Running for fun

I did it. I went out. I didn't want to. I had a stressy day and a lonnnnnger than usual drive home from work (never take a new route thinking it would be quicker. Stick to the plan!) and when I got home I was 99.1% tempted to put my jamas on and 0.9% tempted to go for a run. But I knew that the one thing I needed to do to get rid of my negative thoughts and feelings was to get out on the pavement. 

6.0km later, I finished strong and happy. I was supposed to stop at 5.5k but I felt so good that I thought another 0.5km wouldn't do any harm. It was a slow run, no way near my fastest but I needed to make the decision whether to concentrate on pace or distance, and my shins were saying long and slow. I muted my Runkeeper and just ran based on feeling. 

I said before how both the trail and running up to the next village are now off limits because neither have street lighting and DC (and me) is not comfortable with me running in places where I'm not 100% safe. So I had a mental challenge too knowing that I would be running laps around the village, which is not the most interesting running route and definitely proved hard when I started lap 2. But as soon as I was up our main village hill for the second time, the positivity returned knowing that it was all downhill and flat until the end. 

I love running in the chilly weather. Running in the heat makes me feel really overwhelmed, so a dry Autumn night is perfect for me and tonight's run reminded me exactly why I got into running in the first place. 

Advantages of running in the wind:

1. It cools you down

Disadvantages of running in the wind:

1. Must remember to Vaseline the lips thoroughly before I leave the house

2. The smell of the chippy drafts all the way up the village and it is torture running through it

So tonight was a fun run and I came home feeling on top of the world. This mix of running and swimming is really helping. I had a mega strong swim yesterday and came away feeling great. I know that I'm never going to be the best or fastest runner but I'm going to try my hardest to get fitter and enjoy it at the same time. 

Tuesday: 30 lengths swim

Wednesday: 6.0km / 39:09 / 6:31min per km av pace

DC got the call today to say Ofsted are in tomorrow so he didn't get home from school until 8pm, where of course his favourite meal was waiting for him. 

It's my turn for bake off tomorrow night so I'm going to get some recipes out and see what I can come up with to feed the girls tomorrow. 

I also found this year's Christmas crackers that I am going to buy for my annual Christmas bake off night, although it might be too early to tell you all that ;)

Dans x

Bridget: a mixed review and a well overdue weekend

I finished the new Bridget Jones book 'Mad About the Boy' and even though it was a good, easy read I wasn't 'Mad About the Plot' and didn't come away from it thinking 'I'm Mad About the Book'. I quickly slipped back into Fielding's informal writing style for this line of books and I liked all of the reality drops i.e. Starbucks tax avoidance (can't remember any more which shows I was not really into this book) that makes Bridget easily relatable to the every day woman. I think the main problem I found was that it was hard for me to adapt to an older Bridget, and she never really had any goals throughout the book other than having sex with her toy boy. Gone was the passion for her job (she was texting her toy boy throughout every single meeting) and even though she was widowed and mentioned a few times of her guilt for leaving her children to her nanny, I didn't find that her children were a main central point of her life either. 

The name 'Roxster' grated on me. It was so stereotypically 'toy boy' I just didn't like it. I also didn't take at all to Mr Wallaker. I guess I'm hung up on the way there was just something so likeable and lovely and lush about Mr Darcy and the whole whirlwind love story that there was just nothing to compare to it from this book. Yes I wanted Bridget to be happy but all of a sudden 10 pages from the end she was in love with Mr Wallaker and that was it, happy ever after. I didn't like seeing Bridget settle. The man I fell completely in love with was Daniel but that's a no brainer as he is just Daniel. 

I didn't like the unbelievable event near the end, it turned me off in the same way the second film did with the whole prison thing. It just dragged out and didn't seem real enough to me. 

I really, really wanted to like this book. 

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My weekend in Manchester was amazing. And chilled. It felt so good to catch up with my friend JT. We're not big for texting in between meetings but it's not a bad thing as we have a million things to talk about when we see each other. 

The first thing we did when he met me at the station was go for lunch. JT had already picked out where we were going to go, and it was best. food. ever. We went to Oklahoma, a half-shop half-vegetarian cafe and both ordered the chick pea curry with sweet potato and mango chutney, along with Moroccan mint tea. 

I was tempted to ask for the recipe but I don't think they would have given it to me. I definitely need to learn to cook this. 

We walked around the shops for a while and talked about his latest hill race and how my running was going. JT, my best friend of 18 years, never ever thought he would have an afternoon's worth of conversation with me about running. He was surprised when I started out last February and even more surprised that I'm still at it. His favourite sport related hobby is climbing (he lives for it) but he did swimming a lot growing up and he's an all round good athlete. He ran 15 miles last week just because he felt like it, in 1hr 47. Amazing. 

