Jenny's Running Blog

Saturday

2007-09-22T08:52:00.001+01:00

Short

2007-09-17T07:21:00.001+01:00

Overslept. Felt dizzy - this didn't pass. Didn't skip gym - did this! Better than nothing.

Sunday

2007-09-16T14:14:00.001+01:00

Saturday

2007-09-15T19:43:00.001+01:00

Monday? No, Tuesday!

2007-09-11T18:14:00.000+01:00

Smelly perfume lady was back at the gym this morning, I hope she quits soon. Why does she have to be next to me? And I'm either paranoid or she was copying what I was doing... ok, probably paranoid, I realise, but either way it made me run my last 3 minutes as 4 minutes as 8kmh rather than 3 minutes at 7! Hooray!

This burst of running also finally made me hit that illusive zone 6 - there is nothing in my Garmin manual about the benefits of training in this zone... perhaps there are none!

Nothing else to report really. It was cold this morning; oh how I look forward to going to the gym at 06:30am when it's even colder and the car windows are frosted up on one side and misty on the other and I'm shivering as though my clothes are made of ice... I'm particularly intolerant of cold. I'm already wearing gloves.

Sunday - Improvement?

2007-09-09T08:53:00.001+01:00

This was really quite good - I ran 3 mins/walked 3 mins and my heart rate didn't hit zone 5 until the 3rd interval and even dipped into zone 2 in the second walking interval - could this be improvement at last?!

Edit: Ok, I don't understand running. I did virtually exactly the same thing today as I did yesterday yet today there is huge improvment. I don't get it... bring on more days like today though.

The Damn News Already!

2007-09-08T11:42:00.000+01:00

It's taking me too long to announce this news so I'm just going to do it now!

I don't really talk about what I do outside of running/eating cakes/going on holiday on this blog but I'm going to have to break that rule for this one!

I have been training to be a solicitor (attorney) for years now. I finished law school last year and have since been working as a corporate paralegal. My work is pretty evenly split between corporate and banking work. This means I work on mergers and acquisitions - mostly acquisitions, corporate reorganisations, initial public offerings - principally AIM, share buybacks and whatever else a company wants to do with its share capital and consitution as well as acquisition finance on the banking side and general banking facilities - drafting security documents and stuff. It's good work.

Last Sunday I went to an assessment day which formed part of the application process for a training contract at my firm. The training contract is the last part of the training process before you qualify as an solicitor (attorney!). Well, I got it! I was one of the few lucky chosen ones and now it will only be a couple of years before I qualify! This is fantastic news and it's been a long road getting here. I think there were something like 1,000 applicants for 16 contracts so it's a great achievement - however, I'm sure I wouldn't have got it without the great work I've done for the firm over the last year!

So there ya go. I found out on Tuesday and then worked on a completion until 4am! What a way to celebrate. Start as you mean to go on though. Bring on the late nights and the bags of filthy lucre!

Saturday

2007-09-08T10:20:00.001+01:00

At last for only the second time this week I have gone running! It was actually a pretty good run, but first the excuses.

Monday - so tired from Sunday (more on that to follow) that I decided to sleep rather than go to the gym.
Tuesday - I ran.
Wednesday - Planned day off.
Thursday - So tired from working until 4am on Tuesday night that I chose sleeping over running.
Friday - Planned day off - should really have gone running anyway but over slept.

The run felt better than my previous run 3/walk 3 session have been. The only downsides were having someone on the treadmill next to me who comprehensively kicked my ass - I'm sure they weren't even trying - and also two people on the eliptical trainers on one side of me talking to the person on the treadmill on the other side of me: how rude! I guess it serves me right for going to the gym at 09:30 on a Saturday. The damn place was full of children too.

Anyway, for the moment I'm going to stick with the run 3 walk 3 - I was going to knock it back a bit but after today I think I'll be fine to continue.

ZZzzzzz... dribble

2007-09-05T18:52:00.000+01:00

So... very... tired... No running today because I didn't finish work until 4am :-S I have some great news though but it requires an explanation that I'm too tired to give at the moment. Hopefully tomorrow... hopefully run tomorrow too, yes... mmm sleepy zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Faster than a Fat Girl!

2007-09-04T07:19:00.001+01:00

Urgh. That was hard. I tried run 3 walk 3 again... well, that is until the end when a rather plump girl got on the only treadmill next to me and started walking at the same speed as me. I'm not sure whether it was because she was big or whether it's my competativeness but I couldn't handle this and I ended up running the last four minutes up to 30 - check out what it did to my heart rate though: I almost created a zone 6!

Incidentally, shouldn't perfume be banned in gyms - the girl next to me must have been wearing half a bottle. Who wears perfume to a gym!

I really don't think I can keep this up all week - it's too hard to be enjoyable. I'll have to think about how to move up from next week without doing this everyday.

In other news, I've been very busy for the last week on something that I'll be able to report about tonight or tomorrow hopefully. It means I've missed my weekly Italy post - the one with the giant cannoli! - and also I haven't done my review for last week. I'll try to catch up later today/tomorrow.

Saturday

2007-09-01T09:17:00.000+01:00

Words to follow!

It's What I Do.

2007-08-30T07:36:00.000+01:00

Thursday. I was really tired when I woke up but I still got up and went to the gym! Hooray! The thing that gets me out of bed at the moment is, well, A - I'm not running as hard at the gym as I used to, but B - I think to myself "Ugh morning. Time to go run." and a little voice thinks "oh god no not exercise", but then I think "Yeah, this is just what I do all the time - so there's no point in debating whether to go or not because this is just what I do". Amen.

No time to say anything else right now and another very busy day today but perhaps I'll get in a lunchtime edit.

Go and have yourselves a great day now y'all!

Does Every Post Need a Title?

2007-08-28T21:11:00.001+01:00

It feels like I did this run days ago - it was only this morning. I'm stupid busy so I'll cut to the chase.

This run was good. After yesterday's confusion over what to do next I took what I'm hoping was a pretty sensible option. So last week I was running 2 walking 4 and I was meant to be running 3 walking 3 this week. After yesterday's hellish run I decided to go back to running two but to cut my walking to 3 - so it's kind of half way between last week and this week. What persuaded me to do this in particular is that looking back on my runs I had noticed that my heart rate was going right down into zone 2 in the last minute of walking and my thought was to get rid of this last minute so as to stick in zone 3 more. Good idea?

Whether it was the right thing to do or not I'm not sure but either way it felt better than yesterday so I'm happy!

I get top marks just for going to the gym today. Mr JRB is back from a business trip to China and it's always so much harder when he's around. How am I meant to spring out of bed at 6am to go running while he snoozes away for another 2 hours?! AND he's twice as fit as me. There is no justice in this world.

I had a golf lesson tonight. It was good but I have no time to talk about it so here's a picture!! Groan... who's ever going to read my blog if I never write about stuff? I still have the giant cannoli to tell y'all about! That one's coming up at the weekend... or maybe next week as I have a busy weekend.

In my Dreams I'm a Good Runner

2007-08-27T08:59:00.001+01:00

Ow. I moved on to week two of my running programme today and it hurt. I ran 3 at 7kmh and walked 3 at 5kmh for 30 minutes. I didn't have to look at this chart of my heart rate to know that I was working too hard. I was reading my Garmin's manual yesterday and it turns out that I should be aiming for zone three, I previously thought it was zone four. As you'll see from my stats I spent 17 minutes of my 30 minute work out in zones four and five!!

But the question is, what do I do? Should I go back to week one of my programme for the rest of this week? I could slow down my running sections to 6.5kmh but 7 is already so slow... I think I could walk at 6.5! I could slow down my walking sections? Last time around I walked at 4.5kmh rather than 5 as I am now. I really don't know what to do except that it's not what I did today!

In other news, I dreamt about running last night. It was a really good dream and I woke up feeling more determined than ever to become good at running. I was back in the village where I grew up with this girl from work who is a good runner. It was a crisp autumn/winter day and we were running in the fields around the village that I used to play in as a kid. It felt so good to be able to run fast and to be sucking in all this cool fresh air. I want to be able to do that! Incidentally we were on some crazy life or death mission - the theme of most of my dreams!

That's it. Happy Monday everyone! It's the last public holiday before Christmas over here in England!! God what a depressing thought. I'm off to plan a holiday!

Week 1 Review

2007-08-26T10:13:00.001+01:00

I would usually call a week Monday to Sunday but my Garmin software prefers Sunday to Saturday so here's my week in review not including today but including last Sunday!

Sunday

2007-08-26T07:46:00.000+01:00

At 8am this morning I got in this final "run" for the week. I played around with the speed a little on this one and just couldn't really get comfortable.

Italian Road Trip Part Two - Agrigento and Mt. Etna, Sicily

2007-08-25T15:09:00.001+01:00

This was our second day in Sicily. We decided to drive to the other side of the island to visit the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento - basically this place with lots of Greek temples! I confess I am magnificently ignorant about history of all kinds including Greek so this is not going to be a greatly intellectual post.

The inland parts of Sicily are quite barren but spectacular none the less. I particularly liked what they'd done with the road here - nice bend. There was also a great hilltop village that you could see from the road - I think it was Eze. There were a lot of vineyards and olive groves etc. It was damn hot in the car but it was NOTHING compared to what we were coming up to, though we didn't realise that yet of course.

Here's our little car in the little car park. The toilets here had a sign outside saying "free toilets" in various languages but then inside was some guy with a plate for your euros. I'm pretty sure he was just figured it was a good place to sit and earn some cash.

Ok so we started to walk around. Problem number 1 - It was REALLY hot. There was very little shade as you can see and it just felt like being in a great big oven... albeit on a low setting. People pretty much moved from one bit of shade to another. Brilliantly we were also visiting in the very hottest part of the day - pretty soon I began to understand why they run guided tours in the evening!
Here's me demonstrating problem number 2 - none of the signs were in English! Not knowing what the hell stuff is about is a perennial problem when travelling to non-English speaking countries where you don't know the language.

Given me and Mr JRB's mutual ignorance of this Greek stuff we resorted to trying to figure out what this was all about by reading the guide book. Sadly I had only brought my "Italy" guidebook and as you'll be able to gather by the size of the thing it doesn't go into a great amount of detail on any particular place! Note to self - do not in the future buy small guidebooks on big places.
Some parts were more ruinous than others - this being one of them. Still amazing though. It's a shame that a bunch of Christians went on a bit of a wrecking mission here - I think that's what the guidebook said happened anyway. Apparently they mistakenly thought that these were Pagan temples and they went nuts! I'm surprised they could be bothered to do all of this in this heat - I'm guessing it must have been a particularly cold winter. They probably spread the job over a number of years.
Here's one big mutha of a stone lady. I know how she feels... well the big part anyway not the stone part.
Problem number 3 - I wholly underestimated how hard it would be to walk around this place in this damn heat! The entire thing was only something like 3 miles but it felt like 5 times that distance. This photo looks pretty innocent but my God was I hurting at this point. There was this great long walk with no shade and it was the middle of the day and was probably pushing 40 degrees C.
Amazing temples. Apparently this very well preserved one survived the angry Christians' wrath because they decided it would make a nice church.

Here's me at the furthest distance we got from the car. I didn't even bother to find any shade to sit in. I was feeling glad that we'd made it but so wiped out and just soooo hot.

The long road back to the car - and you can only see as far as a bend in the road in this photo! The Italians weren't suffering like I was... in fact, no one was suffering like I was. Why?

I like this photo. This is the same well preserved temple as before but from a different angle, taken on the walk back.

