New year, new restart

Ok so I've been extremely rubbish with my blog. I have loads going on and I just don't find the time to actually write something. Plus I find that I use my phone a lot instead of my computer and writing us a lot more difficult if you have to tap everything in with one finger. But for a while now I've been getting pictures on Facebook that I want to repost but not irritate everyone on my feed. Also my friend's father suggested I write a blog about my trip to Olympic distance triathlon this year. What's this you say? Olympic distance? Why is that special? Well I have been gently going up a distance every year. In 2012 I did my first ever triathlon, a super sprint (400m swim/10k bike/2.5k run), just to see if I could. I'd joined the local triathlon group to get some training in but I recognise now I probably didn't do enough training, especially for the swim - I just wasn't ready for not stopping at the end of the pool. Nevertheless, I was hooked. Ever since then, if I'm anywhere on a Thursday evening, it's in the pool with my triathlon friends. Last year I did manage two sprint distances (750k swim, 20k bike and 5k run). My issue is with my running. I really struggle. But I was getting stronger by the end of last year. So I just have to keep at it and try to run more regularly this year. The Olympic distance is 1500k swim,40k bike and 10k run. I haven't managed to swim that far in one yet, but I have no doubt I can do it. The bike I can do. I do that in a day getting to work.! However, it's the run that worries me. I have not managed to get to 10k yet. I've done 9 so far. But I'm going to try to get to 10 at least by easter. Plus myoother challenge is to run faster than 30 minutes fo 5k. I've recently met a new friend who has rapidly become my running buddy and we work off each other really well. Now unfortunately she managed to break the 30 minute barrier without me last week but I'm determined to go for it soon. I just hope this cold I've had will go away! So I'm going to try harder with the blog this year. Will keep you updated with my training etc and we'll see how we go.

It's all going swimmingly

I love to swim. There is something about getting into a pool, or a body of water, and just feeling the freedom of floating. I tell people I’ve been swimming since I could walk, and although that’s probably not strictly accurate, it’s not far from the truth. I was lucky enough to gain access to a swimming pool on a regular basis when I was younger and encouraged to learn to swim all the strokes there were. When I went to school once again I was lucky enough to have a school that had a pool so in the summer I spent the majority of my free time there, often getting in the pool twice a day, although I’m not sure exactly how much swimming I did and how much messing around I was doing instead! Enough swimming was done for me to be the fastest at backstroke, and I often won races (although I lost a couple by turning over at the end to make sure I didn’t crash - sorry!).

My one regret when I went to university is that I didn’t stick it out in the pool. I probably had far too much fun going out and discovering the internet (which was a relatively novel invention in those days) and “didn’t have time” for swimming club. I did go swimming, every now and then, but it wasn’t particularly structured or intensive. Once I’d moved away from the swimming pool, I went less and less frequently. When I moved to Cambridge, I didn’t go at all – instead I played really bad badminton, a game I have now given up due to me being far too bad at hand-eye coordination to carry on with!

So we move to the present day. I’m now at my fittest I’ve been for a long time, but, once I’d signed up for the triathlon, I kept saying “I must get back to the pool”. I’d joined the local gym specifically for their pool but found that I was too slow for the fast lane and too fast for the slow lane, a very frustrating set of affairs. Once I’d moved to Woolwich I was five minutes’ walk from the local pool. But it took me nearly six months to get there. Why? Well it didn’t help that I was cycling 20 miles to work and back. By the time I’d got home, I was tired and hungry. Going swimming was the last thing on my mind. At weekends I’m often busy or tired. I still had faith in my ability to swim, despite the fact that I hadn’t actually been in a pool and done more than 20 laps (most of which breastroke) for a very long time.

I went along to the triathlon training day, and had a bit of a shock. Admittedly I had put a lot of effort into the running session prior to the swimming, but the sudden transition into an environment where there were no walls to hang on to and the fact I couldn’t see where I was going through the murky water totally threw me. My “strong swimmer” status was incorrect. I resolved that I had to start going to my local triathlon club to start swimming every week with them to improve my swimming style, fitness base and confidence in the water.