The highlight of my afternoon other than this hot spiced apple drink and sharing carrot cake was when JT promised to pace me when I grow some balls and run my first half marathon. I'm really looking forward to this, so watch this space. 

We went out for Thai food with 2 out of 5 of his housemates, who are all completely lovely and took the time to chill out with us all weekend. They all have the same interests (climbing) and even though they're all full time working and not students any more they still get on great and have their own bachelor pad thing going on (read: messiest house I've ever seen (there was absolutely no way I was going to shower in either one of their bathrooms)). We bought some beers from a supermarket and went back to relax and watch the XFactor. We had planned to go out for a drink but the weather was terrible and we were happy enough staying in watching films. 

Sunday we all went to a bar / cafe down the road for some pulled pork ciabattas before going to Aldi to stock up on ingredients for baking. 

JT is not the biggest lover of photographs, not sure if you get that impression. 

We all demolished our chocolate brownies ASAP while they were still warm and it got to this point before I remembered to take a photo. They were pretty good brownies seems as we were lacking every single utensil you can imagine you might need to make any form of cake. 

An hour before I was due to train it back, we cracked open the monopoly. 

You wouldn't believe from this pic that it was the guys' idea to play this game. 

I have never even seen an electronic version of this game before let alone played it but it was really fun. Instead of paper money you all get a debit card that you pop in the electronic meter and it deducts and adds all the money you need.

I didn't get very far in the short time we had but I'm planning in sourcing this game for our family in time for Christmas. 

The last thing I did before I left was steal this from JT's bookshelf:

He recommended it so I can't wait to start reading. 

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Although I was inspired by all of our running talk over the weekend, I skipped my run today in favour of making my favourite chilli. I feel a bit demotivated by the darkness and rain and even though I was running last winter, my distance was low and one lap of my village was enough to complete my training plans. Now that both the trail and next village are out of bounds due to the dark, I would have to run over two laps of the village and this is just not inspiring me at the moment. But I will get out, I am just not sure when. 

Dans x

Ps sorry for whatever is going on with my font, hopefully get that sorted soon. 

Hello weekend

I had a job interview yesterday. I have absolutely no idea how it went. I don't think I can ever judge these things very well, because I get in there and as soon as the first question is asked I seem to forget everything I've prepared and just start spouting a load of verbal d. It was an internal interview so I knew the person who was interviewing me but I'm not sure whether that made it better or worse. 

There will be another stage yet, the next one with the main person you will be PAing for if you get the job, and I think at the end if the day it all comes down to chemistry. If there's no chance of developing a great working relationship together then you won't get the job. As my PA colleague said when I caught up with her after the interview yesterday: "It's like a marriage without the sex".

I think they're keen to get someone in quite quickly so I might hear back at short notice for the second stage early next week. Fingers crossed. 

So this had been on my mind since Wednesday and along with my opticians appointment my mind has been pretty occupied (no Mrs Optician I am not wearing contact lenses right now *cough*) and I haven't had much chance to think about my trip to Manchester this weekend, which has come at PERFECT timing after a busy week. My oldest and dearest friend moved to Manchester to study at Met over 6 years ago and never came back home to stay. I guesstimate we have been friends for approx 18 years. 

As these photos were taken over a year apart, that green v neck sweater must have been a favourite of his. 

He always comes home to visit his family and me but a trip for me was well overdue so am currently on train (searching for wifi) on my 3 hour train journey with nothing to think about other than writing blog posts, reading the news and reading Bridget Jones (and fretting about my interview feedback but determined not to think about it). Bliss. 

I haven't been for a run for a week now. I was supposed to go yesterday but I had a headache from the mega early start and from concentrating on the motorway in the pitch black and horrendous rain. I haven't been doing nothing though:

Sunday: 30 min swim

Monday: 30 min swim

Tuesday: rest

Wednesday: 30 min swim

Thursday: 30 min swim

Friday: rest

Saturday: rest

Not a bad week but aching to get out for a run so shall make it happen on Monday. 

Dans x

"Well you'll just have to stop exercising"

I think you can tell by the title that today has not been an excellent day. I don't think any of us would be too happy if we were told this by anyone, and even more incensed to be told it by an OPTICIAN. 

Yes, me and Boots Opticians are not the best of friends right now. 

Granted, it's my fault that I haven't bought a pair of glasses for 7 years. And that for the past three years since I haven't been able to see properly through my glasses due to prescription and scratches, I have been heavily relying on my contact lenses. I perhaps shouldn't have told her that I wear them for 15 hours a day. But it is NOT my fault that I have rubbish eyes (-6.5), I blame this on my parents. 

Basically I went to the opticians to buy new glasses so that I could start wearing them daily as I knew my eyes needed a rest. The optician reiterated this x10000 times. By going to Boots, you can get half price glasses by signing up to their consult lense scheme, which is a great way to save £159 on your specs. 

