Tuesday, 26 May 2015

Taking the bank holiday weekend easy

I did basically nothing this bank holiday weekend...

Saturday: a spot of shopping for seafood and other exciting ingredients. Then cooking paella:
Just as tasty as it looks. I was a very happy bunny.

Oh, and of course there was falling asleep whilst watching the Eurovision Song Contest. Annual compulsory TV!

Sunday: It got to 3pm and I still hadn't left the house, so we decided on a little jaunt to buy cake. May have accidentally-on-purpose ended up in one of London's most exclusive shops...

Monday: The most exciting thing I did was make drop scones for breakfast. I even made an apple and summer fruits compote-type-sauce to douse them in. Didn't remember to take a photo though.

Living the slow life is rather lovely sometimes...

Monday, 18 May 2015

Ain't no party like an S Club party!

Important Notice: This post contains extreme cheesiness!

I had the most amazing Christmas present - tickets to see S Club 7 live on their reunion tour: Bring it all Back! Finally, after months of waiting (rather impatiently), this weekend was D-Day!


I had such a ball! The music was perfect - loud, cheesy and reminiscent of younger, more carefree days. I shouted and screamed, sang along and danced more than I should have done. It's difficult to sit/stand still in such a great party atmosphere!



One of the best presents ever. A truly great night out :)

Photo from the S Club 7 facebook page

Wednesday, 13 May 2015

Not this time

Unfortunately, I've had to withdraw my entry to the 5k Open Water Swim that I was meant to be doing in six weeks time. My training has aggravated a pre-existing medical condition which now needs to be treated. No need to worry - it's nothing serious, but it does mean that I'm now on enforced inactivity until treatments are complete.

I'm really disappointed. Training was beginning to go really well and I was cautiously optimistic that I might complete the challenge (5k in 2 hours). I will definitely re-enter this event or a similar one next year.

And when I do, I'll have some experience and tips under my belt:
- three months is enough time to train, but only if I stick to three sessions every week from the start
- my front crawl technique needs some work so kick board and leg buoy workouts need to be in the training every week
- open water training sessions take much more thought and planning than I expected
- breathing every three (or four or five) strokes is good and needs to be practised more
- swimming fast is hard so I need to add speedy lengths in more often

I also need to prepare for the fact that my hair will need to be tied up most of the time (because I won't ever have the energy to blow dry it) and my nails will be permanently breaking after being soaked so much.

In the meantime, I have halved my Fitbit step count and am forcing myself to sit down as much as possible. It feels odd but I'm guessing I'll get used to being sedentary and lazy quite quickly!

Monday, 11 May 2015

Mini Adventure

Yesterday afternoon we went to the beach!


It was much windier than in the city (should have checked the weather before leaving!) and the sea was rough so I only went for a quick paddle. 


Still, managed to grab some scampi and chips before heading home.

Saturday, 2 May 2015

Breaking the pattern

There's something both uplifting and depressing about spotting your own behaviour patterns. On the one hand I think, "Great, I've realised that I do that - now I can change it and I won't behave the same again." But on the other hand, "Am I really that predictable? That's such a bad habit to be in, and it's so ingrained. I'll probably always act like that."

After writing about my new challenge of training to swim 5k, I've been a bit ill and run down. Nothing serious, just enough to keep me at work but barely managing anything else. In the last two weeks I've managed precisely one swim and one ballet class, neither of which went particularly well.

That in itself is fine. People get ill. It's best not to train whilst feeling ill, and a week or so off a training schedule doesn't cause failure.

The problem is that it's taken me longer than it should have to get back into training, and I've felt much less motivated to train.

I've seen it before...

When I trained for the marathon, I started well. I researched lots, I ran three times a week and happily logged the times and distances. Then it started getting harder (and quite dull); I realised that I wasn't very good at running and I got lazy. I was full of excuses. And we all know how that ended. (In case you don't, here's the link).

Then there was the half marathon. I did prepare better for this, but I still hit a point around halfway through when I was tired and fed up (and scared of failure) and I let my training slip. This post explains the situation, and is full of excuses. In the end, I pulled it together better. I got out for some decent training in the last few weeks and managed it (just): half marathon post.



I think it's the pause in training, combined with realising exactly how hard it is going to be to train well and the fear of being unprepared, which results in my failure to be prepared for the events.

How am I going to change this?

Quite simply, I have to force myself to keep training. To do each session that is planned. I need to find a way to turn that fear into commitment to train rather than a reason to hide away.

I need to be in the pool three times a week for the next seven weeks.

That's it.

Wish me luck!