Wot?!

No Parkrun?!

In bed at 9am the second Saturday in a row - something's wrong!

Unable to run at parkrun this morning, I couldn't even bring myself to go volunteer which is very unlike me.  I did contemplate going along afterwards for a cup of tea and catch up in the cafe but when it came to it, I couldn't find the energy or motivation to do that either.

As the day wore on it became increasingly apparent that I am actually poorly - but not before I'd spent a good portion of the day dissecting why I might have been feeling so rubbish and why I was avoiding parkrun!

Various theories surfaced and amongst them the overriding feeling that I've let myself down by not starting cross training last summer and going at this whole thing kind of half heartedly - picking and choosing which bits suit me.  Before long I was berating myself for how I always do this and consequently what a disappointment |I am - oh dear! With the benefit of hindsight (I'm writing this on Monday) I think it was just as well that I stayed away from the cafe and spent the morning in the company of my foam roller instead!

Nice afternoon with Al and C going to watch H in a pantomime - "Oh no it wasn't!" "Oh yes it was! and a lovely evening spent chatting over dinner with friends... but I just wanted to be left alone to sleep somewhere warm!

I think it's sisterofMG750's cold that I've caught - obviously pay back for dragging her round the shops for so much of last Saturday!

M - 437

Liverpool Half - 106

Glasgow Half - 218
Total Distance covered   503.2 miles

The Perfect Plan

How can it be anything other when sleep is top of the list?!

Definitely still in the 'don't bother' camp! My energy levels which were bad enough yesterday are worse today, and I am now trying to work out how much of the weekend I can possibly manage to sleep through and yet somehow, still hit the ground running on Monday!

I can't believe that it's been a week since we arrived in Brighton, and I'm struggling even more with the idea (or rather reality) that it's going to be March in a couple of days. Already I feel the year slipping away from me (yet at the same time any signs of Spring are most definitely welcome - first crocus flowering in the garden yesterday!).

I joked about having 'tidying the airing cupboard' as my goal for the six week transformation (that I'm almost four weeks through) at my current rate of progress I'll be lucky to even get that done! Especially as I am going to spend the next couple of weeks making costumes for the boys school play! WHY?! Because last year when their House didn't do particularly well, I mouthed off saying "Well at least you'll have better costumes next year - because I'll make them!" Little did I know at the time that they were going to choose James and the Giant Peach and I'd have a centipede, ladybird, spider, grasshopper and several worms to fashion on a twenty pound budget! Nor did I ever imagine myself typing "deely boppers" into Ebay (thankfully that's what they're still called, I would have no idea how to describe them - I don't think "ridiculous wobbly antenna type things on a head band" would have worked somehow, shall I try?! Ha! If I meant wobble antenna then we're in business!).
I tell you though, when I finally do get round to making bags to sell for Barnardo's from my fabric emporium still lurking in the cupboard, it's going to be a doddle! (You may have to remind me of that when I'm moaning about it!).

So I really do need to have a productive weekend moving things forward, but I also know that I'm counting down the minutes until Al gets home from work (I'm writing this in the afternoon) so that he can light the fire and we can curl up in front of the TV! And I think that's part of my problem, always trying to do too many things at once.

I need to prioritise, and top of that list has to be sleep! Which will invariably mean that I have a sudden bout of insomnia, in which case I'll change my priority to getting as many jobs out of the way before Monday as possible! Sounds like a perfect plan!

M - 438

Liverpool Half - 107

Glasgow Half - 219
Total Distance covered   503.2 miles

Commitment

But it may have to wait a day or two!

I am exhausted! I've struggled to get going all week, and I can't help but wonder if I'm like this after a half marathon, what on earth am I going to be like after a full one?! I'd better get Dougal booked into day care for the week following London - just as soon as I know the date! (and then keep my fingers crossed that I get a place!). My other theory is that it has less to do with the half marathon and far more to do with the fact that my food consumption has probably at least halved since the weekend and I'm at risk of wasting away...  Add to this my 'broken' legs and it's no wonder that I haven't done anything about my transformation programme since returning from Brighton!

I did make it back into the gym this afternoon - but only to see the Biomechanics Man! Who reiterated the fact that whilst a break from running will do me good, a break from the gym will not! Trouble is, just over a week away from it, and I can't imagine going back! Originally planning to go Saturday and Sunday mornings this weekend, I have over the course of the day managed to talk myself out of both of them!

My legs are a hundred times better post appointment but they still hurt and from the exercises I was doing it is obvious that there is a lot more work required.  Not for the first time I am questioning whether or not running is really my thing or if it is worth the pain and effort involved.

Maybe I just need a week off and should start again on Monday, but then I'm half way through that week and don't feel anywhere near rejuvenated! Maybe I should just take all the time I need to feel like I want to start again, but I fear that may be a dangerous game to play given my current mindset!

There is a poster up in the gym saying something along the lines of

Commitment  - either do it, or don't. There is no in between.

In which case I think I'll stay in the don't camp for the next day or two and see if I can muster up some enthusiasm for joining the 'do it' campaign or the final fortnight before the big weigh in and measure that I conveniently forgot about whilst tucking in to chocolate mouse post tapas (and second dinner) last Friday...

M - 439

Liverpool Half - 108

Glasgow Half - 220
Total Distance covered   503.2 miles

Calisthenics

I'm so glad I realised my error before arriving at the class!

Back in the 1980s there was a fitness movement called Callanetics. I can't remember too much about it, but I think sisterofMG750 borrowed or bought a book and for a while this was going motivate us into home exercise and Jane Fonda bodies without the need to bounce around the house and 'feel the burn'.  It was an exercise programme which worked on repetitions of very small movements, and I guess was a bit of a forerunner to pilates (although I've just looked it up and pilates came first, even if I'd never heard of it in the 80's). What I remember most about it was that it was about toning your body with very little effort and I was therefore very interested to see it make a resurgence with a Wednesday evening class on the new gym timetable. 

C is thinking about training at the gym on a Wednesday evening, and although it would be too busy then for me to do my programme (any more than five people in and I start to panic!) I thought it might be ideal class for me to go to whilst he does his work out.  

Thankfully I decided that I needed to have another day off, and didn't go to the gym this morning (as had become my Wednesday morning norm) because I might have booked in for next week's class, although I'm not sure the men on reception would have allowed me to do so without questioning whether or not it was a good idea!   

On returning from the dog walk this afternoon and logging into Facebook I have discovered that the class is in fact Calisthenics and involves exercises using your own body weight - for example pulling yourself up to do chin ups on a bar (not going to happen in a million years) or doing a handstand (unlikely when I can't even balance on one leg!). I think I've had a lucky escape!*

Utterly shattered, and with very achy ankles I haven't done much today.  I did however have a lovely wee chat with schoolfriendofMG750 and told her that I was questioning what I was doing this for when it makes my legs so sore! Sat with her leg in a brace post skiing accident (wishing you the speediest of recoveries G - or at least as speedy as the NHS will allow!) she was very supportive of my efforts on Sunday and hoped that when I wasn't so tired and achy I could take pride in my achievement.  Have been thinking about it since and worked out that I lost approximately a hundred miles of training between Christmas and now - perhaps then it is little wonder that my feet ache and my legs aren't as fit as they needed to be!

