So much catching up to do

So much that I haven't written about recently! So much has happened - good stuff, bad stuff and I'm sure I can squeeze in ugly somehow.

In no particular order, I'll start with Top 40 progress - and with a picture taken yesterday of my first home grown strawberry (#19 - grow something new to eat). I shared it with Husband & fortunately (as many more are developing), liked it!

Next is #16 - do a dance class. I enjoyed a fabulous weekend with my sisters near Stratford which included lots of opportunities to try classes. All 3 of us did Street Dance - out done by many older ladies! Middle Sister & I also giggled our way through a Bravo Broadway class - jazz hands and a fantastically camp instructor. Yoga was also been revisited and I didn't hate it. Middle sister revisited body Combat for the first time in years with me. V.grateful to Baby Sister for inviting us - memorable and so much fun.

We haven't been cycling much recently - not since South Downs Way. My bike is now sporting new wheels as it was the hubs that had bust, not the bottom bracket - and that takes it's repair bill for 2010 to around £500 - maybe I should have bought a new bike instead at the start of the year. We we did a 20K route from the house on dry tracks yesterday, enjoying a long sunny evening.

I did my first parkrun last Saturday. This is a weekly times 5K that now takes place in parks around the country - and Eastleigh started just a few weeks ago. It's free to register, free to do & is very well organised. It's also a great time of day - 9am means that I still get most of Saturday for other stuff. My time was not my best (29:43), but plenty of room for improvement.

One of my original runners L tripped whilst running with me on Tuesday and was unlucky enough to break her leg - so I spent Tuesday evening in A&E with her. This meant cancelling the 8pm beginners group - but everyone was more focussed on L's injury.

So it's been a mix these last few weeks. Hoping that L recovers soon.

UKIP don't love cyclists

If I was even entertaining the idea of wasting a vote on UKIP, I'd be persuaded otherwise by their attitude to cyclists! Walk at roundabouts, don't ride on roads, pay for bike parking. Barking.

Persuaded myself to jog in the woods tonight - I've been checking out paths & tracks to see which would be suitable for the fabulous WRN runners. 6km, not fast, thoroughly enjoyable. I now have a bigger portfolio of runs which will take advantage of sunny evenings and the beautiful Hampshire countryside. I really didn't miss repeatedly fiddling with my ipod's headphones - the new ones stay put & sound good.

Pedalled to work today - love the sunshine.

Less than boundless energy

Note to self - do not expect to be able to keep up with the speedier running group on Monday after pushing yourself on a Sunday. I was pathetic - didn't even manage to do the same distance, opting to have a brief chat with my neighbour at the top of the hill in the woods. I've got a couple of Mondays coming up when this might be repeated, so I will need to experiment with coaching from a bicycle - megaphone would give a great image!

Anyway, running took in more scenery - love the sunnier evenings & for very selfish reasons, I urge all to sign up to 10:10's Lighter Later campaign. Woods on Mon, river on Tue. Deer, sunsets, daffodils - what's not to love (excepting midges!)?

Brief swim tonight as Husband & CC Captain Chaos were installing gutter to the shed early evening and we only had 20mins or so before Aquafit took over the pool.

Pedalled to work today & yesterday. And a little wii.

Practise ride done

Next month, I'm doing one of my top 40 - the South Downs Way on my bike. A dodgy tummy meant that I failed to do this in 2008 over 3 days - so this time I'm aiming to do this in 2.... However, this time, it's with vehicle support - including a meat wagon! Goldfish is doing it too and although it's a bit late for serious training, we did a practise route today: 69.13km as a figure of 8 route from Cheesefoot Head, completed in about 5 1/2 hours including stopping time. M joined us for the first and larger loop. We were moaning about it being chilly to start, but all divested layers after we'd been riding for an hour or two.

Very impressed that Goldfish managed to fix a broken chain on the hoof - and relieved that this was the only bike problem on the way. The tracks were very dry, making this a comparatively easy ride.

Today's picture reflects my C&G exam that I'm doing tomorrow - the tutor asked me to send him a photo of traditional Hampshire brick & flint construction as he's not sure about its thermal efficiency!

I was tired at the end, but felt that I could have carried on - good as the SDW days will be a bit longer. Not so good was a cramped thigh later when crouching to plant out beetroot seedlings - I may have to go down the electrolyte drink on the trip for the first time.

Skating yesterday with G, SE and the F clan who were en route between sailing and the Forest of Dean. Enjoyed both that & going on with G & SE to meet Z for an average lunch in a beautiful location in Lee on Solent.

Not much else to report this week apart from running on Tuesday with WRN, Body Combat on Wed and about 90mins walking on Thursday - actually, that's not so shoddy!