10 minutes into my consultation I was told that I have a growth of white cells on my pupils caused by not enough oxygen getting to my eyes, and that if I didn't stop using contact lenses IMMEDIATELY then my eyes would get worse and they would refer me to the hospital fo treatment. I started to panic by this point. The optician said I am not allowed to use contact lenses any more and need to wear my glasses until a follow up appointment on 2 Nov. She didn't really listen to the fact that I can't see through my glasses any more. 

I told her that I do need some contact lenses for my running and swimming. This is where she chirped up:

"Well you will just have to stop exercising for a while"

Hmm, okay. 

So I am banned from wearing contact lenses (I am wearing some right now because the chance of me driving in the rain and dark in specs I can't see through = 0%) until my next appointment and if my eyes haven't improved then I will be banned from joining the contact lense scheme and therefore will have to pay full price for my glasses. I can assure you they had better give me some. 

The GOOD news is that I chose my new Rayban glasses and I love them. I can't wait to get them and wear them all of the time. But I may get to my next appointment have to pay the other £159 for them and promise to never wear contacts ever ever again (with my fingers crossed behind my back as I have a stash of fortnightlys at home).

Disclaimer: I do take the health of my eyes very seriously, I've just had a bad day. 

Dans x

Swim + half term = mardy Monday

DC and I were in the pool for 9am Sunday and the best part was when we had a race and I won;) the pool was lovely and quiet so the swim went really well. The rest of Sunday was filled with cleaning the house, taking my new boots back to the shop :( and demolishing DC's mum's roast dinner. 

This week at work has been much better than last, I kind of feel good about it again. My sis & I skipped the women's night swim last night and instead went straight after work instead, but even though I obviously knew it was half term as my sis and DC are off work, we forgot that half term = nightmare swim. And it was. I only managed 28 lengths before completely giving up because there was absolutely nowhere to swim for all of the kids messing around and splashing. 

Today I had a run planned but after speaking to DC I decided to give my shin a rest and make today my rest day. I'm going to swim today and tomorrow and run on Friday before resting for the weekend because I'm off to Manchester to see my oldest and dearest friend for the weekend. 

I think 2 runs a week is good for the moment as during and since Saturday's run my leg has really been playing up and I don't want to make it any worse to the point of not being able to run altogether. I'm also soooo tired that I knew if I forced myself out there it would make me feel better and not worse. 

In my lunch hour yesterday I started reading the new Bridget Jones book and I absolutely love it. I was unsure at first and kept it on my iPad for over a week before deciding to go for it. I loved the first two books and first film so I wasn't sure how I felt about Bridget being older and Darcy being gone! But it's such an easy read and I'm really enjoying it; it's made me laugh out loud a good few times. 

(Goodreads.com)

Tonight's dinner is the leftover chilli from what DC and I cooked up last night, the same weightwatchers recipe as the one my sis & I cooked last week although I am happy to report there's no sodium overload in this one;) instead I did go a little overboard with the chilli powder but hot is good for us. 

Back to Bridget...

Dans x

Rain, rain, go away

I can't believe that 1 hour after this beautiful photo was taken, it was thundering, lightening and lashing it down like no tomorrow. It was a lovely sunny and warm day all day, my run was mega hot and then as we were standing in the garden afterwards, you could hear the downpour making its way over from the left and suddenly it was like Armageddon. I'm not exaggerating. Everyone was looking out of their windows and the toddler across the road was seriously loving the thunderstorms. 

I was just about to leave the house when it happened so I waited to see if it would cool off. I just ended up going for it. Well that was an eventful drive. Only 10 minutes of torrential downpour = flooded village. I checked with DC what I should do if I got into trouble with the water so I was well equipped and don't worry mum, I checked my breaks every time I went into a river (every 5 mins (yes ok river, I was exaggerating there)). 

I made it over to my friend's house in one piece and we cooked the most amazing curry known to mankind. 

Slightly strange to have it with g-bread but I couldn't say no :) this curry is a one pan, so easy to make, in goes chicken thigh (cutting that up seriously puts me off) then add onions, turmeric, cumin, chilli powder, garlic, ginger, stock, pomegranate juice, dried apricots, raisins, rice, coriander and let it all simmer for 40 minutes = perfect curry. You're supposed to chuck pomegranate seeds over the top but do you know how expensive they are!

We settled down to watch the XFactor which was completely terrible but I don't think we will ever stop watching it, if only for Dermot who I completely love with all of my heart. 

So we didn't make it to Thornton reservoir because we didn't get up until 10:30am but I really needed that lie in. We chilled all morning and braved food shopping before I tackled my run about 3:30pm. IT WAS SO HARD. I don't particularly like running in the heat and it was a bit too warm for me today plus my legs were threatening to completely give up on my by km 3. But I persevered even with another shin flare up and it felt pretty good when I was done. 