M - 440

Liverpool Half - 109

Glasgow Half - 221 
Total Distance covered   503.2 miles

* Appreciated this might be the advance class!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L97-CdwEMJw

Reflections

Never say never, but I can't see me going back to run Brighton again!

By far the best response to the news that I had joined the Half Marathon Club came from my Twitter friend Marathon Man - which quite simply said "Good Job - now BLOG!" So nice to know that I've been missed and that my running is only part of what this is all about!

Busy day today then trying to catch up on my blog and the washing and the ironing, but enough time whilst walking the dogs to reflect on Brighton.

As a race I didn't like it much! It was a strange course, one mile loop in the city centre, followed by a six mile loop out away from the town along the coast road, past the marina and beyond before heading back into town and then out on a second six mile loop to Hove and back.

The sections in the town were great, lots of support to keep you going, the ends of each loop were a bit soul destroying! Especially as the roads were relatively straight and you could see from the runners in front of you how far you had to go before you got to turn around, and twice you got a view of the pier from three miles away knowing you had to run all the way back to it!

The beach huts at Hove which I had such romantic notions about were in reality rather depressing being mainly deserted as the wind whipped in off the sea, and with hindsight I'm very glad I didn't stop to buy a little beach hut ornament on Saturday. I'd been regretting it right from the point where I didn't stop to have a proper look at them until I saw them for real! Somethings are clearly better left in your imagination, and not experienced after running ten miles!

As for my own performance, whilst I'm pleased with how well I did, I can't help but be disappointed that my legs aren't as fit as I'd like them to be, and I'm not going to achieve my goal of a sub twenty six minute parkrun in the next couple of weeks, for the simple reason that I can't run on them!  I think I need to give myself a couple of weeks off running again to give my poor feet and legs time to recover - but I've checked with the Biomechanics Man and disappointingly I am allowed to go back to the gym!

M - 441

Liverpool Half - 110

Glasgow Half - 222  
Total Distance covered   503.2 miles

Homeward Bound

I knew we'd tempted fate!

Early morning - sisterofMG750 had to get up at quarter to six to catch her flight home, HMG and I were booked on the 8.45 train from Brighton to London so at least had time for breakfast, although we took slightly too long over it (so much choice!) and ended up leaving in a bit of a rush.

The hotel reception was on the first floor and having got in the lift with our luggage we decided that it would be quicker if I went to check out whilst HMG carried on down to the ground floor with our luggage and I ran down the stairs to meet her, and it might have been if the lift hadn't had it's own ideas and taken her back up to the third floor en route! Passing comment that it was turning into a farce, little did we know what was to come.

Hurrying up the hill, I put my hand in my pocket and couldn't find the tickets, which I was sure I had put in there before we left to save us time on arrival at the station. A quick search of my bag and they were no where to be seen. Trying hard not to panic, there was only one thing for it - leaving HMG guarding our luggage I ran back to the hotel and up to reception to explain that I needed back in the room, only by now having checked out our automatic swipe cards were no longer activated, and in the end the receptionist had to abandon his post and come with me! (oh for an old fashioned lock!)

Despite his best attempts to reassure me that we wouldn't miss our train, I politely pointed out that we had! It was now 8.38 and we were in a lift in a hotel at least ten minutes from the station, but there was still a glimmer of hope that we could catch a different train to London that would enable us to make our connection. On arrival at the room the master key wouldn't work, and it took the poor man two attempts to get a card from housekeeping that would open the door - there on the floor having fallen out of my pocket were the tickets.

Grab them and run all the way back up the hill (although with my right IT Band having locked my knee it was more of a child pretending to ride a horse galloping motion) to where HMG was waiting and then a dash to the station.  A hasty decision to jump on a train bound for London that was leaving at 8.56 and an hour and ten minutes to worry about if it was going to get us there in time!

Negotiating our way around commuters and day trippers we made it through London Bridge, and the Underground arriving in Kings Cross at 10.28 for our train at 10.35. The new layout at Kings Cross obliterating the view of the platforms we could hear the announcement that our train was boarding and ready to leave but we couldn't see a way to get to it....

To have come so close and then missed the train by so narrow a margin would have been galling to say the least, but we are endurance athletes and although we didn't think our skills would be tested quite so quickly again after yesterday we made it! Jumped on board straight into first class, continually checking with everyone between breaths (which were slightly on the heavy side) that this was the Leeds train and then proceeded to lug our cases the whole length of the train to the cheap seats in Coach C.

After that the rest of the day was fairly uneventful! But awfully nice to see all of my boys again.

M - 442

Liverpool Half - 111

Glasgow Half - 223  
Total Distance covered   503.2 miles

BRIGHTON HALF

And three half marathon girls!

If I thought my lack of organisation last week reminded me of Christmas, it was nothing to how we all felt this morning! Checked the time on my ipod at half past four, at which point my sis let me know that she was awake too... a couple of seconds later there was a voice from across the room saying "don't whisper on my account!" - HMG wasn't sleeping either! Like children who couldn't contain their excitement on Christmas morning a moment longer - we were up! An hour and a half earlier than we'd set the alarm for, and four and a half hours before the start!

A beautiful February morning at the coast - blue skies, sunshine, seagulls and bloody freezing! I was exceptionally glad of my fleece, which I did leave on a railing just before the start, and was really sorry that it wasn't still there when I returned thirteen point one miles later! BUT....

WE DID IT!!! We have joined the half marathon club!


HMG and I managed seven and a half miles together, the highlight of which was definitely seeing sisterofMG750 after we had turned out past the marina and were on our way back into town, but unfortunately we had to part company just after the half way point.  My hips and knees were starting to ache, mistakenly I thought due to the biting wind, and I knew I had to get moving to keep them moving... turned out it was the start of issues with my IT Bands again, so I did what I shouldn't have done - picked up my heels and ran for home! Had a smile to myself as I passed the 10 (and 500) mile mark, pictured SC cheering me on at the eleven mile mark (in return for our support last weekend), acknowledged as many people as I could who shouted out my name (definitely worth the effort to iron it on my top), and finished in two hours and eleven minutes. Whoooo hooooo!!  Sad that my legs are still 'broken' but glad that I made it without having to walk for the last three miles!

Reunited in the WaterAid tent we made our way back to the hotel, upon which I had a shower and crawled into bed to try to warm up, getting out of it again took far more effort the second time around! But food and well earned mojitos were waiting - even if the cocktail bar I had found last Sunday wasn't! In my excitement to find somewhere to celebrate I hadn't checked the opening times and after a very wet and somewhat depressing hobble up the hill we found it shut and not offering the warm welcome I think we deserved! Thankfully there was somewhere opposite happy to oblige...

Cheers sis and HMG! We are endurance athletes! 

M - 443

Brighton Half - Done and dusted!
Liverpool Half - 112

Glasgow Half - 224 
Distance covered          13.1 miles (furthest yet!)
Total Distance covered   503.2 miles

Why have a 10 Top....

... when you can have a red leather mini skirt?!

Despite an invitation to Hove parkrun this morning from my friend, I opted to lie in instead! One of the reasons for heading to Brighton on the Friday had been to have a whole day where we didn't have any requirements on our time and in the end this won, but you have to know I was tempted and did pack spare kit in case I changed my mind (kind of the opposite to you fellow parkrunner who stayed away an extra night and hadn't packed any!).

