Still here, honest!

I can't believe I've been so remiss in posting ... and this one's going to be really short too!  I have so much catching up to do on your blogs!

I had a fabulous time in Switzerland - hugely relaxing, so much so that I've failed to go swimming so far this week, and I'm really going to struggle with my challenge as a result.  Definitely have some catching up to do.

I did go for a run today though - back to the treadmill now that it's dark both before and after work.  10k run at Hampton Court Palace on Sunday, really looking forward to that. 

I'll make sure I spend some time on here on Saturday between swimming and pretending to study!

Hmmm. EP has added a stone

I'm not at all happy about this - EP seems to be stuck on 10st, while I'm 9st!  I've worked hard for that extra stone!!

In other news - I'm so hugely excited about going to see my buddy in Verbier on Thursday!!  Eeeek!!!

Small problem though - my hubby's starting work at ridiculous hours at the moment, and he's going straight to bed when I get in (or beforehand) ... so I can't pack!  I'm catching a train at 9am on Thursday, and the only way I can get my stuff together is to get up early on the day and pack.  Oh well - I guess I'll just have to get a list together tomorrow so my head's not clouded up in a morning fog on Thursday!

What gives?

I'm not at all convinced by this upgrade ... everything seems to be terribly slow, and I can't even access my own page properly!

So ... good day today anyway.  I failed to get up for an early morning run, but when I get to the train station this morning, the trains were up the spout after a weekend of engineering works.  So, I headed home and got my running gear on!  Had a good hour's run.  I then ate crap for most of the day (mostly biscuits), but I also swam tonight. 

Started the Aspire Channel swim challenge tonight - 22 miles in 12 weeks, which equates to 70 lengths of a 25m pool, twice a week.  It isn't going to be easy, but it'll give me the motivation to get out of the door!

I had a pretty good weekend too, although nothing much seems to be resolved with my sister-in-law.  She's still bonkers, and taking her madness out on my poor mum - who hasn't done anything to deserve any of it, and is hugely upset by the whole thing.  I just feel frustrated because I can't really stick my nose it!  Ah families, can't live with 'em.

Offset - muffin neutral?

Well, the theatre was really, really good - very different, but excellent with lots of really well known people too.  I suspect it'll go to London after its run at Chichester, they often do.  We were really good too - didn't take any sweeties or anything, and we reckoned there probably wasn't time for wine and sandwiches in the interval (what we normally do when we go with my parents), so we just had a very small tub of ice cream each instead.  Lovely!

I managed my run yesterday as well - 7.5 miles.  I wore one of my new pairs of running shoes (Asics Gel Kayano), and I think the heel must be slightly lower than my last pair as my legs were really tired the whole way round, really having to work hard - and my calves were really sore afterwards!  Good though.  I need to get a few runs under my belt that are longer than a 10k before my race in a couple of weeks' time, that way I'll know that I can do it, even if I start to get tired because I started to quickly.  I always start too quickly when I race!

I'm going to have to work hard today to avoid going overboard - my brother's home to see my parents, with his three boys, and I know my ma has baked homemade muffins with icing and sugar animals on top (OK, OK - for the boys really, but I know my Dad, hubby and brother will all look crestfallen if they're not allowed one so there will be enough for all).  She's also got a leg of pork (home made pig too) out for dinner tonight and will have done a 'fatted calf' supper for my bro's return. 

He doesn't come down all that often even though he and his wife live only 4 hours away.  There's been some bad blood lately - his wife fell out with my ma last year (for no reason that I can fathom - something to do with the colour of a carpet), and has said now that she never wants to speak to my mother again.  Charming .... she then also tried to throw my brother out of the house, but they seem to be working on that one.  Frankly we all think she's as mad as a box of frogs, but I'm doing my best to stay out of it!

The upshot of all this is that I can see I'm going to be biting my tongue quite a lot today (really don't want to upset my bro as he still loves her), so I may have to shove muffins and pork dinner in to fill it instead!!!

