Meeting Petra at the FLM expo was the highlight of the week, but then I missed her fantastic race as my husband bought a band-saw on ebay and we had to go to Norwich to get it.


But it turned out to be a spectacular weekend and I got my 11-miler in running from our campsite to Wells Next The Sea and back. That's really what is says on the maps... don't they know they are missing the preposition??


Three weeks till the White Peak Swift Half....I feel like I'm ready, I just have to get t-shirts printed with the WWFOR logos!

Nelly and I hopped on the train and took it up to the next town, Chesham, and then began exploring a new route as the rain started. The little scrap of map in my pocket started to fall apart in the rain, but finally we made it home and I was feelinq quite smug until I uploaded my track and discovered that somewhere I'd gone around in a circle and didn't even notice!!! Oh well..

9 miles in 2 hrs was not good but it was hilly and I did stop at every branching trail or stile and try to figure where I was. Billy and I will have to walk it with his Garmin or iphone and try to see where I went around twice!

6 weeks till the Swift half. I've booked camping at the Grouse & Claret campsite outside Matlock near Rowsley at Phil's recommendation - phone 01629 733233

I've lost 3 or 4 lbs since starting the Fast Weight Loss diet, but I'm ready to kill for oatmeal or bran flakes... I really miss breakfasts. Cottage cheese just doesn't do it for me, even with blueberries. And facing more salads with grilled chicken or tunafish, I keep repeating the mantra..... ONE MORE WEEK!

We explored Suffolk last weekend, camping in the remarkably attractive shadow of Sizewell nuclear power plant. We searched for raw oysters in Aldeburgh and I got my 8 mile run in beside the beach. Nice weekend and the weather cooperated for once.

This week I signed up again at Educogym - resistance training coaching for a gut-wrenching amount of money... I've just got to shift my spare tyre! Perhaps with 2 mo before the half marathon, I should not be dieting, but there's always a good excuse and this period of low travel and a clear goal seemed better than most. They took "before" photos and I just wanted to get the scissors out (Chest up - fine, hips down - fine) and just cut out the middle! I wish it was so easy!

Researching an expert for a RRT diet expert, I came upon Lyle McDonald and his Rapid Fatloss Handbook which happens to fit almost exactly with the one the gym gave me. I'm so much more motivated reading the rationale and science behind a diet, rather than just being given a printed sheet and being told..do it. So, I have high hopes that in a couple of weeks I'll be relatively tyre free! He does say that "the crash diet should be used several weeks prior to the endurance event, to drop a few pounds of fat such that normal hydration can be retained before the competition." Right so I've got 4 weeks only to lose!

Had a brilliant run today with Ali and her boyfriend, Boo. Boo is training for the Edinburgh marathon and he's fast, so he pushed us for the first 2 miles when we sent him off on a longer 8 mi loop and the two of us carried on with Nelly (the dog) for only 6 mi. There is something about running with someone that removes the barriers (calls on her mobile phone with Ali!) and you really have a chance to have sort of a stream-of-consciousness discussion. She's headed back to Uni now, but I had a wonderful time with her - and unlike after some whirlwind visits, I felt like we really got a chance to talk to each other!

11 weeks to go until the Swift Half. I'm finally back on track with my BuckeyeOutdoors training plan after my holidays... well, except the length of the long run every week. But if I run a 6 mile long run this week, I can increment it up one mile every weekend and I'll stand a good chance to hit my 2:00 target.

I'm staying with the PFA online diet and working in the strength training at least 3 days a week. I learned through my marathon training last year that I'll replace every calorie I burn running if I don't follow a plan. This diet plan is good, cycling through calorie restrictions on different days of the week, so I can plan my longer runs on the days when I can eat more. And I can eat plenty of carbs on those days, but change to higher % protein and fewer calories on the lower mileage days. Its not so much that I want to lose weight, I just want to shift that spare tire into some upper body muscle. And I am a goal oriented sort of person - it just makes me happy when I know I'm on track.

I'm getting to know lots of new people through the Runners Round Table, and I'm really enjoying it, but still find it a bit difficult to not be totally intimidated by some of the more committed, faster, or tri and ultra runners. I try to tell myself that they're just testing their own boundaries, same as me, but whew, I can't imagine where they find the time and commitment!
But it has inspired me to get serious again about my training again... feeble is it seems by comparison.

One of those magical harmonic convergences - an unusually warm and fair meterological system coincided with my visit to northern Idaho to visit family and my first time downhill skiing in 10 years - It was amazing! And being with my two sisters and Missi's family was really fun. I'm the oldest, and Linnie, the social one, now writes charity grants to support women with a church in LA, and Missi, the driven one, is now an English and Economics teacher in Sandpoint Idaho.

We grew up in a ski area, Breckenridge, Colorado. My husband and I met and fell in love skiing. It used to be a passion - I was on one ski team or another team through university. And then we had kids and moved away from Colorado, and it got so expensive and the kids went on trips with their friends instead of us...

I just forgot how amazing it feels, the thrill and the laughs.

When we stopped for lunch mid-afternoon, my legs were tired and my feet hurt. (Whoever designs ski boots is a sadistic bastard!) Limping to our table in the sunshine on the lodge deck, we knew we weren't kids anymore, but we'd forgotten it that morning.

Snow Day

London came to a standstill yesterday after about 6 in of snow fell - the most in 18 years! When trains were working again today, I made my way into work, running through Hyde, Green and St James parks to work. VERY slippery underfoot where it had been packed down and refrozen, so I ran in the deep stuff... well relatively.


There was more snow on the south side of London, and colleague from work sent me photos of Ashford Station, where he waited for a train that never arrived. Even today, there were very few people in the office!