Big D was sent on holiday for Friday & Saturday (cooking for guests is not compatible) but is back today. But as I burned at least 2,700 calories on the pedal, I'm eating buckets!

Easter Sunshine

So grateful for the weather deciding to be a little less typical for a British bank holiday weekend on Sunday & Monday. We'd hibernated during the rain on Good Friday & Saturday decorating the hall & landing (another Top 40 is close to completion), but escaped outside on Easter Sunday, spending the morning with Kitty & Goldfish at the allotment, then going for a 26km ride in the New Forest.

We did what I think of Kitty's route - Husband's favourite as it has some more interesting descents than most of the bike trails in the Forest. For the second time ever, I managed to cycle up the steep gravelly slope that's just after a horsey underpass. Completed it in 2 hours with no punctures - although Husband's chain & associated gubbins were demonstrating signs of wear.

I noticed the mosses more than usual - probably because all the usual spring plant happenings are so behind this year.

More sunshine today. Baby Sister came over with the children & we spent the afternoon admiring lambs, piglets and so many chickens at Manor Farm Country Park. J was very taken with a big black stag turkey, murmuring "magnificent" - not expected vocab for him! R still doesn't scream when being held by me - weird. A kept on calling me Grandma - bad enough - but she was aided and abetted by my naughty baby Sister!

Running tonight - I got very muddy checking out suitability of the path next to the Itchen, taking advantage of a no-show 7pm group. 5 for the 8pm group and we did the Bishopstoke hill route.

The Big D - again

Apparently, 21% of UK adults smoke and that number is declining. 40% of UK adults are overweight - 20% are obese - and this number is increasing. So is it easier to give up nicotine or chocolate??

I'm embarking on the Big D - yet again - and I am trying to remember how I succeeded in 2006. Hence a photo of me in beautiful NZ in Jan 2005 as my stick - and prove to myself that I can lose fat - after all, I have done it! Carrot is the sailing holiday in May - I'd like to be more toned & look cool in the photos (yes, I am that shallow!). I do need to drink more liquid - I often eat when I'm probably thirsty. I've also re-done my WLR account - clean start!

New beginners on Tuesday - not many so I need to work on getting a few more & retaining all. Very pleased to have a few more in the 7pm Tuesday group now that it's relaunched as the "easier" regular run.

Gym last night - deliberately didn't run & did 35mins spinning and 20 x trainer. I've been walking a little more than usual as I've been on a course in Ealing this week & getting there on the train. But only 1 day of cycling to work.

Eastleigh 10K

My time this year is 56:53 - just 7 seconds under my target of 57 minutes. I did make an effort this year - I have been guilty of treating the event as another run as opposed to a great opportunity to see what I can do! KB, J & KL were fabulous running partners - especially at 4.5km when I hit a bit of a bad patch. I found a second wind at about 7km - shortly after this pic was taken, but was running out of energy at 9km. And KB kept me going.

So proud of the WRN runners today. 7 of us completed the course - 4 in less than 1 hour - no drop outs!

A big improvement was pedalling to the race. Parking is always frustrating and it provided a good low impact warm up/cool down.

Husband was fabulous. He looked after my bag which was bulging with WRN runners jackets as well as cheering us on. And he took some great photos - more of which I'll be sending around soon.

I've been avoiding hard exercise as part of my prep for this morning. Bit of gardening yesterday & pedalling to work most days last week. We went 10 pin bowling with Kitty & Goldfish tonight - which must count at least a little as exercise!

Brecon Beacons Weekend 3

Much better weather on Sunday and we tried out a blue route from the National Park's Mountain Bike leaflet collection/book thing.

Supposedly 24km, but I clocked it at 20km and from the National Park Visitor Centre near Brecon. Glorious views - as you can see! And plenty of red kites - I know I'm getting accustomed to seeing them now whenever I go to Baby Sister's in Bucks, but still exciting.

We watched a shepherd & dog herding sheep for a bit - although I've never heard anyone on One Man & His Dog yell "will you f***ing come by??".

The route was a good mix with challenging descents that beat me (and one even beat Husband) and uphills where the rocks made pedalling almost impossible in places. Across open moorland and rocky tracks. The road bits were quiet, pretty lanes. The best bit was the final descent, whizzing across the side of a hill (not sure if it qualified as a mountain!). Somehow, I got 3 punctures in one wheel, but all so slow that they didn't materialise until we got home.

We finished in the tea shop with a Black Beef Pie Challenge, undoing any calorific deficit from the ride.

We took it easy at running last night as it's the Eastleigh 10K on Sunday. I could still feel Sunday's ride though!