We got back to the car and headed into the small shop to buy some water. Just as I was feeling relieved that I'd survived, I nearly passed out for the second time in two days. I felt awful but we managed to make it across to the car where I sat with my head between my legs sipping water. The car must have been about 50 degrees C! It took some time but I gradually felt better. As before I'm not sure what this was but I'm guessing some kind of heat stroke.

Here's the final route. I can't say I enjoyed it at the time but I'm glad I did it and at least there was nice stuff to look at while I felt like crap!

On the drive back to the hotel we took the guidebook's "scenic" drive past Mount Etna. This part of it was very scenic but the rest of it was really grotty and a bit scary. Mount Etna was beautiful though. We had planned to get a bit closer but we were too tired by this point.

I love this! They let their cows just walk all over the road round here! There were signs to warn you of cows on the road but I didn't think there'd actually be any. They didn't give two moos about the car, they just kept strolling along to wherever they were going. Please moove out of the way... groan.

Finally we wound up the day with a meal in this nice trattoria in Taormina. Taormina is lovely at night - there's great little restaurants with tables outside like this filling the narrow roads. We picked up a couple of cannolis on the way home from this great little shop called Roberto's. Droool... mmmm cannoli.

Sensible Saturday

2007-08-25T09:11:00.000+01:00

I was really tired yesterday so I, I think sensibly, skipped the gym and instead got some extra sleep both in the morning and the evening... and the great news is that it seems to have done me some good because I appear to have IMPROVED!

Today's "run" definitely felt easier. I felt like I could have run faster and longer and I spent the last couple of minutes of my walking sections itching to run again. I'm not sure how much of this was the fact that it was 0815am and not 0630am!! All of this even shows up in the stats:

5 minutes less in heart rate zone 5 than on Tuesday.
6 minutes more in heart rate zone 3 than on Tuesday.

Weeeeeeeeeeeee! I actually feel ready to add a minute's running and lose a minute's walking next week.

This is the point where the first time around I started to run faster. I'm not going to do that this time because I know for sure that I was running too fast. It was completely unsustainable so as the minutes running in my programme went up and the minutes walking went down I just couldn't keep up the speed that I was running at and it got really unpleasant! I like running hard at the time I'm doing it but the memory of it kind of puts me off going back to the gym.

I'll be so happy to get to the point, in 9 weeks time, where I can run at the speed I'm running at now for 30 minutes without walking. Once I get there, then I'll work on getting faster.

Where has all of this sensibleness come from all of a sudden?

Morning of the Living Dead

2007-08-23T07:19:00.000+01:00

I'm a completely different person at the moment. Not only is the "running" making me feel so much happier and optimistic than usual but I am actually running! Here I am again posting another 0630am "run"! I've gone with the cadence view again because it shows what I did better. A pretty uneventful run. I woke up and really only half considered not going. I had a bad night's sleep so being able to get up so easily was surprising.

I ran in my new treadmill position again which was fun because it faces a window and in the window's reflection I can spy on the main bank of treadmills. It's amazing how many people only walk on a treadmill - even when it's plainly obvious that they could do a bit better than walk. There was also a lady holding the top of the treadmill while she walked - it occurred to me that, when viewed from the side, people who do this look like zombies. They should really run some kind of electric current along the top of treadmills to stop people from doing it.

No really, I'm REEEALLLLY UNFIT!

2007-08-21T21:33:00.000+01:00

It's still Tuesday night but this bit of information deserved a post of its own - if you search on Google for "really unfit" my blog is the fourth result! Surely gyms and weightwatchers etc. would pay good money for that kind of placement - I should get sponsored! I could have adverts on my blog saying "If you don't want to end up like this miserably unfit cake monster then drink slimfast twice a day!". On the other hand... how depressing. Grim LOL

Oh how brilliant! - someone also found their way here through searching on google for "cake eating rehab". Whoever you are - that place isn't here, but if you find it please tell me where it is!!

And also one from "breathless when speaking" - I get this too, please go to a doctor and then come back here and tell me what this is... I'm too scared!

I am also most flattered to find that if you search for the great departed Running Rabbit's Blog on google I am the second result you find... how disappointed those people must be! Aaah Running Rabbit, how I miss your cheeky blog.

So much fun. Somehow I think I like being a total running loser more than I'd like being fit.

The One With No Funny Title Due to Blogger's Fatigue

2007-08-21T21:16:00.001+01:00

I'm rather sleepy so please excuse the boringness/incoherence of this post. Somehow I've managed two work-day work-outs in a row - see results above. I forgot to turn my Forerunner off at the end which explains the sudden drop in everything (interestingly I appear to find driving home from the gym rather stressful...). Running in a different part of the gym has fixed the problem with the heart rate monitor (for some reason HR monitors malfunction in the part of the gym I like to run in - even the ones built into the treadmills - I was given an explanation on this but I'm too tired to explain more right now! More at some later point no doubt.) and weirdly if I select cadence rather than speed, as I have for the above graph, then the footpod doesn't seem so erratic. I'm sure there's some perfectly logical explanation about this out there on the internet somewhere but I never seem to have time to look it up! blah blah blah Bed. zzzzzzzzzzzz... dribble dribble drroool.

p.s. Coming soon on Jenny's Running Blog - photos of Italian cakes featuring a giant cannoli! Stick around... or even come around sometime.

1 down, 6239 to go!

2007-08-20T07:25:00.000+01:00

I managed to do it this morning but now I'm late so post to follow. HR monitor and footpod still being totally erratic. Ran 2, walked 4 for 30 mins.

btw - 6239 is the number of workouts on a work-day I have before I retire, assuming I do that in 30 years. ouch!

Italian Road Trip Part One - Taormina, Sicily

2007-08-19T13:18:00.000+01:00

42 hours after leaving our house in England (at 2am) we arrived in Taormina, Sicily! That was 1630 miles, 30 hours of driving, 2 ferries, 4 countries, 21 toll booths, 11 petrol stops!! Phew.

Air con broke on the car which was a nightmare as temps were up to 39 degrees - not so bad when you're in a moving car with the windows open but not great in a traffic jam. Italian drivers are insane. Made good time on day two but didn't on day one as we got held up in switzerland. Ended up travelling for 21 hours but made it to florence where we stayed overnight.

This is me on the ferry at about 5am with no make-up on... eek!

Aaah the white cliffs of Dover - goodbye England!

Some driving shots - that's Lake Como in the middle (I think!). Lots of tunnels in Switzerland - the bottom photo is of the Gotthard tunnel which was pretty scary - it's the third longest road tunnel in the world - 15.3 miles long - and all I could think of was the tunnel disasters that happen every so often...

The view from our hotel window on the first morning. Taormina was lovely. On day one we just set out and explored.

Mount Etna - she's huge!

This is me by a cannon in the botanical gardens. Wherever I go away I always like to look round botanical gardens - they're lovely and they're usually free!

More of the gardens. Here's me by a curious work of art. People, a lesson to you all, this is what will happen to you if you eat lots of cakes - you will get chubby, you will be unable to run to catch buses and you will look twice the size of any life-sized statues you sit down next to.

Taormina centre.
After going into the centre we headed down to the beach via the hotel. This is our hotel car park! You can just see our smart car behind the leaves of the palm tree.

We took a walk down to the beach - it's quite a long traversing walk - most people take the furnicular instead (we only saw one other person on the steps down). These people are lazy! It was a nice walk with great views as you can see.

Part of the path down.

The beach! I think that's Isola Bella in the background which you can walk through the sea to. The beach was completely jammed. Sadly lots of beaches in Italy are private.

Mr JRB enters the sea. I stayed well clear of the sea for fear of being harpooned or rounded up by Greenpeace and driven into deeper waters.

When we left this part of the beach there was quite a long flight of stairs which we had to climb. I almost fainted and had to sit down for quite a long time. We had to go back to the hotel because I was really unwell. This meant we took the furnicular back :-( I was looking forward to the hellish walk back up!! This happened a few times on the trip - heat stroke? My hands swelled up terribly too.

Me in the hotel gardens looking pale but recovered. Good hotel - Grand Hotel San Pietro. The evening was spent eating pizza and... best of all... CANNOLI!! More of that to come.

Here's what my Forerunner made of our walk down to the beach (don't worry there's far longer and more interesting walks to come!).

Death of a Heart Rate Monitor

2007-08-19T12:31:00.000+01:00

After yesterday's "run" I felt so great all day that when I woke up this morning and for a few moments wasn't sure whether I'd go to the gym I just remembered how great it made me feel yesterday and I just went! If only every morning was that easy.

I remembered all my stuff today so the "run" itself was quite a lot less boring than yesterday. I'm trying not to push myself too hard which frees up my brain to think about other stuff instead of just thinking "oh god when is this going to end"! I have a strong tendancy to push myself too hard and I think that that has probably been a pretty huge factor in my past failures - I'm trying to take Phil's advice to go long, slow and easy. There's so many jokes I could make here about how I am always slow and how I never go long!

What I was thinking about today was about how I need to make the whole exercise thing sustainable for the rest of my life. It's a pretty challenging thought when you're just starting out - it's such a total change and at the moment I can't imagine how I can make this as much a part of my everyday life as eating breakfast. It seems like such a huge chunk out of my time everyday. So far I've only run at the weekend - the real challenge will be tomorrow when I have to fit it in around work.

As you'll see from my charts both my footpot and my heart rate monitor malfunctioned today. It's like my heart rate monitor slowly died towards the end of my "run"! I'd like to think that this was a sudden and drastic transformation in my fitness... if only. It's good to see that I'm kind of hanging around in zone three and four - I think four is where I'm ideally meant to be.

And so it begins...

2007-08-19T11:45:00.000+01:00

On Saturday morning I went to the gym. It had been so long since I last went that I was surprised my card still worked. They have new equipment... hmm. I forgot my mp3 player for the first time ever in my (recent) history of gym going - I almost gave up and went home when I realised this! I also forgot my heart rate monitor strap. Luckily this wasn't one of those dreams where I'd forgotten my clothes too so I ran... for a minute... and then walked.

I appear to have once again proved the theory that sitting on your sofa eating cakes doesn't improve your cardio-vascular fitness. I am, still, and yet again, hideously unfit. I managed one minute's running in every five minute period. This is even worse than the schedule for week one of my running programme... unless you count the three weeks of walking that you're supposed to do - how humiliating!

I originally set out with the intention of following a new beginner's running plan - one widely advocated - of running for 30 seconds and then walking until recovered. About half-way through my warm up I realised that this wasn't going to be an especially easy programme to do on the treadmill so I decided to go with my old 10 week running programme again - see link in sidebar somewhere. It's currently very very hard to imagine that I will be able to run for 30 minutes in 10 weeks time.

I did it though. I managed to endure the treadmill walk of shame surrounded by those who make running look like a walk in the park. I keep trying to convince myself that what matters is not how fast you're going but how hard you're trying... I'm not convinced.

By the way - I ran at 7 and walked at 5 throughout (except for the first minute where I optimistically ran at 7.5) - my footpod seems to go a little nuts sometimes - like minute 20?

Never, Never, Never Give In

2007-08-19T11:19:00.000+01:00

Four months and very little exercise later... and I'm back! I always feel like such a failure to start again at step one but as I keep telling myself it's better to keep coming back and trying again than to give up.

I've already got a couple of "runs" under my belt - posts coming up (the inverted commas are due to the current lack of running in my runs!). I've also just got back from Italy where I did some great walks with my forerunner so I'm looking forward to getting some maps, stats and pictures up on those.