Training for a Triathlon

So someone asked me the other day whether I was blogging while I was training for my triathlon. I haven't touched this blog since I gave up half way through Janathon (my trainer did try to warn me that exercising every day wouldn't work out so well).
Hold the phone... Did I mention previously I was planning on doing a triathlon? Well yes I am. I heavily suspect that I got the idea from my friend and my sister doing one. I then decided that, since I could swim and cycle a bit it was the challenge for me.I even started and completed the couch to 5k plan as I couldn't run for peanuts. So, after watching people swim over each other, crash their bikes and dress up as Big Bird, I decided the London Triathlon was the thing for me. Probably. I also decided to sign up for a training day to help me with my preparations.
Round about a month ago, I went off to the other side of London. I spent a day being taken through my paces, running techniques, nutrition and race tips, swimming and how and where to get on and off the bike in transition. That day I spent some time talking to the other participants. I realised that my swimming really wasn't my strongest sport after all (although I'd been swimming for all my life, front crawl is not my favourite or most natural of strokes). I also found swimming in open water with my head down totally disorientating. This was not good. I had eight weeks to my triathlon and for the first time I was worried I wouldn't make it round the swim. One of the other girls on that day mentioned they'd joined their local triathlon group. Now I'd thought about doing this several times but had been put off by the image of super-fit people who were really hardcore and far more able than me to swim, cycle and run.
I had contacted my local club, the Greenwich Tritons, previously. I was put off at that stage by the fact that the lady had come back to me to let me know that "We usually swim around 2800 in an hour" - I'm guessing that means metres, and given I normally "stroll" through about 30 lengths (round about 750 m) in an average session this seemed a lot!
My next post will be about how I got on at my first session and how I'm progressing now...

I could be exercising... but I'm snot

This morning I made an executive decision to stop Janathon. I'm sorry but I am just feeling too rotten to continue - the cold just doesn't seem to be getting better and I feel like I need to concentrate on my health at the moment. I might come back to Janathon and of course I'll continue blogging, but this is the end of my attempt to exercise every day.

Busy doing Nothing

This morning I slept in for the first time in a while. I woke up at quarter to 11 this morning, so clearly I needed some sleep. I got up and got going straight away despite the woozy feeling in my head! I cooked up my Normandy pork and placed it in the new rice cooker my parents kindly gave me for Christmas, which also serves as a slow cooker. It has been making delicious smells all day so I'm looking forward to that for my lunch this week!
My exercise for Janathon came after lunch after I shoved myself to the gym. I'm still coughing, worried that it might be going into my lungs, and feeling groggy and woozy. So I managed 5 km on the bike and 10 minutes running which was 1.3 km. It meant I could come home and sit down for a good reason without feeling like I'd been lazy all day! So finally some running for Janathon!
I've also got loads of bulbs in my window box sprouting at the moment so very excited to see the flowers over the next weeks and months. Hopefully there won't be snow so my flowers won't die like they have over the past few years.

Shopping and Sushi

Today's Janathon exercise was yet more walking I'm afraid. I got a whole load of sleep last night, and although I wasn't exactly feeling great this morning the feeling of glass in my throat had at least subsided. I started coughing instead, so I am a little worried that it's going down my windpipe. Nevertheless I had a couple of things to get this morning. I wanted to look into getting a new pair of gloves to keep my hands warm when I'm cycling. I believe I suffer from Reynaud's syndrome, and I have to try and keep my fingers warm when I'm on the bike, otherwise my fingers go numb and white halfway through my ride. It's not very comfortable! I was using my skiing gloves but unfortunately they really didn't give me much reach around the brakes, not very safe! So I walked to Spitafields to check out Evans and Cycle Surgery and see if they had any good cycling gloves. After that I walked on to Chancery Lane via lunch and bought some running gloves.
According to multimap I walked nearly 4 and a half miles today. Which is pretty good going.
And when I got home I made sushi using my new rice maker.