Eventually made it out late morning for breakfast and a stroll along the prom (prom prom - but no brass bands in sight to play tiddely-om-pom-pom! It was however nice to be beside the seaside - and if you have NO idea what I'm talking about - just be grateful your upbringing involved better songs!)

Sea air taken, it was time to shop, and shop, and shop! Or at least drag my sister and HMG around as many little individual shops as I could as I searched for that elusive something that would remind me of my weekend away, or rather somethings as I didn't seem to want to stop looking even after it had been found!

Forget the new hoodie for my ten appearances at the gym, my sis very kindly purchased a vintage red leather mini skirt for me instead! She clearly thinks I need to up my game in terms of what I consider a treat, and I love her for it! Thank you sis! I may need to pay slightly greater heed to the diet part of my transformation to be able to wear it comfortably but what better incentive could there be?! I will however start again after I've returned home - there is far too much food consumption still to come this weekend!

Starting with a three course dinner at an Italian restaurant this evening.  Late trying to book, we had to eat early but as we all ended up in our beds by ten o'clock I think it was probably a good thing!

Kit sorted (none missing this time!), race strategies decided upon (HMG and me together, my sis going it alone), weather forecast checked checked and checked again, and still showing dry and some sunshine first thing in the morning, there was nothing left to do but go to bed and see what the morning would bring.....

M - 444

Brighton Half - 1
Liverpool Half - 113

Glasgow Half - 225  
Total Distance covered   490.1 miles

No turning back

Team Marathongirl750 have arrived in Brighton!

Our journey to Brighton went exceptionally well, so well in fact that we did wonder what lay in store for us on the way home as two good journeys would be too much to ask for - with hindsight I think we may have tempted fate!

The weather however was less kind and the walk from the station to the hotel was a wet one! First stop - two pound shop umbrellas! Checked in, and tea and cake were the order of the day in a lovely little cafe with some interesting conversations to eavesdrop on! Both of us gutted that we didn't get the chance to see the face of the man who was off to see some internet date that evening but with his return ticket purchased just in case! I hope she was the youthful mother of two teenage children that he was hoping for, our scepticism  however may have lead us to believe otherwise!

Quick walk on the front, quick bit of shopping and a quick change before heading out to the restaurant I'd booked yesterday, but with the addition of anotherschoolfriendofMG750 joining us for dinner!  Plan was to eat early and then meet my sister off the train who would have eaten en route and go for a few drinks

After a great meal and catch up we were contemplating pudding when I received a text to say my sister's journey had gone quicker than planned and had we eaten?  You can probably guess what's coming! Apparently our first meal hadn't quite filled us up enough as we tucked into Tapas - I think this may be classed as extreme carb loading!

An ambassador for the Brighton Marathon, my friend spent the evening giving us top tips, including some massage techniques for glute activation! We must have looked slightly strange to the other diners, but thankfully these were done on the base of your skull, behind your ears and at the back of the jaw - could have been a whole lot worse!

Among the last to leave the restaurant we made our way back to our hotel. Our first day in Brighton definitely full of fun and laughter - and possibly a little bit of denial about the real reason we are here!

M - 445

Brighton Half - 2
Liverpool Half - 114

Glasgow Half - 226  
Total Distance covered   490.1 miles

It's beginning to feel....

a lot like Christmas! (I know, it should be look)

Not long to go now, and soooooo much still to do! In a manner reminiscent of my Christmas chaos - I've known tomorrow was coming since last July and I've done nothing about getting organised in advance for it! My running kit is strewn around various radiators, my Garmin's charged but I've left it lying around somewhere and I've yet to go and search it out! I've paperwork that needs sorting before the boys go back to school on Monday - as I won't be home by then! - and a thousand and one other things to do, which bodes the question..... what am I doing writing this?! Answer: I can't face any of the rest of it!

My head is swimming, both because there is too much in it, and also because I've got a cold and I can't think straight.  Spending the day at the shopping centre with the boys hasn't helped and I'm desperate to go and lie down in a darkened room not get my head around packing for the weekend and the ever changing weather! Full sun and three degrees Celsius now forecast for nine o'clock on Sunday morning, with the rain not due until three - surely even we'll be finished by then!

I feel so far removed from race ready, but I have been to the charity shop this morning to get myself a fleece that I can wear to the start and then leave to be picked up by another charity, which I think is a truly lovely thing that I've been led to believe happens at the start of big races! The idea of it has made me feel like I'm part of something bigger. I hope I've not been misled, and will be stressing in the holding pen looking for somewhere to leave my fleece with sisterofMG750 just telling me to tie it round my waist and be done, or finding a dustbin to throw it in! Would be a shame to bin it though, when it is such a fetching, slightly bobble-y, slightly short armed wardrobe must have!

Right, I can digress no more.  It's time to face the music, paperwork done since I started writing this, lovely restaurant booked for tomorrow night HMG, and a couple of options for Saturday morning's breakfast marked on the map, procrastibaking is now first on the agenda (boys couldn't possibly buy some cake to eat whilst I'm gone) and then that's it, I can hide no more.... time to pack my bags! HELP!!

M - 446

Brighton Half - 3
Liverpool Half - 115

Glasgow Half - 227  
Total Distance covered   490.1 miles

Membership attained....

... of the I've been to the gym ten times club!

I've done it! Four weeks since I first went to the gym and I've completed my tenth workout! Those of you who don't know me, or haven't been reading for long, perhaps do not realise the significance of this achievement nor the gargantuan level of effort involved just to get me through the door on each of those ten occasions. I just wish I could start to feel like it was getting easier.

Actually some of the exercises are, it's motivating myself to get there in the first place that's the problem, and I'm really glad that I happened upon using parkrun's reward policy to apply here, or I wouldn't have gone this morning.  But I did, and an item of clothing in respect of this achievement is now mine to purchase in Brighton! (For someone who doesn't like shopping, I seem to be fantasising about it rather a lot, to the extent that I'm beginning to think it's a blocking technique to forget about the real purpose of our visit!).

My least favourite exercise is one which involves me balancing on one leg, no gym equipment involved, just me reaching out to touch the floor in front of me and coming back up to standing, ten times each side.  I'm rubbish at it! Wobble about all over the place, although have thankfully stopped short of actually falling over, but there are invariably several people nearby doing clever things with weights and extreme body strength just to make me feel slightly more pathetic! Mercifully however, I've never seen anyone else doing this particular exercise to show me up even further!

Today wasn't just my tenth gym session, it was also my last before I attempt to become a half marathon runner! Consequently my next gym appearance now falls into the 'post Brighton category' and, as another day slips away from me, it is being followed rather sharply by most of my to-list! That said I have got my case out and am starting to think about what needs to go in it - although to be fair that's one job that I can't exactly postpone to after the weekend!

M - 447

Brighton Half - 4
Liverpool Half - 116

Glasgow Half - 228  
Total Distance covered   490.1 miles

Seeking Shelter

but where shall we choose?!

I wish the meteorologists at the BBC would make their minds up! Last week they forecast this Sunday's weather in Brighton as light cloud, it has now changed to heavy rain, with rubbish weather on Friday and Saturday too.  If they were going to change their minds could it not have been to something more favourable instead of less?!

My friend in Brighton, has put this latest forecast into context and (look away now sisterofMG750) it involves six miles into a strong headwind and what I'm guessing will then become driving rain! A more serious long distance runner than me, she then pointed out that this was OK because we will be nicely warmed up by the time we reach this point! I wish I shared her optimism!