Week 2, Day 4 - Time Management

2007-04-18T20:59:00.000+01:00

Very quick post. Managed to get in my fourth run last week. Really busy this week though. Busy at work and tired and my phone isn't working so I've had to spend the evenings calling the phone company. Bottom line - I haven't run yet this week. That means 4 runs to go and only three days of the week left. Does it count if I run twice in one day?

Week 1, Day 6 - Another emergency stop incident :-<

2007-04-14T18:45:00.000+01:00

Check this out. Another day another run! Annoyingly interrupted at the half-way mark by the emergency stop tab falling off the machine and consequently me grinding to a angry stop! Got on with it and finished though. I ran at 7.5kmh in the first 10 mins, 8 in the second 10 mins and 9 in the final 10 mins and I continue to try to push up my walking speed in between. I'm still on run 2, walk 4 and will move up to run 3, walk 3 next week.

Incidentally, it occurred to me that I don't really know what I'm doing anymore. Should I be running hard in the running parts or taking it easy, and should I be walking hard or just recovering. I think I have a tendancy to push myself too hard because in the moment its quite enjoyable but it ends up filling me with dread the next time I face running because I anticipate it to be hard. I also end up running at a pace that I just couldn't possibly sustain for the whole 30 minutes and surely that's just not the point? Any pointers will be most gratefully received.

Stats -
Total Distance - 1.87 miles / 3.01 km
Avg Speed - 3.74 mph
Min/Mile Pace - 16.04
Miles so far this week - 5.58
Hours so far this week - 1:30

Week 1, Day 5 - Hot and Bothered

2007-04-14T13:32:00.000+01:00

Determined to get my four runs in this week I set out to the gym after work. It wasn't a pleasant run. Firstly, when the weather is hot, my gym is very hot, and it was hot, and I don't like hot when running. Secondly, it was really busy and despite heading to the quiet running corner I was still running with two runners who made me feel exceptionally unfit. This is always rather depressing. Thirdly, my mp3 player was flat, I must have left it on after my run on Monday. Then finally I actually found the run somewhat more challenging than expected and despite this recorded a worse distance than Monday's run. Sigh.

But ultimately though, who cares because I actually went out there and did it and now it's done!

Stats -
Total Distance - 1.83 miles / 2.94 km
Avg Speed - 3.65 mph
Min/Mile Pace - 16.42 (oh for the love of god... was I actually even moving?)
Miles so far this week - 3.71
Hours so far this week - 1:00

Week 1, Day 4 - Why can't I reach my toes?

2007-04-12T20:12:00.000+01:00

Not much to report so far this week. I've just completed a midweek yoga session - a quick half hour. I think I can already see some improvements in my flexibility... although at one point I realised I was just bending my knees more! It's quite frustrating to go from one position to another, each time having the single aim of reaching your toes and not being able to do it! I just find myself staring at my toes thinking "oh why can't I reach you?". What's worse for a girl who just had her birthday yesterday is that I remember when I used to be able to touch my toes in those positions and when I could do that

Why can't I do that anymore?!

I turned another 20 something yesterday. The number after the "2" is getting a bit high so I'm now officially no longer counting... or no longer telling people... or counting backwards or something.

Still just one run down so far this week. I've planned to go to the gym every morning but I've been unusually tired every morning so far and just haven't managed to drag myself out of bed. Now I come to think of it, there is an explanation:

Monday night - couldn't stop thinking about work - didn't get to sleep until rather late.
Tuesday night - stayed up late making a long list of all the things I have to do before I turn twenty-cough! This was the eve of my birthday. While making this list, which I plan to post on my blog, I realize that I'm a bit of a head-case and decide perhaps not to post it on the blog after all.
Wednesday night - couldn't stop thinking about crime. Decided to write a list of what I can do to make a difference about crime. This made me feel marginally better and I fell asleep... though I forgot to set my alarm.

Stats -
Sun salutations so far this week - countless
Runs - still just the one
Restless nights - three
Cakes - zero... hmmm :-)

And then there was yoga!

2007-04-09T11:10:00.000+01:00

In other non-cake related news, I've been doing yoga! Rather than stretching after my run today I drove straight home and did 30-45 minutes of yoga. Yesterday, I did well over an hour of it. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with it. I love the idea of doing yoga and of being flexible and strong etc. but in the past when I've taken classes/used yoga dvds I've always found then either too hard or too slow and boring. For example, I don't really DO relaxing so 15 minutes on a dvd of breathing just does my head in!

So I bought this book - Ashtanga Yoga by David Swenson - which was recommended somewhere, and it's great. I can just do it at my own pace - so, for example, I can work through the sun salutations slowly focusing on my form instead of racing through them just trying to keep up with the dvd and wondering why the hell my legs don't go like that and why I just collapse onto the floor instead of gracefully moving from Plank into whatever-that-one-is-called-before-downward facing dog. I'm very happy about it.

Now if only my hamstrings would loosen up a bit...

Week 1, Day 1... aGAiN!!

2007-04-09T10:54:00.000+01:00

I've just had a fantastic run! Well run/walk... but you'll forgive me that right?! It's a glorious day here - really sunny and clear but quite cool. I took off down to the gym feeling a little apprehensive. Being Easter Monday it was quite busy, even at 9am. I walked around the gym trying to spot a treadmill off in a corner somewhere away from anyone who looked too fit! No luck though - my favourite quite spot was occupied by too very fit, fast looking runners. So I took up a position in front of the TVs and started my warm up. Just my luck some lady comes and jumps on the treadmill next to me and starts running like her ass is on fire. Normally this would ruin my mood but I just tried to stay focused on my own workout and to not get competitive thoughts in my head. I like that I'm competitive but at the gym, on a treadmill, I am never going to win! And losing = bad mood.

As I have again reverted to week one of my running programme I was on the very unchallenging Run 2, Walk 4. It felt great though. I struggled less than I thought I would and it felt fantastic to be running again. I started out very modestly but as I started to have fun I increased both my walking and running speeds and it was just great.

And thank God I'll now have some mileage to report in my sidebar for this month!

And in a refreshing change from my posts of late, today's picture is not of a cake! This is, in fact, a row of treadmills from my gym. These are in my favourite quiet spot at the back of the gym (the one where the damn runners were today) and they overlook the racecourse. Bit of a rubbish photo but interesting none the less.

Stats -
Total Distance - 1.88 miles / 3.03 km
Avg Speed - 3.77 mph
Min/Mile Pace - 15.93 (groan)
Miles so far this week - 1.88
Hours so far this week - 0:30

Cheddar Gorge!

2007-04-06T15:57:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I finally broke sweat for the first time this week! Hooray! In fact it was the first time in... err... too long. Me and Mr JRB had the day off work to celebrate my birthday. My birthday isn't actually until next week but as Mr JRB is away on business then (as usual - NAB) we had a fake birthday for me yesterday. For some reason I didn't get a single present or card :-( Perhaps I might get some on the real birthday next week.

So we headed down to Somerset to a place called Cheddar Gorge - which is kind of like the English grand canyon... it's a lot smaller though! The weather was fantastic for this time of year - 20 degrees! The drive down was really pretty in places - we went through some lovely parts of Wiltshire. No pictures sadly (we are rubbish at taking photos!).

This is where we first stopped. That's my smart car at the front (crap car - highly UNrecommended). There were guys climbing up the rock face in the background. I've recently been quite keen on trying climbing but as I watched these guys climb I thought that perhaps it isn't really my cup of tea.

Unfortunately we took no pictures of the steep trek we took up to the top. It seemed neverending and I had to keep stopping to sit on logs to get my breath back. As usual Mr JRB made it look like it required about as much effort as sitting on the sofa. It took a little while but it was great to get my heart pumping! The path we took was a steep narrow path up through some woods that at times had old wooden steps dug into the mud.

Here's me at the top pondering life's big questions like - "Why are there so many calories in ice cream?" and "Where is the nearest Waitrose?". This side on shot is the only one I'm happy to post because in all the others I look as wide as a house. Damn you toffee tarts.

More views from the top. You can see the road down at the bottom of the gorge that we'd stopped along earlier.

Also forgot to take pictures of the trek down! Curses. Well here we are back down at the bottom anyway. That's Mr JRB.

This bit was really amazing. You can see some people climbing down the rocks near the bottom.

So that was it, a few hours and a few miles later we were all done. There are caves here too but the entrance fee was far too high so we didn't go in.

On the way home we stopped at a Somerset farm shop in Shipton near Cheddar and picked up some proper local cider! I don't do cider but Mr JRB loves it. We got 5 litres straight out of the barrel and headed home. It was a good day and it was great to get outside and get some exercise.

Planning to get back to the gym again from next week. Can't say I'm thrilled about it right now, hitting the treadmill at 6:30am isn't quite as fun as hiking up Cheddar Gorge on a sunny day! It's got to be done though, especially now that I've got so podgy :-(

I've got a great new incentive for getting fit. We've planning our summer holiday and currently our favourite idea is going RV-ing around California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada (maybe a quick stop in Colorado) - we're thinking it would be great to explore some of the National Parks. That means hiking, mountain biking, horse-riding, swimming, canoeing etc. - basically a tonne of stuff that I don't want to be too unfit to enjoy! Bring on the treadmill...

This is between me and the pie

2007-04-01T20:06:00.000+01:00

I'm sat here eating a toffee tart (see illustration) and thinking about how to go about getting fit. We're going to ignore the toffee tart for the moment and think about the question. The problem is that I'm unfit - fact. Really, really, really unfit. So unfit that I often wonder whether I'm actually suffering from pulmonary heart disease, or heart failure or something. I get really breathless after even the slightest exertion. In fact, I get breathless just talking sometimes. I'm not obese, I'm not even overweight, I'm just really unfit.

I'm also not stupid, I know this is really serious. I don't know how/why I've ended up this way (why am I so much unfitter than every other person who hardly ever exercises?) but it's irrelevant really, the point is I need to get fitter. At the moment I regularly think about how awful my life will be in 20 years if I continue along the same path I'm currently on (seriously, we'll leave the cakes out for the moment! This is just about the exercise).

But it's kind of easier said than done isn't it. This won't be the first time... So as I set out again to try to whip my flabby disgrace of a heart into shape I'm going to try to figure out what to do to make this new healthier way of life stick. MMmmm lovely toffee tart...

Naughty Jenny

2007-03-27T21:27:00.000+01:00

I'm sorry, I've been horribly neglectful again :-( Thanks for coming and chivy-ing me along. I will post a decent update very soon! Sadly not now as I've just got home from work completely exhausted and even though it's only eight-thirty I'm going to bed. I was out at this marketing event until late last night (I was really rather tipsy too) so I'm catching up on some sleep. I'll aim to post tomorrow about my new initiative which I'm thinking I might call "Save Jenny"... maybe it should be "Save Jenny from Herself" or "Save Jenny from The Cakes!". Yes.

I Am The Cake

2007-02-06T20:57:00.000Z

The above diagram illustrates my current weekly cake intake. Some time before Christmas I thought "hooray it's Christmas" and started eating cakes like they're going out of fashion. I think I must have eaten twice my bodyweight in cakes since them... fortunately only 10 pounds of the cakes stuck... sigh. Just this evening I hoovered up some evil brownie/mousse/chocolate sauce-y thing that clearly had been despatched directly from hell to lead innocent cake lovers like me into temptation. I swear if I could beat my cake addiction I'd be about half the size I am now. I need to do a Lohan and check myself into some kind of strict rehab centre for cake-a-holics.

New Profile Picture!

