Thursday 28 June 2012

Not Quite The Full Customer Experience ....

Saturday: Well buying my new trainers wasn't quite the experience I was hoping it was going to be.  This particular Sweat Shop forms part of a David Lloyd leisure centre and at 12 noon on a Saturday you can imagine just quite how busy it was which was why we were flabbergasted to only find one person covering the whole shop.  Chaos ensued.  We specifically made the trip to Bristol to go to this particular store as they did the gait analysis and, as a specialist running shop, I felt that the service I would receive would be better than the likes of the more generic sports shops such as Sports Direct or JD Sports.  Unfortunately that was not the case; whichever management person decided it was a good idea to reduce cover to one person on a weekend lunchtime wants shooting.  I can't fault the poor shop assistant, in fact she was staying remarkably cool under the circumstances, but she was literally trying to serve five people at once.  Having examined my bare feet, she bought out a neutral pair of trainers to try on and then promptly disappeared to deal with another customer.  Five minutes later she was back, I got to run on the treadmill for all of 10 seconds and was then advised I had a neutral gait and she would go off and get some pairs of shoes for me to try.  In the meantime though, as I was taking my shoes off, she went away to deal with another customer.  Five minutes later I got a selection of shoes to try, got the first ones on only to find she had disappeared again to help someone else.  Tried the first pair on the treadmill, they were okay but was advised to try the others as well.  Again, no sooner had I come off the treadmill then she disappeared to serve yet another customer and it was a good five minutes until I saw her again.  This farce went on for over an hour, to be honest if we hadn't travelled so far I would've walked out but I had my heart set on a pair of new trainers so I stuck it out.  Needless to say Other Half and Sons One and Two were not amused by the whole episode and I got back to the car after an hour to find three very fractious boys!  Having said all that I am really pleased with my trainers - New Balance w1080v2 - but I think I shall be voting with my feet next time and I won't be returning there when the time comes to replace them.

The more I think about it, the more I am really disappointed by the whole experience, I was really hoping to be treated as a valued customer especially when you consider the shoes I was buying were meant to be £95 (although I got them on sale for £69) but instead I just felt like I was more of an inconvenience.

Sunday: Today I thought I would try my new shoes out, make sure I got on with them okay.  I must say one good aspect of Sweatshop is that they offer a no-quibble 30 day money back guarantee on all their trainers if you find you don't get on with them for any reason; now that's good customer service.  As the weather was reasonable, I thought I would do a long run and ended up covering 10.5 miles, all on-road; well I didn't want to get my new trainers muddy, did I?  Had a lovely run and the trainers were super comfortable, they provide so much more bounce than my old pair.

Monday: Day off today although not through choice - Other Half not feeling well so he went to bed when I got home from work which put pay to running.  Oh well, probably no harm done as I managed to get my long run in yesterday.

Tuesday: Club run tonight but not a great one.  Only three of us turned up again (we're like the terrible trio) and we did an off-road run; needless to say my white trainers are now no longer white!  Struggled tonight, I keep getting bad stomach cramps which makes running somewhat difficult.

Wednesday: Ran to Slimming World and again a really hard run even though I was in the mood for it.  For some reason legs felt very heavy and it was a real struggle to do the four miles to the weigh in.  However, great news, another pound off this week which means I have reached my 'Personal Achievement Target' of a loss of 4 st 1 lb so I now have free lifetime membership to Slimming World, a handful of certificates and a metal pin badge to show for all my efforts; take a look at my wall:


Shame we never have any visitors to show it off to!  Still, it makes me happy to see it.  I do actually want to lost another half a stone but I am now going to concentrate on getting fitter rather than weight loss.

Thursday: Club run again tonight, 8.28 miles off-road.  Lovely run but my knees are hurting a bit now.  A lot of it was through waist-high grass and I have real problems with running through such going as I naturally have a very low running action (my feet barely skim the ground when on tarmac) so having to lift them higher to stop the grass from grabbing at my legs is a real effort.  But it was enjoyable nonetheless, it's lovely running with other people for the company if nothing else.

 

Saturday 23 June 2012

Eggs ..

My Mum and Step-Dad own a canal boat - look what they found when they opened the engine compartment the other day:


Apparently they are from a Moorhen; Mummy bird flew away with a lot of squaking and flapping.  However, she returned to her eggs five minutes later so all is well.