I'm not running today after yesterday's run, but I think I'd better hop on the treadmill for a walk programme while I watch Desperate Housewives, rather than sitting on the sofa ... 

Wine = bad news!

It's no good, I just can't control my cravings when I drink, so I am going to have to stop drinking completely.  Again.  Not that I've been drinking much, but just the odd glass here and there is still causing me problems.

I had one and a half glasses of red wine last night, felt a bit pissed, and got terrible sweet cravings.  I ended up demolishing half a bar of Green & Black's choc, two tubes of Smarties (US: a bit like M&Ms) - at which point I went to bed before I started in on anything else! 

I don't know about anyone else, but if I eat sugar last thing at night, my mouth is minging next morning.  Poor hubby  - that has to be a good reason to try to eat sensibly and not eat pudding/sweeties!!

I'm working from home today too, so there's a huge draw to the biscuit tin (already had three choc digestives).  I'm planning to go out for a good long run later on though, so all should be fine.  Just got to make sure I do go!

I'm heading off to the theatre tonight, which is quite exciting - I love theatre - and it's at a really small one, with famous people (Robert Lindsay - My Family, and others).  The play is Aristo, about the Onassis family.  I don't need to dress up for it as it's not a special occasion, or first night - but it's a great excuse to glam up in my new dress and feel good about myself!  Hurrah!! 

OMG - 5k in 28 mins!!

I honestly can't believe it, but I managed to run today's 5k race in 28:11.  WOW!  My fastest time up until now has been around 32 mins, so I've seriously smashed my past personal best!

I met up with the guys from my work who were walking it, some of whom were running late ... so by the time I got to the event there were seriously masses of people there!  I dashed off to get in line, and somehow managed to find myself at the front of my grouping.  They were going in waves - athletes, Under 25mins & celebs, 25-30 mins, 30-35 mins (I went in this group) and then everyone else.  There were about 15,000 people at the event!

I was in the second row of the wave, in front of TV cameras and everything - there's a show tonight on telly at 5pm showing highlights of the three events (Liverpool, London and Birmingham), so who knows, I might be famous!

Because I was at the front, I raced off in front of the cheering crowds rather faster than I might have otherwise - I slowed down a bit after about half a kilometre, but still managed to do a really good time.  I'm so stoked!!

I've got the Cancer Research 10k Race for Life at Hampton Court Palace in a couple of weeks, so who knows, I just might set a new PB there too (currently around 70 mins).  Either way, I've really set one that's going to be hard to beat unless I work at it - no bad thing I guess!

A couple of pics from hubby's camera phone - not great (didn't know he was taking it), but at least the one of me looks trim, with good legs for a change!  Sadly he couldn't see me when I was running, so there's none of me in action - just of others!

What vile weather!

Urgh - the weather is just filthy.  Rain, rain and more rain - some places had a month's worth in one day yesterday, and there are over 30 weather warnings this morning too.  So, I'm just staying in bed for the time being.  Watching TV, drinking fresh coffee and catching up on some blogs. 

Diet's going to plan - focusing more on the exercise now rather than cutting back on calories.  That seems to be working in that I'm still losing weight, but it has slowed right down to a fairly sensible and sustainable pace as I get towards goal.  The scales said 9st 9.5lb this morning, which is amazing, considering it's TOTM and I ate like a horse last night!

Last night was fantabulous - hubby sent me a text said he was doing steak and chips last night, and did I want to pick up pudding?  Oh yeah ....  I started out well, got a two pack of Tiramisu, and a two pack of WeightWatchers chocolate mousse for me.  I hadn't planned on having any Tiramisu at all.

Hubby did indeed do steak - with lots of chips and peas, and he made me a pepper sauce to go with it, just for me.  That was so sweet of him - especially when you consider that he's allergic to pepper, even if I eat it!!  My lovely hubby also opened the door with a glass of bubbly! 

