Ice Ice Baby

Highlights of the week....

• The Ice Bucket Challenge!  Everyone in the world seems to be taking part in this craze.  Get drenched in icy water by a 'loving' friend or family member, film it, nominate the next lucky candidate and donate to charity.  It's all for good causes, it's great fun ... AND it's good for the muscles ;-)  Rab, the chairman of our running club along with 'the General' found this out after our training session on Westport beach on Tuesday by running into the Sea!

• Combat started again this week with a new routine.  I've got some new pumping tunes as well as some 'oldies' but I never realised how hard it was until Thursday morning when I was SORE ALL OVER!  The new aqualibrium class timetable started this week with LOTS of classes morning, noon and night for all ages and abilities.  Brilliant!

• Personal Training - I've now embarked on a new 'career'!  Although in my spare time I have helped friends and family in the past become fitter and healthier, I've decided to put my mind to gaining a formal PT qualification and I started with 2 new 'clients' this week who already have shown great progress.  It also is such a satisfying and fun 'job'.  

I'm not that bad....

• MOKFEST - this year's Mull of Kintyre Music Festival was another success in Campbeltown.  Well done all the organisers, pubs and especially musicians for making it an entertaining weekend.  We attended the usual Doon the Green and Burnside Bash as well as frequenting a few bars that had live music including Whisky Macs.  That was enough for me - a little bit of alcohol and not much sleep lead to me getting the cold come Monday morning.  Never again!  At least I managed to get a cycle and run on the Sunday morning without too much of a sore head.  Happy times with the girls!

• SKSC met to plan their Sports Awards - look out for the nomination forms in the Courier soon and put Saturday 1st November in your diary.  I'm sure it will be a great night again to celebrate the sporting achievements of our area.  SKSC also kindly donated £100 to the MACC Challenge - our 4 mile obstacle course race in November to raise funds for the Kidney Dialysis Unit in Campbeltown Hospital.  

• Book Signing - forced by my publisher to actually do SOMETHING to promote my book School Daze, I will be signing copies at the Old Bookshelf, Campbeltown on Saturday afternoon (30th Aug).  Argh - all a bit embarrassing but pop in to put me out my misery if you are about!!

Losing a Shoe...

It was the first week back at my School's Cross Country running club this week and it was great to see some old, some new and fresh faces.  We weren't so fresh afterwards after running through the mud in the field!  We also had our first casualty.... a shoe!  One poor boy lost his shoe in the mud but he showed great determination in keeping on running, he's made of good stuff!  We eventually managed to fish his shoe out of the dirt.  It reminded me of Brian Whittle, a Scottish 400m sprinter from Troon and how he won a Gold medal in the Olympics despite his trainer coming off mid-race.  That's Scottish folk for you, nothing can stop you!  He tells a good tale about it too in person... just give him a few pints ;-)

RIP training shoe....

Getting stuck back into my training routine has been good this week - with some intervals, hills and steady runs.  Although I need to cut back on what I'm eating, it's worth remembering that you need to fuel yourself to perform.  So cutting back the calories is one thing, but fuelling up on nutritious food pre and post workout is essential for recovering the muscles and aiding the glycogen stores to give enough energy to get the most from a session.  Some of my 'good' meals below:

 

Grilled chicken breast (marinaded in rosemary, thyme and garlic with lime juice) served with Mushroom risotto (red onions, mushrooms, garlic, salt, pepper, parsley and 2 pints chicken stock.... and a 1/2 glass of white wine and a spoon of 1/2 fat butter).  Sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and a few slices of homegrown cherry tomatoes (thanks Al!)
 
Delicious!

Spicy King Prawn Stir Fry

• King prawns
• Red chilli pepper
• Clove garlic
• Green beans
• 1 onion
• 1 pepper
• Chicken stock
• Thai green curry paste
• Medium egg noodles

Fry it all up in some lemon juice and fry light, add in the noodles (boiled and seasoned) and voila!

I'm no great chef but these two reasonably healthy and nutritious dishes were super quick and easy to make - enjoy :-)

New Start

OK so it may not be January but the new school term has started and new targets have been set!  I've loved getting back to work, even if it is just getting back into a routine.  I've eaten, drank and been merry and now it's time to work hard.

Targets -

• Stop eating so much sugar
• Increase mileage to 50 - 60 miles per week
• Lose 1/2 stone by end of September
• Get faster on the bike (beat my mid argyll tri time)
• Get faster at swimming (aim to swim minimum of 3 times per week)
• Get faster at running (46 min 10k by 2015)

General rule I suppose is to get faster!  Which means not just increasing the quantity of training but improving the quality - I do endless 'plodding' miles that don't help me!  The Campbeltown Running Club training calendar has been updated to incorporate more intervals, hills and track sessions over August and I've thoroughly enjoyed the last few training nights that's given me a kickstart to my new regime giving me 49.5 miles last week, aiming for 51 next.  I feel fitter already!