2007-02-06T20:31:00.000Z

Yes that's lil' old me there - I'm in Brussels. I thought it was about time for a new profile picture because the old one keeps making me think my nose and forehead are huge... insecure... me?

Still Running!

2007-01-28T09:52:00.000Z

Just a quick post to say I'm still running, I'm just not posting! I can't seem to find time to write anything decent so I'm not posting anything. I'm hoping to be able to post something some time soon... just not now!

Week 1, Day 7 - Go Vic!!

2007-01-14T10:30:00.000Z

Just a quick post to log my stats! Good run. I really tried to be economical in my movements so as to manage to run faster with less energy - seemed to work as I hit 10.5 kph at one point! Upped my walking speed to 5 kph also. I've been playing around with charts so I should have some good progress report charts up soon.

Good luck to Vic who's running the Houston Maraton today - run Vic RUN!!!

Stats -
Total Distance - 1.93 miles / 3.11 km
Avg Speed - 3.86 mph
Min/Mile Pace - 15.52
Miles so far this week - 5.47
Hours so far this week - 1:30

Week 1, Day 3

2007-01-10T20:05:00.000Z

This is going to sound rather bad, but I've never exercised for health before. I've exercised for weight-loss, for fun, for challenge, for fitness and for the sheer pleasure of it but never for health... until now that is. All of a sudden I'm thinking that I need to exercise. I've been horribly unfit for years now. I almost can't remember ever being anywhere near fit. I know I'm young now but it can't be good for me to have such a weak flabby heart. This is a real first for me and it's good to have factor motivating me to run.

I'm incredibly impressed that I made it to the gym again today! The weather was truly awful - the road to the gym was even flooded. My run was good - I'm slipping back into the same habits of wanting to go faster and faster. I'm saddened but not surprised at how out of breath I am now compared to two and a half months ago. It's hard to feel like I'm starting over again at that all of those weeks of hard work I put in before have been lost.

Unfortunately I'm so out of practice I forgot to make a note of my finishing distance so the stats are a bit sparse today.

Stats:
Total Distance - ?
Avg Speed - ?
Min/Mile Pace - ?
Miles so far this week - 3.54
Hours so far this week - 1:00

Week 1, Day 2 - Starting Over

2007-01-10T19:28:00.000Z

For the last couple of weeks I'd been preoccupied with thoughts of how I was going to get back to running. For weeks I'd repeated the same cycle of going to bed in the evening planning to go to the gym in the morning, waking up the next morning and thinking "I'm too tired - I'll go this evening", then getting home in the evening and thinking "I don't want to go now, I'll go tomorrow morning" etc. It just wasn't happening. I considered cancelling my gym membership and buying a treadmill but I kind of knew that wasn't the solution. Then yesterday morning I just woke up at 6am and went to the gym! The weather was just horrid - I just can't imagine how anyone can run outside here at this time of year. I'm re-starting my 10 week programme to get me up to running continuously for 30 minutes. I did the pitiful run/walk pattern of run 2, walk 4... and I was out of breath!! Check out my stats!! How embarrasing. I guess I've got to restart somewhere though. And on the plus side at least my upcoming improvements will look great on a spreadsheet in 10 weeks!

I felt so good for the rest of the day. After weeks of thinking "how do people manage to go to the gym every day?" I remembered why they do it - it feels great!

Stats:
Total Distance - 2.85 km/1.74 miles
Avg Speed - 5.7 kmh/3.54 mph
Min/Mile Pace - 16.94
Miles so far this week - 1.77
Hours so far this week - 0:30

And 76 Days Later...

2007-01-10T18:59:00.000Z

I'm back! So all my concerns about starting my new job and jacking in running proved to be 100% true sadly. My new job proved to be a such a major change I just stopped running. I missed it so much in the beginning but couldn't figure out a way to squeeze it into my day. But this is a good news story because I'm running again! Ultimately there were two factors that got me running again:

1. A new train timetable meant I could catch a significantly later train
2. It turns out that my employer doesn't mind me turning up at 09:03 every day!

So for the last two days I've been standing outside the gym in the dark, wind and rain at 06:30 am ready to go running. It feels so great to be running again. Sadly 76 days of sloth have taken their toll on my fitness but I don't really mind; it just feels such a relief to be doing some exercise again. And now I'm no longer so ashamed at my lack of running that I can't read/post!

I can't finish this post without saying a thanks to you guys who have posted messages here in my absence - it felt good to be missed :-)

I have a million other things to say but I want to post my run reports first...

Busy busy busy!

2006-11-06T19:12:00.000Z

There's been a shameful lack of posting/blog-reading around here recently for which I apologise - I really am resembling that picture below of a girl asleep at her desk! I am now a week and a day into my new job and it's going really great but I have no time what-so-ever. There's hasn't been any running in the last week at all but I'm still enthusiastic - I'm sure I'll sort my running-time out once I get settled into my new routine. New job is great - I'm very very happy with it. Great people, great work, great commute, great office, great desk, great coffee! I hope you're all well out there! I feel so out of touch with how everyone is doing. I'm hoping to resume my regular posting service soon.

Sudden Attack Of Logorrhoea!

2006-10-25T12:05:00.000+01:00

Holy Jesus! Sorry about my sudden propensity to be verbose. Where did that come from?! For those who can't be bothered to read on I'll just sum up here - I finished the marathon in 2 hours 29 minutes but I'm a bit stiff now. Hooray! Please leave notes of gushing congratulations in the comments...

I Feel Sleepy Just Thinking About It...

2006-10-25T11:25:00.000+01:00

I'm a bit worried about next week. I start my new job on Monday which I am a little nervous about, but what I'm far more nervous about is my running! Specifically I'm a bit worried about how much my running schedule is going to have to change in order to accomodate work into my day. At the moment I live a beautiful life of leisure. I roll out of bed in the middle of the morning and go running at the gym. I get back late in the morning and spend a few hours blogging and reading blog after blog after blog. I usually take a break for lunch and to shred my bills. Sometimes my bliss is interrupted by angry calls from my bank manager. I let my PA take those - it's a fancy electronic one that takes a message which I can then delete ;-) Ok. I'm just joking about all of this financial angst. But you get my point - I have a pretty easy time fitting running into my day but I'm broke!

So from next week I have to work :-( I knew that at some point in my life this dreaful day would arrive but it's still a terrible shock to be here ;-) I'll have to leave for work at about 7:40am. God knows when I'll get back. In my interview they asked me how I felt about all-nighters... yes seriously. In my wisdom I've chosen a career path with a pre-requisite of having no life outside of work and an unusual ability to survive without sleep. For the record I can pretty much check box number one but box number two is definitely blank. I need like 9 hours a night or my eyelids don't open all day.

Anyway, I'm drifting off point. So essentially my 10am gym visits and subsequent 4 hour blog binges are out. I've been quite pre-occupied with drawing up schedules to work out when I'm going to fit running into my new day. In terms of the mornings my major problem is that my gym doesn't open until 6:30am. Crap. Obviously I don't have time to go there at 6:30 and leave for work at 7:40. I could run outside... err... no! I've just got to be realistic. It's really cold and wet and dark here now and I just know that I wouldn't get out of bed and go out running in that. If it was summer I'd consider it, but it's not. I have no tolerance of cold by the way - I think I'm descended from bears; when the winter gets here I just want to hibernate.

So that leaves the evening. I hate exercising in the evening. I've been here before. I get back from work/college/whatever and it's dark and I'm tired and I want to eat dinner and slump in front of the tv. The last thing I feel like is going to the gym. But I'm stuck. I'm going to have to do this. I know that between the two I'm more likely to run in the evening than run outside in the morning. God it's going to be hard though. This might sound like nothing to those who do it already but I've been a student for years and I am not used to all of this activity!

Damn employment!! Don't employers have any idea how hard it is for lazy, cold-hating people like me to run when I have to spend most of my day working! LOL

Picture - panache-yes.com

Week 8, Day 3 - Glorious Return To Running Joy!

2006-10-25T10:38:00.000+01:00

Hooray! I feel back up to par. I just had a great run. It was really hard but it's the first time in 12 days that I've come back from a run feeling good about my running! My theory is that the first day back after a break must be really hard - thus explaining my last two runs which each had quite a few 'rest' days before them. Today I did run 9,walk 1 and it went quite well. I ran at 8kmh for the first two lots of 9 then upped the speed through the last set to finish at 10kmh completely exhausted. I ran far too hard of course. I love running as fast as I can when I'm on the treadmill but then I end up dreading the next trip to the gym because I anticipate that it will be really hard. But I keep doing it!! For some reason I just find it easier to run faster - I'm thinking psychological here. It seems harder to run at a slower speed. When it got tough then I found myself thinking about the Chicago marathon RBF and in particular I remembered Zeke's report and how there was a spot that he found hard but he pushed through it and finished in such a great time. I just thought "even the best runners have tough moments, just get through it" and I did! It's only a shame that my tough moment was about 2 miles into a 2 and a half mile run instead of 22 miles into a 26.2 mile run! LOL

The treadmills were busy today which was fun. So often I go in there and there's not that many people on them and half of them are just walking. Today I had a runner on each side of me and three more further away. Oh course they all kicked my ass! Ahh well. Actually I say they all kicked my ass but I lasted the longest. The two on either side of me ran faster but they only ran for about 20 minutes. The ones further away also seemed to run faster but not for as long as me. There was one guy who ran faster than me, and he did also seem to run for 30 minutes... but my cool down was longer so I win! Haha! It does surprise me how few people seem to warm-up/cool-down/run for a decent length of time at my gym. I think that once I increase my distances I'm going to seem like some kind of elite runner compared to these 20 minute light-weights!

Now I've got one good run under my belt I can confess that I've been feeling quite concerned about my running recently. It all went wrong when I had that interview - I took a bit of time off before and then even more after. The more I didn't go running the more I felt I couldn't. Ultimately there really are no excuses though. There's always time in the day to squeeze in a run. Even when I was preparing for my interview it would have been worth taking an hour out to go and run because I would have come back feeling full of energy and enthusiasm again. I felt so depressed at the thought that all my hard work would end up being for nothing if I didn't continue running. Also I just couldn't stand the thought of going back to being even more unfit than I am now so I persisted but damn those two first-runs-back were hard though. I just don't want to take any more breaks like that because they're so hard to come back from. I can only imagine how hard it must be to come back to running after taking a serious length of time off rather than just a few days!

One odd aspect of my running drought was that I felt unable to post anything about it. I kind of feel a duty not to be negative on my blog because I know that when I love something, if I read something negative about that thing then it makes me feel really sad and I didn't really want to do that to you guys! I know it's great to share and I would have loved some advice and encouragement when I was having a hard time... actually maybe I should have said something. It's not like I was disillusioned with running itself I was just finding it hard going. Yes, I think from here on in I'm going to aim to blog about the black dog days as well as the good days. Look forward to more miserable, whinging posts!!

Stats:
Total Distance - 3.88kms /2.41 miles
Avg Speed - 7.76kph/ 4.82mph
Min/Mile Pace - 12.44
Hours so far this week - 1.00
Miles so far this week - 4.63

Week 8, Day 1 - My Fitness Ran Away With My Virtue!

2006-10-23T10:01:00.000+01:00

Check out today's stats and tell me what's happened to my speed and stamina? Very poor show. I just had no energy again. The week before last week I ran three times but last week I only ran once but I feel as though my fitness has jumped back about three or four weeks. I can only hope that it will be easier tomorrow.