1/4 Friday 5.50km / 34:32 / 6:17min per km av pace

2/4 Saturday 5.50km / 33:42 / 6:07min per km av pace

I was running a lot better than I thought I was at the time, so I forgive my legs for dying on me half way through as I was obviously pushing them harder than yesterday. Not a bad time at all!! I was so glad I didn't schedule a run any later else it would had been cancelled with the weather. 

Swimming tomorrow morning if I get up, as I'm holding out for Celeb Juice at 11pm........ Hi Dermy;) to be honest if I could skip 10:00am-7:00pm tomorrow I would, as Sundays bring washing, house cleaning and tidying up. If anyone is listening and could skip me straight to Downton Abbey that would be fantastic. 

Dans x

I wish every run could end with...

My aim of the game today was to have a really positive day. I wish every run could end with picking up your River Island shoe delivery from the post office. 

I would take a photo of my new boots but I can't put them on because I've still not had a shower even though my run was 4 hours ago...

Today was a really good day and just what I needed. A productive day all round with a new job applied for, a new shirt, new shoes, and this:

I have no idea why I have never tried a spiced pumpkin latte before. I made it my mission to have one this year and they finally launched this week. It took about 3 seconds to convert me, I think this will be my drink now until the sun comes back out. I thought I thoroughly deserved an egg sandwich too to contribute to my positive day today. Egg sandwiches always make me happy. 

After work I tackled a 5.5km run. It went really well because I found a new route and had plenty on my mind, which both made the run go more quickly than usual. My shin was playing up a little so I clicked off my runkeeper and decided that I would not concentrate on my pace or time and just run for fun. This is the furthest I have run in a while and even though it wasn't my fastest, I felt it was pretty strong all throughout, made better by some old gentlemen walking their dogs and telling me to keep it up and they would join me if they were 40 years younger. 

1/4 Friday 5.50km / 34:32 / 6:17min per km av pace

I'm looking forward to the rest of the plan and hopefully it won't be too long before I move up to 6.0km, I'm actually feeling very positive at the moment about getting into longer runs, although I'm 100% certain I may feel differently when it starts to rain again ;) good job I still have my gym membership as I think the treadmill will come in handy soon. 

I had a great cool down after my run by walking another 2km around the village to visit my friend and pick up my package. I love walking through the village at night when it's peaceful and the exercise endorphins are still running high. 

Tomorrow morning DC and I are going to drive to a reservoir near to us to have a run there. It will be a great change of scenery and I was told at work today that it's a 1.8 mile loop, so twice round should see me through. Then we can go for breakfast yum. Sunday I am planning to get to the swimming baths for 9am and cross my fingers it's not too busy. Get me having set plans to exercise, that must mean I actually enjoy it after all;)

I think I succeeded in making today as positive as it could be. Food, clothes and exercise... What more do you need?

Dans x

Today on lunch I fell in love

Polka dot top, £38 Topshop

A mixed week

This week has been bad in that I've had a couple of personal things going on, and work has been a bit stressy too. I don't like to mention work too much on my blog but something came up yesterday where  my colleague / friend was really aggressive to me and I feel as though it's definitely knocked my confidence. For the first time in a long time I dreaded going into work, and I don't like to be like that because I love my job and I know that I'm good at it too. I wish I could have run off my stress head but I've not actually had time to run since my last Wednesday one. 

The good thing about this week is that it's been full of amazing food. But not really much exercise, which I need to get back on top of. 

Thursday - 30min swim

Friday - 10 mile charity walk

Sat - none

Sun - none

Mon - none

Tue - 30min swim

Wed - none

Thur - none

So even thought I blame this on DC because we were out for his birthday on Sat, Sun and Mon, I have to admit Weds was completely my fault as I just didn't want to run in the rain. Tomorrow is going to be the start of a good few days of exercise. 

So last Saturday after I had come home from London, visited my grandparents, and had a 3 hour nap to get over the nightwalk, DC's bro and cousin came around with their partners to celebrate his birthday. We were planning to go out but the weather was so atrocious that we stayed in and cooked lots of pizza instead, and us girls had the most amazing in depth serious (see drunk) conversation about everything in life you can possibly imagine. Mostly we were talking about how we feel about ourselves both physically and emotionally, and it's interesting how self conscious someone can feel about themselves when all you can see what you look at them is a beautiful confident woman. We came to the conclusion that we may not be 18 years old anymore but we are definitely in the prime of our lives and if we don't feel good about ourselves now then when will we be???

Here I am in my new Topshop dress although it does happen to make me look a few months pg. 

Sunday we went to an Italian restaurant to celebrate DC and his mum's birthday and I had a yum lasagne (but didn't want to take a pic because I'm still not at that stage yet where I'm past caring about whether people would look at me strangely).

