Speaking of tests - My friend who will be 50 in march got an email from our Uni to say they are giving their age 50 year employees a health check - all the usual and they mentioned sending stool samples through the internal post! We were Pi**ing ourselves - imagining someone getting a 'surprise' from my friend "with love"! A suitable Valentine's pressie - I think not!!!! If it got in the wrong hands oh dear!!!

lol.... thats funny.... especially as lots of mail goes missing/ to the wrong place... haha..

Blimey, it sounds as if Gillian McKeith is on the case there! I started off haivng a good week and have exercised most days, but I'm in hotels for three nights this week which makes it ultra hard to stick to, I'm sure there are things on the menu that would fit in with the plan, but not being near a supermarket and not having a fridge makes it more difficult to stick to, especially when you're eating with a colleague who orders a bottle of rose and two glasses

i knew this would be the hardest part though so I won't let myself get down about it, tomorrow's a new day and all that Plus, I'm doing what I can to eat well and control calories through the rest of the day and exercising in my hotel room too. *fingers crossed*

Make sure your friend makes use of the kit. My Mum's friend's hubby got a freebie with his work. The bowel cancer he didn't have any symptoms for was caught really early and consequently he was fine.

Never mind Bits - it is only for 3 nights. I am sure you will find something on the menu which is ok. At the end of the day we all have the odd night (or in yuour case 3!) which are unavoidable. You may be pleasantly surprised!

Morning morning all!

I'm feeling SO much better after skiving the gym for two days and getting some much needed rest! :

Last night I was teaching kickboxing, which was fun since it wasn't my usual class and they are all well behaved. I think a larger class is easier to control since the majority of people there are to learn and enjoy it, whereas if there's a class of 10 and 3 people don't want to be there then that's 30% of the class bunking off and misbehaving. Anyways, so it was all good! I even got a good workout myself which is pretty unusual. I joined in in the middle for about 5 minutes and did some pretty funky combinations

Eating was surprisingly good yesterday calorie-wise considering the bag of Maltesers that sneaked in there! They were very enjoyable and really perked me up in the middle of the afternoon!

I'm hoping to get to the gym today - I must keep on with my squats so that I can reach my 150% body weight goal.

Does anyone fancy Amsterdam in October? I've just been looking at details - this year it is full, half or 5k on 21st October. I might have found myself some nice cheap flights too. Hmmm...

Fondue and apple cake...

So which would you do then? Full, half, 10 or 5? I suppose it's not worth going all that way for a 10 or 5k....

When's the closing date for registration? I'll probably be up for the half or even *gulp* a full..... When do I have to decide by?

Chips and mayonnaise

There is no 10k this year, they've replaced it with the 5k.

You can register right up to the start of October (I think) online, or on the day. I'm booking the flights while they're cheap and then deciding what (if anything) I want to run at a later stage. I'll probably do the full marathon UNLESS I get GFA at Edinburgh and want a rest, or bomb so miserably at Edinburgh that I decide I want to wait a while before doing another.

Mum hasn't decided yet whether she wants to come, but I'm just going to sort out my own flights and I can book her on the same ones at a later stage if she fancies it. I know someone from running club who's planning on doing it so I should have a training buddy too if I go for the full.

Cool! - When's Edinburgh?

Have you registered for the Capital 10K this year and GNR? I have entered both of those and I've got a 10k weekend after next.

Anyways, off to the gymmmmmmmm

Oooh, should we stay on that boat hotel thingy we passed last time or shall we find somewhere a little more luxurious?

Edinburgh is the end of May. There's enough time between them to rest for a bit then start training again, and I fancy going to Amsterdam anyway whether I run the full or not. I probably will though.

I was thinking of somewhere a bit more luxurious this time - preferably with a huge breakfast buffet (although the place we went to wasn't bad for that to be fair).

I've put a ballot entry in for the GNR. I haven't done the Capital 10k entry yet, is it just me or do these races get pricier and pricier? I thought the Run for All 10k was bad for a 10k, and the Capital 10k is more. Grumble grumble.

I've finally got some time to myself to post!!!!

All this talk of marathons makes me feel lazy - but I did manage to persuade DH in to a lovely 10 miler this morning (walk that is!!!)

I worked all day yesterday and it went fine - 'Miss Madam' (as the other staff call the girl who gave me grief on Monday) doesn't work Tuesdays so I felt relaxed and even managed to enjoy myself. Gonna have to talk to DH... its only 7 minutes walk so I get to come home for lunch - and he'd really gone nuts and was in the process of cooking me a lovely (but fattening) lunch - the cooking took longer than expected so I had to jog back to work and ended up with intermittant hiccups all afternoon.

About SW.... it just didn't suit me - too much 'free' foods - all those free foods still have calories and, of course, if you eat more calories than you burn then you'll gain weight. I'm a great example - I LOVE fruit and when I was told it was 'free' I ate LOADS of it - the first week I lost 7lbs, the second week I lost 3lbs, I lost 1lb a week for the next 2 weeks then I started gaining weight at the rate of 1 to 2lbs a week. Very soon I'd got back up to my start weight and then went even higher. Useless. It might not be an enjoyable thing to do but it really does work to diarise all food for a week and see where you can make changes. TBH, if SW doesn't work for you then don't keep on flogging a dead horse - change plans.

Yeah Bupa Capital has gone up since last year.

We can find somewhere a little more luxurious this time. It would be nice to have breakfast included. Perhaps we could stay in that place we had breakfast last time? Or somewhere else? I was going to suggest somewhere with a gym, but I think we'd probably only use the saunas!

Ok I am seriously thinking full marathon in October.... Could someone - anyone - please talk me out of it! I should be a black belt by then.

Oh and Gym Victory today - I lifted 12.5kg heavier than a MAN!!!! Doing SQUATS!!!!! You know those really "hard" exercises!

I don't think I'll be the one to talk you out of it somehow... There's plenty of time to train up for it

(I think despite my "I haven't decided yet" post an hour or two ago there's not much chance of me running anything other than the full. I'm an addict)

Oh blimey!

Looks like I'll be marathon training this summer then!