Stats:
Distance - 3.57km / 2.22 miles
Avg Speed - 7.14 kmh/4.44 mph
Min/Mile Pace - 13.52
Hours so far this week - 0.30
Miles so far this week - 2.22

Week 7, Day 4 - Wretched Cookie Hurling Adventure

2006-10-19T12:36:00.000+01:00

Urgh... I knew it was going to be bad but it was terrible. 6 days without exercise and far too much wine last night made for a truly wretched treadmill ride today. After scoffing down a breakfast of shortbread cookies and scraping the day-old "I applied my make-up with a shotgun" look off my face I lifted my fragile body into the car and headed for the gym. Mid-warm up I broke into a cold-sweat and started to regret the choice of a window-side treadmill as the sun reduced my pupils to the size of a pin-head. By the end of the warm-up Evil Jenny was contemplating how she was going to get out of completing the rest of the work-out whilst Virtuous Jenny was brandishing a whip and thrashing Evil Jenny's lazy bum. I jumped back a couple of weeks to the run 8/walk 2 option and crawled through my running sections at 8.5 kmh before breaking-down half-way through the last 8 and walking to the finish line. This collapse was largely the result of being told that I had an urgent phone-call to take in the bathroom... ahem. Throw in a dash of nausea making the prospect of literally hurling my cookies a real one and it was quite an experience.

BUT, the important thing is that I got back on the treadmill-pony after I fell off :-) I'm sure tomorrow will be better and so on and so on until my glorious completion on an ultra-marathon in 2 hours, 15 minutes and 24 seconds... bite my dust Paula.

Stats:
Distance - 3.57 km/2.22 miles
Avg Speed -7.14kph / 4.44mph
Min/Mile Pace - 13.52
Hours so far this week - 0.30
Miles so far this week - 2.22

Where Hath My Virtue Gone???

2006-10-19T11:58:00.000+01:00

Oh forgive me Father for I have sinned. It's been 6 days since my last treadmill confessional, 6 DAYS FATHER oh and I have been sooo wicked on each and every one of those days.

I was filled with pride when I landed my new job and I spent hours consumed with greed thinking about how I would spend my new income. I spent many a lust-y moment having inappropriate thoughts about cake and feeling envy-ous of those who had cakes when I had none. But this absence of cakes didn't last for long Father, gluttony was my next pit-stop on the demolition derby of shame. Father, there were simply too many cheese-covered, chocolate-coated and cream-filled moments to recall. And Father it won't surprise you to hear that sloth overcame me each and every hour of the subsequent days; the only time my heart-rate was raised was in the presence of cakes... which let me tell you Father was far too often. Father, just when I thought I had committed all the evil I had in me I unleashed a can of whoop-ass wrath on my body this morning by dragging it along some evil never-ending rubber belt of doom while it was ravaged by cake-less sugar withdrawal and the cold sweat of a terrible hangover.

Oh Father what is my penance? Anything but fasting Father, ANYTHING but that... that or celibacy Father, I'll take anything but fasting or celibacy... oh and Father please remember how much I hate charitable work...

Oh Father one thing confuses me terribly - I committed all these wicked sins and yet I did not see Brad Pitt once. Oh Father the devil taunts us so cruelly.

Employment Status Update...

2006-10-16T13:49:00.000+01:00

I GOT THE JOB!!! WAHOOOOOOOO!!! I can't believe it! More later - too excited to write at the moment!

Week 6, Day 7 - Another Bleedin' Rest Day!

2006-10-16T13:46:00.000+01:00

Ok, I took ANOTHER rest day! Partly my hip was hurting, partly I was busy preparing for my interview, either way I didn't run :-(

End of week stats -
Total distance - 7.89 miles
Total time - 01:41:04
Avg min/mile pace - 12.8
Avg Speed - 4.7 mph

Week 6, Day 6 - Rest Day

2006-10-14T16:39:00.000+01:00

Rest day today. I thought I'd take my rest day today so as to give my hip maximum rest. I'm hoping it won't be hurting for my last run of the week tomorrow morning. I am in peak interview preparation mode at the moment. I've spent the day ironing and preening my interview outfit, practicing saying "hello, Jenny RB, how do you do", and sticking my hand out to receive imaginary handshakes with important people. I'm feeling pretty good about it all at the moment. I really want this job badly and I'm hoping that this will come across in the interview as rampant enthusiasm rather than desperation! I keep thinking that I don't mind if I don't get this because there'll be other great opportunities, and then I think, hang on a second... I'd love to work at this firm, I love the people I've met there, it's really going places, it would be amazing on my CV, I could really be great at this job, I WANT THIS JOB, I don't want any other job!! I realise that this current mindset might make my interview a bit like a scene from The Apprentice!

Progress Report: Day 40 of 70

2006-10-13T10:22:00.000+01:00

My performance hasn't really improved in the last week but I have been trying to take it easier than the week before so this is as expected. My 5k run didn't really fit into this chart so I put in the distance at 30 and 40 minutes which shows that there is an improvement in my 40 minute distance - the purple crosses. We'll just quietly forget that the original 40 minute run involved rather a lot of walking due to a stitch, a very muddy path and an urgent bathroom call! LOL

Week 6, Day 5 - Crying Off Sick

2006-10-13T10:06:00.000+01:00

This is the reason I'm not running today:
My left hip hurts really badly. Funnily enough the pain usually goes away when I start running but it's just too bad today - it even hurts to stand on the leg. Any suggestions as to what it might be/what to do about it will be greatly received :-)

Diagram - www.train.tcu.edu

Week 6, Day 4 - and I'm drunk... hic!

2006-10-12T22:12:00.000+01:00

I just got back from an afternoon/evening out in Bath and I'm a little tipsy. We did a little sightseeing, didn't take enough photos (as usual), and ate in a great little restaurant. I was lucky enough not to be the designated driver tonight :-))))) That's either me smiling a lot or I've eaten so much that I have lots of double chins! I didn't get a chance to post about my run earlier so thought I'd just nip on and give the details before I go back to eating some more chocolate cake... I seem to mention cake an awful lot in my blog which is making me aware of quite how much of it I eat!

It was a good run. I took it a bit easier today which was nice. I actually ran 5k. I started out doing 3.795km in 30 minutes and then started my cool down but then a song I like came on the music channel so I thought I'd just run through that; then I saw I was nearly at 40 minutes and thought I'd walk to then; and then realised I was nearly at 5k so thought I may as well continue to then. If I'd set out to run 5k I could certainly have done it in a faster time but it's fun to now have a time that I can chip away at :-)

Stats:
Time - 41:04
Distance - 5km /3.11 miles
Avg Speed - 7.31kmh/ 4.54mph
Min/Mile Pace - 13.22
Hours so far this week - 1:41
Miles so far this week - 7.89

Week 6, Day 3 - I've Found My First Race :-)

2006-10-11T16:17:00.000+01:00

I think I've found my first race! I'm planning to follow a Hal Higdon 5k training programme once I finish my current programme. I put the schedule into my running log and figured out when I would be ready to run my first race. Armed with this information I went to the Runner's World website and plugged in "5k race" and "December" and found the perfect race that would align with the 5k test race half-way through Hal's programme. It's the Royal National Lifeboat Institution's Reindeer Run! The first of those links is to the RNLI but because they don't have the race up yet the second is to the Runner's World event page giving the race details. I'm a little concerned that the race description mentions that most feared of four letter words - H-I-L-L - but from what I've read on someone's blog a few weeks ago (can't remember whose I'm afraid) I just have to think "I love hills" and I'll get through it :-) Sounds like a cakewalk! I can't wait to get my first race t-shirt and then get drunk on the free mulled wine. Now I just have to figure out an appropriately festive costume... hmmmm...

Photo credit and Mrs Claus outfit - lalalingerie.com

Week 6, Day 2 - No Beans :-(

2006-10-10T14:25:00.000+01:00

Ugh, I just had no beans in me today. Tough run. I set out at a moderate pace which became even more moderate in the second 9 minute slot and more moderate still in the last. I managed a sprint finish though when I saw I might not match yesterday's distance! I checked my heart rate in the final 9 minute slot and it was 186. I was only running at 7.5 km/h by this point so that seems surprisingly high. I just had no energy at all. Ahh well. I think I'll take a day off tomorrow and hopefully my beans can regroup in time for Thursday :-)

The races were on while I was at the gym. My gym actually overlooks the racecourse and while I was there I saw a couple of races. As the horses were running down to the starting gate for the second race I was totally fading on the treadmill and to motivate myself to keep running I thought "Right, if I stop running before I hit 30 minutes then one of those horses is going to keel over and DIE!". Luckily for the horses I managed to keep going! LOL!

Stats:
Distance - 3.85 km /2.39 miles
Avg Speed - 7.70 kph/4.75 mph
Min/Mile Pace - 12.54
Hours so far this week - 1.00
Miles so far this week - 4.78

Photo Credit - (C) Me 2004 :-)

Special Announcement Re: My Impending Bankruptcy

2006-10-09T19:57:00.000+01:00

I figured this news warranted a seperate post all of it's own. It's great news! While I still don't actually have a job yet I've heard back from the place I had the interview at the other day and they'd like me to go back in for a second and final interview! They also said that they'd like me to meet some of the other team members... eek! I think this is all very positive. They only interviewed 3 candidates for the job so I'm guessing my odds are very good at this stage :-) This would be such a great job for me, both in terms of my future career and also in terms of my bank balance! I shouldn't joke about bankruptcy but if only you knew the trouble I'm in! :-S

Week 6, Day 1 - I Ran Outside in the Rain!

2006-10-09T19:20:00.000+01:00

Wow! Such a good run today but the day didn't start out looking so good. In fact it had been a rather inauspicious start to the running week. I was pretty disappointed to only get in three runs last week so I wanted to make sure I ran today. I headed out to the gym this morning but got there only to find out that the air-con was broken. The place was like a sauna and I just couldn't handle running there; I was sweating as soon as I walked through the door! I reluctantly headed home and pondered what to do next. In the end I arranged to run outside tonight with Mr JRB. I spent the whole day itching to get out and run but then as five o'clock approached it started clouding over... uh-oh.

It was touch and go for a couple of minutes as to whether we went out but luckily we made the right decision. We set out towards the town centre planning to run West along the canal. It started to rain. I can't remember the last time I actually got rained on. I'm always very careful about taking out an umbrella with me but I'm guessing running with an umbrella just isn't going to work!! By the time we got to the town centre it was raining hard. We ducked into a covered car-park and once we hit the other side it was pouring. We stopped and looked at each other and Mr JRB asked if I was sure I really wanted to do this. There was no question at this point - I wasn't going home without running :-)

I changed my plan and we ran East along the canal. I ran the first 9 minutes at a 12.18 min/mile pace which was great. I was worried about setting out too hard like I did the other day so this was good timing. I'm now on the run 9, walk 2 week but it really didn't feel any harder than last week. By the second running segment I was soaked through and had water dripping off my nose and collecting in my eyelashes. It felt great though! I even managed to start running again straight away after we climbed a set of stairs up a bridge. I slightly messed up the timing of the section in the middle but managed to recover ok. I dodged some huge puddles which would have been great to drive though had I been in the car.

Towards the start of the final running segment we hit a slight upward section which I got through fine before we crossed over a railway bridge and entered the racecourse. This was a good part because it was slightly downhill at the start and as the end was in sight I pushed myself harder. It was also fun to run past all the people driving to the gym because I knew they'd be impressed that we were out running in the rain. How hardcore :-) I was really finding it hard by the time we passed the green and was glad to hit 30 minutes and stop. Great result, though not quite a PB... an outdoors PB anyway :-) I'm so proud to have actually run outside in the rain. I feel like a proper runner tonight rather than a fair-weather (treadmill) runner!