Fast forward a bit of a rubbish week (and a funny sodium-overload on Tuesday), and tonight was my turn to cook in our bake off so I made this tempting looking recipe from the latest Sainsburys magazine. 

It's not a great pic so BTW it is spaghetti with meatballs, mushrooms, lemon and breadcrumbs. I had been looking forward to cooking it all week and it definitely didn't disappoint. 

It was the easiest meal ever to make, the spaghetti, meatballs, onion & mushrooms were all cooked off before it all came together with the zest of 1 and juice of 2 lemons, parsley, and garlic & herb soft cheese. The breadcrumbs were toasted under the grill with some lemon zest and parsley, and even though it was simple it was really tasty and I'd definitely make it again. I've never had chestnut mushrooms before but I am converted. 

I'm really looking forward to having a relaxing weekend. I can't wait to switch off from work, de-stress and get some good exercise in (even in the rain) because I know these 3 things will make me feel a million times better. 

Dans x

My sister the saboteur

My sister was a bit down last week that her weight on weighteatchers was slowly going up instead of down (she can't exercise because of a hernia she's got that is waiting to be operated on) so I had planned to visit her tonight with a shopping bag full of goodies for this healthy chilli recipe:

This month's weightwatchers mag has lots of yum looking recipes in it.

Half way through cooking my sis decided to season the chilli. 

And off came the salt lid.

With 3/4 of the salt tipping into my well planned, amazing tasting turkey and sweet potato chilli. 

This my friends is what you call a ruined meal. 

So we drained the juice from the chilli and ran it under boiling water for ages in the hope that we would wash the majority of the salt away. Luckily sis' cupboard was stocked with chopped tomatoes and a ready made sauce to replace what we lost. 

Here's the saboteur herself trying to save my meal

It actually ended up really yummy.

The funny thing is that I have a bit of a reputation for ruining meals. Once I tried to make a chocolate flan but I actually didn't put any cling film in between the pastry and the baking beans except that time I happened to use rice, which obviously ended up as a raw-rice-mixed-with-pastry-and-chocolate-flan. I also once completely failed a cheese and broccoli flan on bake off night (must be a pastry problem I have) and my sis had to run to the shop to buy eggs for an emergency omelette meal. 

So I kind of hold the crown for crap cook (I have actually made lots of amazing meals throughout my time but these are obviously cast aside for the funny rice flan story). My dear friend did give me a run for my money though when she put non-ovenproof plastic in the oven and nearly burnt down my sister's house. 

So tonight my sister has clearly truly taken my crap cook crown, I just wish I wasn't the only one here to witness it. Sodium overload, anyone????

Dans x

Happy birthday DC!!!

DC is 28 today!!!! Booooo for having to go to work all day and teach kids on your birthday, but I did have this surprise for him this morning...

I'm so glad my sneaky decision to pop around my sister's to say hi and pick up DC's presents worked, as her boyfriend blew up all 50 balloons for me (result). We had a bit of a production line going on with him blowing them up and me tying, and it was done in 5 mins - it would have taken me hours in the dark cold garage by myself!! 

We opened presents after work and here's DC in his new Superdry jacket that I bought him. I also bought him some Hollister joggers (he was over the moon - I wasn't over the moon with the £10 p&p though...) , some CK in2 u aftershave, Clinique men care, and some sweets and choc. I think I did well and he was completely spoilt. 

We went out to a pub in the next village for dinner, DC had a gourmet burger and I had a chili pasta, then I persuaded DC to have dessert because I had already secretly given our server some candles. 

We had chocolate torte with ice cream for DC and cream for me, with lots of fruit on top. 

And then even though we were full, I had bought DC's favourite birthday cake that I buy him every year so this was his final surprise:

We haven't had any yet but I am looking forward to wrestling DC for the caterpillar face. 

PS I think he likes his new coat. Happy birthday DC!!!!

Dans x

Whizz-Kidz Neon Nightwalk

On Friday at 7pm my colleagues and I took part in the Neon a nightwalk for a Whizz-Kidz, our charity partner which provides electric wheelchairs and other mobility equipment for disabled children to help them lead more active lives. 

We were a bit apprehensive because the weather forecast was heavy rain all through the night, and as my colleague was bringing along his 9 and 5 year old children, we were a bit concerned the weather would put a real dampener on the night. 

But it only drizzled at most (this was still a little miserable when matched with gale force winds!) and the night was EXCELLENT. We all really enjoyed ourselves and managed the 10 miles in 5 hours, rounding up at Whizz-Kidz HQ at midnight, with a few toilet and refreshment breaks in between.

If you're gona do it you may as well do it properly ;)

It's so awesome to walk so far around London at night and take in all of the different scenery. We walked past all of the famous landmarks, passed a lot of amused and supportive people, and had a fantastic time raising money for our lovely charity. 

