On the way to another top 40

Feeling very pleased - started decorating at half 12 and finished at nearly midnight and the front room refurb phase 1 is complete. We got the ceiling, whitework (bar the skirting boards) and 2 coats of paint on the walls done. And it now has energy saving light bulbs thanks to Husband agreeing to ditch the dimmer switch. Phase 2 is to get T in to fit the flooring (this falls into the category of "yes we could do it ourselves, but life is short") & paint the skirting boards. Phase 3 is the only fun bit - shop for a big squishy rug & choose pictures. I'm very tempted to make N from WRN an offer on one of her beautiful abstracts.

I am a little bit sad as the room used to be a chalky, sunny orange - but Husband has never liked it & I have to concede that application of yet another shade of beige makes for a more grown up looking room.

So not exercise (technically) - but my aching arms are telling me otherwise. And another top 40 is on the way to being achieved!

Haggis and a Hangover

Good party on Wednesday night hosted by Futerra, but I'm not sure that I danced enough to justify alcohol & haggis calories. Damage was made even worse by not having pedalled that day (overslept).

I had the opportunity to walk off my hangover on Thursday, making my way to the Eco Home exhibition at the Geffrye Museum somewhere near Hackney - some great items and well put together if not exactly huge or surprising! It's interesting that even when using the tube, just how much walking I do when I'm in London compared to home.

Just a bit of wii last night & lazed on sofa, crocheting.

Pedalled today & hit the treadmill. I decided to just run - no x trainer, no step machine, just running. And I really enjoyed it - did just over 9K at 10.5kph, so used it as my "long easy run" of the week. I was helped by the TV - when it was just 4 screens, it seemed to be Question of Sport & soaps on a Friday evening, neither of which float my boat (honourable exception to the gloriously trashy Hollyoaks), but I got to see the 1950s with Andrew Marr which most definitely does!

My first puncture repair

Heavy rain through the week meant that choice of bike ride this weekend was restricted to Forest tracks - unless we wanted to spend hours ploughing through bog. Chose a route we haven't done for a while - another Kitty creation which combines classic forest fire tracks with a stretch of "proper" bridle way just south of Brockenhurst. The river you can see in the pic is normally a Husband-ridable-ford - even he didn't fancy it today. Several mushy bits but as it was New Forest silt as opposed to central Hamphire clay, it wasn't too claggy.
Big news is that I fixed my first puncture, with a little supervision. And it was a back wheel one. And I patched it rather than just swap the inner tube. Another Top 40 thing to tick off my list.
No deer, but some pretty birds at the beginning - loads of bluetits and a couple of nuthatches, and a v.handsome fox in the carpark at the end.

Other exercise this week - I tried tempo running with J on Monday. This consists of running faster than's comfortable. The benchmark is speech - normal steady runs have normal steady conversation. Tempo running means mono syllables - but not as fast as sprinting. We did it as a pyramid - after warming up & a steady paced start, we did 1 min at tempo followed by 1 min at steady pace. Then 2 mins at tempo, then 3. Decided that would do for now, so repeated 3, then did 2, finally 1. It went OK & we did the 5km in under 30 mins.
Cycled to work Mon-Thurs, but had a day off on Friday so heaved around 60L boxes of books instead.

Curiouser & Curiouser

Getting very confused about the relationship between Run in England & Women's Running Network. I'm hoping that the new RIE county activator will help to un-confuse me! I met her on Tuesday - she has a remit to develop new RIE groups across Hampshire - and I was hoping that this would mean more groups that Eastleigh WRN members would be able to run with - but I've been reading up on t'internet & am now more mystified. Anyway, she was lovely and is keen to support me which is fabulous. And she ran with us - very much appreciated!
Useful chat about development - I think I may need to review my top 40 objective to become a level 2 coach - might investigate alternative ways to improve my running coach skills.

No pedalling today as I was due to attend an off site meeting - which was moved to on site. And my Panda is being serviced tomorrow - so another petrol fuelled day.

I definitely spent a few calories on Saturday night bouncing around a dancefloor if the level of sweatiness I achieved was anything to go by! Nice gentle relaxing Sunday followed.

Body Combat tonight - haven't been for so long that the routine had changed. I'm plesaed that the new tracklist includes Metallica!

Playing one too many with time

Tried to fit too much into yesterday evening.