Stats -
Total Distance - 3.84 km / 2.39 miles
Avg Speed - 7.68 kph/ 4.77 mph
Min/Mile Pace - 12.57
Hours so far this week - 0:30
Miles so far this week - 2.39

Interim Update - I'm Half Way!

2006-10-09T11:33:00.000+01:00

Well, the first 5 weeks of 10 have been completed. I'm so pleased with my progress so far. Here's the key figures:

Total Time Run For - 11 hours 10 minutes
Total Distance Completed - 73.43 km/ 45.63 miles

Average speed has increased from 3.7 mph to 4.8 mph
Min/mile pace has decreased from an average of 16 min/miles to 12.4 min/miles

I've run in the gym 21 times and outdoors once!

All great stuff, bring on the next 5 weeks!

Week 5, Day 7 - I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok!

2006-10-09T11:23:00.000+01:00

Yet another day off! Bit of a poor show this week - I only ran on 3 days. That is officially below my target of 4 so my report card says "must do better!". In my defence I had a stupidly busy day on not very much sleep and just didn't find time when I had energy and didn't have energy when I found the time. We had this huge tree in our garden pruned and I spent hours chopping up branches and lugging them into the back of a van. My arms ache so much. I then spent the rest of the afternoon gardening which to my delight included plenty of violent pruning... my favourite!

End of week stats:
Total time - 1.30
Total distance run - 7.25 miles
Average speed - 4.8 mph
Average min/mile pace - 12.4

Week 5, Day 6 - Day Off

2006-10-07T22:08:00.000+01:00

No running today sadly. I was quite keen on getting in another run outside but it just didn't happen. I seem to be so busy at the moment whilst at the same time not actually getting anything done. I did manage to bake a cake today but even that didn't turn out too good... though it didn't turn out so bad that I couldn't eat it! And on that note: I think the greatest thing I've read so far about running is this from a Hal Higdon article on nutrition:

'You can eat (in fact, may need to eat) more total calories without worrying about weight gain. The average runner training for a half marathon and running 20 to 25 miles a week probably needs a daily caloric intake near 2,500 to maintain muscle glycogen stores. As your mileage climbs beyond that, you need to eat more and more food, not less. In all honesty, this is why a lot of runners run, and why they train for marathons. Their common motto is, "I love to eat."'

WOOHOOOOOOOO!!!

Progress Report: Day 33 of 70

2006-10-06T11:53:00.000+01:00

Yippeee! Big improvements on last week again. I'm going to try to take it a little easier for the next week. I can't believe I'm almost hitting my target already - the purple dot on the far right - at the time I thought that was pretty ambitious.

And check out my screen-capping progress! It's all thanks to my upgrade from Paint (LOL!) to Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 - this thing is great, and it's free too! Highly recommended.

Week 5, Day 5 - Stand Back I'm Going to Puke!

2006-10-06T11:19:00.000+01:00

Oh god that was so hard! Ok, I've heard it before but I have now physically learnt the lesson of "don't set off too fast"! I got a new PB by 0.01 of a km (lol! I didn't fix that honest guv'ner!) but it was just too hard. I set out at 9kmh which I really regretted because then in my next two running segments I was just f*cked - even 8.5kmh was killing me. I could barely walk the last 2 minutes and when I stopped I actually thought I might throw up. By contrast a few days ago when I set my previous PB I set out slower and then sped up and felt far more comfortable. Lesson learned!

I wore my heart rate monitor today. During my running segments my heart rate was in the mid 170s. I think this is an improvement - my heart rate whilst doing less was a lot higher than that a few years ago. Perhaps I've got an abnormally fast heart but I've actually hit about 210 before at the gym during one of my previous attempts to get fit!

It's a great rain day here today - there's huge puddles everywhere. I know it's bad for your car but I like nothing better than to drive through the biggest puddles as fast as possible and watch the water go everywhere! Hours of fun...

Thanks for all the new comments :-)

Stats:
Distance - 3.92 km /2.44 miles
Avg Speed - 7.84kmh /4.87 mph
Min/Mile Pace - 12.32
Hours so far this week - 1.30
Distance so far this week - 7.25 miles

Photo - sacbee.com

Week 5, Day 4 - Day Off

2006-10-05T10:41:00.000+01:00

Another day off! My training plan is almost too easy really - 4 days a week seems like I'm just a part-time runner. I've been looking at training plans today and 5k races. I think that's what I'll do next - I'm going to train for a 5k and then move on and train for a 10k and then perhaps a half-marathon. After than a marathon perhaps? Not sure at the moment!

I hope everyone is having a great day!

Profile Picture Shopping

2006-10-04T16:03:00.000+01:00

I'm trying to pick a new photo to put in my profile. I've picked some contenders...

This is my most recent picture. I look deranged. Probably the lack of makeup/hairbrush.

I like this one because it's odd. Like me. Still not wearing any makeup though - what's up with that?

Me at the races. Yeah. I'm drunk. I'm thinking that's a vodka and diet coke. I like that I'm wearing a hat. You don't see many people wearing hats in their profile pictures.

I like this one but would people realise who Jenny was? And did you notice that every material in the picture is striped or checked? How bizarre.

Ah, here's me in Dubai. I like Dubai. On any given day of the year I would rather be in Dubai than here. This is by the marina. You can see lots of the famous Dubai construction sites in the background.

I like this picture, this is in Paris. I think I look quite Parisien. That hole in my jeans is nothing to do with fashion - I'm just poor. My face looks very square though... and what is up with the hair again! Note to self - start brushing hair.

I like this one because I look thoughtful and I'm eating cake and you know I like eating cake :-) This wasn't a very nice cake though... I'm probably thinking "This hotel is very expensive but this cake is rubbish - what WERE they thinking?"

Week 5, Day 3 - Hard Day at the Office

2006-10-04T10:14:00.000+01:00

Jeez. Tough day on the treadmill today. It wasn't great before I even got there - just feeling a bit tired. I didn't sleep very well. It was just a hard run. I felt kind of heavy all the way through. I wasn't gasping for breath I just had nothing in the tank. It was kind of like I felt at the end of my long outdoors run the other day - just no energy left. Still, it's like they say - some runs are good and some aren't. That's it really!

Once I was done I did some synchronised stretching! About 5 seconds after I hit the mats this lady comes along and starts on exactly the same stretch as me. She looks like a proper runner to me, so I become preoccupied with not looking like an amateur - I start carefully timing my stretches on my MP3 player and concentrating on my form. Hard work. Luckily she went onto different stretches. She won though. I was done and she was doing some hip flexor stretches. Screw that I was out the door - it's sunny today! Cold but sunny.

Stats:
Distance - 3.84 km /2.39 miles
Avg Speed - 7.68 kmh / 4.77 mph
Min/Mile Pace - 12.57
Hours so far this week - 1.00
Miles so far this week - 4.82

Picture source - bodybuilding.com

Week 5, Day 2 - Unplanned Rest Day

2006-10-03T21:26:00.000+01:00

Rest day today. Not completely planned. I had to stay in to accept delivery of my new dishwasher and then spent the afternoon working out how the hell I was going to plumb it in. Cue lots of angry cursing and red mist. We just managed to get it in at about 8:30pm this evening. This was after four trips to the DIY store and one to a specialist plumbing store. The thing seems great though. I haven't had a dishwasher since I left home years ago. It's going to be great not to have to wash dishes anymore!

I saw runners everywhere today. There seemed to be hundreds of them. There's something about this time of year - the runners seem to come out in force. Perhaps they're training for the London Marathon? Not sure. I was wondering whether I could guage their speed by driving along side them and matching their speed. This wouldn't look as wierd as it sounds as my home town is usually gridlocked!

I've just finished eating some homemade rice-crispie cakes. This reminds me that I really need to work on eating a bit healthier! My dinner tonight was three chocolate bars and the rice crispie cakes - not exactly great running fuel! LOL! It was actually my arch fitness enemy that made them for me. We were talking last night and I was saying about how wierd it would be if I was actually fitter than him. I think I have to stop saying stuff like this because he said he was going to start running to work! That would be so great though - to be fitter than him I mean. The last time I remember actually being fit was either when I lived in Colorado or when I was in primary school... either way it's a long time ago!

100 Beginner Running Tips - Complete Running Network

2006-10-02T12:58:00.000+01:00

I just found this great article on the Complete Running Network website which gives 100 tips for beginner runners. Well worth checking out.

My favourites -
12. Don't neglect and irritate your family and friends by spending all your time running and talking about running... yeah sorry about that everyone!

16. It get's easier - yeah, I've spent years of my life thinking I'll never get fitter and after just four weeks of running I have. It really does get easier.

26. Running is not an excuse to triple your intake of doughnuts because runners gain weight too... yeah about that cheesecake I made on Sunday...

28. Each pound you lose makes running a little easier... yeah, about that cheesecake again

63. Always carry i.d. because you just never know - what the hell does that mean? Is it to identify my corpse? Jeez... I'm a little scared about heading out to the treadmill now.

Dammit I knew I meant to add a third thing...

2006-10-02T12:18:00.000+01:00

to my improved stats - a new PB!

Week 5, Day 1 - The Treadmill Report

2006-10-02T11:58:00.000+01:00

Quite a tough run today but with good results. I moved on up to run 8/walk 2 today - which was fine really. I ran the first 8 mins at 8.5kph, the second at 8.5/9kph and the last at 8.5/9/9.5kph. I also walked my last 2 mins at 5kph instead of my usual 4.5kph - just to squeeze out a few more fractions of a mile!

I just checked my stats and I'm running over 1km more in my 30 minute slot than I was when I started. Woohoo! And also, check out my min/mile pace for today - 12.35! My first run was at 16.76 so that's a great improvement.

When I started out running it was next to this lady who was doing this seriously funny-looking power walking. It was distracting but luckily she left. Far worse than that was when I was just winding up and this lady jumped on the treadmill next to me and straight-off started running at 10kph. I think if I did that I'd have a heart-attack! I was thinking, wow that's a pretty good speed but then I thought that maybe that's just her warm-up... makes you think.

Stats:
Distance - 3.91km/2.43miles
Avg Speed - 7.82kph/4.86mph
Min/Mile Pace - 12.35
Distance so far this week - 2.43miles
Hours so far this week - 0.30

Week 4, Day 7 - Rest Day

2006-10-01T16:43:00.000+01:00

Planned rest day today. I'm making cheesecake :-) I'm pretty pleased with this week. I can't believe I actually ran outside! Next week I move on to run 8/walk 2. I feel totally ready for this. The last three runs of this week have made me feel like I'm really making progress. I can definitely see an improvement in my running - this week is probably the first week I've felt that since I started. It's week 5 of 10 next week and my thoughts are really turning to what to carry on to once my 10 weeks are up. I want to continue to increase both my distance and my speed but I'm not sure what plan to follow. I can find a lot of total beginner plans but few others.

End of week stats:
Total training time - 2 hours 10 minutes
Total distance - 15.19km / 9.44miles
Avg speed- 4.4mph
Avg min/mile pace - 13.8

The Route!

2006-09-30T19:59:00.000+01:00

Here's my route! Unfortunately this is the biggest I can get it to go but I'm sure y'all get the idea. Oh good - if you click on it then it comes up bigger and you can see my little notes.

Week 4, Day 6 - I Ran Outside!

2006-09-30T19:30:00.000+01:00

I'm writing this post in green in honour of my first run in the great outdoors! And get this, not only did I run outside today but I did so in the last hour of daylight in the day! This is seriously unusual for a committed morning runner like me.

