Saturday

Short

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

Sunday

Saturday

Monday? No, Tuesday!

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?

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!

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

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.