I think the total raised for us on the night is nearing £5,000, so pleased with that. We are soooo close to our £35k total fundraising goal and me being me now wants to push it to £4k... We have two months left and anything is possible!

Dans x

Now don't get mad, but...

For some reason my post yesterday posted under Tuesday's date, no idea how come but if it didn't make sense that's why! 

I forgot the one thing at swim that you should never forget. I had to dry myself with my strappy top (note: not very dry at all) so really must remember to pack the night before next time so that I actually pack a towel. 

Can you believe our swimming baths shut to the public at 6pm on the midweek? I finish work at 5pm so I knew it'd be a push and I was concerned that there would be a cut off time for entry (there is for the gym late at night) so I called them this morning and the lovely lady said 'you're the paying customer, you come in when you like as long as you get out of the pool at 6' so that was great and I was in the pool ready for 30 lengths at 5.30pm.  

I drove straight to my sister's house for Thursday bake off and am now sat on her sofa full of chicken fajitas yum. 

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Now don't get mad, but I kind of had a Christmas Day today. 

I bought this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Really not a great pic but you get the idea. Look at my fab jumper! Primark sold out of Christmas jumpers soooo early last year so I had to grab mine quick this year. DC wants one too for school so I'm going to pop back into Primark tomorrow to see what the men's section has to offer. 

I also had this:

I love a good Christmas sandwich but it was definitely a bit premature but Boots had ran out of a lot of their good stuff (I love egg sandwiches).

I also picked up a Boots Christmas catalogue and it has soooo many goodies in for this year. 

I promise not to mention the C word again until December 1st. 

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One of the companies in our group held a charity day and there were lots of cakes plus homemade chicken curry and naan bread for sale today. But the best part was this:

Here is one of my colleagues standing in the freezing cold washing my car (one of 20 bookings today) for £5 towards their charity partner Mind. More than worth it I would say! Trevor was collected after 10 minutes looking completely sparkling clean. Thanks guys!

When I get home I need to pack for the nightwalk tomorrow. Our train is 3.30pm and I can't wait to go back to LDN. I also can't wait to show you my outfit!!

Dans x

My new love affair

I'm loving my workouts so much these past couple of weeks that I'm surprising myself. It must be a combination of good days at work, getting home earlier, and swimming that have all made me really look forward to my run. 

I'm not a very motivated person and I'll be the first to admit it. I'm either all or nothing - absolutely crazy about something or really not bothered at all. I'm still crazy about running, but I was starting to get that 'oh no I'm tired from work and I have 5k to knock out' feeling a few weeks ago, which led me to taking a fortnight off. That has completely vanished and I'm up for it every day. 

I've said it before but swimming has helped so much. 3x swims a week and 3x runs really works for me. I'm no longer concerned about shin splints and I'm also no longer overtired every day from running  every night. Swim is definitely something I'm going to keep up. 

This is my second week of a workout every day and today I felt so. tired. But I was still up for a run in the rain and really enjoyed it. I prefer running in colder temperatures, summer is worse for me because I hate being too hot, it makes me feel really overcome and claustrophobic. Me and the wind were good friends tonight. 

The trail will be too dark to run on soon so I'm trying to make the most of it until then. I get a bit bored running around the village and really love the trail, it's so peaceful and relaxing to run through (except 4.50-5.00km of course, nothing is peaceful and relaxing about the final hurdle). I did notice a planning permission poster up though which explains that the trail is going to be expanded to make all of it 3m wide (excellent) AND there are going to be street lights. Fantastic. 

So I ran round the main street of my village tonight and past the chip shop where the smell was hugely punishingly delicious, which was 2.5km and I finished the run on the trail. 

Monday was a 30min good swim but far too busy with after school kids getting in the way. 

Here's my recap from my first 2 5kms

Thursday: 5.00km / 31:06 / 6:13min per km av pace

Saturday: 5.00km / 31:12 / 6:14min per km av pace

And here's how I finished off the plan:

Tuesday: 5.00km / 29:57 / 5:59min per km av pace

Wednesday: 5.00km / 30:52 / 6:10min per km av pace

Not bad huh?? I know I'm not going to win a marathon with these 3 mile runs but I'm really pleased with my times. 

I'm finishing off my workout week with a swim tomorrow before bake off at my sister's, and of course I have my 10 mile walk on Friday, which means my rest day will be switched from Sunday to Saturday and I'll get a run in on Sunday before I start a new week. 

My next set of runs: 4 x 5.5km 

We are so close to the weekend!

Dans x

Whizz-Kidz Neon Nightwalk

On Friday I am going to London with a few of my colleagues to complete the Whizz-Kidz Neon nightwalk, a 10 mile walk past all of the famous landmarks through the night to raise money for our company's corporate partner. 