Sports bras wear out

Let's just say that I bear the scars of a worn sports bra after running on Monday. Tuesday's choice of undergarment was a very different design - so nothing was exacerbated! Shock Absorber (which the offending bra was not) suggest replacement every 6 months - and other sites suggest 3-12 months.

You may note that Husband is on foot in this week's photo. My parents stayed for the day on Sunday unexpectedly - so we decided against cycling. Mum was too wiped out from a stomach bug for them to visit friends as they'd originally planned - so they watched the rugby whilst Husband & I went for a gentle walk in the woods. We also hit the gym where I tried a spinning bike for the first time - so much better than a "normal" exercise bike - felt much more realistic and great to focus on cadence. I think I can make more use of this as part of prep for South Downs Way. I also linked iPhone to the machines - exercise geek happiness!

Another 10K on Monday with WRN - and again, it went well. All other groups were fine - except 7pm Tuesday which didn't happen for the 3rd week. Cycled on Mon & Tue, but not today as I was walking around Earls Court all day.

Fitness Equipment Al Fresco

I'm not sure if you can tell from the photo here (poor quality - sorry!) but some intriguing equipment has appeared outside the Hub (home to Eastleigh WRN amongst others). It's next to the kids playground, but appears to be gym style equipment - there's a cross trainer thing, strider thing and a weird skiing thing. We did give it a try after running on Tuesday - fair play for trying something new for adult fitness.

I was really impressed with Cragside's "fitness trail" that was more of an adventure playground for grown ups that I tried in the summer - and the popularity of Go Ape demonstrates that this is a potential growth area.

Monday's 8pm group did some great hill work, but numbers were as patchy as last week. My marketing efforts are going to be helped by WRN linking with Race for Life again this year - and I think I can organise the required training sessions around the Winchester and Southampton events.

Too pooped to go to Body Combat today - I slept badly last night and had an earlyish start - so it was just a walk up the hill today plus I will dig out the wii in a sec. Pedalled on Mon and Tue.

Uneven

Finished tonight's runs with a warm top half, but frozen from the waist down! It was so cold that the Panda's windscreen was already icing up when I set off home. It's been a bit uneven with WRN this week - 1 advanced, many Monday standards, 2 Tuesday standards and just 3 beginners. It is spurring me to actually do some marketing which I've let slip a bit of late. Given that I'm more of a career marketeer than I am career runner, you'd probably expect otherwise! Some of my laxness is down to confidence - can't quite bring myself to do a press release, even though it's well within my skill set.

I try to convince myself that communicating too slickly would be counter productive - but I'm so so far off slick atm. Pretty far off competent to be honest.

Pedalling to work has been great - Husband has serviced my commuter bike & I can really spot the difference. He also had to sort out the bike shed lock today after I managed to reset the combination without realising - a blonde (dyed) moment.

More energy required

It's been a tiring week. Running went fine apart from having to decide whether an idiot bloke was being menacing - or just an idiot - and having to revise our route. On both days, I had to do a manic sprint back to the Hub to greet the 8pm group vaguely on time - very grateful to both 7pm groups for tolerating this!

On Wednesday, I experimented taking my bike to Cosham on the train as I am fed up of having to drive to work in order to go to a merchandising lab. Going was fine - I used the lifts to get over the bridge at Eastleigh station, direct train and I was directed to where the guard wanted my bike to go. Not so great coming back as I got the time wrong & had to change at Southampton. Complete lottery as no information about what train went from where, lots of lugging bike up/down stairs, no idea where the bike should go - but hey, I got home!

Body combat that evening after which I retrieved Husband from a country lane - he had destroyed a tyre in a pothole and like most modern cars, his doesn't have a spare - or even a jack!

Thursday was really tiring but more of a mental endurance exercise. I was representing my work area at a press event - try and engage journalists and spend hours on feet attempting not to let the boredom between journalists show on face/body language! Amazing venue and the whole thing was extremely well organised. Walked home from the station at about 8 & was asleep by half 10.

Just cycling today - a bit more coming home as I wanted to get Husband a birthday cake. Very proud of getting it home in my panniers with the frosting intact!

The Mince Pie Run

10 uf us braved the ice and cold today & ventured across the icefields of Bishopstoke for the Eastleigh WRN Mince Pie Run. Very slidy & icy so we mostly walked, fitting ina few jaunty runs where the conditions allowed. And as you can see from our shoes, a little muddy!

Back to mine for mince pies & mulled wine - expertly served by Husband - in our very warm dining room.

It was great to get the different runners in the different time groups together. And Husband was able to put names to faces at last!