I don't do the rain (on this point I am definitely more Dougal than Sid), it's bad enough running in it, but it definitely doesn't feature in my shopping plans! So I have decided to shift my attention towards searching the internet for interesting cafes that we might like to frequent in case of a downpour! There are a lot to choose from... and suddenly I'm starting to get much more excited at the prospect of going away for the weekend than perhaps I have previously! (I had envisaged these cafe's as shopping shelter, but perhaps I should work out a few options along the route just in case!)

Fun way as it was to spend an hour or so sat in front of the fire, it didn''t really help me get any closer to actually being ready to get on the train on Friday morning! I really need to get my head round the fact that it's less than two and a half days away, and with my current rate of productivity I ought to start doing something about it! I hate packing though, and am much more in of a throw everything into the suitcase at the last minute kind of packer, but taking much more care to throw EVERYTHING in this time, and not leave certain all important items of clothing behind as I did when we went to Edinburgh all those months (and miles) ago!

Quick check on the weather website and it's now sunny on Saturday! I am taking this with a pinch of salt, or at very least taking the view that it is indicative that the weather people, like the three of us, don't really have any idea what to expect this weekend in Brighton! But on the plus side, if the strong south westerly remains, it will apparently blow us the final three miles along the sea front to the finish, and that could be most welcome!

M - 448

Brighton Half - 5
Liverpool Half - 117

Glasgow Half - 229  
Total Distance covered   490.1 miles

A third transformed...

can't see it myself!

I may have worked out what I need to do this week, but my mind is clearly demonstrating it's independent streak.... how can I rest, if it insists on waking me up every couple of hours?!  Perhaps if I said what I really wanted in the run up to Brighton was a bout of insomnia, I'd be sleeping like a log! Instead I'm exhausted, and all the race prep in the world will count for nothing if I don't manage to get some sleep between now and then.

But let's face it, I haven't exactly done all the race prep in the world, in fact I don't feel very prepared at all. Perhaps this is subconsciously what is praying on my mind, but too late to do anything about it now, I'll have to find a way to get over it!

I did force myself to go to the gym this morning.  Two weeks in to my transformation programme, and I don't feel a third transformed! I suspect this may be due to the fact that I'm not actually following much it! I haven't stuck to the diet, I'm not doing their exercises, and I haven't got as far as breaking my goals down into daily action lists, but I have tried to eat a bit less and a bit more healthily, and I have been to the gym six times in the past fortnight to do the exercises prescribed by the Biomechanics Man. So, if I'm generous and say I'm doing half of it, then that would be a sixth transformed, but I fear it may nearer a quarter which if my maths is correct would make it a twelfth and I'm beginning to understand why the results aren't obvious when I either, go for a run or look in either the mirror or the airing cupboard! (it being as far I was prepared to commit in terms of tidying goals!).

I would normally at this juncture make sweeping statements about how I'm going to try harder tomorrow... but it's half term week, and any semblance of routine goes out the window! It also means a marked increase in my chauffeuring and food providing duties as all boys are home, yet rarely it would seem all at the same time! I think this evening may be the only one when we're all in and I thought was our golden opportunity to sit down, eat and spend some time together. Then I was reminded Manchester United are on the TV tonight (an equally rare occurrence in a house without a TV sports package). Perhaps then I'll go for a bath instead, see if I can relax a little, and suggest sitting down together post football but that involves staying awake till at least half past nine, and I may well have fallen asleep in the bath before then!

M - 449

Brighton Half - 6
Liverpool Half - 118

Glasgow Half - 230  
Total Distance covered   490.1 miles

One Week to Brighton!

Time to Taper!

My legs are sore after yesterday's long run, and I was very tempted to rest and not go to the gym this morning.  But that sort of attitude is not going to get me round a half marathon, nor back into my jeans! So off I went at half eight this morning for my eighth appearance.  It was hard going, and I'm not sure I'm getting any better at any of the exercises, but I've had a brainwave! I think I need to adopt a parkrun club strategy to motivate me, but one that I am in charge of, which means I get to reward myself with a present for being a member of the ten gym sessions completed club! (no waiting for fifty here!) But hmmm what shall I choose?! I'm thinking maybe a nice new hoodie to wear to the gym instead of my fleece usually reserved for dog walking! 

Back home and early brunch, in fact I think it was so early really it was just a cooked breakfast, but it was delicious and I felt like I'd earned every mouthful, of which there was possibly a few more than there should have been on a dieters plate!

Breakfast eaten and it was time to go cheer our friends on at the one mile marker of the local half marathon. Felt a bit emotional watching them pass, knowing that this will be me, my sis, and HMG next weekend.  I almost wished I was running with them, but just look at those hills! Home to get the dogs and then walk across the fields to the eleventh mile marker to cheer them on some more.  So much easier to spectate than run! Full credit to each and every one of them who completed the course.... it's a killer! 

My thoughts are however, already thinking forward to next year, and wondering if I'll be in the sort of shape that would make considering it a possibility? I'd like to think that I will be, whether I choose to run it is however an altogether different question!

But for the time being my thoughts are in Brighton! Or more accurately on my taper! I have decided not to run again before going. I'll go to the gym tomorrow and again on Wednesday but other than that it's all about rest, eating properly, hydration, relaxation and most importantly some pre race retail therapy - especially as by then I'll have my 10 Top to purchase! 

M - 450

Brighton Half - 7
Liverpool Half - 119

Glasgow Half - 231  
Total Distance covered   490.1 miles

Day 300

.... and ten miles!!

I am going to have to work on my pre-race or even worse pre-run nerves! Early(ish) to bed, alarm set for six o'clock and I hardly slept a wink! My hip hurt, then my leg, then I needed the loo, and all the time wondering whether or not we were doing the right thing by running ten miles this morning! 

HMG arrived ready to set off at quarter past seven, and she was equally torn.  Neither of us really convinced, both of us desperate to run the route that entailed seven miles to parkrun. With hindsight I still can't make my mind up about it!  My legs hurt, I've got blisters on my left foot and my ankles are a bit of a mess, BUT it was so good to be out running long distance again, open road in front of us, very few people in sight (which was a few too many for me to stop for a wee, but no need! The cafe - and with it the toilets - has opened again!).

My blisters don't bother me, in terms of next weekend, if they haven't healed I'm happy to stick blister plasters over them and just get on with it, but I think they are indicative of a bigger problem, namely that when fatigue sets in, my knees start to sink inward, changing my foot strike.  They are certainly not a by product of the uniformity that I'm aspiring to in my stride pattern! I have no idea if this is true or not, but it sounds plausible and I even felt confident enough to tweet saying so much in response to a question regarding blisters on UKRunChat - get me!! It's a shame however, because it means that three weeks in, and my work in the gym is not yet done! 

Parkrun was grim this morning, the weather was damp and depressing and the run was hard going. However seventeen seconds quicker than last week (having run three miles further to get there), spurred on by the knowledge that the next finish line I cross will be in Brighton!