It came out well... and I've got leftovers for tomorrow. Yummy!

Oh, oh, sometimes I get a good feeling...

...Or not, as is the case today. Today's random tune is Good Feeling by Flo Rida. Unforunately I'm really not feeling very well today. At least my throat doesn't feel like it's full of glass now. I am hoping that I will be able to get some rest tonight - sadly no chance of a parkrun tomorrow morning.
But in order to log some exercise for Janathon, I recorded my walk to the local supermarket.
Now I think I might go to bed.

Speak Easy

Sometimes I get random songs from way back stuck in my head. And so it was today that I ended up with Speak Easy from Bugsy Malone in my head. Again, this is quite relevant to how I'm feeling as speaking easy is difficult for me today! My throat feels like it's got razor blades in it and I have been feeling very groggy. Not good.

But today was the first day back with my trainer, Dean. So I couldn't wuss out and say I wasn't feeling very well. It wasn't bad in the end. I spent an hour pumping weights, doing chin ups, lunges, squats, sit ups and planks. We always chat. We discussed my mother's attempt to get me to move out of their flat. She decided to break this to me on Christmas day, which I wasn't very impressed with. So we will see over the next month or so what happens with that. I am desperate to move out, but I was hoping that my fiance Stuart would be able to move down first so we could find somewhere to live together. At the moment this doesn't look like it's going to happen. The job market is so slow at the moment that it's very hard for him to find a job.
Dean was also very hungry so we spent some time discussing food! I was trying to describe Lebkuchen to him, as I'd bought him some especially from Lidl (they're the best from there!). They're my favourite biscuit ever!
Today was also the day I discovered I was an auntie again, as my sister Theresa gave birth to a baby boy. Great news and congratulations to her!

Ruffneck

This Janathon post is brought to you by the song in my head today, Ruffneck by Skrillex (yes, I did have to look him up). This might become a theme for every blog post I make. Today's song I blame on Zane Lowe, who is on Radio 1 every morning this week. It's also a good euphemism for how I'm feeling today.

Today was not a great day. I get the nasty feeling I am getting a cold. I have a headache, a sore throat, and am really tired. So going to the gym tonight wasn't really something I wanted to do. However, I had to go, firstly because I'm spending a lot of money on the gym, and secondly because of Janathon. So I decided in the end I would go and use one of the comfortable recumbent cycles that they have in the gym. I could go and do my knitting and watch the TV! Yes I realise that knitting isn't exactly the thing you would associate with working out but I find exercise quite dull most of the time. I got a couple of rows done while I cycled, plus I got to watch the end of the Simpsons. Then I went home and made mince and pea curry with peppers instead of onions. It was goood.

Janathon: A Walk in the Cold

So today was the start to work, and was brought to you by the music of Chesney Hawkes "I am the One and Only" and Metallica "Enter Sandman". An interesting mashup caused by the announcement that Chesney would be appearing on Dancing on Ice and one of the authors on the reference list of the manuscript I was reading today had a surname of Chesney... Metallica because it was played on New Year's Day, and had stuck in my head. It was also a day of terrible weather, gales and heavy rain. It got very cold as well!

So I had to do a couple of errands, the first one was a walk to Mornington Crescent. Now I realise that walking is probably not the foremost activity that you would associate with Janathon, but I did walk for nearly 2 miles. Once I'd done that, I walked on to King's Cross before taking the tube home. By the time I got to Mornington Crescent I was absolutely freezing and my hands had gone white (I believe I suffer from Raynaud's and had forgotten my gloves, tut). I only managed to warm up when I got on the tube. It was a relief to get home to my warm flat and get started on my dinner - meatballs in tomato sauce - Yum!

