De-stressing and inspiration...

I am sitting enjoying a cup of tea and some toast after the longest day ever.

The reason my day was long was we had another of our all staff development days. Since the three Edinburgh and Lothian's colleges merged a year ago we have been having these staff development days. The basically consist of the day starting with coffee, then the Principal blabs on a bit with no one listening, we then have to meet in groups and do some nonsensical task which no one is interested in, then we hang about in huge queues for lunch, then listen to someone rabbiting on, back into team time and then if we are lucky we get to sneak away before the boring q and a session later where all the moaners come out and harangue the Principal! This may be simplifying it but I just can't be bothered with any of it.

So in an attempt to make something of my day I started it with a swim before work at the pool in Penicuik. This was great I was raring to go. Got to work and stopped at the pond at the back of the College to take in some fresh air before heading inside.

This was very calming and I wandered into the college in a good mood. Now the day panned out just as I'd imagined. Which is fine, if that is what they want us to do with our day, fine by me!

I am of the opinion that no matter what we want or say the management team have a job to do and will do it the way they think best and we won't have a lot of influence upon that. This helps me not get stressed about the whole situation. You guys know me "don't worry, be happy". This attitude, however, I suspect drives the doom and gloomies daft because there is almost a culture at the moment where everyone must surely be stressed and depressed about all that goes on at work. But, I am sorry, I am just not. I know things might change, I know I could lose my job, but I could also have lost Alistair 2 years ago and still worry about him everyday so nothing at work can ever come that close. If I lose my job, I'll re-invent myself, I've done it before I'll do it again).

So to get myself away from the doom and gloom that inevitably becomes the lunchtime discussion I decided to head out for a run. I did get a few odd looks sneaking through with my running kit on past everyone having their lunch outside. Once I got past everyone I stretched my legs and headed into the park and off down towards the water. The sun came out, it was warm, quiet and the water was very calm. There was a wind but it was nice. The other thing I noticed very strongly was the smell of the seashore. Now this might seem odd but those that know me really well know that I suffer from chronic rhinitis and on the whole have absolutely no sense of smell (have had this for ten years) which generally means I can't really remember some smells, others I have in my memory but the seashore was one that caught me out. At the moment I have some sense of smell so I am enjoying rediscovering smells (good and bad). So I ran along really enjoying the smell of the seaside. There was lots of aeroplanes passing overhead and I was running along thinking that will be us in 9 weeks time going to Gran Canaria. I was running well and not really noticing my running which is brilliant to be that free at this point in my marathon training. I knew I only really had 30mins to be out running as our lunch was only for an hour so I cracked on quite fast. And you know what 26mins!!!! for 3 miles. If that had been on a measured distance it would have been an all time PB for me!

Worked my way back through my colleagues and headed to get changed, pleased with my PB!

One of the morning's tasks had been to consider how to de-stress in the workplace. I found it hard to actually identify points at which I get "stressed". I think I get busy, I get frustrated, I get hassled but stressed? Not sure I ever get stressed. I got stressed when Alistair was in hospital for 4 weeks, having nearly died and I was juggling work, kids, housework, visiting the hospital twice a day. But nope work doesn't get me that stressed. Again, not a popular view at the moment, and I do keep that quiet because it does seem to be the culture that we should all be stressed up to the nines. I am just not.

We had a great discussion about what things stop us getting stressed. One colleague said she has an allotment and well me it's running. Another colleague laughed and said "it must be like a drug". I think it probably is, I am totally addicted to the endorphins. I love running. I spent 26 mins out at lunchtime and I was chilled, happy, content and felt completely alive. I have been following Vicki who is running 26 marathons in 26 days (up and down the Royal Mile) http://vickiweitz.moonfruit.com/#/blog/4564207122. Her daily blogs have been an inspiration, she has dealt with injury, emotions and feelings in a way that I could only hope to reproduce. I have been thinking about trying the D33 in March and have gradually been bringing myself round to the idea. I am not brave, and I am technically not that good at running (I have just stuck at it a long time more than anything) and reading Vicki's blogs and running with her have given me the inspiration to crack on with my ambitions.

So what are my ramblings all about today. Well here goes:

1. Running is bloody good for you!
2. Work staff development days are not!

Don't worry, be happy!