1-2-3 Sundays: Solitude, Performance and Meals

1 Theme

Time To Yourself

I've spent a few days living by myself while Aimee has been visiting a friend in London.

It's been nice to experience some time to be with myself and live on my own schedule. I've been able to really spend an extended time with my thoughts and journal a bit more than usual.

What hasn't been great is having to do all the housework!

It's important to have a balance of time spent with others and time to yourself. I've found in the last couple of years that I cherish moments of solitude more than when I was younger.

These moments are where I find my motivation and energy.

2 Positive Outcomes

Performing Despite The Circumstances

I probably don't feel as prepared for this race compared to the marathon.

Mainly because I had a clean run to the marathon in terms of no injuries, holidays or illness in the month before. Everything went pretty much to plan.

This time around I've had more to contend with:

Holidays
Social events
Feeling unwell

Despite this, I went out last weekend for a 20 km run after being out for dinner the night before and having a few drinks. I did feel tired that morning but I knew I had to get the run done.

I made a promise to myself to do it.

My pace was decent and my time was where I want to be.

Roll on Sunday!

A Year Is A Long Time

I got my race number for Sunday through the post this week.

To my confusion, there were 2 envelopes.

The first one was my half-marathon number while the second was an entry for the 10 km event.

I never entered the latter so assumed it was a processing mistake on their part.

It wasn't until I got a response from the organisers after I emailed them to let them know that I had actually signed up to last years event before I got cancelled.

I had totally forgotten!!

I do remember feeling slightly relieved as I had no clue about how to train for it.

It shows what a difference a year can make in mindset.

3 Things I've Learned

Face-To-Face > Teams

Since I started my job, my daily morning meeting has been over Teams.

While this does have advantages such as being able to give real-time updates when asked questions, it does miss out on other important aspects of a team like being able to see another's reactions and emotions.

A desk reshuffle in the office meant most of my team now sits very close to one another. All of us being in the one Teams call while only a few feet apart seems counter-intuitive to me.

Since I was covering for my boss, I made the decision to move the meeting offline to a meeting room instead.

This has the following benefits for me:

More prepared for what can be asked.
You don't have to unmute to talk.
Conversations feel more natural.

The biggest benefit for me is being present.

On Teams, it's easy to lose concentration and do something else.

I'm hoping the face-to-face meetings become permanent.

Dinners for Lunches

Because I'm going to be preoccupied this weekend, I've joined up my meal prepping with normal cooking times.

Instead of making enough for just dinner, I've made meals I can freeze and put away for next week. This means I'm not having to rush on Sunday to get meals prepared for the week ahead.

My favourites include:

Piri-piri chicken pasta
Turkey burritos

Supermarket Meals

Sticking with the meal prep theme here.

If you're struggling for time to get meals sorted a great (but sometimes pricey) alternative is to buy the low calorie, high protein option that most supermarkets now offer.

This week I tried both Morrisons and Aldi's version and was impressed by both.

Both were less than 400 calories and had roughly 25-30g of protein. Not bad for a ready meal.

Its probably not the most affordable option especially with the rise in the cost of living however it does provide a good alternative when your time is limited.