LAST POST OF 2011...

Sorry for the rather long blogging hiatus, unfortunately it has coincided with an extended exercise hiatus plus a lot of Christmas eating and drinking. I feel like I have overindulged- a lot. To make me feel slightly less guilty I have worked out my January training plan plus signed up for a couple of races in the New Year, including a half marathon with my cousin in March! Rob says that he will run it with me but I’m pretty sure he will be sprinting off into the distance early on in the race.

Here are a couple of pictures from our ‘Crap Christmas Jumper’ party last Friday to keep you amused until I start blogging again properly on the 1^st January. Happy New Year!!

ALL DRESSED UP

Last night, I was invited to Sandhurst Royal Military Academy to celebrate one of my friends 'passing out' into the Welsh Guards. I am so proud of Birrell for completing his officer training, which are said to be some of the hardest months of their lives. Anyone who saw the Sandhurst documentaries will have a bit of an insight into it.

Everyone looked very smart in their uniforms black ties and long dresses. Such fun to get all dressed up! I wore a long black dress with fun flowery details on the shoulders, with my hair up and a fur jacket- it was so cold last night and I was so glad to have it!!

We got ready in Birrell's room before heading down for Champagne and food. Supper was very early, and tasted like school dinners. I think EJ and I made a good choice with Lasagne. We then headed into the marquee for more Champagne, gin and tonics and dancing.

All of the drinks were in plastic cups- very glassy. Yes there are two cups in my hand, one is EJ's I promise. There were also a couple of rides outside, such fun despite the rain and cold. I think EJ, Izzy and I went on more times than the boys. The dodgems were a lot of fun, as was a ride called Wipeout- no photos of that one as dropping my camera was a real possibility!

At midnight we all headed outside for fireworks to celebrate the boys commissioning and becoming officers!! This was followed by more drinking and dancing. My feet were agony after hours in heels, unfortunately EJ managed to step on glass after ditching her heels. I think we headed to bed about 3.30am, to share a single bed with a plastic sheet on, cosy! We had a rude awakening woken up with fog horns and shouts this morning at 7.30am, apparently the officers had to parade this morning. Rather them than me! We stopped off at Tesco for a breakfast, not appealing at all but probably helped the stomachs. Such a fun night!

STAYING HEALTHY ON HOLIDAY

I managed to take my own advice on staying healthy whilst on holiday during our recent trip to Egypt and I realised the only way to do this is to also take advice from the Boy scouts: 'Be prepared'. Restaurants, supermarkets, airports etc do not always make it easy to eat healthily, so you need to anticipate the lack of healthy choices and bring your own. I have never been organised enough to do this, but this time I managed to hit the supermarket before travelling. Word of warning, satsumas don't travel that well, especially when they are at the bottom of Jack's bag!

Whilst we didn't bring breakfast, we did make healthy choices at breakfast. I always think it is easier to stay healthy during the day if you start your day well. I ate a lot of fruit and discovered delicious Bircher muesli. Ok it doesn't look great, but it tasted amazing- recipe to come!!

I also tried to make healthy(ish) choices at lunch and supper, going for grilled beef and vegetables, pitta and dips, falafel and roasted vegetable wraps and salads. We mostly ate at the restaurants around the hotel, including the delicious Thai restaurant. We might have eaten there twice!

I stuck to water and fresh lemon juice throughout the holiday, except for a few champagne cocktails on the last night!

Most of all we tried to stay active, playing tennis, swimming, snorkelling and hitting the gym. I got a real workout playing tennis, running all over the court trying to return jack's balls, whilst he pretty much stayed in one place. He ended up hitting the gym after we played tennis so that he could get a workout! I stuck to cardio on the bike and treadmill in the gym as I am not overly confident doing weights on my own yet!

Most of all though, we enjoyed ourselves on holiday. We slept a lot, we relaxed, sunbathed and treated ourselves. We enjoyed a couple of icecreams and desserts, yum! We are on holiday after all!

EGYPT: A QUICK RECAP

Jack and I went to Egypt the weekend before last. It sounds ridiculous saying that we just popped over for the weekend, but we kind of did (we got a really good deal with Jack's work). We flew on the Friday morning on Easyjet - it’s the furthest they fly and I’m not sure I could have stuck out much longer on board one of their planes! We were lucky to get 3 seats between the 2 of us on the way there and back- we obviously don’t look very hospitable! Or maybe it’s just Jack’s long legs!  

