77 days to go: Tattoos, Day Trips and Petted Lips

Back from holidays and into work for a mid-holiday break. I had to travel to Dublin on Tuesday for a project piece I am working on. Then, Wednesday Louise and I were booked in for all day tattoo sessions. I mention this to start with as my training week had to be shaped around them.

You see, my tattoo was gonna be a sleeve piece. That meant an open arm and that getting wet and sweaty wasn’t something you’d want to do after it was done. How do I maximise training, ensure tattoo recovery and also get my work done?

The answer is I had a plan. And that plan kinda failed.

I couldn’t run Tuesday so I pitched to Paul I’d do my long run on Wednesday before the tattoo session. Think about it. Let’s do a 28 mile run with 45 mins of tempo in it at 5:30am before then sitting in a chair for 7 hours getting progressively battered by a machine which pushes needles and ink into your skin at an alarmingly high voltage and speed. All whilst listening to Slovakian death metal.

Oh, and let’s do that after a flight that at best would get you home for around 11pm. And that there would be a travel kink or two on the way home. Genius level planning, James. If you were a metahuman!

Long story short is I was zonked on Wednesday morning. I couldn’t get going from the first mile. I’d had about 4 hours sleep and I had eaten rubbish at the airport and I’d too much going on in my tiny brain to approach the run with anything other than viewing it as a chore.

I shouldn’t have planned the week this way. And I should have canned it early when it became clear I was physically and mentally tired. Or, what I mean is I should have adapted proactively instead of reactively. ATAK and all that!

In the end, I ran 22 miles instead of 28 and I did just 30 mins pick up. I described the run as disastrously successful in my Training Peaks feedback. On one hand I felt a mile in I could just go home but I also knew the tattoo and weather forecast meant I’d need to maximise the session.

I moped for a bit after the run. Like, I failed. Like that’s what I said above. But I actually succeeded. I got the best out of me I could that day. Didn’t harm myself upstairs or in the legs and I nailed an interval session later in the week, hitting numbers way ahead of intention.

Like always, perspective is so important. And next time I will book the tattoo more sensibly!

If you want to see how it looks there’s an image below. It’s inspired by an album cover from The Cult (SHOCK!) - their Hidden City masterpiece - and I have long since wanted that done. And it didn’t hurt. At all.

And that’s a lie.

Thanks for reading!
(Written by James Stewart)