Here's us from last year :)

Whizz-Kidz provide disabled children with electric wheelchairs and other mobility equipment to ensure that they can live as close to normal lives as possible. It gives kids the chance to be kids, what is better than that? They also run ambassador and wheelchair clubs where wheelchair users can get together to have fun. Whizz-Kidz also actively campaign for adequate wheelchair access to public buildings, and this is really important because who says disabled children shouldn't have the same rights to access as everyone else??????

Whizz-Kidz help children by making their lives easier, improving their confidence, accessibility and life skills. This is truly an amazing charity. We invited an ambassador along to our annual conference in January and he reduced grown men to tears. He was an inspiration.

I'm looking forward to the walk so much more this year for so many reasons:

1) we had to rush home last year as we had a coach booked and we didn't actually get to finish the walk and celebrate. We had to abandon walk at The Mall to cab it to the train station, only for our bus to be an hour delayed and we could have completed the walk after all!

2) because we had to rush last year we didn't particularly get to take in the sights as we were literally zooming by. We also didn't get a chance to go into any pubs;)

3) my fitness levels are through the roof compared to last year after 8 months of running (yes I can't believe I have kept it up for this long either)

4) any opportunity to raise ££££ for Whizz-Kidz is good by me

5) this is likely to be our last year supporting Whizz-Kidz as we give our colleagues a vote every 2 years. To date we have raised about £32,000 for this amazing charity and for a company with only 270 employees this is a pretty impressive amount. We really want to go out on a high and £35k would be the icing on the cake. 

I am truly sad to be moving away from this charity soon, and I hope to continue fundraising for them in the future. Over the last 2 years we have done countless branch golf days, skydives, raffles, casino nights, sports days, half marathons, you name it we have done it. We even got all of our management Board to 'go back to the floor' and work in branches for the day, making tea, sweeping floors and more. And trust me there's nothing better than seeing your old MD sweeping the floor ;)

Dans x

Trouble with Topshop sizes & happy birthday Dad!!

Yesterday after work I drove straight to the swimming baths and threw a few shapes in the form of 30 lengths. It set me up well for a meal out for DC's sister's birthday. I was designated driver and we had a lovely Italian and a few (soft for me) drinks in a bar where you can pull your own pints on your table. 

I love this beautiful lady. This is DC's brother's girlfriend and she is one of the most lovely people up you will ever meet in your whole entire life. I have never met anyone who has as much kindness in their heart as this girl. She is studying for a fashion degree plus she works at Topshop so it's a no brainier really that we're friends. 

Oh and BTW I had just got this jacket back from the dry cleaners and then put it down on the side in the loo and covered it in water less than 12 hours later, so I think I will be off to the dry cleaners again on Monday morning. 

Sometimes you can really tell they are brothers but maybe not last night, what do you think???

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Everyone knows that Topshop makes me happy. Topshop makes my bank manager nervous. Topshop makes my wardrobe sparkle. Yes I'm a materialistic girl, shoot me. 

But the one thing that annoys me about Topshop (apart from their prices sometimes) is their awful sizing. I've seen it time and time again - DC will try on some jeans in the store, think about it for a day or two, order the same item online, only for it to be delivered and not fit. As in, completely too small. 

It's never happened to me before until today. I tried on these jeans in store a few weeks ago. 

I loved them but bought some Miss Selfridge ones instead because I really wanted grey jeans and they had sold out in Leigh grey. But I bought them in the week with 20% off and couldn't wait to collect them today to wear to lunch. 

I couldn't even get them past my thighs. 

I was so disappointed, now I have to take them back in the week and probably take a few pairs into the changing room to try on. I don't understand how Topshop can get their sizing so wrong and it's really annoying that you buy exactly the same item twice, for one to fit and another to be more than a few inches out. So no new lunch jeans for me. 

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This morning my sis & I took a trip into town for breakfast and shopping. 

Beautiful sis. 

I bought a few presents for DC's birthday next week - I can't tell you what they are as I have no idea whether he reads my blog or not, a present for my dad's birthday tomorrow and treated myself to a new Clinique eyebrow pencil as I had ran out. A trip to the Clinique counter always makes me happy especially when I have a gift card and my purchase only actually costs me £1.

My sis fell in love with this Henry Holland jumper and it looks so cute on her. My sis has lost 4.5stone with weightwatchers and I know she feels amazing shopping in any store she wants to now. She looks amazing. 

I got home just in time to change and leave for my Dad's birthday lunch. They have fallen In love with our local pub and we try and go there every few weeks so it was only down the road for us. He is 46 tomorrow!!!!! And he's the best dad ever. 

This is my favourite meal here. Cajun cod with tartare mash and veg. 

My sis got this cake made for him. Good job he supports Liverpool then!

He was only pretending to blow the candles out here because he tricked us all and blew them quickly before the cameras were ready. I think he was wishing for Liverpool to keep up their 3-0. 