Needless to say this has put paid to them using the boat for  while!

The Rain In Spain .......

Well much to my surprise it was a good result for the TV as it turned out to be the capacitors in the end so we're only £92 lighter.

On Thursday night I was due to run a 10k race in Chippenham but the weather was so atrocious I decided to give it a miss.  At the end of the day I do running mostly for fun (although admittedly some runs are more fun than others) and I begrudge paying £13 in entry fees to ultimately not enjoy myself.  However, not all was lost, I went to the running club meet instead where we did intervals of 200m x 8 with a 45 second rest in-between.  Really hard work due to the rain and wind but I felt, having completed it, that I could justify my chippy dinner.

Today we're off to Sweat Shop in Bristol where I am going to treat myself to a decent pair of trainers.  Up to now I have been using a pair of Nikes that were bought more as fashion trainers rather than anything else, they certainly aren't designed to be a running shoe and the miles I have done in them are starting to take their toll; the heel is just about shot in both pairs and they aren't providing any support whatsoever.  I am specifically going to Sweat Shop as I know they do the gait analysis which I am interested in having done and have around £100 to splash out so I'm hoping to really get something halfway decent for that sort of money.  The last time I felt this excited was when I was on the hunt for my GPS watch ....... yes, my life is that exciting.

Tomorrow I will be posting a picture of my lovely new trainers for your approval.

Wednesday 20 June 2012

Wednesday Update - Part Two

Slimming World tonight - for the last two weeks I have actually run there and back; yes I am bloody fabulous, thanks for asking

Anyhow, wasn't expecting great things from tonight, last week I managed to lose the 1.5 pounds that I put on the week before through eating donuts and biscuits some unexplained reason.

So it was a great surprise that the scales showed a 2.5 pound loss.  Which means, in 7 months, I have now lost exactly ...... hold on, just need to blow my own trumpet - da da da da da daaaaaa ........ FOUR STONE :) Happy, happy, happy :))

Time for another measure I think:

Weight: 9st 12.5lbs (10.5lbs loss since last measure)
Bust: 37.5 inches (2.5 inch loss)
Waist: 31 inches (1 inch loss)
Hips: 35 inches (1 inch loss)

mmmm, seeing how much I've lost on my bust I guess that's why I've gone from a 40DD to a 36C!  So, since the start of my journey, in total I have lost the following:

Weight: 4 stone
Bust: 8.5 inches
Waist: 9 inches
Hips: 9 inches

Ideally I would love to drop another half stone to bring me to 9.5 stones but I realise that could be quite hard so for now I will concentrate on my running and hope that the weight loss comes as a consequence of getting fitter.  Only have another half a pound to get down to my Personal Achievement Target which means that, as long as I stay within 3 pounds either side of 9 st 12lbs I get to go to Slimming World for free.  Well that's a fiver a week saved ...... I do believe I can get a bottle of 'special offer' Cava for that :)

Wednesday Update - Part One

Yesterday was certainly a day of two halves.  Early morning I decided to check the bank account to see if I had been refunded some money following the cancellation of a holiday.  Imagine my surprise when the balance of our main account was up by over £1500 more than I was expecting.  With trembling finger I clicked on the statement button to discover that Her Majesty's Tax Credit department had refunded us to the tune of £1642 (God bless you Ma'am).  I have absolutely no idea how any of these tax credits work (does anyone?) but having been made redundant on the 31st March 2011, our income did take a bit of a battering last year.  To keep the wolf from the door, Other Half was sent back to work whilst I stayed at home and lounged around on the sofa watching Jeremy Kyle looked after the children.  Anyway, around two weeks ago the Tax Credit people sent me a renewal notice which I duly filled in and sent back; I'm Little Miss OCD when it comes to anything to do with money.  I guess they must've been working on the previous year's figures (2010-2011 when I was gainfully employed) and the refund was due to the readjustment in our income levels.  Whatever the reason though, I have to say it was a lovely and very welcome surprise.

Oh, we also had our £100 refunded by the holiday company.

