Marge and Homer.......

On Sunday I had Marge and Homer Simpson come for tea.
 For those not familiar with the Simpsons, Marge is lovely bubbly with curly, wurly hair, and Homer is nice but dim with a bit of a belly.
Actually, I'm lying.
 I had Tim-my brother, and his girlfriend SJ come over, but when it was suggested that they were like Marge and Homer...well....if the cap fits etc etc!!
Tim had been on a jolly with his bike, and equally nutty friend 'Chris-orange', on a cycle ride to the Isle of Wight, round the Isle of Wight, and back to our house, to meet up with SJ, and grab a tasty meal (if I do say so myself!!), so it was great to catch up with them.......and to check out Tim's butt.....

What?? I hear you ask! If you remember, in a previous blog, I mentioned that Tim had done the mammoth task of cycling from Paris to Brest to Paris, 700 miles in something like 77 hours non-stop - all for charity - and had acquired butt blisters in the process.
I've never met anyone who has had butt blisters before...foot blisters aplenty..butt blisters sadly no!
I didn't actually check out the said blisters, but I did want to see if Tim could sit down properly.

Actually, Tim's butt did get quite an airing...not literally before you start wondering what sort of an establishment I might have, but in the verbal sense!
SS and I have often chatted about Tim's mad endeavours when we are doing one of our own, so SS knew the results of his cycle ride and his butt blisters, so when we were at Pilates, and the instructor said "clench the buttocks" SS said she could only think of Tim's butt.
So now, when the instructor says "clench the buttocks", I think of SS thinking of my brothers butt...as I told SJ about it on Sunday...she is now thinking about me thinking about SS thinking about Tim's butt...and poor Tim is wondering why ANYONE is remotely interested in his butt at all!

Anyways, moving on, we got onto the subject of challenges!
Tim reckons his next one is going to be good...cycling London to Edinburgh to London......
SJ's is pretty impressive...she has a place in the London marathon - go girl....
but I reckon I win....
I've got a place in the 2012 London Moonwalk - 26.2 miles around London in just a bra - beat that!!

Nuts and bolts!

I'm extremely pleased to see that the new Stryker building has finally opened its doors in Hambridge Road, Newbury!
....for those not familiar with Stryker, they are a company, or should I say a Corporation, with headquarters in Newbury, and they are, I quote from their website "leaders in the worldwide orthopaedic market......one of the world's largest medical device companies, including joint replacement"...which is absolutely fantastic, as for Christmas, top of my wish list, is a new left hip and right knee.....and if they could throw in a couple of their famous titanium nuts and bolts, there is the odd screw loose here and there.........

Exercise is meant to do you good, but SS and I have become to suspect that the more we actually do, the more we actually fall apart at the seams, or at least feel as if we are!!. It has been suggested (and how very dare they!!) that it could be age related ie older you get = longer recovery time, but I don't know.....I just take the cod liver oil, the glucosimine, the chrondotin, the ibuprofen...... and hope that the joints last a little longer!

Pilates is making a difference. It still hurts...not as much....but strengthening 'the core' helps with the marathons we do, we breezed through a 32 miles last Saturday, in a surprising 25 degrees heatwave, and I  still had the energy to take Golda and Mali for a 3 mile circuit when I got home, and a quick 6 miles on Sunday!
What finished me off was a new class on Monday........

I haven't tried body pump for a while......for those not familiar with body pump it's basically choreographed weightlifting - but not for sissies!!
I'd read in a sports magazine that your muscles become very complacent with the same regular exercise, week in, week out, and that you need to challenge yourself. So I did.
And I could hardly move on Tuesday. Or Wednesday. Or Thursday. Or Friday.
In fact, it took until today (Monday) for me to get to the gym again!! And guess what I did?!

So...please Father Christmas......may I have a new hip??

The Cotswold Challenge...

The word 'challenge' in the title is an understatement, it should have been called the Cotswold 'ouch', or the Costwold ' argh'!
I have never, ever done such a hilly marathon, and SS and I have done some hilly silly (stupid) courses in our walking history - this was the toughest!

It was what us professionals would term an a/e type of course...or for those less initiated, an 'arse over elbow' type of course, the ascents were vertical, the descents ( and there were not that many!) sheer drops into almost oblivion, and the little bits of flat in between were covered in either stinging nettles, cow pats or noxious quagmires!