An Inauspicious Start to Janathon

Well I feel like I've fallen at the first hurdle really. I took my running gear with me to Northumberland with the best of intentions. I even managed to go for a run with Stu on New Years Eve, who despite grumbling, enjoyed the run so much he was off miles un front of me - the guys on cycles coming the other way told me I'd better get a hurry on to catch him up - ha there was no chance of that given he's a marathon runner and I've only just made it to 5k! New Years Day exercise consisted of walking to a pub, and as the blokes would say, lifting a few pints is exercise, right? Erm well, never mind.
And so on to today. The feat of endurance I have just had to undertake is standing in the vestibule for 3 and a half hours. This has left me thirsty, numb, achey and exhausted. To me, this sounds like exercise!
But, joking apart, tomorrow is when my workouts begin. The diet starts up and I begin my "detox". Let the fun commence!

End of Couch to 5k and the start to Janathon

Well, starting Couch to 5k really hasn't helped my plan to blog more really. I was going to keep whoever can be bothered to read this blog updated with my progress.

Well, I made good progress. I finally made it to 5k on the treadmill. My next challenge was to do a parkrun - a 5k race around a local park. My first one was round Finsbury Park. Unfortunately, what I didn't realise was that I was in no way prepared for running in "real life". Running on actual tarmac is a lot harder work than on the treadmill. Plus there are these things called hills. I started off far too fast and it starts down a hill. What goes down, must go up, and I struggled to get up the other side. I started walking on the steeper bit near the half way point. Of course at that point I didn't realise that I had to go round a whole another time. Exhausted at right at the back, I had to go round again. On the second lap, I started to feel sick after eating too much breakfast and had to slow down to a walk again. I didn't know which was the turn off to come around and took a turn far too early. This meant I caught up with the end of the pack, so I waited until the back markers I recognised went past me and joined in after them. Not a great run for me all in all, but I did manage 4.7k in under 40 minutes. And learnt a valuable lesson in not eating too much before a run or taking it too fast at the start. My second attempt, a few weeks later, went a lot better, at the inaugaural Highbury Fields parkrun, and I tried really hard to run throught the whole 5k. I made it! I was the second to last but I'd run the whole distance and completed the Couch to 5k training.
So, my next challenge is to start Janathon. This involves doing some form of exercise and blogging every day, so this should increase my blogging for the next month at least!

Couch to 5k: End of Week 2, Beginning of Week 3

So when I started doing the Couch to 5k plan, I was hoping this might encourage me to post more often on this blog. But, as always, I seem to be spending far too much time actually training in my spare time to have the time to write stuff as well!
To be honest I found week 2 really hard work. It didn't help that I was feeling particularly run down and a bit dizzy during my runs - not good. But I started to feel stronger with my 90 second runs by the end of last week. Then I discovered that the London cycling group had their 'easy' ride on Sunday. Easy being 20 miles and I would bike it on my old hybrid bike that is made of steel and weighs a TON. No joke. And not easy! But I did it, just about, but it made me so nervous I hardly slept the night before.
That has been the theme of this week - bad sleep and a load of training. I finished my week 2 of Couch 2 5K on Tuesday, getting to 3K according to the running machine, so I started week 3 today. Week 3 starts you off on 3 minute runs. Yes, a lot harder work, especially when your quads are screaming gently. But I got through it, mostly with the encouragement of Laura, although I've come to associate her voice when running with slowing down, like some kind of Pavlov reaction, I wad very disappointed when she broke through two minutes through my last 3 min run and told me to keep going!