Well the run was beset by problems but overall really turned out quite well - stats are surprising as I definitely could have done better. First problem was that I just had such bad stitches, in my stomach. I think I'd had too much to drink before heading out, it was just awful - I had them before I even started running! That caused problems at the start but about ten minutes in they pretty much went.

I planned the route on MapMyRun.com - it was 5km with about half of the way being along the canal and the other half being roadside and through the racecourse. I was very nervous as I thought I'd probably come away totally disheartened - I've heard so many stories of treadmill runners who find running outside infinitely harder. The canal section started out fine for the first half but then we hit the bit that has no pavement. It wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't rained quite a lot recently - it was a quagmire! The track was very narrow and overgrown and had been turned into a muddy bog by the recent rain. We had to stop running quite a few times to negotiate particularly bad sections where we were slipping around in the mud. However, we cleared that bit and then were out onto the road. My knees started to hurt quite a bit at this point but we pressed on. Fatigue was setting in quite badly and I was finding it hard to run. It was at this point that the final and most serious problem kicked in... I REALLY needed the bathroom! Que short cut home - ran 4.62km instead of the planned 5... and those desperate last 10 minutes were a walk rather than a run! How embarrasing! But overall, I did a lot better than I expected. I definitely could have done so much better had I not had the stitches/mud/... other problem!

Stats:
Distance - 4.62 km/ 2.87 miles
Time - 40:01
Avg Speed - 6.93 kmph / 4.30 mph
Min/Mile Pace - 13.94
Hours so far this week - 02:10:01
Distance so far this week - 9.44 miles

The Secret Challenge... not so secret now.

2006-09-29T12:31:00.000+01:00

Psssst.... I've got a secret challenge. See that guy in the picture on the right. Back when I tried out running last February he ran a route that I came up with as fast as he could. It was 0.84 of a mile and it took him 7 minutes and 12 seconds (including jumping over a wall!). I make that 8:34 min/mile pace - 7mph.

Well I want to run that route faster than him - that's my short distance challenge. I think my best time was 11 mins 25 secs - 13:35 min/mile pace - 4.41mph. I haven't run the route in ages but I'll try it soon to see what I can do it in now. I shall keep you all updated.

NEWS FLASH! Jenny Puts Comfort Ahead Of Fashion!

2006-09-29T12:06:00.000+01:00

I have an important piece of news to announce. Today I went to the gym in a baggy grey t-shirt. Yes people, this means I actually prioritized my comfort and running performance over my appearance to other fellow gym users. This is a momentous occasion, perhaps inspired by Vic's shirtless run and it is another milestone along the path to me becoming a serious runner! Hooray for comfort over style! Hooray for not caring about what other people think! Hooray for running skirts! Erm... yes about that last one... I still want a running skirt... it's not about fashion... honest.

p.s. for the record I do not actually own any baggy grey t-shirts I had to borrow one... but I will go out and buy one - haha! that's one in the eye for the fashion industry.

Progress Report! Day 26 of 70 WOW!!

2006-09-29T11:48:00.000+01:00

YAHOOOOOOO! I'M KICKING ASS Y'ALL!

By the way, the dark dot on the right hand side of the chart is my target for my final week's running - 4km/2.49 miles in 30 minutes. It's looking like I'm going to manage it.

Week 4, Day 5 - Cracking Run!

2006-09-29T11:25:00.000+01:00

Another excellent run today. All of a sudden things seem to be getting so much easier. I'd heard about how the first few weeks are the hardest and you think it will never get easier and then all of a sudden it's like you've got the wind behind your back - that's ringing true with me at the moment.

I wasn't very enthusiastic setting out. I've got a pretty nasty cold and I wasn't sure whether running is the right thing to do when you're sick. I thought what the hell though. After the run the other day I was keen to get out and see if I'd kept the extra lung! I chose a treadmill at the back of the gym overlooking the racecourse. It's wet and miserable here today but that didn't spoil the view. There's something nice about being able to enjoy the view of a cold, damp day from a warm and dry spot in the gym!

My warm up went quickly. I was listening to some Aussie aerobics on the sports channel even though I couldn't see any TVs. They were doing circuit training and the presenter was getting quite out of breath. She took them through a stretching session where they were taking an imaginary walk through their neighbourhood, and then real life interrupted as the fire-alarm in the studio went off!

Set off running at 8 kmph but quickly upped it 8.5 and then 9. It just felt really easy. My breathing felt comfortable in a way that it just hasn't at these speeds before. For the first 45 seconds of running my hips and my knees in particular were just agony. I was doing my now familiar attempt to run without actually using my legs to try to lessen the pain! As usual it passed though.

I think one important lesson I've learned recently is to just try to relax into the running. Part of it is mental - thinking about this being the speed you're going to continue at for the rest of the run instead of thinking "oh god this is going to be hard" and "how many more minutes do I have to do this for?". The other part is physical - trying to relax my posture a bit more and almost slowing down my movement. Starting out I was far more tense and sharp in my movements and this seems to make the effort harder.

In my second and third running segments I did pretty much the same except that in the final segment I pushed my speed all the way up to 10 for about five of the seven minutes. It was pretty good but my lungs were just struggling for air in the end and I had to knock the speed back - that and I started to get tingling pains in the top right hand part of my chest and arm which made me thing I was about to have a heart attack! Lol! Is that the right side or the left side I should be worried about? Because of my enthusiasm to run at 10 the last minute was agony even at 8.5!

It was great - another PB! I should say that I've jacked in the cool-downs for the last couple of weeks. I should amend my programme to reflect this. I do a minute, 2 max rather than 5. I'm always careful to stretch though.

Stats -
Distance - 3.68km/2.29 miles NEW PERSONAL BEST!
Avg Speed - 7.36kmph/4.57 mph
Min/Mile Pace - 13.12
Distance so far this week - 6.57 miles
Hours so far this week - 2.00

Week 4, Day 4 - Sick Note

2006-09-29T11:24:00.000+01:00

Didn't run :-( Sick, depressed, busy, tired. It would have done me good to go for a run!

Week 4, Day 3 - Involuntary Rest Day!

2006-09-27T16:24:00.000+01:00

Cor blimey! Well the big bit of non-running related news is that my job interview went really well. Hooray! What a relief. I hate job interviews. It was probably the nicest one I've ever had really - just like a nice sit down with a cup of tea and a chat. Quite surprising given it's for such a major job! Perhaps the bigger the job the easier the interviews get. Fingers crossed the job might be mine. They didn't really give me much of a grilling - in fact I think they talked more than I did which was odd. I was feeling pretty good going in because on the way to the offices I actually got stopped in the street by a lady who asked me where I got my lovely shirt from! I was trying hard to look like a big shot corporate lawyer-type and I think I looked pretty mean. I'm reminded of the Simpson's episode with the channel 6 news lady who had her tear ducts removed - I'm aiming for that kind of hardcore "I mean business" look. Sadly, I didn't mention my blog. I was going to but I just didn't think they were ready for it yet.

No running today :-( I was very keen to head out after yesterday's great run but I've just run out of time. I'll post another progress chart tomorrow - I've already had a sneek preview and it's looking good :-)

Week 4, Day 2 - I RAN AFTER ALL!

2006-09-26T15:58:00.000+01:00

Well, just after I posted my last post about not running today I decided to go after all and boy am I glad I did because it was AMAZING! I destroyed all previous records and ran 3.55 km - 2.21 miles - which is a 13.6 min/mile pace! YAHOO!! I just don't know what was different. I'm not sure whether it was because I was carrying less weight because I tweezed my eyebrows this morning or whether it was because I needed to pee but I just flew! I felt like I had an extra lung all of a sudden. Instead of looking at the treadmill time clock thinking "oh isn't the 7 minutes up yet", I looked down at the speed and thought "have I got this set up right, I could run faster", so I did run faster! I ran my intervals at 8 / 8.5 / 9 kmph and it just felt so manageable. Really after yesterday I was feeling kind of glum thinking it was never really going to get any easier but today has just given me hope again. I'm sure I can do this now, I CAN BE A RUNNER!

Stats:
Distance - 2.21 miles/3.55 km
Avg Speed - 4.41 mph/ 7.1 kmph
Min/Mile Pace - 13.60
Peak Heart Rate - 177
Miles so far this week - 4.28
Hours so far this week - 1.00

Music Credits:
This is my 'determined to kick ass at my interview' mix!

Pink - Most Girls
Blu Cantrell - Hit 'em Up Style
Destiny's Child - Independent Woman
Kelly Clarkson - Since You've Been Gone
Kelly Clarkson - Walk Away
Pink - Stupid Girls
JLO - Jenny From The Block
Pink - U + UR Hand
Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out

Week 4, Day 2 - No Run Day

2006-09-26T14:10:00.000+01:00

Much to my regret I'm not running today :-( I was going to head out this morning but I'm too nervous about THE BIGGEST INTERVIEW OF MY ENTIRE LIFE which is tomorrow... have I mentionned that already?! I thought it best to stay home and revise my answers. So fingers crossed for the big day tomorrow. I'll definitely be running after the event! I'm going to try to find an opportunity to mention my blog to them, lol! "Yes, I've always wanted to practice banking law... oh, did I mention I actually have my own blog now?" I'll definitely get the job once they check out my blog.

Week 4, Day 1 - Isn't This Meant To Get Easier?

2006-09-25T10:06:00.000+01:00

Really, please tell me it gets easier than this! Today was a bit hard. As it's the start of week 4 I moved onto the run 7 walk 3 pattern, and as I wasn't very enthusiastic this morning I knocked the speed back down to 7.5 kmph, but dammit those 7 minute runs seemed hard. The end result? 2.08 miles. That's less than the last few times I've been running, all of which seemed easier. Grrr. I think part of it is mental - 7 minutes seems like such a long time when you're just pressing the button to increase the speed. Also, because of my delicate early morning mental state I was watching more golf (didn't I tell you we were gonna thrash you Vic!) and the breakfast news instead of listening to music which probably isn't the best motivation. Hopefully a better run tomorrow.

Lesson learnt from running - I can see the point of sweat bands now! Here was me thinking they were just about fashion...

Stats:
Total Distance - 2.08 miles
Avg Speed - 4.15 mph
Min/Mile Pace - 14.46
Hours so far this week - 0.30
Miles so far this week - 2.08

Week 3, Day 7 - Another Rest Day

2006-09-24T16:05:00.000+01:00

Dammit, another rest day today. I've been busy painting my kitchen today, but the break will be good for my knee too - it hurts less today. This means I only ran on 4 days this week... report card: must do better.

Total Miles This Week - 8.21
Total Hours This Week - 2.00

Week 3, Day 6 - Rest Day :-(

2006-09-23T18:33:00.000+01:00

I'm taking another rest day today. I'm not very happy about it really but I've got quite bad knee and hip pain this morning so I'm going to give it a rest. It's wierd because it's just my left leg really, although both of my knees were bad last night. The worst pain is when I first start running on the treadmill - the agony of it makes me run with a pretty wierd posture like I'm trying to run without using my legs too much!

I read a post on the Runner's World forum about joint pain in beginners and I remember one person commented "too far, too fast, too soon" as being the cause. Well I am certain that "too fast" couldn't be applied to anything I'm doing on the treadmill and 2 miles ain't exactly a marathon. "Too soon"? I don't think so - I've been hanging out at the gym for a few months before starting this programme - mostly propping up the water cooler but it all counts right ;-) I figure maybe my minimalist approach to rest days could be part of the problem, and I also only have one pair of running shoes which I use every day. I dunno. I'm sure it will be gone tomorrow and I'll be back out there.