• Cycled home as per usual but strong easterly made it harder work.
• Ran 6.5km with L and then 5km with the Intermediate group at WRN - their first ever 5K - so v.impressed!
• Cooked tea
• Painted dresser base with its final coat
• Helped Husband with wardrobe assembly

Bit tired today - wonder why?

I now have a full length mirror in the house for the first time - something that for years I wouldn't give house room too! Having a lazier evening - finishing touches to dresser base, tidying, made tea (again), now got my feet up with Gok's Fashion Fix & a glass of wine - indulgent trash!

Hoping for speedy spoke replacement

Drove to work today as I had some training off site and wanted to get my bike wheel to the shop to have the spoke replaced before the weekend. I did manage the latter - got there just as the door was being closed at 17:59 - my wheel was accepted.

The course must have utilised plenty of nervous energy - media with lots of filmed interviews. I'm getting more tolerant of seeing/hearing myself these days and managed not to stutter. I don't think anybody who knew me as a teenager would believe that I could get through it - I even enjoyed it!

Body Combat last night had the novelty of 3 blokes being in the class. Really can't get my head - or body - sorted for press ups. I'm trying to work up the courage to talk to the instructor about technique.

Numbers were a bit poor for running on Monday which I'm hoping was down to high risk of rain.

So much decorating

Kitchen and dining room now all painted - it felt like the right way to spend Friday & Sunday as both days were kind of grey & wet. On Saturday afternoon, had a very productive allotment sesh with Husband, Goldfish & Kitty - it looks much more tended now & we got the spuds in.

Today, the sun came out so headed off to the Forest with Husband where we did the route Kitty devised from Milkham. Gorse out smelling of coconut & I was pleased to spot a very cute little brown lizard. I'm renaming the lane from Burley as Whining Lane - it's where you spot people struggling to master the rental bikes they've just picked up & there's lots of angst and domestic stress. For example, saw little girl on bike getting v.cross at the rest of her family for not keeping up - her younger brother was throwing a wobbly about being on a tag-along on his dad's bike & her mum was giving dad grief over not sorting out brother - felt quite sorry for dad! Soon lost the stressed cyclists after the first off road hill - that's a good thing about the Forest - it's easy to find a quieter spot.

Husband got to try out his new CO2 inflator after a flint stabbed his tyre - but he thinks he needs some more practise!

Running went well tonight - surprised that anyone came given that it's a bank holiday. Good to be running in the sunshine.

Bored of jaw hurting now

Lots of digging on Saturday - turned over & weeded a couple of beds at the allotment whilst Husband carried out remedial action on the broad beans and Kitty declared war on the raspberry canes. It's great to see the soil in reasonable condition. Decorating on Sunday - dining room is gradually progressing.
Running on Monday went better than I expected. Lots of texts & emails from people unable to make it (there's colds going around atm) but still had 3 standard and 5 beginners. B was the first beginner to switch to the standard group - and did so with aplomb. My mouth was very painful that day - kind of day where I was trying to work out the max number of paracetamol/ibuprofen I could take - and I was wiped out later on.
Nothing bar cycling until today as I spent last night very pleasantly making jewellery with Kitty and Tuesday evening in Basingstoke for work. No bad thing as today, I'm still on painkillers. However, I did manage the gym tonight.
Back to dentist tomorrow. Joy!

Must Remember to Keep My Mouth Shut

Not out of politeness, but out of a desire not to swallow half the swimming pool every stroke as I come out of the water! It's a simple trick, but it makes a big difference. I did 40 lengths tonight - the first time I've counted since trying this breathing underwater fad (it'll never catch on!). I now need to work on recovering from mini problems without panicking about drowning - for example, mistiming a stroke or forgetting to breathe. My neck aches less than usual so I guess it'll be worth the effort.

Lots of painting today but according to WLR, 2 hours equals only 130 calories expended more than normal.

Good chat with G this morning about what we're doing to control eating atm - I'm glad that she had as good a week as I did from that perspective.

Does pumping up balloons count?

My arms don't love me anymore. I went to Body Combat last night (great to see Sassy back on form) & then to help with a work thing which required 4 hours of balloon pumping! It took 30 pumps per balloon to achieve perfect inflation - my job is so glam! So arm aching & general tiredness shouldn't be a surprise today!
Cycled every day so far this week - it's definitely getting lighter in the evenings now and it's now "dimpsy" when I leave for home.
I enjoyed running group on Monday - I'm getting a bit more confident at introducing proper coach stuff to the standard group and numbers seem to settling down. And the amazing beginners can now run 5 minutes!

