As I sit here typing on the 19th March, there is a good layer of snow covering everything outside the windows. We don't generally get snow this late into the spring in the UK, but it's been one of those winters... the kind of winter where it's as if Jack Frost stored a load of extra bags of cold weather and forgot about them... and each time he gets pushed back inside by Spring, he finds another sack and comes dashing out to throw it at us!
It has caused mayhem with Spring running and cycling events with the majority having to be cancelled, causing disruption to a lot of people's early season build-up events and costing thousands of pounds for the poor race directors. My event 2 weeks ago (The Mad March Hare cycle ride) has been postponed until next month, when hopefully the weather will be a little more amenable. But for now, all this snow has me thinking about how things snowball... I once had a thought of getting back to doing a bit of running... it led to me deciding to run a marathon. That single marathon made me go back and do more until I had the thought of doing maybe 50. The ability to run 26 miles made me wonder how much further I could run and got me into the worlds of multi-day racing and ultra-distance running. Ultra-distance running got me thinking if I could maybe endure long distances in other disciplines... and has led to this year being the year I (hopefully) attempt the Ironman Distance Triathlon and my first 'Marathon' Swim. That's one huge... and ever increasing snowball! This 'Spring' - if we dare to call it that yet with the snow still on the ground - has seen me fall victim to another snowball effect, however. Long term readers of my blog will know that my immune system can be a little, err, fickle. It's been about a half dozen years since it really threw teddy out of the pram completely. Since then, once I got a grip on what worked and what didn't for me, I have generally been able to keep it ticking along nicely by being watchful of my diet and maintaining a steady, consistent exercise programme. Fast forward to the end of February this year however, and I went down with the flu! Now that would be bad enough in itself but it led to secondary infections, first in my sinuses, then in my outer ear, then in my inner ear, which then triggered a Bell's Palsy meaning that the right side of my face pretty much stopped working!! Now that's another big snowball!!! Queue MadUltraMummy spending best part of 3 weeks almost totally in bed, floored, exhausted and pumped full of anti-biotics and steroids. I'm up and about now, if a little weary and battle-worn, and on the last few days of steroids. My hearing has partly returned, and the muscles on my face are slowly coming back to action so I am hopefully on the mend, but it has been a bit of a haul! What of my Ironman training? Well, there has been none of course. Thankfully, I had laid down a good strong foundation throughout the winter and was technically well ahead of where I needed to be by this time of year, so I am hopeful that, even with a very gradual return to training in the next few weeks, I should be back on track by the middle of April. That will see me right to take part in that postponed Mad March Hare bike ride, so fingers crossed... But there is no rush. My main priority has to be in getting myself 100% well - health comes ahead of fitness. Stay warm out there folks... see you out there once the ice and snow melts!!
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