But something called Sod's Law came into play and yesterday afternoon our telly decided to die a death by turning itself off and flat-out refusing to turn itself back on again.  We changed the fuse but needless to say that didn't actually make any difference; mind you, I have never come across any instance where changing the fuse has made an electrical item suddenly spring back into life but one feels obliged to go through the motions.  So yesterday evening our local TV repair man came and took our lovely, less than two year old telly away.  So far he's not had a chance to check out what's wrong with it but apparently it is likely to be one of two things i) a capacitor has gone wrong in which case it's repairable or ii) the mother board has gone wrong in which case it's not worth repairing.  Guess which one I am anticipating it will be?

It's No Sacrifice .....

Over a week with no updates, I'm getting worse - think I need to go on to the naughty step until I've learnt my lesson.  Still, I'm not apologising for it so there.  Here we go:

Monday - Friday: To be honest last week seems so long ago that I can't really remember what happended, certainly nothing of note otherwise I would remember, right?  However, a couple of highlights include marshalling on Tuesday evening for a run hosted by my running club.  Oh, and we have our formal mortgage offer in place so can now proceed with pace with our house purchase.  I now realise I haven't mentioned anything about the house we are buying, but I think I shall leave that post for now and tell you all about it when we exchange.

Saturday: Saturday morning found me sacrificing my lie-in for another 7am run with a running club colleague; sometimes I feel so worthy I almost make myself sick. This time she brought along her three Border Collies and we managed to do a 10-mile run with well over 95% being off-road. I do feel very blessed to be living in such a rural area, the off-road runs are extensive and a real pleasure to run; I am not sure I would show such commitment to my running if I was forced to pound the same old pavements time and time again.

Sunday:  Shorter, slower 'recovery' run today even though my legs were holding up surprisingly well after yesterday.  I belong to an online forum called Tribesports which is geared towards people who participate in sport; pretty much any sport you care to mention is represented and has a group of dedicated followers.  It's an odd site really, quite motivational in its own way as participants are based all over the world and you choose to belong to 'Tribes' that best reflect your interests.  Additionally, participants can create challenges for others to sign up to and complete which is why Sunday morning found me running with a camera in my back pocket.  The challenge I was undertaking was "Run with the Zebras" whereby participants had to complete at least a 5k run with their route covering as many zebra crossings as possible.  The town I live in only has three crossings so I thought I would photograph them to prove I had completed the challenge.  I must say I got some funny looks from passing motorists as I stood there with camera in hand.  But, challenge complete.  Apart from my running, it was a quiet day all-round although we did have Other Half's Aunt and Uncle over for dinner.  Other Half made chilli enchiladas and salad followed by a fresh fruit/double cream/custard dessert.  It wasn't until later that I realised it was Father's Day and perhaps I should've volunteered to do the cooking!

Monday: Late evening run again following meatballs and pasta for dinner.  Ummmm, maybe not such a good idea.  Dinner sat heavy due to not having had enough time to digest it all and as a consequence I felt pretty sluggish.  But I struggled (wo)manfully on through and completed my planned five miles.

Tuesday: Club run tonight and one of the best I have done for a while.  I struggled a bit at the beginning, as is my wont, but the last half of the run went brilliantly and I felt super strong so much so that I managed to 'sprint' (although I use that term loosely) for the finish line.  I generally enjoy all my runs, one way or another, but there is nothing like the feeling you get when all the elements of what makes a great run come together.

Sunday 10 June 2012

Race Report - Race for Life 5k

Well the day dawned grey and damp, a bit like my spirits at the thought of running this race.  I booked it months and months ago, within weeks of starting to run as I thought it would give me a focus to keep me motivated to carry on training; that, and the fact that it's for a good cause.  However, my running has gone from strength to strength and I long ago gave up on this race in terms of being a focus for anything.  I have also spoken of my dislike for any kind of running which requires sustained speed which is the case with a 5k. 

The little demon in me did think about not going and telling people that I had run it (after all, who would know, I was doing the run on my own as I couldn't get any family or friends motivated enough to come along with me) but guilt got the better of me so 10.30am found my Other Half dropping me off at the gates of Lydiard Park in Swindon.  First off, I felt somewhat at sea being on my own surrounded by an ocean of pink that was 3141 other 'runners'.  A rather camp gym instructor took us through a warm up routine which I felt obliged to do seeing as I didn't really have any other plans. 

