Loudly Proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!"

This week's training:
Saturday: parkrun
Sunday: Rest day
Monday: 4 mile run
Tuesday:  8 mile run & Body Balance
Wednesday: 6 miles on cross trainer, 5 mile cycle
Thursday: Rest day
Friday: Rest day

Woo! Finally! A good week's worth of training. Much needed after a couple of "off" weeks. It's been cold wet and miserable but I found a way around it - the gym. Now I'm not a fan of running in the gym; give me a cross trainer or a bike though and I'm pretty happy, but if it's between that and not doing anything, then I'll do that. It's warm, dry, safe and makes use of a membership that was neglected over the summer. On the downside I do end up staring at the TV screens and inadvertently getting involved with The Apprentice, Eastenders and all sorts of rubbish. There's a joy in being almost the last one there of an evening and going home to PJs and chai tea in bed.

In my PJs... in the garden, at the weekend with my mum. Girls having fun!

I could have done with an extra day to recover from a weekend of frivolity but it's been an insanely busy week. Making time for exercise was one of the best things I could have done for myself. It may have felt like just one more chore on the list but having nothing to concentrate on but moving is surprisingly rejuvenating. I've even managed to keep up with my meditation and flexibility exercises every day. Juggling work, study, training, hen do arrangements and session planning for RunFitUK not to mention PT sessions, baking a cake and packing for the weekend has been a challenge, not least because it all had to be done before Thursday morning. The urgency was because last night I traveled to my parent's for a weekend of birthday celebrations for my dad. There's a full house so I'm relegated to sleeping in "the music room" in between stacks of CDs, recording equipment and guitars. I'm actually rather looking forward to it.

Tomorrow I'm going to be a parkrun tourist at Orpington. When I'm at my parent's I usually got to Bexley but I'm meeting up with fellow Gatliff-participant, John, for chit chat before the day. It just seemed natural to use parkrun as our meet-up, and it's a great excuse to try a different course.

It's been a mad and productive week but a terrific one and I'm looking forward to next week which will be equally mad. On top of all the usual I've got a couple of reviews to write, a talk on Nutrition at the local bike shop, the Running and Endurance Show, a girl's night in and an afternoon entertaining a 13 year old boy. He's asked if we can bake/make things. Fine by me! Here's to squeezing the most out of life...