The Mushroom House

Today was a running day.  However, before I could go running, there was the small matter of a netball league match to deal with.  The division I play in has all its matches at 9 a.m., which means that I have to get a train at 8 a.m. in order to be there for an 8.30 warm-up.  In turn, this means getting up in the middle of the night. Again.  This is happening all too often and before long I'm going to be in bed at nine o'clock every night to compensate for the uncharacteristically early starts.

However, the early start for netball means that it's all over by 10 a.m. and I have the rest of the day ahead of me.  Given that I was meeting James and a couple of friends at local treasure Café Lemon for brunch, I figured the best way to deal with the running was to do it by running back from netball (not all the way - that would take probably twice as long as the time I had to run for, twenty minutes, and I had done a lot of running around already).

My best laid plans nearly came a cropper when I came a cropper in the second quarter of the netball match - a slight pull to the ankle meant I hobbled around for the rest of the match, although it was just about alright by the end and I felt better because we won the match 20-12.  I wasn't convinced it was OK to run on, but after some cake from the stall set up to raise funds for the same charity I'm doing the triathlon for, Marie Curie Cancer Care, I felt re-fuelled and fortified and decided it would be alright.

I walked to the centre of Palmer's Green, set the alarm on my phone for 20 minutes hence and set off at a very steady pace.  On the way, I passed Greek food shops and restaurants, an "entertainment agency" and a house, in Woodside Park, which is shaped like a mushroom.  Yes, that's right, a house shaped like a mushroom that looks like it's been lifted directly from a fairy-tale.  Apparently, it's just been sold, so some lucky person gets to live in it.

By the end of the twenty minutes I was really struggling.  My netball kit plus light-ish running jacket (with all-important zip-up pockets) made me far too warm on such a sunny day, but I didn't have anywhere to put the extra clothes, and I was lacking energy because of the netball, the last several days of training and the need to eat more food.  However, I was shocked when I got home to discover that, in running from Palmer's Green to Wood Green, I had only run about 100m less than I did on Wednesday, so even though it felt bad, it was comparable in distance and probably a better effort given the circumstances.

Tomorrow is a cycling day.  It will be good to get out on the road on my bike for once.  James is talking about going swimming tomorrow too, so it might be a mixed cycling and swimming session (not at the same time, obviously!), combining tomorrow's and Tuesday's sessions and potentially giving me an extra day off.  I'll see how I feel...