So... Day Three Hundred! Who would have thought it! Especially as it means the next milestone day wise, will be our first anniversary! An unexpected donation to my WaterAid fund and I've now raised a little over nineteen hundred pounds in total since starting, and I am so very close to having run five hundred miles! Should have reached that milestone several weeks ago, but I think it is somewhat fitting that (if I don't run this week, which I think may be the plan) I'll hit it during the Brighton Half, somewhere around the Hove Beach Huts to be precise. At which point (thanks for sharing the mantra fellow parkrunner) we'll only have one parkrun left to go!

M - 451

Brighton Half - 8
Liverpool Half - 120

Glasgow Half - 232
Distance covered                10 miles  
Total Distance covered   490.1 miles

Who Where Why What

It's all a bit of a mystery!

I have been trying over the past couple of weeks to wean myself off Facebook ever so slightly! Not so much as anyone would notice (before you point out how often you see my green light on sis!), but I am at least trying to break the habit of checking it last thing at night, then first thing in the morning, and most definitely in the middle of the night if I get up with the dogs, like I did at 4.30am!

Not being the most prolific of users, and with a relatively small number of friends, more often than not I don't have any new notifications, but when I did check this morning there were eight! All from schoolfriendofMG750, clearly she's caught up with my blog! (Thanks G!).

I can't pretend that I don't get a rush of excitement when I get such a notification, or see that the page view figures for the day are up, it makes me feel like the time taken to write this is worthwhile, and that I've managed to find something to say which is worth reading.  It is however, very odd not knowing, for the main part, who is reading! As I've said before, I get stats that tell me when and where you are reading UK, USA and France yesterday - hello, hey there and bonjour! - but no indication of why or what makes you read! But.... big milestone coming up tomorrow so I guess I'll just carry on doing what I've been doing for the past two hundred and ninety nine days - seems to be working so far!

Buying milk in the supermarket this morning and I noticed that the 'use by' date is the 23 February - eek!!! I will have run a half marathon by then, and milk doesn't keep very long, which must mean that Brighton is edging ever closer!  Weather forecast is also now available... nine degrees and light cloud (fingers crossed they've got it right for once!) but I'm not ready for it to be next weekend! (Heaven only knows how RLB and SC are feeling about running their first half marathon THIS Sunday!).

I have however attempted to start getting ready by ironing my name onto my WaterAid T-shirt! Took a lot of ironing and be warned the printing on the rest of the shirt will transfer itself onto both the tea towel on top and the ironing board underneath HMG! The first letter really didn't want to stick and I may finish the race as 'auline', but if this is the only bit of me that's broken I'll be smiling!

M - 452

Brighton Half - 9
Liverpool Half - 121

Glasgow Half - 233  
Total Distance covered   480.1 miles

Following my own advice

when it suits me!

When I suggested yesterday that we should find something we love doing and do it, I don't think it was supposed to mean - and avoid doing what you should be doing! But... I've had a lovely day in the process! Dog walk with HMG this morning, lunch out with HMG and SC, followed by an afternoon making cards!

My right ankle isn't as pain free as I would like it to be, so I decided yesterday that I would rather rest up today in the hope that I can go for a slightly longer run on Saturday morning.  It is a lot better than it was, and with another rest day planned for tomorrow, we're hoping to manage six miles to parkrun (but I've just looked at how I can incorporate our favourite roads into the route and it may have to be seven!).  I'm not sure that running nine or possibly ten miles this close to our half marathon is wise, but I'm desperate to get back out on the longer routes we were  enjoying so much before Christmas and I know HMG is too... maybe we'd be OK if we took it really slowly and I didn't then arrive at parkrun thinking I might get close to running my PB! (which I'm nowhere near, I'm just not very good at acknowledging this when I race off at the start!).

Lunch was lovely, although I should have read the description a little bit more thoroughly. Having decided to ignore my diet  (nothing worse than lunching with a calorie counter) I didn't spot that my choice was served with "a couple of chips" until after it arrived. To be fair there was slightly more than two but only just.  Seems like even when I'm trying to break my diet the universe is conspiring to keep me on track! I'll be thankful for it one day - today I just feel a little peeved!

Came home and, with a house full of jobs to do, decided to start making a couple of cards instead (no clues - but you're going to like it Etsy Favouriter!). This is never going to be a commercial venture when it takes me so long to make them, but I enjoyed myself, got to empty lots of art boxes in the process and generally made a mess - which now needs clearing up along with all the other stuff that was already not where it should have been before I added to it!

Of course, what I should be doing now is getting myself organised so that days like today can happen more often without the knock on effect of pushing today's jobs into tomorrow, but I bet they won't be nearly as much fun!

M - 453

Brighton Half - 10
Liverpool Half - 122

Glasgow Half - 234  
Total Distance covered   480.1 miles

Push it

P-push it real good

Got to the gym this morning and couldn't help but wonder if Sunday's feeling of euphoria post work out was much more to do with activity on my Twitter account and consequent surge in readership of my blog, than anything connected with being at the gym.  Page views numbers have returned to their normal levels on the past two nights, thus I arrived at the gym and suspected I'd leave without the same feeling of optimism that washed over me at the weekend.

Forced my way through my programme to the final two exercises, the prowler and the ropes.  In asking one of the gym men if he was finished with these pieces of equipment he commented that he thought I should be using the black (and heavier) rope than the grey one.  Err no, the grey one is more than heavy enough! But I was then too self conscious to go through the rigmarole of changing the weights on the prowler, and potentially having to ask for assistance (again,) so set off with forty kilograms on it instead of thirty! Wasn't easy, but I pushed myself, and I pushed it! All the way along the floor and back again - three times!

Chuffed to bits with my little self, I was doing my cool down exercises when I got a text from my friend to say that the biopsy results on the tumor she'd had removed a few weeks ago were back - and they were benign (thankfully she then went on to explain that this meant no chemo or radiation therapy and I didn't have to spend too long trying to remember if benign was the good one or not! For something that's most often used in the context of something so emotionally charged as cancer could we not have adopted a word that we were all familiar with?!). As the realisation that she is going to be OK began to sink in, I found relief washing over me and a few tears trickling down my cheeks.  I do hope the gym man didn't think it was out of pride with my prowler performance!

I have spent the rest of the day with a heightened awareness of how precious life is, how we shouldn't take it for granted and should instead strive to spend it in the best possible way that we can.  A case in point being last night which I spent watching Al perform at his first 'gig' as a guitar player, having started playing a couple of years ago.  The school band accompanying the school production of Wind in the Willows may not have been quite what he envisaged when he dreamed of being a guitarist, but he was clearly enjoying every minute of it.  It was a huge milestone, and testament to all the time he's spent practicing (with, it has to be said, not a much support from me as he deserved).  I hope that one day I'll get as much pleasure out of running a marathon and the hours of 'practice' will have been equally as worth it.

I think what I'm trying to say is life is too short - find something you love doing - and do it!

M - 454

Brighton Half - 11
Liverpool Half - 123

Glasgow Half - 235  
Total Distance covered   480.1 miles

Senior Moment

(actually that should be plural!)

Previously when I've made the analogy between myself and either one of my two dogs, my friends were kind enough to say that they thought I was more Dougal (almost three year old English Pointer) than Sid (our, little over eighteen years old, Jack Russell), sisterofMG750 was less convinced, and observing their behaviour today I am increasingly inclined to agree with her!