It was lovely and warm in Egypt, probably around 27۫ so we spent all day outside, sitting by the pool or on the beach. I love sunbathing especially with a good book, or 5. I am such a fast reader when I’m on holiday that I got through a book a day- some better than others. I particularly enjoyed Lance Armstrong’s autobiography ‘It’s not about the bike: My journey back to life’, really inspiring.

We hit the gym a couple of times and played tennis on two evenings.

The water was really clear so Jack dragged me in snorkelling a couple of times, although due to the outrageous cost of renting snorkelling gear, my second ‘snorkel’ was completed in my Speedo goggles  calling out to Jack, (who was without any goggles) when there was coral underneath him. We saw a number of beautiful brightly coloured fish but I was a little disappointed by the concrete coloured coral.

The rest of our time was spent getting relaxing massages, eating at the hotel’s various restaurants and exploring the resort. It's so cold back here in London, wish we were still sunbathing on the beach!

I also managed to sort of stick to my own ‘How to stay healthy on holiday’ rules, more to come tomorrow!

RUN BEFORE YOU WALK?

I am always given the advice that I should walk before you run.  When it comes to the marathons though I am doing the opposite- not in terms of my training, obviously I am starting slow but I will be running a marathon on the 22^nd April and WALKING a marathon on the 13^th May.

I have volunteered to complete the MoonWalk with friends from work, raising money and awareness for Walk the Walk Breast Cancer. It’s a charity event involving thousands of women walking either 13.1 miles or the whole 26.2 miles overnight through the streets of London. They also hold events in Edinburgh and Iceland with some women completing all three marathons. I ran my first ever race 2 years ago for Breakthrough Breastcancer with my friend Char, in memory of her mum.  

I am really pleased to get involved with WalktheWalk through work, apparently we get to walk at the front of the pack- this might be the only time I’ll be in the leaders pack at a marathon!! The theme is Rock’N’Roll so the girls and I are thinking about some fun outfits to wear, I’m all for the Pink Ladies from Grease! Did I mention that you have to wear your bra on show?!

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I am super excited to give myself another challenge in 2012, plus it will count towards one of my New Year’s resolutions-more on that on 01/01/12!!! I am also hoping that by walking to work, on the days that I don’t run before work, and once the marathon is over, plus a little extra training nearer the time, I will keep up a level of fitness and training. It will also be nice to see some of my work friends outside of work; we recently went on a night out to celebrate our colleague’s engagement. We were all decked out in sequins, with the bride-to-be in sparkly shorts, and danced the night away, drinking caramel shots, and lunging on the light up dance floor- don’t ask! It might also be an opportunity to get to know some other people in the office.

I’m not sure what sort of time is a ‘good’ time for a marathon walk, (or whether people even want ‘a good time?’) I’m just excited about raising money, completing a new challenge, seeing London at night, oh and an amazing, slap up breakfast the next day!

19 WEEKS TO GO

I have suffered from what I hope will be a minor set-back this week. Here is a clue; I spent my Saturday night with an icepack (ok bag of frozen fruit, same thing) on my knee. What happened is an embarrassing story. I was meeting friends to go to the cinema, and slipped walking up some concrete stairs. My shoe fell off and I hit my knee on the corner of the step. It was embarrassing enough to fall over, plus I was on my own and people laughed!!! I quickly picked up my shoe and hobbled into the shopping centre bathroom where I discovered that there was a hole in my leggings and a gash in my knee. It was bleeding a fair amount, and I didn't know how deep the cut was. At this point, I rang my friend Amanda and asked her to meet me in the bathroom and bring me some plasters. I had to stand in the bathroom with my leggings around my ankles whilst we cleaned the cut and put a plaster on- another low point of the night! My knee is so sore and swollen, plus I can't bend it, which means my 6 mile run today is out of the question.

Before my new knee injury, my runs this week weren't going too well. I felt slow and unfit, plus it was so cold out on my morning runs. On Wednesday morning I ran 3 miles

I cheated slightly with my second 3 miler this week and incorporated it into my circuit training, counting it as a speed workout. As part of my Wednesday workout I ran 20 mins at 8.34 pace - not quite 3 miles but good enough. My plan from January is to include at least one speed session a week, probably on the treadmill so that it's easier to alter the pace. I am going to alternate fartlek, intervals, hills and Yasso 800s (I'm not too sure what they are either but I read about it in Runner's World, will keep you posted!) 