My exercise has also boosted me mentally.  I've been a bit down over the summer but after a run, swim or class it instantly changes my mood. I wasn't going to do Tarbert 10k as I'm not race fit yet but got a last minute place this week and ended up doing both the 5k and 10k races with my wee sis Maz (part of her Great North run training) as well as some mileage inbetween to give me 13 miles overall - and loved it!  It was pouring with rain.  It was windy.  It was hilly.  But locals and Campbeltonians came out to cheer us on as well as the other runners smiling and cheerng as they ran past. Well done everyone who took part, it's impressive to see so many people challenge themselves and what an achievement for every single runner to cross that line.  It is so inspiring to see people from all ages, all sizes, all abilities taking part in races.  It really was a family affair again with my mum well in her fifties (lol) competing in the 5k again and getting a great time.  And of course, well done to all the organisers too, I know the stress of organising a race so well done - a brilliant event!  

 

CRC smiles despite the rain

A fuzzy me and maz with our TWO medals

Hubby on the podium again :-)

I'm so glad I did it - it certainly did put a smile on my face as well as give me a lovely new t-shirt and 2 medals.  My husband Stuart, also who hadn't planned on running it, ended up coming 2nd!  And managed a 38 minute 10k in those conditions!!  I'm so proud of him.  The race has given me a welcome boost and some motivation for getting stuck into some training/races in the near future.  Let's do this!

The Fastest Man In the World!

Usain Bolt is, at present, the fastest man in the world and we were lucky enough to watch him run.  Holding a world record in the 100m and 200m he commanded the audience in Hampden Park on Saturday night for the 4 x 100m final of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.  And what a showman he was!  His personality made the full to capacity crowd laugh and cheer, shaking off a media scandal from earlier in the week with a cheeky smile, and of course a Jamaican win.  You couldn't fail to be impressed or inspired by his performance.  Or any of the other performances from all the athletes to be honest.  Jo Pavey getting the Bronze medal in the 5,000m at the 40?  Maybe there is hope for me yet ;-) 

The Jamaican relay team, including Bolt, getting Scottish selfies

My boys relaxing on the deck

1 of our lovely beach trips to Southend

So inspired I have decided to up my miles again and so far have done well but with Stuart being off on holiday, it's been hard to resist some food treats!  At least we've attempted to burn it off with extra beach walks, cycles and tennis!

Typical breakfast on the decking this week, please let this weather keep up!

Games Sporting Inspiration

Murdoch's surprising win over Jamieson shows us how it's done!

The Commonwealth Games has taken Glasgow and Scotland by storm and hopefully has inspired everyone to participate in sport.  I've been lucky to be off work so can take full advantage watching the fantastic athletes (on TV this week but at Hampden Park on Saturday!) who have trained for years go for gold.  Scotland, and all home nations, have done themselves proud.  Scotland should also be proud of what a fantastic spectacle they have put on for the world, well organised and making the city 'buzzing'.  From all the amazing swimmers including Erraid Davis, the 13 year old Scottish swimmer from Shetland winning bronze, Katie Archibald in her cycling wins, the Scottish gymnastics team finally picking up a prize and Eilidh Child's stunning silver medal victory in the hurdles. They are truly inspirational!  And it certainly has spurred me on!

And I've needed it.  I've put on a bit of weight over the summer and was toying with the idea of posting a photo of me on here looking my worse to motivate me to get on it, but I just couldn't bring myself to, it's too horrendous a picture and would scar you for life!  So it's upping the mileage again and back to working on my nutrition.  Since I've stopped posting what I'm eating, I've let it slip.  And slip.  So tried out a few healthy recipes and have made a list of foods to avoid midweek:

My Tuesday stirfry

• cheese
• peanut butter
• chocolate
• crisps (don't eat these anyway but it makes me think I'm doing good if they are on list!)
• biscuits
• fizzy juice (coke zero is weekend treat only)
• alcohol (hmmm I've already messed this one up with 2 drinks on Wednesday as we had the lovely Wilcocks clan up for dinner)

The winners of the ladies races!

The Commonwealth Games haven't been the only Games this week.... the Southend Highland Games and CRC mini Highland Games have given us a little taste of the competition that the athletes do.  Ouch!  Track running really isn't my forte, it was a chore.  I got absolutely demolished by Ashleigh and Maryann (2 15 year old junior running club members) at Southend and I didn't hold back, it was just painful!  However, it was good fun and I suppose good training.  More fun was the broom throwing, 3 legged race, sack races and even the high jump!  OK it was a bit embarrassing crashing through the rope at the start but hey, it's all a bit of fun and supporting local events.  At least my husband did a bit better and we even came home with prize money - result :-)

The real fun began at the games when the sacks and brooms came out!

 

The toon athletes with their prizes at Southend