Well…that was steep hill…

This week has been a week of highs and lows. The main high was completing another challenge (Cani-cross 2km with Millie). It was located at Queen Elizabeth Country Park just off the A3. There was a surprisingly steep hill at the start for the first kilometre, and then it was a nice down-hill trot to the finish line. At one point going up the hill I thought I was going to vomit. Luckily, one of the dogs needed a ‘toilet’ break and I was able to catch my breath back. It was good fun, and a great opportunity for Millie to have some more socialisation experience with other dogs. I’m so pleased to find that I am actually able to run a race and that my hip appears to be fine. I am now looking forward to my next race – a 5km in April. My husband has been helping me to train, running out on the road with me twice a week and I have found that it’s been very easy to stick to the training plan with His support.

Which brings us onto my low for the week. Having lost the last pound required to reach my 1 stone ‘half-way there’ target, I really struggled this week with tiredness, feeling hungry all the time and not being satiated by the food I ate. My motivation to eat healthy foods went to pot and I felt really low. He said that maybe I need a multi-vitamin including B vitamins. I wondered if it was related somewhat to PMT (I was surprised he didn’t try to blame it on that to be honest!). Either way I was feeling pretty bad. I decided to scrap it as a bad week, bought some multi-vitamins and pulled myself together.  This shall be a great week!

I continue to be absolutely astounded by people’s generosity fundraising for Cancer Research UK has almost reached £550 – Thank you for all your continued support.

If you haven’t sponsored yet, you can do so here: https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/30in2015?

 

Are you ready Boots? Start walking!

My training for the Isle of Wight Challenge  started last week. It’s 67 miles (106km) which is considered an ultra marathon. But, you can walk, jog or run it. I’m following the training plan supplied by the event organisers (Action Challenge) and wearing/carrying all the gear that I plan to have with me on the day. You can find a PDF of the various training plans here. The one I am following looks like this:

With all my physio/hydro and 2 miles jogs/cross-trainer workouts, I won’t necessarily be doing all the additional mid-week aerobic work outs. I plan to stick to the walking part of the programme and add in aerobic as and when my physio/jogging slows or stops.

I dutifully went out for a 2 hour walk on Saturday, with my mum in tow. I somehow managed to convince her to complete the challenge with me! So she has been training hard too. We managed to cover 5 miles in the 2 hours, which is not bad given the fact that we took the two dogs with us! Their sniffing and toileting was a bit of a hindrance on our speed, but they were shattered for the rest of the day – so it was worth it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was also Valentine’s day on Saturday. Darren & I enjoyed a gorgeous two dine for £20 meal from M&S. We’ve been having a date night in for Valentine’s for the last few years and regularly get the M&S meal, but I think that this one was the best! We had baked Camembert to start, followed by sirloin steak, mixed fresh veg & home-made chips, a millionaires shortbread dessert, all washed down with a bottle of pink fizzy Brut, and a small box of chocolates with our movie! It was an absolute treat – no wonder why the scales didn’t move.
Something else to highlight this week is that my first  competitive race is in 26 days! I was shocked when I noticed the milestone countdown on the blog. I’m very excited for this run, as I get to do it with Millie (the collie x) and Darren will be running it with Darcy (the beagle). I really enjoy activities that the dogs can join in with. On the other hand – I am quite anxious as it’s my first competitive race! I don’t have a goal in mind, other than completing it safely, without injury and learning what to expect in future races. Any race-day prep advice would be received gratefully!

 

I will be running on the day for Cancer Research UK – here is my fundraising link if you would like to support this very important cause.