the week in review

Ahhh, it's mornings like this that make me love the English spring. Yes, I know. I know.

Sometimes, like today, 24 hours of gale-lashed rain are followed by a still, blue-sky morning. The sun is sitting low in the sky, still a bit weak and watery. Everything has a glittering just-scrubbed clarity. The birds, obviously relieved that it's safe to come out again and get on with the urgent business of finding a mate and building a nest, are chattering up a different kind of storm in the trees. That's what it's like today. Ahhh, life is good on a morning like this. Other times, you wake the next day to find the rain is running in rivers along the streets, and you don't know if it's ever going to stop.

I haven't been out with the dogs yet, and I was hoping to get at least one longer walk in this weekend. I started out a few days ago, having made up my mind to Walk, with an early-morning trek up and down the hills, through muddy fields and around the back roads of our town. It was further than I'd ever walked in this area before and I had no idea how far I'd gone, but I thought it must be at least 5 miles. And I was feeling pretty smug, too, because when I got home I was still feeling quite fresh as though I could do that distance again without too much strain. After work I drove the approximate route I had walked and found out it was, in fact, just under 5 miles (which is a sniff over 8 km, for you metric types). So it just goes to show that 5 miles is further than you think. Well, further than I thought, anyway.

I followed that with a busy day, a night-time meeting of my dog club, and quite late to bed (well, late for me). The next morning I woke again at 5:30am with good intentions but I was so tired I couldn't move. No, cynics, not from my little 5 mile stroll, just from a long day - I am a girl who needs my sleep. So that day I only did the normal dog route, which is about 2-2.5 miles. The next day I retraced my 5-mile route and added a loop to the beginning and the end to make sure it was a bit more than 5. Then my partner - let's call him Mr J - hurt his back and ended up immobile in bed so my walking timetable has been well and truly knocked askew for the time being. I'm getting pretty much all the exercise I can stand from running up and down the stairs fetching and carrying for my poor afflicted sweetheart.

So this week I've done 2 longer walks, which is really not good enough in terms of reaching 20 miles a day. Did I say it was a tricky time at work too?