Couch to 5k

So, after several years of thinking about it, I have finally started doing the Couch to 5k. The reason why it took me so long I think was for several reasons. My main problem, given that the plan consists at the start of several 60 s runs followed by 90 s walks, how was I going to time myself? I didn't have a timer, so I thought about getting one. Secondly, how was I going to calculate how many runs I had done? I've never been the best counter. Thirdly, how was I going to fit all three runs into one week? I'm busy enough as it is!
Luckily, to my rescue came the NHS (to my amusement my phone just tried to autocorrect that to bus - I don't think the bus would help much! Hang on a sec, why am I using my phone in the first place to update this?) with their Couch to 5K podcasts - what a brilliant idea. So, the training sessions are all ready set up for you to start going. No worries about stopwatches, having to count how many runs you've done, and, as an added bonus, you have Laura (the commentator) and some ahem, groovy, tracks to push you on and tell you what to do next.
So what about the having to fit 3 runs into an all ready hectic schedule? Well, I've decided to replace my swimming (well, I can all ready swim) with a training session every week. I will also try going out at lunch times or squeezing in half an hour before pilates on Thursday. If I'm away at the weekend I guess I could try getting up a little earlier and going out before everyone else is up and awake. But the point is I don't feel like I have to squeeze it all in. So what if it takes me a bit longer, as long as I keep going up the sequence and don't get stuck, I don't have to do three runs a week, that's my aim but if I can't, then I can't.

So the first session went well I think. It was hard to guage how fast to pace the runs. I could only manage 20 minutes before pilates but I managed to finish off the last two runs afterwards. I'm not sure if this is a good idea, but at least I did it. And I'm looking forward to the next session, which will probably be on Monday.

I've even bought some new running trousers - I swore I'd never wear Lycra! And I have a new heart rate monitor to see how fast my heart's beating. So if you see a slightly mad-looking tall woman attempting to run in Central London, that'll be me...

Tall Dating - Mismatch.com

Well, last year I was going to write a second part to my dating post entitled Mismatch.com.

This is because there was a moment when I decided to try out online dating. It's not specifically directed at any particular online dating site - I mean, I could have entitled this E-Disharmony, but Mismatch.com sounded so much better!

The problem was the interesting men were few and far between. As I've described before, I'm quite specific about what kind of man I want. And trying to be specific, i.e. a man above 6'4, close to London, the results were very sporadic. There were a few nice men but none responded to my messages. Those that sent me messages were all short, and most of them were black (again, just not my type). The only taller guy that sent me a message lived in America - not exactly close to London!

But I haven't posted about this because I have started a new period of stability of my life. This is because I found a man in the real world (well, in the Tall Persons Club world). He is tall and I am happy. Apart from he lives in Northumberland.

Ah well, you can't have everything!

The Only Way is Up? Part 1

I was going to submit this to the Tall Person’s Club magazine, but I feel that it’s not really suitable for that, plus people I know might actually read it there...

Arianne Cohen, in The Tall Book, talks about “dating down” i.e. a taller woman dating a shorter man. When I heard her speak, she was going out with a shorter man, after going out with someone taller. The problems for tall dating are thus: a woman of 6'2 is taller than 97% of the population, thus only 3% are taller than her. Of these, some are going to be taller women. A proportion of the rest of the men are going to be married, in a relationship or gay. Or simply not interested in taller women. Then, she says, you can cross most of the rest off for not having the qualities you might want in a man. Which leaves you with not very many left. Of course there is an advantage to dating someone shorter – you're less likely to have very tall children, for example. But then again, just because you date someone taller, it doesn't necessarily lead to you having much taller children (if any at all!).

Perhaps I am prejudiced, as one person calls Arianne in her book. I may be one of the few tall girls who have always “dated up”, but that's always the way it has been. I tried to explain it the other day to a friend of mine. I used the analogy of a clothing store. I often don't go into ordinary clothing stores, as I don't expect to find anything that will fit me. So, if I went out on an ordinary evening, I wouldn't normally expect to find a tall man. And I would ignore the shorter men, in her words I don't “see” them. I mean no disrespect to shorter men, it's just that they simply do not interest me in that way. They don't “fit”. So, I came to the Tall Person's Club in the same way I go to a specialist clothing store to find someone who might. I think I have now, we will see.

