Very difficult tonight

1.5 min for the first time, plus 2x1 minutes as well with the reciprocal amounts of walking in between too. I felt at times like it was never going to end - but it did, and even though I was fair peched at the end, I did it. I'll get there, I know I Will. More nice compliments from folk at work today too - this also helps to keep me going. I'm very much an "under the radar" girl, but it's still nice when folk say that to you

Sunday morning

Up with the lark..... oh how I wish I could be honest and say that at 8am Daniel Boone was reverberating around my head telling me it was a beautiful day. Instead I had mother nature telling me in her own inimitable way that I wasn't built for running. Still, mankind trumps mother nature at some things and a couple of vit c and oil of evening primrose tablets with a half litre of water off I went. I basically just did the jog Scotland programme again. Thanks to T-Mobile through my loyalty to them I now have a spare phone that I can use purely for exercise. So I started my podcast playing, started endomondo and started the hiit trainer set to let me know when each new period started and went and did it.

Again, another barrier overcome, a sniffly nose, a stomach issue and of course, the inbuilt lazyitis that's afflicted me for years didn't stop me doing my bit. 5 weeks today to the Christmas cracker. How much of it Will I be able to run?

Now how does that song go again? Oh yeah......  hey hey hey it's a beautiful day!

So, tonight sees the end of week three

well I think it's week three.  It might be week four, I'm not too sure

That makes 13 weeks in total which is yet another milestone, being a full quarter of a year that I have went out "jogging" for at least 2 nights per week.  Off tomorrow too - so might be able to get out again tomorrow during the day and build it up a wee bit more.

Come sunday it'll be 5 weeks to the jogScotland Christmas Cracker, at which the challenge is twofold.  Firstly, for the first time, I'd like to be able to run for some of it.  And, if doing so allows me to beat the 63 minute time from June, then that's great.  The major incentive just now though, is to get to the stage where I am able to run for the full 5k distance.  Obviously this is not going to be possible at this event, but it will be interesting to see just how much of it I am able to run.   Timings can come at a later stage.

Aye the nights are fair drawin in!

So last night was the first night after the clocks went back, and the start of the period I hate most in the year. For the time I'm NOT at my work it's dark. And even some of the time I'm at my work..... it's dark. It's not a great time of year! 

Obviously it's also too dark then for me to be out wandering or attempting to jog on my tod, so I plan also on doing some swimming on my nights on my own. But last night I decided to just go to the gym and do my programme. This is week 3 of block 2, with the ultimate aim of walking/jogging/walking for 5 minutes each time. 

So, off I went - and did something I never felt capable of doing in the past, running, or at least attempting to run, in a gym, with all the "beautiful people" I did get a few looks - but I'm certain that was only due to my dayglo trainers that they were all very jealous of! I've posted a pic of my glow in the dark "Halloween" costume. 

Onwards and upwards - another so called reason for not exercising banished? What's your next excuse Campo?? ;-)

Tough mudder.....

Inadvertantly managed a trial run for this race at the weekend.  Set off for a nice walk around a friend's housing estate, with Muttley in tow.  Aforesaid Muttley seemed to require some urgent bodily function, so we decided to head off-road slightly to allow him to do so.  A few steps into the off road adventure, alarm bells began to ring, but at the top of the hill it looked a lot less wet and muddy so we decided to continue.  Anyway........ it errr wasn't :D  So we ended up trudging for a total of 5k in 63 minutes, more than half of which (time wise anyway it felt) was trudging through muck, and hanging on to (barbed wire) fences and pulling ourselves out of the muck.  63 minutes is an interesting time actually - being, as it was - the one and only official "race" time for me in a 5K (race for life June2012) So that in itself represents a huge improvement?

Lessons learned from that "walk" :-)

Tip 1 - wee picturesque country lanes are not quite so picturesque in Scotland after a week of rain. 

Tip 2 - barbed wire fences are jaggy! 

Tip 3 - trainers have a limited shelf life for partaking in aforementioned activity. And finally, 

Tip 4 - a Jack Russell loves running about in the muck. He's not so sure about the bath at the end of it tho!! ;-)

It's all worth it in the end tho - and I promise - the hill was much much bigger than this...... honest!

