People sometimes ask what I mean when I say I work for a PR agency. Well, this is an account of my day…
06:00 Alarm goes off, hit snooze.
06:10 Alarm goes off again, hit snooze.
06:20 Alarm goes off for the third time. Decide I’d better get up.
06:22 Have shower in the dark (extractor fan linked to light making a terrible racket that I can’t cope with at that hour of the day).
07:10 Leave flat, walk to station with overnight bag, laptop bag and handbag. Discover short-cut alleyway is closed; have to run round to main entrance with overnight bag, laptop bag and handbag to get ticket in time to get train to Reading.
07:40 Eat cinnamon and raisin bagel with Skippy peanut butter (undoubtedly a high point of the day).
08:10 Board train to The North.
08:25 About ready to chuck newly purchased Vodafone “dongle” onto the tracks. It doesn’t work in transit.
09:30 Receive call from office to tell me 4pm new biz meeting in Manchester is cancelled. Panic about hotel booking. Turns out it can be cancelled before 4pm. Phew.
09:55 Have another go with dongle. Get a glimmer of hope around Birmingham New Street.
10:10 Give up with dongle.
11:11 Arrive in Macclesfield. It’s a hell hole.
11:15 Get in taxi with whingy driver.
11:30 Arrive at supplier’s office.
11:32 Am told the person I have come to see is off sick. And has been all week.
11:40 Various people bustle around trying to look like they’re doing something, but actually they just don’t know what to say to me.
11:45 A chocolate teapot takes me to boardroom.
11:50 Someone looking like they might know what they’re doing arrives. Chocolate teapot shuffles off. Have reasonably productive meeting. Hurrah.
14:30 Leave supplier’s office, and get same whingy cab driver to pick me up to take me back to Macclesfield station.
14:50 Arrive at Macclesfield station to see the Reading train pulling out of the station. There isn’t another one for an hour.
14:52 Realise I haven’t had lunch and I’m really really hungry.
14:55 Walk up big hill with overnight bag, laptop bag and handbag – loudly complaining about The North to a colleague at the office. Finally see salvation in the form of Costa Coffe.
15:00 Eat chicken flatbread thing, and naughty slice of raspberry and almond slice (another high point).
15:35 Amble back down the hill with overnight bag, laptop bag and handbag.
15:49 Board train to Reading.
15:55 Get quite irate with the dongle again.
16:10 Find myself sharing airspace with far too many people for one Virgin train, including a man snoring so loudly he wakes up other passengers; numerous people sharing their terrible taste in music with the rest of the carriage, a man ranting down his mobile about having to attend FIVE meetings in TEN days. Feel quite claustrophobic.
16:15 Have another go with the dongle. It still doesn’t work. Woman practically sits on my laptop. I give up and put it away.
16:50 Fall asleep.
17:20 Jump out of my seat as woman-next-door’s mobile goes off at many decibels.
17:45 Try to find the buffet car to get a drink.
17:48 Give up, because there are too many people to make it to the end of the carriage where I suspect the buffet car is.
18:00 Huff and puff quite a lot. Send some text messages. Still only at Oxford.
18: 40 Arrive in Reading.
18:48 Get train back to my station.
18:55 Walk home, still trailing overnight bag, laptop bag and handbag.
19:30 Finally start some proper work while dinner cooks.
20:00 Eat plate of salmon and roasted vegetables.
20:10 Eat half a bar of Green and Black’s butterscotch.
20:15 Go back to proper work.
21:00 Write various blogs.
21:41 Think about going to gym in the morning.
21:42 Decide I’ll definitely go to the gym in the morning, given the levels of bagel, almond slice and chocolate consumption.
Night night.
Filed under: 1500m run, British Military Fitness, fitness assessment, running | Tags: 1500m run, British Military Fitness, burpees, fitness assessment, press-ups, shuttle runs, sit-ups
BMF runs fitness assessments every four weeks, on the final Wednesday of the month in Reading. They’re designed to put members into the right categories (blue for beginners, red for intermediate, green for uber-fit).The first one I did in October put me into the red category.
I couldn’t do November, there wasn’t one in December because of the Christmas break, and I felt a bit off-colour at the end of January. Yesterday, there was no avoiding it.
Here are the results as I remember them (official ones to follow):
1,500m run: 8:20mins
Press-ups: 52 in two mins
Sit-ups: 50 in two mins
Burpees: 42 in two mins
20m x15 shuttles: 1:36mins
All credit to Mick, my partner for the night, who provided a massive amount of encouragement – especially towards the end of my two-minute press-up and burpee stints, where it took all the strength I had in me to push out one or two more.