I had a nap when we got home but I don't think it was a great idea to eat a big meal plus icing (mum eats the cake, I eat the icing - our tradition because out of all the cake choices in the world why would you waste calories on a simple sponge?) and then nap and then run. My stomach was abit full and it was a really tough run, my legs just didn't want to move. 

BUT I completed my mission to exercise every day this week, and it feels GREAT. The mix of swimming and running really works for me. 

Monday: 30 min / 30 length swim

Tuesday: 30 min / 30 length swim

Wednesday: 30 min run

Thursday: 5km run

Friday:  30 min / 30 length swim

Saturday: 5km run

Rest day tomorrow and although I know I should rest, I'm raring to go to get my 5kms completed. 

Thursday: 5.00km / 31:06 / 6:13min per km av pace

Saturday: 5.00km / 31:12 / 6:14min per km av pace

Hopefully I'll hit a 30min 5km by the end of these runs!

Dans x

The real reason why I run

So this is the real reason why I run:

I pick up goodies for our bake off night once a month when the farmers market comes into town. My friend heads for the burger tent and me for the cake tent. These amazing treats were either peanut butter flapjacks or Oreo chocolate cookies. I try to feed my guests full of other people's amazing homemade treats before I start cooking so that they won't notice if my meals are awful :)

Now that I've completed 8x 30 min runs, my next plan is 4x 5km runs. Note that I know this plan is not going to make me the fastest, strongest runner in the world (and I hate speed work) so the aim of the game is to just get out there in the fresh air and improve my fitness and distance. 

Maybe after these runs are over I should look for a training plan on the internet to help my improvement, I was fond of Runkeeper's 10km plan but they charge now. 

I didn't get up for my 6am run. But I was true to my word and ran after work. It was the hardest run ever, I think I got it wrong assuming it was colder than it actually was and so my long sleeved top made me way too hot only about 5 minutes in. I really struggled and felt like I needed to give up. Mostly it was my breathing but for the last 1.5km my legs just didn't want to run anymore. I made it to 5km though although slightly deliriously. 

Thursday: 5.00km / 31:06 / 6:13min per km av pace

I don't know whether my face is a reflection of my top or whether I was actually that pink. 

Last night's bake off was a favourite of ours from an old weightwatchers mag. It is spinach & butternut squash spaghetti lasagne and this photo doesn't do it justice but it was yum and serves 6 at only 7pts+ each although we split it between 4. Accompanied by salad and the nicest g-bread ever. This lasagne is my sister and friend's speciality so I just stood and watched it happen. 

I made the dessert from a ww cooking for 2 recipe book - apple and sultana crumble cakes. 

They're not the best desserts as not sweet enough for me especially when you forget to add the demerara sugar on top like me but they did the job for a healthy bake off (we are not counting the brownies here).

(We are obviously also not counting the cream).

I'm so glad we are back to making healthy meals for our bake off. You can get into a rut ordering takeout or making bad food because it is quick and easy but it's so much more fun getting all of your friends in the kitchen to make a good meal from scratch, and it always tastes better too. 

Dans x

A week of workouts

This week I am tackling my workouts. Next week it is the diet (I just can't stop eating). So I've made a promise with myself to do one 30 minute workout every day this week, up to a rest day on Sunday. I'm not car sharing this week and next so I've been able to swim after work. Swim = happy Dani even with all the kids in the pool. The only time I don't enjoy swim is lengths 27-30 when I seem to lose strength and knock a contact out at the same time as swallowing 2 litres of water. 

Monday: 30 min / 30 length swim

Tuesday: 30 min / 30 length swim

Wednesday: 30 min run

It has only taken me a zillion weeks to complete 8x 30min runs. 

30 minutes 

1/8 Monday: 4.66km, 6:27min/km av pace

2/8 Wednesday: 4.67km, 6:26min/km av pace

3/8 Friday: 5.09km, 5:54min/km av pace

4/8 Monday: 4.73km, 6:21min/km av pace

5/8 Saturday: 4.74km, 6:20min/km av pace

6/8 Tuesday: 4.64km, 6:28min/km av pace

7/8 Friday: 5.06km, 5:57min/km av pace

8/8 Wednesday: 4.61km, 6:31min/km av pace

Today's run was the slowest out of the bunch but at least I got out there for the first time in nearly a fortnight and completed it. My breathing and energy is definitely not back up to 100% but I feel so much better than I did at the weekend. 

I am going to try my hardest to wake up early tomorrow and run. I really really want to test how I feel throughout the day after a morning run and I need to remember to ignore the warm comfy feeling of my bed at 6am and drag myself out to the wind and rain. I have the girls round tomorrow night more or less straight after work so the morning is my only chance to keep to my target of a workout a day for a week. 

I will succeed!!!

Dans x

This happened

20% off at Topshop = heaven + empty bank balance