Week In Review – The Hardest Goodbye

I hope your first full week back in a regular routine has gone well. For me, things were emotionally charged (more on that later) and I was glad of a bit of “normality” to help me deal with things.

Here’s how training looked:

Monday – Hatha yoga
Tuesday – bike reps at the gym + sports massage
Wednesday – form drills
Thursday – Ashtanga yoga
Friday – PT session
Saturday – parkrun
Sunday – 8 miles

The new school term began on Monday and it was a super cold day. I was out at my car early hacking away at the ice which seemed to have been well and truly welded on. It took me almost half an hour just to get it passable enough to drive!

The first day back is always tough, but I had the first class of a 5 week block of Hatha yoga to look forward to. There’s no Saturday morning class right now, but the teacher is still doing Mondays (in a new location) and I was keen to return. It was a lovely gentle class for the first one back and I felt much better afterwards.

On Tuesday it was time to get things moving again. While I’ve been on the bike at the gym since my training for Loch Ness, it’s only been for a straightforward cycle rather than a set of intervals. Steve gave me my workouts for the month and I got on with the business of bike reps. I had to play around a bit with the resistance in the first couple of reps and I could feel myself getting weary by the end, but it was a good kickstart.

I had hoped to squeeze in a quick swim afterwards but there was no time as I had my first sports massage of the year booked. As ever, I’ll be having these monthly to keep my legs shipshape.

It was all go again on Wednesday as I needed to fit in a run before my orchestra rehearsal. My Wednesday run alternates between form drills and hill reps, starting with the drills this week. Somehow I managed to complete my run (the cool down was a little curtailed), have some food and be ready for my sister picking me up for orchestra. Phew!

Thursday saw me back in the yoga studio for the first Ashtanga class of the year. It felt like so long since I did this class as I missed one when I was ill in early December and was still quite sore when I returned for the last class before the Christmas break. Despite all that, I still managed to hold Wheel for a few breaths so I’ve not lost all my yoga ability!

Steve was able to fit me in for a PT session on Friday so after popping home to get changed, I headed over to the studio. Having survived the first week of term, I decided to wear my awesome new “pants of perspective” leggings.

We worked on the usual things – upper back mobility, knee drive and hips – mainly using the Core Momentum trainer.

What I’ve not said is that throughout all of that I continued to worry about my cat. She wasn’t herself and was clearly missing having me around. Tests revealed a persistent infection so she was back on antibiotics but a little quiet on Friday. I’ll not get into the details, but when we went to find her on Saturday morning to give her medication, it was clear that something was very wrong and we rushed her to the vet. Sadly, she had reached the end of her journey and it was time to say goodbye. The kindest thing for her as I had promised myself she wouldn’t suffer, but the hardest thing for us as despite over a year of managing her health conditions, everything moved so very quickly at the end. We were both there with her, and all plans for the day were shelved as I needed time to begin processing what had happened (mainly by crying). It’s safe to say I felt devastated, and we did the only thing we could think of to “toast” her on Saturday night by raising a slice of Steve’s homemade pizza to her memory. She always did fancy the cured meat on the top and was known for trying to sneak some, as the evidence below attests!

I knew that I would feel better for a run, so decided to head out as planned on Sunday morning. It wasn’t important how far I ran or how fast, I simply needed the headspace and endorphins to reset. As I left I realised that I wanted to head to my favourite woodland path to enjoy the peace and solace of nature, so did end up running the 8 miles I had on my plan, but if I had only run 2 miles it would have been fine.

I no doubt looked a real sight as I blubbed my way across town. At one point I met a friend who was out running too. She ran towards me with her arms out for me to get a hug. Of course this resulted in both of us crying as she said goodbye to an even older cat in the last few years too. As I ran on it rained a bit but I didn’t care – the pathetic fallacy seemed fitting.

The run through the woodland path, however, was just the tonic I needed. I chatted to dog walkers, petted their dogs and a lovely man pointed out a huge heron that was sitting by the stream. It was watching everyone go by, not at all bothered by us talking and the man’s dog bounding around our feet. A woman I had already run by stopped to join in and told me she could remember the heron being there since it was quite small, probably a couple of years. Despite the weather, they were happy to have a conversation. It reminded me of how nice the world can be and lifted my spirits a little to then face heading out for some essential food shopping in the afternoon.

Not the week I was expecting and I know I have a process of grief ahead of me as I adapt to a routine that doesn’t involve my special little girl. 17 years is a long time together so it’s going to take time to get used to how quiet it seems without her. It’s a good thing I have marathon training to distract me!

How was your week?
What pets do you share your life with?