I’m actually a bit surprised, and pleased, to see the improvement in the press-up, sit-up and burpees – proof that the hard work is paying off in terms of strength. But I took only a few seconds off my 1,500m run and my shuttle run time was worse. Much room for improvement on the running front.
After the session, a few of us wandered along to the pub for a pint and a chat. They’re a really nice bunch, and there are moves afoot to make the pub a more regular fixture in the BMF Reading calendar. Amen to that.
Filed under: circuits, running | Tags: ashdown forest, DIY circuits, running, winnie the pooh
I didn’t manage to get out on the bike in the end, what with being away for the weekend. Before setting off for West Sussex, we did a bit of DIY Circuits at the park round the corner. I was feeling a bit feeble after giving blood the day before, but it was good to do something for 40-odd minutes. Better than sitting around with multiple cups of tea.
After some fairly serious rough and tumble with an energetic three year-old, and five bottles of wine on Saturday evening – we felt even less like running on Sunday morning. But we did drag ourselves out for four miles or so around the beautiful Ashdown Forest, home of Winnie-The-Pooh. Didn’t even know this place existed prior to the weekend; a vast expanse of woodland and open scrubland, which is fab for walking, running and biking. Definitely intending to back for a longer weekend.
Filed under: British Military Fitness, Reading Half Marathon, X-bike, circuits, cycling, half marathon training, running | Tags: Barmouth, BarYar, cycling, running, spinning, X-bike, xdream, Yarmouth
Rather foolishly, I have agreed to a two-wheeled challenge over Easter weekend.
Along with a group of friends, I will be cycling from Barmouth to Yarmouth, the so-called BarYar Challenge. When I agreed to this, I didn’t actually realise they meant Barmouth on the west coast of Wales to Great Yarmouth in Norfolk. For those of you who weren’t listening in geography lessons, this is quite a long way: around 250 miles in three days. Yikes. Some of the BarYar group are using this as a training ride for the Land’s End to John O’Groats, and you can read about their exploits over at Girls on Cogs.
I haven’t been out on my bike yet this year- I still harbour some residual fear of cycling after last year’s little topple, and – well, call me a wimp – but it’s been a bit on the chilly/icy/wet side lately. Instead, I’ve been working on my legs in the gym and continuing with Reading Half Marathon training/British Military Fitness.
Mind you, after the Hardwick X-Stream 10k last weekend, I wasn’t fit for anything on Monday.
By Tuesday, the experience was fading to a more distant memory so I went to the gym. There, I hopped onto the Xdream (like the X-Bike spinning machines, but with an interactive screen to simulate a race on various different terrains). I did four races against my imaginary friends and won all of them. But I think this was to do with being forced to race on the “beginner” setting rather than my amazing cycling. I even fell off the imaginary bike a few times. Afterwards some lower body weights for calves, hamstrings, quads, glutes adductors and whatever the opposite of those are.
On Wednesday, I found the British Military Fitness significantly more enjoyable in the slightly warmer evening air – and even got to the end of the class thinking, “oooh, is it over already?”
Finally, I went to a spinning class this morning. The instructor Matt – who normally entertains with an eclectic selection of pop, rock and indie – put one of the manufacturer’s CDs, which guided you through the class at different tempos. It was good and I worked hard, but it was a bit soulless and not as enjoyable as Matt’s normal classes. Still, good to try something new once in a while.
So, this weekend – need to do a good run, and maybe some circuits to work the legs again.Or should I be dusting off the bike?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: fitnessfootwear, hardwick x-stream, hauling my carcass, Reading Half Marathon, running, spring, taking jelly babies from strangers
Re-reading a few of my recent blogs, I noticed a slightly negative vibe. So, to counteract this, here are my top ten reasons to be cheerful:
- The temperature is warming up – it’s been feeling quite tropical in Berkshire for the last two days, with temperatures hitting the dizzy heights of double figures.
- The days are getting longer – it was *almost* getting light when I left home for the gym at 6.30am this morning and the afternoons are not drawing in nearly as quickly as they were in December and January. Before long it’ll be British Summer Time, which will make British Military Fitness classes a whole lot easier to feel enthusiastic about.
- There are snowdrops on verges and daffodils on sale in M&S for 99p. I’m buying myself a bunch a week until the clocks go forward.
