(Swiss wood stack)
AA Gill, the columnist for the Sunday Times, is a guy I love to hate. He's just too smug to live, but I have to admit that he's often funny and clever, and Billy reads his restaurant review before anything else in the Sunday papers. This week he wrote:

"I've often thought that Europe is a allegory for the ages of man. You're born Italian. They're relentlessly infantile and mother-obsessed. In childhood, we're English; chronically shy, tongue-tied, cliquey, and only happy kicking balls, pulling the legs off things, or sending someone to Coventry. Teenagers are French: pretentiously philosophical, embarrassingly vain, ridiculously romantic and insincere. Then, in middle age, we become either Swiss or Irish. Old age is German: ponderous, pompous and pedantic. What Germans have instead of sex and laughter are word games and complaining about grammar. Then finally we regress into being Belgian with no idea who we are at all."

OK, I'm not ready to be anything more than middle aged - but he didn't really describe the Swiss or Irish psyche. I don't want to be my stereotype Swiss (compulsively tidy and xenophobic), but I can't fit into my Irish stereotype either (care-free and engaging, but slurring my words).

So, I'll try to be the best of both - disciplined (15 weeks of half marathon training to go!) and friendly (making people smile and feel good about themselves).

With my navigating Garmin back (THANKS TO GLENN!!!), I'm exploring the trails again, and I paid up for another 3 mo at the gym, so now I can focus on the path ahead to the WWFOR Half Marathon in October, and enjoy the journey.

Meeting up with virtual friends for the White Peak Swift half was great and a bit surprising. Somehow my pre-conceived notions really didn't hold up to the brush with reality. From the podcast of his epic Hadrian's wall run, I envisioned Gary Wall as an ascetic hardcore runner - and I discovered that he was funny, genuine and a natural story-teller, really not the ultra-marathon purist I expected. Steve Chopper has such a magisterial voice on his podcasts, I expected him to be commanding... but I was surprised at how engaging and sincere he is. He's still an natural spokesman, but he's also a really good listener. Phil's un-likeness of a twitter photo and the intensity with which he talked about Runcast TV on the Runners Round Table made me expect some sort of tech-nerd, and I was surprised to meet up a gentle bear of a man, with self-deprecating modesty and a bubbly sort of warmth and laughter. It was also great to meet Mark Wheeton who I'd only exchanged emails with. Petra I'd met at the London Expo and it felt like we were old friends. She insisted on buying me a bacon sandwich (a "cobb" in Derbyshire-speak) after the race which was heavenly, and will henceforth be my gold standard of bacon sandwiches... or maybe I was just REALLY hungry.

I was really pleased with the race time 1:58:59, five minutes faster than I ran it two years ago. But nothing great compared to Boo's 14th place at 1:27!! Ali and Billy really made the logistics easy for us, and their cheers and hugs at the finish made us feel like stars. Thanks guys!!!

For the week following the race, Billy and I scouted for wild campsites as we made our way through the Peak District, to the N Yorkshire Dales and Northumberland, stopping at National Trust properties when the days were rainy. We had a memorable night in a farmers field watching lambs prance like kittens - while we worried that we'd have to be towed out after the rain. The coastal path between Ravenscar and Robin Hood's Bay claimed my new GPS watch, and the badgers must have taken it, because it was gone when we retraced our steps... oh well.

Finally Ali flew up and met us in Edinburgh and I flew home to work while she and Billy walked in the Highlands before Boo came up to run the Marathon on Sunday (in an amazing 3:20!).

I guess I feel a bit deflated now with no clear running goals until October WWFOR half. I need to practice the paper I'm giving at a conference in Amsterdam on June 8th... so I still have something to worry about!

I guess its time to re-focus on resistance training so that I can be stronger in the next cycle of training in a couple of months. I'll still keep running the 3 mi across London in the mornings - I love that!

Finally, a video Phil edited of the race! Check it out here.

Meeting Petra at the FLM expo was the highlight of the week, but then I missed her fantastic race as my husband bought a band-saw on ebay and we had to go to Norwich to get it.