Whilst out walking in the fields, Sid will frequently become distracted by something, stop to investigate and, once he's done, set off in completely the wrong direction.  Al and I have been putting this down to his failing sight and hearing, but more often than not we are now under the distinct impression that by the time he's finished sniffing whatever it was that had waylaid him in the first place, he can't actually remember which way he was going when he stopped! At which point either Dougal is dispatched or one of us has to trudge back to collect him.  Dougal on the other hand, will quite happily hare off after any visual or scent driven stimulus, ignore you completely whilst he remains focussed on his new priority, and then come hurtling back to the exact spot where he left you (it took us a while to learn to stay put!). Not for the first time I think I need to try to be a little more Dougal and a little less Sid!

Plan for today - school run, supermarket, actual run, make soup, do some other jobs, stop for lunch.
My actual day - school run, supermarket, actual run, do some other jobs, stop to eat the soup I'd forgotten to make!

At this point and in the absence of anything healthy I ate sh*t - thus taking me one step nearer my goal of emulating Dougal, but it wasn't really the characteristic I was aiming for!

I've also forgotten what I'm supposed to be having for tea.  You might be mistaken for thinking it should be a little more obvious from the selection of ingredients I brought back from the supermarket, but I think that would entail having a firm handle on what you're having when you go in!

Good news on some of the front pages of the newspapers today - BUTTER IS GOOD FOR YOU! Some of us in the know, knew this already! But it did make me smile earlier this week when, on the advice of the Transformation Man from the gym, I went to buy some Kerrygold Butter (grass fed cows - makes a difference apparently) and they were sold out! Had a lovely mental image of a first day of the sales type rush and subsequent argy bargy over blocks of butter by a (not quite as slim as we'd like to be) group in gym kit!

M - 455

Brighton Half - 12
Liverpool Half - 124

Glasgow Half - 236  
Distance covered               3.7 miles
Total Distance covered   480.1 miles

24 hours

How do you spend yours?!

Day six in the gym and they finally played something I recognised! Guns and Roses, followed by a bit of REM to sing along to, I say bit because just as I thought I'd arrived in time to hear the 80's and 90's mix, a warning bell must have rung somewhere and off it went.  It's like the place wouldn't function without it's beating BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! heartbeat.... or maybe I'm just old.

Certainly felt it today. Legs were somewhat sluggish and the dogs got walked a newly navigated route to avoid our usual hills! I'm not sure at what point I decided that walking for an hour and a half every day wasn't exercise enough, but I regretted it today! In stark contrast to yesterday where I was on top of the world post gym and out with the dogs, today I was shuffling along like I'd lost the will to live, or at the very least the energy!

The next step, having decided on my goals for the (now five weeks) transformation is to break them down into daily tasks, but I've yet to find time to disassemble them let alone start ticking them off! Feeling very sorry for myself my internal dialogue going something along the lines of "How on earth am I supposed to find time to do anything else other than exercise?! By the time I've got to the gym, done my exercises and got home that's the best part of two hours, getting ready to walk the dogs, walking them and washing eight muddy paws on our return is another two hours, which (in case you're struggling to keep up with my action packed life) is four hours devoted to exercise a day. Add on the eight that I'm supposed to sleep through, and that's what? Half my day gone?!" Which begs the question

What the chuff am I doing with the other half?!

How am I managing to waste twelve hours on the rest of my day and STILL not achieve anything other than eating, washing, ironing, cooking, supermarket shopping, blogging, tidying and occasional cleaning?!

I can feel the need for a time audit approaching and I'm not a great fan of those! In much the same way that I didn't want to commit my goals to paper I don't really want to add up the number of minutes I waste in on my ipod, checking email, Facebook, Blogger, Twitter or Etsy depending where I think there will be the most sign of life! Nor do I really need to know that my habit of popping into the supermarket every morning on the way back from dropping the boys at school probably equates to over three hours a week!

Oh dear - quick look on FB and the gym have posted a photo of everyone getting stuck in for #fatlossfeb and I'm chatting with the Biomechanics Man not doing any exercise at all.... and there in may lie the real answer of where the rest of my time goes! Chatting in general, not always with the Biomechanics Man I hasten to add! Although to be fair, if I was going to be caught on camera whilst at the gym this morning, I think this was undoubtedly the lesser of all evils!

M - 456

Brighton Half - 13
Liverpool Half - 125

Glasgow Half - 237
Total Distance covered   476.4 miles

2 Weeks to Brighton...

and I've gone viral!

I once heard someone famous being interviewed on the radio and they were regaling a tale about how un-Twitter savvy they were, when a retweet by an equally famous but more Twitter savvy friend resulted in them having ten thousand emails from Twitter in their inbox the following morning updating them on each and every favourite or retweet.  I HAVE HAD SUCH A MORNING! (although the numbers involved may differ slightly!).

I have never really got to grips with when is the best time to publish my blog, but have generally come down in preference of sometime around 10pm, which seems to work - except on a Friday and Saturday night when presumably people have got better things to do with their time. This is partly why I am in favour of a Sunday double or triple bill, but more often than not it's got more to do with the fact that I haven't written it till then.  This morning however I had four blogs written and awaiting publication, as I continue to play catch up for last week's untimely interruption to my internet access.

Up early to go to the gym (and conversely wishing I was going for a run) I decided that perhaps a few of my friends might be fortunate enough to be enjoying a lie in and what better entertainment than catching up with the goings on in my world for the past few days...

Last Tuesday's published and it appears there are five such people around. Publish Wednesday's, mistakenly put an @ sign in front of UKRunChat instead of the # that I thought I was supposed to use, and something strange starts to happen, the numbers reading this post are almost immediately at eighteen, and by the time I leave for the gym are nearer thirty!

Riding high on an endorphin rush (from going to the gym?! Oh how I've changed in fortnight!) I returned home to the news that 'Bottom's Up' has been read by over seventy people, making it my most popular ever by at least twenty views!  Confused as to why a little tale about me sticking my arse in the air is so popular, Al did start by asking "did you use those actual words?" as we wondered whether or not I'd been picked up by some people hoping for a more exciting read than they got!

A look at my email account and I have twenty four messages from Twitter (which in relative terms felt like ten thousand) and in and amongst them (or actually at the start) one informing me that I have been retweeted and am now being followed by UKRunChat! I have arrived!

By this time I was positively buzzing, danced my way through breakfast with Al, then C, then H (I only ate ONCE - but it was muesli and toast shhh don't tell anyone one!), before striding out across the fields with the dogs full of the joys of spring and love for my fab husband, boys and dogs, sister, family and friends, my thoughts centring around two weeks to Brighton - really ?! I have to wait that long!

Oh - if only I could have bottled the euphoria! By the time I get home I'm exhausted and not even the left over lovely superfood salad is enough to bring me round.... but I'm sure a chocolate brownie will do the trick!

M - 457

Brighton Half - 14
Liverpool Half - 126

Glasgow Half - 238
Total Distance covered   476.4 miles

We're Back!

Four miles to parkrun, parkrun afterwards and no IT Band issues! Does this mean I can stop going to the gym?!

Finally the weather and personal circumstances were enough in our favour to allow HMG and I to set off on our favourite run to parkrun, and then run parkrun.  I'd like to say it's the route that makes it our favourite, but it may well be the distance - it's our shortest!

Felt so good to be back to 'normal', jogging along setting the world to rights! After our initial mile our splits were fairly constant and the pace wasn't significantly slower than we were running before Christmas.  We may not have the distance back in our legs yet, but we've maintained our form!