- A nice man from Fitnessfootwear is sending me a spanking new pair of trail shoes for free. Review to follow.
- I’m going on holiday in less than three weeks.
- The Hardwick X-Stream doesn’t feel like a completely horrific experience, 48 hours after the event.
- My office plant, Brenda, has survived 19 days in my care and hasn’t died yet.
- I’ve stumbled upon a couple of fun new running blogs: Hauling My Carcass and Taking Jelly Babies From Strangers.
- Weight loss is going in the right direction, if a little slowly…
- I’m looking forward to the Reading Half Jogging Bloggers Fun Fest. The restaurant is booked, and it’ll be great to meet you all in person!
Snowdrops
Filed under: 10k, Reading Half Marathon, food, half marathon training, running | Tags: 10k, Aylesbury, cross-country, food, hardwick x-stream, mud
It hasn’t been too good a week for exercise, blogging or sleep – mainly because I over-committed myself seeing various friends on consecutive nights then attended the bizarre Reading Twestival another evening. As a consequence I haven’t been the nicest person to spend time with this weekend. In fact, I’ve been Little Miss Grumpy.
My mood was not lifted by Carter’s ski shop in Reading yesterday. Having dropped off my skis to be serviced there nearly four weeks ago, I finally had a call to say they were ready for collection and duly went to get them. As I went to hand over the £25 that had been quoted when I dropped them off, then saw a note taped to the top of one ski saying, “couldn’t service – too much wax – would of [sic] ruined machine – £8″. The elderly man behind the counter looked thoroughly confused, as did I, and called someone else for assistance. It transpired that whatever dimwit had been brought in to service the bloody things hadn’t: 1) bothered to do the job that was asked (AKA full service, due to skis being unused for two years, having rusty edges and various scrapes on the base; or 2) had the bright idea to call me to tell me this. Why the f’ing hell they couldn’t manually remove the wax and do their job properly is beyond me. With less than three weeks to go before I depart for my trip, there’s very little I can do about it. Some wax has been dribbled across them, but the edges are still rusty. Luckily I can’t ski very well, so it probably won’t make much difference. I won’t be going back to Carter’s.
Nonetheless, after a very nice Valentine’s dinner yesterday evening and a good night’s sleep – I was actually looking forward to the Hardwick X-Stream this morning. It promised to be a cross-country 10k that would just about keep us on track in terms of training for the Reading Half at the end of March. An August race organised by the same team last year had a stonking 95% approval rating on Runner’s World, so expectations were high.
We arrived in the little village of Hardwick, north of Aylesbury, in good time, to find runners parking cars along roads, in front of driveways and on verges. The locals looked less than amused with this influx of scantily clad freaks. We were directed by marshalls towards a car park at the bottom of the village – which turned out to be in a farmyard, complete with horses, cows and quite a lot of shit.
Undeterred, and vaguely amused, we ambled along to the “Race HQ” at the village hall to go to the loos – all three of them – which involved a 15-minute wait. There were lots of very fit-looking club runners decked out in trail shoes, club vests, shorts and very little else. I had a feeling we weren’t going to put in a terrific performance compared to this lot.
The start line was in a field, with an open gazebo for baggage and a St John’s Ambulance Land Rover, which served us well as a windbreak. I was rapidly losing enthusiasm for the run and that was before a marshall announced there would be a ten-minute delay. Presumably to wait for all the people still queueing for the loo.
Finally, we were off – out of the field and straight into a muddy ditch…where several people lost their shoes. The course skirted around numerous fields, filled with a sticky mud that just stuck to the bottom of your shoes in massive clumps, and made the water crossings almost a relief to jump into because you could get shot of some of the mud. My legs felt like lead pretty much from start to finish and I fell several times along the way as my tired limbs failed to keep me from slipping and sliding to the ground. Although the marshalls were numerous and friendly, there were no mile/km markers and no water stops – so it felt like a very long race. We crossed the line, with only six people behind us – something like 243rd and 244th in a field of 250.
But that wasn’t the end of the story, of course: we had to go back to the car and somehow get changed into clean clothes while standing on a carpet of cowpats and horse manure. That’s when it occurred to me that the people parked on the grassy verges with the icy remnants of last weekend’s snowfall had the right idea all along.
I’ve calmed down now, after two massive sandwiches, much tea, a long hot bath and some homemade (I owed P an apology for my bad mood) banana and pecan muffins. And I do feel as though I’ve done a good run today – but my knees especially estimate the distance at about 10 miles, not 10k. I do wonder what the summer race is like – but I’m not sure I’m going to be brave enough to find out.