Runner's Guide To Stretching

2006-09-22T14:22:00.000+01:00

Being un-employed I currently have a lot of time on my hands so I'm going to write a runner's guide to stretching! Hooray! Technically I should be using this precious time to prepare for the most important interview of my life which is happening on Wednesday but I'm trying to just be chilled out about it so this is my preparation... yeah just keep telling yourself that Jenny!

God knows that with my limited running experience I am no expert so I have consulted the real experts at the ExRx.net and the Serpentine Running Club to figure this stuff out. See links in the sidebar somewhere. I've also robbed photos from all over the internet because it's raining today but I'll take the real ones this weekend.

Muscle Diagram -
So you know which muscles you should be feeling.
Jesus, I highly recommend not searching on google images for such pictures - they've got dead bodies on there.

Diagram coming soon!

The Stretches!
So here they are - the key stretches to keep yo' legs limbered up and free from aches and injuries. Try and hold each one for 30 seconds post-run y'all and if you can be bothered (I know I can't) 15 seconds pre-run. Hold each one as far as you can without pain and none of that bouncy stretching like you're in Fame people - this is the 21st Century.

Quads
I don't feel this one so much so I'd like to find a more advanced one if anyone has any tips - I think I've got very flexible quads.

Calves
I know this is meant to be about stretching but my God this man is hot! Oh my! To see more pictures of this stud check out exrx.net, drool....

Hamstring
Here he is again! Ahhh the dreaded hamstring. Mine were tight even before I started running and I hear that running makes them even tighter. This is the best stretch I've found for them.

Lower Calf
I used to find this one a bit tricky until I figured out two things. Firstly, concentrate on getting that back knee down to intensify the stretch. Secondly, you can put most of your weight on your front leg to make it less tiring on your back quad.

And now the ones that I don't do but I'm thinking of trying due to my recent hip pain...

Groin
Even just looking at this feels good.

Hip Flexor
Oh yeah, right there.

Illiotibial Band
I can't ever get this one to feel right - if anyone's got any tips then drop them in the comments.

Progress Report! Day 19 of 70

2006-09-22T10:35:00.000+01:00

I'm hoping that the above jpg is readable, but if not here's the essentials! This chart shows the kms covered in my 30 minute sessions. It shows all of my runs on there since I started my programme 19 days ago and the important thing is that there's an upward trend - hooray! I should add that the end of the chart is the end of my 10 week programme so I'm hoping to be hitting around 4 kms. Hmmm... I should adjust the scale. That doesn't seem right though - looking at the chart it looks like I'd be able to run further than that but if I work it out in my head - run 30 mins at 8 km/h - then it's right. Not sure.

Week 3, Day 5

2006-09-22T10:02:00.000+01:00

Phew that was hard today. So after my half-hearted rest day yesterday (spent the whole day wanting to go for a run!) I headed out pretty eagerly this morning. Once at the gym then things kind of conspired against me to make my run a bad one. First off someone was on my favourite treadmill :-( I picked a different one and started my warm-up but then noticed the Ryder Cup was on so I changed to my second treadmill 5 minutes into my warm-up so as to get a better view. However, I started to feel really hot and I figured out it was because I had a light hanging right above me, so 5 minutes into my run I switched to my third and final treadmill. This totally confused me on my run/walk times but I managed to get it right in the end.

Then my damn t-shirt kept riding up. God that drives me nuts! I'm 5 foot 9" tall and sometimes it seems impossible to get a t-shirt that's actually long enough for my body. My latest t-shirt just seems to like to jump up and sit on my hips like it's saying "hey everyone, look at this girl's belly!". I spent all my running segments regularly pulling the damn thing back down.

Finally, all of these distractions meant I didn't concentrate on my running form and breathing enough. It seems like if I don't concentrate on it, I don't take deep enough breaths and I end up finding myself out of breath quicker. My form wasn't too bad I think but my hips were hurting like hell at the start. I've only had this since about the weekend I think. It's like when I start running it just feels like I'm getting metal rods beaten against my hip bones every time my feet hit the treadmill. They've actually been aching whilst I'm not running too. Oh and my ankles were hurting a few days ago too... and did I mention that my knees feel weaker! I'm guessing this is all just my joints getting used to the pounding that running will give them. I'm figuring it will get better.

Good thing is that my stats are up again though. Despite all my problems I pushed hard on my running segments - up to 8 km/h throughout now.

Stats:
Distance - 2.10 miles
Avg Speed - 4.20 mph
Min/Mile Pace - 14.28
Distance so far this week - 8.21 miles
Hours so far this week - 2.00

Plodders: Getcha Self a Cup of Perspective Soup

2006-09-21T15:44:00.000+01:00

I just read this great post over on the Run4YourLife blog. Any plodders out there who feel down about their speed would be well advised to head over there and read the post - wise words.

Am I going to be a treadmill bore?

2006-09-21T14:27:00.000+01:00

I'm still reading other running blogs... god the internet is like some evil time-sucking vampire. There's so much else I should be doing right now. Anyway, after looking at all of these blogs I was thinking about treadmills. I do all my running on a treadmill at the gym. All of it. It occurred to me that perhaps this would make my blog boring. I mean I've been reading other peoples' blogs and they describe the 20 mile runs they go on in parks and along trails and stuff - what am I going to say? At mile 1.25 another brown-haired guy walked past my treadmill again. How's that going to be interesting?

I want to run outside but this is England and it's September and in about two weeks it will be so cold and damp and dark that I won't even want to walk from my house to the car to go to the gym let alone to stay outside and go running. Maybe you think I'm too soft, I don't really care. If this was April then I might start running outside, but if I do it now I might end up quitting because it's so horrible out there. And not that many people run outside here. This isn't California... or London even! People are going to stare at me. No, I'm going to stay running on the treadmill until I'm hardcore enough to say that none of that matters. One day I will be getting rained on while running 20 miles on my own in the dark while the whole town watches on and I can't wait.

So am I going to be a treadmill bore? Nah. Even life on the treadmill can be interesting...

Where Are All The Other Shockingly Unfit Runners?

2006-09-21T10:22:00.000+01:00

I feel like I've been trawling the blogging world for hours. I've bookmarked 41 other running blogs but I have yet to find any runners as unfit as me. This just adds weight to my theory that I must be the most unfit, non-obese 26 year old on the planet. If anyone out there is also running 15 minute miles then please let me know you're there. You will have the dubious honour of a link in my sidebar under the heading "Red-Faced Runners", or "Puffed-Out Plodders" or some other mildly offensive phrase.

Hot Running Stud of the Week!

2006-09-21T09:37:00.000+01:00

Drool...

Week 3, Day 4 - Rest Day... I Think

2006-09-21T09:35:00.000+01:00

I think today is going to be a rest day because I've overslept and I have a busy day... curses. I might still go later though.

How Cute Is This!

2006-09-20T12:31:00.000+01:00

Holy shizz people! How cute is this? Why didn't anyone tell me you can get running skirts? Here's me running around looking like an idiot when I could have been looking this cute. Check out the running skirts website to place your orders now!

Block-Rockin' Treadmill Beats

2006-09-20T11:54:00.000+01:00

My favourite aggressive stuff, in no particular order:

Chemical Brothers - Block Rockin Beats
Arctic Monkeys - The View From The Afternoon
Prodigy - Diesel Power
Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
Dead Prez - Bigger Than Hip Hop
Rage Against The Machine - Know Your Enemy
Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc
50 Cent - If I Can't
Chemical Brothers - Hey Boy Hey Girl
50 Cent - In Da Club
Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up
Busta Rhymes - Turn It Up
Rage Against the Machine - Wake Up
Deftones - My Own Summer (Shove It)

GGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR!! Yeah it makes me angry. That's me popping some caps by the way - don't be fooled by my pretty beige cardigan, I'm a badass mo'fo'.

Def Leppard

2006-09-20T11:35:00.000+01:00

I confess, I listen to my MP3 player really loud at the gym. I can't help it, I've tried to quit but listening to it quietly just ain't the same. I know it's going to make me deaf but sometimes you've just got to not give a shizz right? I mean, I do pretty much everything necessary to ensure a long healthy life, but sometimes you've got to wonder about whether that life is going to be worth living if you do all the stuff you're meant to do to get it. And besides, who's to say that my ears won't get blown off in some tragic accident in a few years - then who'll be laughing? When I sit there deaf as a post I'm going to wish that I've listened to the music really loud while I could. And anyway, I'm sure in the future they'll have the sheeet necessary to fix your ears, right? Come with me now people, say "We want it looouuud!", ah what's that? I can't hear y'all! ... no really I can't hear y'all.... oh crap.

Week 3, Day 3

2006-09-20T10:42:00.000+01:00

I pushed myself a bit harder than recently today but it was good. On my running segments I just felt like I was going quite slowly so I decided to increase the speed a bit from 7.5 kph to 8 and 8.5 kph. It was good - I like going a bit faster because it makes you feel a bit fitter! It feels so great at the moment for all of this to start feeling easier. I just never thought that I would get any fitter at all but now even with the increased time in the running segments it just feels easier. I thought that my fitness could never improve but I was WRONG people! I still feel pissed that I've seemingly got to work harder than everyone else just to have average fitness though - what's up with that?

Stats:
Distance - 2.09 miles
Avg Speed - 4.18 mph
Min/Mile Pace - 14.37
Miles so far this week - 6.11
Hours so far this week - 1.30

Me, myself and I

2006-09-19T16:26:00.000+01:00

Ok, this is just a post to get a picture of me into my profile. I look pouty.

Week 3, Day 2 - Effing Treadmills

2006-09-19T16:15:00.000+01:00

Alright, I had a bad workout today. No that's not true, it was alright but I had a bad moment because I pulled the emergency stop button out by accident and lost where I was dammit. Other than that it was alright. I ran next to this big guy who kicked my ass as usual... not that I usually run with him, just that everyone kicks my ass. I was planning on playing netball again tonight so I didn't think I'd go for a run but then I got into reading the Runner's World forum and I just had to go run. I never would have believed 2 weeks ago that I would get into running this much. Even if I hated every second of the run itself I just love how it makes me feel - it really clears your mind, de-stresses you, makes you feel happy, makes you feel healthy, makes you eat better, it just makes everything better - truly is a panacea.

Stats:
Distance - 2.01 miles
Avg Speed - 4.03 mph
Min/Mile Pace - 14.90
Miles so far this week - 4.02
Hours so far this week - 1.00

Week 3, Day 1

2006-09-19T16:08:00.000+01:00

Well I changed to run 5, walk 2.5 today. It was definitely harder than yesterday but it was manageable - not as bad as I feared. About half-way through my run this girl got onto the treadmill next to me and she was running so fast, I want to be like that one day. It's kind of sad when 95% of people who run on the treadmill next to you can whoop yo' ass. And that's young or old people too... and fat and thin people too. Sometimes it just breaks my heart - why am I so unfit? I'm not obese, I'm sure I don't sit on my ass anymore than anyone else does, I played sports in school, I've had about 25 gym memberships since leaving school... I don't get it. I sometimes wonder whether I have some kind of heart defect or asthma or something that would explain it. I've got such a fast heart rate when I run - I've had it well over 200 before (a few years ago). That just can't be normal.

Stats:
Distance - 2.01 miles
Avg Speed - 4.03 mph
Min/Mile Pace - 14.90
Miles so far this week - 2.01
Hours so far this week - 0.30