Walking not Running

I'm really not good at driving in snow - it scares me! Combined with the fact than Monday is a park-2miles-from-office-then-wait-for-bus day for me when I use the car, I opted to walk to work. Which enabled me to risk assess for running tonight en route - concluded it was too dodgy as even if the snow eased off/thawed, a freeze would mean slippery surfaces. So once I actually got to work, emailed, texted & telephoned to cancel running.

Very pretty walk - nearly 3 hours there & back. I saw an innovative BMX-er towing a sledge, a kid using his skateboarder without the wheels. What amazed me was walking past the yoof of Eastleigh and not getting snowballed!

More walking on Sunday - D came over with S & the kids & we had a very chilly wander around Lakeside together.

Cycled to work on Friday & one way on Thursday.

Not much other exercise to report as DIY rules our lives still! Apart from Saturday night when I had a late text from S inviting me for a boogie at the Dungeon with M & K - bouncing around the dancefloor for a couple of hours should count for something!

Catching up

I've been remiss on the blogging front recently - and remiss on the food front. Having a house full of builders and dust and only 1.5 usable rooms seems to inspire more trips to the chip shop and comforting chocolate/biscuits/rubbish! Never mind - we've got until the 5th as a holiday from the builders - and until the 28th as a break from our dust hole of a house.

Been to Body Combat every Wed this month apart from today (Christmas eve) and have been running with X - S joined us too! No more gym or swimming adventures to report. Lots of pedalling to work and a v.pleasant ride in the forest 2 weeks ago with Goldfish. Little bit of walking last weekend and some football with my nephews - we were in Northumberland doing my family. We're now in Torquay with my fabulous in-laws for Christmas.

Christmas and building work have definitely impacted on my desire to exercise (negatively) and on my desire to eat (positively bad). I've also been running around sorting out stuff for the Running Group - 5th Jan is looming which is when I launch!

Hangovers are not compatible with building work

Woke up this morning with a pounding noise - took a few minutes to realise that it wasn't my hangover from office Christmas party, but the builders doing their thing... so I gave up on my scheduled lie in & headed off for retail therapy - so all I have to report for today is a fair bit of walking!

Achieved quite a bit - Christmas shopping commenced & I found a wickable cycling/walking/running top that looked as if it might help Kitty to avoid dying of hypothermia whilst pedalling to work - it's her birthday coming up very soon. I am confused though as to why outdoor clothing mfrs seem to think that women like to wear nowt but baby blue and powder pink - they should employ Kitty to zap up their colour pallettes!

Lots of dancing last night - very impressed with my new very shiny shoes which remained comfy despite not being flat. Mary Jane straps, wedge heel - and they look good too. Impressed with my colleagues' willingness to bounce around. Only party related injury was from my sequinned dress which scratched my arms enough to leave a faint rash!

Body Combat on Wed was exhausting. Instructor had gone through the archives & dug out some of the most manic tracks from previous releases.

Kick Glide Breathe

Although I went swimming later on, I got most of my exercise fix on Friday from walking - home to station, Euston to Waterloo (after the presentation I went to finished), station to home. I'm not a huge London fan, but I do enjoy walking across it - lots to see!

I have no idea how many lengths I swam on Friday evening as I was completely focused on getting my breathing right. Did kind of OK, but still felt it was more like controlled drowning. I was breathing every 2nd stroke. Once Husband had finished his 50 lengths, he gave me a bit more coaching - including the little mantra "Kick Glide Breathe" ("Easy Work Enjoy" in a Guardian article on breaststroke). He got me to breathe every stroke & to try & slow my strokes - eventually, I should be doing big, powerful pulls/kicks, letting myself glide properly. Definitely improving, but I think project "swim with head under water" is still very much WIP.

I'm looking forward to being able to do a similar routine to G where she alternates crawl with breaststroke - but I'm a way off this atm. I've added a swimming cap to my Christmas list (fabric type) as I find keeping my fringe & layers out of my eyes & avoiding painful goggle strap hair interface challenging. Can't really wear a buff in the pool!

Exercise today - not much apart from heaving 21 boxes of tiles from store into car (in 2 batches as the weight looked a bit much for the Panda) & then into house, plus some more wallpaper stripping. Husband spent an heroic amount of time attempting to de-builders-dust the house - bit of a losing battle atm.

