Trying. Not. To. Panic. Too little time and too much work still to do.
Just enjoyed a fabulous weekend – where the glorious sunshine was much like the icing on the slice of chocolate cake devoured by the Hare on Sunday- DIVINE!
The blurriness is an indication of our lightning speed not my camera's inadequacies! SUPERfun SUPERchick Erin (2 parts awesome sense of humour, 1 part craziness) and I demonstrating our delight at burning off a glass of champers.
On
Saturday – SUPERchicks hosted a Cardio and Cocktails event in Battersea Park for 50 SUPERchicks – (only slight snag - it was too early in the morning to indulge in a Pimms afterwards as a reward – even for me!) The aim of the game was to complete all the circuit stations and thus burn off the calories in the drink relating to the station you were at. Drinking has never been so much hard work!!
So next time I go to the bar I will be ordering:
- 3 minutes of stand up pushups (a glass of champagne – 160 kcals)
- 3 mins of planks (a tequila shot – 60 kcals)
- 3 mins of full sit ups (a cosmo – 100 kcals)
- diddlysquat (a tall glass of water – ZERO kcals)
All for me of course!
N.B. All kcals are approximations as my brain is clearly too addled from too many of these beverages over the years – though I do recall that the SUPERchick website does have an Alcohol Counter so you can check my memory (or lack of) if you so wish.As the event was in Battersea Park and I love walking through that end of town – down along the Thames (love watching the rowers) and up through Sloane Square to Hyde Park, passing my new loves:
We have grown very fond of each other over the past few weeks and are refusing to let the small matter of a treasure trove dowry payment come between us
I managed a very promising
14 mile circuit overall.
Sunday – I headed down to Cambridge for the Hare and Tortoise joint training session. I should say that I
LOVE Cambridge almost as much as Londinium (closely followed by Edinburgh) – though admittedly it has taken me eight years to go back and then only by ignoring the fact that I was wait-listed by Cambridge University eight years ago and then sent (what I have eventually managed to convince myself is) a very funny
“have a nice life” letter though at the time it felt like the
End of the World. Dramatic? Moi? Never.
Truth be told, I probably wouldn’t have come back to Cambridge EVER except I knew that the Hare would keep me sufficiently distracted all day – her love of the “MASSIVE” cows in Cambridge City Centre is TOO, TOO FUNNY.
Size cows should be according to the Hare
"Heifer the Gigantor" (or regular cow to you and me)
So again I was outside in the surprisingly baking sunshine, trotting along the river, watching a) the rowers and b) the amateur punters attempting to impress their girlfriends whilst being heckled by teenage boys on the river bank. Contrary to my riverside walk yesterday, I was longing to join the large number of bathers in the River Cam for a cool off.
One very discernable difference between the London and Cambridge – whilst swimming in the River Cam is a pleasurable afternoon pursuit, anyone swimming in the Thames would be considered mentally unstable and a suicide risk and the police would be called pronto. SERIOUSLY.
Would have loved to have put my feet up and glide along in one of these whilst the Hare gave her arms a workout!!
Overall we managed a total of
20 miles!!! – Very impressive given the heat, although it was fairly gentle (definitely not the recommended Moonwalk pace of 14 minute miles) and we did stop twice to get a break from the sun and to relieve sore legs. One of the breaks included a leisurely lunch in The Orchard at Grantchester – highly recommended – so long as you don’t personally have to wait in the epic Sunday queue – whilst other Hare-like individuals have a slumber in the cool shade!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The other break was also to refuel (interpret: consume copious CHOCOLATE) so again all good.
It was strange walking with someone else for such a distance after walking mostly to and from work solo – I’ve learnt that I need to keep a safe distance from the Hare’s flailing arms or else wear protective gear as I’m going to end up VERY bruised. I’ve also learnt that I have very short legs – fences that the Hare can leap with surprising ease, I WILL get stranded on and need to be rescued.
So now that we know we can cover the distance fairly comfortably, the priority is to pick up the pace.
A LOT. - if we want a Marathon time of 7-8 hours.
So I have four weeks to perfect the 14 minute mile now that I'm back to my none-too-shabby regular London route - (if you exclude most of Maida Vale, {or what I lovingly refer to in my head as
Murder Valley – as it's a bit bleak with an Estate on one side (named ironically/sardonically - can't decide - "Glasgow House") and high gated communities on the other side of my route}, and focus on the much greener, more architectural parts though Hyde Park, Green Park, St James’ Park and over Westminster Bridge)
Aside from my primary goal of achieving 14 minute miles over the next four weeks – also on my
To Do list is:
- Stop being such a Scaredee Cat and attend a Learn to Run Session
- Lose another 6 pounds as my belly is still more flabby than fabulous (Sadly I've only lost 2 pounds over the last four weeks - due to a week's inactivity, two weeks of BootCamp which required a large calorific consumption just to give me sufficient energy to make it through the day and that box of Magnum icecreams I was powerless to resist at the weekend!)
- Create two AWESOME MoonWalk costumes
- Grow LONGER legs and arms! x
