Friday Morning

Went to healthy gym yesterday, and ran for one song on iPod at 7.5k p/h and then power walked like a scary one at 6k p/h for the next song. After 5k gave up as was not looking v glam. Also realise that I get bored out of my mind by the monotony of the treadmill. Spoke to the lovely Charlene at Beau Sejour who was very good and said we do not need to go on treadmill, but road! So we can use the healthy gym for cross training (not just on cross trainer) but also doing healthy push bikes and e-trainer and rowing machine (which is my absolute favourite for burning the calories!) also doing weights and all that malarkey.

So just waiting to see the lovely marathon training man who will set me a plan of action and Julia and I will be running along the front goodo! - Is well lit and a good path!

Anyway going to body pump tonight- Yes, Friday night in the healthy gym, what have I become? Will have to get an early session in tomorrow morning before hairdressers too! Ah the joy of the gymming!

Anyway targets for next week are: Running for 6km at Gym, 4 miles on the road, at least one yoga session, try and get in for some classes. Also to master using our buzzer lock at the office, which is pressing 2 buttons. I can't seem to manage it. Though it does mean I am up and down the stairs repeatedly every day which is v. v. toning for my legs!

I have also gone through copious amounts of v. expensive moisturising creams. I dislike lotions but is there cheap body cream? I have gone through a pot of body shop already this week and quite a lot of Clarins body oil and cannot afford that in the long term, any ideas gratefully received! Or is there another way? Am v keen to have the body beyootiful indeed!

Anyway, am sure everything will be wonderful indeed. Might get a running session in at the gym before body pump to really work out everything and ensure a very slimline fat burning fitness freakishness that will whizz past like a dervish.

More updates tomorrow. Also will have good hair! Will post as many pics as possible.

Love
Gwenf
x x x

Thursday Morning

Well went to the faraway bus terminus as my bus pass is broken! So walked up from there and we walked to the cinema as well last night. Only to Candie Gardens, but all in all walked about 3 miles yesterday (v.good!)

Julia and I are off to the healthy gym this evening to race for 5 miles. (May do in spurts!) I am also going to put in for a personal assessor so that I can be trained to be strong healthy marathon runner! Yay the marathon! How exciting, and a few short weeks away!

I have given up the Karate as I do not want to be a trained killer, I want to be a grinning loon of a marathon runner and be very athletically bodied. However do not want to look like a freakish lady body builder, so very much keeping up with yoga and it's chums- body balance and I might do a couple of yoga dvds in front of the fire like a cat. Easpecially horrific things like the boat. Looks easy peasy pudding and pie but is secretly most painful thing I can do - and practice doing the crow. All good for long lean muscle like a ballerina :)

Anyway, food update - ate lots at dinner last night which was naughty but very very delicious indeed! Had brie, belly pork and sticky toffee pudding! Eeek, but today I had a SKINNY latte with orangle blossom shot and it is my new favourite! Hurray!

I have also drunk many many glasses of water and been alternating my coffees with fruity tea and had no junk all day long! Hurray!

Will sort something equally delicious and healthy for dinner and chance the walk into work on the morrow.

Will try to take pics of our healthy selves for this so you can all see us shrink before your very eyes all the way til August (and I've been informed about another 1/2 marathon for November :)

Love
Gwenf
x x x

Wednesday

Started off day v. healthily with accidental walk into Town. Missed bus due to massive oversleepage. No lift from Beloved because I pay to go to gym when there is beautiful outdoors available at any given minute of day. Beloved an "outdoorsman", unlike me, who likes the sofa... And most healthily of all, had no cigs on way! I am fabulous indeed!

Oversleeping meant ate a banana for breakfast and beans on toast for lunch as well as many many cups of tea this morning.

Did not time self walking to work as took ages at bus stop and wore hurty boots and really have twisted back a little bit in the very adventurous yoga class. Actually sweated! New Yoga teacher very hardcore AND she can speak through every move of class even saying Inhale... Exhale... in between being contortionist - Note to all readers of my escapades in February my beloved far superior to me in Yoga. Will update y'all when I can do a shoulder stand (am sure was easy when I was 7, not so simples at 27...)

Anyway, going to the movies with Julia the boss lady tonight so going out for quick bite to eat- will try to think healthily with sane food choices and walking quickly up to the Guernsey Museum but will get lift home as have no reflective clothing to be safe on the roads - v naughty for walking to work wearing black. I wish I enjoyed flourescent yellow on a day to day basis. However am loving my new Karrimor running vests with added support :) Julia and I off to healthy gymnasium tomorrow evening. Where we will be RUNNING like good 'uns.

Keep the faith

Gwenf
x x x

on your marks...

For those of you who have ever met me, and with that horrible photo of me at Glasto last year as inspiration, I have decided that 2010 is going to be my year of change. So, after running the Mud and Fun run (there is very little fun in being wet and freezing cold in the beginning of February running through streams and muddy trenches, however felt a great sense of achievement!)

I decided that that I needed a challenge and my boss Julia, and Amy from our office had already decided to run the Guernsey Marathon in August this year and I jumped in feet first. More people are joining our cause, and at the moment, we are also signing up to run the Guernsey half marathon in June, the World Aid Walk and we are going inter island to join our chums in Jersey for their 1/2 in May :) Ooof!

This will be a training record of every scrape, bump and how grim things are for us or freakishly how lovely we are feeling at the end. We'll set ourselves targets, add photos of where we are and scary running smilishness at the end of the run. Oooh yeah!

And I will try to update it every day, even if it's just what I ate, just because I want it to be a real real thing and hopefully inspire me to get my running shoes on and get out there!

I am doing all the runs for Charidee of course as I would like to raise a serious amount of cash to buy morphine distribution units for paliatitive care patients. As you may be aware, my very dear Grandmother passed away last year, and although her care was great, the nurse did ask us to check on the unit to make sure the light was on, otherwise she wouldn't be having relief. I don't want anyone else to have to do that, or worse, the patients themselves. So... for my darling Granf, I will do runnings.

The first stage was to read some books. We read:-

4 Months to a 4 Hour Marathon
Nonrunner's Marathon Guide for Women: Get Off Your Butt and on with Your Training
The Marathon and Half Marathon: A Training Guide

We are very much loving Dawn's book the Nonrunners Marathon Guide for Women, which is v. v funny indeed, but also sensible. Thoroughly enchanted by concept of spandex until imagined it on self! However deeply worried about : Chafing, the need for 2 sports bras, short shorts and wicker tops :)

The one thing that all the books seem to to agree on is that you should train seriously for the 4 months leading up to your Marathon. The Guernsey Marathon is on Sunday the 29th August 2010 so that means serious traning will start in April... Not going into it blindly of course, my little flannish self has been doing walking, running (yes admittedly not that anyone else would recognise as running) and with my beloved and a couple of friends. Yoga classes and I even tried Karate- I am too good at it, will surely kill beloved with a badly aimed kick, so I have joined the Healthy Gym and am going with some chums at different points in the week. Many many of family and friends are finding entire concept of me doing anything more than walking to the bar a hillarious idea but I am being strong and focussed. So focussed in fact that I am giving up my favourite thing in the whole wide world, my lovely, lovely cigs. This is in attempt to allow me to breathe, but also highlights the seriousness of my dedication to the cause of running hundreds of miles over the next few months.

I may even do a map of how far I have excercised in a bid to make my beloved agree to a hot holiday in September :)

Anyway, keep the faith, and I shall update you as often as I can.

Much love, and blister socks

Gwenf
x x x