Filed under: food | Tags: biscuit, blood donations, custard creams, food, national blood service, running
I’ll pretty much do anything for a biscuit, and that includes giving a pint of my blood away three times a year.
I’ve just had a reminder through for my appointment next Friday, and am trying to rope in a few people from work – it’s an hour out of the office and you get tea, biscuits and a sticker for being great. And, what’s more, it gives you a good excuse not to go out running in the snow/hail/sleet/rain for a few hours afterwards.
So far, I’ve got two victims volunteers, and am hoping for a few more. You can see some amazing stories here of people whose lives have been saved through blood donations. Please consider signing up if you fit the criteria.
Filed under: British Military Fitness | Tags: British Military Fitness, snow
Did it! Much as this goes against my basic need to be wrapped up warm with no skin in contact with ice, I couldn’t really think of a good enough excuse not to go to the British Military Fitness class today. It hadn’t snowed any more overnight, the roads were pretty clear and I was awake.
It was -2°C when I got out of the car. Reluctantly. Nine other people and the instructor also clambered out of their warm vehicles, so I wasn’t alone. Apparently the Monday class was cancelled in favour of a jog around the park, and there weren’t many out on Wednesday either.
The grass was still pretty much snow-covered – and the snow had frozen overnight, so it was the texture of the royal icing that Mum used to decorate the Christmas cake with in the 80s. Hard and crunchy, and not the most welcoming of surfaces to do sit-ups on. Anyway, sit-ups we did with press-ups, squat thrusts and burpees galore – accompanied by lots of running and jumping around to keep warm. The kids and their Dad out sledging nearby looked like they were having more fun, but I did enjoy BMF too – up to the point where I couldn’t feel my fingers.
Just spent a whole hour in a very hot bath with the paper and a cup of tea as a reward. Lovely.
Filed under: 5k, British Military Fitness, Pulse8, X-bike, food, gym, spinning | Tags: anna friel, british rmilitary fitness, gym, jonathan ross, running, sauna, spa, spinning
As I said to a few people at work today, I’m really trying to like the snow, but I can’t get away from the fact that it’s just so flipping cold. I can cope with this when I’m wrapped up all warm on a ski slope, clutching a mug of hot chocolate and tanning my panda-eyed face in the mountain sun – but it’s just annoying when you’re trying to get on with your normal day-to-day life, it’s chucking down half-snow-half-rain, it’s not quite bad enough to shut the office or cancel meetings, so you carry on, your feet are soaked, people are still driving up your backside even though they’re skidding all over the shop and the underground is closed. Why is that? I mean, it is – by definition – beneath the snow line.
This week has been a bit crap exercise-wise. Monday brought chaos to the roads and I needed to see the doctor first thing for another whopping dose of antibiotics. Tuesday wasn’t much better. I managed a spinning class on Wednesday, was in London all day Thursday and got up this morning – intending to go to the gym – but then I looked out of the window, decided I didn’t fancy de-snowing the car at 6am…and I went back to bed for an hour and a half.
I decided enough was enough this evening, and headed to the gym on the way home from work instead. I’ve never done this before. I have a fabulous pre-9am membership at Pulse8 which costs just £22 per month. I go before work for a spinning class, or circuits or a run – and it works well for me. My visit in the evening was most confusing – the place looked more or less the same, but all the people were different. And there were considerably more of them.
Anyway, did the 5k challenge = 26:55.
Then some upper body weights – Red Bucket tells me he’s doing some work on his arms before our ski trip. My arms are weak.
Then about 20 minutes on one of the X-bikes – did a random routine in time to whatever appeared on my iPod. That worked quite well.
Finally, I loafed in the sauna and spa pool for a while.
I have to say, it was rather nice to not have to rush around and get to work afterwards. I’m home now, feeling all tingly after my workout and full after my omelette and several handfuls of chocolate chips (had to raid the baking cupboard for those as I’m all out of Lindt balls).
I’ve got one eye on Jonathan Ross and Anna Friel drinking some foul-smelling green juice. Presumably she lives on that in order to stay so skinny. And I’m trying to decide whether to brave British Military Fitness in the morning, or be a wuss and go to the gym…
Here’s the view from my flat yesterday morning.
I didn’t fancy either a run or British Military Fitness by the evening to be honest. So I walked around a graveyard with The Red Bucket and ate some Lindt balls instead.
