Day 24: hello muscles, long time no see

I am very tired today after an ill advised late night last night, which started, as these things often do with cocktails. See how nice they look! so I couldn't face coming home, getting changed and going out for a run. Instead I opted for doing a bit of strength training indoors.

Seemed timely after roping in some friends (or victims may be more appropriate) into joining me for next year's Tough Mudder. I gave it a miss this year but ready for more punishment and this time I am going to train with more intent - I actually aim to be able to do at least ONE monkey bar before plummeting into the cold dirty water!

So this means a proper schedule of weight training and actually getting round to using the pull up bar that Ian 'expertly' (hahahahaha) put up last year - still not sure if it will take my weight! And by commiting nice and early I have given myself plenty of time to actually get to the state of fitness I want.




I am starting and building up slowly though. So just did a set of exercises for most of my muscle groups. I won't list them all cause that would bore everyone, and I really can't be bothered.


So this is the official start of  'project pull up' :)


Stats!
distance: none
time: about 30mins
Willing Tough Mudder Victims recruited: 7 and counting :)

Day 23: where I break the 9 minute mile barrier

It was a short one but I made it worth it by running faster :) Had to be a quick lunchtime circuit as I needed to leave work to go try to buy a bike. I even managed to do a mile in 8 mins 51seconds!! Speedy Gonzales eats dust...ok, maybe not.

I'm doing the cycle to work scheme thing which means I get a tax free bike worth £10000 and pay for it over a year through my salary. As I know nothing about bikes, Ian has taken over the decision making process. This means that when we were in the shop asking if they had the one he (I'm sorry, we) had decided was best for me, the guy in the shop seemed to come to the conclusion that I was using my Cycle to Work voucher to buy a bike for Ian. My first reaction was that he had looked at me and thought "she doesn't look fit enough to be interested in mountain biking", which totally annoyed me. OK, so Ian did the asking and knows way more than me about bikes but the guy in the shop should not have presumed that I didn't.

Anyway, the bike has been requested from the warehouse and hopefully soon I'll have a very awesome mountain bike (and then I'll only have to learn how to actually go down mountains without breaking myself).

 No photos of awesome bike totty so some more pics from the weekend instead :)
Stats!
distance 2.3miles
time: 20mins 48secs
Randy damsel flies: 2

Randy Damsel flies

day 22: She'll be skirting round the mountain when she walks...

I didn't exactly go up a mountain today but sort of went along the bottom of it for a bit and kind of went up a bit so the peaks didn't look quite so foreboding. An awesome walk and got some amazing views.

My legs were still pretty sore from yesterday but still didn't stop me from needing to run a little bit extra so I could go up to Ruthwaithe Lodge just because it was there...and just up a bit more to see what was around the corner. So I could add a bit of fell running to my logged exercise today - and yesterday in fact as I had to run back to the place we had lunch as I had dropped one of my rings.

One of the peaks of Hellvelen - one to do properly another day

We walked all that! Sore feet right about here.

 Saw lots more sheep - and some very cute, late lambs and took lots of photos of them, but unfortnately they haven't uploaded yet :( will put them up tomorrow!

I really didn't want to come home today. Its been such a lovely weekend - the beautiful weather being the icing on the cake.

Back to pounding the pavements of Edinburgh tomorrow though :(

Stats!
distance: 7 miles thanks to the extra half mile running up to see what was round the corner.
time: 3hours 30 mins
total sheep seen: millions!

Day 21: awesome hill walking

No running today but no less effort was made. Went to  borrowdale to do a little exploring and it turned out to be a very good 8 hours of hills. Saw lots of dragonflies and sheep.

We started off at the bowderstone which is bad all a very big rock, was pretty cool tho. Then walked to Stonewhwaite, Watendlath, saw a couple of tarns, then walked back. As per tradition, my mum lost me for a bit by taking a slight wrong turn and had to ask a fellow walker if she had seen "my pink-haired daughter. She found me eventually. I took lots of photos but I can't upload them to this at the moment so will do so in another blog. I do however have some I took last night, wandering around the village. It really is beautiful here.

Needless to say we totally earned our pint at the Boot and Shoe today :) if you are ever around the Greystoke area (near Penrith), I would highly recommend this pub, lovely food, lovely people and a gorgeous beer garden that has giant connect four, ping pong amongst others.

Stats!
Distance: about 9 miles, at a rough guess
Time: 8 hours
Sheep seen: 100s!

Day 20: call that a public footpath?!

I'm back in Greystoke, Cumbria. It's lovely as usual. I'm currently sitting outside the Boot and Shoe pub writing this on my mum's iPad (got to say, I prefer my smart phone!).  Had a lovely run discovering more of the surrounding area. Wow, there are some nice properties around here...and way posher than I'll ever be able to even sniff at but nice to look at when passing.

One thing I have noticed that there are loads of Public Footpath signs that point to....well, an open field. I get the whole 'right of way' thing but kind of pointless if there isn't an actual footpath. Needless to say, after attempting, a couple of juneathons ago, to follow one of these, and getting lost chasing sheep, I'll not be making the mistake of following these signs again!

Stats ,
Distance: 3.5 miles
Time: 33mins 47 secs
Number of Public Footpaths leading nowhere really: about 7

Day 19: Where I try to be good...

...But my parents ruin it all by offering me beer - which, to be fair, my dad opened by accident last night and put the top back on but absolutely needed to be drank before it went flat.


A small blip in my attempts at being good (lemon meringue pie not withstanding). I have even removed myself from temptation this weekend as my friend is having a birthday party and instead, as I am doing down south-wards for work tomorrow, I have decided to hide in the Lake District and run in the countryside this weekend instead of being unhealthy and staying up all day/ night drinking. Gold star!!




I actually had a nice run tonight and despite a few steep hills I managed to get under the 10min mile average my friend points out I always seem to hit :) I also managed to get some nice photos of my view as I took my phone out for its first run (totally paranoid I'm going to drop it as its bulkier than my old one!)

Another lovely evening - long may this summer last! I tried to take a decent picture of a wee bunny but just as I was about to 2 dogs came haring up and chased it into the bushes :( but I got it nevertheless.

Just before some dogs chased it away.

I love this view I live in some flats just below the end of the crags which is the flat bit next to the ridge that is Arthur Seat.

Stats!

distance: 4.3miles

time: 42mins42secs

days this week without alcohol: 0 (oh dear...)



There were some horses here too but were off to the left.

Day 18: must learn - beer comes after running, not before

I must be starting to sound like an alcoholic - another blog featuring beer (and wine if I'm being honest). But its been another beautiful day and I am up at my parents cooking them a meal - well Ian cooked - I went out running! But not before a beer and some nibbles...bad idea. This is why my run was rather slow as I kept having to stop as I had a stitch.




The mud didn't help either - all this sun, I would have thought it would have dried up a bit which is why I went through the woods. But there were massive mud puddles everywhere which I had to tip-toe round. On the up side I found a new woodland route. A short one but still nicer than running along the road.

So not a very impressive run but I don't think it would have been one considering how hot it was and I really don't do well in the sun.

Here's some pics I took with my Gear watch thingy :) I thought, as my mum and Ian have both featured a few times, it was my dad's turn! So here he is enjoying the sunshine, which is unusual for him

Stats!

distance: 2.3miles

time: 24mins51secs

beers consumed before run: 1 bottle

times I had to stop on my run due to said beer: at least 4





My folks' back garden :)