training fun times :)

woops forgot to write on this for a little while!

So, have done a few days of running, went out on Sat morning to run to a button shop - 2.5 miles later arrived at the shopping sweating and all red, probably not a pretty sight! The shop-man was pretty hilarious though, telling me about his bright coloured cycle ride after drink et al the night before!

Also managed to play netball on Monday - we won 30-17 wooooo - tho have just been moved up to a higher league which should be interesting, and sadly we probably wont win quite so often as at the moment. I'm still not playing great but i'm getting there and managing to catch the ball better now and remember the rules a bit more!

Went to circuits last Thursday - was slightly less hard-core than the week before thank goodness, and totally recovered the next day yay :)

Had a lovely weekend with family, which meant a LOT of food, thankfully was driving so no drink, but ate loads of v good grub :)

Decided i'm going to give up alcohol until my run now, wanna get a bit healthier so figure thats one way to start

Off to circuits tomorrow evening at The Foundry too so v much looking forward to it again :)

back from the hols :(

So just arrived back from Dubai last night - what a brilliant holiday destination, completely boiling (45degrees +) but so much interesting stuff to do and see. Really wanna go back asap, or at least in the winter time in a more reasonable heat so we can go to waterparks and lie on the beach more second time round!

So, with regards fitness I was pretty poor :( I went to the gym for a run or two, and spent a lot of time in the pool, and sweated A LOT while walking around the city in the middle of the day! Kinda figure the whole sweating walking thing did me a bit of good - hopefully will have lost a pound or two from that at least, and makes me realise what real heat is rather than just the warm uk!

Back to proper training this week - annoyingly missed netball because was flying at the time, but I have circuits on Thursday (yay but ouch), as well as off for a run later on today when it is a bit cooler later on.

Will let you know how the fitness goes throughout the week, hopefully havent lost too much fitness because of holidays x

week 1 of training

soooooo ..... thats week 1 of 13 over and heres how i got on:

I ran 2 miles at the beginning of the week, a 2mile slow run/walk + a 3 mile run - though that was in hot weather so failed a bit and ended up walking some, and got a bit lost so made it a bit more interesting :)

Also did circuits training with the Foundry (www.foundryfit.com) - was outside on Thursday evening so ABSOLUTLY BOILING! and really hard work! We were training with a new trainer who is a professional rugby player and therefore did rugby drills in the boiling sun which was pretty tough .... though great fun! Felt fairly stiff and pained for the next few day though haha

Last night I went to my first netball game with the team TNT. We play in a B league of www.onenetball.com in Camden and although I havent played netball properly in years we one our first match and it was great fun!

Off on my hols tomorrow morning to Dubai ....currently in the process of packing, but it's well hard - I have no idea what to pack seeing as it will be boiling! One thing i wil definately be packing is my running gear - gotta keep going over the holiday so I dont lose fitness. Thankfully there is a gym in the hotel so no need to run outside as at around 45C I cant imagine that would work too well!

Will report back next week after my holiday and let you know how I get on in week 2 x

The Foundry

One other reason I am blogging about this run is because The Foundry Gym in East London is helping me through it!

www.foundryfit.co.uk

The Foundry was started less than a year ago by a guy called Dave Thomas and his wife Helen. Already they are doing really well with 14 employees - personal trainers, therapists etc - and a full diary every day with loads of people in the East finally getting fit!!

I met Dave about a year ago when I started work and Dave was known well and was the trainer of many of my colleagues. I went along to a circuit class one week and loved it, such a tough workout but really worth it, you can feel the benefits so quickly (after the pain and agony for at least a day or two post-training)

Dave and Helen are both great and have agreed to help me actually make it round the half marathon and make me look less like the bottom pic, more like the top one :) (or something similar)!

what on earth am I doing ......

So I have never blogged before, or run particularly far before so this is all new to me really so apologies!!

I am running the Royal Parks Half Marathon on October 10th and wanted to document my progress so anyone out there who is interested, or who might be a beginner runner themselves might hopefully find what I write interesting!

I am running the half marathon in aid of the Hospice of St Francis (www.stfrancis.com) based just north of London. I am running or that charity since one of my best friends, Claire Freeman (see the shoe pic, v appropriate for her!), very sadly passed away at the end of last year from cancer. She was only 24 and it was heartbreaking, but the last time I saw her she had been staying in the Hospice and couldn't believe what a lovely and happy place it was. Especially since the Hospice is almost completely run off charitable donations - a pretty good cause in my opinion! I really hope to raise around £1000 for them so fingers crossed!