I must say considering the sheer amount of people doing the event, the organisation was second to none.  With five minutes to spare, three flag bearers were deployed; one for runners, one for joggers and one for walkers.  The idea was to make your way to whichever flag best represented how you were planning on completing the race.  I immediately headed off to the runners flag as I had resolved with myself that I was going to try my damnedest to beat my personal best for the distance and, if possible, to come in under 25 minutes.  More years ago than I care to remember, I did my first (and only) Race for Life in Dorchester and not being race savvy at that point, did my usual trick of starting too far back and getting held up.  Well, today I decided to be Little Miss Pushy and I was going to be right at the front of the start line if it was the last thing I did.  Well, miracles upon miracles, I didn't actually have to push in and there I was, tape to chest with a few minutes to spare.  By this point I did actually get a bit nervous, what if I wasn't as good as I thought I was and was I in danger of being overtaken by a flood of runners?

Too late to worry about it, we set off right on time (once again Race for Life organisers, I really have to take my hat off to you).  A few people did overtake me right at the beginning but I soon settled into a nice, fast (well, for me) rhythm and by the half mile point I calculated I was in twelfth place.  The route was a mixture of grass and gravel trail so really lovely going.  By the first 1k I had picked off several runners and was lying in seventh place.  The pacing was just perfect, faster than I would run a 10k but not so fast that I didn't feel I could sustain it (plus, the course was pretty much flat so that helped).  However, at the 3k mark we hit a slight slope (I hesitate to refer to it as a hill) and I managed to pick off the sixth and fifth placed runners so by the top of the slope (mini hill) I was lying in fourth place!  To say I was elated would be an understatement.  For someone who moans (a lot) about hills on races they seem to be my friend.  In all four races I have done, I have overtaken several runners going up hill and, more importantly, not had them overtake me back once the hill flattened out again.  By this point I had lost sight of the runners in first and second place as the course was quite twisty-turny but the third placed lady was firmly in my sights and I spent the next 2k trying desperately to catch up with her only to be thwarted.  At one point I did seem to be gaining (there was about 30 yards between us) but I just couldn't find that extra push I needed and there we remained.  I managed a bit of a sprint finish and there were loads of people lining the route home who were cheering and clapping so that was a great boost.  Results are:

Time: 23:20
Position = 4 out of 3142

Yes folks, you read that right, my time was 23:20 so I beat my personal best by over 3 minutes.  Happy, happy, happy is the only way to describe how I felt crossing that finish line.  The fourth place was also rather lovely, but I am not so naive as to class the Race for Life as a true race but still, I was happy enough.  Heart FM were present at the event and their photographer was taking pictures at the finish line so hopefully there might be a photo of me on their website tomorrow.

The most surprising thing of all is that I actually really enjoyed running a 5k and I am now very tempted to find a few more races.  Lydiard Park hosts the weekly parkruns on a Saturday morning so I think I may just have to get me along to some of those to see if I can better my time and get it to under 22 minutes as my next goal.

Oh, and I raised £85 for Cancer Research so thank you to all my sponsors x   

Weekly Catch-Up

Yes, well, clearly, this trying to keep my blog updated at regular intervals is not going at all well.  I think I am going to just have to give up kidding myself (and therefore having to apologise on a regular basis) and resign myself to the fact that I'm a twice-a-week-if-you-are-lucky kind of a girl (and yes, I am still talking about my blogging).

So, today (Sunday) I did my Race for Life but I am going to write up a separate race report for that so for now on with the week that was.

Tuesday: Club run tonight and only three of us turned up; I never realised what a bunch of fair-weather runners belonged to the club!  In fairness, I guess because today was a Bank Holiday (God bless 'yer Majesty) most of them were forced to loving spending time with their families and possibly ran earlier in the day.  However, the intrepid three that we were set off on a four mile round the town route which was at a pace that I found just slightly too fast to be comfortable.  The only reason I was able to keep up was because it was a short route, however I am sure it does me good to be pushed that bit harder than I would push myself if I was running on my own.

Wednesday: No running for me today.  Over dinner I was saying to the Other Half that I felt I was at a stage with my weight loss / running fitness that I could take the odd day off if I felt like it without jeopardising anything.  Went to Slimming World and I have put on 1.5 pounds ...... oh the irony. 