Just in time

Having looked at the forecast late on Friday, we decided to reschedule our Sunday ride to first thing Saturday. Rain was due between 1 & 3pm & wouldn't be due to stop until Monday (marvellous). Just me, Husband & Goldfish on a 20K loop from the house, ascent 258m.

The track next to Park Hills Wood was remarkably dry - still had to walk a couple of bits that were churned mud (due to sloane carrying hoofy b******s - my new horse insult is still under development!) & I missed the best comedy moment - Goldfish declaring "Well this bit looks ridable" followed immediately by toppling off his bike. The ride included a good new bridleway - a footpath near Owslebury that's been changed recently to BW. Husband tried out the BMX area of Bishopstoke Woods - but the SNFS grounded. 2 punctures - Husband's was flint, mine was briar - which isn't normally tough enough to g through a tyre.

Got back to house at half 12 ish & at 12:55, the rain started - bang on schedule! Went to Bournemouth last night for G's birthday - proper burger followed by a rock covers band at O'Neills. Not G's taste - which is a real shame as it was her birthday - but Husband was pleased to hear Whitesnake, Dio & Judas Priest stuff from his yoof. Dancing was restricted (due to most 70s/80s rock being too slow to boogie to in my opinion) to 2 Metallica & ACDC songs. However, it did prompt me to actually find out that Enter Sandman is a Metallica track - I've been bouncing around the Dungeon to it for years without knowing who did it! We used to go to Dungeon with DB who was a mine of information on who did what... but he's emigrated to San Francisco, leaving me in perpetual ignorance. How selfish!

Gym on Friday (as well as cycling to/from work) - knee still isn't perfect but I managed to run for 15 minutes, so it is improving. Lots of X trainer & the incline chest press. Played briefly on the Naultilus treadmill again.

I've finally sent off my cheque to join The Women's Running Network - more about this to follow....

My va va voom is MIA

It’s taken so much longer than I expected to get over the stomach bug – not in terms of keeping food in my system long enough to absorb it, but my energy levels are still not 100%. It’s been a tough week at work though which I’m sure has contributed. I also managed to stick to Big D for 5 days – which has to be a record atm! I don’t think this was the issue either as my calorie allowance is a respectable 1600 a day.

Quite a bit of walking on Sunday. We started with a gentle wander on the Downs at Devils Dyke – fab views. One the way home, stopped at Petworth to look at the house & had another walk through the deer park. I felt exhausted afterwards!

Cycling this week has been more tiring than usual too. I drove on Thursday but compensated by working in a store all day lifting & shifting kitchen doors – which has to burn at least a few calories!

Gym was rubbish on Tuesday – I managed a full 17 minutes on the treadmill before accepting defeat! I did manage 14mins on the stepper and 10 on the x trainer. Body Combat was fine on Wed though – so I guess I am recovering.

The first and last beach bbq of the summer....

So many beach plans have been canned this summer - some even got to the emailing invitations stage before rain or risk of rain caused cancellation. It's summers like this year's that make me tempted to coerce Husband, friends & family to emigrate to somewhere where weather isn't constant rain may-September....

So Saturday's beach excursion was the first - and may well be the last of Summer 08. Husband, Goldfish, Kitty, G, C and M all came along. I swam (a little bit) with Husband & we played a little frisbee - C was great at leaping to grab it - managed to look elegant! M had the short straw as he seemed to have to paddle out to retrieve the frisbee a few times.

I'm including walking as an activity for Saturday as our camp was a little way down the beach (in our defence, it was the first people free spot when we arrived at 4ish) and I seemed to walk up & down a few times (to meet G, to use the loos on top of the cliff, to put some more parking time on the car). I did feel guilty at our distant location when W & J arrived & trekked over to join us in bike leathers!

Lots of food (including Husband's first attempt at home made sausages!). I drank lots of beer - so was v.grateful to Kitty for driving. The sun shone & nobody got frostbite - not even G.

Bike ride today - Husband, C, M and I did a 20km route from Preston Candover. Drizzled a bit, but we didn't get too soggy. It's a good route - seems to be more down than up (steeper ups) and enough tricky rutty bits to keep the little grey cells working as hard as my legs.

C's guinea pig squeals (TM) proved a great early warning system when cycling behind her of any big rocks or obstacles. I tried to persuade the boys that it would be considerate of them to squeal too so that C could also benefit - to no avail.