Cafe and therefore toilets still closed at the park, but absolutely bursting for a wee, I had the new experience of trying to find a suitable tree on the Greenway to hide behind whilst HMG ran up and down keeping watch for any approaching cyclists! I'm not sure what we'd have done if she'd spotted any - thankfully there were none in sight!

Parkrun was hard work, and I'm trying really hard not to be disappointed with my 26.45 minute time. It's the best part of three minutes quicker than the last time I ran on the 3 January, but it is not where I want to be. How quickly I've gone from being chuffed that I can run 3 miles without my knees hurting to disappointed!

Speaking to my friend who lives in Brighton (but unfortunately won't be there on the day of the half marathon) and I can't help but wish that I had her attitude towards it all - the course runs past her house twice and she was telling me that on previous occasions she's popped in for the toilet, refreshments and a change of top en route!

Perhaps being injured will in the end turn out to have been a good thing.  Had it not happened I would have felt compelled to run as fast as I could regardless of my need to hit training for the next race without injury. However now, the plan is that HMG, sisterof MG750 and I will all run (and walk) together and just enjoy being there.  This last part being largely dependant on the weather  - 13.1 miles in the driving rain is not going to be any fun at all!  In my head it is a beautiful sunny early spring morning, just in case you were wondering!

M - 458

Brighton Half - 15
Liverpool Half - 127

Glasgow Half - 239
Distance covered               7.1 miles
Total Distance covered   476.4 miles

SMART Goals...

Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely

As part of the transformation plan, I am supposed to be writing down my goals for the six weeks and posting them in the transformers face book group - I have, as yet, been unable to bring myself to do this.

First and foremost I don't really want to join the group.  I've had a look at it a couple of times and I'm a little loathed to have yet another virtual presence to maintain, and more photographs of peoples food to look at.  I'm find it hard enough to get excited over pictures of what my friends had for tea, let alone a bunch of people I don't know, I'm also not sure that I want to waste any of my now precious time for being productive on looking at the culinary delights that others have managed to concoct when I've struggled on the past two nights to assemble the ingredients bought on Wednesday into a salad! (Got there this evening, and very nice it was too - shame I didn't think to provide you with an image of it in case you aren't prepared to take my word for it!).

Secondly once I've written my goals down, I'm going to have to take ownership of them. (it's OK I know that's the point, I'm just not sure I'm ready to commit!).

The exercise one is easy, I want to finish my first half marathon and not set myself back in doing so. I want to finish, able to run the following week, should I choose to do so, and use it as a launch pad for my Liverpool campaign - not be consigned to the injury bench as a result of running it.

The weigh loss one isn't much harder, I want to be able to fit comfortably into my jeans without feeling like I'm wearing some sort of secret support underwear that compresses as much of your flab as the strength of fabric will allow and then just redistributes the rest of it upwards and over the top (or so I'm told!!!).

The big one for me is, the one involving mindset.  Which, if I'm honest, is the real reason I signed up in the first place.  I want to say that I am going to get organised and motivated enough to give the upstairs of our house a thorough tidy out and spring clean. Feng Shui our bedroom and get rid of the Man U blanket that has somehow remained on the bed since it's arrival several months ago! But every time I think about it, I start to think about how I won't have time and how I've now wasted the best part of the first week already which would only leave me five, and I've got quite a lot of other stuff on next week, and then it's the half term holidays, and then there's Brighton....

Perhaps my goal is too great, perhaps I should just start with one room, but in a way that's worse as I wouldn't be able to avoid the bits that I don't want to do and just move on to the bits that I don't mind doing in another room! Which again, I think may be the point!  In which case I need to make my goal something realistic and achievable, something I will actually do and am prepared to commit publicly to (albeit only on here).

OK so here goes

By the end of the six weeks I will....

1. Have finished the Brighton Half in under three hours and run a sub twenty six minute parkrun
2. Eaten more healthily so that I fit back into my jeans
3. Have tidied the airing cupboard!

M - 459

Brighton Half - 16
Liverpool Half - 128

Glasgow Half - 240
Total Distance covered   469.3 miles

Garmin Gloom

It's hard to be productive when technology is being anything but helpful!

Something strange has happened to me, as with Sunday morning, I would almost rather go to the gym than go for a run - I am hoping that this isn't permanent! I think it has more to do with the fact that the gym in contained and safe, I know it will take me an hour, I know I can do all of my exercises. Running is much more of an unknown entity at the moment, it may take me longer than an hour and I have no idea if I'll be able to do it. But I want to run seven miles with HMG on Saturday morning, so I need to run five today.

As with Sunday, it appears that my IT Band issues are behind me (for the time being at least) but my knees and ankles are definitely not impressed with my return to pounding the streets.  I know now why so many people fail to get into running in the first place, it just hurts too much.  But already an addict I tell myself it'll be OK, I'll just try blasting my knees with hot and cold water in the shower as recommended by my marathon running friend, and sit with a bag of frozen peas on my ankle this evening! I keep hearing words from the podcast I listened to about making every step better than the last, the importance of having a uniform stride and footfall pattern and realising how far I've got to go, but feel too that I'm taking albeit small steps towards that reality with my gym exercises!

Coming home I am keen to look at my stats on the computer, only to find that my Garmin has stopped working again, and what little time I had to be productive over lunchtime became time spent talking to their customer service department as we tried yet again to get it to work properly.  The woman is not convinced that there is anything wrong with the unit, I've had so many sent that they can't ALL be faulty, and is much more of the opinion that it's my computer, at which point I am lost.
I have no idea how to check if it is my computer, or then what to do if it is.

Disgruntled I headed out for a walk with the dogs, wearing my Garmin to see if I can get it to work when I get home.  Firstly my four mile walk round the woods, looks like it might be nearer to two (but maybe that's an aerial distance and all the steeping up and down would make it nearer four if you were to walk it on the flat?!) secondly for some unknown reason it now works.  It's done this before and perhaps in the absence of any greater understanding I'm just going to have to accept that it's fickle. It either works or it doesn't, I have no idea why, nor what prompts it into behaving in a particular manner on a particular occasion.  In other words it's moody and temperamental - who knew we had so much in common!

M - 460

Brighton Half - 17
Liverpool Half - 129

Glasgow Half - 241
Distance covered               5.1 miles 
Total Distance covered   469.3 miles

Bottom's Up!

Quite literally!

Day Four of my gym attendance today! I haven't yet done the maths to find out if I'd have been better paying as I went, I probably would have been but lets face it I wouldn't go. I am relatively proud that I have managed Monday's and Wednesday's two weeks in a row. I am slightly less self conscious about being there and not quite as exhausted at the end of each set as I was on my first outing (although that might be because there is no Biomechanics Man making sure I'm doing the exercises properly - there's at least one I know I'm definitely not!).

It involves holding a press up position and then moving my right hand out in front of me and then in towards my opposite foot, before repeating with my left hand and then moving both hands out to the side (thankfully one at a time!).  Apart from when I move in towards my foot (when I can lift my bottom up) press up position is supposed to be maintained throughout - I'm not sure that I'm managing this! What's worse is that I have, both on Monday and today, discovered that when I get tired, it goes something like - hand out in front, hand back to under shoulder position, bottom up in anticipation of next move, hand stays exactly where it is! So that to anyone watching they must be wondering what on earth this strange sticking my arse up in the air exercise is supposed to be about - actually I hope no one is watching it's ungainly to say the least and very very far from showing any signs of core strength or the poise that I'm hoping may accompany it!