It really was the most gorgeous piece of fillet steak I've had in a long, long while ... and boy did it go down well.  Huge plate of food, disappeared quite happily!  Stuffed as an egg, but then decided 'what the heck', I was going to enjoy my evening to full effect and have a Tiramisu!  Oh, and more bubbles, and half a bar of Green & Black's chocolate! 

So yes, very happy with my weight this morning!!

I went for a run yesterday and couldn't work out why I was finding it quite such hard work when normally it would be fine - my joints ached, my energy was just totally lacking and I really didn't feel like it.  I only did 40 mins (usually do an hour), and it wasn't until I got home and my ovaries started screaming at me that I realised it was TOTM ... it's amazing how much it affects my performance.  Am I alone in never knowing when it's due?  I just have far more interesting / time consuming things in my life to think about!!

Well, it's the Adidas 5k Challenge in Hyde Park tomorrow - yeah right!  Me thinks it might turn into a swim instead .  I'm running with a bunch of ladies from work, for our company charity, and they've kindly provided Tshirts for us to run in.  They finally arrived yesterday - and because I asked for a 'small' (hurrah!!), I've been sent a proper running singlet with the charity logo emblazoned on it.  Very useful actually, the others have just got ordinary cotton Tshirts ... although I have a feeling I'll be wearing the singlet over a Tshirt anyway tomorrow as it's so vile!!

The lady who's organised the group suddenly announced yesterday that the 'theme' for our run is 'red ribbons, hair clips and hairbands.  Oh joy ... I'm not remotely girly, and have short hair - my idea of absolute horror would be running around Hyde Park festooned with ribbons.  I told her it may not happen, and she said not to be a boring stick-in-the-mud (or words to that effect) - as I'm her boss, I'm not sure she should get away with that!!  Maybe I'll just leave them all to do their thing (they're all walking anyway - I'm the only one of eight who's running it), and head off into the distance.  We'll see!

Suppose I ought to get up now it's past midday ...

Noooooo :o(

I've lost my beloved 80Gb iPod!    I'm so gutted.  It's the one nice thing I've got just for me, for my birthday, in years.

Entirely my own fault, I went swimming and left my fleece behind the door, with my iPod in the pocket.  Someone evidently found it - I didn't notice until I'd finished swimming and went to get my stuff out of my locker, when I realised that I hadn't put my fleece in it.  I got dressed quickly and asked at the front desk - someone had handed in the fleece, but nicked the iPod out of the pocket.  Bastards!

I'm so upset about it - the most annoying thing is that I know it was just me being really stupid about it.  But - I still wouldn't have pocketed it if I'd found someone else's!

How many calories?

Still here!

I'm doing my best to spend more time with my ever-patient hubby, and not spending too much time on my laptop in front of the telly!  So, I've been a little absent.

However ...  I have been good!  I didn't track my food for a couple of days (yesterday and Friday), but I've been eating sensibly and exercising so it's not so bad.  I only got three runs in this week (nothing else) because Bank Holiday Monday disrupted my pattern a bit, but I didn't go off the rails too much.  Friday night was a bit over the top, as I had quite a bit of Cava and crisps 

Weight this morning was on track though - still losing slowly - 9st 10lb, which is great.  Hopefully tomorrow morning it'll be the same.

I had a great run this morning too - the longest yet!  It was a lovely, fresh morning so I thought I'd go for a run before hubby woke up.  8.5 miles in an hour and a half!  Very pleased with that 

I have to get swimming twice a week now, or I'll never meet my 22 miles commitment between mid Sept and the beginning of December for the Aspire challenge. 

The next few weekends are going to be rather crazy - next weekend I've got a 5k run in Hyde Park, then the weekend after my brother's coming down with his three boys (chaos reigns!), the one after that I'm off to Verbier - YIPPEE! - then the one after I've got a 10k run.  Madness!  Ah well, at least there's exercise in there

Some of my running stats for you ...

• 258.4 miles run so far this year - taking 2 days, 1 hour
• 49 miles in August (most per month) - 8hrs 45 mins
• 17.2 miles run this week

Just got to pay as much attention to my swimming and cycling now!