Long Weekend of Excess in Vienna

Lots of walking, lots of art, lots of boogying, lots of beer, lots of food, lots of great people, lots of sunshine - all in all, lots of great wedding!


X & S got married in Vienna on Saturday in a fabulously over the top Palais, complete with gold baroque twiddly bits and I'm sure I remember cherub statues!


So, tenuous links to exercise:

• Oodles of walking - about 2 hours each day. This included initial exploring with Husband on Friday, a drunk wander through the old town on Saturday back to our hotel, lone hangover beating stomp on Sunday morning when I got to see the incredibly tasteless Johann Strauss memorial, meandering from cathedral on Monday....


• Boogying on Saturday night - even Husband was dancing! Kitty & Goldfish outdid us, keeping going til the party ended.


• Good intentions: I did try to rent a bike, but the City Bike scheme didn't like my credit card! I also briefly considered joining the virtuous Kitty in the gym on Friday but decided to go wandering with Husband instead.

I've discovered that I'm not a big Klimt fan - ditto Schiele. Liked a Julian Opie exhibition I went to with Kitty at MAK, loved the laid back Museums Quartier, enjoyed art from Faroe Islands that was in the basement of the Leopold Museum, loved the hotel (Das Triest - stylish, comfy, powerful showers, quiet rooms, good looking receptionist), liked beer from a microbrewery and cocktails at film festival, flatpack hat from M&S was successful, enjoyed a v.civilised slice of sachertorte with Kitty in a beautiful palm house.... even Husband who hates city breaks enjoyed the weekend.

Quote for weekend came from Kitty "why have they messed up our hotel booking, moved us to a great, stylish hotel with minimal hassle, fed us for free - why us??!!"

Blow Up Boat

Our inflatable kayak had its maiden voyage today! Decided that the upper reaches of Loch Crearn looked sheltered enough to try it out & we were with Middle Sister, Brother-In-Law & Nephew 3 who have a big traditional style canoe. The kayak was easy to inflate & handled pretty well - much more exposed to wind than the trad canoe, but we got a little more speed up thanks to kayak style paddles.

Felt quite exciting going into slightly choppy waves on the way back - it kind of bounces over them.

Today's pic is of the house - we played a very chaotic rounders game after tea - included Husband rugby tackling Mum! Beautiful sunny day with daylight beyond half 9.

Calories in > Calories burned

Feeling guilty about having not blogged for over a week! A sign of being busy maybe (that's my feeble excuse)....

Anyway, I only pedalled to work 3 days last week as it was Bank Holiday on Mon & we had Friday booked off so we could go to my ex colleague C's wedding in Stirling. Lots of allotmenting on Monday - 3 hours of weeding made easier by lots of rain earlier - typical BH weather! More rain on Thursday evening meant that I arrived home literally dripping! My shoes are still wet today! Body combat on Wed, but overall, a fairly laid back week.

C & R's wedding was great - didn't know many people but everyone was really friendly which made it a fab evening as well. C looked stunning - strapless long gown with corst type effect down the back. R was kilted as were most of the blokes. Immaculate venue - a sandstone manor house in beautiful grounds complete with peacocks! Lots of good food, lots of alcohol. Boogied in the evening to a very versatile band - mixing Dolly Parton, the Proclaimers & some trad Scottish tunes - even Husband danced. Very impressed that my shoes only caused low level agony (strappy wedges with a heel). Our moves were put to shame by very talented young Irish dancers. We called it a day when the band did at 1am.

We then played tourist - quite a bit of walking which eventually took its toll on Husband's ankles. Stirling Castle was interesting & the day kind of went by easily- beautiful weather meant far reaching views. In the photo, the big peak on the left is Ben Lomond which I walked up in 1989 whilst on a field trip!

Stayed in Leith on Sat night & walked half a mile across cobbles in strappy wedges to restaurant - this time, my feet really did hurt! Pint consumed sitting on a pontoon followed by a good seafood meal - see what I mean by calories??

Sunday - more walking around the Royal Botanic Gardens - but the weather finally broke whilst we were ambling around the glasshouses. It did mean that we almost had the place to ourselves in the afternoon!

Cycled in today & went to gym tonight in a vain attempt to offset the excesses.... 10mins x trainer then 30mins intervals. Husband swam but his lungs aren't completely over the cold he had last weekend.