I Decided To Do A Cecilia Morrison Session
I left a sleeping household this morning!
No one was stirring... Anadi and Jane were still fast asleep...
My great friend Athena Jane had travelled down to visit us in Eype yesterday.
Her father died last Friday after falling critically ill a month ago and she is naturally in the middle of a huge transition; it felt good that her visit already planned before his death was going ahead...
She called me when she arrived in the lane where we are staying... 'Call me when you get to the New Inn' I had said and I will come and find you...
As I clambered into the passenger seat to take her to the car park, the heavens opened!
Torrential rain poured suddenly from the sky....
We drove to where there was space to park, and sat together in the car with the rain beating down outside and the windows steaming up on the inside talking and talking....
Once there was a break in the rain, we dashed up to the New Inn to meet Anadi for lunch.
He left us after we had all eaten warming winter casserole to go back to work.
Jane and I talked some more and then shared healing chocolate brownie with clotted cream, before coming back to Honeysuckle cottage for an afternoon together...
So I left a quiet sleepy household this morning and stepped outside the blue front door into 'my lane' - I started to jog but my feet hurt! I have been doing a lot of drills...!
I stopped and instead walked down the lane to the sea and then climbed up to the top of the hill on this mild November day with the uncertainty of rain or shine in the air...
I had decided to do a 'Cecilia Morrison session'! Cecelia is an inspiration to me...
I interviewed her for a podcast four years ago when she had just broken the 5000 metre world record for over 70 year olds on the track. She ran an incredible 21.50; that is fast running!
She says that she likes to run for four minutes and walk for one and that this allows her legs and her being to go at a pace they like; she notices that she runs no slower with the walking breaks than if she were running continuously....
So once I was on the top of the hill, I set off for my first four minute stretch...
Achilles is keen and I am aware of nursing him back to full flight, so not overdoing my 'return'... but he also needs to move in way he will be when I am in 'full flight' and not get stuck or stiff...
So we ran along a path, ducked under a wooden fence and onto a grassy stretch, beep beep beep beep beep.... The Garmin heralded the end of the first fours minutes and I walked along on the tufty grass, muddy in places, springy in others; a man walking his dog passed me ' Good Morning...' we greeted one another'...
The beep of the Garmin set me off again.... It felt good, Achilles could 'feel' the stretch, and it felt a healthy getting better sort of a feeling, not a bad pain....
As I return to the running path and I am focusing on taking care of my form and my foot, I get surprised when I start to feel out of breath or to tire at all...!
It is as if the whole process is about rehabilitation and I am forgetting that heart and lungs and the rest of body is getting a work-out too...
I completed the fifth run, ducking under the fence again and back along the path to the top of the hill and then I walked home...
It felt like play.
I was gone 55 minutes and returned to a house that was stirring into morning action...
Later in the day I drove to Lyme Regis for a sports massage with Richard Tratt; I had discovered him by google and as I am keen to keep my treatments going, the nomadic life means we find all the things we need very quickly... Our favourite pub, the farm shop, the harbour stores and treatments for my body!
It was a very enjoyable 45 minutes and felt particularly nurturing given this week has seen a return to more activity....!
London next week and I have already been researching for our time there...!