The Alabama Interlude

I was not sure how the long travel to the deep South would affect the routine, or if staying with a teething baby would mess it even further, so I was not going to be too hard on myself this week.

The trip was a lot tougher than I expected, not least because we started it after a full day's work and only two and a half hour's sleep. Here's a quick breakdown for the record, starting with a fragment I'd tried to write while jet lagged:

Friday morning I ran for 20 minutes through the pools of orange light leading out from the train station. I'd dropped Ross there at 0630, so I could use the car. Friday went mostly according to plan, train station - run - post office - bank - optometrist - work - home. Of course I didn't plan to only have a few hours sleep but I'd not bothered to schedule packing time. Idiot.

So the alarm went off like a screaming baby at ten past three and I woke with a discombobulation familiar to new parents.

Car. Bus. Plane. Train to Amsterdam Centraal. Walk for a few hours through wafts of sticky smoke, past kooky buildings and prostitutes in windows. Train. Plane for 9 hours. The hassle of an American airport for two hours. Pick up a red Dodge Charger and drive for 1.5 hours to Sarah's, using awful country music to stay awake.

Miss my long run on Sunday due to complete exhaustion. We battle jet lag for a few days, feeling really lame.

Monday, 30 minutes with Sarah and Parker in the stroller around the Athletic Park. It's got a really cool circuit with exercise stations for interval training that I'm just too fragile to attempt. As we finish we spy an unmistakable pair of orange shoes flying in an orbit at the play park. It's my husband, hanging like a monkey from a wicked head-height roundabout.

Tuesday, Tropical Storm Ida hits. We go to the mall and laugh at the Xmas jumpers with knitted reindeer.

Wednesday, the boys stay home to make biscuits (which in the US are scones) for breakfast and Sarah and I do three good laps of the park, 30 minutes. We sing happy 7-month birthday to Parker, and wonder at how fast the week is slipping by...