Not to plan

I haven't exercised quite as much as I hoped this evening. Body Combat didn't happen - the services of the previous instructor were discontinued last week and a very apologetic gym manager explained that he'd messed up with sorting out a replacement for tonight. Irritating, but these things happen. I've got mixed feelings about the change - liked the instructor, but also love her replacement. So by the time I got to exercise, I just had 25 mins - 20 on the cross trianer and 6 on the stepper.

And no pedalling today as I had to go to Portsmouth for work. None yesterday as I went to London. I did walk to & from the station in freezing weather.

Very proud of the Beginners - they completed their 30 minutes last night with aplomb. More important than my pride, I hope that they are all feeling suitably proud of themselves.
Running was good on Monday too - with one of the Beginners doing her first WRN 5K.
All good!

Sunshine in Noss Mayo

I'm starting to feel Christmassy - despite the sunshine. We enjoyed this weird sun thing this weekend in Devon with the Fabulous In Laws.

Husband's legs withstood a 5ish mile walk near the intriguing named village of Noss Mayo on Saturday - loved the coast views from NT stretch called The Warren. Woodland with creek views through the trees, then up & over a hill back to the car. He was suffering afterwards though - shuffling when we popped into Dartmouth to see the Candlelit Christmas thing (great Irish band).

I got to do my favourite beach hut run this morning with my Fabulous Mother In Law. Nearly couldn't as I'd managed to leave my running tights at home - but despite being a svelte size 8, FMIL managed to find a pair of shorts my bum would squeeze into. I'm hoping that I haven't stretched them too much! We tried a variation that avoided the worst hill and involved some downwards steps - interesting, but I prefer the original.

Gym on Friday - new machines! All very impressive - individual TV screens and ipod docks - but its going to take me a while to adjust - wasted about 10mins faffing about.

Christmas party on Wed did involve a little dancing, but offset any benefit by feeling too delicate on Thursday to do anything except wii. Pedalled 3 days this week as I had 2 trips to Portsmouth. Running was fine on Mon & Tue - but low numbers which I'm attributing to Christmas!

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.

Uber Burley Loop

I had the chance to try out Husband's new Forest route today - which takes in some of our favourite sections from 3 different routes. Starting at Burley, old railway line to Brockenhurst, up to Emery Down & over to the Portuguese Fireplace via the hibernating Reptile Centre. Husband fixed puncture and I admired cute pigs. Up to Highland Water towards Milkham, then parallelling the dual carriage way before cutting underneath it, going back to Burley via a pretty bit with a pond. 39.15km and we got back to the car just as it started raining.

We were still drenched though thanks to loads of surface water - and I got cold - esp at the end. My top half was well insulated with a wool base layer and windproof top - but my bum and legs weren't warm after first soaking.

I also managed to burn 140 calories on the wii - not quickly - in between jewellery construction.
My knee and backside have been a bit achey this week so all I did after Body Combat on Wed was pedal to work & back.

Running went well on Monday - and I think I have the sessions scheduled OK for the Christmas break. I do need to do some research and thinking on training plans though - so the group can approach the Eastleigh 10K next year with a measure of confidence.

Goggle Grump

I had such a grumpy swim yesterday - I couldn't get my goggles to stop leaking & was swimming with 1 eye shut for the last chunk of every length. Then wasted time fiddling about with them every length trying to get the fit better. Length 20 - they finally stopped leaking, but misted up so I continued to 40 in soft focus!
Windy pedal this morning but the weather calmed during the day and it was dry for running. Not a great turnout tonight but enjoyable, speed with first group & hill with the second. My knees are aching which I'm really hoping is a temporary state of affairs.
One of the runners was telling me how much fitter she feels now - I'm reallly chuffed for her. It makes it all seem worthwhile!

Back on the bicycle

Two wheels better - even if I did get a little soggy pedalling home today. Traffic has been dreadful over the last few days- which is good for cycling motivation. Lowlight was an hour sat on Oxford southern bypass - lorry overturned on other carriageway causing gridlock. It's been the first proper soaking for my panniers - they passed the test.

No pedalling at the weekend as my folks were here en route to a stint working on a cruise ship - have convinced Dad that they are really galley slaves. The ship will slow down when he's teaching bridge as there will be one less rower...

Anyway, enough of the excuses. Gym on Sunday and tonight - overheated big time tonight as the ventilation is up the spout, probably due to the gym renovation.

Running was calorie-anorak-interesting on Mon & Tue as I took all groups bar the beginners on the same route. The one we looped back to do a little speed used 451 calories. The gentlest one used 331 calories. So that's 120 extra down to higher intensity and 0.21km more distance.

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!