wastelands and some run marathons. Within that 42.2 k's we have to fight to achieve the goals we've set and to survive. We don't have to do it - we just want to see if we can and what we're made of.

I'd like to say that tonight I'm made of very sore and tired muscles. I've had a great week of challenging training sessions and I've survived. Yesterday's 18k hilly run was the icing on the cake and apart from a few aches I've recovered really well. I'm really excited about the weeks ahead and the increases in mileage and the opportunity to see what I'm made of.

Learner Drivers + Peak Hour Traffic = ???

Today I woke up feeling faintly nauseated. It's a feeling I know really well - it's a nervous nausea. I couldn't work out why I should be feeling nervous for some time. And then I realised that today I was going to take Luke into school in the city in peak hour traffic. I HATE peak hour traffic at the best of times but today's trip had an extra twist. I was NOT driving - my 16 year old learner-driver was.

I would like to write a disclaimer at this point. Under no circumstances could Luke be considered a bad driver. He is cautious and alert and sensible. The problem is me! I am a BAD passenger. My husband hates driving if I'm in the passenger seat. He hates when I gasp and try to apply my imaginary brake. Generally I do the driving. I've had to be instructor for the previous two learner drivers so you'd think by the third I'd be really good at it. I'm not! In fact I think I'm worse.

So poor Luke had to put up with his neurotic mother in the passenger seat. I tried to get in a zen-like state with my mantra - "We'll be fine. We'll be fine" That worked for about five minutes until Luke oversteered while turning a corner and almost ran us into the gutter. (He really is a good driver - he was just trying to get around the corner a little fast) I nearly popped a quadriceps trying to apply that imaginary brake. Luckily I was wearing a skirt so Luke didn't see the muscles straining but I'm sure he picked up the nervous tension.

Trying to be calm was pretty much over for me at that point but all attempts at keeping myself together faded when we were passed by a huge semi hauling a trailer that was a mite too close to my window. Harrowing would be an appropriate descriptor. Thank goodness there was only five more minutes driving. We reached school, he handed back the keys and my nerves dissolved.

I think I have serious control issues.