Thursday: New girl turned up at the running club tonight which was really nice to see; there are only two regular female runners (one of which is me) so we are very 'man' heavy which is no bad thing I guess, but most of them are super-fast so it's nice to meet someone else in my speed zone.  Tonight's effort session was a timed 1.5 miles; the wind was blowing a gale and on one of the long straights we were running straight into the wind and that really upped the effort having to be made.  However, results are:

Distance - 1.5 miles
Time - 11:26

Not brilliant but then I'm a bit shite a sustaining speed for any kind of distance.  Think we are retaking this test in around six weeks to see if our fitness has improved any.

Friday: Another cold and very blustery night but 8.30pm found me heading on out the door for a five mile run.  I think Other Half is very impressed by my commitment; I'm pretty impressed with it too.  Nice run apart from the wind, I was a few seconds off last week's pace but I'm not too fussed as it was more of a leg stretch than anything else.

Saturday: Rest day today ready for the big day tomorrow.  However, took the dog for a lovely walk up to Lansdowne Monument, it's a bit of a climb so whilst I didn't run, I still did quite a bit of exercise.  This is the hill I had to climb up (you can just see the monument in the distance and that is one of Wiltshire's White Horses to the left):

Tuesday 5 June 2012

Well Slap My Thighs and Call Me Pheidippides

I am a (half) marathon runner, oh yes indeedy.  But more on that later .......

Friday:  Busy day at work today trying to get things finalised before the start of the long Bank Holiday weekend.  Ringing around and chasing for information that should've been with me a week or so ago is somewhat soul destroying so by the time I got home the last thing on my mind was running.  However, I have now actually got to the point where I feel terribly guilty if I don't exercise; it must be the Catholic in me.  Which is why 9pm found me donning my running gear and heading on out the door for a relaxing 5-miler (I love the fact that I have got to the stage where I can use the words 'relaxing' and '5-miler' in the same sentence). 

Saturday: Quiet, relaxing day with no running as saving myself for the big run tomorrow.  The Diamond Jubilee has passed us by somewhat as we don't have any plans to attend street parties, BBQs, concerts or any other kind of celebration for that matter.  Bah humbug and all that.

Sunday: Up with the lark and sacrificed my much needed lie-in today for a run, how self-righteous do I feel?  And it was raining to boot.  Having met up with the other runners and donned a lent Camelbak off we set at a lovely, leisurely pace.  I was warned advised that the pace would be slow and the worst of the hills we would walk but I didn't really believe it as I have been 'advised' before that a run would be on the slower side and then struggled to keep up.  But what a fantastic run it was, all of it off-road and across countryside that was undulating but, with the exception of a couple of hills which we did indeed walk up, very doable.  My feet were soaked within minutes of setting off, in fact I was soaked up to my thighs as some of the grass we were running through could've had elephants hiding in it for all I know it was that overgrown but it just added to the fun element.  I adore off-road running and because we were going slower it was easy chatting to my fellow runners and that just made the time fly by.  The plan was for me to do the first part of the run and then peel off when I had reached my limit which I was hoping would be around the 13 mile mark.  The slower pace meant that we reached 10-miles without really thinking about it which did surprise me as the weekend before I struggled towards the end of the race and I'm not sure I could've gone much further; in fairness though the heat and the faster pace took it out of me.  As I still felt strong I carried on going to the next peel off point which was at 13 miles and it was at this point I bid my fellow runners 'adieu' and set off on my own for the last couple of miles which brought me back to the road so that Other Half could come and collect me.  In total I covered 15.4 miles and to say I was pleased with myself was an understatement; I felt such a huge sense of satisfaction that I had managed to cover 50% more distance that I had done before and still feel strong at the end.  Running with a Camelbak was also a new experience, it was not as cumbersome as I thought it would be; guess it's something else I am going to have to invest in!  Maybe these longer distances suit me more than shorter, faster runs?  They are all heading off again for another long one in a couple of weeks time and I will be there, maybe towards the back of the field, but there nonetheless.

Monday: Really thought my legs would be protesting about yesterday's run today but, whilst my thighs were letting me know that something had happened to them, it was no worse than if I had done a shorter, faster run.  Decided to give running a miss today (mostly due to tomorrow's Club run) I thought I ought to do something exercise related so did a 3-mile powerwalk with Rommel.  

We also had a bit of a family get-together this afternoon and Other Half cooked up a storm on the BBQ.  Why is it that you can't keep men away from cooking on a BBQ but have to employ all your feminine wiles to actually get them to cook dinner in the oven?