The challenge started at Birdlip village hall, and was a circular route taking in other beacons in the area, for example, Haresfield and Painswick.
The scenery was stunning, especially from Haresfield beacon when the sun finally broke through the clouds and gave us a fantastic view across Gloucestershire.
The checkpoints were in either bus stops, National trust car parks, or a golf course (4th one!), and followed the theme of McVities ginger cake and homemade bread pudding...the last checkpoint was back at Birdlip village hall to a plate of quiche and coleslaw, followed by tinned rice and tinned peaches ( how awesome is that?!) but.....in order to get that quiche  you had to do a last mile of lung-bursting uphill awfulness that is the WORST that we have ever done!
 For the last 5 miles, everyone we passed kept saying things such as " we're getting closer to THAT mile"...or "not long until THAT hill"....and, to be honest, I did think 'it's only Birdlip'.....I've been down and up, and up and down in the car, and yes it's bad, and yes, O2 masks drop from the ceiling, but it's only a hill........but ...we didn't do THAT route...
Oh No!! The route organiser's took us up a sheer ascent, not the nice curvy road way!
THEY took us up through the woods, and up, and up and up and up.......

SS and I did 4,447 metres of ascent, we didn't stop, and we overtook a lot of gasping people (mainly men!!) on the route.....we earned our quiche!

We came in with the first 60 out of 150 entrants....and felt decidedly smug!

But, on Tuesday, as I am editing this, my butt cheeks are still on fire, and my thigh muscles are screaming - the Cotswold challenge - OUCH!!!

Body Unbalanced.....

At the end of our 3rd Pilates session yesterday, SS and I asked the instructor if it was meant to hurt sooo much. We explained that our stomachs were protesting, that our ribs felt like they had been kicked, and our hips stretched...she looked at us in that pitying way that all fit, blonde instructors do, and said..'no'!!

Apparently, we are using muscles which have had 'little or no use before', and it 'will get easier'...yeah right!

To be honest..we are enjoying this Pilates lark..we are still pounding the treadmill, and lifting weights (proper stuff) but this 'airy fairy' stuff isn't too bad! I was definately under the impression that it was an easy option, a bit of hippy dippy relaxation and stretching to work some inner core, but this is tough stuff too.

My stomach muscles don't know what's hit them, but if this core work will help with our marathon missions, then it's got to be worth it, especially as we have our 'Cotswold challenge' on Saturday - will blog about that later.

I thought that I would give Body Balalnce a go on Sunday afternoon, well, if  I can do pilates, why not??
It's, well...different! You need a body, and you need balance.
Body? check.
Balance? you have got to be kidding!!
Stand on one leg and focus?.....no way!! I spent most of the class on my butt knuckle, and not intentionally!

Body balance?.......More like Body Unbalanced!

Pilates...

Today was the day I tried something new.

I gave pilates 'a go'.....and I never new it could hurt so much!
I was under the impression that this was a class to improve 'core stability' and perhaps strengthen my achey back, but...well... I've strengthened muscle in places I didn't expect to have muscles!

Of course it was SS's idea (when will I learn??)

We met and did our usual Wednesday morning gym routine of treadmill (I did a MASSIVE hill climb in preparation for the Cotswold Challenge), weights and coffee, and then SS had talked me into trying an hour of said Pilates.."it will be fun"...

I knew something was amiss when the instructor walked in, she looked, and sounded very scary, asked who was new, and said   'inhale and exhale, but only when I tell you to' - what?? I need permission to breathe??

It was a little confusing to start with as she kept telling us to "rock on your 'sit down bone'" ...'sit down bone'??? where in the body is the 'sit down bone'?....I had to take a sneaky peak at SS and see that she was sat on her butt knuckle....arhhh, know I know what she's on about.....and well, I survived an hour...

But it was tough! I stretched, and pulled and curled muscles that I had forgotten existed, I had to squeeze a ball with my inner thigh muscles, and stretch a glorified elastic band above my head...I had to hold my breath, and puff and pant.....and well.....an hour passed really quick...but do I ache or what!

I'm editing this blog on Friday....my ribs feel bruised, I can hardly sit on my 'sit down bone' and my legs are like jelly....when I moan, sorry, mention it to anyone who will listen, I'm told that at least it worked.......

Will I listen to SS and try it again.......probably........

Beaches and Bakes.....

I've just spent a lovely week in South Wales with the family, and despite it being a holiday, I've managed to fit some training in ready for the 'Cotswold Challenge' that SS and I have entered on the 24th September.

The 'Cotswold Challenge' (a marathon) starts and ends at Birdlip village hall (so there should be cake!!)and if you don't know where it is, I shall inform you that it is VERY high up in Gloucestershire.....high up as in hill not posh......

