Gyms are for wimps!

I walk into the house on my return from work and all is serene, George eating his dinner and watching Peppa Pig, Sharon is feeding Claudia on the sofa and the house is nice and warm. This is not good. What I need and fairly often get is George whinging that he doesn't need dinner but needs Peppa Pig, Claudia screaming as she is getting tired and Sharon stressed because of the children, the Holy Trinity of family bliss. Now that scenario is an incentive to go running (and running and running). So after feeding time at the Gardner Zoo is over Sharon and myself take the boy and girl up to bed, I then get changed into my running gear whilst Sharon starts cooking her dinner. Jesus am I hungry since I started training again. Although I would prefer to cook my dinner and watch Heston Blumenthal take on Little Chef I step into the cold and wet for another run. Tonight's run is a straight forward 5 miler. I say straightforward but when it's chuffing cold and there's icy rain which is getting heavier and the ground slippier it is not always the case. My usual route is 4 miles so I adapt this and lengthen the back half. I end up running down Uxbridge Road out of the safe haven of Shepherd's Bush into the lawless wilderness that is Acton. By the time I reach the King's Arms my bottle goes and I turn right up East Acton Lane as this will loop me back towards the A40 then the Bush. Half way up the lane I start to run passed The Park Club, one of the most exclusive and chuffing expensive health clubs in the country. Amazingly it's in the middle of west London but has about 27 acres of fields, gardens, tennis courts etc. I run on and on along The Park boundary and I see into the gym - Ruperts, Giles's and Tamara's trotting along on running machines and vibra-plates though not fast enough to break a sweat and disturb their coiffured hair-styles. What a big bunch of wusses. Real Men Run. I think I am becoming a fitness-guerrilla and will have to start posting poo through gym letterboxes**. I loop around the Lane until I reach Bromyard Avenue and run passed Virgin Active and then back onto the Uxbridge Road. The rain is now quite heavy and icy cold, only a mile to go. I turn up Old Oak Road toward the ever-fecking-present A40 then it's along the A40 and home. By now I am soaked and the grounds wet enough that I do catch a lot of spray as lorries thunder passed. (not to self - keep mouth closed when running by A40). I get home and shower, time to relax then BANG, a thump on the floor and a scream in the baby monitor, George has fell out of bed and promptly thrown up. Mmmm shall I go for another run?



**This obviously will exclude the Virgin Active gym that backs onto The Park. I used to be a member and Sharon is now rejoining so she can exercise while the kids go in the creche.

FCB - 8 DP - 5 H - 2