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Great Eastern Half Marathon training: Week two
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Great Eastern Half Marathon training: Week two

ATTENDING the IAAF World Championships in London was an amazing experience, but it caused havoc with my own training. For the ten days of the championship I did very little running. I was too busy enjoying chips, ice cream, popcorn and minstrels whilst cheering on the GB team.

I decided that a home championships was a once in a lifetime opportunity and it really didn’t matter if I missed training and ate a few treats. This is, of course, after already taking weeks off training to enjoy our wedding and honeymoon. ‘We might as well keep in holiday mode,’ I told Chris.  ‘Just keep going and pick up the pieces when we get back.’

Chris didn’t take much persuading.

The main thing is that I did complete some training, enough to burn off the extra calories (well some of them anyway).

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You can read week one’s training here.

Week two (31st July to 6th August)

Monday. I was ready to run, but had Continue reading →

Winning tickets to the world athletics championships
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Winning tickets to the world athletics championships

GIVING up chocolate to fit into my wedding dress was quite possibly one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Not only did I manage to fit into the dress, but I also won tickets to the world athletics championships.

This happened because I replaced my usual daily chocolate fix with yoghurt, and not just any old yoghurt but a Muller yoghurt, and Muller had a competition to win tickets to the championships.

Every time I had a yoghurt, I entered the competition. Never in a million years did I think I would win, but you had to be in it to win it. The more I entered, the more I really wanted to be part of the championships, so I decided to buy tickets as a surprise for Chris.

‘That’s fantastic,’ Chris said when I presented him with the tickets. ‘Watch us win tickets with Muller now. We bought enough yoghurt.’

At the time, I’d laughed, thinking it would be impossible. The thought of winning had never entered my mind.

Our wedding came and went, our honeymoon came and went. A few days after we returned home Continue reading →

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Training resumes – Great Eastern Half Marathon, week one

GETTING back into training after a wonderful honeymoon and weeks of wedding planning has been very difficult. I started with a few easy runs, which didn’t feel easy at all, then it was time to step things up.

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Training for the Great Eastern half marathon began last Monday. It was awful, utterly dreadful in fact. I did seven miles with Chris on the trans pennine trail. The 8.50 minute mile pace was hard work, and I huffed and puffed, but felt great afterwards.

On Tuesday the plan was a four mile tempo with friends, followed by a one mile faster. I set off gently up the hill on our usual route, but despite going much slower than I usually do, my body felt heavy. Half way up the hill, I wanted to stop and Continue reading →

I do I do I do
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I do I do I do

IT’S been absolutely ages since my last blog post but I have a very good excuse. We got married, went on honeymoon and have been enjoying married life!

After eleven years together, Chris and I finally tied the knot on June 24th. We had an amazing day and enjoyed every moment. We wanted a small wedding with a party atmosphere, and that’s exactly what we got.

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We partied for thirteen hours. The dancing started Continue reading →

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When all you need is a slice of cake

CAKE is my answer to everything. Whether I’ve had a good day or a bad day, eating cake is what I do and what I love. But when I have a wedding dress to squeeze into in twelve days, eating cake is really not a good idea.

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Yesterday I was faced with a dilemma. I passed the diploma part of my master’s degree in writing, so needed to celebrate. Cake was calling. It was calling in a big way because I did surprisingly well. I was so proud of myself that I wanted to run down the road to the local cake shop and buy a great big double chocolate cake.

But I couldn’t.

Cake is off-limits.

I needed to think of another way to celebrate, a way that didn’t involve cake. Various options were suggested. A meal out? Would I be able to go to a restaurant and order salad? No. I wouldn’t.

The cinema? Would I be able to go to the pictures and not have minstrels to start before tucking into a large sweet popcorn? No. Not possible.

All day I tried to think of something that didn’t involve food. I was struggling, but then I had a lightbulb moment. Continue reading →

A scone in the sunshine at Nostell Parkrun
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A scone in the sunshine at Nostell Parkrun

Last Saturday, my first day of freedom after finishing my degree, we decided to take part in our local parkrun at Nostell Priory, a beautiful 18th century house and parklands.

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I was looking forward to it, but there was one problem. In the afternoon we had to brave Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield to get some essential items for our wedding and honeymoon. I’m not a shopper. I was only going because they were essential items.

There was no way I would have the strength to manage a parkrun and shopping. So I decided that rather than racing the parkrun flat-out like I usually do, and feel exhausted for the rest of the day, I would take it easy and enjoy the run in lovely sunshine. This would mean I had enough energy to survive Meadowhell (yes it really is my idea of hell).

I don’t do parkrun very often. Saturday was my 28th. I ran at a steady tempo pace, which I would describe as comfortably hard. I finished second lady, behind my friend Fiona, in 21:51. It was a lovely morning for a parkrun. Afterwards we headed to the café, sitting outside in the courtyard, where I happily munched a scone smothered in jam and butter. I’ve been watching my weight recently on account of having to fit into a wedding dress so treats have gone from two or three times daily, to being very rare.

We had such a lovely morning. ‘We should do this more often,’ I said to Chris and Fiona. I enjoyed the run and enjoyed the company. And, I have to say, I particularly enjoyed the scone!

 

 

 

Back into training and blogging
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Back into training and blogging

NORMAL blogging service can now resume, because yesterday I handed in the final assignment for my English literature degree.

There was an awful moment late yesterday morning when I uploaded the essay, pressed send and then got a note to say it had been rejected.

‘Do NOT do this to me!’ I screamed at the computer. ‘Please.’

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In all my six years of studying for this degree, I have never had a problem uploading assignments. I needed to get the assignment in by midday and the clock was ticking. Frantically, I tried again.

When I got the same message, I almost broke down. I was going to fail my degree because of an IT disaster.

I had to stay calm. Continue reading →