The problem with tall men is that they often don’t care in the same way that tall women do. They have other objectives, of which I know not, and am unlikely to get hold of. Yes, sometimes it may be that they are unaware that there are tall women out there, or simply that they are scared of tall women. I find a lot of tall men (and quite a few tall women) come to the Tall Person’s Club later on in life, when they’ve found out about it and are possibly more comfortable about meeting taller people.

I feel like I've rambled on too much, so this will be a post in parts.

I Say Yes... Then I Say No..

So, I'm feeling quite inspired by a new friend I met on Friday (I hope I can call you friend?) Eleanor, so I thought I would bring you some more random thoughts from the world of Hilary.

So, I turn up to my friend's stag do on Saturday morning. Don't worry, this is not going to be a heady tale of drunkeness (for that, you can read my Twitter where I rambled quite a lot after a few ciders...)

We go to this outdoor place. A quick Google search of "shooting mendips" tells me it was Mendip Shooting Ground. First off, the guy comes up to me and says, "So you coming Quad biking then?" Of course I say yes, despite the last time I thought I probably would never get on a quad again. Turns out I was the only one that had been quadding before. So we go out, we zoom around, my quad stalls a lot (hopefully not my fault) and I think the guy who was leading us was generally impressed with me. Although i don't think my legs are a couple of days later.

Then we go and shoot some clays. First thing I say is "I don't think I'm going to be very good at this" The guy says "That's the wrong attitude to have" Actually, I agree with him. Why should I be worried about if I get any clays or not? It's just a bit of fun and, if I was up for the quadding (much more dangerous), why should I not be up for shooting a rifle? Turns out I'm not as bad a shot as I thought I was and ended up turning a clay into powder after a couple of goes!

So, the moral of this story is, have a positive mental attitude. Why not?

When People Stare...

Someone stared at me yesterday. I had an irrational urge to turn round and shout "What?!?" but then I realised, what was the point. I would be bringing more attention to myself. (I have, on occasion, actually stared back. They usually get the point.)

See, I don't mind people looking, it's when they go for the second look, as if to check what they've seen is really true that gets me. Yes, I am tall. Yes, I am (most definitely) a woman. Get over it.

The second time I went to France was the first time I really noticed it. I would stand on the Metro and guys would get on the train, look at me, and then look again, most pointedly at my legs, as if to check I wasn't wearing massive heels or something.

Didn't anyone tell them it was rude to stare?

Tall Observations

I was reading Don't Harass the Tall Girl the other day and nodding to myself. I wonder if this is a direction in which to take my blog?

Here's an example.

I don't often wear heels (some people say I should wear them more often, but I'm like a newborn giraffe in them sometimes, plus the balls of my feet kill after a while). I went out with work, all dressed up, with maybe 2 inch heels on. One of my colleagues says, "You're wearing HEELS? I'm not standing next to you then!".

Chocolate Fudge Brownies

150g butter
150g dark chocolate (preferably more than 60% cocoa solids)
225g dark soft brown sugar
3 medium eggs
seeds scraped from a vanilla pod, or one teaspoon good vanilla extract
90g whole plain flour
half teaspoon baking powder
100g walnut pieces (or a mixture walnut/cherries)

Cut the butter into chunks and break up the chocolate. Place both in a heatproof bowl and melt together in a microwave or over a pan of simmering water. Stir well, then cool until tepid.
Heat the oven to 190C, gas mark 5. Line the base of a shallow rectangular baking tin (approximately 20cm x 27cm) with non-stick baking paper. Beat the sugar, eggs and vanilla in a mixing bowl til frothy. Mix the flour and baking powder. Beat the buttery chocolate into the sugary eggs, followed by the flour and the walnuts.
Scrape the mixture into the tin, level with the back of a spoon, bake for 30-45 minutes until a crust forms over the top. The centre will feel slightly soft when pressed. Remove and cool in the tin for over 2 hours. Cut into squares while in the tin and lever out with a knife. Enjoy.