But it turned out to be a spectacular weekend and I got my 11-miler in running from our campsite to Wells Next The Sea and back. That's really what is says on the maps... don't they know they are missing the preposition??


Three weeks till the White Peak Swift Half....I feel like I'm ready, I just have to get t-shirts printed with the WWFOR logos!

Nelly and I hopped on the train and took it up to the next town, Chesham, and then began exploring a new route as the rain started. The little scrap of map in my pocket started to fall apart in the rain, but finally we made it home and I was feelinq quite smug until I uploaded my track and discovered that somewhere I'd gone around in a circle and didn't even notice!!! Oh well..

9 miles in 2 hrs was not good but it was hilly and I did stop at every branching trail or stile and try to figure where I was. Billy and I will have to walk it with his Garmin or iphone and try to see where I went around twice!

6 weeks till the Swift half. I've booked camping at the Grouse & Claret campsite outside Matlock near Rowsley at Phil's recommendation - phone 01629 733233

I've lost 3 or 4 lbs since starting the Fast Weight Loss diet, but I'm ready to kill for oatmeal or bran flakes... I really miss breakfasts. Cottage cheese just doesn't do it for me, even with blueberries. And facing more salads with grilled chicken or tunafish, I keep repeating the mantra..... ONE MORE WEEK!

We explored Suffolk last weekend, camping in the remarkably attractive shadow of Sizewell nuclear power plant. We searched for raw oysters in Aldeburgh and I got my 8 mile run in beside the beach. Nice weekend and the weather cooperated for once.

This week I signed up again at Educogym - resistance training coaching for a gut-wrenching amount of money... I've just got to shift my spare tyre! Perhaps with 2 mo before the half marathon, I should not be dieting, but there's always a good excuse and this period of low travel and a clear goal seemed better than most. They took "before" photos and I just wanted to get the scissors out (Chest up - fine, hips down - fine) and just cut out the middle! I wish it was so easy!

Researching an expert for a RRT diet expert, I came upon Lyle McDonald and his Rapid Fatloss Handbook which happens to fit almost exactly with the one the gym gave me. I'm so much more motivated reading the rationale and science behind a diet, rather than just being given a printed sheet and being told..do it. So, I have high hopes that in a couple of weeks I'll be relatively tyre free! He does say that "the crash diet should be used several weeks prior to the endurance event, to drop a few pounds of fat such that normal hydration can be retained before the competition." Right so I've got 4 weeks only to lose!

Had a brilliant run today with Ali and her boyfriend, Boo. Boo is training for the Edinburgh marathon and he's fast, so he pushed us for the first 2 miles when we sent him off on a longer 8 mi loop and the two of us carried on with Nelly (the dog) for only 6 mi. There is something about running with someone that removes the barriers (calls on her mobile phone with Ali!) and you really have a chance to have sort of a stream-of-consciousness discussion. She's headed back to Uni now, but I had a wonderful time with her - and unlike after some whirlwind visits, I felt like we really got a chance to talk to each other!

11 weeks to go until the Swift Half. I'm finally back on track with my BuckeyeOutdoors training plan after my holidays... well, except the length of the long run every week. But if I run a 6 mile long run this week, I can increment it up one mile every weekend and I'll stand a good chance to hit my 2:00 target.

I'm staying with the PFA online diet and working in the strength training at least 3 days a week. I learned through my marathon training last year that I'll replace every calorie I burn running if I don't follow a plan. This diet plan is good, cycling through calorie restrictions on different days of the week, so I can plan my longer runs on the days when I can eat more. And I can eat plenty of carbs on those days, but change to higher % protein and fewer calories on the lower mileage days. Its not so much that I want to lose weight, I just want to shift that spare tire into some upper body muscle. And I am a goal oriented sort of person - it just makes me happy when I know I'm on track.

I'm getting to know lots of new people through the Runners Round Table, and I'm really enjoying it, but still find it a bit difficult to not be totally intimidated by some of the more committed, faster, or tri and ultra runners. I try to tell myself that they're just testing their own boundaries, same as me, but whew, I can't imagine where they find the time and commitment!
But it has inspired me to get serious again about my training again... feeble is it seems by comparison.