So...... that horse.....

Well there was neigh sign of it again last night, but tonight, well and truly saddled and riding high lol. Target was 5x30/30 jog/walk and I did 5x30 /30 and 5x30/60! I think I might pay for this tomorrow!! However - feeling great and very up for another 10 week block. Last week I was, rightly, chuffed with myself at completing the first 10 weeks. Tonight though, that's all behind me, albeit I'm still using the success as a motivator. If I've done one ten week block, I can do another one. Next stop Christmas Eve - ho ho ho! :-)

Very low today again

Not sure why. Not done any exercise since Thursday, so perhaps that. Dragged down by work, maybe, forgetting to take the iron and vitamin tablets over the weekend another possibility or maybe it's the money issue as normal at this time of the month. More probably all of the above. But I have to balance that with the thought that someone I haven't seen in ages says I'm looking brilliant and "disappearing in front of her eyes" and was really encouraging and positive with me! So let's get back on that horse and Get out for a run after work. Come on!!

Block one done and dusted.

Never ever would have thought it possible, but there we are.  All done.  All achieved.  Feel absolutely brilliant, very chuffed with myself, and very, very grateful to Cathy, Sharon, Shirley Anne, Les, Winnie, Sam and all the other jog leaders who haven't yet had the ermmmm "pleasure" of plodding along at a snail's pace with me of a evening.  I get the impression though - as the weather gets worse over the next few months, I might have a queue waiting to take me out and get back in again within half an hour or so lol.

Seriously - bring on the next 10 weeks.  And the next 10 after that!!! ;-)  Campbellinho's up for this now :D

Seriously need to update the spreadsheet and the link

night one of the final week of block one over with.  One night left of the first stage. #VeryProud

Week 9 complete

Would never have thought it possible! #amazed

week 9 begins...

I'll expand more on how I feel as I near another milestone, when I post next week, after (hopefully) finishing week 10. It's been a fair old journey, it's been emotional, it's been tough, it's been hard, it's been rewarding, it's been confidence building and it's been fab!!

I'm about 10 weeks away now, from my second ever 5k, and the first I'll be attempting to run parts of.  I feel different in a way.  I feel a little bit like if I'm able to run bits of this race it'll almost be a seal of approval.  Currently I feel a little bit like I'm wasting the jogScotland leaders who are going out with me time. I know that this is not the case, as I have said to them, but It's certainly not a run out for them, while at the same time it is absolutely knackering me.  I'm definitely seeing improvements though and each week I seem to be able to do more. So I feel a little bit like if I can run as much of this 5k as I can, I'll feel I belong a bit more.  The people in the club are absolutely brilliant to me and absolutely do not make feel feel like this - this is me thinking this.  I cannot praise jogscotland highly enough

what a difference a day makes?

Still drookit, still frezin, but slightly less knackered.  JogScotland night tonight and once again they are brilliant with me.  Felt a good bit easier tonight - maybe the lamp posts are helping.  Bring on the lamp posts!!! :D

Drookit, freezin an knackered!

So, I guess this is good?  Lamp posts tonight - 2.61K in 32 minutes. It actually felt a little bit easier - which I suppose given the weather is a good think.

Still really, really, REALLY struggling with the eating part - always feeling bloated and with a huge belly to cart about.  Still - I gess I keep going and get thru the autumn then winter.  Then we'll see what happens in the spring and summer.

Week 8 of 10 of the jog Scotland programme starts tomorrow night too - so we'll see how that goes.  Then phase two and the second 10 week block.  I guess I have to keep reminding myself how far I've come when I feel like this.

Wee walk tonight

3.5K tonight in 37 minutes, up and down hill for most of it so quite pleased with that. Again without stopping, although I guess I shouldn't really be celebrating that any more lol. #expectationsraised ;-)

So week 6 over.....