It is on a beacon, and the 'challenge' takes in several beacons so the route is going to be 'undulating' to say the least, hence the need for some training whilst on holiday.....

We holidayed on the Gower , staying at Caswell Bay, and this is fast becoming my favourite UK holiday spot, dare I say it, perhaps beating Aberdovey...which was my number one...
In fact, according to the National Trust Magazine that I read in the Coffee shop at Three Cliffs Bay, Rhossili Beach on the Gower has just been voted Britain's Best Beach for 2011, beating Tresco on the Scilly Isles...it was in the Cadburys Flake beach awards, but you can't argue with Cadburys now can you?

Rhossili Bay, The Gower.

Caswell Bay, and coast path.

No Surf!!

Segfredo coffee....mmmmmm!!

Anyways, Caswell has a lovely bay with a coast path leading to the next bay at Langland and a route along this, and round the golf course back to our chalet is about 3.5 miles, so I ran it 4 mornings and walked it twice, what made it more worthwhile, apart from the spectacular views, was the coffee shop on the sea front which served Segfredo coffee and the best Welsh cakes I've ever tasted...

I even had a go at surfing...just to get some more exercise in...and this was .....well......pants really! We waited all week for the waves to pick up but the sea was soooo flat! On Thursday we went in anyway and tried a few waves but we resorted back to the bodyboards and just kicked our legs.....I have  never known the sea so still, a big contrast to when we where last there in February......mind you, all that salt water is still thirsty work so it's a good job there's a coffee shop on the beach.....

So, a weeks holiday, and now back home to washing, ironing, and meeting up with SS on Monday to start training again......however...we did have one last day of 'holiday' in the form of a 30th birthday party this afternoon!

It was our friend Lissie's 30th, and she was having an 'afternoon tea party'. Her mum had spent the last few days cooking everything in the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook, so it was, as they say, a 'veritable feast' of goodies....... and very educational........
I learnt, for instance, that Anna, a Duchess, introduced afternoon tea as she got rather peckish between lunch at midday and dinner in the evening.....wanting a cuppa and a sarnie......this then led on to 'High Tea' which was to become something 'more substantial'.....cake, cake, cake,cake....

Substantial has always been good in my book, so I tried, rocky road, red velvet cup cake, lavender cup cake, lemon drizzle cake, and something with rice crispies and marshmellows which was scrummy......Lissie and Christine I thank you, but fear I may not be able to run or even walk for a few days......!!

The Shipton Star

I'm sat typing this blog with tears streaming down my face....not because I'm sad, but because 'something' out there has irritated my eyes sooooo much that they won't stop running!!

I'm telling you this because a) I want some sympathy and b) I need to apologise for the awful spelling etc, because I can't see what I am typing.

SS and I have spent 26 miles plodding along Salisbury Plain (yes, MILITARY Salisbury Plain), and whether it's pollen, dust, or just plain old bullets, there is 'something' out there which has got us....she has sniffed and snuffled all day, I've just cried.....

We entered the 'Shipton Star', a marathon based around the village of Shipton Bellinger in the heart of Salisbury Plain. It didn't bode too well when we couldn't find the start at 7.45am this morning though.....

The website instructions told us that the start was from the village hall, in Shipton, and the organisor, a man who I shall call Fred, as his name was Fred, told us it was on the High Street. So we drove up the High Street, and down, and down the High Street and up, and there was no village hall. So I phoned Fred....who was VERY grumpy and he told me it was definately on the high street and that I "couldn't possibly miss it'.....

So SS and I drove up the High Street again.....and down the High Street....and by way of a change we parked the car and WALKED up the High Street, and guess what?? Yep, no village hall! So we asked a local...... and the village hall was up the High Street, turn left  onto Bulford Road, and then a sharp right...poor Fred, not only was he VERY grumpy, he was also geographically challenged!!

I was going to tell him too, until we got to the village hall, parked and actually met him, he was very tall,  and very scary looking.....

Anyways, SS and I checked in, got our first route map and headed off....

You had a choice of route for this marathon - you could either do eight smaller loops, each returning to the central checkpoint, or 4 longer routes, of roughly 10-11km each, so we opted for those - less time with Fred!
The terrain was very varied, chalk tracks, gravel tracks, long grass, shooting ranges, wooded copses, forests, steep ascents, scary slippery descents-at one point 18%, boggy clay puddles, but it was fantastic, the sun shone all day, and even though we could hear the tanks and the soldiers on the shooting ranges - we survived to tell the tale.

Mind you, the last bullet was a little close.....so we were  the first ones back!

We have certificates, badges, and even a few empty cartridges to prove our near misses, what a great day out!