Further humiliation is yet to come, when I discover that the fifteen kilogramme weights have been put on the rack at chest height behind some twenty five kilogramme ones. I have no idea if I can lift twenty five kilogrammes and I am not going to find out by dropping it on my toe, so I have to ask one of the members of staff to help me. He does, but in doing so points out that surely I should be able to push more that thirty kilogrammes on the prowler (Geoff Capes) and wants to see me up to forty next week - I had NO IDEA that the Biomechanics Man was being kind to me when he wrote my programme! Clearly I owe him an apology for any disdain shown last Monday!

His favourite person of the day status is further confirmed when he gets in touch this evening to say that the transformation gym programme isn't as suitable to my goals and rehab as the one I'm currently working on (YES!) and that following recent digestion issues he thinks I should consult my GP before making any big changes to my diet, and as the major component of my diet is cake, I take this to mean that I should reduce it's consumption gradually rather than going cold turkey. Yeeeee Haaaaa!!!

M - 461

Brighton Half - 18
Liverpool Half - 130

Glasgow Half - 242
Total Distance covered   464.2 miles

Overwhelmed

I'm blaming last night on a lot of things today!

Had to take C to the station in Leeds for ten past seven this morning to catch a train to London, had to get H to a casting audition in Manchester for one. I knew this and could have told anyone who asked that this was what my day entailed. Why, oh why, oh why did I then a) spend time seeing if I could spot C when I went to collect H from school at lunchtime; and b) collect H at twelve forty five thinking that gave me an hour and a quarter to get to Manchester in time for our one o'clock appointment?!  (Unsurprisingly we were an hour late, they still saw him, in the time it took me to go for a wee and then we drove home again - what an utter nonsense the whole process is!).

I am so completely overwhelmed by the whole six week transformation thing, that my head is spinning with it.  I decide to eat my muesli as normal for breakfast (it's my favourite meal, they can bog off if they think I'm swapping it for a plain egg omelette) mid morning I find myself beating myself up over eating a dry oatcake.  This, like the casting audition that followed, is turning into a farce.

I'm torn between knowing that I will put every barrier possible in place to reinforce why I shouldn't do something, when actually I should just get off my backside and get on with it, and genuinely thinking that perhaps this is all a step too far, and that's before I even look at the workout.  I decide that the best thing to do would be to ask the Biomechanics Man for his professional opinion on what is in my best interests at the moment and decide that with the exception of breakfast and the odd oatcake I will try and follow the diet, and I will make a concerted effort to get to the gym to do the exercises he has prescribed specifically for me whilst I await his response.  No time to get to the gym, or run, today, but I did have my beautifully roasted tomatoes and mushrooms on a bed of lettuce instead of spaghetti for tea!

To be fair a lot  of what was said last night made good sense, especially the "are you being productive or are you being busy" bit! I'd like to think that today I was a bit of both.

M - 462

Brighton Half - 19
Liverpool Half - 131

Glasgow Half - 243
Total Distance covered   464.2 miles

All Change

Am I ready for this?!

Up, dressed, school run, supermarket, home, change, gym, home, try on T-shirt, change, walk the dogs, change, pick H up from school, change, gym, home, change, eat tea, change, go to bed. Aaarrghhh my life has suddenly got too busy and contained far too much changing before I went back to the gym this evening for the start of their six week transformation programme!

Don't ask me why I signed up for it, I think I thought it would be a good idea and help motivate me into going. When C asked what it had been like and I explained that we'd been weighed and measured and then sat down for a pep talk, he responded with "oh you mean like Fat Club in 'Stella'!" Yep! I guess that's what I mean. Oh dear!

This is my first attendance at such an event and thankfully we don't reconvene again until the end of the six weeks, at which point we are supposed to submit the before and after photos of our transformation.  Oh the indignity of it all, but then looking at the results from tonight's photo shoot (thankfully taken by Al in the privacy of my own home) perhaps there is a reasonable explanation for why the Wateraid T-shirt that arrived today is less than flattering!

There are three parts to the programme - mindset, diet, and physical exercise. First up, we've to sort our lives out! Have the difficult conversations we've been hiding from and face up to the fact that we are solely responsible for our actions and the choices we make.  Not aware of any conversations that I'm hiding from, as for taking responsibility I'm not sure "I like cake, therefore I eat it" is quite what he had in mind. The recommended workout is in gym speak that I've yet to decipher but there are YouTube videos to help me out although I'm not sure how many times I'll have to watch to remember them when I actually get to the gym. The diet on the face of it doesn't look too bad, one portion from group one, two from group two etc., until I notice that group one is all meat and fish (not much use to a vegetarian) and apart from a baked potato post work out there is no carbohydrate on it! I'm going to starve!

On one hand we were being told not to waste our precious time on Facebook, on the other there is a Facebook Group to join to chart our success and provide moral support to the other fat clubbers.... it's all a bit too much to take on this evening, especially when the aforementioned WaterAid T-shirt and Brighton Race number have arrived in the post today.  In hindsight I think that would have been enough of a reality check for today without this evening's exploits!

M - 463

Brighton Half - 20
Liverpool Half - 132

Glasgow Half - 244
Total Distance covered   464.2 miles

3 Weeks to Brighton!

Just keeps getting closer!

Still preferring to stay oblivious to whether or not my IT Band has sorted itself I almost would have preferred to be in the gym this morning (I said almost!).  But I have to acknowledge that Brighton is THREE WEEKS today and I really need to start running again. Besides, when I accepted the donation yesterday from the Doggie Daycare Lady, it was handed over with the request to "run it for me" after knee surgery put paid to any plans she had to run a marathon herself - great! Now I have guilt if I don't run!

Consequently, I headed out not really sure how far I was going to run and found myself making grandiose plans to run six or seven miles, a mile and a half in and I decided to settle for four! Happily moseying along I passed someone I knew out walking with her family.  A mile or so on and I was set to pass them again. Whether it was this, the other jogger who was slightly in front of them or just an unexpected rush of adrenaline but suddenly all I wanted to do was run, and run fast. Moving off the pavement and onto the road I ran past both of them at speed, which unfortunately I then felt the need to keep up until I was out of sight and could return to my gentle plod!

For the few minutes that I managed to maintain my pace it felt good, and I'm pleased to say that my IT Band seems to have recovered! That's not to say that my run was pain free, my knee still hurt but it was in a different place and one much more associated with the fact that I just haven't run much for a while.

Post run I headed over to one of my parkrun friends for brunch, put on in honour of the local 10K race this morning that I had managed to avoid.  It was fabulous, bucks fizz, bagels and scrambled eggs, tea and cake, and the company of good friends - most of whom it has to be said hadn't run the race either! Or perhaps they were as good at hiding it as the host who looked in far better shape than I would have if I'd just run 10K in under fifty minutes! Or her brother in law who flew round in forty two!

Somehow I can't see us looking quite so fresh at the end of our half marathon - but at least on that occasion we'll have earned our champagne and cake!

M - 464

Brighton Half - 21
Liverpool Half - 133

Glasgow Half - 245
Distance covered              4.2 miles
Total Distance covered   464.2 miles