Mostly jogging and walking, no body pump at all this week, as I feel I'm struggling a wee bit with the jogging. Not much, just a wee bit more than I should be, but again I also think that might be down to eating too.  I know I'm not eating the right things, as sometimes I really feel bloated when running.  Real real problems over the last 4 weeks with the PCOS too.  That in itself is very draining, so not eating correctly will also not help it.  So anyway - this week has consisted of a walk on sunday, lamp posts on monday, jogscotland tue and thur and not very much today :D  Had a day off work, so caught up on housework/washing and then spent most of the day at my mum and dads.  Tomorrow morning, I'll either do the lamp posts, or I'll walk from the house, right round the long way past the gym and then back along the main road.  If i do the walk - I'll also do it on Sunday morning too.

Finally - I also entered another 5K this week.  The jogscotland Santa dash on 9th December.  Thought about doing one in Edinburgh on my birthday the Sunday before, but it looked a wee bit too serious for me. I'm still at the fun run stage.  With the term run being used extremely loosely lol.  Big thank you to my good pal Steph, who normally runs marathons for fun, but is coming along to run this with me and help me along.  I'll be following the jog scotland programme, whatever stage I'm at by then.  The only 2 things I want to achieve from this race however, is 1) to finish it and 2) to beat 63 minutes, my PB

a walk today

Went for a walk.  Was tasked with going for a 20 minute walk, but thought - I'll walk right rond teh scheme because that should take me about half an hour.  I walked right round teh scheme - it's 1.5k.  And it took me........ precisely 21 minutes and 52 seconds.  Absolutely delighted.  This definitely shows it is working. Would never have said it would only have taken me 20 minutes for that.  Despite the wee mini neds following me doing the Laurel and Hardy music and saying it was an earthquake every step I took.  We c@nts couldn't have been any more than 10.

Week 5 over!

Never booked body pump tonight, so I discovered a bit late lol, so instead I took myself off lampposting! Walked for 5 minutes warm up, then did the lampposts til the roundabout and back again. Total time 30 minutes, total distance 2.5k. Warm up/down time was obviously then 10 minutes which meant a 20 minute walk/jog time. If it was half and half, then I guess I did 10 minutes running tonight!! Result! Same again on Sunday, and body pump is definitely booked for Monday night ;-)

What a difference a day makes!

Very down, very low tonight.  Did the same as Tuesday, but felt every single step was an almighty struggle, felt like I cold have stopped within minutes of starting, and felt like I wanted to just cry.

Why? No idea. Absolutely none. Roll on tomorrow - for it is another day

I love waking up on a wednesday....

Day off training today.  Night of relaxing, watching tv and generally not doing very much.  Canny beat it :D

Didn't realise how long it was since I'd posted..

So since the last post - week 4 has come and gone.  I've missed one night of body pump, on Friday night, due to a night out, but made everything else.  And made all targets set.  again..... it's getting boring now eh?? lol NOT!!  Really chuffed with what I'm doing.  Realise now it's going to be a much longer road than I thought, but I'm up for it.  December 2nd 5K now looking dodgy - but I'll see as I get nearer the time.

Tonight's run was 1.37K in 18 minutes.
5 min warm up then
1x 1 min jog, 25 sec walk,
2x35 sec jog with 25sec walks in between,
1x40 sec jog, 20 sec walk, and
2x35 sec jog with 25 sec walk in between and then
5 min warm down walk.

Got a new plan for the rest of the weeks - so something to aim for and I'm also planning on one of the weekend days doing the "lamp posts" outside the house.  That is 2.5k - I'll be doing the 5 minute warm up and down walks, then alternating rnning/walking between the remaining lamp posts.  Lets see how that goes.

At the weekend there, I was out - and got a few lovely comments about how great I was looking and how much weight I was losing.  That's most definitely a booster for me. Also folk at work that I haven;t seen for a wee while - a lot are saying "you look great, have you been on holiday?!"  They can't qite pt their finger on what's different about me.  Which suits me just fine, as I'm very much an "under the radar" type girl.  Even my own family were stunned when I showed them my "before and after" photo on my twitter account.  Because they are seeing me every day, they were obviously aware of my body shape changing, but were astounded at photographic evidence of the difference.  It's all good so far.  I really, really hope I can keep this going this time, although I really do think I will somehow ;-)

Will keep it low key all the way though