My run on Friday morning was horrible. My legs and lungs would just not co-operate. It was freezing cold which made my legs feel heavy and stiff, plus I found that I was breathing really heavily. I have asthma which I have not been looking after properly. Friday's run was a bit of a wake up call, and I am booking a doctor's appt to make sure I get on top of my asthma.

This I have not enjoyed my runs, they were hard and I did not feel strong. I'm worried that my knee is going to be a major set back, but I am not going to let it! I really need to maximise my training runs (when I am back up and running, hopefully later this week), and include speed sessions, easy runs and pace runs. I received my Virgin London Marathon magazine in the post this week, it was full of inspirational stories, training plans and advice. It was really useful and motivated me to make the most of my marathon training. It reiterated that I am spending so much time training that I should make every session count. From January I am going to have a specific all-round training schedule that includes weights, speed training, long runs, easy runs, paced runs, circuits, yoga and cross training. I am going to be a busy, but fit and healthy bee!

OATS IN A JAR

Wow, I have read that blog post title a number of times on some of my favourite blogs, and I thought it was high time that I make myself some 'Oats in a jar'. The name is pretty explanatory, it is literally porridge in a old jar such as peanut butter, jam or chocolate spread! YUM. This morning was cold, and I had a miserable run and was in need of a pick me up; time for oats in a jar!

There isn't really a recipe for oats in jar, make porridge the way you like it, then serve it in an empty (but not washed out) jar of your choice. Et voila.

Unfortunately, I didn't really think about the fact that my jar was plastic, and that the very hot porridge might slightly melt the pot. Yes this happened, but I didn't care as it was still delicious! I am going to need to increase my peanut butter intake so that I can make these more often! That will not be a problem. Anyone got any good PB recipes?

WEDNESDAY WORKIT CIRCUIT

Today was my first circuit workout in a while, and it showed! Steve and I hit the gym, to try this circuit workout.

1 min run
15 press ups
1 min run
20 weighted rows (10 on each arm)
1 min run
20 toe touches (10 on each leg) 
1 min run
20 twisted planks (10 on each side)
1 min run
10 diamond press ups
1 min run
20 single leg squats
1 min run
10 lateral rises
1 min run
10 bent over flys
1 min run
10 arm curls
1 min run

Repeat two or three times.

I used 6kg weights and ran at 7mph but you could increase or lower the weights, and change up the speed on the run.

We did the circuit twice and although I actually really enjoyed it, I was exhausted by the end of the second round. I need to increase my endurance levels so next time I will be doing my circuit 3 times! I'm looking forward to creating new, different circuits and playing around with the cardio and weight elements of the workout for future circuit sessions.

20 WEEKS TO GO....

There are officially 20 weeks to go until I run 26.2 miles in the London Marathon. This scares me quite a lot. Not only am I running the marathon for myself, but I am running it in memory of Vic, and am running it for all those people who have sponsored me, who have supported me and believed in me. I don't want to let anyone down! This is the first of the weekly countdown posts detailing my training runs- sorry for the gross photos of myself!

This weeks training runs have been....ok. I was scheduled to run 3 miles on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday then 5.5 miles on Sunday.

Tuesday's run was pretty miserable. To start with it was dark, raining and cold, but I managed to force myself outside. Annoyingly though things were against me once I was outside as my stomach was playing up, my bra strap unpinged half-way through the run (not comfortable) and I wasn't able to do it up again whilst running. Plus I had worn my MIND top for inspiration but it kept riding up which meant that I spent the run pulling/holding my top down, very annoying.

Wednesday's 3 miler was much better although it was still cold and dark. My legs were also shot after a heavy weights session on Monday night, and yoga on Tuesday evening. Not fast and not fun but 3 miles done. 

Thursday's run was quicker than Wednesdays, mostly because I had to be at work early so had no time to dilly dally, but also because my legs felt a bit stronger. I didn't wear my Garmin for my runs this week and it felt so relaxing. I pretty much have 2 and 3 mile loops around the area worked out so I can run knowing I am covering the right mileage. 

My long run this week was done today on a treadmill (yuk!) but in Egypt!! The hotel gym is pretty nice although a little too hot, and I found myself downing water and using a towel to dry off rather more than I would have liked. Glad to get my miles done and be able to enjoy the sunshine tomorrow. Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!