Day 233 - Sunday 17th April 2011

I don’t normally blog on a Sunday, but I thought it was time I mixed it up a little; why be obvious!

A glorious day today; the sky was very blue, the temperature was “hot” and it wasn’t a work day – what could be a better mix than that. Last night was a somewhat restless sleep, culminating in around 2 hrs of broken sleep (I shan’t say which child kept us awake as they all played their own little part). Sharon went for a 40 minute run whilst I did the breakfast and dressing duty and then when she returned I popped on my trainers and hit the road myself. I did a total of 7.8 k in 40.40 minutes, average of 5 minutes 18 seconds per K. Considering I hadn’t been doing much running of late, only 2 hrs sleep max, hadn’t drunk even a glass of water and eaten even a crumb and the sun was very hot (around 20 degrees) I was pleased with the pace I did. I went up Dyke Road, down Woodland Drive, around Hove Park twice, along Goldstone Crescent and then straight up King George (which I swear keeps getting steeper) and then back down Dyke Road to home. Now I do know it’s not clever to do that without eating or drinking anything before or during, however, it is good to know that I can still do it in those conditions even at my old age of almost 42!

The rest of the day ended up very physical as well as it turned out. When I got home I ended up in the garden with mower in hand ready to take on the ridiculous grass we had been cultivating! Since moving back home in February and having a new lawn laid we have not mowed once, as such it was about a foot high. It took a staggering 3½ hours to just mow it!! Then another hour to pick up all the grass and edge it! Meanwhile, Sharon and the kids, along with my sister and nephew were creating more piles as they were weeding and pruning. So 5 hours after I started the mowing we were done and my back and shoulders were certainly tanned and well worked on. You would think that would be enough for the day, but oh no, this is the Starr household. So on the arrival of my Mum, my in-laws and a family friend we did an impromptu dinner for all, followed at 9pm (after they left and the kids were in bed) with me tackling 2 weeks of ironing that had built up whilst Sharon was working in the studio.

A tiring but fantastic Sunday.

Will I have the energy for my planned 3 hour pool swim tomorrow? In all honesty I really hope I do as it’s in the diary, but at this moment in time I wouldn’t put hard cash on it!